LIFE OF FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS, D.S.O. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland. 3 vols. Quarto, cloth, gilt top, ;£|i8 185. net. Volume I, Order Cheiroptera, Order Insectivora, Order Carnivora. With 18 Photogravures by the Author ; 31 Coloured Plates by the Author, Archibald Thokburn, and G. E. Lodge ; and 63 Uncoloured Plates by the Author, and from Photographs. Volume II, Order Carnivora {cottiinueii) and Order Rodentia. With 21 Photogravures by the Author, H. GkOnvold, G. E. Lodge, and from Photographs by D. English ; 19 Coloured Plates by Archibald Thokburn and G. E. Lodge ; and 33 Uncoloured Plates by the Author and from Photographs. Volume III, Rodentia {completion), with the Hares and the Rabbit; the Cervidae (The Deer family); the Bovidae (the Oxen), and the Cetaceae (Whales). With 23 Photogravures from Drawings by the Author, H. GrOnvold, and E. S. Hodgson ; 12 Coloured Plates by the Author, A. Thokburn, and H. W. B. Davis, R.A. ; and 44 Uncoloured Plates by the Author, A. Thorbukn, Sir Edwin Landseer, and from Photographs. Newfoundland and its Untrodden Ways. Willi 2 Maps, 6 Coloured Plates, 6 Photogravure Plates and 115 other Illustrations by the Author and from Photographs Royal Svo, cloth, 225. net. The Wildfowler in Scotland. With a Frontispiece in Photogravure after a Drawing by Sir J. E. MiLLAlS, Bart., P. R.A. ; 8 Photogravure Plates, 2 Coloured Plates, and 50 Illustrations from the Author's Drawings and from Photographs. Royal 4to, cloth, gilt top, 305. net. The Natural History of the British Surface-Feeding Ducks. With 6 Photogravures and 66 Plates (41 in Colours) from Drawings by the Author, Archibald Thokburn, and from Photographs. Royal 4to, cloth, gilt top, £fi 6s. net. British Diving Ducks. With Coloured, Photogravure, and Collotype Plates by Archibald Thorburn, O. Murr.w Dixon, H. Gronvold, and the Author. 2 vols. Imperial 4to, cloth, gilt top, ;{^I2 125. net. Rhododendrons, in which is set forth an account of all species of the genus Rhododendron (including Azaleas) and the various Hybrids. By J. G. Millais, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. With Coloured Plates by Archibald Thorburn, Beatrice Parsons, E. F. Brennand, and W. Walker; also 14 Collotype Plates and numerous Half-tone Illustrations. 4to. 16x12 ins. ;^8 8i-. net. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS. Phalo: J Russell & Sons. Frederick Courtenay Selous. D.S.O., Captain 25th ROYAL FUSILIERS. Killed In Action, January 4th. 1917. LIFE OF FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS, D.S.O CAPT. 25TH ROYAL FUSILIERS J. G. MILLAIS, F.Z.S. Author of "Rhododendrons,'' "The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland," "The Wild Fowler in Scotland," " Newfoundland and its Untrodden Ways," "The Natural History of the British Surface-Feeding Ducks," " British Diving Ducks," etc. WITH 14 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR AND 2 PORTRAITS SECOND IMPRESSION NEW YORK: LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET 1919 1^5 ^5LT Jc '^ PREFACE IN preparing the life of my friend, Fred Selous, I have to thank his brother Edmund, and his sister Mrs. Jones (Ann Selous) for contributions regarding his parents and early hfe. I am also indebted to his friends. Sir Alfred Pease, Captain P. B. Vanderbyl and Mr. Heatley Noble for certain notes with regard to short expeditions made in his company. Mr. Abel Chapman, a life-long friend, has also assisted me with numerous letters which are of interest. But most of all have I to thank Mrs. Selous, who from the first has given me every assistance in furnishing details of her husband's adventurous life, and allowed me to read and extract from the numerous letters he wrote to different members of his family during a considerable part of his life. Selous had many friends, but none evinced a more keen understanding of his life and work than Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, Ex-President of the United States, and I 'feel grateful to him for the attention he has given to the following pages and the use he has allowed me to make of his numerous letters. The Author has also to thank Messrs. Macmillan and Co. and Messrs. Rowland Ward and Co. for the use they allowed him to make of two of Selous' works, namely, A Hunter's Wanderings and Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa. He is much indebted to their kindness in this matter, since they give in the hunter's own words accurate details of his life. J. G. MILLAIS, Compton's Brow, Horsham. CONTENTS CHAPTER I 1851-1865 Ancient and modern heroes — The character of Selous — The Selous family — Edmund Selous' notes — An artistic and ancient race — Selous' parents — Family life — Selous' father — Some of his reminiscences — His mother — His uncles — Selous' childhood in London — Early schooldays — Selous' own story of his youth — His first battle — Youthful adventures — His athletic prowess — Life at Belton ...... Page i CHAPTER II 1865-1870 He enters Rugby — Love of books of travel — Life at Rugby — Rugby football in the old days — " Butler's leap " — Excur- sions in Natural History — Adventures out of bounds — The Pilton Range episode— Raid on the Heronry at Coombe Abbey — A cold swim — Unjust treatment — Wanderings with the rifle — • Chased by the keeper — Mr. Boughton Leigh's broad-mindedness — The ice accident at Regent's Park — The panic — A narrow escape — Canon Wilson's recollections of Selous as a schoolboy — " WiUiamson's " duck — Neuchatel — Wiesbaden — His friend Col- chester — A row with the forester — He flies to Salzburg — Butter- fly collecting — Chamois hunting — The Franco-German War — Its unpopularity in Austria — His estimate of the German character — Visit to Vienna — Back in England . . . .29 CHAPTER III 1871-1875 The influence of literature — Books on Africa — Thomas Baines — Baldwin— Selous lands in Africa — Leaves Port Ehzabeth — Sport on the road— Arrival at Kimberley — A short expedition into Griqu aland — Starts for the north — His companions — The first giraffe hunt — Lost in the bush — An unenviable position — Loses his horse — Reaches safety — His first hons — Meeting with Lobengula — The Matabele king's humour — Cigar — Elephant hunters — Piet Jacobs — William Finaughty — His hfe as an elepha,nt hunter — Selous kills his first elephants — Cigar's good qualities — Selous remains in Matabeleland — Joins Wood in an elephant hunt — A great day — A fatal accident — The Dett valley — Elephant hunting — Charged by a cow — A narrow escape — A doubly loaded elephant gun — Further adventures wath elephants — Return to Bulawayo — Game in the Dett valley —Selous goes north to the Zambesi — \''isit to the Chobe — Begins his collection of trophies — Adventures with buffaloes — Abund- ance of game — His first lion — A savage charge — Arrives at Tati 65 viii THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS CHAPTER IV 1876-1878 Lands again at Algoa Bay — Reaches Matabeleland — Kills a fine lion — George Westbeech — -Return to the Diamond Fields — Loses a fine lion — The comparative danger of hunting various wild animals — Views of experienced hunters — Adventures with buffaloes — Goes north to the Zambesi — Hunting in the Chobe delta — Sepopo's elephant drives — A charging buffalo — Selous' horse killed by a buffalo — Further adventures with buffaloes — Their speed and cunning — A depressing outlook — Visit to the Zambesi — Portuguese misrule — The Kafukwe country — An un- healthy region — Illness of Owen and Selous — Restored to health — Elephant hunting on the Hanyane river — Clarkson and Wood — The death of Quabeet — A vicious cow — Nearly crushed — Kills a lioness — -Plans for the future . . Pa^e CHAPTER V I 879-1 880 Intends to visit the Mashukulumbwe countrjr — Expedition into the northern Kalahari — The Botletlie river — Adventure with lions — - The difficulties of the Thirstland — ^The Mababe flats — Oxen nearly exhausted — Finds water — Kills two lionesses and two fine lions — Hunting on the Linyanti and Chobe — The death of French — • Sick with fever — Causes of the Zulu War — The magnanimity of the Zulus — Selous' visit to Cetewayo — The story of John Dunn — - McLeod of McLeod — ^The Swazi king's reasoning — Selous' views on the Zulu War — Sir Godfrey Lagden — Selous again goes to Matabeleland — J. S. Jameson, some details of his life — Expedition to Mashunaland — Return to England — Causes of the first Boer War — Selous' first book — Slaughter of game in South Africa — The ethics of Big Game himting CHAPTER VI Return to South Africa — Intends to be an ostrich farmer — Goes north again — The snake-stone — Collecting specimens of big game and butterflies — A bold lioness — Visit to Khama — Lion attacks the camp — Death of the lion — Laer's narrow escape — ■ Kills a leopard — Reaches the Zambesi — Goes south and then returns to Mashunaland — The Manyami plateau — A savage leopard — Adventure with a lion — The hippopotamus row — A poor outlook — Visit to the Mababe — A man-eating lion — Return to Bulawayo — The white rhinoceros — A wonderful herd of elephants — A great day spoiled by a sulky horse — Frequently charged by elephants — A savage cow — Curious magnanimity to a horse — Liechtenstein's Hartebeest — A gallant sable antelope — Havoc amongst the dogs — Danger from woimded sable and roan antelopes ....... THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS ix CHAPTER VII i886-i88g Expedition to Mashunaland with Messrs. Jameson, Fountaine and Cooper — A serious accident — Sets out for Barotsiland — Arrival at Wankie's — Extortion by the Baton ga chiefs — Monzi — The Mashukulumbwe — Into the jaws of death — Attack on Selous' camp — Selous escapes south — Pursuit by the natives — Lucky meeting with a Wildebeest — His rifle stolen — Nearly shot — Reaches Monzi's village — A dangerous position — Marancinyan — Suspicious friendship — Moves south with guides— Meets some of his men — Their adventures — Reaches Panda- ma-tenka — Sikabenga's treachery — Crosses the Zambesi again — Wanderings in Barotsiland — Return to Bamangwato . . Page 157 CHAPTER VIII I 889-1 892 Expedition to the Mazoe river — Reaches Tete — The extortions of Maziwa — Mapping the new country — Discovery of Mt. Hampden — Trouble with the Portuguese — The importance of Mashunaland to Great Britain — Selous' scheme of occupation — Rhodes' plans — Lobengula and Cecil Rhodes — The Charter of the British South African Company — Selous' proposed road — The pioneer expedi- tion starts — The cutting of the road — Lobengula's ultimatum — The road complete from TuU to Salisbury — Treaties with local chiefs — The Odzi road — The Portuguese attack Massi-Kessi — A fiasco — A night with lions — Visits the Pung^ve district — -A great game country — Progress in the new country — Leaves South Africa — The Hartley Hills lion — An unfortunate niiss- fire — A gallant foe — Death of the lion — Lion hunters — The brothers Hill — Methods of hunting — Sir Alfred Pease — Selous' writings — The Government neglect of science — The jealousy and poverty of scientific societies — America's good example — The miserable treatment of African explorers — Selous and Rhodes — The rewards of hard work — The pioneer's only monument . 172 CHAPTER IX 1893-1896" Cupid at work — Engagement to Miss Maddy — Intends to visit America — Trouble in Matabeleland — History of Matabele raids — -The position in 1893 — Hunters enter Matabeleland — Selous returns to South Africa — Joins Col. Goold-Adams' column — PreUminary fights — Selous wounded — The first battle — The Matabele retreat north — Disaster to Major Wilson's column — Selous' prophecy — Return to England — Marriage — Honeymoon on the Danube and in Asia Minor — Hunting in the mountains of Asia Minor — Leaves again for Mashunaland — Essexvale — The new Bulawayo — The cloud of trouble — The UmUmo — ^The rising of the natives — The defence force — Col. Johan Colenbrander — Driven from Essexvale — Isolated engagements — The fight on the Umguzra — Selous surrounded — His horse runs away — His life saved by Capt. Windley — A narrow escape — -Work on the main road — Arrival of Sir H. Plumer — Mr. Labouchere's views of the second Matabele War — The future of S. Rhodesia — The difficulties of farming there — Markets too distant — Selous attacked by Labouchere — Messrs. Rowland Ward and Co. — Their kindness to Selous — The Nyala — Expedition to the Pongolo and Usutu rivers — An unhealthy country — Return to England 197 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS CHAPTER X 1896-1907 Selous' restlessness and love of travel — Roosevelt on the charms of travel — Criticism of travel books — Selous as an egg collector — Second visit to Asia Minor — Short excursions at home — Goes with his wiie to the Rockies — Wapiti hunting — Roosevelt on past and present hunting in N. America — Hunting chamois in Transylvania — Selous on the second Boer War — An Imperialist, but always fair — His sorrow as to the causes of the war — Personal knowledge of the Boers — An honourable foe — Their ignorance and good qualities — Selous' views on their unjust treatment — Letter to the ' ' Speaker ' ' — Roosevelt on the Boers — Birds '-nesting on the Danube — Hunting moose in Canada — New- foundland caribou hunting on the railway — A poor sport — Goes into the interior-^Too late for the migration — Second visit to Newfoundland — A successful expedition — Third visit to Asia Mnor — First expedition to East Africa — A big game paradise — Birds '-nesting at home— First expedition to Alaska — Visit to the Ogilvy Mountains — Up the North Fork of the MacMillan — Kills a bull moose— Osborn's caribou — A great moose — Bad weather — Third trip to Newfoundland — A wet season — King George IVth Lake — A bad year for heads .... Page 224. CHAPTER XI 1906-1907 A visit to Bosnia — Second expedition to Alaska — Down the Yukon — Up the South Fork of the MacMillan^ — Caribou, wolf and moose hunting — His sympathetic nature — Account of the MacMillan trip — Again visits Asia Minor — Financial depression — Arthur Neumann — Some details of his life — Reindeer hunting in Norway African nature notes and reminiscenccs^Letters from President Roosevelt ....... 257 CHAPTER XII 1908-1913 Roosevelt's expedition to Africa — Selous' arrangements — Selous joins Roosevelt at Naples — Goes to the Northern Gwas N'yiro with MacMillan — Fails to obtain lions — ^Accident to Mr. Williams — Selous at Vienna — Warburton Pike — Expedition to the Bahr- el-Ghazal — Goes to Tembera — Phil Oberlander — Killed by a buffalo — Some stories of Oberlander — Selous' hunt for the Giant Elands — A hard trip — Illness and rapid recovery — Third expedition to East Africa — Judd's adventure with a honess — Roosevelt on African hunting — Physical hmitations — Selous' last buffalo — A gallant foe — Elani his Somali nearly killed — DisHke of crowds — Visit to the Channel Islands — Roosevelt on the early Normans — Heatley Noble on Selous — ^Their expedition to Iceland— Selous' imperturbabiUty — His powers as a climber — Selous' idea of a good dinner — Selous on his Icelandic trip — Yearnings for Africa — Young Fred Selous — A true son of his father — His atliletic prowess — An excellent airman — His un- timely death , . . , . , . 267 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS xi CHAPTER XIII 1914-1915 Visit to Texel Island^ — Intends to make expedition to the Bahr-el- Ghazal — Frustrated by the war— Selous' patriotism — Efforts to serve — Lord Kitchener thinks him " too old " — Col. Driscoll and the War Office — At last taken for service in East Africa — Selous' account of the capture of Bukoba — Letter to Heatley Noble — The position in East Africa in 1915 — Letters to the author — German ascendancy — The Indian Government forces — Precarious position of the British forces — Intends to publish his experiences — Roosevelt's letters — German thoroughness — Roosevelt anxious for America to join the Allies — Letters to the author on the difficulties of the campaign — Unfortunate mistakes— The Munyamwesi — Wonderful fighters — ^Advance to Kihmanjaro — General Smuts in command— Description of the advance — A deadly climate in the wet season — Returns home for an operation — Again leaves for the front . . Page 299 CHAPTER XIV SEPTEMBER, I916-I9I7 The last journey — Arrival at Tanga — German East Africa in 191 6 — The difficulties of the campaign — Progress by General Smuts — ■ The Royal Fusiliers go to Mikesse — A fearful march — General Smuts on the action at Beho-Beho — Selous' gallantry — His death at the head of his men — A noble life — Captain Haines on the last days of Selous — Selous' grave — General Smuts on the future of German East Africa ..... 340 CHAPTER XV CHARACTER, APPEARANCE, ETC. SOME STORIES OF HIM Untiring energy as a hunter — His modest requirements — Rifles — A story of his practical nature — Sir Alfred Pease on Selous as a hunter and naturalist — The average of shots required in various lands — Selous as a hunter — His love of the shot-gun — Per- severance to excel — The Brocklehursts — A lover of cricket — Bicycling — The triumph of physical fitness — His personal magnetism- — Memory — Powers as a story-teller — diffidence — Inclined to melancholy — ^The spring of perennial youth — The force of heredity — Slatin Pasha's estimation of Col. Marchand — Selous' opinion of Marchand — Powers of speech — His independ- ence of thought and action — Literary gifts — Kindness of heart- Hatred of crowds — The perpetual call of the wild — Home- sickness — The nostalgia of travel — ^A great reader — His prefer- ences in literature — Personal friends — Hospitality at home — Lewanika's fears — His attitude towards reUgion — Roosevelt on Selous — Selous' great influence as a pioneer — A noble life and a fitting end ....... 352 IN-DEX ........ 377 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Frederick Courtenay Selous at the age of 59 The Plains of the Orange Free State in 1871 Selous as a Young Man, in Hunting Costume Elephants .... Buffaloes Alarmed On the Mashuna Plateau The Battle of the Strong Lions Chasing a Koodoo Bull The Wandering Minstrel Osborn's Caribou . . Mt. KJENIA FROM THE SoUTH Bull Moose about to lie down Mt. Kilimanjaro from the North A Shot on the Plains, British East Africa Faru ! Faru ! . They cannot break his Sleep Frontispiece TO FACE PAGE 64 80 112 144; 176 192 ^ 224 240 256 2721.. 