African Hunter Traveller Books

The African hunter traveller books are generally the tales of independent travellers who hunted for themselves or to keep their travelling party in meat. Many were military men who travelled to remote regions as part of their army service and sport hunting was their main leisure activity.

They often became skilled naturalists, keeping meticulous diaries of their hunting expeditions. All the animals would have all their dimensions noted, not just the trophy part, along with habitat details, time of day it was taken and so on, all of which contributed to the wildlife knowledge collected on these previously little known areas of Africa.

Rory Macaulay

Crocodile Trader by Rory Macaulay (1960) gives a graphic account of the hazards which go with such an occupation in the wilds of the upper Zambesi in Northern Rhodesia. That the story is a true one - both in Africa and in the United States, where the reptiles are taken to a crocodile farm - makes it all the more readable.

Gordon MacCreagh

Gordon MacCreagh (1889 - 1953) was a Scottish-born American writer. After believing he killed someone in a duel, he fled to Asia where he collected animal specimens. He then travelled to Africa where he captured wild animals for British and US zoos. MacCreagh returned to America in 1911, where he began to write short adventure stories for magazines.

He travelled in South America on the Mulford Expedition. His book 'White Waters And Black' 1926 is an account of the expedition. He also travelled to Abyssinia with his wife in 1927, on an expedition to locate the Ark of the Covenant. MacCreagh revisited Ethiopia many times and became friends with Emperor Haile Selassie who made him a 'Knight of the Empire'. It is possible that MacCreagh was the inspiration for the fictional character of Indiana Jones.

Last Of Free Africa by Gordon MacCreagh (1928) is an account of his travel in Abyssinia. It includes observations on the manner, customs and political influences of the local people. The author also humorously describes a hunt for a man-eating hippopotamus. This involved hiring a 'professional' hunter called 'Jim' and a long caravan journey to the lake where the offending animal lived.

"...since one must be so desperately careful about one's trail companions...elicits nothing more definite than what seem to be distinct recommendations...ivory-poaching and gun-running. Such a man ought to know his way most efficiently about the untrodden wilderness. So "Jim" is duly engaged, and rolls up his sleeves and pitches in with a wealth of advice born of his experience of men and mules and supplies and contracts and sureties and all the tangle of paraphernalia that belong with an Abyssinian safari." Free eBook

White Waters And Black by Gordon MacCreagh (1926) is an account of the author's experience as part of the ill-fated 2 year Mulford expedition where a group of 8 greenhorn scientists were to explore and collect plant specimens in the headwaters of the Amazon - Rio Blanco and Rio Negro. Funded by Mulford Pharmaceuticals, they were particularly looking for plant specimens that could possible be used for medical drugs. Due to bickering and ill health the expedition dwindled to 2 members, lasted less than 8 months and never reached the Amazon - a salutary lesson of how not to conduct an expedition.

Ian H MacKay

Henry Hartley: Hunter Explorer Extraordinaire 1815-1876 by Ian H MacKay (2022) is a biography about Henry Hartley (1815 - 1876) who was an English settler in South Africa, who became a prolific elephant hunter and explorer. Episodes of his life crop up in association with other noted explorers and pioneers of the time, such as Livingstone, Thomas Baines and William Cotton Oswell. Hartley was believed to have been the first European to see the magnificent cataracts which later became known as the Victoria Falls. It had always been thought that Livingstone had seen the Falls first and put them on the map, publicising his discovery. Livingstone being the 'celebrity' explorer of the time, frequently neglected to mention travelling companions and took sole credit for discoveries such as the Falls and Lake Ngami (found by Mungo Murray & William Oswell). Livingstone's claim to discovering the Falls has been disproved with Henry Hartley's writings which indicates he saw the Falls years before Livingstone arrived there.

As well as discovering gold (with Baines and geologist Karl Mauch) in Mashonaland, Hartley was one of the greatest professional hunters known in Southern Africa. During his lifetime he is credited with killing 1200 elephants. You can read more about Henry Hartley in an article 'Henry Hartley: African Hunter And Explorer' written by his grandson, Reginald Hartley Thackeray, which was published in the Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 37, No. 148 (July, 1938). Henry Hartley's story also appears in 'The Far Interior: Chronicles Of Pioneering In The Matabele And Mashona Countries 1847-1879' by Edward C Tabler

David W K Macpherson

David William Kinloch Macpherson (1900 - 1982) was born in India to Scottish parents. After training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst he was commissioned in the Highland Light Infantry and served in Africa with the King's African Rifles where he acquired the skills and knowledge needed to track big game in Tanganyika. In 1926 he left the army to settle in Nyasaland and became a farmer, big game hunter and African ornithologist. Read more about David Macpherson's extraordinary life

Little Birds And Elephants: A Diary In Portuguese East Africa & Nyasaland 1928-1929 by David W K Macpherson & edited by Isabel Macpherson (2005) is an account of a hunting expedition into the Mozambican Tete Province. From 22nd September, 1928 to 13th October, 1929 he maintained a diary recording in detail his thoughts, hardships, hunting successes and failures, minute descriptions of bird life and accurate observation of the human and natural environment. His daughter, Isabel, edited this book, enriched with photos, maps, drawings and watercolours.

Peter MacQueen

Peter MacQueen (1865 - 1924) was an American big game hunter and adventurer who attempted to scale the summit of Mount Kibu in 1909.

In Wildest Africa by Peter MacQueen (1909) ... is "The Record Of A Hunting And Exploration Trip Through Uganda, Victoria Nyansa, The Kilimanjaro Region And British East Africa, With An Account Of An Ascent Of The Snowfields Of Mount Kibo, In East Central Africa, And A Description Of The Various Tribes" Free eBook

Henry Germain Mainwaring

Brigadier-General Henry Germain Mainwaring (1862 - 1922) was born in India to a British military family. He went on to command the 24th Regiment South Wales Borderers and served in the African colonial wars. Whilst on his big game shooting expedition in Somaliland, he surveyed some hitherto unexplored terrain on the southern boundary of Abyssinia.

A Soldier's Shikar Trips by Henry Germain Mainwaring (1920). An extremely uncommon sporting book containing both African and Asian hunting expeditions. A safari to Somaliland in 1894 where rhinoceros, gerenuk, lion, kudu, elephant, oryx and other plains game were bagged. Also contains tiger hunting in India, and hartebeest in South Africa. Free eBook

Isaac F Marcosson

Isaac Frederick Marcosson (1876 - 1961) was an American journalist, magazine editor and author.

