PREFACE. V 



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

 Early in 1890 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 1892 Selous returned 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 potentialities 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, for good, and soon afterwards married Marie 

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

 him. In 1895 he returned to Rhodesia with his wife to take up 

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

 through the second Matabele War, during which his homestead 

 was burnt by the rebels. In 1896 he embodied these experiences, 

 together with a review of the causes of the Matabele wars 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 1906 he 

 Avas on the Macmillan River in the Yukon territory of North- 

 Western Canada. In later years 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 patience, and a retentive memory com- 

 bined to make him afield naturalist of veiy exceptional excellence; 

 and these qualities, together with his enormous experience, raised 

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



