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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O., by
+J.G. Millais
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O.
+       Capt. 25th Royal Fusiliers
+
+Author: J.G. Millais
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2012 [EBook #39581]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Moti Ben-Ari and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    LIFE OF FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS, D.S.O.
+
+
+
+
+    _BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
+
+    =The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland.= 3 vols. Quarto,
+    cloth, gilt top, L18 18s. net.
+
+    VOLUME I, Order Cheiroptera, Order Insectivora, Order Carnivora.
+    With 18 Photogravures by the Author; 31 Coloured Plates by the
+    Author, ARCHIBALD THORBURN, and G. E. LODGE; and 63 Uncoloured
+    Plates by the Author, and from Photographs.
+
+    VOLUME II, Order Carnivora (_continued_) and Order Rodentia.
+    With 21 Photogravures by the Author, H. GROeNVOLD, G. E. LODGE,
+    and from Photographs by D. ENGLISH; 19 Coloured Plates by
+    ARCHIBALD THORBURN and G. E. LODGE; and 33 Uncoloured Plates by
+    the Author and from Photographs.
+
+    VOLUME III, Rodentia (_completion_), with the Hares and the
+    Rabbit; the Cervidae (The Deer family); the Bovidae (the Oxen),
+    and the Cetaceae (Whales). With 23 Photogravures from Drawings by
+    the Author, H. GROeNVOLD, and E. S. HODGSON; 12 Coloured Plates
+    by the Author, A. THORBURN, and H. W. B. DAVIS, R.A.; and 44
+    Uncoloured Plates by the Author, A. THORBURN, Sir EDWIN
+    LANDSEER, and from Photographs.
+
+    =Newfoundland and its Untrodden Ways.= With 2 Maps, 6 Coloured
+    Plates, 6 Photogravure Plates and 115 other Illustrations by the
+    Author and from Photographs. Royal 8vo, cloth, 22s. net.
+
+    =The Wildfowler in Scotland.= With a Frontispiece in
+    Photogravure after a Drawing by Sir J. E. MILLAIS, Bart.,
+    P.R.A.; 8 Photogravure Plates, 2 Coloured Plates, and 50
+    Illustrations from the Author's Drawings and from Photographs.
+    Royal 4to, cloth, gilt top, 30s. net.
+
+    =The Natural History of the British Surface-Feeding Ducks.= With
+    6 Photogravures and 66 Plates (41 in Colours) from Drawings by
+    the Author, ARCHIBALD THORBURN, and from Photographs. Royal 4to,
+    cloth, gilt top, L6 6s. net.
+
+    =British Diving Ducks.= With Coloured, Photogravure, and
+    Collotype Plates by ARCHIBALD THORBURN, O. MURRAY DIXON, H.
+    GROeNVOLD, and the Author. 2 vols. Imperial 4to, cloth, gilt top,
+    L12 12s. net.
+
+    =Rhododendrons,= in which is set forth an account of all species
+    of the genus Rhododendron (including Azaleas) and the various
+    Hybrids. By J. G. MILLAIS, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. With Coloured Plates
+    by ARCHIBALD THORBURN, BEATRICE PARSONS, E. F. BRENNAND, and W.
+    WALKER; also 14 Collotype Plates and numerous Half-tone
+    Illustrations. 4to. 16 x 12 ins. L8 8s. net.
+
+    LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.,
+    LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+Photo: J Russell & Sons.
+Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O.,
+Captain 25th ROYAL FUSILIERS.
+Killed in Action, January 4th, 1917.]
+
+
+
+
+    LIFE OF FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS, D.S.O.
+    CAPT. 25TH ROYAL FUSILIERS
+
+
+    BY
+    J. G. MILLAIS, F.Z.S.
+    Author of
+    "Rhododendrons,"
+    "The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland,"
+    "The Wild Fowler in Scotland,"
+    "Newfoundland and its Untrodden Ways,"
+    "The Natural History of the British Surface-Feeding Ducks,"
+    "British Diving Ducks," etc.
+
+
+    WITH 14 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR AND 2 PORTRAITS
+
+
+    SECOND IMPRESSION
+
+
+    NEW YORK:
+    LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
+    FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET
+    1919
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+In preparing the life of my friend, Fred Selous, I have to thank his
+brother Edmund, and his sister Mrs. Jones (Ann Selous) for contributions
+regarding his parents and early life. I am also indebted to his friends,
+Sir Alfred Pease, Captain P. B. Vanderbyl and Mr. Heatley Noble for
+certain notes with regard to short expeditions made in his company. Mr.
+Abel Chapman, a life-long friend, has also assisted me with numerous
+letters which are of interest. But most of all have I to thank Mrs.
+Selous, who from the first has given me every assistance in furnishing
+details of her husband's adventurous life, and allowed me to read and
+extract from the numerous letters he wrote to different members of his
+family during a considerable part of his life. Selous had many friends,
+but none evinced a more keen understanding of his life and work than
+Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, Ex-President of the United States, and I
+feel grateful to him for the attention he has given to the following
+pages and the use he has allowed me to make of his numerous letters.
+
+The Author has also to thank Messrs. Macmillan and Co. and Messrs.
+Rowland Ward and Co. for the use they allowed him to make of two of
+Selous' works, namely, _A Hunter's Wanderings_ and _Travel and Adventure
+in S.E. Africa_. He is much indebted to their kindness in this matter,
+since they give in the hunter's own words accurate details of his life.
+
+J. G. MILLAIS,
+COMPTON'S BROW, HORSHAM.
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER I
+    1851-1865
+
+    Ancient and modern heroes--The character of Selous--The Selous
+    family--Edmund Selous' notes--An artistic and ancient
+    race--Selous' parents--Family life--Selous' father--Some of his
+    reminiscences--His mother--His uncles--Selous' childhood in
+    London--Early schooldays--Selous' own story of his youth--His
+    first battle--Youthful adventures--His athletic prowess--Life at
+    Belton                                                      Page 1
+
+    CHAPTER II
+    1865-1870
+
+    He enters Rugby--Love of books of travel--Life at Rugby--Rugby
+    football in the old days--"Butler's leap"--Excursions in Natural
+    History--Adventures out of bounds--The Pilton Range
+    episode--Raid on the Heronry at Coombe Abbey--A cold
+    swim--Unjust treatment--Wanderings with the rifle--Chased by the
+    keeper--Mr. Boughton Leigh's broad-mindedness--The ice accident
+    at Regent's Park--The panic--A narrow escape--Canon Wilson's
+    recollections of Selous as a schoolboy--"Williamson's"
+    duck--Neuchatel--Wiesbaden--His friend Colchester--A row with
+    the forester--He flies to Salzburg--Butterfly
+    collecting--Chamois hunting--The Franco-German War--Its
+    unpopularity in Austria--His estimate of the German
+    character--Visit to Vienna--Back in England                     29
+
+    CHAPTER III
+    1871-1875
+
+    The influence of literature--Books on Africa--Thomas
+    Baines--Baldwin--Selous lands in Africa--Leaves Port
+    Elizabeth--Sport on the road--Arrival at Kimberley--A short
+    expedition into Griqualand--Starts for the north--His
+    companions--The first giraffe hunt--Lost in the bush--An
+    unenviable position--Loses his horse--Reaches safety--His first
+    lions--Meeting with Lobengula--The Matabele king's
+    humour--Cigar--Elephant hunters--Piet Jacobs--William
+    Finaughty--His life as an elephant hunter--Selous kills his
+    first elephants--Cigar's good qualities--Selous remains in
+    Matabeleland--Joins Wood in an elephant hunt--A great day--A
+    fatal accident--The Dett valley--Elephant hunting--Charged by a
+    cow--A narrow escape--A doubly loaded elephant gun--Further
+    adventures with elephants--Return to Bulawayo--Game in the Dett
+    valley--Selous goes north to the Zambesi--Visit to the
+    Chobe--Begins his collection of trophies--Adventures with
+    buffaloes--Abundance of game--His first lion--A savage
+    charge--Arrives at Tati                                         65
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+    1876-1878
+
+    Lands again at Algoa Bay--Reaches Matabeleland--Kills a fine
+    lion--George Westbeech--Return to the Diamond Fields--Loses a
+    fine lion--The comparative danger of hunting various wild
+    animals--Views of experienced hunters--Adventures with
+    buffaloes--Goes north to the Zambesi--Hunting in the Chobe
+    delta--Sepopo's elephant drives--A charging buffalo--Selous'
+    horse killed by a buffalo--Further adventures with
+    buffaloes--Their speed and cunning--A depressing outlook--Visit
+    to the Zambesi--Portuguese misrule--The Kafukwe country--An
+    unhealthy region--Illness of Owen and Selous--Restored to
+    health--Elephant hunting on the Hanyane river--Clarkson and
+    Wood--The death of Quabeet--A vicious cow--Nearly crushed--Kills
+    a lioness--Plans for the future                                 99
+
+    CHAPTER V
+    1879-1880
+
+    Intends to visit the Mashukulumbwe country--Expedition into the
+    northern Kalahari--The Botletlie river--Adventure with
+    lions--The difficulties of the Thirstland--The Mababe
+    flats--Oxen nearly exhausted--Finds water--Kills two lionesses
+    and two fine lions--Hunting on the Linyanti and Chobe--The death
+    of French--Sick with fever--Causes of the Zulu War--The
+    magnanimity of the Zulus--Selous' visit to Cetewayo--The story
+    of John Dunn--McLeod of McLeod--The Swazi king's
+    reasoning--Selous' views on the Zulu War--Sir Godfrey
+    Lagden--Selous again goes to Matabeleland--J. S. Jameson, some
+    details of his life--Expedition to Mashunaland--Return to
+    England--Causes of the first Boer War--Selous' first
+    book--Slaughter of game in South Africa--The ethics of Big Game
+    hunting                                                        120
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+    1881-1885
+
+    Return to South Africa--Intends to be an ostrich farmer--Goes
+    north again--The snake-stone--Collecting specimens of big game
+    and butterflies--A bold lioness--Visit to Khama--Lion attacks
+    the camp--Death of the lion--Laer's narrow escape--Kills a
+    leopard--Reaches the Zambesi--Goes south and then returns to
+    Mashunaland--The Manyami plateau--A savage leopard--Adventure
+    with a lion--The hippopotamus row--A poor outlook--Visit to the
+    Mababe--A man-eating lion--Return to Bulawayo--The white
+    rhinoceros--A wonderful herd of elephants--A great day spoiled
+    by a sulky horse--Frequently charged by elephants--A savage
+    cow--Curious magnanimity to a horse--Liechtenstein's
+    Hartebeest--A gallant sable antelope--Havoc amongst the
+    dogs--Danger from wounded sable and roan antelopes             141
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+    1886-1889
+
+    Expedition to Mashunaland with Messrs. Jameson, Fountaine and
+    Cooper--A serious accident--Sets out for Barotsiland--Arrival at
+    Wankie's--Extortion by the Batonga chiefs--Monzi--The
+    Mashukulumbwe--Into the jaws of death--Attack on Selous'
+    camp--Selous escapes south--Pursuit by the natives--Lucky
+    meeting with a Wildebeest--His rifle stolen--Nearly
+    shot--Reaches Monzi's village--A dangerous
+    position--Marancinyan--Suspicious friendship--Moves south with
+    guides--Meets some of his men--Their adventures--Reaches
+    Panda-ma-tenka--Sikabenga's treachery--Crosses the Zambesi
+    again--Wanderings in Barotsiland--Return to Bamangwato         157
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+    1889-1892
+
+    Expedition to the Mazoe river--Reaches Tete--The extortions of
+    Maziwa--Mapping the new country--Discovery of Mt.
+    Hampden--Trouble with the Portuguese--The importance of
+    Mashunaland to Great Britain--Selous' scheme of
+    occupation--Rhodes' plans--Lobengula and Cecil Rhodes--The
+    Charter of the British South African Company--Selous' proposed
+    road--The pioneer expedition starts--The cutting of the
+    road--Lobengula's ultimatum--The road complete from Tuli to
+    Salisbury--Treaties with local chiefs--The Odzi road--The
+    Portuguese attack Massi-Kessi--A fiasco--A night with
+    lions--Visits the Pungwe district--A great game
+    country--Progress in the new country--Leaves South Africa--The
+    Hartley Hills lion--An unfortunate miss-fire--A gallant
+    foe--Death of the lion--Lion hunters--The brothers Hill--Methods
+    of hunting--Sir Alfred Pease--Selous' writings--The Government
+    neglect of science--The jealousy and poverty of scientific
+    societies--America's good example--The miserable treatment of
+    African explorers--Selous and Rhodes--The rewards of hard
+    work--The pioneer's only monument                              172
+
+    CHAPTER IX
+    1893-1896
+
+    Cupid at work--Engagement to Miss Maddy--Intends to visit
+    America--Trouble in Matabeleland--History of Matabele raids--The
+    position in 1893--Hunters enter Matabeleland--Selous returns to
+    South Africa--Joins Col. Goold-Adams' column--Preliminary
+    fights--Selous wounded--The first battle--The Matabele retreat
+    north--Disaster to Major Wilson's column--Selous'
+    prophecy--Return to England--Marriage--Honeymoon on the Danube
+    and in Asia Minor--Hunting in the mountains of Asia
+    Minor--Leaves again for Mashunaland--Essex vale--The new
+    Bulawayo--The cloud of trouble--The Umlimo--The rising of the
+    natives--The defence force--Col. Johan Colenbrander--Driven from
+    Essex vale--Isolated engagements--The fight on the
+    Umguzra--Selous surrounded--His horse runs away--His life saved
+    by Capt. Windley--A narrow escape--Work on the main
+    road--Arrival of Sir H. Plumer--Mr. Labouchere's views of the
+    second Matabele War--The future of S. Rhodesia--The difficulties
+    of farming there--Markets too distant--Selous attacked by
+    Labouchere--Messrs. Rowland Ward and Co.--Their kindness to
+    Selous--The Nyala--Expedition to the Pongolo and Usutu
+    rivers--An unhealthy country--Return to England                197
+
+    CHAPTER X
+    1896-1907
+
+    Selous' restlessness and love of travel--Roosevelt on the charms
+    of travel--Criticism of travel books--Selous as an egg
+    collector--Second visit to Asia Minor--Short excursions at
+    home--Goes with his wife to the Rockies--Wapiti
+    hunting--Roosevelt on past and present hunting in N.
+    America--Hunting chamois in Transylvania--Selous on the second
+    Boer War--An Imperialist, but always fair--His sorrow as to the
+    causes of the war--Personal knowledge of the Boers--An
+    honourable foe--Their ignorance and good qualities--Selous'
+    views on their unjust treatment--Letter to the
+    "Speaker"--Roosevelt on the Boers--Birds'-nesting on the
+    Danube--Hunting moose in Canada--Newfoundland caribou hunting on
+    the railway--A poor sport--Goes into the interior--Too late for
+    the migration--Second visit to Newfoundland--A successful
+    expedition--Third visit to Asia Minor--First expedition to East
+    Africa--A big game paradise--Birds'-nesting at home--First
+    expedition to Alaska--Visit to the Ogilvy Mountains--Up the
+    North Fork of the MacMillan--Kills a bull moose--Osborn's
+    caribou--A great moose--Bad weather--Third trip to
+    Newfoundland--A wet season--King George IVth Lake--A bad year
+    for heads                                                      224
+
+    CHAPTER XI
+    1906-1907
+
+    A visit to Bosnia--Second expedition to Alaska--Down the
+    Yukon--Up the South Fork of the MacMillan--Caribou, wolf and
+    moose hunting--His sympathetic nature--Account of the MacMillan
+    trip--Again visits Asia Minor--Financial depression--Arthur
+    Neumann--Some details of his life--Reindeer hunting in
+    Norway--African nature notes and reminiscences--Letters from
+    President Roosevelt                                            257
+
+    CHAPTER XII
+    1908-1913
+
+    Roosevelt's expedition to Africa--Selous' arrangements--Selous
+    joins Roosevelt at Naples--Goes to the Northern Gwas N'yiro with
+    MacMillan--Fails to obtain lions--Accident to Mr.
+    Williams--Selous at Vienna--Warburton Pike--Expedition to the
+    Bahr-el-Ghazal--Goes to Tembera--Phil Oberlander--Killed by a
+    buffalo--Some stories of Oberlander--Selous' hunt for the Giant
+    Elands--A hard trip--Illness and rapid recovery--Third
+    expedition to East Africa--Judd's adventure with a
+    lioness--Roosevelt on African hunting--Physical
+    limitations--Selous' last buffalo--A gallant foe--Elani his
+    Somali nearly killed--Dislike of crowds--Visit to the Channel
+    Islands--Roosevelt on the early Normans--Heatley Noble on
+    Selous--Their expedition to Iceland--Selous'
+    imperturbability--His powers as a climber--Selous' idea of a
+    good dinner--Selous on his Icelandic trip--Yearnings for
+    Africa--Young Fred Selous--A true son of his father--His
+    athletic prowess--An excellent airman--His untimely death      267
+
+    CHAPTER XIII
+    1914-1915
+
+    Visit to Texel Island--Intends to make expedition to the
+    Bahr-el-Ghazal--Frustrated by the war--Selous'
+    patriotism--Efforts to serve--Lord Kitchener thinks him "too
+    old"--Col. Driscoll and the War Office--At last taken for
+    service in East Africa--Selous' account of the capture of
+    Bukoba--Letter to Heatley Noble--The position in East Africa in
+    1915--Letters to the author--German ascendancy--The Indian
+    Government forces--Precarious position of the British
+    forces--Intends to publish his experiences--Roosevelt's
+    letters--German thoroughness--Roosevelt anxious for America to
+    join the Allies--Letters to the author on the difficulties of
+    the campaign--Unfortunate mistakes--The Munyamwesi--Wonderful
+    fighters--Advance to Kilimanjaro--General Smuts in
+    command--Description of the advance--A deadly climate in the wet
+    season--Returns home for an operation--Again leaves for the
+    front                                                          299
+
+    CHAPTER XIV
+    SEPTEMBER, 1916-1917
+
+    The last journey--Arrival at Tanga--German East Africa in
+    1916--The difficulties of the campaign--Progress by General
+    Smuts--The Royal Fusiliers go to Mikesse--A fearful
+    march--General Smuts on the action at Beho-Beho--Selous'
+    gallantry--His death at the head of his men--A noble
+    life--Captain Haines on the last days of Selous--Selous'
+    grave--General Smuts on the future of German East Africa       340
+
+    CHAPTER XV
+    CHARACTER, APPEARANCE, ETC.--SOME STORIES OF HIM
+
+    Untiring energy as a hunter--His modest requirements--Rifles--A
+    story of his practical nature--Sir Alfred Pease on Selous as a
+    hunter and naturalist--The average of shots required in various
+    lands--Selous as a hunter--His love of the
+    shot-gun--Perseverance to excel--The Brocklehursts--A lover of
+    cricket--Bicycling--The triumph of physical fitness--His
+    personal magnetism--Memory--Powers as a
+    story-teller--Diffidence--Inclined to melancholy--The spring of
+    perennial youth--The force of heredity--Slatin Pasha's
+    estimation of Col. Marchand--Selous' opinion of Marchand--Powers
+    of speech--His independence of thought and action--Literary
+    gifts--Kindness of heart--Hatred of crowds--The perpetual call
+    of the wild--Home-sickness--The nostalgia of travel--A great
+    reader--His preferences in literature--Personal
+    friends--Hospitality at home--Lewanika's fears--His attitude
+    towards religion--Roosevelt on Selous--Selous' great influence
+    as a pioneer--A noble life and a fitting end                   352
+
+    INDEX                                                          377
+
+
+
+
+    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS AT THE AGE OF 59  _Frontispiece_
+                                                   TO FACE PAGE
+    THE PLAINS OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE IN 1871              64
+    SELOUS AS A YOUNG MAN, IN HUNTING COSTUME                80
+    ELEPHANTS                                               112
+    BUFFALOES ALARMED                                       144
+    ON THE MASHUNA PLATEAU                                  176
+    THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG                                192
+    LIONS CHASING A KOODOO BULL                             224
+    THE WANDERING MINSTREL                                  240
+    OSBORN'S CARIBOU                                        256
+    MT. KENIA FROM THE SOUTH                                272
+    BULL MOOSE ABOUT TO LIE DOWN                            288
+    MT. KILIMANJARO FROM THE NORTH                          304
+    A SHOT ON THE PLAINS, BRITISH EAST AFRICA               320
+    FARU! FARU!                                             336
+    THEY CANNOT BREAK HIS SLEEP                             368
+
+
+
+
+    THE LIFE OF FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS, D.S.O.
+
+CHAPTER I
+1851-1865
+
+
+Men of all ages are apt to set up for themselves heroes. It is their
+instinct to worship exceptional force of character and to follow a
+leader; but as we survey the tempest of human suffering we are now more
+apt to wonder if there are any great men left in the world and think
+that perhaps, after all, we have made a mistake in putting on pedestals
+the heroes of the past; for tried in the light of the present day they
+would, perchance, not have proved heroes at all. The cynic may even
+sneer at this lovable trait in human nature and affect to place all men
+in a commonplace ratio, but then it is easier to be a cynic than a man
+of faith. Nevertheless, Humanity must have something to trust, to
+acclaim and admire, and so millions of all ages cling to their worship
+of the hero, even though he may wear top hat and trousers. There will
+always be great men amongst the mass of pygmies, though many say the age
+of hero-worship has gone--doubtless swamped in the scale of colossal
+events. Still, if the great men of the past were not as large as they
+seemed, the little men of to-day may be greater, in spite of the fact
+that the chief actors in the modern drama of life are nations and not
+individuals.
+
+But what constitutes a great man will ever be the result of individual
+opinion. In Russia to-day millions, perhaps, think Lenin and Trotsky are
+demi-gods, whilst an equal number call them traitors and would prefer to
+see them hanged. To us, perhaps, the belief that Right will triumph over
+wrong, and the man who in simple faith gives up all that is sweet and
+pleasant to serve his country in the most fearful strife the world has
+ever seen, is the embodiment of heroism. There are tens of thousands of
+men who have done the same as Frederick Selous and none are less heroes
+than he; each and all of them are as much entitled to their pedestal of
+fame, although they may not have exhibited the mind that influences for
+years in many lands. They have all counted the cost and endured the
+sacrifice, and they do not talk about their inner thoughts. This, to our
+minds, is true heroism.
+
+So in studying the life of one Englishman, great in the sense that
+everything he did was big, honourable, clever, and brave, we shall
+realize how character is formed in the iron mill of experience, how a
+man unhelped by wealth or social advantages and gifted only with
+exceptional talents in a line, mainly unprofitable in a worldly sense,
+came to win through the difficulties and dangers of a more than usually
+strenuous life and reach the haven of completed work. Selous was a type
+of Englishman of which we are justly proud. His very independence of
+character and impatience of restraint when once he knew a thing was
+right was perhaps his greatest asset. He knew what he wanted to do and
+did it even if it resulted, as it did on one occasion, in his personal
+unpopularity. It was this fearless striving towards the Light and
+constant love of what was beautiful in Nature, that forced him into
+Literature, so that others might see with his eyes the things that he
+thought were best. And thus he rose and became a type and an influence
+in our national life, and in time swayed the lives of others.
+
+The Selous family were originally French Huguenots, who settled in
+Jersey after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Annoyance at being
+turned out of France caused Gideon Slous to omit the "e" from the
+surname, but later this was re-adopted by his son Frederick Lokes
+Selous, father of Frederick Courtenay. Of the character of his parents
+and uncles Edmund Selous kindly sends me the following notes:--
+
+    "... I can only say generally, that my father was a man of high
+    and varied talents and very high character, of French, or at any
+    rate, Jersey descent, and that he started with nothing in life,
+    and with only such education (beyond what he owed to his mother,
+    an uncommon woman, who probably did better for him) as an
+    ordinary private school had afforded, equipped himself with
+    French and Italian in perfection, entered the Stock Exchange at
+    an early age, had a successful career there, and rose to be
+    Chairman of its Committee. He was a fine whist and chess player
+    (more especially, or more notedly, the latter) and was reputed,
+    I believe, at one time, to be the best amateur player of the
+    clarionet. Music was his constant and greatest delight, but his
+    pen was also an instrument which (though he sought no public
+    beyond his friends) he often used very entertainingly. He was a
+    brilliant--often a witty--talker, with a distinction of manner,
+    more French- than English-seeming in its light debonairness, and
+    his individualities, traits, foibles, etc., were so many and
+    vivid, that to write either of him or of Dr. Johnson with
+    scanted pen, would be much the same thing. My two uncles, the
+    artist and dramatist, who lived next door, on each side of us,
+    would also require portraiture for anything beyond this bare
+    statement. Both were out-of-the-canvas-stepping personalities,
+    carrying with them atmosphere and aroma.
+
+    "My mother was an exceptionally thoughtful and broad-minded
+    woman--more advanced, on most subjects, than where they stand
+    now--a vivid and vital being, of great vivacity, gladness (that
+    never was levity) and conversational powers, with a gift for the
+    interchange of ideas (which is not, by any means, always the
+    same thing). She was also a poet, as her little volume of
+    collected pieces, 'Words without Music' (a modest title)
+    testifies, at least to myself. She had joyous 'L'Allegro'-like
+    country instincts, a deep inborn love of the beauties of nature
+    (which she sketched charmingly), and great feeling for, and
+    interest in both plant and animal _life_. I underline that word,
+    in its last connection, because killing was quite another thing
+    for her, and her whole soul shrank away from it. But of course,
+    as you know, what, in root and origin, may be the same, is often
+    differentiated in the sexes, and so inherited by each. It was, I
+    think, undoubtedly through our mother (though he did not,
+    personally, much resemble either parent) that my brother
+    inherited everything that made him distinctively himself. By
+    this I mean that though much and that the best--as, for
+    instance, his patriotism and love of truth--may have come to him
+    from both sides, and some from the other only, it was that one
+    that gave to it, and the whole, its original life-shaping turn.
+    The whole was included in the blood of the Bruces of
+    Clackmannan, representative, I believe, of the elder branch of
+    the family that gave Robert Bruce to the throne of Scotland, but
+    what exact position, in our family tree, is occupied by Bruce,
+    the Abyssinian explorer, I do not quite know. However, he must
+    have been some sort of ancestor of my brother, and Bruce, since
+    the intermingling, has been a family name, though not given to
+    any of us surviving infancy, owing to an idea which had arisen,
+    through several instances of such association, that it had
+    become unlucky. In this regard, it has been rather the
+    patronymic, which, from one war to another, has borne the
+    malevolent influence. None have come back, either wounded,
+    invalided or at all. All killed outright--but this by the way.
+    Had it not been for my mother, therefore, my brother, in all
+    probability, would either never, or not in any preponderating
+    degree, have felt the 'call of the wild,' for my father not only
+    never felt it, but never was able to comprehend the feeling.
+    There was, in fact, nothing at all in him of what was my
+    brother's life and being. He was, in the proper evolutionary
+    sense of the word, essentially a civilized man and a Londoner.
+    Sport was, for him, an unknown (and much disliked) quantity, and
+    though taking, in an air-tight-compartment sort of way, some
+    interest in insects, he had not much about him of the real
+    naturalist. Those feelings (imperishably summed up by Jack
+    London in the title of his masterpiece) which, coming out of a
+    remote past, beckon back the only supposedly or but half-made-up
+    civilized amongst us, from late into early conditions, were not,
+    as I say, his heritage; and this was equally (or even more) the
+    case with his brothers--my two uncles--and as far as I know or
+    have ever heard, all the precedent members of the family. I
+    believe, therefore, that by the intervention--merciful or
+    otherwise--of the Bruce, Sherborn, and Holgate families, between
+    them, my brother was saved, or debarred, from going either into
+    the Stock Exchange or one of the settled professions. Which kind
+    of phraseology best suits the conjuncture I know not, but I
+    think I know what my brother's own opinion would be, since it
+    put the particular circumstances of that event of his life, in
+    which, of all others, he would esteem himself most happy and
+    fortunate--I mean his death--upon a footing of certainty.
+
+    "I have alluded to my brother's independence of home (or, I
+    think, of any) influence. I look upon him as a salient
+    illustration of Darwin's finding that the force of heredity is
+    stronger, in the individual, than that of education and
+    surroundings. So far back as I can remember--at least with any
+    distinctness--he was always just himself, with a settled
+    determination that, in its calm, unobtrusive force (giving the
+    idea of inevitability) had in it something elemental. He may not
+    have lisped Africa (which was far from the family thoughts) but,
+    if not, he, at least, came so near to it, as to have made us all
+    almost remember that he did. He seems to have brought with him
+    into this world 'from afar,' a mind long made up as to the part
+    he should play in it, and his career was more than half run
+    before any circumstance admitted by him as deflective from its
+    true course, arose..."
+
+Mrs. Jones (Ann Selous) also paints a pleasing picture of the early life
+of the family in their London house:--
+
+    "We lived in Gloucester Road, Regent's Park, in a house my
+    father built for himself. At that time there were no other
+    houses near, but all fields between his home and Primrose Hill,
+    some way off; but this superior state of things his children
+    never knew. Our uncles, my father's brothers, lived on either
+    side of us. My father was vice-Chairman of the Stock Exchange
+    for five years, and Chairman for three, until a very serious
+    illness obliged him to resign and give up everything in the way
+    of work. He was a fine chess player, his name is to be seen in
+    the games amongst those of the great players of the day. He was
+    also a very fine clarionet player, which instrument he taught
+    himself when very young, and I well remember his beautiful tone,
+    far beyond that of Lazarus, the chief professional player of the
+    day, who no doubt sacrificed tone to technique. Whenever there
+    was a speech to be made my father was equal to the occasion,
+    having great fluency and humour and real wit. He was a
+    delightful talker and his memory was a store-house of knowledge
+    and recollections that he could draw upon whenever required. He
+    was a very genial and admirable host, very high-spirited and
+    excitable. He could never forget the Revocation of the Edict of
+    Nantes, when the Huguenots, his forebears, were driven from
+    France. 'They turned us out! They turned us out!' he used to say
+    to my mother, a real thought of bitterness to him. His greatest
+    pleasure and relaxation was a walking-tour in Switzerland, a
+    land he specially loved. He had often been there with one or
+    other of his brothers, or with his great friend Baron Bramwell,
+    the famous judge. These trips must have been ideal, my father
+    and his brothers having in themselves everything that was
+    necessary to make them gifted in all the arts, and so
+    appreciative of nature and everything else, and with their
+    lively sense of humour and wide interests they were able to
+    extract the most from all they might chance upon in their
+    travels, those being the days before tourists flooded the
+    country and huge hotels swamped the more interesting inns. My
+    father loved the busy life of the City, and had no country
+    tastes such as farming or hunting, but he delighted in the life
+    by the river--in canoeing, specially--and in a farmer's country
+    home in the Isle of Wight, where, when we were children, we
+    spent the summers. He was a fine swimmer and would swim out with
+    one or other of us on his back. I well remember his energy,
+    mental and physical, were remarkable. The loss of sight seemed
+    only to affect his later years. His mind was clear and equal to
+    dealing with his affairs to the last. At a very advanced age he
+    had started tricycling and delighted in it. I think my father
+    and my brother Fred were very dissimilar in character, interests
+    and tastes. There was no 'call of the wild' in my father--nor, I
+    think, in my mother, except through her imagination. My father
+    left a few reminiscences which were never finished, as dictation
+    tired him--he was then over eighty and blind. They are full of
+    interesting memories which end unfortunately when he was still
+    very young."
+
+    "I was born," writes my father, "on the 9th of March, 1802.... I
+    was a precocious child, for I was told that I knew my letters at
+    about two years of age, and could read at three and a half and
+    recite on a table at about four. I perfectly recollect
+    declaiming the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius in
+    Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar.' Also I remember the announcement
+    of the death of Nelson in October, 1805, and witnessing his
+    funeral procession in January, 1806.[1] I was perched on the
+    shoulders of a journeyman baker named Guesnel at the corner of
+    Poland Street, from whence I beheld the catafalque containing
+    the remains of the illustrious Nelson, the whole affair
+    resembling much the interment of the Duke of Wellington, which I
+    witnessed in 1852--forty-six years later. My brother Harry (the
+    artist, H. C. Selous), who was thirteen months younger than I,
+    remembers witnessing this spectacle too.... I can recollect
+    weeping bitterly at hearing the first news of our great
+    admiral's death, and the awe and wonder with which I looked upon
+    the ceremony of his interment.... I was sent to school at
+    Islington at the age of seven, and upon the master desiring me
+    to read from a book which he gave to me he expressed himself so
+    surprised at my reading that he told my mother he would not put
+    me into any of the reading classes of the upper boys, as I
+    should put them to shame. I was at that time so strong and so
+    hungry that I frequently carried some of the biggest boys round
+    the playground (which was a large one) for an extra slice of
+    bread and butter with which they repaid me. I was at school
+    about a twelve-month and then came under my mother's care for
+    instruction, and to her I owe more than I can possibly express
+    with regard to my early education. She taught me the French
+    language, Greek and Roman history, and the three R's--reading,
+    writing, and arithmetic. When I was ten years, I was sent to a
+    school called the Burlington school, where I improved my French,
+    became a tolerable Latin scholar, and gained a smattering of
+    mathematics. After being for two years at this academy, I was
+    recalled to home rule and education and never had any further
+    instruction from master or professor. At this time my brother
+    and myself were allowed to wander about the streets uncontrolled
+    and might have been considered as a sort of street Arabs, though
+    we always selected our associates carefully." (Later on my
+    father had to work very hard, very long hours, up till midnight
+    four days in the week, but it did him no harm, and he was very
+    strong and active. A great part of his time was occupied in
+    reading every variety of book he could get hold of, from which
+    he gained much general information, having an unusually good
+    memory. Plutarch's lives were his first admired works. Pope,
+    Addison and Johnson came next. He made the acquaintance of some
+    of the celebrated Italian singers and learnt to speak their
+    language fluently. All this part about the Italian singers is
+    very interesting, and many things connected with the theatre
+    likewise.)
+
+    "I also witnessed another performance which shocked me more than
+    anything I ever beheld, for I was then very young. It was in
+    1815 or 16, I think, I happened to be rather early one day in my
+    long walk to Great St. Helen's, which took me past St.
+    Sepulchre's and the broad opening to the narrow streets of the
+    Old Bailey. The sun was shining brightly across Newgate, and on
+    chancing to look towards Ludgate Hill I saw dangling to a beam
+    at the west side of Newgate five human beings suspended by the
+    neck. One of them was a woman, who with a feeling for symmetry
+    had been hung in the centre. All five had white night-caps drawn
+    over their faces to conceal the horrible convulsions of the
+    features. I don't know what their crimes had been, people were
+    hanged in those savage days for stealing a shilling, or even
+    cutting a stick from a plantation. The time appointed for
+    cutting down the bodies had nearly arrived, and the crowd had
+    diminished to an apathetic group principally engaged in cracking
+    nuts and jokes, and eating brandy balls all hot; but horror gave
+    speed to my steps and I soon left hideous Newgate behind me. I
+    recollect a great sensation caused by the execution of
+    Fauntleroy for forgery." Here end these notes by my father.
+
+    "I think I remember rightly that at fourteen my father was not
+    only making a livelihood for himself, but supporting his father
+    and mother. He was most charitable and had the kindest heart in
+    the world, and that high sense of honour which so distinguished
+    his son. I think that though these few extracts from his
+    reminiscences are not, perhaps, of importance, yet they throw
+    some light on my father's character, and indirectly it may be on
+    my brother's also, for certainly in strength of purpose, energy,
+    and will to succeed, also in vigorous health and constitution,
+    they were alike. They also had both a great facility for
+    learning languages. We were amused to read in a book on African
+    travel by, I think, a Portuguese, whose name for the moment I
+    forget, that he came across the great hunter (I forget if he put
+    it like that) Selous, 'somewhere' in Africa, who addressed him
+    in the French of the 'Boulevard des Italiens!' As I think this
+    traveller was supposed to have a lively imagination, we accepted
+    Fred's superior accent (after so many years of never speaking or
+    hearing French) with some grains of salt. But not very many
+    years ago at some international meeting to do with sport, at
+    Turin or Paris, Fred representing England, he made a speech in
+    French, on which he was much complimented, for accent, wit, and
+    fluency alike.[2]
+
+    "My mother, like my father, had a wonderful memory, and was a
+    great reader, from childhood, her home possessing a big library.
+    Scott was her great delight then, and indeed always, and poetry
+    was as nectar and ambrosia to her. She had great facility in
+    writing herself, very charmingly, both poetry and prose, all of
+    the fantastic and imaginative order, and she had quite a gift
+    for painting. Considering all the calls made on her time, of
+    home and family (social, likewise), which were never neglected,
+    it was wonderful that she could yet find time for all her
+    writing and painting. Her perseverance and industry in the arts
+    that she loved were really remarkable. We children greatly
+    benefited by her love of poetry and story, for she was a true
+    'raconteuse' and we drank in with delight the tales from the old
+    mythologies of romance and adventure. She would tell us of deeds
+    of 'derring-do' and all that was inspiring in the way of freedom
+    and love of country. Certainly with her, as with Sir Edward
+    Clarke, poetry was 'a never failing source of pleasure and
+    comfort' to the last. (As it was also with me.) In the last year
+    of her long life she could still repeat her poetic treasures
+    with the greatest fire and spirit. She had a vigorous and
+    original personality, with strong and decided views which she
+    would express with energy. Her hands were full of character,
+    strong yet most delicate, and much character in her features,
+    with a smile that lit up her face like a ray of sunshine. Her
+    maiden name was Sherborn--Ann Sherborn--(her mother's maiden
+    name, Holgate).... Her relations and ancestors were county
+    folk--gentlemen farmers some of them. The Sherborns of Bedfont
+    near Staines, held the great tythe, and her uncle was the
+    squire. None of the last generation married, the name has died
+    with them and may be seen only in the little Bedfont churchyard.
+
+    "My mother's uncle (her mother's brother), William Holgate, was
+    fond of searching out genealogies and he managed to trace the
+    Abyssinian Braces until it joined our Bruce family tree. There
+    were many original--and it may be eccentric--characters amongst
+    my mother's relations and forebears, and many interesting
+    stories that we loved to hear, about them. Her genealogical
+    tree interested us greatly, partly because the names were so
+    curious, as it went back to the early days of history, and
+    because of the stories connected with them, and also because if
+    not Bruce himself, his elder brother, David King of Scotland,
+    figured in it. Then there was Archbishop Holgate of York, who
+    was a great rogue (I looked up his life in the Minster precincts
+    when I was there) and hand and glove with Henry VIII in the
+    spoliation of the monasteries, yet he redeemed himself by the
+    establishment of Free Schools, which flourish in York to this
+    day.
+
+    "It may be that this spirit of romance and adventure that we
+    breathed in from our earliest years, had some influence on my
+    brother Fred, and fired his imagination; but why from the very
+    first there should have been the persistent desire like an 'idee
+    fixe' for Africa, I cannot tell, unless, indeed, it might be
+    something of 'Abyssinian' Bruce cropping up again. But as a
+    child he would have a waggon for a toy, to load and unload, and
+    for his school prize books he would always choose one on Africa.
+    This desire for the dark continent remained constant in him till
+    satisfied, and indeed to the last.
+
+    "My mother had quite an unusual interest in, and knowledge of,
+    natural history, and my father also made some fine collections
+    of butterflies, etc., which are still to be seen in my brother's
+    museum. My father's youngest brother, Angiolo--a man of the most
+    polished and courtly manners--was as dark as my father was fair.
+    Entirely educated by his mother, there was little in which he
+    did not excel. He had a beautiful voice and was a charming
+    singer, often to his own accompaniment on the guitar, and was a
+    well-known dramatist in his time, some of his plays being most
+    successful. How well I remember the first night of his 'True to
+    the Core,' when we all went across the river to the Surrey
+    Theatre and helped with our feet and umbrellas in the general
+    enthusiasm. He was a fine actor and dramatic reader, and a
+    charming artist. We have a perfect gem of his--Don Quixote,
+    sitting in his study--the colouring, the face and expression,
+    the painting, are perfect, and one feels that Don Quixote must
+    have looked just so. The haggard face and the wild look in the
+    eyes that are seeing visions. But it was unfortunate that my
+    uncle neglected this talent altogether. My uncle, Harry Selous,
+    was of course the artist, excelling chiefly, I think, in his
+    beautiful outlines of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' and his
+    'Metamorphoses of Ovid,' on which subjects he could draw on his
+    imagination for ever, it seemed. It is a thousand pities they
+    have never been produced. His illustrations of the Life of Bruce
+    and Hereward the Wake are fine, and The Prisoners of Calais and
+    Boadicea are well known. The latter most fine, I think. He would
+    paint the most charming landscapes with great rapidity, and his
+    chalk (coloured) and pencil sketches from his travels in
+    Switzerland are charming too, and endless numbers of them. He
+    painted some of the famous Coliseum panoramas, each in turn
+    being painted out by the next one, which always seemed very
+    dreadful. His original illustrations drawn on wood, were
+    exquisite, and it was cruel to see how they were spoilt in the
+    wood-cutting, but he valued his work so lightly that he did not
+    seem to mind much about it. My grandfather, Gideon Slous, had a
+    very great talent for painting, and was a fine colourist, quite
+    like an old master, and he painted some beautiful miniatures
+    also. He was a man of violent temper."
+
+Frederick Courtenay Selous was born in the house in Regent's Park on
+December 31st, 1851. The other children of his parents were: Florence,
+"Locky," now Mrs. Hodges; Annie, married to Mr. R. F. Jones; Sybil,
+"Dei," married to Mr. C. A. Jones; Edmund, married to Fanny, daughter of
+Mrs. Maxwell (Miss Braddon). He is a well-known student of British
+bird-life and has published many interesting books on British Natural
+History.
+
+Of the childhood of Frederick little more need be said. He was an active
+little fellow, never more happy than when playing with his wooden waggon
+and oxen or listening to his mother's stories of romance and adventure.
+At the age of nine he went to school at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, of
+which Arthur Hill was the headmaster, and there chiefly distinguished
+himself by being constantly in trouble. Later he went for a short time
+to a small school in Northamptonshire, kept by the Revd. Charles
+Darnell, whose daughter (Mrs. Frank Juckes) recalls one characteristic
+incident.
+
+    "One night my father on going round the dormitories to see that
+    all was in order, discovered Freddy Selous, lying flat on the
+    bare floor clothed only in his nightshirt. On being asked the
+    cause of this curious behaviour he replied, 'Well, you see, one
+    day I am going to be a hunter in Africa and I am just hardening
+    myself to sleep on the ground.'"
+
+One day in 1914, I found Selous busy at his desk at Worplesdon. On being
+asked what was the nature of his work, he said he was writing an account
+of his school days for a boys' magazine. He did not seem to think it
+would be of wide interest, and so had written his early adventures in
+simple form merely for the perusal of boys and had changed his own name
+to that of "John Leroux."
+
+    "It was a damp and dismal winter's day towards the end of
+    January, 1861, on which the boys reassembled after their
+    Christmas holidays at a well-known school not far from London.
+    Nevertheless, despite the gloom and the chilliness of the
+    weather conditions outside the fine old mansion which had but
+    lately been converted into a school, there was plenty of life
+    and animation in the handsome oak-panelled banqueting hall
+    within, at one end of which a great log fire blazed cheerfully.
+    Generally speaking the boys seemed in excellent spirits, or at
+    any rate they made a brave show of being so to keep up
+    appearances, and the music of their laughter and of their fresh
+    young voices was good to hear. Here and there, however, a poor
+    little fellow stood apart, alone and friendless, and with eyes
+    full of tears. Such unfortunates were the new boys, all of them
+    youngsters of nine or ten, who had left their homes for the
+    first time, and whose souls were full of an unutterable misery,
+    after their recent partings from fond mothers and gentle
+    sisters. The youngest, and possibly the most home-sick of all
+    the new boys was standing by himself at some distance from the
+    fire, entirely oblivious of all that was going on around him,
+    for he was too miserable to be able to think of anything but the
+    home in which he had grown to boyhood and all the happiness,
+    which it seemed to his young soul, he could never know again
+    amidst his new surroundings.
+
+    "Now as it is this miserable little boy who is to be the hero of
+    this story, he merits, I think, some description. Though only
+    just nine years old he looked considerably more, for he was tall
+    for his age, and strongly built. He was very fair with a
+    delicate pink and white complexion, which many a lady might have
+    envied, whilst his eyes sometimes appeared to be grey and
+    sometimes blue. His features, if not very handsome or regular,
+    were good enough and never failed to give the impression of an
+    open and honest nature. Altogether he would have been considered
+    by most people a typical specimen of an English boy of
+    Anglo-Saxon blood. Yet, as a matter of fact, as in the case of
+    so many Englishmen, there was but little of the Saxon element in
+    his composition, for whilst his father came from the Isle of
+    Jersey, and was therefore of pure Norman descent, his forebears
+    on his mother's side were some of them Scotch and others from a
+    district in the north of England in which the Scandinavian
+    element is supposed to preponderate over the Saxon. But though
+    our hero bore a Norman-French name the idea that he was not a
+    pure-blooded Englishman had never occurred to him, for he knew
+    that his Jersey ancestors had been loyal subjects of the English
+    crown ever since, as a result of the battle of Hastings, Duke
+    William of Normandy became King of England.
+
+    "It was not long before the new boy's melancholy meditations
+    were rudely broken in upon by a handsome lad of about his own
+    size, though he was his senior by more than a year. 'Hullo,'
+    said young Jim Kennedy, looking roguishly into the sad, almost
+    tearful, eyes of the young Jerseyman, 'who gave you that collar?
+    Why, you look like Queen Elizabeth.'
+
+    "A fond mother had indeed bedecked her darling boy with a
+    beautiful collar of lace work several inches in breadth which
+    spread over his shoulders, but which he soon found it advisable
+    to discard as it made him the butt of every wit in the school.
+    But though the collar was suppressed, the name of Queen
+    Elizabeth, that august lady to whom Kennedy when first
+    addressing him had declared that his mother's fond gift had
+    given him a resemblance, stuck to him for many a long day.
+
+    "The laughing, jeering interrogatory, acted like a tonic on the
+    new boy, who though of a gentle, kindly disposition, possessed a
+    very hot temper. His soft grey eyes instantly grew dark with
+    anger as looking his questioner squarely in the face he answered
+    slowly, 'What is that to you, who gave me my collar?'
+
+    "'Hullo!' again said Jim Kennedy, 'you're a cocky new boy.
+    What's your name?'
+
+    "'My name is John Leroux,' said the young Jerseyman quietly and
+    proudly, for his father had taught him to be proud of his Norman
+    ancestry, and had instilled into his son his own firm belief
+    that the Normans were a superior people to the Saxons, than whom
+    he averred they had done more for the advancement of England to
+    its present great position, and for the spread of the empire of
+    Britain over half the world.
+
+    "Kennedy repeated the unfamiliar name two or three times, and
+    then with a derisive laugh said, 'Why, you're a Frenchy.' Now
+    although it was quite true that on his father's side John Leroux
+    was of Norman-French descent, for some reason difficult to
+    analyse, the suggestion that he was a Frenchman filled his young
+    heart with fury. His face grew scarlet and his fists clenched
+    involuntarily as he answered fiercely, 'How dare you call me a
+    Frenchy! I'm not a Frenchman, I'm an Englishman.'
+
+    "'No, you're not,' said Kennedy, 'you're a Frenchy, a
+    frog-eating Frenchy.' Without another word young Leroux, from
+    whose face all the colour had now gone, sprang at his tormentor,
+    and taking him unawares, struck him as hard a blow as he was
+    capable of inflicting full in the mouth. And then the fight
+    commenced.
+
+    "Fifty years ago manners were rougher and ruder in these islands
+    than they are to-day. Prize-fighting was a respected and
+    popular calling, and set fights between boys at school of all
+    ages were of constant occurrence.
+
+    "A ring was soon formed around the combatants and though the
+    majority of the onlookers resented what they called the
+    'coxiness' of the new boy and wanted to see him get a licking,
+    there were quite a number of young barbarians whose sympathies
+    were entirely with Leroux, for his pluck in engaging in a fight
+    on his first day at school made a strong appeal to them. The
+    boys were evenly matched, for though Kennedy was more than a
+    year older, he was no taller, and little if any stronger than
+    his opponent, who, moreover, had had a certain amount of
+    instruction from his father in the use of his fists. The battle
+    had lasted for some minutes, and had been waged with the
+    greatest determination on both sides, and no very severe damage
+    to either participant, when the door at the end of the room
+    opened and Mr. Mann, the tall young Scotch mathematical master,
+    strode into the room. Taking in the position at a glance, he
+    elbowed his way through the crowd of boys, who were watching the
+    fight, and seizing the combatants simultaneously, each in one of
+    his strong large hands, he whirled them apart, and held them out
+    of reach of one another, though they both strained hard to
+    resume the fray.
+
+    "'You young rascals,' he said, 'why what on earth are you
+    fighting about, and on the first day of the term too! Now tell
+    me what on earth it was all about and make it up.'
+
+    "'He called me a Frenchman, and I'm not,' said young Leroux, and
+    the stress of battle over, the poor boy commenced to sob.
+
+    "A more generous lad than Jim Kennedy never stepped, and at the
+    sight of his adversary's distress, his dark eyes filled with
+    tears, and as Mr. Mann relaxed his grasp on his shoulder, he at
+    once came forward with outstretched hand to Leroux and said,
+    'I'll never call you a Frenchy again; shake hands and let us be
+    friends.' And so the two tearful young Britons, each of whose
+    faces bore some traces of the recent battle, shook hands and
+    from that time forth, as long as they were at school together,
+    became the most devoted of friends.
+
+    "This was John Leroux's first introduction to school life. Like
+    any other healthy vigorous boy, he soon shook off the
+    despondency of homesickness, and became perfectly happy in his
+    new surroundings. He worked well and conscientiously at his
+    lessons, and played hard at all games, and was not only a
+    general favourite with all his school-fellows, but was also
+    beloved by all the masters in spite of the fact that his
+    adventurous disposition was constantly leading him to transgress
+    all the rules of the school. With young Leroux the love of
+    nature and the desire for the acquisition of objects of natural
+    history of all kinds was an inborn and absorbing passion. Before
+    leaving home he had already commenced to make collections of
+    birds' eggs and butterflies, and throughout his schooldays his
+    interest in these and kindred subjects constantly grew. During
+    the spring and summer months all his time that was not occupied
+    in lessons or games was spent in birds'-nesting and collecting
+    butterflies, whilst in the winter he trapped and skinned water
+    rats and other small animals, and sometimes caught a stoat or a
+    weasel. He soon became by far the best and most venturesome
+    climber in the whole school, and there was not a rook's nest in
+    any one of the fine old elms or oak-trees in which these birds
+    built in the park in which the schoolhouse stood, from which he
+    was not able to get the eggs, which for the most part he gave
+    away to less athletic or adventurous collectors. After he had
+    been espied on one occasion high up amongst the nests in one of
+    the tallest elm-trees by the headmaster himself, who was
+    genuinely alarmed for his safety, all tree-climbing in the park
+    was forbidden. This rule was, of course, constantly broken, and
+    by no one more frequently than by Leroux. However, as it takes
+    some time to climb to a rook's nest, and as a boy is a
+    conspicuous object amongst the topmost branches of a tree in the
+    early spring before the leaves are out, our young friend was
+    constantly being detected either by one of the undermasters or
+    one of the men working in the grounds, who had all had strict
+    orders to be on the watch. It was owing to this persecution, as
+    he considered it, that Leroux conceived the idea of taking the
+    rooks' eggs he wanted at night, and with the help of Kennedy
+    and another kindred spirit he made several raids on the rookery
+    with perfect success when all the masters were in bed. The
+    dormitories were on the first story and therefore not very high
+    above the ground, and as the walls of the house were covered
+    with ivy, it was not very difficult for an active boy to get out
+    of the window and down or up the ivy-covered wall, with the help
+    of the rope which Leroux brought from home in his portmanteau
+    after one Christmas holiday. Having allowed sufficient time to
+    pass after Mons. Delmar, the French master, had made his nightly
+    rounds to see that all the boys were snug in bed, and all lights
+    out, Leroux and Kennedy, who were in the same dormitory, and who
+    had both apparently been fast asleep when the French master
+    passed through the room, suddenly woke up and producing a candle
+    and a box of matches from beneath their respective pillows,
+    kindled a light and hastily made their preparations. The window
+    having been softly opened, one end of the rope was fastened to
+    one of the legs of the nearest bed, whilst the free end was
+    lowered down the wall to the ground. This having been
+    accomplished the candle was blown out, and then Leroux and
+    Kennedy climbed down the ivy with the help of the rope. Although
+    all the boys in the dormitory took the greatest interest in
+    these proceedings and were ready to render any assistance
+    necessary, a boy named Barnett always hauled up the rope as soon
+    as the adventurers were on the ground, and hid it under the bed
+    near the window in case of accidents until their return, for
+    which he kept a sharp look-out. Once on the ground Leroux and
+    his companion made their way to one or other of several large
+    oak-trees in the park in which there were a number of rooks'
+    nests; for these oaks were not only not as lofty as the elms,
+    but were, moreover, much easier to climb. Kennedy, though a
+    fairly good climber, was not the equal of Leroux in this
+    respect, and after assisting the latter to reach the lowest
+    branches, he always waited for his return at the foot of the
+    tree. When the rooks were thus rudely disturbed at night, they
+    always made what seemed to the two boys a most appalling noise,
+    but if anyone ever heard it he never guessed the true cause, or
+    took any steps to investigate its meaning, and although during
+    three successive years the two boys raided the rookery on
+    several different occasions, their escapades were never
+    discovered or even suspected. Once, however, they only just got
+    back into their dormitory before the policeman made his nightly
+    round. As a rule he did not make his circuit of the house
+    flashing his lantern on all the windows until after midnight,
+    but on the occasion in question he came much earlier than usual,
+    and Leroux and Kennedy had only just scrambled up the
+    ivy-covered wall, and reached their room with the assistance of
+    the rope which the watchful Barnett had let down for them, when
+    they saw the policeman's lantern flash round the end of the
+    house, through their still open window, which they then closed
+    very cautiously without making any noise. It was the policeman's
+    nightly round of the house, which was thus so forcibly brought
+    to his notice, that gave Leroux an idea, which he and Kennedy
+    and Barnett, together with some other boys, subsequently acted
+    upon with great success. This was nothing more nor less than to
+    play a practical joke on the policeman by hanging a dummy figure
+    out of the window one night, on which he would be sure to flash
+    his lantern when he made his round of the house. In each
+    dormitory there was a huge clothes-basket, not very high but
+    very capacious, and choosing an evening when their basket was
+    very full of clothes for the wash, Leroux and his friends, with
+    the help of a bolster, a coat, shirt, and pair of trousers, and
+    some of the contents of the clothes-basket, made a very good
+    imitation of the figure of a boy. The top end of the bolster
+    which was pinched in a little lower down by the shirt collar,
+    made a nice round ball for the head, and on this a mask and a
+    tow wig, which had been bought just before Guy Fawkes day, were
+    fixed. Then the rope which had done such good service on the
+    occasions of the raids on the rookery, was fastened round the
+    dummy figure's neck, and the really meritorious imitation of a
+    dead boy lowered out of the window and allowed to dangle some
+    six feet beneath it. The head, which with its mask and wig of
+    tow now hung over to one side, gave the somewhat podgy and
+    certainly very inanimate looking figure quite a realistic
+    appearance. The work of preparing this figure after the French
+    master had been round the dormitories, occupied the boys some
+    time, and when at last, after the rope had been fastened round
+    its neck, it was lowered out of the window, it was past eleven
+    o'clock. The boys then took it in turns to watch for the coming
+    of the policeman, each watcher kneeling at the window well
+    wrapped in his bedclothes. It was Barnett who was on duty when
+    at last the policeman came. 'Cavy,' he whispered, 'here he
+    comes,' and all the boys, whose excitement had kept them awake,
+    made their way to the window, across which the light of the
+    lantern soon flashed. The result was immediate and exceeded the
+    utmost expectations of Leroux and his companions. The
+    policeman--a young man but lately enrolled in the force--was
+    seen to be gesticulating and shouting at the top of his voice,
+    evidently trying to attract the attention of those in the room
+    above him, from which the boy figure, with its ghastly pale
+    cardboard face, hung dangling at the end of a rope. There was,
+    however, no response from the listening boys. Suddenly the
+    policeman ceased his outcries, and running down the footpath
+    turned the corner of the house. Immediately after there was a
+    terrific banging at the front door, accompanied by loud
+    shouting. 'Quick,' said Leroux, 'up with the window, and let's
+    get the dummy in.' At the same time Kennedy ran to the further
+    door of the dormitory and holding it slightly ajar, peered out
+    on the landing, which overlooked the large hall at the end of
+    which was the main entrance of the house from whence all the
+    noise proceeded. And now anxious voices were heard, and lights
+    appeared from all directions. 'Old Rex'--the headmaster--'has
+    opened the hall door,' said Kennedy, 'and is talking to the
+    policeman. My eye,' he continued, 'Old Cockeye's there too,
+    she's crying out and snuffling like a good 'un.' I grieve to say
+    that 'Old Cockeye' was the disrespectful nickname which had been
+    given by the boys to the matron--a most exemplary lady with an
+    unfortunate squint in the left eye. And now there was a babble
+    of approaching voices as the party in the hall rapidly ascended
+    the staircase leading to the dormitories. Kennedy softly closed
+    the door at which he had been listening, and already Leroux and
+    Barnett had shut the window after having pulled up the rope with
+    the dummy figure attached to the end of it, which was hastily
+    thrust under the nearest bed. 'Mind we're all asleep; we don't
+    know anything about it,' said Kennedy in a loud whisper as he
+    jumped into his bed and composed his features into an appearance
+    of placid innocence, which indeed was the attitude adopted by
+    all the other boys in the room. Then the dormitory door was
+    thrown wide open and the headmaster rushed in, candle in hand,
+    closely followed by the policeman, the matron and two of the
+    undermasters. At the same time the door of the other end of the
+    room was flung open, and a strange half-clad figure, with wild
+    eyes and candle in hand, came forward amongst the sleeping boys
+    not one of whom, strange to say, showed the slightest sign of
+    having been in any way disturbed by all the hubbub. 'Mon Dieu,'
+    said Mons. Delmar, 'qu'est-ce qu'il y a donc?' as he ran to meet
+    the headmaster. The latter was indeed a pathetic figure as he
+    stood half-dressed looking round the room with wild eyes, his
+    long grey hair falling over his shoulders. In his right hand he
+    held a candlestick, whilst his left was clasped over his
+    forehead. 'Great God,' he said, 'no--no--impossible,' as if
+    talking to himself, and then suddenly turning to the policeman,
+    'Why, officer, you must be mistaken, every boy is here in his
+    bed.'
+
+    "'I seed him, sir; I seed him with my own eyes, indeed I did,'
+    answered the policeman.
+
+    "'Oh, deary, deary, deary me,' wailed the matron, whose
+    unfortunate obliquity of vision had gained her so irreverent a
+    nickname.
+
+    "'Which window was it, officer?' asked the headmaster.
+
+    "'The one near the end of the room,' replied the policeman. In
+    another moment the window in question was thrown wide open and
+    several heads were protruded into the cold night air.
+
+    "'There's nothing here,' said the headmaster.
+
+    "'Well, I'm ----' said the policeman, leaving it to his
+    audience to finish the sentence according to their several
+    inclinations. At this moment an exclamation from the French
+    master caused everyone to turn round. In his anxiety to get to
+    the window, one of the undermasters had pushed the end of
+    Leroux's bed sharply to one side--without however awakening its
+    occupant--and exposed to the Frenchman's sharp eyes a portion of
+    the rope which had been attached to the dummy figure which was
+    the cause of all the excitement. Stooping down to catch hold of
+    it, he at once saw the dummy under the bed, and pulled it out
+    with an exclamation which Leroux afterwards affirmed was
+    certainly 'sacre.'
+
+    "'Well, I'm ----' again said the policeman, without going any
+    further, and so again leaving his hearers in doubt as to what he
+    was. Old Rex, the headmaster, then seized Leroux by the
+    shoulder, and shook him violently, but for some time without any
+    other effect than to cause him to snore loudly; otherwise he
+    appeared not only to be fast asleep, but to have sunk into a
+    kind of comatose condition. At last, however, he could stand the
+    shaking no longer, and so opened his eyes.
+
+    "'Do you know anything about this, Leroux?' said old Rex
+    sternly.
+
+    "'Yes, sir,' said Leroux.
+
+    "'It was a cruel hoax,' said the headmaster.
+
+    "'I wanted to play a joke on the Bobby,' said Leroux.
+
+    "'Well, I'm ----' murmured that functionary, once more
+    discreetly veiling any further information which might otherwise
+    have been forthcoming by covering his mouth with his left hand.
+
+    "'Officer, these boys have played a shameful trick on you, but
+    you did your duty. I'm sorry that you should have been disturbed
+    in this way. Boys, I know you are all awake, I shall inquire
+    into this matter to-morrow.' So saying, but looking very much
+    relieved, the headmaster turned on his heel and left the room,
+    followed by all those who had entered it with him after having
+    been roused from their sleep by the policeman.
+
+    "Now 'old Rex,' the headmaster of the fine school at which our
+    hero acquired the rudiments of learning, was a reformer and an
+    idealist, and corporal chastisement was never inflicted on the
+    boys on any consideration whatever. The punishments for minor
+    offences were various tasks during play hours, or compulsory
+    walks conducted by old Rex himself, and which most of the boys
+    rather enjoyed. For more serious misdemeanours the offending
+    scholars were separated from their fellows, and placed in
+    solitary confinement in a distant part of the house for periods
+    ranging from a day to a week, during which they got nothing to
+    eat or drink but dry bread with a mere trace of butter on it,
+    and weak tea. As a sequel to the great dummy joke, the fame of
+    which by some means was spread through all the neighbouring
+    parishes, Leroux and Kennedy, who acknowledged that they were
+    the ringleaders in the matter, were condemned to three days'
+    solitary confinement, to be followed by various tasks and
+    compulsory walks during the play hours of the following week,
+    whilst the rest of the boys in the dormitory got off with some
+    extra lessons to be learnt whilst their school-fellows were
+    enjoying themselves in the playground during the next two
+    half-holidays, and a long lecture on the heinousness of the
+    crime, to which old Rex said with perfect truth he believed they
+    had been willing accessories.
+
+    "After the perpetration of the dummy joke, however, the French
+    master, whether on his own initiative or at the instigation of
+    the headmaster, commenced to make himself a great nuisance, not
+    only coming round the dormitories with a lighted candle as usual
+    soon after the boys had gone to bed, but often returning later
+    on without a candle and wearing carpet slippers. The single
+    combats and inter-dormitory bolster-fights which were a feature
+    of the school-life were constantly being interfered with. The
+    door of the dormitory in which our hero slept had always to be
+    kept ajar and a boy placed there to watch for the coming of
+    Mons. Delmar when any fun was going on, and the suddenness with
+    which at the single word 'cavy,' the confused noise of an
+    animated bolster-fight was succeeded by the most deathlike
+    stillness was truly astonishing. Before Mons. Delmar could
+    strike a light, every boy was not only in bed, but sleeping so
+    soundly that nothing the puzzled French master could say or do
+    could arouse them to consciousness. Various plans were discussed
+    by the most enterprising boys in the different dormitories, with
+    a view to discouraging these informal visits after the lights
+    had been put out. One night a piece of cord was tied by Leroux
+    across the gangway at about a foot from the ground between the
+    two beds nearest the door of the room in which he slept, over
+    which it was hoped Mons. Delmar would trip on entering. On this
+    occasion, however, he did not enter the room at all, but after
+    opening the door, lighted the candle he held in his hand and
+    merely looked round, turning on his heels again without speaking
+    a word. It was hoped that he had not noticed the string, and
+    another opportunity might be given him of falling over it. On
+    the next night, however, the boys in the adjoining dormitory set
+    a trap for him by placing the large inverted clothes-basket over
+    the half open door of the room, in such a way that it would,
+    with reasonable good luck, be very likely to fall like an
+    extinguisher over the head and shoulders of anyone entering the
+    dormitory, and when Mons. Delmar presently pushed the door open,
+    down came the large wicker basket. As it was dark it was
+    impossible to determine exactly whether it came down over his
+    head and shoulders or only fell on his head, but his candlestick
+    was certainly knocked out of his hand and he swore most volubly
+    in his own language. After having found and lighted his candle
+    he first harangued his young tormentors, all of whom were
+    apparently overcome by a deathlike sleep, and then went straight
+    off to the headmaster's study. The result of his complaint was
+    the infliction of certain tasks and compulsory walks on all the
+    occupants of the offending dormitory, but after this there was
+    no further spying on the boys. Poor Mons. Delmar! no doubt he
+    had only been acting under instructions, though perhaps he
+    entered on his detective duties a little too zealously.
+
+    "Altogether John Leroux spent four very happy years at his first
+    school, and besides making good progress with his lessons,
+    showed great aptitude for all games and athletic exercises,
+    especially football and swimming. Ever since the fight on the
+    evening of the day of his first entrance to the school he and
+    Kennedy had been the closest of friends. The two boys had paid
+    several visits to one another's homes during the holidays, and
+    it was chiefly because Kennedy's parents had decided to send
+    their son to a great public school in the Midlands, for the
+    entrance examination for which he had been undergoing a special
+    preparation, that it was finally decided that Leroux should be
+    sent to the same seat of learning. Up till then, however,
+    Leroux, though well advanced for his age in all other subjects,
+    had been spared the study of Greek, at the particular request of
+    his father, who as a practical business man, looked upon the
+    time spent by a schoolboy in acquiring a very imperfect
+    knowledge of any dead language, save Latin, as entirely wasted.
+    But to pass the entrance examination for any of our great public
+    schools fifty years ago some knowledge of Greek was absolutely
+    necessary, and so when Kennedy at the age of fourteen, passed
+    into the great school, his friend Leroux who hoped to rejoin him
+    there as soon as he had reached the same age, was in the
+    meantime sent to the establishment of a clergyman living in a
+    remote village in Northamptonshire to be specially coached in
+    Greek.
+
+    "The Rev. Charles Darnell, Rector of the parish of Belton, was a
+    short stout elderly man of a very easy-going disposition, who
+    exercised but little supervision over the dozen pupils he was
+    able to find accommodation for in his rambling old Rectory. But
+    he employed a couple of good tutors well up to their work, and
+    his son, who was a curate in a neighbouring parish and just as
+    irascible as his father was placid in temperament, also helped
+    to coach the boys in his charge.
+
+    "At the time of our story Belton was a small village of
+    stonebuilt cottages, all the windows in which were of the old
+    diamond-paned pattern. The village was dominated by an ancient
+    and picturesque church, surrounded by yew-trees, amongst which
+    were scattered the moss-grown tombstones of many generations of
+    Beltonians. A feature of the churchyard was the family vault of
+    a large landowner in the neighbourhood. The present
+    representative of this ancient family, locally known as 'old
+    squire,' was an eccentric bachelor, who lived in a picturesque
+    old Manor House with only two or three servants. It was said in
+    the village that he had never been seen outside the boundaries
+    of his estate for many years, and that he seldom walked abroad
+    even in his own grounds till after dark.
+
+    "It was during his first term, in very early spring, that
+    Leroux, accompanied by a fellow-pupil, took a wood-owl's eggs
+    from a hollow ash-tree in the deserted park, and he subsequently
+    spent many of his half-holidays birds'-nesting all over the
+    neglected estate. He never met a keeper, nor, indeed, anyone
+    else to question his right to be there, not even in the empty
+    stables or in the thick shrubberies and weed-grown plots of
+    ground near the great house which had once been gardens. There
+    were two small lakes in the park, and in one of them during the
+    autumn and winter months Leroux and one or two of his more
+    adventurous fellow-students used to set 'trimmers,' on which
+    they caught a good many pike, some of quite a good size, and now
+    and again they shot a moorhen with a saloon pistol which
+    belonged to a boy named Short.
+
+    "Whatever the boys caught or shot was taken to a certain cottage
+    in the village, the residence of an old woman who was a very
+    clever cook, and at this cottage Leroux and his friends enjoyed
+    many a good meal of baked pike stuffed with the orthodox
+    'pudding,' and even found the moorhens, which the old woman
+    skinned before cooking, very palatable.
+
+    "Belton being in the centre of a noted hunting-country, the
+    hounds sometimes passed in full cry within sight of the Rectory,
+    and whenever this happened the Rector's pupils were allowed by
+    an old-established custom, even if they were in the middle of a
+    lesson, to throw down their books and join in the run.
+
+    "During the year he spent at the Rectory Leroux worked hard at
+    his lessons, and made good progress in Greek as well as in all
+    other subjects which he had to get up, in view of the
+    approaching entrance examination to the great Midland school.
+    Games were neglected at this period, as there were not enough
+    pupils at the Rectory to make up two sides either at football or
+    cricket, but for Leroux and his fellow-pupils of similar tastes,
+    the old squire's deserted estate formed a most glorious
+    playground in which they found a fine field for the exercise and
+    development of the primitive instincts which had come down to
+    them from their distant ancestors of palaeolithic times. The
+    only pranks that Leroux indulged in during his year at Belton
+    were all connected with the old church of which Mr. Darnell was
+    the incumbent, and at which his pupils were obliged to attend
+    the two services held every Sunday. As in many of the old
+    churches in the remote districts of Northamptonshire at that
+    time, there was no organ, but the hymns were sung to an
+    accompaniment of flute, violin and 'cello, the performers on
+    these instruments being seated in a kind of minstrels' gallery
+    at the end of the church facing the pulpit.
+
+    "After the service on Sunday evening the musical instruments
+    were taken by the musicians to their own homes, but one Sunday
+    afternoon Leroux and Short--the owner of the saloon
+    pistol--surreptitiously entered the church and thoroughly soaped
+    the bows of the violin- and violoncello-players, and introduced
+    several peas into the flute. That evening the music was very
+    defective, but although the musicians knew that their
+    instruments had been tampered with there is no reason to believe
+    that they ever suspected that any of the Rector's 'young
+    gentlemen' had had anything to do with the trick which had been
+    played upon them. In future, however, the bows and the flute
+    were removed between the services, as Leroux discovered about a
+    month later, when he thought it was time to repeat his first
+    successful experiment. An aged parishioner, who was always
+    dressed in a smock-frock and grey woollen stockings, had his
+    seat on a bench just in front of the pews where Mr. Darnell's
+    pupils sat. This old man invariably removed his shoes on sitting
+    down, and placed them carefully under his seat, and on several
+    occasions during the sermon, Leroux managed to remove them with
+    the help of a stick to the end of which a piece of wire in the
+    shape of a hook had been attached. Once the shoes had been
+    drawn to Leroux's seat they were passed down by the other boys
+    from pew to pew, and finally left at a considerable distance
+    from their original place of deposition. The old fellow always
+    made a great fuss about the removal of his shoes, which not only
+    amused the Rector's pupils and all the younger members of the
+    congregation, but must also have had an exhilarating influence
+    on the spirits of their elders, upon whom the effect of the
+    usual dull sermon always appeared to be very sedative to say the
+    least of it. However, no public complaint was ever made, and
+    when the old man at length took the precaution to keep his shoes
+    on his feet during service, all temptation to meddle with them
+    was removed."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The body was sent home in a cask of brandy which was said to have
+been partially drunk by the sailors. This gruesome theft was known as
+"tapping the admiral."
+
+[2] The occasion of this speech was when the society of St. Hubert
+presented Selous with the medal of the "Academie des Sports," "pour
+services rendus a la Chasse aux grandes fauves" on July 15th, 1911.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+1865-1870
+
+
+When the time came for Fred to go to Rugby both Mr. Darnell and Mr. Hill
+advised Mr. Wilson, to whose house it was proposed to send him, not on
+any account to have a boy whose escapades would be a constant source of
+trouble, but fortunately Mr. Wilson liked 'naughty' boys and disregarded
+their warnings.
+
+Selous entered Rugby in January, 1866, and was a pupil in Mr. Wilson's
+house for two years. His letters to his mother at this period are of the
+usual schoolboy type, mostly requests for money, books or additions to
+the commissariat. He was always reading when he got the chance, the
+choice invariably tending towards travel and adventure. He writes:--
+
+    "_January, 1866._
+
+    "I am reading a new book by Mr. Livingstone. It is called 'The
+    Zambesi and its Tributaries,' from 1858-1864. It is very
+    interesting and is about the discovery of two large lakes. Send
+    me two catapults." And "I am sorry to hear the rat skins are
+    eaten, but very glad that the stoat's has not met with the same
+    fate." Another letter shows his consideration for his parents in
+    the matter of money and is somewhat characteristic.
+
+    "MY DEAR MAMA,
+
+    "I hope you are quite well, I am now at Rugby and very
+    comfortable. I have a study with another boy, and we have an
+    allowance of candles and tea and sugar, etc., given out every
+    week, and we make our own tea and breakfast in our studies and
+    it is very nice indeed. I have passed into Upper Middle two
+    when Lower Middle two would have done. I have to pay over some
+    subscriptions.
+
+    "L1 subscription to the racket court.
+
+    "10s. to football club, 10s. to cricket club, 10s. for our own
+    house subscription, all of which I am forced to pay. I have to
+    buy a great many things which I could not help and I have spent
+    a lot of my money on them. I will write them down to show you
+    that not one of them was extravagance but quite the opposite.
+
+    "7s. 6d. to have my watch mended, 1s. to go to Harbro' to get my
+    watch and come back. 1s. to have my dirty clothes washed. 2s.
+    for a book I have to use at Rugby which I had not got. 3s. to
+    come from Welton to Rugby after coming back to get my boxes. All
+    these were necessary, weren't they?
+
+    "It is not my fault that there are such a lot of expenses at a
+    public school, but it is only the first half. Please send in a
+    registered letter, I have seen a great many boys receive them. I
+    have passed very high, 10th out of 75, and that will partly make
+    up to you for some of the subscriptions. Give my best love to
+    Papa and brothers and sisters.
+
+    "I remain your affectionate son,
+    "Freddy."
+
+
+From this time his life at Rugby is thus given in his own words:--
+
+    "In January, 1866, when John Leroux was just fourteen years of
+    age, he easily passed the entrance examination to the great
+    school in the Midlands and became a member of the house which
+    his old friend Jim Kennedy had entered just a year earlier. Here
+    he spent two and a half very happy years, and as at the end of
+    that time he was only sixteen, he would in the ordinary course
+    have continued his studies for at least another two years before
+    leaving school, had it not been his father's wish that he should
+    go abroad to learn French and German before reaching an age at
+    which it would be necessary to settle down to the real business
+    of life and make his own living. At the great school there were
+    three half-holidays weekly, but the boys were expected to do a
+    good deal of preparation for the next day's lessons during their
+    leisure time. Some boys shirked these out-of-class studies, but
+    Leroux always did whatever was expected of him most
+    conscientiously and often very slowly and with much labour, as
+    he never used a crib to assist him with his Latin and Greek
+    translations. He was not at all brilliant, but was well up in
+    the school for his age, and had he stayed another term would
+    have been in the sixth--the highest form in the school. However
+    famous the great Midland school may have been fifty years ago,
+    as a seat of learning, it was certainly not less famous for the
+    great game of football, the playing of which was as compulsory
+    on the scholars as the study of Greek. Primitive Rugby football
+    was a very different affair to the highly scientific game of the
+    present day. There was more running with the ball, far less
+    kicking into touch, and no heeling out behind the scrimmage.
+    Hacking was not only permissible but was one of the main
+    features of the game, and when the ball was put down in the
+    scrimmage the object of each side was to 'hack it through,' that
+    is, to clear a path for the ball by kicking the shins of every
+    one in the way as hard as possible. There were twenty boys on
+    each side in the old Rugby game of whom the backs and half-backs
+    only numbered five altogether--such a thing as a three-quarter
+    back was undreamt of--so that there were fifteen forwards on
+    each side. When anyone ran with the ball, the cry was 'hack him
+    over,' and as often as not the runner was brought down with a
+    neat kick on the shin. It was altogether a rough, possibly a
+    rather brutal game; but it made the boys strong and hardy, and
+    with the exception of badly bruised shins there were very few
+    accidents. A young boy, on his first entrance to the big school,
+    could only wear duck trousers at football, but if he played up,
+    and did not flinch from the hacking, the Captain of his twenty
+    gave him his 'flannels' and then exchanged his duck for flannel
+    trousers. There was no school twenty, and therefore no school
+    cap, and all the most hotly contested matches were between the
+    different houses for the honour of being 'cock house.' Every
+    house had its own cap, but in each house, except in the case of
+    the school house, where there was a large number of pupils,
+    there were only a few caps in each football twenty. For
+    instance, in Leroux's house, where there were fifty-two pupils,
+    there were only four who had got their caps. Though one of the
+    youngest boys in the house Leroux threw himself into the game
+    with a zest and enthusiasm which at once compelled attention,
+    and won him his 'flannels' in his first term, and after playing
+    up well in the first great match in the autumn term of the same
+    year he was given his cap. He thus got his cap whilst still in
+    his fourteenth year, and was the youngest boy in the whole
+    school who possessed that much-coveted prize. The only other
+    sport besides football indulged in by the boys at the great
+    school during the term between Christmas and Easter was that
+    known as 'house washing.' Led by one of the oldest and strongest
+    boys, the whole house were accustomed to spend one half-holiday
+    every week, during the cold, damp, dreary months of February and
+    March, in jumping backwards and forwards over a small brook or
+    river, which at that time of the year was usually swollen by
+    recent rain. The first jumps were taken across the narrowest
+    parts of the stream, and here only the youngest and weakest boys
+    got into the water. But it was a point of honour to go on taking
+    bigger and bigger jumps, until every boy in the house had failed
+    to reach the opposite bank and all had got thoroughly soused.
+    The last jump was known as 'Butler's Leap.' Here the stream ran
+    through a tunnel beneath one of the high roads traversing the
+    district, but before doing so it ran for a short distance
+    parallel with the road, which had been built up to the height of
+    the bridge above it. From the brick wall on either side of the
+    bridge low wooden barriers, perhaps two and a half feet high,
+    had been placed on the slope of the road on either side to the
+    level of the fields below, and it was thus possible to get a run
+    across the whole width of the road and leap the low barrier in
+    an attempt to reach the opposite bank of the stream, which was
+    here over twenty feet wide, and some twenty feet below the level
+    of the top of the bridge. A hero named Butler had either been
+    the first boy to attempt this desperate leap, or he had
+    actually cleared the stream and landed on the opposite bank.
+    Tradition concerning the details of the exploit varied, but
+    whether Butler had made the great jump or only attempted it, he
+    had immortalised his name by his daring. Now, only the biggest
+    and most venturesome boys in each house were expected to attempt
+    Butler's Leap, but nevertheless some of the younger ones always
+    had a try at it, and amongst these were Kennedy and Leroux. They
+    cleared the wooden barrier at the side of the road, and fell
+    through the air into the stream below, but far short of the
+    further bank, which they had to reach by swimming.
+
+    "From a perusal of the letters which Leroux faithfully wrote
+    every week to his mother, it would seem that with the exception
+    of the fierce football contests for 'cock' house, and occasional
+    snowball encounters with the town 'louts'--the contemptuous
+    appellation given by the boys at the school to all their
+    fellow-citizens--all his most interesting experiences were
+    connected with his passion for birds'-nesting, and the pursuit
+    of sport, at first with a saloon pistol and subsequently with a
+    pea-rifle, on the domains of neighbouring landowners. The master
+    of Leroux's house was a man of very fine character and most
+    kindly disposition, and was much beloved by all his pupils. He
+    was always a most kind friend to Leroux, and being a teacher of
+    natural science--it was certain experiments in chemistry which
+    had earned for him amongst the boys the sobriquet of 'Jim
+    Stinks'--was much drawn to him by his very pronounced taste for
+    the study of natural history, and his practical knowledge of
+    English birds and beasts. In his second year at the school,
+    Leroux got into the first mathematical set in the upper school,
+    and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and on every third
+    week on Mondays as well, had no lessons in school, after 10.15
+    in the morning. But on these half-holidays, or almost whole
+    holidays, all the boys in the school had to attend and answer to
+    their names at a 'call over' which was held at the big school
+    during the afternoon, and from which no boy could escape except
+    with the written permission of his house-master. During the
+    summer Leroux's kindly house-master often allowed his favourite
+    pupil to be absent from 'call over,' and he was thus able, by
+    taking the train, to visit districts and pursue his
+    ornithological rambles at quite a long distance from the school.
+    On these distant excursions, however, although he paid no
+    attention whatever to the numerous notice-boards intimating that
+    trespassers would be prosecuted, he was never caught by a
+    gamekeeper, though he had some good runs to escape their
+    attentions. In the more immediate vicinity of the school,
+    possibly the keepers were more on the look-out for
+    birds'-nesting boys, who were often brought up by their captors
+    before the headmaster, the great Dr. Temple, familiarly known in
+    the school as 'Old Froddy.' This great and good man, however,
+    always let the young trespassers off very lightly.
+
+    "One Sunday afternoon Leroux was pursued by a gamekeeper to the
+    very doors of the chapel, and indeed it was only under the
+    stimulus of this pursuit that he could possibly have got in in
+    time for the service, and 'cutting chapel' meant having to write
+    out the whole of the fourth Georgic of Virgil, which was just
+    over 500 lines. When the bell ceased tolling, Leroux was still
+    some distance from the chapel door, and handicapped besides with
+    the top-hat, which all the boys always had to wear on Sunday,
+    and a clutch of sparrowhawk's eggs twisted up in his
+    handkerchief, on which he had to hold his hand in his
+    coat-pocket, to prevent them from shaking together. But old
+    Patey, who always checked off the boys at 'call over' and on
+    their entrance to the chapel, took in the situation at a glance
+    and held the door ajar till Leroux got inside, and then slammed
+    it to in the gamekeeper's face. Leroux fully expected that his
+    pursuer would wait outside till chapel was over and try and
+    identify him as he came out, but he probably got tired of
+    waiting or else thought it impossible to pick out the boy he had
+    chased and of whom he had only had a back view, amongst over
+    five hundred other boys.
+
+    "About three miles from the big school in the midst of a wide
+    expanse of undulating meadow-land, interspersed with small
+    woods, stood the fine old manor house of Pilton Range. As there
+    was no game preservation on this estate, there were no keepers
+    to shoot down magpies, carrion crows, kestrels and sparrowhawks,
+    and Leroux consequently found it a very fine hunting ground for
+    the nests of these birds. One day soon after the Easter
+    holidays, and during his second year at the big school, Leroux
+    paid a visit to the Pilton Range grounds, to look at a magpie's
+    nest which he had found building a fortnight before. He was
+    walking along a high hedge bordering a field, about a mile away
+    from the house, when a man dressed as a labourer climbed over a
+    gate at the other end of the field and came walking towards him.
+    Now Leroux had often met labouring men on the Pilton Range
+    estate before, but had never been interfered with in any way by
+    them, so he paid no attention to the man who was now coming
+    towards him, but walked quietly to meet him. The heavily built
+    labourer came slouching along, apparently without taking the
+    slightest interest in the approaching boy, but just as he was
+    passing him, and without having previously spoken a word, he
+    shot out his right hand, and caught Leroux by the waistcoat just
+    beneath the collar. 'Well, what do you want?' said Leroux.
+
+    "'You come along o' me to Mr. Blackstone'--the bailiff of the
+    Pilton Range estate--said the labourer. Now Leroux had set his
+    heart on visiting the magpie's nest, which he thought would be
+    sure to contain eggs by now, and he was very averse to having
+    his plans deranged by a visit to Mr. Blackstone. He first
+    therefore offered to give his name to his captor to be reported
+    to the headmaster, and when this proposition was received with a
+    derisive laugh he pulled a letter from his coat pocket, and
+    offered the envelope as a proof of his veracity. Possibly the
+    heavy-looking lout who had taken him prisoner could not read. At
+    any rate he never even glanced at the envelope which Leroux held
+    out for his inspection, but merely repeating his invitation to
+    'come along o' me to Mr. Blackstone,' proceeded to walk towards
+    the gate in the corner of the field at which he had made his
+    first appearance. Leroux felt that he was very firmly held, for
+    the labourer's fingers had passed through the armhole of his
+    waistcoat, so he at first pretended to be resigned to his fate,
+    and walked quietly along beside his obdurate captor. Just before
+    reaching the gate, however, he gave a sudden wrench, and almost
+    got free, but on his waistcoat beginning to tear, desisted. In
+    the struggle, however, boy and man had swung face to face, as
+    the labourer held Leroux with his right hand clenched on the
+    left side of the boy's waistcoat near the collar. After this
+    Leroux refused to walk beside his captor any further, but forced
+    him to walk backwards and pull him every step of the way, and as
+    he was then fifteen years old and a strong heavy boy for his
+    age, their progress was slow. Fortunately for the labourer he
+    was able to open the gate in the corner of the field in which he
+    had made his capture, as well as two others which had to be
+    passed before reaching the Hall, with his left hand, for he
+    would never have been able to have got Leroux over these gates.
+    Leroux would have attacked the man with his fists and hacked him
+    on the shins, but he knew that that would have put him in the
+    wrong with the headmaster, so he just leaned back, and made his
+    captor walk backwards and pull him along every step of the way
+    up to the Hall. He also made a point of bringing his heels down
+    heavily on the labourer's feet at every step. At last, however,
+    Leroux was dragged through the open gates of the great archway
+    leading into the courtyard of Pilton Range, where at that moment
+    Mr. Blackstone the bailiff happened to be standing just outside
+    his office door. He was a tall, grim-looking old man with
+    iron-grey hair, and seemed to be leaning heavily on a thick
+    stick he held in his right hand as if he was slightly lame.
+
+    "'I've brought un to see Mr. Blackstone,' said the perspiring
+    labourer, still holding Leroux in his grasp.
+
+    "'You young rascal, I'd like to lay this stick about your back,'
+    said Mr. Blackstone, brandishing that formidable weapon in front
+    of the captive. Then putting his left hand in his waistcoat
+    pocket, he extracted a coin with his finger and thumb which
+    Leroux thought was a two-shilling piece and offered it to his
+    employee, remarking, 'Here's something for you, John; I see
+    you've had some trouble with this young rascal.'
+
+    "Then addressing Leroux he said, 'Now, boy, I want your name.'
+    The labourer received the proffered piece of silver in his left
+    hand, but force of habit caused him, no doubt quite
+    unconsciously, to release his hold of Leroux with his right hand
+    at the same time in order to touch his cap to Mr. Blackstone in
+    acknowledgment of his employer's generosity. On the instant that
+    Leroux felt himself free he was round and through the great
+    archway almost at a bound.
+
+    "'After him, John,' he heard the irate bailiff shout, and the
+    discomfited labourer at once gave chase, but he stood no chance
+    whatever of overtaking the active, well-trained boy, and when
+    Leroux half broke, half jumped through the hedge at the bottom
+    of the field below the Hall, he was pursued no further. After
+    scrambling through the hedge and running in its shelter to the
+    corner of the field he was then in, Leroux stood on the watch
+    for some little time, and then feeling very elated at the way in
+    which he had given the bailiff the slip, without letting him
+    know his name, determined not to leave the Pilton Range ground
+    without looking at the magpie's nest, he had been on his way to
+    examine when first seized by the labourer. As he had expected he
+    found that the nest contained a full complement of eggs, which
+    were that evening carefully blown and added to his collection,
+    which was even then quite the best made by any boy in the whole
+    school. On his many subsequent visits to the Pilton Range
+    estate, Leroux took good care never to allow any labouring man
+    he happened to see to get anywhere near him, nor did he ever
+    renew his acquaintance with Mr. Blackstone.
+
+    "Of all his birds'-nesting exploits, the one which Leroux
+    himself always considered the greatest achievement was his raid
+    on the Heronry at Tombe Abbey. Tombe Abbey was about fifteen
+    miles distant from the big school, and it was during his second
+    year of study there, that whilst rambling in that neighbourhood
+    on a day when he had been excused from attending all 'callings
+    over' by his house-master, Leroux had noticed a number of herons
+    flying over the park in the midst of which the Abbey stood. He
+    at once entered the sacred precincts to investigate, and soon
+    discovered the Heronry situated on an island in the middle of a
+    large sheet of ornamental water. The twenty or thirty large
+    nests of sticks were built as is always the case in England,
+    high up in a grove of large trees growing on the island. Leroux
+    watched the herons from amongst some bushes on the edge of the
+    lake for some time and assured himself that there were young
+    birds in most if not in all of the nests, as he could see their
+    parents feeding them. To have swum across the lake to the island
+    and then climb up to one or more of the nests in the hope of
+    finding some eggs would therefore probably have been a bootless
+    quest, and at that time perhaps Leroux would hardly have been
+    able to have summoned up sufficient courage for such an
+    undertaking, but all through the following months the idea of
+    one day swimming to the island in the park at Tombe Abbey and
+    taking some herons' eggs, grew in his mind, and when he returned
+    to school after the following Christmas holidays, he had fully
+    determined to make the attempt. Through reference to an
+    ornithological work in his house-library Leroux had learned that
+    herons are very early breeders, so he made his plans
+    accordingly, and obtained leave from his house-master to be
+    absent from all 'callings over' on March 7th, and hurrying to
+    the station as soon as his mathematical lesson was over at a
+    quarter past ten in the morning, he took the first train to the
+    nearest station to Tombe Abbey. It was a bitterly cold day with
+    a dull sky and the wind in the east, and when, after making his
+    way cautiously across the park, Leroux reached the shelter of
+    the bushes on the edge of the lake, he found that there was a
+    fringe of thin ice all round the water's edge. In one way,
+    however, the cold dreary day was favourable to the boy's
+    enterprise, as no one was likely to be out walking in the park.
+    Under cover of the bushes Leroux stripped himself to the skin,
+    and without any hesitation waded into the ice-cold water, until
+    it became deep enough to allow him to swim. At this time he was
+    probably the best swimmer in the whole school, for during his
+    first year and when only fourteen years of age he had won the
+    second prize in the annual swimming-match, and would certainly
+    have taken the first prize the following year, but for some
+    reason or other there was no competition. In his third year and
+    a few months after his visit to Tombe Abbey when the competition
+    was again revived, he met with an accident at cricket on the
+    very morning of the race, which destroyed his chances of winning
+    it. Once in the deep water of the lake, Leroux, swimming with a
+    strong sidestroke, soon reached the island in the centre, and
+    selecting the easiest tree to climb in which some of the herons'
+    nests were built, naked as he was, he lost no time in getting up
+    to them. There were four eggs in each of the two nests he
+    actually inspected, and transferring these to an empty
+    sponge-bag which he had brought with him, and which he now held
+    in his mouth, he soon reached the ground again at the foot of
+    the tree without having broken or even cracked a single egg. A
+    hasty look round assured him that no one was in sight anywhere
+    in the park, so still holding the sponge-bag containing the
+    eight large blue eggs in his teeth, he soon recrossed the lake
+    to the mainland, and then lost no time in pulling his clothes
+    over his wet and shivering limbs. But though his teeth were
+    chattering, Leroux's young heart was full of joy and exultation
+    at the successful accomplishment of his enterprise, and he
+    thought but little of his personal discomfort. Once dressed he
+    soon reached the boundary of the park, and early in the
+    afternoon was able to report himself to his house-master, though
+    he did not think it necessary to enter into any details as to
+    his day's ramble, and probably had it not been for the fact that
+    the great Midland school at this time boasted a natural history
+    society, of which Leroux was a prominent member as well as
+    keeper of the ornithological note-book, the incident of the
+    taking of the herons' eggs at Tombe Abbey might never have been
+    known to anyone but a few of Leroux's most intimate friends.
+    However, at the next evening meeting of the society, in the
+    innocence of his heart Leroux exhibited the great blue eggs, the
+    contemplation of which was still his chief joy. One of the
+    undermasters, Mr. Kitchener, was that night in the chair, and
+    this unprincipled pedagogue, after having obtained the admission
+    from Leroux that he had taken the herons' eggs himself,
+    required him in the most unsportsmanlike manner to state exactly
+    when and where he had become possessed of them. All
+    prevarication was foreign to Leroux's nature, and when thus
+    challenged he did not hesitate to tell the story of his visit to
+    Tombe Abbey, and how he had swum across the lake and climbed to
+    the herons' nests stark naked on a cold day in early March. The
+    hardihood of the exploit, however, made no appeal to the mean
+    soul of Mr. Kitchener, who not only confiscated the herons' eggs
+    on the spot, but ordered Leroux to write out the fourth Georgic
+    of Virgil, a very common punishment at public schools in those
+    days, as it runs to almost exactly 500 lines. Through the good
+    offices of his own house-master the herons' eggs were given back
+    to Leroux, but the story of his adventure became noised abroad,
+    even beyond the confines of the school, as he was to discover a
+    few months later.
+
+    "Although Leroux had become the happy possessor of a saloon
+    pistol, soon after his entrance to the school, he had never
+    found this a very satisfactory weapon, and had determined to
+    possess himself of something better as soon as possible. He
+    practised rifle-shooting regularly at the butts, and in his
+    third year shot in most of the matches for the school eleven,
+    always doing very well at the longer ranges at which the boys
+    were allowed to kneel or lie down, but failing rather at the 200
+    yards, at which range in those days even the youngest members of
+    the rifle-corps were required to shoot standing with heavy
+    Enfield rifles with a very hard pull. It was this excessively
+    hard pull, combined with the weight of the long Enfield rifle,
+    which made it so difficult for a young boy to shoot steadily
+    standing at the 200 yards' range. During the Easter holidays
+    before his last term at the great school, Leroux bought with his
+    savings, augmented by a liberal present from his mother, a good
+    pea-rifle with a detachable barrel, which could be concealed up
+    the coat-sleeve of the right arm, whilst the stock was hidden
+    under the coat on the other side of the body. But Leroux never
+    used this rifle on private ground unless he was accompanied by a
+    friend, so that in case of pursuit one boy could run with the
+    barrel and the other with the stock. There was an old disused
+    canal not far away from the school, on the property of a local
+    landowner named Lowden Beigh, which was a favourite resort of
+    Leroux and his friends on Sunday afternoons between dinner-time
+    and afternoon chapel. In the still waters of this old canal
+    bordered with beds of reeds and rushes, and in many places
+    overspread with waterlilies, pike were always to be found on a
+    hot summer's day, not exactly basking in the sun, but lying
+    motionless in the water, not more than a few inches from the
+    surface, and Leroux had discovered that the concussion caused by
+    a bullet fired into the water in the immediate vicinity of these
+    fish, even though it did not touch them, was sufficient to stun
+    them and cause them to float helpless for a short time belly
+    upwards on the top of the water, from which they could be
+    retrieved with a long stick. The pike which were obtained in
+    this way were, however, be it said, always of small size. This
+    old canal too swarmed with moorhens which afforded excellent
+    practice with the little rifle. It was on a hot Sunday afternoon
+    in late June, that Leroux and a great friend of his, a very tall
+    boy who had somewhat outgrown his strength, paid what proved to
+    be their last visit to the canal. As it so happened, where they
+    first struck the canal they had only seen some very small pike
+    not worth shooting at and only one shot had been fired at a
+    moorhen, which had missed its mark. However, there was a better
+    hunting ground beyond the bridge where the high road crossed the
+    old canal, and this they proceeded to make for. Before entering
+    the last field which lay between them and the high road, the
+    little rifle was taken to pieces, and Leroux then hid the stock
+    under the left side of his coat, his companion, whose arms were
+    longer than his, concealing the barrel up his right coat-sleeve.