An African Adventure by Isaac F Marcosson (1921) is an account of the author's post-World War I journey from Capetown through Rhodesia and the Congo. Having been a correspondent in Europe during the war, Marcosson knew General Smuts and King Leopold of Belgium which allowed exceptional access to remote areas. It includes details on early diamond mining, river transport, rail travel and both native and European African life. Free eBook

C J McGuinness

Charles John McGuinness (1893 - 1947) was an Irish adventurer, author and sailor. His history is rather shrouded in mystery, making many of it's details questionable. His military career came when he fought for the English in Africa. He was initially in the Cameroon region, but deserted in 1916 when he heard about the rebellion for independence taking place in Ireland. He then joined the Afrikaners against the British. It was shortly after this that he is rumoured to have been captured by the Germans. He convinced them that he was on their side and fought with them for a time in their East African Campaign. McGuinness claims to have been the sole survivor of a ship-wreck in Delagoa Bay near Mozambique in 1917. As the story goes, he was aboard the S S Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese steamer, when the ship wrecked and sank at the mouth of shark infested waters.

McGuinness took part in the first Byrd Antarctic expedition as chief officer, and two chapters in this memoir are devoted to his experiences then. He drowned in a ship-wreck off Ireland when bound for the Caribbean.

Nomad: Memoirs Of An Irish Sailor, Soldier, Pearl-Fisher, Pirate, Gun-runner, Rum-runner, Rebel And Antarctic Explorer by C J McGuinness (1934) relates the author's colourful life as an adventurer, with chapters on pearl-fishing in the South Seas, lion-hunting in East Africa, profiteering in Ireland, piracy in China, and much more.

Captain Malcolm McNeill

Captain Malcolm McNeill, DSO (1866 - 1917) served with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, seeing action in India and Somaliland. It was for his service in the campaign against the 'Mad Mullah' in Somaliland that he received the Distinguished Service Order.

He was a renowned big game hunter and his magnificent collection of trophies was kept in the museum attached to his house at Oban, Scotland. He was also listed as one of the donors (in the illustrious company of Selous, E N Buxton and others) of a H&H Royal Grade Double Rifle (.500/.450 Nitro Express) to President Theodore Roosevelt, 'in recognition of his services on behalf of preservation of species...'

In Pursuit Of The "Mad" Mullah: Service And Sport In The Somali Protectorate by Captain Malcolm McNeill (1902) is the story of the author's military service in Somaliland on expeditions against the Mullah (Sayid Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan, the Somali religious and military leader of the Dervish movement) with Colonel Harald Swayne and his brother, Lt Col Eric John Eagles Swayne. During his leave and while on expedition marches, the author did a lot of big game hunting for lion, gazelles, elephant and more. A chapter is written by Lt A C H Dixon. Free eBook

Dan McNickle

Teaching And Hunting In East Africa by Dan McNickle (2004) The author was selected as one of the teachers on the Teachers of East Africa Program, run by Columbia University in the 1960s. This book is the story of his four years spent in Tanzania, teaching, hunting and touring. In the process he had many experiences with the people, some close calls with the elephants, climbed an active volcano and presided over a polling station in the first presidential election in Tanzania.

Charles Meek

Charles 'Kim' Meek (1920 - 1999) entered service in Tanganyika as a District Officer in 1941. By 1959 he had risen to become Permanent Secretary in the office of the Chief Secretary and from 1960 to 1962 he served as Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister Nyerere and Secretary to the Cabinet.

Brief Authority: A Memoir Of Colonial Administration In Tanganyika By Charles Meek (2010) edited by Innes Meek, his son. This is an account of the author's twenty years in Tanganyika. He arrived in the former German colony during World War II and describes the challenges of living in a remote colony in war-time and of life among remarkable frontier characters and colleagues. There is a chapter devoted to elephant hunting.

Hans-Otto Meissner

Hans-Otto Meissner (1909 - 1992) was a German diplomat and writer.

One-Man Safari by Hans-Otto Meissner (1957). The author was a prolific purveyor of elephant meat and big tusks. He recounts his hunting exploits in pursuit of buffalo, lion, the coveted bongo, elephants, hippopotamus and more. He tracks his quarry down in regions as different as the Sahara and the depths of the central African forest.

Henry Melladew

Sport And Travel Papers by Henry Melladew (1909) is an account of hunting in the Sudan. Free eBook

Henry H Methuen

Life In The Wilderness: Or Wanderings In South Africa by Henry H Methuen (1846) is an account of early exploration of the Marikwa and Limpopo rivers with much on big game shooting. He hunted elephant, rhinoceros, hippo, buffalo and plains game.

Lt Col E D Miller

Lt Col Edward D Miller (1865 - joined the 17th Lancers at Lucknow, India in 1887. He served in the South African war and World War I and he ended up as Master of the Horse in the XV Corps (a British infantry corps). He was a lifelong polo player and big game hunter.

Fifty Years Of Sport by Lt Col E D Miller (1925) is sporting memoir of polo in India, England, Egypt and the USA, pigsticking in India, foxhunting in England and Ireland and big hunting in East Africa. He hunted in Kashmir and Nepal and was well known as a pig-sticker at Cawnpore and in Behar. Among his other Indian adventures are hunting tiger, cheetal and leopard. Free eBook

James Martin Miller

Hunting Big Game In The Wilds Of Africa With Thrilling Adventures Of The Famous Roosevelt Expedition by James Martin Miller (1909) tells of the expedition in search of lions, rhinoceri, elephants, hippopotami and other ferocious beasts of the jungle and plain, including journeys in unknown lands, miraculous escapes, curious customs of savage races, and marvellous discoveries in the dark continent, together with graphic descriptions of beautiful scenery, fertile valleys, vast forests, mighty rivers. A vast treasury of all that is marvellous and wonderful in darkest Africa. Free eBook

Jack Mohr

Gordon Dwight "Jack" Mohr (1916 – 2003) was a retired Lieutenant Colonel with the US Army and served in World War II and in Korea. He then became a Baptist evangelist and author, noted for his outspoken stand against liberalism and compromise in politics and religion.

Hyenas In My Bedroom by Jack Mohr (1969) is the story of an soldier stationed in Africa who stayed after service to hunt and travel in Ethiopia and elsewhere in East Africa and the Sudan.