288 304 ' 320 ' 336 368 \t THE LIFE OF FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS, D.S.O. CHAPTER I 1851-1865 MEN of all ages are apt to set up for themselves heroes. It is their instinct to worship exceptional force of character and to follow a leader ; but as we survey the tempest of human suffering we are now more apt to wonder if there are any great men left in the world and think that perhaps, after all, we have made a mistake in putting on pedestals the heroes of the past ; for tried in the light of the present day they would, perchance, not have proved heroes at all. The cynic may even sneer at this lovable trait in human nature and affect to place all men in a commonplace ratio, but then it is easier to be a cynic than a man of faith. Nevertheless, Humanity must have something to trust, to acclaim and admire, and so millions of all ages cling to their worship of the hero, even though he may wear top hat and trousers. There will always be great men amongst the mass of pygmies, though many say the age of hero-worship has gone — doubtless swamped in the scale of colossal events. Still, if the great men of the past were not as large as they seemed, the little men of to- day may be greater, in spite of the fact that the chief actors in the modern drama of life are nations and not individuals. But what constitutes a great man will ever be the result 2 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS of individual opinion. In Russia to-day millions, perhaps, think Lenin and Trotsky are demi-gods, whilst an equal number call them traitors and would prefer to see them hanged. To us, perhaps, the belief that Right will triumph over wrong, and the man who in simple faith gives up all that is sweet and pleasant to serve his country in the most fearful strife the world has ever seen, is the embodiment of heroism. There are tens of thousands of men who have done the same as Frederick Selous and none are less heroes than he ; each and all of them are as much entitled to their pedestal of fame, although they may not have ex- hibited the mind that influences for years in many lands. They have all counted the cost and endured the sacrifice, and they do not talk about their inner thoughts. This, to our minds, is true heroism. So in studying the life of one Enghshman, great in the sense that everything he did was big, honourable, clever, and brave, we shall reaUze how character is formed in the iron mill of experience, how a man unhelped by wealth or social advantages and gifted only with exceptional talents in a line, mainly unprofitable in a worldly sense, came to win through the difficulties and dangers of a more than usually strenuous life and reach the haven of com- pleted work. Selous was a type of Englishman of which we are justly proud. His very independence of character and impatience of restraint when once he knew a thing was right was perhaps his greatest asset. He knew what he wanted to do and did it even if it resulted, as it did on one occasion, in his personal unpopularity. It was this fearless striving towards the Light and constant love of what was beautiful in Nature, that forced him into Litera- ture, so that others might see with his eyes the things that he thought were best. And thus he rose and became a type and an influence in our national life, and in time swayed the lives of others. The Selous family were originally French Huguenots, who settled in Jersey after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Annoyance at being turned out of France caused Gideon Slous to omit the " e " from the surname, but later this THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 3 was re-adopted by his son Frederick Lokes Selous, father of Frederick Courtenay. Of the character of his parents and uncles Edmund Selous kindly sends me the following notes : — "... I can only say generally, that my father was a man of high and varied talents and very high character, of French, or at any rate, Jersey descent, and that he started with nothing in life, and with only such education (beyond what he owed to his mother, an uncommon woman, who probably did better for him) as an ordinary private school had afforded, equipped himself with French and Italian in perfection, entered the Stock Exchange at an early age, had a successful career there, and rose to be Chairman of its Committee. He was a fine whist and chess player (more especially, or more notedly, the latter) and was reputed, I believe, at one time, to be the best amateur player of the clarionet. Music was his constant and greatest delight, but his pen was also an instrument which (though he sought no public beyond his friends) he often used very entertainingly. He was a brilliant — often a witty — talker, with a distinc- tion of manner, more French- than English-seeming in its light debonairness, and his individualities, traits, foibles, etc., were so many and vivid, that to write either of him or of Dr. Johnson with scanted pen, would be much the same thing. My two uncles, the artist and dramatist, who lived next door, on each side of us, would also require portraiture for anything beyond this bare statement. Both were out- of-the-canvas-stepping personalities, carrying with them atmosphere and aroma. " My mother was an exceptionally thoughtful and broad-, minded woman — more advanced, on most subjects, than where they stand now — a vivid and vital being, of great vivacity, gladness (that never was levity) and conversa- tional powers, with a gift for the interchange of ideas (which is not, by any means, always the same thing). She was also a poet, as her little volume of collected pieces, ' Words without Music ' (a modest title) testifies, at least to myself. She had joyous ' L' Allegro '-like country in- stincts, a deep inborn love of the beauties of nature (which 4 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS she sketched charmingly), and great feeling for, and interest in both plant and animal life. I underline that word, in its last connection, because killing was quite another thing for her, and her whole soul shrank away from it. But of course, as you know, what, in root and origin, may be the same, is often differentiated in the sexes, and so inherited by each. It was, I think, undoubtedly through our mother (though he did not, personally, much resemble either parent) that my brother inherited everything that made him dis- tinctively himself. By this I mean that though much and that the best — as, for instance, his patriotism and love of truth — may have come to him from both sides, and some from the other only, it was that one that gave to it, and the whole, its original life-shaping turn. The whole was included in the blood of the Bruces of Clackmannan, repre- sentative, I believe, of the elder branch of the family that gave Robert Bruce to the throne of Scotland, but what exact position, in our family tree, is occupied by Bruce, the Abyssinian explorer, I do not quite know. However, he must have been some sort of ancestor of my brother, and Bruce, since the intermingHng, has been a family name, though not given to any of us surviving infancy, owing to an idea which had arisen, through several instances of such association, that it had become unlucky. In this regard, it has been rather the patronymic, which, from one war to another, has borne the malevolent influence. None have come back, either wounded, invalided or at all. All killed outright — but this by the way. Had it not been for my mother, therefore, my brother, in all probabiUty, would either never, or not in any preponderating degree, have felt the ' caU of the wild,' for my father not only never felt it, but never was able to comprehend the feeling. There was, in fact, nothing at all in him of what was my brother's life and being. He was, in the proper evolutionary sense of the word, essentially a civilized man and a Londoner. Sport was, for him, an unknown (and much disliked) quantity, and though taking, in an air-tight-compartment sort of way, some interest in insects, he had not much about him of the real naturalist. Those feelings (imperishably THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 5 summed up by Jack London in the title of his masterpiece) which, coming out of a remote past, beckon back the only supposedly or but half-made-up civilized amongst us, from late into early conditions, were not, as I say, his heritage ; and this was equally (or even more) the case with his brothers — my two uncles — and as far as I know or have ever heard, all the precedent members of the family, I believe, therefore, that by the intervention — merciful or otherwise — of the Bruce, Sherborn, and Holgate families, between them, my brother was saved, or debarred, from going either into the Stock Exchange or one of the settled professions. Which kind of phraseology best suits the con- juncture I know not, but I think I know what my brother's own opinion would be, since it put the particular circum- stances of that event of his life, in which, of all others, he would esteem himself most happy and fortunate — I mean his death — upon a footing of certainty. " I have alluded to my brother's independence of homie (or, I think, of any) influence. I look upon him as a salient illustration of Darwin's finding that the force of heredity is stronger, in the individual, than that of education and surroundings. So far back as I can remember — at least with any distinctness — he was always just himself, with a settled determination that, in its calm, unobtrusive force (giving the idea of inevitability) had in it something ele- mental. He may not have lisped Africa (which was far from the family thoughts) but, if not, he, at least, came so near to it, as to have made us all almost remember that he did. He seems to have brought with him into this world ' from afar,' a mind long made up as to the part he should play in it, and his career was more than half run before any circumstance admitted by him as deflective from its true course, arose. ..." Mrs. Jones (Ann Selous) also paints a pleasing picture of the early life of the family in their London house : — " We lived in Gloucester Road, Regent's Park, in a house my father built for himself. At that time there were no other houses near, but all fields between his home and Prim- 6 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS rose Hill, some way off ; but this superior state of things his children never knew. Our uncles, my father's brothers, lived on either side of us. My father was vice-Chairman of the Stock Exchange for five years, and Chairman for three, until a very serious illness obliged him to resign and give up everything in the way of work. He was a fine chess player, his name is to be seen in the games amongst those of the great players of the day. He was also a very fine clarionet player, which instrument he taught himself when very young, and I well remember his beautiful tone, far beyond that of Lazarus, the chief professional player of the day, who no doubt sacrificed tone to technique. Whenever there was a speech to be made my father was equal to the occasion, having great fluency and humour and real wit. He was a delightful talker and his memory was a store-house of knowledge and recollections that he could draw upon when- ever required. He was a very genial and admirable host, very high-spirited and excitable. He could never forget the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when the Huguenots, his forebears, were driven from France. ' They turned us out ! They turned us out ! ' he used to say to my mother, a real thought of bitterness to him. His greatest pleasure and relaxation was a walking-tour in Switzerland, a land he specially loved. He had often been there with one or other of his brothers, or with his great friend Baron Bramwell, the famous judge. These trips must have been ideal, my father and his brothers having in themselves everything that was necessary to make them gifted in all the arts, and so appreciative of nature and everything else, and with their lively sense of humour and wide interests they were able to extract the most from all they might chance upon in their travels, those being the days before tourists flooded the country and huge hotels swamped the more interesting inns. My father loved the busy life of the City, and had no country tastes such as farming or hunting, but he delighted in the life by the river — in canoeing, specially — and in a farmer's country home in the Isle of Wight, where, when we were children, we spent the summers. He was a fine swim- mer and would swim out with one or other of us on his THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 7 back. I well remember his energy, mental and physical, were remarkable. The loss of sight seemed only to affect his later years. His mind was clear and equal to dealing with his affairs to the last. At a very advanced age he had started tricycling and delighted in it. I think my father and my brother Fred were very dissimilar in character, interests and tastes. There was no ' call of the wild ' in my father — nor, I think, in my mother, except through her imagination. My father left a few reminiscences which were never finished, as dictation tired him — he was then over eighty and blind. They are full of interesting memories which end unfortunately when he was still very young." " I was born," writes my father, "on the 9th of March, 1802. ... I was a precocious child, for I was told that I knew my letters at about two years of age, and could read at three and a half and recite on a table at about four. I perfectly recollect declaiming the quarrel between Brutus and Cassius in Shakespeare's ' Julius Csesar.' Also I remember the an- nouncement of the death of Nelson in October, 1805, and witnessing his funeral procession in January, 1806.^ I was perched on the shoulders of a journeyman baker named Guesnel at the corner of Poland Street, from whence I beheld the catafalque containing the remains of the illus- trious Nelson, the whole affair resembling much the inter- ment of the Duke of WelUngton, which I witnessed in 1852 — forty-six years later. My brother Harry (the artist, H. C. Selous), who was thirteen months younger than I, remembers witnessing this spectacle too. ... I can recol- lect weeping bitterly at hearing the first news of our great admiral's death, and the awe and wonder with which I looked upon the ceremony of his interment. ... I was sent to school at Islington at the age of seven, and upon the master desiring me to read from a book which he gave to me he expressed himself so surprised at my reading that he told my mother he would not put me into any of the reading classes of the upper boys, as I should put them to shame. ^ The body was sent home in a cask of brandy which was said to have been partially drunk by the sailors. This gruesome theft was known as " tapping the admiral." 8 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS I was at that time so strong and so hungry that I frequently carried some of the biggest boys round the playground (which was a large one) for an extra slice of bread and butter with which they repaid me. I was at school about a twelve- month and then came under my mother's care for instruc- tion, and to her I owe more than I can possibly express with regard to my early education. She taught me the French language, Greek and Roman history, and the three R's — reading, writing, and arithmetic. When I was ten years, I was sent to a school called the Burlington school, where I improved my French, became a tolerable Latin scholar, and gained a smattering of mathematics. After being for two years at this academy, I was recalled to home rule and education and never had any further in- struction from master or professor. At this time my brother and myself were allowed to wander about the streets uncontrolled and might have been considered as a sort of street Arabs, though we always selected our associates carefully." (Later on my father had to work very hard, very long hours, up till midnight four days in the week, but it did him no harm, and he was very strong and active. A great part of his time was occupied in reading every variety of book he could get hold of, from which he gained much general information, having an unusuallygood memory. Plutarch's lives were his first admired works. Pope, Addison and Johnson came next. He made the acquaintance of some of the celebrated Italian singers and learnt to speak their language fluently. All this part about the Italian singers is very interesting, and many things connected with the theatre likewise.) " I also witnessed another performance which shocked me more than anything I ever beheld, for I was then very young. It was in 1815 or 16, I think, I happened to be rather early one day in my long walk to Great St. Helen's, which took me past St. Sepulchre's and the broad opening to the narrow streets of the Old Bailey. The sun was shining brightly across Newgate, and on chancing to look towards Ludgate Hill I saw dangling to a beam at the west side of Newgate five human beings suspended by the THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 9 neck. One of them was a woman, who with a feehng for symmetry had been hung in the centre. All five had white night-caps drawn over their faces to conceal the horrible convulsions of the features. I don't know what their crimes had been, people were hanged in those savage days for stealing a shilling, or even cutting a stick from a plantation. The time appointed for cutting down the bodies had nearly arrived, and the crowd had diminished to an apathetic group principally engaged in cracking nuts and jokes, and eating brandy balls all hot ; but horror gave speed to my steps and I soon left hideous Newgate behind me. I recol- lect a great sensation caused by the execution of Fauntleroy for forgery." Here end these notes by my father. " I think I remember rightly that at fourteen my father was not only making a livelihood for himself, but supporting his father and mother. He was most charitable and had the kindest heart in the world, and that high sense of honour which so distinguished his son. I think that though these few extracts from his reminiscences are not, perhaps, of importance, yet they throw some hght on my father's character, and indirectly it may be on my brother's also, for certainly in strength of purpose, energy, and will to succeed, also in vigorous health and constitution, they were alike. They also had both a great facility for learning languages. We were amused to read in a book on African travel by, I think, a Portuguese, whose name for the mo- ment I forget, that he came across the great hunter (I forget if he put it like that) Selous, ' somewhere ' in Africa, who addressed him in the French of the ' Boulevard des Itahens !' As I think this traveller was supposed to have a lively imagination, we accepted Fred's superior accent (after so many years of never speaking or hearing French) with some grains of salt. But not very many years ago at some international meeting to do with sport, at Turin or Paris, Fred representing England, he made a speech in French, on which he was much complimented, for accent, wit, and fluency alike. ^ ^ The occasion of this speech was when the society of St. Hubert presented Selous with the medal of the " Acad§mie des Sports," " pour services rendus a la Chasse aux grandes fauves " on July 15th, 191 1. 10 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS " My mother, like my father, had a wonderful memory, and was a great reader, from childhood, her home possessing a big library. Scott was her great delight then, and indeed always, and poetry was as nectar and ambrosia to her. She had great facility in writing herself, very charmingl}-, both poetry and prose, all of the fantastic and imaginative order, and she had quite a gift for painting. Considering all the calls made on her time, of home and family (social, likewise), which were never neglected, it was wonderful that she could yet find time for all her writing and painting. Her perseverance and industry in the arts that she loved were really remarkable. We children greatly benefited by her love of poetry and story, for she was a true ' raconteuse ' and we drank in with delight the tales from the old myth- ologies of romance and adventure. She would tell us of deeds of ' derring-do ' and all that was inspiring in the way of freedom and love of country. Certainly with her, as with Sir Edward Clarke, poetry was ' a never failing source of pleasure and comfort ' to the last. (As it was also with me.) In the last year of her long life she could still repeat her poetic treasures with the greatest fire and spirit. She had a vigorous and original personality, with strong and decided views which she would express with energy. Her hands were full of character, strong yet most delicate, and much character in her features, with a smile that lit up her face like a ray of sunshine. Her maiden name was Sher- born — Ann Sherborn — (her mother's maiden name, Hol- gate) .... Her relations and ancestors were county folk — gentlemen farmers some of them . The Sherborns of Bedf ont near Staines, held the great tythe, and her uncle was the squire. None of the last generation married, the name has died with them and may be seen only in the little Bedfont churchyard. " My mother's uncle (her mother's brother), William Holgate, was fond of searching out genealogies and he managed to trace the Abyssinian Bruce s until it joined our Bruce family tree. There were many original — and it may be eccentric — characters amongst my mother's rela- tions and forebears, and many interesting stories that we THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS it loved to hear, about them. Her genealogical tree interested us greatly, partly because the names were so curious, as it went back to the early days of history, and because of the stories connected with them, and also because if not Bruce himself, his elder brother, David King of Scotland, figured in it. Then there was Archbishop Holgate of York, who was a great rogue (I looked up his life in the Minster precincts when I was there) and hand and glove with Henry VHI in the spoliation of the monasteries, yet he redeemed himself by the establishment of Free Schools, which flourish in York to this day. " It may be that this spirit of romance and adventure that we breathed in from our earliest years, had some influence on my brother Fred, and fired his imagination ; but