Chapter III (1)

1871-1875

There are few of us whose early aspirations and subsequent acts are not influenced by literature. Some book comes just at the time of our life when we are most impressionable and seems exactly to fit in with our ideas and temperament. To this rule Selous was no exception, for he often admitted in after-life that the one book which definitely sent him to Africa and made him a pioneer and a hunter of Big Game, was Baldwin's "African Hunting from Natal to the Zambesi," published in 1864. Example in any line of adventure is recurrent, and especially so if the field of adventure is not spoilt by what we may call excessive "civilization." There have been, as it were, landmarks in the literature of African sport and travel, each book being more or less cumulative in its effect. Amongst books that mattered, perhaps the first was Burchell's fully-illustrated folio and the lesser writings of an English officer who hunted in the Orange Free State late in the eighteenth and early in the nineteenth century. The works of these men incited Captain Cornwallis Harris to undertake an extensive trip as far as the Limpopo. He was a capable artist and an excellent writer, and published a magnificent folio describing his adventures and the natural history of the large mammals, which still commands a high price. He at once inspired many hunters to follow in his footsteps, and several of these, such as Roualeyn Gordon Cumming, William Cotton Oswell, Sir Francis Galton, and C. J. Anderson, wrote either books of great value or portions of standard works. Gordon Cumming did an immense amount of shooting--far too much most people now think--but his volume, written in the romantic British style, is one that will always remain a classic in the world of sporting literature. His tales of the game he saw or what he killed were not always accepted as true facts, but from all accounts, gathered from independent sources, it is now admitted that Gordon Cumming was a fearless hunter and did in the main accomplish all the principal exploits to which he laid claim.

"Lake Ngami, or Explorations in South-Western Africa," by Charles John Anderson, published in 1856, with some admirable early illustrations by Wolf, gives an account of the author's four years' wanderings (partly with Francis Galton) in the Western Wilderness, and is a truthful and excellent record of the Great Game in these districts at that time. Galton also published "Tropical Africa," but did not give much space to sport or natural history. Oswell, a great hunter and companion of Livingstone in many of his travels, also wrote in the last days of his life an admirable contribution to the "Badminton Library," which embodied an account of his life and adventures amongst the Great Game of South Africa in the forties. It is well illustrated by Wolf, the greatest painter of birds and mammals who ever lived. Other men of his date who were excellent hunters, who left no records of their lives, were Vardon, General Sir Thomas Steele, and Thomas Baines, who, without prejudice, did perhaps as much exploration, geographical work, painting, and hunting as any Afrikander of his time. Baines, I believe, really discovered the Falls of the Zambesi before Livingstone visited them, and no adequate tribute to the work of this remarkable man has ever appeared. The amount of maps he prepared of out-of-the-way corners of South Africa from the Zambesi northwards, was very great and his work was only known to the pioneers like Livingstone, Oswell, Selous and others who followed after him and made use of his industry. Baines, too, though almost uneducated, was a very capable artist and I think I must have seen at least two hundred of his paintings in oil. He liked to depict landscapes and wild animals. Whilst those of the latter were not above criticism, his views of the rivers, lakes, forests, mountains, and plains of the Free State, swarming with game, are a truthful record of the days that are no more, and will doubtless live in South African history when more ambitious, technically correct works are forgotten.[4]

After these sportsmen and writers came William Charles Baldwin, who wandered, primarily with the object of hunting elephants, from Zululand to the Zambesi and west to Lake Ngami between the years 1852 and 1860. His book "African Hunting and Adventure" was published in 1863, and was beautifully illustrated by Wolf and Zwecker. It was an immediate success and caused many, like Selous, to leave the ways of civilization and seek adventure in the wilds. Baldwin was an excellent and fearless rider (he rode in a steeplechase when he was seventy) and a good shot, and the accounts of his adventures could hardly have failed to make their impress on the minds of young men of the right kind, but, as he admits, the elephants were on the wane even in his day (he never succeeded in hunting in the main haunts in Matabeleland), so future travellers had to exploit new fields.

On the 4th of September, 1871, Selous landed at Algoa Bay with L400 in his pocket. He went there determined to make his way into the interior and to lead the free life of the hunter as described by Gordon Cumming, Baldwin, and others. First he decided to go to the Diamond Fields, and left Port Elizabeth on September 6th with a young transport rider named Reuben Thomas, who conveyed him and his baggage for the sum of eight pounds. After a slow journey of nearly two months he reached his destination. On the road by hunting hard he had managed to kill "one bushbuck ram, one duiker, one springbuck, one klipspringer, and eight grey and red roebucks, all of which I carried on my own shoulders to the waggons."