Fred L M Moir

After Livingstone: An African Trade Romance by Fred L M Moir (1923) is the story of the Moir brothers, Fred and John William who in the 1880s set out to penetrate the the heart of Africa to open up trade routes between the East coast and the Great Lakes of Nyaja and Tanganyika. Includes some hunting with chapters on his first elephant, taming young elephants and small game hunting. The Moir brothers were also responsible for the abolition of the slave trade in those parts.

Charles Montague

Tales Of A Nomad: Or, Sport And Strife by Charles Montague (1894) relates both military and sporting experiences in South Africa with hunting for buffalo, hippopotamus, elephant, lion and antelope species. There are also encounters with elephants in Borneo. Free eBook

J E S Moore

John Edmund Sharrock Moore (1870 – 1947) was an English biologist, best known for leading two expeditions to Tanganyika (1895-1897 and 1899-1900) to survey the fauna of lakes, especially Lake Tanganyika.

To The Mountains Of The Moon by J E S Moore (1901) is an account of the author's second expedition to Tanganyika. He was the first European to reach the snowline of the Rwenzori Mountains, or the 'Mountains of the Moon', attaining the height of 14900 feet and proved the existence of permanent glaciers. The book includes some hunting of crocodiles, hippos and other game. Free eBook

Captain A H E Mosse

Captain Arthur Henry Eyre Mosse (b.1877) was in the Indian Army and while stationed at Aden, he went on two hunting trips to the Haud region of Somaliland.

My Somali Book: A Record Of Two Shooting Trips by Captain A H E Mosse (1913) is the account of two long and mostly productive shooting trips to Somaliland. Much on the famed lions of the areas as well as elephants, plains game and a chapter on rifles suitable for the area. Free eBook

George Mossop

George Joseph Mossop (1861 - 1938) was born in Durban, South Africa to a British family. He became an adventurer, hunter, soldier, transport rider and farmer. He started farmin in Portugues East Africa (Mozambique) in 1914. He joined a Boer hunting party, learnt horsemanship, how to shoot and live off the veldt, which was teeming with buck, wildebeest and quagga.

He later signed up with the Light Horse Infantry and served in the Anglo-Zulu War. Trooper George Mossop was immortalized in a painting depicting the Battle of Hlobane in 1879 (near the present town of Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal). Mossop threw himself down the Devil's Pass, at the Hlobane mountain, dragging his horse, Warrior' behind him. They scrambled down a further 600 feet to the plain below to escape a Zulu attack. The Battle of Hlobane was a British defeat resulting in the deaths of hundreds of men. Mossop and Warrior survived the descent and the horse managed to carry Mossop a further 20 miles to safety. Warrior died the the following morning.

Running The Gauntlet: Some Recollections Of Adventure by George Mossop (1937) is the author's fascinating memoir written at the age of 75 years about his life in the bush of the Transvaal and serving in the Anglo-Zulu War.

J M Moubray

In South Central Africa by J M Moubray (1912) is an account of the author's 6 years working as a mining engineer in the region, from 1903 to 1908. He hunted along the Upper Kafue River for hippo, roan, eland and wildebeest. Near Kashiwa Lake, he hunted buffalo, lion and elephant. However, he remarks..."Big game shooting is certainly very fascinating for a little while, but the novelty soon wears off". Free eBook

J T Muirhead

Ivory Poaching And Cannibals In Africa by J T Muirhead (1933) is an account of the author's experiences in Africa over a period of thirty years. J T Muirhead earned a living by hunting elephants throughout the Belgian Congo. He relates big game hunting in a sprightly manner and he is always hunting. Also he hunts lion and buffalo.

Thorburn Muirhead

Book sellers are confusing Thorburn Muirhead with J T Muirhead (possibly, James Thorburn) who wrote 'Ivory Poaching And Cannibals In Africa'. Research shows Thorburn Muirhead was born in 1899, the same year J T Muirhead, who came from New Zealand, was fighting in the South African Wars (1899 - 1902).

Strange To Relate by Thorburn Muirhead (1937) is an account of travels and big game hunting for elephant, buffalo in Africa and hunting bear, leopard and elephant in Asia. Also with some hunting in North America.

Arthur B R Myers

Arthur Bowen Richard Myers (1838 - 1921) served as Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel in the Coldstream Guards.

Life With Hamran Arabs: An Account Of A Sporting Tour Of Some Officers Of The Guards In The Soudan During The Winter Of 1874-5 by Arthur B R Myers (1876) is a very scarce book about a 2 year hunting tour of the Sudan with Hamran Arab guides who were renowned elephant hunters. In the remote regions beyond the town of Kassala, his hunting party encountered lion and elephant with Myers trying to bag the latter by moonlight. Crossing the Setit River, they enjoyed considerable sport after rhinoceros, buffalo, hippopotamus and numerous engagements with lions. They also bagged bushbuck, kudu, dik dik and other plains game. Free eBook

Lt Col E Napier

Edward Delaval Hungerford Elers Napier (1808 – 1870) was an officer in the British army who served in India, Gibraltar, Egypt and southern Africa.

Scenes And Sports In Foreign Lands by Major E Napier (1840) 2 Volumes. This is an account of the author's hunting in India while serving there with his regiment. He hunted tiger, bear, boar and more. Free ebook Vol I Free eBook Vol II

Excursions In Southern Africa by E Napier (1849) 2 Volumes. In 1846 the author was sent to the Cape with other special service field officers to organise the native levies, and commanded bodies of irregulars during the Xhosa war of 1846–7. While there he did some hunting and also met Roualeyn Gordon Cumming who did not like Napier's rifle, which he considered was much too heavy. Free eBook Vol I Free eBook Vol II

Wild Sports In Europe, Asia And Africa by E Napier (1846) 2 Volumes. This is a the collection of the author's hunting activities in all the countries he visited while in the army. Free eBook Vol I Free eBook Vol II

James A Nicolls & William Eglington

The Sportsman In South Africa by James A Nicolls & William Eglington (1892) ..."The Haunts, Habits, Description, And The Pursuit Of All Game, Both Fur And Feather, Found South Of The Zambesi (Including The Cape Colony, Transvaal, Bechuanaland, Natal, And Damaraland), At The Present Day, With Brief Notices Of The Best Known Fresh And Salt-Water Fish" Free eBook

Paul Niedieck

With Rifle In Five Continents by Paul Niedieck (1908). A German explorer and sportsman, Niedieck hunted in Portuguese East Africa, bagging hippopotamus, lion, buffalo, eland and a variety of antelope and zebra. While hunting in the Sudan in 1902, he collected buffalo, roan and other plains game but was severely mauled by an elephant. Later the same year, he travelled along the White Nile, bagging rhinoceros, lion and numerous antelope.

