PREFACE. V 



difficulty, made his way back in the last stages of exhaustion. 

 Early in 1<S90 he led the pioneer expedition of the Chartered 

 Company into Mashonaland, and so saved that valuable country 

 from Portuguese annexation. 



The next two years were spent on surveying and similar 

 work for the Chartered Company, and in 1802 Selous i-eturned to 

 England. In 1893 he published 'Travel and Adventure in South- 

 East Africa,' which contained not only an account of his many 

 adventures since the publication of his former book, but also 

 glowing descriptions of the ])otentialities of Mashonaland and 

 Manicaland. Returning to Rhodesia in the same year, he assisted 

 in the suppression of the first Matabele insurrection; he then came 

 home, as he thought, foi- good, and soon afterwards married Marie 

 Catherine Gladys (daughter of the late Canon Maddy) who survives 

 him. In ISO.") he returned to Rhodesia with his wife to take ujj 

 the management of an estate, and Avas thus in time to serve 

 through the second Matabele War, during which his homestead 

 was burnt by the rebels. In 189(5 he embodied these experiences, 

 together with a review of the causes of the Matabele wais and of 

 the resources of Charterland, in a book entitled ' Sunshine and 

 Storm in Rhodesia.* 



From this time onwards Selous gratified his ruling passion, 

 big-game shooting, rather as an amateur than as a professional. 

 In 1894-5 he visited Asia Minor on a hunting tour, and in 1897 

 and 1898 he made two trips to the Rocky Mountains. In 1900, 

 1901, and 1905 he shot in Newfoundland. In 1904 and 190G he 

 was on the Macmillan ]\iver in the Yukon territory of North- 

 Western Canada. In later yeai's he once more turned his attention 

 to Africa, this time to British East Africa and the Nile. Through- 

 out his career Selous was much more than merely a successful 

 game-shooter. Wherever he went he took the deepest interest in 

 the habits and personality of all animals encountered. Keen 

 observation, indefatigable ])atience, and a retentive memory com- 

 bined to make him a field naturalist of very exceptional excellence; 

 and these qualities, together with his enormous experience, raised 

 him to the position of acknowledged doyen of ibe whole tribe of 