Most unfortunately, however, a valuable double breechloading rifle with which he had been shooting was stolen on the day he reached Kimberley. Next day he bought a horse and rode over to Pniel. There he met Mr. Arthur Lang, and on October 31st went with him on a trading trip through Griqualand, passing down the Vaal and Orange rivers. He found the Bechuanas an industrious race, "but they are the stingiest, most begging, grasping, and disagreeable set of people that it is possible to imagine." He was much disappointed to find the country so bare of game. "The great drawback was that there was no game whatever, not even springbucks, the Kafirs having hunted everything into the far interior, so that now there is more game within five miles of Cape Town than here, where we were more than 600 miles up country." The party returned to the Diamond Fields at the end of March and sold off their produce--cattle, goats, and ostrich feathers at a profit of about L100.

Selous then set about his preparations for a journey into the far interior. From a trader he purchased a waggon, a span of young oxen, and five horses. A young fellow named Dorehill and a Mr. Sadlier then agreed to accompany him. The whole party seems to have been very badly armed with indifferent weapons. At the end of April, 1872, Selous and his two friends trekked north and only got as far as Kuruman, a delay of a fortnight being caused through the horses running away. Here Selous met Mr. William Williams, an experienced trader and hunter, from whom he purchased two unprepossessing-looking large-bore elephant guns as used by the Boer native hunters. Cheap as these guns were, about six pounds a-piece and using only common trade gunpowder, they were most effective weapons, for in three seasons with them (1872-1874) Selous killed seventy-eight elephants, all but one of which he shot whilst hunting on foot. He used to load them whilst running at full speed by simply diving his hand into a leather bag of powder slung at his side. "They kicked most frightfully, and in my case the punishment I received from these guns has affected my nerves to such an extent as to have materially influenced my shooting ever since, and I am heartily sorry I ever had anything to do with them."

After a trying trek the party arrived at Secheli's in twenty days through more or less waterless country, but just before reaching these kraals an accident happened which might easily have cost Selous and Dorehill their lives. Selous was taking some cartridges from a box on the side of the waggon, in which was about a pound of loose gunpowder, when Dorehill came up and dropped some ashes from his pipe into the box. An immediate explosion followed and both were badly burnt. Sadlier, however, rose to the emergency and "at once rubbed a mixture of oil and salt into our skinless faces; it was not a pleasant process." After a visit to Secheli, who was a most completely civilized Kafir, Selous and his friends moved northward on the 28th June, with Frank Mandy, who was about to trade in the Matabele country. On the road to Boatlanarma they experienced great difficulties and were once three days and three nights without water. About the middle of August they left Bamangwato, where Selous purchased a salted horse. By exchanging his new waggon for a smaller second-hand one, a trade rifle and the horse itself valued at L75, he made a deal with a shrewd but uneducated Scotchman named Peter Skinner. Of course the new purchase ran away at the first opportunity, which delayed the party for another week. Near Pelatsi Selous had his first experience of real African hardship, and his subsequent account of being lost in the bush for four days and three nights, without covering except his shirt and breeches and without food or drink, is one of the most thrilling he ever wrote.[5]

Selous and his comrades here met their first giraffes and proceeded to give chase.

"After a time the giraffes separated, and suffice it to say
that, at the end of an hour or so, I found myself lying on my
back, with my right leg nearly broken, by coming violently into
contact with the trunk of a tree; and, on getting up and
remounting my horse, not only were the giraffes out of sight,
but nowhere could I see either of my two companions. Though, of
course, my inexperience contributed much to the unsuccessful
issue of this, my first giraffe hunt, yet I cannot help thinking
that my horse also had a good deal to do with it, for, having
been bred in the open plains of the Transvaal Republic, he was
quite at sea in the thick forests of the interior; and if, when
going at full gallop through a thick wood, you intend to pass on
one side of a tree, but your horse, being of a different
opinion, swerves suddenly and goes to the other, it is awkward,
to say the least of it.