why from the very first there should have been the persistent desire like an ' idee fixe ' for Africa, I cannot tell, unless, indeed, it might be something of ' Abyssinian ' Bruce cropping up again. But as a child he would have a waggon for a toy, to load and unload, and for his school prize books he would always choose one on Africa. This desire for the dark continent remained constant in him till satisfied, and indeed to the last. " My mother had quite an unusual interest in, and know- ledge of, natural history, and my father also made some fine collections of butterflies, etc., which are still to be seen in my brother's museum. My father's youngest brother, Angiolo — a man of the most poUshed and courtly manners — was as dark as my father was fair. Entirely educated by his mother, there was little in which he did not excel. He had a beautiful voice and was a charming singer, often to his own accompaniment on the guitar, and was a well- known dramatist in his time, some of his plays being most successful. How well I remember the first night of his ' True to the Core,' when we all went across the river to the Surrey Theatre and helped with our feet and umbrellas in the general enthusiasm. He was a fine actor and dramatic reader, and a charming artist. We have a perfect gem of his — Don Quixote, sitting in his study — the colouring, the face and expression, the painting, are perfect, and one feels 12 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS that Don Quixote must have looked just so. The haggard face and the wild look in the eyes that are seeing visions. But it was unfortunate that my uncle neglected this talent altogether. My uncle, Harry Selous, was of course the artist, excelling chiefly, I think, in his beautiful outlines of the ' Pilgrim's Progress,' and his ' Metamorphoses of Ovid,' on which subjects he could draw on his imagination for ever, it seemed. It is a thousand pities they have never been produced. His illustrations of the Life of Bruce and Hereward the Wake are fine, and The Prisoners of Calais and Boadicea are well known. The latter most fine, I think. He would paint the most charming landscapes with great rapidity, and his chalk (coloured) and pencil sketches from his travels in Switzerland are charming too, and endless numbers of them. He painted some of the famous Coliseum panoramas, each in turn being painted out by the next one, which always seemed very dreadful. His original illustra- tions drawn on wood, were exquisite, and it was cruel to see how they were spoilt in the wood-cutting, but he valued his work so lightly that he did not seem to mind much about it. My grandfather, Gideon Slous, had a very great talent for painting, and was a fine colourist, quite like an old master, and he painted some beautiful miniatures also. He was a man of violent temper." Frederick Courtenay Selous was born in the house in Regent's Park on December 31st, 1851. The other children of his parents were : Florence, " Locky," now Mrs. Hodges ; Annie, married to Mr. R. F. Jones ; Sybil, " Dei," married to Mr, C. A. Jones ; Edmund, married to Fanny, daughter of Mrs. Maxwell (Miss Braddon) . He is a well-known student of British bird-life and has published many interesting books on British Natural History. Of the childhood of Frederick little more need be said. He was an active httle fellow, never more happy than when playing with his wooden waggon and oxen or listening to his mother's stories of romance and adventure. At the age of nine he went to school at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, of which Arthur Hill was the headmaster, and there chiefly dis- THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 13 tinguished himself by being constantly in trouble. Later he went for a short time to a small school in Northampton- shire, kept by the Revd. Charles Darnell, whose daughter (Mrs. Frank Juckes) recalls one characteristic incident. " One night my father on going round the dormitories to see that all was in order, discovered Freddy Selous, lying flat on the bare floor clothed only in his nightshirt. On being asked the cause of this curious behaviour he replied, ' Well, you see, one day I am going to be a hunter in Africa and I am just hardening myself to sleep on the ground.' " One day in 1914, I found Selous busy at his desk at Worplesdon. On being asked what was the nature of his work, he said he was writing an account of his school days for a boys' magazine. He did not seem to think it would be of wide interest, and so had written his early adventures in simple form merely for the perusal of boys and had changed his own name to that of "John Leroux." " It was a damp and dismal winter's day towards the end of January, 1861, on which the boys reassembled after their Christmas holidays at a well-known school not far from London. Nevertheless, despite the gloom and the chilliness of the weather conditions outside the fine old mansion which had but lately been converted into a school, there was plenty of life and animation in the handsome oak- panelled banqueting hall within, at one end of which a great log fire blazed cheerfully. Generally speaking the boys seemed in excellent spirits, or at any rate they made a brave show of being so to keep up appearances, and the music of their laughter and of their fresh young voices was good to hear. Here and there, however, a poor little fellow stood apart, alone and friendless, and with eyes full of tears. Such unfortunates were the new boys, all of them young- sters of nine or ten, who had left their homes for the first time, and whose souls were full of an unutterable misery, after their recent partings from fond mothers and gentle sisters. The youngest, and possibly the most homesick of all the new boys was standing by himself at some distance from the fire, entirely oblivious of all that was going on 14 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS around him, for he was too miserable to be able to think of anything but the home in which he had grown to boy- hood and all the happiness, which it seemed to his young soul, he could never know again amidst his new surroundings, " Now as it is this miserable little boy who is to be the hero of this story, he merits, I think, some description. Though only just nine years old he looked considerably more, for he was tall for his age, and strongly built. He was very fair with a delicate pink and white complexion, which many a lady might have envied, whilst his eyes sometimes appeared to be grey and sometimes blue. His features, if not very handsome or regular, were good enough and never failed to give the impression of an open and honest nature. Altogether he would have been considered by most people a typical specimen of an English boy of Anglo-Saxon blood. Yet, as a matter of fact, as in the case of so many Englishmen, there was but little of the Saxon element in his composition, for whilst his father came from the Isle of Jersey, and was therefore of pure Norman descent, his forebears on his mother's side were some of them Scotch and others from a district in the north of England in which the Scandinavian element is supposed to preponderate over the Saxon. But though our hero bore a Norman-French name the idea that he was not a pure- blooded Englishman had never occurred to him, for he knew that his Jersey ancestors had been loyal subjects of the English crown ever since, as a result of the battle of Hastings, Duke William of Normandy became King of England. " It was not long before the new boy's melancholy meditations were rudely broken in upon by a handsome lad of about his own size, though he was his senior by more than a year. ' Hullo,' said young Jim Kennedy, looking roguishly into the sad, almost tearful, eyes of the young Jerseyman, ' who gave you that collar ? Why, you look like Queen Elizabeth.' " A fond mother had indeed bedecked her darling boy with a beautiful collar of lace work several inches in breadth which spread over his shoulders, but which he soon found it THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 15 advisable to discard as it made him the butt of every wit in the school. But though the collar was suppressed, the name of Queen Elizabeth, that august lady to whom Kennedy when first addressing him had declared that his mother's fond gift had given him a resemblance, stuck to him for many a long day. " The laughing, jeering interrogatory, acted like a tonic on the new boy, who though of a gentle, kindly disposition, possessed a very hot temper. His soft grey eyes instantly grew dark with anger as looking his questioner squarely in the face he answered slowly, ' What is that to you, who gave me my collar ? ' " ' Hullo ! ' again said Jim Kennedy, ' you're a cocky new boy. What's your name ? ' " ' My name is John Leroux,' said the young Jerseyman quietly and proudly, for his father had taught him to be proud of his Norman ancestry, and had instilled into his son his own firm belief that the Normans were a superior people to the Saxons, than whom he averred they had done more for the advancement of England to its present great position, and for the spread of the empire of Britain over half the world. " Kennedy repeated the unfamiliar name two or three times, and then with a derisive laugh said, ' Why, you're a Frenchy.' Now although it was quite true that on his father's side John Leroux was of Norman-French descent, for some reason difficult to analyse, the suggestion that he was a Frenchman filled his young heart with fury. His face grew scarlet and his fists clenched involuntarily as he answered fiercely, ' How dare you call me a Frenchy ! I'm not a Frenchman, I'm an EngUshman.' " * No, you're not,' said Kennedy, ' you're a Frenchy, a frog-eating Frenchy.' Without another word young Leroux, from whose face all the colour had now gone, sprang at his tormentor, and taking him unawares, struck him as hard a blow as he was capable of inflicting full in the mouth. And then the fight commenced. " Fifty years ago manners were rougher and ruder in these islands than they are to-day. Prize-fighting was a i6 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS respected and popular calling, and set fights between boys at school of all ages were of constant occurrence. " A ring was soon formed around the combatants and though the majority of the onlookers resented what they called the ' coxiness ' of the new boy and wanted to see him get a licking, there were quite a number of young barbarians whose sympathies were entirely with Leroux, for his pluck in engaging in a fight on his first day at school made a strong appeal to them. The boys were evenly matched, for though Kennedy was more than a year older, he was no taller, and little if any stronger than his opponent, who, moreover, had had a certain amount of instruction from his father in the use of his fists. The battle had lasted for some minutes, and had been waged with the greatest determination on both sides, and no very severe damage to either participant, when the door at the end of the room opened and Mr. Mann, the tall young Scotch mathematical master, strode into the room. Taking in the position at a glance, he elbowed his way through the crowd of boys, who were watching the fight, and seizing the combatants simultaneously, each in one of his strong large hands, he whirled them apart, and held them out of reach of one another, though they both strained hard to resume the fray. " ' You young rascals,' he said, ' why what on earth are you fighting about, and on the first day of the term too ! Now tell me what on earth it was all about and make it up.' " ' He called me a Frenchman, and I'm not,' said young Leroux, and the stress of battle over, the poor boy com- menced to sob. " A more generous lad than Jim Kennedy never stepped, and at the sight of his adversary's distress, his dark eyes filled with tears, and as Mr. Mann relaxed his grasp on his shoulder, he at once came forward with outstretched hand to Leroux and said, ' I'll never call you a Frenchy again ; shake hands and let us be friends.' And so the two tearful young Britons, each of whose faces bore some traces of the recent battle, shook hands and from that time forth, as long as they were at school together, became the most devoted of friends. THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 17 " This was John Leroux's first introduction to school hfe. Like any other healthy vigorous boy, he soon shook off the despondency of homesickness, and became perfectly happy in his new surroundings. He worked well and con- scientiously at his lessons, and played hard at all games, and was not only a general favourite with all his school- fellows, but was also beloved by all the masters in spite of the fact that his adventurous disposition was constantly leading him to transgress all the rules of the school. With young Leroux the love of nature and the desire for the acquisition of objects of natural history of all kinds was an inborn and absorbing passion. Before leaving home he had already commenced to make collections of birds' eggs and butterflies, and throughout his school-days his interest in these and kindred subjects constantly grew. During the spring and summer months all his time that was not occupied in lessons or games was spent in birds' -nesting and collecting butterflies, whilst in the winter he trapped and skinned water rats and other small animals, and some- times caught a stoat or a weasel. He soon became by far the best and most venturesome climber in the whole school, and there was not a rook's nest in any one of the fine old elms or oak-trees in which these birds built in the park in which the schoolhouse stood, from which he was not able to get the eggs, which for the most part he gave away to less athletic or adventurous collectors. After he had been espied on one occasion high up amongst the nests in one of the tallest elm-trees by the headmaster himself, who was genuinely alarmed for his safety, all tree-climbing in the park was forbidden. This rule was, of course, constantly broken, and by no one more frequently than by Leroux. However, as it takes some time to climb to a rook's nest, and as a boy is a conspicuous object amongst the topmost branches of a tree in the early spring before the leaves are out, our young friend was constantly being detected either by one of the undermasters or one of the men working in the grounds, who had all had strict orders to be on the watch. It was owing to this persecution, as he considered it, that Leroux conceived the idea of taking the rooks' eggs he wanted i8 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS at night, and with the help of Kennedy and another kindred spirit he made several raids on the rookery with perfect success when all the masters were in bed. The dormitories were on the first story and therefore not very high above the ground, and as the walls of the house were covered with ivy, it was not very difficult for an active boy to get out of the window and down or up the ivy-covered wall, with the help of the rope which Leroux brought from home in his portmanteau after one Christmas holiday. Having allowed sufficient time to pass after Mons. Delmar, the French master, had made his nightly rounds to see that all the boj^s were snug in bed, and all lights out, Leroux and Kennedy, who were in the same dormitory, and who had both appar- ently been fast asleep when the French master passed through the room, suddenly woke up and producing a candle and a box of matches from beneath their respective pillows, kindled a light and hastily made their preparations. The window having been softly opened, one end of the rope was fastened to one of the legs of the nearest bed, whilst the free end was lowered down the wall to the ground. This having been accomplished the candle was blown out, and then Leroux and Kennedy climbed down the ivy with the help of the rope. Although all the boys in the dormitory took the greatest interest in these proceedings and were ready to render any assistance necessary, a boy named Barnett always hauled up the rope as soon as the adventurers were on the ground, and hid it under the bed near the window in case of accidents until their return, for which he kept a sharp look-out. Once on the ground Leroux and his com- panion made their way to one or other of several large oak- trees in the park in which there were a number of rooks' nests ; for these oaks were not only not as lofty as the elms, but were, moreover, much easier to climb. Kennedy, though a fairly good cUmber, was not the equal of Leroux in this respect, and after assisting the latter to reach the lowest branches, he always waited for his return at the foot of the tree. When the rooks were thus rudely disturbed at night, they always made what seemed to the two boys a most appalling noise, but if anyone ever heard it he never THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 19 guessed the true cause, or took any steps to investigate its meaning, and although during three successive years the two boys raided the rookery on several different occasions, their escapades were never discovered or even suspected. Once, however, they only just got back into their dormitory before the policeman made his nightly round. As a rule he did not make his circuit of the house flashing his lantern on all the windows until after midnight, but on the occasion in question he came much earlier than usual, and Leroux and Kennedy had only just scrambled up the ivy-covered wall, and reached their room with the assistance of the rope which the watchful Barnett had let down for them, when they saw the policeman's lantern flash round the end of the house, through their still open window, which they then closed very cautiously without making any noise. It was the policeman's nightly round of the house, which was thus so forcibly brought to his notice, that gave Leroux an idea, which he and Kennedy and Barnett, together with some other boys, subsequently acted upon with great success. This was nothing more nor less than to play a practical joke on the policeman by hanging a dummy figure out of the window one night, on which he would be sure to flash his lantern when he made his round of the house. In each dormitory there was a huge clothes-basket, not very high but very capacious, and choosing an evening when their basket was very full of clothes for the wash, Leroux and his friends, with the help of a bolster, a coat, shirt, and pair of trousers, and some of the contents of the clothes-basket, made a very good imitation of the figure of a boy. The top end of the bolster which was pinched in a little lower down by the shirt collar, made a nice round ball for the head, and on this a mask and a tow wig, which had been bought just before Guy Fawkes day, were fixed. Then the rope which had done such good service on the occasions of the raids on the rookery, was fastened round the dummy figure's neck, and the really meritorious imitation of a dead boy lowered out of the window and allowed to dangle some six feet beneath it. The head, which with its mask and wig of tow now hung over to one side, gave the some- 20 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS what podgy and certainly very inanimate looking figure quite a realistic appearance. The work of preparing this figure after the French master had been round the dormi- tories, occupied the boys some time, and when at last, after the rope had been fastened round its neck, it was lowered out of the window, it was past eleven o'clock. The boys then took it in turns to watch for the coming of the police- man, each watcher kneeUng at the window well wrapped in his bedclothes. It was Barnett who was on duty when at last the policeman came. * Cavy,' he whispered, ' here he comes,' and all the boys, whose excitement had kept them awake, made their way to the window, across which the light of the lantern soon flashed. The result was im- mediate and exceeded the utmost expectations of Leroux and his companions. The policeman — a young man but lately enrolled in the force — was seen to be gesticulating and shouting at the top of his voice, evidently trying to attract the attention of those in the room above him, from which the boy figure, with its ghastly pale cardboard face, hung dangling at the end of a rope. There was, how- ever, no response from the listening boys. Suddenly the policeman ceased his outcries, and running down the foot- path