18 



the Society aims at extending its influence beyond its immediate 

 membership. It was the first time in the history of the Society 

 in which they had ever met in the Dome. As for the subject of 

 the inaugural lecture, he thought nothing could be more ap- 

 propriate, for the eyes of the world were at present to a great 

 extent fixed on South Africa. He referred to Mr. Selous as one 

 of the most able and energetic of those pioneers who, in distant 

 lands had " scorned delights and lived laborious days " in order 

 to make England great. 



Mr. Selous had an enthusiastic reception on rising to relate, 

 as he put it, a few of his experiences in hunting in the interior 

 of Africa. Speaking in an easy conversational manner, he 

 described the state of things existing in South Africa in 1871, 

 when he first landed there, and attributed the vast progress 

 since made to the far-seeing statesmanship and splendid enter- 

 prise of Mr. Cecil Rhodes. There was then only one short line 

 of railway between Cape Town and a neighbouring village in 

 the whole of South Africa, and his journey from the coast to the 

 diamond fields in a bullock van took hira two months. His 

 object, he explained, was not to seek diamonds, but to get into 

 the interior, where he hoped to find wild game in abundance, 

 be unhindered by fences or rails, and see no objectionable 

 notice boards intimating that trespassers would be prosecuted. 



Hunting Adventures. 



He entered Matabeleland in August, 1872, and obtained 

 permission to hunt elephants from Lobengula. In 1874 he 

 visited the Victoria Falls ou the Zambesi, and in 1877 crossed 

 the Zambesi, and peneti'ated far into the country beyond. He 

 travelled for months together without seeing a white man. For 

 three years, he said, he saw no newspaper, or telegram, or any 

 kind of money ; and what was more singular, he was perfectly 

 happy without any of these things. He travelled and shot, and 

 with the ivory purchased whatever was necessary for himself and 

 the natives who accompanied him in his expeditions. The 

 greater part of Mr. Selous's lecture, however, was taken up with 

 a description of an adventure in the remote interior, wheu his 

 camp was raided at night, and he was put in great peril by the 

 treachery of the natives. He escaped with his rifle and only four 

 cartridges, but lost his weapon the following day by a further act 

 of treachery on the part of the natives he had thought friendly, 

 and had to wander alone 200 miles through the bush, making the 

 best of his way by night, and hiding by day, till he met the 

 remnant of his party in the Zambesi Valley. Of the twenty- 



