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 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 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 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 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.
[Illustration: BUFFALOES ALARMED.]
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. On the
way back to camp another lion was put up and bolted through the forest.
This lion he wounded badly and lost for a time, but on further search it
was found and charged the hunter savagely. The lion then stopped.
"The position was now this: the lion was standing with open
mouth, from which blood was flowing, growling savagely, and
looking like nothing but a wounded and furious lion, whilst
right in front of him, and within thirty yards, stood Laer's
refractory pony, backing towards the lion, and pulling with him
Laer, who, of course, was looking full into his open jaws, which
he did not seem to admire. I think I shall never forget the
momentary glimpse I had of his face. He was at that time only a
lad of about fifteen or sixteen years of age, and there is no
wonder that he was frightened--but frightened he most certainly
was: his hat had fallen off, his mouth was wide open, and his
eyes staring, and he was pulling desperately against the horse,
which was steadily dragging him nearer to the lion. I was a
little to the right of Laer and a little further from the lion,
but not much, and he looked alternately at the two of us. I am
sure it was simply want of strength that prevented him from
coming on and mauling either Laer or the pony, for before I
could raise my rifle he sank down on the ground, but still kept
his head up, and, with his mouth wide open, never ceased
growling or roaring (I do not know which is the better word). Of
course I fired as quickly as I could, the circumstances not
admitting of any delay. I aimed right for his open mouth, and at
the shot his head fell so suddenly, and in such a way, that I
knew the bullet had reached his brain."[27]
During the next six weeks Selous shot and preserved many fine specimens
of the larger African antelopes for the British Museum, Cape Museum, and
London dealers. At this time he met his old friend Dorehill, who was
also on a shooting trip. He had with him his young wife, who was
probably the first English lady to travel in the interior of
Mashunaland. On the way to visit him at his camp Selous killed a leopard
which was feeding at mid-day on the carcase of a black rhinoceros killed
by Dorehill--a very unusual circumstance.
At this time Selous determined to visit Tete on the Zambesi, going there
via the Hanyane river, and to cross the intervening country which was
then quite unknown. After leaving his waggons on August 6th, he crossed
the Manyami, accompanied by Laer, some natives, and one pack donkey, and
passed numerous Mashuna villages on the hills, and so across to Umkwasi
to the remarkable hills of Chikasi, where rocks several hundred feet
high rise from the level plains. The country here was beautiful and the
climate that of an English June, though colder at night. Here Selous
lost his only donkey, killed by a hyena.
After crossing the Mutiki and the Dandi rivers, where no game was seen,
and reaching Garanga, where guides were obtained, all the party now
descended to the Zambesi valley. At the Kadzi river there was a
considerable amount of game and swarms of tsetse flies, and so,
following the course of the Umsengaisi, Selous reached the Zambesi at
Chabonag on August 17th.
Here he decided to make for Zumbo.
After reaching Zumbo, formerly a centre of trade in gold dust and now a
trade base for ivory, which mostly came from the Loangwa valley to the
north, Selous, after mapping various new features in this region, struck
south again. He had difficulty with his guides and, as always happens in
the intense heat of the Zambesi valley, was again struck down with
fever. He struggled on, however, on foot until September 10th, when Laer
turned up with one of his horses, and on September 14th reached his
camp, where in the fine air he soon mastered the fever. Early in October
he reached the Matabele country and travelled to Klerksdorp, where he
despatched his collections to Cape Town and England.
After laying in a fresh stock of provisions and trading goods he again
set out for the interior, and in May, 1883, made his permanent camp on
the banks of the Manyami river in Mashunaland. After unsuccessfully
searching for elephants to the north and west, he crossed the Manyami to
the Mazoe river, and from thence proceeded to the eastern bank of the
Sabi river, close to the Portuguese frontier, where he hoped to obtain
specimens of the now rare white rhinoceros and Liechtenstein's
hartebeest. So far the last named was only known from specimens taken at
and north of the Zambesi river, so that it was possible that the Sabi
hartebeest might be slightly different.[28]
On the 11th of July Selous made a start for the south-east, and on the
way knocked down a good specimen of the striped eland which, however, he
was destined to lose, as he had lost his knife and had not another
cartridge to kill it with. The next day he shot a splendid wart-hog,
which cut his dog Punch rather badly, and which for many years was the
best specimen in his museum. Next day he emerged on to the high open
grassy downs between the Manyami and the Mazoe rivers. The climate of
this delightful region, which has an elevation from 4500 to 6000 feet,
is the best in Mashunaland and has an equable temperature throughout the
year except in the months of June and July, which are rather cold.