+    The two boys then strolled leisurely along the bank of the
+    canal, towards the gate which opened into the high road just
+    below the bridge. They were close to this gate, in fact almost
+    touching it, when a gamekeeper, in velveteen coat and gaiters,
+    suddenly appeared from behind the hedge on the other side of it
+    and stood confronting them.
+
+    "'Well, young gents,' he said, 'what have you been doing along
+    the canal?'
+
+    "'We've been looking for cuckoos' eggs in the reed warblers'
+    nests,' said Leroux readily, and it was indeed a perfectly true
+    answer, though it did not cover the whole scope of their
+    operations.
+
+    "'Well, I must have your names. Mr. Lowden Beigh[3] means to put
+    a stop to you young gents trespassing on his ground every
+    Sunday,' said the gamekeeper, pulling out a pocket-book and
+    pencil to take them down in. Leroux and his friend at once gave
+    their names, and told the keeper how to spell them, for they
+    knew that even if they were reported to the headmaster, that
+    good old sportsman would not be likely to inflict any punishment
+    on them for merely strolling quietly along the bank of the old
+    canal on a Sunday afternoon, even though they had been
+    trespassing on the property of Mr. Lowden Beigh.
+
+    "Having given up their names to the keeper the two boys
+    proceeded to climb over the gate into the high road, and
+    considering what they carried hidden under their coats, this was
+    a somewhat ticklish operation.
+
+    "Leroux was nearest to the keeper, and having his right arm free
+    probably got over the gate without arousing any suspicion in the
+    man's mind, but the latter probably noticed the unusual
+    stiffness of the tall boy's right arm when he was getting over
+    the gate, though he did not immediately grasp the cause of it.
+    However, the probable meaning of it must soon have flashed
+    across his mind, for the boys had not walked twenty yards down
+    the road when they heard him say, 'Darned if ye ain't got one o'
+    they little guns with ye.' They heard no more. 'Come on,' said
+    Leroux, and the two boys dashed off down the road at their best
+    pace, closely pursued by the keeper, who though middle-aged was
+    a spare-made, active-looking fellow. It was a very hot day and
+    the two boys were in their Sunday clothes and wearing top-hats,
+    and handicapped with the rifle, the barrel of which was rather
+    heavy. Still at first they gained on the keeper, and at the end
+    of a quarter of a mile had increased the distance between him
+    and them to quite fifty yards, when suddenly they came almost
+    face to face with old 'Froddy,' the great headmaster himself,
+    who had just emerged from a lane into the high road. With his
+    head held high in the air and his hat on the back of his head,
+    he came striding along all alone, at a pace of at least four
+    miles an hour. His thoughts were evidently far from the earth he
+    trod, and probably he never saw the boys at all, but they
+    instantly recognized him.
+
+    "'Old Froddy, by Jove!' ejaculated Leroux; 'come on through the
+    hedge,' and without an instant's hesitation he dashed at and
+    broke his way into the field to the right of the road, his
+    friend scrambling through the gap he had made in the hedge close
+    behind him. The boys were now in a large grass field across
+    which they started to run diagonally, the keeper following
+    doggedly behind them, though when they gained the further corner
+    of the field he was nearly a hundred yards behind them. As they
+    climbed the gate into the next field Leroux's tall young friend
+    was panting painfully, and before they were half-way across it
+    he said he would not be able to run much further with the
+    rifle-barrel. There was a large hayrick in the far corner of
+    this field, so Leroux urged his companion to try and carry the
+    rifle-barrel as far as there and then throw it down behind the
+    rick, just as they passed it, and were for the moment hidden
+    from the keeper. Leroux who was comparatively fresh and whom the
+    keeper would never have caught, still stuck to the stock of his
+    rifle, and intended to return for the barrel the next day, which
+    happened to be one of the three-weekly Monday half-holidays. He
+    did not think there would be much chance of its discovery before
+    then. However, as bad luck would have it, and by an
+    extraordinary chance, the gamekeeper saw it as he passed the
+    rick. He had probably turned to look behind him, thinking that
+    possibly the boys had run round the rick, and must have seen the
+    glint of the sun on the barrel. The boys had not got very far
+    over the next field before they heard the gamekeeper shouting,
+    and on turning his head Leroux saw that he was standing near the
+    gate waving something over his head, which as it glinted and
+    flashed in the sun he knew was the barrel of his rifle. It was
+    no good running any further, the keeper had their names and half
+    the rifle, so they walked back to him and Leroux had to
+    surrender the other half.
+
+    "Now Leroux had great affection for this, his first rifle, and
+    hated the idea of having it confiscated, so he tried to make
+    terms with the keeper, and offered to give him all the money he
+    could afford, if he would return him the rifle, and be content
+    to report him and his friend for trespassing. The keeper refused
+    this bribe with much apparent indignation, saying that no amount
+    of money that might be offered to him would tempt him to swerve
+    from his duty, which was to take the rifle straight to his
+    master, Mr. Lowden Beigh. So the two boys walked slowly and
+    sadly back to the school, arriving there just in time for the
+    afternoon service in the chapel, which, however, did nothing to
+    cheer them.
+
+    "Every day during the following week Leroux expected to be
+    summoned to the headmaster's study and taxed with trespassing
+    with a rifle on Mr. Lowden Beigh's land. But at the end of this
+    time, as nothing happened, he felt convinced that the keeper had
+    never given up the little rifle to his master at all, but had
+    kept it himself, in the hope of being able to dispose of it for
+    more money than had been offered him for its return. At any rate
+    Leroux determined to write to Mr. Lowden Beigh, tell him exactly
+    what had happened, and ask him to let him have the rifle back
+    again at the end of the term. This he did, and the following day
+    received an answer requesting him to call at the Hall with the
+    friend who was with him when the rifle was taken, on the
+    following Sunday afternoon. The two boys complied with this
+    request and they were very kindly entertained and treated to
+    wine and cake by Mr. Lowden Beigh. He asked Leroux if it was he
+    who had taken the herons' eggs at Tombe Abbey, and when he
+    admitted that it was, said, 'Why, you're the biggest poacher in
+    the school.' He then told the boys that the keeper had never
+    said a word to him about the rifle, but that he had demanded it
+    from him immediately on reading Leroux's letter, and then
+    dismissed the man from his service. Finally, Mr. Lowden Beigh
+    told Leroux that if he would again come to the Hall, the day
+    before the big school broke up at the end of the term, he would
+    return him his rifle, and this promise he faithfully kept.
+
+    "It was whilst he was at home during the Christmas holidays
+    immediately preceding the commencement of his second year at the
+    great Midland school, that John Leroux, then just fifteen years
+    of age, was an eye-witness of, and indeed, a participant in, the
+    terrible disaster on the ice in Regent's Park, which took place
+    on January 15th, 1867.
+
+    "At that time he was living with his parents at no great
+    distance from the scene of the accident, of which he wrote an
+    account to a school friend whilst the events related were still
+    fresh in his memory.
+
+    "As a result of a long-continued frost, the ice on the
+    ornamental water in the park had become excessively thick, and
+    during the early part of January, 1867, thousands of people
+    might have been seen skating there daily. At length, however, a
+    thaw set in, and as the ice became gradually more rotten in
+    appearance, the skaters rapidly decreased in numbers.
+
+    "On the day of the accident Leroux went to the park alone after
+    lunch, and on his arrival at the ornamental water, found that
+    the ice had been broken all round the shore of the lake by the
+    men employed by the Royal Humane Society, with the object of
+    preventing people from getting on to the ice. At the same time
+    several servants of the Society were doing their best to
+    persuade the more adventurous spirits who had got on to the ice
+    by means of planks, to leave it. At that time there were
+    probably not more than three or four hundred people on the whole
+    expanse of the ornamental water. At least they appeared to be
+    very thinly scattered over it, compared with the crowds of a few
+    days before, when the ice was sound and strong, before the thaw
+    had set in.
+
+    "Having come to the park to skate, and being perhaps of a
+    somewhat self-willed and adventurous disposition, Leroux put on
+    his skates, and watching his opportunity, got on to the ice,
+    which though quite three inches in thickness, was seamed in
+    every direction with a multiplicity of cracks, through which the
+    water constantly welled up and ran over the surface. It was
+    indeed evident that the solid ice-slab with which the lake had
+    been originally covered was now formed of innumerable small
+    pieces, really independent one of another, but still fitting
+    closely together like the sections of a child's puzzle after
+    they have been put in their places. Leroux himself never doubted
+    that it was the breaking of the ice for the space of three or
+    four feet all round the shores of the lake, which allowed room
+    for the cracks in the unbroken ice gradually to widen until at
+    last the whole sheet broke into separate pieces. As the skaters
+    passed to and fro upon it, the whole surface of the ice-sheet
+    seemed to rise and sink in response to their passage, and every
+    moment the gaps gaped wider.
+
+    "It was getting on towards four o'clock in the afternoon, and
+    Leroux was just then right in the middle of the lake, midway
+    between the largest island and the bridge leading towards the
+    Park Road, when he heard a cry behind him, and looking round saw
+    that the ice was breaking in the direction of the bridge. It was
+    a sight which he never forgot. Right across the whole breadth of
+    the lake the sections into which the ice-sheet had been divided
+    by the cracks were disengaging themselves one from another. The
+    line of breaking advanced steadily towards where the boy was
+    standing, each separate section of ice as the pressure was
+    removed from behind, first breaking loose, and after being
+    tilted into the air, again falling flat into its place. As no
+    one fell into the water when the ice first broke up, the
+    pressure which was the immediate cause of the catastrophe must
+    have been exerted from a distance, and it was probably the
+    weight of the people on the ice some way off which caused it to
+    bulge where it first broke to such an extent as to detach some
+    of the smaller sections which were already really separated one
+    from another by the ever-widening cracks.
+
+    "There was a regular panic amongst the comparatively small
+    number of people between Leroux and the point near the bridge
+    where the ice first commenced to break up, and they all went
+    flying along as fast as their skates would carry them, straight
+    down the centre of the lake towards the narrow channel between
+    the two islands in front of them. At the same time there was a
+    stampede for the shore from every part of the lake, and as the
+    great bulk of the people then on the ice were near the edge when
+    it so suddenly commenced to break up, most of them either got to
+    land without assistance, or being caught in the breaking ice
+    when within a rope's throw of the shore, were subsequently
+    rescued; but every one who got into the water amongst the thick
+    heavy ice-slabs at any distance from the shore was drowned, and
+    most of these unfortunate people disappeared immediately beneath
+    the heavy slabs of ice, between which they fell into the water,
+    and which closed over them at once.
+
+    "When the ice first began to break up, Leroux could not help
+    standing still for a few moments, and watching the rapidly
+    advancing line of breakage, and then when he turned to run for
+    it or rather skate for it, he was quite alone, and at some
+    little distance behind the crowd of people who had first taken
+    the alarm. Suddenly there was a wild, despairing cry ahead, and
+    Leroux saw that the ice was breaking up in the narrow channel
+    between the two islands. At this juncture many people
+    undoubtedly lost their heads as they skated right into the
+    broken ice and almost all of them at once disappeared. It was
+    between the two islands that the greatest loss of life occurred,
+    as of the forty-nine bodies subsequently recovered in different
+    parts of the lake, twenty-four were found in close proximity to
+    one another at this spot, and yet there was scarcely a head to
+    be seen at the time of the accident above the broken ice, as the
+    weight of the heavy slabs forced those who fell in between them
+    under water almost immediately. Although he was only a boy of
+    fifteen at this time, he had never missed a chance of falling
+    through weak or rotten ice every winter since he first went to
+    school, and these various experiences had no doubt given him a
+    good deal of self-confidence. At any rate he felt neither
+    frightened nor flurried by the somewhat alarming circumstances
+    of the position in which he now found himself, but quickly made
+    up his mind as to the best course to adopt to save his life. As
+    the ice had already broken up both before and behind him, but
+    was still solid immediately behind him he stopped short where he
+    was, and lay down at full length on the longest piece of ice he
+    could see which was free from widely open cracks. He had
+    scarcely done so, when the wave of breakage which had commenced
+    near the bridge passed him, all the great cracks with which the
+    ice-sheet was seamed opening to such an extent that every
+    separate slab became detached. Many of these slabs were first
+    tilted a little into the air, as had happened when the ice first
+    broke up near the bridge, but they immediately fell flat again
+    into their places, so that the whole of the ice-sheet in the
+    central part of the ornamental water seemed to be in one piece,
+    though in reality the cracks which divided it into innumerable
+    small slabs were now so wide that each piece was independent the
+    one of the other, and most of them would not have been large
+    enough to support the weight of a man standing near their edge,
+    without heeling over and precipitating him into the water.
+
+    "Fortunately for Leroux the ice had not been broken round the
+    edge of the largest island in the lake to his left, and although
+    the cracks had opened all round where he lay, as the wave of
+    breakage passed, to such an extent as to have made it impossible
+    to have walked or skated across the disintegrated slabs, without
+    tilting one or other of them, and so falling into the water, yet
+    he was only a short distance from the unbroken ice-sheet which
+    rested on the island. The slab on which he was lying was quite
+    large enough to bear his weight easily, and as he was out of all
+    danger for the time being, he was able to look around and note
+    what was going on. Directly the ice broke up there was, of
+    course, tremendous excitement on the shore of the lake nearest
+    the Zoological Gardens, where great crowds of people had been
+    congregated the whole afternoon. Many gallant and successful
+    attempts were made to rescue those who were fighting for life
+    amongst the ice-slabs; but Leroux's impression was that no one
+    was saved who had got into the water at any considerable
+    distance from the shore. At the spot where the largest number of
+    people were drowned, almost everyone who fell into the water
+    disappeared immediately. Still here and there men kept their
+    heads above water for a long time, and all these poor fellows
+    might have been rescued, had it not been for the breaking of a
+    rope. It was soon realized that it would be quite impossible to
+    save the people who were so far out amongst the ice that a rope
+    could not be thrown to them from the shore except by some
+    special means, and someone hit upon the idea of dragging a boat
+    to them over the ice. Leroux saw the boat pulled up over the
+    still unbroken ice beyond the bridge, and long ropes were then
+    made fast to its bow and carried over the bridge to each side of
+    the lake, where willing hands enough were ready to work them.
+    Had the ropes only held, the boat might have been pulled from
+    one side or the other of the lake to all those who were in the
+    water amongst the ice-slabs at a distance from the shore; but
+    unfortunately before the boat had been pulled far beyond the
+    bridge one of the ropes broke, and as it was then apparently
+    recognized that they were not strong enough to stand the strain
+    required, the experiment was not tried again. There were only
+    two men in the water anywhere near Leroux, and they were about
+    half-way between where he lay and the shore of the lake. He had
+    seen them at first trying to force their way through the ice,
+    but the slabs were so thick and heavy that they threatened at
+    every moment to turn over on them, and they soon became
+    exhausted and remained quiet. At last one of them disappeared
+    and not long afterwards only a hat on the ice remained to mark
+    the spot where his companion in misfortune had also sunk. Leroux
+    soon realized that there was no hope of rescue from the shore,
+    and indeed amidst all the excitement of saving or attempting to
+    save the lives of those who had got into the water within reach
+    he had probably been overlooked or possibly his position had
+    been considered hopeless.
+
+    "At length when the light was commencing to fade Leroux made up
+    his mind to try and reach the island on his left by crawling
+    from one slab of ice to another. He fully realized that if he
+    once got into the water he would never get out, but not being
+    very heavy in those days, and by moving only very slowly and
+    cautiously, and carefully selecting his route he succeeded at
+    last in reaching the unbroken ice near the island. He had one
+    very narrow escape, as a table of ice very nearly turned over on
+    him before he had got sufficiently far on it to keep it flat.
+    Luckily there was a much larger slab just beyond it, on to which
+    he crawled without much difficulty. After crossing the island he
+    again got on to unbroken ice and skated across it, to the shore
+    near the lower bridge.
+
+    "By that time it was rapidly growing dusk, everybody whom it had
+    been possible to reach with a rope from the shore had been
+    rescued, and all the rest were still and cold beneath the ice.
+    But although Leroux knew that a considerable number of people
+    must have been drowned, until he saw the long list of those who
+    had lost their lives in the next morning's 'Times' he had no
+    idea that the disaster was so serious as it really was."
+
+The following reminiscences of Selous as a schoolboy at Rugby were
+contributed to the 'Meteor,' the Rugby school paper (February 7th,
+1917), by Canon Wilson, D.D.:--
+
+    "I first heard of Selous some time in 1863, soon after I became
+    a house-master. The master of his preparatory school at
+    Tottenham told me that a Mr. Slous--for so the name was then
+    spelt--was going to enter his son at my house. 'Take my advice,'
+    was the gist of the letter, 'and say your house is full; the boy
+    will plague the life out of you.' I wrote to enquire the nature
+    of the plague. 'He breaks every rule; he lets himself down out
+    of a dormitory window to go birds'-nesting; he is constantly
+    complained of by neighbours for trespassing; he fastened up an
+    assistant master in a cowshed into which he had chased the young
+    villain early one summer morning; somehow the youngster
+    scrambled out, and fastened the door on the outside, so that the
+    master missed morning school.'
+
+    "Such were his crimes; so, of course, I wrote back and said that
+    he was the boy for me.
+
+    "His father brought him down from town, a bright-eyed,
+    fair-haired boy of twelve or thirteen, who had no suspicion that
+    I knew all about his iniquities. When his father departed, I had
+    a little of the usual talk with a new boy, about work and games
+    and so on; and then I asked him what he meant to be. 'I mean to
+    be like Livingstone,' he replied. I had seen Livingstone when he
+    came to Cambridge, in 1857, I think, and spoke in the Senate
+    House, appealing for a Universities Mission to Central Africa;
+    so we talked Livingstone and Africa, and Natural History. I soon
+    saw that he had the fire and the modesty of genius and was a
+    delightful creature.
+
+    "He was quite exemplary as a young member of the House and
+    School, so far as I knew. He was 'late' for chapel sometimes in
+    long summer afternoons; how much late I did not inquire. I
+    guessed what he was about and he did his lines like a man.
+
+    "He was extraordinarily acute in all his senses--sight, hearing,
+    smell, taste. He asked me, for example, one day to some brook a
+    few miles away to watch kingfishers. We crawled up warily when
+    we got near the spot. He could see exactly what they were
+    catching and carrying, from a distance at which I could only see
+    a bird flying. His power of hearing was also more than acute.
+    One day at our table in hall I told a lady who sat next me that
+    a nightingale had been heard singing in somebody's spinney. We
+    decided to drive down to it after dinner, and on reaching the
+    spot, we found Selous already there, roaming about in the
+    spinney. I called to him, and he came to the edge of the wood.
+    'What are you doing there?' 'Looking for a nightingale's nest,
+    sir.' 'But why here?' 'I heard you say at dinner that one was
+    singing here.' Now he was sixteen or eighteen feet away, at a
+    different table, and we were fifty in hall, talking and
+    clattering with knives and forks. And yet he heard me
+    distinctly. He could disentangle the voices, and listen to one,
+    as a dog can follow one scent among many. Then as to smell and
+    taste. He told me that when he shot a new bird with his
+    'tweaker'--you will learn presently what the 'tweaker' was in
+    his case--he always _tasted_ its flesh.
+
+    "He was extremely accurate in his observation, and in his
+    estimates of distance, size, number, etc.; in fact, he was the
+    most truthful observer I can imagine; free from all exaggeration
+    and egotism, and he retained this simplicity and accuracy and
+    modesty all his life. He was a beautiful runner, a
+    football-player with singular dash and a first-rate swimmer; but
+    he left Rugby at seventeen, I think, so that he did not win any
+    great athletic distinctions at school.
+
+    "But I must tell you some stories about him.
+
+    "On some great public occasion of rejoicing the streets of Rugby
+    were decorated with flags. When my man called me at 7.0 a.m., he
+    said, 'I think I ought to tell you, sir, that there is a
+    broomstick and duster showing in every chimney in the house.'
+    'Very well,' I replied, 'go and tell Mr. Selous that they must
+    be taken down by 12 o'clock.' He had let himself down at night
+    out of the dormitory window that looks into the study quadrangle
+    and had collected brooms and dusters from the studies. He had
+    somehow clambered up waterpipes and gutters and roofs,
+    broomsticks and all; and when I went out people in the road were
+    admiring our extemporized decorations--duster flags and
+    broom-handles sticking out of the chimney pots at all angles.
+    There was another flag, of the same nature, perilously near the
+    top of the taller of two poplars that stood close to the boys'
+    entrance. They were all taken down by dinner-time; I never
+    enquired how, or by whom.
+
+    "There used to be a vine, trained up the south face of the
+    house, and one year, I think in 1868, it bore an extraordinary
+    crop of grapes which ripened beautifully. One day at dinner I
+    told the head of the dormitory on the second floor, over the
+    drawing-room, that they might gather all that they could reach
+    from the window. _I forgot Selous_ as this was not his bedroom,
+    but the dormitory did not forget him. An aunt of mine was
+    sleeping in the bedroom below, and she remarked next morning at
+    breakfast that she heard, or thought she heard, voices at night
+    quite close to her windows. Had anything happened? I went out
+    into the garden to look, the vine was stripped more than
+    half-way down the windows of the first floor. It was Selous, of
+    course; they let him down somehow. I was told that he filled a
+    pillow-case with grape-bunches, and feasted the House. Mr. C. K.
+    Francis, the well-known Metropolitan Police Magistrate, his
+    contemporary in my house, has told this story of Selous to the
+    readers of the 'Daily Telegraph' (January 15th), and says that
+    they let Selous down in a blanket.
+
+    "Of course Selous was an active member of the School Natural
+    History Society. I must tell you about a meeting of that
+    Society. Dr. Walter Flight, who was in charge of the minerals of
+    the British Museum, was staying with me, and I asked him whether
+    he would like to come as a visitor to an ordinary meeting of our
+    Society. I knew it would be an interesting one. Selous had
+    shortly before raided the heronry on the island at Coombe Abbey.
+    He swam the pond from the end distant from the house, climbed
+    several trees, took one egg from each nest, swam back and was
+    chased, but escaped by sheer speed. Lord Craven complained to
+    the H.M. The H.M. warned our Society pretty plainly, and our
+    committee censured Selous. At the meeting we were going to
+    attend, Selous, as was widely known, was going to make his
+    defence. The room, the old Fifth Form Room, next to the School
+    House Dining Hall, was crowded. Flight and I squeezed in. 'Are
+    your meetings always like this?' he asked. 'You will see,' I
+    replied, 'that the school takes a great interest in natural
+    history.' 'I am very glad to see this,' he said.
+
+    "Exhibits were made, a paper read, and then began the real
+    business of the evening--the official condemnation by our
+    president, Mr. Kitchener, and Selous' spirited defence.
+
+    "Selous presented the eggs to the Natural History Society, and
+    they were safe in the collection twenty years ago, I am told. I
+    hope they are there still.
+
+    "He also climbed the great elm trees, which then stood in the
+    close, for rooks' eggs. This feat was also performed at night,
+    and the cawing of the rooks roused Dr. Temple, but Selous was
+    not detected in the darkness.
+
+    "Selous' special contribution to our Society was on birds. If I
+    remember right his first list of birds noted at Rugby exceeded
+    ninety. I will tell the story how one very rare bird was added
+    to our list. It was in the very hard winter of 1867; snow was
+    lying on the ground. In the evening, some hours after lock-up a
+    ring at the front door came at the moment I was going to my
+    study, the door of which is close to the front door. I opened
+    the front door and there stood Selous, with a bird dangling from
+    his hand. I don't know which of us was most surprised. 'Come in
+    to the study; what have you got there?' 'Oh, sir, it's
+    Williamson's duck; it's very rare.' (I invent the name
+    Williamson, I know it was somebody's duck.) 'Go and fetch the
+    bird-book from the House Library.' (I had put an excellent
+    bird-book in several volumes into the Library for his use.)
+    'Leave the bird.' I examined the bird, neatly shot through the
+    neck. He was quite right, a note in the book said that it had
+    been occasionally seen at certain places on the East coast; only
+    once, I think, inland as far as Northamptonshire. 'How did you
+    get it?' 'I saw it at Swift's and followed it to Lilbourne and
+    got it there.' 'How?' 'With my tweaker,' was the reply. 'It must
+    be a very powerful tweaker?' I said. 'Yes, sir, it's a very
+    strong one; I thought you would not mind my being late for once,
+    as it's very rare.'
+
+    "Some six years later, when he came back from a four years'
+    solitary travel and exploration in what is now called Rhodesia,
+    or even further inland, this incident of the tweaker turned up.
+    'I did wonder,' he said, 'whether you were such an innocent as
+    really to believe it was a tweaker.' 'My dear Selous,' I said,
+    'I knew the bird was shot, and I knew you had a gun, and the
+    farmhouse where you kept it, but you kept it so dark and made
+    such excellent use of it that I said nothing about it.'
+
+    "One of the most difficult problems presented to all who are in
+    authority is: how much ought I _not_ to know and see?"
+
+    "I think it was on this occasion that he came down to a
+    house-supper. He had told me lots of stories about his
+    adventures in Africa during those four years. They are told in
+    his books, every one of which is, I hope, in the School Library
+    and well read. I asked him to tell some of them to the house. No
+    he would not; so finally at the supper, I said that if he would
+    not, I would, and I began with the story of his going to ask
+    Lobengula, King of the Matabele, for leave to shoot elephants.
+    'You are only a boy,' the King said. 'You must shoot birds. The
+    first elephant you hunt will kill you.' Selous jumped up. 'Oh,
+    sir, let me tell it,' and we had a never-to-be-forgotten
+    evening.
+
+    "But it is time to stop. One of his friends, Sir Ralph Williams,
+    well said of him in a letter in 'The Times,' of January 10th,
+    'The name of Fred Selous stands for all that is straightest and
+    best in South African story,' and I will venture to say that it
+    stands for the same in Rugby annals.
+
+    "J. M. WILSON.
+    "Worcester, 22 _January_, 1917."
+
+In August, 1868, at the age of seventeen, Selous left Rugby and went to
+Neuchatel, in Switzerland, where he lived at the "Institution Roulet."
+He spent his time learning French and the violin and commenced his
+studies to be a doctor, for which profession he evinced no enthusiasm.
+Writing to his mother in November, he says:--
+
+    "As for my future medical examinations I don't know how I shall
+    come off; I do not want particularly to be a doctor, but I shall
+    go in for that as I can't see anything else that I should like
+    better, except sheep-farming or something of that sort in one of
+    the colonies, but I suppose I must give up that idea; however,
+    if I become a surgeon I do not intend to try and get a practice
+    in England, but I should try and get a post as ship's surgeon,
+    or army surgeon in India, if I could get any leave of absence
+    which would give me a little time to myself, but anyhow I am
+    certain I shall never be able to settle down quietly in England.
+    You talked about me being at an age of irresponsibility, but I
+    don't see that I am, as supposing I don't manage to learn these
+    infernal languages (why was anyone fool enough to build the
+    tower of Babel?) everyone will be disgusted with me."
+
+In December there was more talk of his going to Dresden to learn German,
+but he himself voted for Wiesbaden as being more of a country district
+where he would have more opportunities for shooting and fishing. After a
+short visit home his father took him to Wiesbaden in the spring of 1869,
+when he wrote to his sister "Locky":--
+
+    "Many thanks for your spiritual letter which almost tempts me to
+    commit suicide; if I can't get good shooting and fishing in this
+    world I'll have it in the next, if what the Chinaman says is
+    true; but by hook or by crook I will have some in this world
+    too, and make some rare natural history collections into the
+    bargain. But first I must make a little money, but how? not by
+    scribbling away on a three-legged stool in a dingy office in
+    London. I am becoming more and more convinced every day that I
+    should never be able to stand that and everybody I know or have
+    ever had anything to do with says the same thing. I have a great
+    many qualifications for getting on in one of our colonies, viz.
+    perseverance, energy, and a wonderfully good constitution. What
+    makes me recur to the old subject is this: I have made the
+    acquaintance of a family here of the name of K----. I always
+    forget their name although I know them intimately. This
+    gentleman, a German from Brunswick, has been twenty years in
+    Natal (where he made his fortune) and since then eight years in
+    England, and now has become regularly English (speaking English,
+    indeed, without the slightest accent). His wife is an
+    Englishwoman who was born in the Cape Colony, but has always
+    lived with him in Natal; and then he has a very large family.
+    These people give the most splendid accounts of Natal. Firstly,
+    they say that the climate is superb, there being no winter and
+    it not being so hot in summer as in Germany. Then they say that
+    the country is lovely beyond description. They do not praise
+    Cape Colony, only Natal, which they describe as a perfect
+    paradise. They say, too, that Natal itself is a wonderfully gay
+    place and that the society there is very good. The wife says she
+    can't stand Europe at all, the climate is so detestable
+    compared with that of Natal. She says that she often used to go
+    for weeks and weeks up country with her husband and children on
+    shooting excursions, sleeping out in tents all the time, and
+    that taking into consideration the beautiful climate and country
+    there is no enjoyment equal to it, and I am fully of her
+    opinion. They travelled once three days with Dr. Livingstone,
+    but you will hear all about it from them when you come over
+    here."
+
+He arrived at Wiesbaden in September and took up his residence with Herr
+Knoch, who lived in the Roderallee. In December he met the Colchester
+family, with whom he became great friends.
+
+At this time he enjoyed the music every afternoon at the Kursaal, and
+was amused in the evening to see the gambling that went on. One night a
+Russian lost 100,000 francs. "What an April fool!" is Selous' only
+comment. He had at this time a nice dog named Bell, to whom he was much
+attached. He is always writing for trout-flies, or books on sport or
+natural history. "I wouldn't care to go to Rome and see the Holy Week,
+but I should like to go to Russia, Sweden, or some other country where
+some shooting or fishing is to be had, but I must be patient and make
+some money, though I don't know how. Yesterday I went down to the Rhine,
+after my German and music lessons, but only brought back three small
+fish. A few days ago an officer was shot dead in a duel at Mayence.
+Verdict, 'Serve him right.'"
+
+Miss Colchester thus recalls certain incidents of Selous' life at
+Wiesbaden. "As showing his sporting nature, I may mention that he swam
+the Rhine near Biebrich to retrieve a wild duck he had shot for us. It
+was blocked with ice at the time, but that did not daunt him. One day we
+were all skating on the frozen waters of the Kursaal Gardens when the
+ice suddenly broke up and I was thrown into the deep water. Without a
+moment's hesitation Fred jumped in and supported me under the arms until
+help came. He was a dear boy and we all loved him."
+
+Selous set himself to learn the language as thoroughly as he could in
+the time at his disposal, but the cold study of German verbs was hard
+for a boy of seventeen with the spring in his bones and the sun glinting
+on the forest oaks.
+
+When summer came young Selous spent all his spare time chiefly with his
+friend Colchester, roving the woods and opens in search of birds'-nests
+and butterflies. The woods in the neighbourhood of Wiesbaden were, as is
+usual in Germany, strictly preserved and, therefore, being forbidden
+ground, offered an especial attraction to the young naturalist. On two
+of these forays he had been stopped and warned by a forester named
+Keppel, who though an oldish man was immensely active and powerful. From
+him Selous had several narrow escapes, but the day of reckoning was at
+hand. In the heart of the forest Selous had one day observed a pair of
+honey-buzzards, which being frequently seen afterwards about the same
+spot, he concluded must have a nest somewhere. These birds are somewhat
+uncommon even in Germany, and Selous naturally longed to find the nest
+and take the eggs. At last one day he and Colchester found the nest on
+the top of a high fir tree, but on climbing up to it Selous observed
+that there were no eggs. A few days later the two marauders set off at
+dawn and again approached the nest, Colchester being left at the foot of
+the tree to keep watch. Selous was in the act of descending the tree
+when Keppel suddenly appeared and by his words and actions showed that
+he was in a furious rage.
+
+"Now I shall take you to prison," he roared, as he seized hold of the
+coat in which Selous had hidden the two eggs he had taken.
+
+By this time, however, the fighting spirit was aroused on both sides,
+for Selous had no intention either of being captured or resigning his
+treasures quietly. A fierce struggle ensued in which the coat was torn
+in half, when at last Selous, losing his temper, gave the old forester a
+right-hander on the jaw which dropped him like a felled ox.
+
+The boys were now alarmed and for a moment Selous thought he must have
+killed the man, but as he showed signs of recovering they took to their
+heels and ran home with all possible speed. Since complications were
+bound to follow Selous at once consulted a lawyer, who advised him to
+pack up his traps and leave Prussia. Accordingly he took the train and
+went to Salzburg in Austria, where he knew he would be beyond the power
+of German courts. Selous' chief sorrow over the unfortunate affair seems
+to be that he lost his rare eggs.
+
+Soon after he arrived at Salzburg Selous heard that his friend, Charley
+Colchester, who had escaped to Kronberg, but was followed and arrested,
+had been condemned to a week's imprisonment (without the option of a
+fine) for taking eggs on two occasions.
+
+    "If I had been caught," writes Selous, "I should have got two or
+    three months instead of a week's imprisonment, for both the
+    lawyer and the Burgomaster to whom I spoke, said that the taking
+    of eggs was but a small matter in the eyes of Prussian law
+    compared with resisting an official."
+
+The Austrian with whom he lived at Salzburg seems to have been a
+pleasant fellow named Rochhart, who had travelled much in Greece and
+America. Selous seems to have liked the genial Austrians far better than
+the Prussians and especially enjoyed the Tyrolese music and the
+butterfly hunting in the woods when the weather was fine. Writing to his
+mother (July 5th, 1870), he speaks of his enthusiasm as a collector:--
+
+    "Why I feel the absence of the sun so very acutely is because,
+    when the sun is not shining no butterflies, or none worth
+    having, are to be got. Now this is just the time for the Purple
+    Emperors, some specimens of which I want very much to get, and
+    so I have been exceedingly provoked. I found out the place where
+    the P.E.'s were to be found and for the last seven days I have
+    been every day to that place (which is from five to six miles
+    from Salzburg) and there I have waited from twelve to three,
+    through rain and everything else, hoping and hoping for a
+    passing sunbeam, as I could see them every now and then at the
+    tops of the trees, and if the sun had but come out for a few
+    minutes some of them would have been sure to have come down and
+    settled in the road. Well, during all the hours of watching in
+    those seven days the sun never, never, never broke through the
+    clouds for one instant, and each day I returned home more
+    disappointed and more indignant against providence than the day
+    before. I think that if this sort of thing had continued for
+    another week I should have gone into a chronic state of
+    melancholy and moroseness for the rest of my life, and people
+    would have said, 'Ah, he must have had some great disappointment
+    in early life.' These are the sort of things that rile me more
+    than anything else, for you can't think how I put my whole soul
+    into egg and butterfly collecting when I'm at it, and how I boil
+    up and over with impotent rage at not being able to attain the
+    object of my desires on account of the weather over which I have
+    no control. However, perseverance can struggle against anything.
+    This afternoon the sun shone out and I immediately caught two
+    Purple Emperors (_Apatura Iris_), and two very similar
+    butterflies unknown in England (_Apatura Ilia_), also a great
+    many White Admirals (_Limenitis Camilla_), not quite the same as
+    the English White Admiral (_Limenitis Sybilla_), but very like;
+    all butterflies well worth having. If the weather will but
+    continue fine for a few days I will soon make some good
+    additions to my collection, but it is hopeless work collecting
+    butterflies in bad weather. I think I must be set down as a
+    harmless lunatic by the peasants in the neighbourhood already."
+
+Selous was not long at Salzburg before he found an old chamois hunter
+and poacher, with whom he made frequent excursions into the neighbouring
+mountains. On one of these trips he killed two chamois, and the head of
+one of these is still in the museum at Worplesdon.
+
+The Franco-German war now began and Selous was greatly incensed that the
+general feeling in England was in favour of Prussia.
+
+   "Vive la France, a bas la Prusse," he writes to his mother (July
+   22nd, 1870), "your saying the war is 'likely to become a bloody
+   butchery through all the Christian nations of civilized Europe,'
+   is rather a startler. Since this morning I have read all the
+   Cologne and Vienna papers for the last week and you are most
+   certainly several miles ahead of the most far-seeing and
+   sanguinary politician, in either Austria or Prussia. You say that
+   Bavaria has joined Prussia and Austria is likely to do so too.
+   Bavaria cannot help itself or would not have joined Prussia. The
+   Crown Prince of Prussia is in Munich with 15,000 Prussian troops,
+   and the Bavarians are forced by treaty to aid Prussia or they
+   would not do so. Prussia is the only power that is likely to take
+   any part in the war at present. Austria most certainly will not
+   interfere unless she is forced into it. And England and America
+   are less likely still to do so. The post now goes to England by
+   Trieste, by sea, of course, and supposing the war does become a
+   bloody butchery through all the Christian nations of civilized
+   Europe, an Italian passenger steamer would surely not be meddled
+   with. Whatever happens, the war cannot come here, for there is
+   nothing to be fought for in the Tyrol and no room to fight for it
+   in the mountain valleys if there was. So that the route to
+   Trieste and from thence to England will always be open. The
+   people say that in 1866, when the war between Austria and Prussia
+   was going on, they never knew anything about it here. As for the
+   money, you can easily send a letter of credit to a bank in
+   Salzburg or Munich and that difficulty would be got over. For
+   several months at least it is not at all likely that any other
+   nation will join either party, England least of all; and
+   supposing that England were drawn into it eventually, you would
+   surely be able to tell long before war was declared if such was
+   likely to be the case, and send me word, for the postal
+   communications will not be stopped until then via Trieste. It
+   seems to me most ridiculous to predict so much when so little is
+   known. Unless you really think in your heart of hearts that it is
+   necessary for me to come, please let me remain here a few months
+   longer; England taking part in the war is the only thing that can
+   stop either letters or myself from reaching you, and surely you
+   cannot tell me in cold blood that England is likely to be drawn
+   into the war for months and months to come, at least all the
+   Prussian papers declare most positively that it is not likely
+   that either America or England will take any part in the war,
+   and surely they as a party most intensely interested would say
+   something about it if they thought that there was the slightest
+   chance of England assisting. Gladstone, you know, will do his
+   utmost to keep England neutral. Austria was almost ruined by the
+   last war, but is now rapidly increasing in wealth and if drawn
+   into the war would be utterly ruined, so that she will do her
+   utmost to keep out of it. Why I so particularly wish to remain
+   here a few months longer is because if I return to England all
+   the money and time that has been wasted in zither at any rate, if
+   not violin lessons, will have been utterly thrown away and I
+   shall lose a pleasure and a pastime that would have lasted me my
+   whole life. In three or four months more, as I am working very
+   hard at it, I shall know enough of the zither to do without a
+   master. The violin is all very well, but it is not an instrument
+   that one derives much pleasure from playing unaccompanied, unless
+   one plays extremely well, whereas the zither, like the piano,
+   needs no accompaniment. The zither I have now is not the little
+   one you saw at Wiesbaden, but an Austrian zither which is much
+   larger and tuned lower, and altogether a finer instrument."
+
+He seems to have formed a very accurate estimate of the German character
+in war. Writing to his mother, October 20th, 1870, he says:--
+
+    "I have seen and spoken to several Bavarian soldiers in a
+    village just beyond the Bavarian frontier, who were at Woerth and
+    Sedan, and who have been sent back on the sick list; they say
+    there is a great deal of sickness among the German troops, out
+    of the 1000 men from the two villages of Schellenberg and
+    Berchtesgaden who were all in the actions at Woerth and Sedan,
+    not a single one has as yet been killed, so I was told, though a
+    great many have been wounded. I see a great deal said in the
+    English papers about the 'Francs tireurs' being little better
+    than murderers. I think that the French ought to consider all
+    the soldiers composing the German armies as so many burglars,
+    and shoot them down like rabbits in every possible manner; and,
+    moreover, as the Germans are murdering the peasants, men,
+    women, and children, for such offences as being in possession
+    of an old sword, in every direction, I think the French would be
+    perfectly justified in shooting every German soldier they take
+    prisoner. After the affair at Bazeilles, I don't believe any
+    more in the humanity of the Germans."
+
+At this time Selous met an old Hungarian gentleman, who had large farms
+in Hungary, and offered to take him for two years to learn the business.
+But his father threw cold water on this project and told his son to
+remain at Salzburg until he had completed his German education.
+Accordingly he continued to reside there until June, 1871, when he went
+on a short visit to Vienna, of which he writes (June 17th, 1871):-
+
+    "I think I have seen everything that is to be seen in Vienna.
+    The crown jewels, which I daresay you have seen, were very
+    interesting and very magnificent. The Emperor's stables, too, I
+    thought very interesting; he has an immense number of horses,
+    some of them very beautiful indeed. We found an English groom
+    there who had almost forgotten his own language; he had been
+    away from England nine years, and so it is not to be wondered
+    at, as I daresay he rarely speaks anything but German and never
+    reads anything at all. The theatre in Vienna (I mean the new
+    opera house) is most magnificent. It was only completed in 1868,
+    so I don't suppose you have ever seen it. I believe it is
+    acknowledged to be at present the finest theatre in the world.
+    It is an immense size, almost as large as Covent Garden, and the
+    decorations inside and out, and the galleries and everything
+    appertaining to it are most beautiful and tasteful. We saw
+    'Martha,' 'Tannhaeuser,' and 'Faust' there, and a little sort of
+    pantomime entitled 'Flick and Flock.' I liked 'Martha' very
+    much. They have a splendid tenor named Walter, who took the part
+    of Lionel. I daresay you will hear him in London some day. I
+    didn't like 'Tannhaeuser' very much; I couldn't understand the
+    story at all and there were no pretty airs in it. 'Faust' was
+    splendid, Marguerite and Faust were, I should think, as near
+    perfection as possible, and Mephistopheles was very good, though
+    at first he gave me the impression of looking more like a clown
+    than the devil. The scenery in all these pieces was splendid.
+    'Flick and Flock' was exactly like an English pantomime with
+    dumb show. The scenery was really wonderful; there were about
+    half a dozen transformation scenes, none of which would have
+    disgraced a London stage on Boxing Night."
+
+In August he arrived home in England, and during the next three months
+he attended classes at the University College Hospital (London) to gain
+some knowledge of medical science preparatory to going to Africa.
+
+[Illustration: THE PLAINS OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE IN 1871.]
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[3] Mr. Boughton Leigh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+1871-1875
+
+
+There are few of us whose early aspirations and subsequent acts are not
+influenced by literature. Some book comes just at the time of our life
+when we are most impressionable and seems exactly to fit in with our
+ideas and temperament. To this rule Selous was no exception, for he
+often admitted in after-life that the one book which definitely sent him
+to Africa and made him a pioneer and a hunter of Big Game, was Baldwin's
+"African Hunting from Natal to the Zambesi," published in 1864. Example
+in any line of adventure is recurrent, and especially so if the field of
+adventure is not spoilt by what we may call excessive "civilization."
+There have been, as it were, landmarks in the literature of African
+sport and travel, each book being more or less cumulative in its effect.
+Amongst books that mattered, perhaps the first was Burchell's
+fully-illustrated folio and the lesser writings of an English officer
+who hunted in the Orange Free State late in the eighteenth and early in
+the nineteenth century. The works of these men incited Captain
+Cornwallis Harris to undertake an extensive trip as far as the Limpopo.
+He was a capable artist and an excellent writer, and published a
+magnificent folio describing his adventures and the natural history of
+the large mammals, which still commands a high price. He at once
+inspired many hunters to follow in his footsteps, and several of these,
+such as Roualeyn Gordon Cumming, William Cotton Oswell, Sir Francis
+Galton, and C. J. Anderson, wrote either books of great value or
+portions of standard works. Gordon Cumming did an immense amount of
+shooting--far too much most people now think--but his volume, written in
+the romantic British style, is one that will always remain a classic in
+the world of sporting literature. His tales of the game he saw or what
+he killed were not always accepted as true facts, but from all accounts,
+gathered from independent sources, it is now admitted that Gordon
+Cumming was a fearless hunter and did in the main accomplish all the
+principal exploits to which he laid claim.
+
+"Lake Ngami, or Explorations in South-Western Africa," by Charles John
+Anderson, published in 1856, with some admirable early illustrations by
+Wolf, gives an account of the author's four years' wanderings (partly
+with Francis Galton) in the Western Wilderness, and is a truthful and
+excellent record of the Great Game in these districts at that time.
+Galton also published "Tropical Africa," but did not give much space to
+sport or natural history. Oswell, a great hunter and companion of
+Livingstone in many of his travels, also wrote in the last days of his
+life an admirable contribution to the "Badminton Library," which
+embodied an account of his life and adventures amongst the Great Game of
+South Africa in the forties. It is well illustrated by Wolf, the
+greatest painter of birds and mammals who ever lived. Other men of his
+date who were excellent hunters, who left no records of their lives,
+were Vardon, General Sir Thomas Steele, and Thomas Baines, who, without
+prejudice, did perhaps as much exploration, geographical work, painting,
+and hunting as any Afrikander of his time. Baines, I believe, really
+discovered the Falls of the Zambesi before Livingstone visited them, and
+no adequate tribute to the work of this remarkable man has ever
+appeared. The amount of maps he prepared of out-of-the-way corners of
+South Africa from the Zambesi northwards, was very great and his work
+was only known to the pioneers like Livingstone, Oswell, Selous and
+others who followed after him and made use of his industry. Baines, too,
+though almost uneducated, was a very capable artist and I think I must
+have seen at least two hundred of his paintings in oil. He liked to
+depict landscapes and wild animals. Whilst those of the latter were not
+above criticism, his views of the rivers, lakes, forests, mountains, and
+plains of the Free State, swarming with game, are a truthful record of
+the days that are no more, and will doubtless live in South African
+history when more ambitious, technically correct works are forgotten.[4]
+
+After these sportsmen and writers came William Charles Baldwin, who
+wandered, primarily with the object of hunting elephants, from Zululand
+to the Zambesi and west to Lake Ngami between the years 1852 and 1860.
+His book "African Hunting and Adventure" was published in 1863, and was
+beautifully illustrated by Wolf and Zwecker. It was an immediate success
+and caused many, like Selous, to leave the ways of civilization and seek
+adventure in the wilds. Baldwin was an excellent and fearless rider (he
+rode in a steeplechase when he was seventy) and a good shot, and the
+accounts of his adventures could hardly have failed to make their
+impress on the minds of young men of the right kind, but, as he admits,
+the elephants were on the wane even in his day (he never succeeded in
+hunting in the main haunts in Matabeleland), so future travellers had to
+exploit new fields.
+
+On the 4th of September, 1871, Selous landed at Algoa Bay with L400 in
+his pocket. He went there determined to make his way into the interior
+and to lead the free life of the hunter as described by Gordon Cumming,
+Baldwin, and others. First he decided to go to the Diamond Fields, and
+left Port Elizabeth on September 6th with a young transport rider named
+Reuben Thomas, who conveyed him and his baggage for the sum of eight
+pounds. After a slow journey of nearly two months he reached his
+destination. On the road by hunting hard he had managed to kill "one
+bushbuck ram, one duiker, one springbuck, one klipspringer, and eight
+grey and red roebucks, all of which I carried on my own shoulders to the
+waggons."
+
+Most unfortunately, however, a valuable double breechloading rifle with
+which he had been shooting was stolen on the day he reached Kimberley.
+Next day he bought a horse and rode over to Pniel. There he met Mr.
+Arthur Lang, and on October 31st went with him on a trading trip through
+Griqualand, passing down the Vaal and Orange rivers. He found the
+Bechuanas an industrious race, "but they are the stingiest, most
+begging, grasping, and disagreeable set of people that it is possible to
+imagine." He was much disappointed to find the country so bare of game.
+"The great drawback was that there was no game whatever, not even
+springbucks, the Kafirs having hunted everything into the far interior,
+so that now there is more game within five miles of Cape Town than here,
+where we were more than 600 miles up country." The party returned to the
+Diamond Fields at the end of March and sold off their produce--cattle,
+goats, and ostrich feathers at a profit of about L100.
+
+Selous then set about his preparations for a journey into the far
+interior. From a trader he purchased a waggon, a span of young oxen, and
+five horses. A young fellow named Dorehill and a Mr. Sadlier then agreed
+to accompany him. The whole party seems to have been very badly armed
+with indifferent weapons. At the end of April, 1872, Selous and his two
+friends trekked north and only got as far as Kuruman, a delay of a
+fortnight being caused through the horses running away. Here Selous met
+Mr. William Williams, an experienced trader and hunter, from whom he
+purchased two unprepossessing-looking large-bore elephant guns as used
+by the Boer native hunters. Cheap as these guns were, about six pounds
+a-piece and using only common trade gunpowder, they were most effective
+weapons, for in three seasons with them (1872-1874) Selous killed
+seventy-eight elephants, all but one of which he shot whilst hunting on
+foot. He used to load them whilst running at full speed by simply diving
+his hand into a leather bag of powder slung at his side. "They kicked
+most frightfully, and in my case the punishment I received from these
+guns has affected my nerves to such an extent as to have materially
+influenced my shooting ever since, and I am heartily sorry I ever had
+anything to do with them."
+
+After a trying trek the party arrived at Secheli's in twenty days
+through more or less waterless country, but just before reaching these
+kraals an accident happened which might easily have cost Selous and
+Dorehill their lives. Selous was taking some cartridges from a box on
+the side of the waggon, in which was about a pound of loose gunpowder,
+when Dorehill came up and dropped some ashes from his pipe into the box.
+An immediate explosion followed and both were badly burnt. Sadlier,
+however, rose to the emergency and "at once rubbed a mixture of oil and
+salt into our skinless faces; it was not a pleasant process." After a
+visit to Secheli, who was a most completely civilized Kafir, Selous and
+his friends moved northward on the 28th June, with Frank Mandy, who was
+about to trade in the Matabele country. On the road to Boatlanarma they
+experienced great difficulties and were once three days and three nights
+without water. About the middle of August they left Bamangwato, where
+Selous purchased a salted horse. By exchanging his new waggon for a
+smaller second-hand one, a trade rifle and the horse itself valued at
+L75, he made a deal with a shrewd but uneducated Scotchman named Peter
+Skinner. Of course the new purchase ran away at the first opportunity,
+which delayed the party for another week. Near Pelatsi Selous had his
+first experience of real African hardship, and his subsequent account of
+being lost in the bush for four days and three nights, without covering
+except his shirt and breeches and without food or drink, is one of the
+most thrilling he ever wrote.[5]
+
+Selous and his comrades here met their first giraffes and proceeded to
+give chase.
+
+    "After a time the giraffes separated, and suffice it to say
+    that, at the end of an hour or so, I found myself lying on my
+    back, with my right leg nearly broken, by coming violently into
+    contact with the trunk of a tree; and, on getting up and
+    remounting my horse, not only were the giraffes out of sight,
+    but nowhere could I see either of my two companions. Though, of
+    course, my inexperience contributed much to the unsuccessful
+    issue of this, my first giraffe hunt, yet I cannot help thinking
+    that my horse also had a good deal to do with it, for, having
+    been bred in the open plains of the Transvaal Republic, he was
+    quite at sea in the thick forests of the interior; and if, when
+    going at full gallop through a thick wood, you intend to pass on
+    one side of a tree, but your horse, being of a different
+    opinion, swerves suddenly and goes to the other, it is awkward,
+    to say the least of it.
+
+    "My first object was to rejoin my companions; so, not having
+    heard a shot, and imagining they must by this time have given up
+    chasing the giraffes, I fired as a signal, and at once heard a
+    shot in answer far to my right, and rode in that direction.
+    After riding some distance I again pulled up, and shouted with
+    all my might, and then, not hearing anything, fired another
+    signal shot, but without effect. As my horse was very tired, I
+    now off-saddled for a short time and then fired a third shot,
+    and listened intently for an answer, but all was silent as the
+    grave; so, as the sun was now low, I saddled up again and struck
+    a line for the waggon road, thinking my friends had already done
+    the same thing. In this way I rode on at a slow pace, for my
+    horse was tired and thirsty, keeping steadily in one direction
+    till the sun, sinking lower and lower, at last disappeared
+    altogether. I expected I should have reached the road before
+    this, and, attributing my not doing so to the fact of the path
+    having taken a turn to the right, still kept on till twilight
+    had given place to moonlight--a fine bright moonlight, indeed,
+    for it wanted but two nights to the full, but, under the
+    circumstances, perhaps a trifle cold and cheerless. Still,
+    thinking I must be close to the road, I kept on for another
+    couple of hours or so, when, it being intensely cold, I resolved
+    to try and light a fire, and pass the night where I was and ride
+    on again early the following morning. Having no matches, I had
+    to make use of my cartridges, of which I had only three
+    remaining, in endeavouring to get a light. Breaking one of these
+    open, I rubbed some of the powder well into a bit of linen torn
+    from my shirt, slightly wetted, and, putting it into the muzzle
+    of the rifle, ignited it with the cap and a little powder left
+    in the bottom of the cartridge. So far well and good, but this
+    was, unfortunately, almost as far as I could get; for, though I
+    managed to induce some grass to smoulder, I couldn't for the
+    life of me make it flare, and soon had the mortification of
+    finding myself, after two more unsuccessful attempts, just as
+    cold and, hungry as before, and minus my three cartridges to
+    boot. Were the same circumstances to occur again, no doubt
+    everything would be very different; but at that time I was quite
+    a tyro in all forest lore. It was now piercingly cold, though
+    during the day the sun had been as hot as at midsummer in
+    England--regular South African fashion. Still, I thought it
+    better to pass the night where I was; so, tying my horse to a
+    tree, I cut a little grass with my pocket knife to lie upon, and
+    turned in. My entire clothing consisted of a hat, shirt, pair of
+    trousers, and veldt shoes, as I had ridden away from the waggon
+    without my coat. However, lying on my back, with my felt hat for
+    a pillow, I put the saddle over my chest and closed my eyes in
+    the vain hope that I should soon fall asleep and forget my
+    cares; vain indeed, for the bitter cold crept in gradually and
+    stealthily from my feet upwards, till I was soon shivering from
+    head to foot as if my very life depended on it. After having
+    worked hard at this unpleasant exercise for a couple of hours or
+    more, watching the moon all the time, and cursing its tardy
+    pace, I could stand it no longer; so, getting up with
+    difficulty--for I was regularly stiffened by the cold--I ran
+    backwards and forwards to a tree at a short distance until I was
+    again warm, when I once more lay down; and in this manner the
+    weary hours wore away till day dawned. During the night a couple
+    of hyenas passed close to me, enlivening the silence with their
+    dismal howlings. I have often thought since that they must have
+    been on their way to drink, perhaps at some pit or spring not
+    far off; how I wished that I had known where! I will take this
+    opportunity of saying that the howl of the African hyena is
+    about the most mournful and weird-like sound in nature, being a
+    sort of prolonged groan, rising in cadence till it ends in a
+    shriek; they only laugh when enjoying a good feed.
+
+    "At first dawn of day I once more saddled up and rode in the
+    same direction as before. My poor horse was so tired and thirsty
+    that he would only go at a very slow pace; so I didn't make
+    much progress. On coming to a high tree I stopped and climbed up
+    it, and looked about me to try and recognize some landmark. On
+    every side the country was covered with forest, and in the
+    distance were several low ranges of hills, yet nothing seemed
+    familiar to my eye. Right ahead, in the direction in which I had
+    been riding, appeared a line of densely wooded hills, with one
+    single kopje standing alone just in front of them, and thither I
+    determined to ride. On the way I passed three beautiful
+    gemsbuck, which allowed me to come quite close to them, though
+    they are usually very wild; but they had nothing to fear from
+    me, as I had no cartridges, and so could do nothing more than
+    admire them. Thus I rode on and on, until the idea occurred to
+    me that I must have ridden across the road (a mere narrow track)
+    without noticing it in the moonlight, as I had constantly been
+    star-gazing after the sun went down, so as to guide my course by
+    the position of the Southern Cross. After a time, I at last felt
+    so sure that this was the case, that I turned my horse's head to
+    the right-about, and rode back again in the direction from which
+    I had just come."
+
+He was now hopelessly lost but did not give way to despair, as so many
+in a similar position have done. Nothing but a level sea of forest
+surrounded him, so he turned his jaded horse to the setting sun in the
+west in the hope of again striking the road. After another night in the
+wilderness he awoke to find his horse gone. Far to the south-west was a
+line of hills and after walking without food or water till the moon
+rose, he reached the mountains. At sunrise he topped the crest of the
+range, hoping to see the maize fields of Bamangwato, but saw nothing.
+Worn out with thirst, fatigue, and hunger he started again at sunrise
+and at last at sundown he met two Kafirs who eventually took him to
+their kraal and gave him water and milk.
+
+    "The next morning, as soon as it was light, accompanied by the
+    Kafir who carried my rifle, I made a start, and, though very
+    tired and worn out from privation, managed to reach the waggons
+    late in the afternoon, after an absence of five days and four
+    nights. How I enjoyed the meal that was hastily prepared for
+    me, and how delightful it was to keep out the bitter cold with a
+    couple of good blankets, I will leave the reader to conjecture."
+
+Of course, he lost his valuable salted horse, which although hobbled,
+found its way back to Bamangwato. But Selous could never claim it as he
+had sold his right to it to a Mr. Elstob at Tati. At Goqui he saw his
+first lions. Unfortunately he had fired a shot at two lionesses running
+away, when a fine lion with dark coloured mane stood up and offered him
+a splendid shot at 80 yards, but his rifle was empty, and as he had no
+dogs to follow the lions when they had vanished, his first encounter
+with lions gave him much disappointment. At the end of August they
+reached Tati, and on leaving this place and passing the Ramaqueban river
+the following day, Selous says: "Here I first saw a sable antelope, one
+of the handsomest animals in the world," and anyone, indeed, who sees
+this magnificent creature for the first time never forgets it.
+
+Next day he reached Minyama's kraal, the frontier outpost of the
+Matabele country, where most of the inhabitants were Makalakas in native
+dress. The country now became beautiful and park-like in character, and
+this extends to Bulawayo, the town founded by Lobengula in 1870, and
+where the sable king dwelt. On receipt of messages announcing their
+arrival, the king arrived, dressed in a greasy shirt, a costume which
+shortly afterwards he discarded for native dress. "He asked me what I
+had come to do," writes Selous. "I said I had come to hunt elephants,
+upon which he burst out laughing, and said, 'Was it not steinbucks' (a
+diminutive species of antelope) 'that you came to hunt? Why, you're only
+a boy.' I replied that, although a boy, I nevertheless wished to hunt
+elephants and asked his permission to do so, upon which he made some
+further disparaging remarks regarding my youthful appearance, and then
+rose to go without giving me any answer."
+
+But Selous was persistent and again begged for permission. "This time he
+asked me whether I had ever seen an elephant, and upon my saying no,
+answered, 'Oh, they will soon drive you out of the country, but you may
+go and see what you can do!'" When Selous asked him where he might go,
+Lobengula replied impatiently, "Oh, you may go wherever you like, you
+are only a boy."
+
+It was about this time that the famous Boer elephant hunter, Jan
+Viljoen, arrived at Bulawayo and offered to take Sadlier and Selous to
+his waggons on the River Gwenia to join his hunting party. This was an
+opportunity not to be lost. In eight days the party, after crossing the
+Longwe, Sangwe, Shangani, and Gwelo, reached the Gwenia and found the
+patriarchal encampment of the Boer elephant hunters. The Boers then, as
+now, travelled even into the far interior with wives, children, cows,
+sheep, goats, and fowls, and established a "stand-place" whilst the men
+hunted in all directions, being absent for a week to a month at a time.
+A slight accident now prevented Selous from going in on foot with the
+Viljoens to hunt in the "fly." He went off at the Boer's request to buy
+some corn and on the way back, in passing some Griqua waggons at Jomani,
+he saw for the first time a Hottentot named Cigar, with whom later he
+became better acquainted.
+
+Cigar was an experienced hunter and as it seemed now hopeless to follow
+Viljoen he decided to go in and hunt with the Hottentot. It may be
+gathered how roughly they lived from Selous' own words: "Having now run
+through all my supplies of coffee, tea, sugar, and meal, we had nothing
+in the provision line but Kafir corn and meat of the animals we shot,
+washed down by cold water."
+
+Cigar--besides two Kafirs who were shooting for him, and carried their
+own guns and a supply of ammunition--had only three spare boys who
+carried his blankets, powder, Kafir corn, and a supply of fresh meat. He
+himself carried his own rifle, a heavy old four-bore muzzle-loader. "As
+for me," says Selous, "having had to leave two of my Kafirs to look
+after my horses and oxen, I had but one youngster with me, who carried
+my blanket and spare ammunition, whilst I shouldered my own old
+four-bore muzzle-loader, and carried besides a leather bag filled with
+powder, and a pouch containing twenty four-ounce round bullets. Though
+this was hardly doing the thing _en grand seigneur_, I was young and
+enthusiastic in those days and trudged along under the now intense heat
+with a light heart."
+
+It must be remembered that at this time nearly all the old Boer and
+English elephant-hunters, such as men like Piet Schwarz, William
+Finaughty, Hartley, the Jennings family, J. Giffard, T. Leask, and H.
+Biles, had given up the game of elephant-hunting when horses could be no
+longer used and the elephants themselves must be pursued on foot in the
+"fly." Only George Wood, Jan Viljoen,[6] and the greatest hunter of all
+in South Africa, Petrus Jacobs, still pursued the elephant, but the
+difficulty, danger, distance, and scarcity of elephant haunts were now
+so defined and the results so small that none save the very hardiest
+were able to follow them.
+
+At this time (1873) Piet Jacobs was undoubtedly the most famous hunter
+in South Africa. During a long life, most of which was spent in the
+Mashuna and Matabele country, he is supposed to have shot between 400
+and 500 bull elephants, mostly killed by hunting them from horseback,
+but even after as an old man he killed many on foot in the "fly"
+country. Unlike most Boers, he constantly attacked lions whenever he had
+the opportunity, and Selous considers that he shot "more lions than any
+man that ever lived." His usual method in hunting these animals was, if
+the first shot missed, to loose three or four strong "Boer" dogs, which
+quickly ran the lion to bay. Then, as a rule, it was easily killed. One
+day, however, in 1873, on the Umniati river he was terribly mauled by a
+lion that charged after being bayed by his three dogs. His shot at the
+charging lion missed, and he was thrown to the ground and severely
+bitten on the thigh, left arm, and hand. The dogs, however, now came up
+and saved his life, but it was a long time before he recovered. He said
+that, unlike the experience of Dr. Livingstone, the bites of the lion
+were extremely painful, at which Selous humorously remarks that the
+absence of suffering in such a case is an especial mercy "which
+Providence does not extend beyond ministers of the Gospel."
+
+Of William Finaughty, the greatest of the English elephant-hunters,
+neither Selous nor any contemporary writer gives any particulars, so I
+am indebted to Mr. G. L. Harrison, an American gentleman, for his
+"Recollections of William Finaughty," which was privately printed in
+1916. He met Finaughty, who was then a very slight old man, with a
+wonderful memory and much weakened by attacks of fever, in 1913.
+Finaughty was one of the first white men to hunt elephants in
+Matabeleland, and his activities extended from 1864 to 1875, when he
+gave up serious hunting because he could no longer pursue them on
+horseback.
+
+Finaughty describes himself as a harum-scarum youth who left Grahamstown
+at the age of twenty-one early in 1864. He passed north through the Free
+State, then swarming with tens of thousands of black wildebeest,
+blesbok, springbok, quagga, blue wildebeest, and ostrich, and made his
+way to Matabeleland, then ruled by Mzilikatse, a brother of the Zulu
+king Chaka. After sport with lion and buffalo on the road, for all game,
+including elephants, were abundant at this time, he reached Tati. Old
+Mzilikatse was then a physical wreck but treated the Englishman well,
+although at times he had violent outbursts of passion. Finaughty was
+witness of a great dance in which 2500 warriors took part, and on which
+occasion 540 oxen were slaughtered. Horse-sickness was then rife in the
+country and the party lost fourteen horses out of seventeen within
+thirty hours. In this, his first trip, Finaughty only killed three
+elephants, which he attributed to lack of experience. On his second trip
+in 1865 he did better, whilst a third in 1866 was made purely for
+trading, yet he shot eight elephants and then decided to become a hunter
+only.
+
+On the fourth trip he shot nineteen elephants, but in 1868, on the
+Umbila, he states that he had "the two finest months of my life. In all
+I shot 95 elephants, the ivory weighing 5000 lbs."
+
+One day he had a narrow escape in the sandy bed of the Sweswe river. He
+had wounded an old bull when he fired at it again as it was on the point
+of charging. His boy had put in two charges and the hunter was nearly
+knocked out of the saddle by the recoil. The elephant then charged and
+got right on the top of him, but, at the moment when death seemed
+imminent, the elephant's shoulder-bone broke and he was helpless--thus
+Finaughty escaped. In those days the elephants did not know the meaning
+of gunfire. Finaughty one day bagged six bulls in a river bed, as they
+did not run on the shots being fired.
+
+In 1869 he went into the elephant country one hundred miles beyond the
+Tuli and remained there three years, sending out his ivory and receiving
+fresh provisions and ammunition on the return of his waggons. In five
+months he killed fifty-three elephants yielding 3000 lbs. of ivory. In
+one day he killed five bulls and five cows, which was his "record" bag
+for one day. In the two following years he killed a large number of
+elephants, but does not state the precise number. In 1870 he again
+hunted elephants without giving particulars.
+
+From 1870 to 1874 Finaughty remained at Shoshong as a trader and
+prospered.
+
+It is interesting to note that Finaughty, like many experienced hunters,
+does not agree with Selous in considering the lion the most dangerous of
+all African game. He repeatedly says that buffalo-hunting is the most
+risky of all forms of hunting.[7] "Far better," he says, "follow up a
+wounded lion than a wounded buffalo, for the latter is the fiercest and
+most cunning animal to be found in Africa." He himself had many narrow
+escapes from buffaloes and only one or two unpleasant incidents with
+lions. "No," he remarks again, "a man who is out after buffalo must
+shoot to kill and not to wound, and if he fails to bring his quarry down
+he should on no account venture to follow up unless in open country. He
+should never follow a buffalo into cover, unless he is accompanied by a
+number of good dogs. Many a good man has lost his life through neglect
+of this precaution." Finaughty lived in the Transvaal from 1883 to 1887,
+and then moved to Johannesburg in the early days of the "boom." In the
+nineties he returned to Matabeleland to spend the rest of his days on
+his farm near Bulawayo. He was still alive in 1914.
+
+What would, however, have been only toil and hardship to older men was
+small discomfort to a tough young fellow like Selous, who was now in his
+natural element. Almost at once he and Cigar tracked and killed a grand
+old bull which carried tusks of 61 and 58 lbs. On the following days
+they killed six elephants, Cigar accounting for four. Selous here pays a
+high tribute to the good qualities of his dusky companion. "Cigar was a
+slight-built, active Hottentot, possessed of wonderful powers of
+endurance, and a very good game shot, though a bad marksman at a target.
+These qualities, added to lots of pluck, made him a most successful
+elephant-hunter; and for foot hunting in the 'fly' country I do not
+think I could have had a more skilful preceptor; for although only an
+uneducated Hottentot--once a jockey at Grahamstown--he continually
+allowed me to have the first shot, whilst the elephants were still
+standing--a great advantage to give me--and never tried in any way to
+over-reach me or claim animals that I had shot, as is so often done by
+Boer hunters. Strangely enough, Cigar told me, when the celebrated
+hunter, Mr. William Finaughty, first took him after elephants on
+horseback, he had such dreadful fear of the huge beasts that, after
+getting nearly caught by one, and never being able to kill any, he
+begged his master to let him remain at the waggons. When I knew him this
+fear must have worn off, and I have never since seen his equal as a foot
+hunter." Selous did very well with Cigar, getting 450 lbs. of ivory
+which he had shot himself, and another 1200 lbs. which he had traded
+with the natives, thus making a clear profit of L300. When he saw the
+king, he told him that the elephants had not driven him out of the
+country, but that he had killed several, to which Lobengula replied,
+"Why, you're a man; when are you going to take a wife?" and suggested
+that he should court one at once.
+
+Selous' friends had now all left the country, but he himself decided to
+remain in Matabeleland to be ready to hunt in the following year with
+George Wood. As usual, however, Lobengula took months to give his
+permission, so that it was not until the 15th June, 1873, that he gave
+permission to the two hunters to make a start. Even then he would not
+allow them to go to the Mashuna country and stated that they must hunt
+to the westward of the river Gwai.
+
+A fortnight after leaving Bulawayo Selous and Wood reached Linquasi,
+where they began to hunt, and two days later they killed two fine bull
+elephants. Here they established their main hunting-camp and made raids
+into the "fly." During this season of four months Selous killed
+forty-two elephants and George Wood fifty. They also accounted for a
+good many rhinoceros and buffalo. Their main hunting veldt was the "fly"
+region between the rivers Zambesi and Gwai. It was a broken country full
+of hills, "kloofs," dense bush and park-like opens. This area was
+formerly inhabited by the Makalakas, but these had been driven across
+the Zambesi by raiding Matabele. These regions were consequently a great
+game preserve and full of elephant, black and white rhinoceros, buffalo,
+zebra, sable, roan, koodoo, impala, reedbuck, klipspringer, grysbok,
+bushbuck, waterbuck, and other antelopes. In "A Hunter's Wanderings"
+Selous gives many interesting accounts of his hunts after elephants, but
+perhaps his best is the splendid narrative of his great day, of which I
+am permitted to give his own description.[8]
+
+    "As soon as the day dawned, we sent a couple of Kafirs down to
+    the water to see if any elephants had been there, and on their
+    return in a quarter of an hour with the joyful tidings that a
+    fine troop of bulls had drunk during the night, we at once
+    started in pursuit. We found they had come down from the
+    right-hand side, and returned on their own spoor, feeding along
+    nicely as they went, so that we were in great hopes of
+    overtaking them without much difficulty. Our confidence,
+    however, we soon found was misplaced, for after a time they had
+    ceased to feed, and, turning back towards the N.E., had taken to
+    a path, along which they had walked in single file and at a
+    quick pace, as if making for some stronghold in the hills. Hour
+    after hour we trudged on, over rugged stony hills, and across
+    open grassy valleys, scattered over which grew clumps of the
+    soft-leaved machabel trees, or rather bushes; but, though the
+    leaves and bark of this tree form a favourite food of elephants,
+    those we were pursuing had turned neither to the right nor to
+    the left to pluck a single frond.
+
+    "After midday, the aspect of the country changed, and we entered
+    upon a series of ravines covered with dense, scrubby bush.
+    Unfortunately the grass here had been burnt off, but for which
+    circumstance the elephants, I feel sure, would have halted for
+    their midday sleep. In one of these thickets we ran on to three
+    black rhinoceroses (_R. bicornis_) lying asleep. When we were
+    abreast of them they got our wind, and, jumping up, rushed close
+    past the head of our line, snorting vigorously. It was a family
+    party, consisting of a bull, a cow, and a full-grown calf; they
+    passed so near that I threw at them the thick stick which I used
+    for a ramrod, and overshot the mark, it falling beyond them.
+
+    "Shortly after this incident, we lost the spoor in some very
+    hard, stony ground, and had some trouble in recovering it, as
+    the Kafirs, being exhausted with the intense heat, and thinking
+    we should not catch the elephants, had lost heart and would not
+    exert themselves, hoping that we would give up the pursuit. By
+    dint of a little care and perseverance, however, we succeeded,
+    and after a time again entered upon a more open country. To cut
+    a long story short, I suppose it must have been about two hours
+    before sundown when we came to a large tree, from which the
+    elephants had only just moved on. At first we thought they must
+    have got our wind and run, but on examination we found they had
+    only walked quietly on. We put down the water-calabashes and
+    axes, and the Kafirs took off their raw-hide sandals, and then
+    we again, quickly but cautiously, followed on the spoor. It was
+    perhaps five minutes later when we at last sighted them, seven
+    in number, and all large, full-grown bulls. W. and I walked up
+    to within thirty yards or so, and fired almost simultaneously;
+    he at one standing broadside, and I at another facing me. Our
+    Hottentot boy also fired, and, as the animals turned, a volley
+    was given by our Kafirs, about ten of whom carried guns. Not an
+    elephant, however, seemed any the worse, and they went away at a
+    great pace. Judging from the lie of the land ahead that they
+    would turn to the right, I made a cut with my two gun-bearers,
+    whilst W. kept in their wake. Fortune favoured me, for they
+    turned just as I had expected, and I got a splendid broadside
+    shot as they passed along the farther side of a little gully not
+    forty yards off. The Kafir having, as he ran, reloaded the gun
+    which I had already discharged and on which I placed most
+    dependence, I fired with it at the foremost elephant, an
+    enormous animal with long white tusks, when he was exactly
+    opposite to me. My boy had put in the powder with his hand, and
+    must have overloaded it, for the recoil knocked me down, and the
+    gun itself flew out of my hands. Owing to this, I lost a little
+    time, for, when I got hold of my second gun, the elephants had
+    turned back again (excepting the one just hit) towards W. and
+    the Kafirs. However, I gave another a bullet behind the big ribs
+    as he was running obliquely away from me. The first, which I had
+    hit right in the middle of the shoulder, was now walking very
+    slowly up a steep hill, looking as though he were going to fall
+    every instant; but, nevertheless (as until an elephant is
+    actually dead, there is no knowing how far he may go), I
+    determined to finish him before returning to the others. On
+    reaching the top of the hill, and hearing me coming on not a
+    dozen yards behind him, the huge beast wheeled round, and,
+    raising his gigantic ears, looked ruefully towards me. Poor
+    beast, he was doubtless too far gone to charge, and, on
+    receiving another ball in the chest, he stepped slowly
+    backwards, and then sinking on to his haunches, threw his trunk
+    high into the air and rolled over on his side, dead.
+
+    [Illustration: Selous as a Young Man, in Hunting Costume.]
+
+    "During this time, the remainder of the elephants, harried and
+    bewildered by the continuous firing of W. and our little army of
+    native hunters, had come round in a circle, and I saw the four
+    that still remained (for, besides the one I had killed, two more
+    were down) coming along in single file, at the long, quick half
+    run, half walk, into which these animals settle after their
+    first rush. I at once ran obliquely towards them; but, before I
+    could get near, one more first lagged behind, and then fell
+    heavily to the ground, so that there were but three remaining.
+    W., being blown, had been left behind; but most of the Kafirs
+    were still to the fore, firing away as fast as they could load,
+    from both sides. It was astonishing what bad shooting they made;
+    their bullets kept continually striking up the ground all round
+    the elephants, sometimes in front of their trunks, sometimes
+    behind them, and ever and anon one would come whistling high
+    overhead. It was in vain that I shouted to them to leave off
+    firing and let me shoot; their blood was up, and blaze away they
+    would.
+
+    "Just as I was getting well up alongside, the elephants crossed
+    a little gully, and entered a small patch of scrubby bush, on
+    the slope of the hill beyond, in the shelter of which they at
+    once stopped and faced about, giving me a splendid chance. I had
+    just emptied both my guns, hitting one animal full in the chest,
+    and another, that was standing broadside to me, in the shoulder,
+    when loud lamentations and cries of 'Mai-ai!' 'Mai mamo!' burst
+    from my Kafir followers close behind. At the same time my two
+    gun-carriers, throwing down their guns, ran backwards, clapping
+    their hands, and shouting like the rest. Turning hastily round,
+    I saw a Kafir stretched upon the earth, his companions sitting
+    round him, wailing and clapping their hands, and at once
+    comprehended what had occurred. The poor fellow who lay upon the
+    ground had fired at the elephants, from about thirty yards
+    behind myself, and then ran up an ant-hill, just as another
+    Kafir, who preferred to keep at a safer distance, discharged a
+    random shot, which struck poor Mendose just between the
+    shoulder-blades, the bullet coming out on the right breast. I
+    ran up at once to see what could be done, but all human aid was
+    vain--the poor fellow was dead. At this moment two more shots
+    fell close behind, and a minute or two afterwards W. and our
+    Hottentot boy John came up. One of the three elephants had
+    fallen after my last shot, close at hand, and a second, sorely
+    wounded, had walked back right on to W. and John, who were
+    following on the spoor; and the two shots I had just heard had
+    sealed his fate. The third, however, and only surviving one out
+    of the original seven, had made good his escape during the
+    confusion, which he never would have done had it not been for
+    the untimely death of Mendose.
+
+    "The sun was now close down upon the western skyline, and little
+    time was to be lost. The Kafirs still continued to shout and
+    cry, seeming utterly paralysed, and I began to think that they
+    were possessed of more sympathetic feelings than I had ever
+    given them credit for. However, on being asked whether they
+    wished to leave the body for the hyenas, they roused themselves.
+    As luck would have it, on the side of the very ant-hill on which
+    the poor fellow had met his death was a large deep hole,
+    excavated probably by an anteater, but now untenanted. Into this
+    rude grave, with a Kafir needle to pick the thorns out of his
+    feet, and his assegais with which to defend himself on his
+    journey to the next world, we put the body, and then firmly
+    blocked up the entrance with large stones, to keep the prowling
+    hyenas from exhuming it. Poor Mendose! he was an obedient,
+    willing servant, and by far the best shot of all our native
+    hunters.
+
+    "The first thing to be done now was to cut some meat from one of
+    the elephants, and then get down to a pool of water which we had
+    passed during the hunt, and make a 'skerm' for the night. On
+    reaching the nearest carcase, which proved to be in fair
+    condition, I was much surprised to see my Kafirs throw aside
+    every semblance of grief, and fight and quarrel over pieces of
+    fat and other titbits in their usual manner. Even the fellow who
+    had had the misfortune to shoot his comrade, though he kept
+    asserting that 'his heart was dead,' was quite as eager as the
+    rest. In the evening they laughed and chatted and sang as usual,
+    ate most hearty suppers, and indeed seemed as if all memory of
+    the tragedy which had occurred but a few hours before, and which
+    at the time had seemed to affect them so deeply, had passed from
+    their minds.
+
+    "Thus ended the best day's hunting, as regards weight of ivory,
+    at which I had ever assisted. The next day we set the Kafirs to
+    work with three American axes, and before nightfall the twelve
+    tusks (not one of which was broken) were lying side by side,
+    forming one of the finest trophies a sportsman's heart could
+    desire to look upon. The largest pair of tusks weighed 57 lbs.
+    apiece, and the smallest 29 lbs. and 31 lbs. respectively--a
+    very fair lot of bull ivory."
+
+    A few days later he had an interesting day in the valley of the
+    Dett and experienced something of the difficulties and dangers
+    of the hunter's life.[9]
+
+    "About an hour later, we came up with them, standing some fifty
+    yards away, on our right, under a clump of camel-thorn trees,
+    and in a rather open place compared with the general density of
+    the surrounding jungle. Besides the small troop of bulls we had
+    followed, and which were nearest to us, there was a very large
+    herd of cows standing just beyond, which, as we had not crossed
+    their spoor, had probably drunk at Sikumi--a water-hole not many
+    miles distant--and come to this rendezvous from the other side.
+
+    "Taking a hasty gulp of water, we at once walked towards them.
+    As we advanced, the slight rustling of the bushes must have
+    attracted the attention of one of the bulls, for he raised his
+    trunk high in the air, and made a few steps forward. 'I'll take
+    him, and do you fire at the one with the long white tusks on the
+    left,' whispered W. 'Right you are!' was the reply, and the next
+    moment we fired. I just had time to see my elephant fall on his
+    knees, when he was hidden by the troop of cows that, awakened
+    from their sleep by the shots, and not knowing exactly where
+    the danger lay, came rushing towards us in a mass, one or two of
+    them trumpeting, and others making a sort of rumbling noise.
+    Seizing our second guns and shouting lustily, we again pulled
+    trigger. Our Hottentot boy John, and five of our Kafirs, who
+    still carried guns, also fired; on which the herd turned and
+    went off at right angles, enveloped in a cloud of dust. My gun
+    had only snapped the cap, but my Kafir, to whom I threw it back,
+    thinking in the noise and hurry that it was discharged, reloaded
+    it on the top of the old charge--a fact which I only found out,
+    to my sorrow, later on. The cloud of sand and dust raised by the
+    panic-stricken elephants was at first so thick that we could
+    distinguish nothing; but, running behind them, I soon made out
+    the bull I had wounded, which I recognized by the length and
+    shape of his tusks. He was evidently hard hit, and, being unable
+    to keep up with the herd, he turned out, and went off alone; but
+    he was joined almost immediately by four old cows, all with
+    small, insignificant tusks, and, instead of running away, they
+    walked along quite slowly, first in front of and then behind
+    him, as if to encourage him. Seeing how severely he was wounded,
+    I at once went after him, accompanied only by my two
+    gun-carriers, Nuta and Balamoya, W. and the rest of the Kafirs
+    going on after the troop. My bull was going so slowly that I had
+    no difficulty in threading my way through the bushes and getting
+    in front of him, which I did in order to get a broadside shot as
+    he passed me. One of the four cows that still accompanied him
+    walked along, carrying her head high and her tail straight in
+    the air, and kept constantly turning from side to side. 'That
+    cow will bother us; shoot her,' said Nuta, and I wish I had
+    taken his advice; but her tusks were so small, and the bull
+    seemed so very far gone, that I thought it would be a waste of
+    ammunition. I therefore waited till he was a little in front of
+    where I stood, and then gave him a bullet at very close
+    quarters, just behind the shoulder, and, as I thought, exactly
+    in the right place; but he nevertheless continued his walk as if
+    he had not felt it. Reloading the same gun, I ran behind him,
+    holding it before me in both hands, ready to raise at a moment's
+    notice, and, the four cows being some twenty yards in advance, I
+    shouted, hoping he would turn. The sound of my voice had the
+    desired effect; for he at once raised his ears and swung himself
+    round, or rather was in the act of doing so, for immediately his
+    ears went up my gun was at my shoulder, and as soon as he
+    presented his broadside I fired, on which he turned again, and
+    went crashing through the bushes at a trot. I thought that it
+    was a last spasmodic rush and that he would fall before going
+    very far; so, giving the gun back to Nuta to reload, I was
+    running after him, with my eyes fixed on the quivering bushes as
+    they closed behind him, when suddenly the trunk of another
+    elephant was whirled round, almost literally above my head, and
+    a short, sharp scream of rage thrilled through me, making the
+    blood tingle down to the very tips of my fingers. It was one of
+    the wretched old cows, that had thus lain in wait for me behind
+    a dense patch of bush.
+
+    "Even had my gun been in my hands, I should scarcely have had
+    time to fire, so close was she upon me; but, as it was, both my
+    Kafirs were some fifteen yards behind, and the only thing I
+    could do was to run. How I got away I scarcely know. I bounded
+    over and through thorn-bushes which, in cold blood, I should
+    have judged impenetrable; but I was urged on by the short
+    piercing screams which, repeated in quick succession, seemed to
+    make the whole air vibrate, and by the fear of finding myself
+    encircled by the trunk or transfixed by the tusk of the enraged
+    animal. After a few seconds (for I don't think she pursued me a
+    hundred yards, though it seemed an age), the screaming ceased.
+    During the chase, the elephant was so close behind me, that
+    looking over my shoulder was impossible, and all that I did was
+    to dash forward, springing from side to side so as to hinder her
+    from getting hold of me, and it was only when the trumpeting
+    suddenly stopped that I knew I was out of her reach. I was
+    barelegged--as I always am when hunting on foot--and my only
+    garment before the beast charged was a flannel shirt; but I now
+    stood almost _in puris naturalibus_, for my hat, the leather
+    belt that I wore round my waist, and about three parts of my
+    shirt, had been torn off by the bushes, and I doubt if there was
+    a square inch of skin left uninjured anywhere on the front of my
+    body."
+
+Soon after another old bull charged him.
+
+    "Taking a good sight for the middle of his shoulder, I pulled
+    the trigger. This time the gun went off--it was a four-bore
+    elephant gun, loaded twice over, and the powder thrown in each
+    time by a Kafir with his hands--and I went off too! I was lifted
+    clean from the ground, and turning round in the air, fell with
+    my face in the sand, whilst the gun was carried yards away over
+    my shoulder. At first I was almost stunned with the shock, and I
+    soon found that I could not lift my right arm. Besides this, I
+    was covered with blood, which spurted from a deep wound under
+    the right cheek-bone, caused by the stock of the gun as it flew
+    upwards from the violence of the recoil. The stock
+    itself--though it had been bound round, as are all
+    elephant-guns, with the inside skin of an elephant's ear put on
+    green, which when dry holds it as firmly as iron--was shattered
+    to pieces, and the only wonder was that the barrel did not
+    burst. Whether the two bullets hit the elephant or not I cannot
+    say; but I think they must have done so, for he only went a few
+    yards after I fired, and then stood still, raising his trunk
+    every now and then, and dashing water tinged with blood over his
+    chest. I went cautiously up to within forty yards or so of him,
+    and sat down. Though I could not hold my arm out, I could raise
+    my forearm, so as to get hold of the trigger; but the shock had
+    so told on me, that I found I could not keep the sight within a
+    yard of the right place. The elephant remained perfectly still;
+    so I got Nuta to work my arm about gently, in order to restore
+    its power, and hoped that in the meantime the Kafir, whose
+    shouting had originally brought the elephant to me, would come
+    up and be able to go and fetch W. No doubt, if I had shouted he
+    would have come at once, for he could not have been very far
+    off; but had I done so the elephant might either have charged,
+    or else continued his flight, neither of which alternatives did
+    I desire. After a short time, seeing no chance of aid arriving,
+    and my nerves having got a little steadier, I took my favourite
+    gun from Nuta, and, resting my elbow on my knee, took a quiet
+    pot shot. I was, however, still very unsteady even in this
+    position, but I do not think the bullet could have struck very
+    far from the right place. The elephant on receiving the shot
+    made a rush forwards, crashing through the bushes at a quick
+    walk, so that we had to run at a hard trot to keep him in sight.
+    He now seemed very vicious, for, hearing a dry branch snap, he
+    turned and ran towards us, and then stood with his ears up,
+    feeling about in all directions with his trunk to try and get
+    our wind.
+
+    "Nuta, who up to this day had always been a most staunch and
+    plucky gun-bearer, now seemed seized with a panic, and refused
+    to bring me the gun any more, calling out, 'Leave the elephant,
+    sir; this day you're bewitched, and will surely be killed.'
+    However, as the elephant was evidently very severely wounded, I
+    had no idea of giving over the chase as long as I could keep up,
+    and, after bestowing a few Anglo-Saxon idioms upon Nuta, I again
+    ran on. The bush now became very thick, and, as the elephant was
+    going straight away, I could not get a chance of a shot. About a
+    mile farther on, however, we came to one of those large open
+    turf flats which occur here and there in the midst of the
+    sinangas. It was quite a mile square, and perfectly bare, with
+    the exception of a few large camel-thorn trees, which were
+    scattered about in clumps. On reaching this opening, the
+    elephant, instead of turning back into the bush, as I should
+    have expected, kept his course, making straight for the farther
+    side, and going at that long, swinging walk, to keep up with
+    which a man on foot must run at a fair pace. I had now been a
+    long time bare-headed, exposed to the heat of the fierce
+    tropical sun, and the kick I had received from the gun had so
+    much shaken me, that I felt dead-beat, and could scarcely drag
+    one leg after the other. I saw that I should never be able to
+    run up to within shot of the elephant, which was now about 150
+    yards ahead; so, taking the gun from Nuta, I told him to try and
+    run right round him, and by shouting turn him back towards me.
+    Relieved of the weight of the gun, and being a splendid runner,
+    he soon accomplished this, and standing behind the stem of a
+    camel-thorn tree a long way in advance, holloed loudly.
+    Accordingly, I had the satisfaction of seeing the elephant stop,
+    raise his ears, look steadily in the direction of the noise, and
+    then wheel round, and come walking straight back towards the
+    jungle he had just left, taking a line which would bring him
+    past me, at a distance of about fifty or sixty yards. I stood
+    perfectly still, with Balamoya kneeling close behind me; for,
+    though elephants can see very well in the open, I have always
+    found that if they do not get your wind, and you remain
+    motionless, they seem to take you for a tree or a stump. To this
+    I now trusted, and as the elephant came on I had full leisure to
+    examine him. The ground between us was as bare as a board,
+    except that it was covered with coarse grass about a foot high,
+    and he looked truly a gigantic and formidable beast; his tusks
+    were small for his size, one of them being broken at the point,
+    and I do not think they could have weighed much over 30 lbs.
+    apiece. He came steadily on, swinging his trunk backwards and
+    forwards, until he was about seventy yards from where I stood,
+    when suddenly I was dismayed to see his trunk sharply raised, as
+    if to catch a stray whiff of wind, and the next instant he
+    stopped and faced full towards us, with his head raised, and his
+    enormous ears spread like two sails. He took a few steps towards
+    us, raising his feet very slowly, and bringing them down as if
+    afraid of treading on a thorn. It was an anxious moment; he was
+    evidently very suspicious, but did not know what to make of us,
+    and had we remained motionless I believe he would still have
+    turned and walked on again. 'Stand still!' I whispered between
+    my teeth to Balamoya; but the sight of the advancing monster was
+    too much for him--he jumped up and bolted. The instant he moved,
+    on came the elephant, without trumpeting, and with his trunk
+    straight down. Though very shaky just before, the imminence of
+    the danger braced up my nerves, and I think I never held a gun
+    steadier than upon this occasion. As he was coming direct at me,
+    and as he did not raise his trunk, his chest was quite covered;
+    there was therefore nothing left but to fire at his head. He
+    came on at an astonishing pace, and I heard only the 'whish,
+    whish' of the grass as his great feet swept through it. He was
+    perhaps twenty yards off when I pulled the trigger. I aimed a
+    little above the root of the trunk and just between the eyes,
+    and directly I fired I ran out sideways as fast as I could,
+    though I had not much running left in me. Looking over my
+    shoulder, I saw him standing with his ears still up and his head
+    slightly turned, looking towards me; the blood was pouring down
+    his trunk from a wound exactly where I had aimed, and, as it was
+    inflicted by a four-ounce ball, backed by a heavy charge of
+    powder, I cannot understand why it did not penetrate to his
+    brain; it had half-stunned him, however, and saved my life, for,
+    had he come on again, it would have been utterly impossible for
+    me, fatigued as I was, to have avoided him. After standing still
+    for a short time, swaying himself gently from side to side, he
+    again turned and took across the flat. Nuta, seeing what had
+    happened, instead of trying to turn him again, cleared out of
+    his road, and, making a large circle, came back to me. Perhaps
+    it was as well he did so."
+
+Selous now gave up the pursuit without having killed a single elephant,
+and it was ten days before he could use his arm again.
+
+In November, the rainy season having set in, Selous and Wood returned to
+Bulawayo carrying 5000 lbs. weight of ivory. Selous bears testimony to
+the extraordinary abundance of game at this time in South Africa, and
+gives a wonderful word-picture of the extraordinary collection of
+animals he saw one evening in October, 1873, in the valley of the Dett.
+
+    "First, a few hundred yards higher up this valley than where we
+    were working, a herd of nine giraffes stalked slowly and
+    majestically from the forest, and, making their way to a pool of
+    water, commenced to drink. These giraffes remained in the open
+    valley until dark, one or other of them, from time to time,
+    straddling out his forelegs in a most extraordinary manner in
+    order to get its mouth down to the water. No other animals came
+    to drink in the pools between us and the giraffes. Possibly some
+    got our wind before leaving the shelter of the forest, though
+    the evening was very still. But below us, as far as one could
+    see down the valley, the open ground was presently alive with
+    game. One after another, great herds of buffaloes emerged from
+    the forest on either side of the valley and fed slowly down to
+    the water. One of these herds was preceded by about fifty zebras
+    and another by a large herd of sable antelopes. Presently two
+    other herds of sable antelopes appeared upon the scene, and a
+    second herd of zebras, and five magnificently horned old koodoo
+    bulls, whilst rhinoceroses both of the black and white species
+    (the latter predominating in numbers) were scattered amongst the
+    other game, singly or in twos and threes all down the valley. Of
+    course all this great concourse of wild animals had been
+    collected together in the neighbourhood of the valley of the
+    Dett owing to the drying up of all the valleys in the
+    surrounding country, and during the rainy season would have been
+    scattered over a wide area."[10]
+
+In 1874, Wood, Selous, Mr. and Lieutenant Garden trekked north,
+intending to hunt on the Zambesi and Chobe rivers. They left Tati on May
+6th and approached the Victoria Falls on June 10th, stopping on the way
+at Daka, where Wood and Selous killed some elephants, and the latter had
+a somewhat narrow escape from a charging bull which he managed to kill
+just at the right moment. On June 27th they viewed the wonderful Falls
+of Zambesi, and Selous, like all other travellers, goes into ecstasies
+at their beauty and grandeur. Here they encountered for the first time a
+rare antelope, the pookoo, which gave Selous much pleasure, for it may
+be said that from this date he commenced his wonderful collection of
+African mammals. During, and after, 1874, he never failed to preserve
+and keep for his own collection all the best specimens of big game he
+shot, then having unrivalled opportunities for getting the finest
+trophies. This can, of course, only be achieved when animals are
+abundant. He often lamented afterwards that he did not take more care to
+get some buffalo bulls of the first quality, for he certainly saw and
+killed great numbers in those early years, yet he only kept three or
+four heads of bulls that were in no way remarkable, when he could have
+possessed the best specimens in existence. When he wanted them it was
+too late.
+
+At the Zambesi, Wood decided to go eastward to the Gwai, so Selous and
+the Gardens travelled west into the unknown country of the Chobe. On the
+first day Selous killed a splendid koodoo bull which he preserved, and
+shortly afterwards encountered numerous herds of pookoo and other
+antelopes. The country about the Chobe was in fact about the best for
+mixed game at this period, and Selous revelled in the wealth of animal
+life, though he devoted most of his energies to looking for elephants,
+which were here difficult to kill owing to shifting winds. One day he
+had quite a little battle with the fierce buffalo cow.[11]
+
+    "On again arriving at the open valley mentioned above, I found
+    it occupied by a large herd of two or three hundred buffaloes,
+    that had emerged from the surrounding jungle during my absence,
+    and were now feeding quietly down towards the river for their
+    evening drink. Though I hardly liked to fire, for fear of
+    disturbing elephants, some of which might, for all I knew, be
+    within hearing, yet, on the other hand, I had a strong desire to
+    secure a nice fat buffalo steak for supper, and at last
+    forgetting all more prudent resolves, and sympathising with the
+    feelings of my Kafirs who kept entreating me to shoot them a fat
+    cow, I took my four-bore elephant-gun and advanced towards the
+    still unconscious herd, resolved to kill one if possible. Those
+    that were nearest were about one hundred and twenty yards from
+    the edge of the bush, beyond which there was no shelter, save
+    that afforded by a few large scattered goussy trees. However, by
+    creeping cautiously forward on my hands and knees, I managed to
+    get within eighty yards or so, when an old cow observing me,
+    raised her head and gazed steadily towards where I crouched.
