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INCIDENTSOF

FOREIGN SPORT AND TRAVEL

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INCIDENTS OF FOREIGN

SPORT AND TRAVEL

BY

COLONEL POLLOKAUTHOR OF "SPORT IN BRITISH BURMA," "REMINISCENCES OF AN INDIAN

OFFICER," "A LADY'S CAPTIVITY AMONGST THE NAGAS," ETC., ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL, LD.

1894

[All Rights Reserved]

RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED,LONDON AND BUNGAY.

PREFACE

THE " Incidents " related in this work have been

put together as a guide to the numerous class of

sportsmen who, year by year, go abroad in search

of game. Very many men lose their lives yearly,simply from a superabundance of pluck ; and the

want of training in wild sports, which is as necessaryto a successful hunter as learning A B C is to a

youth prior to reading and writing. There is no

royal road to learning, nor can a man become a

proficient as a hunter who has not acquired theknack by undergoing a great deal of toil ; for

experience is only learnt after years of practice.The author may be said to have commenced his

novitiate before he was six years old, as he was

then allowed to sit in the back seat of his father's

howdah in charge of an orderly, and as soon as hewas capable of using a gun or a rifle, he graduatedin sport under competent guidance, and learned

how the ferce naturce should be followed up to thebitter end with safety to himself and attendants.

513251

vi Preface.

He was exceptionally lucky in being sent to a

province teeming with game when barely twenty-one years of age, which had never been hunted

over. He was for twenty-one years in the best

sporting countries under our rule ; he had under himvast districts ; his work lay in surveying, and layingout roads, which enabled him to travel over virginforests and jungles ; he had numerous elephants ; hewas not only young, but had the constitution of a

buffalo, ample means, and had shooting and huntingon the brain. He made the most of his oppor-tunities to the best of his ability, and hopes, byrelating his experiences, to not only instruct the

young, but also to afford an hour or two's amusement

to far better and more successful sportsmen than

himself. A few of these " Incidents " have appearedin the pages of the Field, Land and Water, and

Shooting Times, and are reproduced with the kind

permission of the proprietors of those journals.

March, 1894.

CONTENTSCHAPTER PAGE

I. TIGER SHOOTING 1

II. RHINOCEROS (ASIATIC) SHOOTING 64

III. ELEPHANT SHOOTING (ASIATIC) 85

IV. INDIAN BUFFALO SHOOTING 125

V. HOG HUNTING 179

VI. BEARS (ASIATIC) 220

VII. SAMBUR 243

VIII. PANTHERS AND LEOPARDS (ASIATIC) 278

IX. A MIXED BAG IN SOUTHERN INDIA 333

X. SPORT IN SYRIA 342

XI. MAHSEER FISHING 355

XII. IN THE AZORES 368

XIII. A WEST AFRICAN EPISODE 378

XIV. ESCAPE FROM HYDROPHOBIA 387

XV. AN EXCITING DAY'S SPORT 390

XVI. THREE YEARS WITH MURDERERS ON A SOLITARY ISLAND 399

INDEX. 423

ILLUSTRATIONS

1W HER THAMIN OVER HISTREATED BACKWARDS INTO THE RIVER "... Frontispiece

TO FACE PAGE'ONE OF THEM THREW HER THAMIN OVER HIS HEAD . . . RE-

THE NOOSE OVER ITS HEAD " 114

" OUR SHIKARIES WERE UNEXPECTEDLY CHARGED BY AN ELEPHANT " 124

"THE BULL CHARGED US SO SUDDENLY THAT I HAD NOT TIME TORAISE THE RIFLE TO MY SHOULDER " 162

" SENT HIS OWNER OVER HIS HEAD, RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE BOAR,WHO MADE AT HIM " 202

" ON THE BANKS OF WHICH WAS AN ENORMOUS CROCODILE " . . . 217

SPEARING BEARS IN THE DECKHAN 233

I CAME UPON FOUR LEOPARDS WATCHING A HERD OF HARTE-BEESTS " . 332

" A TIGER BOUNDED OUT ON ONE SIDE AND WAS PROMPTLY MET BYA BULL-BUFFALO " , . 397

" THE ELEPHANT SPUN ROUND TO BOLT, BUT THE FELINE WAS TOO

QUICK FOR HIM, AND SPRANG UPON HIS HIND QUARTERS " . . 399

INCIDENTS OFFOREIGN SPORT AND TRAVEL

CHAPTER I.

