India, are abundant everywhere. A few Muscovy ducks are
imported, also pigeons and cats. Dogs, like the Indian pariah,
are very plentiful, only much smaller; and a few donkeys are
found in certain localities. Now, considering this good supply
of meat, whilst all tropical plants will grow just as well in
central equatorial Africa as they do in India, it surprises the
traveller there should be any famines; yet such is too often the
case, and the negro, with these bounties within his reach, is
sometimes found eating dogs, cats, rats, porcupines, snakes,
lizards, tortoises, locusts, and white ants, or is forced to seek
the seeds of wild grasses, or to pluck wild herbs, fruits, and
roots; whilst at the proper seasons they hunt the wild elephant,
buffalo, giraffe, zebra, pigs, and antelopes; or, going out with
their arrows, have battues against the guinea-fowls and small
birds.

The frequency with which collections of villages are found all
over the countries we are alluding to, leaves but very little
scope for the runs of wild animals, which are found only in dense
jungles, open forests, or praires generally speaking, where hills
can protect them, and near rivers whose marshes produce a thick
growth of vegetation to conceal them from their most dreaded
enemy--man. The prowling, restless elephant, for instance, though
rarely seen, leaves indications of his nocturnal excursions in
every wilderness, by wantonly knocking down the forest-trees.
The morose rhinoceros, though less numerous, are found in every
thick jungle. So is the savage buffalo, especially delighting in
dark places, where he can wallow in the mud and slake his thirst
without much trouble; and here also we find the wild pig.