+    There was no time to be lost, as I saw she was thoroughly
+    alarmed, so, singling out a fine fat cow, that stood broadside
+    on close beside her, I raised my heavy gun, and taking a quick
+    aim behind her shoulder, fired. The loud bellow that followed
+    the shot told me she was hard hit, but I could see nothing, for
+    the whole herd, startled by the report of the gun, rushed
+    together in wild affright, and now stood in a dense mass, facing
+    towards their hidden foe, effectually screening the wounded cow
+    from my view. In another instant, seemingly satisfied that
+    something dangerous was near, they turned about and galloped
+    away across the valley, making for the bush on the opposite
+    side, and on the dust raised by their many feet subsiding, I
+    beheld the one I had wounded still standing where she had been
+    shot, and thought she was about done for; but on seeing me step
+    from behind a tree, she immediately wheeled round and made for
+    the jungle.
+
+    "When the herd ran together, after I had fired, with several
+    nasty-looking old bulls in their front, my native attendants had
+    all retreated precipitately to the edge of the bush (with the
+    exception of one of the Masaras, who was carrying a small gourd
+    of water slung on an assegai over his shoulder), or I might have
+    given the cow another shot with my second gun before she turned
+    to run. Although evidently severely wounded, she still managed
+    to get over the ground at a great rate, and entered the bush at
+    least 100 yards in advance of myself and the Bushman, who were
+    following at our best pace, the Kafirs carrying my guns being a
+    considerable distance behind. Just within the edge of the jungle
+    was one very thick patch, unlike the greater part, covered with
+    foliage, and behind this the wounded buffalo turned and stood at
+    bay waiting for her pursuers. Not thinking of this stratagem (a
+    very common one with both buffaloes and elephants), and
+    imagining her to be a considerable distance ahead, I ran into
+    her very horns before I saw her, and she at the same time seeing
+    me at once charged, with eyes on fire, and her nose stretched
+    straight out, grunting furiously. Luckily she was not standing
+    head on, but broadside to me, and so could not come straight at
+    me, but had first to turn round the bush. This gave me time to
+    spring through the bushes to one side, as she rushed past, when
+    she immediately made at the Bushman, who, springing into a
+    small sapling, just swung his body up out of reach as she passed
+    beneath. So close was she, that, as the calabash full of water,
+    which he had been carrying slung on an assegai, fell to the
+    ground behind him, she smashed it to atoms, either with her feet
+    or horns, just as, if not before, it touched the ground. After
+    this she turned and stood under the very slender tree on which
+    the Bushman hung, looking up at him, and grunting furiously, but
+    not attempting to butt the tree down, which I think she could
+    have accomplished had she but tried. At this instant the Kafir
+    who carried my ten-bore rifle, reaching the scene of action
+    unperceived by the buffalo, fired at and missed her, on which
+    she again retreated behind the bush from whence she had first
+    charged. By this time, however, I had my second elephant-gun in
+    my hands, and creeping up gave her another bullet on the point
+    of the shoulder, just as she caught sight of me and was again
+    turning to charge. On receiving this second ball, she fell to
+    the ground, and snatching up an assegai, and followed by several
+    of the Kafirs, we ran in and despatched her before she could
+    rise. She proved to be a dry cow in splendid condition."
+
+He killed several good bull elephants in the Chobe bush and had some
+narrow escapes, once nearly losing his life owing to the caps missing
+fire. What delighted him most was the abundance of other game he saw. He
+believed the sable antelopes here carried finer horns than in any part
+of South Africa, south of the Zambesi, and often wished afterwards he
+had shot one or two, but when he encountered them he was always after
+elephants, so he did not fire. The best specimen of this grand animal he
+killed in Northern Mashunaland three years later, and its horns measured
+441/2 ins. in length, but he always thought that somewhere in Africa there
+were greater sable antelopes than this, and one day, in later years, he
+found in the museum at Florence a wonderful single horn of 60 inches.
+For years he tried to find out where it came from without success. Now
+we know it must have been sent from Angola, Portuguese West Africa, for
+on the Quanza river some remarkable specimens have been obtained,
+reaching up to 63 inches but it is feared that they are few in number
+there, and nearly extinct.
+
+Near the Chobe on some marshy flats he found the lechwe antelope for the
+first time and killed some good examples, and he accurately
+described[12] the curious movements of these antelopes.
+
+    "When first they make up their minds to run, these lechwe buck
+    stretch out their noses, laying their horns flat along their
+    backs, and trot like an eland, but on being pressed break into a
+    springing gallop, now and then bounding high into the air like
+    impalas. Even when in water up to their necks they do not swim,
+    but get along by a succession of bounds with great rapidity,
+    making a tremendous splashing and general commotion. Of course
+    when the water becomes too deep for them to bottom they are
+    forced to swim, which they do well and strongly, though not as
+    fast as the natives can paddle, and in the rainy season, when
+    the country is flooded, great numbers are driven into deep water
+    and speared before they can again reach the shallows where they
+    can touch ground. It is owing to their being thus driven about
+    and harried by the natives in canoes, I suspect, that they are
+    so wild, as I don't think they can often have heard the sound of
+    a gun before."
+
+In September he was very lucky with the elephants, killing five each day
+on September 4th and September 8th. Altogether he shot twenty-four in
+1874.
+
+    "During the intensely hot weather in September and October, just
+    before the rains fall, elephants soon become fatigued if driven
+    about and exposed to the fierce sun. When they get hot and tired
+    they insert their trunks into their mouths and draw out water
+    from their stomachs, which they dash over their breasts and
+    shoulders to cool themselves; and when the supply of water is
+    exhausted they will sometimes throw sand over their bodies,
+    which one would suppose would only make them hotter than they
+    were before. Though, as I have said, elephants get knocked up
+    comparatively soon when hunted during the hot weather, yet, as
+    may be imagined, it is killing work following them on foot at
+    that season, in deep sandy ground and under a tropical sun, and
+    with nothing to drink but a very limited allowance of water
+    carried in a gourd, which soon gets lukewarm from the intensity
+    of the heat."[13]
+
+On September 11th he made a start for home, reaching Daka on September
+26th, after an absence of three months. He then went east to trade at
+Wankie, where he got 300 lbs. of good ivory. In December he trekked
+south to the Tati, where he shot his first lion. Thus it was three years
+before Selous actually shot a lion in Africa--a fact that may seem
+somewhat strange, but not so much when we consider the nocturnal habits
+of these animals. I knew a man in East Africa who lived in a district
+where lions are far more abundant than they were in South Africa, who,
+though constantly shooting and travelling in lion haunts, had never once
+seen one of these beasts in the course of several years.
+
+Selous' first lions were evidently of the fighting order, as they always
+are, when pressed by a mounted man.[14]
+
+    "On this occasion, as Dorehill and myself were riding through a
+    patch of bush, our ears were suddenly saluted with a muffled
+    growling that we did not immediately interpret. The next
+    instant, however, Hartebeest rushed forward, pointing with his
+    assegai, and shouting, 'Isilouan! isilouan!' (lions! lions!). I
+    saw nothing, but galloped through the bush in the direction he
+    pointed, Dorehill heading a little to the right. A few moments
+    later, coming to a more open part, I saw two large lionesses
+    trotting along in front of me. Upon hearing me behind them, they
+    both stopped, and standing broadside to me, turned their heads
+    and looked towards me. Pulling in my horse, I jumped to the
+    ground, upon which they started off again at a gallop. I fired
+    at the hindermost one as she ran, and evidently struck her, for
+    she threw up her tail and gave a loud growl. They now went into
+    a patch of short mopani bush, beyond which the country was open
+    forest, with no underwood. At first they trotted out into this
+    open forest, but the wounded one not seeming to like it, turned,
+    and squatting on the ground, crept back like a cat, with her
+    shoulders above her back, and her eyes all the time fixed upon
+    me, until she reached a little thorn-bush, under which she
+    stretched herself at full length, and lay watching me with her
+    head couched on her outstretched paws. All this time the other
+    lioness was standing in the open, and I was just going to
+    dismount and fire at her, when, turning towards me, she trotted
+    a few steps forwards, and then, throwing her tail two or three
+    times straight into the air, came galloping forwards, growling
+    savagely. Turning my horse's head I pressed him to his utmost
+    speed, closely pursued by the lioness. I do not know how near
+    she got, but her loud purring growls sounded unpleasantly close.
+    As soon as the growling stopped, I knew she had given up the
+    chase, and so rode round in a half-circle to get a view of her.
+    She then trotted to a large mopani tree, in the shade of which
+    she stood. When I rode to another tree about sixty yards off,
+    she lowered her head and stood looking at me, snarling savagely,
+    with her tail held straight in the air. I think that she had
+    done her best to catch me, as her flanks were heaving like those
+    of a tired dog, with the exertion of her run. Feeling sure that
+    she would charge again as soon as she recovered her breath, I
+    steadied myself and fired from the saddle, but missed her. She
+    never took the slightest notice of the shot, but continued
+    snarling and growling. Resting the butt of my rifle (a single
+    ten-bore muzzle-loader) on my foot, I now reloaded with all
+    expedition, and fired again, the lioness all this time having
+    preserved the same position, standing exactly facing me. This
+    time I struck her right in the mouth, knocking out one of the
+    lower canine teeth, breaking the lower jaw-bone, and injuring
+    her neck. She fell to the shot instantly, and lay quite still. I
+    thought she was dead, but took the precaution to reload before
+    riding up to her. On my dismounting and walking towards her, she
+    raised herself on her fore-quarters, when I gave her a ball in
+    the shoulder which effectually settled her. Dorehill now came up
+    with the Kafirs. He had seen the other lions, a male and two
+    females, for there were five altogether, but they had given him
+    the slip in a patch of thick bush. We now went to look for the
+    one I had first wounded, but though there was a little blood
+    under the bush where she had been lying, we could discover no
+    further trace of her, and the ground being very hard no sign of
+    her spoor was visible, even to the keen eyes of the Bushmen. So,
+    after skinning the one I had killed, which was in beautiful
+    condition, we returned to the waggons."
+
+At Tati Selous received his first letters from home since he left the
+Diamond Fields three years previously, and after reading their contents
+he decided to go home, and so turned his face southward on February 1st,
+1875.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[4] There was an exhibition of Baines' collected works at the Crystal
+Palace some years ago, but few people took any notice of them. Baines
+published an excellent book "The Gold Regions of South-Eastern Africa"
+in 1877.
+
+[5] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 15-23.
+
+[6] Finaughty states that in 1867 Jan Viljoen and his party killed 210
+elephants in one trip. This is probably the largest bag of elephants
+ever made in one season.
+
+[7] In this matter Finaughty received powerful support in the evidence
+of William Judd, possibly the most experienced African hunter now
+living; he writes: "As for buffalo I consider them far and away the most
+dangerous game. The difficulty of stopping a direct charge, as they very
+rarely swerve even to the heaviest bullet--the way they can force
+themselves through bush absolutely impenetrable to man and the nasty
+habit they have, when wounded (and sometimes when not wounded) of
+breaking away, making a detour and charging up again from behind, make
+them an adversary worthy of the greatest respect. I personally have had
+more close shaves from these brutes than I have had from all other big
+game put together--lions and elephants included."
+
+[8] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 84-88.
+
+[9] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 89-99.
+
+[10] "African Nature Notes and Reminiscences," p. 134.
+
+[11] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 120-123.
+
+[12] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 137-138.
+
+[13] "A Hunter's Wanderings," p. 181.
+
+[14] _Ibid._, pp. 187-189.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+1876-1878
+
+
+The years 1872-1874 were undoubtedly the most strenuous of Selous' life,
+for after his return to South Africa in 1876 he used the horse in the
+greater part of his journeys in the interior, except on such trips as he
+made into the "fly," when he seldom met with elephants. He landed again
+at Algoa Bay on March 15th, 1876, and at once organized another trip
+into the interior, taking four months before he reached the Matabele
+country by bullock waggon. Here he met his old friend Dorehill,
+Lieutenant Grandy, R.N., and a Mr. Horner, and as it was too late to
+make an extensive trip after elephants the party spent the remainder of
+the year in short hunting trips down the Tati, Shashi, and Ramokwebani
+rivers. Much of this time was spent in hunting giraffes, and he gives
+many lively accounts of this exhilarating sport, also of hunting
+buffaloes and the larger antelopes. One day on the Ramokwebani Selous
+and his friends had a thrilling hunt after an old male lion which gave
+much trouble. Selous broke the animal's shoulder with the first shot and
+then followed into thick bush in which the lion kept retreating. For
+that evening he was lost as night came on, but next day Selous tried his
+dogs, which seemed disinclined to face the quarry. The lion, however,
+was soon found, as a wet night had made "spooring" easy, and he kept up
+a continuous roaring, which is unusual. Grandy and Horner had shots,
+after which the lion continued his retreat from one thicket to another,
+but roaring at intervals.[15]
+
+    "As it was, however, I was peering about into the bush to try
+    and catch sight of him, holding my rifle advanced in front of
+    me, and on full cock, when I became aware that he was coming at
+    me through the bush. The next instant out he burst. I was so
+    close that I had not even time to take a sight, but, stepping a
+    pace backwards, got the rifle to my shoulder, and, when his head
+    was close upon the muzzle, pulled the trigger and jumped to one
+    side. The lion fell almost at my very feet, certainly not six
+    feet from the muzzle of the rifle. Grandy and Horner, who had a
+    good view of the charge, say that he just dropped in his tracks
+    when I fired, which I could not see for the smoke. One thing,
+    however, I had time to notice, and that was that he did not come
+    at me in bounds, but with a rush along the ground. Perhaps it
+    was his broken shoulder that hindered him from springing, but
+    for all that he came at a very great rate, and with his mouth
+    open. Seeing him on the ground, I thought that I must have
+    shattered his skull and killed him, when, as we were advancing
+    towards him, he stood up again. Dorehill at once fired with a
+    Martini-Henry rifle, and shot him through the thigh. On this he
+    fell down again, and, rolling over on to his side, lay gasping.
+    We now went up to him, but, as he still continued to open his
+    mouth, Horner gave him a shot in the head. I now examined my
+    prize with great satisfaction. He was an average-sized lion, his
+    pegged-out skin measuring 10 ft. 3 in. from nose to tip of tail,
+    sleek, and in fine condition, and his teeth long and perfect.
+    Grandy and Horner must both have missed him when they first
+    fired, as we could find no mark of their bullets on the skin; so
+    that when he charged the only wound he had was the one I had
+    given him on the previous evening. This bullet had merely
+    smashed his shoulder-blade and lodged under the skin just behind
+    it. The bullet with which I so luckily stopped him when charging
+    had struck him fair on the head, about half an inch above the
+    right eye; here it had cracked the skull, but, without
+    penetrating, had glanced along the bone and come out behind the
+    right ear. I believe that this shot must have given him
+    concussion of the brain and caused his death, and that when he
+    stood up after it was merely a spasmodic action, for the shot
+    that Dorehill gave him was only a flesh wound through the
+    thighs, and the last shot that Horner gave him in the head as he
+    lay on the ground had passed beneath the brain-pan."
+
+At the Ramokwebani Selous met for the first time George Westbeech, the
+well-known trader, who had for years traded in the far interior as a
+pioneer. He principally worked the ivory business on the Zambesi and all
+its confluents north and south. In 1871 he opened up a lucrative
+business with Sepopo, king of the Barotsi, and between that year and
+1876, when Sepopo was assassinated, he brought out no less than 30,000
+lbs. of ivory. He also traded much with the Portuguese on the Zambesi,
+and his operations extended as far north as the Mashukulumbwe country.
+Selous, as well as all travellers in the interior at this period, had a
+great respect for Westbeech, and bears testimony to his high character
+and integrity in dealings with the natives. He regarded him as a fine
+type of the best class of English pioneer, and is scathing in his
+denunciation of "stay-at-home aborigines' protectionists, who,
+comfortably seated in the depths of their armchairs before a blazing
+fire, are continually thundering forth denunciations against the
+rapacious British colonist, and the 'low, immoral trader,' who exerts
+such a baneful influence upon the chaste and guileless savages of the
+interior. I speak feelingly, as I am proud to rank myself as one of that
+little body of English and Scotch men who, as traders and
+elephant-hunters in Central South Africa, have certainly, whatever may
+be their failings in other respects, kept up the name of Englishmen
+amongst the natives for all that is upright and honest. In the words of
+Buckle, we are neither monks nor saints, but only men."
+
+Late in 1876 Selous went down to the Diamond Fields to fetch some
+property, and trekked south via Bamangwato. This occupied five months
+before he returned to Matabeleland. On December 6th he had an adventure
+with lions at Pelatse. He was awakened at 2.30 by his boy, January, who
+told him there was something on his horse. It was, however, too dark to
+see to shoot, but he crept near and saw two lions leave the dead horse.
+He then crawled close to the carcase and another lion rose and sprang
+away. Just as daylight came in, however, he saw a lion lying "between me
+and the horse, its tawny body pressed flat upon the yellow sand and its
+great head couched upon its outstretched paws." He fired at it at a
+distance of twelve paces and the lion rolled over, recovered, and made
+off. When day broke he followed the wounded lion for several miles, but
+never found it again. A few days later some Bushmen found the lion dead
+and took the skin, but Selous never recovered it, as he had by this time
+gone south.
+
+In "A Hunter's Wanderings," "The Lion in South Africa" (Badminton
+Library), and "The Gun at Home and Abroad," Selous gives the most
+complete account of the lion and its habits and mode of hunting that has
+been written by any hunter of wide experience.
+
+It is somewhat curious to notice that three first-class authorities,
+namely Selous, Finaughty, and Neumann, who all had a wide experience
+with lions, buffaloes, and elephants, all differ entirely as to the
+respective danger in dealing with these formidable animals. Selous
+considered that the lion was much the worst when cornered, Finaughty is
+emphatic that the buffalo is by far the most dangerous opponent, whilst
+Neumann gives the elephant first place. Each hunter had ample
+opportunities for gauging the fighting qualities of these animals, and
+all agree that they are very dangerous, and give numerous examples from
+their own experience, so that we are still left in doubt as to the real
+issue. The experience of men who have only seen and shot a few lions,
+buffaloes, and elephants is not of much value, because these beasts are
+judged according to their behaviour in special cases, but Selous shot
+many of all kinds when rifles were clumsy and inefficient, and even when
+armed with the most accurate and powerful weapons, and yet adheres to
+his point, that the lion never refuses battle when once he is stopped,
+whilst buffaloes and elephants almost invariably try to get away unless
+severely wounded. It is possible, however, that in past times lions in
+South Africa were more savage than they are to-day in East Africa and
+Somaliland, just as probably they were more prone to attack without
+provocation in the days when Jules Gerard hunted lions in French
+Algeria. At any rate this is the opinion of Sir Frederick Jackson, an
+experienced hunter in East Africa, who, although admitting he had not
+had a wide experience with lions, seems to think they always try to
+sneak off whenever they can--even when wounded. William Judd, perhaps
+the most experienced hunter of all game in East Africa, and a man who
+has also killed many lions in South Africa, places the buffalo first as
+the most dangerous animal, and his opinion is worthy of the highest
+consideration.
+
+Selous bases his argument on the following:--
+
+    "That more accidents have happened in encounters with buffaloes
+    than with lions is not that the former is a more dangerous
+    animal than the latter, but because, for every lion that has
+    been killed in the interior, at least fifty buffaloes have been
+    brought to bay."
+
+All of which is perfectly true.
+
+Whilst on the subject of the comparative danger of various wild beasts
+it may be interesting briefly to summarize the views of other
+experienced hunters. Cuninghame and Tarlton place the elephant and the
+lion equal first, with the buffalo third. Sir Frederick Jackson and
+William Judd say the buffalo is easily first as a dangerous foe; whilst
+Captain Stigand assigns the danger in the following order, viz.: lion,
+elephant, rhinoceros, leopard, buffalo. Sir Samuel Baker makes a more
+curious order--elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, and lion the last. Oddly
+enough, only one hunter, namely Drummond, places the rhinoceros as the
+worst, but it must be remembered that when he hunted in South Africa
+heavy rifles were scarce and somewhat inadequate.
+
+Nevertheless, despite all these very divided opinions, it is generally
+agreed amongst all professional hunters, both Boers and British, with
+whom I have discussed the question, both in East and South Africa, that
+the buffalo is perhaps the most dangerous animal, because he is so hard
+to stop and offers generally so sudden, so determined, and so
+unfavourable a target when actually charging.
+
+When actually wounded and charging there is little doubt that the
+buffalo is the toughest of all, because he bursts out suddenly from a
+concealed spot and presents no vulnerable target, and I know from actual
+experience how helpless a man feels when one of these brutes comes
+grunting fiercely at his heels. Of course no man of sense does go poking
+about in dense bush after a wounded buffalo, but then all hunters are
+foolhardy sometimes and trouble ensues. We hate to leave a wounded
+animal, especially if it carries a good head. Thus have nearly all the
+numerous fatal accidents happened. A charging elephant is nearly always
+turned by a frontal shot, whereas a buffalo is never stopped unless it
+is mortally hit, but the chief danger in elephant-hunting seems to be
+(so Neumann thought) from outside sources--that is from vicious cows in
+the same herd which may be encountered suddenly. Neumann was an
+exceedingly brave man, and in his first trips was only armed with an
+ordinary .256 Mannlicher throwing a solid bullet. His method was to
+creep right in amongst a herd and shoot the best bull through the heart.
+This often did not kill it at once, and rendered him liable to be
+charged suddenly by other members of the herd. Wherefore he rightly
+estimates that his own form of hunting was the most dangerous of all
+African hunting. When he got a double .450 high-velocity Rigby he killed
+elephants much more easily and did not have nearly so many narrow
+escapes. It therefore seems to be the case that, armed with modern
+weapons, the hunter of elephants runs no especial risk if he does not
+try in the first instance to get too close to his quarry and gives it a
+side shot in the right place, whilst in the case of a charging animal
+the lion is the easiest to stop and the elephant the easiest to turn and
+the buffalo the hardest to kill. Yet if a quiet shot can be got at a
+buffalo bull before he has seen the hunter there seems to be little if
+any danger to the hunter.
+
+Men who have encountered thousands of buffalo have told us that they
+have never seen an unwounded buffalo charge and that this only occurs
+when the hunter suddenly meets one face to face in the bush. But even
+this is not quite correct.
+
+Speaking of buffaloes and their aggressiveness, Selous says: "Although
+many accidents happen in the pursuit of these animals, yet, in my
+opinion, the danger incurred in hunting them is marvellously
+exaggerated. Having shot nearly two hundred buffaloes to my own rifle,
+and followed very many of them when wounded into very thick bush, I
+think I have had sufficient experience to express an opinion on the
+subject." He suggests that, in the majority of cases when disasters
+occurred from a sudden attack, apparently without provocation, the
+buffalo which charged had probably been wounded by another hunter, and
+cites many instances to confirm this. Moreover, it may be added that
+buffaloes in old age often become deaf and lie in the bush until
+suddenly encountered by a man. Then a charge generally ensues because
+the meeting was unexpected.
+
+Although Selous held that lions are the most dangerous of all opponents,
+by his own accounts his escapes from infuriated buffaloes were quite as
+numerous as those from the great cats.
+
+Whilst hunting on the Chobe in 1877 he knocked down a young bull from a
+herd which gave him a very bad five minutes. As he was standing close to
+the bull, which he saw was only stunned, it suddenly rose to its feet
+and seemingly took no notice of a bullet fired point-blank into its
+chest. Selous ran past the bull, which catching sight of some of the
+Kafirs at once charged them, grunting furiously.[16]
+
+    "I was now by my tree, watching events and putting another
+    cartridge into my rifle. The buffalo having missed my boys, who
+    had all climbed into or were standing behind trees, soon slowed
+    down to a trot, but was evidently still eager for revenge, as he
+    came round in a half-circle with nose upraised and horns laid
+    back. I was just going to fire at him, when he must have got my
+    wind, for he suddenly swung round and, seeing me, came on at a
+    gallop as hard as he could. He was about one hundred yards off
+    when he started, and when he was some sixty yards from me I
+    fired for his throat; but he neither stopped nor swerved nor
+    showed in any way that he was hit, but came straight on. I had
+    plenty of time, and could have swarmed up the branchless stem of
+    the sapling by which I was standing, and got out of his reach
+    with the greatest ease; but, as my legs were bare, I knew that
+    such a course meant the loss of a lot of skin, so I determined
+    to dodge him. I was young and active in those days, and full of
+    confidence in my nerve, so, holding the stem of the tree in my
+    left hand, I leant out as far as possible and awaited the onset.
+    When he was very near me--so close, indeed, as to preclude the
+    possibility of his being able to swerve and pass on the other
+    side of the tree--I pulled my body with a sudden jerk up to and
+    beyond the stem, and, shooting past the buffalo's hind-quarters,
+    ran as hard as ever I could to another tree standing in the
+    direction from which he had come. I knew that by this manoeuvre
+    I should gain a good deal of ground, as, even if my adversary
+    had followed me, the pace at which he was going was such that he
+    would not have been able to turn till he had got some way past
+    the tree where I had given him the slip. Had he come round after
+    me I should now have climbed for it; but, as I expected, when I
+    dodged from under his very nose and shot past behind him he lost
+    me entirely and ran straight on. He did not, however, go far,
+    but stopped and lay down, and I killed him with another bullet."
+
+Again on the Chobe in 1879 he wounded an old bull, which he followed
+through open bush. The buffalo was, however, concealed as usual, and
+charged suddenly at ten yards' distance.
+
+"I had no time to raise the rifle to my shoulder," he says, "but
+swinging it round to my hips, just pulled the trigger, and at the same
+time sprang to one side. At the same moment I was covered with a shower
+of sand, and some part of the buffalo, nose or horn or shoulder, touched
+my thigh with sufficient force to overthrow me, but without hurting me
+in the least. I was on my feet again in a moment, ready to run for it,
+but saw that my adversary was on the ground bellowing, with a hind-leg,
+evidently broken, dragging out behind him. Before he recovered himself
+I despatched him with a bullet through the lungs."
+
+In April, 1877, Selous again reached Tati and, after a visit to
+Lobengula, at once trekked north to the Zambesi in the hope of securing
+elephants. This time he was accompanied by Mr. Kingsley, an Englishman,
+and Mr. Miller, a young colonist who was a first-rate shot. He had also
+several native hunters in his service. However, the whole trip resulted,
+as far as elephants were concerned, in a complete failure, only Miller
+killing two male animals. At Gerva he met his old friends Dorehill and
+Horner, who had both been seriously ill with fever, while his good
+friend Lieutenant Grandy had died from the same cause.
+
+When Selous reached the Chobe he found that the elephants had all
+disappeared, but does not state the cause, which I have since
+ascertained was probably due to the great drives organized by Sepopo,
+Chief of the Barotsi, in the triangle of the Chobe-Zambesi delta.
+Apropos of this, my friend McLeod of McLeod gave me the following
+account. In 1875 he, with Dorehill and W. Fairlie, trekked up from the
+south and left their waggons at Pandamatenka on the Zambesi. Here they
+crossed the river and went in on foot, intending to hunt in the Barotsi
+country. After good sport with game, Sepopo received the party kindly
+and invited them to a great elephant drive which annually took place in
+September in the junction formed by the meeting of the Chobe and Zambesi
+rivers. Many thousands of natives took part in this great hunt. A line
+of fire enclosed the base of the triangle, into which several hundred
+elephants had been driven, whilst some thousands of natives in canoes
+lay in the rivers on each flank to cut off elephants and shoot and spear
+them in the water as they broke out. When all was in readiness the lines
+from the base fires advanced and the elephants began to break back and
+the shooting began. "Such a fusillade," remarked McLeod, "more resembled
+a battle than a hunt; the firing was of the wildest description, and so
+inaccurate that we were in constant danger of losing our lives. At the
+end of the day only nine elephants were killed by our party and the
+natives round us, whilst the majority broke through our cordon and that
+of the fire behind and escaped. A considerable number, however, were
+speared and shot on the rivers on each flank. Several men were killed
+and wounded in the attack."
+
+The following year (1876) another great hunt of similar character took
+place, and late in the season Sepopo was assassinated and the whole
+country thrown into a state of anarchy.
+
+These great hunts, scaring the elephants out of the whole district,
+would account for Selous' bad luck in 1877, but he seemed to have
+enjoyed himself hunting buffalo, of which he killed no fewer than
+forty-five in four months on the Chobe. He states that he experienced a
+few dangers and one rather narrow escape.
+
+Selous, although he did not consider the buffalo so dangerous an
+antagonist as the lion, had his full share of adventures with them. His
+escape from an old bull which killed his horse under him, on the Nata
+river in May, 1874, was almost miraculous, for a buffalo seldom leaves
+his victim once he has got him down.
+
+He found two old buffalo bulls and galloped within three yards of them,
+and the rifle missed fire. After another chase one of the bulls, getting
+annoyed, stood and offered a good shot, and the cap again played the
+hunter false.[17]
+
+    "Putting on a third cap, I now kept it down with my thumb, and
+    was soon once more close behind him, and had galloped for
+    perhaps a couple of minutes more, when, entering a patch of
+    short thick mopani bush, he stopped suddenly, wheeled round, and
+    came on at once, as soon as he caught sight of the horse, with
+    his nose stretched straight out and horns laid back, uttering
+    the short grunts with which these animals invariably accompany a
+    charge.
+
+    "There was no time to be lost, as I was not more than forty
+    yards from him; so, reining in with a jerk and turning the horse
+    at the same instant broadside on, I raised my gun, intending to
+    put a ball, if possible, just between his neck and shoulder,
+    which, could I have done so, would either have knocked him
+    down, or at any rate made him swerve, but my horse, instead of
+    standing steady as he had always done before, now commenced
+    walking forward, though he did not appear to take any notice of
+    the buffalo. There was no time to put my hand down and give
+    another wrench on the bridle (which I had let fall on the
+    horse's neck), and for the life of me I could not get a sight
+    with the horse in motion. A charging buffalo does not take many
+    seconds to cover forty yards, and in another instant his
+    outstretched nose was within six feet of me, so, lowering the
+    gun from my shoulder, I pulled it off right in his face, at the
+    same time digging the spurs deep into my horse's sides. But it
+    was too late, for even as he sprang forward the old bull caught
+    him full in the flank, pitching him, with me on his back, into
+    the air like a dog. The recoil of the heavily-charged
+    elephant-gun with which I was unluckily shooting, twisted it
+    clean out of my hands, so that we all, horse, gun, and man, fell
+    in different directions. My horse regained its feet and galloped
+    away immediately, but even with a momentary glance I saw that
+    the poor brute's entrails were protruding in a dreadful manner.
+    The buffalo, on tossing the horse, had stopped dead, and now
+    stood with his head lowered within a few feet of me. I had
+    fallen in a sitting position, and facing my unpleasant-looking
+    adversary. I could see no wound on him, so must have missed,
+    though I can scarcely understand how, as he was so very close
+    when I fired.
+
+    "However, I had not much time for speculation, for the old
+    brute, after glaring at me a few seconds with his
+    sinister-looking bloodshot eyes, finally made up his mind and,
+    with a grunt, rushed at me. I threw my body out flat along the
+    ground to one side, and just avoided the upward thrust of his
+    horn, receiving, however, a severe blow on the left shoulder
+    with the round part of it, nearly dislocating my right arm with
+    the force with which my elbow was driven against the ground, and
+    receiving also a kick on the instep from one of his feet.
+    Luckily for me, he did not turn again, as he most certainly
+    would have done had he been wounded, but galloped clean away.
+
+    "The first thing to be done was to look after my horse, and at
+    about 150 yards from where he had been tossed I found him. The
+    buffalo had struck him full in the left thigh; it was an awful
+    wound, and, as the poor beast was evidently in the last
+    extremity, I hastily loaded my gun and put him out of his
+    misery. My Kafirs coming up just then, I started with them,
+    eager for vengeance, in pursuit of the buffalo, but was
+    compelled finally to abandon the chase, leaving my poor horse
+    unavenged."
+
+Curiously enough, McLeod met with an almost identical accident on the
+Nata in 1875. The buffalo struck the horse behind in his charge, and
+horse, rifle, and rider were all thrown to the ground. Although McLeod
+was lying helpless, the buffalo confined its fury to the horse and
+struck it with his horns till life was extinct. Then, without looking at
+McLeod, who had been thrown into a thorn-bush, it galloped away.
+
+Selous gives several instances of the tenacity of life and viciousness
+retained to the last moment of the buffalo.[18]
+
+    "Once, in 1874, when hunting with George Wood near the Chobe, we
+    came upon an old buffalo bull lying down in some long grass. My
+    friend gave him a bullet as he lay, upon which he jumped up and
+    stood behind some mopani trees, only exposing his head and
+    hind-quarters on either side their stems. After eyeing us for a
+    few seconds he turned and went off at a gallop, but before he
+    had gone many yards, Wood fired at him with his second gun and
+    knocked him over; he was on his legs again in a moment, and,
+    wheeling round, came straight towards me at a heavy gallop, his
+    nose stretched straight out and grunting furiously. When he was
+    about twenty yards from me I fired with my large four-bore
+    elephant-gun and struck him fair in the chest. This staggered
+    but did not stop him, for, swerving slightly, he made straight
+    for the Kafir carrying my second gun; this the man at once threw
+    down and commenced climbing a tree. The buffalo just brought his
+    right horn past the tree, and scraping it up the trunk so as to
+    send all the loose pieces of bark flying, caught the Kafir a
+    severe blow on the inside of the knee, nearly knocking him out
+    of the tree. The sturdy beast then ran about twenty yards
+    farther, knelt gently down and, stretching forth its nose,
+    commenced to bellow, as these animals almost always do when
+    dying; in a few minutes it was lying dead."
+
+Buffaloes wounded by man or lions are always dangerous.
+
+    "One cold winter morning in 1873, I left my camp before sunrise,
+    and had not walked a quarter of a mile skirting round the base
+    of a low hill, when, close to the same path I was following, and
+    not twenty yards off, I saw an old buffalo bull lying under a
+    bush. He was lying head on towards us, but did not appear to
+    notice us. My gun-carriers were behind, having lingered,
+    Kafir-like, over the camp-fire, but had they been nearer me I
+    should not have fired for fear of disturbing elephants, of which
+    animals I was in search.
+
+    "As I stood looking at the buffalo, Minyama, one of my Kafirs,
+    threw an assegai at it from behind me, which, grazing its side,
+    just stuck in the skin on the inside of its thigh. Without more
+    ado, the ugly-looking old beast jumped up and came trotting out,
+    with head up and nose extended, evidently looking for the
+    disturbers of its peace, and as Minyama was hiding behind the
+    trunk of a large tree, and the rest of the Kafirs had made
+    themselves scarce, it at once came straight at me, grunting
+    furiously. I was standing close to a very small tree, not more
+    than six inches in diameter, but as I was unarmed, and to run
+    would have been useless, I swarmed up it with marvellous
+    celerity. The buffalo just came up and looked at me, holding his
+    nose close to my feet, and grunting all the time. He then turned
+    and went off at a lumbering canter, and I then, for the first
+    time, saw that he had been terribly torn and scratched on the
+    hind-quarters and shoulders by lions. Had he tried to knock my
+    little sapling down, he might, I think, easily have accomplished
+    it; as it was, my legs being bare, and the bark of the tree very
+    rough, I had rubbed a lot of skin off the insides of my knees
+    and the calves of my legs."[19]
+
+Buffaloes, if the ground is hard, can go at a great pace and can outrun
+a horse for some distance. It once took me a chase of five miles before
+I got up with a big bull on whose head I had set my desires. "In 1873,"
+writes Selous, "a buffalo cow, although severely wounded, ran down in
+the open a horse Lobengula had lent me, and on which my Hottentot driver
+was mounted; she struck the horse as it was going at full speed between
+the thighs with her nose, and, luckily striking short, knocked it over
+on one side and sent its rider flying, but before she could do further
+damage a bullet through her shoulders from George Wood incapacitated her
+for further mischief."
+
+He seems to have been much depressed at this time as to his prospects of
+making a living--at any rate as an elephant-hunter and trader.
+"Nothing[20] has gone right with me since I left England, nor do I think
+it ever will again. I was born under an unlucky star, for even if I do
+not suffer from personal and particular bad fortune, I seem just to hit
+off the particular year and the particular part of the country for my
+speculation when and where everything has gone to rack and ruin. Had I
+left England in October, 1875, instead of February, 1876, I should in
+all human probability have done fairly well, and been able to return to
+England at the beginning of the next year (1878), for last year 40,000
+lbs. of ivory were traded at the Zambesi alone, and every hunter did
+well. This year, owing principally to Sepopo's assassination, only 2500
+lbs. have been traded, and not a hunter has earned his salt. But, mind
+you, I do not yet despair; I am still well to the good, and, if I can
+only get to a country which is not worked out, I will soon get a few
+pounds together." Later the same year he writes to his father (October
+17th, 1877): "On this side of the river elephant-hunting is at an end,
+all the elephants being either killed or driven away. I am now going to
+try and go down the Zambesi to Tete--a Portuguese settlement, and from
+there to the new missionary settlement at Lake Nyassa."
+
+[Illustration: ELEPHANTS]
+
+After returning to Pandamatenka in 1877, Selous went down the Zambesi
+with a Mr. Owen and with donkeys, bent on trading and hunting in the
+"fly" north of the river. Eight days later he crossed at Wankie's
+Town and reached Mwemba's kraal--that chief being an important local
+chief of the Batongas. Mwemba was much pleased to see the travellers, as
+he stated they were the first white men he had ever met. The donkeys,
+too, were new beasts to him.
+
+We need scarcely follow Selous' wanderings in the pestilential climate
+of the Zambesi valley during the next few months. He was completely
+disappointed in finding elephants, and both he and his companion
+suffered severely from fever in the deadly climate. All down the river
+he had daily evidence of the evil doings of the Portuguese, who employed
+the Shakundas to capture and enslave Batongan girls for their use and
+subsequent trade in human flesh. The price paid for a girl was usually
+an old musket or about twenty rupees. Near the mouth of the Kafukwe the
+travellers met Canyemba and Mendonca, head chiefs of the Shakundas, who
+appeared to be a proper pair of scoundrels, but small-pox was raging
+here, so Selous and Owen did not stay for long, but went north into the
+Manica country on December 13th. Hence they got up to the high country
+and shot a little game, including some konze (Liechtenstein's
+hartebeest), the first Selous had seen.
+
+On January 6th they reached the kraal of Sitanda, head chief of the
+Manica country. "We found the old fellow a slight-built old Kafir, with
+an astute thin-featured face, sitting outside his hut with about a dozen
+cronies. When his people first come up to him to report any news, they
+roll on their backs in the dust before him, and subsequently, when
+talking to him, lie down on their sides and rub one shoulder in the dust
+at the conclusion of every sentence."
+
+The Kafukwe country looking unpromising for elephants, Selous then
+resolved to go north to the Mashukulumbwe country, but this was
+prevented by the breakdown of Owen, who became seriously ill with fever.
+A few days later, after hunting lechwes in a swamp, Selous himself
+became ill, and for a fortnight both the travellers experienced all the
+trials of malarial fever. Sitanda was of course delighted, and hoped
+they would soon die and he could annex all their trade goods. He, in
+fact, refused them all help in the way of food and porters in the
+manner usual to a savage who thinks he has white men in his power. The
+chief had given orders to all his people not to help the unfortunate
+invalids, no matter what payment was offered. Finally, poor Selous was
+reduced to "buying," for 320 loaded cartridges, one Kafir boy from a
+Portuguese. "The Portuguese told me I must watch him well in the
+daytime, and tie him up at night; however, I explained to him, through
+one of my boys, that, although I had bought him, I did not want to keep
+him for a slave, and that if he would carry for me as far as the
+Zambesi, he might go where he liked afterwards, or continue working with
+me for wages."
+
+On January 24th Selous and Owen left this "accursed spot where we had
+spent eighteen miserable days." Ill and weak they staggered south, and
+five days later "the slave" ran away with a valuable breechloading
+elephant-gun. This, however, was recovered, but not the whole stock of
+Martini-Henry cartridges and corn which was essential to existence.
+
+Thoroughly worn out, they reached the Zambesi at last on February 18th.
+No game had fallen to their rifles, as both were too ill to hunt.
+
+After getting more provisions and carriers from Mendonca the party
+struck south, but after April 1st Owen was so weak that he had to be
+carried. Selous, however, improved a little when he reached the
+healthier country, but was still weak and unsuccessful in what little
+hunting he did. Moreover, the Banyais carrying Owen struck work, so
+Selous decided to leave him in charge of his faithful Basuto servant
+Franz and himself to push on to the waggons at Inyati and to send back
+help to his friend. On April 17th, he bade good-bye to Owen, and reached
+Inyati on May 4th, sending seven men to the Gweo, where Owen rested, and
+they eventually brought him out safely to the Matabele country.
+
+After this unfortunate trip Selous was much depressed in mind, feeling
+that the whole country south of the Zambesi was played out for the
+trader and the hunter. Writing to his mother from Tati (May 28th, 1878),
+he expresses all his gloomy anticipations--doubtless the after effects
+of fever from which he had not yet recovered. "I am afraid that if I
+ever get home again you will find me much changed for the worse in
+temper and disposition. Continual never-ending misfortune in small
+matters and the failure of every speculation has changed me from a
+tolerably light-hearted fellow into a morose sad-tempered man. It is all
+very well to say that one can but do his best and that sort of thing,
+but in this world a man's merit and worth are measured solely according
+to his success and by no other standard. During the last year almost
+everybody has been ruined, and all the smaller traders sold up. Next
+year I am going to try a new country to the north of Ovampoland in
+Southwestern Africa. Things cannot be worse there than they are here,
+and from all I can learn probably much better. If there is nothing to be
+done there, I am sure I don't know what I shall do, but think of trying
+the Western States of North America. To try farming in this country with
+the luck against one would never do, for there is not one but twenty
+diseases to which all sorts of live stock are subject; all of them
+unknown in America and Australia."
+
+Selous was far from well after this trying trip, and it took him two
+months to recover from its effects, so it was not till August that he
+set off again, after getting permission from Lobengula, to hunt in the
+Mashuna country, where he hoped to join his friends Clarkson, Cross, and
+Wood, who had gone north in the previous June.
+
+On August 20th he left Inyati, in company with Mr. Goulden (Clarkson's
+partner), and trekked north. On the 30th he reached the Gwenia, where he
+found the old Boer hunter Jan Viljoen and his family. Here he had some
+sport with sable antelopes, and moved on the next day and reached the
+Umniati on September 6th, and on September 8th the Gwazan, where he shot
+a bull sable. After crossing the Sweswe, where he found the Neros,
+well-known Griqua elephant-hunters, he heard that his friends were on
+the Umfule river, two days north. Here he learnt that Clarkson and Wood
+had killed eight bull elephants in one day, September 8th; so was
+anxious to join them as soon as possible after this exciting piece of
+news.
+
+On reaching the encampment of his friends he heard they were away on the
+Hanyane river, so he at once decided to follow them. Next day Selous
+killed a sable bull and met his friends close to the scene of the
+elephant slaughter of the previous Sunday. Clarkson and Wood had already
+killed forty elephants, and had to record the death of Quabeet, Wood's
+head Kafir, by a tuskless bull elephant. Selous gives some particulars
+of this unhappy event in a letter to his mother (December 25th, 1878):
+"Mr. Clarkson came across a troop of elephants and commenced shooting at
+them. Whilst killing one he heard another screaming terrifically, and
+galloped in that direction but saw nothing. In the evening Quabeet was
+missing, but no one thought anything could have happened to him except
+that he had lost himself. On the second day, however, as he did not turn
+up, Clarkson bethought him of the continuous screaming he had heard, and
+remembered to have seen a gigantic tuskless bull turn out by himself,
+whose spoor he resolved to follow the next morning. This he did, and
+soon found the place where the elephant had chased a man; there he found
+Quabeet's gun, and near it the odds and ends of skin he had worn round
+his waist and finally what remained of Quabeet. The poor fellow had been
+torn into three pieces. The elephant must have held him down with his
+foot and then torn him asunder with his trunk."
+
+On September 14th the party found a herd of cow elephants and shot six,
+and on September 17th they all went north-east to the mahobo-hobo
+forests which lie between the Umsengasi and Hanyane rivers to look for
+elephants. The same evening they found two old bulls near the Umbila
+river. Selous quickly killed three bulls and a cow. "The fourth I
+tackled," he says, "cost me six bullets and gave me a smart chase, for
+my horse was now dead beat. I only got away at all by the skin of my
+teeth as, although the infuriated animal whilst charging trumpeted all
+the time like a railway engine, I could not get my tired horse out of a
+canter until he was close upon me, and I firmly believe that had he not
+been so badly wounded he would have caught me. I know the shrill
+screaming sounded unpleasantly near."
+
+Immediately after this episode the herd of elephants showed signs of
+exhaustion. "The poor animals were now completely knocked up, throwing
+water (taken from their stomachs) over their heated bodies as they
+walked slowly along." But the hunters stuck to them until their
+cartridges were exhausted; all, that is to say, except Selous, who had
+still thirteen left.
+
+Selous then selected a big cow for his next victim, and experienced one
+of the narrowest escapes of his whole adventurous life.[21]
+
+    "Having picked out a good cow for my fifth victim, I gave her a
+    shot behind the shoulder, on which she turned from the herd and
+    walked slowly away by herself. As I cantered up behind her, she
+    wheeled round and stood facing me, with her ears spread and her
+    head raised. My horse was now so tired that he stood well, so,
+    reining in, I gave her a shot from his back between the neck and
+    the shoulder, which I believe just stopped her from charging. On
+    receiving this wound she backed a few paces, gave her ears a
+    flap against her sides, and then stood facing me again. I had
+    just taken out the empty cartridge and was about to put a fresh
+    one in, when, seeing that she looked very vicious, and as I was
+    not thirty yards from her, I caught the bridle and turned the
+    horse's head away, so as to be ready for a fair start in case of
+    a charge. I was still holding my rifle with the breech open when
+    I saw that she was coming. Digging the spurs into my horse's
+    ribs, I did my best to get him away, but he was so thoroughly
+    done that, instead of springing forwards, which was what the
+    emergency required, he only started at a walk and was just
+    breaking into a canter when the elephant was upon us. I heard
+    two short sharp screams above my head, and had just time to
+    think it was all over with me, when, horse and all, I was dashed
+    to the ground. For a few seconds I was half-stunned by the
+    violence of the shock, and the first thing I became aware of was
+    a very strong smell of elephant. At the same instant I felt that
+    I was still unhurt and that, although in an unpleasant
+    predicament, I had still a chance for life. I was, however,
+    pressed down on the ground in such a way that I could not
+    extricate my head. At last with a violent effort I wrenched
+    myself loose, and threw my body over sideways, so that I rested
+    on my hands. As I did so I saw the hind legs of the elephant
+    standing like two pillars before me, and at once grasped the
+    situation. She was on her knees, with her head and tusks in the
+    ground, and I had been pressed down under her chest, but luckily
+    behind her forelegs. Dragging myself from under her, I regained
+    my feet and made a hasty retreat, having had rather more than
+    enough of elephants for the time being. I retained, however,
+    sufficient presence of mind to run slowly, watching her
+    movements over my shoulder and directing mine accordingly.
+    Almost immediately I had made my escape she got up and stood
+    looking for me, with her ears up and head raised, turning first
+    to one side and then to the other, but never quite wheeling
+    round. As she made these turns, I ran obliquely to the right or
+    left, as the case might be, always endeavouring to keep her
+    stern towards me. At length I gained the shelter of a small bush
+    and breathed freely once more."
+
+After a time he recovered his rifle and again attacked a cow which he
+thought was his late assailant, and killed her with two more shots, but
+she proved to be a different beast.
+
+Selous did not escape quite scatheless from this encounter, for his eye
+was badly bruised and the skin all rubbed off the right breast. His
+horse, too, was badly injured, though he recovered after two months.
+Altogether, on this great and exciting day, no fewer than twenty-two
+elephants, realizing 700 lbs. of ivory, were killed by Selous, Clarkson,
+and Wood.
+
+On September 24th the hunters killed five old bull elephants near the
+Hanyane, and shortly afterwards, elephants becoming shy, the party broke
+up, Cross, Goulden, and Wood going to the Umfule, and Clarkson and
+Selous remaining near the Hanyane. Both parties were, however, quite
+unsuccessful in hunting bull elephants, either in the neighbourhood of
+these rivers or in short trips they made into the "fly" region along the
+Umniati, Sebakwe, and Se-quoi-quoi rivers.
+
+After enjoying some sport with the various large antelopes and
+witnessing an exciting chase and attack made by a single hunting-dog on
+a sable antelope, the party turned northwards and reached Gwenia, where
+the Viljoens were camped, on December 11th, just as the heavy rains set
+in.
+
+Here Selous had a piece of good luck. A lioness attacked the Viljoens'
+cattle at ten o'clock one morning and went off with a calf. The dogs,
+however, were at once loosed, and soon brought the marauder to bay.
+Jantje, a Hottentot, and one of the Viljoens' Kafirs ran at once to the
+scene of tumult, when both of them fired and missed, but Selous got an
+easy chance at forty yards, and killed her with a bullet through the
+shoulders. On December 25th he wrote to his mother telling her that his
+plans for the following year were uncertain. He hoped to go "to the
+country north of Lake Ngami, but may spend the winter with the
+Volunteers against the Zulus if the war comes on."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 244-245.
+
+[16] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 433-434.
+
+[17] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 279-281.
+
+[18] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 282-283.
+
+[19] "A Hunter's Wanderings," p. 283.
+
+[20] Letter to his mother.
+
+[21] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 339-340.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+1879-1880
+
+
+Like all big game hunters Selous always dreamed of a land teaming with
+game where other hunters had not been and scared the game away. He saw
+by this time that the old hunting-grounds, at least as far as elephants
+were concerned, were finished, and that he must find for himself a new
+field to exploit if such a place existed. The difficulties, however,
+even to such a man as himself, were immense, because the "fly" debarred
+him to the east and north, whilst to the west was nothing but a
+waterless desert where no elephants could live. If therefore he was to
+find the virgin country it must be far to the north where he could not
+take his waggons. The country on which he had set his heart was the
+Mashukulumbwe, and though no hunters had been there, he heard from
+natives that it was full of elephants. In 1877 he had tried to reach it,
+but owing to the hostility of the Portuguese and local chiefs beyond the
+Zambesi, and the subsequent illness of himself and his friend, he had
+been obliged to abandon the venture. Now, however, in 1879, he conceived
+a plan to cross the desert to Bamangwato, when he hoped to kill
+gemsbuck, which had so far eluded him, and to hunt on the Chobe, which
+always held a peculiar attraction for him, then to leave his waggons and
+visit the unknown portions of the Barotsi country and strike east to the
+Mashukulumbwe. He expected that this journey would extend over two or
+three years, so in January he trekked south to Klerksdorp in the
+Transvaal, where he laid in stores and ammunition for the long trip.
+
+On April 14th he reached Bamangwato and obtained permission from Khama
+to travel through the Kalahari to the Mababe river. This time young
+Miller again accompanied him as well as another young colonist of
+German extraction named Sell. Khama sent with Selous a grumpy
+disagreeable old Kafir named Ai-eetsee-upee (the man who knows nothing)
+to look after the waggons. Five other coloured men completed the party.
+
+On May 4th they reached the Botletlie river. "This," says Selous, "is
+one of the most abominable spots I have yet visited: one small mud hole
+from which a little filthy water was all we could get for ourselves or
+the oxen, yet on the map this river looks like a young Mississippi."
+
+On May 8th to the west of the Botletlie, Selous reached an encampment of
+bushmen, who told him there were giraffes in the bush close at hand. An
+old bull was soon found. "I gave the giraffe four shots," says Selous,
+"and then, seeing that he was done for, galloped round him, upon which
+he stood reeling under a tree, and I was just pulling my horse in, when
+a lion, a lioness, and two half-grown cubs jumped out of the bushes just
+in front of me and trotted slowly away. Just at this moment, too, I saw
+four stately giraffe cows walk out of the bush in single file about 500
+yards ahead. The lion, after trotting a few paces, turned round and
+stood, broadside on, looking at me, offering a splendid shot. I was on
+the ground in a moment and gave him a bullet just behind the shoulder.
+With a growl he galloped away for about 100 yards, and then rolled over
+on his side, stone dead. I just rode up to assure myself of the fact,
+and then galloped on after the giraffe cows." Two of these he also
+killed.
+
+On May 10th he saw the first gemsbuck, "the antelope of all others of
+which I longed to shoot a fine specimen," but after wounding one he lost
+it. Next day, however, he killed a young cow.
+
+On May 28th they reached the so-called "fountain" of Sode-Garra, where
+the bushmen told him that the country to the north was impassable owing
+to no rain falling the previous summer. Never having known the untutored
+savage to tell the truth Selous imagined that the bushmen were lying,
+and so decided to risk it and trek on. The poor oxen then had a terrible
+time; they got no water for two days and nights except a little
+moisture at one spot. On the fourth day they reached the sand-belts and
+pans just south of the Mababe flats, and still there was not a drop of
+water. It was here two years previously the famous Boer elephant-hunter
+Martinus Swartz and ten members of his family died of fever, only six
+individuals surviving out of a party of seventeen.
+
+At these dried-up pans, however, Selous found some comparatively fresh
+spoor of buffalo and that meant there must be water at no very great
+distance. Accordingly, he abandoned the waggons and accompanied by
+bullocks, horses, dogs and Kafirs went north to the great plain known as
+the Mababe flat. Here they saw grass fires at a distance of about twelve
+miles, but the presence of numerous zebras indicated that there was
+water still nearer. Old Jacob, one of his Kafirs, now said there was a
+small vley close at hand. "We went to look," writes Selous, "and five
+minutes later found a long shallow vley full of water. I could have
+hugged the dirty old man with delight. What a sight it was to see the
+poor thirsty oxen come trotting down to the pan, as soon as they smelt
+the longed-for water, and rush knee-deep into it! What a sudden relief
+the sight of that pool of muddy water was, too, and what a weight of
+fear and anxiety it lifted from our hearts! Only an hour before it had
+seemed that I was doomed to lose all my live stock--nearly everything I
+possessed in the world--from thirst; and now the danger was past, and
+not a single ox had given in." Next day the oxen were sent back and
+brought the waggons to the vley.
+
+On June 4th he encountered three lionesses, at one of which he had a
+running shot which knocked her over. Soon a second lioness stood and
+turned to bay, and Selous killed her dead with a shot in the head just
+as she was on the point of charging. He then returned to the first
+wounded animal and gave her a shot through the lungs. Two days later
+whilst stalking giraffes he met two full-grown lions lying under a
+bush.[22]
+
+    "I now turned my attention to the second lion. As, owing to the
+    grass, I could not see him clearly, I mounted my horse and gave
+    him a shot from the saddle, as he lay half-facing me, gazing
+    towards me with anything but a pleasant expression of
+    countenance. Whether he realized the misfortune which had
+    befallen his comrade or not I cannot say, but he certainly had
+    an angry, put-out sort of look. As I fired, a loud roar
+    announced that the bullet had struck him, and I could see that
+    he was hard hit. He now sat on his haunches like a dog, holding
+    his head low, and growling savagely. In this position he exposed
+    his chest, so hastily pushing in another cartridge, I jumped to
+    the ground before he could make up his mind what to do, and
+    firing quickly, struck him in the centre of the breast, just
+    under the chin. This rolled him over, and riding up, I saw that
+    he was in his last agonies, so left him, and took a look at the
+    first I had shot, a magnificent old lion with a fine black mane,
+    and a skin in beautiful condition, and of a very dark colour all
+    over. All this, which has taken so long to relate, must have
+    occupied less than a minute of time, and the lions being both
+    dead, I again turned my attention to the giraffes."
+
+Two of these, a bull and a cow, he chased and killed.
+
+A few days later Selous' friend, H. C. Collison, arrived in his camp.
+Collison, with French, had also trekked north across the thirst-land,
+and lost several of their oxen on the way. Moreover, to add to these
+disasters, Clarkson, an intimate friend of all three, had been struck by
+lightning and killed near Klerksdorp shortly after their departure for
+the interior. Speaking of Clarkson, to whom he was much attached, Selous
+says: "A better fellow never stepped. Short of stature, but very strong
+and active, he was, like most colonists, a capital shot and first-rate
+rough-rider, qualities that could hardly fail to make him a successful
+hunter. Morally speaking, too, he was upright and honourable in his
+dealings with his fellow-men, cool in danger, and as plucky as a
+bull-dog. May his spirit find a good hunting-country in the next world!"
+
+A few days later Collison, French and Selous established a permanent
+hunting-camp on the Mababe river and went north on foot into the "fly."
+Owing to the size of the party they soon separated, French and Miller
+going to the Sunta river, whilst Collison, Sell and Selous went on up
+the Machabe, but afterwards they met on the Chobe. Miller and Selous
+then passed on to Linyanti, where they killed four elephants, many
+buffaloes, and several of the small spotted and striped bushbucks
+peculiar to the Chobe. Here Selous tried unsuccessfully to kill a
+specimen of the sitatunga antelope by hunting in a canoe at dawn amongst
+the reed beds, but only saw one female, although he found lying dead a
+fine male killed by a rival.
+
+On August 23rd Selous obtained permission to hunt elephants in the angle
+of the Chobe and the Zambesi from the Barotsi chief Mamele. After a
+visit to the waggons to get stores and ammunition he returned to the
+Chobe angle with French and Miller. Close to Mamele's town the party met
+four lionesses, one of which Selous shot. Buffaloes at this time were in
+immense herds feeding out in the open all day, even amongst the native
+cattle, and Selous shot several to provide meat for the Kafirs.
+
+It was not until September 24th that the party found any elephants, and
+then Selous and Miller killed a young bull, four large cows and a
+heifer. Poor French on this day wounded and lost a cow, and contrary to
+advice, followed it into the bush. He was never seen again, and died of
+thirst in the bush. For days Miller and Selous tried to find his tracks,
+but without avail. The loss of his good friend made a deep impression on
+Selous, and for years afterwards he never spoke of French, to whom he
+was greatly attached, without showing signs of emotion. To have lost two
+of his best friends in one year depressed him greatly, and to this were
+added constant attacks of malarial fever which made him very weak.
+
+However, at the time he always hoped that French might have reached some
+place of safety on the river and be alive. So Selous continued to hunt
+for elephants until one day "Boy," French's gun-bearer, crawled into
+camp and gave an account of his master's death. It appeared that after
+hunting for days in the bush in the wrong direction poor French
+collapsed, and as he was dying wrote on his rifle the words "I cannot go
+any further; when I die, peace with all." French's two boys, "Boy" and
+"Nangora," then walked all night and struck the river at Linyanti. "For
+several nights," says Selous, "I never slept, as the vision of my lost
+friend wandering about and dying by inches continually haunted me."
+
+Seriously ill as he was, Selous then went to Linyanti, hoping to recover
+the body of his friend and give it decent burial, and Mamele promised to
+send all his people out to look for it when the rains came, but it was
+never found. Selous himself was so depressed in mind and worn with fever
+that he did not care to hunt any longer on the Chobe, so made for his
+waggons, which he reached on October 11th, where he found Sell
+dangerously ill. Miller, too, was attacked with malaria but soon
+recovered.
+
+It was now necessary to wait for the rains, but as they did not come
+Selous, tired of shooting wildebeest and zebra on the Mababe flats, once
+more returned to the Chobe to look for elephants. He went as far as
+Maimi's town, and as the rain was now threatening he retraced his steps.
+By the middle of November he again reached the waggons, and the much
+desired rains at last fell. The party got to the Botletlie with ease,
+but between that river and Bamangwato the oxen again suffered terribly
+and were nearly lost owing to thirst. Later, in December, Selous reached
+the Diamond Fields, and was there attacked by a low fever which nearly
+cost him his life; in fact, nothing but the unremitting attention and
+care of his friends, Mrs. Frederick Barber and her daughter, Mrs.
+Alexander Baillie, rescued him from death.
+
+Meanwhile, owing to political blunders, South Africa and all its white
+and black races were in a ferment, and the Zulu War in full progress.
+The usual cause of England's wars with savages was acts of rapine or
+insolence on the part of natives living in wild country where the black
+or red man predominated in numbers and a small white population was
+threatened with danger. No such reason, however, was the cause of the
+Zulu war in 1879. Since 1861 the Natal colonists had lived alongside
+the Zulus in perfect amity, and the colonists "felt no real alarm
+concerning the Zulus until the idea was suggested to them by those in
+authority over them."[23]
+
+The real cause, apart from the fact that the Natal farmers were annoyed
+that at their side dwelt a great black population they could neither tax
+nor force to work for them, was the aggression of the Transvaal Boers in
+a small portion of territory owned by Cetawayo, the Zulu king, and lying
+on the Transvaal border. There were two disputed boundary lines. The one
+between Zululand and the Transvaal to the south of the Pongolo river,
+and the other between the Zulus and the Swazis, to the north of and
+parallel with the Pongolo river.
+
+The Swazis had always been hereditary enemies of the Zulus, and there
+was bitter feeling between the two races. Nevertheless the real cause of
+both disputes was the acquisitiveness of the Boers. In the case of the
+territory on the second boundary line they professed to have obtained by
+cession from the Swazi king in 1855 a strip of land to the north-east of
+the Pongolo river, so as to form a barrier between the Swazis and the
+Zulus; but the Swazis denied having ever made such a cession. It is
+doubtful, however, whether the Swazis had any power to have made such a
+contract, even if it had been made, because the territory in question
+was occupied until 1846 by two Zulu chiefs, Puttini and Langalibalele.
+These chiefs, however, had been driven out of Zululand by Umpande
+(Panda), then king of the Zulus.
+
+As time went on efforts were made to induce Cetawayo to allow the
+boundary territory to be occupied by the Boers, but the king sagely
+replied that as we had suggested that this territory belonged to
+Zululand, and he wished it for his own people, he did not see how it
+could belong to two parties. A boundary commission was, however,
+eventually formed, and asserted that neither party had a claim to the
+whole, whilst distinctly stating that no cession of land had been made
+by the Zulu king past or present.
+
+Other minor causes of the Zulu war were the raids of Umbilini, a Swazi
+chieftain living under Cetawayo's protection, and the forcible capture
+in Natal of Zulu brides and girls who had run away to escape
+disagreeable marriages.
+
+On December 11th, 1878, the Zulus were presented with an ultimatum, of
+which the demand for the disbandment of the Zulu army was the principal
+clause. Cetawayo agreed to some of the demands but asked for time to
+consult his Indunas as regards demobilization. This was, however,
+refused. It would appear that even Cetawayo was anxious to avoid war if
+possible, for at his side stood John Dunn, who well knew the power of
+England. Lord Chelmsford had, however, completed his preparations for
+war, and on January 12th crossed the border into Zululand. Then followed
+the disaster of Isandlwana, the splendid defence of Rorke's Drift, the
+battle of Ngingindhlovu, in which the Zulus lost heavily, and in July
+the great battle of Ulundi, which finally broke the Zulu forces.
+
+Selous always enjoyed meeting people who had taken part in events in the
+recent history of South Africa, and one day he met at my house General
+Sir Edward Hutton, who told us the following story of the capture of
+Cetawayo.
+
+    "After the defeat of the Zulus at Ulundi," remarked Sir Edward,
+    "they scattered in all directions and we sent out small patrols
+    throughout the country to search for the king. On this occasion
+    the Zulus behaved in the most magnanimous manner. Although they
+    could with ease have annihilated the majority of these patrols,
+    not one was attacked, for they felt that the supreme test had
+    been passed and their army utterly defeated. I believe that one
+    day after the battle of Ulundi it would have been safe for an
+    English lady to have walked across Zululand unmolested, so noble
+    was the behaviour of the natives. I was attached to a patrol
+    under Major Marter, K.D.G., and we came up with the king at
+    Nisaka's kraal in the Ngome Forest.
+
+    "Cetawayo was seated in a hut attended by two of his chief
+    wives. Marter entered the hut with myself and explained to the
+    king that his presence was required by Sir Garnet Wolseley, and
+    that he must come at once. Cetawayo promptly refused. Marter
+    took out his watch and stated that he would give him five
+    minutes to decide. The black monarch still refused to move. 'I
+    will now give you five minutes more,' said Marter, 'and then if
+    you are still obstinate I shall set fire to the hut.'
+
+    "The King remained obdurate. Then Marter drew from his pocket a
+    box of matches, and I still seem to see clearly the expression
+    on Cetawayo's face as he listened to the scraping of the match
+    on the box. Cetawayo, who was an immense man, and at the moment
+    perfectly naked, then rose with great dignity and stalked out of
+    the hut. Here he threw a large kaross over his shoulder and
+    stood there looking every inch a king.
+
+    "'Where are you taking me?' he observed.
+
+    "'That I cannot tell you,' replied Marter.
+
+    "'Well, I refuse to go,' came the answer.
+
+    "The King was then seized by soldiers and put upon a litter and
+    thus carried with his wives to a waggon which was awaiting."
+
+Selous was much interested in this story, and then told us the following
+interesting tale which I never heard him repeat before or later. It has
+always been a puzzle to me how he knew Cetawayo, for after many
+enquiries amongst his family and friends I have been unable to learn
+when he visited Zululand, for otherwise he could not have known the Zulu
+king. Yet the fact remains that he distinctly said on this occasion that
+he had met the black monarch in some of his past wanderings.
+
+    "I had known Cetawayo formerly, and when he was confined in
+    Robben Island shortly after the conclusion of the war, I thought
+    I would go down one day when I was in Cape Town and have a chat
+    with him. I found him much as I had known him, but more
+    corpulent and somewhat depressed. After some general
+    conversation I said:
+
+    "'Well, Cetawayo, what do you think of John Dunn now?'
+
+    "This I knew was a sore point with the king, for he had treated
+    John Dunn like a brother and given him wives, slaves and lands
+    as one of his own head indunas. Dunn had afterwards deserted
+    him and given all his help and information to Sir Garnet
+    Wolseley.
+
+    "Cetawayo thought deeply for a few moments, and then said, 'One
+    very cold and stormy night in winter I was seated before a large
+    fire in my hut when there was a noise without as if someone was
+    arriving. I asked the cause from my attendants, and they told me
+    a white man in a miserable state of destitution had just arrived
+    and claimed my hospitality. I ordered the slaves to bring him
+    in, and a tall splendidly made man appeared. He was dressed in
+    rags, for his clothes had been torn to pieces in fighting
+    through the bush, and he was shivering from fever and ague. I
+    drew my cloak aside and asked him to sit by the fire, and told
+    the servants to bring food and clothing. I loved this white man
+    as a brother and made him one of my head indunas, giving him
+    lands and wives, the daughters of my chiefs. _Now Shaunele_
+    (_the sun has gone down_), _and John Dunn is sitting by the fire
+    but he does not draw his cloak aside._'"
+
+Such is the black man's reasoning, and can we controvert it with
+uplifted heads?
+
+After the Zulu war McLeod asked some of the chiefs why they went to war
+with us. They replied, "The Right of the Strong. Now you have proved you
+are the strongest we will look up to you and follow you." Except for one
+trifling insurrection under Denizulu, which was quickly nipped in the
+bud, the Zulus have since accepted our suzerainty.
+
+The following example of the intellect and common-sense of the South
+African native is given to me by McLeod of McLeod, who was in charge of
+the Swazis both in the Zulu war and the subsequent attack on Sekukuni,
+the paramount chief of Basutoland.
+
+McLeod called upon Ubandini, the Swazi king, to raise some 8000 levies.
+This army was then about to set out for Basutoland, there to join our
+forces under Sir Garnet Wolseley. The following conversation took
+place:--
+
+McL. "It is agreed that your people may have all the cattle they can
+capture, but the English Government insists that on no account are your
+men to injure the Basuto women and children."
+
+Ubandini thought deeply for a moment, and then remarked, "Mafu (the
+McLeod's native name), do you like rats?"
+
+McL. "No."
+
+U. "In fact you kill them whenever you can."
+
+McL. "Yes."
+
+U. "But surely you spare the females and little rats?"
+
+No answer.
+
+The black man will do much from fear or for utilitarian motives, but to
+him as a rule charity simply does not exist. One day in 1874 an old man
+came to Sepopo, the paramount chief of the Barotsi, and claimed his
+help. Sepopo, who was drinking beer with a white trader, turned to some
+of his men and said: "He's a very old man; can he do any work?" Being
+answered in the negative he ordered his servants to take the old man
+down to the river and hold his head under water. On being informed that
+the unfortunate victim was dead he coolly said: "Then give him to the
+crocodiles," and then went on chatting quietly and drinking beer with
+his white friend. The whole affair was a matter of no importance.
+
+Of the intentions and views of the Zulus and the Boers at this time
+Selous writes to his mother, January 25th, 1880, and it is interesting
+to notice that at this time his attitude towards the Boers was not so
+sympathetic as it eventually became on more intimate knowledge.
+
+    "Last year when I went in hunting I thought to have done well,
+    as I obtained leave to hunt in a country where a few years ago
+    elephants were very plentiful. But, alas, during the last two
+    years Moremi's hunters from Lake Ngami have overrun the whole
+    district and effectively driven away the elephants, so that I
+    have again made an unsuccessful hunt. I shall now give up
+    hunting elephants, as it is impossible to make it pay. However,
+    I must make one more journey into the interior, which I intend
+    to be my last. If I keep my health it will be a long one, for I
+    intend to cross the Zambesi again and endeavour to penetrate
+    through the Mashukulumbwe country to Lake Bangwolo, for which
+    purpose I have bought twelve donkeys that will carry my traps
+    and make me independent to a great extent of native carriers.
+
+    "During the last four years, though I have led a life of great
+    hardship and privation, yet I have lost much money and almost
+    ruined a good constitution; to throw away a little more money
+    and health after what has already gone, will not much matter,
+    and the former I may not lose at all, for I may shoot elephants,
+    indeed, most likely I shall. I intend publishing a book, and
+    think that a journey into a country where no one has ever been
+    before would greatly enhance its value. My plans are liable to
+    modification owing to fever, tsetse flies, and various minor
+    circumstances.
+
+    "The Zulu war is over. You think it was unjustifiable, but it
+    was not so, for so long as the military power of the Zulus
+    remained unbroken there could be no peace in South Africa and
+    the white inhabitants of Natal and the Transvaal would have had
+    an assegai constantly dangling over their heads. Sir Bartle
+    Frere knew this, and no doubt manoeuvred so as to bring on a
+    war, a war which he knew to be inevitable sooner or later. Of
+    course but little glory has been gained, and one cannot but
+    admire and pity the Zulus, who made a brave but unavailing
+    resistance to our men armed with far superior weapons. I think
+    they are far better off than before, and are not burdened with
+    the cruel despotism of Cetawayo. It seems that after all there
+    will be a disturbance with the Transvaal Boers. I hope not, but
+    of course, if they force it upon themselves, their blood will be
+    upon their own heads. I do not admire them; mentally they are, I
+    should think, the most ignorant and stupid of all white races,
+    and they certainly have not one tenth part of the courage of the
+    Zulus. Physically they are immensely big as a rule and capital
+    shots, but there can only be one end for them to an open rupture
+    with the British authorities, death and confiscation of property
+    which will leave another legacy of hatred between Dutch and
+    English inhabitants of this country for many years to come."
+
+Early in 1880 Selous, having completely recovered from his attack of
+fever and settled up French's affairs, turned his attention to the
+preparations for his big expedition across the Zambesi. Difficulties,
+however, arose which foiled all his plans. In the first place the
+Matabele were supposed (officially) to be in a disturbed state, so it
+was necessary for Selous to go to Pretoria to obtain from Sir Owen
+Lanyon, the administrator of the Transvaal, permission to carry a good
+supply of ammunition. This, however, Sir Owen blankly refused. The
+secretary to the administrator was Mr. Godfrey Lagden (afterwards Sir
+Godfrey Lagden, Governor of Basutoland for many years, and a close
+friend of Selous). Sir Godfrey thus writes to me:-
+
+    "Selous approached me to get the Governor's permit to proceed
+    with firearms through a forbidden or restricted route to
+    Matabeleland, then closed owing to political reasons. This route
+    was dangerous to travel in consequence of the threatening
+    attitude of Lobengula. I was able to help in a measure--who
+    could refuse to help so bold and charming a personality?--but
+    not to the full measure he wanted. He went away saying: 'I want
+    you some day to come and trek with me, and enjoy as you do the
+    beautiful big game as well as the small without killing it.
+    Meanwhile I must away, and as a permit cannot take me over the
+    Crocodile river, I must swim it in spite of crocodiles and
+    Matabele.'"
+
+The refusal of a permit to carry sufficient ammunition undoubtedly
+caused him to abandon the long journey--that is to say, for the time
+being--and in his letters home at this period he is once again depressed
+at the financial outlook and the difficulty of making a living. "I hope
+to be in England," he says (March, 1880), "by the end of the year. I
+shall then go in for writing a book, for which I may get a little money.
+I know that people have got good sums for writing bad books on Africa,
+full of lies, though I do not know if a true book will sell well. My
+book at any rate will command a large sale out here, as I am so well
+known, and have a reputation for speaking nothing but the truth."
+
+Before going home he decided to go to Matabeleland and join his friends
+Collison, J. S. Jameson, and Dr. Crook in a hunting trip to the Mashuna
+country.
+
+Here it is necessary to say a few words concerning Selous' friend, J. S.
+Jameson, for in later days he took a prominent part in the page of
+African history.
+
+James Sligo Jameson was born at Alloa, N.B., on 17th of August, 1856.
+His father, Andrew Jameson, was the son of John Jameson, who founded the
+business in Dublin. From his early youth he evinced a great taste for
+sport and natural history, with a desire to travel and doing something
+big. After schooldays at Dreghorn and the International College,
+Isleworth, he began to read for the army, but soon abandoned his
+intention, and his father being a rich man he went on his travels in
+1877 to Ceylon, Calcutta, Singapore, and Borneo, where he made a good
+collection of birds and insects. In 1878 he went to South Africa and
+hunted on the borders of the Kalahari in Montsioa's veldt until 1879,
+when he returned to Potchefstroom and outfitted for an extensive trip to
+Matabeleland and the Zambesi in 1880. Whilst at Potchefstroom he carried
+despatches to Sir Garnet Wolseley at Pretoria and then returned,
+completed his preparations, and trekked north across the Limpopo to
+Matabeleland, where later on he met Selous.
+
+In the spring of 1881 Jameson returned to England with a fine collection
+of heads, birds and insects, and the following year, in company with his
+brother, J. A. Jameson, he went to the upper waters of the Mussel Shell
+river in Montana and hunted successfully bear, sheep, wapiti, mule deer
+and antelope. In 1883 he again hunted in the Rockies with his brother on
+the North Foot of Stinking Water, then a great game country, and killed
+thirty-six mountain sheep, buffalo, bears and wapiti.
+
+In 1884 he travelled in Spain and Algeria, and in 1885 married Ethel,
+daughter of Major-General Sir Henry Durand.
+
+It was in January, 1887, that the English public were interested in the
+proposed expedition for the relief of Emin Pasha--Gordon's friend--under
+the command of H. M. Stanley. The whole idea was one that appealed to
+Jameson's chivalrous nature, and as it seemed to offer good
+opportunities for collecting specimens of big game, birds and insects in
+a part of Africa that was practically unknown, he offered a thousand
+pounds to be allowed to accompany the expedition as an officer acting
+under Stanley's orders. This offer was at once accepted.
+
+    "Why all the ambitions of my lifetime should have been
+    concentrated at this time, with a seemingly prosperous issue, I
+    know not; but I assure you that I did not accept the position
+    without weighing well all there was for and against it. Ever
+    since childhood I have dreamt of doing some good in this world,
+    and making a name which was more than an idle one. My life has
+    been a more or less selfish one, and now springs up this
+    opportunity of wiping off a little of the long score standing
+    against me. Do not blame me too much."[24]
+
+After a wearisome journey up the Congo, Stanley decided to make a base
+camp at Yambuya on the Aruwimi, and to leave there all the sick and
+useless Soudanese and Zanzibari soldiers and porters, extra stores,
+etc., and to push on himself to the Ituri forest and Lake Albert with
+the main expedition. Two officers had to be left in charge at Yambuya,
+and to his great disgust Jameson found that he was one of those selected
+for this uncongenial task. Almost from the first the whole outfit
+suffered from semi-starvation. The site of the camp was badly chosen,
+the natives were more or less hostile, and Jameson and his gallant
+friend, Major Barttelot, were often at their wits' ends to feed their
+men and keep down the continuous death-rate.
+
+Stanley, it seems, had promised to return in November, and that if he
+did not return he had arranged with Tippu-Tib, the Arab chieftain, ivory
+and slave-trader, and actual master of the Upper Congo, to permit a
+thousand porters to bring on the rearguard and join him at Lake Albert.
+
+At last things became so desperate that Jameson himself went up the
+Congo, a twenty-four days' journey, to see Tippu-Tib to try and induce
+him to supply the men with which to cross Africa--even offering a bond
+for five thousand pounds on his and Major Barttelot's private account if
+Stanley's word was not considered sufficient. Tippu-Tib seems to have
+behaved well, and accompanied Jameson back to Stanley Falls, from which
+he and Barttelot presently started with some four hundred unruly Manyema
+savages.
+
+We need not follow poor Jameson's troubles in the ensuing months of June
+to August, 1888, when, the move failing, owing to ceaseless thefts,
+desertions and small-pox, Jameson at last reached Unaria and Barttelot
+returned to Stanley Falls. Barttelot was then murdered, and Jameson
+returned to Stanley Falls, where he found it impossible to re-organize
+the expedition without monetary help, which at the time he could not
+obtain. There being no prospect of doing anything in the way of crossing
+Africa, and no word or orders having been received from Stanley, Jameson
+then went down the river to Bangala in order to obtain some reply from
+the Emin Relief Committee. Tippu-Tib indeed offered himself to go with
+Jameson, but demanded L20,000--a sum which at the time it was not
+possible for Jameson to guarantee. On this journey Jameson got wet and
+caught a chill which soon developed into acute fever. He was a dying man
+when his good friend Herbert Ward lifted him from the canoe at Bangala,
+and he only lived for a few days.
+
+Jameson was to all who knew him well of a generous and gentle nature,
+full of thought for others and a man of high courage.
+
+At the end of May, 1880, Selous reached Bulawayo and met his friends,
+and left a few days later for the hunting veldt, where they had fine
+sport with all sorts of game except elephants. On July 24th Jameson and
+Selous left their waggons on the Umfule river and went in on foot with
+thirteen natives into the "fly" country to the north. This was a rough,
+hilly country where rhinoceros were numerous in the hills and
+hippopotami in the river. The country was quite unknown, but the object
+of the hunters was to strike east to the Hanyane and follow it down to
+the Portuguese town of Zumbo on the Zambesi. At Lo Magondi's kraal they
+decided to abandon the Hanyane route and to follow the Umfule to its
+junction with the Umniati.
+
+On July 31st they reached a pool and killed several hippopotami, and the
+hunters and natives were soon revelling in meat and fat. The next day
+Selous killed a very fine buffalo bull. In a few days they reached the
+Umniati and entered the first Banyai village. The party got game almost
+every day, and on August 10th Selous killed another fine buffalo bull.
+On the Umniati the natives engaged in the practice of enclosing a space
+of the river over 200 yards broad and 400 yards in length to confine a
+herd of hippopotami so as to starve them to death. In one of these the
+travellers saw ten unfortunate animals which had been enclosed for about
+three weeks. Occasionally one was speared by the natives when it became
+exhausted.
+
+On August 17th Jameson and Selous turned homewards towards their
+waggons, and whilst travelling through the bush suddenly came upon two
+fine bull elephants. Jameson was in great excitement, as they were the
+first he had ever seen. The elephants passed broadside and both hunters
+fired, but the beasts made off. After several more shots--Jameson having
+got hold of his big rifle--both hunters killed their quarry, then
+following the course of the Umzweswe for some distance, where Jameson
+got his first lion, and by striking east to the Umfule river, they got
+back to their waggons on August 30th.
+
+In a letter to his mother (November 2nd, 1880) Selous says: "I will send
+you an account of a lion that came to our camp whilst we were away and
+did a bit of mischief, causing the death amongst other things of Mr.
+Jameson's servant, a white man named Ruthven." No details of this
+unfortunate incident are, however, available.
+
+Jameson and Selous continued hunting until November, and then trekked
+out to Bulawayo. In December Selous bade farewell to Lobengula and
+reached Bamangwato at the end of the month. Early in 1881 war broke out
+in the Transvaal, so Jameson and Selous travelled along the borders of
+the Kalahari desert to Griqualand and reached the Diamond Fields. Here
+Selous disposed of his waggon, oxen and horses, travelled to Port
+Elizabeth, and took ship for England. As soon as he landed he heard that
+"the wretched war with the Transvaal--a war that will leave a legacy of
+hatred for generations to come to be equally divided between the Dutch
+and English colonists in South Africa--had been concluded by a most
+humiliating peace, and a more disgraceful page added to the history of
+England than any that have yet been written in its annals."
+
+On April 17th, 1877, Sir T. Shepstone, on behalf of H.M. Government,
+annexed the Transvaal. It is true that for a long time the management of
+the affairs of the Boer Republic had been going from bad to worse. Its
+government had no longer powers to enforce laws or to collect taxes.
+Nevertheless, many thought our action was unjust as long as their
+affairs did not affect us. On one point, however, we had a right, for
+the conduct of the Boers to the native tribes had been abominable. One
+of the causes alleged for our interference was the desultory war carried
+on with great brutality by the Boers against Sekukuni, chief of the
+Bapedi. This war was brought on by the encroachment of the Boers on the
+Bapedi, just as the Zulu war was brought on by similar causes. The
+object of the Boers in their attacks on native races was firstly the
+acquisition of territory, and secondly the capture of children to be
+brought up as slaves.
+
+When the annexation was announced, the Zulus rejoiced greatly, but their
+joy was soon dashed when they found that, far from removing the bitter
+trouble of the boundary question, the English had turned against them in
+this matter. They were sore at our having espoused the cause of their
+enemies, the Boers, whom they had refrained from attacking for many
+years, when they could have done so with impunity, without coming into
+collision with the English. Even at this time they still believed in us;
+but considered that Sir T. Shepstone in undertaking the government of
+the Boers, had become a Boer himself.
+
+At first the Boers took the annexation quietly, and sent two commissions
+to London, in 1877 and 1878, with a memorial signed by thousands of
+Boers stating their rights in the matter, in order to avoid war, but
+obtained no satisfaction from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. A
+considerable feeling of unrest therefore remained after their return,
+and the Boers went into laager near Pretoria, where Sir Bartle Frere met
+them on September 10th, 1879. The Boers then complained bitterly of the
+annexation and of the manner in which it had been carried out. The
+answer given on the 29th of September by Sir Garnet Wolseley was that we
+intended to keep the Transvaal.
+
+On the 12th of December there was a meeting of over six thousand Boers
+at Wonderfontein, and many resolutions were passed which in the main
+proclaimed their continued independence. At the end of 1879, however,
+the Home Government established a sort of Executive Council for the
+Transvaal which consisted of both Boers and Englishmen. In March, 1880,
+the first legislative assembly under Her Majesty's rule was opened at
+Pretoria by Colonel Owen Lanyon, and for a short time after this the
+Home Government was assured that the agitation amongst the Boers was
+dying out, whereas in reality it was only the calm before the storm.
+
+On November 11th some disaffected Boers forcibly stopped an execution
+sale for non-payment of taxes. Soon after this the Boers gathered and
+refused to pay taxes. This led to collisions, and Sir Owen Lanyon
+ordered up troops to Potchefstroom. On December 13th, 1880, the first
+shot was fired and England began to reap the fruit of her disastrous
+policy. The result of the war of 1881 and the subsequent peace made by
+Gladstone immediately after the disaster of Majuba are too well known to
+need recapitulation.
+
+As soon as Selous arrived in England he began preparing for the Press an
+account of his travels which was published by Richard Bentley & Son in
+the same year under the title of "A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa."[25]
+As was expected by his friends, but not himself, it achieved an
+immediate success and stamped the author at once not only as a great
+hunter, naturalist and explorer, but as one who could narrate his
+experiences in an entertaining fashion. Since Baldwin's "African Hunting
+and Adventure," published in 1863, there had been no first-class book on
+South African sport, so Selous' book was welcomed by all men who love
+the rifle and the wilderness. If he made a mistake it was in publishing
+the lists of game shot by himself between January, 1877, and December,
+1880. They amount to such a formidable total that, both at the time and
+subsequently reviewers attacked him for what they call "this wholesale
+senseless slaughter." Selous was wont to reply to this charge by saying
+that the greater part of the meat killed was consumed by his own
+followers and hungry natives who would do nothing for him unless he
+killed some animal for food.[26] This is very true, but it must be
+admitted there was enormous waste on some days when four or five
+giraffes or elephants were killed. Selous, however, was no different
+from other hunters of all time, and thought that in the case of very
+abundant species they would last for ever, or in the case of
+others--such as the great game--if he did not shoot them somebody else
+would. Nevertheless, he was far more considerate than the majority of
+the early hunters, and never shot an animal except for a definite
+purpose. Between the years 1860-1870 the destruction of game in South
+Africa was very great, but the real disappearance of the large fauna
+probably dated from the introduction of the modern breechloading rifle,
+roughly about 1875, and the commencement of the sale of hides for
+commercial purposes. It will give the reader a better idea of what this
+wholesale destruction meant when I state that one dealer in Kroonstad
+(Orange River Colony) told me by reference to his books that between the
+years 1878-1880 he exported nearly two million skins of springbuck,
+blesbok and black wildebeest. He, it is true, was the principal dealer
+in hides for that part of the Vaal river district, but there were many
+others who also exported very large numbers. It has been abundantly
+proved that game of all kinds must disappear at the advent of railways
+and modern weapons. In a new country every man carries a rifle and uses
+it, whilst history teaches us that nothing has ever been done to save
+the game until it is on the verge of extinction. East Africa, alone of
+all countries, made adequate Game Laws in time, but how long the game
+will last there, near railways, is a doubtful point, for the settlers
+have now taken matters into their own hands and are destroying the game
+wholesale on the pretext of wanting the grass for the cattle. This is
+done indiscriminately by all settlers whether they have cattle or not.
+Considering that Big Game shooting parties furnish a good part of the
+revenue (over L10,000 annually in shooting licences) of British East
+Africa, and that the country, except for coffee, black wattle and hemp,
+all of which grow where there is little or no big game, is mostly
+unsuitable for ranching, the state of things is deplorable.
+
+There are many who sneer at Big Game shooting, and are opposed to the
+slaughter of animals, but if we look upon this sport in a wider sense,
+in its magnificent opportunities for training the body and developing
+the best qualities in men of the right stamp, and in the matter of
+shooting, endurance and the organization of material, we will find that
+the balance is on the right side. There is, in fact, no outdoor exercise
+to compare with it, whilst the man who delights in slaughtering large
+numbers of animals purely for the lust of taking life is extremely
+rare.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[22] "A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 382-383.
+
+[23] "History of the Zulu War," by Miss Colenso and Col. Durnford.
+
+[24] Letter to Lady Durand, Jan. 22nd, 1887, from "Story of the Rear
+Column," p. 31.
+
+[25] Mrs. Jones (Miss A. S. Selous), who did the illustrations for his
+first book, writes to me: "I fear I must own to these illustrations, but
+at least they were a proof of what my brother was to me--my hero
+always--I never could have gone through such an ordeal otherwise, for I
+knew nothing about animals. Still I do not regret them, although the
+sight of them on the screen was always acutely painful to me! You were
+his greatest friend, so you will understand."
+
+[26] Writing in 1892 Selous says: "As I have lately been accused of
+slaughtering game for sport, I will take this opportunity of saying that
+during this journey (Autumn, 1892), though I walked for days amongst
+innumerable herds of wild animals, I only fired away twelve cartridges
+from the day I left Salisbury until the date of my return there, and
+that, as is my usual practice, I never fired a shot except for the
+purpose of supplying myself and my party with meat."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+1881-1885
+
+
+When Selous returned to South Africa in November, 1881, it was with the
+fixed intention of abandoning his wandering life. The chase of the
+elephant which, above all wild animals, furnished some pecuniary return,
+had now become so precarious, owing to the scarcity of the animals, that
+even men like Selous could not make a living at it, so when his friend
+Mandy, who was doing well in Cape Colony as an ostrich-farmer, suggested
+to him that he should enter the same profession, he decided that the
+advice was good. Accordingly when he returned to the Cape he at once
+visited Mandy, whom he found far from flourishing. His employer had died
+and ostrich-business was at a low ebb commercially, so Selous, who had
+several orders for specimens of the larger game from dealers and
+museums, once more turned his thoughts towards the north, and was soon
+again on his way to the happy hunting grounds. At Kimberley he bought a
+fine grey horse named "Diamond" (which, after proving his excellence,
+fell a victim to the usual horse-sickness), and then proceeded to
+Klerksdorp in the Transvaal, where he hoped to take over his friend
+Collison's Matabele boys. These he found ready to go with him, as well
+as Morris, the waggon-driver, and an excellent Griqua lad named Laer,
+who was later of much assistance in skinning and preparing specimens.
+From an old Matabele pioneer named Leask he bought a waggon and a good
+span of oxen, and also laid in a good stock of provisions. Just as he
+was starting, a missionary named Arnot begged for a passage to
+Bamangwato, which was at once granted. Passing through the Manica
+district of the Transvaal, Selous met one of the old Boer Voortrekkers,
+by name Friedrich de Lange, who showed him a curious "snake-stone" which
+was supposed to have the power to cure snake-bite. De Lange valued this
+stone highly, and stated that its efficacy was invariable, and that it
+had already cured several people and horses that had been bitten by
+snakes. Selous himself was able to confirm de Lange's belief in the
+talisman, for he had met the daughter of one Antony Forman, who as a
+child had been severely bitten by a cobra, and whose life was saved by
+applying the stone, which was applied twice before it drew out the
+poison. Selous met the girl--then sixteen years of age--in 1877 and she
+showed him the old scar. Apparently the rough side of the stone adhered
+to the wound until a certain amount of poison had been absorbed and then
+it fell off. Several applications were necessary. It is probable that
+this remarkable stone had been brought from India.
+
+Passing along the Crocodile river, where a drought set in and drove the
+game to the neighbourhood of the river, Selous managed to kill a few
+good specimens of hartebeest and wildebeest which he preserved. Diamond
+proved a splendid shooting horse, but another mount, Nelson, which was
+at first intractable, eventually became a valuable animal, as he
+successfully survived the prevalent sickness. This horse, though
+somewhat slow, did Selous yeoman service for several years, and he
+eventually sold it to Lewanika, chief of the Barotsi, in 1888.
+
+At this time Selous hunted industriously to make a good collection of
+butterflies, and after many years he did make a very complete
+collection, which he presented to the Cape Town Museum. The curator of
+this museum was the late Mr. Trimen--a man for whom Selous had a great
+respect--who was ever delighted to receive any novelties, and many were
+the new species discovered by these two active entomologists. Selous, in
+fact, had all his life collected butterflies, and did so almost to the
+day of his death in German East Africa, for it was nothing to him to
+chase agile insects in the heat of the day, when other men only thought
+of rest and refreshment. The capture of some new species was to him
+always a great event, and though others, less interested than himself,
+wondered at his taking so much trouble about a wretched butterfly, he
+had all the absorbing pleasure of finding some new thing, the ambition
+of all true naturalists.
+
+One day, whilst butterfly hunting, he found an ox bogged in the mud of
+the river. The poor beast had been badly bitten by crocodiles, which are
+perhaps more numerous in the Limpopo than in any river in South Africa,
+except perhaps the Botletlie. Numerous goats and calves belonging to
+natives were annually destroyed there, whilst in 1876 a Boer hunter
+named Berns Niemand met his death from these reptiles whilst crossing
+the river.
+
+At the Notwani river, on March 5th, Selous decided to visit Khama and
+ask his permission to travel along the Limpopo and up the Mahalapsi
+river to Matabeleland. He rode by night, and "off-saddled" to give his
+horse a rest and feed for half an hour.
+
+    "I had been lying thus upon the ground for perhaps a couple of
+    minutes, listening to the slight noise made by my horse as he
+    cropped the short dry herbage. Suddenly the sound ceased. For a
+    few seconds I lay dreamily wondering why it did not recommence;
+    but as there was still silence, I rolled quickly over on my
+    stomach, and, looking under the bush to ascertain why my horse
+    had stopped feeding, I saw that he was standing in an attitude
+    of fixed attention, with ears pricked forward, intently gazing
+    towards the road. I instantly turned and looked in the same
+    direction, and as instantly saw on what the horse's eyes were
+    fixed. There, not thirty yards away, and right in the open, a
+    lioness, looking large and white in the brilliant moonlight was
+    coming up at a quick and stealthy pace, and in a half-crouching
+    attitude. In an instant I was on my feet, and the lioness,
+    probably observing me for the first time, at once stopped and
+    crouched perfectly flat on the ground. The saddle and rifle lay
+    out in the moonlight right between me and the lioness, though
+    nearer to me than to her. It was not a time to hesitate. I knew
+    she must be pretty keen set, or she would have retreated upon
+    seeing me; and I felt that if I remained where I was, she would
+    resume her journey towards my horse, which might end in my
+    having to carry the saddle back to the Notwani. Obviously the
+    only thing to be done was to get hold of my rifle; so I walked
+    quickly forward into the moonlight towards where it lay against
+    the saddle. I must confess that I did not like advancing towards
+    the lioness, for I knew very well of what hungry lions are
+    capable; and there is nothing like experience to damp the
+    foolhardy courage of ignorance. However, whilst I took those
+    dozen steps she never stirred; but just as I stooped to grasp my
+    rifle she sprang up with a low purring growl, and made off
+    towards some thorn-bushes to her right. I fired at her as she
+    ran, and, though I certainly ought to have hit her, I must have
+    missed, as she neither growled nor changed her pace. But I was
+    fairly well pleased to have driven her off, and lost no time in
+    loosening my horse's hobbles and saddling him again."
+
+After this adventure and visiting Khama, who as usual acceded to his
+request, he passed on north to Matabeleland, and in June formed a
+hunting camp on the tributary of the river Bili in the well-watered
+valleys and verdant forests of Northern Mashunaland.
+
+On June 20th he set a gin for hyenas which had been troublesome. Soon
+after midnight his dogs began barking and retreated into camp, which
+they would not have done before a hyena. Then some heavy animals came
+galloping past and Blucher, a favourite dog, was missed. Since the
+animal had uttered no sound Selous concluded he had been seized by the
+head and carried off by a lion. For a time all was quiet, and then the
+boys began shouting and said that a lion had come through the
+thorn-fence and taken the skin of a sable antelope that had been drying
+on a frame. This proved to be the case, and this very bold lion or
+others then returned a second time and carried off another wet skin.
+
+Yet a third time the lion entered the camp and attacked the skins, one
+of which he commenced drawing within thirty yards of the camp. All this
+time Selous had never been able to get a clear shot, but as soon as dawn
+came he saddled his horse and soon saw a lion and lioness lying on an
+open bank close to the stream, but they moved off in the uncertain
+light. For that day the lions won.
+
+[Illustration: BUFFALOES ALARMED.]
+
+That night an enclosure was built, baited, and a gin placed at each
+entrance, but later only a hyena met its death. At sundown poor Blucher,
+terribly mangled, crawled into camp, but though every attention was
+given him, he died some weeks later. The next day, however, better luck
+prevailed. Some Kafirs found a lion, and Selous getting a close shot
+from the back of his horse killed it with a bullet in the head. On the
+way back to camp another lion was put up and bolted through the forest.
+
+This lion he wounded badly and lost for a time, but on further search it
+was found and charged the hunter savagely. The lion then stopped.
