FOREWORD 
“ I speak of Africa and golden joys the joy of wander¬ 
ing through lonely lands ; the joy of hunting the mighty 
and terrible lords of the wilderness, the cunning, the 
wary, and the grim. 
In these greatest of the world’s great hunting- 
grounds there are mountain-peaks whose snows are 
dazzling under the equatorial sun ; swamps where the 
slime oozes and bubbles and festers in the steaming 
heat; lakes like seas ; skies that burn above deserts 
where the iron desolation is shrouded from view by the 
wavering mockery of the mirage ; vast grassy plains 
where palms and thorn-trees fringe the dwindling 
streams ; mighty rivers rushing out of the heart of the 
continent through the sadness of endless marshes; 
forests of gorgeous beauty, where death broods in the 
dark and silent depths. 
There are regions as healthy as the Northland ; and 
other regions, radiant with bright-hued flowers, birds, 
and butterflies, odorous with sweet and heavy scents, 
but treacherous in their beauty, and sinister to human 
life. On the land and in the water there are dread 
brutes that feed on the flesh of man ; and among the 
lower things, that crawl, and fly, and sting, and bite, he 
finds swarming foes far more evil and deadly than any 
beast or reptile ; foes that kill his crops and his cattle, 
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