"My first object was to rejoin my companions; so, not having
heard a shot, and imagining they must by this time have given up
chasing the giraffes, I fired as a signal, and at once heard a
shot in answer far to my right, and rode in that direction.
After riding some distance I again pulled up, and shouted with
all my might, and then, not hearing anything, fired another
signal shot, but without effect. As my horse was very tired, I
now off-saddled for a short time and then fired a third shot,
and listened intently for an answer, but all was silent as the
grave; so, as the sun was now low, I saddled up again and struck
a line for the waggon road, thinking my friends had already done
the same thing. In this way I rode on at a slow pace, for my
horse was tired and thirsty, keeping steadily in one direction
till the sun, sinking lower and lower, at last disappeared
altogether. I expected I should have reached the road before
this, and, attributing my not doing so to the fact of the path
having taken a turn to the right, still kept on till twilight
had given place to moonlight--a fine bright moonlight, indeed,
for it wanted but two nights to the full, but, under the
circumstances, perhaps a trifle cold and cheerless. Still,
thinking I must be close to the road, I kept on for another
couple of hours or so, when, it being intensely cold, I resolved
to try and light a fire, and pass the night where I was and ride
on again early the following morning. Having no matches, I had
to make use of my cartridges, of which I had only three
remaining, in endeavouring to get a light. Breaking one of these
open, I rubbed some of the powder well into a bit of linen torn
from my shirt, slightly wetted, and, putting it into the muzzle
of the rifle, ignited it with the cap and a little powder left
in the bottom of the cartridge. So far well and good, but this
was, unfortunately, almost as far as I could get; for, though I
managed to induce some grass to smoulder, I couldn't for the
life of me make it flare, and soon had the mortification of
finding myself, after two more unsuccessful attempts, just as
cold and, hungry as before, and minus my three cartridges to
boot. Were the same circumstances to occur again, no doubt
everything would be very different; but at that time I was quite
a tyro in all forest lore. It was now piercingly cold, though
during the day the sun had been as hot as at midsummer in
England--regular South African fashion. Still, I thought it
better to pass the night where I was; so, tying my horse to a
tree, I cut a little grass with my pocket knife to lie upon, and
turned in. My entire clothing consisted of a hat, shirt, pair of
trousers, and veldt shoes, as I had ridden away from the waggon
without my coat. However, lying on my back, with my felt hat for
a pillow, I put the saddle over my chest and closed my eyes in
the vain hope that I should soon fall asleep and forget my
cares; vain indeed, for the bitter cold crept in gradually and
stealthily from my feet upwards, till I was soon shivering from
head to foot as if my very life depended on it. After having
worked hard at this unpleasant exercise for a couple of hours or
more, watching the moon all the time, and cursing its tardy
pace, I could stand it no longer; so, getting up with
difficulty--for I was regularly stiffened by the cold--I ran
backwards and forwards to a tree at a short distance until I was
again warm, when I once more lay down; and in this manner the
weary hours wore away till day dawned. During the night a couple
of hyenas passed close to me, enlivening the silence with their
dismal howlings. I have often thought since that they must have
been on their way to drink, perhaps at some pit or spring not
far off; how I wished that I had known where! I will take this
opportunity of saying that the howl of the African hyena is
about the most mournful and weird-like sound in nature, being a
sort of prolonged groan, rising in cadence till it ends in a
shriek; they only laugh when enjoying a good feed.

"At first dawn of day I once more saddled up and rode in the
same direction as before. My poor horse was so tired and thirsty
that he would only go at a very slow pace; so I didn't make
much progress. On coming to a high tree I stopped and climbed up
it, and looked about me to try and recognize some landmark. On
every side the country was covered with forest, and in the
distance were several low ranges of hills, yet nothing seemed
familiar to my eye. Right ahead, in the direction in which I had
been riding, appeared a line of densely wooded hills, with one
single kopje standing alone just in front of them, and thither I
determined to ride. On the way I passed three beautiful
gemsbuck, which allowed me to come quite close to them, though
they are usually very wild; but they had nothing to fear from
me, as I had no cartridges, and so could do nothing more than
admire them. Thus I rode on and on, until the idea occurred to
me that I must have ridden across the road (a mere narrow track)
without noticing it in the moonlight, as I had constantly been
star-gazing after the sun went down, so as to guide my course by
the position of the Southern Cross. After a time, I at last felt
so sure that this was the case, that I turned my horse's head to
the right-about, and rode back again in the direction from which
I had just come."

He was now hopelessly lost but did not give way to despair, as so many in a similar position have done. Nothing but a level sea of forest surrounded him, so he turned his jaded horse to the setting sun in the west in the hope of again striking the road. After another night in the wilderness he awoke to find his horse gone. Far to the south-west was a line of hills and after walking without food or water till the moon rose, he reached the mountains. At sunrise he topped the crest of the range, hoping to see the maize fields of Bamangwato, but saw nothing. Worn out with thirst, fatigue, and hunger he started again at sunrise and at last at sundown he met two Kafirs who eventually took him to their kraal and gave him water and milk.

"The next morning, as soon as it was light, accompanied by the
Kafir who carried my rifle, I made a start, and, though very
tired and worn out from privation, managed to reach the waggons
late in the afternoon, after an absence of five days and four
nights. How I enjoyed the meal that was hastily prepared for
me, and how delightful it was to keep out the bitter cold with a
couple of good blankets, I will leave the reader to conjecture."

Of course, he lost his valuable salted horse, which although hobbled, found its way back to Bamangwato. But Selous could never claim it as he had sold his right to it to a Mr. Elstob at Tati. At Goqui he saw his first lions. Unfortunately he had fired a shot at two lionesses running away, when a fine lion with dark coloured mane stood up and offered him a splendid shot at 80 yards, but his rifle was empty, and as he had no dogs to follow the lions when they had vanished, his first encounter with lions gave him much disappointment. At the end of August they reached Tati, and on leaving this place and passing the Ramaqueban river the following day, Selous says: "Here I first saw a sable antelope, one of the handsomest animals in the world," and anyone, indeed, who sees this magnificent creature for the first time never forgets it.

