"It was through Selous and Edward North Buxton that I made my arrangements for my African hunting-trip. Much to my delight, Selous went on the ship with us from Naples to Mombasa. He was, of course, a delightful travelling companion. He was very much interested in the way in which the naturalists who were with me did their collecting, being much impressed by the scientific efficiency they showed. Whenever possible I would get him talking about some of his past experiences; and then gradually other acquaintances would stroll up and sit in an absorbed circle, while he not only told but acted the story, his keen, simple, fearless blue eyes looking up at us from time to time, while his hands moved with a vivacity we are accustomed to think of as French rather than English.
"After landing in Africa I saw him but once or twice. Of course my hunting was that of a tyro compared to his, and he took a kind of elder brother's interest in what I did and in my unimportant successes.
"Later I spent a night with him at his house in Surrey, going through his museum of hunting-trophies. What interested me almost as much was being shown the various birds' nests in his garden. He also went to the British Museum with me to look into various matters, including the question of protective coloration. I greatly valued his friendship; I mourn his loss; and yet I feel that in death as in life he was to be envied.
"It is well for any country to produce men of such a type; and if there are enough of them the nation need fear no decadence. He led a singularly adventurous and fascinating life, with just the right alternations between the wilderness and civilization. He helped spread the borders of his people's land. He added much to the sum of human knowledge and interest. He closed his life exactly as such a life ought to be closed, by dying in battle for his country while rendering her valiant and effective service. Who could wish a better life or a better death, or desire to leave a more honourable heritage to his family and his nation?
"Theodore Roosevelt."
The best work that Selous did and the qualities for which the British Nation should be grateful to him are those which he displayed as a Pioneer. Where Selous went any Englishman could follow and hold up his head. Selous set up a standard of conduct which people of our own, as well as those of other nations, might be proud to follow. He, as it were, stamped his personality on the wilderness, where life is hard and man easily loses his grip. He never shot a native except purely in self-defence, and established a reputation for square dealing and indomitable courage that made the pathway easy for all those who came after. He never made a sixpence for himself when gains, if he had been the least unscrupulous, would have been easy, but set up wherever he went a certain ideal, especially in dealing with natives, that made the road of colonization easy for tens of thousands. After all, in the life of any man it is character and example that count, and if Selous did nothing else, and had, in fact, never killed a single wild animal in his life, his name would still be one to conjure with in South Africa or wherever he wandered.
"Summers shall be forgotten with the rose,
Yea, winters fall from memory like quenched fire,
Loves shall depart unseen, and the voice of desire
Be hushed and stilled in the garden close,
Yet you they shall remember in the land."
FOOTNOTES:
[85] Writing to H. F. Wallace in 1911 Selons speaks of his own capacity in characteristic style: "That quotation (in your article) from Roosevelt's book as to my being 'the greatest of the world's big game hunters' is all bunkum. Because I have hunted a lot, that is not to say I am a specially good hunter."
[86] According to the quality of the shooter.