PREFACE 
IX 
thence to Mafekingand Matabeleland. Gradually I 
worked my way up to Beira, from which I did some 
promiscuous hunting, and afterwards travelled all 
over Mashonaland. Next, I roved northwards to 
British Central Africa and roamed the regions about 
Lake Tanganyika and the Congo, subsequently 
going to Portuguese East Africa (just ten years ago), 
and, a couple of years later, to German East Africa, 
where I have hunted up to the present day. 
During these years of wandering, I have done 
many things to earn a living. I have, at times, 
engaged in ‘ nigger bossing ’ ; in recruiting niggers 
and contracting for the Beira railway ; I have been 
agent for various African trading companies ; I have 
kept native stores ; and I have even been a prize¬ 
fighter. None of these occupations, however, seemed 
adequately to suit my nature, and I was still 
uncertain as to what I should undertake as a means 
of earning a livelihood, when I reached Portuguese 
East Africa. It was there that I decided to become 
an elephant hunter, and, practically speaking, I have 
been on the spoor of the elephant ever since. My 
adoption of this career was not entirely decided by 
the question of pecuniary gain, for though I am not 
poet or philosopher enough to affect a complete 
indifference to the root of evil, my intense love of 
sport was a more cogent factor in assisting me 
to come to such a decision than any love of lucre. 