Cruises In The Bering Sea: Being Records Of Further Sport And Travel by Paul Niedieck (1909) is an account of a big game hunting cruise from Japan to Kamchatka, then across Bering Strait to Nome, Kodiak and the Inside Passage. Free eBook

Richard Oakley

Captain Richard Roberts Oakley joined the British colonial service in 1921 in northern Nigeria to fulfil his desire "to see a leopard and a giraffe in their natural setting". He was a keen big game hunter and it was one of his greatest joys to go out after work and shoot for the larder.

Treks And Palavers by Richard Oakley (1938) is an account of a political officer's life (including hunting) in the administration of Northern Nigeria in the 1920's and 1930's.

C G Oates

Francis (Frank) Oates (1840 – 1875) was a British naturalist, explorer and the uncle of Antarctic explorer Lawrence Oates. Frank Oates' legacy was a set of journals and letters describing the journey taken with his brother, William Edward Oates (1841 - 1896) to Matabeleland and the Victoria Falls. These journals were collated and edited by another of his brothers, Charles George Oates (1844 – 1901) into the book titled 'Matabele Land And The Victoria Falls: A Naturalist's Wanderings In The Interior Of South Africa, From The Letters And Journals Of The Late Frank Oates FRGS', first published in 1881. There is a permanent exhibit dedicated to Frank Oates at The Oates Museum at Selborne, Hampshire, UK.

Matabele Land And The Victoria Falls: A Naturalist's Wanderings In The Interior Of South Africa, From The Letters And Journals Of The Late Frank Oates FRGS by Frank Oates & C G Oates (1881) is the account of the African journey made by the British explorer and naturalist Frank Oates who became one of the first Europeans since David Livingstone to see the Victoria Falls in full flood. A month later, he was dead from malaria, aged 34. The book draws on the original diaries, letters and sketches of Frank Oates and documents his encounters with King Lobengula of the Ndebele and ivory hunter, Frederick Selous. It records Oates' final, fatal trek through the Zambezi Valley towards Victoria Falls. The book contains details of hunting by Oates and others he met during his journey. The book pictured is the 2nd edition published in 1889 which has updated information not found in the first edition. The 1881 edition is extremely rare with few copies ever sold as most were destroyed in a fire at the publisher's premises. Free eBook

Patrick Orr

Jambo Kenya by Patrick Orr (1970)is the account of a journey through Kenya in 1968 - from Nairobi to Maasai Mara, Nakuru, highlands of Aberdares, Mount Kenya, deserts of the north and then down to the coast, meeting people and listening to their stories. During the trip, the auther and his friend go hunting for zebra and ducks. He also took a week long safari to hunt an elephant - following a lone tusker with a limp.

Capt Dod Orsborne

George Black Orsborne (1902 – 1957) was a British trawler captain and seafarer, who acquired notoriety in 1936 when he took the trawler 'Girl Pat' on an unauthorised voyage across the Atlantic for which he was tried and imprisoned for the theft of the trawler. Orsborne served in the Royal Navy in both world wars.

Danger Is My Destiny by Capt Dod Orsborne (1955) describes the author's exploits as a British sailor in World War I, a lieutenant in the Commandos in World War II and who went on to retrace the voyage of Darwin. He went whaling and caught seal in the Arctic, plus hunted panther, leopard, tiger and elephant in the jungle. On a rescue mission in the Amazon basin, he barely escaped being murdered and he fled a Japanese prison camp riddled with bullets.

Master Of The Girl Pat by Capt Dod Orsborne (1949) was the author's first astonishing life story, which spanned two wars and the years between when he took the trawler 'Girl Pat' on a 6000 mile voyage (navigating with a cheap school atlas) where she was sighted in the Savage Islands, at Dakar in Senegal and off the South American coast, a sixpenny school atlas. This book recreates his exploits from logbooks, scrapbooks, letters and his own memory.

Ferdinand Ossendowski

Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski (1876 – 1945) was a Polish writer, explorer, university professor and political activist. Ossendowski's Asian travel books, particularly came under scrutiny for possibly been written by someone else - it was thought, possibly that there was no such person as Ossendowski...until he appeared in public defend his existence. However, the books do contain 'adventurous' anecdotes which do not seem to link together through travel, and he includes minimal topographical detail to identify the places to which he was supposed to have travelled. An episode he recounted of bear hunting in Asia, is completely implausible... a very tall tale indeed. According to some, he was considered the creator of a distinct genre called the 'travelling novel'.

It is also unclear whether some of Ossendowski books are actually have the same content published in different countries, under different titles, with different translators.

Slaves Of The Sun by Ferdinand Ossendowski (1928) is an account of travels in Algeria, Morocco and West Africa. It is unclear whether this is a fictional account or whether it is the same book as The Breath Of The Desert: The Account Of A Journey Through Algeria and Tunisia (1927), the English published version Oasis and Simoon: The Account Of A Journey Through Algeria and Tunisia (1927), or The Fire Of Desert Folk: The Account Of A Journey Through Morocco (1926)

Felix Oswald

Felix Oswald (1866 - 1958 ) was a geologist. in 1911 he went to the Victoria Nyanza to investigate the geology of some Miocene deposits for the British Museum that were found in the area earlier that year. Upon his return, he followed the vogue of the times and wrote his own African travel memoir describing his adventures with the Kavirondo tribe.

Alone In Sleeping-Sickness Country by Felix Oswald (1915) discusses sleeping sickness, an epidemic disease carried by the tsetse fly that wiped out native and settler populations alike in the early days of European exploration of Africa. An interesting and detailed account of this East African journey, with some intriguing sections on fossil collecting. Free eBook

T R H Owen

Thomas Richard Hornby Owen (1903 - 1982) was a colonial administrator in the Sudan and Uganda and very keen big game hunter.

Hunting Big Game With Gun And Camera by T R H Owen (1960) describes his African bush adventures where he hunts big game to shoot - with camera and gun.

Mansfield Parkyns

Mansfield Parkyns (1823 - 1894) was a British traveller who made a journey of exploration into Abyssinia where he stayed among the Abyssinians for more than three years and not only observed their lives but also adopted their dress and customs.