Next day he reached Minyama's kraal, the frontier outpost of the Matabele country, where most of the inhabitants were Makalakas in native dress. The country now became beautiful and park-like in character, and this extends to Bulawayo, the town founded by Lobengula in 1870, and where the sable king dwelt. On receipt of messages announcing their arrival, the king arrived, dressed in a greasy shirt, a costume which shortly afterwards he discarded for native dress. "He asked me what I had come to do," writes Selous. "I said I had come to hunt elephants, upon which he burst out laughing, and said, 'Was it not steinbucks' (a diminutive species of antelope) 'that you came to hunt? Why, you're only a boy.' I replied that, although a boy, I nevertheless wished to hunt elephants and asked his permission to do so, upon which he made some further disparaging remarks regarding my youthful appearance, and then rose to go without giving me any answer."

But Selous was persistent and again begged for permission. "This time he asked me whether I had ever seen an elephant, and upon my saying no, answered, 'Oh, they will soon drive you out of the country, but you may go and see what you can do!'" When Selous asked him where he might go, Lobengula replied impatiently, "Oh, you may go wherever you like, you are only a boy."

It was about this time that the famous Boer elephant hunter, Jan Viljoen, arrived at Bulawayo and offered to take Sadlier and Selous to his waggons on the River Gwenia to join his hunting party. This was an opportunity not to be lost. In eight days the party, after crossing the Longwe, Sangwe, Shangani, and Gwelo, reached the Gwenia and found the patriarchal encampment of the Boer elephant hunters. The Boers then, as now, travelled even into the far interior with wives, children, cows, sheep, goats, and fowls, and established a "stand-place" whilst the men hunted in all directions, being absent for a week to a month at a time. A slight accident now prevented Selous from going in on foot with the Viljoens to hunt in the "fly." He went off at the Boer's request to buy some corn and on the way back, in passing some Griqua waggons at Jomani, he saw for the first time a Hottentot named Cigar, with whom later he became better acquainted.

Cigar was an experienced hunter and as it seemed now hopeless to follow Viljoen he decided to go in and hunt with the Hottentot. It may be gathered how roughly they lived from Selous' own words: "Having now run through all my supplies of coffee, tea, sugar, and meal, we had nothing in the provision line but Kafir corn and meat of the animals we shot, washed down by cold water."

Cigar--besides two Kafirs who were shooting for him, and carried their own guns and a supply of ammunition--had only three spare boys who carried his blankets, powder, Kafir corn, and a supply of fresh meat. He himself carried his own rifle, a heavy old four-bore muzzle-loader. "As for me," says Selous, "having had to leave two of my Kafirs to look after my horses and oxen, I had but one youngster with me, who carried my blanket and spare ammunition, whilst I shouldered my own old four-bore muzzle-loader, and carried besides a leather bag filled with powder, and a pouch containing twenty four-ounce round bullets. Though this was hardly doing the thing _en grand seigneur_, I was young and enthusiastic in those days and trudged along under the now intense heat with a light heart."

It must be remembered that at this time nearly all the old Boer and English elephant-hunters, such as men like Piet Schwarz, William Finaughty, Hartley, the Jennings family, J. Giffard, T. Leask, and H. Biles, had given up the game of elephant-hunting when horses could be no longer used and the elephants themselves must be pursued on foot in the "fly." Only George Wood, Jan Viljoen,[6] and the greatest hunter of all in South Africa, Petrus Jacobs, still pursued the elephant, but the difficulty, danger, distance, and scarcity of elephant haunts were now so defined and the results so small that none save the very hardiest were able to follow them.

At this time (1873) Piet Jacobs was undoubtedly the most famous hunter in South Africa. During a long life, most of which was spent in the Mashuna and Matabele country, he is supposed to have shot between 400 and 500 bull elephants, mostly killed by hunting them from horseback, but even after as an old man he killed many on foot in the "fly" country. Unlike most Boers, he constantly attacked lions whenever he had the opportunity, and Selous considers that he shot "more lions than any man that ever lived." His usual method in hunting these animals was, if the first shot missed, to loose three or four strong "Boer" dogs, which quickly ran the lion to bay. Then, as a rule, it was easily killed. One day, however, in 1873, on the Umniati river he was terribly mauled by a lion that charged after being bayed by his three dogs. His shot at the charging lion missed, and he was thrown to the ground and severely bitten on the thigh, left arm, and hand. The dogs, however, now came up and saved his life, but it was a long time before he recovered. He said that, unlike the experience of Dr. Livingstone, the bites of the lion were extremely painful, at which Selous humorously remarks that the absence of suffering in such a case is an especial mercy "which Providence does not extend beyond ministers of the Gospel."

Of William Finaughty, the greatest of the English elephant-hunters, neither Selous nor any contemporary writer gives any particulars, so I am indebted to Mr. G. L. Harrison, an American gentleman, for his "Recollections of William Finaughty," which was privately printed in 1916. He met Finaughty, who was then a very slight old man, with a wonderful memory and much weakened by attacks of fever, in 1913. Finaughty was one of the first white men to hunt elephants in Matabeleland, and his activities extended from 1864 to 1875, when he gave up serious hunting because he could no longer pursue them on horseback.