+
+    "The position was now this: the lion was standing with open
+    mouth, from which blood was flowing, growling savagely, and
+    looking like nothing but a wounded and furious lion, whilst
+    right in front of him, and within thirty yards, stood Laer's
+    refractory pony, backing towards the lion, and pulling with him
+    Laer, who, of course, was looking full into his open jaws, which
+    he did not seem to admire. I think I shall never forget the
+    momentary glimpse I had of his face. He was at that time only a
+    lad of about fifteen or sixteen years of age, and there is no
+    wonder that he was frightened--but frightened he most certainly
+    was: his hat had fallen off, his mouth was wide open, and his
+    eyes staring, and he was pulling desperately against the horse,
+    which was steadily dragging him nearer to the lion. I was a
+    little to the right of Laer and a little further from the lion,
+    but not much, and he looked alternately at the two of us. I am
+    sure it was simply want of strength that prevented him from
+    coming on and mauling either Laer or the pony, for before I
+    could raise my rifle he sank down on the ground, but still kept
+    his head up, and, with his mouth wide open, never ceased
+    growling or roaring (I do not know which is the better word). Of
+    course I fired as quickly as I could, the circumstances not
+    admitting of any delay. I aimed right for his open mouth, and at
+    the shot his head fell so suddenly, and in such a way, that I
+    knew the bullet had reached his brain."[27]
+
+During the next six weeks Selous shot and preserved many fine specimens
+of the larger African antelopes for the British Museum, Cape Museum, and
+London dealers. At this time he met his old friend Dorehill, who was
+also on a shooting trip. He had with him his young wife, who was
+probably the first English lady to travel in the interior of
+Mashunaland. On the way to visit him at his camp Selous killed a leopard
+which was feeding at mid-day on the carcase of a black rhinoceros killed
+by Dorehill--a very unusual circumstance.
+
+At this time Selous determined to visit Tete on the Zambesi, going there
+via the Hanyane river, and to cross the intervening country which was
+then quite unknown. After leaving his waggons on August 6th, he crossed
+the Manyami, accompanied by Laer, some natives, and one pack donkey, and
+passed numerous Mashuna villages on the hills, and so across to Umkwasi
+to the remarkable hills of Chikasi, where rocks several hundred feet
+high rise from the level plains. The country here was beautiful and the
+climate that of an English June, though colder at night. Here Selous
+lost his only donkey, killed by a hyena.
+
+After crossing the Mutiki and the Dandi rivers, where no game was seen,
+and reaching Garanga, where guides were obtained, all the party now
+descended to the Zambesi valley. At the Kadzi river there was a
+considerable amount of game and swarms of tsetse flies, and so,
+following the course of the Umsengaisi, Selous reached the Zambesi at
+Chabonag on August 17th.
+
+Here he decided to make for Zumbo.
+
+After reaching Zumbo, formerly a centre of trade in gold dust and now a
+trade base for ivory, which mostly came from the Loangwa valley to the
+north, Selous, after mapping various new features in this region, struck
+south again. He had difficulty with his guides and, as always happens in
+the intense heat of the Zambesi valley, was again struck down with
+fever. He struggled on, however, on foot until September 10th, when Laer
+turned up with one of his horses, and on September 14th reached his
+camp, where in the fine air he soon mastered the fever. Early in October
+he reached the Matabele country and travelled to Klerksdorp, where he
+despatched his collections to Cape Town and England.
+
+After laying in a fresh stock of provisions and trading goods he again
+set out for the interior, and in May, 1883, made his permanent camp on
+the banks of the Manyami river in Mashunaland. After unsuccessfully
+searching for elephants to the north and west, he crossed the Manyami to
+the Mazoe river, and from thence proceeded to the eastern bank of the
+Sabi river, close to the Portuguese frontier, where he hoped to obtain
+specimens of the now rare white rhinoceros and Liechtenstein's
+hartebeest. So far the last named was only known from specimens taken at
+and north of the Zambesi river, so that it was possible that the Sabi
+hartebeest might be slightly different.[28]
+
+On the 11th of July Selous made a start for the south-east, and on the
+way knocked down a good specimen of the striped eland which, however, he
+was destined to lose, as he had lost his knife and had not another
+cartridge to kill it with. The next day he shot a splendid wart-hog,
+which cut his dog Punch rather badly, and which for many years was the
+best specimen in his museum. Next day he emerged on to the high open
+grassy downs between the Manyami and the Mazoe rivers. The climate of
+this delightful region, which has an elevation from 4500 to 6000 feet,
+is the best in Mashunaland and has an equable temperature throughout the
+year except in the months of June and July, which are rather cold.
+Running streams intersect the plateau in all directions and small
+patches of forest afford wood and shelter to passing travellers. Fifty
+years before this beautiful country was heavily populated by peaceful
+Mashunas, but about 1840 the bloodthirsty Matabele overran the district
+and slaughtered everyone except a few which were kept for slaves.
+
+In 1883 it was a great country for eland, roan antelope, and ostriches,
+several fine specimens of which fell to Selous' rifle. One of these, a
+female roan with horns 2 ft. 7 in. over the curve, still remains the
+record for females of this species. Near the river Chingi-Ka he killed a
+fine bull eland, which he left with some Mashunas who, however, skinned
+and cut it up during the night. This threw Selous into a rage, and he
+seized their bows and arrows and assegais and threw them on the fire,
+and then to their astonishment and annoyance made a bonfire of the rest
+of the carcase.
+
+On July 30th he reached the river Impali, a tributary of the Sabi. Here
+was a Mashuna town where all the men carried bows and arrows and the
+women were tattooed on the forehead, cheeks, breasts and stomach. The
+next day Selous found tracks of the antelope he had come to hunt, but on
+this and following days he had no luck in finding them, though some days
+afterwards he killed a bull rhinoceros. He then returned to his camp on
+the Manyami, and continued to hunt there till November, and then started
+south-west on his return home. The day after leaving the Manyami, whilst
+crossing a tributary of the River Sarua, the wheel of one of his waggons
+collapsed, and knowing that a Boer and an Englishman were close at hand,
+Selous determined to go to their camp, borrow a wheel and bring his
+waggon on, and make the new wheel in a place where he would have the
+pleasure of talking to some white men. That day Selous rode across
+country to the camp of Grant and Karl Weyand, and when Laer turned up
+they received the news that the waggon driver had met five Hons on the
+road. Selous then felt sorry he had not gone by this route, for Laer
+described the big lion of the party as the most magnificent he had ever
+seen. Next day Selous rode back to his camp, and on the way he had an
+exciting adventure with a leopard which he wounded as it ran into the
+bush. The now angry beast hid in the cover but disclosed its whereabouts
+when the hunter came close. "However, I had seen whereabouts he was
+lying, and so determined to fire a shot or two to make him show himself;
+but before I could do so he again raised his head with another snarl,
+and immediately after came straight out at me, and at such a pace that
+before I could turn my horse and get him started the leopard was right
+under his tail. He chased me for some sixty or seventy yards before he
+stopped, coming right into the open and keeping close up the whole time.
+I pulled in as quickly as I could, and before the plucky little beast
+regained the bush gave him a second shot which quickly proved fatal.
+When charging and chasing me this leopard growled and grunted or roared
+exactly like a lion under similar circumstances, and made just as much
+noise."
+
+The next day Laer turned up with the wheel, across which lay the fresh
+skin of a lion he had killed. It appeared that the previous evening when
+the waggon-driver and a native boy named April were sitting by the fire
+a lion rushed into the camp and attacked one of the oxen. April fired at
+it and missed, but Laer, though only a boy, put in another cartridge and
+took a shot which was fatal.
+
+The following day some men whom Selous had sent into the "fly" to look
+for elephants returned and reported "a big lion close by." Immediately
+Selous was out and after him with his dogs, which were led. He had not,
+however, gone far when he saw the lion lying flat on the ground at right
+angles to where he was riding. As his horse would not stand, he
+dismounted.
+
+    "All this time the lion had never moved, nor did he now, but lay
+    watching me intently with his yellow eyes. Nothing stirred but
+    his tail, the end of which he twitched slowly, so that the black
+    bunch of hair at its extremity appeared first on one side of
+    him, then on the other. As I raised my rifle to my shoulder I
+    found that the fallen tree-trunk interfered considerably with
+    the fine view I had had of him from my horse's back, as it hid
+    almost all his nose below the eyes. In the position in which he
+    was now holding his head I ought to have hit him about half-way
+    between the nostrils and the eyes, which was impossible;
+    anywhere above the eyes would have been too high, as the bullet
+    would have glanced from his skull, so that it required a very
+    exact shot to kill him on the spot. However, there was no time
+    to wait, and, trying to aim so that the bullet should just clear
+    the fallen log and catch him between the eyes, I fired. With a
+    loud roar he answered the shot, and I instantly became aware
+    that he was coming straight at me with open mouth and flaming
+    eyes, growling savagely. I knew it was hopeless to try to get
+    another cartridge into my single-barrelled rifle, and utterly
+    useless to try to mount, more especially as my horse, startled
+    by the loud hoarse grunts and sudden and disagreeable appearance
+    of the charging lion, backed so vigorously that the bridle (to a
+    running ring on which a strong thong was attached, the other end
+    being fastened to my belt) came over his head. I had a strong
+    feeling that I was about to have an opportunity of testing the
+    accuracy of Dr. Livingstone's incredible statement that, for
+    certain reasons (explained by the Doctor), a lion's bite gives
+    no pain; but there was no time to think of anything in
+    particular. The whole adventure was the affair of a moment. I
+    just brought my rifle round in front of me, holding the small of
+    the stock in my right hand and the barrel in my left, with a
+    vague idea of getting it into the lion's mouth, and at the same
+    time yelled as loud as I could, 'Los de honden, los de honden,'
+    which being translated means, 'Let loose the dogs.' In an
+    instant, as I say, the lion was close up to me. I had never
+    moved my feet since firing, and whether it was my standing still
+    facing him that made him alter his mind, or whether he heard the
+    noise made by my people, who, hearing my shot, immediately
+    followed by the loud growling of the lion, were all shouting and
+    making a noise to frighten the lion from coming their way, I
+    cannot take upon myself to say; but he came straight on to
+    within about six yards of me, looking, I must say, most
+    unpleasant, and then suddenly swerved off, and passing me,
+    galloped away."[29]
+
+The dogs then ran him to bay alongside a big ant-hill.
+
+    "As soon as he saw me he paid no further heed to his canine
+    foes, but stood, with his eyes fixed on the most dangerous of
+    his assailants, growling hoarsely, and with his head held low
+    between his shoulders--just ready to charge, in fact. I knew my
+    horse would not stand steady, so jumped off, and taking a quick
+    aim fired instantly, as it does not do to wait when a lion is
+    looking at you like this, and when he may make up his mind to
+    come at any moment. Usually they jerk their tails up over their
+    backs, holding them perfectly stiff and rigid, two or three
+    times before charging. They sometimes charge without doing this,
+    but they never do it without charging. My bullet inflicted a
+    mortal wound, entering between the animal's neck and shoulder
+    and travelling the whole length of his body. He sat down like a
+    dog on his haunches immediately after, and was evidently done
+    for, as he lolled his tongue out of his mouth and growled feebly
+    when the dogs bit him in the hind-quarters."[30]
+
+The pegged-out skin of his lion measured ten feet eleven inches, and it
+proved to be the third largest Selous ever killed.
+
+In mid-December Selous went out to Bulawayo and there found himself
+involved in a row with Lobengula, who unjustly accused him of killing
+hippopotami. The Matabele apparently had some superstition regarding
+these animals and believed that a drought would follow the killing of a
+number of these animals unless the bones were returned to the river.
+Doubtless some slaughter had taken place owing to the activities of a
+certain trader who made a business in sjamboks.
+
+When Selous met Lobengula he was at first quite friendly, and when the
+hunter told him he had not killed a single hippopotamus that year the
+king said there was no case against him. A few days later, however, he
+was summoned to the king's presence and Selous heard there was likely to
+be trouble. The case lasted three days, during which time the white men
+accused had to sit outside the kraal in the pouring rain.
+
+Concluding his attack on Selous, Ma-kwaykwi, one of the head indunas,
+said:
+
+    "'It is you, Selous, who have finished the king's game.' He went
+    on: 'But you are a witch, you must bring them all to life again.
+    I want to see them--all, all. Let them all walk in at the kraal
+    gate, the elephants, and the buffaloes, and the elands.'
+
+    "I stood up and called out: 'All right; but when the lions come
+    in, will you, Ma-kwaykwi, remain where you are to count them?'
+
+    "This caused a general laugh at Ma-kwaykwi's expense, and quite
+    stopped his flow of eloquence."
+
+Finally Selous had to pay sixty pounds. This fine he always considered
+to be a robbery.
+
+As soon as the case finished Selous went to Klerksdorp and sent his
+collections to England. He was sore at his treatment by Lobengula, and
+so determined to avoid Matabeleland and to hunt in the northern parts of
+Khama's territory this year. One day at Klerksdorp he met Walter
+Montague Kerr bent on a long expedition through Matabeleland and
+Mashunaland to the Zambesi, and the two hunters travelled together as
+far as Bulawayo. Here they separated, Kerr going north and eventually
+crossing the Zambesi, where the illness, privation, and hardship he
+underwent so undermined his health that his early death resulted. He
+published an interesting book on his travels[31] which is, however, now
+little known.
+
+At this time Selous was much depressed owing to the low state of his
+finances, for although he had been able to support himself entirely by
+trading and his rifle since 1871, he had made nothing and his whole
+assets were represented by horses, oxen, waggons and general outfit. His
+mother, too, frequently urged him to give up South Africa, and either
+come home or try another country, but to this he turned a deaf ear and
+only expressed his wish to worry on till better times came. Writing to
+her on April 6th, 1884, from Bamangwato, he says:--
+
+    "This country is now in a terrible state financially, bankrupt
+    from Cape Town to the Zambesi. Nothing that is not exportable
+    has any real value, for nothing can be turned into money. Thanks
+    to my specimens I have during the last two years, in spite of
+    more than reasonable losses, even for Africa, done very well,
+    but all that I have made is represented by waggons, salted
+    horses, cattle, rifles, etc., for all of which I have paid large
+    prices, but which, if I wished to realize and leave the
+    country, would bring me in scarcely enough to pay my passage to
+    England. It is all very well to tell a man to leave such a
+    country and try another. It would be the wisest thing to do, no
+    doubt, but it is a thing that few men are capable of doing. What
+    you say of Edward Colchester (friend of his youth) returning to
+    Australia and beginning life again at thirty-nine is not at all
+    to the point. He would simply be returning again to his old
+    life, for which he has never ceased to pine ever since he came
+    home and settled down in England. I was very interested in what
+    you told me about Spiritualism, but are you sure that William
+    Colchester really saw his child (recently deceased) and touched
+    and spoke to him? In Sergeant Cox's accounts of Materializations
+    the figure seen is that of the medium, and I have never yet seen
+    an authentic account of any other Materialization. At present I
+    believe nothing (about Spiritualism), but am _inclined_ towards
+    Materialism, but at the same time I do not believe everything,
+    and am in a state of doubt. If I felt sure--quite sure--that I
+    was merely material, I think I should before long take a good
+    dose of laudanum and stop the working of my inward mechanism,
+    for life, on the whole, is a failure--to me, at any rate--who, I
+    think, am naturally of rather a sad turn of mind, though I can
+    quite understand it being very different to sanguine hopeful
+    people. However, as I feel doubtful upon the subject, I
+    certainly shall not have recourse to violent measures but shall
+    protect my vital spark as long as I can. I think I told you
+    about Jameson being struck down by a sort of paralytic stroke
+    and not being able to come out this year to hunt.
+
+    "I am very sorry indeed, for being with Jameson, who is, of
+    course, a rich man, I should have been free from the constant
+    anxiety which now overhangs me like a black cloud as to whether
+    I shall be able to pay my debts. It is so very easy to lose a
+    hundred pounds in live stock, from sickness, drought, hunger,
+    etc., and so hard, so very hard, to make it. Last year I paid
+    Mr. Leask nearly L1600. This year I only owe a few hundreds and
+    am at present well to the good, as I have nearly L2000 worth of
+    property."
+
+Selous left Bamangwato in April, 1884, and trekked across the desert
+north-west to the Mababe veldt. He was fortunate enough to find for once
+plenty of water, owing to thunder-storms, and he did not experience any
+great hardships as he did in 1873 and 1879. In June he established his
+main hunting camp near the north end of the Mababe flats. The bushmen
+here told him of the activities of a man-eating lion who had recently
+killed several men. Selous at once set out to look for him, and soon
+found one of the unfortunate victims, torn to pieces and partially
+eaten. But the lion seems to have left this district, and the hunter was
+unable to find him, since he did not commit further depredations.
+
+Selous did not remain long on the Mababe. In August he retreated to Sode
+Gara and Horn's Vley, where he killed some good specimens of giraffe,
+hartebeest, gemsbuck, and ostrich. Then he moved eastward for a while,
+and afterwards went south to Tati, which he reached in late November,
+and so on to Bulawayo, where he remained for the winter, sending his
+specimens out on a trader's waggon.
+
+After visiting Lobengula, who demanded a salted horse valued at sixty
+pounds for the right to hunt in Mashunaland, Selous set off again to the
+north-east. He took with him four horses and thus quaintly describes a
+new cure for a hopeless "bucker."
+
+"I almost cured him," he says, "of bucking by riding him with an adze
+handle, and stunning him by a heavy blow administered between the ears
+as soon as he commenced, which he invariably did as soon as one touched
+the saddle; but I never could make a shooting horse of him, and finally
+gave him to Lobengula, in the hope that he would present him to
+Ma-kwaykwi or some other of his indunas against whom I had a personal
+grudge."
+
+Selous now went to the Se-whoi-whoi river, where two years previously he
+killed the last two white rhinoceroses he was destined to see. These
+great creatures had now become exceedingly scarce in Africa south of the
+Zambesi, and are now quite extinct in all South Africa except in the
+neighbourhood of the Black Umvolosi in Zululand, where, according to
+latest reports (1917), there are twelve which are fortunately strictly
+preserved. In 1886 two Boers in Northern Mashunaland killed ten, and
+five were killed in Matabeleland in the same year. After this date they
+seemed to be extremely rare. I saw the tracks of one near the Sabi in
+1893, and the same year Mr. Coryndon killed one in Northern Mashunaland.
+
+When he reached the high plateau of Mashunaland and got to the Umfule
+and Umniati rivers Selous found game plentiful, and was soon busy
+collecting specimens. After a visit to the Zweswi he passed on to the
+Lundaza, a tributary of the Umfule. Here he found a large herd of
+elephants. He was, however, badly mounted on a sulky horse, as his
+favourite Nelson had been injured, and this greatly handicapped him, as
+well as causing him twice to have some hairbreadth escapes.
+
+On the great day on which he killed six elephants he had numerous
+adventures. First he shot at and wounded a large bull which he could not
+follow, as an old cow charged him viciously and gradually overhauled his
+sulky horse; but on entering thick bush he avoided her and soon got to
+work on two fresh bulls which he killed. He then dashed after the broken
+herd and soon came face to face with an old cow, who chased him so hard
+that he had to leap off his horse to avoid her. Curiously enough, the
+elephant did not molest his horse, but getting the wind of the hunter,
+charged him and was eventually killed. Selous then followed the
+retreating herd, and only at first succeeded in wounding two large cows,
+one of which charged him, when he had again to abandon his horse, but
+after some trouble he killed them both.
+
+Later, on the Manyami, he found another small herd and killed a big bull
+and a cow. The bull charged him fiercely but swung off on receiving a
+frontal shot, and was then killed with a heart shot. Later in the year
+he went south to the Sabi and was lucky enough to kill five
+Liechtenstein's hartebeest, which he had failed to get on his previous
+hunt for them.
+
+In December he returned to Bulawayo. On the way, whilst travelling with
+Collison, James Dawson, and Cornelis van Rooyen, a noted Boer hunter,
+an incident occurred which showed the power of a sable antelope in
+defending itself from dogs. Van Rooyen fired at a bull, and all the dogs
+rushed from the waggon to bring the wounded animal to bay. When the
+hunter got up and killed the sable it was found that the gallant
+antelope in defending itself with its scimitar-like horns had killed
+outright four valuable dogs and badly wounded four more. The strength
+and rapidity with which a sable bull uses its horns is a wonderful thing
+to see. When cornered either by a lion or dogs the sable lies down and
+induces the enemy to attack its flanks. Then like a flash the horns are
+swept sideways and the attacker pierced. I lost my best dog by a wounded
+bull in 1893. He was killed in an instant, both horns going right
+through the whole body, between heart and lungs. In the same year I
+found in a dying condition a splendid bull sable, badly mauled by a
+lion, and incapable of rising, but the lion himself, an old male, was
+found dead about a hundred yards away by some Shangan natives. I saw the
+claws and teeth of this lion, but the skin was not preserved as the lion
+had been dead some days when it was found. There is little doubt that
+both the sable and the roan antelopes are dangerous when cornered. A
+Matabele warrior was killed by a wounded cow sable in 1892, and Sergeant
+Chawner of the Mashunaland police was in 1890 charged by a slightly
+wounded bull roan which missed the rider but struck his horse through
+the neck and so injured it that it had to be shot. A similar incident
+also happened to Mr. George Banks in 1893.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[27] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," pp. 37-40.
+
+[28] Selous, however, did not kill any on this trip. I shot one near the
+Sabi in 1893 which proved to be identical with the northern race.
+
+[29] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," pp. 130-133.
+
+[30] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," pp. 133-134.
+
+[31] "The Far Interior."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+1886-1889
+
+
+During the year 1886 Selous did but little hunting and shooting, though
+he twice made short visits to Matabeleland both before and after a
+journey home to England, where he remained for several months. In the
+following year he was employed to act as guide and hunter to Messrs. J.
+A. Jameson,[32] A. C. Fountaine,[33] and F. Cooper,[34] on a long trip
+to Mashunaland, in which all concerned had wonderful sport. The party
+killed twelve lions, and discovered the remarkable limestone caves of
+Sinoia and the subterranean lake whose waters are cobalt blue.[35]
+
+A main camp was established on the Upper Manyami, and from there hunts
+were organized in all directions. The travels of the four Englishmen
+occupied the greater part of the year.
+
+It was during this expedition that one day whilst chasing four koodoo
+bulls Selous charged straight into one of the pitfalls made by the
+natives for trapping game. The impact was so great that the horse broke
+his back and Selous himself so injured the tendons of one of his legs
+that he was unable to walk for three weeks afterwards. In such a life as
+he had, much of which was spent in rough country, racing game at full
+speed on horseback, it was unavoidable that the hunter should meet with
+numerous falls. He was, however, so tough and clever that in most cases
+he escaped unhurt, but once, when chasing a black rhinoceros on the
+Manyami river in 1883, he had a bad fall and smashed his collar-bone,
+and on another occasion, in October, 1880, whilst chasing a bull eland,
+he dashed at full speed into a dead tree branch. Even after this he
+killed his game, but on reaching camp became half-unconscious with
+concussion of the brain. There was a deep wound on the side of his eye
+which destroyed the tear-duct, leaving a cavity which eventually healed
+up, but a year after, one day in London, he coughed up a piece of wood
+that must have been driven right through the tear-duct till it reached
+the passage at the back of the nose. The scar on his face seen in all
+later photographs of Selous was caused by the recoil of his first
+elephant-gun, which his native servant had inadvertently loaded twice.
+
+Of the expedition of 1887, when Selous hunted with J. A. Jameson, A. C.
+Fountaine, and Frank Cooper, no complete record seems to have been kept,
+but Selous narrates a few of their adventures in his articles in the
+Geographical Society's Journal[36] (1888), and in "Travel and Adventure
+in South-East Africa," pp. 445-7, he gives some details of their
+wanderings.
+
+It was not the habit of Selous to give up any scheme, however difficult,
+once he had set his heart upon it. We have seen how often his plans for
+reaching the "Promised Land" beyond the Zambesi had been foiled, but he
+never abandoned the idea and resolved to put it into execution whenever
+the opportunity should occur. At last, in 1888, he found himself free to
+make another attempt. He was in good health and possessed an ample
+supply of money to purchase material, which in the case of the long
+journey involved was a necessity.
+
+He left Bamangwato on April 9th, 1888, with two waggons, five salted
+horses, and sixteen donkeys. His intention was to go first to Lialui and
+take up his residence with Lewanika for at least a year. Panda-ma-tenka
+was reached on the 16th of May, and there Selous learned that the
+country to the north was in a very unsettled condition owing to rival
+claims to the chieftainship of Barotsiland, and that it might be months
+before he got across the Zambesi. Soon after, he met his old friend
+George Westbeech, who strongly advised him not to enter Barotsiland, but
+to take advantage of an invitation from Mr. Arnot, who was established
+in the Garanganzi country, which was said to be full of elephants.
+
+Accordingly Selous left his waggons and set off down the Zambesi,
+intending to cross the river at Wankie's Town and strike north along his
+old route of eleven years before. In the light of his subsequent
+adventures amongst the Mashukulumbwe it is here necessary to say
+something of his coloured companions on this eventful trip. There was
+Daniel, a Hottentot waggon-driver; Paul, a Natal Zulu; Charley, an
+interpreter who had been trained amongst Westbeech's elephant-hunters;
+and two of Khama's men. All these were well armed with modern
+breechloading rifles. Besides these men he had four Mashunas who had
+served him on former expeditions, and whom he could trust in an
+emergency. Other boys were hired at Panda-ma-tenka, and with these and
+the donkeys carrying the outfit Selous set forth for Wankie's Town with
+complete confidence.
+
+Having arrived at Wankie's Town in eight days, the donkeys having been
+safely towed across the river, troubles now began. Daniel, the
+Hottentot, developed fever and died in four days, and then the boys whom
+he had hired at Panda-ma-tenka deserted. Selous, however, managed to get
+on with his own small lot, and even hired a few Batongas. But soon old
+Shampondo, the Batonga chief of the district, came and demanded further
+presents, bringing at the same time a small Batonga army to enforce his
+views. For a moment there was nearly trouble, as Selous' "boys" loaded
+their rifles at the threatening aspect of the natives, but their master,
+with his usual tact in dealing with savages, saved the situation, though
+he was not allowed to proceed without further extortion. Selous knew
+that later he would have to pass through the territory of Mwemba, "the
+biggest scoundrel" amongst the Batongas, so he importuned Shamedza to
+give him porters and to help as far as the Zongwi river, and this the
+chief did.
+
+The reason of these extortions was that the Batonga chiefs were afraid
+of the white men because of their own evil deeds. Although they had seen
+no Europeans since Dr. Livingstone, his brother, and Kirk, several
+Jesuit fathers had been as far as the Zambesi and had died or been
+maltreated. David Thomas had also been murdered by the Batongas, as well
+as a Portuguese trader. Selous knew that if he followed the Zambesi as
+far as the Kafukwe he was certain to be attacked and probably murdered.
+Accordingly he decided to strike due north to the Mashukulumbwe in spite
+of their evil reputation.
+
+Next day he reached the Muga and the following crossed the Kachomba
+river, and on the third day came to the Mwedzia, where he was able to
+hire a few useful men. During the following day he marched over what he
+describes as the "roughest country to walk over in the whole world,"
+stony and barren conical hills devoid of game or water. On the third day
+he emerged into better country covered with forest and good grass, and
+here at a village he picked up a guide to take him to Monzi, a Batonga
+chief, who lived on a high plateau which was said to abound in game.
+
+The following day he reached the plateau and saw abundance of zebra,
+Liechtenstein's hartebeest, blue wildebeest, roan antelope, and eland.
+Later he interviewed old Monzi, who told him he had seen no white man
+since the visit of Dr. Livingstone thirty-five years before. The natives
+were very friendly, as Selous gave them an eland and a zebra he had
+shot, and all seemed to go well. At Monzi's the traveller got two guides
+to take him to the Kafukwe, and at the second village he struck he found
+himself for the first time amongst the naked Mashukulumbwe. Here a lot
+of Sikabenga's men (Barotsi) arrived with a crowd of armed
+Mashukulumbwe, and said they had come to buy ammunition. The attitude of
+the natives was suspicious, and when Selous refused either to sell them
+powder or to go with them, they said: "You will live two days more, but
+on the third day your head will lie in a different place from your
+body."
+
+Selous, however, paid no heed to their threats, and that day proceeded
+on his journey, telling his guides to proceed east to the Mashukulumbwe
+villages and intending to camp in the open veldt. Paul and Charley, who
+both had experience with natives north of the Zambesi, agreed that this
+was the best policy, but "we unfortunately allowed ourselves to be
+dissuaded and led into the jaws of death by our ignorant guides." These
+men said the party would find no water on the plateau but only in the
+villages, so there they went.
+
+At the second village the natives were frightened, and, avoiding this
+place, they pressed on over a veldt teeming with game to the Ungwesi
+river. Here Selous camped at a village where, after preliminary shyness,
+the natives seemed fairly friendly and showed the hunter where to camp
+and get wood and water. At the Magoi-ee Selous found himself in a highly
+populated district and camped at a village where lived Minenga, the
+chief of the district. That worthy insisted on Selous camping alongside
+the village and would take no refusal. Accordingly Selous found himself
+in the lions' den, as it were, and felt he must brave it out now if
+anything went wrong, so he set to work to make a "scherm" of cornstalks
+and plant-poles to secure the donkeys.
+
+After a while things did not look so bad, as the natives abandoned their
+spears and came and joined in a dance with the Batonga boys. Then, too,
+the women and girls came down and ate with Selous' men--usually a sure
+sign of peace. By nightfall Selous viewed the whole scene and felt he
+had no cause for alarm, and felt he had quite gained the goodwill of
+these savages. At nine o'clock, when Selous was already in bed, Minenga
+sent him a message to come to drink, but, as he was tired, he did not
+go. In the light of subsequent events, Selous was glad he had not
+accepted the invitation, for he would certainly have been murdered. The
+dance and noisy musical instruments were intended to drown any noise
+that might have occurred.
+
+Next day Selous hunted, and later, when in camp, was surrounded by great
+crowds of natives which, however, left at sundown.
+
+    "I could not sleep, however, and was lying under my blanket,
+    thinking of many things, and revolving various plans in my head,
+    when about nine o'clock I observed a man come cautiously round
+    the end of our scherm and pass quickly down the line of
+    smouldering fires. As he stopped beside the fire, near the foot
+    of Paul and Charley's blankets, I saw that he was one of the two
+    men who had accompanied us as guides from Monzi's. I saw him
+    kneel down and shake Paul by the leg, and then heard him
+    whispering to him hurriedly and excitedly. Then I heard Paul say
+    to Charley, 'Tell our master the news; wake him up.' I at once
+    said, 'What is it, Charley? I am awake.' 'The man says, sir,
+    that all the women have left the village, and he thinks that
+    something is wrong,' he answered. I thought so too, and hastily
+    pulled on my shoes, and then put on my coat and cartridge-belt,
+    in which, however, there were only four cartridges. As I did so,
+    I gave orders to my boys to extinguish all the fires, which they
+    instantly did by throwing sand on the embers, so that an intense
+    darkness at once hid everything within our scherm.
+
+    "Paul and Charley were now sitting on their blankets with their
+    rifles in their hands, and I went and held a whispered
+    conversation with them, proposing to Paul that he and I should
+    creep round the village and reconnoitre, and listen if possible
+    to what the inhabitants were talking about. 'Wait a second,' I
+    said, 'whilst I get out a few more cartridges,' and I was just
+    leaning across my blankets to get at the bag containing them
+    when three guns went off almost in my face, and several more at
+    different points round the scherm. The muzzles of all these guns
+    were within our scherm when they were discharged, so that our
+    assailants must have crawled right up to the back of our camp
+    and fired through the interstices between the cornstalks. The
+    three shots that were let off just in front of me were doubtless
+    intended for Paul, Charley, and myself, but by great good luck
+    none of us was hit. As I stooped to pick up my rifle, which was
+    lying on the blankets beside me, Paul and Charley jumped up and
+    sprang past me. 'Into the grass!' I called to them in Dutch, and
+    prepared to follow. The discharge of the guns was immediately
+    followed by a perfect shower of barbed javelins, which I could
+    hear pattering on the large leathern bags in which most of our
+    goods were packed, and then a number of Mashukulumbwe rushed in
+    amongst us.
+
+    "I can fairly say that I retained my presence of mind perfectly
+    at this juncture. My rifle, when I picked it up, was unloaded;
+    for, in case of accident, I never kept it loaded in camp, and I
+    therefore had first to push in a cartridge. As I have said
+    before, between our camp and the long grass lay a short space of
+    cleared ground, dug into irregular ridges and furrows. Across
+    this I retreated backwards, amidst a mixed crowd of my own boys
+    and Mashukulumbwe.
+
+    "I did my best to get a shot into one of our treacherous
+    assailants, but in the darkness it was impossible to distinguish
+    friend from foe. Three times I had my rifle to my shoulder to
+    fire at a Mashukulumbwe, and as often someone who I thought was
+    one of my own boys came between. I was within ten yards of the
+    long grass, but with my back to it, when, with a yell, another
+    detachment of Mashukulumbwe rushed out of it to cut off our
+    retreat. At this juncture I fell backwards over one of the
+    ridges, and two men, rushing out of the grass, fell right over
+    me, one of them kicking me in the ribs and falling over my body,
+    whilst another fell over my legs. I was on my feet again in an
+    instant, and then made a rush for the long grass, which I
+    reached without mishap, and in which I felt comparatively safe.
+    I presently crept forwards for about twenty yards and then sat
+    still listening. Standing up again, I saw that the Mashukulumbwe
+    were moving about in our camp. It was, however, impossible to
+    see anyone with sufficient distinctness to get a shot, for
+    whenever one of the partially-extinguished fires commenced to
+    burn up again it was at once put out by having more sand thrown
+    over it.
+
+    "But I now thought no more of firing at them. I had had time to
+    realise the full horror of my position. A solitary Englishman,
+    alone in Central Africa, in the middle of a hostile country,
+    without blankets or anything else but what he stood in and a
+    rifle with four cartridges. I doubt whether Mark Tapley himself
+    would have seen anything cheerful in the situation. Could I only
+    have found Paul or Charley or even one of my own Kafirs, I
+    thought my chance of getting back to Panda-ma-tenka would be
+    much increased, for I should then have an interpreter, I myself
+    knowing but little of the languages spoken north of the Zambesi.
+    I now began to quarter the grass cautiously backwards and
+    forwards, whistling softly, in hopes that some of my own boys
+    might be lying in hiding near me; but I could find no one, and
+    at length came to the conclusion that all those of my people who
+    had escaped death would make the most of the darkness and get as
+    far as possible from Minenga's before day-dawn, and I decided
+    that I had better do the same."[37]
+
+He therefore decided to strike for Monzi's, the first village where he
+dared to show himself. First he made his way down to the ford on the
+Magoi-ee, but luckily observed a party of men watching there. Selous
+then retreated some 300 yards down stream and swam the river, which he
+well knew was swarming with crocodiles.
+
+    "The Mashukulumbwe I saw had now made up the fires, upon which
+    they were throwing bundles of grass, by the light of which I
+    presume they were dividing my property. I turned my back upon
+    this most melancholy spectacle and, taking the Southern Cross
+    for my guide, which was now almost down, commenced my lonely
+    journey."
+
+Selous' own account of his wanderings in his retreat from the
+Mashukulumbwe to the Zambesi makes some of the most interesting reading
+to be found in any book devoted to true adventure. Here he was, alone in
+Africa, only furnished with his rifle and four cartridges, a knife, and
+a few matches, and he had to overcome at least three hundred miles or
+more before he dared approach a village. It was a position that might
+have depressed any man except a genuine veldtsman, for that danger from
+all natives was to be feared was a certainty, since they would not
+hesitate to attack a single man whose life was wanted, just as one dog
+always chases another running behind a cart. All night long he walked,
+keeping a watchful eye for lions, and at the hill Karundu-ga-gongoma
+next day he searched for spoor to see if any of his boys had come that
+way, but there was no fresh sign, so he lay all day under a tree
+watching the ford of the river. Here he heard voices, and thinking they
+might be his own men he concealed himself and listened. Presently two
+heads appeared above the grass and he recognized two Mashukulumbwe by
+their cone-shaped head-dresses. They were evidently discussing the
+imprint of the hunter's shoes left on the sand. Selous was ready to
+shoot both if they saw him, but it was some relief when they turned and
+went back the way they had come. Hunger now began to assert itself, and
+the wanderer determined to shoot anything he could find, but, as his
+stock of cartridges was so small, he had to make a certainty of each
+shot. Luckily at this moment a single wildebeest came by within thirty
+yards and furnished an abundant supply of meat.
+
+After a good dinner and the sun had set, Selous, shouldering his rifle
+and a supply of meat, again struck south. At dawn, perished with cold,
+he reached the last Mashukulumbwe village, and, being near Monzi's, he
+determined to risk trouble, and entered the village. Here he found an
+unarmed boy, who furnished him with water, but even as he drank it he
+heard whispering in a hut close by and saw a man come out stealthily and
+vanish in the darkness. Presently this man returned with a gun in his
+hand, and later Selous heard him testing a bullet with the ramrod. All
+was quiet for a time, however, and Selous sat dozing over the fire. Then
+he awoke with a start, to find that two unarmed men had arrived and sat
+by the fire close to him. They questioned him and he endeavoured to
+answer them.
+
+    "In endeavouring to do so to the best of my ability, I kept
+    gradually turning more towards them, till presently my rifle lay
+    almost behind me. It was whilst I was in this position that I
+    heard someone behind me. I turned quickly round to clutch my
+    rifle, but was too late, for the man whom I had heard just
+    stooped and seized it before my own hand touched it, and, never
+    pausing, rushed off with it and disappeared in the darkness. I
+    sprang up, and at the same moment one of the two men who had
+    engaged me in conversation did so too, and, in the act of
+    rising, dropped some dry grass which he had hitherto concealed
+    beneath his large ox-hide rug on to the fire. There was at once
+    a blaze of light which lit up the whole of the open space around
+    the fire. My eyes instinctively looked towards the hut which I
+    had seen the man with the gun enter, and there, sure enough, he
+    sat in the doorway taking aim at me not ten yards from where I
+    sat. There was no time to remonstrate. I sprang out into the
+    darkness, seizing one of the pieces of wildebeest meat as I did
+    so; and, as the village was surrounded with long grass, pursuit
+    would have been hopeless, and was not attempted. My would-be
+    assassin never got off his shot."[38]
+
+Bad as his position had been, it was now far worse with the loss of his
+rifle. His only hope was that Monzi might prove friendly, so, after
+travelling all night, he reached Monzi's village. When that old chief
+heard his story he said, "You must leave my village immediately. They
+will follow you up and kill you. Be off! Be off instantly." Monzi was
+not so bad as the rest, he filled Selous' pockets with ground-nuts, and
+sent three men to take him a short distance, and these men strongly
+advised him not to trust the Batongas, in whose country he now found
+himself. After a meal it occurred to him that it would be a good plan to
+make south-east to Marancinyan, the powerful Barotsi chief, and throw
+himself on his protection. This chief was a friend of George Westbeech,
+the Zambesi trader, but the difficulty was to find his village. Somewhat
+unwisely, as it turned out, Selous visited some Batonga huts and asked a
+man the footpath to Sikabenga's (Marancinyan) kraal. This man at once
+roused the village, and a dozen armed men pursued and came up to Selous,
+who faced them, but these men proved not unfriendly, and even showed him
+the right track to follow.
+
+At last he reached Marancinyan's kraal and found the chief to be a tall,
+well-built young fellow, and, as he spoke Sintabili fairly well,
+conversation was easy. He did not treat the wanderer well, "yet had it
+not been for him I should in all probability have been murdered by the
+orders of his uncle. This, however, I only learnt some time afterwards,
+and though for three days I must have lived constantly in the very
+shadow of death, I had no idea at the time that my life was in danger."
+
+In three days Marancinyan told Selous that his life was in danger and
+that the Mashukulumbwe had followed, demanding his death, and that he
+must leave at once and go to a small Batonga village close by and wait
+there till sundown, when he would bring guides.
+
+Disturbed and suspicious at this news, Selous knew the Mashukulumbwe
+would never dare to threaten the well-armed Barotsi. However, he saw he
+must comply and trust to the Barotsi chief's promise. Accordingly he
+went off, but as Marancinyan did not appear Selous returned to his kraal
+and thus boldly addressed him: "What do you mean, Marancinyan, who say
+that you are George Westbeech's friend and the friend of all white men,
+by sending me to sleep among your dogs? Have you given orders to murder
+me in the night? If you want to kill me, you can do so here in your own
+town." This seemed to have upset the chief, who again repeated that
+Selous' life was in danger and that if he would go and sleep at the
+Batonga village he would for certain bring guides to lead him to
+Panda-ma-tenka.
+
+On the following morning the chief fulfilled his promise, and next day
+Selous reached a Batonga village under one Shoma. Here he found a friend
+who gave him fresh guides, and also heard the welcome news that ten of
+his boys had slept in a village close by and were making for the village
+of Shankopi far to the south. Here, five days later, Selous met with the
+remnant of his party, who had for long given him up for lost. They were
+very glad to greet their master, and "patted me on the breast and kissed
+my hands." In the night attack it appears that twelve men were killed
+and six more wounded out of the whole twenty-five. Everyone had had
+narrow escapes.
+
+    "Paul, the Zulu, got through the first rush of our assailants
+    unhurt, but was nearly drowned in crossing the river, where he
+    lost my single 10-bore rifle. Charley also got out of the scherm
+    unwounded, and, making his way to the river, there fell in with
+    two of our boys, and with their assistance crossed safely with
+    rifle, cartridge-belt, and clothes. I found that we had all done
+    the same thing, namely, held to the south through the night,
+    across country. Charley said he was close to me when I shot the
+    wildebeest; he heard the shot, and ran with the two boys in the
+    direction, but never saw me. I fancy he must have passed me
+    whilst I was cooking the meat, as I was then in a deep hollow.
+    He too had been seen and pursued in the daytime near the village
+    where my rifle was captured, but again escaped in the long
+    grass. This had also happened to the survivor of the two
+    Mangwato men, who, being likewise alone and unarmed, had
+    incautiously approached a village. He said that one man got
+    close up to him and threw three assegais at him, one of which
+    cut his right hand. At last, however, he outran him and escaped.
+    Neither Paul, Charley, nor the rest had gone near Monzi's, or
+    any other village, being afraid of the inhabitants, but had kept
+    through the veldt, and only cut into our trail beyond the hill
+    U-Kesa-Kesa. Here Charley shot a zebra, and was shortly
+    afterwards joined by Paul, who had then been three days without
+    food. Farther on Charley shot another zebra, and here he and
+    Paul remained for three days more, hoping that I would turn up,
+    and collecting all the other survivors of our party."[39]
+
+After this all danger and most of the hardship were past. They got
+provisions, and in a few days crossed the Zambesi, and three days later
+reached the waggons at Panda-ma-tenka. Thus it took the party about
+three weeks to cross three hundred miles of country since the night of
+the attack by the Mashukulumbwe.
+
+In time Selous was able to piece together the reasons why he was
+attacked by the Mashukulumbwe. The actual cause of the trouble was due
+to Sikabenga's uncle, who sent a party of men north after Selous to get
+powder from him at all costs, even if they had to kill him. These were
+the men Selous met the day he left Monzi's. Then the hunter refusing
+them powder, they followed him up and induced the Mashukulumbwe to
+attack him. One of the Barotsi warriors was left in a village beyond
+Monzi's, having fallen sick, and this was the man who tried to shoot
+Selous and failed.
+
+Sikabenga, who had acted on his uncle's instructions, but was really
+anxious to save the white man's life, was therefore in a quandary when
+Selous appeared and threw himself on his protection, and especially so
+when he expected the loot from Selous' camp to arrive at any moment.
+That was why he was so anxious to get him out of the village, for if
+Selous had observed Sikabenga's complicity in the attack that chief
+would have been obliged to order his murder. But Sikabenga himself did
+not long survive in this land of battle, murder, and sudden death, for a
+Matabele impi crossed the Zambesi in August, 1889, and killed him and
+most of his people.
+
+Most men, having gone through such exciting experiences, would have been
+content to have given African savages a wide berth for a long period
+afterwards, but not so Selous, whose reckless disposition he himself
+describes as "nearly equal to that of the Wandering Jew." But a few days
+elapsed and he was again planning a journey across the Zambesi to visit
+Lewanika, the head chief of the Barotsi, with the purpose of selling to
+him some of his salted horses and getting permission to hunt elephants
+in the unknown country north of the Kabompo river in the following year.
+
+After shooting five elands to furnish meat at his main camp during his
+absence, Selous crossed the Zambesi, towing his horses behind a canoe.
+From here he moved westwards to the Ungwesi river. After crossing the
+Kasaia the horses ran away, but were recovered after they had passed
+through some belts of "fly" country, but as the day was cloudy and a
+high wind blowing no serious results were to be feared. When the horses
+turned up, the party moved on to Sesheki, where Selous met two
+missionaries, branch workers belonging to Mr. Coillard's mission, long
+established in Barotsiland.
+
+After leaving Sesheki's the road led through "fly" country, which was
+traversed by night, and, crossing the Loanja, a dull, comparatively
+gameless country was traversed, until the party reached Sefula and
+Lialui in the main Barotsi valley. Here Selous met Mr. and Mrs.
+Coillard, who did so much for this country and who survived the
+pestilential climate for many years.
+
+Selous was well received by Lewanika, who was perhaps the most
+enlightened black chief in all South Africa with perhaps the exception
+of Khama. With him he did some good trading. It was interesting to
+observe the attitude of the natives to their chief when an audience was
+granted.
+
+    "When strangers came in, they saluted the chief most
+    ceremoniously. First they would kneel down in a row, and after
+    clapping their hands, bend their heads forward until their
+    foreheads touched the ground, when the head was moved slowly
+    from side to side; then, raising their heads again, they would
+    look towards the chief, and throwing their arms quickly and
+    wildly into the air would shout twice in unison, and in slow
+    measured tones, the words 'So-yo, so-yo.' This ceremony would be
+    twice repeated, when, after clapping their hands again, they
+    would get up and retire."
+
+Selous found the Barotsi valley enervating and far from interesting,
+although birds were numerous in the swamplands. Cranes, storks, avocets,
+spoonbills, herons, bitterns, egrets, wattled and spur-winged plovers,
+stilts, dotterel, and curlew were abundant and afforded him some
+amusement in watching their habits, but the large game, except lechwe,
+were rare. Beyond Sinanga to the west the scenery became more beautiful,
+and here the hunter found tracks of elephants and large herds of
+buffalo. He also visited the Falls of the Gonyi, which few travellers
+had ever seen. At the mouth of the River Nangombi his boatmen killed a
+huge reed-rat, like an immense guinea-pig, which Selous believed was an
+animal new to science. Next day a disaster befell one of the canoes,
+which was sunk in twelve feet of water by a hippopotamus, and the
+traveller was only able to recover a small portion of its valuable
+cargo. Soon after this he turned back and reached his waggons on the
+12th of October, going south in December, and reaching Bamangwato early
+in January, 1889.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[32] J. A. Jameson, a brother of J. S. Jameson.
+
+[33] A. C. Fountaine, of Narford Hall, Norfolk.
+
+[34] Frank Cooper, of Bulwell Hall, Notts, another well-known big game
+hunter of his period who had had in previous years excellent sport with
+wapiti in Colorado, where he and his brother secured some remarkable
+heads.
+
+[35] For Selous' own account of these caves and their discovery see
+"Proc. Geographical Soc.," May, 1888.
+
+[36] Selous was a regular contributor to the Geographical Society's
+Journal. In course of time the Society honoured his discoveries by
+giving him the Cuthbert Peek grant, the Back Premium and the Founder's
+Gold Medal.
+
+[37] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," pp. 221-224.
+
+[38] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," p. 232.
+
+[39] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," p. 241.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+1889-1892
+
+
+Early in 1889 Selous met Frank Johnson at Bamangwato and was asked by
+him to act as guide for a gold prospecting expedition to the upper
+regions of the Mazoe River. As it was then impossible to conduct such an
+expedition through Matabeleland, Lobengula having closed all the roads,
+Selous, accompanied by Mr. Burnett and Mr. Thomas, an experienced miner,
+travelled by sea to Quilimani, in Portuguese territory, and then to
+Lokoloko on the Quaqua by boat, and thence overland to Mazaro on the
+Zambesi. From here the party travelled up-stream to Tete, where the
+Governor, Senhor Alfredo Alpuina, neither helped nor hindered them to
+any extent. Selous had orders to mark out gold-bearing areas in
+Portuguese territory, but from the first had difficulty with his porters
+(Shakundas), who were fearful of meeting the natives of Motoko, with
+whom the Portuguese had been at war.
+
+On August 18th the travellers left Tete, and went first towards Zumbo
+and then south to the Kangadzi and Kansawa rivers, where they met a
+troop of lions, one of which, a lioness, Burnett killed. On September
+1st twenty-nine out of forty-two carriers bolted, and their loss was
+more or less made good by men from surrounding villages. At the kraal of
+a chief, Maziwa, they were subjected to the usual extortion, which
+excited the remaining Shakunda carriers to practise a little blackmail.
+Things got so bad that Selous decided to destroy a good part of his
+trade goods and to push on in spite of Maziwa's threats. A short retreat
+was, however, necessary, and the remaining Shakunda carriers, except one
+who remained faithful, were dismissed. From Rusambo a fresh start was
+made. Near the head of the Umkaradsi Valley Selous found a fine unnamed
+mountain, which he called Mount Darwin, after the illustrious
+naturalist, and then pushed on to Mapondera's kraal, which was in the
+centre of a gold-bearing district. Mapondera, chief of the Makori-kori,
+was a powerful chief, and from him Selous obtained a mineral concession,
+and got him to sign a paper to the effect that he considered himself in
+no way under Portuguese rule. This was important, for at this time the
+Portuguese, although holding none of the country, considered that they
+owned Mashunaland.
+
+Having concluded his business, Selous decided to try and fix the actual
+source of the Mazoe, which was then unknown. Accordingly, he and Burnett
+started off on their wanderings, leaving Thomas, who was ill with fever,
+at Mapondera's kraal.
+
+We need not follow the travels of Selous and his companions in their
+subsequent journeys, for Selous' own survey of this country and his
+remarks on Mount Hampden and its neighbourhood, are published in the
+Journals of the Royal Geographical Society. Suffice it to say, that on
+October 10th Selous and Burnett returned to Rusambo, after having
+carefully surveyed the adjoining country. The party then struck down the
+Ruenya river, where they killed some hippopotami, and reached Tete again
+on October 23rd. Here Selous had a stormy interview with the Governor,
+who accused him of being an agent of the British Government, and
+demanded the document made between himself and Mapondera. This, however,
+Selous declined to agree to, but eventually gave him a copy. After this
+the party had no further trouble, and reached Cape Town early in
+December.
+
+At this time (1890) all circumstances seemed to point to the fact that
+unless the British Government took possession of Mashunaland the
+Portuguese intended to do so. In 1888 Lord Salisbury had proclaimed it
+to be within the sphere of British influence, and said that he would not
+recognize the claims of Portugal unless that country could show
+occupation. It was therefore, in Selous' opinion at any rate, clear that
+the Portuguese expeditions of 1889 made against local chiefs in the
+North-East, were undertaken to prove conquest and ownership, for at this
+time no Englishman was domiciled nearer Mashunaland than Matabeleland.
+
+In view therefore of coming trouble Selous, who was then aware of
+Rhodes' schemes, wrote this letter to the "Selous Syndicate," setting
+forth the extreme importance of establishing occupation at once by
+British pioneers, or the valuable country of Mashunaland would be lost
+to us. On reaching Cape Town he at once proceeded to Kimberley, and was
+delighted to find that Mr. Rhodes fully concurred with his views, and
+was determined that the country should be occupied in the cause of the
+British South African Company during the coming year (1890). Selous then
+laid before him his idea of cutting a road passing from the south-east
+of Matabeleland due north to the Portuguese frontier. This scheme Rhodes
+did not at first approve of,[40] but he afterwards accepted it in its
+entirety.
+
+    "It is due to Mr. Cecil Rhodes alone," writes Selous, "I cannot
+    too often repeat, that to-day our country's flag flies over
+    Mashunaland. He alone of all Englishmen possessed at the same
+    time the prescience and breadth of mind to appreciate the
+    ultimate value of the country, combined with the strong will
+    which, in spite of all obstacles, impelled the means and the
+    power successfully to carry out the scheme of its immediate
+    occupation. What the acquisition of this vast country means is
+    as yet scarcely apparent to the great majority of Englishmen,
+    perhaps to none who are not acquainted with the history of South
+    Africa during the present century, or who have not watched the
+    giant strides which have taken place in its development during
+    the last twenty years. But, in the not distant future, when
+    quick and easy communications into Mashunaland have been
+    established, and the many difficulties which now hamper the
+    development of this the youngest of British colonies have been
+    overcome, then I think Englishmen will be able to appreciate
+    what they owe to Mr. Rhodes for inaugurating a new departure in
+    South African history, and securing for his countrymen the first
+    'show in' in a country which must ultimately become a very
+    valuable possession."
+
+By the end of 1889 Rhodes drew up his plan of occupation, which was
+approved by Sir Henry Loch, High Commissioner for South Africa, and
+other authorities. The guidance of the expedition was left entirely in
+the hands of Selous. The route of the road to be cut was from the
+Macloutsie river, over the high plateaux of Fort Charter and Salisbury,
+and north to Manica.
+
+In January, 1890, Selous wrote his letter to the "Times," which gave a
+very complete survey of the Portuguese and British claims, as well as a
+general description of the country it was proposed to occupy.
+
+   In February and March he made a flying visit to Bulawayo, where
+   he saw Lobengula, who gave him a message for Cecil Rhodes.
+   Writing from Palapswi, on March 26th, he says: "I got back the
+   day before yesterday from Matabeleland and leave to-morrow for
+   Kimberley. I am the bearer of a message from Lobengula to Mr.
+   Cecil Rhodes. He promises to come to an understanding with Mr.
+   Rhodes as to the opening up of Mashunaland if Rhodes will go up
+   to Bulawayo and arrange with him personally. I am going to try
+   and persuade Mr. Rhodes to accompany me back to Bulawayo
+   immediately. I hope he will be able to go, and trust some
+   satisfactory arrangement may be come to. Still, I distrust
+   Lobengula and his people. Things are in such a condition just now
+   regarding Matabeleland and Mashunaland that it is quite
+   impossible to tell what may happen. Everything may be settled
+   peaceably (or forcibly) this year. Or again, the High
+   Commissioner may forbid any expedition to be made this year
+   against the wish of Lobengula. The question is a very strange
+   one. The Charter was granted to the South African Company on the
+   strength of their having obtained a concession from Lobengula for
+   the mineral rights in Matabele- and Mashunaland. These rights
+   were really bought, and a lot of money was paid to Lobengula
+   directly, and to his people indirectly, by the agents of the
+   Company. Now it seems as if Lobengula was inclined to disallow
+   Europeans to work for gold, either in Matabele- or Mashunaland.
+   In order to avoid trouble, the Company now wish to waive their
+   rights in Matabeleland proper, where they would necessarily come
+   in contact with the Matabele people, and to exploit and develop
+   Mashunaland, a country to which the Matabele have no just title.
+   In order to do this without coming into contact with Lobengula
+   and his people, the Company now wish to make a road to
+   Mashunaland that shall not touch Matabeleland at all, but pass to
+   the south of that country, and it is quite possible that
+   Lobengula and his people, fearing to let whites get beyond him
+   and establish themselves in Mashunaland, will try and prevent
+   this road being made. At present the political situation in
+   England is a most ridiculous one as regards Mashunaland. Lord
+   Salisbury has warned the Portuguese out of it, saying that it is
+   to him the sphere of British influence, and now Lobengula will
+   not allow British subjects or any white men to enter his country
+   as long as he can keep them out. I abhor the Matabele, yet I
+   would not have them interfered with or their country invaded
+   without a _casus belli_; but that they should keep Europeans out
+   of Mashunaland is preposterous."
+
+In March, 1890, Selous was sent up to Palapswi with instructions to get
+men from Khama to cut a waggon-road to the eastern border of his
+country. He was, moreover, to be assisted by some Matabele in this
+critical work, and so visited Lobengula at Bulawayo to explain the
+objects in view. Lobengula, however, denied having ever given Dr.
+Jameson any promise about assisting in the making of the road, and
+firmly asserted that he would not allow it to be made. He said that he
+would not discuss matters with any of Rhodes' emissaries, and that if
+there was to be any talk the "Big White Chief" himself must come to
+visit him. Wherefore Selous returned to Kimberley and saw Mr. Rhodes,
+who sent Dr. Jameson, and with him Selous then returned to Tati.
+
+Meanwhile a considerable force, about four hundred white men, had been
+gathered at the Macloutsie with the intention of occupying Mashunaland,
+whether the Matabele liked it or not. Selous himself was sent
+eastward to pick out a good line for a waggon-road as far as the Shashi
+and Tuli rivers--which survey he concluded by May. It was during one of
+these journeys he was lucky enough to find and kill the best koodoo bull
+he ever saw, a magnificent specimen, 60 inches long on the curve and
+45-3/8 straight. By the 10th of June the waggon-track to Tuli was open.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE MASHUNA PLATEAU.]
+
+The pioneer expedition now moved, with the scouts in front; the Matabele
+threatened to attack, but did not do so, and Selous, with his scouting
+parties in advance and covered by Khama's mounted men, commenced cutting
+the long road from the Macloutsie to Mount Hampden, a distance of four
+hundred and sixty miles. As each section of the road was cut the main
+expeditionary force followed after. About the worst section was between
+the Umzingwane and the Umshabetse rivers, a desolate thirst-land; but
+this was passed in three days. This territory, which I visited in 1893,
+was claimed by the Matabele, and includes the King's private
+hunting-ground, and the pioneers expected every moment to be attacked;
+so every precaution was taken, the mounted men keeping a sharp watch and
+the axe-men doing the cutting.
+
+    From the Umshabetse river Selous wrote to his mother (July 13th,
+    1890): "I am here with an advanced party of the pioneer
+    force--forty men--all mounted. We have already cut nearly 120
+    miles of road from the B.S.A. Company's camp on the Macloutsie
+    river, and are now on the borders of the Banyai country. We are
+    already far to the east of all the inhabited part of
+    Matabeleland and are now going north-east, always keeping more
+    than 150 miles as the crow flies from Bulawayo. So far we have
+    seen nothing of the Matabele. We are, however, taking every
+    precaution against surprise, and always have scouts out in front
+    and several miles behind us on the road who do not come in till
+    after dark. We keep watch all night, too, with relays of guards.
+    Should a large impi come down to attack us, we shall simply
+    abandon our waggons and retire on the main body, which is now
+    coming on, on the road we have made. Our main body is composed
+    of four hundred good men, besides fifty native mounted scouts
+    supplied by Khama. If we can get two hours' notice of the
+    approach of the Matabele, just sufficient time to have all the
+    waggons put into 'laager' on the old Boer plan, Lobengula's men
+    can do nothing to us. If they attack us in 'laager' they must
+    suffer fearful loss. The young men want to fight, but Lobengula
+    and the older men want peace. However, do not be downhearted,
+    dearest mother. Personally, I hope there will be no fighting."
+
+On July 18th the main column caught up the roadmakers at the Umshabetse
+river, and on August 1st the Lunti river was reached. Selous now scouted
+ahead and found an easy road to the plateau ahead, and by "Providential
+Pass" the expedition eventually emerged from the forest into the open
+country.
+
+Whilst they were cutting the road from the Lunti to Fort Victoria an
+ultimatum was received from Lobengula by Colonel Pennefather that he
+must turn back at once, unless he "thought he was strong enough to go
+on," and warning him to expect trouble if he did so.
+
+By this time, however, Lobengula had lost his best chance of attacking
+the expeditionary force, for they had now emerged on the open downs; yet
+it is a wonder he managed to keep his young men in check. Had he
+attacked in the bush country it is doubtful if our forces, even if they
+had not met with a reverse, would have been able to proceed. At any rate
+intense excitement prevailed in Matabeleland, and many new impis of
+warriors were formed ready to take action.
+
+On September 1st the expedition reached the source of the Umgezi, where
+Fort Charter was established; so that by September 30th the Company had
+a continuous chain of forts and posts over eight hundred miles from Tuli
+to Fort Salisbury. Here Selous left the expedition, as he was the only
+man who knew the surrounding country, and it was essential for him to go
+with Mr. A. R. Colquhoun to confer with Umtasa, the chief of Manica. On
+September 14th a treaty was agreed to by which the British South Africa
+Company acquired and took possession of a large area of auriferous
+country--much to the annoyance of the Portuguese, who claimed it.
+Treaties were concluded with all the other chiefs except Motoko, whom
+Selous visited early in November. The Portuguese, however, did not give
+up their claims without some show of force, for when Major Forbes went
+down to take over parts of Manica he had trouble with the Portuguese,
+and had to arrest Colonel d'Andrada and others, to avoid bloodshed; and
+for safety sent his prisoners to Fort Salisbury.
+
+Before reaching Salisbury at the end of November, Selous spent three
+months altogether in travelling through the northern and eastern
+districts of Mashunaland and concluding treaties of amity with all the
+native chiefs. This, besides mapping and literary work--describing the
+country--occupied his time till the middle of December, when he again
+visited Motoko, chief of the Mabudja, to obtain a treaty of friendship,
+as well as a mineral concession, in which he was quite successful. In
+October he wrote home from Mangwendi's kraal praising the climate of
+Eastern Mashunaland, and evidently in high spirits at the great success
+of the pioneer expedition. "The opening up of Mashunaland seems like a
+dream, and I have played a not unimportant part in it all, I am proud to
+say. The road to Mashunaland is now being called the 'Selous Road,' and
+I hope the name will endure, though I don't suppose it will. At any
+rate, the making of the road was entrusted _entirely_ to me and I did my
+work to everyone's satisfaction. An old Boer officer said to me, just
+before the expedition started, 'I think that the expedition without Mr.
+Selous would be like a swarm of bees that has lost its Queen and does
+not know where to go to.' Yet it is too bad of me to sing my own
+praises, but I do feel most proud at the share I had in putting it
+through, _the whole idea, too, of making the road at all and thus
+circumventing the Matabele and gaining possession of Mashunaland was my
+own_. I proposed it to Rhodes in Kimberley on my return from the Zambesi
+last December. At first he did not like the idea; but after thinking it
+over, resolved to try and carry it out, with the result that Mashunaland
+is now practically a British province.
+
+    "Before the rainy season is over, the Company will probably have
+    come to some definite understanding with Lobengula, who, by the
+    by, recognized my importance in the expedition by sending down a
+    message to Sir Henry Loch, the High Commissioner, that 'Selous
+    had turned his oxen and his horses into his (Lobengula's)
+    cornfields.'"
+
+    Writing from Motoko's kraal on November 16th, he says: "Before
+    coming here, I have had no difficulty with any of the other
+    chiefs, but here I have had a lot of worry and trouble. My great
+    difficulty is that the whole country is really ruled, not by the
+    chief (Motoko) but by one whom they call the 'Lion-God.' This
+    appears to be a hereditary office, and the holder of it lives
+    away by himself in the mountains, and is looked upon with
+    superstitious dread and reverence by the Chief and his people.
+    However, I have now got things on a friendly footing, but I
+    shall have to go back to Fort Salisbury, in order to get certain
+    articles to appease the 'Lion-God,' and then return here before
+    I shall finally be able to conclude the treaty with Motoko. I am
+    under engagement to the Company till the end of next August, and
+    do not think I shall take a fresh engagement, as I am anxious to
+    get home. Having passed the best part of my life in the
+    wilderness and amongst savages, I should now like to see
+    something of civilized countries, with perhaps an occasional
+    short trip into an out-of-the-way place. If I live to be an old
+    man, I should like to re-visit this country, thirty or forty
+    years hence, by railroad."
+
+In January, 1891, he returned to Umtali, where he received orders to cut
+a road from that place to Lower Revui, and afterwards to lay a new road
+from the Odzi river to Salisbury. February was the wet season, so it was
+with some difficulty that he set about his task on the Odzi in company
+with Mr. W. L. Armstrong. On May 3rd, however, he had made one hundred
+and fifty miles of road to Salisbury, riding three strong horses to a
+standstill in his numerous peregrinations. Then news reached him of
+further trouble with the Portuguese, and he was asked by Mr. Colquhoun
+to take two waggon-loads of stores and ammunition to the small British
+garrison isolated at Manica, where there was an imminent prospect of
+fighting. Whereat he expresses his views clearly as to his own
+inclinations as regards soldiering. "Now I am not a fighting man, and
+neither look forward with enthusiasm to the prospect of being shot, nor
+feel any strong desire to shoot anyone else."
+
+However, he regarded the matter, as he always did when called upon, as a
+duty, and left at once for Manica with Lieutenant Campbell and twenty
+ex-pioneers. On May 13th the party reached Umtali, where they heard that
+the Portuguese had made a sortie from Massi-Kessi, and had attacked
+Captain Heyman's camp near Chua. The Portuguese troops, numbering one
+hundred whites and blacks from Angola, however, had shot so badly that
+no one was hit and soon lost heart and bolted back to Massi-Kessi, which
+was soon after occupied by our forces. To his mother he wrote from
+Umtali, May 20th, 1891:--
+
+    "I got down here on the 13th by the new road I have made for the
+    Company, with about twenty men and two waggon-loads of
+    provisions, and we were astonished to hear that a fight had
+    already taken place near Massi-Kessi on the afternoon of the
+    11th, and I will now tell you what has actually taken place. It
+    appears that on the 5th of this month the Portuguese reoccupied
+    Massi-Kessi, with a force consisting of about one hundred white
+    soldiers and three or four hundred black troops. Thereupon
+    Captain Heyman went over from here (Umtali Camp) to near
+    Massi-Kessi with fifty men and a seven-pounder cannon, and a lot
+    of Umtasa's men, to protest against the invasion of Umtasa's
+    country. Two days later, Captain Heyman and Lieutenant Morier (a
+    son of Sir Robert Morier, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg)
+    went down to Massi-Kessi with a flag of truce, to interview
+    Ferreira, the Commander of the Portuguese forces, and the
+    Governor of Manica. Ferreira told him that he was at
+    Massi-Kessi, in accordance with the terms of the _modus vivendi_
+    which the Company's forces were breaking, by being at Umtali,
+    and said that he would drive the Company's men out of the
+    country. Captain Heyman then said that he had better not do
+    anything before the expiration of the _modus vivendi_, to which
+    he replied that he would attack him whenever he thought fit to
+    do so. Captain Heyman's position was on a hill about five miles
+    from Massi-Kessi. On the 10th, I think, one of the Portuguese
+    officers came up with a flag of truce, evidently to see what
+    number of men Captain Heyman had with him. He only saw about
+    fifteen, as all the rest were lying down in the long grass, and
+    it must have been from his report that an attack was resolved
+    upon. Captain Heyman told me that he was immensely surprised to
+    see the Portuguese troops swarming out of Massi-Kessi at about 2
+    p.m. on the 11th. They advanced in two bodies, led by the
+    Portuguese officers. Captain Heyman first fired a blank charge
+    with the cannon to which they paid no attention, and then seeing
+    that they meant business the firing commenced in earnest. The
+    firing lasted two hours. The Portuguese officers did all they
+    could to get their men on, and behaved very well indeed; but
+    their men evidently did not relish the business, and after
+    making two attempts to reach a hill which would have commanded
+    Captain Heyman's position, broke and fled back to Massi-Kessi.
+    Not a single man of the Company's force was hit, but the
+    Portuguese lost an officer (Captain Bettencourt), and it is
+    believed about twenty men. Early next morning Captain Heyman
+    sent a man down to Massi-Kessi with a flag of truce, offering
+    the services of the doctor, and when he got there he found the
+    place deserted. For some unaccountable reason the Portuguese had
+    deserted the place, leaving nine machine-guns, ammunition, and
+    stores and provisions of all kinds behind them. It is thought
+    that a panic set in amongst the black troops, and the white
+    Portuguese were afraid to remain behind without them. The whole
+    affair is very inglorious to the Portuguese arms, and will have
+    a great effect on their prestige with the natives. Of course
+    Massi-Kessi was seized and looted by the northern barbarians,
+    and has now been blown up and destroyed. Everybody is longing
+    for another Portuguese expedition to come up, as then there will
+    be a chance of more loot. What will happen now it is impossible
+    to say, but I think that the British Government must step in,
+    and either order the Company to leave Manica, or else support it
+    against the Portuguese, in which case they will be unable to do
+    anything of importance. They will now, I think, have great
+    difficulty in getting up here, as the natives are all hostile to
+    them and all their carriers will have to be brought from other
+    parts. The country, too, is a very difficult one to travel
+    through. I shall be very glad when things are settled, as
+    Mashunaland will be kept back until they are. I have been down
+    with Colonel Pennefather, as I told you, on a reconnaissance
+    about thirty miles beyond Massi-Kessi, on the track of the
+    Portuguese, and they have evidently beaten a hasty retreat."
+
+Immediately after this fiasco Selous went down to Umliwan's kraal,
+situated between the Pungwi and the Busi rivers, to fetch away the
+abandoned waggons. One night, whilst on the return journey, the camp was
+attacked by five lions and an ox killed. Next morning Selous, of course,
+went after them, but failed to get a shot. The following night he made a
+small hut close to the carcase of the ox, and into this Selous and
+Armstrong crept at sunset, and the night's adventure as described by
+Selous[41] is one of the best stories he ever wrote. The lions kept
+continually returning to the carcase. Several shots were fired and two
+lionesses and a hyena killed, but one wounded lion succeeded in
+escaping.
+
+Although he says little of it at the time, Selous did an immense amount
+of tramping to and fro, all footwork because of the "fly," in the
+unhealthy country, both contiguous to and in the Portuguese territory
+about the Pungwi and Busi rivers in 1891 and 1892, in the hope of
+finding a road to the East Coast that would be free from the tsetse fly
+and where waggons could pass. In this he was unsuccessful, and he was
+reluctantly forced to admit that a railway would be the only method of
+transport to the coast, and that until this was made no progress was
+possible. However, his journeys carried him for the first time into the
+last great haunt of game south of the Zambesi, for at this time the
+whole of the territory in the neighbourhood of these rivers was one huge
+game reserve which, owing to its unhealthiness, was seldom visited by
+sportsmen or even meat-hunters. And so it continued till 1896, when the
+rinderpest swept off nine-tenths of the koodoos, elands and buffalo.
+Since that day the game recovered in a measure, and even to-day there is
+more game there than anywhere south of the Zambesi, but it contains a
+shadow of its former abundance at the time when Selous first visited it.
+Practically Selous was the first white man to see this great assembly of
+game and to hunt them, for the Portuguese were not hunters and never
+left the footpaths. He found vast herds of buffaloes in the reed-beds,
+bushbucks as tame as in the Garden of Eden stood gazing at a few yards
+and did not fly at the approach of man, whilst out on the plains there
+was a constant procession of Liechtenstein's hartebeest, blue
+wildebeests, tsessebes, water-bucks, zebras, and here and there were
+always scattered parties of reedbucks, oribis, and the smaller
+antelopes. Wart-hogs and bush-pigs were equally tame and confiding, and
+hippopotami disported in the rivers and lagoons in broad daylight, and
+there was not a night that several troops of lions were not heard
+roaring. Yet curiously enough, in spite of the abundance of the
+last-named, Selous only saw three individuals, one of which he killed
+after it had charged twice. This, he says, was the last of "thirty-one
+lions I have shot."[42] This number does not tally with the statement,
+"I have only shot twenty-five lions when entirely by myself,"[43] but
+the discrepancy is accounted for by the fact that he killed six lions
+between 1893 and 1896.
+
+The opening up of the new country proceeded rapidly till June, 1892,
+when Selous wrote to his mother from Salisbury:--
+
+    "The telegraph wire is now at Fort Charter, and before the end
+    of next month the office will be opened here in Salisbury, and
+    Mashunaland will be in telegraph communication with the whole of
+    the civilized world. This, if you come to think of it, is really
+    a magnificent piece of enterprise. We are having the most lovely
+    weather up here, although it is the middle of summer and the
+    rainy season; nice cool cloudy days, with showers of rain
+    occasionally, but nothing worth speaking of. The Government
+    buildings are progressing rapidly. We now have an abundance of
+    vegetables here. Everything thrives marvellously, potatoes,
+    cabbage, onions, shalots, radishes, lettuces, etc. etc. Wheat
+    sowed in August last by the head of the Africander Bond
+    deputation, ripened and was cut in four months and a few days
+    from the date of sowing, and has been sent down to Cape Town.
+    Major Johnson's agricultural expert pronounced it to be as fine
+    a sample of wheat as he had ever seen, and says he will be able
+    to raise two crops a year. In fact, the country is now proved to
+    be an exceptionally fine one for both agriculture and
+    stock-farming, in spite of Mr. Labouchere and Lord Randolph
+    Churchill. The gold prospects are also improving, and many of
+    Mr. Perkins' prognostications have already been falsified. I
+    think there is no doubt that this country will have a grand
+    future, but the development will be very slow for some time yet;
+    in fact, until a railway has been made from the East coast, at
+    least as far as Manica. Once this railway has been built,
+    however, the country must be developed very quickly, I think.
+    All impartial persons agree that the climate on this plateau is
+    cooler and altogether more enjoyable than that of Kimberley and
+    many other parts of civilized South Africa; but, of course,
+    directly one leaves the plateau and gets into the low
+    bush-country towards the Zambesi, the East coast, or the
+    Transvaal, fever is rife during the rainy season. Unfortunately,
+    most of the gold-belts are in this unhealthy zone, and until the
+    bush is cut down, the land cultivated, and good houses are built
+    round the mines, miners will suffer from fever in the bad
+    season; but this is the same in all new countries. I am now
+    going down to make a road from Manica to the other side of
+    Massi-Kessi, so as to be ready from our side to meet the tramway
+    or railway which the Mozambique Company have undertaken to make
+    from the Pungwi river. My intention is to leave the Company's
+    service in June next, and in August I shall go down to the East
+    coast, and hope to be in Johannesburg in October, and in England
+    before the end of the year. I do not intend to re-visit
+    Mashunaland for several years, but I shall have considerable
+    interests there, which will increase in value as the country
+    develops. I intend to visit America, to see the World's Fair, in
+    1893, and should like to visit Japan at the same time. I
+    consider myself independent, as I can live on the L330 a year
+    which my de Beers shares produce, and I have a good many more
+    properties which may turn out valuable."
+
+Selous continued making roads until May, 1892, when there being no
+further work for him to do, he terminated his engagement with the
+British South Africa Company, and went down to Beira, and so to Cape
+Town and England, which he reached on December 17th, 1892. Before
+leaving, however, he did a little hunting, and killed his last lion on
+October 3rd, and his last elephant, a splendid old bull, with tusks
+weighing 108 lbs. the pair, on October 7th.
+
+It was in December, 1891, that Selous killed his finest lion, a splendid
+animal with a good mane, and one whose pegged-out skin measured over
+eleven feet. This lion had done much damage at Hartley Hills, breaking
+into stables and kraals, and destroyed many horses and goats. This was
+an unusually daring beast, and efforts to destroy him had been of no
+avail. Whilst dining with Dr. Edgelow one night, Selous heard his
+driver, John, fire from his camp close by, and called out to ask the
+cause. The driver replied that a lion had just killed one of the loose
+oxen. Nothing could be done that night, but at dawn Selous took the
+spoor in the wet ground, but lost it on the dry veldt. Next evening he
+made a shelter against a tree.
+
+    "As the shooting-hole between the overhanging branches of the
+    tree behind which I sat only allowed me to get a view directly
+    over the carcase of the ox, I arranged another opening to the
+    right, which gave me a good view up the waggon-road along which
+    I thought the lion would most likely come, and I placed the
+    muzzle of my rifle in this opening when I entered my shelter. As
+    the night was so light, I thought it very likely that my vigil
+    might be a long one; for even if he did not wait until the moon
+    had set, I never imagined that the lion would put in an
+    appearance until after midnight, when the camp would be quite
+    quiet. Under this impression, I had just finished the
+    arrangement of my blankets, placing some behind me and the rest
+    beneath me, so as to make myself as comfortable as possible in
+    so confined a space, and was just leaning back, and dreamily
+    wondering whether I could keep awake all night, when, still as
+    in a dream, I saw the form of a magnificent lion pass rapidly
+    and noiselessly as a phantom of the night across the moonlight
+    disc of the shooting-hole I had made to the right of the
+    tree-stem. In another instant he had passed and was hidden by
+    the tree, but a moment later his shaggy head again appeared
+    before the opening formed by the diverging stems. Momentary as
+    had been the glimpse I had of him as he passed the right-hand
+    opening, I had marked him as a magnificent black-maned lion with
+    neck and shoulders well covered with long shaggy hair. He now
+    stood with his forelegs right against the breast of the dead ox,
+    and, with his head held high, gazed fixedly towards my waggon
+    and oxen, every one of which he could, of course, see very
+    distinctly, as well as my boy John and the Kafirs beside him. I
+    heard my horse snort, and knew he had seen the lion, but the
+    oxen, although they must have seen him too, showed no sign of
+    fear. The Kafirs were still laughing and talking noisily not
+    fifty yards away, and, bold as he was, the lion must have felt a
+    little anxious as he stood silently gazing in the direction from
+    which he thought danger might be apprehended.
+
+    "All this time, but without ever taking my eyes off the lion, I
+    was noiselessly moving the muzzle of my little rifle from the
+    right-hand-side opening to the space that commanded a view of
+    his head. This I was obliged to do very cautiously, for fear of
+    touching a branch behind me and making a noise. I could see the
+    black crest of mane between his ears move lightly in the wind,
+    for he was so near that had I held my rifle by the small of the
+    stock I could have touched him with the muzzle by holding it at
+    arm's length. Once only he turned his head and looked round
+    right into my eyes, but, of course, without seeing me, as I was
+    in the dark, and, apparently, without taking the slightest
+    alarm, as he again turned his head and stood looking at the
+    waggon as before. I could only see his head, his shoulder being
+    hidden by the right-hand stem of the tree, and I had made up my
+    mind to try and blow his brains out, thinking I was so near
+    that I could not fail to do so, even without being able to see
+    the sight of my rifle. I had just got the muzzle of my rifle
+    into the fork of the tree, and was about to raise it quite
+    leisurely, the lion having hitherto showed no signs of
+    uneasiness. I was working as cautiously as possible, when
+    without the slightest warning he suddenly gave a low grating
+    growl, and turned round, his head disappearing instantly from
+    view. With a jerk I pulled the muzzle of my rifle from the one
+    opening and pushed it through the other just as the lion walked
+    rapidly past in the direction from which he had come. He was not
+    more than four or five yards from me, and I should certainly
+    have given him a mortal wound had not my rifle missed fire at
+    this most critical juncture, the hammer giving a loud click in
+    the stillness of the night. At the sound the lion broke into a
+    gallop, and was almost instantly out of sight."
+
+This was a terrible misfortune, but next morning Selous tracked the lion
+up a watercourse and soon found him.
+
+    "John was looking about near the edge of this shallow water, and
+    I had turned my horse's head to look along the bank higher up,
+    when the unmistakable growl of a lion issued from the bushes
+    beyond the rivulet, and at the same time John said, 'Daar hij'
+    (there he is). I was off my horse in an instant to be ready for
+    a shot, when he turned round and trotted away, and John ran to
+    try and catch him. I thought the luck was all against me, as I
+    expected the lion would make off and get clean away; but I ran
+    forward, trying to get a sight of him when he suddenly made his
+    appearance in the bush about fifty yards away, and catching
+    sight of me, came straight towards me at a rapid pace, holding
+    his head low and growling savagely. I suppose he wanted to
+    frighten me, but he could not have done a kinder thing. He came
+    right on to the further bank of the little stream just where it
+    formed a pool of water, and stood there amongst some rocks
+    growling and whisking his tail about, and always keeping his
+    eyes fixed upon me. Of course, he gave me a splendid shot, and
+    in another instant I hit him, between the neck and the shoulder,
+    in the side of his chest, with a 360-grain expanding bullet. As
+    I pulled the trigger I felt pretty sure he was mine. With a loud
+    roar he reared right up, and turning over sideways fell off the
+    rock on which he had been standing into the pool of water below
+    him. The water was over three feet deep, and for an instant he
+    disappeared entirely from view, but the next instant regaining
+    his feet stood on the bottom with his head and shoulders above
+    the surface. I now came towards him, when again seeing me, he
+    came plunging through the water towards me, growling angrily.
+    But his strength was fast failing him, and I saw it was all he
+    could do to reach the bank, so I did not fire, as I was anxious
+    not to make holes in his skin. He just managed to get up the
+    bank, when I finished him with a shot through the lungs, to
+    which he instantly succumbed."[44]
+
+Selous has always been regarded by the British public as the first
+lion-hunter of all time. They would like to have seen him travelling
+round with a large circus and a band giving demonstrations of shooting
+lions from horseback a la Buffalo Bill, but nothing was further from his
+own ideas than such a showman's display. Being as truthful as he was
+modest, he always entirely disclaimed any great prowess as a lion-hunter
+and said what was true--that many men had killed a far greater number of
+lions than himself. It was only on particular occasions like the last
+adventure described that he went out of his way to shoot lions that had
+become troublesome and dangerous, but at all times he never declined a
+fight when he was lucky enough to meet lions, whether he was himself
+afoot or accompanied by dogs. If he had wished to make a great bag of
+lions, doubtless he could have done so; but he never wished to pose as a
+lion-hunter like Jules Gerard and others, and so his total bag was
+modest. Actually, he himself shot thirty-one lions and assisted in the
+destruction of eleven others. Even his good friend, H. A. Bryden,
+usually so accurate in his statements, says: "He was easily the greatest
+lion-hunter of his time," and the general public, taking the cue from
+many writers, say a thing is so-and-so and the statement becomes
+standardized. But, after all, it is only a very few men who know the
+real facts of any case, and they often have a habit of holding their
+tongues. Doubtless, if Selous had enjoyed the opportunities of the
+Brothers Hill, he would have been just as active and successful in
+destroying lions as they--if he had not been killed in the process.
+Selous, as a matter of fact, had no more genius for hunting than that
+enjoyed by many others. He was an admirable hunter, but just as unable
+to spoor a lion on dry veldt as other white men--that gift alone
+belonging to certain black races. The title, therefore, of being "the
+greatest lion-hunter"--even if we admit the desirability of using
+superlatives--seems to belong to the man or men who by perfectly fair
+means and taking risks--the same as Selous himself did--have shot the
+greatest number of lions. Wherefore, I give a few particulars.
+
+As Selous himself has said, probably the greatest lion-hunter within his
+experience of South Africa was Petrus Jacobs, who killed in his
+life--chiefly with the assistance of dogs--well over one hundred lions,
+and was himself badly mauled when he was over seventy-three years of
+age.
+
+Probably the greatest all-round hunter of African game now living is
+William Judd, now a professional hunter in British East Africa. In South
+and East Africa he has killed forty-eight lions and been in at the death
+of forty-three others. In giving me these particulars, he says: "I have
+never had any really narrow squeaks from lions with the exception of the
+time I was out with Selous on the Gwasin Guishu plateau" (see "Field,"
+May 28th, 1910). It may be remarked that this immunity is due to the
+fact that he is a magnificent shot. He considers the Buffalo a far more
+dangerous opponent. A. B. Percival, Game Warden, is said to have shot
+fifty lions during his residence in British East Africa.
+
+In Somaliland, hunting almost exclusively for lions, Colonel Curtis in
+one season killed twenty-seven, and in the same time Colonel Paget and
+Lord Wolverton nearly as many. Captain Mellis also in one season
+accounted for twenty-one lions, and several other British sportsmen have
+killed twenty in one trip in that part of Africa.
+
+What a man does and what he could actually do in the way of lion-killing
+is perhaps beside the question. A great lion-hunter like Sir Alfred
+Pease, both an admirable shot and a superb horseman, has only killed
+fourteen lions and joined in eleven "partnerships," but this in no way
+represents the number of lions he _could_ have killed had he wished to
+do so. Being of an unselfish disposition it was ever his pleasure, since
+he had killed all the specimens he wanted, to give his friends who were
+anxious to shoot lions every opportunity of doing so. In fact, on many
+occasions, at his farm on the Kapiti Plains, he himself "rounded up" the
+lions for other men to kill, and simply looked on--standing ready in
+case of trouble. "Lions were so plentiful at my place on the Athi," he
+writes, "that one party killed in one day (1911-12) fourteen lions. I
+have often spared a fine lion to give a guest a chance, and have never
+seen him again. The finest lion I ever saw was an enormous black-maned
+fellow. I prevented my son-in-law from firing at him, as I wished
+President Roosevelt to get him during his stay with me. Subsequently, I
+think a German got his skin; but in reality, I believe H. D. Hill killed
+him after a German party and the Brothers Hill had fought a great battle
+with him near Lukania."
+
+Sir Alfred then goes on to give particulars of the astounding
+performances of the Brothers Harold D. Hill and Clifford Hill, who if
+they wished it--which they probably do not--are justly entitled to the
+right of being called the first of modern lion-hunters. "Harold Hill
+managed my farm in British East Africa for several years. He told me a
+year ago that he had, since he had been there, 1906-15, on my farms of
+Theki and Katanga, and on his own and his brother's farms--Katelembo and
+Wami--killed himself one hundred and thirty-six lions. I think this
+figure will include a very great number of what I should call
+'partnerships,' for his brother Clifford must have killed as many or
+more than Harold, for he has done more actual hunting.[45] Clifford Hill
+acted as professional hunter to many 'safaris,' but you could
+absolutely rely on any statement he made, although it is not likely that
+he believed, himself, in counting heads of game killed. I should not be
+surprised if these two brothers have not been in at the death of over
+three hundred lions during their residence in East Africa."
+
+    "Some years ago Lord Delamere had, I think, killed between fifty
+    and sixty lions. Many of these (over twenty) were killed in
+    Somaliland. Some of these were 'ridden,' and others may have
+    been killed at night, but Delamere was, nevertheless, a keen and
+    fearless hunter."
+
+Commenting on the different methods of hunting lions in Somaliland and
+British East Africa, Sir Alfred says:--
+
+    "The Somaliland method of hunting (i.e. following a fresh spoor
+    on hard ground till the lion was viewed) was, in my opinion, the
+    best test of skill and sporting qualities, since you tracked and
+    did the whole thing on your own initiative. Personally, I
+    enjoyed most the B.E.A. work. You saw much more of the beasts,
+    and I loved galloping and rounding them up for others to kill as
+    much as I enjoyed anything in my whole life."
+
+Paul Rainey's methods of hunting lions with a large pack of hounds can
+hardly come into the true category of lion-hunting where risks are
+taken. The dogs, it is true, were often killed or wounded; but as a
+friend who had taken part in these hunts remarked, "It was just like
+rat-hunting, and about as dangerous." It is true that one man, George
+Swartz (formerly a German waiter at the Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi), was
+killed in one of these hunts, but the accident was singular. Swartz was
+a very bold fellow and moved close in in thick bush when the dogs had a
+lion at bay one day in the Kedong in 1912. The lion "broke bay," and
+either intentionally charged Swartz or ran over to him by chance as he
+worked the cinema-camera. The beast gave the man one bite in the stomach
+and then left him, but the unfortunate fellow died shortly afterwards of
+his wounds. Paul Rainey claims to have killed over two hundred lions
+with his dogs.
+
+[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF THE STRONG.]
+
+It has always been the custom amongst hunters that he who draws first
+blood from any animal--even if it is only a scratch--is entitled to the
+beast when subsequently killed. It is a good law on the whole, but there
+are many instances where it is scarcely justified--that is to say, when
+the first shooter has done little beyond slightly injuring the animal,
+if a dangerous one, and the second hunter has stood "all the racket,"
+and killed the beast at the risk of his life. Here is such an example
+given to me by Sir Alfred Pease:--
+
+    "I lent my rifle (a .256 Mannlicher) to a friend, also my horse
+    to gallop and 'round up' a lion, whilst I kept watch on a bush
+    where another had hidden, not being able--owing to dongas--to
+    get round him. My friend soon jumped off and fired two or three
+    shots at the first lion, which worked round and came and lay
+    down under a thin thorn-bush less than a hundred yards from my
+    position. I then went towards the bush and the lion charged me.
+    I fired twice with a 10-bore gun at about sixty and fifteen
+    yards, and the beast--a very fine black-maned lion--fell dead to
+    my second barrel.
+
+    "My friend now came up, and to my disgust said excitedly, 'My
+    lion!' I said, 'Mine, I think?' He said, 'No; I had first
+    blood!' I had no idea the lion had been hit, but when we
+    examined him there was a .256 hole in his back ribs. I was
+    rather sore, as I had stood the racket; but _it was the rule_. I
+    killed the second lion in a quarter of an hour. We did not
+    quarrel, however, and he gave my daughter the skin of the first
+    lion, which was nice of him."
+
+However, if he did kill a considerable but not a remarkable number of
+lions, Selous will always remain the greatest authority on the subject,
+for in his numerous writings he has given us accounts of sport and
+natural history in connection with this animal that are quite unequalled
+by any other writer. In all the descriptions and the accounts of its
+habits he accumulated a vast mass of material, mostly new and
+original--which is without a blemish, without a single incorrect
+statement. These writings by Selous, especially his admirable notes in
+"African Nature Notes and Reminiscences," and the small monograph on
+"The Lion," by Sir Alfred Pease, constitute a complete record of the
+natural history and sport connected with this interesting animal.
+
+To clever and broad-minded people in other lands it may be a wonder that
+so excellent a field naturalist as Selous was not granted a State
+allowance, to pursue his work as a pioneer and naturalist, so as to
+relieve him of the constant strain on his slender resources. We know
+that in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, America and Japan such a thing
+would have been done long ago; but foreigners have no knowledge of our
+various Governments' neglect of science, or of the miserable pittances
+they allowed to the various scientific bodies for such a purpose in this
+country. Heaven alone knows what inventions, amounting in value to vast
+sums, have been literally driven out of England by this abominable
+stinginess, and sold to other countries, which in time became our
+deadliest enemies in trade and war. And so in turn our scientific
+societies, each and all of which considered their own branch the most
+important, have pursued a policy of neglect and jealousy towards all
+young workers in whatever branch they showed exceptional originality.
+
+The officials of the British Museum are poorly paid, and they and the
+Zoological Society, having little or no money to expend on researches of
+importance in foreign lands, have to go and beg from the general public
+whenever any expedition is being sent abroad.
+
+In America, where matters are worked on broad-minded principles, field
+zoology is now recognized as being as important as purely scientific
+zoology, and ample funds are given to all genuine collectors outside the
+body corporate, and the advancement of general knowledge is all that is
+desired. The result is that more excellent work in this branch of
+science is being done to-day in New York and Washington than in all
+other countries. It is true they have ample funds for such purposes and
+these are generously distributed; but there are no jealous cliques
+there, and the spirit in which the work is done is wholly admirable.
+
+Perhaps the only scientific society that has received great monetary
+help is the Royal Geographical Society, and when Arctic or Antarctic
+expeditions are launched the public has always responded magnificently.
+I have often wondered why, for beyond the individual effort of bravery
+on the part of the gallant members of these expeditions, the scientific
+and material results of these expeditions are very small compared with
+those of one well-conducted expedition to Central Asia or Africa, which
+in time has often given considerable scientific results, as well as
+knowledge of new countries that have become the homes of white men. From
+the time of Denham and Clapperton to Selous what has ever been done for
+our African explorers? Absolutely nothing. These grand men have taken
+quite as great risks as Arctic or Antarctic travellers, have explored
+thousands of square miles of new country and done it all out of their
+own pockets, often ruining themselves in purse and health. An Antarctic
+expedition costs the British nation anything from L30,000 to L50,000,
+and its leaders receive knighthoods, and other official distinctions,
+but we never heard Livingstone called anything but a wandering
+missionary, or Selous aught but a big game hunter; nor has any
+Government taken the smallest notice of them. Yet these two men, by
+their courage, tact in dealing with natives, personal influence, skill
+in mapping and eventual advice to those in authority, did more, both for
+Science and the Empire, than all the expeditions to the wildernesses of
+perpetual snow and ice.
+
+It must not be supposed that Selous, had he wished, could not have
+obtained some of these material rewards which are valued by most men. He
+was not without influential friends, both at home and in Africa, but his
+natural modesty forbade him to make use of them. One man above all
+others should have made it his duty to have helped him, but let us see
+how he acted.
+
+Cecil Rhodes was a big man--big in almost every way except in the matter
+of gratitude--and when he found that Selous was--to use an
+Americanism--such an "easy mark," he exploited him to the limit of his
+capacity. Rhodes knew that without Selous' immense local knowledge and
+tact with the native Mashuna chiefs his best-laid schemes might go
+astray, so he played on his patriotism, and promised him many things,
+not one of which he ever performed.
+
+Selous was, in fact, the whole Intelligence Department, and when he cut
+the road north with such rapidity it really gave Lobengula no time to
+act until it was too late. So that the first expedition, which might
+easily have been a failure, turned out an unqualified success.
+
+"Let me introduce you to Mr. Selous," said Rhodes to a member of the
+Government at a big luncheon party in 1896, "the man above all others to
+whom we owe Rhodesia to the British Crown." These were fine words, and a
+fine acknowledgment of Selous' services. But what happened afterwards,
+and were Rhodes' promises to him kept? When the Empire builder found his
+tool was of no further use, he absolutely ignored him, and could never
+find time even to see him. To his cynical mind gratitude simply did not
+exist. Selous was just one of the pawns in the game, and he could now go
+to the devil for all he cared.
+
+If others gained gold and titles out of the efforts of Selous and the
+Chartered Company, these mushroom successes strut their uneasy hour and
+are soon forgotten; but Selous left behind him an imperishable name for
+all that was best in the new lands, which is well voiced in the words of
+Mr. A. R. Morkel, in a letter to the Selous Memorial Committee (1917):--
+
+    "The natives around my farm all remember him, though it is well
+    over twenty-five years since he was last here; and it is a
+    pretty good testimony to his character, that wherever he
+    travelled amongst natives, many of whom I have talked to about
+    him, he was greatly respected and esteemed as a just man. We,
+    settlers of Rhodesia, will always have this legacy from him,
+    that he instilled into these natives a very good idea of British
+    justice and fairness."
+
+We need express no surprise that the man who did the most hard work was
+left unrewarded, for such is life. It is on a par with the experience of
+a gallant officer in a Highland regiment who, after nearly three years
+of intense warfare in the front line (1914-17), and still without a
+decoration of any kind, although twice wounded, came to Boulogne, where
+he met an old brother officer, who had been there in charge of stores
+for one and a half years, wearing the D.S.O. and M.C. ribbons. "I am not
+a cynical man," he remarked to me, "but I must say that for once in my
+life I felt so."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[40] Rhodes' original plan was to attack Lobengula with a small force.
+This, Selous pointed out to him, would be certain to lead to disaster
+since Rhodes' information as to the strength of the Matabele was
+obviously incorrect. It is therefore clear that Selous in
+over-persuading him to abandon this method rendered him and the nation a
+considerable service.
+
+[41] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," pp. 417-425.
+
+[42] "African Native Notes and Reminiscences," p. 311, 1908.