Life In Abyssinia: Being Notes Collected During Three Years' Residence And Travel In That Country by Mansfield Parkyns (1853). The author is considered an important early traveller in what is now Ethiopia. He describes everything he saw and was always ready to participate in a good big game hunt for buffalo, boar and plains game. Vol I Free eBook Vol II Free eBook

Francis B Pearce

Francis Barrow Pearce (1866 - 1926) was the Commissioner and later, Governor of British Central Africa (now Nyasaland) then became a resident of Zanzibar from 1913 to 1922.

Rambles In Lion Land: Three Months' Leave Passed In Somaliland by Francis B Pearce (1898) is about his sporting adventures in the Haud region of Somaliland. After travelling by camel caravan, he and his hunting party bagged oryx and aoul, plus records of numerous encounters with lion. Continuing into the interior, elephants were collected. Near the Ethiopian border and the Tyuli Hills, rhinoceros, kudu and leopard were hunted.

Zanzibar: The Island Metropolis Of Eastern Africa by Francis B Pearce (1908). As a British resident in Zanzibar at the height of colonialism the author knows his history and culture. The volume is a definitive study of Zanzibar.

C V A Peel

Charles Victor Alexander Peel (1869 - 1931) was a prolific British big game hunter and collector. He collected for the Royal Albert Museum in Devon and had his own private museum at his home in Oxford.

Through The Length Of Africa: Being An Account Of A Journey From Cape Town To Alexandria And Sport In Kenya Colony by C V A Peel (1927) is an account of Peel's travels through Africa from south to north and his elephant hunting in Kenya.

Somaliland: Being An Account Of Two Expeditions Into The Far Interior, Together With A Complete List Of Every Animal And Bird Known To Inhabit That Country And List Of The Reptiles by C V A Peel (1900) details the author's two expeditions to the interior part of Somaliland in search of big game. An excellent sporting title, this features all manner of big game hunting in the regions southwest of Hargeisa on Peel's first expedition, then through the Haud and Ogaden on his second. Free eBook

On A Collection Of Insects And Arachnids Made In 1895 And 1897 In Somaliland by C V A Peel (1900) are lithographic plates.

The Polar Bear Hunt by C V A Peel (1928)

Mr & Mrs John Petherick

John Petherick (1813 - 1882) & Katherine Harriet Edlman (1827-1877) were Welsh travellers in East Central Africa where Mr Petherick became a mining engineer. In 1845 he was employed searching for coal in Upper Egypt, Nubia, the Red Sea coast and Kordofan. In 1848 he established himself as a trader and was, at the same time made British Consul for the Sudan. In 1853 he removed to Khartoum and became an ivory trader. He travelled extensively in the Bahr-el-Ghazal region, then almost unknown.

Petherick's additions to the knowledge of natural history were considerable, being responsible for the discovery of a number of new species. In 1859 he returned to England where he became acquainted with John Speke, then arranging for an expedition to discover the source of the Nile. He returned to Sudan as consul in 1861 with his new wife and was entrusted with a mission by the Royal Geographic Society to convey relief stores for Speke and James Grant. With Mrs Petherick, he undertook another journey in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, making important collections of plants and fish and returned in February 1863, four days after the arrival of Speke and Grant.

Travels In Central Africa And Explorations Of The Western Nile Tributaries by Mr & Mrs John Petherick (1869) 2 Volumes. These volumes describe the author's important expedition exploring the Nile Tributaries and describe the Speke controversy in detail. Free eBook Vol II

Egypt, The Soudan, And Central Africa, With Explorations From Khartoum On The White Nile To The Regions Of The Equator: Being Sketches From Sixteen Years' Travel by John Petherick (1861). Petherick, a contemporary of Baker, Burton and Speke, travelled along the Nile Valley through Kordofan and into the unknown region beyond. Contains some big game hunting incidents. Free eBook

John C Phillips

John Charles Phillips (1876 - 1938) was an American medical doctor, hunter, zoologist and ornithologist. His great interest in nature, hunting and fishing took him all over the world - as well as North America, he hunted in Greenland, Japan, China, Ethiopia, Sinai Peninsula, Palestine, Cuba, Kenya, Uganda and the Congo.

Among the many animals and birds named in honour of John Phillips, is the blesbok, Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi. This came about after 1935, when he started a scientific review of existing knowledge on vanishing species in order to pinpoint those mammals and birds which might be saved from extinction. At that time the blesbok was close to extinction and it was named in Dr Phillip's honour in 1939.

A Sportsman's Scrapbook by John C Phillips (1928) is about hammer guns, camps, bird shooting and chamois, moose and sheep hunting.

A Sportsman's Second Scrapbook by John C Phillips (1933) is the sequel to 'A Sportsman's Scrapbook' of 1928 and includes more hunting and outdoor tales in two parts - New England and then more distant trails in Arizona, Virginia, Sudan, Kenya, Ireland and France.

E Plewman De Kock

Captain Ernest Plewman De Kock (1876 - 1962) was a South African born naturalist and hunter.

Various Outspans by E Plewman De Kock (1949) is a rare title describing 40 years of frontier life from 1904 in Rhodesia. Includes tales of hunting lions, sable, and roan with encounters with rhino, elephants, crocodile and buffalo.

Bundu Briefs by E Plewman De Kock (1958) is a collection of nature notes about the Rhodesian 'bundu' - essays of animals, reptiles, insects, birds, legends and tales of the Lowveld.

Sir Gerald Portal

Sir Gerald Herbert Portal (1858 – 1894) was a British diplomat who was the Consul General for British East Africa and British Special Commissioner to Uganda, and a main figure in the establishment of the Uganda Protectorate. He also had held diplomatic posts in Italy, Eygpt, Zanzibar and in 1887 Portal was ordered to Abyssinia to attempt a reconciliation between the Emperor of Ethiopia and the Italian government. This mission failed but he wrote an account of the expedition in his first book.

