26 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
CHAPTER II 
SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 
By W. CoTTron OSWELL 
WILLIAM COTTON OSWELL: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
By Sir SAMUEL W. BAKER 
ONE man alone was left who could describe from personal 
experience the vast tracts of Southern Africa and the countless 
multitudes of wild animals which existed fifty years ago in 
undisturbed seclusion ; the ground untrodden by the Euro- 
pean foot ; the native unsuspicious of the guile of a white 
intruder. This man, thus solitary in this generation, was the 
late William Cotton Oswell. He had scarcely finished the pages 
upon the fauna of South Africa when death seized him (May 1, 
1893) and robbed all those who knew him of their greatest 
friend. His name will be remembered with tears of sorrow 
and profound respect. 
Although Oswell was one of the earliest in the field of South 
African discovery, his name was not world-wide, owing to his 
extreme modesty, which induced him to shun the notoriety that 
is generally coupled with the achievements of an explorer. Long 
before the great David Livingstone became famous, when he 
was the simple unknown missionary, doing his duty under 
the direction of his principal, the late Rev. Robert Moffat, 
whose daughter he married, Oswell made his acquaintance 
while in Africa, and became his early friend. 