+
+[43] Badminton Library. "The Lion in S. Africa," p. 316, 1894.
+
+[44] Badminton Library. "The Lion in S. Africa," p. 343.
+
+[45] In a letter to me from East Africa, March 12th, 1918, Harold Hill
+states that he has been in at the death of 135 lions and that his
+brother Clifford has seen 160 lions shot. In most cases, he admits, he
+and his brother generally allowed some friend to have his first shot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+1893-1896
+
+
+Selous had been hunting something all his life, yet he never seems to
+have lost sight of the possibility that a little fellow with a bow and
+arrow might one day take a shot at him. Perhaps in earlier days he
+feared him a little, but when, one January day in 1893, he went to
+Barrymore House, his mother's home at Wargrave, the small archer was
+there waiting in ambush and found a very willing victim. The immediate
+cause of the attack was the fact that Miss Gladys Maddy, a daughter of
+the Rev. Canon Maddy, was staying with Selous' mother. This was one of
+Selous' lucky days, for in a short time, since the attraction seems to
+have been mutual, he decided to try and win the lady as his wife. In
+this he was quite successful, and by the spring they were engaged.
+Meanwhile the hunter, being now well known to the public, had arranged
+to make a lecturing tour in the United States, under the auspices of
+Major Pond, and had hoped that this would be finished by late September,
+when he would be able to do a hunt in the Rockies afterwards. All
+arrangements had been completed and he had already taken his passage to
+America when the news of the Matabele rising arrived in England. He at
+once cancelled all his engagements and took the first steamer to South
+Africa.
+
+After the Pioneer expedition to Mashunaland in 1890 had proved a success
+the country seemed in so quiet a state that the police force there was
+in 1891 disbanded. This was doubtless a great mistake. The Matabele were
+not the kind of people to take the position of a conquered race with
+equanimity. Their whole history showed them to be a virile fighting
+people who up till now had conquered all native races in their
+vicinity, and believed themselves to be superior to the white, with whom
+they had not as yet been fairly tested in battle. This primal fact, and
+the gross mismanagement on the part of the Chartered Company (which
+Selous himself admits) of the cattle question, produced a feeling of
+bitterness on the part of the Matabele, who, being above all things
+cattle-owners, and not slaves who had been conquered, resented the
+regulation exacting paid labour from every able-bodied man. The
+confiscation, too, of their cattle and the manner in which the
+confiscation was carried out added fuel to the fire. These
+circumstances, combined with the fact that the Matabele nation had not
+been beaten in war, were the causes for the outbreak in 1893. The
+Matabele, in fact, were still too raw to appreciate the advantages
+(_sic_) of civilization. They did without them. The assegai and the raid
+were to them still the heart of life. From the time of Umsilikatzie till
+now their forays amongst their more or less defenceless neighbours had,
+comparatively speaking, been one continuous success, even the fairly
+powerful Bechuanas under Khama were in a constant state of dread. Within
+a few years they ravaged all the country up to the Zambesi, and even
+sent two expeditions right across the waterless Kalahari to attack the
+Batauwani of Lake Ngami. These were indeed bold enterprises, as the
+marauders had to traverse nearly four hundred miles of desert almost
+devoid of game and only inhabited by a few bushmen. This first
+expedition, in 1883, was only partially successful, whilst the second
+one met with complete disaster. The Batauwani got wind of the impending
+attack and sent their women and children and cattle beyond the Botletlie
+river. They then ambushed the Matabele and killed many of them, whilst
+large numbers were drowned in trying to cross the river. Not a single
+head of cattle was captured, and hundreds of Lobengula's best warriors
+died from starvation, thirst, and exhaustion on the return journey,
+whilst only a remnant of the army got back to Bulawayo. One smaller
+party of Matabele went north by the Mababe river and eventually got back
+to Matabeleland by the northern route.
+
+It was between 1883 and 1890 that the Matabele were most active in
+attacking their weaker neighbours. Sometimes with diabolic cunning they
+"nursed" the various Mashuna chiefs until the latter became rich in
+cattle and ivory and were ripe for slaughter. This they did to
+Chameluga, a powerful sorcerer, whom Lobengula professed to esteem and
+even to fear, but this favouritism was, after all, only an assumed pose,
+for in 1883 an army was sent to destroy the Situngweesa, of whom
+Chameluga was chief. The chief was summoned to Bulawayo, but was met at
+the Tchangani river, and all his party slaughtered with the exception of
+a young wife named Bavea, who was taken prisoner, but afterwards escaped
+to the north. Before his death, however, Chameluga had just time to send
+a young son to warn his people, and they took flight into the hilly
+country between the Mazoe and Inyagui rivers, and only a few were
+destroyed by the raiding Matabele who had followed their spoor. In 1888
+an impi raided the Barotsi and killed the chief Sikabenga and most of
+his tribe.
+
+In 1890 the Matabele also attacked and almost completely destroyed the
+large Mashuna tribe whose ladies were so wonderfully tattooed, and which
+Selous described as seeing east of the Sabi on his visit there in 1885.
+Selous does not mention this in his book, although he must later have
+been well aware of the fact.
+
+In 1893 I found that all the plain and forest country here was swept
+clear of natives, but to the east of the Sabi there were villages of
+Gungunhlama's Shangans living on the tops of the kopjes, their little
+grass huts hanging to the sides of the cliffs like bunches of martins'
+nests. They told me that in 1890 a big impi of Matabele had annihilated
+the Mashunas that formerly lived there, and they themselves, even in
+their aerial fastnesses, lived in constant dread of attack.
+
+Although the Matabele had not moved during the advent of the Pioneer
+Expedition to Mashunaland in 1890, Lobengula and his chiefs had been in
+a state of smouldering unrest since that time, and the best authorities
+considered that they intended to attack Bulawayo, Salisbury, and
+Victoria, where many of the settlers and some troops had taken refuge
+and gone into "laager" in the early part of 1893. All signs pointed to a
+conflict, and when I reached the Middle Drift of the Limpopo in May of
+that year, I was strongly advised by the police officer in charge,
+Sergeant Chauner (afterwards killed), to return to the Transvaal. As he
+had no orders to stop me, and as I found my Boer friend, Roelef van
+Staden, ready to go on, I went north across the Umsingwani and shot some
+koodoos in Lobengula's pet preserve. This led to trouble, as we were
+captured by twelve Matabele warriors, who came to our camp and insisted
+on our accompanying them to the king's kraal. Of course we knew what
+this meant in wartime. Perhaps we should be killed, and at the least it
+would involve a loss of my whole outfit. So we sent most of the Boers
+and all the women and children back to the Drift and vanished eastwards
+in the night with our horses and a light waggon. In the morning some
+Matabele came after us and shouted that they intended to kill us and all
+the English that year, but a few shots fired over their heads dispersed
+them. Baulked of their prey the brutes then returned and assassinated a
+dozen poor Makalaka Kafirs with whom we had encamped.
+
+After our departure to the hunting-ground to the east, only one Boer
+family, the Bezedenhuits, Mr. George Banks, Captain Donovan, and a Mr.
+Mitchell,[46] of the 15th Hussars, got into Mashunaland from the
+Transvaal, as the Matabele soon made their unsuccessful attack on
+Victoria and communications with the north were stopped. We had various
+adventures, but passed safely through the Matabele without being
+detected on our return. Mr. George Banks went West and Captain Donovan
+struck North and joined the British forces, whilst Bezedenhuit went out
+through the Lower Drift after a small fight with the Matabele.
+
+In 1893 Selous returned to South Africa, went up country by the
+Bamangwato route, and joined the Chartered Company forces there in
+September. From Fort Tuli he wrote on September 30th:--
+
+    "I reached here last Sunday and met Dr. Jameson. News has just
+    come in that the Matabele have attacked a patrol near Fort
+    Victoria, and in a fortnight's time the Company's forces will be
+    in a position to retaliate. At Dr. Jameson's request I have
+    remained with the force here, which in case of necessity will
+    co-operate with the Mashunaland column and attack the Matabele
+    simultaneously from the West, when they advance from the East.
+    In the meantime I am going on a small scouting expedition with
+    two companions to examine the country along the western borders
+    of Matabeleland."
+
+On this scouting trip he met with no adventures and he returned to Tuli
+on October 11th. On October 19th he started northward with Colonel
+Goold-Adams' column. On November 2nd his column met with its first
+opposition near Impandini's kraal, when the Matabele made an attack on
+some waggons coming into camp. "There was a bit of a fight," Selous
+wrote to his mother, "and the Matabele were driven off with considerable
+loss. I was unfortunate enough to get wounded. As I am in very good
+health, this wound is not at all dangerous, though, of course, it makes
+me very stiff and sore all down the right side, but I shall soon be all
+right again." Of the details of this day he wrote a more complete
+account to his future wife.
+
+    "Owing to the miserable state of the oxen, a portion of the
+    waggons did not get up to us on November 1st, but were left
+    behind at a distance of about three miles from our main column
+    and the oxen sent on to the water. After drinking they were sent
+    back at once, and early on the morning of November 2nd the
+    waggons came on. Soon afterwards we heard heavy firing and knew
+    that the convoy was attacked. As there were but few men with the
+    convoy, assistance was urgently needed, we knew, and the alarm
+    was at once sounded and the horses called in. I got hold of my
+    horse long before the troop horses came in, and, saddling him
+    up, galloped back alone to help the fellows with the waggons.
+    They were not far off, and were being attacked on all sides by
+    the Matabele, who were keeping up a hot fire and closing in on
+    both flanks and from the rear. Our fellows were sticking to it
+    well, though in small numbers. My appearance, I think, checked
+    the Matabele a little, as, seeing one horseman gallop up, they
+    naturally thought more were at hand. However, as I was very near
+    them, and firing away at them, they fired a lot of shots at me.
+    The whistling of the bullets made my horse very restive, and
+    presently one of them hit me. The wound, however, is not
+    dangerous. The bullet struck me about three inches below the
+    right breast, but luckily ran round my ribs and came out behind,
+    about eight inches from where it entered. The Matabele came
+    right up to our camp, some being shot within three hundred yards
+    of the laager with the Maxim. They were then beaten off and a
+    good many of them killed, and had it not been that they got into
+    a lot of thickly wooded hills close behind our camp their loss
+    would have been much heavier. Our loss was two white men killed,
+    and three wounded, including myself, and of our native allies
+    two killed and several wounded. Before I came up the Matabele
+    had captured a waggon, which they burnt, and killed Corporal
+    Mundy, who was in charge of it. Sergeant Adahm was killed and
+    two other men wounded after the Matabele had been driven off
+    from the camp and whilst they were fighting them in a hill.
+
+    "Yesterday we pushed on and took up a splendid position here,
+    where if we are attacked we shall be able to give a good account
+    of ourselves."
+
+The campaign of 1893 against the Matabele was short and a complete
+success. A compact force, part of which had gone up through the
+Transvaal, and part from the north, and consisting of 670 white men, of
+whom 400 were mounted, moved up under the command of Dr. Jameson. It was
+under the guidance of Nyemyezi, a Matabele chief who was bitterly
+opposed to Lobengula, and the force travelled unmolested until they
+reached the Tchangani river, where they were attacked by some 5000
+Matabele of the Imbezu and Ingubu regiments, who were heavily defeated.
+On hearing this news Lobengula fled from Bulawayo and recalled his
+son-in-law, Gambo, from the Mangwe Pass, which gave opportunity to the
+southern column, under Colonel Goold Adams, to whom Selous was attached
+as Chief of the Scouts, to move up and join Dr. Jameson's column. When
+this southern force of Matabele heard of the disaster on the Tchangani
+to their picked regiments they retired to the Matoppo hills and
+surrendered without fighting.
+
+Meanwhile Lobengula continued to retreat north of the Tchangani, closely
+pursued by Major Wilson and his column, which, getting too far from his
+support, was surrounded and annihilated with his small force at the
+Tchangani river. Soon after this the powerful Matabele, forced into the
+trackless bush in the rainy season, and seeing their women and children
+dying of starvation and fever, surrendered in detail and accepted the
+liberal terms offered them. The whole campaign was settled by two
+battles, in which they attacked the white men in laager and suffered
+many reverses. The fighting spirit of the natives, however, was only
+scotched but not killed, as subsequent events showed.
+
+On November 11th Selous gives some interesting details of the general
+progress of the campaign after the Matabele had attacked them and been
+driven north. "The Matabele generalship has been abominably bad. They
+never did what they ought to have done, and we took advantage of their
+opportunities. The strong British column from the East, advancing
+through open country, with a large force of mounted men and a large
+number of machine guns, simply carried everything before it, and on the
+two occasions when they attacked the 'laager' the machine guns simply
+mowed them down. No one, knowing their abominable history, can pity them
+or lament their downfall. They have been paid back in their own coin.
+
+    "Our column advancing from the West had very great difficulties
+    to contend with, as the whole country on that side is covered
+    with thick bush and broken hills. Had the Matabele here made a
+    determined opposition we could never have got through, and
+    should probably have met with a disaster. But the large army
+    opposed to us retired without fighting as soon as they heard
+    that the King's forces had made an unsuccessful attack on the
+    laager near Bulawayo, and so we came in here (Bulawayo) without
+    further trouble.
+
+    "So the campaign is virtually over, and the fair-haired
+    descendants of the northern pirates are in possession of the
+    Great King's kraal, and the 'Calf of the Black Cow'[47] has fled
+    into the wilderness."
+
+Writing from Bulawayo, where he went into hospital, November 27th, 1893,
+he says:--
+
+    "I am still here, but hope to get away now in a few days. My
+    wound is getting on famously, and will be soon quite healed up.
+    If I had not been in such good health it might have given a lot
+    of trouble and taken a long time. These people (the Matabele)
+    are thoroughly cowed and demoralized, and must be having a very
+    bad time of it, as they are now living in the bush and must have
+    very little to eat, and heavy rain is falling every day and
+    night, which will not add to their comfort. The King has fled to
+    the north, but his people seem to be dropping away from him, and
+    I don't think he knows exactly what to do. Yesterday messengers
+    came in here from him saying he was willing to submit, as he did
+    not know what else to do and could go no further. If he
+    surrenders he will, of course, be well treated, but removed from
+    Matabeleland. His people evidently now wish to surrender and
+    live under the government of white men, but there are such a lot
+    of them that they will take up the whole country, and it would,
+    I think, be much better if the King would go right away across
+    the Zambesi and form a new kingdom for himself, just as his
+    father fled from the Boers of the Transvaal and established
+    himself in this country. If he would do that a large number of
+    his people would go with him and the warlike element in this
+    country would be removed, whereas, if they once come back,
+    although they will be very humble at first, they may give
+    trouble again later on."
+
+A very true prophecy.
+
+In December, 1893, Selous left Bulawayo, as he thought, for ever, having
+no intention to return to South Africa.
+
+He arrived home in England in February, 1894, and was married to Miss
+Marie Catherine Gladys Maddy, in her father's parish church at Down
+Hatherly, near Gloucester, on April 4th. Many old friends assembled at
+the Charing Cross Hotel to honour his marriage, and in a speech he said
+that his career as a Rugby boy had helped not only to support the
+fatigues which he had had to contend with, but to despise the strong boy
+who bullied the weak one and to admire the strong who guarded the weak.
+He thought that if any of those present should ever go to Matabeleland
+he would not hear anything that he had done but would become an
+Englishman as well as a Rugby boy. His Rugby friends subscribed together
+and gave him a handsome memento in the shape of a silver salver and
+ewer, and he was very proud of this gift.
+
+Selous and his wife then went abroad for the honeymoon, passing through
+Switzerland and Italy. After a very pleasant visit to Venice they
+journeyed to Budapest, and on to their friends the Danfords, at Hatzeg
+in Transylvania, where Selous did a little egg-collecting. After some
+time spent in the mountains they went on down the Danube to Odessa, and
+so to Constantinople, where they made the acquaintance of Sir William
+Whittall, with whom Selous made plans to hunt in Asia Minor in the
+autumn of 1894. Selous and his wife then returned to England in July,
+and after his autumn trip to Smyrna, which is detailed later, he
+returned to Surrey and bought the land and arranged plans for renovating
+the house at Worplesdon which was afterwards his home. The original
+house was not large, but possessed a good area of land, flanked by a
+pretty and clear stream, and this plot was eventually made into a
+charming garden which Mrs. Selous has devoted care and energy to render
+beautiful and homelike. In later years a good orchard was added. The
+house was greatly added to and improved in 1899. At the same time as the
+house was being built a museum was erected close by, and in this all
+Selous' treasures, brought from his mother's house at Wargrave, were
+stored. As time went on it was found to be too small for his rapidly
+increasing collection, so in later years another wing was added, which
+made the whole building perhaps the largest private museum of its kind
+in Great Britain.
+
+It was in August, 1894, that Selous went north for his first experiences
+of Highland sport. His destination was the Island of Mull, where for a
+fortnight he enjoyed the chase of the seal, the otter, and the wild
+goat, on the estate of Loch Buie, at the invitation of the Maclaine of
+Lochbuie. He thus describes his first search for seals and otters:--
+
+    "On August 16th, 1894, accompanied by the keepers MacColl and
+    Nottman, I visited Loch Spelve in search of seals and otters.
+    Skirting the shores of the loch in a small boat, we soon espied
+    two seals lying out on a rock. They, however, winded us and
+    slipped into the water, when we were still a long way off. We
+    then went ashore and put the three terriers into a cairn which
+    the keepers knew otters to be partial to, and from the behaviour
+    of the dogs we soon became aware that one of the animals was
+    somewhere about. Knowing that if the dogs succeeded in drawing
+    the otter from the rocks it would make for the sea, I took up my
+    position amongst the slippery seaweed covered with stones near
+    the water and waited full of expectation. However, the otter
+    resisted all the overtures of the terriers and would not bolt.
+    Then MacColl, the wily, produced some evil-smelling fuse and,
+    setting light to it, pushed it into a hole amongst the stones.
+    The effect was magical, for the otter bolted at once almost
+    between MacColl's legs. Instead, however, of coming towards the
+    sea, it made back through the wood and took refuge in another
+    cairn. From the second place of refuge another piece of fuse
+    soon dislodged it, and this time making for the sea, it came
+    past me in the open, travelling over the seaweed-covered rocks
+    at no great pace. My first barrel knocked it over, but it
+    quickly recovered itself, only to be again knocked down by my
+    second left-hand barrel. This time it lay dead, and proved to be
+    a fine bitch otter in excellent coat, weighing 141/2 lbs. and
+    measuring 3 ft. 6 ins. in length."
+
+In January, 1895, he again went to Loch Buie and shot his first woodcock
+and other Highland game, and in January, 1897, he got his first pair of
+ptarmigan. It was in Ben Alder Forest that he killed his first Highland
+stags, but the chase of red deer as conducted in Scotland did not, as we
+should expect, greatly appeal to him.
+
+In September, 1894, Selous and his wife reached Bournabat near Smyrna,
+where he remained a short time as the guest of H. O. Whittall. From
+here, accompanied by his wife and the Whittalls, Selous made a short
+trip into the interior, with the intention of finding haunts of the wild
+goat (_Capra aegagrus_). After an interesting journey amongst the Turks
+and Yuruks he returned to the sea-coast, where in the Musa Dagh he did
+some hunting, but was unsuccessful in finding the old billies, only
+killing one male with small horns. On October 3rd he returned to Smyrna,
+and then went straight into the Ak Dagh to look for the long-faced red
+deer. These animals are now scarce and difficult to hunt in the dense
+forests, and he only succeeded in coming up to one good
+fourteen-pointer, which he killed with a long shot on October 19th.
+
+He was, however, somewhat fascinated with this hunting in Asia Minor,
+for though the game was comparatively scarce and hunting difficult,
+owing to the rough nature of the ground and abundance of local hunters,
+yet it satisfied his idea of what is called "high-class sport." Selous
+never liked to admit failure with any animal, so at the end of January,
+1895, he again made a trip to Asia Minor in the hope of getting good
+specimens of the wild goat and, if possible, the black mouflon (_Ovis
+gmelini_). This time he decided to hunt the Maimun Dagh, a great mass of
+mountains situated close to the Smyrna railway. For a fortnight he
+toiled up and down its steep and parched cliffs, and then at last he saw
+and got a shot at one of the patriarchs with long horns. This goat he
+wounded very badly and lost, but some days later a Turk saw a large goat
+fall from a cliff and remain suspended by its horns in a tree, where he
+despatched it. This was without doubt the fine male which Selous had
+lost, and he was lucky enough to obtain the head. A few days later he
+found another grand billy, alas with only one horn. This he also killed
+and lost, but found it the next day. Two other fair specimens made up
+his bag, so on the whole the expedition was quite successful. Then he
+returned to England in February.
+
+Although so recently married, Selous found that living in England was
+too expensive, and this, combined with the "call of the wild," which
+never left him, evolved a new spirit of restlessness and desire once
+more to live in the open veldt and to see the game. To this was added
+the request of an old friend, Mr. Maurice Heany, who asked him to go
+into Matabeleland and assist him in the management of a land and
+gold-mining company. After consulting his wife, who was willing to share
+the troubles and difficulties of the new country, Selous accepted the
+post, which was to occupy him for two years.
+
+Accordingly Selous and his wife left England in March, 1895, and after
+spending two months in Cape Colony and the Free State, where he shot
+some springbuck, blesbuck, and black wildebeest for his collection, he
+took ship to Beira and then went by rail to Chimoio, where he met his
+waggon and oxen, and passed on via Salisbury, the Hanyane river, to
+Bulawayo. At the Sebakwe river he fired at what he thought was a jackal,
+but on arriving near the animal, which he expected to find dead, as he
+had heard the bullet strike, he was suddenly charged by a leopard. The
+angry beast passed right under his stirrup-iron, and after going thirty
+yards stopped and sat on its haunches. Another shot at once killed it.
+
+The Selous now left for Essexvale, the farm of his company, and took up
+their quarters in a rough wood and mud two-roomed house which was to be
+their home until the wire-wove bungalow, which had been sent out from
+England in sections, should arrive and be erected. It was whilst
+travelling to Essexvale that Selous met his old friend, Mr. Helm, the
+missionary, who by his long residence amongst the Matabele was
+thoroughly conversant with native views. Mr. Helm said that on the whole
+the natives had accepted the new regime, but that they were highly
+incensed at the confiscation of their cattle by the Chartered Company.
+The natives at first were told that after all the cattle had been
+branded with the Company's mark and handed back to the natives, only
+the king's cattle would be confiscated. "This promise," says Selous,
+"was made under the belief that nearly all the cattle in Matabeleland
+had belonged to the king and that the private owners had been but few in
+number." This was a great mistake, for nearly every chief induna and men
+of any position had possessed large herds of their own.
+
+At Bulawayo Selous found a ruined kraal, since it had been burnt and
+deserted by the Matabele after their defeat in 1893. The site of the new
+town had been marked out by the settlers, who had camped close by, and a
+general air of hope and prosperity hung over the scene of the new
+British town that was shortly to arise from the ashes of the past. No
+difficulties with the natives were apprehended, and farms and town-sites
+were at a high value. No one, in fact, dreamed that in a few months the
+whole country would be overwhelmed in the calamity of the rinderpest--a
+cattle disease that swept from Abyssinia to the Cape and killed in its
+course nearly the whole stock of cattle, as well as many fine species of
+game, such as buffalo, eland, koodoo, etc. Added to this the Matabele
+again rose, burnt the farms, and in many cases murdered all the new
+settlers and carried destruction throughout the whole country north of
+the Limpopo. To add to these horrors a bad drought and an unusual plague
+of locusts rendered farming and transport practically impossible.
+
+There were some 70,000 cattle at this time in the hands of the natives,
+and a final settlement was made by which the Chartered Company retained
+two-fifths, giving the remaining three-fifths to the natives, a
+settlement by which for the time being the natives appeared satisfied.
+
+All through the autumn and winter of 1895 life passed quietly at
+Essexvale. The new house arrived, and was erected just before the rains
+set in on a high position eighty feet above the Ingnaima river. The
+Company bought 1200 head of cattle which were distributed amongst the
+natives. Five thousand gum-trees were raised from seed and planted on
+some forty acres of ploughed land, the other products including maize
+and fruit trees of various kinds.
+
+All this time the natives appeared to be happy and contented, whilst
+Umlugula, a relation of Lobengula, and a great chief under his rule, now
+living some eighteen miles away, constantly visited Selous and seemed as
+quiet as the rest, although he was actively plotting the rebellion which
+was shortly to break out. Selous afterwards thought that the cause of
+the insurrection was the withdrawal of the Matabeleland Police Force and
+their munitions of war, and its subsequent capture by the Boers in the
+ill-starred "Jameson Raid."
+
+The first cloud of trouble appeared in February, 1896, when news was
+spread that the "Umlimo," or god of the Makalakas, who lived in a cave
+in the Matoppo hills, had said that the white man's blood was about to
+be spilt. It was also rumoured that Lobengula was not dead, as
+previously reported, but was coming with a large army from the
+north-east and west. Umlimo also claimed to have sent the rinderpest
+which at this date had already reached Northern Matabeleland.
+
+So far, however, there were merely rumours, and old residents in the
+country, with the single exception of Mr. Usher, believed that nothing
+was to be feared. Mr. Jackson, a native commissioner, thought that if
+the natives rose a certain danger was to be expected from the Matabele
+Police, who had been armed with Winchesters and were kept for the
+purposes of law and order, and in this he was right, for half of this
+body revolted and attacked their former employers.
+
+The "Umlimo" was a kind of native hereditary priest whose family are
+supposed to inherit supernatural powers. His family are known as the
+children of the god and all are supposed to commune with the unseen
+deity. He lived in the Matoppo Hills, where the people visited their
+"god" and consulted him. He was supposed to speak all languages, and
+could moreover roar like a lion, bark like a dog, and do other wonderful
+things. There seemed to have been other Umlimos in other tribes, and it
+is somewhat strange that this "deity" of the despised Makalakas should
+have been possessed of such influence over the powerful Matabele.
+Lobengula at any rate constantly visited and even feared this man, and
+there is no doubt that Lobengula and his chiefs made full use of him in
+the present instance to excite the natives.
+
+In the middle of March Selous was appointed to inspect the Umsingwani
+and Insiza district and try and stop the spread of the rinderpest to the
+south, and in this he was powerless, as trek-oxen further carried the
+infection. At Dawson's store on March 22nd he heard that a native
+policeman had been killed and that the murderers with their women and
+children had fled to the Matoppo hills. This was the first overt act of
+the rebellion.
+
+Immediately after this two attacks were made on the native police, and
+Selous found when he arrived home that some Matabele had borrowed axes
+from Mrs. Selous, and had left with them ostensibly to repair their
+cattle-kraals, but in reality to attack the settlers. The following
+night three miners, Messrs. Foster, Eagleson and Anderson, carrying on
+work at Essexvale, were attacked and murdered as well as several other
+Europeans in the neighbourhood. Next day most of the Essexvale cattle
+were driven off by the natives, so that there was now no doubt that a
+rising was imminent. Selous therefore took his wife into Bulawayo for
+safety, and returned at once with an armed force of thirty-eight men,
+intending if possible to recover his cattle; but by this time the flame
+of rebellion had spread to the whole of the north, and numerous white
+men, women and children had been brutally murdered.
+
+At least nine-tenths of the Matabele natives were now in arms against
+the whites, who were very badly equipped and in sore straits for arms,
+ammunition, cattle and horses. Their position was somewhat desperate,
+but, as ever before and since, the settlers nobly responded to the call
+to arms, although there was really no organized force worth speaking of.
+However, about five hundred good men and true assembled at Bulawayo,
+from which it was almost impossible to move owing to the absence of
+horses. This force only had some 580 rifles, but a good supply of
+ammunition--1,500,000 rounds. There was also a .303 Maxim and an old gun
+or two. This is all they had with which to resist some 10,000 Matabele,
+of which at least one-fifth had breechloading rifles and plenty of
+ammunition. The tactics of the Matabele, however, were indifferent, and
+it is somewhat incomprehensible that they never blocked the main road to
+the south or attacked waggons or coaches moving along it.
+
+Of the 1000 white men in Bulawayo only about 300 were available for
+active operations, as 400 had always to be kept for the defence of the
+women and children in the town: but in addition to this force a regiment
+of native boys, mostly Zulus, was organized by Colonel Johan
+Colenbrander,[48] and did excellent scouting work. This little force of
+white and black eventually drove the Matabele from the neighbourhood of
+Bulawayo and rescued many small isolated detachments, whilst keeping the
+enemy at bay until the arrival of Sir Frederick Carrington, who
+eventually completed their rout.
+
+But to return to the movements of Selous after he revisited his farm. He
+was not long in finding part of his stolen cattle and burning the kraal
+where they were found. Then he searched for the rebels and found them in
+the act of driving off more cattle. These he attacked and recovered some
+150 cattle belonging to Colenbrander. Selous then returned to Essexvale
+on March 26th, and left the herd of cattle there in charge of loyal
+natives because he feared they would be attacked by rinderpest if he
+drove them into Bulawayo. This, however, may have been a mistake, since
+Inxnozan, a native Matabele warrior, and some three hundred of his men
+came in a few days and burnt the farm and carried off all the cattle.
+
+Selous then took his men to Spiro's Store in the Matoppo hills in the
+hope of finding or rendering assistance to Mr. Jackson, the native
+commissioner, who was reported to have been murdered with the whole
+force of native police. He was now entering the Matabele stronghold,
+where large forces of the enemy were likely to be encountered. He put
+his best men out to scout ahead. In a gorge in the hills the enemy were
+found in some force, and Selous' men drove them off after some sharp
+fighting. Selous himself was fired at at a distance of fifteen yards,
+but fortunately the shot missed. Cattle to the number of one hundred
+were found, and Selous endeavoured to drive them, but the enemy again
+attacked, when four horses were killed and two men wounded. After this
+small fight he returned to Bulawayo, where he was delighted to find his
+friend Mr. Jackson, who had been given up for dead. Soon afterwards
+Selous went on patrol and visited the Mangwe laager, and on the way saw
+much of the ravages of the rinderpest. At one spot at a farm near
+Bulawayo "acres of carcasses were lying festering in the sun."
+
+Various patrols, under Colonel the Hon. Maurice Gifford, Captain Brand,
+Captain Van Niekerk, Captain Grey and others all had sharp fighting with
+the Matabele, and relieved many isolated bodies of white men.
+
+In April Selous was appointed Captain of the "H" troop of the Bulawayo
+Field Force, and went out to clear the road and establish forts at Fig
+Tree and Mangwe. First he erected a very strong little fort called Fort
+Molyneux. Further on, at Fort Halstead, he made another, and at the
+Matoli river a third. All this he did with the Matabele army lying on
+the Khami river, about twelve miles west of Bulawayo, whilst another
+large army was in the Elibaini hills close by. Yet they did not attack
+Selous' patrols or fort builders, and did not approach Bulawayo until
+the middle of April, when a small fight occurred between the scouts
+under Grey and Van Niekerk and a large body of the enemy. The scouts
+then returned. Shortly after this Selous joined in patrols with Captain
+Macfarlane and Captain Bisset in trying to dislodge the enemy from
+positions close to the town, and in the last-named attack on the Umguza
+the Matabele lost heavily. During this fight, and whilst firing hard,
+Selous' pony ran away and he was soon surrounded by large numbers of
+Matabele.
+
+The incident is best related in his own words:--[49]
+
+    "A few bullets were again beginning to ping past us, so I did
+    not want to lose any time, but before I could take my pony by
+    the bridle he suddenly threw up his head and spinning round
+    trotted off, luckily in the direction from which we had come.
+    Being so very steady a pony, I imagine that a bullet must have
+    grazed him and startled him into playing me this sorry trick at
+    such a very inconvenient moment. 'Come on as hard as you can,
+    and I'll catch your horse and bring him back to you,' said
+    Windley, and started off after the faithless steed. But the
+    steed would not allow himself to be caught, and when his pursuer
+    approached him broke from a trot into a gallop, and finally
+    showed a clean pair of heels.
+
+    "When my pony went off with Windley after him, leaving me,
+    comparatively speaking, _plante la_, the Kafirs thought they had
+    got me, and commenced to shout out encouragingly to one another
+    and also to make a kind of hissing noise, like the word "jee"
+    long drawn out. All this time I was running as hard as I could
+    after Windley and my runaway horse. As I ran, carrying my rifle
+    at the trail, I felt in my bandolier with my left hand to see
+    how many cartridges were still at my disposal, and found that I
+    had fired away all but two of the thirty I had come out with,
+    one being left in the belt and the other in my rifle. Glancing
+    round, I saw that the foremost Kafirs were gaining on me fast,
+    though had this incident occurred in 1876 instead of 1896, with
+    the start I had got I would have run away from any of them.
+
+    "Windley, after galloping some distance, realized that it was
+    useless wasting any more time trying to catch my horse, and like
+    a good fellow came back to help me; and had he not done so, let
+    me here say that the present history would never have been
+    written, for nothing could possibly have saved me from being
+    overtaken, surrounded, and killed. When Windley came up to me he
+    said, 'Get up behind me; there's no time to lose,' and pulled
+    his foot out of the left stirrup for me to mount. Without any
+    unnecessary loss of time, I caught hold of the pommel of the
+    saddle, and got my foot into the iron, but it seemed to me that
+    my weight might pull Windley and the saddle right round; as a
+    glance over my shoulder showed me that the foremost Kafirs were
+    now within a hundred yards of us, I hastily pulled my foot out
+    of the stirrup again, and shifting my rifle to the left hand
+    caught hold of the thong round the horse's neck with my right,
+    and told Windley to let him go. He was a big, strong animal, and
+    as, by keeping my arm well bent, I held my body close to him, he
+    got me along at a good pace, and we began to gain on the Kafirs.
+    They now commenced to shoot, but being more or less blown by
+    hard running, they shot very badly, though they put the bullets
+    all about us. Two struck just by my foot, and one knocked the
+    heel of Windley's boot off. If they could have only hit the
+    horse, they would have got both of us.
+
+    "After having gained a little on our pursuers, Windley, thinking
+    I must have been getting done up, asked me to try again to mount
+    behind him; no very easy matter when you have a big horse to get
+    on to, and are holding a rifle in your right hand. However, with
+    a desperate effort I got up behind him; but the horse, being
+    unaccustomed to such a proceeding, immediately commenced to
+    buck, and in spite of spurring would not go forwards, and the
+    Kafirs, seeing our predicament, raised a yell and came on again
+    with renewed ardour.
+
+    "Seeing that if I stuck on the horse behind Windley we should
+    both of us very soon lose our lives, I flung myself off in the
+    middle of a buck, and landed right on the back of my neck and
+    shoulders. Luckily I was not stunned or in any way hurt, and was
+    on my legs and ready to run again, with my hand on the thong
+    round the horse's neck in a very creditably short space of time.
+    My hat had fallen off, but I never let go of my rifle, and as I
+    didn't think it quite the best time to be looking for a hat, I
+    left it, all adorned with the colours of my troop as it was, to
+    be picked up by the enemy, by whom it has no doubt been
+    preserved as a souvenir of my presence among them.
+
+    "And now another spurt brought us almost up to John Grootboom
+    and the five or six colonial boys who were with him, and I
+    called to John to halt the men and check the Matabele who were
+    pursuing us, by firing a volley past us at them. This they did,
+    and it at once had the desired effect, the Kafirs who were
+    nearest to us hanging back and waiting for those behind to join
+    them. In the meantime Windley and I joined John Grootboom's
+    party, and old John at once gave me his horse, which, as I was
+    very much exhausted and out of breath, I was very glad to get.
+    Indeed, I was so tired by the hardest run I had ever had since
+    my old elephant-hunting days, that it was quite an effort to
+    mount. I was now safe, except that a few bullets were buzzing
+    about, for soon after getting up to John Grootboom we joined the
+    main body of the colonial boys, and then, keeping the Matabele
+    at bay, retired slowly towards the position defended by the
+    Maxim. Our enemies, who had been so narrowly baulked of their
+    expected prey, followed us to the top of a rise, well within
+    range of the guns, but disappeared immediately a few sighting
+    shots were fired at them.
+
+    "Thus ended a very disagreeable little experience, which but for
+    the cool courage of Captain Windley would have undoubtedly ended
+    fatally to myself. Like many brave men, Captain Windley is so
+    modest that I should probably offend him were I to say very much
+    about him; but at any rate I shall never forget the service he
+    did me at the risk of his own life that day on the Umguza,
+    whilst the personal gallantry he has always shown throughout the
+    present campaign as a leader of our native allies has earned for
+    him such respect and admiration that they have nicknamed him
+    'Inkunzi' (the bull), the symbol of strength and courage."
+
+After this exciting incident, Selous, having lost his horse, managed to
+get another, and assisted Captain Mainwaring in repairing the telegraph
+wires to Fig Tree Fort, which had been cut. He then rejoined his troop,
+which arrived from Matoli. On the way they found the bodies of two
+transport riders killed by followers of Babian and Umsheti.[50]
+
+Selous then built Fort Marquand on the top of a kopje, which commanded
+the road and a splendid view of the surrounding country. After a brief
+visit to Bulawayo he again went north to build a fort at the Khami
+river, and afterwards visited Marzwe's kraal, which had been attacked by
+an impi.
+
+On his return to Bulawayo he found the large column commanded by Col.
+Napier despatched to the Tchangani river to meet the column coming from
+Salisbury under Colonel Beal, with which was Cecil Rhodes. This column,
+the largest sent out from Bulawayo, inflicted severe punishment on the
+Matabele. On May 20th the Salisbury column was met, and after
+considerable fighting the whole force returned to Bulawayo, having
+suffered but small loss. On the way a number of the mutilated corpses of
+white men and women were found and buried. The history of these murders
+Selous relates in his book on the campaign.[51]
+
+Shortly before the arrival of the Field Force and Salisbury Column,
+Colonel (now Sir Herbert) Plumer had arrived with a strong body of
+troops from the south, and the back of the rebellion was broken, for
+this gallant officer attacked the enemy and drove them from the
+neighbourhood of Bulawayo, whilst in June General Sir Frederick
+Carrington, who had now taken over the supreme command, cleared the
+districts surrounding the Matoppo hills, and then to the north and east,
+the rebels retreating as the patrols advanced.
+
+On June 7th Selous proceeded with Colonel Spreckley's patrol to Shiloh,
+where but little resistance was encountered, and on the 4th of July the
+campaign may be considered at an end, when the Bulawayo Field Force was
+disbanded. Thus ended one of the many little native wars in which
+British colonists, nobly assisted by Boer contingents, overcame under
+great difficulties a strong and well-armed nation of savages, who, if
+they had been properly organized, might easily have overwhelmed our
+small forces. The Matabele, the last strong savage power in South
+Africa, were beaten by good "morale" and tenacity on the part of the
+whites, who were incensed at the brutal savagery displayed by their
+enemies, for if they had not fought for their lives not only they but
+all their wives and children would have been murdered. Mr. Labouchere's
+choice phrase, "that the natives are being shot down like game at a
+battue, with apparently as _little danger_ to the shooters as to those
+killing hares and rabbits," was as great a travesty of the case as it
+was mendacious.
+
+Selous, at any rate in 1896, was a firm believer in the future of what
+is now called Southern Rhodesia, and at that date wrote: "It is known
+throughout South Africa that Matabeleland and Mashunaland are white
+men's countries, where Europeans can live and thrive and rear strong
+healthy children; that they are magnificent countries for
+stock-breeding, and that many portions of them will prove suitable for
+Merino sheep and Angora goats; whilst agriculture and fruit-growing can
+be carried on successfully almost everywhere in a small way, and in
+certain districts, especially in Mashunaland and Manica, where there is
+a greater abundance of water on a fairly extensive scale.
+
+    "As for the gold, there is every reason to believe that out of
+    the enormous number of reefs which are considered by their
+    owners to be payable properties, some small proportion at least
+    will turn up trumps, and, should this proportion only amount to
+    two per cent, that will be quite sufficient to ensure a big
+    output of gold in the near future, which will in its turn ensure
+    the prosperity of the whole country."
+
+He moreover predicted that when the railway reached Bulawayo success
+would be assured, but that this success would be destroyed if the
+British South Africa Company's Charter was revoked and the affairs of
+the colony administered by Imperial rule. Whether these hopeful views,
+honest as they are, have been fulfilled, still remains to be seen.
+
+Shortly after the British occupation of Mashunaland the Chartered
+Company made an immense effort to "boom" the country and induce settlers
+and investors to become interested in it. The papers were filled with
+accounts of the "New Eldorado," whose gold mines were to rival the Rand,
+and whose lands were to teem with flocks and herds of sheep and cattle
+on a scale that would make Canada and other parts of South Africa look
+quite small. The effect was to drive up the Chartered L1 Shares to over
+L7, and to create some apprehension in the minds of the few old South
+Africans who really knew the assets of what is, as a matter of fact, a
+country of only average possibilities. Its successful gold mines have,
+after years of test, proved only of moderate wealth, and these are only
+few in number, whilst the farming industry that was to have supplied the
+wants of all the local population as well as great quantities of cattle
+for export, has not yet proved a great success. In fact, after twenty
+years, the gallant Rhodesian farmers are still living on hope. There are
+too many adverse features against the man who farms stock in Rhodesia,
+even if he possesses capital, whilst the settler without money has no
+earthly chance to make good. Through all these years every effort has
+been made by the Chartered Company to induce the right kind of settler
+to go there, but on the whole their efforts have not met with any great
+success, or, after all this time, we should not read the usual note of
+hope in the "Times" report of the "Mashunaland Agency," November 17th,
+1917:-
+
+    "Test shipments of frozen meat have already been made from
+    Rhodesia to England, and the results were favourably reported on
+    by experts. It would seem, in short, that South Africa and
+    Rhodesia may well become successful competitors in the meat
+    supplies of the world, and this Company has already secured an
+    early start in this development of an important industry. We
+    have recently added sheep-breeding to our ranching operations,
+    although at present on a small scale only."
+
+The high rate of freight and expense of transport from an isolated
+region like Rhodesia will be the great difficulty in the future, even if
+they can raise the stock, and the country will have to compete with
+Canada, New Zealand, and South America, all countries which have now
+good, cheap, well-organized methods of transport and shipment. It must
+not be supposed that Rhodesia has suffered altogether from a lack of the
+right kind of settlers. On the contrary, the most cheerful, industrious
+type of gentleman-farmer has tried to "make good" there and when backed
+by capital has just managed, after years of toil, to make both ends
+meet. If the reader wishes to know the absolute truth about conditions
+of life there let him ask some of the old settlers who are independent
+in opinion and have no land to sell, and let him read the novels of
+Gertrude Page and Cynthia Stockley, and he will glean a far more
+accurate picture of life in Southern Rhodesia than from any company
+reports or blue books. Romance is often truth, whilst complete
+distortion may lie in official dreams.
+
+The British South African Company is ever active in trying to get the
+right kind of settlers in Southern Rhodesia and we have no fault to find
+with them for that if they were to put them in healthy, fertile areas,
+but what are the actual prospects of success there compared with other
+British colonies. They too have a post-war land-scheme of offering
+ex-soldiers a free land-grant of 500,000 acres. It sounds generous, but
+if it is to grant free blocks of land (in Scotland) of the class offered
+to ex-soldiers without capital by the Duke of Sutherland, I feel very
+sorry for the poor soldiers. All the land of any value in South Rhodesia
+is already taken up by settlers, whilst a great part of the country is
+totally unfit for "white man" colonization.
+
+The following is written by a lady now resident as a farmer's wife in
+South Rhodesia, and gives accurately the various pros and cons and the
+prospect of success to-day in that colony.
+
+    "Do not resign your position as any kind of brass hat to come
+    out here, if making money is your aim and object. Even our
+    wealthiest farmers are not on the way to being plutocrats. After
+    all, we are 6000 miles from our best market. But should fate or
+    fortune land you here, you who love the sky and the open road,
+    and the starry solitudes of an African night, the clear-cut
+    outline of granite hills against a sapphire sky and the
+    fragrance of a flower-jewelled veld, the whirr of startled birds
+    and the crash of game as it bounds through the bush, I think you
+    would find it difficult to return to the troglodyte life of
+    London.--ETHEL COLQUHOUN JOLLIE." ("The Field," April 6th,
+    1918.)
+
+When the boom in "Things Rhodesian" was at its height, some truth of the
+real state of affairs seemed to have reached British investors. Henry
+Labouchere doubtless got hold of a good deal of perfectly correct
+information and much that was decidedly otherwise. With his
+characteristic audacity in exposing all shams he, in a series of
+articles in "Truth," ruthlessly attacked the Chartered Company and all
+exploiters and "boomers" of the new territory. Much of what he wrote was
+the truth, but with it all, most of his criticisms were too scathing and
+hopelessly inaccurate. Amongst those classed as rascals who came under
+the lash of his pen was Fred Selous, a man who knew no more about
+business than a child, and who was not associated in the smallest degree
+with any financier, and who had never written one word about the country
+he was not prepared to substantiate. To those who knew Selous and his
+perfect immunity from all stock-dealing transactions the whole thing was
+simply ridiculous, but the Great Public, after all, is too often prone
+to believe any libel if it is constantly repeated. In consequence Selous
+was much depressed by these attacks and resented them bitterly, for he
+knew he was wholly innocent, yet being advised that he would not advance
+his position by replying in the newspapers he resolved to bide his time
+and reply to them _in toto_ in a work he had under preparation
+("Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia").
+
+Mr. Burlace (of Rowland Ward, Ltd., who had bought the rights of his
+new book) met Selous at Plymouth on his arrival in 1896, and fortunately
+persuaded him not to mention controversial matters to the numerous
+pressmen who were there and wished to hear what he had to say concerning
+Mr. Labouchere's articles. Selous was, however, still anxious to thresh
+out the whole matter in his book, but Mr. Burlace, who has very
+considerable business knowledge and a firm conviction that the public do
+not care two straws about controversial matters after the subject is, so
+to speak, "dead," gave him good advice to avoid the discussion as far as
+possible and to let the public learn by a man's own character, past and
+future, who speaks the truth. That was sound logic, and Selous profited
+thereby, although he did answer many of Labouchere's gross libels on the
+Bulawayo Field Force.
+
+In many ways Rowland Ward and the members of his staff were good friends
+to Selous for a considerable part of his life. They bought his specimens
+at a good price, looked after his affairs at home before he married, and
+helped him in a hundred ways. Rowland Ward purchased the rights of
+Selous' new book, "Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa," and gave
+the author a good sum of money for his work. If "A Hunter's Wanderings"
+made Selous known to the public, "Travel and Adventures in South-East
+Africa" assured his reputation, made money for him when he badly wanted
+it, and fixed a definite value to his future books and the numerous
+contributions he made to scientific and sporting literature. "Sunshine
+and Storm in Rhodesia," published by Rowland Ward and Co., was also a
+success and gave the public a clear and truthful account of the second
+Matabele war and did much to enhance the author's reputation. This book
+he dedicated to his wife "who, during the last few months, has at once
+been my greatest anxiety and my greatest comfort."
+
+It had long been one of Selous' ambitions to add to his collection the
+heads of that rare and beautiful antelope, the Nyala, or Angas's
+bushbuck, _Tragelaphus angasi_, whose habitat was the dense bush
+stretching along the coast from St. Lucia Bay, Zululand, to the Sabi
+river in Portuguese territory, east of Mashunaland. It has also more
+recently been found in Nyassaland. Wherefore, as soon as he left
+Matabeleland and reached Kimberley, he left his wife and went to Delagoa
+Bay, intending to hunt this animal for a short time in the dense
+thickets which border the Pongolo and Usutu rivers in Amatongaland. Only
+three Englishmen previously had had personal acquaintance with this
+somewhat rare antelope, namely, Angas who discovered it, Baldwin in
+1854, and Drummond, 1867-1872, all of whom wrote of its great beauty,
+cunning nature, and the pestilential climate in which it lived.
+
+In Delagoa Bay Selous was fortunate enough to meet a certain colonist
+named Wissels, who owned a small trading station near the junction of
+the Pongolo and Usutu rivers, right in the heart of the habitat of the
+Nyala. Wissels was returning home next day in his sea-going boat and
+Selous made some swift preparations and accompanied him. In two days he
+reached the Maputa and proceeded overland, with three women carriers, to
+Wissels' station, where he found numerous freshly captured skins and
+horns of the animal he had come to hunt. For the next few days, in
+pouring rain, he crept through the bush with native hunters, and was
+fortunate enough to bag three fine male and two female Nyala, a pair of
+which are now in the Natural History Museum in London; the heads of the
+two other males are in the collection at Worplesdon. He was somewhat
+disappointed not to shoot the rare little Livingstone's Suni, one of
+which he saw, as it was one of the few rare antelopes he did not
+possess. After a long tramp of eighty miles through deep sand he reached
+Delagoa Bay on October 7th, and then returned to Kimberley, and so to
+England, not, however, completely escaping the inevitable attacks of
+fever which are the lot of all who hunt the Nyala in the feverish swamps
+and thickets of the East Coast.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[46] This unfortunate gentleman went to hunt hippopotami at the mouth of
+the Limpopo. Neither he nor any members of his outfit were ever heard of
+again and they may have been wiped out by the Matabele.
+
+[47] Lobengula's native name.
+
+[48] Col. Johan Colenbrander, as his name implies, was of Dutch origin.
+He was born at Pinetown, Natal, in 1859. At the age of twenty he was a
+skilled shot and hunter, and kept a general store in Swaziland close to
+the King's kraal. His first wife Maria was then the only white woman in
+Swaziland. She was a beautiful woman, one of the daughters of Mr. John
+Mullins, of Natal, and was an expert rider and rifle-shot. Colenbrander
+was a born hunter and fighter and took part in all the recent wars in
+South Africa. He was also an excellent linguist, speaking fluently
+several native dialects. He served with distinction in the Zulu War, and
+in 1889 and again in 1890 accompanied the Matabele envoys to England as
+guide and interpreter. From 1895 he held several positions under the
+Chartered Company. In 1893 he remained with Lobengula as peace envoy
+when the Pioneers entered Mashunaland. In 1896 he organized and
+officered "Colenbrander's Boys," and in the second Boer War in 1901 he
+took command of Kitchener's Fighting Scouts and rendered good service,
+being mentioned in despatches and receiving the C.B. His second wife was
+Yvonne, daughter of Captain Loftus Nunn, and she died after two years of
+marriage, whilst his third wife Kathleen, daughter of Mr. James Gloster,
+survives him. Colenbrander all his life liked to go where sport, life,
+war and adventure called, and was ever a loyal friend to Britain. As a
+hunter Selous reckoned him as one of the most experienced in South
+Africa. He was unfortunately drowned in Feb., 1918, whilst taking part
+in a cinema performance representing the Zulu War. As he was crossing
+the Klip river his horse became restive, and he threw himself off and
+tried to swim to the bank; when on the point of being rescued he threw
+up his arms and sank.
+
+[49] "Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia," pp. 161-163, published by Rowland
+Ward and Co.
+
+[50] Lobengula's Prime Minister, whom I met in 1893 and whose portrait I
+executed for the "Daily Graphic" in that year.
+
+[51] "Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+1896-1907
+
+
+AS soon as Selous and his wife returned home at the end of 1896 he
+finished off the notes he had made concerning the second Matabele War,
+and delivered them to Rowland Ward & Co., who published his book,
+"Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia," shortly afterwards. From this time
+forward he did a considerable amount of literary work, which, being in
+demand, gave him sufficient money to satisfy many of his more pressing
+wants at home, as well as supplying funds for the numerous short trips
+he now made every year. Owing in a large measure to the kindly help and
+advice given to him by a South African friend, his finances were now put
+on a sound basis, and he was able to look forward to being able to live
+at home in comfort without being denied those short periods of wandering
+which to him were part of his existence. Of course there were always ups
+and downs due to market fluctuations, and when things went wrong for a
+while he would have fits of depression that he would be unable to hunt
+any more; but these always passed away sooner or later when the clouds
+lifted and some new piece of work commanded a good price. There is
+little doubt that a man enjoys best that for which he has worked. All
+Selous' later hunts were the outcome of his industry with the pen, and
+in some measure from lectures, so he experienced some joy in the
+working, for it meant to him the camp fire and the open road.
+
+In reading of his almost continuous wanderings after this date it must
+not be supposed that he was not happy in his home life. As a matter of
+fact no man considered himself more blessed by fortune in the possession
+of wife and children, and every fresh expedition, when he felt impelled
+as it were to go to the wilds, was fraught with misgivings and anxieties
+for his loved ones at home. It was always a wrench when the time came.
+He wrote once to Roosevelt on this point, and received the following
+sympathetic answer:--
+
+[Illustration: LIONS CHASING A KOODOO BULL.]
+
+    "... After all, there is nothing that in any way comes up to
+    home and wife and children, in spite of the penalty one has to
+    pay for having given hostages to fortune. I know just exactly
+    how you feel about the 'two hearts.' Having a wife and six
+    children, of whom I am very fond, I have found it more and more
+    difficult to get away; for the last eight years, indeed, my
+    hunting trips have merely been short outings. I am of course
+    very much interested in my work here; but I cannot say how I
+    long at times for the great rolling prairies of sun-dried yellow
+    grass, where the antelopes stand at gaze, or wheel and circle;
+    for the splintered cottonwoods on the bank of some shrunken
+    river, with the wagon drawn up under them, and the ponies
+    feeding round about; for the great pine forests, where the bull
+    elk challenge, and the pack-train threads its way through the
+    fallen timber. I long also for the other wilderness which I have
+    never seen, and never shall see, excepting through your books,
+    and the books of two or three men like you who are now dead. It
+    may be that some time I can break away from this sedentary life
+    for a hunt somewhere; and of all things possible to me, I should
+    like to take this hunt among the big bears of Alaska, and try to
+    work out their specific relationship. But I don't know whether I
+    shall ever get the chance; and of course this sedentary life
+    gradually does away with one's powers; though I can walk and
+    shoot a little yet. Politics is a rather engrossing pursuit,
+    and, unfortunately, with us it is acute in the Fall, at the very
+    time of the best hunting; and as my children grow older I am
+    more and more concerned with giving them a proper training for
+    their life-work, whatever it may be. I don't yet accept the fact
+    that I shall never get the chance to take some big hunt again,
+    and perhaps it may come so I shall be able to; and meanwhile I
+    do revel in all the books about big game, and when I can get out
+    to my ranch even for ten days, I enjoy it to the last point,
+    taking an old cow-pony and shambling off across the grassy flats
+    for a few days' camping, and the chance of an occasional
+    prong-buck.
+
+    "I am glad you like to chat with me even by letter. Ever since
+    reading your first book I have always wanted to meet you. I hope
+    I may have better luck next year than I had this. You will of
+    course let me know if you think I can be of any help to you in
+    your Canadian trip.
+
+    "The Colonel X. whom I wrote to you about is, I am quite sure,
+    what we should term a fake, although I also have no doubt that
+    he has actually done a good deal of big game hunting; but I am
+    certain that, together with his real experiences, he puts in
+    some that are all nonsense. Did you ever read the writings of a
+    man named Leveson, who called himself 'the Old Shikari'? He was
+    undoubtedly a great hunter; yet when he wrote about American big
+    game, I know that he stretched the long bow, and I am very sure
+    he did the same about African big game. He everywhere
+    encountered precisely those adventures which boys' books teach
+    us to expect. Thus as soon as he got to Africa, he witnessed a
+    vicious encounter between black rhinoceroses and elephants,
+    which would have done credit to Mayne Reid; exactly as Colonel
+    X. relates the story of a fearful prize-fight, in which a
+    captive English Major slays a gorilla, against which he is
+    pitted by a cannibal king--dates, names and places being left
+    vacant.
+
+    "What do you know of that South African hunter and writer named
+    Drummond? He wrote very interestingly, and gave most vivid
+    descriptions of hunting-camps, of the African scenery, and of
+    adventures with Hons and buffaloes; but his remarks about
+    rhinoceroses made me think he was not always an exact observer,
+    especially after I had read what you said.
+
+    "By the way, did I ever mention to you that Willie Chanler's
+    party was continually charged by black rhinoceroses, and his
+    companion, an Austrian named Von Hoehnel, who stayed with me
+    once, was badly mauled by one."
+
+Like most schoolboys with a taste for natural history and an
+adventurous disposition Selous had, as we have seen, been an industrious
+bird-nester. In his youth he had commenced to make a collection of
+European birds' eggs, and this taste, usually abandoned by most boys in
+after-life, was in him only dormant. When he set out to do anything he
+generally carried it through to the end; and so when opportunity came
+again, as it did after his wanderings in South Africa were finished, he
+seized it with avidity. He was much too good a naturalist to collect
+eggs wholesale, as some collectors unfortunately do, but contented
+himself with one or two clutches taken by himself. His contention was, I
+think, a correct one, that if only one clutch of eggs of a bird is
+taken, the same bird either sits again and lays a fresh set of eggs or
+makes a new nest. So little or no harm is done.
+
+Being a member of the British Ornithologists' Union he knew all the
+regular egg-collectors, and soon obtained the best information where
+various species were to be found. Each year as April came round he
+packed his bag and, occasionally accompanied by some local enthusiast,
+he went to all the best resorts of rare birds in England, Scotland, the
+Orkneys, Asia Minor, Spain, Hungary, Holland, and Iceland.
+
+Thus in 1897 he commenced the egg-hunting season by going to Smyrna in
+February with the intention of taking the nests of the large raptorial
+birds which there breed very early in the year. The point he made for
+was the Murad Dagh, a range of mountains in the interior of Asia Minor,
+where he knew the short-toed, golden and imperial eagles, and the black
+and griffon vultures nested. He also had some hopes that he might secure
+one of the big stags before they dropped their horns. On his journey he
+suffered much from the cold in the mountains, and was also at first
+unsuccessful in finding any of the big stags, who seemed to have been
+hunted out of the range. He saw three fine stags but did not succeed in
+finding one of those which he had wounded. He then returned to Smyrna
+and went into the Maimun Dagh again. Here he took the eggs of black
+vulture, griffon vulture, short-toed eagle and laemmergeier. Getting
+tired of this range he went on to the Ak Dagh, where he took one golden
+eagle's nest, three griffon vultures' eggs, and two of black vultures.
+He also shot a young red deer, with which was a fine old stag that had
+just dropped its horns. He returned to England in March.
+
+In England he commenced his nesting operations in April by hunting
+Thatcham Marsh (near Reading) for water-rails' nests, and took two. Then
+he went on to the Scilly Isles for sea-birds.
+
+He says, in a letter to me: "I am going to Brabant if I can obtain a
+permit from the Dutch Government to collect a few eggs, and after that
+to Scotland, where I shall remain until it is time to leave for
+America." In Scilly, he says: "I got eggs of the Greater and Lesser
+Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gull, Manx Shearwater, Oyster-catcher, and
+Ringed Plover, but found no Terns breeding." On June 8th he decided to
+put off his trip to Holland, as it was too late. I then gave him
+particulars where he could get Arctic, Lesser and Sandwich terns in
+Scotland, and also obtained permission for him to take two Capercaillie
+nests. All of these he obtained.
+
+In any collection of hunting trophies, the gems of all collections (with
+perhaps the exception of the red deer of Europe and the great sheep and
+goats of Central Asia) are the great deer of North America, and Selous
+had for long envied the possessors of such fine specimens of moose,
+wapiti and caribou as had been obtained in the seventies and eighties of
+the last century. It is true that as good moose and caribou can be
+killed to-day as ever; but the great wapiti, owing to their curtailed
+range, are gone for ever, so a hunter to-day must be content with
+inferior specimens. In 1897 three or four specimens of wapiti were
+allowed to be killed in the restricted area south of the Yellowstone
+Park, and it was with the intention of killing these as well as other
+North American game that Selous turned to the West in August, 1897.
+
+In his youth Selous, like other boys of similar tastes, had devoured the
+works of Ballantyne, Mayne Reid, Catlin, and Kingston, relating to fact
+and fiction, and had always desired to visit America as one of his
+lands of dreams. But it was not civilized America that appealed to him.
+Cities are the same all the world over. It was the land of vast plains
+and trackless forests swarming with game that appealed to him; and if he
+could not, alas, now find such a hunter's paradise, he could at least
+see something of the little that was truly wild which was left and
+perhaps obtain a few fair specimens for his collection. Once, it is
+true, he had actually taken his passage to America. That happened in
+1893, but the outbreak of the Matabele war in that year had caused him
+to alter his plans and he went back to South Africa instead.
+
+Selous had a good friend, W. Moncrieff, who owned a small cattle ranch
+in the heart of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. Here in the adjoining
+forests and mountains still lived a remnant of the bears, wapiti,
+mule-deer and sheep that had formerly been so abundant, and the local
+knowledge enjoyed by Moncrieff enabled him to furnish Selous with the
+best information. Accordingly he left England accompanied by his wife,
+and, passing through Canada, reached the ranch on the last day of
+August. Next day the party on horses, accompanied by a waggon with one
+Bob Graham as a guide, struck into the mountains and, after passing over
+the main range of the Big Horns, descended into the Big Horn basin. This
+is covered with sage brush, and is still the home of a few prong-horned
+antelopes, two of which, one a good male, Selous succeeded in shooting.
+
+The hunters then proceeded up the south fork of Stinking Water, and
+established a main camp in the forests, where a few very shy wapiti
+males were still to be found. For twenty days Selous toiled in a mass of
+dense and fallen timber before he carried his first wapiti head back to
+camp. Wapiti are in fact now both shy and scarce, and a man must
+persevere and work continuously, at least early in the season, before
+even one fair specimen can be found, but Selous greatly enjoyed the
+grandeur and wildness of the scenery, and being still in the prime of
+life the exertion of daily toil did not in any way affect his energy. On
+September 29th he shot his first mule-deer buck. A little snow came and
+helped to make tracking easier. Then Selous had some luck, and he
+killed four wapiti, two in one day, and a fifth near Davies' ranch on
+October 28th. Near the same place too he killed one of the few remaining
+white-tailed deer-bucks in Wyoming, but its head was rather a poor one,
+that of an old male "going-back." Selous wrote an account of this trip
+to Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary to the American Navy, and
+received (November 30th, 1897) the following reply:--
+
+    "Your letter made me quite melancholy--first, to think I wasn't
+    to see you after all; and next, to realize so vividly how almost
+    the last real hunting-grounds in America have gone. Thirteen
+    years ago I had splendid sport on the Big Horn Mountains which
+    you crossed. Six years ago I saw elk in bands of one and two
+    hundred on Buffalo Fork; and met but one hunting expedition
+    while I was out. A very few more years will do away with all the
+    really wild hunting, at least so far as bear and elk are
+    concerned, in the Rocky Mountains and the West generally; one of
+    the last places will be the Olympic Peninsula of Oregon, where
+    there is a very peculiar elk, a different species, quite as big
+    in body but with smaller horns, which are more like those of the
+    European red deer, and with a black head. Goat, sheep, and bear
+    will for a long time abound in British Columbia and Alaska.
+
+    "Well, I am glad you enjoyed yourself, anyhow, and that you did
+    get a sufficient number of fair heads--wapiti, prong-buck,
+    black-tail, and white-tail. Of course I am very sorry that you
+    did not get a good sheep and a bear or two. In the north-eastern
+    part of the Park there is some wintering ground for the elk; and
+    I doubt if they will ever be entirely killed out in the Park;
+    but in a very short while shooting in the West, where it exists,
+    will simply be the kind that can now be obtained in Maine and
+    New York; that is, the game will be scarce, and the game-laws
+    fairly observed in consequence of the existence of a class of
+    professional guides; and a hunter who gets one good head for a
+    trip will feel he has done pretty well. You were in luck to get
+    so fine a prong-buck head.
+
+    "Do tell Mrs. Selous how sorry I am to miss her, as well as
+    you. I feel rather melancholy to think that my own four small
+    boys will practically see no hunting on this side at all, and
+    indeed no hunting anywhere unless they have the adventurous
+    temper that will make them start out into wild regions to find
+    their fortunes. I was just in time to see the last of the real
+    wilderness life and real wilderness hunting. How I wish I could
+    have been with you this year! But, as I wrote you before, during
+    the last three seasons I have been able to get out West but
+    once, and then only for a fortnight on my ranch, where I shot a
+    few antelope for meat.
+
+    "You ought to have Hough's 'Story of the Cowboy' and Van Dyke's
+    'Still Hunter.' Also I think you might possibly enjoy small
+    portions of the three volumes of the Boone and Crockett Club's
+    publications. They could be obtained from the 'Forest and
+    Stream' people at 346 Broadway, New York, by writing. Have you
+    ever seen Washington Irving's 'Trip on the Prairie,' and Lewis
+    and Clarke's Expedition? And there are two very good volumes,
+    about fifty years old, now out of print, by a lieutenant in the
+    British Army named Ruxton, the titles of which for the moment I
+    can't think of; but I will look them up and send them to you. He
+    describes the game less than the trappers and hunters of the
+    period; men who must have been somewhat like your
+    elephant-hunters. When I was first on the plains there were a
+    few of them left; and the best hunting-trip I ever made was in
+    the company of one of them, though he was not a particularly
+    pleasant old fellow to work with.
+
+    "Now, to answer your question about ranching; and of course you
+    are at liberty to quote me.
+
+    "I know a good deal of ranching in western North Dakota, eastern
+    Montana and north-eastern Wyoming. My ranch is in the Bad Lands
+    of the Little Missouri, a good cattle-country, with shelter,
+    traversed by a river, into which run here and there perennial
+    streams. It is a dry country, but not in any sense a desert.
+    Year in and year out we found that it took about twenty-five
+    acres to support a steer or cow. When less than that was allowed
+    the ranch became overstocked, and loss was certain to follow. Of
+    course where hay is put up, and cultivation with irrigation
+    attempted, the amount of land can be reduced; but any country
+    in that part of the West which could support a steer or cow on
+    five acres would be country which it would pay to attempt to
+    cultivate, and it would, therefore, cease to be merely pastoral
+    country.
+
+    "Is this about what you wish? I have made but a short trip to
+    Texas. There are parts of it near the coast which are
+    well-watered, and support a large number of cattle. Elsewhere I
+    do not believe that it supports more cattle to the square mile
+    than the north-western country, and where there are more they
+    get terribly thinned out by occasional droughts. In Hough's book
+    you will see some description of this very ranching in Texas and
+    elsewhere. I really grudge the fact that you and Mrs. Selous got
+    away from this side without my even getting a glimpse of you."
+
+As he had only shot two wapiti with fair heads and one mule-deer with
+average horns, Selous decided to have a second hunt in the Rockies, with
+the object of obtaining better specimens. In November, as a rule, there
+is heavy snow in the mountains, and this has the effect of driving the
+game down out of the heavy timber into more open ground where "heads"
+can more easily be seen and judged. Accordingly in October, 1898, Selous
+went to Red Lodge in Montana and there met the hunter Graham. This time
+he went up the north fork of Stinking Water to the forest and about
+twelve miles east of the Yellowstone Park. Mild weather, however,
+throughout November was all against seeing any quantity of game, so
+Selous was again somewhat disappointed with the results of this hunt.
+
+After this trip, in 1898, he wrote to me:--
+
+    "Come here yourself as soon as you can. _Vous serez toujours le
+    bienvenu._ A damned newspaper reporter (an American, who came
+    here whilst I was in London, and would not go away until he had
+    seen me) said I have got some good wapiti heads, but I only got
+    one _fair_ one. I got four wapiti bulls altogether, but two had
+    very small heads--not worth taking. I got four mule-deer stags,
+    one with a very nice head and a second not at all bad. I also
+    shot another lynx; but I had very unfortunate weather, hardly
+    any snow, and when I left the Mountains the wapiti were still up
+    in their early autumn range."
+
+Selous was rather disappointed in not obtaining better wapiti heads, and
+wrote in his book ("Travels East and West") that bigger heads of deer
+could now be killed in Hungary than in the Rockies. Commenting on this,
+Roosevelt, in a letter to him at a later date, says:--
+
+    "By the way, I was in the winter range of the deer (Colorado),
+    and I have never seen them so numerous. They were all black-tail
+    (mule-deer). Every day I saw scores, and some days hundreds.
+    There were also elk (wapiti). I did not shoot either deer or
+    elk, of course; but I saw elk-antlers shot last fall, ranging
+    from 52 to 56 inches in length. I think you were a few years
+    ahead of time (although only a few years) when you stated that
+    already bigger antlers could be secured in Hungary than in the
+    Rockies."
+
+In this doubtless Roosevelt was correct; but Selous had hunted in a
+district where all good heads had been picked off, and the range and
+feed of wapiti had been so curtailed that even at this date and now it
+is practically impossible to obtain a good specimen.
+
+In April, 1899, he went with his wife to Wiesbaden, returning in June.
+In October he paid a short visit to his friend, Mr. Danford, in
+Transylvania, where he killed some good specimens of chamois--one, a
+female, having horns 11 inches long. In November he came home again, and
+having some thought of hunting elk in Norway in the following year,
+wrote to me in November, 1899: "I want to hear all about your hunt in
+Norway, so come over here at once. I am very glad to hear you were so
+successful with the elk and bear, and should much like to have a try
+next year, if I could stand the work, which I have always heard is very
+hard." This hunt, however, failed to materialize.
+
+One of Selous' beliefs was that it was impossible for men to hold wide
+sympathies and to lead others towards the light unless they had been
+through the grinding-mill of experience in other lands. His broad-minded
+outlook made him a cosmopolitan in one sense of the word, for he found
+good and something ever to learn from the men of all nations; yet
+withal at heart he was intensely English of the English, and believed in
+our destiny, as a nation, as a guiding light to universal understanding.
+His view was that no man had any right to express an opinion on another
+nation unless that man had lived amongst the people he criticized _and
+could speak their language_. Such a theory would no doubt be unpopular,
+but it is right. In international differences all kinds of people
+express their views in contemporary literature just because they happen
+to have the ear of the public; but how many of these really know
+anything about the people they criticize. A popular cry is raised, and
+the mob follow like a flock of sheep. An instance of this was the
+complete misunderstanding of the causes of the Boer War and Boer nation.
+There were not half a dozen men in England or Africa to tell the public
+at home the true state of things, and when they did express their views
+they were quickly drowned in a flood of lies and misrepresentations by
+interested politicians and gold-magnates who held the press. Men like
+Selous and Sir William Butler, because they told the absolute truth,
+were dubbed "Pro-Boers," when in reality they were the best examples of
+"Pro-English" Englishmen. They simply could not be silent amongst the
+welter of falsehoods, and only tried to stem the flowing tide of
+mendacity. Their strongly expressed view that the war would not be a
+walk-over for us, and that we were fighting a gallant foe who deemed
+themselves right in defending their country, which had been most
+distinctly given back to them by inviolable treaties (made by the
+Gladstone Government), was correct, and that they would fight
+desperately and to a large extent successfully was abundantly proved by
+subsequent events. If Selous made a mistake it was in allowing certain
+letters to the "Times" and "Morning Post" to appear _after the war had
+commenced_. I have reason, however, to believe that these letters were
+written and sent in prior to the commencement of hostilities, and that
+they were "held over" to a time when their appearance was, to say the
+least of it, unfortunate.
+
+In justice to Selous, however, it must be said that after this he kept
+silent, nor did he ever utter a word publicly in the matter. He felt
+that we were now hopelessly involved, and that anything he could say
+would be of little use. Though he felt sad and disappointed over the
+whole matter, he was far too much a patriot to do other than wish
+success to our arms, though he ever hoped that some amicable settlement
+would evolve out of the whole disastrous affair. Afterwards too he often
+expressed his appreciation of the noble way in which the subsequent
+British Government treated the Boers, both at the conclusion of peace
+and the liberal manner in which we sought to bury the hatchet--a manner
+which unfortunately has not always met with success amongst the older
+Boer irreconcilables. Men like Botha and Smuts have proved that our
+later policy has been broad-minded and humane, and that in time we shall
+amalgamate in one South African Dominion a nation absolutely loyal to
+the British Crown; but it will be a long time before the malcontents
+have lost all their bitterness and a new generation understands what is
+meant by a Greater South Africa.
+
+His true feelings as regards the war are thus stated in a letter to me,
+November 5th, 1899:--
+
+    "This war is a most deplorable business; but of course, as you
+    say, we _must_ bring it to a successful conclusion now at
+    whatever cost; but think what South Africa will be like when it
+    is over. However, it is useless talking about it. My letters to
+    the 'Times' have raised a great deal of ill-feeling against me
+    in this country."
+
+And again, writing January 1st, 1900, he says:--
+
+    "I am very depressed about this war. It is a bad business, and
+    justice is not on our side. There was a lot of dirty work done
+    by the capitalists to bring it about, and no good can come of it
+    for this country. I have seen several letters written by Jan
+    Hofmeyr during the last few months, beginning before the war.
+    They are very interesting, and I hope will be published some
+    day. They seem to explode the idea of the leaders of the Cape
+    Africanders having been in a conspiracy of any kind with the
+    Pretoria lot."
+
+From 1872 onwards Selous had known and studied the Boers intimately. He
+had lived and hunted with them from the Orange Free State to
+Matabeleland, and had found them a simple race of hunter-farmers,
+intensely patriotic and hopelessly conservative. He knew that "they are
+neither angels nor devils, but just men like ourselves," and that the
+views of the British, German and Jew storekeepers and traders of the
+Transvaal and Orange Free State were hopelessly wrong, because they did
+not know the real back-veldt Boers of the country, who made up the
+majority of the Nation. He himself had never received anything but
+kindness and straight dealing from them, and was therefore able to
+appreciate their indignation and outbursts of fury when a second
+annexation was contemplated by our Government. He replies to the charge
+that life for Englishmen was impossible in the Transvaal after the
+retrocession to the Boers of that country in 1881: "Mr. Rider Haggard
+has told us that he found it impossible to go on living in the Transvaal
+amid the daily insults of victorious Boers, and he also tells us that
+Boers look upon Englishmen with contempt, and consider them to be
+morally and physically cowards. I travelled slowly through the Transvaal
+by bullock-waggon shortly after the retrocession of the country in 1881,
+and visited all the farmhouses on my route. I met with no insults nor
+the least incivility anywhere, nor ever heard any boasting about Boer
+successes over our troops, though at that time I understood the 'Taal'
+well. In common with all who really know the Boers, who have lived
+amongst them, and not taken their character at second-hand, I have
+always been struck by their moderation in speaking of their victories
+over our soldiers. As for the Boers having a contempt for Englishmen as
+individuals, that is nonsense. They hate the British Government, and
+knowing their history, I for one think they have ample reason for doing
+so. But the individual Englishman that they know, they take at his real
+value. There are of course, unfortunately, certain Englishmen in
+Johannesburg, or people who are now put down as Englishmen, who could
+not but appear as contemptible to a Boer as they would do to most people
+in this country. But, on the other hand, I could name many Englishmen
+and Scotchmen, men who have been honest and upright and fearless in all
+their dealings with their neighbours, who have been held in immense
+respect by all the Boers of their acquaintance. These men, however,
+lived amongst the Boers, spoke their language, and took a sympathetic
+interest in their lives; whilst one of the troubles of the present
+situation in the Transvaal is that the Uitlander population of
+Johannesburg is, in its sympathies, its mode of life, and all its hopes
+and aspirations, as wide as the poles asunder from the pastoral Boers,
+with whom it never mixes, and whom it therefore does not understand."
+(Letter to the "Times," October 24th, 1899.)
+
+This was also exactly my own experience as recently as 1893, when I
+lived entirely and trekked with Boers for a year. Never was I ever
+treated except with the greatest kindness both by my own intimate
+friends or casual acquaintances, once I had learnt to speak the "Taal,"
+nor did I ever hear them "crow" over their victories of 1881. There was,
+however, always the latent fear that the British Government would again
+play them false, and they would be once more forced to fight us; but
+with individual Englishmen they liked and trusted there was no sign of
+animosity.[52]
+
+In June, 1900, Selous was asked to sign a protest, issued by the "South
+Africa Conciliation Committee," inaugurated by W. L. Courtney (editor of
+the "Fortnightly Review"). In the following letter, however, written to
+the Secretary, he manifests his sound common-sense in separating the
+"causes of the war" from what could be done at the moment when our
+forces were actually fighting and likely to prove victorious. His
+grievance was with the authorities who brought about the war and the
+methods which had been employed to make it, and not with the conduct
+thereof or its natural effects. Wherefore he refused to sign the
+protest, and gave his reasons as follows:--
+
+    "_August 3rd, 1900._
+
+    "I have left your circular so long unanswered because I have
+    been thinking over it very deeply, and because, although I
+    realize most fully the force of all the arguments that can be
+    used against the annexation of the Boer Republics, I still think
+    that those who sign the protest ought to be able to propose some
+    scheme of settlement which holds out a better prospect of future
+    peace. I personally can think of no such scheme. Had honourable
+    terms been offered to the Boers, and the independence of their
+    countries been assured to them with certain necessary
+    limitations, immediately after the occupation of Pretoria, there
+    might have been great hope for the future peace of the country,
+    but all that has occurred, not only in the Transvaal and Orange
+    State, but also in the Cape Colony, must have caused such a
+    feeling of exasperation amongst the Dutch Africanders against
+    the British Government, that I cannot but feel that the granting
+    of a limited independence to the Boer Republics would not now
+    produce rest or peace. Things have gone too far for that now,
+    and it seems to me that Great Britain will only be able to hold
+    South Africa in the immediate future by force. I am of course
+    convinced of the truth of all you say in the protest, that the
+    annexation of the Boer Republics is 'contrary to the public
+    declarations of Her Majesty's Ministers, alien to all the best
+    traditions of a freedom-loving country, burdensome to the
+    resources of the nation, and wholly distasteful to the majority
+    of our fellow-subjects in South Africa,' but that does not blind
+    me to the fact that the race hatred that has been engendered by
+    this war is so deep and so terrible that the granting of
+    independence to the Boer Republics would be more immediately
+    disastrous to British supremacy in South Africa than unjust
+    annexation accompanied by the garrisoning of the country with
+    large numbers of troops. Annexation or no annexation, I firmly
+    believe that sooner or later the people who actually live in
+    South Africa--as distinguished from those whose only interest in
+    the country is the exploitation of its mineral wealth--will
+    govern the country, and, if they wish it, have their own flag,
+    and throw off all allegiance to Great Britain. I would gladly
+    sign any protest against the policy which brought about the war,
+    one of the results of which is this ill-omened annexation of
+    independent states, but I am beginning to think, with John
+    Morley, that annexation was an almost necessary result of a war
+    pushed to the bitter end. I am very sorry to have troubled you
+    with so long a letter, but I wish you to understand that,
+    although my views as to the iniquity of the policy which brought
+    about the war will always remain the same, and although I think
+    the annexation of the two Boer Republics a piece of injustice
+    and a national disgrace, and would most willingly have signed a
+    protest against it three months ago, I now feel the exasperation
+    caused by the war is so great that the independence of the Boer
+    Republics might very possibly be used against British supremacy
+    in South Africa. It is a very distressing outlook, and I can see
+    no light in the future; but still I do not feel justified in
+    signing the present protest. I beg to thank you for the last two
+    leaflets you sent me, Nos. 53 and 54. The publication of Colonel
+    Stonham's evidence, as to the humanity of the Boers, ought to
+    have a very good effect if it could be made widely known."
+
+After this the war drew on slowly to its eventual finish in 1901,
+Selous' only public contribution being a letter to the "Speaker," which
+was used by the South African Conciliation Committee in its efforts to
+influence the Government, and part of this letter, which deals with the
+effects of the war on the Boer population and the future, is worth
+quoting:--
+
+    "Should it, however, be determined to erase the Boer Republics
+    from the map of Africa and to carry on the war to the point of
+    practically exterminating the able-bodied male population of
+    these two sparsely-peopled States, let it not be thought that
+    the surviving women will bring up their children to become
+    loyal British subjects. Let Englishmen remember that the men who
+    prophesied that within a short time after the war was over the
+    Boers would become reconciled to the British, whom they would
+    then have learnt to respect, are the same people who also told
+    us that the war would be a very short and simple campaign, as
+    the Boers were a degenerate, cowardly race, who could no longer
+    shoot at all well, and who would be sure to disperse to their
+    homes after the first battle, if only a hundred of them were
+    killed. These were the sort of predictions which were very
+    commonly heard in this country a few months before the war
+    commenced, and they were the utterances of men wholly ignorant
+    of the Boer character.
+
+    "As showing that there are people whose opinions are entitled to
+    respect who think differently, I will now quote from memory a
+    passage in a letter lately written by a well-known and
+    well-educated Dutch Africander to a friend in this country:
+    'Those people who expect that the Boers will soon forgive and
+    forget this war, and settle down quietly under the British flag,
+    are most terribly mistaken. I think I know my own countrymen,
+    and I believe that if, after this war is over, the independence
+    of the Republics is destroyed, the historic episode of Hamilcar
+    making Hannibal swear eternal enmity to Rome will be re-enacted
+    in many a farmhouse throughout the Transvaal and Orange Free
+    State. The Boer women will teach their children to hate the very
+    name of England, and bid them look forward to the day when their
+    country will be freed from British domination.' These words,
+    even if the idea they express is somewhat exaggerated, are
+    worthy of attention when it is remembered how rapidly the Boers
+    increase in numbers and fighting strength." ("The Speaker,"
+    1900.)
+
+After this he only expressed his views to a few personal friends, such
+as President Roosevelt, who was in close sympathy with his hopes that
+peace on a fair basis might soon be restored. In reply to one of his
+letters, Roosevelt, writing March, 1901, says:--
+
+[Illustration: THE WANDERING MINSTREL.]
+
+    "It makes me melancholy to see the Boer War hanging on. Your
+    limit of eighteen months (the time Selous stated it would last)
+    is rapidly approaching. Of course there can be only one ending;
+    but it is a dreadful thing to have the ending come only by the
+    exhaustion of the country and of the fighting men. How I wish
+    you could be made administrator of all South Africa. Somehow I
+    feel that you could do what no other man could do, and really
+    bring about peace. I begin to be afraid you have been right
+    about this war. I hope we shall see things go right hereafter."
+
+It is interesting too to study both Roosevelt's and the American
+attitude towards our policy in the Boer War. In reply to Selous'
+explanation of the whole matter the American statesman thus writes
+(March 19th, 1900):--
+
+    "I appreciate very deeply the trouble you have taken in writing
+    to me; although in a way your letter has made me feel very
+    melancholy. My idea of the questions at issue has been mainly
+    derived from the 'Spectator,' a paper that I take and always
+    like, and which impresses me as being honestly desirous of
+    getting at the true facts in any given case. I paid especial
+    heed to what it said because of its entire disapproval of Cecil
+    Rhodes and the capitalist gang. Moreover, a friend of mine,
+    Ferdinand Becker, who was in the Transvaal and who saw very
+    clearly the rights and wrongs of each side, and for whose
+    judgment I have great respect, insists that as things actually
+    were the war was inevitable, _that there had to be a fight, and
+    that one or the other race had to be supreme in South Africa_.
+    By the way, much of the pro-Boer feeling here is really
+    anti-English, and as I have a very warm remembrance of England's
+    attitude to us two years ago, I have of course no sympathy with
+    such manifestations. So I thought after Montague White's visit
+    to me that I should like to hear the other side from someone
+    whom I could thoroughly trust, and I appealed to you. It is
+    largely an academic curiosity on my part, so to speak, for the
+    answer of the English Premier to the communication of
+    transmissal sent by President McKinley with the letters from the
+    Presidents of the two Republics shows that any mediation would
+    be promptly rejected. I do not suppose that the end can be very
+    far distant now, unless there is a formidable uprising in the
+    Cape Colony, for it would look as if there had never been fifty
+    thousand Boers under arms, and Roberts has four times that
+    number of troops in South Africa. Evidently the Boers are most
+    gallant fighters, and quite as efficient as they are gallant.
+
+    "I had been inclined to look at the war as analogous to the
+    struggles which put the Americans in possession of Texas, New
+    Mexico, and California. I suppose the technical rights are about
+    the same in one case as in the other; but, of course, there is
+    an enormous difference in the quality of the invading people;
+    for the Boers have shown that they have no kinship with the
+    Mexicans. In Texas the Americans first went in to settle and
+    become citizens, making an Outlander population. This Outlander
+    population then rose, and was helped by raids from the United
+    States, which in point of morality did not differ in the least
+    from the Jameson raid--although there was at back of them no
+    capitalist intrigue, but simply a love of adventure and a
+    feeling of arrogant and domineering race-superiority. The
+    Americans at last succeeded in wresting Texas from the Mexicans
+    and making it an independent Republic. This Republic tried to
+    conquer New Mexico but failed. Then we annexed it, made its
+    quarrels our own, and did conquer both New Mexico and
+    California. In the case of Texas there was the dark blot of
+    slavery which rested on the victors; for they turned Texas from
+    a free province into a slave republic. Nevertheless, it was of
+    course ultimately to the great advantage of civilization that
+    the Anglo-American should supplant the Indo-Spaniard. It has
+    been ultimately to the advantage of the Indo-Spaniard himself,
+    or at any rate to the advantage of the best men in his ranks. In
+    my regiment, which was raised in the South-West, I had forty or
+    fifty men of part Indian blood and perhaps half as many of part
+    Spanish blood, and among my captains was one of the former and
+    one of the latter--both being as good Americans in every sense
+    of the word as were to be found in our ranks.
+
+    "If the two races, Dutch and English, are not riven asunder by
+    too intense antagonism, surely they ought to amalgamate in South
+    Africa as they have done here in North America, where I and all
+    my fellows of Dutch blood are now mixed with and are
+    indistinguishable from our fellow Americans, not only of
+    English, but of German, Scandinavian, and other ancestry.
+
+    "The doubtful, and to my mind the most melancholy, element in
+    the problem is what you bring out about the Englishman no longer
+    colonizing in the way that the Boer does. This is a feature due,
+    I suppose, to the enormous development of urban life and the
+    radical revolution in the social and industrial conditions of
+    the English-speaking peoples during the past century. In our
+    Pacific States, and even more in Australia, we see the same
+    tendency to the foundation of enormous cities instead of the
+    settlement of the country districts by pioneer farmers. Luckily,
+    America north of the Rio Grande and Australia definitely belong
+    to our peoples already, and there is enough of the pastoral and
+    farming element among us to colonize the already thinly-settled
+    waste places which now belong to our people. But the old
+    movement which filled the Mississippi valley at the beginning of
+    this century with masterful dogged frontier-farmers, each
+    skilled in the use of the rifle and axe, each almost independent
+    of outside assistance, and each with a swarm of tow-headed
+    children, has nearly come to an end. When Kentucky, at the close
+    of the eighteenth century, was as populous as Oregon 100 years
+    later, Kentucky did not have one-tenth of the urban population
+    that Oregon had when she reached the same stage. Now, urban
+    people are too civilized, have too many wants and too much
+    social ambition, to take up their abode permanently in the
+    wilderness and marry the kind of women who alone could be
+    contented, or indeed could live in the wilderness. On the great
+    plains of the West, when I was in the cattle business, I saw
+    many young Easterners and young Englishmen of good families who
+    came out there; but not one in twenty, whether from the Atlantic
+    States or from England, married and grew up as a permanent
+    settler in the country; and the twentieth was usually a
+    _declasse_. The other nineteen were always working to make money
+    and then go home, or somewhere else, and they did not have their
+    womankind with them. The 'younger son' of whom Kipling sings is
+    a picturesque man always, and can do very useful work as a
+    hunter and explorer, or even a miner, but he is not a settler,
+    and does not leave any permanent mark upon any true
+    frontier-community with which I am acquainted. After the
+    frontier has been pushed back, when the ranchman and the cowboy
+    and the frontier-ganger, who are fitted for the actual
+    conditions, have come in, then the 'younger son' and the
+    struggling gentleman-adventurer may make their appearance in the
+    towns. Of course, there are exceptions to all of this, but as a
+    rule what I have pointed out is true. I have seen
+    scores--perhaps hundreds--of men from Oxford and Cambridge,
+    Harvard and Yale, who went into cattle-growing on the Great
+    Plains, but they did just as I did; that is, worked with greater
+    or less success at the business, gained an immense amount of
+    good from it personally, especially in the way of strength and
+    gratifying a taste for healthy adventure, learned much of human
+    nature from associating with the men round about, and then went
+    back to their own homes in England or New York or Boston,
+    largely because, when it came to marrying and bringing up
+    children, they could not well face the conditions; and so the
+    real population of the future in the valleys of the upper
+    Missouri, the Platte, and the Rio Grande, will be composed of
+    the sons of their companions, who were themselves descendants of
+    small farmers in Texas, Missouri, and Illinois, or of
+    working-men from Scandinavia and Germany.
+
+    "Pardon this long letter, which has wandered aside from the
+    thesis with which it started. I hope that the language of the
+    more highly civilized people will, in spite of the evil
+    influences of to-day, gradually oust the 'Taal' or whatever you
+    call Boer Dutch in South Africa, and that when the conquest of
+    the two Republics is succeeded by the full liberty which I
+    understand the Cape Dutch enjoy, there will come a union in
+    blood as well as in that between the two peoples who are so
+    fundamentally alike.
+
+    "I am looking forward to the receipt of the three books you have
+    been so very kind as to send me. I do know a certain amount
+    about the Boers from the time of their great trek onward, for
+    it has always seemed to me to be one of the most fascinating
+    bits of modern history."
+
+In the spring of 1900 Selous went on a bird-nesting trip to the forest
+and marshes of the Danube in Hungary, and was successful in getting the
+eggs of many new species for his collection. When he arrived home in
+June he found his finances in low water, owing to enlarging his house,
+and so feared he would be unable to make an extensive autumn hunt, but
+later on things improved, and he was able to go West after all.
+
+In September, 1900, he went to Canada to hunt moose, and arrived at
+Mattawa, Ontario, on September 24th. On this trip he was fortunate in
+securing the services of George Crawford, a half-breed Indian, who was
+probably the best moose-caller and hunter in that province. In spite of
+the number of American hunters who at this time made the districts of
+Kippewa and Tamiskaming their favourite hunting-grounds, Crawford always
+knew where to go to secure moose, and it was not long before Selous
+reached a hunting-ground, about three days north of Mattawa, on Lake
+Bois Franc, where he killed two fine bulls. After this short trip he
+went to Snake Lake to try and secure a good white-tailed deer stag, but
+was not very successful, as he only secured a four-year-old buck with
+moderate horns. On October 26th he landed in Newfoundland and, being
+supplied with bad information, went by railway from Port-aux-Basque to
+Howley, a station on the main line, where the annual slaughter of
+caribou took place late in the season.
+
+It was not long before Selous found that the so-called "sport" of
+shooting caribou on migration as they crossed the line in their southern
+migration was not sport at all, and that frequently, owing to the number
+of bullets flying in all directions fired by enthusiastic meat-hunters,
+the shooting was likely to result in human as well as cervine
+casualties. Moreover, hardly any good stags come south with the mass of
+does and immatures, so, taking his guide Stroud and an old man named
+Robert Saunders he left the place in disgust and went south to the Terra
+Nova river, intending to strike into the heart of the country and, if
+possible, catch up the main body of the migrating deer before they cast
+their horns and reached their winter-quarters near the south coast. But
+he was too late, and after an onerous tramp, during which he penetrated
+beyond the limits reached by other white men, he was forced to return
+owing to lack of food, but not before his sharp eyes had seen numerous
+trees stripped by "summering" stags in the neighbourhood of St. John's
+Lake. These signs convinced him that the local movements of the deer
+were unknown even to the hunters in Newfoundland, and that the big stags
+would probably be found in autumn in the heart of the island, and not on
+migration in the north. In this he was quite correct. He did not,
+however, go home without a specimen, for he killed one nice stag on his
+journey inland.
+
+Accordingly he made plans to hunt in the neighbourhood of St. John's
+Lake in the following autumn of 1901, and procuring two canoes from
+Peterborough in Ontario, and enlisting the services of Saunders and his
+cousin John Wells, he ascended the rocky Terra Nova river in September.
+To the reader it may seem easy to go seventy miles in a canoe up-stream,
+but the fact that previous hunters had not been there proves that there
+were difficulties. No Newfoundland boats in fact would withstand the
+rocky benches of this swift-flowing river, so progress can only be made
+for the most part by wading and dragging the canoes, whilst the hunter
+has to force his way through dense forest, so thick at times that an axe
+has to be used for progress to be made before reaching the higher
+plateaux, where lakes and streams are easily passed. Once on Lake St.
+John, all was easy, and Selous found game abundant and a small migration
+of big stags already in progress.[53]
+
+Moreover, Selous was lucky enough to have struck a good year for
+"heads." In less than eight days he shot his five stags, two of which
+carried remarkably fine heads--one, in fact, a forty-pointer, which he
+killed by a long shot close to his camp, being one of the finest
+specimens ever killed in the island by any sportsman. Selous often spoke
+afterwards of this trip as being one of the pleasantest he ever had in
+his life.
+
+He writes, October 6th, 1901:--
+
+    "I am back from Newfoundland. I had a short but very successful
+    little trip into quite new country, thanks to my canoes, and
+    shot the five stags my licence entitled me to kill very quickly.
+    I have got one really remarkable head, a second, very handsome,
+    with beautiful double brow-antlers, and very fine tops; and a
+    third, a pretty regular head of medium size--the other two not
+    much to boast about. But my two good heads are really fine, and
+    when you see them you will never rest till you go to my new
+    ground and get more like them. I can give you all particulars
+    when we meet, and have arranged that my guide--hardly the right
+    word, as we got into country where he had never been in his life
+    and where he says no one has ever yet hunted, except a few
+    Micmac Indians who were out after caribou, but trapping beavers
+    along the rivers--shall keep himself unengaged for you up to
+    June next."
+
+In December we had some good days together in Shropshire, at Sir Beville
+Stanier's, shooting partridges, and at Swythamley with the Brocklehursts
+killing driven grouse in a blizzard. Selous, though then over fifty, was
+much fitter and more active than many a man of twenty-five, and the way
+he walked and talked was a joy to behold. After dinner he would begin
+telling stories, and at 1.30 was still hard at it when most of us were
+dying to go to bed. Nothing could curb his enthusiasm once a congenial
+topic was started, and his avidity was such both for acquiring and
+dispensing knowledge that time itself seemed all too short.
+
+Early in January, 1902, he went to Smyrna for the purpose of
+egg-collecting, with the added expectation of getting a shot at a stag
+or wild goat, and on March 5th writes:--
+
+    "I got back from Asia Minor last week, with a good series of
+    eggs of the White-tailed Eagle and one Laemmergeier's egg. I
+    found two Laemmergeiers' nests, both with young birds, but I got
+    an addled egg which I was able to blow. I had no shooting,
+    though I made an attempt to get a shot at a stag, but there was
+    so much snow in the mountains that the Turks would not take
+    pack-ponies in for fear of getting snowed up."
+
+On August 11th we were all at Swythamley again enjoying the hospitality
+of Sir Philip Brocklehurst and having some very excellent shooting. One
+day we shot the park and killed 1170 rabbits, and a notice of this event
+given in the "Field," as 5851/2 brace of grouse, a good bag, indeed, for
+Staffordshire, was a statement so far from the truth that we easily
+traced it to the old squire's love of nonsense.