My Mission To Abyssinia by Sir Gerald Portal (1892) is a personal account of Portal's journey to visit the Emperor Johannis in order to submit certain terms by which the Italians would refrain from any act of war with Abyssinia. Free eBook

The British Mission To Uganda In 1893 by Sir Gerald Portal (1894) was published posthumously using Gerald Portal's diary and papers, edited by Rennel Rodd. It is the account of Portal's mission in Uganda when he was appointed British Special Commissioner to East Africa in 1892. He was directed to visit Uganda and to report to the British Government on the advisabilty of setting up a British Protectorate to replace the Imperial British East Africa Company (which included the Uganda territory at the time). Portal established a settlement between rival factions, which included the Kabaka (King) of Buganda, French Catholic and British Protestant missionaries. In 1893 he signed a treaty with Mwanga II and took down the flag of the British East Africa Company and hoisted the Union Jack. Portal returned to Britain and recommended the declaration of Uganda as a protectorate. He died from typhoid fever in London in 1894, five months before Uganda was formally declared a British Protectorate. Portal relates his hunting exploits while on exploratory expeditions in Uganda. Free eBook

Count Joseph Potocki

Count Jozef Nicolas Xaver Maria Alfred Jacob Potocki (1862 - 1922) was a Polish aristocrat, landowner, politician, railway builder, sportsman, big-game hunter, collector and Arabian horse breeder. He created a 12,000 hectare deer park known as Pilawin (visited and written about by Richard Lydekker) with it's own 88 mile railway service. Potocki kept game birds, elk herds, roebuck and wapiti along with both European and North American bison. In 1895 he took a hunting safari to Somaliland's Haud region and then into the Ogaden.

Sport In Somaliland: Being An Account Of A Hunting Trip To That Region by Count Joseph Potocki (1900) is one of the rarest of all African big game hunting books. There were 200 copies printed, apparently most or all signed by Rowland Ward. It is an account of his Somaliland hunt where the party bagged elephant, lion, leopard, rhinoceros, aoul, gazelle, hartebeest and beisa oryx. Potocki spared no expense with the original publication of his book and the excellent artwork in the book is from the talented Polish illustrator Piotr Stachiewicz.

Rhinoceros Prints are available taken from the book 'Sport In Somaliland' by Joseph Potocki.

Lt Col V L Prescott-Westcar

Sir William Villier Leonard Prescott-Westcar (1882 - 1959) was a baronet who served with the Rifle Brigade and was decorated for conspicuous gallantry in action during WWI.

Big Game, Boers And Boches by Lt Col V L Prescott-Westcar (1937). The author arrived in the Sudan in 1912 and embarked on a shooting trip along the White Nile hunting elephant, hippo, lion and more, with later excursions along the Blue Nile. It also covers his hunting in India and Burma for bear, leopard, bison and some pig sticking. It also includes tales of his military exploits.

Herbert Edward Pretyman

Herbert Edward Pretyman (1863 - 1891) served as a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards before he went on his hunting expedition in Egypt, after which he died in his late 20s.

Journal Of An Expedition To The Kittar Mountains In 1891 by Herbert Edward Pretyman (1892) is the journal written by the author about his 1891 hunting trip in the Kittar mountains, in the eastern desert of Egypt. The photographs in the book are possibly the first ever taken of the Kittar mountains where he hunted ibex and antelope. The author travelled back from Ismalia to London in 1891 and died in the same year. It was believed he had not fully recovered from a severe attack of typhoid and jaundice he sustained during his journey. His father Reverend Frederic Pretyman arranged to have the journal published a short while later for private circulation.

Frank Lavallin Puxley

Frank Lavallin Puxley served in the Boer War after which he embarked on a number of shooting expeditions into the interior of Africa. He was convinced of the existence of a giant elephant known as the 'Crown Prince' which was claimed to have ivory of 300lb a side and he, himself had seen the 29 1/2" spoor.

In African Game Tracks: Wanderings With A Rifle Through Eastern Africa by Frank Lavallin Puxley (1929). In Mozambique, he hunted lion and eland and trophy buffalo with further eland in Nyasaland. There are chapters on hunting lion, elephant, hippopotamus and giraffe as well. The author writes, "There were two, and only two things, of which he was afraid, Women and elephant; but you can shoot elephants!" The hunt for elephants extends from the Sudan to the Cape Colony.

Jose Maria D'Eca De Queiroz

Wild Sanctuary: The Astonishing Animals Of Gorongosa And Safaris In Mozambique by Jose Maria D'Eca De Queiroz (1964) is a very scarce title on Mozambique - and one of the few mid-20th century worthwhile books on hunting in that country. Text in Portuguese and English.

Peter Rainier

Peter William Rainier (1890 – 1945) was born in South Africa in an itinerant's tent during the Barberton gold-rush in Transvaal after his father jumped ship and became an ox wagon transport rider. Rainier came from a long line of British naval admirals and captains and he was the great, great grand-nephew of Peter Rainier, the British naval admiral for whom Mount Rainier, Washington, was named.

He was a big game Hunter, civil engineer, mining engineer (gold, diamonds, emeralds & coal), a scout in the South African Forces campaign against German Southwest Africa during World War I and a Major in the British Royal Engineers during World War II. He was an author of several books, one of which was made into a film, 'Green Fire' (1952) which was about his time as an emerald miner in South America. Rainier died as the result of burns sustained in a hotel fire in Red Lake, Ontario, Canada, while there attending a mining conference. Read more about Peter Rainier's extraordinary life

My Vanished Africa by Peter Rainier (1940) recalls the author's early years growing up in Africa when he travelled extensively throughout South Africa, Mozambique, Rhodesia and Nigeria. There is another book titled African Hazard (1940) which maybe another version of 'My Vanished Africa'.

Maurice Randall

Game, Glory And Bitter Blood by Maurice Randall (1990). Memoirs of an African hunter. The author was brought to Kenya as an infant and his career included game catching, action during World War II and against the Mau Mau terrorists.

Fred Raper

Fred Raper (1878 - 1956) was a British adventurer who arrived in Kenya in 1911 after taking part in the Klondyke gold rush in Canada. In Kenya he worked briefly as manager of a farm near Nairobi before heading to the Congo to join a friend where they hunted and started trading between Kenya and the Congo. All went well until the outbreak of World War I. After serving in the War, he tried various other jobs such as hotel-keeping, cattle trading, auctioneering and saddlery retailing.

Klondyke To Kenya by Fred Raper (1938) is the autobiography of an incredibly adventurous life covering the author's experience of the Klondyke gold rush, the founding days of Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi, DRC) prospecting in Africa and fighting in Kenya during World War I.

Major Harry Rayne

Major Henry A Rayne was a New Zealander who settled in East Africa after gaining an impressive Boer War record. He made a living growing cotton and shooting big game, became District Commissioner in Somaliland and was an honourary member of the Camel Corps. Harry Rayne was one of the very few people to have hunted elephant with W D M Bell.

