PREFACE
In the following pages I have written the story of the last eleven years of my travels in the interior of South Africa. During the first six years of that period, namely, from the beginning of 1882. to the end of 1887, I was principally engaged in collecting specimens of the magnificent fauna which once abounded throughout the land, but many forms of which are day by day becoming scarcer, whilst some, alas! are already verging upon extinction. My occupation naturally led me into parts of the country where game was still plentiful, and as in South Africa wherever there is game there are lions too, I now and then encountered some of these animals, and had one or two interesting experiences with them, of all of which I have given some account. The first nine chapters of the book deal with the experiences of these six years; but in addition to lion stories and hunting adventures, there will be found much matter of more general interest, such as some notes upon my own personal experiences amongst the South African Boers; accounts of the two expeditions sent against the Batauwani by Lo Bengula; the devastations committed by the Matabili in Mashunaland; notes upon the Bushmen, etc.
