Preface 



As Sir Harry Johnston has been kind enough to interest 

 himself in this my first Uterary venture — even to the 

 extent of writing an introduction — I am not called 

 upon to contribute a preface of any considerable length. 



A preface I understand to be the author's own particular 

 page, where he may let his fancy roam, slang his publisher, 

 and generally kick his heels ; do everything, in short, so 

 long as he propitiates his readers. 



I may say at once that, being of a restless nature, and 

 writing not being my forte, I would have renounced the 

 composition of this book if I could honestly have done so. 

 You, my readers, may of course wish to know why I have 

 written it, if the work is uncongenial. One reason is that 

 I have a conscience which dubs me a shirker if I leave undone 

 something that is worth fhe doing ; another, that although I 

 have reached middle age and have spent more than half 

 my life in the African wilds, I am still a little ambitious ; 

 and the third is the spur of the naturalist and artist, who 

 would wish to place before his public the beauties of this 

 African Wonderland which still lie hidden from so many. 



I have attempted to weave into my writing something 

 of the fascination and spell of Africa, which bred in the 

 solitudes of open plain and primeval forest, grip the traveller 

 from first to last — the true Breath from the Veldt. To aid 

 me in this I have quoted a number of verses from the poems 

 of Cullen Gouldsbury, the African Kipling — so rich in this 

 brooding spirit of the wild. 



vii 