Finaughty describes himself as a harum-scarum youth who left Grahamstown at the age of twenty-one early in 1864. He passed north through the Free State, then swarming with tens of thousands of black wildebeest, blesbok, springbok, quagga, blue wildebeest, and ostrich, and made his way to Matabeleland, then ruled by Mzilikatse, a brother of the Zulu king Chaka. After sport with lion and buffalo on the road, for all game, including elephants, were abundant at this time, he reached Tati. Old Mzilikatse was then a physical wreck but treated the Englishman well, although at times he had violent outbursts of passion. Finaughty was witness of a great dance in which 2500 warriors took part, and on which occasion 540 oxen were slaughtered. Horse-sickness was then rife in the country and the party lost fourteen horses out of seventeen within thirty hours. In this, his first trip, Finaughty only killed three elephants, which he attributed to lack of experience. On his second trip in 1865 he did better, whilst a third in 1866 was made purely for trading, yet he shot eight elephants and then decided to become a hunter only.

On the fourth trip he shot nineteen elephants, but in 1868, on the Umbila, he states that he had "the two finest months of my life. In all I shot 95 elephants, the ivory weighing 5000 lbs."

One day he had a narrow escape in the sandy bed of the Sweswe river. He had wounded an old bull when he fired at it again as it was on the point of charging. His boy had put in two charges and the hunter was nearly knocked out of the saddle by the recoil. The elephant then charged and got right on the top of him, but, at the moment when death seemed imminent, the elephant's shoulder-bone broke and he was helpless--thus Finaughty escaped. In those days the elephants did not know the meaning of gunfire. Finaughty one day bagged six bulls in a river bed, as they did not run on the shots being fired.

In 1869 he went into the elephant country one hundred miles beyond the Tuli and remained there three years, sending out his ivory and receiving fresh provisions and ammunition on the return of his waggons. In five months he killed fifty-three elephants yielding 3000 lbs. of ivory. In one day he killed five bulls and five cows, which was his "record" bag for one day. In the two following years he killed a large number of elephants, but does not state the precise number. In 1870 he again hunted elephants without giving particulars.

From 1870 to 1874 Finaughty remained at Shoshong as a trader and prospered.

It is interesting to note that Finaughty, like many experienced hunters, does not agree with Selous in considering the lion the most dangerous of all African game. He repeatedly says that buffalo-hunting is the most risky of all forms of hunting.[7] "Far better," he says, "follow up a wounded lion than a wounded buffalo, for the latter is the fiercest and most cunning animal to be found in Africa." He himself had many narrow escapes from buffaloes and only one or two unpleasant incidents with lions. "No," he remarks again, "a man who is out after buffalo must shoot to kill and not to wound, and if he fails to bring his quarry down he should on no account venture to follow up unless in open country. He should never follow a buffalo into cover, unless he is accompanied by a number of good dogs. Many a good man has lost his life through neglect of this precaution." Finaughty lived in the Transvaal from 1883 to 1887, and then moved to Johannesburg in the early days of the "boom." In the nineties he returned to Matabeleland to spend the rest of his days on his farm near Bulawayo. He was still alive in 1914.

What would, however, have been only toil and hardship to older men was small discomfort to a tough young fellow like Selous, who was now in his natural element. Almost at once he and Cigar tracked and killed a grand old bull which carried tusks of 61 and 58 lbs. On the following days they killed six elephants, Cigar accounting for four. Selous here pays a high tribute to the good qualities of his dusky companion. "Cigar was a slight-built, active Hottentot, possessed of wonderful powers of endurance, and a very good game shot, though a bad marksman at a target. These qualities, added to lots of pluck, made him a most successful elephant-hunter; and for foot hunting in the 'fly' country I do not think I could have had a more skilful preceptor; for although only an uneducated Hottentot--once a jockey at Grahamstown--he continually allowed me to have the first shot, whilst the elephants were still standing--a great advantage to give me--and never tried in any way to over-reach me or claim animals that I had shot, as is so often done by Boer hunters. Strangely enough, Cigar told me, when the celebrated hunter, Mr. William Finaughty, first took him after elephants on horseback, he had such dreadful fear of the huge beasts that, after getting nearly caught by one, and never being able to kill any, he begged his master to let him remain at the waggons. When I knew him this fear must have worn off, and I have never since seen his equal as a foot hunter." Selous did very well with Cigar, getting 450 lbs. of ivory which he had shot himself, and another 1200 lbs. which he had traded with the natives, thus making a clear profit of L300. When he saw the king, he told him that the elephants had not driven him out of the country, but that he had killed several, to which Lobengula replied, "Why, you're a man; when are you going to take a wife?" and suggested that he should court one at once.