+
+Having some time at his disposal in September, Selous resolved to take a
+short run out to Sardinia for the purpose of adding specimens of the
+Mouflon to his collection. Most of the English hunters who have killed
+this very sporting little sheep have pursued it in March, at which time
+of year the Mouflon are mostly hidden in the tall "Maquia" scrub (_Erica
+arborea_), where they are difficult both to find and to stalk. Someone,
+however, had given Selous the hint that if he went to Sardinia in late
+September he would see the sheep on the open hills, when they would
+probably afford much better sport. This was quite true, but
+unfortunately for the hunter the autumn of 1902 was one of the wettest
+on record, and Selous, after the first few days of good weather, when he
+killed three fair rams, lived for a fortnight in pouring rain and
+discomfort in a leaky tent, and had eventually to give up the chase in
+disgust. He came back, however, with a high admiration for the
+intellectual abilities of the little Mouflon, and resolved at some
+future date once again to visit the "elevated farmyard,"[54] as someone
+has termed these mountains of "the Isle of Unrest."
+
+On November 17th he left on his first trip to British East Africa,
+taking the German boat at Marseilles to Mombasa. As this trip was
+somewhat experimental he made no large plans and merely wished to get a
+few specimens of the common species of mammals found there. This he
+hoped to do by making short trips in the neighbourhood of the line. At
+this time, even so near civilization, British East Africa was truly a
+big game paradise.
+
+Writing to Abel Chapman concerning this, Selous says:--
+
+    "My trip to East Africa last year (1902-1903) cost me just L300,
+    but I think I did it cheaper than most people. I got fairly good
+    heads of Coke's, Neumann's, and Jackson's Hartebeests, Topis,
+    Impala, Bushbucks, Oribis, Steinbucks, and Cavendish's Dik-diks.
+    I did not get a Jackson's Wildebeest as, although there were
+    thousands all along the line when I went up country, when I came
+    back to try to get one, they had migrated south. I saw lots of
+    Common and Defassa Waterbucks, but no good heads, so never shot
+    one. Also hundreds of Elands. I did not actually see a Rhino.,
+    but often got quite fresh spoor; but I did not want to shoot one
+    of these animals as I have good specimens from South Africa."
+
+He reached home in March, 1903, and the spring of this year was, as
+usual, spent in egg-collecting. He writes, June 30th:--
+
+    "I have just finished my egg-collecting season. I got a
+    Dotterel's nest on the top of Ben Wyvis, also a couple of
+    Ptarmigans' nests, which are difficult to find. I got too
+    several nests of Grasshopper Warbler, Wood Wren, and Pied
+    Flycatcher in Northumberland, but I had a very good local man to
+    help me."
+
+The year 1904 was a very busy one for Selous, and the following letter
+to me gives some idea of his energy in hunting for the eggs of birds of
+which he has not yet taken specimens.
+
+    "During the last few days I have been marking King-fishers'
+    nests on the Thames and Water Rails' nests in Thatcham Marsh,
+    for Major Stirling (of Fairburn), who has been very kind to me
+    in Scotland and helped me to get all sorts of good eggs. I have
+    got him two Kingfishers' nests marked that I am sure have eggs
+    in them, and also two Water Rails' nests. One of these had six
+    eggs in it yesterday. We go to Wargrave for the Kingfishers
+    to-morrow, and to Thatcham for the Water Rails on Thursday. On
+    Friday I am off to North Wales, where I hope to get a Chough's
+    nest. During the first half of May I shall be here, and will
+    come over to see you during that time. On May 15th I start for
+    Ross-shire, to get Crossbills, and then on to Orkney to get eggs
+    of Hen Harrier, Short-eared Owl, Twite, etc. On May 26th I must
+    be at Ravenglass, in Cumberland, to get a couple of clutches of
+    Sandwich Terns' eggs (by permission), and the next day on the
+    Tyne for Pied Flycatchers, Grasshopper Warblers, etc. Then back
+    to Orkney early in June for Merlins, Black Guillemot, Eider
+    Duck, etc. Then I think I shall try for a Scoter's nest near
+    Melvick, in Sutherlandshire, and I wind up the season with a
+    trip to St. Kilda with Musters to get eggs of Fork-tailed Petrel
+    and Fulmar. Are there any old orchards about you? If so, we
+    might look them over for a Hawfinch's nest about May 10th. I am
+    not going to lend any of my heads to the Crystal Palace people.
+    They wrote to me about it, but I have declined to send them any
+    heads."[55]
+
+Later in the year he wrote one of his characteristic letters, speaking
+of his successes in egg-hunting and expressing his sorrow at the death
+of our mutual friend, Sir Philip Brocklehurst:--
+
+    "I am now home again from my egg-collecting trip to the north. I
+    have had a fairly successful season. I got two Choughs' nests in
+    North Wales in April, and several Water Rails' near here in a
+    nice little swamp I know of. In Orkney I got Hen Harrier,
+    Short-eared Owl, Merlin, Eider Duck, Dunlin, Golden Plover, Rock
+    Pipit, and Twite. I have also taken this year in Northumberland
+    and Cumberland nests of Wood Wren, Grasshopper Warbler, Pied
+    Flycatcher, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Sandwich Tern, and Shell
+    Duck. Now I want a nest of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. There are
+    a few about here, but I cannot find out where they nest. I am
+    going to the Crystal Palace to-morrow, and shall see your
+    Caribou heads there I hope. Now I want you to help me. I am
+    President of our village cricket-club, and have got together a
+    team to play them on July 9th (Saturday). I am experiencing
+    great difficulty in getting an eleven together. Will you help me
+    and play for me on that day? If so, please come here in time for
+    lunch. We do not play till 2.30 p.m. Now can you come? Do, if
+    you can, and bring another man with you. Please let me know
+    about this as soon as possible, as I must now begin to hustle to
+    get my team together. Isn't it sad to think that poor old Sir
+    Philip Brocklehurst has gone? If we ever go to Swythamley again,
+    things can never be as they were in the old Squire's time. I
+    feel his loss very much. If you are at home now I should like to
+    come over and see you and have our usual 'crack,' my dear
+    Johnny."
+
+
+Just before leaving for Canada on July 14th he writes:--
+
+    "What with people coming to see us here, garden-parties,
+    cricket, political meetings, etc., there seems to be no time for
+    anything. I hope you will have a good time Whale-hunting in
+    August in the Shetland Isles. Write us a good account of it and
+    make some good pictures."
+
+Leaving England on July 14th, 1904, Selous reached Dawson City, on the
+Yukon, on August 8th. He went via Vancouver, and much enjoyed the
+pleasant voyage up the North Pacific coast, which abounds in islands and
+forests, and in scenic effect is much superior to Norway, which it
+resembles. Here he joined a party of sportsmen who had chartered a
+flat-bottomed steamer to take them up the north fork of the MacMillan
+river, a branch of the Yukon. There was, however, a delay of ten days,
+and as Selous could not endure inactivity he spent the time, with the
+help of a half-breed Indian and a pack-horse, in the Ogilvy Mountains,
+where he found and killed a male caribou of the variety which I have
+recently described under the name of _Tarandus rangifer ogilvyensis_,
+one of the many sub-specific races of reindeer of the North American
+Continent as yet somewhat imperfectly known. Selous then returned to
+Dawson, and the hunting party being assembled on the little steamer, a
+start up-stream was made on August 21st. After proceeding some distance
+up the Yukon, the Pelly, and then the MacMillan for five days through
+shallow and tortuous channels, the steamer could go no further. At Slate
+Creek two Americans, Professor Osgood the Zoologist, and Carl Rungius
+the artist of mammals, left to establish a hunting-camp there, whilst
+Selous and his friend, Mr. Charles Sheldon, a well-known hunter and
+field naturalist, passed up the north fork of the MacMillan, the rest of
+the party going up the south fork. Selous soon killed a moose cow for
+meat, and in a few days Sheldon, reconnoitring up in the mountains,
+found a good camping-place on the edge of timber-line, so Selous and his
+friend then left the canoes and carried their heavy packs up the
+mountain. Whilst doing so Louis Cardinal, the half-breed hunter, spied a
+bull moose lying in the scrub, and Selous soon worked down to it and
+killed it at short range. Sheldon's chief object of pursuit was the wild
+sheep of these ranges, _Ovis fannini_, whilst Selous' was to obtain good
+moose and caribou, and, if possible, grizzly bears and sheep.
+
+In the first two days Selous killed a fine caribou bull of the
+sub-specific race _Tarandus rangifer osborni_, a fine form of reindeer
+that exists from the Itcha Mountains in British Columbia to the east of
+the Kenai Peninsula. This variety, which is only found west of the Rocky
+Mountains, intergrades to the south with _Tarandus rangifer montanus_ of
+southern British Columbia, and to the north-west with _Tarandus rangifer
+stonei_ of the Kenai peninsula. It is by far the finest of the American
+caribou, with the exception of the nearly extinct race, a branch of
+_Tarandus rangifer labradorensis_, which belongs to the north-east
+corner of Labrador, and carries fine massive horns from 50 to 61 inches
+long, but not furnished as a rule with many points.[56] Selous was much
+cheered in getting so easily two fine specimens of this great deer at
+once. One night in the middle of September a fine display of the Aurora
+Borealis with its magnificent tongues of flame was observed, and Selous
+rightly says, "I count these splendours of the Arctic sky as amongst the
+most marvellous of all the wonders of the world," an opinion all who
+have seen them will endorse.
+
+In the next few days Selous killed another bull moose, but not a large
+one, carrying a head with a span of 50 inches, and then an old bull
+with horns evidently going back. At last dawned a day of great good
+fortune, for the hunter met and killed a great bull whose horns have
+seldom been equalled by any taken out of the Yukon Territory. The horns,
+measuring 67 inches across, a width not often surpassed even in the
+Kenai peninsula, were very massive, and carried 41 points; the skull and
+horns weighed over 75 lbs. "Altogether," he says, "it seemed to me I had
+at last obtained a trophy worth a king's ransom," for to a hunter such
+as he no bag of gold or diamonds would have seemed more precious.
+
+Meanwhile his friend, Charles Sheldon, had not been so fortunate as he
+usually was in finding the big sheep rams, and had only shot a few
+immatures and females and young for the extensive collection he
+afterwards formed for American museums, and, as the season was now late
+and the prospect of the "freeze up" imminent, the two hunters abandoned
+their hunting-camp and started down-stream on the return home. After
+some disappointments, one in which Sheldon lost a fine bull moose owing
+to a misfire, Selous and his companion reached Plateau Mountain, where
+Osgood and Rungius, who had enjoyed some good sport with moose and
+caribou, were again met. The whole party then went down-stream, and had
+some difficulty in getting through the ice which was now forming, but
+reached Selkirk safely on October 7th. On the whole this had been a very
+successful trip for Selous, but he was a little disappointed in not
+getting sheep, grizzly, and black bears.
+
+His own account of the whole trip is as follows:--
+
+    "My dear Johnny,--Just a line to tell you that I got home again
+    from the Yukon country yesterday (November 7th). I shall have a
+    lot to tell you about it when we meet. The original trip that I
+    was invited to join fell through, as neither the governor of the
+    Yukon Territory was able to go nor my friend Tyrrel who invited
+    me to join the party. There was a lot of delay, and eventually
+    three Canadians, three Americans, and myself hired a small
+    flat-bottomed steamer to take us up the Pelly and MacMillan
+    rivers. This took much longer than was expected, and it was not
+    till August 30th that we got to the furthest point to which the
+    steamer could take us. Then we all split up, and an American
+    (Charles Sheldon, an awfully good fellow, whom I hope I shall be
+    able to bring over to see you one of these days) and myself (we
+    had chummed up on the steamer) tackled the north fork of the
+    MacMillan river. We had each a twenty-foot canoe and one man. My
+    man was a French half-breed, and Sheldon's a white man, both
+    first-rate fellows. We had a very 'tough' time getting the
+    canoes up the river, as the stream was fearfully strong and the
+    water very cold. We were in the water most of every day for six
+    days, often up to our waists, hauling the canoes up with ropes.
+    Then we reached the foot of a big range of mountains. The day we
+    left the steamer bad weather set in and we had 18 days of filthy
+    weather, sleet and snow, and the whole country covered with
+    snow. On September the 6th or 7th we packed up into the
+    mountains, carrying everything on our backs to close up to
+    timber-line (about 5000 feet in this northern country, the point
+    where we left the timber being about 2500 feet above sea-level).
+    No Indians to pack, no guides, no nothing, and damned little
+    game either, though we were in an absolutely new country, where
+    there are no Indians at all, and only four trappers in the whole
+    district, and these men never go up into the high mountains.
+    There were any quantity of beavers up the north fork of the
+    MacMillan. The trappers have not yet touched them and they are
+    wonderfully tame. We could find no sheep rams in the mountains,
+    only small flocks of ewes and kids. Moose after September 18th
+    were fairly numerous, but by no means plentiful. I only saw
+    three caribou, one a very good bull, whose head will, I think,
+    interest you. I believe it is the kind that Merriam calls
+    Osborn's caribou, a very large heavy animal, with horns rather
+    of the Barren Ground type, but finely palmated at the top. I
+    shot four bull moose and spared two more. One of my moose has a
+    right royal head, and pays me well for all my trouble. The
+    spread across the palms, with no straggly points, is 67 inches,
+    and it has 41 points (23+18). My second best head measures 581/2
+    inches across the palms, with 22 points (11+11). I boxed my
+    heads in Vancouver, and hope to get them some time next month,
+    and you must come and see them as soon as they are set up."
+
+In the autumn of 1905 he went on his third trip to Newfoundland, in
+order to see something more of the interior of the island and to shoot a
+few caribou. The country he now selected was that in the neighbourhood
+of King George IV Lake, a district that had only previously been visited
+by two white men, Cormack, its discoverer, in 1822, and Howley in 1875.
+This is not a difficult country to reach, as canoes can be taken the
+whole way, and there are no bad "runs" or long portages. The autumn of
+1905 was, however, perhaps the wettest on record, and it poured with
+rain every day, whilst, as to the caribou stags, they carried the
+poorest horns in any season, owing to the severity of the previous
+winter. In this trip, in which he was accompanied by two excellent
+Newfoundlanders, Joseph Geange and Samuel Smart, Selous saw large
+numbers of caribou, but did not obtain a single good head, and though he
+enjoyed the journey, the trophies killed were somewhat disappointing,
+and especially so as he had broken into quite new country.[57]
+
+Selous' own account, in a letter to me, November 22nd, is as follows:--
+
+    "By the time you get this letter I shall be at home again, or at
+    any rate in London. I have to commence my lecturing on December
+    4th, but if I can get a spare day before then I will come over
+    and see you. My experience in Newfoundland was much the same as
+    yours. I saw a lot of caribou, but no very large heads. I had,
+    too, terribly bad weather, almost continuous rain and sleet
+    storms on the high ground near George IV Lake. By-the-bye, Mr.
+    Howley tells me that to the best of his belief I am the third
+    white man who has visited that lake. The first was Cormack, who
+    named it a long time ago, and the second Mr. Howley, who was
+    there in 1875. The caribou in the country between King George's
+    Lake and the head of the Victoria river live there. I saw
+    non-travelling deer there, all the herds were stationary,
+    feeding or lying down in one spot all day long. Lots of trees
+    too along the river, where the stags had cleaned their horns.
+    Packing in from Lloyd's river to the north-west, I struck some
+    splendid caribou-ground. Here the deer were all on migration
+    southwards. As a matter of fact, I did very little systematic
+    hunting, but a lot of tramping, always carrying a 40 lb. pack
+    myself. I have got one very pretty head of 36 points, very
+    regular and symmetrical, but not large. In a storm of driving
+    sleet it looked magnificent on the living stag. I have another
+    head I like, and some others of lesser merit, one of them for
+    the Natural History Museum. I have preserved a complete animal
+    for them."
+
+[Illustration: OSBORN'S CARIBOU.]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[52] As an instance of this I may mention that the greater number of the
+"hunting" Boers I lived with and knew well were captured in the
+Middelburg district in 1900 by a party of Steinacker's horse, who
+surprised the commando at dawn. All were captured except Commandant
+Roelef Van Staden, my former hunter, one of the finest men it has ever
+been my good fortune to meet in any land. He fought his way out
+single-handed and escaped. When brought into camp these Boers were well
+treated by Colonel Greenhill-Gardyne (Gordon Highlanders), who asked
+them if they knew me, to which they replied that I was the only
+Englishman they had ever known and that they would consider it a favour
+if he would kindly send a message of friendship to me, detailing their
+capture and certain misfortunes that had befallen some of their families
+in the war. They were also particularly anxious that I should know that
+Van Staden had escaped. This letter I treasure, for it shows that the
+Boers have no personal animosity to those who have once been their
+friends.
+
+[53] This is very unusual, for in four seasons' hunting there, I never
+found the deer move at so early a date as September 15th.
+
+[54] On the hills of Genna Gentu, the principal home of the Mouflon in
+Sardinia, the native shepherds allow their cattle and herds of sheep and
+goats to graze amongst the wild sheep and this constant disturbance
+keeps all creatures constantly on the move.
+
+[55] Later he was persuaded to lend his heads for the exhibition, but
+few visitors saw the collection.
+
+[56] I was so fortunate as to kill one of these caribou in the Tanzilla
+Mountains on the borders of Alaska, with fifty-three points, in 1908,
+but this was quite an exceptional head of an unusual type.
+
+[57] This year I was hunting in the Gander forests about 75 miles
+south-east of King George IV Lake and saw an immense number of caribou
+stags, but only one with a first-class head, a 35-pointer, which I was
+fortunate enough to kill. Later in the season I saw most of the heads
+killed in the island and there was not a good one amongst them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+1906-1907
+
+
+In April, 1906, Selous went all the way to Bosnia just to take the nest
+and eggs of the Nutcracker, and those who are not naturalists can
+scarcely understand such excessive enthusiasm. This little piece of
+wandering, however, seemed only an incentive to further restlessness,
+which he himself admits, and he was off again on July 12th to Western
+America for another hunt in the forests, this time on the South Fork of
+the MacMillan river. On August 5th he started from Whitehorse on the
+Yukon on his long canoe-journey down the river, for he wished to save
+the expense of taking the steamer to the mouth of the Pelly. He was
+accompanied by Charles Coghlan, who had been with him the previous year,
+and Roderick Thomas, a hard-bitten old traveller of the North-West.
+Selous found no difficulty in shooting the rapids on the Yukon, and had
+a pleasant trip in fine weather to Fort Selkirk, where he entered the
+Pelly on August 9th. Here he was lucky enough to kill a cow moose, and
+thus had an abundance of meat to take him on the long up-stream journey
+to the MacMillan mountains, which could only be effected by poling and
+towing. On August 18th he killed a lynx. At last, on August 28th, he
+reached a point on the South Fork of the MacMillan, where it became
+necessary to leave the canoe and pack provisions and outfit up to
+timber-line. Here almost immediately he killed a cow caribou for meat,
+and a comfortable camp was soon made. During the following days Selous
+hunted far and wide, and found that Osborn's caribou was as plentiful in
+these ranges as his friends in the previous year had found them. He
+killed six splendid bulls, one of which is now to be seen, mounted
+whole, in the Natural History Museum, and in a short time got all the
+specimens he wanted. One day he saw a large black animal, which he took
+to be a bear, coming towards him, and eventually killed it at a distance
+of 400 yards. It proved to be a black variety of the wolf--a somewhat
+rare animal to kill with the rifle, and curiously enough he killed
+another a few days later.
+
+Before leaving the mountains he shot a good bull moose and missed
+another, whilst going down-stream, at 30 yards. A second shot, however,
+killed the animal, and gave the hunter another fine specimen with horns
+63 inches across. Selous reached Selkirk on September 20th, and so had
+no difficulty in getting out before the ice formed.
+
+As soon as he got home he wrote to me telling of the results of his
+trip, and I give it as showing the sympathetic nature of his disposition
+for the sorrows of others:--
+
+    "The first part of your letter awoke afresh all my sympathy for
+    you and poor Mrs. Millais in your sorrow for the loss of your
+    dearly beloved child. I suppose you can never hope to forget
+    what you once possessed and can never have again, nor would you
+    wish to do so; but time is merciful, and whilst never forgetting
+    the sweetness of disposition of your dear child, the sorrow for
+    her loss will gradually hurt you less and less. At least I trust
+    it will be so. I am so glad to hear that you have got such a
+    splendid lot of caribou heads this year. You well deserve them,
+    for you have taken a lot of trouble to get them. You must now
+    have quite a unique collection of Newfoundland caribou heads. I
+    got one good moose this year 631/2 inches spread (measured by Mr.
+    Burlace the other day) and another pretty head of 52 inches
+    spread. Besides these two I only saw one other bull moose--a
+    fair-sized head. I saw a good many caribou, but no large heads.
+    Every big bull I saw seemed to have a well-grown head. On August
+    29th I saw a single old bull and shot him. The next day I saw
+    another bull with ten cows and shot him. These heads were both
+    in velvet, but fully grown out and the velvet just ready to peel
+    off. On September 1st I saw another single bull and shot him;
+    and on the following day got another close to camp. Both these
+    bulls had their horns quite clean of velvet, not a shred left on
+    any part. I then went away to another range of mountains to look
+    for sheep and moose, returning again to the caribou-ground about
+    the middle of September. On my first day I came across four
+    splendid old bulls all together. They all had big heads, and I
+    got close to them and could have shot them all, but I let two of
+    them go after killing the other two, which seemed to me to have
+    the finest horns. Whilst I was skinning the animals I had shot
+    (with my half-breed Indian) three more big bulls _and a hornless
+    cow_ came and lay down on a knoll about 400 yards away. One of
+    these seemed to have very large horns; but I thought that six
+    was enough, so I let them alone. I think three or four of the
+    heads I have got are pretty good, but much better no doubt could
+    be got if one waited till they got into large herds after the
+    rutting season. Burlace makes my longest head 571/4 inches,
+    another is 55 inches, and two others just over 51 and 50. Two of
+    them have an inside spread of 48 inches. One head is of quite a
+    different type to the other five. It is only about 40 inches
+    long and very like a Newfoundland head with beautiful tops.
+    Besides the caribou and moose I only got two wolves--very fine
+    ones, and one of them black. I saw no bears at all, and only
+    female sheep. I am going away on Saturday, December 1st,
+    lecturing (with a two days' interlude at Beville Stanier's), and
+    shall not be home again from Scotland till December 15th. On
+    December 17th I go away again till the 20th; but after that I
+    shall be at home for a long time. Let me know when you get your
+    heads home, and I will then come over to look at them, and you
+    must come and see my Yukon heads as soon as I get them from
+    Ward's."
+
+In May, 1907, he went to Asia Minor to take the eggs of sea and
+raptorial birds, living on or near the Mediterranean coasts.
+
+    In June he wrote: "I was very pleased to see the letter you
+    wrote to the 'Field' about poor Arthur Neumann. I had thought of
+    writing something myself, but did not know him as well as you
+    did. I shall never cease to regret his loss. I look upon him as
+    the last of the real genuine hunters of African big game."
+
+Arthur Neumann, the celebrated elephant-hunter, was born at Hockliffe
+Rectory, in Bedfordshire, in 1850. In 1868 he went to Natal and later to
+Swaziland, and acted as interpreter during the Zulu war in 1879. From
+1885-1887 he hunted much in South Africa, and after a time went to East
+Africa, where he helped to survey the line from the coast to Lake
+Victoria Nyanza. After another visit to South Africa he made his first
+journey after elephants to the East of Mount Kenia and killed large
+numbers of bull elephants.
+
+In 1896 he was badly injured by a cow elephant, and returned to Mombasa
+in October, 1896. In 1899 he took part in the second Boer war, and in
+1902 returned to East Africa and had another successful hunt, getting
+some immense tusks.
+
+In 1903-1904, hunting in Turkana, Turkwel and the Lorian swamp, he
+killed many elephants, and made his last expedition in 1905-1906, when
+his ivory realized L4500 on sale in London. He was a pioneer like
+Selous, and wherever he went made a favourable impression on the
+native--helping greatly to advance our hold on British East Africa. He
+died suddenly in 1907.
+
+In August, 1907, Selous went on a little hunt after reindeer in Norway,
+as the guest of his old friend, Captain P. B. Vanderbyl, a hunter who
+has had perhaps as great a general experience of big game hunting as any
+man living. In this trip Selous shot five good stags in seven days'
+hunting, but was not so fortunate as to get a first-class specimen,
+although some of his heads were good. Of this trip Captain Vanderbyl
+kindly sends me the following note:
+
+    "Although friends of many years' standing, Selous and I only did
+    one shooting-trip together, and that was after Reindeer in
+    Norway. We sailed from Hull to Stavanger in August, 1907, and
+    marched in with pack-ponies a few miles from the head of the
+    Stavanger Fjord to Lyseheien, where a small shooting-box had
+    been recently erected.
+
+    "Owing to a five years' close season which had just terminated
+    we found the reindeer fairly numerous, and not too difficult to
+    approach, but as they always feed up-wind, and cover a lot of
+    ground, we had some days to walk long distances before spying
+    any.
+
+    "We arrived at Lyseheien a few days before the opening of the
+    season, and spent the time walking after ryper, of which we used
+    to get 12 or 15 brace a day, and although Selous was never a
+    good shot with the gun, he showed the same keenness after the
+    birds as he did for any form of sport. He had to leave Norway a
+    few days before I did, in order to see his boys before they
+    returned to school.
+
+    "We were quite successful on this trip, and secured thirteen
+    stags between us, with some good heads among them. When not
+    hunting, we beguiled the time with some French novels Selous
+    produced, and I never knew of his liking for this kind of
+    literature before.
+
+    "We both enjoyed the trip thoroughly, and were surprised to find
+    so wild and unfrequented a hunting ground within about three
+    days journey of London."
+
+During this season I was camped on the highest part of the range, some
+thirty miles to the north. A heavy snowstorm, lasting for six days,
+occurred on September 1st, and drove all the deer south-west to
+Lyseheien, which accounted in some measure for the excellent sport
+enjoyed by my friends.
+
+Reindeer are at all times subject to these sudden local migrations, and
+the very uncertainty of the sport makes it somewhat fascinating and
+difficult. In Norway it is now difficult to secure a good reindeer head
+for this reason, and the fact that indiscriminate poaching, even on what
+is called strictly preserved ground, prevails.
+
+During the winter of 1907 and early in the following year Selous devoted
+himself to finishing his book "African Nature Notes and Reminiscences"
+(published by Macmillan & Co. in 1908), a work which he wrote
+principally at the instigation of his friend, Theodore Roosevelt. In
+this he devotes the first two chapters to his views on protective
+coloration and the influence of environment on living organisms. For
+lucidity and accuracy of treatment he never wrote anything better or
+more clearly discounted the views of theoretical naturalists. It is a
+model of conclusive argument backed by sound data. Commenting on his
+remarks Ex-President Roosevelt thus gives his opinions on the subject
+(November 1st, 1912):--
+
+    "It is a misfortune that in England and America the naturalists
+    should at the moment have gotten into an absolutely fossilized
+    condition of mind about such things as protective coloration.
+    Both the English and the American scientific periodicals are
+    under the control of men like Professor Poulton and others who
+    treat certain zoological dogmas from a purely fetichistic
+    standpoint, exactly as if they were mediaeval theologians. This
+    is especially true of their attitude toward the doctrine of
+    natural selection, and incidentally toward protective
+    coloration. There is much in natural selection; there is much in
+    protective coloration. But neither can be used to one-twentieth
+    the extent that the neo-Darwinians, such as Mr. Wallace and the
+    rest, have used them; indeed these neo-Darwinians have actually
+    confused the doctrine of natural selection with the doctrine of
+    evolution itself.
+
+    "Heller is coming home soon. He has just written me from Berlin,
+    where he saw our friend Matzchie who, you doubtless remember,
+    has split up the African buffalo into some twenty different
+    species, based on different curves of the horns. Matzchie told
+    Heller that he had read my statement that of the four bulls I
+    shot feeding together near the Nairobi Falls, the horns,
+    according to Matzchie's theory, showed that there were at least
+    two and perhaps three different species (among these four bulls
+    from the same herd). Well, Matzchie absolutely announces that
+    doubtless there were two species among them, because the
+    locality is on the border-line between two distinct types of
+    buffalo, that of Kenia and that of the Athi! I think this is one
+    of the most delightful examples of the mania for
+    species-splitting that I have ever seen. On the same basis
+    Matzchie might just as well divide the African buffalo into a
+    hundred species as into twenty; and as for the elephant he could
+    make a new species for every hundred square miles.
+
+    "Apparently your 'African Nature Notes' was 'hoodooed' by my
+    introduction and the dedication to me; but I cannot help hoping
+    that you will now publish a book giving your experiences in East
+    Africa and up the White Nile. Without the handicap of my
+    introduction, I think it would do well! Seriously, the trouble
+    with your 'African Nature Notes' is that it is too good. The
+    ideal hunting-book ought not to be a simple record of slaughter;
+    it ought to be good from the literary standpoint and good from
+    the standpoint of the outdoor naturalist as well as from the
+    standpoint of the big game hunter. Stigand's books fulfil both
+    the latter requirements, but he has not your power to write well
+    and interestingly, and he has a rather morbid modesty or
+    self-consciousness which makes him unable to tell simply and as
+    a matter of course the really absorbingly interesting personal
+    adventures with which he has met. Unfortunately, however, the
+    average closet naturalist usually wants to read an utterly dry
+    little book by some closet writer, and does not feel as if a
+    book by a non-professional was worth reading--for instance, I
+    was interested in London to find two or three of my scientific
+    friends, who knew nothing whatever about protective coloration
+    in the field, inclined to take a rather sniffy view of your
+    absolutely sound and, in the real sense, absolutely scientific,
+    statement of the case. On the other hand, the average man who
+    reads hunting-books is too apt to care for nothing at all but
+    the actual account of the hunting or of the travelling, because
+    he himself knows no more about the game than the old Dutch and
+    South African hunters whom you described used to know about the
+    different 'species' of lion and black rhinoceros. Nevertheless I
+    am sure that your 'African Nature Notes' will last permanently
+    as one of the best books that any big game hunter and
+    out-of-doors naturalist has ever written. Charles Sheldon was
+    saying exactly this to me the other day. By the way, I hope he
+    will soon write something about his experiences in Alaska. They
+    are well worth writing about. I am much irritated because
+    Shiras, some of whose pictures I once sent you, will not make
+    any use of his extraordinary mass of notes and photographs of
+    American wild game and the rarer creatures of the American
+    forests and mountains.
+
+    "I am sending you herewith a rather long pamphlet I have
+    published on the subject of protective coloration. Thayer
+    answered the appendix to my 'African Game Trails,' in a popular
+    Science Monthly article, re-stating and amplifying his
+    absurdities. Men like Professor Poulton treat him with great
+    seriousness, and indeed Professor Poulton is himself an
+    extremist on this subject. I thought it would be worth while
+    going into the subject more at length, and accordingly did so in
+    the bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, and I
+    send you a copy. I shall also send one to Stigand. Do write me
+    about your experiences."
+
+Roosevelt was in a measure responsible for this excellent book, and it
+was due to his encouragement that Selous undertook its publication. He
+sent it in parts to his friend, who thus summarizes the author's
+literary style:--
+
+    "I have been delighted with all the pieces you sent me, and have
+    read and re-read them all. Do go on with your lion article. I
+    earnestly wish you would now write a book describing a natural
+    history of big game. You are the only man alive, so far as I
+    know, who could do it. Take S.'s book, for instance, which you
+    sent me. It is an excellent book in its way, but really it is
+    only a kind of guide-book. The sole contribution to natural
+    history which it contains is that about the wolves and the big
+    sheep. But you have the most extraordinary power of seeing
+    things with minute accuracy of detail, and then the equally
+    necessary power to describe vividly and accurately what you have
+    seen. I read S.'s book, and I have not the slightest idea how
+    the sheep or the ibex or the deer look; but after reading your
+    articles I can see the lions, not snarling but growling, with
+    their lips covering their teeth, looking from side to side as
+    one of them seeks to find what had hurt it, or throwing up its
+    tail stiff in the air as it comes galloping forward in the
+    charge. I can see the actual struggle as the lion kills a big ox
+    or cow buffalo. I can see the buffalo bulls trotting forward,
+    stupid and fierce-looking, but not dangerous unless molested,
+    while they gaze from under their brow-armour of horn at the
+    first white man they have ever seen. I can see wild hounds, with
+    their ears pricked forward, leaping up above the grass to see
+    what had shot at the buffalo they were chasing.
+
+    "I was immensely interested in your description of these same
+    wild hounds. And what a lesson you incidentally give as to the
+    wisdom of refraining from dogmatizing about things that
+    observers see differently. That experience of yours about
+    running into the pack of wild hounds, which, nevertheless, as
+    you point out, often run down antelopes that no horse can run
+    down, is most extraordinary. I am equally struck by what you say
+    as to the men who have run down cheetahs on horseback. Judging
+    from what Sir Samuel Baker saw for instance, cheetahs must be
+    able to go at least two feet to a horse's one for half a mile or
+    so. I wonder if it is not possible that the men who succeeded in
+    running them down were able to get a clear chase of two or three
+    miles so as to wind them. If different observers had recorded
+    the two sets of facts you give as to the speed of the wild
+    hounds under different conditions, a great many people would
+    have jumped to the conclusion that one of the two observers,
+    whose stories seemed mutually contradictory, must have been
+    telling what was not so.
+
+    "Let me thank you again for the real pleasure you have given me
+    by sending me these articles. Now do go on and write that book.
+    Buxton and I and a great many other men can write ordinary books
+    of trips in which we kill a few sheep or goat or bear or elk or
+    deer; but nobody can write the natural history of big game as
+    you can."
+
+Selous' intimacy with the President was of that charming character which
+unfortunately we now only associate with early Victorian days. They
+wrote real letters to one another of that heart-to-heart nature which
+only two men absorbed in similar tastes, and actuated by a similar
+intellectual outlook, can send as tributes of mind to mind. Such letters
+are ever a joy to the recipient; but once Selous seems to have
+over-expressed his concern, when the President was attacked and wounded
+by a would-be assassin. The answer is both characteristic and amusing.
+
+    "My dear Selous, I could not help being a little amused by your
+    statement that my 'magnificent behaviour, splendid pluck and
+    great constitutional strength have made a great impression.'
+    Come, come, old elephant-hunter and lion-hunter! Down at the
+    bottom of your heart you must have a better perspective of my
+    behaviour after being shot. Modern civilisation, indeed, I
+    suppose all civilization is rather soft; and I suppose the
+    average political orator, or indeed the average sedentary broker
+    or banker or business-man or professional man, especially if
+    elderly, is much overcome by being shot or meeting with some
+    other similar accident, and feels very sorry for himself and
+    thinks he has met with an unparalleled misfortune; but the
+    average soldier or sailor in a campaign or battle, even the
+    average miner or deep-sea fisherman or fireman or policeman, and
+    of course the average hunter of dangerous game, would treat both
+    my accident and my behaviour after the accident as entirely
+    matter of course. It was nothing like as nerve-shattering as
+    your experience with the elephant that nearly got you, or as
+    your experience with more than one lion and more than one
+    buffalo. The injury itself was not as serious as your injury the
+    time that old four-bore gun was loaded twice over by mistake;
+    and as other injuries you received in the hunting-field."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+1908-1913
+
+
+On March 20th, 1908, President Roosevelt wrote to Selous and announced
+his intention of taking a long holiday in Africa as soon as his
+Presidency of the United States came to an end, and asked Selous to help
+him. So from this date until the following March, Selous busied himself
+in making all the preparations and arrangements of a trip the success of
+which was of the greatest possible delight to Roosevelt and his son
+Kermit, and advantage to the American museums of Natural History, which
+benefited by the gift of a magnificent series of the East African and
+Nile Fauna.[58] Selous threw himself into the task with characteristic
+energy, with the result that the President had the very best advice and
+help. Roosevelt was at first adverse to taking a white man as
+caravan-manager, but Selous overruled this and proved the wisdom of
+employing such men as Cuninghame and Judd (for a short period), who are
+by far the most experienced hunters in East Africa, for Roosevelt and
+his son had then nothing to do but hunt and enjoy themselves, whilst all
+the burden of camp-arrangements was taken off their shoulders. Writing
+on November 9th, 1908, Roosevelt expresses his gratitude, and in his
+letter gives some insight into his policy of the "employment of the
+fit."
+
+    "Perhaps you remember the walk we took down Rock Creek, climbing
+    along the sides of the Creek. On Saturday I took fifty officers
+    of the general staff and War College on that same walk, because
+    I thought the older ones might need a little waking up. I was
+    rather pleased to find that they all went pretty well, even when
+    we waded the Creek where it was up to our armpits, and climbed
+    the cliffs. My dear Selous, it does not seem to me that I would
+    have taken this trip (to Africa) without your advice and aid,
+    and I can never begin to thank you for all you have done."
+
+President Roosevelt was also delighted with the prospect that he would
+have Selous' company in his forthcoming voyage to Africa. Writing
+December 28th, 1908, he says:--
+
+    "Three cheers! I am simply overjoyed that you are going out. It
+    is just the last touch to make everything perfect. But you must
+    leave me one lion somewhere! I do not care whether it has a
+    black mane or yellow mane, or male or female, so long as it is a
+    lion; and I do not really expect to get one anyhow.[59] I count
+    upon seeing you on April 5th at Naples. It makes all the
+    difference in the world to me that you are going, and I simply
+    must get to MacMillan's during part of the time that you are
+    there.
+
+    "I have written Sir Alfred Pease that I shall leave Mombasa just
+    as soon as I can after reaching there; go straight to Nairobi,
+    stay there as short a time as possible, and then go direct to
+    his ranch. I particularly wish to avoid going on any
+    hunting-trip immediately around Nairobi or in the neighbourhood
+    of the railroad, for that would be to invite reporters and
+    photographers to accompany me, and in short, it would mean just
+    what I am most anxious to avoid.
+
+    "Do let me repeat how delighted I am that you are to be with me
+    on the steamer, and I do hope we will now and then meet during
+    the time you are in British East Africa. I should esteem it an
+    honour and a favour if you would accompany me for any part of my
+    trip that you are able, as my guest."
+
+
+No doubt to regular African hunters it is far better and more enjoyable
+that they should pursue their wanderings unaccompanied by a white guide,
+but to any man, however experienced in other lands, success in Africa in
+a "first trip" certainly depends much on the local knowledge of the
+white hunter who accompanies the expedition, if expense is no object. A
+man may know all about hunting elsewhere, yet would make the most
+egregious mistakes in Africa, and perhaps never see the animals he most
+wishes to possess if he went only accompanied by a black shikari, so
+Selous made a point of insisting that Roosevelt should have the best
+local guidance at his command. Thus he writes to Sir Alfred Pease, who
+was then resident in East Africa:--
+
+    "_September 26th, 1908_.
+
+    "MY DEAR SIR ALFRED,
+
+    "Since I received your letter I have heard again from President
+    Roosevelt. He tells me that he has heard from Mr. Buxton,[60]
+    and that Mr. Buxton thinks that he ought not to engage a white
+    man to manage his caravan. He quotes me the following passage
+    from Mr. Buxton's letter: 'If you wish to taste the sweets of
+    the wilderness, leave the Cook tourist element behind, and trust
+    to the native, who will serve a good master faithfully, and whom
+    you can change if not up to your standard.' The President then
+    goes on to say that he is puzzled; but that his own judgment now
+    _'leans very strongly_' towards engaging a white man, and as I
+    know that several men who have recently travelled in East Africa
+    have also strongly advised him to do so, I feel sure that he
+    will decide to engage Judd or a man named Cuninghame, who has
+    also been strongly recommended to him. I must confess that I
+    fail to follow Mr. Buxton's argument. The objection to being a
+    Cook's tourist is, I always thought, because one does not like
+    to be one of a crowd with many of whom you may be entirely out
+    of sympathy, and how on earth the fact that he had a white man
+    to look after all the details of his caravan, instead of a
+    native headman, would give his trip the flavour of a Cook's
+    tour, or prevent him in any way from tasting the sweets of the
+    wilderness, I entirely fail to understand. Rather, I think, it
+    would enhance the sweetness and enjoyment of his trip by
+    relieving him of all the troublesome worries connected with the
+    management of a large caravan. First of all, I believe that both
+    Judd and Cuninghame would have a wider knowledge of the whole of
+    East Africa than any native headman. The President would say,
+    'Now I want to go to the Gwas N'yiro river, where Neumann used
+    to hunt, or to the country to the north of Mount Elgon, or to
+    the country where Patterson saw all those rhinoceroses, giraffes
+    and other game last year.' His manager would then work out the
+    amount of provisions it would be necessary to take for such a
+    trip, the number of porters necessary, engage those porters, and
+    in fact make all the necessary arrangements to carry out the
+    President's wishes. He would then arrange the loads, attend to
+    the feeding of the porters, the pitching of camp every evening,
+    and give out stores to the cook, and generally take all the
+    petty details of the management of a caravan off the President's
+    hands. As regards hunting, the manager of the caravan would
+    never go out with the President unless he asked him to do so.
+    He, the President, would go out hunting with his Somali shikari,
+    a staunch Masai or other native to carry his second rifle, and
+    natives to carry the meat and trophies of any animal shot. Of
+    course, if when going after lions, elephants or buffaloes, he
+    would like to have his white manager with him, all well and
+    good, and it would be an advantage if such a man was an
+    experienced hunter and a steady, staunch fellow who could be
+    depended on in an emergency. Now, as I have said before, I feel
+    sure that the President will finally decide to engage either
+    Judd or Cuninghame, and the question is which is the better of
+    those two men. I know neither of them--for although I seem to
+    have met Cuninghame years ago, I do not remember him. I never
+    heard of Judd until Bulpett spoke to me about him, nor of
+    Cuninghame, until the President wrote and told me that Captain
+    and Mrs. Saunderson had strongly advised him to engage him. He
+    was also advised to engage Cuninghame by an American who was
+    lately in East Africa, and now I have just got a letter from
+    Cuninghame himself, a copy of which I enclose you to read.
+    Please return it to me as I have sent the original to the
+    President and asked him to get Mr. Akeley's opinion. As soon as
+    I received this letter from Cuninghame, I went to London and saw
+    Mr. Claude Tritton. He (Mr. Tritton) told me he knew both Judd
+    and Cuninghame well, and thought them both thoroughly competent
+    men. What do you think about it? Do you know Cuninghame, or can
+    you find out anything as to the relative value of these two
+    men--Judd and Cuninghame? MacMillan evidently knows both of
+    them, and he is coming home in a month or six weeks' time. I
+    have written all this to the President, and asked him to wait
+    until we find out more about the two men; but suggesting that
+    should he finally decide to engage either Judd or Cuninghame,
+    leaving it to us to decide which was the better man, we should
+    wait to hear MacMillan's opinion, but then write and engage one
+    or the other, and ask him to pick out himself the best Somali
+    shikaris, gun-carriers and special native headmen, whom he could
+    have ready by a given date (this is your suggestion, and I think
+    an excellent one, as probably both Judd and Cuninghame know some
+    good and reliable men and have had them with them on
+    hunting-trips). In the meantime I told the President that I
+    would answer Cuninghame's letter, in a strictly non-committal
+    way, but telling him that I would write again in a couple of
+    months' time, and that he _might_ be wanted to manage the
+    President's early trips. Let me know what you think of all this.
+    I am now convinced that the President will take either Judd or
+    Cuninghame with him. My arguments may have had some weight with
+    him, for I am strongly in favour of his doing so, but other
+    people have also given him the same advice. On the other hand,
+    he has heard Mr. Buxton's arguments on the other side, and he
+    may decide to be guided by them. But Mr. Buxton's views are, I
+    think, not generally held by men who have travelled extensively
+    in Africa, and I think the President will finally decide to
+    engage either Judd or Cuninghame, and if so we must try and
+    ensure his getting the best man. I trust that the weather is now
+    somewhat better in Scotland, and that you have had some good
+    sport.
+
+    "Believe me,
+    "Yours very truly,
+    "F. C. Selous.
+
+    "P.S.--As Cuninghame is now starting on a trip which will last
+    three or four months, he will be back at Nairobi early next
+    month, and if engaged by the President, would then have plenty
+    of time to look out for Somalis, and other picked natives,
+    before the President's arrival in Africa."
+
+Selous himself went on the hunt in East Africa with his friend, W. N.
+MacMillan, who was resident in East Africa. He left England on April
+1st, 1909. Just before starting, he gives his ideas on the prospects of
+hunting in the rainy season.
+
+    "MY DEAR JOHNNY,
+
+    "Just a line to bid you good-bye before I start for East Africa.
+    I would have written to you long ago, but I have been
+    continually looking forward to coming over to see you before I
+    left England; but the bad weather has always prevented me from
+    doing so. I am going out to East Africa at the very worst time
+    of year, as heavy rains have still to come in May and June. The
+    consequence will be that when I get there the whole country will
+    be smothered in long grass, just as it was when I was in East
+    Africa last, game will be very scattered, and there will be a
+    very small chance of getting a lion. I would never have
+    entertained the idea of going at this season but for the fact
+    that I am going out as the guest of Mr. MacMillan (who has a
+    large ranch near Nairobi), and my expenses will be very small.
+    It just came to this, that I had to go now--as President
+    Roosevelt wanted me to meet him at Naples and travel with him to
+    Nairobi--or not at all; but I don't look forward to much
+    success, and the risk of getting fever is always very much
+    greater when hunting in the rainy season, than in dry weather.
+    Very heavy rains have been falling this season all over North
+    and South Rhodesia, and in British Central Africa, as well as in
+    East Africa. Every trip I have made during the last few years
+    has been marred by rain. My last trip to East Africa was very
+    much spoilt by rain and long grass, then the trip to Sardinia,
+    as well as the last ones to Yukon and Newfoundland, were much
+    spoilt by rain. I hope that you have now quite recovered from
+    the effects of the pleurisy you caught last year in British
+    Columbia. Are you going anywhere this year I wonder?"
+
+[Illustration: MT. KENIA FROM THE SOUTH.]
+
+Selous' first trip with MacMillan was successful in his getting several
+new species for his collection, but what he most wanted was a good
+black-maned lion. He was, however, unsuccessful in this. Mr. Williams, a
+member of his party, found three lions one day and killed two of them
+somewhat easily. The third charged and seized the unfortunate hunter by
+the leg, severely biting him. His life, however, was saved by the
+bravery of his Swahili gun-bearer, who gave the lion a fatal shot as it
+stood over his master. Mr. Williams was carried to hospital in Nairobi,
+where he lay between life and death for some time, and then completely
+recovered.
+
+At the beginning of September, 1910, the Second International Congress
+of Field Sports was held at Vienna in connection with the Exhibition.
+The First Congress met at Paris in 1907, when the British delegate was
+Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, while, at Vienna, Selous was appointed by Sir
+Edward Grey, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, as the
+official delegate from this country. The Congress was divided into three
+separate sections, dealing respectively with the Economic Importance,
+the Science and Practice, and the Legislation of Field Sports. The
+meetings of these three sections were held simultaneously, and the
+British delegate confined his attention to Section III (Legislation). In
+this section he was instrumental, with the cordial support of his French
+colleague, Comte Justinien Clary, President of the St. Hubert Club of
+France, in securing the passing of an important resolution in favour of
+the International Protection of Migrating Birds (especially the quail
+and woodcock).
+
+At the Exhibition Great Britain was represented by a very fair
+collection of Big Game heads. Selous sending his best Koodoo, Wart Hog,
+White Rhinoceros, and Alaskan Moose, all exceptional specimens.
+
+Selous was delighted with all he saw of the Great Hunting Exhibition, by
+far the finest of its kind ever offered to the public. I had hoped to
+meet him there, as I was going to hunt in Galicia, but found he had left
+for home. After describing the exhibition he wrote to me:--
+
+   "Warburton Pike wishes me to tell you that he will show you round
+   the Exhibition. The Hungarian, Austrian and old German stags'
+   heads are simply wonderful, but there are so many that it is
+   bewildering. Weidmann's Heil."
+
+Warburton Pike, here mentioned, was a splendid specimen of an
+Englishman, who was to British Columbia and Arctic Canada what Selous
+himself was to Africa. In his person existed a type of pioneer as modest
+as courageous. His travels and privations in the Arctic barren grounds
+made him known to most people in Canada, whilst his unselfish devotion
+and unfailing kindness to his fellow colonists endeared him to thousands
+of "voyageurs" who battled with the forces of Nature in the far
+North-West. He had a little mine amongst the Jack pines above Dease Lake
+where he lived, in the four working months, chiefly on tea, game and
+"flapjacks." Here he wrested from a refractory soil about as much gold
+as would have satisfied a Chinaman. Nevertheless, he toiled on year
+after year, because he had faith and the grit that bites deep even when
+common sense says, "Is it good enough?"
+
+Every spring saw "Pikey" full of hope, dragging his canoe with two
+Indians up the rain-drenched valley of the Stikine for 200 miles, and
+then on with pack-horses to his mine, another 100 miles, and every fall
+he raced downward to the sea, disappointed, but undefeated. When people
+met him in Vancouver, they would say, "How goes it, Pikey?" Then his
+kind face would light up. "Splendid," he would reply, though he had
+hardly enough money to buy bread and butter.
+
+Yet no one ever appealed to Warburton Pike in vain, for on the rare
+occasions when he had a little money he invariably gave it away to his
+less fortunate friends. Every wastrel and miner on the Pacific slope
+knew "Pikey" and asked his advice and help, which was ever forthcoming,
+and in the eyes of the colonists he was the man who embodied the type of
+all that was best.
+
+From Vancouver to the Yukon and from St. Michaels to the Mackenzie, the
+name of Warburton Pike was one to conjure with, and though comparatively
+unknown in England, his noble spirit will never be forgotten in the
+homes of all those who knew and loved him. Like all good men, he came to
+England in 1914, to play his part in the Great War, and I think it broke
+his heart when he found no one would employ him. He suffered a nervous
+breakdown, and in a fit of depression he took his own life in the summer
+of 1916. He published a few books, among which the best-known is
+"Through the Sub-Arctic Forest."
+
+Selous had long cherished a desire to add to his great collection of
+African trophies a specimen of the Giant Eland of the Lower Sudan. An
+expedition for this purpose, however, without outside aid would have
+been to him too expensive a trip, so he made certain arrangements with
+Lord Rothschild and the British Museum which helped to alleviate the
+financial strain. After this had been successfully effected, he left on
+January 19th, 1911. Thus he writes of his plans on the eve of
+departure:--
+
+    "MY DEAR JOHNNY,
+
+    "Just a line in frightful haste to thank you for your kind
+    letter and all your good wishes. If I am successful in finding
+    the Elands, I fear I shall not be able to get a head for my own
+    collection, as if I get permission to shoot more than those I
+    want for the N.H. Museum, I must get a specimen for Rothschild,
+    who will give me L70 for it, and I don't think they will let me
+    get one for Rothschild and another for myself in addition to
+    those I want for the Museum. I have, however, first to find the
+    Elands and then shoot and preserve them, and to do the latter
+    all by myself, with only raw savages to help me will be a hard
+    job in the climate of the Lado, where I am going to look for my
+    game. I shall probably be more sure of finding the Elands to the
+    south of Wau, in the Bahr-el-Ghazal Province, but the journey
+    there would be much more expensive, and my means are very
+    limited. I hope to get a free passage from Khartoum to Lado in
+    the Government steamer. I have been very much interested in
+    Buxton's new Koodoo-like antelope, but what nonsense it is to
+    call it a 'Mountain Inyala.' It does not resemble an Inyala in
+    any way. It is of course quite a distinct species. I don't know
+    if I shall be able to get anything for myself at all this trip.
+    The white-eared Kob and Mrs. Gray's Kob are only found near Lake
+    No, near the junction of the Bahr-el-Ghazal with the Nile, but
+    going by steamer to and back from Lado, the steamer does not
+    stop there, only steams through their district, and there is
+    only one steamer a month. I shall look forward very much to
+    seeing your new book on American big game on my return from the
+    Sudan. With your own illustrations it cannot fail to be a very
+    attractive and interesting work. The climate of the Lado they
+    tell me is bad, unhealthy, intensely hot and enervating, but I
+    hope I keep pretty well, and come back all right."
+
+When he reached Cairo, he had an interview with Sir F. Wingate, to whom
+he had letters of introduction from Sir E. Grey. He then went on to
+Khartoum, where he met Mr. Butler, who was then in charge of big game
+matters connected with the Lower Sudan. Mr. Butler advised him to go to
+Mongalla, as the best and most accessible place at which to find the
+Giant Eland, since Wau had been much hunted, but Selous thought that the
+Tembera country would be the best, because few travellers had ever been
+there, and it could only be reached by a toilsome journey from the river
+with pack-donkeys. Accordingly he took the steamer going south. At Rejaf
+the vessel stopped to take in wood, and there met another steamer whose
+occupants informed him of the death of poor Phil Oberlander, who had
+just been killed by a buffalo near the village of Sheikh Lowala. It
+appears that this unfortunate fellow, who had just killed a fine Giant
+Eland at Mongalla, and was on his way home up the river, had stopped at
+a village near Mongalla for a day or two, to try to get a buffalo, of
+which there were some herds in the neighbourhood. He had landed and very
+soon found a good herd. His shots wounded a big bull, which left the
+herd and retreated into the thick bush. Oberlander at once followed, but
+unfortunately forgot to reload his heavy rifle. The usual thing
+happened, and the wounded bull charged suddenly from one flank, and
+instead of reports two clicks ensued. The bull rushed at Oberlander,
+knocked him to the ground and literally beat his body to a pulp. Later
+in the day the bull was found lying dead. Its head was recovered by Mr.
+Butler, who sent it to the Vienna Museum, for which Oberlander had
+collected industriously for several years.
+
+I first met Oberlander on the steamer going to Alaska, in September,
+1908. He then called himself Count Oberlander, a title which I believe
+he had no claim to. He was a strange creature, full of assurance, and
+with a very complete contempt for British and American game-laws, and
+apparently oblivious of the fact that without their institution he would
+not have been able to obtain the specimens he so earnestly desired to
+capture. His one idea seemed to be to get specimens anyhow, and that a
+letter from the authorities of the Vienna Museum and an unlimited
+expenditure of cash would overcome all difficulties. In this he was
+partly right and partly wrong, for when he shot numerous female sheep
+and kids in the mountains of Cassiar he reckoned without the long arm of
+the law and the vigilance of the hawk-eyed Bryan Williams, our game
+warden in Vancouver, who promptly had him arrested and heavily fined.
+
+As an example of his impudence he told us the following story, which I
+afterwards found was true in all details. One day in August, 1908, he
+went to the National Park at Yellowstone, and coolly informed two of the
+game wardens that he had come there to shoot a buffalo. At first the
+latter regarded the matter as a joke, but, finding he was in earnest,
+they told him that if he did not clear out they would confiscate his
+guns and arrest him. Unabashed, Oberlander said:
+
+"Well, you need not get huffy. I will give you L250 for that old bull,"
+pointing to an old patriarch within a wooden enclosure. The shaft,
+however, went home, for the game wardens at once reported the matter to
+their chief.
+
+Now, L250 was a very nice sum, and it was quite within the realms of
+possibility that the old bull would die a natural death within the next
+year or two and that the dead carcase might be worth perhaps L50. Facts,
+therefore, were facts, which seemed to appeal to the business instincts
+of the park authorities, so next day Oberlander was informed that he
+might shoot the buffalo as soon as his cheque was forthcoming.
+Oberlander at once handed over the money and killed the bull, shooting
+him through the bars of the cage, and he showed us an excellent
+photograph of this doughty deed with no little satisfaction.
+
+Oberlander afterwards hunted in Cassiar, Mexico, East Africa, and the
+Arctic regions, before going on the expedition up the Nile that was to
+prove fatal to him. In him the Vienna Museum lost a good friend, but he
+could scarcely be considered a good type of sportsman.
+
+We need not follow Selous' wanderings in the parched uninteresting
+forest country about Tembera, where for nine weeks, in company with a
+native chief named Yei, he hunted the small herd of Giant Elands
+somewhat unsuccessfully. At last he killed a good female, but had no
+luck in securing a big male. On March 7th he went north to Rumbek, and
+on March 28th he and Captain Tweedie went north to a small river and
+shot nine Kobs. On April 4th he again left Rumbek and returned south for
+another hunt for the Elands, which was again unsuccessful. On April 29th
+he arrived at the Nile and turned homewards.[61]
+
+"I cannot pretend," writes Selous, "I enjoyed my excursion in the
+Bahr-el-Ghazal Province. In the first place, I was unsuccessful in the
+main object of my journey. Then the deadly monotony of the landscape,
+the extraordinary scarcity of game, and the excessive heat of the
+climate, all combined to make my trip very wearisome and uninteresting."
+He came away, however, with a very deep admiration for the gallant band
+of young Britons who were doing the work of the Empire in the wilds of
+Africa.
+
+At the end of this trying hunt he was far from well, and was unable to
+ride, so he had to tramp the whole way to the Nile on foot. Arrived at
+Rumbek the medical officer there discovered the cause of his ill-health,
+so, as soon as he arrived in England he saw Mr. Freyer, who recommended
+an operation. "I got over the operation," he writes to Abel Chapman,
+"wonderfully well, and simply healed up like a dog. In fact, I was the
+record case for healing up in ten years amongst Freyer's patients." I
+went to see him in a nursing home in London, and heard all about his
+Lado trip, which was rather a sore subject with him, but, with his usual
+determination, he was only full of ideas to go back again and make a
+success the next time. In August we both went again to Swythamley, as
+the guests of young Sir Philip Brocklehurst, and had a very pleasant
+time amongst the grouse on the Derbyshire hills. Afterwards Selous
+stayed for a time in the Isle of Wight, with his wife and boys, and
+later in the autumn he travelled to Turin Exhibition of hunting and
+shooting, as one of the British jurors.
+
+Later in 1911 Selous again left for British East Africa, to go on
+another hunt to the Gwas N'yiro river, with his friend MacMillan. Before
+leaving he wrote to President Roosevelt, intimating that he feared he
+was now too old for the hard work entailed by African hunting, which
+called forth the following comfortable advice (Sept. 11th, 1911).
+
+    "MacMillan lunches here Thursday. I am very glad you are going
+    out with him to Africa. He is a trump! I am rather amused at
+    your saying that you will not take any risks with lion now, and
+    that you do not think your eyes are very good. I would not trust
+    you!--seriously. I always wished to speak to you about the time
+    that you followed the lioness which crouched in a bush, and then
+    so nearly got Judd, who was riding after you. I think you were
+    taking more of a chance on that occasion than you ought to have
+    taken. It is not as if you had never killed a lion, and were
+    willing to take any chance to get your first specimen. That I
+    could quite understand. But you have killed a great many, and
+    you ought not to do as poor George Grey did last year, and get
+    caught through acting with needless recklessness.[62] I know you
+    will not pay any heed to this advice, and, doubtless, you regard
+    me as over-cautious with wild beasts, but, my dear fellow, at
+    your age and with your past, and with your chance of doing good
+    work in the present and future, I honestly do not think you
+    ought to take these risks unless there is some point in doing
+    so.
+
+    "You say you are too old for such a trip as that with MacMillan.
+    Nonsense! It is precisely the kind of trip which you ought to
+    take. Why, I, who am far less hardy and fit, would like nothing
+    better than to be along with you and MacMillan on that trip. But
+    you ought not to take such a trip as that you took on the
+    Bahr-el-Ghazal. It would have meant nothing to you thirty years
+    ago; it would mean nothing to Kermit now; but you are nearly
+    sixty years old, and though I suppose there is no other man of
+    sixty who is physically as fit as you, still it is idle to
+    suppose that you can now do what you did when you were in the
+    twenties. Of course I never was physically fit in the sense that
+    you were, but still I was a man of fair hardihood, and able to
+    hold my own reasonably well in my younger days; but when I went
+    to Africa I realized perfectly well, although I was only fifty,
+    that I was no longer fit to do the things I had done, and I
+    deliberately set myself to the work of supplying the place of
+    the prowess I had lost by making use of all that the years had
+    brought in the way of gain to offset it. That is, I exercised
+    what I think I can truthfully say was much intelligence and
+    foresight in planning the trip. I made it for a great scientific
+    National museum (which was itself backed by private capital),
+    and made it at the time when the fact that I had been President
+    gave me such prestige that the things were done for me which
+    ought to have been done, but were not done, for you last
+    spring. Then I took along Kermit, who, in the case of the bongo
+    and koodoo and Northern Sable, was able to supply the qualities
+    that I once had had and now lacked. In consequence, while
+    everything was done to make my trip successful and comparatively
+    easy, I am yet entitled to claim the modest credit that is
+    implied in saying that I took advantage of the opportunities
+    thus generously given me, and that I planned the trip carefully,
+    and used the resources that my past had given me, in the way of
+    notoriety or reputation, to add somewhat to my sum of
+    achievement. On your trip you also had genuine bad luck, and the
+    trip was not long enough, and the opportunities were not
+    sufficiently numerous, to allow the good and bad luck to even
+    up, as they will on such a long trip as mine. For instance, it
+    was simply luck in my case that got me some of my game; but then
+    it was simply luck, also, that I did not get some other things;
+    and so it about evened up.
+
+    "My own physical limitations at the moment come chiefly from a
+    perfectly commonplace but exasperating ailment--rheumatism. It
+    not only cripples me a good deal, so that I am unable to climb
+    on or off a horse with any speed, but it also prevents my
+    keeping in condition. I cannot take any long walks, and
+    therefore cannot keep in shape; but I am sufficiently fortunate
+    to have a great many interests, and I am afraid, sufficiently
+    lazy also thoroughly to enjoy being at home; and I shall be
+    entirely happy if I never leave Sagamore again for any length of
+    time. I have work which is congenial and honourable, although
+    not of any special importance, and if I can keep it for the next
+    seven or eight years, my youngest son will have graduated from
+    college, so that all the children will be swimming for
+    themselves, and then I am content not to try to earn any more
+    money.
+
+    "Fond though I am of hunting and of the wilderness and of
+    natural history, it has not been to me quite the passion that it
+    has been to you, and though I would give a great deal to repeat
+    in some way or some fashion, say in Central Asia or in Farther
+    India, or in another part of Africa, the trip I made last year,
+    I know perfectly well that I cannot do it; and I do not
+    particularly care for smaller trips. If it were not for our
+    infernal newspaper-men, I should go off for a week or two this
+    fall bear-hunting in the Louisiana cane-brakes; but I know I
+    should be pestered out of my life by the newspaper-men, who
+    would really destroy all my pleasure in what I was doing. I have
+    found that I have to get really far off in the wilderness in
+    order to get rid of them, even now, when I am no longer a person
+    of public prominence. I never cared for the fishing-rod or the
+    shot-gun, and I cannot afford to keep hunters. But you, my dear
+    fellow, are still hardy, and you can still do much. I have never
+    understood why your 'African Nature Notes' did not have a
+    greater financial success. It is a book which will last
+    permanently, and will, I am sure, have an ever-increasing meed
+    of appreciation. I re-read it all last winter, and Sheldon, as I
+    think I told you, mentioned to me the other day that he regarded
+    it as the best book of the kind that had ever been written.
+
+    "Kermit is, at the moment, in New Brunswick getting moose,
+    caribou, and beaver for the National Museum. I think I told you
+    that he got four sheep, three of them for the Museum, on his
+    recent trip into the Mexican desert. He made it just as you have
+    made so many of your trips, that is, he got two Mexicans and two
+    small pack-mules, and travelled without a tent, and with one
+    spare pair of shoes and one spare pair of socks as his sole
+    luggage. Once they nearly got into an ugly scrape through
+    failure to find a water-hole, for it is a dangerous country.
+    Kermit found that he could outlast in walking and in enduring
+    thirst, not only the Mexicans but the American prospectors whom
+    he once or twice met."
+
+The reference in his letter to the lioness "which crouched in a bush,
+and then so nearly got Judd," refers to an incident that happened in the
+Gwas N'yiro bush in Selous' former hunt with MacMillan (1909), and this
+little adventure was related to me by William Judd himself. It appears
+that Selous and Judd were out together one day and disturbed two
+lionesses, which disappeared in thick forest. Selous at once galloped
+after them and outdistanced Judd, who came somewhat slowly cantering
+behind, as he did not wish to interfere with Selous. All at once, from
+the side of the path, Judd saw a great yellow body come high in the air
+from the side of the game-trail. He had no time even to raise his rifle
+from the position across the saddle-pommel, but just cocked it up across
+and pulled the trigger. One of the lionesses, for such it was, had
+apparently crouched and allowed Selous to pass, and had then hurled
+herself upon the second hunter. By a fine piece of judgment, or a happy
+fluke, Judd's bullet went through the lioness's eye and landed her dead
+at his feet. His horse swerved. He fell off, and found himself standing
+beside the dead body of his adversary. Selous then returned, and was
+astonished to find Judd standing over the dead animal in the path he had
+so lately passed. I saw the skin of this lioness in Judd's house, near
+Nairobi, in 1913, and noticed the little bullet hole over the eye. If
+the missile had gone an inch higher it is doubtful if the hunter would
+have escaped with his life, or at any rate without a severe mauling.
+
+After the trip with MacMillan, 1911-1912, Selous writes (June 23rd,
+1913):--
+
+    "My dear Johnny,--I wonder where you are and what you are doing.
+    Some one told me the other day that you were going to Africa on
+    a shooting-trip this year. I had quite an interesting time with
+    MacMillan, and got a few nice things to add to my collection. I
+    got three nice Lesser Koodoos on the lower Gwas N'yiro river as
+    well as Gerenuks, good Beisa, and Impala--though nothing
+    exceptional--very good specimens of the small races of Grant's
+    Gazelle--_notata_ and _Brighti_--Grevy's zebra, the reticulated
+    giraffe, a good bushbuck, a striped hyena, two buffalo bulls,
+    and a lot of Dik-diks (of two distinct species and, I think,
+    possibly three). I don't know whether you have seen two letters
+    of mine in the 'Field'[63] for June 8th and 15th, but if you
+    have, you will have read my account of a rather interesting
+    experience I had with a lion. This was the only lion I actually
+    fired at, though I saw four lionesses one day, and tracked a
+    lion and lioness on another occasion for a long distance and got
+    close to them, but, owing to the thickness of the bush, could
+    not see them. That was the trouble on the lower Gwas N'yiro
+    river. The bush was so frightfully thick along the river, and
+    outside, too, very often, that it required great luck to get a
+    lion in the daytime, and they would not come to baits at night.
+    The bush was simply awful for buffaloes. Let me know what you
+    are doing and I will try and come over to see you one of these
+    days."
+
+Selous seems to have been unusually unlucky on the few occasions he met
+with lions in the Gwas N'yiro bush. On March 2nd, 1912, he suddenly came
+face to face with a big lion, but as soon as it saw him, it dived into
+the forest and was immediately lost to view. On another occasion he
+wounded a pallah buck, which a lion then killed, and death was so recent
+that Selous sat over "the kill" and waited. The lion came and stood
+within twenty-five yards of the hunter, who fired two shots at it, and
+although assured that it was severely wounded he never recovered the
+body.[64]
+
+The most exciting incident, however, of this trip was the killing of
+what he calls "My Last Buffalo." Near the river he found the tracks of
+two old buffalo bulls, which he followed industriously for six miles. At
+last he obtained a snap shot and hit one of the bulls badly through the
+lungs. After following the wounded animal a short distance, he suddenly
+heard the unmistakable grunts which always precede a charge. "The next
+instant the buffalo was on us, coming over the edge of the gully with
+nose outstretched, half a ton of bone and muscle driven at tremendous
+speed by the very excusable rage and fury of a brave and determined
+animal.... When I fired, the muzzle of my rifle must have been within
+three yards of the buffalo." The buffalo fell to the shot, the vertebrae
+of the neck being struck, and as he fell struck Elani the Somali.
+
+    "He only received this one terrific blow, though he was pushed
+    to the bottom of the gully--only a few yards--in front of the
+    buffalo's knees and right under its nose, but my bullet had for
+    a moment partially paralysed it. I got another cartridge into
+    the chamber of my rifle as quickly as possible, and, turning to
+    the buffalo, somehow got a second bullet into its hind-quarters,
+    which brought it down altogether. When I was again ready to
+    fire, the buffalo was on its knees, with its hind-legs doubled
+    in under it, in the bed of the gully a few yards below me, and
+    Elani was under its great neck between its nose and its chest,
+    with one arm outstretched and his right hand on the buffalo's
+    shoulder, so that I had to shoot carefully for fear of hitting
+    it.
+
+    "Elani then pushed himself with his feet free of the buffalo,
+    whilst I stood where I was, ready to put in another shot if
+    necessary, and it was, for the brave and determined bull
+    partially recovered from the shocks its nervous system had
+    received, though the mists of death were already in its eyes."
+    Another bullet finished this gallant old bull. Elani the Somali
+    was little the worse for his severe handling.
+
+Selous spent the autumn of 1912 quietly at home or shooting with
+friends.
+
+    Writing to Chapman, September 26th, 1912, he says: "Don't worry
+    about our visit to Hexham the other day. We got through the time
+    quite easily. I can always pass an hour or two reading, very
+    comfortably, but what I dislike more than anything else in
+    English life is the crowds of people everywhere.... The crowds
+    spoil all the pleasure of going to a cricket- or football-match
+    or a theatre. It is always such a trouble getting away. I am
+    already longing to be in Africa again. If only Mrs. Selous would
+    be happy there, I would rather live in East Africa than in this
+    country."
+
+His mother[65] was still alive at Longford House, Gloucester, but
+getting old and feeble. He visited her in December, 1912. On December
+7th, 1912, he was in Devonshire, shooting pheasants at MacMillan's
+place. "We got two fine days' shooting," he writes to Chapman, "but at
+the best, pheasant shooting is a very inferior sport to the pursuit of
+the grouse and the blackcock on the wild free moors of Northumberland.
+May I live to renew my acquaintance with them next year."
+
+Never did the spring come round but it always filled Selous with new
+delight, and then he used to write me long letters of the arrival of the
+birds and the advent of the early flowers. His joy was great when the
+Wrynecks took to his nesting-boxes in the garden, the Long-eared Owls
+nested in the woods close by, or the rare Dartford Warbler was seen
+again in its old haunts. Thus, on April 15th, he says:--
+
+    "I was very disappointed not to see you yesterday, as I was
+    looking forward to a good crack with you. I have not yet heard
+    the cuckoo, but the cuckoo's mate has been here in the garden
+    since April 2nd. There are several pairs of snipe on Whitmoor
+    Common (just below Worplesdon village) this year. They are now
+    in full 'bleat.' There are also a number of Redshanks, the first
+    I have ever seen here."
+
+We used often to go out and look for nests in the commons, hedgerows,
+and woods at Worplesdon, and it was now a sorrow to him that he could no
+longer, owing to a slight deafness, recognize the notes of birds at a
+distance. These nests, when found, he never touched, as he had already
+got specimens of the eggs of all common birds, but the joy of hunting
+was always present, and he never tired of watching the habits of birds,
+even though he knew them well.
+
+In the early part of 1913, Selous made a little trip to Jersey and
+Normandy, to visit the home of his ancestors, in whose history he always
+showed a lively interest. He wrote a long account of this to President
+Roosevelt, who replied as follows (April 2nd, 1913):--
+
+    "I was greatly interested in your account of your visit to the
+    home of your people in the Channel Islands, and then to
+    Normandy. Of course, the Channel Islands are the last little
+    fragment of the old Duchy of Normandy. I was always pleased by
+    the way in which their people, when they drink the health of the
+    King, toast him as 'The Duke.' It is the one fragment of the
+    gigantic British Empire which owes fealty to the Royal House of
+    England primarily as the representative of the still older ducal
+    line of Normandy. Moreover, the people of the Channel Islands
+    have always seemed to me, like the French Huguenots, to combine
+    the virile virtues of the northern races with that quality of
+    fineness and distinction which are far more apt to be found in
+    France--at least in old France--than among our northern Teutonic
+    peoples.
+
+    "Indeed, those cathedrals represent the greatest architecture
+    this world ever saw, with the sole exception of Greece at its
+    best. All that you say about the Normans is true. What they
+    accomplished in government, in war, in conquest, in
+    architecture, was wonderful beyond description. No adequate
+    explanation of the Norman achievements during the eleventh and
+    twelfth centuries has ever been or ever can be made. As you say,
+    it was their conquest of England and the Scotch lowlands that
+    gave to the English their great push forward; and they gave this
+    push in many different lands. The handful of Norman adventurers
+    who went to Italy fifty years before the conquest of England
+    speedily conquered South Italy and Sicily and part of Greece,
+    and ruled over Saracen, Italian and Byzantine alike. The handful
+    of Norman adventurers who conquered Ireland, thereby for the
+    first time brought that country into the current of European
+    affairs. It was the Normans to whom we owe the great 'Song of
+    Roland.' They formed principalities and dukedoms in the Holy
+    Land and the Balkan Peninsula. They set their stamp on the whole
+    contemporary culture of Western Europe, just as their kinsfolk,
+    who, as heathens, conquered heathen Russia, were the first to
+    organize the Slav communities of Eastern Europe. In a way, the
+    action of the Normans in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (for
+    by the thirteenth century their importance had vanished)
+    represented the continuation, culmination, and vanishing of the
+    tremendous Norse or Scandinavian movement which began about the
+    year 800, and ended in the latter part of the eleventh century,
+    when its Norman offshoot was at the zenith of its power and
+    influence. There are many things about these people and their
+    movements which are hard to explain. Wherever the Norsemen went,
+    they became completely merged with the people they conquered,
+    and although they formed a ruling caste they lost all trace of
+    their own language and traditions. The Norse invaders became
+    Sicilians in Sicily, Russians in Russia, Frenchmen in Normandy,
+    Irishmen in Ireland, English- and Scotchmen in Great Britain.
+    They furnished kings to England, Scotland and Sicily, and rulers
+    to a dozen other countries, but they always assimilated
+    themselves to the conquered people, and their blood must always
+    have been only a thin strain in the community as a whole. When
+    the Normans came over to conquer England, I believe that they
+    represented the fusion, not only of Scandinavians and Franks,
+    but of the old Gallo-Romans, whose language they took. A great
+    many of the adventurers were base-born. King William himself was
+    the bastard son of a tanner's daughter. Cooks and varlets, if
+    vigorous enough, founded noble families. Quantities of Bretons
+    and Flemings accompanied the Normans to England. Their language
+    was purely French, and their culture was the culture of Latin
+    Europe. They had lost every trace of the Norse language, and
+    every remembrance of Norse literature and history. In William's
+    army there seems to be no question that any man of fighting
+    ability came to the front without any regard to his ancestry,
+    just as was true of the Vikings from whom the Normans were
+    descended; yet these people were certainly not only masters of
+    war and government, but were more cultured, more imaginative,
+    more civilized and also more enterprising and energetic, not
+    only than the English but than any of the other peoples among
+    whom they settled. In England two centuries and a half later,
+    their tongue had practically been lost; they had been completely
+    absorbed, and were typical Englishmen, and their blood must have
+    been but a thin thread in the veins of the conquerors of Cressy
+    and Agincourt. Yet this thin thread made of the English
+    something totally different from what they had been before, and
+    from what their kinsmen, the low Dutch of the Continent,
+    continued to be. It is all absorbingly interesting."
+
+In the spring of 1913 Selous decided to take a hunt in Iceland to
+collect the eggs of the various northern species of birds, and in this I
+was fortunately able to be of some assistance to him, as I had ridden
+nearly 1000 miles there in 1899, to study the bird-life of the island.
+Wherefore I was able to give him accurate information of the various
+nesting-localities, and where each species was to be found in the summer
+months. Of only one bird, the Grey Phalarope, I could tell him nothing,
+but he and his friend, Heatley Noble, were so industrious that they
+found it breeding on the south coast of the island and secured eggs.
+
+[Illustration: BULL MOOSE ABOUT TO LIE DOWN.]
+
+Of this trip, Heatley Noble, an intimate and well-loved friend of
+Selous, kindly sends me the following notes:--
+
+    "Well do I remember our first meeting, which was destined to
+    prove the beginning of a close friendship of more than twenty
+    years--I was working on the lawn when I saw a picturesque figure
+    dressed in shooting-clothes and the ever-present 'sombrero'
+    walking towards me. Off came the hat and 'Good morning, sir, my
+    name is Selous. I am just beginning to arrange my collection of
+    eggs and was advised at the Natural History Museum to call on
+    you, as they say your method of keeping a collection was good.'
+
+    "How odd it seemed to me that this hero of a thousand
+    hairbreadth escapes should start egg-collecting once more at his
+    time of life (he was then about forty-five). I was soon to learn
+    that the energy he has always thrown into his hunting-trips was
+    to be given equally to this new pursuit--it was not really new,
+    as he had collected as a boy at Rugby, and in Germany, but years
+    spent away from home had seriously damaged the spoils of early
+    days. I showed him my collection, and on hearing that he wanted
+    to start with even the commonest species, we went off and
+    collected what nests I knew. How interested I was to see the
+    care with which this man, who could handle four-bore rifles as
+    tooth-picks, yet retained the delicacy of touch which enabled
+    him to wrap in cotton-wool such small eggs as those of Blue Tits
+    and Chiffchaffs! He told me he was off to Asia Minor for a few
+    days, and then on to the plains of Hungary. This programme would
+    have been sufficient for most men, but there were some days to
+    spare, the season was short, so I recommended him to go to the
+    Isles of Scilly; the owner being an old friend, I was sure I
+    could get him leave. He went, and subsequently wrote me a long
+    letter mentioning all the different species he had found, which
+    fairly made my mouth water!
+
+    "Unlike some collectors, Fred Selous, if he knew where a good
+    thing was to be found, made it his delight to share that
+    knowledge. Perhaps to the detriment of the species, but greatly
+    to the joy of his friends. Jealousy was unknown to him, his
+    pleasure was always to help others, regardless of trouble; had
+    he been to any part of the world where you had not, he would
+    make it his business to give you the minutest details so that
+    you could go there almost blindfold! I know this from personal
+    experience, as it was thanks to him I went birds'-nesting into
+    Andalusia and Hungary, besides many little trips in these Isles.
+    If he had been lucky with some rare species in a foreign
+    country, he would press his duplicates on anyone interested, and
+    more than this, it was difficult to prevent him handing out eggs
+    he really could not spare. His own large collection was purely
+    personal. I believe there were only some Bearded Vultures' eggs
+    in it that he did not take with his own hands. These came from
+    Sardinia, where he had been after Mouflon--he had seen the
+    birds, but was too soon for eggs. If I found a nest on this
+    property which he wanted, he would never let me take the eggs
+    and send them to him, he would bicycle over to lunch
+    (twenty-three miles each way) and take them with his own hands!
+
+    "I had long wished to visit Iceland on a nesting-trip, and in
+    the early spring of 1913, wrote asking Selous if he would come.
+    To my great joy I found that he had already arranged to go
+    there, and it was soon fixed up that we should go together. What
+    a glorious time we had, and how much I owe to his companionship,
+    invariable good temper and knowledge of travel! The ship we went
+    out in was a smelly beastly thing, the weather cold, sea rough
+    and food vile. The latter bothered Fred not at all, he often
+    said he could live on any food that would support a human being,
+    and from subsequent experience I believe he was right. He liked
+    some things better than others, but anything would do. I only
+    saw him beaten once; we had had an eight-hour ride in vile
+    weather, at last we arrived at the farm where we were to spend
+    the night. Fred loved meat, and our host produced a plate of
+    stuff that might have been thin slices of mutton. Fred attacked
+    it, and I watched developments! In place of the Aldermanic smile
+    I expected, the face contracted, the mouth opened, a sharp word
+    escaped, and later on the first course of his dinner turned out
+    to be pickled Guillemot of the previous season! But to return to
+    our ship. Fred didn't smoke, the rest of the company did to a
+    man, rank Danish cigars, which made even a good sailor wish he
+    had never left home. We were driven into the dining saloon, the
+    only place where there was some peace, though the smell of
+    ponies and cod took the place of vile cigars. Here Fred used to
+    spend his day reading, his favourite book being 'Tess of the
+    D'Urbervilles.' One day he complained bitterly of the light, and
+    for the first time I noticed that this wonderful man was reading
+    small print without glasses--aged, I think, sixty-three, and as
+    long-sighted as anyone I ever met. All things come to an end in
+    time, and after what seemed a month, and was really three days,
+    we arrived at Reykjavik, starting the following day on our trip.
+    The first trek was a short one, only twenty miles, but quite
+    long enough for me, as next day I could hardly climb on the
+    pony, whereas Selous jumped on like a boy, and during the whole
+    of our journey, above 1000 miles on pony back, never once felt
+    stiffness. We did well from an ornithological point of view,
+    finding some forty-six different kinds of nests, and bringing
+    home over 1000 eggs, _not one_ of which was broken, thanks
+    mostly to the careful packing of our friend. Selous had the
+    greatest objection to getting his feet wet unnecessarily, and
+    when crossing those rapid rough rivers would take his feet out
+    of the stirrups and somehow curl them up behind him, it was a
+    wonderful performance, and how he kept his balance with the pony
+    stumbling and regaining his feet as only an Icelander can,
+    fairly beat me. Once, when crossing an extra bad place, full of
+    boulders and in a flooded condition, his pony got on the top of
+    a flat rock under water; when he went to crawl down on the other
+    side, there was the inevitable hole from back-wash--down went the
+    pony, the jerk pulling Fred over on to his ears--I thought he
+    must have fallen into the boiling cauldron--No; a short
+    scramble, the pony righted himself and there was Fred as
+    peaceful as ever, didn't even look round! When we were safe on
+    the far side, I said to him, 'If you had gone off then, you
+    would not have stopped till you got to the sea.' His reply was,
+    'Yes, but I didn't.'
+
+    "I was very anxious to get on to the Island of Grimsey, one of
+    the European breeding places of the Little Auk. It is situated
+    some sixty-five miles from Akureyri, and I was told motor
+    fishing-boats went there sometimes. I told our guide to
+    telephone on and find out if such a boat could be hired, the
+    reply came back that a small one would be available. The terms
+    were settled, and the boat was to be ready the following
+    evening, to start by 9 p.m. About 8 o'clock, we went to the quay
+    to inspect our ship, when to my horror I was shown a
+    single-cylinder thing not as large as a moderate Thames
+    pleasure-launch, a free-board about 10 inches, no cabin, no
+    deck. I'm bound to confess my heart failed me, it didn't seem
+    quite good enough to trust ourselves to a sixty-five mile trip
+    in a little tub with two youths (one of whom had a withered
+    hand) and a very doubtful looking compass! Not so Fred, he never
+    raised the least objection to a North Sea trip in a ship
+    dependent on a single plug, which might become sooty any moment!
+    In due time we started, and after watching the midnight sun, my
+    shipmate remarked, 'I think I shall turn in.' 'Turn in where?'
+    'Oh, the cockpit will do.' It was full of rusty old chains, he
+    could just get into it and lie curled up in a sort of knot on
+    the rug, and here he passed a dreamless night, never moving
+    until I called him as the boat touched land about 8.30 a.m. On
+    landing, the first thing was to find out where the Little Auk
+    might breed. The Parson told us he knew a man skilled in such
+    matters. With a total population of 72 souls, 13 of which were
+    belonging to the Parson, it ought not to be difficult to find
+    the tastes of any unit of the congregation (especially after
+    eighteen years' residence). In a short time a fisherman arrived
+    with a coil of rope and a crowbar; the latter he drove into the
+    ground, tied the rope to it and heaved the end over the rock.
+    Our friendly Parson then waved towards the sea, remarking,
+    'There you are, how do you like it? The birds breed in the rocks
+    at the bottom.' Honestly I did _not_ like it, but Fred remarked,
+    'Thank you, that will do well,' and without another word seized
+    the rope and was soon at the bottom. I _had_ to follow, the
+    Parson looking down from the top very much like the picture of
+    Nebuchadnezzar looking down at Daniel in the lions' den. The
+    Little Auk was not there, only Puffins inhabited that part of
+    the island, and we had to regain the top as best we could. Later
+    on we were shown a spot where the bird really did breed, and two
+    eggs rewarded us for the long journey. We left again the same
+    evening in a thick fog, Selous curling himself up once more on
+    the rusty chains, and utterly oblivious to the fact that it was
+    just a toss-up if our helmsman ever found the mainland again or
+    not. A short time after this event we were resting at a
+    farmhouse, and as usual asked if the boys knew of any nests. One
+    of them replied that there was a Merlin's nest with five eggs in
+    some rocks a few miles from the farm. Off we started, and all
+    went well until we came to the face of a nasty crumbling steep
+    place. The farm-boy, with only a pair of shoes made from raw
+    sheepskin, made no bones about it and dashed up to the top. I
+    was next, and after going up a certain distance could find no
+    foothold and had to stop where I was. Selous was a little below
+    me, and, when he reached my none too comfortable seat, I
+    suggested that it was no place for me, and that the boy who was
+    at the nest might as well bring down the eggs. This was not
+    Fred's way of doing things, he simply remarked, 'I think I'll go
+    a little further.' He did, right up into the nest, returning
+    with the five eggs, and this too with a pair of long, heavy
+    Norwegian field-boots on. I felt a proper weakling, but our
+    friend never once rubbed it in by word or deed. Of side he had
+    none, and the possibility of hurting anyone's feelings was
+    absolutely repugnant to him _always_. During our long rides in
+    Iceland, he told me many things about his life in Africa in the
+    earlier days. How I wish I could have taken down the stories he
+    related! To hear him talk was like listening to someone reading
+    a book. He was never at a loss for a word or the name of a
+    place. Perhaps we would have been riding together in silence for
+    some time, then Fred would turn round with the remark, 'Do you
+    know,' he then would start and tell me something of his early
+    days in Africa, what may never have been published, things he
+    did for which _others_ got the praise. I fear this most
+    unselfish of men was far too often made use of. Not that Selous
+    did not see through the schemes of various impostors; he did,
+    but as he would never have done a dirty trick to a living soul,
+    he could not believe they would to him. His fondness for tea was
+    a fine advertisement for this indigestible drink. He told me
+    that in his early camping days in Africa, he used to throw a
+    handful of tea in the pot before starting off to hunt, let it
+    simmer all day, freshening it with another handful in the
+    evening. The tea-leaves were never emptied! The first time he
+    stayed with me I saw him making very bad weather of a glass of
+    champagne; on asking if he would prefer something else, the
+    prompt reply came--'Tea.' Ever after that he was provided with
+    his pet drink, and it used to interest me to see how he
+    invariably left the spoon in the cup, a relic of old veldt days
+    where manners were unknown. Fred's ideas on food were different
+    to most people's. One evening after a wretched eight hours' ride
+    in pouring cold rain, just as we neared the farm where we were
+    to rest, I said, 'How would you like to dine with me at the Ritz
+    to-night? A little clear soup, a grilled sole, lamb cutlets and
+    green peas, mushrooms on toast and a bottle of Champagne 94?'
+    'Thanks very much, but if I had my choice of what I should like
+    best, it would be good fat moose and tea.'
+
+    "I think it was not generally known that Selous held strong
+    views about what he called Psychic Force, for during the whole
+    of our long friendship I only once heard him let himself go on
+    this subject, and I am bound to confess that coming from a man
+    like him whose every word was truth, anyone who heard him relate
+    what he had seen take place in his own home with only his
+    brothers and sisters present, could not but help owning that he
+    was in the presence of something beyond his understanding. His
+    conversation was always worth listening to, but like all brave
+    men, it was difficult to get him to talk. If he liked those
+    present, he would often delight his audience and yarn on for
+    hours, if he didn't, he was civility and politeness itself, but
+    no yarns! His little sayings, without _an atom_ of side, always
+    amused me. The last time but one that I saw him when on leave, I
+    remarked on his close-cropped beard. 'Yes,' he said, 'it looked
+    so white in the bush, they seemed as if they were always
+    shooting at it.'
+
+    "When war broke out I had not seen him for some little time. I
+    was killing rabbits in the park, and on looking up saw Fred. He
+    was furious, he had hoped to be sent to France as a 'Guide,' but
+    the scheme fell through, and he feared he would not get a job.
+    How cross he was! Shortly after I received a wire that he was
+    coming over to lunch. He arrived radiant as a boy home from
+    school, the reason being that he was to go to Africa with a
+    contingent of 150 men with the rank of lieutenant, at the age of
+    sixty-three! And yet there are conscientious shirkers who _also_
+    call themselves 'Englishmen.' The last time I saw him he lunched
+    here on the way from Gloucester when he had been to say good-bye
+    to his boy in the Flying Corps, and was just starting for his
+    return to Africa. In the midst of all he had to do, and the rush
+    of settling his affairs, he heard of our own trouble. Sitting
+    down at once, he found time to write one of the most
+    sympathetic, charming letters one pal may write to another. It
+    came straight from that great heart which knew no fear, but
+    loved his neighbour far better than himself."
+
+Of the trip to Iceland Selous writes to Chapman (July 26th, 1913):--
+
+    "Just a line to tell you that Heatley Noble and I got back from
+    Iceland a few days ago. We had a lot of cold, disagreeable
+    weather, but got a nice lot of eggs; indeed, practically
+    everything that one can get in Iceland, except the Purple
+    Sandpiper. When we got to where they were, it was too late, and
+    we only found a pair with young. We got some eggs which were
+    taken a fortnight earlier. We found the Red-necked Pharalope
+    breeding in hundreds at Myvatn and other places, and we also
+    took several clutches of Grey Pharalope which we found breeding
+    in some numbers in two districts. We got all the Iceland ducks
+    at and near Myvatn, including the Harlequin, Barrow's Golden
+    Eye, Scaup, Long-tailed Duck, Scoter and several others. Whooper
+    Swans were plentiful in some parts of the south and west, but
+    not in the north, and we saw a good many Great Northern Divers,
+    and got several clutches of eggs. We went out to the island of
+    Grimsey, thirty miles north of the north coast of Iceland and
+    just within the Arctic circle, and got the eggs of the Little
+    Auk there; and also Snow Buntings, which were extraordinarily
+    abundant on the island. Redwings and Mealy Redpolls we got in
+    the birch scrub in the north. But I will tell you all about our
+    trip when we meet. The boys came home on Wednesday, and we are
+    all going to Scotland on August 9th. I don't yet know when the
+    show will come on at which I shall have to speak, but I hope
+    that it will not be before October. I found the Sandpipers' and
+    Wheatears' eggs on my arrival home."
+
+In August and September he went to Scotland for the grouse-shooting,
+which he enjoyed, but which never seemed to fill the place in his mind
+of Africa. He was always thinking of the land of sunshine, and says to
+Chapman (September 9th, 1913):--
+
+    "During the long waits at grouse-driving the other day, I was
+    always wishing myself in the forests on the slopes of Mount
+    Kenia, collecting butterflies, for there every moment was full
+    of excitement. I am sorry to tell you that my dear old mother's
+    health--she is now in her eighty-eighth year--is such that it
+    will henceforth be impossible for me to leave England again on
+    any long trip during her lifetime. She is not ill, but she has
+    lost strength terribly during the last three months, and I do
+    not think her life can be much further prolonged. So now all
+    hope of going to the Sudan this winter is gone, and as at my age
+    every year tells heavily against me, I doubt whether I shall
+    ever get a giant Eland for the Natural History Museum."
+
+Abel Chapman at this time asked Selous to go with him to the Sudan, but
+Selous could not go then, as he had business with his mother's will,
+but suggested he might possibly join him in February, 1914, down the
+Nile below the sudd.
+
+In November, 1913, he went to Rugby to give a lecture, and to see his
+boy Freddy, of whom he was very proud. To Chapman he says:--
+
+    "I went there yesterday (Rugby) to see the football match
+    against Cheltenham College. Freddy played for Rugby. He has
+    played in every out match for the school this term, against the
+    Old Guard, the Oxford A, the old Rugbeians, and Cheltenham
+    College, so I think he is now definitely in the first fifteen.
+    As he is now only fifteen years of age, and will not be sixteen
+    till April 21st next, I think that is rather good; indeed, I
+    think he must be the youngest boy in the school fifteen, and so
+    may some day be Captain of the Rugby fifteen. He plays forward,
+    and weighed 11 stone 10 lbs."
+
+Young Fred Selous was a true son of his father, and very like him in
+many ways. He had the same charm and modesty of manner, and had he lived
+would have gone far, and no doubt made his mark in the world. But it was
+not to be, for he gave his life for his country on January 4th, 1918, on
+the same day one year later than the death of his father. He was
+educated at Bilton Grange and Rugby, where he proved to be an excellent
+athlete, being in the Running VIII, and in 1915 Captain of the Rugby XV.
+He entered Sandhurst in September, 1915, and on leaving in April, 1916,
+was gazetted to the Royal East Surrey Regiment and attached to the
+R.F.C. Very soon he developed exceptional ability as a flying officer.
+In July, 1916, he went to the front and was awarded both the Military
+Cross and the Italian Silver Medal of Military Valour. My friend,
+Lieutenant Edward Thornton, was flying close to Freddy Selous on the
+fatal day, and states:--
+
+    "I was up at 15,000 ft. over the German lines, when I saw
+    Captain Selous take a dive at a German machine some 2000 feet
+    below. What actually happened I do not know, but all at once I
+    saw both wings of the machine collapse, and he fell to the earth
+    like a stone."
+
+The major commanding Freddy's squadron thus wrote to his bereaved
+mother:--
+
+    "It is a severe blow to the squadron to lose him, for he was
+    beloved by officers and men alike. In fact, his popularity
+    extended to a much greater area than his own aerodrome. In the
+    short time that I have known him I have been struck with the
+    courage and keenness of your son--always ready for his jobs, and
+    always going about his work with the cheeriest and happiest of
+    smiles. He was the life and soul of the mess."
+
+The second son of Selous and his wife is Harold Sherborne Selous, who
+will be nineteen in October, 1918. He was educated at Radley College,
+and is at present in the Officers' Cadet Battalion at Pirbright, and
+expects to take a commission shortly.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[58] The collection of Birds and Mammals made by the Roosevelt
+expedition is now for the most part in the American Museum of Natural
+History at New York and at Washington. It is probably the best
+collection ever made by one expedition in Africa, and the book which the
+President wrote--"African Game Trails"--will always remain one of the
+best works of reference on the subject.
+
+[59] President Roosevelt realised his hopes. In two days, between Sir
+Alfred Pease's farm and the railway (Kapiti Plains), he and his son
+Kermit killed seven lions. They also killed several others in the Sotik.
+
+[60] Mr. Edward North Buxton also did much to help the President in his
+forthcoming trip.
+
+[61] Selous gave a full account of his trip in articles in the "Field,"
+July-September, 1911.
+
+[62] George Grey, brother of Lord Grey of Falloden, an excellent hunter
+and charming personality. He was killed by a lion on Sir Alfred Pease's
+estate in 1910.
+
+[63] Selous, like all other good sportsmen, cherished a warm
+appreciation for the "Field" newspaper. Mr. J. E. Harting, the Natural
+History and Shooting Editor, was an old and much valued friend.
+
+[64] See "The Field," June 8th, 1912.
+
+[65] She died peacefully in 1913.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+1914-1915
+
+
+In May, 1914, Selous went to Texel Island, on the coast of Holland,
+where he took a few eggs and enjoyed watching the Ruffs, Avocets,
+Godwits, Turnstones, and Spoonbills. In June and July he was making
+preparations for an expedition with his friend Abel Chapman to the Sudan
+and White Nile, with the object of collecting Gazelles and eventually,
+if possible, the Giant Eland. The plan was to enter via Port Sudan,
+shoot Ibex and Gazelles between that port and Khartoum and then go south
+in January, 1915, to Lake No, where Mrs. Gray's Lechwe could be found.
