x PREFACE 



During the last sixteen years of my life I have 

 only had two short intervals of absence from Africa, 

 and on these occasions I merely paid flying visits 

 to the Old Country, the time spent at home not 

 covering more than three months altogether, while 

 for ten years I have been elephant hunting without 

 intermission, save for a period in 1905-6, when I 

 fought as a volunteer with the German forces during 

 a native insurrection, receiving for my services a 

 Prussian war decoration from the German Govern- 

 ment. During these ten years, I have shot 447 bull 

 elephants (I do not count females), thereby creating 

 a world's record. I do not make this statement in 

 any spirit of boasting : I merely wish to convey to 

 the reader that the stones which follow are not 

 fiction, but facts gleaned from a long and unique 

 experience in one of the most exciting and danger- 

 ous sports that the world offers, and jotted down 

 actually as they happened within a day or two of 

 their occurrence. I should like to add, moreover, 

 that I have not gone on safari with a large and 

 well-armed expedition to lessen the risks of my call- 

 ing, but have always hunted alone, with one or two 

 trusted boys as trackers, and carriers. 



To conclude, I may say that I have never 

 regretted the life I have led. It has been a life of 

 weary days and restless nights, of fever, thirst, 

 hunger, toil, and strife ; but a life of wild, exhilara- 



