6 
THE PLEISTOCENE AGE [ch. i 
Selous; and, so far as I now recall, no hunter of any¬ 
thing like his experience has ever also possessed his gift 
of penetrating observation joined to his power of vivid 
and accurate narration. He has killed scores of lion 
and rhinoceros and hundreds of elephant and buffalo ; 
and these four animals are the most dangerous of the 
world’s big game, when hunted as they are hunted in 
Africa. To hear him tell of what he has seen and done 
is no less interesting to a naturalist than to a hunter. 
There were on the ship many men who loved wild 
nature, and who were keen hunters of big game ; and 
almost every day, as we steamed over the hot, smooth 
waters of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, we would 
gather on deck around Selous to listen to tales of those 
strange adventures that only come to the man who has 
lived long the lonely life of the wilderness. 
On April 21 we steamed into the beautiful and 
picturesque harbour of Mombasa. Many centuries 
before the Christian era, dhows from Arabia, carrying 
seafarers of Semitic races whose very names have 
perished, rounded the Lion’s Head at Guardafui and 
crept slowly southward along the barren African coast. 
Such dhows exist to-day almost unchanged, and bold 
indeed were the men who first steered them across the 
unknown oceans. They were men of iron heart and 
supple conscience, who fronted inconceivable danger 
and hardship ; they established trading-stations for gold 
and ivory and slaves; they turned these trading-stations 
into little cities and sultanates, half Arab, half negro. 
Mombasa was among them. In her time of brief 
splendour Portugal seized the city ; the Arabs won it 
back; and now England holds it. It lies just south of 
the Equator, and when we saw it the brilliant green 
of the tropic foliage showed the town at its best. 