Selous' friends had now all left the country, but he himself decided to remain in Matabeleland to be ready to hunt in the following year with George Wood. As usual, however, Lobengula took months to give his permission, so that it was not until the 15th June, 1873, that he gave permission to the two hunters to make a start. Even then he would not allow them to go to the Mashuna country and stated that they must hunt to the westward of the river Gwai.

A fortnight after leaving Bulawayo Selous and Wood reached Linquasi, where they began to hunt, and two days later they killed two fine bull elephants. Here they established their main hunting-camp and made raids into the "fly." During this season of four months Selous killed forty-two elephants and George Wood fifty. They also accounted for a good many rhinoceros and buffalo. Their main hunting veldt was the "fly" region between the rivers Zambesi and Gwai. It was a broken country full of hills, "kloofs," dense bush and park-like opens. This area was formerly inhabited by the Makalakas, but these had been driven across the Zambesi by raiding Matabele. These regions were consequently a great game preserve and full of elephant, black and white rhinoceros, buffalo, zebra, sable, roan, koodoo, impala, reedbuck, klipspringer, grysbok, bushbuck, waterbuck, and other antelopes. In "A Hunter's Wanderings" Selous gives many interesting accounts of his hunts after elephants, but perhaps his best is the splendid narrative of his great day, of which I am permitted to give his own description.[8]

"As soon as the day dawned, we sent a couple of Kafirs down to
the water to see if any elephants had been there, and on their
return in a quarter of an hour with the joyful tidings that a
fine troop of bulls had drunk during the night, we at once
started in pursuit. We found they had come down from the
right-hand side, and returned on their own spoor, feeding along
nicely as they went, so that we were in great hopes of
overtaking them without much difficulty. Our confidence,
however, we soon found was misplaced, for after a time they had
ceased to feed, and, turning back towards the N.E., had taken to
a path, along which they had walked in single file and at a
quick pace, as if making for some stronghold in the hills. Hour
after hour we trudged on, over rugged stony hills, and across
open grassy valleys, scattered over which grew clumps of the
soft-leaved machabel trees, or rather bushes; but, though the
leaves and bark of this tree form a favourite food of elephants,
those we were pursuing had turned neither to the right nor to
the left to pluck a single frond.

"After midday, the aspect of the country changed, and we entered
upon a series of ravines covered with dense, scrubby bush.
Unfortunately the grass here had been burnt off, but for which
circumstance the elephants, I feel sure, would have halted for
their midday sleep. In one of these thickets we ran on to three
black rhinoceroses (_R. bicornis_) lying asleep. When we were
abreast of them they got our wind, and, jumping up, rushed close
past the head of our line, snorting vigorously. It was a family
party, consisting of a bull, a cow, and a full-grown calf; they
passed so near that I threw at them the thick stick which I used
for a ramrod, and overshot the mark, it falling beyond them.

"Shortly after this incident, we lost the spoor in some very
hard, stony ground, and had some trouble in recovering it, as
the Kafirs, being exhausted with the intense heat, and thinking
we should not catch the elephants, had lost heart and would not
exert themselves, hoping that we would give up the pursuit. By
dint of a little care and perseverance, however, we succeeded,
and after a time again entered upon a more open country. To cut
a long story short, I suppose it must have been about two hours
before sundown when we came to a large tree, from which the
elephants had only just moved on. At first we thought they must
have got our wind and run, but on examination we found they had
only walked quietly on. We put down the water-calabashes and
axes, and the Kafirs took off their raw-hide sandals, and then
we again, quickly but cautiously, followed on the spoor. It was
perhaps five minutes later when we at last sighted them, seven
in number, and all large, full-grown bulls. W. and I walked up
to within thirty yards or so, and fired almost simultaneously;
he at one standing broadside, and I at another facing me. Our
Hottentot boy also fired, and, as the animals turned, a volley
was given by our Kafirs, about ten of whom carried guns. Not an
elephant, however, seemed any the worse, and they went away at a
great pace. Judging from the lie of the land ahead that they
would turn to the right, I made a cut with my two gun-bearers,
whilst W. kept in their wake. Fortune favoured me, for they
turned just as I had expected, and I got a splendid broadside
shot as they passed along the farther side of a little gully not
forty yards off. The Kafir having, as he ran, reloaded the gun
which I had already discharged and on which I placed most
dependence, I fired with it at the foremost elephant, an
enormous animal with long white tusks, when he was exactly
opposite to me. My boy had put in the powder with his hand, and
must have overloaded it, for the recoil knocked me down, and the
gun itself flew out of my hands. Owing to this, I lost a little
time, for, when I got hold of my second gun, the elephants had
turned back again (excepting the one just hit) towards W. and
the Kafirs. However, I gave another a bullet behind the big ribs
as he was running obliquely away from me. The first, which I had
hit right in the middle of the shoulder, was now walking very
slowly up a steep hill, looking as though he were going to fall
every instant; but, nevertheless (as until an elephant is
actually dead, there is no knowing how far he may go), I
determined to finish him before returning to the others. On
reaching the top of the hill, and hearing me coming on not a
dozen yards behind him, the huge beast wheeled round, and,
raising his gigantic ears, looked ruefully towards me. Poor
beast, he was doubtless too far gone to charge, and, on
receiving another ball in the chest, he stepped slowly
backwards, and then sinking on to his haunches, threw his trunk
high into the air and rolled over on his side, dead.

