IV PREFACE. 



his petitione]''s youthful appearance and to regard the idea of his 

 iittacking an elephant witli derision. He gave the desired 

 permission, which was taken advantage of promptly ; not only did 

 Selous hag many elephants hefore he came of age, but by the 

 time he was five-and-twenty he was known far and wide in 

 South Africa as one of the most successful ivory hunters of 

 the day. 



About this time many of the Boer elephant hunters were 

 giving up the pi'ofession ; the elephant.s had given up their old 

 haunts of the open veld and the herds had retreated to the forest 

 country. Here the use of horses was impossible, and malarial and 

 other fevers took toll of the hunters ; a few of the bolder spirits 

 made up their minds to stick to elephant hunting, and it was 

 among these hardy and experienced men that Selous speedilj' made 

 a great reputation for courage, bu.shcraft and endurance. A man 

 of beautiful proportions, with a chest of extraordinary dejDth and 

 breadth, he is described as the best white runner that the Matabele 

 had ever seen, and more than once he owed his life to his jjower of 

 sprinting, jumping and swerving. The life of constant hardship 

 toughened him, and he seldom suffered from fever. 



Until 1881 Selous devoted himself mainly to elephant hunt- 

 ing, save for one holiday to England in 1875. In the former year 

 he returned home for the second time, and shortly afterwards 

 published ' A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa,' a book which j-an 

 through five editions, and took rank immediately among the 

 classical works on African hunting. His keen interest in topo- 

 graphy led to a succession of oonti'ibutions to the Journal of 

 the Royal Geographical Society, which in due time awarded him 

 its gold medal. By the end of ISSl he was back at the Cape, and 

 for the next six years wandered about the Matabele and other 

 territory to the Zambesi, devoting liimself mainly to procuring 

 specimens of the African fauna for museums and private collections 

 at home. Many of the finest specimens to be seen in the Natural 

 History Museum were procured by Selous during these years. 



In 1888, in passing through the Mashukulumbwi territory, 

 Selous was set upon by that tribe; his caravan was plundered, 

 many of his followers were killed, and he himself, escaping with 