Running streams intersect the plateau in all directions and small
patches of forest afford wood and shelter to passing travellers. Fifty
years before this beautiful country was heavily populated by peaceful
Mashunas, but about 1840 the bloodthirsty Matabele overran the district
and slaughtered everyone except a few which were kept for slaves.
In 1883 it was a great country for eland, roan antelope, and ostriches,
several fine specimens of which fell to Selous' rifle. One of these, a
female roan with horns 2 ft. 7 in. over the curve, still remains the
record for females of this species. Near the river Chingi-Ka he killed a
fine bull eland, which he left with some Mashunas who, however, skinned
and cut it up during the night. This threw Selous into a rage, and he
seized their bows and arrows and assegais and threw them on the fire,
and then to their astonishment and annoyance made a bonfire of the rest
of the carcase.
On July 30th he reached the river Impali, a tributary of the Sabi. Here
was a Mashuna town where all the men carried bows and arrows and the
women were tattooed on the forehead, cheeks, breasts and stomach. The
next day Selous found tracks of the antelope he had come to hunt, but on
this and following days he had no luck in finding them, though some days
afterwards he killed a bull rhinoceros. He then returned to his camp on
the Manyami, and continued to hunt there till November, and then started
south-west on his return home. The day after leaving the Manyami, whilst
crossing a tributary of the River Sarua, the wheel of one of his waggons
collapsed, and knowing that a Boer and an Englishman were close at hand,
Selous determined to go to their camp, borrow a wheel and bring his
waggon on, and make the new wheel in a place where he would have the
pleasure of talking to some white men. That day Selous rode across
country to the camp of Grant and Karl Weyand, and when Laer turned up
they received the news that the waggon driver had met five Hons on the
road. Selous then felt sorry he had not gone by this route, for Laer
described the big lion of the party as the most magnificent he had ever
seen. Next day Selous rode back to his camp, and on the way he had an
exciting adventure with a leopard which he wounded as it ran into the
bush. The now angry beast hid in the cover but disclosed its whereabouts
when the hunter came close. "However, I had seen whereabouts he was
lying, and so determined to fire a shot or two to make him show himself;
but before I could do so he again raised his head with another snarl,
and immediately after came straight out at me, and at such a pace that
before I could turn my horse and get him started the leopard was right
under his tail. He chased me for some sixty or seventy yards before he
stopped, coming right into the open and keeping close up the whole time.
I pulled in as quickly as I could, and before the plucky little beast
regained the bush gave him a second shot which quickly proved fatal.
When charging and chasing me this leopard growled and grunted or roared
exactly like a lion under similar circumstances, and made just as much
noise."
The next day Laer turned up with the wheel, across which lay the fresh
skin of a lion he had killed. It appeared that the previous evening when
the waggon-driver and a native boy named April were sitting by the fire
a lion rushed into the camp and attacked one of the oxen. April fired at
it and missed, but Laer, though only a boy, put in another cartridge and
took a shot which was fatal.
The following day some men whom Selous had sent into the "fly" to look
for elephants returned and reported "a big lion close by." Immediately
Selous was out and after him with his dogs, which were led. He had not,
however, gone far when he saw the lion lying flat on the ground at right
angles to where he was riding. As his horse would not stand, he
dismounted.