+Selous would then leave his friend and go to Wau for the Elands, and
+afterwards to the hinterland of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and search for the
+various local races of Uganda Kob found there and still imperfectly
+known.[66]
+
+Other events of greater importance, however, put an end to this proposed
+trip. In August commenced the Great War, in which Selous at first had no
+thought of taking part, but as a succession of adverse circumstances
+multiplied, he felt that interest and responsibility in the conflict of
+nations that true men of whatever rank or station must experience.
+Foresight, common sense, and a knowledge of the great power of the
+Central Empires soon convinced him that in order to beat them, sooner or
+later we should have to enrol every fit man in the United Kingdom. He
+was not a man to delay once his mind was made up. The question was only
+how and where his services could be of most use. He understood "the
+bush" and "bush fighting" better than most men and he resolved to try
+and join the forces fighting in East Africa.
+
+Soon he learned that it was probable that his friend Colonel Driscoll
+was about to organize a force, perhaps for service in East Africa, or
+even for the front in France.
+
+Writing to Abel Chapman on August 12th, 1914, he says:--
+
+    "Before seeking enrolment in the Legion of Frontiersmen, I went
+    to one of the biggest Life Insurance Companies in London and was
+    examined by their chief medical officer, and I have got a
+    splendid certificate of health. After saying that he found all
+    my organs perfectly sound he goes on, 'his heart in particular,
+    considering the active life he has led, is in excellent
+    condition. He is also remarkably active and muscular and in my
+    opinion fit for service anywhere.' I may say that Colonel
+    Driscoll has not yet got his authority from the Government to
+    get his men together, though he has enrolled several thousand
+    and is prepared to come forward at a moment's notice. I fear
+    that there will be frightful delay, as I have good reason to
+    believe that none of our troops have yet left England and the
+    Government will attend to nothing until they have got all their
+    regular forces to the front. However, if the war goes on for any
+    time they will want all the men they can get, and I fully expect
+    that the Legion of Frontiersmen will get to the front sooner or
+    later, but perhaps not till the Colonial forces arrive in
+    England."
+
+Writing on August 14th, 1914, he says:--
+
+    "I believe this war will be a terrific business, and that we
+    shall have to send something like a million of men out of the
+    country before it is over, so that sooner or later I think I
+    shall get into the fighting line. Freddy will not be old enough
+    to volunteer until April 21st next, when he will be seventeen,
+    and I fully expect that he will be wanted. _If I should be
+    eliminated it would not matter a bit as I have had my day_, but
+    it would be a pity if so promising a boy got scuppered at the
+    outset of his life."
+
+All this time he was fretting at official delays, for writing to
+Chapman, September 22nd, 1914, he betrays his impatience.
+
+    "It passes my understanding why the War Office will not give the
+    order to Colonel Driscoll to take some of his men, who are all
+    well disciplined and can shoot, to the front at once.... I am
+    afraid that Lord Kitchener has no intention of employing
+    anything in this war but regular troops.... Driscoll offered to
+    take 1000 men to British East Africa to invade and take German
+    East Africa,[67] but this offer was also refused."
+
+    In October, Colonel Driscoll thought there was no chance of
+    being employed. "I personally," writes Selous to Chapman,
+    October 23rd, 1914, "do not think he will ever be employed at
+    all, so I determined to make an application direct to the War
+    Office for service at the front with the Army Service Corps, or
+    as an interpreter, or for any kind of work in which a good
+    knowledge of French and some German might be useful. I got two
+    letters of introduction to two members of Parliament who are
+    working at the War Office and was sympathetically received by
+    them. I took my health certificate with me. My application for
+    service was submitted straight to Lord Kitchener, and I have got
+    his reply from H. J. Tennant, M.P.: 'I spoke to Lord Kitchener
+    to-day about you and he thought that _your age was prohibitive
+    against your employment_ here or at the seat of war in Europe.'
+    Well, I suppose that is the end of it, for I put no faith in
+    Driscoll's belief that sooner or later his services will be
+    required, so I suppose that neither you nor I will be allowed to
+    serve our country in this war. We are looked upon as useless old
+    buffers."
+
+    In November, 1914, he was doing special constable at Pirbright
+    and was rather depressed that he could get nothing better to do,
+    and that his boy Freddy would soon have to go into training as a
+    soldier. He hoped his son would be able to join the Egyptian
+    Army and have "a good time in the Sudan or the King's African
+    Rifles. As I can do nothing that really matters, I often feel
+    that I should like to go right away--say to the Belgian
+    Congo--hunting and collecting for a year. But until the war is
+    over, or nearly over, I am afraid I shall not be able to leave
+    here, as besides being enrolled myself as a special constable, I
+    have now undertaken to do a lot of work under the 'Defence of
+    the Realm' Act. I feel it is all unnecessary fuss and bother, as
+    even if a raid could be made on the East coast of England, no
+    invasion could take place south of the Thames until the French
+    are conquered and crushed, and the Germans take possession of
+    all the Channel ports opposite our south-eastern shores, and
+    further until our Navy has lost command of the seas. Personally
+    I don't believe that either of these disasters can ever happen,
+    so I must do what the Government requires. Anyhow I feel that it
+    is a waste of energy." (Letter to Chapman, November 11th, 1914.)
+
+In February, 1915, he still had hopes of going to East Africa with
+Colonel Driscoll's force, and speaks of the difficulties he had
+encountered in obtaining his commission in a letter to my wife.
+(February 18th, 1915.)
+
+    "I know absolutely nothing about the 'Legion of Frontiersmen' as
+    far as service is concerned, but Colonel Driscoll has always
+    promised me that if he was sent abroad, he would take me with
+    him as 'Intelligence Officer.' After last September, when he
+    offered to take 1000 or 2000 men to East Africa and his services
+    were declined by the War Office and the Colonial Office, I tried
+    to get a job myself with the Army Service Corps in France. I
+    went to the War Office and saw Mr. Tennant and said that I could
+    speak French, a good deal of German and make the Flemish people
+    understand my South African Dutch. Mr. Tennant laid my
+    application and my very excellent bill of health before Lord
+    Kitchener, who wrote me the next day simply saying that 'my age
+    was prohibitive against giving me any employment either here or
+    at the seat of war in Europe.' After that I gave up all hope of
+    being able to do anything and settled down as leader of the
+    special constables of Pirbright, and also did work for the
+    'Defence of the Realm' Act. In December, however, I got a letter
+    from Colonel Driscoll saying, 'If I am ordered out--as is very
+    probable--to East Africa, will you come with me?' I wired at
+    once to say I would be ready at very short notice, and went to
+    see him. I found that the War Office had sent for him and asked
+    him how long it would take him to get together 1000 men for
+    service in East Africa. He said that the War Office had already
+    got 3000 men, originally enrolled in the Legion, who when they
+    found that they could not be employed in a body had enlisted in
+    the new army. However, he undertook to get 1000 men by the end
+    of January, and I can vouch that he was working very hard to
+    accomplish this, when he got a letter from the W. O. (who had
+    told him to get on with the enlistment of the men) saying that
+    for the present his services would not be required, as they were
+    in communication with the Government of India as to getting more
+    troops for East Africa from there. Everything seemed over again,
+    but about three weeks ago, I got another letter from Driscoll
+    saying, 'Are you available for service at once?' The W. O. had
+    come to him again and asked _him_ to get 1000 men together by
+    February 10th. I have been helping him since then in getting
+    notices in the papers, and receiving the names of men willing to
+    serve in East Africa. Colonel Driscoll wanted and still wants to
+    take me with him as Intelligence Officer, so I went last Monday
+    to the War Office and saw Major Guest (who was with
+    Major-General Lloyd the other day when he inspected Driscoll's
+    men) and asked him about maps of German East Africa, and Major
+    Guest then told me that they were not going to give Driscoll an
+    Intelligence Officer. He told me that Driscoll would just have
+    to put down the names of his officers and submit them to the W.
+    O. for acceptance or rejection. As I told Major Guest, this
+    would mean that my name would certainly be rejected on account
+    of my age. I then saw Driscoll again, and found him very much
+    discouraged, as he said that not only had the W. O. refused to
+    allow either a signalling officer, a transport, or an
+    intelligence officer[68] on his strength, but they also wanted
+    to impose some men of their own choosing on him as officers,
+    whom he does not know, thereby obliging him to dismiss some of
+    his company officers, who have served with him, and whom he does
+    know. I think it quite possible that Driscoll may resign, but he
+    will not do so until he has got the men the War Office want. As
+    far as I am concerned I now think my chances of going to Africa
+    with this force are small, although Major Guest told me that
+    General Lloyd was in favour of letting me go. I know absolutely
+    nothing about the Legion of Frontiersmen in this country, nor do
+    I believe that there is the slightest chance of the Germans
+    landing any force in this country, as long as our Navy remains
+    in being."
+
+   On February 4th, 1915, he went to see Colonel Driscoll, who said
+   the War Office had stretched the age-limit in his case, that he
+   would take him to East Africa as Intelligence Officer. "I hope I
+   shall not prove too old for the job and break down," he writes.
+   Colonel Driscoll expected to have two or three months' training
+   and leave for East Africa in April. On March 7th, Mrs. Selous
+   went to Havre to work in the Y.M.C.A. hut there. Selous then left
+   for London. "It was thought that I would start for East Africa
+   with an advance contingent before she left for France," but he
+   was delayed, waiting for the whole regiment to go together.
+   Writing to Chapman, March 21st, 1915, he says: "I understand that
+   we are to start for East Africa next Saturday, or very soon
+   afterwards. Well, good-bye, old friend. These troublous times
+   will be over some day and then if we are still both alive and
+   have any vitality left, we must do that Nile trip."
+
+Selous landed with his battalion at Mombasa on May 4th, 1915. Colonel R.
+Meinertzhagen gives a few particulars of the strange assortment of men
+comprising the force:--
+
+    "The battalion (25th Royal Fusiliers) concentrated at Kajiado
+    soon after landing at Mombasa, when it was inspected by General
+    Tighe, then Commanding in East Africa. I accompanied Tighe on
+    this inspection, and we formed a very high opinion of the
+    officers and men. They were an unpolished lot but real good
+    business-like men who meant fighting.
+
+    [Illustration: Mt. Kilimanjaro From The North.]
+
+    "Selous was then in front of his platoon, looking very serious
+    and standing strictly to attention. We recognized each other at
+    once and were soon deep in the question of the validity of the
+    Nakuru Hartebeest and the breeding of the Harlequin Duck in
+    Iceland. We both forgot we were on parade, much to the amusement
+    of Selous' platoon, who still stood rigidly to attention
+    throughout the discussion.
+
+    "Selous' company was indeed a mixed lot and contained men from
+    the French Foreign Legion, ex-Metropolitan policemen, a general
+    of the Honduras Army, lighthouse keepers, keepers from the Zoo,
+    Park Lane plutocrats, music-hall acrobats, but none the less
+    excellent stuff and devoted to their officers."
+
+After some delays the regiment was sent up by the Uganda railway to the
+Victoria Nyanza, where they went by steamer to attack the German forces
+on the Western bank of the Great Lake at Bukoba. The following notes are
+Selous' own account of these operations.
+
+    _Personal Experiences, during the Attack on and Capture of the Town
+    and Wireless Installation at Bukoba, on the Western side of Lake
+    Victoria Nyanza._
+
+    It was about midnight on June 21st, 1915, or very early on the
+    morning of June 22nd, that we approached an island in the bay of
+    Bukoba, which, as the captain of our ship no doubt knew very
+    well, and as we were to find out on the following day, was only
+    about half a mile from the town, and the fine wireless
+    installation close to the Lake shore. We had been going very
+    slowly and quietly for some time before nearing the island, and
+    the intention of our commander-in-chief may have been to land
+    his forces in the dark, without the knowledge of the Germans.
+    But the guard on the island were wide awake, and either heard or
+    saw our steamer approaching, as they immediately sent up six
+    blue lights, one after the other, which illuminated the whole
+    island, and of course, warned the Germans in Bukoba that a
+    hostile British force was about to attack the town. They no
+    doubt thought that this attack would be made in the bay itself,
+    under cover of the ships' guns, as we found later that all their
+    trenches and block-houses along the shores of the bay had been
+    manned. After the flashlights had gone up, and it was evident
+    that a surprise attack on the town was no longer possible, all
+    our ships retired in the darkness for some little distance, but
+    before daylight again approached the coast, at a point some
+    three miles to the north of Bukoba, from which they were hidden
+    by a point of land. We all stood to arms on the crowded decks at
+    4 a.m., and silently waited for daylight. At the first streak of
+    dawn, about 5.30, the disembarkation of our men (400 of the 25th
+    Battalion Royal Fusiliers) commenced. My Company, A, was the
+    first to land, a somewhat slow process, as the heavy row-boats
+    only travelled very slowly and our ship was further than it
+    looked from the shore. From within a few yards of the water's
+    edge to the base of a precipitous slope, some 200 yards distant,
+    which in places was a sheer cliff, some 300 or 400 feet high,
+    the ground was covered with bush and large banana-plantations,
+    amongst which were scattered a few large and comfortable-looking
+    native huts. Had the Germans only known that we were going to
+    attempt a landing at this spot and brought a machine-gun to the
+    top of the cliff, or had they even lined the top of the cliff
+    with riflemen, they would probably have been able to kill every
+    man in the closely packed boats, and sunk the latter before they
+    reached the shore. Luckily they did not know where we were going
+    to land, until too late, for once on shore, we worked our way as
+    quickly as possible through the banana-plantations, and gained
+    the top of the cliff unopposed. We were only just in time,
+    however, as we were soon engaged with the enemy's forces, which,
+    having now become aware of our intentions, were rapidly
+    advancing to meet us. The disembarkation of B, C, and D
+    Companies (100 men each) of our battalion was now proceeding
+    rapidly, and the advance towards the town commenced.[69]
+
+    It is impossible for me to attempt to give any general idea of
+    the whole engagement, which lasted for two days, and I can only
+    tell you some of my own experiences and impressions. We fought
+    in a long thin skirmishing line, which extended from the sea to
+    over a mile inland, and slowly and gradually pushed our
+    opponents back towards Bukoba. On the right of our frontiersmen
+    were 300 men of the Loyal North Lancashire regiment, and
+    somewhere--I believe near the sea-shore, though I must confess
+    that I never saw them--was a contingent of the King's African
+    Rifles--native African troops, commanded by white officers. Our
+    whole force was supported by four guns of an Indian Mountain
+    Battery (the 28th) and four machine-guns. The forces opposed to
+    us were undoubtedly very inferior to ours numerically, and
+    consisted, I think, entirely of well-trained and well-armed
+    native and Arab troops, commanded by German commissioned and
+    non-commissioned officers, and a number of German civilian
+    sharpshooters (men who no doubt have done a lot of big game
+    hunting) armed with sporting rifles, fitted with hair-triggers
+    and telescopic sights. With these rifles they used soft-nosed
+    expanding bullets.[70] They had two cannons, I do not know of
+    what calibre,[71] but of quite a considerable range and two
+    machine-guns. But in another way our opponents had a very great
+    advantage over us, as they had the benefit of the most splendid
+    cover, banana-plantations, patches of thick bush, and bits of
+    ground strewn with rocks, against which we had to advance in the
+    open. Many bullets seemed to pass very close to me, whilst
+    others were much too high. Several times, too, a machine-gun was
+    turned on my platoon, but the range was quite 2000 yards and my
+    men were very scattered, and the rocks and stones gave us good
+    cover between our advances. Presently two of our own
+    machine-guns came up, and searched the hill-side for the enemy's
+    gun, firing all along the crest of the hill. I do not know if
+    they actually put any of the German machine-gun contingent out
+    of action, but they certainly caused them to withdraw their gun.
+
+    In the course of the day I had a rather curious experience. I
+    was expecting to see the men of C Company on my right, when I
+    suddenly saw two men dressed in khaki and wearing helmets
+    amongst the rocks, less than 200 yards away from me on my right.
+    There were also two or three natives in khaki with them. I said
+    to Corporal Jenner, who was close to me, "Those must be two of
+    our men with some of the native carriers," and we stepped out
+    into the open. We were immediately fired on, but still I could
+    not bring myself to fire back at them, and thinking that they
+    were our own men and that seeing us suddenly, where they did not
+    expect any of our men to be, they had mistaken us for Germans, I
+    took off my helmet and waved it to them. One of them at once
+    removed his helmet and waved it back to me. I was just putting
+    on my helmet again, when the Germans--for they were
+    Germans--fired at me again, and then dived in amongst the rocks.
+    Their bullets appeared to whistle very close past me, though
+    they may not have been as near as they seemed. At one point a
+    lot of the enemy whom my platoon had gradually forced out of the
+    rocks had to cross the open valley below, but they were then a
+    long way off, and though we expended a lot of ammunition on them
+    I only saw one drop. We also killed one black soldier at close
+    quarters in the rocks, and I have his rifle, which I shall keep
+    as a souvenir.
+
+    About 5 o'clock our whole force advanced across the open valley
+    below the ridges we had taken nearly the whole day to clear. To
+    do this we had to get through a swamp, intersected by a small
+    river, which was much more than waist deep. Having negotiated
+    this, we then took possession of two rocks, hills from which we
+    drove the enemy just before it got dark. I was standing beside a
+    stone on the top of the first hill, when a bullet struck a small
+    dead stump just in front of and within a yard of me. Where the
+    bullet afterwards went I don't know, but it sent a large chunk
+    of dead wood against my chest, and another against a man just
+    behind me, which hit him in the groin. He evidently thought he
+    was hit and fell to the ground with a groan. But he was no more
+    hit or hurt than I was, and soon recovered his composure. We had
+    had a very hard day, having had nothing to eat, and not even a
+    cup of coffee before leaving the ship. Provisions were to have
+    been sent on shore for us, but if they were, we never got them.
+    I had a hard biscuit and a lump of cheese in my pocket, but
+    these were ruined in the swamp. General Stewart and his Staff
+    joined us in the evening, and one of his staff gave Major Webb,
+    Lieutenant Hargraves and myself each a small sausage. Colonel
+    Kitchener (Lord Kitchener's brother) was with General Stewart's
+    Staff, and he introduced himself to me, and was as nice as
+    possible. He insisted on giving me a few thin biscuits which I
+    shared with my two company officers. The day had been intensely
+    hot and muggy, but the night was clear and there was a good
+    moon. Colonel Driscoll wanted to go on and take the town by
+    storm in the night; but General Stewart thought it better to
+    wait until the morning. Most of our men were, I think, very much
+    exhausted, but I, I think, was in as good shape as any of them.
+    I really was not tired at all. We passed a most uncomfortable
+    night.[72] As soon as the dew began to fall it got very cold, so
+    cold that we could not sleep at all. We were wet through too up
+    to our chests. During the night someone set light to some native
+    huts in the banana-plantation below our hill, so I took
+    advantage of the blaze and went down there, and stripping stark
+    naked dried all my things before going up the hill again. Whilst
+    I was doing this our dead were taken past on stretchers. The
+    wounded had been taken on to our hospital-ship in the afternoon.
+
+    Before dawn on the morning of June 23rd, we all stood to arms
+    again on the top of the hills we had occupied the previous
+    evening, and very glad we all were when at last day broke and
+    the long, cold, dreary, sleepless night was past. We had nothing
+    to eat, and nothing to drink but the water in our
+    water-bottles, and again commenced the day's work on empty
+    stomachs. Soon after daybreak, our signaller brought a message
+    to Colonel Driscoll from General Stewart, telling him to send an
+    officer and twenty men through the bush and banana-plantations
+    below the hill, in order to find out the line taken by the road
+    (which we could plainly see passing below our hill and entering
+    the plantations) through the swamps which lay between us and the
+    town of Bukoba, and then to approach as near the town as
+    possible in order to ascertain what forces were defending it.
+    Colonel Driscoll and Major Webb did me the honour to select me
+    to lead this patrol, and I lost no time in selecting twenty good
+    men of my own platoon to accompany me. After getting off the
+    hill we advanced in single file along the road, I leading, and
+    my men following, with intervals of about six paces between
+    them. We followed the road, and it was somewhat jumpy work,
+    passing along the edge of several banana-plantations, and
+    patches of bush, as they afforded such ideal cover for
+    sharpshooters of the type we had encountered on the previous
+    day. However, there were none there, and we presently emerged on
+    to an open plain covered with grass about two or two and a half
+    feet high, and saw the road running through it straight in to
+    the town. All along the road were posts at intervals of fifty
+    yards or so supporting a telegraph or telephone wire which was
+    probably connected up with some fort from which we had compelled
+    the enemy to retire on the previous day.
+
+    On emerging into the open beyond the plantations at the foot of
+    the hill, we were perhaps twelve or fifteen hundred yards from
+    the wireless installation and the nearest houses. The sea-shore
+    was perhaps half a mile to our left, and between us and the lake
+    ran a reedy swamp, which we could see ran to within some 500
+    yards of the wireless installation and then curved to the right,
+    the straight road we were on going right across it over a
+    bridge. I now followed the road across the open ground,
+    searching both to right and left and straight in front for any
+    signs of the enemy. But we could see nothing and hear nothing,
+    and I began to think that possibly Bukoba had been deserted
+    during the night, and that I and my patrol might walk right
+    into it unopposed, But as we approached the bridge over the
+    swamp, I saw the opportunities it offered for an ambush, and so
+    passed the word down my line of men telling them to leave the
+    road, and keeping their relative positions, edge off to the
+    left, in the direction of the swamp. We had hardly commenced
+    this movement, when we were fired on from somewhere near the
+    bridge. "Down," I shouted, and my command was obeyed with the
+    utmost alacrity. The bullets whistled past us, but no one was
+    hit, and we then crawled through the grass to the swamp, and
+    then again advanced along its edge until we were within about
+    600 yards of the wireless installation. Along the swamp we
+    usually had good cover, but whenever I tried to reconnoitre and
+    raised myself above the grass to get a good look round I was
+    fired on, I could not tell exactly from where. Two or three
+    times a machine-gun was turned on us, but except when trying to
+    reconnoitre we were pretty safe, and the bullets really whizzed
+    over us. I expected that our whole battalion would have received
+    orders to advance on the town shortly after my patrol had shown
+    that there were no enemy forces on this side of where the road
+    crossed the swamp. But before this happened the enemy's gun
+    positions were shelled both by the Indian Mounted Battery on the
+    hill, and by the guns on our ships, which were now closing in on
+    the Bay of Bukoba. The Germans returned the fire of the Mountain
+    Battery most pluckily with two guns mounted on the hill behind
+    the town, but did not reply to the fire of the ships' guns. This
+    artillery duel had gone on for some time when about 9 o'clock a
+    terrific storm burst over the area of the fighting, accompanied
+    by torrential rain and partial darkness. In a few minutes my men
+    and I, and all who were exposed to its violence, were soaked to
+    the skin. The rain, however, was luckily, if not exactly warm,
+    not cold and gave us no sense of chill.
+
+    When the storm was over, the big guns again opened fire. Several
+    hours had now passed since I left the hill on which our
+    battalion had passed the night, and I wondered why no general
+    advance had been made on the town. I did not think that it
+    would be either wise or right to advance any further with only
+    twenty men, as I knew there was a machine-gun in front of us,
+    somewhere near the wireless installation, and it was impossible
+    to tell what forces were still holding Bukoba and waiting to
+    open fire from the shelter of the houses on any men advancing
+    against it. So I sent one of the men with me--a South African
+    named Budler--and my native boy Ramazani, with a note to Colonel
+    Driscoll that there was a good line of advance towards Bukoba,
+    along the edge of the swamp where my men were lying. My men met
+    Colonel Driscoll and learnt from him that a general advance was
+    in fact then taking place. C Company soon came up and took up
+    their position a little beyond me along the reed-bed, and I
+    learnt that Major Webb with the rest of A Company was advancing
+    on our right, and then B and D Companies were still further to
+    the right. The Adjutant, Captain White, then came along and
+    thought that some of us ought to cross to the further side of
+    the swamp. This was at once done by the men of C Company, some
+    of my men with myself as their leader, and Captain White
+    himself. The stream in the middle of the swamp was quite deep
+    and we all got wet up to our breasts. Just before we crossed the
+    swamp Lieutenant Miles of the King's African Rifles came up with
+    a machine-gun, with which he opened fire on one of the houses
+    near the wireless installation, from which we thought that a
+    German machine-gun had been firing at us. This proved to be
+    right, but unfortunately the German gun got the range of our gun
+    first, and when three of his men had been wounded, one very
+    severely, Lieutenant Miles had to withdraw his gun into the
+    shelter of the hollow formed by the reed-bed. German
+    sharpshooters, firing from we could not tell exactly where, were
+    now sending some bullets disagreeably close to us as we lay flat
+    just beyond the swamp. These bullets, fortunately in no great
+    number, seemed to ping past us only a few inches above our
+    bodies. Presently Sergeant-Major Bottomly of C Company came
+    across the swamp, and lay down alongside of me, or at least
+    separated from me by just a yard, my black boy Ramazani lying
+    between us, but a little lower down, so that his head was on a
+    line with my hips. I just said a word to Bottomly, and then
+    turned my head away from him again to look in the direction from
+    which the bullets were coming. Almost immediately my black boy
+    Ramazani touched me, and said: "Master, soldier hit, dead." I
+    had never heard a sound, but turning my head I saw poor Bottomly
+    lying on his back, stone dead, with a bullet through his head. I
+    noticed a large signet ring on his right hand, as his arm hung
+    limp across his body. His head and face were nearly covered by
+    his helmet, but the blood was trickling down over his throat,
+    and I knew that he must have been shot through the brain and
+    killed instantaneously.
+
+    Our ships had now crept right into the Bay of Bukoba, and as
+    they fired on the town, or the enemy's gun positions, their
+    shells came screaming and whistling over us. The machine-guns
+    were going too with their wicked rattle, and bullets from
+    snipers' rifles came with an unpleasant sound, sometimes
+    apparently within a few inches of our bodies, which were just
+    then pressed as close to the ground as possible. I thought, as I
+    lay there only a yard away from the blood-stained corpse of poor
+    Sergeant-Major Bottomly, listening to the peculiar noise of each
+    kind of projectile as it found its invisible course through the
+    air above and around me, that I could recall various half-hours
+    of my life passed amidst much pleasanter surroundings. And yet
+    what a small and miserable thing this was, after all, in the way
+    of a battle compared with the titanic combats which have been
+    taking place in Europe ever since the greatest war in history
+    commenced last August. I can well understand how the nerves of
+    any man, however strong, may be shaken to pieces, by the awful
+    clamour of the giant shells and the concentrated fire of many
+    machine-guns, and countless numbers of rifles, and the terrible
+    havoc wrought by these fearful weapons of destruction.
+
+    As the advance of the companies of our battalion on the right
+    seemed to be very slow, and we did not know exactly what
+    opposition lay in front of us, Colonel Driscoll asked me to call
+    for three or four volunteers, and crawl forwards in order to
+    make a reconnaissance. I took four men of my own platoon who
+    were close to me. We had not proceeded far when a shot was fired
+    at us from somewhere to our right. This bullet seemed just to
+    skim over us. We immediately lay flat, and wriggling to the left
+    got shelter in a slight hollow of the ground. Along this hollow
+    we advanced to within some three hundred yards of the house
+    nearest to the wireless installation, when several shots were
+    fired at us, and we could also hear talking beyond the rising
+    ground to our left. We could see no sign of the enemy near the
+    wireless installation, nor anywhere down the main street of the
+    town, and I think that Bukoba was at that time already deserted,
+    except for a few sharpshooters who were covering the evacuation,
+    so I at once crawled back to make my report to Colonel Driscoll.
+    On our way we passed some of Major Leitch's men (C Company) and
+    on my reaching Colonel Driscoll and making my report, he asked
+    me to collect the rest of my own men, and then took one of the
+    four men with me to guide him to where Major Leitch was, as he
+    wanted to speak to him. Almost immediately after I had parted
+    from him, my man, Private Mucklow (from Worcestershire), was
+    shot dead alongside of Colonel Driscoll, as he had incautiously
+    stood up. This, I think, was almost if not absolutely the last
+    shot fired by the enemy, and no opposition whatever was made to
+    the advance upon, and occupation of the town by our battalion. I
+    think that both their machine-guns had been put out of action by
+    shells from the Indian Mounted Battery, but they were carried
+    away. They abandoned one of their pieces of artillery, however.
+    We found it with four oxen ready yoked to drag it away, but a
+    shell from our battery had killed one of the oxen and so in
+    their hurry the Germans abandoned the gun. The sappers destroyed
+    most completely the wonderful structure of the wireless
+    installation, which was something like a small Eiffel Tower, and
+    nearly if not quite 200 feet high, with immensely strong
+    concrete foundations. It must have cost a great deal of money to
+    construct in Germany and then convey over so many thousands of
+    miles of land and sea to the very heart of Africa all the
+    component parts of this wonderful example of material
+    civilization, but I suppose the destruction of this wireless
+    installation was the chief object of this expedition to Bukoba.
+
+    Immediately upon entering the town my company was sent on to the
+    hill behind it to guard against any attack, and the men of the
+    Loyal North Lancashire regiment presently worked round along the
+    ridge of the higher hills beyond, and posted pickets on all
+    points of vantage. I therefore did not actually witness the
+    destruction of the wireless installation. Neither I nor my men
+    had had anything to eat since the previous evening and very
+    little since the evening before we left the ship, but we got
+    some bananas in the plantations on the hillsides below us,
+    though only a few of them were ripe. My men, however, brought me
+    two fine large ones quite ripe and of a most delicious flavour.
+
+    There was a sort of arsenal on the hill we were guarding, and
+    this was blown up about 5 o'clock, an immense amount of
+    ammunition being destroyed. The houses of the German residents,
+    probably Government officials for the most part, were very well
+    and comfortably built and furnished. The arsenal in the town was
+    set alight and great quantities of ammunition and some dynamite
+    destroyed. A good deal of beer and wine and provisions of
+    various kinds was discovered in Bukoba, but I saw no drunkenness
+    amongst our men.
+
+    Just at sundown the order came from General Stewart that our
+    battalion was to parade and march to the jetty and re-embark at
+    once. But at first we had to bury our dead. A great grave was
+    dug in the sandy soil, between the burning arsenal and the
+    Governor's house, and in it were laid three deep the bodies of
+    six Britons, still swathed in their blood-stained clothes, who
+    had given their lives for King and Country, far, far away from
+    their native land and all who held them dear. These men had all
+    been killed outright, but two more who had died of their wounds
+    after being taken to the hospital-ship were brought ashore and
+    buried within sound of the murmuring waters of the great inland
+    lake. Altogether our casualties amounted to twenty; 8 killed and
+    12 wounded. The re-embarkation of our battalion took a very long
+    time, and it was not till 2 a.m. on the morning of June 24th
+    that my company, A, at last got on board. Until then we had been
+    sitting and lying about on the jetty in our wet clothes, without
+    food, fire, or warm tea or coffee.
+
+    Before midday on the 24th our flotilla started back across the
+    lake for Kisumu, which we reached on the evening of the 25th.
+    The authorities had made our men intensely uncomfortable on
+    board the steamer by putting a lot of mules on the crowded decks
+    with them. They were able to rest and get food at Kisumu, and
+    about six o'clock on the evening of the 26th we started by train
+    for Nairobi. Again the authorities packed our men like sardines
+    into miserable third-class carriages made for natives. They
+    could surely have given us two trains and so allowed our tired
+    men a little space to stretch themselves. We arrived at Nairobi
+    at 6.30 on the evening of the 27th, and were packed off again at
+    7 o'clock for Kajiado. One would have thought that as our men
+    had come out from England to fight for East Africa, and that as
+    we had just returned from a successful attack on an enemy's
+    stronghold, and as our time of arrival in Nairobi had been
+    telegraphed on ahead, that something might have been done by the
+    townspeople on behalf of our tired and hungry men; or that even
+    some kind of official welcome might have been accorded them. But
+    not a bite of food for man or officer was to be had on our
+    arrival at Nairobi, and not even hot water could be obtained to
+    make tea with.
+
+    Leaving Nairobi on the evening of June 27th, we reached our camp
+    at Kajiado early the following morning, and our first expedition
+    against the Germans was at an end.
+
+    F. C. SELOUS,
+    Lieutenant 25th Battalion
+    Royal Fusiliers.
+
+In a letter to his friend Heatley Noble (July 26th, 1915), Selous, who
+was then with his battalion guarding the Uganda railway near Voi, speaks
+of the difficulties lying ahead of our people and the efforts, only
+partially successful, to hold our territory against the splendidly
+organized German forces.
+
+    "Since our fight at Bukoba we have made an attack on a German
+    post in British territory on the road from Voi to Taveta. Our
+    attack in this case failed, as our information seems to have
+    been all wrong, and the Germans were found to be more strongly
+    posted than had been supposed. An Indian Punjabi regiment was
+    badly cut up, the Colonel killed and the Adjutant wounded and
+    taken prisoner. The native porters, carrying ammunition and
+    equipment of all kinds, threw down everything and cleared as
+    soon as the first shots were fired, and the Germans took
+    possession of everything, including the dead and wounded. They
+    buried the Colonel with full military honours, and allowed the
+    Adjutant to send word that he was being well looked after. There
+    were several other units engaged in this affair, 500 Rhodesians,
+    some of the Loyal North Lancs, and three companies of the
+    K.A.R.; but the casualties in all these contingents were very
+    small, only the Indian regiment apparently having got up against
+    the machine-guns. Things are now at a standstill out here, and
+    when there will be another move it is impossible to say. Botha
+    had 50,000 men, and equipment of all kinds to conquer the
+    Germans in South-West Africa, and he did his job splendidly.
+    Here we have under 2000 white troops, some 2000 African blacks
+    and a considerable number of Indians, most of them very much
+    demoralized as they caught it badly at Tanga and Jasin. The
+    Germans are said to have 4000 or 5000 white men in G.E.A. and
+    nearly 20,000 very well trained black troops under German
+    officers.[73] They are, too, splendidly equipped in every way,
+    and have no end of machine-guns and ammunition. Even if we had a
+    large army here, we could not move it across country to the
+    vital points in G.E.A., as the difficulties of transport would
+    be insurmountable. The only way would be to take Dar-es-Salaam
+    and Tanga, and then advance methodically up their railways, as
+    Botha did in S.W. Africa. For this we should require at least
+    20,000 or 30,000 men, and as we are not likely to get them, in
+    my opinion we shall be stuck out here until peace is made in
+    Europe. I hope to God that will be before many months are over,
+    or all our young men will be killed. I hope and trust your sons
+    are still alive. I often think of them and of your and Mrs.
+    Noble's terrible anxiety. There has been a lot of
+    sickness--fever and dysentery--both amongst the officers and men
+    of this battalion, but only two deaths--two privates died of
+    dysentery. I think that I am the only one of our officers who
+    has not suffered at all from either bad diarrhoea, dysentery or
+    fever. I have been quite well all the time, and have never been
+    an hour off duty. Bukoba was rather hard, scarcely any food for
+    two days and nights, up to our chests in the swamps, and then
+    lying out in our wet clothes without fire or blanket. I did not
+    suffer any after-effects at all, I am glad to say, and have now
+    got into very good condition. The long marches do not tire me at
+    all, and the men now say that when I fall out no one will be
+    left standing in the battalion. This is, of course, nonsense,
+    but as far as standing fatigue, sun, thirst, etc., I think that
+    I am really better than most of them. Three of our officers have
+    been found unfit for further service, and there are some others
+    who are weak constitutionally, and will never be able to stand
+    any really hard work. So we are very short of officers, and
+    whether Colonel Driscoll's recommendation in my favour for good
+    conduct in the field is attended to or not, I shall very likely
+    get to be a captain before long, as I am the senior subaltern in
+    the battalion. I don't know my drill very well, but my men, I
+    hear, say they have great confidence in me, and will go anywhere
+    with me; but once I am through with this job, no more military
+    duty for me. I hate all the drill and routine-work, and I shall
+    be far too old to take part in any other war after this one."
+
+In a letter to me, written from Voi (December 8th, 1915), Selous gives a
+short general survey of the operations since he landed.
+
+    "MY DEAR JOHNNY,
+
+    "Your letter of October 31st reached me here three days ago, and
+    I was very pleased to get it and to hear all your news. It is
+    now more than seven months since we landed at Mombasa, on May
+    4th, and we have had a wearing, trying time ever since. Only one
+    of our officers has been killed, but there has been much
+    sickness both in our battalion and the Loyal North Lancs
+    regiment, which came here from India, and several of our men
+    have died from dysentery or fever, and several of our officers
+    have been invalided home. I think that I am the only officer who
+    has not been in hospital. So far I have not been ill at all and
+    I have never yet been a day off duty or had a day's leave. I
+    have never applied for leave, but if I can last out for a few
+    months longer, and during that time we are able to push the
+    Germans back over their own frontier, and are then able to force
+    them to give in, I want to get a couple of months' leave, and go
+    to Uganda, after those fine water-bucks on the Semliki river. We
+    were first of all on the high veldt in the game reserve on the
+    Magadi railway, and there the climate was very fine, but for the
+    last four months we have been in this comparatively low hot
+    country, protecting the Voi-Maktau railway, and hunting German
+    patrols and dynamiting parties, in the most frightful bush. I
+    was out in command of 30 rifles to the west of the Teita Hills
+    towards the Tsavo river, and tracked a German dynamiting party
+    for two days, and at one time was very close to them, but the
+    bush was simply awful and they got off (without bombing the
+    Uganda line) by moonlight, when we could no longer follow their
+    tracks. The day after I got back from this 11 days' patrol, I
+    was sent out again with 70 rifles and 120 porters to examine the
+    courses of the Mwatate and Bura rivers, and see how far they
+    carried water, and if there were any German patrols about. I was
+    out 7 days on this patrol. These patrols are not all pure joy,
+    as the heat of the sun is now very great, and heavy rain falls
+    almost every night. We can carry no tents or any kind of
+    protection against the weather, and we had three very bad
+    nights during the two patrols, lying in the soaking rain and mud
+    all night. Every night heavy thunder-storms break all round
+    about, but they are very local and we have been lucky in not
+    getting into the middle of more of them at nights. We often get
+    soaked in the daytime, but dry again as soon as the storm is
+    over. This bush-work is very trying, as the German black askaris
+    are very much better at it than heavily equipped white men, many
+    of whom have always lived in towns before coming out here. They
+    are recruited from fighting tribes--mostly Manyamwesi--and are
+    not only very brave, but very well armed. We have met with some
+    nasty knocks in this district, but have also ambushed the enemy
+    now and again, and inflicted heavy punishment on them. A party
+    of the Lancs were ambushed and badly cut up 6 miles from here
+    not long ago, losing 2 officers and nearly 20 men killed, and
+    when Lieutenant Dartnell of ours was killed,[74] the mounted
+    infantry to which he was attached were ambushed and suffered
+    severely. On the other hand, the mounted infantry with two
+    companies of Baluchis not long afterwards waylaid a party of the
+    enemy, and killed over 30 of them, and one German officer. Only
+    yesterday, the Boer force from the Uas n'gishu (Belfield's
+    Scouts) 100 men under Major Arnoldi, went out from Maktau, and
+    meeting a German force coming towards Maktau from their strongly
+    fortified position at M'buyuni, 13 miles away, attacked them,
+    and killed two white Germans and over 20 askaris, and took
+    prisoners 4 white Germans (2 wounded). The Boers had only one
+    casualty, which was unfortunately their leader Major Arnoldi. He
+    was only wounded in the shoulder, but fell from his saddle, and
+    his foot unfortunately catching in his stirrup had his brains
+    knocked out against a tree. In all the time I have been out here
+    I have only taken part in one incident of interest. That was the
+    journey up to and across the Victoria Nyanza, and the attack
+    on and capture of Bukoba on the western side of the lake. 400 of
+    our men took part in this adventure, and it was we men of the
+    25th Fusiliers who did everything that was done. I was then a
+    lieutenant in A Company, and led my platoon on the first day,
+    and conducted a very risky patrol of 20 men early on the second
+    day, and a reconnaissance later--more risky still--with four men
+    who volunteered for the job. We had two days' fighting, and, as
+    I was always in front, I had personally some very narrow
+    escapes. I may tell you privately, but keep it to yourself, that
+    Colonel Driscoll was very pleased with my conduct at Bukoba, and
+    told me that he had recommended me for promotion and something
+    more, but as I have never heard anything more about it, no
+    notice was taken, I suppose, of Colonel Driscoll's
+    recommendation. I should certainly have liked my name to have
+    been mentioned in despatches. However, it can't be helped, and I
+    may get another chance. I have got my promotion to captain, but
+    that came to me in the natural course of events, as a Captain
+    Williams was invalided home, and I was the senior subaltern. You
+    may possibly have heard that there have been disasters out here,
+    but if the whole truth about everything out here is ever known
+    it will be a revelation to most people. It was certainly an evil
+    day for British East Africa _when the Indian Government took
+    over the defence of this country_.[75] With the exception of the
+    Baluchis and the Cashmiris all the other Indian troops have
+    failed badly out here, and have proved very inferior to either
+    our own K.A.R.'s or the German native askaris. The attack on,
+    and capture of Bukoba by our men is the only success on any
+    considerable scale yet scored by the British out here. I do not
+    say it was much, but at any rate we carried out what we were set
+    to do, and captured the town of Bukoba and destroyed the very
+    fine wireless installation. We hear that a British general from
+    France is on his way out here as G.O.C., and that large numbers
+    of troops are coming here both from South Africa and other
+    parts. Something is undoubtedly in preparation, but I suppose it
+    will be another two months before everything is in readiness for
+    a big advance. And the Germans may move first, as they have four
+    times as many men as we have, and many more guns and
+    machine-guns. We are now in a camp built by the North Lancs and
+    some Indian troops, or rather two camps a mile apart. Sickness
+    has reduced our battalion to about 700 men, and of these many
+    are weak and ill, and I don't think we have more than 400 men
+    who are really strong and capable of marching 20 miles in the
+    hot sun, with their heavy equipment. Our whole battalion, after
+    having been continually split up and sent in batches all over
+    the country, were at last brought all together again here under
+    Colonel Driscoll; three companies in the one camp and one in the
+    smaller camp a mile away. But last week the Colonel in command
+    at Maktau got nervous and ordered Colonel Driscoll to send half
+    his battalion there. Now we are left in this very large camp
+    with under 200 rifles--counting all our black scouts--and all
+    the tailors, cobblers, barbers, commissariat and orderly-room
+    people. We haven't a gun of any kind, nor even a single
+    machine-gun, and the camp itself is in a hollow commanded by
+    higher ground on all sides. We have another 100 or 150 rifles in
+    the smaller camp a mile away. Well, news came a few days ago
+    that a large enemy force with several Hotchkiss guns and many
+    Maxims was advancing on Kisigau, from which an Indian garrison
+    was driven some time ago. We had another small garrison at
+    Kisigau of 50 K.A.R.'s. The Germans have again captured the
+    place after killing or wounding 40 of the garrison. The
+    remainder made their escape. When the G.O.C. and the other
+    generals at Nairobi and Voi heard of this advance on Kisigau,
+    they thought the Germans intended making a determined attack on
+    the railway line, and sent 1500 troops--Rhodesians, North Lancs,
+    K.A.R.'s, and Indians--down to Voi to march from Maungu to
+    Kisigau, leaving Maktau very short of men, though they there
+    have plenty of guns, a mountain battery and machine-guns, and
+    the place is very strongly fortified. At the new station
+    Mashoti, between here and Maktau, only 100 men have been left,
+    but they have guns and machine-guns, and are in a very well
+    constructed camp in a very good position. If we are attacked
+    here by any considerable force with guns and machine-guns we can
+    do nothing, and shall probably all get scuppered. We were fully
+    expecting an attack yesterday, last night, or this morning, as
+    we got a message from Maktau that a large force was approaching.
+    The last rumour is that 10,000 men are advancing on Maktau. At
+    the same time, if the Germans are going to do anything worth
+    while, now is their chance, before the new troops get here. They
+    know everything about us from their Arab and native spies. Well!
+    if the Germans know the state of this place and do not attack
+    it, they will be great fools. The whole position is farcical.
+    This is a very important point, as if it is taken, the water
+    supply to Maktau and Mashoti will be cut off, and yet we have
+    been left with only a few rifles and not a single gun or
+    machine-gun to defend an immense perimeter. Well! all we can do
+    is to 'wait and see,' as Mr. Asquith would say. I am afraid that
+    the war will go on for some time yet, and thousands more of our
+    men will be killed before it is over. I have two young nephews
+    at the Front in France now and I think a third has gone to
+    Serbia with the Motor Transport. My eldest son Freddy will not
+    be eighteen till next April, but I expect he will be sent out
+    soon after then, as he is big and strong for his age. If he goes
+    out and gets killed[76] it will break his mother's heart and
+    mine too, if I should live to come home, and it will be the same
+    for you and your wife if you lose Geoff;[77] but I pray God he
+    will be spared to outlive this terrible war. I suppose the
+    Germans cannot now possibly win the war; but can the Allies
+    absolutely crush them before their finances are exhausted? The
+    war will soon probably be costing us L6,000,000 a day instead of
+    L5,000,000. How long can we stand that? We seem to have made
+    some terrible mistakes and miscalculations, especially in the
+    Dardanelles and the Balkans. However, like everyone else out
+    here, I suppose I am despondent. Perhaps the heat down here is
+    depressing. This place has the reputation of being very
+    unhealthy in the rainy season, and I fear our men will suffer
+    very much during the next two months. Your naval work must be
+    very interesting, and you must tell me all about it, if we ever
+    meet again. I was very sorry to hear that poor Gerald Legge[78]
+    had been killed. But who is going to be left alive when this war
+    is over?
+
+    "Well! good-bye, old friend, and with very kind regards to Mrs.
+    Millais and all your family and wishing Geoff the best of good
+    luck, yours ever,
+
+    FRED.
+
+    "P.S.--I have not seen Judd yet. He was scouting down on the
+    German border for some months after the war broke out, but has
+    been on his farm near Nairobi for the last six months."
+
+[Illustration: A SHOT ON THE PLAINS, BRITISH EAST AFRICA.]
+
+The following letters from Ex-President Roosevelt in reply to letters
+from Selous, describing local conditions in B.E. Africa, give some of
+his views on Germany prior to the entry of America in the Great War:--
+
+    "OYSTER BAY,
+    "LONG ISLAND, N.Y.,
+    "_April 2nd_, 1915.
+
+    "MY DEAR SELOUS,
+
+    "I have received your letter of February 23rd and send this to
+    Nairobi. I am exceedingly glad you have gone to British East
+    Africa. I am sorry to say that very reluctantly I have come to
+    the same conclusion that you have about the purposes and conduct
+    of Germany. The behaviour of her armies in Belgium and in the
+    North of France was, I think, the inevitable result of the kind
+    of doctrine that has been preached by those high in authority in
+    Germany and which was typified by the Emperor's famous advice to
+    his troops in China to 'behave like Huns.' A man cannot direct
+    soldiers to behave like Huns and then escape responsibility for
+    the swinish horrors that follow. From my book you have already
+    seen how strongly I have spoken as to the failure of the United
+    States and other neutrals to do their duty when the Hague
+    Conventions were violated. You cannot speak any more strongly
+    than I have spoken.
+
+    "One genuine surprise to me was the strength that the Germans
+    have shown in their colonies.[79] I agree with you that the
+    attitude of the Boers has been one of the finest tributes
+    imaginable to the justice with which England has behaved in
+    South Africa. I have sent your letter to Kermit. It will make
+    him eager to be beside you under Driscoll. I most earnestly hope
+    that you won't be used as a transport officer. Tarlton writes me
+    that he was not allowed to go to the front either. I would a
+    good deal rather trust Tarlton and you in a fight than most of
+    the men who are technically entirely fit because of their youth
+    and physical soundness.
+
+    "I have not the heart to write to you about ordinary things
+    while you are in the midst of this terrible struggle. As I have
+    said in an article I recently wrote, I do not believe in
+    neutrality between right and wrong; and I am very sorry that the
+    United States is not in the struggle. If there were a war, my
+    four boys would go, although I suppose that the two younger ones
+    would have to go as enlisted men; and I should ask permission to
+    raise a division of nine regiments of the same type as the
+    regiment I commanded in Cuba. They were men in whom your soul
+    would have delighted. They were much of the stamp of the Hills
+    of British East Africa--by the way, if you see them give them my
+    warm regards, as also to Newland and any other friends you meet.
+    I am delighted to hear about your son.
+
+    "With hearty good wishes,
+
+    "Faithfully yours,
+    "THEODORE ROOSEVELT."
+
+    "_August 26th_, 1915.
+
+    "DEAR SELOUS,
+
+    "Your letter of July 11th has just come. I congratulate you with
+    all my heart. It is simply first-class to have you a fighting
+    officer in the fighting line, leading your men in the very work
+    that you are particularly and peculiarly fitted to do. I was
+    wholly unable to understand Lord Kitchener refusing you a
+    commission. It seemed to me to be an instance of following the
+    letter that kills instead of the spirit that gives life. The
+    Germans have used Von Hindenburg,[80] who was away over the
+    legal age-limit for generals; and he has been their best
+    general. There is undoubtedly a certain type of bureaucrat who
+    would have thought it more important to observe the rule by
+    keeping him at home than to have secured his leadership in
+    victory. Of course, I personally believe in universal military
+    service, and in the most rigorous application of military law
+    during a war. If I had control in East Africa--or in Great
+    Britain or the United States, for that matter!--I would make
+    every man do whatever was best for the nation, whether this
+    meant that he was to fight or to produce ammunition or to
+    produce coal, and I would treat the man who sought to make a
+    profit out of the war or who went on a strike so as to avoid
+    doing his duty in the war just as summarily as I would treat the
+    soldier who flinched in a fight.
+
+    "I am so pleased that MacMillan is with you and is doing so well
+    with the commissariat. Give him my heartiest regards. I wish to
+    heaven Kermit and I were with you, or at least that Kermit[81]
+    was with you, and that I was helping in the trenches in
+    Flanders, where I would be of more service.
+
+    "I send you herewith two articles I have just written in
+    reference to what I regard as the frightful misconduct of my own
+    country. The trouble is that the men at the head of our
+    Government are doing just exactly what the men at the head of
+    your Government did up to a year and a quarter ago; and they
+    treat the words of men like myself precisely as your men treated
+    Lord Roberts--I do not mean to compare myself to Lord Roberts in
+    this matter, but the attitude of the governmental authorities
+    toward him and toward me has been the same.
+
+    "That was a first-class little fight at Bukoba. If the Germans
+    keep sinking boats with our citizens on them, sooner or later I
+    cannot help thinking our citizens as a whole will themselves
+    insist on fighting. The professional pacifists have done this
+    country a damage that cannot be over-stated. If you come through
+    all right and if, in the event of war, I come through all right,
+    I shall look forward eagerly to seeing you when the war is over
+    and asking for more details about what you tell me concerning
+    the attitude of so many people in British East Africa and in
+    Nairobi, for I am immensely puzzled over it. Pray present my
+    warmest regards to MacMillan and my hearty congratulations as
+    well, and also present my respects and congratulations to
+    Colonel Driscoll."
+
+Writing at an earlier date (December 4th, 1914), Roosevelt in his usual
+vigorous style thus expresses his estimate of German policy:--
+
+    "I don't wonder that you feel a little bit concerned about the
+    war. Moreover, I am not certain that the theory that France and
+    England are to act as anvil and Russia as hammer will work out.
+    It looks to me as if, unit for unit, the Russians had shown a
+    marked inferiority to the Germans, French, and English. They
+    have enormous numbers and great endurance, and these may become
+    decisive factors in the end. I do hope that your army will
+    increase in numbers, however, to the point of being able to
+    become formidable as an offensive factor.
+
+    "I have a great admiration and respect for the Germans. I wish
+    to heavens that this country would wake up to the hideous
+    damage, moral and physical, caused by the deification of mere
+    industrialism, of softness and of self-indulgence. National
+    acceptance of the need of hard labour, of facing risk, and of
+    the exercise of foresight is necessary to national greatness. If
+    I must choose between a policy of blood and iron and one of milk
+    and water--especially of skimmed milk and dishwater--why I am
+    for the policy of blood and iron. It is better not only for the
+    nation, but in the end for the world. But my admiration for the
+    Germans does not blind me to the fact that for the last fifty
+    years their development along the lines of policy advocated by
+    Frederick the Great and Bismarck, and so enthusiastically
+    championed by Carlyle, has resulted in their becoming a very
+    grave menace to every nation with which they are brought in
+    contact. I immensely admire German industrial, social, and
+    military efficiency; but I abhor the kind of militarism which
+    has resulted in such cynical contempt for international morality
+    and such appalling ruthlessness in war. I think it folly for a
+    man not to admire the German efficiency; and utter weakness for
+    him not to realize that that efficiency may be used against his
+    own nation and take steps accordingly. I wish I were in the war
+    myself!"
+
+The authorities at home at last resolved to take the East African
+campaign into their own hands, and in January appointed General Smuts to
+the command and gave him adequate forces with which to make an advance
+into German East Africa. Selous' letter to me, February 25th, 1916,
+brings his narrative up to date.
+
+    "MY DEAR JOHNNY,
+
+    "After a long interval we got a mail here yesterday, and it
+    brought me your letter of January 5th. This is the second
+    letter I have received from you, so I think I must have missed
+    one, and it may have gone down in the ill-fated 'Persia,' which
+    had mails for East Africa on board. I have not much news to give
+    you, nor much time to write it, as we are now just getting ready
+    for a move forward. After over five months of hard grinding work
+    in the very hot sun, guarding the line from Voi to near Mombasa,
+    and from Voi to Maktau, on the way to Taveta, and many patrols
+    without any kind of shelter all through the heavy rains of
+    December and January, we were sent up to Kajiado on the Magadi
+    railway, and then on here about a fortnight ago. We are now
+    camped just over the German border, and go on to Longido, 18
+    miles ahead, very shortly. You will have seen in the papers that
+    General Smith-Dorrien was taken ill in South Africa, and that
+    General Smuts has taken his place as G.O.C. out here. He will, I
+    think, commence the offensive against the Germans immediately,
+    but _if_ the Germans have the forces they are said to have, and
+    _if_ all their native troops remain loyal to them, we shall have
+    a devil of a job. I hear that General Smuts, who arrived in the
+    country a week ago, and has already been to Longido by
+    motor-car, fully realizes that this affair will be a much more
+    difficult business than the South-West Africa campaign. There
+    the Germans had no native troops, and Botha had ten men for
+    every man the Germans could muster. Then the country in German
+    S.W. Africa was much easier to work in than this dense tropical
+    bush, which lends itself at every yard to ambushes and is
+    everywhere very much in favour of the defending forces. Water is
+    a great difficulty here, too, and the greater part of German
+    East Africa between our border and the Dar-es-Salaam, Tanganyika
+    railway, except round Kilimanjaro and other high mountains,
+    seems to be very waterless. There is only one permanent water
+    between Kajiado and this camp, over 50 miles, and the transport
+    animals have to do a trek of over 30 miles without water.
+    However, we have this year had no dry season, for since it
+    commenced to rain in November, it has been raining off and on
+    ever since, not sufficiently to fill the water-holes, but quite
+    enough to make things very uncomfortable, and to keep the grass
+    growing, which I am afraid is all in favour of the Germans, as
+    it makes good cover for their ambushes everywhere. The German
+    officers out here seem to be very fine soldiers, and what people
+    do not realize, their black troops are not only as brave as any
+    Zulus, but splendidly led and well armed and supported with any
+    number of machine-guns. No better men could be found in the
+    whole world, and personally, in this bush-covered, overgrown,
+    but still hot and waterless country, I would much sooner have to
+    fight against Germans from the Fatherland than these
+    well-trained and elusive blacks. If we could only gain some
+    success a lot of them might desert. But all the successes have
+    been on their side up to now (except at Bukoba), and they must
+    be full of confidence. A fortnight ago, just before General
+    Smuts reached this country, an attack was launched against a
+    German position not far from Taveta, by three regiments of South
+    Africans, supported by a regiment of Baluchis and some
+    Rhodesians. The situation was only saved from complete disaster
+    by the Baluchis and the Rhodesians. I enclose a reference to the
+    affair in the Nairobi paper, but it has been very unfortunate,
+    and is a very bad beginning to the new campaign now opening, as
+    it will keep the German black troops loyal to their masters, and
+    fill them with renewed confidence. Smuts' generalship may prove
+    superior to all the difficulties he will have to contend with,
+    but I expect he now realizes that he is up against a much more
+    difficult proposition than he had expected. When we advance from
+    our most forward base--Longido--we are not to carry any kind of
+    tents or shelter from the weather, and as the heavy rains now
+    seem to be setting in (we are having heavy thunder-storms with
+    soaking rain now every day or night) we are likely to have a
+    very bad time, and most of us who are still fit will be sure to
+    go down with fever or dysentery, as the heavy rains may last all
+    through March, April, May, and June. Well! the future is on the
+    knees of the gods, and we must take the luck they send us.
+    Lately we have been practising attacks on positions, advancing
+    in bush formation under General Sheppard, an awfully nice man,
+    who I think will command the brigade to which we are attached. I
+    am now in command of A Company of the 25th Fusiliers, and in all
+    our manoeuvres A and B Companies have to lead the advance, so I
+    expect we shall have to do the same when it comes to actually
+    attacking any German position. When we landed at Mombasa on May
+    4th last our battalion was nearly 1100 strong and there were 273
+    men in A Company. Now we have lost more than half our officers,
+    and have not more than 400 men fit to march and fight. This is
+    the effect of the climate. In A Company we can muster about 100
+    fit men, and three officers (myself and two men raised from the
+    ranks). Well! I hope that this accursed war will be over by next
+    August, and I think it will, as by that time Germany will surely
+    be exhausted, as well as some of the Allies. By April, I see it
+    is stated, that the war will be costing us L6,000,000 a day. How
+    long can we stand that? What I cannot understand is, where are
+    our armies of millions of men, and all the stores of munitions
+    we are making and buying from America. We are said to have now
+    5,000,000 of men well armed and equipped, and yet we do not
+    appear to have more than 1,000,000 in France and Flanders, nor
+    more than 500,000 in Salonika and Egypt together. In Mesopotamia
+    and East Africa, we have only a few hundreds of British troops,
+    all the rest being Indians and South Africans. Well! I hope I
+    shall live through this show, and come home again, as I want to
+    see my wife again, and watch my boys' careers. I believe that
+    Freddy will pass out of Sandhurst this month. I was very pleased
+    to hear that all is so far going well with you and yours. May
+    your boys be spared to you and their mother whatever happens.
+    With very kind regards to all of you."
+
+    "OLD MOSCHI,
+    "ON THE SLOPES OF KILIMANJARO,
+    "_May 2nd_, 1916.
+
+    "MY DEAR JOHNNY,
+
+    "It is a long time now since I last heard from you, but I trust
+    that all is still going well with you and yours. On the day
+    after to-morrow we shall have been a whole solid year out here,
+    as we landed at Mombasa on May 4th, 1915. Of that year we have
+    been over six months in the low unhealthy bush-country, doing
+    heavy marches in the hottest hours of the day, and lying out on
+    patrols with no shelter or protection whatever from the weather,
+    all through the heavy rains of December and January last. As I
+    never had any fever, diarrhoea or dysentery, but was always
+    well, I did more of this patrol work than any other officer in
+    our battalion, and it meant long marches too, sometimes
+    following small parties of Germans trying to blow up the Uganda
+    railway. In common with all the other white troops serving on
+    foot out here, our battalion has suffered terribly from the
+    climate, and is now almost quite used up. The Loyal North Lancs
+    regiment has been out here eighteen months; but they have had
+    two strong drafts from home to make good their losses. However,
+    they have now been sent or are just about to go to Wynberg, near
+    Cape Town, to recruit, and from there will probably be sent
+    home. Four of our officers and a lot of our men have also been
+    sent there. The Rhodesian regiment which first came out here has
+    also suffered very badly from the climate, and has now been sent
+    to the escarpment near Nairobi to recruit. The South African
+    troops which have only just come out here are also suffering a
+    lot from fever and dysentery, and Van Deventer is said to have
+    lost about 1400 horses (from horse-sickness) out of the 2000 he
+    had six weeks ago. The condition of our battalion is simply
+    lamentable. When we came up from the low country at the end of
+    February to Kajiado (5800 feet above sea-level) Colonel Driscoll
+    tried to collect all his men from the various hospitals and
+    convalescent homes in the country. We had landed at Mombasa on
+    May 4th, 1915, with 1127 rifles, and we mustered at Kajiado
+    about 700 on February 1st, 1916; but of these many were no
+    longer of any use for marching in the hot sun. From Kajiado we
+    went to Longido, and were incorporated with Colonel Stewart's
+    Brigade, which had to march right round Kilimanjaro, and meet
+    General Smuts' much larger force at Moschi. As far as our
+    Brigade was concerned only 449 of the 691 who had left Kajiado
+    were found to be fit enough for the heavy marching in front of
+    us. Starting from Longido late in the morning of March 5th, we
+    marched 9 miles under a very hot sun to Sheep Hill. There was
+    there no shelter from the sun, and we passed a very unpleasant
+    day. We were told to rest and sleep, as we had a long
+    night-march of 20 miles before us. We marched all night long
+    except from 12 to 2 a.m., and did not get to the water until
+    after midday the next day, and the distance registered in
+    General Stewart's motor-car was 30 miles instead of 20. We had
+    other very long marches in the very hot sun, in choking clouds
+    of fine lava-dust, churned up by the heavy transport. The
+    Germans had prepared to dispute our advance along the main road
+    from Longido to New Moschi, which passes N'gara Nairobi. But
+    under the guidance of a Boer settler in German East Africa,
+    named Pretorius, we left the road soon after leaving Sheep Hill
+    and travelled across country to Boma N'gombi, 15 miles from New
+    Moschi (the railway terminus), on the road to Aruscha. The
+    Germans, whose main forces were trying to hold back Smuts' big
+    columns advancing on Taveta, apparently had not sufficient
+    forces to come out and attack General Stewart's column, so we
+    got through with nothing more than a little sniping. Arrived at
+    Boma N'gombi, we got into communication with General Smuts
+    through our wireless, and General Stewart was ordered to send a
+    picked force by a forced march to join up with one of his forces
+    at Masai Kraal, and then advance together to New Moschi. About
+    half of our 449 men (many of whom were now badly knocked up)
+    were considered fit for this advance and I led 55 men of my A
+    Company, the 55 fittest men of the 282 of A Company who had
+    stepped ashore at Mombasa less than a year before. The night we
+    left Boma N'gombi heavy rain came on and we marched in rain and
+    mud and pitch darkness for many miles along an old abandoned
+    waggon-road. Before daylight we joined up with some mounted
+    scouts, who informed us that the Germans had evacuated New
+    Moschi and gone off down the railway, and that South African
+    troops had occupied both New Moschi and Old Moschi (where I am
+    now writing on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and six miles by road
+    from New Moschi in the plain below us). The day after we got to
+    New Moschi, we were sent off with part of General Stewart's
+    Brigade, under Colonel (now Brigadier-General Sheppard) to
+    co-operate with the S. African forces against the Germans, who
+    had retired from Taveta towards the Ruwu river. A night march of
+    16 miles brought us to Newi Hill on the road to Taveta, and
+    after a march of a few miles the next afternoon we got in touch
+    with the E.A.M.R., and shortly afterwards a few German snipers.
+    We pushed them back and then entrenched as well as we could.
+    That night they sniped us a bit, but did no harm. The bush was
+    very thick all round our camp, but it was nearly full moon. We
+    heard the attack on one of the S.A. Brigades to our left, and
+    also the heavy German gun (a 4.1 naval gun from the
+    'Koenigsberg') firing both at this brigade and at Van Deventer's
+    Brigade, which had advanced down the railway line from New
+    Moschi to Kahi station. These brigades, I believe, ought to have
+    got in touch with us, but they did not do so. During March 20th
+    we improved our trenches and prepared for a night attack, which
+    in fact started at 8.45 and was kept up till 1 a.m. The black
+    troops, under German officers, behaved very pluckily, and time
+    after time answered the bugle call to advance on our camp. Our
+    Maxims kept them off. Fortunately they had no machine-guns with
+    them, and though they fired thousands of shots at our camp they
+    did very little damage, as almost all the bullets went pinging
+    over us. Soon after 1 a.m. we heard their bugle sounding the
+    'assemble' and they drew off. In the morning the dead just in
+    front of our machine-gun commanding the road were collected and
+    laid out in a row--like pheasants or hares after a drive--but
+    the bush was not searched for the rest of the dead, as we had to
+    push on and attack the Germans who were entrenched across the
+    road a few miles on ahead on the Soko river. They held us off
+    all day, and we had about 200 casualties, as the South African
+    Brigades on our right and left which were to have enveloped them
+    could not or did not come up. The men of our battalion (about 50
+    of each of our 4 companies) were in reserve, but late in the
+    afternoon A, C, and D Companies had to go forward to support an
+    Indian regiment. I was in command of my 50 men of A Company. We
+    really could do nothing but lie very flat, trying to dig
+    ourselves in with bayonets and fingers, being under the sweeping
+    fire of three or four machine-guns. The lie of the ground just
+    saved us when lying flat, and the bullets just swept over us in
+    bouquets. We only had 17 casualties, and only 2 men killed dead.
+    So far our battalion has not had much fighting, but we have gone
+    through much hardship, fatigue, and exposure. You will wonder
+    how I have stood it all at my age. But the fact remains that
+    from May 4th, 1915, to February 6th, 1916, I never took leave or
+    a day's rest, and was never a single day off duty or away from
+    my company. From February 6th to the 12th I had to lie up, as I
+    had jiggers in one of my toes, and the inflammation went to my
+    groin. Since then I have never been a day away from my company
+    again up till to-day, and have never put my leg over a horse,
+    but done all the marching with the men, carrying my rifle, 50 or
+    60 rounds of ammunition, water-bottle, glasses and haversack
+    with food--at least 20 lbs. altogether. But the men have usually
+    had to carry 150 rounds of ammunition. Still, considering that I
+    shall be sixty-five at the end of this year I have stuck it out
+    remarkably well, and am one of the very few in the battalion who
+    has never yet had a day's illness, for inflammation caused by
+    jiggers cannot be called illness. But now I am beginning to be
+    troubled with haemorrhoids and another trouble. I have kept this
+    in check out here for a whole year with astringent ointment, but
+    during the last month it has got much worse and it may oblige me
+    to come home on leave for an operation. The wet and damp of the
+    last month here may have had something to do with the
+    aggravation of my trouble.
+
+    "General Smuts was very lucky. He was just given time to carry
+    out his operations round Kilimanjaro and drove the Germans down
+    the line towards Tanga before the rain set in. We have been up
+    here (about 300 men, of whom 100 have been in hospital and a lot
+    more ill in camp, as the hospital is full) for nearly a month
+    and it has rained almost day and night all the time, and we
+    have lived in a sea of vile sticky mud. One of our officers as
+    near as possible died of dysentery, but he is now much better.
+    We--both officers and men--have had nothing but bare army
+    rations since leaving Longido on March 5th last. However, we are
+    now leaving this place, and going to M'buyuni, near Maktau, on
+    the Voi-Taveta Railway, as the railway is now through to New
+    Moschi--but from Taveta to Moschi it is very uncertain, as the
+    heavy rains keep washing parts of the line away. The Germans
+    blew up their naval 4.1 gun at the Ruwu river after firing all
+    the 70 rounds at our camp and the two S.A. Brigades. They put
+    the shells very close to our camp but did not hit it, but they
+    dropped one amongst Van Deventer's men and killed five or six
+    men and horses. After the fighting at the Soko and round Kahe on
+    March 20th and 21st, the Germans retired down the Tanga Railway,
+    and are said to be entrenching at various places. Nothing
+    further can be done on our side until the rains are over, as all
+    transport of a railway line is now almost impossible. Horses,
+    mules, and men are all suffering terribly from the climate, and
+    diseases of man and beast, and the frightful thick bush will
+    help the Germans very much if they intend to fight on till the
+    bitter end. Van Deventer has had a fresh lot of horses sent to
+    him, and is now near the main German Railway from Dar-es-Salaam
+    to Lake Tanganyika. The Belgians ought, too, soon to be
+    co-operating from the Congo. We have just got the terribly bad
+    news of General Townshend's surrender to the Turks in
+    Mesopotamia, and the outbreak in Ireland. My son Freddy passed
+    out of Sandhurst on April 6th and is, I expect, now attached to
+    the Royal West Surrey regiment. The Commandant at Sandhurst has
+    written to my wife speaking in very high terms of praise about
+    him; but, alas, I may never see him alive again if this accursed
+    war goes on much longer. And you and poor Mrs. Millais must now
+    be most anxious about your eldest boy too. Well! of course their
+    country comes first for them and for us, and we must all try and
+    do our duty, but it will break our wives' hearts if either of
+    them loses her boy, and it will take all the joy of life out of
+    us too. Well! I have written you an unconscionably long
+    letter, but it has hardly ever stopped raining now for more than
+    an hour or so at a time for two days and nights, and we are
+    enveloped in thick mist, and there is nothing to do but read and
+    write. The weather gets worse and worse, that is the rain gets
+    more incessant. Everything is saturated with moisture, and my
+    blankets seem quite wet when I get into them at night. It is the
+    constant unending wet and damp I think that gets to the men's
+    stomachs and bowels and gives them dysentery. The slopes of
+    Kilimanjaro may be a health resort in the dry season, but they
+    are not much of a place to live in during the heavy rains. And
+    the natives say that the rains will go on until the middle or
+    end of June. Well! once more good-bye, old fellow, and with very
+    kind regards to Mrs. Millais and your children, and trusting
+    that all is well with all of them."
+
+[Illustration: FARU! FARU!]
+
+    "_May 4th_, 1916.
+
+    "To-day is the anniversary of our landing at Mombasa on May 4th,
+    1915. Since writing to you two days ago I have seen a good
+    doctor, as my trouble with piles is getting bad. He says I must
+    have an operation soon, as if I went on long hard marches now I
+    might get into a state which would require an immediate
+    operation or serious consequences to me might happen. He advises
+    me strongly to go home and have the operation there, as he does
+    not think there is a really skilful surgeon out here. In all
+    probability, therefore, as soon as I get to the big camp at
+    M'buyuni, I shall be again examined, and a board of medical men
+    will recommend that I shall be given three months' leave of
+    absence to go home and have this operation, so I may be home
+    almost as soon as this letter. Really it does not much matter,
+    as our battalion is played out, used up, and they will probably
+    not find more than 300 men fit for duty, and these only fit for
+    garrison-duty on the lines of communication. The forward
+    movements to the Dar-es-Salaam line will I think be carried out
+    by Smuts' mounted forces and his 1000 motor bicyclists and
+    armoured motors, as soon as the rains are over and the country
+    becomes possible for transport. During the rains I believe the
+    railway will be pushed on from New Moschi towards the main
+    German railway line. Well! good-bye again."
+
+In June, 1916, after an examination by a medical board, Selous came home
+to undergo an operation which was completely successful. He was only ill
+for twelve days and then went to his home for a short rest. In August he
+went out again with a draft to East Africa, going via the Cape.
+
+Both at the time Selous served with them and during his short absence,
+the sufferings and difficulties of our troops in this bush fighting
+under tropical rains and intense heat were such as to try the nerves of
+the strongest troops. Colonel Driscoll, who commanded the battalion of
+Frontiersmen, gives a vivid picture ("The Weekly Dispatch," July 21st,
+1918) of the sufferings endured by the men who were so unfortunate as to
+be wounded.
+
+    "It's very different when you get down to the plains and the
+    bush. I don't think any words could describe that. A vast and
+    almost impenetrable forest so thick that when an aeroplane goes
+    up the observer sees nothing but a great green carpet below him.
+    And wild animals, mind you, as well as wild devils to fight; the
+    sun burning your very flesh; the flies intolerable.
+
+    "Imagine a camp at night under these conditions. Round and about
+    the lions are roaring from hunger. Hyenas prowl in the hope of
+    snapping up a sentry or leaping in and carrying off a wounded
+    man. I have known a man with a temperature of 105 Fahrenheit
+    stagger up in the morning and insist upon continuing the march.
+    It was the old spirit of my Scouts ever unquenchable.
+
+    "The natives--the old natives, as I have said--were always on
+    our side. What would have happened to us if they had not hated
+    the German like the devil I cannot tell you. But they followed
+    us through the bush, often for miles, brought us food and
+    attached themselves to us as servants, who were quite ready to
+    carry rifles upon occasion. This was very helpful, for sometimes
+    at night, when the force was absolutely without provisions, we
+    had to send men scouting in native villages, and they could
+    easily have been betrayed. Nothing would have been easier for a
+    treacherous native than to have sneaked out while two or three
+    of our men were in his hut and to have warned the nearest camp
+    of Askaris. It never happened. The loathing of the Blonde Beast
+    was too universal.
+
+    "All this sounds bad enough, but believe me, it gives you but a
+    poor account of what it cost us to win 'German East.'"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[66] The Kob of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal has whitish ears and a white area
+round the eye, which is not found in the Uganda Kob. It has been named
+by Dr. Heller, Vaughan's Kob, from a single specimen.
+
+[67] As a matter of fact his proposition was a heavier one than the
+authorities imagined. It took a large army, working hard over a period
+of four years, before the Germans were driven out of British and German
+East Africa.
+
+[68] This was hardly the fault of the War Office, who had already
+organized their local intelligence officers in East Africa.
+
+[69] Note by Col. R. Meinertzhagen, Chief of Intelligence Department:--
+
+"This landing was really a very fine piece of work for troops who had
+had no previous experience. The Germans themselves, which we learnt
+later, thought that a landing at that particular spot was an impossible
+operation, and therefore failed to guard against it. The rapidity with
+which the Fusiliers got ashore and up a steep bush-clad escarpment gave
+the enemy no time to meet it. This initial success, which was intended
+as a covering movement for the main landing, was largely responsible for
+the capture of Bukoba."
+
+[70] In two authenticated cases a .600 Rigby cordite rifle and a Holland
+.375 were used in each case with sporting ammunition.
+
+[71] 75 millimetres or 3 inch (R. Meinertzhagen).
+
+[72] "I slept under a rock near Selous that night. He was full of
+enthusiasm, and we discussed 'birds' till far into the night, getting
+drenched through with the dew and badly bitten by mosquitoes" (R.
+Meinertzhagen).
+
+[73] On the best authority the Germans had 2500 white troops and 4200
+askaris at the beginning of the War. During the War they raised their
+black troops and police to from 12,000 to 18,000.
+
+[74] "Dartnell was awarded the V.C. posthumously for gallantry, when
+wounded preferring to stop behind with his men, when he could have been
+evacuated. The enemy on returning to the scene of the fight where
+Dartnell had been left with the wounded, commenced to kill them, and
+Dartnell fought to the last, trying to protect his men." (R.
+Meinertzhagen, Col.).
+
+[75] The Indian Government were not to blame. They had sent all their
+best troops to France and had to keep large reserves in India for
+possible contingencies, so that the troops they sent to East Africa were
+not of the best quality.
+
+[76] Capt. Freddy Selous, M.C., R.A.F.C., killed in action, January 4th,
+1918.
+
+[77] Capt. G. de C. Millais, Bedfordshire Regiment, killed in action,
+August 22nd, 1918.
+
+[78] Capt. the Hon. Gerald Legge, second son of the Earl of Dartmouth,
+killed in action in Gallipoli, August, 1915; an excellent naturalist and
+a great friend of ours.
+
+[79] "The German strength was not so much (at any rate in East Africa)
+their numbers, but their efficiency, and the fact that they were
+prepared and we were not. They also scored heavily by being able to
+draft into their black ranks ten per cent of trained white soldiers who
+were settlers and business men in peace time. We had no such asset.
+Moreover, the German superiority of machine-guns, 2 to every 100 men,
+outweighed our 2 to 800 men!" (R. Meinertzhagen, Col.)
+
+[80] "Hindenburg has been a mere figure-head and idol of the people.
+Ludendorff is the brain of the German Army and real conducting head" (R.
+Meinertzhagen, Col.).
+
+[81] In 1917, Kermit Roosevelt joined our forces in Mesopotamia. Since
+this date Roosevelt's three other sons have joined the American troops,
+and two have distinguished themselves as soldiers. Lieut. Quentin
+Roosevelt was killed in action in France in July, 1918.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+SEPTEMBER, 1916-1917
+
+
+Selous left England on his last journey on August 10th, 1916, and landed
+at Mombasa (via the Cape) in September with a draft of 400 new recruits
+for the 25th Royal Fusiliers. First he went up the Uganda railway to
+Nairobi, and later to Korogwe in the Usambara valley, and after resting
+here a week or two brought his detachment on to Tanga in September,
+where he was detained for nearly eight weeks. He remained at Tanga until
+December 2nd, until his force moved up to Dar-es-Salaam to take part in
+a fresh movement against the Germans.
+
+The campaign in German East Africa had now entered on its most difficult
+period. Owing to the enormous wastage in men and horses, transport of
+all kinds was most difficult and in some cases impossible during the
+rainy season. Writing from Tanga on November 11th, 1916, to Chapman, he
+says:--
+
+    "The war has now entered upon a very difficult phase. As von
+    Lettow-Vorbeck--a very able and determined man--the German
+    commander, has been allowed to escape with considerable forces
+    well equipped with machine-guns, into the wilderness towards the
+    Portuguese border. We hold all the ports, all the towns,
+    plantations, etc., and both the railway lines--but von Lettow
+    still commands a force, it is thought, of over 1000 whites and
+    several thousand trained black troops, well found in arms and
+    ammunition. The wastage from fever and dysentery has been
+    terrible, and, as the heavy rains will come on, where the
+    Germans are, very shortly now, if Smuts cannot round them up
+    quickly it will be impossible to continue this campaign for
+    months. He is busy repairing roads and railways and getting up
+    supplies to near the Front, and we are expecting to get forward
+    again at any moment. With the latest drafts our battalion has
+    had 1400 men out here. All we have left of them are 149 at
+    Kijabe (but these must mostly be unfit for further hard service)
+    and 394 here, of which latter number 101 are sick. Two have died
+    in hospital this week. Of the two fine Rhodesian regiments, it
+    is said that only 68 are fit. The North Lancs Regt. has wasted
+    to nothing, in spite of many drafts. The position is now most
+    difficult, and unless a decision can quickly be arrived at, this
+    campaign may drag on for months and have to be finished by black
+    troops, as another month in a heavy rainy season, without
+    shelter and short rations, will lay out all the white troops
+    still left.
+
+    "F. C. S."
+
+    "During the period March-September, 1916, General Smuts captured
+    the region from Kilimanjaro to Dar-es-Salaam, whilst the
+    Belgians gradually occupied the western part of German East
+    Africa, from the Great Lakes to Tabora, and General Northey the
+    south-west part of the country. The Germans were thus restricted
+    to the south, the south-centre and south-eastern regions, except
+    the actual coast-line.
+
+    "After evacuating Tabora the German troops in that region, who
+    were under General Wahle, retired south-east towards Mahenge, a
+    government station on a high plateau centrally situated between
+    the northern end of Lake Nyasa and the sea at Kilwa. Part of the
+    enemy force which had opposed General Smuts also retreated to
+    Mahenge, its commanding officer being Major Kraut. In its
+    retreat General Wahle's force harried, and was harried by,
+    General Northey's columns. Wahle broke through the British lines
+    and joined Kraut, who was being threatened from the north by
+    General Van Deventer, the commander of General Smuts' Second
+    Division. In the closing days of 1916 and the beginning of 1917
+    a combined effort was made by Generals Van Deventer and Northey
+    to 'round up' the Germans holding the Mahenge plateau. The
+    movement promised success, but, in the words of General Smuts,
+    the enemy 'eventually escaped through the dense bush and forest
+    under cover of darkness, and eluded pursuit.'
+
+    "Meantime the main enemy force, under Colonel von
+    Lettow-Vorbeck, upon whom the Kaiser in November, 1916,
+    conferred the Ordre Pour le Merite, had been driven by General
+    Smuts to the region of the Rufigi, south of Dar-es-Salaam. At
+    this period General Smuts reorganized his forces, and, in view
+    of the extremely unhealthy character of the country in which
+    further operations were to be conducted, as many as possible of
+    the white troops from South Africa were sent home, over 12,000
+    leaving East Africa between the middle of October and the end of
+    December, 1916. They were replaced by newly raised battalions of
+    King's African Rifles and by a Nigerian Brigade under General
+    Cunliffe. On January 1, 1917, General Smuts began a new
+    offensive in the Rufigi area, his object being to cut all
+    connection between the enemy in the Rufigi and Mahenge regions
+    and either to envelop the enemy on the Rufigi or to deal a heavy
+    blow as he escaped south. The last object was accomplished; a
+    heavy blow was inflicted upon von Lettow-Vorbeck's force, but it
+    was not brought to a decisive engagement. This brief campaign
+    was ended in March by the advent of the rainy season. While it
+    was in progress General Smuts was summoned to England to
+    represent South Africa in the special sittings of the War
+    Cabinet. He relinquished his command on January 20, 1917, being
+    succeeded by Major-General A. R. Hoskins, C.M.G., D.S.O., who
+    had previously commanded the First Division."--"The Times
+    History and Encyclopaedia of the War," the campaign in German
+    East Africa (III), pp. 397-398.
+
+On December 8th, the Royal Fusiliers went in open trucks by rail to
+Mikesse, near Morogoro, and from thence had a very trying eight days'
+march to Kissaki. During this and previous marches Selous never rode a
+yard of the way, but marched like his men, living on their rough fare
+and enduring the constant rain and soaking bivouacs with stoical
+indifference. On December 15th he writes to his wife from Tulo:--
+
+    "We are now marching to Kissaki, and from there will probably
+    advance and attack the Germans on the Rufigi river. Very heavy
+    rains have now set in, and we have had rather a bad time of it,
+    and our detachment has shrunk from 384 to 170, with which we
+    march to-day. We hear the bridge over the Rufigi river has been
+    washed away by the floods and the German forces cut in two."
+
+One of his last letters, written on Christmas Day, 1916, from Kissaki,
+states:--
+
+    "We are on the eve of an attack on the Germans out here. Their
+    lines here are quite close to ours, our forces are gathering,
+    and we shall now attack their lines in several places
+    simultaneously in a few days. Our forces are terribly depleted
+    principally from sickness. The German forces are sure to be
+    entrenching, and as they still have a number of machine-guns, it
+    may be no child's play attacking their positions, and we may
+    meet with heavy losses."
+
+During the last three weeks of 1916, General Smuts (except for Van
+Deventer's Division) had not been engaged in important operations but
+was busy reorganizing his columns. Von Lettow-Vorbeck was, however,
+forced out of Kissaki on September 15th, by the brigade under Brits and
+Nussey. He then took up his position between the Ingeta and Rufigi
+rivers, where he remained until January 1st, when General Smuts began
+another offensive from Kissaki.
+
+An attack was made on the German positions by General Smuts on January
+2nd, but the enemy again escaped and took up a fresh position in dense
+bush on the Beho-Beho ridge. All January 2nd and 3rd General Smuts spent
+in developing a new encircling movement of which the following is the
+"Times" History account:--
+
+    "The troops, which had to march through most difficult country,
+    got in touch with the enemy again on the afternoon of the 3rd,
+    and at 10.30 a.m. on January 4th Sheppard's Brigade caught up
+    the chief enemy force as it was retiring from Beho-Beho. A sharp
+    engagement followed, but though severely handled the enemy
+    'again slipped past,' to use General Smuts' phrase. The brunt of
+    the action was borne by the 25th Royal Fusiliers (the Legion of
+    Frontiersmen). During the fight Captain F. C. Selous fell at the
+    head of his company. He was buried under the shadow of a
+    tamarind tree, beside the graves of members of his company who
+    fell at the same time. Thus ended the life of the most
+    distinguished of the hunter-naturalists of recent years, the man
+    who had opened up thousands of miles of South Central Africa.
+    Throughout the campaign, though well over sixty, he had set an
+    example of endurance and devotion to duty unexcelled by any
+    member of the force. As stated in Chapter CLXXXIII, he had
+    already been given the D.S.O. in recognition of his services.
+    None knew better than Selous the dangers and difficulties of the
+    campaign. Writing home from Tanga in November, 1916, he set
+    forth some of these difficulties, adding: 'I shall try and hold
+    out to the end, if possible, or, at any rate, as long as my
+    health and strength last. General Smuts is now working ... for
+    the next forward movement, and when he is ready the remnants of
+    my battalion will join him.'"
+
+General J. Smuts, who was in command of the British Forces in German
+East Africa, has kindly given me the following account of the fight at
+Beho-Beho, Sugar Mountain, on January 4th, 1917, when Selous met his
+death. General Smuts, with the aid of a large-scale map, personally
+explained to me the feature of the operations on that day, and though it
+was instrumental in driving the enemy from their positions, causing them
+to retreat to the Rufigi river, it did not result in the capture of the
+enemy's force, which it was hoped would be the case.
+
+    "Our force moved out from Kissaki early on the morning of
+    January 4th, 1917, with the object of attacking and surrounding
+    a considerable number of German troops which was encamped along
+    the low hills east of Beho-Beho (Sugar Mountain) N.E. of the
+    road that led from Kissaki S.E. to the Rufigi river, distant
+    some 13 miles from the enemy's position. The low hills occupied
+    by the Germans were densely covered with thorn-bush and the
+    visibility to the west was not good. Nevertheless, they soon
+    realized the danger of their position when they detected a
+    circling movement on the part of the 25th Royal Fusiliers, which
+    had been detailed to stop them on the road leading S.E., the
+    only road, in fact, by which they could retreat. They must have
+    retired early, for their forces came to this point at the exact
+    moment when the leading company of Fusiliers, under Captain
+    Selous, reached the same point. Heavy firing on both sides then
+    commenced, and Selous at once deployed his company, attacked the
+    Germans, which greatly outnumbered him, and drove them back into
+    the bush. It was at this moment that Selous was struck dead by a
+    shot in the head. The Germans retreated in the dense bush again,
+    and the Fusiliers failed to come to close quarters, or the enemy
+    then made a circuit through the bush and reached the road lower
+    down, eventually crossing the Rufigi."
+
+When he came to the road, Selous and his company met the German advanced
+guard, which probably outnumbered his force five to one. He had,
+however, received his orders to prevent, if possible, the enemy from
+reaching the road and retreating, so he immediately extended his company
+and himself went forward to reconnoitre. It was whilst using his glasses
+to ascertain the position of the enemy's advance guard that Selous
+received a bullet in his head and was killed instantly.[82]
+
+Thus died Frederick Selous of the Great Heart, a splendid Englishman,
+who in spite of age and love of life, gave up all pleasant things to
+follow the iron path of duty. To him his country's needs were ever
+before his private interests. Like the voyageurs of old he was ever
+looking for some far-off country where his restless soul could sleep in
+peace. Let us hope that he found his Valhalla on that day.
+
+He sleeps with other gallant comrades who fell beside him in the heart
+of Africa, far from home and loved ones. Yet it seems fitting that he
+should lie at last in the land of his dreams, where he laboured so much,
+and where his name will never be forgotten. No sculptured mausoleum
+records his prowess, but only a simple wooden cross bearing his name and
+that of his good comrades stands beneath the shade of a tamarind tree in
+the woody forest, where the bush-cuckoo heralds the dawn and the lion
+roars his requiem to the night.
+
+    "Under the wide and starry sky,
+    Dig the grave and let me lie.
+    Glad did I live and gladly die,
+    And I laid me down with a will.
+    This be the verse you grave for me;
+    _Here he lies where he longed to be._
+    Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
+    And the hunter home from the hill."
+
+I am indebted to Captain R. M. Haines of the South African Forces for
+the following account of Selous' life from the time he landed at Mombasa
+till his death:--
+
+    "I did not actually bury Captain Selous, but I was present at
+    his funeral. I think I had better give you his doings from about
+    the end of August. He came out for the second time about the end
+    of August, 1916, and landed at Mombasa (via the Cape) with a
+    draft of about 400 new men for the 25th R. Fusiliers. He took
+    these up the Uganda Railway to a small detail camp called
+    Korogwe, in the Usambara Valley. After waiting there for a week
+    or two, he brought the draft to Tanga, when to his intense
+    disgust he was held up for nearly eight weeks. In the meantime
+    the original part of the regiment was trekking down the centre
+    of the country towards the German Central Railway. Whilst at
+    Tanga, he lived in a house with Captain MacMillan, whom you
+    probably know. It was here that he heard he had been awarded the
+    D.S.O. Whilst we were waiting here, he frequently gave the men
+    lectures on his early life in South Africa, to their intense
+    delight. Here I first met him. He was literally adored by the
+    men. From a boy he had always been a hero of mine, and to my
+    great joy I actually met him. He wore a double Terai grey slouch
+    hat, slightly on the back of his head. Khaki knickerbockers,
+    with no puttees, bare legs, except for his socks, and shirt open
+    at the neck, with a knotted handkerchief round the neck to keep
+    the sun off, with a long native stick in his hand. He had a
+    rooted objection to wearing a cork helmet. It is impossible to
+    forget the impression he made. He was as straight as a
+    guardsman, with a broad deep chest, with a beautiful healthy
+    look in his face.
+
+    "We left Tanga, on board an armed merchantman, at the end of
+    November, and after calling in at Zanzibar for a few hours,
+    arrived at Dar-es-Salaam. At Zanzibar I went ashore with him and
+    had breakfast at the English club. We were landed at
+    Dar-es-Salaam at about 10.30 at night and went into the local
+    detail camp. He remained there about a week and was then sent up
+    to take up the draft he had brought out to Kissaki, which is
+    about 100 miles south of the German Central Railway, where the
+    rest of the regiment was waiting.
+
+    (Here I went down with fever, and so had to stay behind for two
+    weeks.)
+
+    "He went by train to Mikessi, about 150 miles up the Central
+    Railway, and from there started with his draft of 400 men to
+    reach the regiment. He reached Kissaki in a fortnight. This is
+    practically the last point where any life exists, except game,
+    in this part of the country. In many ways it is terrible
+    country; there are no names, save such names as we gave it, no
+    roads. It is covered with thick elephant-grass, six to eight
+    feet high, and very thick thorn-bush and swamp. Although I was
+    one of them, I honestly think that the sufferings of the troops
+    in this horrible trek have hardly been exceeded by any in the
+    war. There was only filthy water, we marched on half-rations,
+    with no bread at all, only flour being issued and occasionally
+    biscuit. The whole country was poisonous with fever and
+    'blackwater'; hardly any natives live here, as it is too
+    poisonous. Most of the men went sick and died like flies. It was
+    just south of Kissaki he caught the regiment up. He was just as
+    cheerful as a schoolboy.
+
+    "The day he was killed, I passed him in the morning with his
+    company, I was driving an armoured machine-gun, as the driver
+    was ill. As I passed him, I shouted out, 'I shall be back and
+    have _tea_ with you to-day, sir,' for we used to joke him about
+    his habit of drinking tea with every meal.
+
+    "That was the last I saw of him. There was some fighting in the
+    bush during the day, and when I came back in the afternoon I was
+    greeted with the news of his death. I was just in time to see
+    him buried. He was sewn up in a blanket, and buried with five
+    other men of the R. Fusiliers. I was told he was first wounded
+    in the right arm, which was broken, but was bandaged up, and he
+    remained with his company.[83]
+
+    "A little later he was again hit in the mouth and was killed
+    instantaneously and apparently painlessly.
+
+    "A little space was cleared in the bush and he was buried, at
+    one of the most impressive services I have ever attended, the
+    same day in the afternoon. I intended to photograph the spot,
+    but next day I went down with a bad attack of blackwater fever,
+    and the next few weeks are a complete blank to me. My memory is
+    still somewhat out of gear. My diary and camera were missing
+    when I came round, and so all my exact records are going to some
+    scamp. He is buried about 60 miles south of Kissaki, in a
+    nameless spot, but if you will wait a month or two I may yet be
+    able to get you some photographs and further details.
+
+    "As I said before, he was always my hero as a boy in books, and
+    he remains so now. He had all that simplicity and modesty of
+    great men. He was the easiest of all men to cheat, but yet no
+    one ever dared to do it. He was a moral antiseptic in a country
+    where men are not saints. Anything mean or sordid literally
+    shrivelled up in his presence.
+
+    "Although I am a young man, my fate has led me to travel in all
+    our white colonies, and I can honestly say that of all the men I
+    have met, good or bad (and they have been mostly good), no one
+    has ever left me with the impression of being a 'whiter' man, or
+    who was a more perfect English gentleman.
+
+    "R. M. HAINES, S.A.F."
+
+Mr. P. H. Lamb, writing in "The Field," June 18th, 1918, gives some
+details of the actual position of Selous' grave, of which he furnishes a
+photograph.
+
+    "The geographical position of his grave is approximately lat. 7
+    deg. S., long. 38 deg. E. It is not near any village but lies
+    only a few yards to the east of the main road leading south from
+    Mikesse, on the Central Railway to the Rufigi river, from which
+    it is about 10 miles distant. There is a stream crossing the
+    road at this point. It was here that the gallant 25th Royal
+    Fusiliers were camped on the day (January 4, 1917) when Selous
+    was killed. It was to this spot that the fallen hero was
+    carried.
+
+    "The graveyard is situated close by the old camp, and contained
+    at the time of my visit seven simple wooden crosses. Besides the
+    one in memory of Captain Selous are those of Sergeant Knight,
+    Lance-Corporal Evans, and Privates Taylor and Evans, all of the
+    Royal Fusiliers, who were killed on the same day. The other two
+    graves are those of privates of the British West Indies Regiment
+    who died at the same place months later. The precise spot where
+    Selous was fighting when he was first wounded was pointed out to
+    me. It was among some small knolls which lie about a mile to the
+    north, on which the present camp, known as Chogawali, has since
+    been built....
+
+    "The stream running by the spot where Captain Selous' remains
+    are laid to rest is the last fresh water met with along the road
+    before reaching the Rufigi. It is for the most part a wild
+    inhospitable district--the haunt of a great variety of big game,
+    including elephants, giraffes, and rhinos. Not more than four
+    miles away is a warm salt spring running down into a salt lake,
+    where hippos, wild ducks, egrets, and numerous other wild fowl
+    abound. But despite these alleviations it can hardly be called a
+    fascinating part of the country, and the object of most people
+    who have seen it will be to avoid it carefully in the future."
+
+The war in German East Africa dragged its slow length along throughout
+1917, in November of which year it may be said to have terminated, when
+the remnant of the German forces under Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck were
+driven right across the borders into Portuguese territory. There, owing
+to the rainy season in the early part of 1918, they split up into small
+parties and searched the country for native supplies, being finally
+(September, 1918) forced into the low-lying country between the north of
+the Zambesi and the coast.
+
+Since then they have attacked various Portuguese stations and
+encampments and taken fresh supplies of provisions, medical necessaries
+and ammunition and are still (September, 1918) causing much trouble to
+trace, British forces relentlessly pursuing them. Colonel R.
+Meinertzhagen, who is well acquainted with the local conditions,
+writes:--
+
+    "The campaign is not over to-day (August 1st, 1918), and it is
+    by no means impossible that Von Lettow breaks north again into
+    his old colony.[84] He is an exceptional man of iron will and
+    great personality. I met him in Tanga in November, 1914, and he
+    then declared that even though we might drive him from his
+    colony he would fight to the last, and that he would never be
+    taken alive."