TIGER SHOOTING.

TIGER shooting in India is carried out in various ways.Off Machans (raised platforms).Out of Marts (circular pits dug in the ground).The former can be used either for day or night

shooting, the latter for night work alone.On Foot. Principally in Central, and parts of

Southern, India.

Off Elephants. In Bengal, Assam, Burma andother parts of India where grassy plains abound.

Tigers are also killed, during inundations, out ofboats and also by being surrounded by nets and then

speared but these two sports cannot be separatedfrom such shooting or spearing as would representgeneral shooting for, for one tiger so killed, a dozenother animals will be accounted for.

I personally detest night shooting in any form,and care very little for shooting even by day offmachans, but very often when no elephants are

procurable and the nature of the country prohibitive

2 Intid&tt>t$ \of Foreign Field Sport.

tq\hunting on foot,, posting guns and beating up tothem is the only alternative.

There are men, who can boast of having killed, itis asserted, five hundred tigers mostly off machans.But it is an expensive mode of warfare against thefelines, for buffaloes have to be purchased and tied up,and an army of beaters is required to drive the gametowards the guns, but having tried it pretty often, Ihave come to the conclusion that it is unsatisfactoryand scarcely worth the cost. Very often when aman is posted on a tree, a tiger passes him within

easy distance, yet so uncomfortable is his positionthat he cannot turn round to get the shot. But tastesdiffer. I do not care to pot a tiger from a coign of

vantage some twenty feet high, and although I havedone so several times, yet I always felt less pleasurein thus slaying the foe than when I have followed it

up either on foot, or beat for it with elephants.I will here briefly relate incidents of the various

modes of slaying tigers, in which I have had a share.In my boyhood, at sixteen, I entered the service,

and at nineteen I commanded a detachment atCondapilly. In those happy days there were no rail-

ways, telegraphs were unknown and the posts came

only every other day. I had a good"writer " and a

good native commissioned officer Peer Bukh.Muster over, I used to sign the returns for the

month, frank the necessary official envelopes, directthe subadar to have three parades a week, and then

disappear for a fortnight or more to hunt and shootthe neighbouring jungles which swarmed with game.I had fine sport but I need not enumerate it here.

At Condapilly itself, leopards were numerous, and

Tiger Shooting. 3

tigers fairly plentiful. My bungalow was situated atthe foot of a range of hills, some 600 feet high, oncethe stronghold of Mahratta chiefs, more noted asfreebooters than as peaceable inhabitants. A broad,winding, we]l-paved road, laid out in steps, led to the

top, where were then, and are still, the remains of a

palace. The whole country was rudely fortified. Solidstone walls with flanking towers extended for miles

around, being carried up hill and down dale, andmust have been the work of ages. In ancient times,before ordnance was known, these defences were allbut impregnable ; in my day even, they would havegiven a great deal of trouble to any enemy to carry,if he were unprovided with artillery. The populationhad disappeared with the fall of the power of the chiefs,and the whole country was a wilderness, inhabited by afew deer, a few tigers, many leopards and thousandsof lungoor and other varieties of monkey, and

occasionally by a few bears. You might go fifteen,yea, twenty miles, without encountering an inhabitant.From Condapilly, a considerable village, amountingalmost to a town, vast flocks of goats and sheep andherds of cattle were taken daily past my house forgrazing purposes, and as in those good old times, whenthe country was ruled by the Honourable the EastIndia Company, whose directors had passed the

greater part of their lives in India and knew how torule the natives, every village and every district hadits nerick, or a fixed price for every article of food

required either by Europeans or the people of the

country, there was no bargaining. The price of aselected fat sheep was one rupee (two shillings) ;for one taken at haphazard out of the flock twelve

B 2

4 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport.

annas, or eighteenpence. Of course I was a constant

purchaser and knew and was known well by everyherdsman, and as I rewarded them liberally for" Jcubber" if an animal was killed, as happened almost

daily, I was sure to hear of it. Thus whenever Iwas at Condapilly, during the moonlight nights I hadfull occupation.