"All this time the lion had never moved, nor did he now, but lay
watching me intently with his yellow eyes. Nothing stirred but
his tail, the end of which he twitched slowly, so that the black
bunch of hair at its extremity appeared first on one side of
him, then on the other. As I raised my rifle to my shoulder I
found that the fallen tree-trunk interfered considerably with
the fine view I had had of him from my horse's back, as it hid
almost all his nose below the eyes. In the position in which he
was now holding his head I ought to have hit him about half-way
between the nostrils and the eyes, which was impossible;
anywhere above the eyes would have been too high, as the bullet
would have glanced from his skull, so that it required a very
exact shot to kill him on the spot. However, there was no time
to wait, and, trying to aim so that the bullet should just clear
the fallen log and catch him between the eyes, I fired. With a
loud roar he answered the shot, and I instantly became aware
that he was coming straight at me with open mouth and flaming
eyes, growling savagely. I knew it was hopeless to try to get
another cartridge into my single-barrelled rifle, and utterly
useless to try to mount, more especially as my horse, startled
by the loud hoarse grunts and sudden and disagreeable appearance
of the charging lion, backed so vigorously that the bridle (to a
running ring on which a strong thong was attached, the other end
being fastened to my belt) came over his head. I had a strong
feeling that I was about to have an opportunity of testing the
accuracy of Dr. Livingstone's incredible statement that, for
certain reasons (explained by the Doctor), a lion's bite gives
no pain; but there was no time to think of anything in
particular. The whole adventure was the affair of a moment. I
just brought my rifle round in front of me, holding the small of
the stock in my right hand and the barrel in my left, with a
vague idea of getting it into the lion's mouth, and at the same
time yelled as loud as I could, 'Los de honden, los de honden,'
which being translated means, 'Let loose the dogs.' In an
instant, as I say, the lion was close up to me. I had never
moved my feet since firing, and whether it was my standing still
facing him that made him alter his mind, or whether he heard the
noise made by my people, who, hearing my shot, immediately
followed by the loud growling of the lion, were all shouting and
making a noise to frighten the lion from coming their way, I
cannot take upon myself to say; but he came straight on to
within about six yards of me, looking, I must say, most
unpleasant, and then suddenly swerved off, and passing me,
galloped away."[29]
The dogs then ran him to bay alongside a big ant-hill.
"As soon as he saw me he paid no further heed to his canine
foes, but stood, with his eyes fixed on the most dangerous of
his assailants, growling hoarsely, and with his head held low
between his shoulders--just ready to charge, in fact. I knew my
horse would not stand steady, so jumped off, and taking a quick
aim fired instantly, as it does not do to wait when a lion is
looking at you like this, and when he may make up his mind to
come at any moment. Usually they jerk their tails up over their
backs, holding them perfectly stiff and rigid, two or three
times before charging. They sometimes charge without doing this,
but they never do it without charging. My bullet inflicted a
mortal wound, entering between the animal's neck and shoulder
and travelling the whole length of his body. He sat down like a
dog on his haunches immediately after, and was evidently done
for, as he lolled his tongue out of his mouth and growled feebly
when the dogs bit him in the hind-quarters."[30]
The pegged-out skin of his lion measured ten feet eleven inches, and it
proved to be the third largest Selous ever killed.
In mid-December Selous went out to Bulawayo and there found himself
involved in a row with Lobengula, who unjustly accused him of killing
hippopotami. The Matabele apparently had some superstition regarding
these animals and believed that a drought would follow the killing of a
number of these animals unless the bones were returned to the river.
Doubtless some slaughter had taken place owing to the activities of a
certain trader who made a business in sjamboks.
When Selous met Lobengula he was at first quite friendly, and when the
hunter told him he had not killed a single hippopotamus that year the
king said there was no case against him. A few days later, however, he
was summoned to the king's presence and Selous heard there was likely to
be trouble. The case lasted three days, during which time the white men
accused had to sit outside the kraal in the pouring rain.
Concluding his attack on Selous, Ma-kwaykwi, one of the head indunas,
said:
"'It is you, Selous, who have finished the king's game.' He went
on: 'But you are a witch, you must bring them all to life again.
I want to see them--all, all. Let them all walk in at the kraal
gate, the elephants, and the buffaloes, and the elands.'
"I stood up and called out: 'All right; but when the lions come
in, will you, Ma-kwaykwi, remain where you are to count them?'
"This caused a general laugh at Ma-kwaykwi's expense, and quite
stopped his flow of eloquence."
Finally Selous had to pay sixty pounds. This fine he always considered
to be a robbery.