The Ivory Raiders by Major Harry Rayne (1923) are tales of the Northern Frontier District and Lake Rudolf (Turkana) before and after the First World War, hunting, police and KAR operations.

Sun, Sand And Somals: Leaves From The Note-Book Of A District Commissioner In British Somaliland by Major Harry Rayne (1921)

C Lestock Reid

Claude Lestock Reid (1888 - 1954) was born in India to British parents. He served as a Major in the Indian Cavalry before becoming a writer, film-maker and lecturer while travelling in in Africa and the Far East. He wrote mostly fictional thrillers and romances which were said to have been similar to Rider Haggard. His non-fiction books include 'An Amateur In Africa' and other historical works. He was a keen big game hunter, swimmer and tennis player.

An Amateur In Africa by C Lestock Reid (1925) by C Lestock Reid (1925). The author's adventures in British East Africa hunting rhinos, buffalo, elephants and more.

Wilfrid Robertson

Rhodesian Rancher by Wilfrid Robertson (1935) is an interesting account of ranching and big game hunting in Zimbabwe back when it was Rhodesia. The author carved a farm out of virgin bush in the Zambezi valley north of Sinoia (Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe) in the 1920s and 1930s.

Zambezi Days by Wilfrid Robertson (1936) includes hunting lion, buffalo. leopard and elephant in the remote Zambezi regions, along the Zambezi and Chewore Rivers. The author spent a lot of time hunting leopard and elephant with a chapter devoted to each of: elephant, rhino, buffalo, hippo, crocodile and a variety of antelopes. There additional notes on selecting rifles. Vividly written portrait of the African wilds and dangerous big game. Very scarce book.

Wilfrid Robertson was also a prolific author of fiction with many novels set in Africa.
More Wilfrid Robertson books

Robert H Rockwell

My Way Of Hunting: The Adventurous Life Of a Taxidermist by Robert H Rockwell (1956) The author's life as a taxidermist from his apprenticeship with Wards of Rochester to expeditions collecting big game specimens for the Akeley African Hall at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Percy Rowe

Walking With Legends In Old Africa by Percy Rowe (2016) is a memoir, recounting tales from the author's days in the wild African bush during the 1940-1950's. These tales chronicle Percy's early days growing up in the Andrade Valley of Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), his elephant hunting adventures with Wally Johnson and other notable characters from that era and his crocodile hunting escapades in Nyasaland (Malawi).

Peter Ryhiner

The Wildest Game by Peter Ryhiner (1958) as told to Dan Mannix. The author began as a hunter but then became an animal collector who captured animals from around the world for zoos. Includes accounts of the transport of animals mostly by ship and mishaps that occurred.

Henry Salt

Henry Salt (1780 – 1827) was an English artist, traveller, collector of antiquities, diplomat and Egyptologist. He was sent to Abyssinia first in 1805 to meet with Wolde Selassie, Ras of Tigray to open up trade relations on behalf of the English. Salt returned to Ethiopia in 1809 on a government mission to develop trade and diplomatic links with the Emperor Egwale Seyon, who he was unable to meet. So he took himself off on another mission to verify and amend the information about the region reported by the earlier Scottish traveller, James Bruce. Salt returned to England in 1811 with numerous specimens of plants and animals, which included a previously unknown species of dik-dik - now known as Salt's dik-dik, Madoqua saltiana. Salt was later appointed to be the Consul General in Egypt where he pursued his archaeological research.

Voyage To Abyssinia: And Travels Into The Interior Of That Country, Executed Under The Orders Of The British Government In The Years 1809 & 1810 by Henry Salt (1814) is an account of the author's expeditions across Egypt and Ethiopia in 1809 on a British government mission to establish contact with the King of Abyssinia. He stayed there for two years and on his return wrote this book. It includes accounts about the lives of local people, from Mozambique to Egypt and a glossary of local languages. The full-page illustrations are made by Charles Heath from original sketches by Salt and include an illustration with a description of hunting hippo on the River Tacazzi. Free eBook

Richard Sampson

The Man With A Toothbrush In His Hat by Richard Sampson (1972) is the life story of George Copp Westbeech, one of the traders and hunters who were among the first white people to penetrate South Central Africa. Westbeech crops up in many books by hunters and explorers for the advice he gave them for their travels in the region.
Westbeech's diary was also edited and published by Edward C Tabler

White Induna: George Westbeech And The Barotse People by Richard Sampson (2008) is a reprint of 'The Man With A Toothbrush In His Hat'. George Westbeech was a notable trader and hunter and as he had command of the African languages, he gained the respect of the tribal chiefs who were ruling both sides of the Zambezi River. The Barotse people appointed him an Induna (a Senior Headman) which gave him considerable influence and power in the country.

E F Sandeman

Edward Fraser Sandeman (c.1856 - 1894) served as an officer in the Royal Perthshire Militia.

Eight Months In An Ox-Waggon by E F Sandeman (1880) is an account of the author's tour throughout South Africa in 1878. He started from Pietermaritzburg and hunted en route to places such as Spitzkop, Lydenberg and the goldfields. The game he hunted included springbok, blesbok, klipspringer, reedbuck, wildebeest, lion, buffalo and giraffe.

Hans Sauer

Johannes (Hans) Sauer (1857 - 1939) was a South African medical doctor, lawyer, adventurer and businessman. He had a job as a Quarantine Officer on the Modder River, examining people heading to the town. A year later he left his position and joined Dr Oskar Sommershield in a hunting trip that took him through the Transvaal and into Mozambique. Returning to Africa after his law studies in London, he worked for Cecil Rhodes inspecting the potential goldfields in Rhodesia. In 1893 he became head of the Rhodesian Exploration Company and arrived during the First Matabele War began and would eventually establish himself in Bulawayo.

Ex Africa by Hans Sauer (1937) is a fascinating account of the author's adventurous life in southern Africa during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Frank Savile

Frank Mackenzie Savile (1865 – 1950) was a British author of mainly boy's fantastic adventure novels. He served during the First World War and was wounded at Gallipoli, before becoming a major in the newly formed Tank Battalion. In later years he became an explorer and big-game hunter in Africa.

The High Grass Trail: Being Difficulties And The Diversions Of Two: Trekking And Shooting For Sustenance In Dense Bush Across British Central Africa by Frank Savile (1924) is an account of hunting in Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia and along the Zambezi River.