Mogul Beg, the shikarie, and I had sat up no lessthan sixteen nights without getting a shot. It isone thing to sit up, and quite another to be successfulin slaying the object of your quest. Tigers and

leopards are wary creatures, and as they lie up notfar from the animal they have slain so are often scared

away from their prey by the shikarie's talking or

cutting down branches in the vicinity of the"

kill,"

when they are erecting a machan. Not only do thebeasts of prey disappoint by not returning to theirvictim, but when one comes, shooting by moonlightis so uncertain, that oftener than not, an animal fired

at, is missed, or gets away more or less severelywounded.

I had returned from hog-hunting with the NugiedRajah, and was reclining en deshabille, in my longarmed chair, when Mogul Beg appeared, and informedme, that a gwala reported that a leopard had killed a

three-parts-grown heifer, and that if I would start at

once, he thought we might get a shot, for, said he,' The moon is nearly at the full, and no portion of theanimal has been eaten."

"

Well, Mogul Beg," said I," how often have we sat

up and never got a shot ? It is a long trudge to the topof the range. I am very tired, for I have been riding since

daybreak, and don't care to go so far for nothing."

Tiger Shooting. 5

" But gurreeh pumvah" replied he,"

it won't take

us long to get there the spot is a secluded one, andmore than likely, if we get there early, and make nonoise, the borbutcha (leopard) will come before dark.Our nusseeb (luck) has been so bad, it must changesoon."

"

Well," said I,"I am too lazy to change my

clothes I'll put on a pair of shoes and be with youdirectly. Take down two guns and the ammunition,and if we don't get a shot to-night, I'll be hanged ifI go again." My night suit, in which I was robed,was a dark gray. I soon drew on a pair of socks, anda stout pair of shoes, and then the shikarie and Icommenced the ascent of the hill a fatiguing thingat the best of times, but particularly so then, as

every bone in my body ached from my previousexertions. It took us half an hour to get to theruins of the palace, and three-quarters of an hourmore to reach the " kill," where we were met by aherdsman who had been left behind to act as ourguide. He pointed out the heifer, and as there wasno tree suitable for a machan, Mogul Beg, and the

givala collected brushwood and formed a circularenclosure within about four yards of the dead beast.

By the time our cache was completed, the sunhad set, and as there is little or no twilight in theEast, the herdsman hurried off home, as the jungleswere not over safe, for a lone man to wander in afterdark.

The fence thrown up was about three feet highexcepting opposite the dead heifer, where it wasabout four feet and loop-holed for us to fire through.Mogul Beg was a strongly made man, cool, plucky

6 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport.

and determined, in age about thirty years, and liadkilled several tigers and many leopards. Like mostMussulmans, lie was a fatalist. His eyesight was

remarkably keen, he was moreover a dead shot atclose quarters, either by day or night, for his nervenever failed him.

By the time we had settled down, the moon rose,but unfortunately behind a conical, abrupt peak,so would be some time before its light would beshed upon where we were in hiding. We were thusin semi-darkness, and therefore I did not anticipatesuccess for hope deferred had made my heart sick.Young as I was I had had now nearly three years'

experience of sport so although not expecting tosee anything, I sat perfectly quiet about a couple offeet to Mogul Beg's right. We had been watchingbarely an hour, the place we were in was still obscuredin semi-gloom, when we heard the booming, if I mayterm it so, of the lungoor monkeys and chatteringsof smaller species.

" Atta hi" (He is coming), saidMogul Beg. Well, in about a quarter of an hour,without the slightest noise, an indistinct outlinecame between us and the " kill " and squatted down onits hams like a dog, and lo ! it was not a leopard, buta right royal tiger ! It sat so close to our fence, that

by thrusting our guns out of the port-holes we couldhave touched it. My heart beat faster than it waswont to do I felt a hand laid on my arm, and a voicemuttered,

" Durro mut (Don't be afraid), Sahib." If

every bit of pluck in my body had oozed out of myfinger-ends, I would rather have been torn to piecesthan expose any signs of funk before my sablecomrade, so I whispered back as indignantly as my

Tiger Shooting. 7

trepidation would permit," Khoon durta" (Who is

afraid) ?" Bahut acha, Sahib

"

(Very good), repliedMogul Beg.