As soon as the case finished Selous went to Klerksdorp and sent his
collections to England. He was sore at his treatment by Lobengula, and
so determined to avoid Matabeleland and to hunt in the northern parts of
Khama's territory this year. One day at Klerksdorp he met Walter
Montague Kerr bent on a long expedition through Matabeleland and
Mashunaland to the Zambesi, and the two hunters travelled together as
far as Bulawayo. Here they separated, Kerr going north and eventually
crossing the Zambesi, where the illness, privation, and hardship he
underwent so undermined his health that his early death resulted. He
published an interesting book on his travels[31] which is, however, now
little known.
At this time Selous was much depressed owing to the low state of his
finances, for although he had been able to support himself entirely by
trading and his rifle since 1871, he had made nothing and his whole
assets were represented by horses, oxen, waggons and general outfit. His
mother, too, frequently urged him to give up South Africa, and either
come home or try another country, but to this he turned a deaf ear and
only expressed his wish to worry on till better times came. Writing to
her on April 6th, 1884, from Bamangwato, he says:--
"This country is now in a terrible state financially, bankrupt
from Cape Town to the Zambesi. Nothing that is not exportable
has any real value, for nothing can be turned into money. Thanks
to my specimens I have during the last two years, in spite of
more than reasonable losses, even for Africa, done very well,
but all that I have made is represented by waggons, salted
horses, cattle, rifles, etc., for all of which I have paid large
prices, but which, if I wished to realize and leave the
country, would bring me in scarcely enough to pay my passage to
England. It is all very well to tell a man to leave such a
country and try another. It would be the wisest thing to do, no
doubt, but it is a thing that few men are capable of doing. What
you say of Edward Colchester (friend of his youth) returning to
Australia and beginning life again at thirty-nine is not at all
to the point. He would simply be returning again to his old
life, for which he has never ceased to pine ever since he came
home and settled down in England. I was very interested in what
you told me about Spiritualism, but are you sure that William
Colchester really saw his child (recently deceased) and touched
and spoke to him? In Sergeant Cox's accounts of Materializations
the figure seen is that of the medium, and I have never yet seen
an authentic account of any other Materialization. At present I
believe nothing (about Spiritualism), but am _inclined_ towards
Materialism, but at the same time I do not believe everything,
and am in a state of doubt. If I felt sure--quite sure--that I
was merely material, I think I should before long take a good
dose of laudanum and stop the working of my inward mechanism,
for life, on the whole, is a failure--to me, at any rate--who, I
think, am naturally of rather a sad turn of mind, though I can
quite understand it being very different to sanguine hopeful
people. However, as I feel doubtful upon the subject, I
certainly shall not have recourse to violent measures but shall
protect my vital spark as long as I can. I think I told you
about Jameson being struck down by a sort of paralytic stroke
and not being able to come out this year to hunt.
"I am very sorry indeed, for being with Jameson, who is, of
course, a rich man, I should have been free from the constant
anxiety which now overhangs me like a black cloud as to whether
I shall be able to pay my debts. It is so very easy to lose a
hundred pounds in live stock, from sickness, drought, hunger,
etc., and so hard, so very hard, to make it. Last year I paid
Mr. Leask nearly L1600. This year I only owe a few hundreds and
am at present well to the good, as I have nearly L2000 worth of
property."
Selous left Bamangwato in April, 1884, and trekked across the desert
north-west to the Mababe veldt. He was fortunate enough to find for once
plenty of water, owing to thunder-storms, and he did not experience any
great hardships as he did in 1873 and 1879. In June he established his
main hunting camp near the north end of the Mababe flats. The bushmen
here told him of the activities of a man-eating lion who had recently
killed several men. Selous at once set out to look for him, and soon
found one of the unfortunate victims, torn to pieces and partially
eaten. But the lion seems to have left this district, and the hunter was
unable to find him, since he did not commit further depredations.
Selous did not remain long on the Mababe. In August he retreated to Sode
Gara and Horn's Vley, where he killed some good specimens of giraffe,
hartebeest, gemsbuck, and ostrich. Then he moved eastward for a while,
and afterwards went south to Tati, which he reached in late November,
and so on to Bulawayo, where he remained for the winter, sending his
specimens out on a trader's waggon.
After visiting Lobengula, who demanded a salted horse valued at sixty
pounds for the right to hunt in Mashunaland, Selous set off again to the
north-east. He took with him four horses and thus quaintly describes a
new cure for a hopeless "bucker."
