PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



In offering to the public the following pages, I feel, 

 as editor, that I owe a few words of apology and 

 explanation to the reader by way of preface — 

 apology for the imperfections of the volume ; ex- 

 planation how such imperfections have arisen. 

 The traveller whose journey to the Zambesi is here 

 recounted died of fever a few days after he had left 

 that river on his way homewards, and the book has 

 been compiled from his note-books and letters home. 

 The latter were written with no view to publication ; 

 the former were intended only for the writer's own 

 subsequent use and as suggestive guides to memory. 

 It is always a question in such a case how far the 

 surviving friends of the deceased writer or traveller 

 do well in publishing the unfinished labour of his 

 pen. What his own wish would have been cannot 

 be known, or even guessed at, unless specially 

 expressed ; and the reflection forcibly presents itself 