turned the corner of the house. Immediately after there was a terrific banging at the front door, accompanied by loud shouting. ' Quick,' said Leroux, ' up with the window, and let's get the dummy in.' At the same time Kennedy ran to the further door of the dormitory and holding it sHghtly ajar, peered out on the landing, which overlooked the large hall at the end of which was the main entrance of the house from whence all the noise proceeded. And now anxious voices were heard, and lights appeared from all directions. ' Old Rex ' — the headmaster — ' has opened the hall door,' said Kennedy, ' and is talking to the poUceman. My eye,' he continued, ' Old Cockeye's there too, she's crying out and snuffling like a good 'un.' I grieve to say that ' Old Cockeye ' was the disrespectful nickname which had been given by the boys to the matron — a most exemplary lady with an unfortunate squint in the left eye. And now there was a babble of approaching voices THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 21 as the party in the hall rapidly ascended the staircase leading to the dormitories. Kennedy softly closed the door at which he had been listening, and already Leroux and Barnett had shut the window after having pulled up the rope with the dummy figure attached to the end of it, which was hastily thrust under the nearest bed. ' Mind we're all asleep ; we don't know anything about it,' said Kennedy in a loud whisper as he jumped nto his bed and composed his features into an appearance of placid innocence, which indeed was the attitude adopted by all the other boys in the room. Then the dormitory door was thrown wide open and the headmaster rushed in, candle in hand, closely followed by the poUceman, the matron and two of the undermasters. At the same time the door of the other end of the room was flung open, and a strange half-clad figure, with wild eyes and candle in hand, came forward amongst the sleeping boys not one of whom, strange to say, showed the slightest sign of having been in any way disturbed by all the hubbub. ' Mon Dieu,' said Mons. Delmar, ' qu'est-ce qu'il y a done ? ' as he ran to meet the headmaster. The latter was indeed a pathetic figure as he stood half-dressed looking round the room with wild eyes, his long grey hair falling over his shoulders. In his right hand he held a!; candle- stick, whilst his left was clasped over his forehead. ' ' Great God,' he said, ' no — no — impossible,' as if talking to himself, and then suddenly turning to the policeman, ' Why, officer, you must be mistaken, every boy is here in his bed.' "'I seed him, sir ; I seed him with my own eyes, indeed I did,' answered the policeman. " ' Oh, deary, deary, deary me,' wailed the matron, whose unfortunate obliquity of vision had gained her so irreverent a nickname. " ' Which window was it, officer ? ' asked the headmaster. " ' The one near the end of the room,' replied the police- man. In another moment the window in question was thrown wide open and several heads were protruded into the cold night air. " ' There's nothing here,' said the headmaster. " ' Well, I'm ' said the policeman, leaving it to his 22 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS audience to linish the sentence according to their several incUnations. At this moment an exclamation from the French master caused everyone to turn round. In his anxiety to get to the window, one of the undermasters had pushed the end of Leroux's bed sharply to one side — without however awakening its occupant — and exposed to the Frenchman's sharp eyes a portion of the rope which had been attached to the dummy figure which was the cause of all the excitement. Stooping down to catch hold of it, he at once saw the dummy under the bed, and pulled it out with an exclamation which Leroux afterwards affirmed was certainly ' sacre.' " * Well, I'm ' again said the poUceman, without going any further, and so again leaving his hearers in doubt as to what he was. Old Rex, the headmaster, then seized Leroux by the shoulder, and shook him violently, but for some time without any other effect than to cause him to snore loudly ; otherwise he appeared not only to be fast asleep, but to have sunk into a kind of comatose condition. At last, however, he could stand the shaking no longer, and so opened his eyes. " ' Do you know anything about this, Leroux ? ' said old Rex sternly. " ' Yes, sir,' said Leroux. " ' It was a cruel hoax,' said the headmaster. " ' I wanted to play a joke on the Bobby,' said Leroux. " ' Well, I'm ' murmured that functionary, once more discreetly veiling any further information which might otherwise have been forthcoming by covering his mouth with his left hand. " ' Officer, these boys have played a shameful trick on you, but you did your duty. I'm sorry that you should have been disturbed in this way. Boys, I know you are all awake, I shall inquire into this matter to-morrow.' So saying, but looking very much relieved, the headmaster turned on his heel and left the room, followed by all those who had entered it with him after having been roused from their sleep by the policeman. " Now ' old Rex,' the headmaster of the fine school at THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 23 which our hero acquired the rudiments of learning, was a reformer and an ideaUst, and corporal chastisement was never inflicted on the boys on any consideration whatever. The punishments for minor offences were various tasks during play hours, or compulsory walks conducted by old Rex himself, and which most of the boys rather enjoyed. For more serious misdemeanours the offending scholars were separated from their fellows, and placed in solitary confinement in a distant part of the house for periods ranging from a day to a week, during which they got nothing to eat or drink but dry bread with a mere trace of butter on it, and weak tea. As a sequel to the great dummy joke, the fame of which by some means was spread through all the neighbouring parishes, Leroux and Kennedy, who acknow- ledged that they were the ringleaders in the matter, were condemned to three days' solitary confinement, to be followed by various tasks and compulsory walks during the play hours of the following week, whilst the rest of the boys in the dormitory got off with some extra lessons to be learnt whilst their school-fellows were enjoying themselves in the playground during the next two half-holidays, and a long lecture on the heinousness of the crime, to which old Rex said with perfect truth he believed they had been willing accessories. " After the perpetration of the dummy joke, however, the French master, whether on his own initiative or at the instigation of the headmaster, commenced to make himself a great nuisance, not only coming round the dormitories with a lighted candle as usual soon after the boys had gone to bed, but often returning later on without a candle and wearing carpet slippers. The single combats and inter- dormitory bolster-fights which were a feature of the school- life were constantly being interfered with. The door of the dormitory in which our hero slept had always to be kept ajar and a boy placed there to watch for the coming of Mons. Delmar when any fun was going on, and the sudden- ness with which at the single word ' cavy,' the confused noise of an animated bolster-fight was succeeded by the most deathlike stillness was truly astonishing. Before 24 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS Mons. Delmar could strike a light, every boy was not only in bed, but sleeping so soundly that nothing the puzzled French master could say or do could arouse them to con- sciousness. Various plans were discussed by the most enterprising boys in the different dormitories. Math a view to discouraging these informal visits after the lights had been put out. One night a piece of cord was tied by Leroux across the gangway at about a foot from the ground between the two beds nearest the door of the room in which he slept, over which it was hoped Mons. Delmar would trip on entering. On this occasion, however, he did not enter the room at all, but after opening the door, Ughted the candle he held in his hand and merely looked round, turning on his heels again without speaking a word. It was hoped that he had not noticed the string, and another opportunity might be given him of falling over it. On the next night, however, the boys in the adjoining dormitory set a trap for him by placing the large inverted clothes-basket over the half open door of the room, in such a way that it would, with reasonable good luck, be very likely to fall like an ex- tinguisher over the head and shoulders of anyone entering the dormitory, and when Mons. Delmar presently pushed the door open, down came the large wicker basket. As it was dark it was impossible to determine exactly whether it came down over his head and shoulders or only fell on his head, but his candlestick was certainly knocked out of his hand and he swore most volubly in his own language. After having found and lighted his candle he first harangued his young tormentors, all of whom were apparently over- come by a deathUke sleep, and then went straight off to the headmaster's study. The result of his complaint was the infliction of certain tasks and compulsory walks on all the occupants of the offending dormitory, but after this there was no further spying on the boys. Poor Mons. Delmar ! no doubt he had only been acting under instruc- tions, though perhaps he entered on his detective duties a little too zealously. " Altogether John Leroux spent four very happy years at his first school, and besides making good progress with his THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 25 lessons, showed great aptitude for all games and athletic exercises, especially football and swimming. Ever since the fight on the evening of the day of his first entrance to the school he and Kennedy had been the closest of friends. The two boys had paid several visits to one another's homes dming the holidays, and it was chiefly because Kennedy's parents had decided to send their son to a great public school in the Midlands, for the entrance examination for which he had been undergoing a special preparation, that it was finally decided that Leroux should be sent to the same seat of learning. Up tjll then, however, Leroux, though well advanced for his age in all other subjects, had been spared the study of Greek, at the particular request of his father, who as a practical business man, looked upon the time spent by a schoolboy in acquiring a very imperfect knowledge of any dead language, save Latin, as entirely wasted. But to pass the entrance examination for any of our great public schools fifty years ago some knowledge of Greek was abso- lutely necessary, and so when Kennedy at the age of fourteen, passed into the great school, his friend Leroux who hoped to rejoin him there as soon as he had reached the same age, was in the meantime sent to the establishment of a clergy- man living in a remote village in Northamptonshire to be specially coached in Greek. " The Rev. Charles Darnell, Rector of the parish of Belton, was a short stout elderly man of a very easy-going disposition, who exercised but little supervision over the dozen pupils he was able to find accommodation for in his rambling old Rectory. But he employed a couple of good tutors well up to their work, and his son, who was a curate in a neighbouring parish and just as irascible as his father was placid in temperament, also helped to coach the boys in his charge. " At the time of our story Belton was a small village of stonebuilt cottages, all the windows in which were of the old diamond-paned pattern. The village was dominated by an ancient and picturesque church, surrounded by yew- trees, amongst which were scattered the moss-grown tomb- stones of many generations of Beltonians. A feature of the 26 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS churchyard was the family vault of a large landowner in the neighbourhood. The present representative of this ancient family, locally known as ' old squire,' was an eccen- tric bachelor, who lived in a picturesque old Manor House with only two or three servants. It was said in the village that he had never been seen outside the boundaries of his estate for many years, and that he seldom walked abroad even in his own grounds till after dark. " It was during his first term, in very early spring, that Leroux, accompanied by a fellow-pupil, took a wood-owl's eggs from a hollow ash-tree in the deserted park, and he subsequently spent many of his half-holidays birds'-nesting all over the neglected estate. He never met a keeper, nor, indeed, anyone else to question his right to be there, not even in the empty stables or in the thick shrubberies and weed-grown plots of ground near the great house which had once been gardens. There were two small lakes in the park, and in one of them during the autumn and winter months Leroux and one or two of his more adventurous fellow-students used to set ' trimmers,' on which they caught a good many pike, some of quite a good size, and now and again they shot a moorhen with a saloon pistol which belonged to a boy named Short. " Whatever the boys caught or shot was taken to a cer- tain cottage in the village, the residence of an old woman who was a very clever cook, and at this cottage Leroux and his friends enjoyed many a good meal of baked pike stuffed with the orthodox ' pudding,' and even found the moorhens, which the old woman skinned before cooking, very palatable. " Belton being in the centre of a noted hunting-country, the hounds sometimes passed in full cry within sight of the Rectory, and whenever this happened the Rector's pupils were allowed by an old-established custom, even if they were in the middle of a lesson, to throw down their books and join in the run. " During the year he spent at the Rectory Leroux worked hard at his lessons, and made good progress in Greek as well as in all other subjects which he had to get up, in view of the approaching entrance examination to the great THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 27 Midland school. Games were neglected at this period, as there were not enough pupils at the Rectory to make up two sides either at football or cricket, but for Leroux and his fellow-pupils of similar tastes, the old squire's deserted estate formed a most glorious playground in which they found a fine field for the exercise and development of the primitive instincts which had come down to them from their distant ancestors of palaeoUthic times. The only pranks that Leroux indulged in during his year at Belton were all connected with the old church of which Mr. Darnell was the incumbent, and at which his pupils were obliged to attend the two services held every Sunday. As in many of the old churches in the remote districts of Northampton- shire at that time, there was no organ, but the hymns were sung to an accompaniment of flute, violin and 'cello, the performers on these instruments being seated in a kind of minstrels' gallery at the end of the church facing the pulpit. " After the service on Sunday evening the musical instru- ments were taken by the musicians to their own homes, but one Sunday afternoon Leroux and Short — the owner of the saloon pistol — surreptitiously entered the church and thoroughly soaped the bows of the violin- and violoncello- players, and introduced several peas into the flute. That evening the music was very defective, but although the musicians knew that their instruments had been tampered with there is no reason to believe that they ever suspected that any of the Rector's ' young gentlemen ' had had any- thing to do with the trick which had been played upon them. In future, however, the bows and the flute were removed between the services, as Leroux discovered about a month later, when he thought it was time to repeat his first success- ful experiment. An aged parishioner, who was always dressed in a smock-frock and grey wooUen stockings, had his seat on a bench just in front of the pews where Mr. Darnell's pupils sat. This old man invariably removed his shoes on sitting down, and placed them carefully under his seat, and on several occasions during the sermon, Leroux managed to remove them with the help of a stick to the end of which a piece of wire in the shape of a hook had been attached. 28 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS Once the shoes had been drawn to Leroux's seat they were passed down by the other boys from pew to pew, and finally left at a considerable distance from their original place of deposition. The old fellow always made a great fuss about the removal of his shoes, which not only amused the Rector's pupils and all the younger members of the congregation, but must also have had an exhilarating influence on the spirits of their elders, upon whom the effect of the usual dull sermon always appeared to be very sedative to say the least of it. However, no public complaint was ever made, and when the old man at length took the precaution to keep his shoes on his feet during service, all temptation to meddle with them was removed." CHAPTER II 1865-1870 WHEN the time came for Fred to go to Rugby both Mr. Darnell and Mr. Hill advised Mr. Wilson, to whose house it was proposed to send him, not on any account to have a boy whose escapades would be a constant source of trouble, but fortunately Mr. Wilson liked ' naughty ' boys and disregarded their warnings. Selous entered Rugby in January, 1866, and was a pupil in Mr. Wilson's house for two years. His letters to his mother at this period are of the usual schoolboy type, mostly requests for money, books or additions to the com- missariat. He was always reading when he got the chance, the choice invariably tending towards travel and adventure. He writes : — " January, 1866. " I am reading a new book by Mr. Livingstone. It is called ' The Zambesi and its Tributaries,' from 1858-1864. It is very interesting and is about the discovery of two large lakes. Send me two catapults." And " I am sorry to hear the rat skins are eaten, but very glad that the stoat's has not met with the same fate." Another letter shows his consideration for his parents in the matter of money and is somewhat characteristic. " My dear Mama, " I hope you are quite well, I am now at Rugby and very comfortable. I have a study with another boy, and we have an allowance of candles and tea and sugar, etc., given out every week, and we make our own tea and break- fast in our studies and it is very nice indeed. I have passed 29 30 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS into Upper Middle two when Lower Middle two would have done. I have to pay over some subscriptions. " £i subscription to the racket court. " los. to football club, los. to cricket club, los. for our own house subscription, all of which I am forced to pay. I have to buy a great many things which I could not help and I have spent a lot of my money on them. I will write them down to show you that not one of them was extrava- gance but quite the opposite. " 7s. 6d. to have my watch mended, is. to go to Harbro' to get my watch and come back. is. to have my dirty clothes washed. 