" Maro jelde"

(Fire quickly).I thought it would be better if we waited until the

tiger began his meal, as he would then be a yardfurther off, but seeing my comrade poke his gunthrough the loop-hole, I did the same, and, taking acareful aim, for the barrels of our guns were not a

foot from the brute's body, we both fired at the sameinstant Mogul Beg his two barrels, and I but one.For the next moment or two what occurred I couldnot tell there was a deep roar, a huge body strugglingabout, scattering our fence right and left, a tail

swishing madly to and fro, and two wretched mortalscrouched in the smallest possible space in the furthestcorner of the cache, anxious only to be clear of it andobservers at a greater distance. It was too close workto be pleasant. In vain I tried to get a shot at the foe's

head, but the body was gyrating like a teetotum ; wherethe head was one moment the tail was the next, thewhole body threatening every second to be on the topof us. Mogul Beg could not load, for his powder-flaskhad been sent flying by a whisk of the tail, and I was

just thinking of jumping up and taking the furtherfence at a leap, when I felt an iron grip on myshoulder, and a voice said in my ear, " Don't move."It takes time to tell the tale, but the occurrence didnot last a minute. In its struggles the beast, after

coming within a yard of us, went further off, andwhilst struggling to get on its feet, fell over the

dead calf, and although almost at the last gasp, it

gave it a grip, which we were thankful was not inflictedon us, for we could hear the crunching of bones

8 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport.

and the tearing of flesh. A moment after, the tigerrolled over, slid down a steep declivity and fell intothe bed of a nullah (ravine) which was coveredwith a carpeting of long grass. In that we heardit struggle for some little time, then followed afew moans, a gasp or two succeeded, and all was still.

"Murffya" (He is dead), said the shikarie, and stood up.I was not sorry to follow his example, for I was bentand doubled, and so cramped that I could scarcelystraighten my limbs. We consulted together anddecided that, though the tiger was more than probablydead, we had better not approach it until the morning,so we made our way homewards. Whilst Mogul Begwent to his domicile in the village, about a quarterof a mile from mine, I tumbled into bed. I am a lightsleeper and am generally wide awake at daybreak, ahabit which has stuck to me through life. But that

night I was very tired ; I had ridden out eighteenmiles, had hunted the whole day, securing four first

spears, and had returned home barely an hour whenMogul Beg had induced me to go up the hill. So,thoroughly wearied, I did not awake that morningtill past six. By the time I had had my cJwta hazarieand had bathed and dressed, Mogul Beg, accompaniedby eight coolies, presented himself. He was as

pleased as Punch, for he thought the reward then

given for a dead tiger, Rs.50, was as good as in his

pocket. It must have been past seven before we set

out, for there did not seem to be much need to bein a hurry. We climbed the hill, arrived at the sceneof action, searched everywhere, but could find no

tiger ! Was it all a dream ? Scarcely ! for there

lay the dead heifer, the debris of our mart,

Tiger Shooting. 9

quantities of blood, and the broad trail where the

tiger had rolled down the bank into the bottom ofthe hollow. Moreover the undergrowth was trampleddown, but no marks except of blood, were visible,for the ground was parched and as hard as if com-

posed of granite. Like fools we spent a couple ofhours searching far and near, but were no wiser at theend of that^ time, than we were at the commence-ment.

"I am afraid," said I, "it has got away.""Impossible, Sahib," said the shikarie, "I heardits death-rattle." "Then where can he be?"" That is what puzzles me," said the Mussulman.Then, turning round to the coolies, as if suddenlystruck with an idea, he asked if any of them hadheard any one leave the village early.

"

Well," said

one of them,"I saw Peecheemootoo go out at five

with some of our people to bring in, as he said, asambur he had shot over night."