"I almost cured him," he says, "of bucking by riding him with an adze
handle, and stunning him by a heavy blow administered between the ears
as soon as he commenced, which he invariably did as soon as one touched
the saddle; but I never could make a shooting horse of him, and finally
gave him to Lobengula, in the hope that he would present him to
Ma-kwaykwi or some other of his indunas against whom I had a personal
grudge."
Selous now went to the Se-whoi-whoi river, where two years previously he
killed the last two white rhinoceroses he was destined to see. These
great creatures had now become exceedingly scarce in Africa south of the
Zambesi, and are now quite extinct in all South Africa except in the
neighbourhood of the Black Umvolosi in Zululand, where, according to
latest reports (1917), there are twelve which are fortunately strictly
preserved. In 1886 two Boers in Northern Mashunaland killed ten, and
five were killed in Matabeleland in the same year. After this date they
seemed to be extremely rare. I saw the tracks of one near the Sabi in
1893, and the same year Mr. Coryndon killed one in Northern Mashunaland.
When he reached the high plateau of Mashunaland and got to the Umfule
and Umniati rivers Selous found game plentiful, and was soon busy
collecting specimens. After a visit to the Zweswi he passed on to the
Lundaza, a tributary of the Umfule. Here he found a large herd of
elephants. He was, however, badly mounted on a sulky horse, as his
favourite Nelson had been injured, and this greatly handicapped him, as
well as causing him twice to have some hairbreadth escapes.
On the great day on which he killed six elephants he had numerous
adventures. First he shot at and wounded a large bull which he could not
follow, as an old cow charged him viciously and gradually overhauled his
sulky horse; but on entering thick bush he avoided her and soon got to
work on two fresh bulls which he killed. He then dashed after the broken
herd and soon came face to face with an old cow, who chased him so hard
that he had to leap off his horse to avoid her. Curiously enough, the
elephant did not molest his horse, but getting the wind of the hunter,
charged him and was eventually killed. Selous then followed the
retreating herd, and only at first succeeded in wounding two large cows,
one of which charged him, when he had again to abandon his horse, but
after some trouble he killed them both.
Later, on the Manyami, he found another small herd and killed a big bull
and a cow. The bull charged him fiercely but swung off on receiving a
frontal shot, and was then killed with a heart shot. Later in the year
he went south to the Sabi and was lucky enough to kill five
Liechtenstein's hartebeest, which he had failed to get on his previous
hunt for them.
In December he returned to Bulawayo. On the way, whilst travelling with
Collison, James Dawson, and Cornelis van Rooyen, a noted Boer hunter,
an incident occurred which showed the power of a sable antelope in
defending itself from dogs. Van Rooyen fired at a bull, and all the dogs
rushed from the waggon to bring the wounded animal to bay. When the
hunter got up and killed the sable it was found that the gallant
antelope in defending itself with its scimitar-like horns had killed
outright four valuable dogs and badly wounded four more. The strength
and rapidity with which a sable bull uses its horns is a wonderful thing
to see. When cornered either by a lion or dogs the sable lies down and
induces the enemy to attack its flanks. Then like a flash the horns are
swept sideways and the attacker pierced. I lost my best dog by a wounded
bull in 1893. He was killed in an instant, both horns going right
through the whole body, between heart and lungs. In the same year I
found in a dying condition a splendid bull sable, badly mauled by a
lion, and incapable of rising, but the lion himself, an old male, was
found dead about a hundred yards away by some Shangan natives. I saw the
claws and teeth of this lion, but the skin was not preserved as the lion
had been dead some days when it was found. There is little doubt that
both the sable and the roan antelopes are dangerous when cornered. A
Matabele warrior was killed by a wounded cow sable in 1892, and Sergeant
Chawner of the Mashunaland police was in 1890 charged by a slightly
wounded bull roan which missed the rider but struck his horse through
the neck and so injured it that it had to be shot. A similar incident
also happened to Mr. George Banks in 1893.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," pp. 37-40.
[28] Selous, however, did not kill any on this trip. I shot one near the
Sabi in 1893 which proved to be identical with the northern race.
[29] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," pp. 130-133.
[30] "Travel and Adventure in S.E. Africa," pp. 133-134.
[31] "The Far Interior."