2s. for a book I have to use at Rugby which I had not got. 3s. to come from Welton to Rugby after coming back to get my boxes. All these were necessary, weren't they ? " It is not my fault that there are such a lot of expenses at a public school, but it is only the first half. Please send in a registered letter, I have seen a great many boys receive them. I have passed very high, loth out of 75, and that will partly make up to you for some of the subscriptions Give my best love to Papa and brothers and sisters. " I remain your affectionate son, " Freddy." From this time his life at Rugby is thus given in his own words : — " In January, 1866, when John Leroux was just fourteen years of age, he easily passed the entrance examination to the great school in the Midlands and became a member of the house which his old friend Jim Kennedy had entered just a year earlier. Here he spent two and a half very happy years, and as at the end of that time he was only sixteen, he would in the ordinary course have continued his studies for at least another two years before leaving school, had it not been his father's wish that he should go abroad to learn French and German before reaching an age at which it would be necessary to settle down to the real business of life and make his own living. At the great school there were THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 31 three half-holidays weekly, but the boys were expected to do a good deal of preparation for the next day's lessons during their leisure time. Some boys shirked these out-of- class studies, but Leroux always did whatever was expected of him most conscientiously and often very slowly and with much labour, as he never used a crib to assist him with his Latin and Greek translations. He was not at all brilliant, but was well up in the school for his age, and had he stayed another term would have been in the sixth — the highest form in the school. However famous the great Midland school may have been fifty years ago, as a seat of learning, it was certainly not less famous for the great game of foot- ball, the playing of which was as compulsory on the scholars as the study of Greek. Primitive Rugby football was a very different affair to the highly scientific game of the present day. There was more running with the ball, far less kicking into touch, and no heehng out behind the scrim- mage. Hacking was not only permissible but was one of the main features of the game, and when the ball was put down in the scrimmage the object of each side was to ' hack it through,' that is, to clear a path for the ball by kicking the skins of every one in the way as hard as possible. There were twenty boys on each side in the old Rugby game of whom the backs and half-backs only numbered five altogether — such a thing as a three-quarter back was un- dreamt of — so that there were fifteen forwards on each side. When anyone ran with the ball, the cry was ' hack him over,' and as often as not the runner was brought down with a neat kick on the shin. It was altogether a rough, possibly a rather brutal game ; but it made the boys strong and hardy, and with the exception of badly bruised shins there were very few accidents. A young boy, on his first entrance to the big school, could only wear duck trousers at football, but if he played up, and did not flinch from the hacking, the Captain of his twenty gave him his ' flannels ' and then exchanged his duck for flannel trousers. There was no school twenty, and therefore no school cap, and aU the most hotly contested matches were between the different houses for the honour of being ' cock house.' Every house had its 32 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS own cap, but in each house, except in the case of the school house, where there was a large number of pupils, there were only a few caps in each football twenty. For instance, in Leroux's house, where there were fifty-two pupils, there were only four who had got their caps. Though one of the youngest boys in the house Leroux threw himself into the game with a zest and enthusiasm which at once compelled attention, and won him his ' flannels ' in his first term, and after playing up well in the first great match in the autumn term of the same year he was given his cap. He thus got his cap whilst still in his fourteenth year, and was the youngest boy in the whole school who possessed that much-coveted prize. The only other sport besides football indulged in by the boys at the great school during the term between Christmas and Easter was that known as ' house washing.' Led by one of the oldest and strongest boys, the whole house were accustomed to spend one half -holiday every week, during the cold, damp, dreary months of February and March, in jumping backwards and forwards over a small brook or river, which at that time of the year was usually swollen by recent rain. The first jumps were taken across the narrowest parts of the stream, and here only the youngest and weakest boys got into the water. But it was a point of honour to go on taking bigger and bigger jumps, until every boy in the house had failed to reach the opposite bank and all had got thoroughly soused. The last jump was known as ' Butler's Leap.' Here the stream ran through a tunnel beneath one of the high roads traversing the district, but before doing so it ran for a short distance parallel with the road, which had been built up to the height of the bridge above it. From the brick wall on either side of the bridge low wooden barriers, perhaps two and a half feet high, had been placed on the slope of the road on either side to the level of the fields below, and it was thus possible to get a run across the whole width of the road and leap the low barrier in an attempt to reach the opposite bank of the stream, which was here over twenty feet wide, and some twenty feet below the level of the top of the bridge. A hero named Butler had either been the first boy to attempt THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 33 this desperate leap, or he had actually cleared the stream and landed on the opposite bank. Tradition concerning the details of the exploit varied, but whether Butler had made the great jump or only attempted it, he had immortal- ised his name by his daring. Now, only the biggest and most venturesome boys in each house were expected to attempt Butler's Leap, but nevertheless some of the younger ones always had a try at it, and amongst these were Kennedy and Leroux. They cleared the wooden barrier at the side of the road, and fell through the air into the stream below, but far short of the further bank, which they had to reach by swimming. " From a perusal of the letters which Leroux faithfully wrote every week to his mother, it would seem that with the exception of the fierce football contests for ' cock ' house, and occasional snowball encounters with the town * louts ' — the contemptuous appellation given by the boys at the school to all their fellow-citizens — all his most inter- esting experiences were connected with his passion for birds'-nesting, and the pursuit of sport, at first with a saloon pistol and subsequently with a pea-rifle, on the domains of neighbouring landowners. The master of Leroux 's house was a man of very fine character and most kindly disposition, and was much beloved by all his pupils. He was always a most kind friend to Leroux, and being a teacher of natural science — it was certain experiments in chemistry which had earned for him amongst the boys the sobriquet of ' Jim Stinks ' — was much drawn to him by his very pro- nounced taste for the study of natural history, and his practical knowledge of English birds and beasts. In his second year at the school, Leroux got into the first mathe- matical set in the upper school, and on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and on every third week on Mondays as well, had no lessons in school, after 10.15 iii the morning. But on these half-holidays, or almost whole holidays, all the boys in the school had to attend and answer to their names at a ' call over ' which was held at the big school during the afternoon, and from which no boy could escape except with the written permission of his house-master. 34 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS During the summer Leroux's kindly house-master often allowed his favourite pupil to be absent from ' call over,' and he was thus able, by taking the train, to visit districts and pursue his ornithological rambles at quite a long distance from the school. On these distant excursions, however, although he paid no attention whatever to the numerous notice-boards intimating that trespassers would be prosecuted, he was never caught by a gamekeeper, though he had some good runs to escape their attentions. In the more immediate vicinity of the school, possibly the keepers were more on the look-out for birds'-nesting boys, who were often brought up by their captors before the head- master, the great Dr. Temple, familiarly known in the school as ' Old Froddy.' This great and good man, how- ever, always let the young trespassers off very lightly. " One Sunday afternoon Leroux was pursued by a game- keeper to the very doors of the chapel, and indeed it was only under the stimulus of this pursuit that he could possibly have got in in time for the service, and ' cutting chapel ' meant having to write out the whole of the fourth Georgic of Virgil, which was just over 500 lines. When the bell ceased tolling, Leroux was still some distance from the chapel door, and handicapped besides with the top-hat, which all the boys always had to wear on Sunday, and a clutch of sparrowhawk's eggs twisted up in his handker- chief, on which he had to hold his hand in his coat-pocket, to prevent them from shaking together. But old Patey, who always checked off the boys at ' call over ' and on their entrance to the chapel, took in the situation at a glance and held the door ajar till Leroux got inside, and then slammed it to in the gamekeeper's face. Leroux fully ex- pected that his pursuer would wait outside till chapel was over and try and identify him as he came out, but he prob- ably got tired of waiting or else thought it impossible to pick out the boy he had chased and of whom he had only had a back view, amongst over five hundred other boys. " About three miles from the big school in the midst of a wide expanse of undulating meadow-land, interspersed with small woods, stood the fine old manor house of Pilton THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 35 Range. As there was no game preservation on this estate, there were no keepers to shoot down magpies, carrion crows, kestrels and sparrowhawks, and Leroux consequently found it a very fine hunting ground for the nests of these birds. One day soon after the Easter holidays, and during his second year at the big school, Leroux paid a visit to the Pilton Range grounds, to look at a magpie's nest which he had found building a fortnight before. He was walking along a high hedge bordering a field, about a mile away from the house, when a man dressed as a labourer climbed over a gate at the other end of the field and came walking towards him. Now Leroux had often met labouring men on the Pilton Range estate before, but had never been interfered with in any way by them, so he paid no attention to the man who was now coming towards him, but walked quietly to meet him. The heavily built labourer came slouching along, apparently without taking the slightest interest in the approaching boy, but just as he was passing him, and without having previously spoken a word, he shot out his right hand, and caught Leroux by the waistcoat just beneath the collar. ' Well, what do you want ? ' said Leroux. " ' You come along o' me to Mr. Blackstone ' — the bailiff of the Pilton Range estate — said the labourer. Now Leroux had set his heart on visiting the magpie's nest, which he thought would be sure to contain eggs by now, and he was very averse to having his plans deranged by a visit to Mr. Blackstone. He first therefore offered to give his name to his captor to be reported to the headmaster, and when this proposition was received with a derisive laugh he pulled a letter from his coat pocket, and offered the envelope as a proof of his veracity. Possibly the heavy-looking lout who had taken him prisoner could not read. At any rate he never even glanced at the envelope which Leroux held out for his inspection, but merely repeating his invitation to ' come along o' me to Mr. Blackstone,' proceeded to walk towards the gate in the corner of the field at which he had made his first appearance. Leroux felt that he was very firmly held, for the labourer's fingers had passed through the armhole of his waistcoat, so he at first pretended to be 36 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS resigned to his fate, and walked quietly along beside his obdurate captor. Just before reaching the gate, however, he gave a sudden wrench, and almost got free, but on his waistcoat beginning to tear, desisted. In the struggle, however, boy and man had swung face to face, as the labourer held Leroux with his right hand clenched on the left side of the boy's waistcoat near the collar. After this Leroux refused to walk beside his captor any further, but forced him to walk backwards and pull him every step of the way, and as he was then fifteen years old and a strong heavy boy for his age, their progress was slow. Fortunately for the labourer he was able to open the gate in the corner of the field in which he had made his capture, as well as two others which had to be passed before reaching the Hall, with his left hand, for he would never have been able to have got Leroux over these gates. Leroux would have attacked the man with his fists and hacked him on the shins, but he knew that that would have put him in the wrong with the headmaster, so he just leaned back, and made his captor walk backwards and pull him along every step of the way up to the Hall. He also made a point of bringing his heels down heavily on the labourer's feet at every step. At last, however, Leroux was dragged through the open gates of the great archway leading into the courtyard of Pilton Range, where at that moment Mr. Blackstone the bailiff happened to be standing just outside his office door. He was a tall, grim-looking old man with iron-grey hair, and seemed to be leaning heavily on a thick stick he held in his right hand as if he was slightly lame. " ' I've brought un to see Mr. Blackstone,' said the per- spiring labourer, still holding Leroux in his grasp. " ' You young rascal, I'd like to lay this stick about your back,' said Mr. Blackstone, brandishing that formidable weapon in front of the captive. Then putting his left hand in his waistcoat pocket, he extracted a coin with his finger and thumb which Leroux thought was a two-shilling piece and offered it to his employee, remarking, ' Here's something for you, John ; I see you've had some trouble with this young rascal.' THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 37 " Then addressing Leroux he said, ' Now, boy, I want your name.' The labourer received the proffered piece of silver in his left hand, but force of habit caused him, no doubt quite unconsciously, to release his hold of Leroux with his right hand at the same time in order to touch his cap to Mr. Blackstone in acknowledgment of his employer's generosity. On the instant that Leroux felt himself free he was round and through the great archway almost at a bound. " ' After him, John,' he heard the irate bailiff shout, and the discomfited labourer at once gave chase, but he stood no chance whatever of overtaking the active, well- trained boy, and when Leroux half broke, half jumped through the hedge at the bottom of the field below the Hall, he was pursued no further. After scrambling through the hedge and running in its shelter to the corner of the field he was then in, Leroux stood on the watch for some little time, and then feeling very elated at the way in which he had given the bailiff the slip, without letting him know his name, determined not to leave the Pilton Range ground without looking at the magpie's nest, he had been on his way to examine when first seized by the labourer. As he had expected he found that the nest contained a full comple- ment of eggs, which were that evening carefully blown and added to his collection, which was even then quite the best made by any boy in the whole school. On his many subsequent visits to the Pilton Range estate, Leroux took good care never to allow any labouring man he happened to see to get anywhere near him, nor did he ever renew his acquaintance with Mr. Blackstone. " Of all his birds'-nesting exploits, the one which Leroux himself always considered the greatest achievement was his raid on the Heronry at Tombe Abbey. Tombe Abbey was about fifteen miles distant from the big school, and it was during his second year of study there, that whilst rambling in that neighbourhood on a day when he had been excused from attending all ' callings over ' by his house-master, Leroux had noticed a number of her ons flying over the park in the midst of which the Abbey stood. He at once entered the sacred 38 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS precincts to investigate, and soon discovered the Heronry situated on an island in the middle of a large sheet of orna- mental water. The twenty or thirty large nests of sticks were built as is always the case in England, high up in a grove of large trees growing on the island. Leroux watched the herons from amongst some bushes on the edge of the lake for some time and assured himself that there were young birds in most if not in all of the nests, as he could see their parents feeding them. To have swum across the lake to the island and then climb up to one or more of the nests in the hope of finding some eggs would therefore probably have been a bootless quest, and at that time perhaps Leroux would hardly have been able to have sum- moned up sufficient courage for such an undertaking, but all through the following months the idea of one day swim- ming to the island in the park at Tombe Abbey and taking some herons' eggs, grew in his mind, and when he returned to school after the following Christmas hoUdays, he had fully determined to make the attempt. Through reference to an ornithological work in his house-library Leroux had learned that herons are very early breeders, so he made his plans accordingly, and obtained leave from his house-master to be absent from all ' callings over ' on March 7th, and hurrying to the station as soon as his mathematical lesson was over at a quarter past ten in the morning, he took the first train to the nearest station to Tombe Abbey. It was a bitterly cold day with a dull sky and the wind in the east, and when, after making his way cautiously across the park, Leroux reached the shelter of the bushes on the edge of the lake, he found that there was a fringe of thin ice all round the water's edge. In one way, however, the cold dreary day was favourable to the boy's enterprise, as no one was likely to be out walking in the park. Under cover of the bushes Leroux stripped himself to the skin, and without any hesitation waded into the ice-cold water, until it became deep enough to allow him to swim. At this time he was probably the best swimmer in the whole school, for during his first year and when only fourteen years of age he had won the second prize in the annual swinnning-match, and would THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 39 certainly have taken the first prize the following year, but for some reason or other there was no competition. In: his third year and a few months after his visit toTombe Abbey when the competition was again revived, he met .with an accident at cricket on the very morning of the race, which destroyed his chances of winning it. Once in the deep water of the lake, Leroux, swimming with a strong side- stroke, soon reached the island in the centre, and selecting the easiest tree to climb in which some of the herons' nests were built, naked as he was, he lost no time in getting up to them. There were four eggs in each of the two nests he actually inspected, and transferring these to an empty sponge-bag which he had brought with him, and which he now held in his mouth, he soon reached the ground again at the foot of the tree without having broken or even cracked a single egg. A hasty look round assured him that no one was in sight anywhere in the park, so still holding the sponge-bag containing the eight large blue eggs in his teeth, he soon recrossed the lake to the mainland, and then lost no time in pulling his clothes over his wet and shivering limbs. But though his teeth were chattering, Leroux's young heart was full of joy and exultation at the successful accomplishment of his enterprise, and he thought but little of his personal discomfort. Once dressed he soon reached the boundary of the park, and early in the afternoon was able to report himself to his house-master, though he did not think it necessary to enter into any details as to his day's ramble, and probably had it not been for the fact that the great Midland school at this time boasted a natural history society, of which Leroux was a prominent member as well as keeper of the ornithological note-book, the incident of the taking of the herons' eggs at Tombe Abbey might never have been known to anyone but a few of Leroux's most intimate friends. However, at the next evening meet- ing of the society, in the innocence of his heart Leroux exhibited the great blue eggs, the contemplation of which was still his chief joy. One of the