Capt. Cook in Australia, Lord Clive in India, opened up new countries. Speke, Baker, and Livingstone pushed their way through the savage deserts and forests of Africa; Franklin and Ross braved the ice and snows of the Arctic regions.
In the present time Selous, the great hunter, and Lieut. Boyd Alexander, who last year crossed Africa, are peace scouts.
These are just a few names out of many hundreds of the scouts of the nation who have from all times down to the present spread the good name and power of our country in all parts of the world.
And there have been women scouts of the nation, too: such as Grace Darling, who risked her life to save a shipwrecked crew; Florence Nightingale, who nursed sick soldiers in the Crimean War; Miss Kingsley, the African explorer; Lady Lugard, in Africa and Alaska; and many devoted lady missionaries and nurses in all parts of our Empire. These have shown that girls as well as boys may well learn scouting while they are young, and so be able to do useful work in the world as they grow older.
It is a grand life, but it cannot suddenly be taken up by any man who thinks he would like it, unless he has prepared himself for it beforehand.
Those who succeed best are those who learnt scouting while they were still boys.
Scouting also comes in very useful in any kind of life you like to take up, whether it is soldiering or even business life in a city. Sir William Crookes says it is even valuable for a man who goes in for science, and finding out little things about air, and light, and so on.
So I am going to show you how you can learn scout-craft for yourself and can put it into practice at home.
It is very easy to learn and very interesting when you get into it. You can best learn by joining the "Boy Scouts."