African Nature Notes and Reminiscences

by Frederick Courteney Selous

Overview

Frederick Courteney Selous, DSO (; 31 December 1851 - 4 January 1917) was a British explorer, officer, professional hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in Southeast Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir Henry Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character. Selous was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham. He was pre-eminent within a group of big game hunters that included Abel Chapman and Arthur Henry Neumann. He was the older brother of the ornithologist and writer Edmund Selous.

Going to South Africa when he was 19, he traveled from the Cape of Good Hope to Matabeleland, which he reached early in 1872, and where (according to his own account) he was granted permission by Lobengula, King of the Ndebele, to shoot game anywhere in his dominions.

From then until 1890, Selous hunted and explored over the little-known regions north of the Transvaal and south of the Congo Basin (with a few brief intervals spent in England), shooting African elephants and collecting specimens of all kinds for museums and private collections. His travels added greatly to the knowledge of the country now known as Zimbabwe. He made valuable ethnological investigations, and throughout his wanderings-often among people who had never previously seen a white man-he maintained cordial relations with the chiefs and tribes, winning their confidence and esteem, notably so in the case of Lobengula.

In 1890, Selous entered the service of the British South Africa Company, at the request of magnate Cecil Rhodes, acting as a guide to the pioneer expedition to Mashonaland. Over 640 km (400 mi) of road were constructed through a country of forest, mountain, and swamp, and in two and a half months Selous took the column safely to its destination. He then went east to Manica, concluding arrangements that brought the country there under British control. Coming to England in December 1892, he was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in recognition of his extensive explorations and surveys, of which he gave a summary in a journal article entitled "Twenty Years in Zambesia". (wikipedia.org)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798888302798
Publisher:	Bibliotech Press
Publication date:	01/09/2023
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER III NOTES ON THE LION The lion Native names for Character of Death of Ponto Picture in Gordon Cumming's book Death of Hendrik Number of natives killed by lions Usual mode of seizure A trooper's adventure Poisonous nature of lion's bite Story of the Tsavo man-eaters Death of Mr. Ryall Story of the tragedy Precautions by natives against lions Remains of a lion's victim found Four women killed Lion killed Carcase burned Story of the Majili man-eater Man-eating lions usually old animals Strength of lions Large ox killed by single lion Buffaloes killed by lions Ox slowly killed by family of lions Lions usually silent when attacking and killing their prey Camp approached by three lions Various ways of killing game Favourite food of lions Giraffes rarely killed by lions Evidence as to lions attacking elephants Michael Engelbreght's story Mr. Arnot's letter describing the killing of an elephant cow by six lions. Of all the multifarious forms of life with which the great African Continent has been so bountifully stocked, none, not even excepting the " half-reasoning elephant" or the " armed rhinoceros," has been responsible for such a wealth of anecdote and story, or has stirred the heart and imagination of mankind to such a degree, as the lion the great and terrible meat-eating cat, the monarch of the African wilderness, by night at least, whose life means constant death to all his fellow-brutes, from the ponderous buffalo to the light-footed gazelle, and fear, and often destruction too, to the human inhabitants of the countries through which he roams. Chap, 1n A TERRIFYING BEAST 45 How often has not the single word " Simba," " Tauw," " Shumba," " Silouan," or any other nativeAfrican synonym for the lion, sent the blood tingling through the veins of a European t...