undermasters, Mr. Kitchener, was that night in the chair, and this unprincipled pedagogue, after having obtained the admission from Leroux 40 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS that he had taken the herons' eggs himself, required him in the most unsportsmanhke manner to state exactly when and where he had become possessed of them. All prevarica- tion was foreign to Leroux's nature, and when thus chal- lenged he did not hesitate to tell the story of his visit to Tombe Abbey, and how he had swum across the lake and climbed to the herons' nests stark naked on a cold day in early March. The hardihood of the exploit, however, made no appeal to the mean soul of Mr. Kitchener, who not only confiscated the herons' eggs on the spot, but ordered Leroux to write out the fourth Georgic of Virgil, a very common punishment at public schools in those days, as it runs to almost exactly 500 lines. Through the good offices of his own house-master the herons' eggs were given back to Leroux, but the story of his adventure became noised abroad, even beyond the confines of the school, as he was to discover a few months later, " Although Leroux had become the happy possessor of a saloon pistol, soon after his entrance to the school, he had never found this a very satisfactory weapon, and had deter- mined to possess himself of something better as soon as possible. He practised rifle-shootjng regularly at the butts, and in his third year shot in most of the matches for the school eleven, always doing very well at the longer ranges at which the boys were allowed to kneel or lie down, but faiUng rather at the 200 yards, at which range in those days even the youngest members of the rifle-corps were required to shoot standing with heavy Enfield rifles with a very hard pull. It was this excessively hard puU, combined with the weight of the long Enfield rifle, which made it so difficult for a young boy to shoot steadily standing at the 200 yards' range. During the Easter holidays before his last term at the great school, Leroux bought with his savings, augmented by a Uberal present from his mother, a good pea-rifle with a detachable barrel, which could be concealed up the coat-sleeve of the right arm, whilst the stock was hidden under the coat on the other side of the body. But Leroux never used this rifle on private ground unless he was accompanied by a friend, so that in case of pursuit one THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 41 boy could run with the barrel and the other with the stock. There was an old disused canal not far away from the school, on the property of a local landowner named Lowden Beigh, which was a favourite resort of Leroux and his friends on Sunday afternoons between dinner-time and afternoon chapel. In the still waters of this old canal bordered with beds of reeds and rushes, and in many places overspread with waterhUes, pike were always to be found on a hot summer's day, not exactly basking in the sun, but lying motionless in the water, not more than a few inches from the surface, and Leroux had discovered that the concussion caused by a bullet fired into the water in the immediate vicinity of these fish, even though it did not touch them, was sufficient to stun them and cause them to float helpless for a short time belly upwards on the top of the water, from which they could be retrieved with a long stick. The pike which were obtained in this way were, however, be it said, always of small size. This old canal too swarmed with moorhens which afforded excellent practice with the little rifle. It was on a hot Sunday afternoon in late June, that Leroux and a great friend of his, a very tall boy who had somewhat outgrown his strength, paid what proved to be their last visit to the canal. As it so happened, where they first struck the canal they had only seen some very small pike not worth shooting at and only one shot had been fired at a moorhen, which had missed its mark. However, there was a better hunting ground beyond the bridge where the high road crossed the old canal, and this they proceeded to make for. Before entering the last field which lay between them and the high road, the little rifle was taken to pieces, and Leroux then hid the stock under the left side of his coat, his companion, whose arms were longer than his, concealing the barrel up his right coat-sleeve. The two boys then strolled leisurely along the bank of the canal, towards the gate which opened into the high road just below the bridge. They were close to this gate, in fact almost touching it, when a gamekeeper, in velveteen coat and gaiters, suddenly appeared from behind the hedge on the other side of it and stood confronting them. 42 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS " ' Well, young gents,' he said, ' what have you been doing along the canal ? ' " ' We've been looking for cuckoos' eggs in the reed warblers' nests,' said Leroux readily, and it was indeed a perfectly true answer, though it did not cover the whole scope of their operations. " ' Well, I must have your names. Mr. Lowden Beigh^ means to put a stop to you young gents trespassing on his ground every Sunday,' said the gamekeeper, pulling out a pocket-book and pencil to take them down in. Leroux and his friend at once gave their names, and told the keeper how to spell them, for they knew that even if they were reported to the headmaster, that good old sportsman would not be likely to inflict any punishment on them for merely strolling quietly along the bank of the old canal on a Sunday afternoon, even though they had been trespassing on the property of Mr. Lowden Beigh. " Having given up their names to the keeper the two boys proceeded to climb over the gate into the high road, and considering what they carried hidden under their coats, this was a somewhat ticklish operation. " Leroux was nearest to the keeper, and having his right arm free probably got over the gate without arousing any suspicion in the man's mind, but the latter probably noticed the unusual stiffness of the tall boy's right arm when he was getting over the gate, though he did not immediately grasp the cause of it. However, the probable meaning of it must soon have flashed across his mind, for the boys had not walked twenty yards down the road when they heard him say, ' Darned if ye ain't got one o' they little guns with ye.' They heard no more. ' Come on,' said Leroux, and the two boys dashed off down the road at their best pace, closely pursued by the keeper, who though middle- aged was a spare-made, active-looking fellow. It was a very hot day and the two boys were in their Sunday clothes and wearing top-hats, and handicapped with the rifle, the barrel of which was rather heavy. Still at first they gained on the keeper, and at the end of a quarter of a mile had 1 Mr, Boushton Leiffh. THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 43 increased the distance between him and them to quite fifty yards, when suddenly they came ahnost face to face with old ' Froddy,' the great headmaster himself, who had just emerged from a lane into the high road. With his head held high in the air and his hat on the back of his head, he came striding along all alone, at a pace of at least four miles an hour. His thoughts were evidently far from the earth he trod, and probably he never saw the boys at all, but they instantly recognized him. " ' Old Froddy, by Jove ! ' ejaculated Leroux ; ' come on through the hedge,' and without an instant's hesitation he dashed at and broke his way into the field to the right of the road, his friend scrambling through the gap he had made in the hedge close behind him. The boys were now in a large grass field across which they started to run diagonally, the keeper following doggedly behind them, though when they gained the further corner of the field he was nearly a hundred yards behind them. As they chmbed the gate into the next field Leroux 's tall young friend was panting painfully, and before they were half-way across it he said he would not be able to run much further with the rifle-barrel. There v/as a large hayrick in the far corner of this field, so Leroux urged his companion to try and carry the rifle-barrel as far as there and then throw it down behind the rick, just as they passed it, and were for the moment hidden from the keeper. Leroux who was com- paratively fresh and whom the keeper would never have caught, still stuck to the stock of his rifle, and intended to return for the barrel the next day, which happened to be one of the three-weekly Monday half -holidays. He did not think there would be much chance of its discovery before then. However, as bad luck would have it, and by an extraordinary chance, the gamekeeper saw it as he passed the rick. He had probably turned to look behind him, thinking that possibly the boys had run round the rick, and must have seen the gHnt of the sun on the barrel. The boys had not got very far over the next field before they heard the gamekeeper shouting, and on turning his head Leroux saw that he was standing near the gate waving something 44 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS over his head, which as it glinted and flashed in the sun he knew was the barrel of his rifle. It was no good running any further, the keeper had their names and half the rifle, so they walked back to him and Leroux had to surrender the other half. Now Leroux had great affection for this, his first rifle, and hated the idea of having it confiscated, so he tried to make terms with the keeper, and offered to give him all the money he could afford, if he would return him the rifle, and be content to report him and his friend for trespassing. The keeper refused this bribe with much apparent indigna- tion, saying that no amount of money that might be offered to him would tempt him to swerve from his duty, which was to take the rifle straight to his master, Mr. Lowden Beigh. So the two boys walked slowly and sadly back to the school, arriving there just in time for the afternoon service in the chapel, which, however, did nothing to cheer them. " Every day during the following week Leroux expected to be summoned to the headmaster's study and taxed with trespassing with a rifle on Mr. Lowden Beigh's land. But at the end of this time, as nothing happened, he felt con- vinced that the keeper had never given up the little rifle to his master at all, but had kept it himself, in the hope of being able to dispose of it for more money than had been offered him for its return. At any rate Leroux determined to write to Mr. Lowden Beigh, tell him exactly what had happened, and ask him to let him have the rifle back again at the end of the term. This he did, and the following day received an answer requesting him to call at the Hall with the friend who was with him when the rjfle was taken, on the following Sunday afternoon. The two boys complied with this request and they were very kindly entertained and treated to wine and cake by Mr, Lowden Beigh. He asked Leroux if it was he who had taken the herons' eggs at Tombe Abbey, and when he admitted that it was, said, ' Why, you're the biggest poacher in the school.' He then told the boys that the keeper had never said a word to him about the rifle, but that he had demanded it from him THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 45 immediately on reading Leroux's letter, and then dismissed the man from his service. Finally, Mr. Lowden Beigh told Leroux that if he would again come to the Hall, the day before the big school broke up at the end of the term, he would return him his rifle, and this promise he faithfull}'^ kept, " It was whilst he was at home during the Christmas holidays immediately preceding the commencement of his second year at the great Midland school, that John Leroux, then just fifteen years of age, was an eye-witness of, and indeed, a participant in, the terrible disaster on the ice in Regent's Park, which took place on January 15th, 1867. " At that time he was living with his parents at no great distance from the scene of the accident, of which he wrote an account to a school friend whilst the events related were still fresh in his memory. " As a result of a long-continued frost, the ice on the ornamental water in the park had become excessively thick, and during the early part of January, 1867, thousands of people might have been seen skating there daily. At length, however, a thaw set in, and as the ice became gradually more rotten in appearance, the skaters rapidly decreased in numbers. " On the day of the accident Leroux went to the park alone after lunch, and on his arrival at the ornamental water, found that the ice had been broken all round the shore of the lake by the men employed by the Royal Humane Society, with the object of preventing people from getting on to the ice. At the same time several servants of the Society were doing their best to persuade the more adven- turous spirits who had got on to the ice by means of planks, to leave it. At that time there were probably not more than three or four hundred people on the whole expanse of the ornamental water. At least they appeared to be very thinly scattered over it, compared with the crowds of a few days before, when the ice was sound and strong, before the thaw had set in. " Having come to the park to skate, and being perhaps of a somewhat self-willed and adventurous disposition, 46 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS Leroux put on his skates, and watching his opportunity, got on to the ice, which though quite three inches in thick- ness, was seamed in every direction with a multipHcity of cracks, through which the water constantly welled up and ran over the surface. It was indeed evident that the solid ice-slab with which the lake had been originally covered was now formed of innumerable small pieces, really inde- pendent one of another, but still fitting closely together like the sections of a child's puzzle after they have been put in their places. Leroux himself never doubted that it was the breaking of the ice for the space of three or four feet all round the shores of the lake, which allowed room for the cracks in the unbroken ice gradually to widen until at last the whole sheet broke into separate pieces. As the skaters passed to and fro upon it, the whole surface of the ice-sheet seemed to rise and sink in response to their passage, and every moment the gaps gaped wider. " It was getting on towards four o'clock in the afternoon, and Leroux was just then right jn the middle of the lake, midway between the largest island and the bridge leading towards the Park Road, when he heard a cry behind him, and looking round saw that the ice was breaking in the direction of the bridge. It was a sight which he never forgot. Right across the whole breadth of the lake the sections into which the ice-sheet had been divided by the cracks were disengaging themselves one from another. The line of breaking advanced steadily towards where the boy was standing, each separate section of ice as the pres- sure was removed from behind, first breaking loose, and after being tilted into the air, again falling fiat into its place. As no one fell into the water when the ice first broke up, the pressure which was the immediate cause of the catastrophe must have been exerted from a distance, and it was probably the weight of the people on the ice some way off which caused it to bulge where it first broke to such an extent as to detach some of the smaller sections which were already really separated one from another by the ever-widening cracks. " There was a regular panic amongst the comparatively THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 47 small number of people between Leroux and the point near the bridge where the ice first commenced to break up, and they all went flying along as fast as their skates would carry them, straight down the centre of the lake towards the narrow channel between the two islands in front of them. At the same time there was a stampede for the shore from every part of the lake, and as the great bulk of the people then on the ice were near the edge when it so suddenly commenced to break up, most of them either got to land without assistance, or being caught in the break- ing ice when within a rope's throw of the shore, were subse- quently rescued ; but every one who got into the water amongst the thick heavy ice-slabs at any distance from the shore was drowned, and most of these unfortunate people disappeared immediately beneath the heavy slabs of ice, between which they fell into the water, and which closed over them at once. " When the ice first began to break up, Leroux could not help standing still for a few moments, and watching the rapidly advancing line of breakage, and then when he turned to run for it or rather skate for it, he was quite alone, and at some little distance behind the crowd of people who had first taken the alarm. Suddenly there was a wild, despairing cry ahead, and Leroux saw that the ice was breaking up in the narrow channel between the two islands. At this juncture many people undoubtedly lost their heads as they skated right into the broken ice and almost all of them at once disappeared. It was between the two islands that the greatest loss of Hfe occurred, as of the forty-nine bodies subsequently recovered in different parts of the lake, twenty-four were found in close proximity to one another at this spot, and yet there was scarcely a head to be seen at the time of the accident above the broken ice, as the weight of the heavy slabs forced those who feU in between them under water almost immediately. Although he was only a boy of fifteen at this time, he had never missed a chance of falling through weak or rotten ice every winter since he first went to school, and these various experiences had no doubt given him a good deal of self-confidence. At 48 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS any rate he felt neither frightened nor flurried by the some- what alarming circumstances of the position in which he now found himself, but quickly made up his mind as to the best course to adopt to save his life. As the ice had already broken up both before and behind him, but was still solid immediately behind him he stopped short where he was, and lay down at full length on the longest piece of ice he could see which was free from widely open cracks. He had scarcely done so, when the wave of breakage which had commenced near the bridge passed him, all the great cracks with which the ice-sheet was seamed opening to such an extent that every separate slab became detached. Many of these slabs were first tilted a little into the air, as had happened when the ice first broke up near the bridge, but they immediately fell flat again into their places, so that the whole of the ice-sheet in the central part of the ornamental water seemed to be in one piece, though in reality the cracks which divided it into innumerable small slabs were now so wide that each piece was independent the one of the other, and most of them would not have been large enough to support the weight of a man standing near their edge, without heeling over and precipitating him into the water. " Fortunately for Leroux the ice had not been broken round the edge of the largest island in the lake to his left, and although the cracks had opened all round where he lay, as the wave of breakage passed, to such an extent as to have made it impossible to have walked or skated across the dis- integrated slabs, without tilting one or other of them, and so falling into the water, yet he was only a short distance from the unbroken ice-sheet which rested on the island. The slab on which he was lying was quite large enough to bear his weight easily, and as he was out of all danger for the time being, he was able to look around and note what was going on. Directly the ice broke up there was, of course, tremendous excitement on the shore of the lake nearest the Zoological Gardens, where great crowds of people had been congregated the whole afternoon. Many gallant and success- ful attempts were made to rescue those who were fighting THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 49 for life amongst the ice-slabs ; but Leroux's impression was that no one was saved who had got into the water at any considerable distance from the shore. At the spot where the largest number of people were drowned, almost every- one who fell into the water disappeared