THE ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER
MacMillan and Co. Limited. 1912 London, 1st edn, 1st imprint, 324pp, illus. Very good minus. Item #002787
This classic elephant-hunting title was first published in London in 1912. It was so successful that the second imprint was published within one month of the first. Sutherland's classic tale is regarded as one of the best elephant titles ever, and one of the very few books to rival Walter Bell's books. Sutherland was an accomplished hunter and adventurer, and the amount of heavy tuskers in Africa at that time must have been nearly unbelievable, so the combination of the two meant unparalleled hunting and adventure. Sutherland started hunting in northern Mozambique by the Luganda River, a very remote area in those days, but he also hunted as far North as the Ruvuma River, which was the frontier between Mozambique and the then German East Africa. In 1902 when the Portuguese tried to arrest him for hunting without a permit, he crossed into GEA and remained there until the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. In 1905 Sutherland became involved in the Maji-Maji revolt, fighting with the Germans against the Watai and Angoni tribes. By 1912 he had shot more elephant than any other man alive. Several times in his career he was tossed and knocked about by elephants and was lucky to escape with his life! His expeditions in search of ivory lasted many months or sometimes years, so he had tremendous stories to tell of his many exciting and adventurous safaris. Among the 1,200 tuskers he shot, some were colossal. His best pair weighed 152 and 137 lbs. and his next best weighed 140 and 145 lbs. In 1929 James Sutherland fell victim to a conspiracy against him by the Azanda tribe, and he was poisoned. Although he survived, he never fully recovered. He died in 1932 and was buried near Yabo, the Sudan, mourned by his friends as one of the greatest elephant hunters of all time.
Price: $700.00