A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa: Being a Narrative of Nine Years Spent Amongst the Game of the Far Interior of South Africa

by Frederick Courteney Selous

First published in 1881, this book tells the story of Frederick Courteney Selous, generally acknowledged as the greatest African hunter of all time. While Selous was first and foremost a hunter, he was also a close personal friend of President Theodore Roosevelt and a naturalist whose careful observations and succinct writings were read by layman and scholar alike. The African wing of the British Museum of Natural History is named after him, and the crack special forces unit in the Zimbabwe War of Independence was named the Selous Scouts.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, Travel, History, South Africa

504 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1881

About the author

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederi... from above article: Frederick Courteney Selous, DSO (/səˈluː/; 31 December 1851 – 4 January 1917) was a British explorer, officer, professional hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in Southeast Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir Henry Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character.[1][2] Selous was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham. He was pre-eminent within a group of big game hunters that included Abel Chapman and Arthur Henry Neumann. He was the older brother of the ornithologist and writer Edmund Selous.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have an interest in writings on Africa, particularly relating to the wildlife. This is why I picked this up. The glamour of hunting and killing animals is not something that I really understand, but you have to consider that this was written at a different time, and the audience it was written for was probably excited to read of the adventures of Frederick Selous in a strange land they would never visit.

I did find the catalogue of destruction visited upon the animals Mr Selous encountered hard to take. However, there were also interesting historical interludes, worth reading. Perhaps the best way to approach this is to use it to reflect on how you, as the modern reader, feels about about the many accounts of killing elephants, rhinoceros, antelope and lions that are described.

[Ernie LaFave · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great recollection of African hunting of the near past

A fine account of hunting in a different time span when ivory hunters were unrestrained. The author painted a visual picture of another era of grand hunting in the bush.

[Sharonh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable account of Selous' explorations in Southern Africa. A shocking view into early day hunting - no wonder there is so little wildlife left!

[Gerald Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This manuscript explores the arrival of one of the most famous figures in African History in South Africa. We don't know much about his origins in England but his great passion to reach Africa, the Dark Continent and to hunt and learn about the African Elephant and all the other game animals is totally interesting to me.

I have read about Selous in other books concerned with the historical importance he had upon the history, and development of countries north of the South African Republic. But to me I am especially interested in his life in the early days of the south end of Africa. He seems to have had the luck to survive his inexperience in the wilderness and to learn quickly how to make a living by hunting for his own survival, how to trade with the tribes of the area and how to avoid death from dangerous elephants, venomous reptiles, lions, diseases and how to avoid conflicts with the indigenous African peoples. His was a wild and successful life for a young man from England.

He had help from native peoples, other elegant hunters and peoples of many nations who had immigrated to the southern tip of the continent in order to survive the African wilderness. I will post more reviews of his book as I read along. Please join me for future additions to this review.

[Ronald Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another time to be never repeated.

This account of an adventurous life in a time of plenty is an important read for those interested in history and what it was like to be a hunter in Africa in the early days. Also gives an insight into the primitive population of Africa at that time and their ways before civilization as we know it.

[WayBackWhen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it quite a bit though the paperback copy I own is riddled with poor punctuation and misspellings. This book is also 323 pages of straight animal killings so eventually it feels very similar one page after the other. Its great adventure though as you learn a lot about animals, the African interior, and tribes. Worth the read.

[Richard Flagg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative narrative of this famed elephant hunter.

Having seen who this book was about Frederick Sells; a name I was familiar with from the Rhodesian army's Sells Scouts I has to read this book. It provided me with a narrative of the elephant hunters of southern Africa; that was an eye opener of how they hunted and the abundance of wild animals in Africa 150 years ago.

[Craig Schlossin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow writer great adventures.

[Nate Granzow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few fun/interesting anecdotes about a fascinating person in a unique time, but you had to mine for them in this series of journal entries. Hardly a riveting read.

[Andy Herzfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frederick Courteney Selous is one of the most famous names in African hunting. He practically opened South Africa up to hunting and exploration. His many exploits, near misses from vengeful natives, infuriated wild game animals and death from the slow squeeze of thirst or disease. This book I gave it five stars for the invaluable resource on Early hunting in Africa but it is his actual account day by day sometimes hour by hour. it tends to run dry in places to the point you feel like you may be lost in the desert with him. But I powered through it and I'm glad I did. I learned a few things I would not have known otherwise.

[Belle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It reminded me of history lessons from school, a very nostalgic read of the accounts of FCS's wanderings!
It has to be read with a mind in Yesterday to be appreciated to the full. This is a record of Fauna, rich on the banks of the great Zambezi river in that era, explored by explorers and recorded for historical purposes. I lived very near the Umniati and Sebakwe and on the the very bank of the Hunyani rivers in my youth. Big game was prolific , sometimes in the garden, and this was at least a whole century later. One cannot read a book like this and have a view on the extinction of wildlife as it is today, unless you are informed of the lead up to the crisis faced currently, by poachers and so also the unscrupulous hunters of today !