immediately. Still here and there men kept their heads above water for a long time, and all these poor fellows might have been rescued, had it not been for the breaking of a rope. It was soon realized that it would be quite impossible to save the people who were so far out amongst the ice that a rope could not be thrown to them from the shore except by some special means, and someone hit upon the idea of dragging a boat to them over the ice. Leroux saw the boat pulled up over the still unbroken ice beyond the bridge, and long ropes were then made fast to its bow and carried over the bridge to each side of the lake, where willing hands enough were ready to work them. Had the ropes only held, the boat might have been pulled from one side or the other of the lake to all those who were in the water amongst the ice- slabs at a distance from the shore ; but unfortunately before the boat had been pulled far beyond the bridge one of the ropes broke, and as it was then apparently recognized that they were not strong enough to stand the strain required, the experiment was not tried again. There were only two men in the water anywhere near Leroux, and they were about half-way between where he lay and the shore of the lake. He had seen them at first tr3^ng to force their way through the ice, but the slabs were so thick and heavy that they threatened at every moment to turn over on them, and they soon became exhausted and remained quiet. At last one of them disappeared and not long afterwards only a hat on the ice remained to mark the spot where his com- panion in misfortune had also sunk. Leroux soon realized that there was no hope of rescue from the shore, and indeed amidst all the excitement of saving or attempting to save the lives of those who had got into the water within reach he had probably been overlooked or possibly his position had been considered hopeless. " At length when the light was commencing to fade 50 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS Leroux made up his mind to try and reach the island on his left by crawling from one slab of ice to another. He fully realized that if he once got into the water he would never get out, but not being very heavy in those days, and by moving only very slowly and cautiously, and carefully selecting his route he succeeded at last in reaching the un- broken ice near the island. He had one very narrow escape, as a table of ice very nearly turned over on him before he had got sufficiently far on it to keep it flat. Luckily there was a much larger slab just beyond it, on to which he crawled without much difficulty. After crossing the island he again got on to unbroken ice and skated across it, to the shore near the lower bridge. " By that time it was rapidly growing dusk, everybody whom it had been possible to reach with a rope from the shore had been rescued, and all the rest were still and cold beneath the ice. But although Leroux knew that a con- siderable number of people must have been drowned, until he saw the long list of those who had lost their lives in the next morning's ' Times ' he had no idea that the disaster was so serious as it really was." The following reminiscences of Selous as a schoolboy at Rugby were contributed to the ' Meteor,' the Rugby school paper (February 7th, 1917), by Canon Wilson, d.d. : — " I first heard of Selous some time in 1863, soon after I became a house-master. The master of his preparatory school at Tottenham told me that a Mr. Slous — for so the name was then spelt — was going to enter his son at my house. ' Take my advice,' was the gist of the letter, ' and say your house is full ; the boy will plague the life out of you.' I wrote to enquire the nature of the plague. ' He breaks every rule ; he lets himself down out of a dormitory window to go birds'-nesting ; he is constantly complained of by neighbours for trespassing ; he fastened up an assistant master in a cowshed into which he had chased the young villain early one summer morning ; somehow the youngster scrambled out, and fastened the door on the outside, so that the master missed morning school.' THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 51 " Such were his crimes ; so, of course, I wrote back and said that he was the boy for me. " His father brought him down from town, a bright-eyed, fair-haired boy of twelve or thirteen, who had no suspicion that I knew all about his iniquities. When his father de- parted, I had a little of the usual talk with a new boy, about work and games and so on ; and then I asked him what he meant to be. 'I mean to be like Livingstone,' he replied. I had seen Livingstone when he came to Cam- bridge, in 1857, I think, and spoke in the Senate House, appealing for a Universities Mission to Central Africa ; so we talked Livingstone and Africa, and Natural History. I soon saw that he had the fire and the modesty of genius and was a delightful creature. " He was quite exemplary as a young member of the House and School, so far as I knew. He was ' late ' for chapel sometimes in long summer afternoons ; how much late I did not inquire. I guessed what he was about and he did his lines like a man. " He was extraordinarily acute in all his senses — sight, hearing, smell, taste. He asked me, for example, one day to some brook a few miles away to watch kingfishers. We crawled up warily when we got near the spot. He could see exactly what they were catching and carrying, from a distance at which I could only see a bird flying. His power of hearing was also more than acute. One day at our table in hall I told a lady who sat next me that a nightingale had been heard singing in somebody's spinney. We decided to drive down to it after dinner, and on reaching the spot, we found Selous already there, roaming about in the spinney. I called to him, and he came to the edge of the wood. ' What are you doing there ? ' ' Looking for a nightingale's nest, sir.' ' But why here ? ' 'I heard you say at dinner that one was singing here.' Now he was sixteen or eighteen feet away, at a different table, and we were fifty in hall, talking and clattering with knives and forks. And yet he heard me distinctly. He could disentangle the voices, and listen to one, as a dog can follow one scent among many. Then as to smell and taste. He told me that when he shot a new 52 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS bird with his ' tweaker ' — you will learn presently what the ' tweaker ' was in his case — he always tasted its flesh. " He was extremely accurate in his observation, and in his estimates of distance, size, number, etc.; in fact, he was the most truthful observer I can imagine ; free from all exaggeration and egotism, and he retained this simplicity and accuracy and modesty all his life. He was a beautiful runner, a football-player with singular dash and a first-rate swimmer ; but he left Rugby at seventeen, I think, so that he did not win any great athletic distinctions at school. " But I must tell you some stories about him. " On some great public occasion of rejoicing the streets of Rugby were decorated with flags. When my man called me at 7.0 a.m., he said, ' I think I ought to tell you, sir, that there is a broomstick and duster showing in every chimney in the house.' ' Very well,' I replied, ' go and tell Mr. Selous that they must be taken down by 12 o'clock.' He had let himself down at night out of the dormitory window that looks into the study quadrangle and had collected brooms and dusters from the studies. He had somehow clambered up waterpipes and gutters and roofs, broomsticks and all ; and when I went out people in the road were admiring our extemporized decorations — duster flags and broom-handles sticking out of the chimney pots at all angles. There was another flag, of the same nature, perilously near the top of the taller of two poplars that stood close to the boys' entrance. They were all taken down by dinner-time ; I never enquired how, or by whom. " There used to be a vine, trained up the south face of the house, and one year, I think in 1868, it bore an extra- ordinary crop of grapes which ripened beautifully. One day at dinner I told the head of the dormitory on the second floor, over the drawing-room, that they might gather all that they could reach from the window. I forgot Selous as this was not his bedroom, but the dormitory did not forget him. An aunt of mine was sleeping in the bedroom below, and she remarked next morning at breakfast that she heard, or thought she heard, voices at night quite close to her windows. Had anything happened ? I went out THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 53 into the garden to look, the vine was stripped more than half-way down the windows of the first floor. It was Selous, of course ; they let him down somehow. I was told that he filled a pillow-case with grape-bunches, and feasted the House. Mr. C. K. Francis, the well-known Metropolitan Police Magistrate, his contemporary in my house, has told this story of Selous to the readers of the ' Daily Telegraph ' (January 15th), and says that they let Selous down in a blanket. " Of course Selous was an active member of the School Natural History Society. I must tell you about a meeting of that Society. Dr. Walter Flight, who was in charge of the minerals of the British Museum, was staying with me, and I asked him whether he would like to come as a visitor to an ordinary meeting of our Society. I knew it would be an interesting one. Selous had shortly before raided the heronry on the island at Coombe Abbey. He swam the pond from the end distant from the house, climbed several trees, took one egg from each nest, swam back and was chased, but escaped by sheer speed. Lord Craven com- plained to the H.M. The H.M. warned our Society pretty plainly, and our committee censured Selous. At the meet- ing we were going to attend, Selous, as was widely known, was going to make his defence. The room, the old Fifth Form Room, next to the School House Dining HaU, was crowded. FUght and I squeezed in. ' Are your meetings always like this ? ' he asked. ' You will see,' I replied, ' that the school takes a great interest in natural history.' * I am very glad to see this,' he said. " Exhibits were made, a paper read, and then began the real business of the evening — the official condemnation by our president, Mr. Kitchener, and Selous' spirited defence. " Selous presented the eggs to the Natural History Society, and they were safe in the collection twenty years ago, I am told. I hope they are there still. " He also climbed the great elm trees, which then stood in the close, for rooks' eggs. This feat was also performed at night, and the cawing of the rooks roused Dr. Temple,, but Selous was not detected in the darkness. 54 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS " Selous' special contribution to our Society was on birds. If I remember right his first list of birds noted at Rugby exceeded ninety. I will tell the story how one very rare bird was added to our list. It was in the very hard winter of 1867 ; snow was lying on the ground. In the evening, some hours after lock-up a ring at the front door came at the moment I was going to my study, the door of which is close to the front door. I opened the front door and there stood Selous, with a bird dangUng from his hand. I don't know which of us was most surprised. ' Come in to the study ; what have you got there ? ' ' Oh, sir, it's William- son's duck ; it's very rare.' (I invent the name Williamson, I know it was somebody's duck.) ' Go and fetch the bird- book from the House Library.' (I had put an excellent bird-book in several volumes into the Library for his use.) ' Leave the bird.' I examined the bird, neatly shot through the neck. He was quite right, a note in the book said that it had been occasionally seen at certain places on the East coast ; only once, I think, inland as far as Northampton- shire. ' How did you get it ? ' 'I saw it at Swift's and followed it to Lilbourne and got it there.' ' How ? ' ' With my tweaker,' was the reply. ' It must be a very powerful tweaker ? ' I said. ' Yes, sir, it's a very strong one ; I thought you would not mind my being late for once, as it's very rare.' " Some six years later, when he came back from a four years' sohtary travel and exploration in what is now called Rhodesia, or even further inland, this incident of the tweaker turned up. ' I did wonder,' he said, ' whether you were such an innocent as really to beUeve it was a tweaker.' ' My dear Selous,' I said, ' I knew the bird was shot, and I knew you had a gun, and the farmhouse where you kept it, but you kept it so dark and made such excellent use of it that I said nothing about it.' " One of the most difficult problems presented to all who are in authority is : how much ought I not to know and see ? " I think it was on this occasion that he came down to a house-supper. He had told me lots of stories about his THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 55 adventures in Africa during those four years. They are told in his books, every one of which is, I hope, in the School Library and well read I asked him to tell some of them to the house. No he would not ; so finally at the supper, I said that if he would not, I would, and I began with the story of his going to ask Lobengula, King of the Matabele, for leave to shoot elephants. ' You are only a boy,' the King said. ' You must shoot birds. The first elephant you hunt will kill you.' Selous jumped up. ' Oh, sir, let me tell it,' and we had a never-to-be-forgotten evening. " But it is time to stop. One of his friends. Sir Ralph Williams, well said of him in a letter in ' The Times,' of January loth, ' The name of Fred Selous stands for all that is straightest and best in South African story,' and I will venture to say that it stands for the same in Rugby annals. " J. M. Wilson. " Worcester, 22 January, 1917." In August, 1868, at the age of seventeen, Selous left Rugby and went to Neuchatel, in Switzerland, where he lived at the " Institution Roulet." He spent his time learning French and the viohn and commenced his studies to be a doctor, for which profession he evinced no enthusiasm. Writing to his mother in November, he says : — " As for my future medical examinations I don't know how I shall come off ; I do not want particularly to be a doctor, but I shall go in for that as I can't see anything else that I should like better, except sheep-farming or some- thing of that sort in one of the colonies, but I suppose I must give up that idea ; however, if I become a surgeon I do not intend to try and get a practice in England, but I should try and get a post as ship's surgeon, or army surgeon in India, if I could get any leave of absence which would give me a little time to myself, but anyhow I am certain I shall never be able to settle down quietly in England. You talked about me being at an age of irresponsibility, but I don't see that I am, as supposing I don't manage to learn these infernal languages (why was anyone fool enough to 56 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS build the tower of Babel ?) everyone will be disgusted with me." In December there was more talk of his going to Dresden to learn German, but he himself voted for Wiesbaden as being more of a country district where he would have more opportunities for shooting and fishing. After a short visit home his father took him to Wiesbaden in the spring of 1869, when he wrote to his sister " Locky " : — " Many thanks for your spiritual letter which almost tempts me to commit suicide ; if I can't get good shooting and fishing in this world I'll have it in the next, if what the Chinaman says is true ; but by hook or by crook I will have some in this world too, and make some rare natural history collections into the bargain. But lirst I must make a little money, but how ? not by scribbling away on a three-legged stool in a dingy office in London. I am becoming more and more convinced every day that I should never be able to stand that and everybody I know or have ever had anything to do with says the same thing. I have a great many qualifications for getting on in one of our colonies, viz. perseverance, energy, and a wonderfully good constitution. What makes me recur to the old subject is this : I have made the acquaintance of a family here of the name of K . I always forget their name although I know them intimately. This gentleman, a German from Brunswick, has been twenty years in Natal (where he made his fortune) and since then eight years in England, and now has become regularly English (speaking Enghsh, indeed, without the slightest accent) . His wife is an Englishwoman who was born in the Cape Colony, but has always lived with him in Natal ; and then he has a very large family. These people give the most splendid accounts of Natal. Firstly, they say that the climate is superb, there being no winter and it not being so hot in summer as in Germany. Then they say that the country is lovely beyond description. They do not praise Cape Colony, only Natal, which they describe as a perfect paradise. They say, too, that Natal itself is a wonderfully gay place and that the society there is very good. The wife says she can't stand Europe at aU, THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 57 the climate is so detestable compared with that of Natal. She says that she often used to go for weeks and weeks up country with her husband and children on shooting excur- sions, sleeping out in tents all the time, and that taking into consideration the beautiful climate and country there is no enjoyment equal to it, and I am fully of her opinion. They travelled once three days with Dr. Livingstone, but you will hear all about it from them when you come over here." He arrived at Wiesbaden in September and took up his residence with Herr Knoch, who lived in the Roderallee. In December he met the Colchester family, with whom he became great friends. At this time he enjoyed the music every afternoon at the Kursaal, and was amused in the evening to see the gambling that went on. One night a Russian lost 100, 000 francs. "What an April fool ! " is Selous' only comment. He had at this time a nice dog named Bell, to whom he was much attached. He is always writing for trout-flies, or books on sport or natural history. " I wouldn't care to go to Rome and see the Holy Week, but I should like to go to Russia, Sweden, or some other country where some shooting or fishing is to be had, but I must be patient and make some money, though I don't know how. Yesterday I went down to the Rhine, after my German and music lessons, but only brought back three small fish. A few days ago an officer was shot dead in a duel at Mayence. Verdict, ' Serve him right.' " Miss Colchester thus recalls certain incidents of Selous' life at Wiesbaden. " As showing his sporting nature, I may mention that he swam the Rhine near Bie- brich to retrieve a wild duck he had shot for us. It was blocked with ice at the time, but that did not daunt him. One day we were all skating on the frozen waters of the Kursaal Gardens when the ice suddenly broke up and I was thrown into the deep water. Without a moment's hesitation Fred jumped in and supported me under the arms until help came. He was a dear boy and we all loved him." 58 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS Selous set himself to learn the language as thoroughly as he could in the time at his disposal, but the cold stud}^ of German verbs was hard for a boy of seventeen with the spring in his bones and the sun glinting on the forest oaks. When summer came young Selous spent all his spare time chiefly with his friend Colchester, roving the woods and opens in search of birds' -nests and butterflies. The woods in the neighbourhood of Wiesbaden were, as is usual in Germany, strictly preserved and, therefore, being for- bidden ground, offered an especial attraction to the young naturalist. On two of these forays he had been stopped and warned by a forester named Keppel, who though an oldish man was immensely active and powerful. From him Selous had several narrow escapes, but the day of reckoning was at hand. In the heart of the forest Selous had one day observed a pair of honey-buzzards, which being frequently seen afterwards about the same spot, he concluded must have a nest somewhere. These birds are somewhat un- common even in Germany, and Selous naturally longed to find the nest and take the eggs. At last one day