"During this time, the remainder of the elephants, harried and
bewildered by the continuous firing of W. and our little army of
native hunters, had come round in a circle, and I saw the four
that still remained (for, besides the one I had killed, two more
were down) coming along in single file, at the long, quick half
run, half walk, into which these animals settle after their
first rush. I at once ran obliquely towards them; but, before I
could get near, one more first lagged behind, and then fell
heavily to the ground, so that there were but three remaining.
W., being blown, had been left behind; but most of the Kafirs
were still to the fore, firing away as fast as they could load,
from both sides. It was astonishing what bad shooting they made;
their bullets kept continually striking up the ground all round
the elephants, sometimes in front of their trunks, sometimes
behind them, and ever and anon one would come whistling high
overhead. It was in vain that I shouted to them to leave off
firing and let me shoot; their blood was up, and blaze away they
would.

"Just as I was getting well up alongside, the elephants crossed
a little gully, and entered a small patch of scrubby bush, on
the slope of the hill beyond, in the shelter of which they at
once stopped and faced about, giving me a splendid chance. I had
just emptied both my guns, hitting one animal full in the chest,
and another, that was standing broadside to me, in the shoulder,
when loud lamentations and cries of 'Mai-ai!' 'Mai mamo!' burst
from my Kafir followers close behind. At the same time my two
gun-carriers, throwing down their guns, ran backwards, clapping
their hands, and shouting like the rest. Turning hastily round,
I saw a Kafir stretched upon the earth, his companions sitting
round him, wailing and clapping their hands, and at once
comprehended what had occurred. The poor fellow who lay upon the
ground had fired at the elephants, from about thirty yards
behind myself, and then ran up an ant-hill, just as another
Kafir, who preferred to keep at a safer distance, discharged a
random shot, which struck poor Mendose just between the
shoulder-blades, the bullet coming out on the right breast. I
ran up at once to see what could be done, but all human aid was
vain--the poor fellow was dead. At this moment two more shots
fell close behind, and a minute or two afterwards W. and our
Hottentot boy John came up. One of the three elephants had
fallen after my last shot, close at hand, and a second, sorely
wounded, had walked back right on to W. and John, who were
following on the spoor; and the two shots I had just heard had
sealed his fate. The third, however, and only surviving one out
of the original seven, had made good his escape during the
confusion, which he never would have done had it not been for
the untimely death of Mendose.

"The sun was now close down upon the western skyline, and little
time was to be lost. The Kafirs still continued to shout and
cry, seeming utterly paralysed, and I began to think that they
were possessed of more sympathetic feelings than I had ever
given them credit for. However, on being asked whether they
wished to leave the body for the hyenas, they roused themselves.
As luck would have it, on the side of the very ant-hill on which
the poor fellow had met his death was a large deep hole,
excavated probably by an anteater, but now untenanted. Into this
rude grave, with a Kafir needle to pick the thorns out of his
feet, and his assegais with which to defend himself on his
journey to the next world, we put the body, and then firmly
blocked up the entrance with large stones, to keep the prowling
hyenas from exhuming it. Poor Mendose! he was an obedient,
willing servant, and by far the best shot of all our native
hunters.

"The first thing to be done now was to cut some meat from one of
the elephants, and then get down to a pool of water which we had
passed during the hunt, and make a 'skerm' for the night. On
reaching the nearest carcase, which proved to be in fair
condition, I was much surprised to see my Kafirs throw aside
every semblance of grief, and fight and quarrel over pieces of
fat and other titbits in their usual manner. Even the fellow who
had had the misfortune to shoot his comrade, though he kept
asserting that 'his heart was dead,' was quite as eager as the
rest. In the evening they laughed and chatted and sang as usual,
ate most hearty suppers, and indeed seemed as if all memory of
the tragedy which had occurred but a few hours before, and which
at the time had seemed to affect them so deeply, had passed from
their minds.

"Thus ended the best day's hunting, as regards weight of ivory,
at which I had ever assisted. The next day we set the Kafirs to
work with three American axes, and before nightfall the twelve
tusks (not one of which was broken) were lying side by side,
forming one of the finest trophies a sportsman's heart could
desire to look upon. The largest pair of tusks weighed 57 lbs.
apiece, and the smallest 29 lbs. and 31 lbs. respectively--a
very fair lot of bull ivory."

