The four elephants who feature in this book were brought from their home in Pune, India, where they had led “a lazy life”, their duties confined largely to ceremonial appearances.

Once in Africa, accompanied by the ­elephants, Carter and his minion headed at Leopold’s instruction towards Lake Tanganyika, where he was meant to establish an elephant training school. For the most part this motley crew avoided trouble on their way west, granted peaceful passage through tribal territories by paying hongo, a transit tax usually consisting of beads and brightly coloured ­fabrics.

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