LIFE OF FREDERICK COURTENAY SELOUS, D.S.O. CAPT. 25TH ROYAL FUSILIERS Chapter VI - X BY J. G. MILLAIS, F.Z.S. CHAPTER VI 1881-1885 When Selous returned to South Africa in November, 1881, it was with the fixed intention of abandoning his wandering life. The chase of the elephant which, above all wild animals, furnished some pecuniary return, had now become so precarious, owing to the scarcity of the animals, that even men like Selous could not make a living at it, so when his friend Mandy, who was doing well in Cape Colony as an ostrich-farmer, suggested to him that he should enter the same profession, he decided that the advice was good. Accordingly when he returned to the Cape he at once visited Mandy, whom he found far from flourishing. His employer had died and ostrich-business was at a low ebb commercially, so Selous, who had several orders for specimens of the larger game from dealers and museums, once more turned his thoughts towards the north, and was soon again on his way to the happy hunting grounds. At Kimberley he bought a fine grey horse named "Diamond" (which, after proving his excellence, fell a victim to the usual horse-sickness), and then proceeded to Klerksdorp in the Transvaal, where he hoped to take over his friend Collison's Matabele boys. These he found ready to go with him, as well as Morris, the waggon-driver, and an excellent Griqua lad named Laer, who was later of much assistance in skinning and preparing specimens. From an old Matabele pioneer named Leask he bought a waggon and a good span of oxen, and also laid in a good stock of provisions. Just as he was starting, a missionary named Arnot begged for a passage to Bamangwato, which was at once granted. Passing through the Manica district of the Transvaal, Selous met one of the old[142] Boer Voortrekkers, by name Friedrich de Lange, who showed him a curious "snake-stone" which was supposed to have the power to cure snake- bite. De Lange valued this stone highly, and stated that its efficacy was invariable, and that it had already cured several people and horses that had been bitten by snakes. Selous himself was able to confirm de Lange's belief in the talisman, for he had met the daughter of one Antony Forman, who as a child had been severely bitten by a cobra, and whose life was saved by applying the stone, which was applied twice before it drew out the poison. Selous met the girl—then sixteen years of age—in 1877 and she showed him the old scar. Apparently the rough side of the stone adhered to the wound until a certain amount of poison had been absorbed and then it fell off. Several applications were necessary. It is probable that this remarkable stone had been brought from India. Passing along the Crocodile river, where a drought set in and drove the game to the neighbourhood of the river, Selous managed to kill a few good specimens of hartebeest and wildebeest which he preserved. Diamond proved a splendid shooting horse, but another mount, Nelson, which was at first intractable, eventually became a valuable animal, as he successfully survived the prevalent sickness. This horse, though somewhat slow, did Selous yeoman service for several years, and he eventually sold it to Lewanika, chief of the Barotsi, in 1888. At this time Selous hunted industriously to make a good collection of butterflies, and after many years he did make a very complete collection, which he presented to the Cape Town Museum. The curator of this museum was the late Mr. Trimen—a man for whom Selous had a great respect—who was ever delighted to receive any novelties, and many were the new species discovered by these two active entomologists. Selous, in fact, had all his life collected butterflies, and did so almost to the day of his death in German East Africa, for it was nothing to him to chase agile insects in the heat of the day, when other men only thought of rest and refreshment. The capture of some new species was to[143] him always a great event, and though others, less interested than himself, wondered at his taking so much trouble about a wretched butterfly, he had all the absorbing pleasure of finding some new thing, the ambition of all true naturalists. One day, whilst butterfly hunting, he found an ox bogged in the mud of the river. The poor beast had been badly bitten by crocodiles, which are perhaps more numerous in the Limpopo than in any river in South Africa, except perhaps the Botletlie. Numerous goats and calves belonging to natives were annually destroyed there, whilst in 1876 a Boer hunter named Berns Niemand met his death from these reptiles whilst crossing the river. At the Notwani river, on March 5th, Selous decided to visit Khama and ask his permission to travel along the Limpopo and up the Mahalapsi river to Matabeleland. He rode by night, and "off-saddled" to give his horse a rest and feed for half an hour. "I had been lying thus upon the ground for perhaps a couple of minutes, listening to the slight noise made by my horse as he cropped the short dry herbage. Suddenly the sound ceased. For a few seconds I lay dreamily wondering why it did not recommence; but as there was still silence, I rolled quickly over on my stomach, and, looking under the bush to ascertain why my horse had stopped feeding, I saw that he was standing in an attitude of fixed attention, with ears pricked forward, intently gazing towards the road. I instantly turned and looked in the same direction, and as instantly saw on what the horse's eyes were fixed. There, not thirty yards away, and right in the open, a lioness, looking large and white in the brilliant moonlight was coming up at a quick and stealthy pace, and in a half-crouching attitude. In an instant I was on my feet, and the lioness, probably observing me for the first time, at once stopped and crouched perfectly flat on the ground. The saddle and rifle lay out in the moonlight right between me and the lioness, though nearer to me than to her. It was not a time to hesitate. I knew she must be pretty keen set, or she would have retreated upon seeing me; and I[144] felt that if I remained where I was, she would resume her journey towards my horse, which might end in my having to carry the saddle back to the Notwani. Obviously the only thing to be done was to get hold of my rifle; so I walked quickly forward into the moonlight towards where it lay against the saddle. I must confess that I did not like advancing towards the lioness, for I knew very well of what hungry lions are capable; and there is nothing like experience to damp the foolhardy courage of ignorance. However, whilst I took those dozen steps she never stirred; but just as I stooped to grasp my rifle she sprang up with a low purring growl, and made off towards some thorn- bushes to her right. I fired at her as she ran, and, though I certainly ought to have hit her, I must have missed, as she neither growled nor changed her pace. But I was fairly well pleased to have driven her off, and lost no time in loosening my horse's hobbles and saddling him again." After this adventure and visiting Khama, who as usual acceded to his request, he passed on north to Matabeleland, and in June formed a hunting camp on the tributary of the river Bili in the well-watered valleys and verdant forests of Northern Mashunaland. On June 20th he set a gin for hyenas which had been troublesome. Soon after midnight his dogs began barking and retreated into camp, which they would not have done before a hyena. Then some heavy animals came galloping past and Blucher, a favourite dog, was missed. Since the animal had uttered no sound Selous concluded he had been seized by the head and carried off by a lion. For a time all was quiet, and then the boys began shouting and said that a lion had come through the thorn- fence and taken the skin of a sable antelope that had been drying on a frame. This proved to be the case, and this very bold lion or others then returned a second time and carried off another wet skin. Yet a third time the lion entered the camp and attacked the skins, one of which he commenced drawing within thirty yards of the camp. All this time Selous had never been able to get a clear shot, but as soon as dawn came he [145]saddled his horse and soon saw a lion and lioness lying on an open bank close to the stream, but they moved off in the uncertain light. For that day the lions won. That night an enclosure was built, baited, and a gin placed at each entrance, but later only a hyena met its death. At sundown poor Blucher, terribly mangled, crawled into camp, but though every attention was given him, he died some weeks later. The next day, however, better luck prevailed. Some Kafirs found a lion, and Selous getting a close shot from the back of his horse killed it with a bullet in the head.