he and Colchester found the nest on the top of a high fir tree, but on climbing up to it Selous observed that there were no eggs. A few days later the two marauders set off at dawn and again approached the nest, Colchester being left at the foot of the tree to keep watch. Selous was in the act of descending the tree when Keppel suddenly appeared and by his words and actions showed that he was in a furious rage. " Now I shall take you to prison," he roared, as he seized hold of the coat in which Selous had hidden the two eggs he had taken. By this time, however, the fighting spirit was aroused on both sides, for Selous had no intention either of being captured or resigning his treasures quietly. A fierce struggle ensued in which the coat was torn in half, when at last Selous, losing his temper, gave the old forester a right- hander on the jaw which dropped him like a felled ox. The boys were now alarmed and for a moment Selous thought he must have killed the man, but as he showed THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 59 signs of recovering they took to their heels and ran home with all possible speed. Since complications were bound to follow Selous at once consulted a lawyer, who advised him to pack up his traps and leave Prussia. Accordingly he took the train and went to Salzburg in Austria, where he knew he would be beyond the power of German courts. Selous' chief sorrow over the unfortunate affair seems to be that he lost his rare eggs. Soon after he arrived at Salzburg Selous heard that his friend, Charley Colchester, who had escaped to Kronberg, but was followed and arrested, had been condemned to a week's imprisonment (without the option of a fine) for taking eggs on two occasions. " If I had been caught," writes Selous, " I should have got two or three months instead of a week's imprisonment, for both the lawyer and the Burgomaster to whom I spoke, said that the taking of eggs was but a small matter in the eyes of Prussian law compared with resisting an official." The Austrian with whom he lived at Salzburg seems to have been a pleasant fellow named Rochhart, who had travelled much in Greece and America. Selous seems to have liked the genial Austrians far better than the Prussians and especially enjoyed the Tyrolese music and the butterfly hunting in the woods when the weather was fine. Writing to his mother (July 5th, 1870), he speaks of his enthusiasm as a collector : — " Why I feel the absence of the sun so very acutely is because, when the sun is not shining no butterflies, or none worth having, are to be got. Now this is just the time for the Purple Emperors, some specimens of which I want very much to get, and so I have been exceedingly provoked. I found out the place where the P.E.'s were to be found and for the last seven days I have been every day to that place (which is from five to six miles from Salzburg) and there I have waited from twelve to three, through rain and every- thing else, hoping and hoping for a passing sunbeam, as I could see them every now and then at the tops of the trees, and if the sun had but come out for a few minutes some of them would have been sure to have come down and settled in 6o THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS the road. Well during all the hours of watching in those seven days the sun never, never, never broke through the clouds for one instant, and each day I returned home more disappointed and more indignant against providence than the day before. I think that if this sort of thing had con- tinued for another week I should have gone into a chronic state of melancholy and moroseness for the rest of my life, and people would have said, ' Ah, he must have had some great disappointment in early life.' These are the sort of things that rile me more than anything else, for you can't think how I put my whole soul into egg and butterfly col- lecting when I'm at it, and how I boil up and over with impotent rage at not being able to attain the object of my desires on account of the weather over which I have no control. However, perseverance can struggle against any- thing. This afternoon the sun shone out and I immediately caught two Purple Emperors {Apatura Iris), and two very similar butterflies unknown in England {Apatura Ilia), also a great many White Admirals {Limenitis Camilla) , not quite the same as the English White Admiral {Limenitis Syhilla), but very like ; all butterflies well worth having. If the weather will but continue line for a few days I will soon make some good additions to my collection, but it is hopeless work collecting butterflies in bad weather. I think I must be set down as a harmless lunatic by the peasants in the neighbourhood already." Selous was not long at Salzburg before he found an old chamois hunter and poacher, with whom he made frequent excursions into the neighbouring mountains. On one of these trips he killed two chamois, and the head of one of these is still in the museum at Worplesdon. The Franco-German war now began and Selous was greatly incensed that the general feeling in England was in favour of Prussia. " Vive la France, a bas la Prusse," he writes to his mother (July 22nd, 1870), " your saying the war is ' likely to become a bloody butchery through all the Christian nations of civilized Europe,' is rather a startler. Since this morning I have read all the Cologne and Vienna papers for THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 61 the last week and you are most certainly several miles ahead of the most far-seeing and sanguinary politician, in either Austria or Prussia. You say that Bavaria has joined Prussia and Austria is likely to do so too. Bavaria cannot help itself or would not have joined Prussia. The Crown Prince of Prussia is in Munich with 15,000 Prussian troops, and the Bavarians are forced by treaty to aid Prussia or they would not do so. Prussia is the only power that is likely to take any part in the war at present. Austria most certainly will not interfere unless she is forced into it. And England and America are less likely still to do so. The post now goes to England by Trieste, by sea, of course, and sup- posing the war does become a bloody butchery through all the Christian nations of civilized Europe, an Italian passenger steamer would surely not be meddled with. Whatever happens, the war cannot come here, for there is nothing to be fought for in the Tyrol and no room to fight for it in the mountain valleys if there was. So that the route to Trieste and from thence to England will always be open. The people say that in 1866, when the war between Austria and Prussia was going on, they never knew anything about it here. As for the money, you can easily send a letter of credit to a bank in Salzburg or Munich and that difficulty would be got over. For several months at least it is not at all likely that any other nation will join either party, England least of all ; and supposing that England were drawn into it eventually, you would surely be able to tell long before war was declared if such was likely to be the case, and send me word, for the postal communications will not be stopped until then via Trieste. It seems to me most ridiculous to predict so much when so little is known. Unless you really think in your heart of hearts that it is necessary for me to come, please let me remain here a few months longer ; England taking part in the war is the only thing that can stop either letters or myself from reaching you, and surely you cannot tell me in cold blood that England is likely to be drawn into the war for months and months to come, at least all the Prussian papers declare most positively that it is not likely that either America or England will take any 62 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS part in the war, and surely they as a party most intensely interested would say something about it if they thought that there was the slightest chance of England assisting, Gladstone, you know, will do his utmost to keep England neutral. Austria was almost ruined by the last war, but is now rapidly increasing in wealth and if drawn into the war would be utterly ruined, so that she will do her utmost to keep out of it. Why I so particularly wish to remain here a few months longer is because if I return to England all the money and time that has been wasted in zither at any rate, if not violin lessons, will have been utterly thrown away and I shall lose a pleasure and a pastime that would have lasted me my whole life. In three or four months more, as I am working very hard at it, I shall know enough of the zither to do without a master. The violin is all very well, but it is not an instrument that one derives much pleasure from playing unaccompanied, unless one plays extremely well, whereas the zither, like the piano, needs no accompaniment. The zither I have now is not the little one you saw at Wiesbaden, but an Austrian zither which is much larger and tuned lower, and altogether a finer instrument." He seems to have formed a very accurate estimate of the German character in war. Writing to his mother, October 20th, 1870, he says : — " I have seen and spoken to several Bavarian soldiers in a village just beyond the Bavarian frontier, who were at Worth and Sedan, and who have been sent back on the sick list ; they say there is a great deal of sickness among the German troops, out of the 1000 men from the two villages of Schellenberg and Berchtesgaden who were all in the actions at Worth and Sedan, not a single one has as yet been killed, so I was told, though a great many have been wounded. I see a great deal said in the English papers about the ' Francs tireurs ' being little better than murderers. I think that the French ought to consider all the soldiers composing the German armies as so many burglars, and shoot them down like rabbits in every possible manner ; and, moreover, as the Germans are murdering the peasants, men, women, THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 63 and children, for such offences as being in possession of an old sword, in every direction, I think the French would be perfectly justified in shooting every German soldier they take prisoner. After the affair at Bazeilles, I don't believe any more in the humanity of the Germans." At this time Selous met an old Hungarian gentleman, who had large farms in Hungary, and offered to take him for two years to learn the business. But his father threw cold water on this project and told his son to remain at Salzburg until he had completed his German education. Accordingly he continued to reside there until June, 1871, when he went on a short visit to Vienna, of which he writes (June 17th, 1871) : — " I think I have seen everything that is to be seen in Vienna. The crown jewels, which I daresay you have seen, were very interesting and very magnificent. The Emperor's stables, too, I thought very interesting ; he has an immense number of horses, some of them very beautiful indeed. We found an English groom there who had almost forgotten his own language ; he had been away from England nine years, and so it is not to be wondered at, as I daresay he rarely speaks anything but German and never reads any- thing at all. The theatre in Vienna (I mean the new opera house) is most magnificent. It was only completed in 1868, so I don't suppose you have ever seen it. I believe it is acknowledged to be at present the finest theatre in the world. It is an immense size, almost as large as Covent Garden, and the decorations inside and out, and the galleries and everything appertaining to it are most beautiful and tasteful. We saw ' Martha,' ' Tannhauser,' and ' Faust ' there, and a little sort of pantomime entitled ' Flick and Flock.' I liked * Martha ' very much. They have a splendid tenor named Walter, who took the part of Lionel. I daresay you will hear him in London some day. I didn't like ' Tann- hauser ' very much ; I couldn't understand the story at all and there were no pretty airs in it. ' Faust ' was splendid, Marguerite and Faust were, I should think, as near per- fection as possible, and Mephistopheles was very good, though at first he gave me the impression of looking more 64 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS like a clown than the devil. The scenery in all these pieces was splendid. ' Flick and Flock ' was exactly like an English pantomime with dumb show. The scenery was reall}' wonderful ; there were about half a dozen transforma- tion scenes, none of which would have disgraced a London stage on Boxing Night." In August he arrived home in England, and during the next three months he attended classes at the University College Hospital (London) to gain some knowledge of medical science preparatory to going to Africa. < H o O w H CHAPTER III 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 js 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 pubUshed 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 Gumming, William Cotton Oswell, Sir Francis Galton, and C. J. Anderson, wrote either books of great value or portions of standard works. Gordon Gumming did an immense amount of shooting' — far too much most people now think — but his volume, written in the romantic British style, is F 65 56 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 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 Gumming 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 Gharles 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, with- out prejudice, did perhaps as much exploration, geographical work, painting, and hunting as any Afrikander of his time. Baines, I beUeve, 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 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 67 that are no more, and will doubtless live in South African history when more ambitious, technically correct works are forgotten.^ After these sportsmen and writers came William Charles Baldwin, who wandered, primarily with the object of hunt- ing elephants, from Zululand to the Zambesi and west to Lake Ngami between the years 1852 and i860. 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, Uke 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 £400 in his pocket. He went there determined to make his way into the interior and to lead the free hfe of the hunter as described by Gordon Gumming, 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 breech- loading 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 1 There was an exhibition of Baines' collected works at the Crystal Palace some years ago, but few people took any notice of them. Baines published an excellent book " The Gold Regions of South-Eastern Africa " in 1877. 68 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 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 disagree- able 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 every- thing 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 £100. 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 accom- pany 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 Wniiams, 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 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 69 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 Dore- hill 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 Secheh, 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 £75, 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. ^ 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 con- tributed 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 ^ " A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 15-23. 70 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 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 circum- stances, 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 Hght a lire, 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 THE LIFE OF F C. SELOUS. 71 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 bowlings. 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 wiU 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 72 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS pace ; so I didn't make much progress. On coming to a high tree I stopped and cUmbed 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 wilder- ness 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 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 73 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. Unfor- tunately 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 Hons 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 out- post 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 an- nouncing their arrival, the king arrived, dressed in a greasy shirt, a costume which shortly afterwards he dis- carded 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 permis- sion. " This time he asked me whether I had ever seen an elephant, and upon my saying no, answered, ' Oh, they 74 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS will soon drive you out of the country, but you may go and see what you can do ! ' " Wlicn Selous asked him where he might go, Lobcngula 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 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 75 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,i 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 horse- back, 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, unUke the experience of Dr. Livingstone, the bites of the lion were extremely pain- 1 Finaughty states that in 1867 Jan Viljoeu and his party killed 210 elephants in one trip. This is probably the largest bag of elephants ever made in one season. 76 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS iul, 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 WilUam 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 sHght 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." THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 77 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 jdelding 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 consider- ing the lion the most dangerous of all African game. He repeatedly says that buffalo-hunting is the most risky of all forms of hunting.! " 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 ^ In this matter Finaughty received powerful support in the evidence of William Judd, possibly the most experienced African hunter now living ; he writes : " As for buffalo I consider them far and away the most dangerous game. The difficulty of stopping a direct charge, as they very rarely swerve even to the heaviest bullet — the way they can force them- selves through bush absolutely impenetrable to man and the nast}' habit they have, when wounded (and sometimes when not wounded) of breaking away, making a detour and charging up again from behind, make them an adversary worthy of the greatest respect. I personally have had more close shaves from these brutes than I have had from all other big game put together — lions and elephants included." 78 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 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 Hfe 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 19 14. 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 com- panion. " 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 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 79 another 1200 lbs. which he had traded with the natives, thus making a clear profit of £300. 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 Loben- gula 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 him- self decided to remain jn 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 estab- lished 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 fuU 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. 1 " 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 ^ " A Hunter's Wanderings," pp. 8^-88. 8o THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 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 Selous as a Young Man, in Hunting Costume. THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS 8i 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 (ex- cepting the one just hit) towards W. and the Kafirs. How- ever, 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 hiU, 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 rue- 82 THE LIFE OF F. C. SELOUS fully towards me. Poor beast, he was doubtless too far gone to charge, and, on receiving another ball in the chest, he stopped slowly bacl