"

Why," said MogulBeg,

" the fellow was standing close to my house atten last night and heard me tell my brother that thesahib and I had killed a tiger on the hill. Hemust have stolen it before daybreak, but we will soonfind him, and the sahib will teach him not to playsuch pranks."Now Peecheemootoo was a rival low caste Hindoo

shikarie, very good for marking down small game,for which purpose I often employed him, and therewas no love between him and Mogul Beg. Wehurried back and lost another hour or two in searchingfor the suspect and his prey, but in vain ; no one hadseen him, since he went to fetch his sambur. Someone suggested that as the Tahsildar was holding

io Incidents of Foreign Field Sport.

cutchery at Ebrampatam, eight miles off, perhaps hehad gone there by bye paths, and taken the dead tigerto claim the reward. I was in a rage.

" Why had thefool not told us cutchery was being held so near ?

" So

bidding Mogul Beg get on a tat and gallop over asfast as he could, I hurried back to my bungalow,mounted my horse, and made the best of my way toEbrampatam, and the first thing I saw when I gotthere was a fine tiger lying in front of the cutchery.I dismounted and had an interview with the Tahsildar

(an Eurasian) and he informed me that Peecheemootoohad brought in the beast and claimed the reward,which had been paid him. He asked what proof I hadthat the tiger was the one Mogul Beg and I had killed,"for," said he, "tigers are plentiful, and I only yesterday,paid another man a similar reward." Proof I had none,for wre had fired at such close quarters that ourbullets had gone clean through the carcass. I pointedto the three holes and asked the official if he believed

they were produced by a rusty old matchlock, suchas native shikaries use, but he responded that he hadno other course than to give the reward to the personwho brought in the dead body. I then asked for theskin, but the Tahsildar had taken a fancy to it for

himself, and declined to part with it. So Mogul Begand I went back lamenting, but determined to thrashPeecheemootoo within an inch of his life ; but the

wily native was not at home for many a long day,and when he did appear I had left Condapilly on sickcertificate, having miraculously escaped from deathafter a six weeks' bout of jungle fever. Thus Iassisted to kill, yet lost my first tiger.

Somewhere about a month afterwards a large cow

Tiger Shooting. 1 1

had its back broken by a tiger, but it had been drivenoff by the gwalas before doing further damage. Asthe victim was not dead, I made sure the tiger wouldreturn, so went about five o'clock to sit up over it. Enroute, an unusual object on a ledge of rocks far upthe hill caught my eyesight, and bringing my glass tobear upon it I saw that it was a tiger crouching downand noting our movements, so although I sat up all

night, I need not say that the tiger did not put inan appearance.On another occasion a large bullock was killed near

a lot of detached rocks, and as but very little of ithad been eaten, the givalas covered it up to protect itfrom vultures, which (ever on the look out for

carrion) soar about in the sky far beyond thevision of the keenest of human sight. In theafternoon we constructed a screen under the ledge ofsome rocks, with loopholes in front the carcase beingsecured with strong ropes to pegs driven well intothe ground. It must have been somewhere aboutten, just as the moon was declining over some tall trees,when we heard a struggle and the body was jerkedaway, taken to our rear, and there the brute remainedfeeding the greater part of the night. That he knewwe were there was evident, for if we moved therewas a snarl, accompanied doubtless by a display ofivories. There was nothing to prevent the brutespringing upon us. About three o'clock, after keep-ing us on tenter hooks for five mortal hours, he left off

eating, and, we believed, went to a rivulet about a

quarter of a mile off for a drink. That opportunitywas taken to stretch our limbs, which were benumbedfrom the crouching position we had so long been in.

1 2 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport.

and to move a portion of the screen, so as to get a

sight of the tiger when he should return. This In*commenced to do about four A.M. We could hear hisfootsteps as he trod over fallen leaves, and we were

prepared to give him a warm reception ; but hisquick eyesight must have shown him the alteration w-had made, and to our great chagrin we heard himretreat, and the sound of his steps gradually die away.As soon as we could distinguish objects in the earlydawn, we got out of our crib and took a stroll, morefor exercise than anything else, and walked towardsthe rivulet where very often jungle fowl were to beseen. The shore on one side was clayey ; that on the

opposite was sandy and covered with pebbles and lo