+
+Commenting on the great difficulties of the campaign, General Smuts, at
+a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society (January 28th, 1918),
+designated the travels of Livingstone and Selous as mere "joy rides"
+compared to what had been done by Empire troops in East Africa.
+
+    "The Germans," he remarked, "are not in search of colonies after
+    the English model. Not colonies, but military power and
+    strategic positions for a great Central African Empire,
+    comprising not only her colonies before the war, but also all
+    the English, French, Belgian, and Portuguese possessions south
+    of the Sahara and Lake Chad, and north of the Zambesi river in
+    South Africa.
+
+    "Towards this objective she was steadily marching even before
+    the war broke out, and she claims the return of her lost African
+    colonies at the end of the war as a starting-point from which to
+    resume the interrupted march. This Central African block was
+    intended in the first place to supply the economic requirements
+    and raw materials of German industry, and in the second and far
+    more important place to become the recruiting ground of vast
+    armies. The natural harbours on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
+    were to supply the naval and submarine bases from which both
+    ocean routes would be dominated and British and American
+    sea-power be brought to naught.
+
+    "No fresh extension of Prussian militarism to other continents
+    and seas should be tolerated, and the conquered German colonies
+    can only be regarded as guarantees for the security of the
+    future peace of the world. The premature or unwise restoration
+    of German East Africa to its former owners might have
+    consequences reaching far beyond the confines of the African
+    continent. Perhaps I may be allowed to express the fervent hope
+    that a land where so many of our heroes lost their lives may
+    never be allowed to become a menace to the future peaceful
+    development of the world."
+
+All of which is very true, for after the war, if German East Africa is
+restored to Germany, as some of our socialists, like Mr. Wells, seem to
+desire, it is a certainty that in time we shall lose all our South
+African possessions as well as those in the north.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[82] Colonel Driscoll, who commanded the 25th Royal Fusiliers, writes:
+"Captain Selous, the great hunter, was one of the hardest men in the
+battalion, in spite of his 65 years. He was shot dead while leading his
+company through the bush against an enemy four times their strength.
+Lieutenant Dutch, another very gallant man, took his place and received
+a mortal wound immediately afterwards."
+
+[83] Mr. Lamb also mentions that Selous was wounded before he was
+killed, but this is contradicted by others who were present. Mr. Denis
+Lyell, writing in the "Field," August 17th, 1918, says: "Details of his
+death were given to Mr. W. Watmough by a friend in his regiment who was
+present. He says: 'Capt. Selous was shot through the head and right
+side. We were on a crest line at the time with the Germans in front and
+on both flanks. We were subjected to very heavy enfilade fire, and could
+not locate the enemy properly owing to the wooded nature of their
+positions. At this stage Selous went forward down the slope about
+fifteen yards, and was just raising his glasses in order to see (more
+particularly) where certain snipers were when he received his first
+wound in the side. He was half-turning towards us when he was shot
+through the side of the head. He died immediately.'"
+
+[84] This view has proved to be correct.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+CHARACTER, APPEARANCE, ETC.--SOME STORIES OF HIM
+
+
+Perhaps Selous' chief success as a hunter lay in his untiring energy and
+fearless intention to gain some desired object. He brought the same
+force into play in pursuit of a bull elephant as of a small butterfly,
+and allowed nothing to stand in his way to achieve success. Time,
+distance, difficulty, or danger were all things that could be conquered
+by a man of strong will, and his bodily strength was such that even to
+the end he almost achieved the virility of perfect youth. He would come
+back from the early morning hunt, the best time of all for pursuing big
+game, and have some breakfast. Then, when others were tired and glad of
+some hours' sleep in the camp or waggon, he would call a native boy to
+carry his rifle and a few cartridges--in case of an unexpected meeting
+with some rare animal--take his butterfly-net and collecting-box, to
+spend the hot hours of the day in search of Lepidoptera. Few men, even
+young men in the prime of life, are capable of pursuing insects under a
+tropical sun after the fatigue of the early morning hunt, but Selous not
+only did this almost to the day of his death, but also went out again in
+search of big game in the hours between three o'clock and sunset.
+
+It was his untiring love of Nature and the possible capture of some
+victim new to science that always drove him on and banished fatigue. His
+whipcord frame responded readily to all the calls he made upon it, for
+from his youth he had inured himself to strain and privation, and was
+extremely moderate in any indulgence. He ate less than most men, and
+never drank anything but tea, which he enjoyed at every meal. Sometimes
+he drank champagne at big dinners, but rich wines and high feeding had
+no attractions for him.
+
+He always rated himself as a very moderate shot, and doubtless, in the
+early days, when he was only armed with clumsy and indifferent weapons,
+his success was not always of a high order, but with the advent of
+rifles of greater precision he was certainly a good shot, and he killed
+a large proportion of the game he fired at. This was especially so when
+he got what he described as his first first-class rifle, a .450 single
+shot, made by Gibbs, of Bristol, and with this he killed a large
+quantity of game. All of us who are big game hunters, however, know how
+greatly the average of hits has advanced since the introduction of the
+small-bore high-velocity rifles. In 1895 came the British .303, the
+German .275 Mauser, and the Roumanian .256 Mannlicher, and these weapons
+possess such accuracy and flatness of trajectory that a poor shot
+becomes a moderate one, a good shot a first-class one, and a first-class
+performer something remarkable. Since 1900 some firms, notably John
+Rigby, have utilized the best points of these smaller weapons to make
+them successful on the largest and most dangerous game in the hands of
+experienced men, and have invented weapons of tremendous hitting power
+with magazine rapidity of fire.
+
+London gunmakers were so anxious for Selous to use every new weapon they
+put on the market that he was bombarded with gifts of new weapons, in
+the hope that he would use them and advertise their wares. In many cases
+he did accept them, and between 1896 and 1915 he tried, on his numerous
+trips, perhaps a dozen different rifles. In this he admitted that he
+made a great mistake, for he would have done much better it he had
+adhered to one rifle for small game, such as the common .256 Mannlicher,
+and one large one, such as the .450 Rigby for heavy or dangerous
+animals. Many of these new rifles, though they nearly all shot well
+_when they worked_, developed glaring faults in magazine construction or
+defective bullets. What does well enough on the target at home is often
+quite a failure in the wear and tear of the African wilderness. A bullet
+that "mushrooms" nicely on the carcase of a horse may completely fail
+to stop a tough African antelope, and so on. Thus Selous lost his faith
+in specious promises, and often wished he had stuck to his old .450
+single-shot Gibbs, which always gave good results on all medium-sized
+game, and even on the few occasions when he met elephants.
+
+As an example of Selous' practical nature with regard to rifles, and the
+absolute necessity of testing them thoroughly before field-use, he told
+me one day the following story:--
+
+At a leading London gunmaker's he had ordered a heavy high-velocity
+rifle, which he intended to use on large game in one of his more recent
+expeditions. As so often happens, the gunmaker in question delayed the
+delivery of the weapon till the very last moment, and one hour before he
+was to depart for Africa, Selous found himself in possession of a new
+weapon whose sighting and cartridges he had not tested. Now, to a man of
+his experience, such a thing as taking a rifle to Africa without first
+shooting it carefully was unheard of. The cartridges might not fit, or
+the sights might be set too high or too low. There was only one thing to
+be done, he must test the rifle somehow, even though located as he was
+in a house in Regent's Park. Calling the servant he asked her to get a
+cab and put all his kit therein and to place his hat and coat ready in
+the hall. When the maid announced that this had been done, he then
+opened his bedroom-window, and selecting a neighbouring chimney-stack,
+at about 100 yards distance, he fired five shots in quick succession.
+
+The effect in the densely populated neighbourhood may be more easily
+imagined than described. Heads appeared at every window and knots of
+people began to assemble in the streets below. What on earth was
+happening? Had someone suddenly gone mad? Was a murder being
+perpetrated, or had the Germans landed? Selous quickly got out his
+field-glasses, and noticed that the pattern on the brick chimney was
+distinctly good. He then carefully cleaned the rifle and put it in its
+case, donned his hat and coat, and opened the front door. Here was
+assembled a group of scared people, whilst a policeman was seen hastily
+crossing the road. Someone asked him as he entered the cab if he had
+heard the shots, and the old hunter replied that he had, and that the
+sounds seemed to have come from one of the rooms above. So Selous tried
+his rifle and went on his way rejoicing.
+
+Speaking of him as a hunter, Sir Alfred Pease, himself one of our best
+performers in the field, writes:--
+
+    "It would be easier to write more fully of Selous, if he had
+    occasionally 'broken out' and 'bucked' a bit--his very modesty
+    and reserve and his care about what he said and his delightful
+    simple-heartedness concerning his own achievements[85] were
+    something difficult to cope with--much as they added to the
+    charm and attractiveness of the man and fortified one's
+    confidence in him. To me that he was absolutely true and the
+    pure stuff was what made him stand out. Personally I never saw
+    him do anything brilliant--I have seen many men shoot better,
+    quicker, and so on, but no man who got so much or at any rate
+    any more interest out of all that pertains to a hunter's and
+    naturalist's life. He was a rather deliberate than quick
+    observer, as far as I can judge, but when he had reached a
+    conclusion you might lay your money he was right. I remember one
+    day being rather inclined (being myself of an eager, quick, and
+    perhaps impatient nature) to think him tiresome. He was with me
+    at Kilanga (my B.E.A. farm), and said, 'Now I want to get a good
+    Kongoni' (Coke's Hartebeest)--we were standing where there were
+    always hundreds, and often thousands, in sight. We regarded
+    Kongoni like the flocks on a hundred mountains. The old bulls'
+    heads were much alike; in early days I had measured perhaps a
+    dozen, and did not find that any one was much more interesting
+    than another. I said I didn't know that I could help him, 'they
+    were much of a muchness.' He asked me questions about
+    measurements and weights and so on, most of which I could not
+    answer. I told him there were plenty to choose from, and off he
+    went and spent the whole of a hot day trying to find a
+    'specimen' worth having. He returned at night with a head and
+    neck, and then the inquisition began again after measuring and
+    remeasuring, and after a time (perhaps he was two hours messing
+    about with his Kongoni head in the evening, after a tiring day,
+    when I wanted him to come in and sit down) he came to the
+    conclusion that there was not much difference between his head
+    and the horns lying about of those we had shot for meat. He went
+    to Juja (MacMillan's), and a few days after showed me two other
+    heads he had got there, and no doubt had given the same exertion
+    and examination to get, and with not much different result. It
+    is well for science that there are such men, and some of my
+    neighbours were amazed at this man, whose great reputation had
+    reached them, and had expected to see him galloping after lions
+    and shooting them from the saddle, etc., bothering himself over
+    Kongoni heads, but I must say I admired immensely this
+    persistence to get at a definite knowledge about a common
+    beast."
+
+It is a little difficult to gauge the shooting quality of a man by
+reading published works, because rifle-shooting at big game in various
+countries involves such various conditions. In Scotland, Norway, and the
+high grounds of Europe, Asia, and America, a good shot would probably
+kill ten beasts out of every fifteen or twenty cartridges expended, or
+even less. Many men do not take "all chances," moving or otherwise,
+whilst the best hunters do take all targets offered at a good head and
+at all ranges up to 350 yards, but in the plains and forests of Africa
+the average of shots fired is far higher, because the conditions are
+more difficult, and, broadly speaking, from three to six shots[86] are
+required in the course of a trip to every animal brought to bag. In
+Africa visibility, except in the early morning and late evening, is
+curtailed by refraction from the earth of the sun's rays, and animals
+are much shyer; on the plains and in the bush it is difficult to pick
+out the best head or to see it clearly. Often too, especially in bush,
+the shot is hurried, and has to be taken when the shooter is standing
+in a bad position. There is always too the nervous tension on the part
+of the hunter when pursuing dangerous game, a nervousness not
+necessarily fear, which makes him ever on the alert for danger or alarm
+caused by some other animal of the same herd. All these circumstances
+create other conditions unfavourable to good shooting, although they
+undoubtedly add to the charm of African sport. In earlier days too in
+South Africa (and more recently sometimes in East Africa) most of the
+game killed was shot after riding down the animal or quickly galloping
+after it and jumping off for the shot as soon as the beast came to a
+standstill and was not greatly alarmed. At this form of sport Selous
+was, when once well armed, a very skilful performer. His excellent
+horsemanship, fearless dash through "wait-a-bit" thorns, and keen eye
+enabled him almost invariably to run to a standstill almost any animal
+he had set out to chase, and though he admitted he frequently used many
+cartridges before he achieved success, I think he was a much better shot
+than he professed to be. In later years, when he hunted the beasts of
+the plain, forests, and mountains in Europe, Asia Minor, and North
+America, his expenditure of cartridges (if we read his books carefully)
+certainly proves him to have been a very good performer with the rifle.
+
+After his marriage, in 1895, he spent much of his time in England and
+took "seriously" to the shot-gun. I say "seriously," because everything
+he did was adopted with the same whole-heartedness that he brought to
+other things. At first it must be admitted he was a very poor performer,
+and did not kill any except the ordinary rising bird; but, as time went
+on, he practised so assiduously that he was soon able to kill a few
+driven grouse and partridges. After twenty years he became quite a good
+shot, certainly above the average, but was always depressed that he
+could not master the slowness which is ever the lot of a man who takes
+up the shot-gun after middle age. Such, however, was his persistence and
+determination to excel that on occasion he performed so well that his
+hosts thought he had been shooting with the smooth-bore all his life,
+and complimented him on his skill. I remember one day in particular at
+Tatton Park, Lord Egerton's beautiful seat in Cheshire, when Selous
+really shot brilliantly and quite as well as any of the other guns, who
+were accounted first-class shots. We killed over one thousand pheasants
+that day, and Selous took down the high birds with a speed and accuracy
+that I think even astonished himself. He was like a schoolboy in his joy
+that day at shooting so well, and as usual said it was a "fluke" and he
+could never do it again. Another day at Swythamley, where, at the
+invitation of our old friend, Sir Philip Brocklehurst, we drove the moor
+for grouse, Selous killed for the first time twenty birds at one stand.
+He was in the seventh heaven of delight, nearly walked us off our legs,
+and told us "lion" stories till far into the night. We had many happy
+days at Swythamley between the years 1896-1914, and Selous was always at
+his best there under the rain of "chaff" and practical jokes of our
+host. Sir Philip's two sons, the present Sir Philip, who accompanied
+Shackleton to the Antarctic, and Courtenay, a captain in the 10th
+Hussars, and at present "flying" in East Africa, were boys after Selous'
+own heart, and have since become keen and successful big game hunters,
+whose youthful imagination Selous did so much to fire. At Swythamley we
+were all a happy party with congenial tastes and full of fun, and I
+always look back on the many delightful days we spent there as some of
+the best of life.
+
+He liked nearly all outdoor sports at different times. He played an
+energetic game of tennis and was a really good croquet-player. Most of
+all he loved cricket, and played regularly for his local club at
+Worplesdon, taking part in all their matches until 1915. When any great
+game was fought at Lord's, such as England v. Australia, he was
+generally there before the game began in the members' enclosure, and,
+much as he detested crowds, he with his wife would sit out the whole
+three days and watch every ball that went down. On such occasions he
+seldom spoke, but kept his eyes firmly fixed upon the players, noting
+the skill displayed on both sides. At Worplesdon he put such life into
+the local club that they were soon able to leave the rough common where
+former matches were played and take and keep in order an excellent
+cricket-field. I played in some of these matches, which were rather of
+the "Dingley-Dell" type, and it was always a treat to see Fred standing
+so close "in" at "point" that he looked as if he would catch the batsman
+before he hit the ball. "Big Game Hunters _v._ Worplesdon" was always a
+great and solemn occasion.
+
+In his later years he was a most indefatigable cyclist, and thought
+nothing of riding over to see his friends thirty and forty miles away
+and back, even when he was over sixty years of age. When at home he
+never rode in a car if he could avoid it, as his policy was ever to keep
+fit by physical exercise.
+
+The following is an example of his energy as a cyclist (September 5th,
+1909):--
+
+    "I got home yesterday evening, having bicycled all the way from
+    Gloucester--about 100 miles--in pouring rain most of the way,
+    and over heavy, muddy roads, in just twelve hours, including
+    stoppages for breakfast and lunch. I am not at all tired to-day,
+    and next year, if I can get a fine day, I shall see if I cannot
+    do 120 miles between daylight and dusk." Not bad for fifty-seven
+    years of age.
+
+With regard to the personal appearance and character of the man, his
+hard, gruelling life had left him straight and well-conditioned at the
+age of sixty. Few men interested others so much. He stood for all that
+was best in romance and high adventure. His life was of the hardest, for
+he loved to pit his strength against the forces of Nature. From
+childhood he only knew physical discipline as a virtue and battle as a
+self-enforced necessity. In appearance he was deep-chested, straight as
+an arrow, and with immensely powerful muscles on his arms and legs.
+Latterly he was inclined to stoutness, but this was kept in check by
+constant exercise. If there was one striking feature in his physiognomy
+it was his wonderful eyes, as clear and blue as a summer sea. Nearly
+every one who came in contact with him noticed his eyes. They were the
+eyes of the man who looks into the beyond over vast spaces.
+Instinctively one saw in them the hunter and the man of wide views.
+Their clarity of expression was so intense that any observer could see
+at a glance the whole nature of the mind that lay behind.
+
+In social intercourse Selous had a presence that was apt to make other
+people look insignificant. He was adored by all his friends, and even
+perfect strangers seemed to come under his magnetism at the first
+introduction. It was not only the interesting things he had to tell, and
+the way he told them, but the kindness of heart and modesty that forced
+their way through any narrative, and which seemed to grow upon him with
+the years. Often was he the most sympathetic of listeners, but as a rule
+he was a great talker and an unrivalled story-teller. His memory was
+marvellous. Never halting for a word, his tales would flow on for hours
+without a check, and he was so skilful in the art of telling a tale that
+he seldom repeated stories with which he knew his audience were
+familiar. Well as I knew him for twenty years, I have rarely heard him
+repeat himself. Great as he was in this character, as powerful as any
+professional who holds his audience entranced in the court-yards of the
+Eastern cities, it was not a sense of vanity that inspired his
+volubility. It was always others who drew him on to talk, and he was so
+good-natured that he hated to leave his friends disappointed when he
+felt that stories were expected from him. Life was to him an endless
+adventure, and the freshness of his curiosity, the tireless spring of
+youth and romance, and the eagerness with which he attacked any subject,
+were such as to cause delight in the minds of all men who love to hear
+of high adventure and are yet debarred from playing their part. Nothing
+could quench his ardour when once his mind was set upon a thing. To hear
+him was to experience some fresh breeze blowing off the shores of youth.
+He possessed charm in the highest degree because he always seemed to
+like best the people he was with. He led his audience along pleasant
+ways and knew the secret of raising others to the plane of his own
+intellectual level. Alternately he was romantic, brilliant, fiery,
+brave, or kind, and thus ran through the gamut of human emotions.
+
+Yet with all his high enthusiasm he always displayed a curious
+diffidence as regards his own exploits--a modesty that perhaps endeared
+him best to those who loved him, for he was like all big men--a man who
+had no illusions. In all success he was ever alive to his own
+limitations, and none was more severe than he upon himself when he felt
+he had done some foolish thing or failed in some achievement from want
+of knowledge or skill. Few people knew how hardly he judged himself, or
+what anxieties he passed through before attacking some new problem. But
+the mental drag was there nevertheless, and though he may have laughed
+at it afterwards, there was something curiously feminine and
+introspective in his dual nature.
+
+In many of the letters written during his early life in Africa, there is
+a certain strain of melancholy which seemed to overwhelm him when he
+found that after all his efforts to "make good," the results had not
+been a financial success. But these times of sadness were for the most
+part only temporary, and soon gave way under the influence of fresh
+enterprise.
+
+    "It was curious," writes his sister, Mrs. A. Jones, "that for
+    all my brother's splendid health, great and varied interests,
+    and good spirits--though not of the wildly elated kind--there was
+    a strain of sadness in his nature, and he had not the love of
+    life that would have seemed so natural--though there seemed to
+    be so much in his life to live for. I have often heard him say
+    that he would not mind dying at all, or would as soon die as
+    live, or some expression to that effect. He was very
+    philanthropic, and accepted any reverse of fortune or
+    disappointment with calmness and fortitude. He suffered much, I
+    think, through his views on the Boer War, but he was steadfast
+    and true to his beliefs and principles always, and in this he
+    showed a fine and noble spirit. This high sense of honour and
+    integrity shone out like a bright star from a very feebly lit
+    world in this respect. To me he was ever the most loving and
+    tender brother, and his loss I shall ever lament."
+
+All men and women have a real age which never leaves them from the
+cradle to the grave. Some are always twenty, and others drag through
+life with the soul of sixty. Fred Selous was one of those happy
+creatures who die young, for he never resigned his youthful ideals.
+
+He had a great sympathy with emotional people. Good acting or the
+"French temperament" appealed to him. Though slow to anger as a rule, it
+was not rare to see him spring from his chair and jerk his head fiercely
+from side to side at any story of injustice. The Norman blood in his
+veins caused him to like the French and to appreciate their "bonhomie"
+and excitability. With him too it was always near the surface--ready to
+sympathize, swift to resent--but over it all was the iron check of
+Scottish caution.
+
+One night in Vienna, in 1910, Prince Henry Liechtenstein gave a little
+dinner party at "Sacher's." Slatin Pasha was there, and told us some
+interesting stories of his adventures as a captive of the Mahdi. Then
+came what I thought to be a somewhat garbled version of the Fashoda
+incident. Finally he made certain remarks, in very bad taste, of the
+leave-taking of Marchand with the French colony at the Cairo railway
+station. To him it was exceedingly "funny" that Marchand should burst
+into tears and kiss his friends. I got angry at this, and we had a
+somewhat heated passage of words. "Why," he sneered in conclusion, "what
+had Marchand to complain of--he was only a miserable Captain before, and
+was now made a Colonel." Such a gross misunderstanding of a man's
+temperament and ideals and ambitions seemed deplorable indeed. It was
+quite German in its total failure to appreciate national psychology. In
+those two years of trial, privation and danger which Marchand had to
+face what must his thoughts have been. Twice on the road his expedition
+met with disaster from sickness, desertion and other causes. Yet he had
+re-formed it and marched successfully across unknown Africa from West to
+East with a handful of Senegalese sharpshooters, courting almost certain
+death at the end at the hands of the Mahdists. Only our expedition to
+Khartoum had saved him, by destroying the power of the Khalifa at the
+eleventh hour. What did such a man as he care for a trumpery military
+advancement? He was out to do his duty for France, and he did it where
+nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand would have failed. He
+achieved his end, but owing to our policy--for once strong--his
+Government failed him. Marchand was truly a great man. When I told this
+trifling incident to Selous he seemed to be thrown into a frenzy of
+rage, for I did not then know his views on Marchand. "Why," he shouted,
+"Marchand did the biggest thing any man has ever done in Africa, and of
+course no one knows it--I should like to kiss him myself!"
+
+In speaking his voice possessed a singularly rich tone and resonance,
+and with all it carried a sympathetic quality that seemed to play
+directly on the heartstrings of his audience. Such gestures as he used
+were purely natural and necessary, and though possessing the volubility
+and excitable temperament of the southern races, the northern strain
+kept in check any excessive gesticulation. Although latterly his hearing
+was poor, he possessed a wonderful discrimination in shades of
+pronunciation when making use of native or foreign languages. Ever alive
+to the picturesque or the romantic, he clothed his stories in the
+language of which the true story-teller has the key, whilst over all
+hung the indelible stamp of truth and accuracy that characterized the
+man himself. His thoughts ranged over a wide field of emotions and
+ideas, in which chivalry perhaps played the most important part. It was
+always present in all his thoughts and acts. This with the intense
+energy or "fury of play," backed by the vehemence of emotion, carried
+him far in the higher flights both of act and imagination. "It is easy
+to be an ass and to follow the multitude like a blind besotted bull in a
+stampede," says Stevenson. Selous followed no leader but himself.
+Success left him humble, and the sharp ferule of calamity only crushed
+him for the moment. As he hated conventionality, so he loathed
+respectability--"that deadliest gag and wet blanket that can be laid on
+men." It meant nothing to him but the crystallized demeanour of
+spineless invertebrates. Thus when he spoke either in public or private
+life, he spoke direct from his heart and experience, and Men recognized
+the Man. He had a few mannerisms, and all have that--but was never the
+victim of stereotyped phrase or trite quotation. He took infinite care
+in his composition, but seldom altered, once the written thought was on
+paper. Unlike most authors he did not prune the "flesh" off his "bones"
+until the residue was satisfactory. Every line was complete when once he
+had set it down, and his manuscripts are as unaltered as at the moment
+they were written. In his lectures, as in his writings, he seemed to
+complete his thoughts before they were transferred to speech or writing.
+Having made up his mind what to say he just delivered himself over, as
+it were, to the absorbing interest or ruling passion of the moment. All
+his written work cannot be said to be of equal merit. Perhaps his best
+efforts are to be found in "African Nature Notes and Reminiscences," in
+which his command of English reaches a high level, yet in all
+circumstances, especially when narrating his own adventures in simple
+style such as in "A Hunter's Wanderings," or his escape from the
+Mushukulumbwe, he enjoyed "the happy privilege of making lovers among
+his readers." He possessed a certain quiet gift of humour, which he
+seldom indulged in except in such quaint instances as the remarks he
+makes on the vicious horse he gave to Lobengula in the hope that he
+would give it to one of his chiefs whom Selous particularly detested.
+
+Pathos too, to the man who so frequently met with it, was something too
+terrible for soul disintegration. He often told me he simply could not
+speak of the circumstances of poor French's death in the bush in 1879.
+It hurt him so much. But romance, tragedy, the beautiful, the
+picturesque, or the noble deeds of unpretentious men all fell into their
+natural places in his scheme of colour and formed a completed whole that
+was the outcome of perfect spontaneity and natural utterance. Thus he
+saw life in a vision as wide and untrammelled as the desolate plains he
+loved. He seemed to divine from his own experience how other men felt,
+and with the intensity of human sympathy knew how to encourage and
+console others in times of difficulty. To him no man was so poor that he
+was not ready to give him a "lift" on his waggon or through his purse.
+Sternness and tenderness were nearly matched in his conduct, the former
+for himself and the latter for the failings of others. In spite of his
+knowledge of the world he had no cynicism, his motto being to make
+things easier to those who were less fortunate than himself. He bore no
+grudge, nor did he feel sore at ingratitude, and might truly have said,
+"There is no man born with so little animosity as I."
+
+In later years Selous often confessed to an enduring restlessness. There
+was always so much to be done and so little time to do it. Even when at
+home, where he was perfectly happy and always immersed in some form of
+brain work or outdoor activity, this restlessness never left him. He
+felt it ever in his blood, and it would act like some violent
+force--most violent when the turmoil and pettiness of human life or the
+futile presence of crowds jarred upon him. Life in cities was to him so
+infinitely inferior to the grandeur of nature and interest of the
+unknown. Having tasted of the best it is hard after a life spent amid
+romance and adventure to settle down comfortably amidst the tiny affairs
+and tittle-tattle of everyday things at home. He hated intensely
+lawyers, politicians, theorists and men who daily live in the public eye
+without knowing anything of the great world in its wide sense. This
+spirit of restlessness seems to have been ever present in his later
+life. He confessed that he found it difficult to stay in England for
+more than six months at a time. There was always some new country and
+the pursuit of some new animals which he wished to add to his unique
+collection. Africa seemed to draw him like a loadstone, as it had always
+done, and its never-ceasing call was ever sounding in his ears. Even
+when on service in 1916 he talked with William Judd in Nairobi of a trip
+he wished to make with him, after the war had ended, to the Amala to get
+a really good black-maned lion. Yet when he was on board ship he
+confessed that he was overcome with such home-sickness that he felt
+inclined to "throw himself overboard and swim ashore." It must be
+admitted that he suffered to some extent in his later days from a
+disease which for want of a better word we must call the Nostalgia of
+Travel--a disease which attacks many old Big Game hunters--for often
+there comes a time when weariness of actual travelling creates
+depression, but in his subsequent letters from the actual
+hunting-grounds these adverse conditions disappear and he is once more
+keen and happy in the fascination of the chase and the clean conditions
+of a hunter's life. If we read carefully the classics in hunting and
+travel such as Baldwin, Neumann, Livingstone, etc., we constantly come
+across records of depression on the part of the writers. Were all the
+hardship, toil, dangers and the eternal difficulties of keeping an
+outfit in order and even temper good enough? Was not all the money so
+hardly won to gain this trip not thrown away? Would the elephants (it
+was generally elephants) or the rare horns ever be sighted? Would the
+horses or oxen that were left be sufficient to carry the expedition
+through after the best had been killed or died of sickness? And yet
+there was always an answer to these questions when the leaders were men
+of grit. Clouds pass away, men recover their spirits, and we find them
+writing, it may be a few weeks or even days afterwards, as if "all was
+lovely in the garden."
+
+All his life he was a great reader, and rather preferred the old
+"classics" of English literature to modern books, except those on travel
+and big game hunting, of which he had an extensive library. He would
+read again and again and enjoy the works of Thackeray and Dickens, and
+amongst poets Byron was his favourite. Of modern writers no one appealed
+to him so much as Thomas Hardy, all of whose works found great favour,
+and especially "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," which he rightly esteemed as
+perhaps the greatest modern novel in the English language. Of writers on
+Big Game he esteemed highly Baldwin, Roosevelt, Charles Sheldon, Stewart
+Edward White, and Arthur Neumann. If he was bored in a crowd or had to
+wait at a railway station, he generally had a book in his pocket, and
+passed the hours happily in complete absorption of the author's
+descriptions. His tastes were wide, as we should expect, ranging from
+Tom Hood's humorous poems and such modern imaginative adventures as
+"Raffles" and "Stingaree", to Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman
+Empire." He considered "Robbery under Arms" the most delightful modern
+romance, with a substratum of fact, he had ever read, but it always held
+second place to "Tess." He loved novels about imaginary people leading
+heroic lives, suffering, loving, hating, adventuring and fighting--all
+on some high level above the petty joys and sorrows of a work-a-day
+world.
+
+Of his personal friends it is somewhat difficult to speak, as he knew so
+many in so many different lands. His circle of acquaintances was
+immense, though it was natural that his intimates should be men of
+similar tastes. In England we have a very excellent institution known as
+the "Shikari Club," an association of Big Game hunters founded by
+Captain C. E. Radclyffe, Captain P. B. Vanderbyl and Selous himself
+under the presidency of the Earl of Lonsdale. This club meets but once a
+year on the night of the Oaks, and members dine together at the Savoy
+Hotel. Here all matters relating to hunting throughout the world are
+discussed, plans are made for the future, and it is, as it were, a
+general meeting round the camp fire of brothers of the rifle. The
+camaraderie is excellent, and we all know and help each other with
+information as to future travels. Admission to its ranks is somewhat
+severe, for no man, unless he has proved himself to be a sportsman of
+the best type, is ever elected. Amongst these men, who have probably
+travelled and hunted more extensively than any other community in the
+world, Selous counted many close friends whose names are too numerous to
+mention, and from them he got the latest information for some projected
+trip just as he on his part helped many of them. Another club which at
+one time he constantly visited to hear discussions on the subject of
+birds was the British Ornithologists', a dining branch of the British
+Ornithologists' Union, where after dinner specimens of interest were
+exhibited, and discussions took place. Most of the principal members
+were his friends, as well as leading Zoologists in the Zoological
+Society and the British Museum (Natural History), whom it was always his
+pleasure to serve and help with new specimens. In later years nearly
+all his old South African friends were dead or had retired, so he saw
+little of them, but in England, after his return from South Africa, he
+made many new friends whose homes he constantly visited. From 1896 till
+the time of his death he often stayed with Lord Egerton of Tatton, whose
+son, the Hon. Maurice Egerton, whom he had first met in Alaska, was a
+great friend of his; with Abel Chapman, with whom he had been at school
+at Rugby, and who had many kindred tastes; with Heatley Noble, to whom
+he was much attached; with Sir Philip Brocklehurst and his family, for
+whom he entertained a warm affection; and with Mr. MacMillan, in
+Devonshire. These are only a few of the friends who were in intimate
+sympathy with him, and to whom he constantly wrote accounts of his more
+recent travels. I met him first in 1897, and from then until his death
+he wrote to me constantly, and never did either of us go on an
+expedition without his coming to see me or my going to Worplesdon to
+discuss the matter in the smallest detail. In those twenty years we both
+hunted or wandered in other lands every year, and I cannot adequately
+express what his warm friendship and help was to me, for when Selous
+opened his soul to anyone he did it with a whole-heartedness and an
+abandonment of all reserve that are rare in these days. In our lives
+there come only a few fellow-creatures to whom we can say anything that
+comes into our minds without being misinterpreted. Even in absence we
+think about them as they about us, and we know how they will rejoice at
+our successes and sympathize with our failures, because they know and
+understand. When such a man as Selous passes away, and we have enjoyed
+that intimacy, the world indeed seems desolate, even though we have the
+poor consolation that what has been was very good.
+
+In his own home Selous was hospitality itself, and loved to entertain
+visitors from all parts of the world who came to see him or his museum.
+Complete strangers were received with the same courtesy as intimate
+friends, and Selous would spend hours showing his trophies to anyone who
+exhibited the smallest interest in the subject. Officers from Aldershot
+or Naval men were always welcome, and I should think that a large
+portion of the British Army and Navy had at one time or another enjoyed
+the pleasure of seeing his trophies under his personal supervision, and
+it was this abandonment of self and personal interest in his
+fellow-creatures that made him so popular.
+
+[Illustration: THEY CANNOT BREAK HIS SLEEP.]
+
+One day I found him in fits of laughter over one of his visitors. A
+telegram had been received in the morning stating that Lewanika, chief
+of the Barotsi, whom he had known in old days, would visit him. His
+dusky majesty, attended by a cicerone, arrived in a very perturbed state
+of mind. It appeared that in the morning he had been received by His
+Majesty the King at Buckingham Palace, and when he left he was under the
+impression that he had not behaved properly in the royal presence. These
+fears were confirmed when the train which bore the party to Worplesdon
+entered the long tunnel just before reaching Guildford. The absence of
+lights, and the darkness of the surroundings, seemed to have been the
+climax, for the dusky monarch dived under the seat of the carriage, and
+was with difficulty removed when the train reached Guildford. Never
+before having experienced such a horrible thing as a tunnel, Lewanika
+considered that the English King was taking this new method to destroy
+him.[87]
+
+As a man of such breadth of mind his friendships were cosmopolitan
+rather than insular. He had many friends in Austria, such as the three
+Counts Hoyos; in America, such as President Roosevelt, Charles Sheldon,
+and the members of the Boone and Crockett Club; in Asia Minor and
+Transylvania, such as Sir William Whittall and Consul Danford; whilst in
+South Africa he knew everyone in all grades of politics or outdoor life.
+To enumerate the men he knew well would fill a volume.
+
+One of Fred's missionary friends in the pioneer days was the Rev. Isaac
+Shimmin, a type of those hard-working, unassuming men who go out into
+the wilderness to do good to others. He is kind enough to send me a few
+lines denoting Selous' attitude towards the spread of religion in the
+new country and his broad-minded tolerance of various creeds.
+
+    "It is now nearly thirty years since I first met my old friend,
+    Fred Selous. At that time I was living at Klerksdorp, in the
+    Transvaal, and among my friends were some who in former years
+    had lived in the interior; such as Mr. Thomas Leask, Mr. Alec
+    Brown, and several others. I was therefore in the right
+    atmosphere for hearing thrilling stories of African adventure,
+    in which men like Hartley the hunter and Westbeech the trader
+    had played a prominent part. For this little town had for years
+    been the refitting station for men from the north, and because
+    of this we always seemed in close touch with the regions beyond.
+    One day I met Mr. H. C. Collison, and soon after I heard Mr. G.
+    A. Phillips ('Elephant Phil') describe realistically an
+    encounter with a lion. But there was one name around which a
+    halo of peculiar distinction had already gathered, for I noticed
+    that when these men spoke of Selous it was always with a note of
+    personal affection; they not only admired him as a successful
+    hunter, but they evidently loved him as a well-tried friend. And
+    when I actually met him I soon recognized the charm of his
+    simple and winning personality. The friendship which was then
+    begun quickly ripened into an intimacy which lasted until the
+    day of his death. I was only a young Wesleyan minister, and he
+    was the famous hunter, and yet we had many things in common, and
+    what attracted me most was his unaffected manner and genuine
+    honesty of thought and conduct. How well I remember his first
+    visit to my little parsonage, his stories of travel and
+    adventure told with such quiet and characteristic modesty, and
+    our long talk on Spiritualism and kindred subjects. He was one
+    of the best conversationalists I have ever met, he could listen
+    as well as speak, he had kept up his reading all through his
+    wanderings, and his lonely life in the African veldt had given
+    him many opportunities for keen and original reflection.
+
+    "About the date to which I refer he was making preparations for
+    leading the pioneers of the Chartered Company into Mashunaland,
+    and he kindly invited me to accompany him, offering me the use
+    of one of his own waggons. To my great regret I had to decline,
+    but the following year (1891) I was appointed to represent the
+    Wesleyan Church in the new Colony, and by the end of September I
+    found myself established in the small town of Salisbury. One of
+    the first to give me a welcome was Fred Selous, who was then
+    employed by the Government in making roads and helping to open
+    out and settle the country.
+
+    "It is impossible in these few lines to say very much about my
+    friend, but by giving two or three simple incidents I may help
+    the reader to see Selous as I saw him. His hatred of boasting
+    and exaggeration was very marked. One day he called on me in
+    Salisbury and asked me to go to his house, as he had something
+    to show me. He had just returned from Hartley Hills, and whilst
+    there had shot his largest lion. How modestly he told the story,
+    and with what interest I looked upon the skin of the huge beast
+    (now mounted at Worplesdon). His humility was always as
+    conspicuous as his bravery. Nor would he condone any false
+    pretensions in others. He was once having breakfast in my
+    waggon, and a gentleman who was outspanned near by asked me to
+    introduce him to the great hunter. I did so, and immediately
+    Selous began to ask him about certain incidents in a book he had
+    published some time before. The replies, I could see, were not
+    satisfactory and the subject was dropped. What amused me later
+    was the surprise of the visitor that such a quiet and unassuming
+    man should be the famous personage whose name was revered by
+    every man who carried a gun. But such a person could not
+    possibly understand Selous, who, neither in speech nor in print,
+    would ever make a statement which he could not verify. His
+    veracity was unimpeachable, and his 'Hunter's Wanderings' was
+    the favourite text-book of every amateur. His word could be
+    taken for every trivial detail; as I once heard an old hunter
+    remark, 'Whatever Fred Selous says is absolutely true.' This was
+    not a cheap testimony in a country where the imagination so
+    often colours the records of personal adventure.
+
+    "He was never afraid to express his opinions, however unpopular
+    they might be at the time. We were both in Bulawayo when word
+    came from the south that Dr. Jameson had invaded the Transvaal
+    with a few hundred men. An open-air meeting was held in the
+    town, and Selous was one of the speakers. There was great
+    excitement and we hardly knew what to believe. In the afternoon
+    I rode out with him to his farm (Essexvale), about twenty miles
+    from Bulawayo, and spent a few pleasant days in his home, but I
+    remember how strongly he expressed his doubts as to the
+    genuineness of the message of distress from Johannesburg. When I
+    got back to town I heard of the capture of Jameson by Cronje,
+    and later events proved that the doubts of my friend were amply
+    justified.
+
+    "Selous was thought by some to have been rather critical as
+    regards the work of the missionaries, but from various
+    conversations I had with him I am convinced that his criticisms
+    applied only to those whose methods were more idealistic than
+    practical. Among his warmest friends were those devoted men who
+    had toiled for years in Matabeleland, and who had succeeded in
+    raising the physical and moral status of the natives. That he
+    was always in sympathy with all good work was evident. Soon
+    after going to Salisbury I was engaged in building a small
+    church and the other denominations were also doing their best
+    for the new community, all of us working together in the most
+    friendly spirit. One day Selous said to me, with a touch of
+    hesitation, 'By the way, Shimmin, I wish you would do me a
+    favour. Would you give this small donation to Canon Balfour, of
+    the Church of England, and this to Major Pascoe, of the
+    Salvation Army, and keep the other for your own building-fund.
+    You are all doing good work, and I want to help you.' And he
+    handed me three five-pound notes. It was a good proof of his
+    broad and liberal outlook and of his recognition of the
+    practical benefits of the Christian Church.
+
+    "This sketch is necessarily very brief and imperfect, and, as I
+    write, my memory brings before me many scenes which are
+    associated with my old friend. I think of the fashionable crowd
+    in the Imperial Institute, with the Duke of Fife in the chair,
+    and Selous giving a lecture in his own inimitable style. I was
+    very proud of him, but that evening, as I sat with Mrs. Selous
+    and Miss Rhodes, I somehow felt that the speaker was closer to
+    me than to any of that admiring audience, for he and I had been
+    together in the African wilds.
+
+    "And now he sleeps in the land he loved so well. At an age when
+    most men would seek retirement and rest, he went forth to fight
+    for justice and righteousness, and in that cause he made the
+    supreme sacrifice of his life. Fred Selous was one of God's true
+    and valiant gentlemen.
+
+        'One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
+        Never doubted clouds would break,
+        Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
+        Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
+        Sleep to wake.'
+
+    "He lived the simple creed of sincerity and trust. Fearless for
+    the right and dauntless in the face of danger, he won the hearts
+    of men, and by the influence of his strong and genuine character
+    he gave to us all a higher and purer conception of the inherent
+    nobility of our common humanity.
+
+    "ISAAC SHIMMIN."
+
+Colonel Roosevelt, who knew Selous well and understood his character,
+kindly sends me the following note:--
+
+    "There was never a more welcome guest at the White House than
+    Selous. He spent several days there. One afternoon we went
+    walking and rock climbing alongside the Potomac; I think we swam
+    the Potomac, but I am not sure. Another afternoon we rode, going
+    over some of the jumps in Rock Creek Park, as well as those
+    rail-fences that we were sure were not wired, in striking across
+    country.
+
+    "What made Selous so charming a companion was his entire
+    naturalness and lack of self-consciousness. There are persons
+    who pride themselves on a kind of ingrowing modesty which
+    forbids them to speak of anything they have themselves done, or
+    else causes them to speak of it in such a bald fashion that they
+    might as well keep silent. This really represents extreme
+    self-consciousness, and it is only one degree less obnoxious
+    than the self-consciousness which shows itself in boasting and
+    bragging. Yet, rather curiously, the exhibition of this
+    particular kind of morbid self-consciousness is a source of
+    intense pride to many otherwise intelligent persons.
+
+    "Selous was as free from this vice as from its opposite. He
+    never boasted. He was transparently truthful. But it never
+    occurred to him not to tell of his experiences, and he related
+    them very simply but very vividly, and with the attention to
+    minute details which marks the born observer and narrator. When
+    my children were little I had now and then read to them aloud
+    some of the more exciting extracts from Selous' hunting
+    adventures. At the time that he visited me at the White House
+    they were older, and I got him to tell them two or three of the
+    adventures himself. He made us actually see everything that had
+    happened. He not only spoke simply and naturally, but he acted
+    the part, first of himself, and then of the game, until the
+    whole scene was vivid before our eyes. He would stand and bend
+    forward, and then he would instantly identify himself with the
+    lion or buffalo or elephant, and show what it did in its turn.
+
+    "It was on this visit that he promised me that he would write
+    out some of his observations on the life histories of African
+    big game. I felt that it would be a real misfortune if this
+    record were not preserved in permanent form; for Selous had the
+    eye of a faunal naturalist of the highest type.
+
+    "But our conversation was far from being confined to natural
+    history and hunting. His reading had been done rather late in
+    life, and only along certain lines, but he had the same unerring
+    eye in history and literature that he had in the hunting-field.
+    Naturally he liked what was simple and straightforward, and the
+    old Scotch and English ballads appealed very strongly to him.
+    His people had originally come from that last fragment of the
+    old-time Norman Duchy, the Channel Islands; and he was keenly
+    interested in the extraordinary deeds of the Normans.
+
+    "It was through Selous and Edward North Buxton that I made my
+    arrangements for my African hunting-trip. Much to my delight,
+    Selous went on the ship with us from Naples to Mombasa. He was,
+    of course, a delightful travelling companion. He was very much
+    interested in the way in which the naturalists who were with me
+    did their collecting, being much impressed by the scientific
+    efficiency they showed. Whenever possible I would get him
+    talking about some of his past experiences; and then gradually
+    other acquaintances would stroll up and sit in an absorbed
+    circle, while he not only told but acted the story, his keen,
+    simple, fearless blue eyes looking up at us from time to time,
+    while his hands moved with a vivacity we are accustomed to think
+    of as French rather than English.
+
+    "After landing in Africa I saw him but once or twice. Of course
+    my hunting was that of a tyro compared to his, and he took a
+    kind of elder brother's interest in what I did and in my
+    unimportant successes.
+
+    "Later I spent a night with him at his house in Surrey, going
+    through his museum of hunting-trophies. What interested me
+    almost as much was being shown the various birds' nests in his
+    garden. He also went to the British Museum with me to look into
+    various matters, including the question of protective
+    coloration. I greatly valued his friendship; I mourn his loss;
+    and yet I feel that in death as in life he was to be envied.
+
+    "It is well for any country to produce men of such a type; and
+    if there are enough of them the nation need fear no decadence.
+    He led a singularly adventurous and fascinating life, with just
+    the right alternations between the wilderness and civilization.
+    He helped spread the borders of his people's land. He added much
+    to the sum of human knowledge and interest. He closed his life
+    exactly as such a life ought to be closed, by dying in battle
+    for his country while rendering her valiant and effective
+    service. Who could wish a better life or a better death, or
+    desire to leave a more honourable heritage to his family and his
+    nation?
+
+    "THEODORE ROOSEVELT."
+
+The best work that Selous did and the qualities for which the British
+Nation should be grateful to him are those which he displayed as a
+Pioneer. Where Selous went any Englishman could follow and hold up his
+head. Selous set up a standard of conduct which people of our own, as
+well as those of other nations, might be proud to follow. He, as it
+were, stamped his personality on the wilderness, where life is hard and
+man easily loses his grip. He never shot a native except purely in
+self-defence, and established a reputation for square dealing and
+indomitable courage that made the pathway easy for all those who came
+after. He never made a sixpence for himself when gains, if he had been
+the least unscrupulous, would have been easy, but set up wherever he
+went a certain ideal, especially in dealing with natives, that made the
+road of colonization easy for tens of thousands. After all, in the life
+of any man it is character and example that count, and if Selous did
+nothing else, and had, in fact, never killed a single wild animal in his
+life, his name would still be one to conjure with in South Africa or
+wherever he wandered.
+
+    "Summers shall be forgotten with the rose,
+    Yea, winters fall from memory like quenched fire,
+    Loves shall depart unseen, and the voice of desire
+    Be hushed and stilled in the garden close,
+    Yet you they shall remember in the land."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[85] Writing to H. F. Wallace in 1911 Selons speaks of his own capacity
+in characteristic style: "That quotation (in your article) from
+Roosevelt's book as to my being 'the greatest of the world's big game
+hunters' is all bunkum. Because I have hunted a lot, that is not to say
+I am a specially good hunter."
+
+[86] According to the quality of the shooter.
+
+[87] Tunnels seem to have some terrifying effect on the mind of the
+black man. I travelled to Africa in 1913 with the King of Uganda and
+used to play at draughts with him nearly every day. He expressed great
+pleasure at his recent visit to England and the hospitality he had
+received there, but said he could not forget the horror of the tunnels
+on the railways.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+  Adahm, Sergt., 202
+
+  Africa--early influences on F. C. Selous, 5, 13, 29, 51, 55,
+      62 _et seq._;
+    account of his first visit, 67 _et seq._;
+    second visit, 99-140;
+    third visit, 141-95;
+    Selous depressed at financial situation (1884), 152;
+    fourth visit, 208-224
+      _See also_: Boers, Boer War, Mashunaland, Matabeleland,
+        and Transvaal
+
+  Africa, East--game laws and destruction of game by settlers, 140;
+    Sir A. Pease on lion hunting in, 192;
+    F. C. Selous' hunting trips, 248 _et seq._, 272 _et seq._, 279;
+    Mr. T. Roosevelt's trip, 267 _et seq._
+      Campaign against the Germans, 301, 305 et seq.;
+      Selous' experiences, 305, 316, 328, 340, 342;
+      Mr. Roosevelt's views, 325;
+      Capt. Haines' account, 346
+
+  "African Nature Notes and Reminiscences," 91, 184, 193, 261;
+    chapters on protective colouring, 262 _et seq._;
+    literary merit, 364
+
+  Ai-eetsee-upee, 121
+
+  Alpuina, Senhor Alfredo, 172
+
+  America, North--Selous' hunting trips, 228 _et seq._, 245,
+    251 _et seq._, 257
+
+  American Museum of Natural History--T. Roosevelt's collection, 267
+
+  Anderson, C. J., 65, 66
+
+  Andrada, Col. d', 179
+
+  Antelope, lechwe--movements and habits, 95
+
+  Antelope, pookoo, 91
+
+  Antelope, roan, 148
+
+  Antelope, sable, 73, 91, 94;
+    defensive powers, 156
+
+  Antelope, sitatunga, 124
+
+  Arctic and Antarctic expeditions--public support contrasted
+    with support accorded to African and Asiatic expeditions, 194
+
+  Armstrong, Mr. W. L., 180, 183
+
+  Arnoldi, Major, 320
+
+  Arnot, Mr., 141, 159
+
+  Asia Minor--Selous' hunting trips, 207;
+    bird-nesting trips, 227, 247, 259
+
+
+  Babian, 217
+
+  "Badminton Library"--"The Lion in South Africa," 184, 189
+
+  Baillie, Mrs. Alexander, 125
+
+  Baines, Thomas, 66
+
+  Baker, Sir Samuel, 103, 265
+
+  Balamoya, a Kafir, 85, 89
+
+  Baldwin, William Charles, 65, 67, 223;
+    "African Hunting from Natal to the Zambesi," 65
+
+  Banks, Mr. George, 156, 200
+
+  Barber, Mrs. Frederick, 125
+
+  Barotsi, 107;--Selous' troubles among during 1888, 160, 166
+
+  Barttelot, Major, 134
+
+  Batauwani, 198
+
+  Batongas, 113;
+    Selous' troubles among, during expedition of 1888, 159, 167
+
+  Beal, Col., 217
+
+  Bechuanas, 68, 198
+
+  Becker, Ferdinand, 241
+
+  Beho-Beho ridge, engagement on the, 343
+
+  "Beigh, Lowden": _see_ Leigh, Mr. Boughton
+
+  Belton--F. C. Selous' school days at, 25 _et seq._
+
+  Bentley and Son, Richard, 138
+
+  Bettencourt, Capt., 182
+
+  Bezedenhuits, the, 200
+
+  Biles, H., 75
+
+  Birds--F. C. Selous' early bird-nesting exploits, 17, 26,
+      34 _et seq._, 37, 53;
+    his contributions to Rugby Natural History Society, 54;
+    his later bird-nesting activities, 227, 245, 247, 249, 257, 259,
+      286, 288, 299;
+    trip to Iceland, 288 _et seq._
+
+  Bisset, Capt., 214
+
+  Blackstone, Mr., 35 _et seq._
+
+  Boers, 74, 126, 130;
+    aggression against Zulus, 126
+    Transvaal War (1881), 136 _et seq._
+    Transvaal War (1899-1901), 233 _et seq._;
+    F. C. Selous' attitude, 233 _et seq._
+
+  Boer officer's tribute to Mr. Selous, 179
+
+  Bosnia, 257
+
+  Botletlie river, 121
+
+  Bottomly, Sergt.-Major, 312
+
+  Bournabat, 207
+
+  Braddon, Miss, 12
+
+  Bramwell, Baron, 6
+
+  Brand, Capt., 213
+
+  British South Africa Company--occupation of Mashunaland,
+      174 _et seq._;
+    Selous' services with, 176, 186, 196;
+    mismanagement of cattle question, 198, 208;
+    first Matabele rising, 198 _et seq._;
+    second rising, 209 _et seq._;
+    Mr. Millais' criticisms, 219
+
+  British Ornithologists' Club, 367
+
+  British Ornithologists' Union, 227, 367
+
+  Brocklehurst, Sir Philip, 247, 248, 250, 279, 358, 368
+
+  Brocklehurst, Capt. Courtenay, 358
+
+  Brown, Alec, 370
+
+  Bruce, the Abyssinian explorer, 4, 10
+
+  Bruces of Clackmannan, the, 3
+
+  Bruce School, Tottenham, 12, 13
+
+  Bryden, Mr. H. A., 189
+
+  Buffaloes--dangers of hunting, 77, 102 _et seq._;
+    Selous' experiences, 92, 102, 105, 284;
+    McLeod's escape on the Nata, 110;
+    instances of tenacity of life and viciousness, 110 _et seq._;
+    speed, 112
+
+  Bukoba, British attack on, 305, 327
+
+  Bulawayo, 135, 209, 212;
+    defence during second Matabele rising, 212
+
+  Burlace, Mr., 258-9, 221
+
+  Burchell, 65
+
+  Barnett, Mr., 172
+
+  Bushbuck, Angas's, 222
+
+  Butler, Mr., 276
+
+  Butler, Sir William, 234
+
+  Butterflies, 59, 142
+
+  Buxton, Edward North, 265, 269 _et seq._, 374
+
+
+  Campbell, Lieut., 181
+
+  Canyemba, chief of Shakundas, 113
+
+  Canada--F. C. Selous' hunting trips, 245, 251, 257
+
+  Cardinal, Louis, 252
+
+  Caribou, 228 _et seq._, 245, 251, 255, 257
+
+  Carrington, Gen. Sir Frederick, 212, 217
+
+  Cetawayo, 126, 131;
+    Zulu war (of 1878), 126;
+    Gen. Sir E. Hutton's account of his capture, 127;
+    F. C. Selous' reminiscences, 128
+
+  Chameluga, 199
+
+  Chamois hunting in the Tyrol, 60
+
+  Chanler, Willie, 226
+
+  Channel Islands, 286
+
+  Chapman, Mr. Abel, 249, 279, 285, 295, 297, 300, 340, 368
+
+  Charley (native interpreter), 159, 161 _et seq._, 168
+
+  Chartered Coy.: see British South Africa Coy.
+
+  Chawner, Sergeant, 156, 200
+
+  Chelmsford, Lord, 127
+
+  Cheetahs, 265
+
+  Chobe river, 92, 105, 107
+
+  Churchill, Lord Randolph, 185
+
+  Cigar, the Hottentot, 74, 78
+
+  Civilization--T. Roosevelt's views on softening influences
+    of urban developments, 243
+
+  Clarkson, Mr., 115, 118;
+    F. C. Selous' tribute, 123
+
+  Clary, Comte Justinien, 273
+
+  Coghlan, Charles, 257
+
+  Coillard, Mr. and Mrs., 170
+
+  Colchester family, the, 57
+
+  Colchester, Miss--reminiscences of F. C. Selous' life at Wiesbaden, 57
+
+  Colchester, Mr. Charles, 58 _et seq._
+
+  Colchester, Edward, 153
+
+  Colenbrander, Col. Johan--biographical note, 212;
+    organises native regiment for defence of Bulawayo, 212
+
+  Colenso, Miss--"History of the Zulu War," 126
+
+  Collison, H. C., 123, 133, 155, 370
+
+  Colonists and pioneers--Roosevelt's views, 243
+
+  Coloration, protective, 261 _et seq._
+
+  Colquhoun, Mr. A. R., 178, 180
+
+  Congress of Field Sports (Vienna), Second, 273
+
+  Coombe Abbey--F. C. Selous raids heronry at, 37, 53
+
+  Cooper, Mr. Frank, 157
+
+  Cormack, 255
+
+  Coryndon, Mr., 155
+
+  Courtney, Mr, W. L., 237
+
+  Craven, Lord, 53
+
+  Crawford, George, 245
+
+  Cricket--F. C. Selous' love of, 358
+
+  Crocodiles, 143
+
+  Crook, Dr., 133
+
+  Cross, Mr., 115, 118
+
+  Cumming, Roualeyn Gordon, 65, 67
+
+  Cuninghame, 103, 267 _et seq._
+
+  Cunliffe, Gen., 342
+
+  Curtis, Col., 190
+
+  Cycling--F. C. Selous' energy, 359
+
+
+  Danford, Consul, 205, 233, 369
+
+  Daniel (Hottentot waggon driver), 159
+
+  Darnell, Rev. Charles, 13, 25, 29
+
+  Dartnell, Lieut., 320
+
+  Dawson, Mr. James, 155
+
+  Deer--Selous' hunting trips to North America, 228 _et seq._, 245,
+      251 _et seq._, 257
+    (see also Antelopes, Reindeer, etc.)
+
+  Delagoa Bay--Selous' trip in 1896, 223
+
+  Delamere, Lord, 192
+
+  Delmar, Monsieur, 18 _et seq._
+
+  Dett valley, 84, 90
+
+  Donovan, Capt., 200
+
+  Dorehill, 68, 96-7, 99, 107, 146
+
+  Driscoll, Col., 300 et seq.;
+    on East African campaign, 338;
+    on F. C. Selous, 345
+
+  Drummond, 103, 223, 226
+
+  Dunn, John, 127 _et seq._
+
+  Durnford, Col.--"History of the Zulu War," 126
+
+  Durand, Ethel, 133
+
+
+  Eagleson, Mr., 211
+
+  Edgelow, Dr., 186
+
+  Egerton of Tatton, Lord, 368
+
+  Egerton, Hon. Maurice, 368
+
+  Elani, a Somali, 284
+
+  Elands, 147
+
+  Elands, Giant, 275
+
+  Elephants--F. C. Selous asks Lobengula's permission to hunt
+      in Matabele country, 73;
+    Finaughty's experiences, 76;
+    Selous' early experiences, 78 _et seq._, 94 _et seq._;
+    his observations on hunting in hot weather, 95;
+    dangers of hunting discussed, 102;
+    Selous' trips to Zambesi:
+    disappointed at their disappearance, 107, 113;
+    native drives, 107 _et seq._;
+    Quabeet (Mr. Wood's servant) killed by, 116;
+    Selous' successful hunting on the Hanyane river, 115 _et seq._;
+    his narrow escape from a cow elephant, 117;
+    narrow escapes in 1884, 155;
+    Selous kills his last, 186;
+    his finest, 186
+
+  Elstob, Mr., 73
+
+  Emin Pasha relief expedition, 133
+
+  Essexvale, 208 _et seq._
+
+  Evans, Lance-Corpl., 349
+
+  Evans, Pte., 349
+
+
+  Fairlie, W., 107
+
+  Fashoda incident, 362
+
+  Ferreira, 181
+
+  Fife, Duke of, 373
+
+  Finaughty, William, 75, 76, 102;
+    Mr. Harrison's recollections, 76
+
+  Flight, Dr. Walter, 53
+
+  Football at Rugby, 31
+
+  Forbes, Major, 179
+
+  Forman, Antony, 142
+
+  Foster, Mr., 211
+
+  Fountaine, Mr. A. C., 157
+
+  Franco-German War (1870)--F. C. Selous on German barbarities, 60, 62
+
+  Francis, Mr. C. K., 53
+
+  French, Mr., 122; death of, 124, 364
+
+  Frere, Sir Bartle, 138
+
+  Freyer, Mr., 279
+
+
+  Galton, Sir Francis, 65, 66
+
+  Gambo (Lobengula's son-in-law), 202
+
+  Garden, Lieut., 91
+
+  Geange, Joseph, 255
+
+  Gemsbuck, 120, 121
+
+  Gerard, Jules, 103, 189
+
+  Germany--T. Roosevelt's letters to Selous on the war, 324, 327
+
+  Giffard, J., 75
+
+  Gifford, Col. the Hon. Maurice, 213
+
+  Giraffes, 69, 91, 121
+
+  Goats, wild, 207
+
+  Gonyi, falls of, 170
+
+  Goold-Adams, Col., 201 _et seq._
+
+  Goulden, Mr., 115, 118
+
+  Graham, Bob, 229, 232
+
+  Grant, Mr., 148
+
+  Grandy, Lieut. (R.N.), 99 _et seq._
+
+  Greenhill-Gardyne, Col., 237
+
+  Grey, Capt., 213
+
+  Grey, Sir Edward, 273, 276
+
+  Grey, George, 280
+
+  Grimsey, Island of, 292
+
+  Griqualand--F. C Selous' first trading trip, 68
+
+  Grootboom, John, 216
+
+  Guest, Major, 303 _et seq._
+
+  Guns and rifles, 67, 68, 87, 354
+
+  Gwai river, 79
+
+
+  Haines, Capt. R. M.--account of Selous' life in East African
+    campaign, 346
+
+  Hanyane river--successful elephant hunting trip (1878), 116
+
+  Hargraves, Lieut., 309
+
+  Harris, Capt. Cornwallis, 65
+
+  Harrison, Mr. G. L.--recollections of Mr. Finaughty, 76
+
+  Hartebeest, Liechtenstein's, 113, 147, 155
+
+  Hartley, the elephant hunter, 75
+
+  Heany, Mr. Maurice, 208
+
+  Helm, Mr., 208
+
+  Heyman, Capt., 181
+
+  Highland sport, 206
+
+  Hill, Mr. Berkeley, 12, 29
+
+  Hill, Clifford, 190, 191
+
+  Hill, Harold D., 190, 191
+
+  Hippopotami, 136; Lobengula's dispute with Selous over killing of, 151
+
+  Hodges, Mrs. (Florence Selous; "Locky"), 12, 56
+
+  Hofmeyr, Jan, 235
+
+  Hoehnel, Von, 226
+
+  Holgate, Mr. William, 10
+
+  Holgate of York, Archbp., 11
+
+  Honey-buzzards, 58
+
+  Horner, Mr., 99 _et seq._, 107
+
+  Hoskins, Major-Gen. A. R., 342
+
+  Hounds, wild, 265
+
+  Howley, Mr., 255
+
+  Hoyos, the three Counts, 369
+
+  "Hunter's Wanderings in Africa, A"--extracts, 69, 79, 84, 92,
+    95 _et seq._, 99, 105, 108 _et seq._, 117, 122; publication, 139
+
+  Hutton, Gen. Sir Edward--account of capture of Cetawayo, 127
+
+  Hyenas--F. C. Selous on their cries, 71
+
+
+  Iceland--F. C. Selous' bird-nesting trip, 288
+
+  Impali river, 148
+
+  Indian troops--conduct in East African campaign, 321
+
+  Inxnozan, 213
+
+
+  Jacobs, Petrus, 75, 190
+
+  Jackson, Sir Frederick, 103
+
+  Jackson, Mr., 210, 213
+
+  Jameson, Mr. J. A., 133, 157
+
+  Jameson, Mr. James Sligo, 133, 136, 153;
+    biographical sketch, 133
+
+  Jameson, Dr. L. S., 176, 201-2
+
+  Jameson Raid, 210, 372
+
+  Jenner, Corpl., 308
+
+  Jennings family, 75
+
+  Jersey, Selous' visit to, 286
+
+  Johnson, Mr. Frank, 172
+
+  Jollie, Mrs. Ethel Colquhoun--on settlers' prospects in Rhodesia, 221
+
+  Jones, Mrs. C. A. (Sybil Selous; "Dei"), 12
+
+  Jones, Mrs. R. F. (Ann Selous), 5, 12;
+    notes on early life of Selous family, 5 _et seq._;
+    illustrates "A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa," 138;
+    on F. C. Selous' character, 361
+
+  Juckes, Mrs. Frank--incident of F. C. Selous' school days, 13
+
+  Judd, William, 77, 103, 190, 267 _et seq._, 282, 324, 365
+
+  Kennedy, J., 14 _et seq._, 31
+
+  Keppel, a forester, 58
+
+  Kerr, Walter Montague, 152
+
+  Khama, chief, 120 _et seq._, 144, 198
+
+  Kilimanjaro, operations round, 331 _et seq._
+
+  Kingsley, Mr., 107
+
+  Kirk, the explorer, 160
+
+  Kitchener, Col., 309
+
+  Kitchener, Lord, 301
+
+  Kitchener, Mr., 39, 53
+
+  Knight, Sergt., 349
+
+  Knoch, Herr, 57
+
+  Koodoos, 177
+
+  Konze: see Hartebeest (Liechtenstein's), 113
+
+  Kraut, Major, 341
+
+
+  Labouchere, Mr., 185, 218, 221
+
+  Laer, 141, 145, 148 _et seq._
+
+  Lagden, Sir Godfrey, 132
+
+  Lamb, Mr. P. H., 348-9
+
+  Lang, Mr. Arthur, 67
+
+  Lanyon, Sir Owen, 132, 138
+
+  Lange, Friedrich de, 142
+
+  Leask, Mr. Thomas, 75, 143, 153, 370
+
+  Legge, Capt. the Hon. Gerald, 324
+
+  Legion of Frontiersmen, 300 _et seq._
+
+  Leigh, Mr. Boughton ("Lowden Beigh")--F. C. Selous poaches
+    on his estate, 41 _et seq._
+
+  Leitch, Major, 314
+
+  Leopards, 103, 146, 147, 208
+
+  "Leroux, John"--F. C. Selous' account of early adventures
+    contributed to boys' magazine under pseudonym of, 13 _et seq._,
+    30 _et seq._
+
+  Lettow-Vorbeck, Col. von, 340 _et seq._, 350
+
+  Leveson ("The Old Shikari"), 226
+
+  Lewanika, 158, 169, 170, 369
+
+  Liechtenstein, Prince Henry, 362
+
+  Lions--F. C. Selous' first encounter with, 73;
+    Piet Jacobs and, 75;
+    Finaughty's view of dangers of hunting, 77;
+    Selous shoots his first lion, 96;
+    Selous' encounter on Ramokwebani river with an old male lion, 99;
+    adventure at Pelatse, 101;
+    dangers of hunting discussed, 102 _et seq._;
+    Selous kills a lioness near Gwenia, 119;
+    exploits during Kalahari trip (1879), 121 _et seq._;
+    encounter on the Notwani river, 143;
+    in Mashunaland, 144;
+    Laer's exploit, 149;
+    Selous kills his third largest specimen, 149;
+    adventure on return from Umliwan's kraal, 183;
+    number shot by Selous, 184; kills his last, 186;
+    Selous' position as a lion hunter, 189;
+    leading hunters, 190 _et seq._;
+    custom of awarding lion to one drawing first blood, 192 _et seq._;
+    Selous greatest authority on, 193 _et seq._;
+    T. Roosevelt's success in East Africa, 268;
+    Selous' experiences in East Africa, 273, 282 _et seq._;
+    Judd's account of adventure in Gwas N'yiro bush, 282
+
+  Livingstone, David, 29, 51, 57, 66, 75, 150, 160, 195
+
+  Lobengula, King of the Matabele, 55, 73, 79, 107, 115, 132, 154, 172;
+    incidents with Selous, 55, 73, 79, 151, 175;
+    and opening up of Mashunaland, 175;
+    Matabele rising and flight, 197-204;
+    and "Umlimo," 211
+
+  Loch, Sir Henry, 175, 180
+
+  Loch Buie, 206
+
+  "Locky": see Hodges, Mrs.
+
+  "Lowden Beigh": see Leigh, Mr. Boughton
+
+  Lyell, Mr. Denis, 348
+
+
+  MacColl, Scotch keeper, 206
+
+  Macfarlane, Capt., 214
+
+  Maclaine of Lochbuie, the, 206
+
+  MacMillan, Mr. W. N., 271, 279, 326, 346, 368
+
+  MacMillan river--F. C. Selous' hunting trips on, 251 et seq., 257
+
+  Maddy, Miss Gladys: see Selous, Mrs. Frederick Courtenay
+
+  Mainwaring, Capt., 217
+
+  Makori-kori, 173
+
+  Ma-kwayki, 151
+
+  Mamele, chief of the Barotsi, 124
+
+  Manica--fighting between British and Portuguese, 180 _et seq._
+
+  Mandy, Frank, 69, 141
+
+  Manyami region, 147, 157
+
+  Mapondera, chief of Makori-kori, 173
+
+  Marchand, Col., 362
+
+  Marancinyan, a Barotsi chief, 166
+
+  Marter, Major, 127
+
+  Mashukulumbwe--Selous attracted by country of, 120, 131;
+    experiences in 1888;
+    details of attack on his camp and his escape, 160 _et seq._
+
+  Mashunaland--Selous' hunting expedition in 1882-3, 144;
+    Selous obtains mineral concessions from Mapondera and statement
+      disowning Portuguese rule, 173;
+    British occupation, 173 _et seq._;
+    construction of the road, 176 _et seq._;
+    Selous arranges treaties with native chiefs, 179;
+    progress in opening up, 184;
+    Matabele rising (1893), 197 _et seq._;
+    second rising, 209-18;
+    Selous' views as to future of the country, 218;
+    extract from report of Mashunaland Agency (1917), 219
+
+  Mashuna tribe--almost destroyed by Matabele, 199
+
+  Massi-Kessi, 181
+
+  Matabeleland--elephant hunting, 73 _et seq._, 144, 157;
+    concessions to British South Africa Coy., 175;
+    rising of 1893, 197 _et seq._;
+    Selous returns to manage land and gold company at Essexvale, 208;
+    second rising, 209 _et seq._;
+    Selous' views as to future, 218
+
+  Mashunaland, occupation of: see Mashunaland
+
+  Matzchie, 262
+
+  Maxwell, Mrs., 12
+
+  Maziwa, chief, 172
+
+  Mazoe river--gold-prospecting expedition, 172
+
+  McKinley, President, 241
+
+  McLeod of McLeod, 107;
+    account of Sepopo's elephant drives, 107;
+    escape from a buffalo on the Nata, 110;
+    on native common sense, 129
+
+  Meinertzhagen, Col. R.--notes on East African campaign, 304, 306,
+    309, 325, 350
+
+  Mellis, Capt., 190
+
+  Mendonca, chief of Shakundas, 113
+
+  Mendose, a Kafir, 83
+
+  Miles, Lieut., 312
+
+  Millais, Capt. G. de C., 323
+
+  Miller, Mr., 107, 120, 124, 125, 136
+
+  Minenga, a Batonga chief, 161
+
+  Minyama, 73, 111
+
+  Missionaries--F. C. Selous and, 372
+
+  Mitchell, Mr., 200
+
+  Moncrieff, W., 229
+
+  Monzi, a Batonga chief, 160, 166
+
+  Moose, 228 _et seq._, 245, 252, 255, 257-8
+
+  Morley, Mr. John, 239
+
+  Morier, Lieut., 181
+
+  Morkel, Mr. A. R.--tribute to Selous, 196
+
+  Morris, 141
+
+  Motoko, chief, 179, 180
+
+  Mouflon, 207, 248
+
+  Mount Darwin, 173
+
+  Mucklow, Private, 314
+
+  Mule-deer, 229, 232
+
+  Mull, Isle of--seal and otter hunting, 206
+
+  Mundy, Corpl., 202
+
+  Mwemba, chief of the Batongas, 113, 159
+
+  Mzilikatse, 76
+
+
+  Napier, Col., 217
+
+  Natives--Selous on arm-chair critics of colonists, 101;
+    reasoning powers and common sense, 129;
+    obeisance before Lewanika in front of strangers, 170;
+    and tunnels, 369
+
+  Nelson, Lord, 7
+
+  Neros, the, 115
+
+  Neuchatel--the Institution Roulet, 55
+
+  Neumann, Mr. Arthur, 102;
+    biographical note, 260;
+    Selous on, 259
+
+  Newfoundland--F. C. Selous' hunting trips, 245, 255
+
+  Niekerk, Capt. van, 213, 214
+
+  Niemand, Berns, 143
+
+  Noble, Mr. Heatley, 289, 316, 368;
+    notes of trip to Iceland with F. C. Selous, 289
+
+  Normandy--F. C. Selous' visit; correspondence with T. Roosevelt, 286
+
+  Northey, Gen., 341
+
+  Norway--hunting in, 233;
+    F. C. Selous' trip, 260
+
+  Nottman, Scotch keeper, 206
+
+  Nuta, a Kafir, 85 _et seq._
+
+  Nyala, 222 _et seq._
+
+  Nyemyezi, 202
+
+
+  Oberlander, Phil, 276
+
+  Osgood, Prof., 251, 253
+
+  Oswell, William Cotton, 65, 66
+
+  Otter hunting, 206
+
+  Owen, Mr., 112 _et seq._
+
+
+  Page, Gertrude, 220
+
+  Paget, Col., 190
+
+  Paul (a Zulu), 159, 161 _et seq._, 168
+
+  Pease, Sir Alfred, 191, 193, 268 _et seq._; 355;
+    notes on hunting and hunters, 191;
+    and President Roosevelt's trip to E. Africa, 268 _et seq._;
+    on Selous, 355
+
+  Pennefather, Col., 178
+
+  Percival, Mr. A. B., 190
+
+  Phillips, Mr. G. A., 370
+
+  Pike, Mr. Warburton, 274
+
+  Pilton Range manor house--bird-nesting at, 34
+
+  Plumer, Sir Herbert, 217
+
+  Pond, Major, 197
+
+  Portuguese--claims to Mashunaland, 173;
+    fighting in Manica, 180-3
+
+  Poulton, Prof., 262, 264
+
+  Protective coloration, 261 _et seq._
+
+
+  Quabeet (Mr. Wood's Kafir servant)--killed by an elephant, 116
+
+
+  Radclyffe, Capt. C. E., 367
+
+  Rainey, Paul, 192
+
+  Ramaqueban river, 73
+
+  Red deer, long-faced, 207
+
+  Reed-rat, 170
+
+  Regent's Park ice disaster (1867), 45
+
+  Reindeer--hunting trip in Norway, 260
+
+  Rhine--F. C. Selous swims river to retrieve wild duck, 57
+
+  Rhinoceroses, 103
+
+  Rhinoceroses, white, 154
+
+  Rhodes, Cecil, 174-5, 195, 217, 241;
+    and the occupation of Mashunaland, 174 _et seq._;
+    Selous' tribute, 174;
+    Lobengula and, 175;
+    his exploitation of Selous, 195;
+    T. Roosevelt and, 241
+
+  Rhodesia--Rhodes' tribute to Selous, 196
+    _See also_: Mashunaland;
+      Selous' views on its future, 218;
+      Author on colonists' difficulties, 219
+
+  Rider Haggard, Mr. H., 236
+
+  Rinderpest, 183, 209, 213
+
+  Rochhart, Herr, 59
+
+  Rooyen, Cornelis van, 156
+
+  Roosevelt, Theodore--correspondence with Selous: on family ties
+      and the wandering instinct, 225 _et seq._;
+    on Selous' hunting trip in America, 230;
+    ranching, 231;
+    on America and Hungary as deer-hunting countries, 233;
+    on the Boer War, 240 _et seq._;
+    on Selous' "African Nature Notes and Reminiscences," 261, 264;
+    reply to Selous on the attempt on his (Roosevelt's) life, 265;
+    on his own hunting trip to East Africa, 267 _et seq._;
+    on Selous' misgivings as to his age and African hunting, 279;
+    on Normandy and Normans, 286;
+    on Germany and the war, 324;
+    tribute to Selous, 373
+    East African hunting tour, 267
+  _et seq._
+
+  Roosevelt, Kermit, 267, 280 _et seq._, 325, 327
+
+  Rothschild, Lord, 275
+
+  Royal Fusiliers, 25th, 304, 306 _et seq._, 342-3
+
+  Royal Geographical Society, 158, 173, 194
+
+  Rugby School--F. C. Selous' career at, 29 _et seq._;
+    football at, 31;
+    "house-washing," 32;
+    his poaching and bird-nesting exploits, 34 _et seq._;
+    Canon Wilson's reminiscences, 50 _et seq._;
+    F. C. Selous lectures at, 297
+
+  Rungius, Carl, 251, 253
+
+  Ruthven (Mr. Jameson's servant), 136
+
+
+  Sadlier, Mr., 68, 74
+
+  St. Hubert, Society of, 9
+
+  Salisbury, Lord, 173
+
+  Salzburg, 59
+
+  Sardinia--F. C. Selous' trip after mouflon, 248
+
+  Saunders, Robert, 245
+
+  Saunderson, Capt. and Mrs., 270
+
+  Schwarz, Piet, 75
+
+  Science--British official neglect of, 194
+
+  Seal hunting, 206
+
+  Secheli, 68-9
+
+  Sell, a colonist, 121, 125
+
+  Selous family--origins, 2
+
+  Selous, Mr. Angiolo, 3, 5, 6, 11
+
+  Selous, Ann: see Jones, Mrs. R. F.
+
+  Selous, Mr. Edmund, 3, 12;
+    notes on parents and uncles, 3
+
+  Selous, Florence: see Hodges, Mrs.
+
+  Selous, Frederick Courtenay--origins of family, 1 _et seq._;
+    birth, 12;
+    education and school days,12-55;
+    experiences at Bruce School, Tottenham, 12 _et seq._;
+    at Rev. C. Darnell's School, Belton, 25 _et seq._;
+    at Rugby, 29-55;
+    incident with labourer at Pilton Range manor house, 35;
+    raids heronry at Coombe Abbey, 37, 53;
+    incident with Mr. Boughton Leigh's keeper, 41 _et seq._;
+    experience in Regent's Park ice disaster (1867), 45;
+    Canon Wilson's reminiscences of him at Rugby, 50 _et seq._;
+    studies medicine on the Continent, 55 _et seq._;
+    at Institution Roulet, Neuchatel, 55;
+    at Wiesbaden, 56;
+    swims Rhine to retrieve wild duck, 57;
+    rescues Miss Colchester in ice accident, 57;
+    incident with German forest keeper, 58;
+    visits Salzburg in Austria, 59;
+    visit to Vienna, 63;
+    attends medical classes at University College Hospital (London), 64;
+    influence of literature of big-game hunting, 65;
+    first visit to Africa, 67 _et seq._;
+    visits Diamond Fields and Griqualand, 67-8;
+    meets Mr. William Williams, 68;
+    visits Secheli's kraals, 69;
+    gunpowder mishap, 69;
+    lost in the bush for four days and three nights, 69;
+    first encounter with lions, 73;
+    incident with Lobengula over request to hunt elephants, 73;
+    first elephant-hunting experiences, 78 _et seq._, 94 _et seq._;
+    second incident with Lobengula, 79;
+    narrow escape from an elephant, 84 _et seq._;
+    return to Bulawayo, 90;
+    expedition to Zambesi and Chobe rivers, 91 _et seq._;
+    encounter with fierce buffalo cow, 92;
+    shoots his first lion, 96;
+    decides to return home, 98;
+    returns to South Africa (1876), 99;
+    hunting trips on Tati, Shashi, and Ramokwebani rivers, 99;
+    encounter with old male lion, 99;
+    meets George Westbeech, 101;
+    adventure with lions at Pelatse, 101;
+    views of relative danger of hunting different kinds of big game,
+      102 _et seq._;
+    escapes from buffaloes, 105 _et seq._, 108;
+    trip to Zambesi (1877), 107;
+    disappointment with his prospects, 112, 114;
+    trip down the Zambesi with Mr. Owen, 112 _et seq._;
+    ill-health, 114;
+    hunting trip in Mashuna country, 115 _et seq._;
+    meets Jan Viljoen, 115;
+    successful elephant hunting on Hanyane river, 116 _et seq._;
+    narrow escape from cow elephant, 117;
+    kills a lioness near Gwenia, 119;
+    trip through the Kalahari (1879), 120 _et seq._;
+    attacked by low fever at Diamond Fields, 125;
+    reminiscences of Cetawayo, 128;
+    and the Zulu War, 130;
+    hunting trip in Mashuna country, 133, 135;
+    and the Transvaal War (1881), 136;
+    returns to England, 137;
+    arrives in South Africa, 141;
+    treks northward, 141;
+    encounter with lioness, 143;
+    trip to Mashunaland and Matabeleland, 144;
+    encounters with lions, 144, 149;
+    dispute with Lobengula over killing of hippopotami, 151;
+    depressed at state of finances, 152;
+    successful elephant hunting, 155;
+    trip to Mashunaland with J. A. Jameson, Fountaine, and Cooper,
+      157 _et seq._;
+    accidents, 157-8;
+    trip beyond Zambesi, 158;
+    trouble with Barongas, Barotsi, and Mashukulumbwe, 159-69;
+    visit to Lewanika, 169;
+    guides gold expedition to Mazoe river, 172;
+    secures concessions from Mapondera, 173;
+    stormy interview with Portuguese governor at Tete, 173;
+    and the occupation of Mashunaland, 173 _et seq._;
+    Selous' road through Mashunaland, 174-81;
+    guides pioneer expedition, 175 _et seq._;
+    visits Lobengula, 175;
+    negotiates treaties with Mashuna chiefs, 179;
+    conducts stores to British garrison at Manica during trouble
+      with Portuguese, 181;
+    encounter with lions near Umliwan's kraal, 183;
+    terminates engagement with British South Africa Coy., 186;
+    kills his finest lion, 186;
+    his place as a lion hunter discussed, 189;
+    his exploitation by Cecil Rhodes, 195;
+    engagement to Miss Gladys Maddy, 197;
+    part in the first Matabele rising, 197-204;
+    wounded, 202;
+    returns to England, 204;
+    marriage and honeymoon, 205;
+    purchases house at Worplesdon, 205;
+    visit to Scotland, 206;
+    visit to Asia Minor, 207;
+    goes to Essexvale, Matabeleland, to manage estate, 208;
+    work during second Matabele rising, 209 _et seq._;
+    escape from Matabele after horse had bolted, 214;
+    criticised by Truth in connexion with Bulawayo Field Force, 221;
+    trip to Delagoa Bay, 222;
+    return to England, 224;
+    visit to Asia Minor, 227;
+    visit to Wyoming, 229;
+    visits Wiesbaden and Hungary, 233;
+    attitude towards Boer War, 233-245;
+    bird-nesting trip to Hungary, 245;
+    trips to Canada and Newfoundland, 245;
+    trip to Asia Minor, 247;
+    to Sardinia, 248;
+    first trip to British East Africa, 248;
+    trip to the Yukon, 251;
+    third trip to Newfoundland, 255;
+    visit to Bosnia, 257;
+    second trip to Yukon territory, 257;
+    bird-nesting trip to Asia Minor, 259;
+    reindeer hunting in Norway, 260;
+    advice to Mr. Roosevelt as to East African hunting trip, 267;
+    trip to East Africa with W. N. MacMillan, 272;
+    represents England at Congress of Field Sports, Vienna, 273;
+    trip to Sudan after Giant Eland, 275;
+    ill-health and operation, 279;
+    second trip to East Africa with MacMillan, 279;
+    incident with lion in Gwas N'yiro bush, 282;
+    kills his last buffalo, 284;
+    trip to Jersey and Normandy, 286;
+    visit to Iceland with Heatley Noble, 289;
+    lectures at Rugby, 297;
+    anxiety to serve during the Great War, 299 _et seq._;
+    serves as special constable at Pirbright, 301;
+    service in East Africa, 304-50;
+    experiences during attack on Bukoba, 305;
+    invalided, undergoes operation in England, and returns
+      to East Africa, 338;
+    killed in action at Beho-Beho, 344;
+    Capt. R. M. Haines' account of his life in East Africa, 346;
+    grave, 349
+    Letters
+      --to his mother:
+        while at Rugby, 29;
+        on his medical studies at Neuchatel, 55;
+        on butterfly catching at Salzburg, 59;
+        on Franco-German War and German barbarities, 60, 62;
+        expressing disappointment with prospects, 112-15, 152;
+        death of Mr. Wood's servant Quabeet, 116;
+        Zulu War, 130;
+        occupation of Mashunaland, 174, 177, 179;
+        engagement with Portuguese at Massi-Kessi, 181;
+        development of Mashunaland, 184;
+      --to his sister "Locky":
+        on his future career, 56;
+      --to his wife:
+        on first Matabele rising, 201;
+        East African campaign, 342;
+      --to Abel Chapman, 249, 285, 295, 296, 300, 340;
+      --to W. L. Courtney on Boer War, 237;
+      --to J. G. Millais:
+        on American hunting trip, 232;
+        Boer War, 235;
+        Newfoundland hunting trips, 247, 255;
+        bird-nesting trips, 249;
+        Yukon trips, 253, 258;
+        A. Neumann, 259;
+        East African trips, 272, 383;
+        Vienna exhibition, 274;
+        Sudanese trip, 275;
+        East African campaign, 319, 328, 331;
+      --to Mrs. Millais:
+        on his prospects of acceptance for war service, 303;
+      --to Heatley Noble on East African campaign, 316;
+      --to Sir A. Pease on Roosevelt's trip, 269;
+      --to The Speaker on Boer War, 239;
+      --to The Times:
+        on the occupation of Mashunaland, 175;
+        on the Boer War 234, 237
+    Appearance, 359
+    Bird-nesting activities: see Birds
+    Character, 2, 352
+    Elephant hunting: see Elephants
+    Family and home life, 224 _et seq_.; 368
+    Lion hunting: see Lions
+    Literary preferences, 366
+    Modesty, 361
+    Observation, accuracy of, 52, 264
+    Poaching adventures, 26, 34, 37, 41, 58
+    Restlessness, spirit of, 365
+    Senses, acuteness of, 51
+    Shooting powers, 353, 356
+    Telling stories, capacity for, 360
+    Tributes, 196, 344-5, 348, 355, 373
+
+  Selous, Mrs. Frederick Courtenay (nee Miss [Gladys] Maddy), 197;
+     accompanies Selous to Essexvale, Matabeleland, 208;
+     Y.M.C.A. work at Havre, 304
+
+  Selous, Mr. Frederick Lokes (father to F. C. Selous), 3;
+     note by Mr. Edmund Selous, 3;
+     note by Mrs. R. F. Jones (daughter), 5;
+     reminiscences, 7 _et seq._
+
+  Selous, Mrs. Frederick Lokes (mother to F. C. Selous), 3;
+     note by Mr. Edmund Selous, 3;
+     note by Mrs. Jones (daughter), 10;
+     death, 285
+
+  Selous, Captain Fred (son), 297, 323, 331, 336
+
+  Selous, Gideon, 2, 12
+
+  Selous, H. C. (uncle to F. C. Selous), 3, 5, 6, 7, 12
+
+  Selous, Harold (son), 298
+
+  Selous, Sybil: see Jones, Mrs. C. A.
+
+  Selous Road, 174-9
+
+  "Selous Syndicate," 174
+
+  Sepopo, chief of Barotsi, 101, 107, 130;
+    elephant drives, 107
+
+  Shakundas, 113
+
+  Shamedza, 160
+
+  Shampondo, Batonga chief, 159
+
+  Shangans, 199
+
+  Sheldon, Mr. Charles, 252, 254, 263
+
+  Sheppard, Gen., 330, 334
+
+  Shepstone, Sir T., 137 _et seq._
+
+  Sherborn, Ann: see Selous, Mrs. Frederick Lokes
+
+  Shimmin, Rev. Isaac--note on F. C. Selous, 369
+
+  Shikari Club, 367
+
+  Shiras, 263
+
+  Shoma, a Batonga chief, 167
+
+  Sikabenga, a Barotsi chief, 160, 166, 169, 199
+
+  Sinoia, caves of, 157
+
+  Situngweesa, 199
+
+  Sitanda, chief of Manicas, 113
+
+  Skinner, Peter, 69
+
+  Slatin Pasha, 362
+
+  Smart, Samuel, 255
+
+  Smuts, Gen. J., 328 _et seq._, 342;
+    account of fighting at Beho-Beho, 344;
+    on difficulties of E. African campaign, 350
+
+  Smyrna, 227, 247
+
+  "Snake-stone," 142
+
+  Somaliland--lion hunting, 192
+
+  South African Conciliation Committee--F. C. Selous' letter to,
+    237 _et seq._
+
+  _Speaker, The_--F. C. Selous' letter on the Boer War, 239
+
+  Spiritualism, 153, 370
+
+  Spreckley, Col., 218
+
+  Staden, Roelef van, 200, 237
+
+  Stanier, Sir Beville, 247
+
+  Stanley, H. M., 133
+
+  Steele, General Sir Thomas, 66
+
+  "Stempel, Dr.", 34, 43
+
+  Stewart, Gen., 309, 334
+
+  Stigand, Capt., 103, 263-4
+
+  Stirling, Major, 249
+
+  Stockley, Cynthia, 220
+
+  Stonham, Col., 239
+
+  Stroud, a guide, 245
+
+  Sudan--F. C. Selous' trip after giant elands, 275
+
+  "Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia," 217, 221 _et seq._, 224
+
+  Suni, Livingstone's, 223
+
+  Swartz, Martinus, 122
+
+  Swartz, Paul, 192
+
+  Swazis--boundary dispute with Zulus, 126
+
+  Swythamley, 247, 248, 279
+
+
+  Tarlton, Mr., 103, 325
+
+  Taveta, engagement near, 330
+
+  Taylor, Pte., 349
+
+  Tchangani river--Lobengula's forces defeated (1893), 202
+
+  Tea--F. C. Selous' preference for, 294, 347, 352
+
+  Tennant, H. J., 301 _et seq._
+
+  Texel Island, 299
+
+  Thayer, 264
+
+  Thomas, Mr., a miner, 172
+
+  Thomas, David, 160
+
+  Thomas, Reuben, 67
+
+  Thomas, Roderick, 257
+
+  Thornton, Lieut. Edward--account of death of Captain Fred Selous, 297
+
+  Tighe, Gen., 304
+
+  _Times, The_--Selous' letters to:
+    on the occupation of Mashunaland, 175;
+    on the Boer War (1899-1901), 234, 237
+    History of the War quoted, 342 _et seq._
+
+  Tippu-Tib, 134
+
+  "Tombe Abbey "--F. C. Selous raids heronry at, 37, 53
+
+  Transvaal--Boer agression against Zulus, 126;
+    Boer War (1881), 136 _et seq._;
+    Boer War (1899-1901), 234 _et seq._
+
+  "Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa," 146, 150 _et seq._, 164,
+    166 _et seq._, 183, 222
+
+  Trimen, Mr., 142
+
+  Tritton, Mr. Claude, 271
+
+  _Truth_--attacks on the Chartered Company, 221
+
+  Tweedie, Capt., 278
+
+  Tyrrel, Mr., 253
+
+
+  Ubandini, the Swazi king, 129
+
+  Umbilini, a Swazi chieftain, 127
+
+  "Umlimo," or god of the Makalakas, 210
+
+  Umlugula, a Matabele chief, 210
+
+  Umsheti, 217
+
+  Umtasa, chief of Manica, 178
+
+  United States--official support of science, 194 _et seq._;
+    Selous' lecturing tour cancelled, 197;
+    hunting trips, 228 _et seq._;
+    campaigns against Mexico compared to Boer War by T. Roosevelt, 242;
+    and the Great War, 325
+    Ranching--T. Roosevelt's letter to F. C. Selous, 231
+
+  Usher, Mr., 210
+
+
+  Vanderbyl, Capt., P. B., 260, 367
+
+  Van Deventer, Gen., 332, 334, 336
+
+  Vardon, the hunter, 66
+
+  Vienna, 63; second international congress of field sports, 273
+
+  Viljoen, Jan, 74, 75, 115, 118
+
+
+  Wahle, Gen., 341
+
+  Wallace, Mr. H. F., 262, 355
+
+  Wankie, 96
+
+  Wapiti, 228 _et seq._, 232
+
+  War, the Great, 299 _et seq._;
+    T. Roosevelt's views, 324
+
+  Ward, Herbert, 135
+
+  Ward, Mr. Rowland, 222
+
+  Wart-hogs, 147
+
+  Watmough, Mr. W., 348
+
+  Webb, Major, 309, 312 _et seq._
+
+  Wells, John, 246
+
+  Westbeech, George, 101, 159, 166
+
+  Weyand, Karl, 148
+
+  White, Capt., 312
+
+  White, Mr. Montague, 241
+
+  Whittall, Sir William, 205, 369
+
+  Wiesbaden, 56, 233
+
+  Wilson, Major, 203
+
+  Wilson, Mr. J. M. (afterwards Canon Wilson), 29;
+    reminiscences of F. C. Selous at Rugby, 50 _et seq._
+
+  Williams, Mr., 273
+
+  Williams, Capt., 321
+
+  Williams, Bryan, 277
+
+  Williams, Mr. William, 68
+
+  Williams, Sir Ralph--tribute to F. C. Selous, 55
+
+  Windley, Capt., 214
+
+  Wingate, Sir F., 276
+
+  Wissels, Mr., 223
+
+  Wolf, the Artist, 66
+
+  Wolseley, Sir Garnet, 127, 129, 138
+
+  Wolverton, Lord, 190
+
+  Wolves, 258
+
+  Wood, George, 75, 79, 90 _et seq._, 110, 112, 115, 118
+
+  Worplesdon, 60, 205
+
+
+  X, Col., 226
+
+
+  Yellowstone Park--P. Oberlander and the game wardens, 277
+
+  Yukon territory--F. C. Selous' hunting trips, 251 _et seq._
+
+
+  Zambesi river--Selous' hunting trips, 107, 146, 169, 183
+
+  Zambesi, falls of, 91
+
+  Zulu War, 125 _et seq._
+
+  Zumbo, 146
+
+  Zwecker, 67
+
+
+    PRINTED BY
+    WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.
+    PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired and missing letters restored from
+the context.
+
+Hyphen added: "ant[-]hill" (p. 150), "Goold[-]Adams" (pp. 201, 203),
+"home[-]sick" (p. 13), "re[-]read" (p. 282), "re[-]visit" (p. 185),
+"school[-]days" (p. 17), "up[-]stream" (p. 246).
+
+Hypen removed: "breech[-]loading" (p. 114), "farm[-]house" (p. 293).
+
+The following alternate spellings are used and have not been changed:
+"Sode Gara" / "Sode-Garra" (pp. 121, 154), "Se-quoi-quoi" /
+"Se-whoi-whoi" (pp. 118, 154).
+
+P. 31: "skins" changed to "shins" (kicking the shins).
+
+P. 142: "Voortrekhers" changed to "Voortrekkers".
+
+P. 154: duplicate word "time" deleted (but at the same time).
+
+P. 177: "waggon" changed to "waggons" (simply abandon our waggons).
+
+P. 226: "rhinocereses" changed to "rhinoceroses" (charged by black
+rhinoceroses).
+
+P. 229: "tractless" changed to "trackless" (vast plains and trackless
+forests).
+
+P. 253: "missfire" changed to "misfire" (owing to a misfire).
+
+P. 262: "ex" changed to "Ex" (Ex-President Roosevelt).
+
+P. 283: "Greyv's zebra" changed to "Grevy's zebra".
+
+P. 323: "possiby" changed to "possibly" (Germans cannot now possibly win
+the war).
+
+Footnote 76 (p. 323): Capt. Selous was killed on 4th January and not on
+6th January according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
+
+P. 343: "December" changed to "January" (An attack was made on the
+German positions by General Smuts on January 2nd) based upon the
+surrounding text.
+
+P. 372: "criticsms" changed to "criticisms" (his criticisms applied only to
+those).
+
+P. 381: Index entry "Mamia" changed to "Manica".
+
+P. 386: Index entries "Stonham" and "Shoma" moved to correct place in
+alphabetical order.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous,
+D.S.O., by J.G. Millais
+
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