Wild Men & Wild Beasts: Scenes in Camp & Jungle (1871);

Sir William Alexander Gordon Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet (1848-1930) was a Scottish born British soldier in India, successful tiger hunter, adventurer and nephew of big game hunter Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming.

Men of peace delight in such stimulating literature no less than men of war; and they will find in 'Wild Men and Wild. Beasts' as good a volume of the kind as they ever took in hand.

Col. Gordon Cumming is precisely the person with whom any other man would like to go out tiger-hunting. Quiet, vigilant, cautions as all true sportsmen are,— full of resource and indefatigable in the field, he is no loud vaunter of his doings when the difficult and hazardous pastime is over. It is something to know that a man may be called Gordon-Cumming, and yet write of his victories over wild beasts without exaggeration and boastfulness. Not that the Colonel's book is devoid of incidents that are extremely marvellous to persons ignorant of the ways of sportsmen and the possibilities of sport. But whilst his most astonishing anecdotes relate to the feats of his friends, he exhibits a creditable modesty in recounting his own successes, and wins the respect of his readers by the frankness with which he sets forth his blunders and failures.

One great merit of the Colonel’s book is that it succeeds in making his readers realize the scenes through which he has followed sport, and in rendering them familiar with the intellectual and moral characteristics of the slaughtered animals. As we lie, ride in hand, at the foot of an old tamarind-tree, fenced with a breast-work of boughs, the growl of the tiger whose skin we desire is audible on the hill behind us. The moon is up, and its light renders every object in the watercourse and opening before us distinctly visible. Yonder is the wretched goat, bleating pitifully and tugging at the stake to which he has been tied as a bait for our growling friend in the rear. The music of the hungry devourer comes nearer and nearer a long silence follows : he has scented his victim, and stalks it under the very tree whose branches cover us; another half-minute, and the rush is being made, when, just as the tiger has struck the goat and fixed his teeth in its hind-quarters, our rifles crack, and the unfortunate animal rolls over.

On one occasion, we come upon four tigers, all in sight at the same time, and all of them “potted” within the same hour. “On the death of the four (says Col. Gordon Cumming) we had sent off to the camp for two light carts. These had arrived by this time. Two tigers were placed in each, and, with the fifth bound on an elephant, the procession moved on the tents. We had within the week killed ten large tigers, the result of five days’ work.” Perhaps the most astounding of the stories told by the author in glorification of his friends.

Originally published in 1871; reformatted for the Kindle; may contain an occasional imperfection or language of cultural arrogance; original spellings and language have been kept in place.