A few days later he had an interesting day in the valley of the
Dett and experienced something of the difficulties and dangers
of the hunter's life.[9]

"About an hour later, we came up with them, standing some fifty
yards away, on our right, under a clump of camel-thorn trees,
and in a rather open place compared with the general density of
the surrounding jungle. Besides the small troop of bulls we had
followed, and which were nearest to us, there was a very large
herd of cows standing just beyond, which, as we had not crossed
their spoor, had probably drunk at Sikumi--a water-hole not many
miles distant--and come to this rendezvous from the other side.

"Taking a hasty gulp of water, we at once walked towards them.
As we advanced, the slight rustling of the bushes must have
attracted the attention of one of the bulls, for he raised his
trunk high in the air, and made a few steps forward. 'I'll take
him, and do you fire at the one with the long white tusks on the
left,' whispered W. 'Right you are!' was the reply, and the next
moment we fired. I just had time to see my elephant fall on his
knees, when he was hidden by the troop of cows that, awakened
from their sleep by the shots, and not knowing exactly where
the danger lay, came rushing towards us in a mass, one or two of
them trumpeting, and others making a sort of rumbling noise.
Seizing our second guns and shouting lustily, we again pulled
trigger. Our Hottentot boy John, and five of our Kafirs, who
still carried guns, also fired; on which the herd turned and
went off at right angles, enveloped in a cloud of dust. My gun
had only snapped the cap, but my Kafir, to whom I threw it back,
thinking in the noise and hurry that it was discharged, reloaded
it on the top of the old charge--a fact which I only found out,
to my sorrow, later on. The cloud of sand and dust raised by the
panic-stricken elephants was at first so thick that we could
distinguish nothing; but, running behind them, I soon made out
the bull I had wounded, which I recognized by the length and
shape of his tusks. He was evidently hard hit, and, being unable
to keep up with the herd, he turned out, and went off alone; but
he was joined almost immediately by four old cows, all with
small, insignificant tusks, and, instead of running away, they
walked along quite slowly, first in front of and then behind
him, as if to encourage him. Seeing how severely he was wounded,
I at once went after him, accompanied only by my two
gun-carriers, Nuta and Balamoya, W. and the rest of the Kafirs
going on after the troop. My bull was going so slowly that I had
no difficulty in threading my way through the bushes and getting
in front of him, which I did in order to get a broadside shot as
he passed me. One of the four cows that still accompanied him
walked along, carrying her head high and her tail straight in
the air, and kept constantly turning from side to side. 'That
cow will bother us; shoot her,' said Nuta, and I wish I had
taken his advice; but her tusks were so small, and the bull
seemed so very far gone, that I thought it would be a waste of
ammunition. I therefore waited till he was a little in front of
where I stood, and then gave him a bullet at very close
quarters, just behind the shoulder, and, as I thought, exactly
in the right place; but he nevertheless continued his walk as if
he had not felt it. Reloading the same gun, I ran behind him,
holding it before me in both hands, ready to raise at a moment's
notice, and, the four cows being some twenty yards in advance, I
shouted, hoping he would turn. The sound of my voice had the
desired effect; for he at once raised his ears and swung himself
round, or rather was in the act of doing so, for immediately his
ears went up my gun was at my shoulder, and as soon as he
presented his broadside I fired, on which he turned again, and
went crashing through the bushes at a trot. I thought that it
was a last spasmodic rush and that he would fall before going
very far; so, giving the gun back to Nuta to reload, I was
running after him, with my eyes fixed on the quivering bushes as
they closed behind him, when suddenly the trunk of another
elephant was whirled round, almost literally above my head, and
a short, sharp scream of rage thrilled through me, making the
blood tingle down to the very tips of my fingers. It was one of
the wretched old cows, that had thus lain in wait for me behind
a dense patch of bush.

"Even had my gun been in my hands, I should scarcely have had
time to fire, so close was she upon me; but, as it was, both my
Kafirs were some fifteen yards behind, and the only thing I
could do was to run. How I got away I scarcely know. I bounded
over and through thorn-bushes which, in cold blood, I should
have judged impenetrable; but I was urged on by the short
piercing screams which, repeated in quick succession, seemed to
make the whole air vibrate, and by the fear of finding myself
encircled by the trunk or transfixed by the tusk of the enraged
animal. After a few seconds (for I don't think she pursued me a
hundred yards, though it seemed an age), the screaming ceased.
During the chase, the elephant was so close behind me, that
looking over my shoulder was impossible, and all that I did was
to dash forward, springing from side to side so as to hinder her
from getting hold of me, and it was only when the trumpeting
suddenly stopped that I knew I was out of her reach. I was
barelegged--as I always am when hunting on foot--and my only
garment before the beast charged was a flannel shirt; but I now
stood almost _in puris naturalibus_, for my hat, the leather
belt that I wore round my waist, and about three parts of my
shirt, had been torn off by the bushes, and I doubt if there was
a square inch of skin left uninjured anywhere on the front of my
body."

Soon after another old bull charged him.