The River Of The Giraffe: A Chronicle Of Desert, Stream And Forest Shooting In The Southern Sudan by Frank Savile (1925) is an account of hunting along a tributary of the White Nile for tiang, buffalo, roan, oribi, waterbuck and more.

Aurel Schulz & August Hammar

Dr Julius Antonius Aurelius Schulz (1858 - 1918), of German parentage, was born in South Africa. He was a medical doctor, naturalist, big game hunter and explorer.

August Hammar (1856 - 1931) was a Swedish mining engineer and surveyor in South Africa. He created all the sketches and maps during their expedition.

The New Africa: A Journey Up The Chobe And Down The Okovanga Rivers: A Record Of Exploration and Sport by Aurel Schulz & August Hammar (1897). Details the authors' expedition to the Victoria Falls and regions further west, with the aim the full exploration of the Chobe River. When they reached the Victoria Falls, they followed the Zambezi upstream, travelled up the Linyanti River then cut across to the Okavango River above the Popa Falls. They then went down the river to Lake Ngami, completing the mapping of the course of the Okavango-Taoghe Rivers from the Popa Falls in Namibia into Botswana. They also demonstrated the connection between the Okavango and the Chobe Rivers.

Henry Seaton

Henry Seaton served in the East African Protectorate Administration Service after leaving Oxford University, from 1914 to 1934.

Lion In The Morning by Henry Seaton (1963) "Henry Seaton presents his own particular vision of East Africa as it was from 1913 to 1926, the unsophisticated Africa with its peoples and wild life, before the golden age came to an end. In early 1914 the spirit of the White Highlands in the East Africa Protectorate was one of unbounded optimism, of faith and a great love. The pioneers were out of the ruck, all set for the making of a new heaven on a new earth. In the Native Reserves, by which white settlement was immediately surrounded, peace, trust and goodwill prevailed. The scents, the sights, the heat and the wind of Africa pervade the story."

Julia Seth-Smith & Antony Seth-Smith

Donald Farquharson Seth-Smith (1884 - 1959) first went to British East Africa in 1904 to visit his older brother Martin, who had come to Kenya a year earlier. In 1908 Donald bought a farm near Thika together with Lord Cranworth and others. As well farming, Seth-Smith was a pioneer big game hunter with his son Antony Seth-Smith (b.1937) following in his footsteps to become a renowned professional hunter.

Julia Seth-Smith is the wife of Tony Seth-Smith's son, Martin.

Donald's War: The Diary Of A Settler In The East Africa Campaign by Julia Seth-Smith & Antony Seth-Smith (2018) records Donald Seth-Smith's war experiences from January 1916 in Tsavo until he was invalided back to Kenya in February 1917. In 1914, Donald Seth-Smith joined the Supply Corps and later enlisted in Logan's Battery for the push into German East Africa. Donald received the Military Cross in January 1917 for bravery in the battle for Kibata in southern Tanganyika.

Arthur Henry Sharp

Sport In Portuguese East Africa by Arthur Henry Sharp (1900) is an original article from the Badminton Magazine 1900. The author accompanied Ewart Grogan on part of his Cape to Cairo walk and wrote part of 'From The Cape To Cairo: The First Traverse Of Africa From South To North'.

R R Sharp

Robert Rich Sharp (1881 – 1960) was a British traveller who ended up big game hunting, prospecting and mining in the Congo after finishing at Oxford University. In 1915 he was credited with finding an important vein of pitchblende and other uranium minerals at Shincolobwe, Katanga which the Belgians started mining in 1921.

Early Days In Katanga by R R Sharp (1956) is a scarce title published by the author. Sharp arrived in East Africa in 1904 and proceeded to the Katanga region of the Belgian Congo to work at the tin and copper mines. He hunted elephant, lion, rhino and a variety of antelope species on the way.

Captain William T Shorthose

William John Townsend Shorthose (born 1888) was a Captain in the South Staffordshire Regiment before serving as a Lieutenant Colonel with the King's African Rifles during the Great War in East Africa. Read more about Lieutenant Colonel W T Shorthose's distinguished World War I service in German East Africa.

Spade And Sport In Paganland: Being The Narrative Of A Rolling Stone In Nigeria by William T Shorthose (1934) is one of the very few books on prospecting in Nigeria together with big game hunting.

Sport And Adventure In Africa: A Record Of Twelve Years Of Big Game Hunting, Campaigning And Travel In The Wilds Of Tropical Africa by William T Shorthose (1923). The author recalls meeting Andersson and Sutherland. Much on hunting elephant, buffalo, sable and eland in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

A J Siggins

Arthur James Siggins (1880-1970) was a New Zealand born author and commentator, who became a member of the Rhodesian police, a hunter and wild animal wrangler for movies.

Man-Killers I Have Known by A J Siggins (1933) was reproduced as a replica by Trophy Room Books in 1999. The author narrates stories of African man-killing animals including lions, leopards, hyena, crocodiles, elephants, buffalo, snakes and mosquitoes during his time in Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa.

Shooting With Rifle And Camera: Filming The Four Feathers - A Big-Game Thriller by A J Siggins (1933) includes the author's memories of hunting elephant, hippos, and buffalo along the Rovuma River of Portugese East Africa. It is mostly concerned with capturing a herd of hippos for a film, 'The Four Feathers'.

João Augusto Silva

João Augusto Silva (1910 - 1990) was a Portuguese colonial administrator official in Guinea, Angola and Mozambique, and illustrator, photographer, naturalist and writer. He was also a big game hunter who later exchanged his firearm for a camera.

Gorongosa: Shooting Big Game With A Camera by João Augusto Silva (1965) is a photographic and written record of the wildlife in Gorongosa. There is a subtitle ... "The photographs taken by the author while on foot and without the protection of any fire-arms". The author became the administrator of the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique.

Sir James Lewis Sleeman

Lt Colonel Sir James Lewis Sleeman (1880 - 1963) served in the 6th Battalion Welsh Regiment and became "a man who believed it is much more satisfying to have a photograph of an animal than to have its head on a wall."

From Rifle To Camera: The Reformation Of A Big Game Hunter by Sir James Lewis Sleeman (1947) with illustrations and an introduction by Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore. "The Author writes with engaging modesty, and possesses a great ability to present his many notable big game hunting adventures in a forthright, graphic manner." Much on hunting in Asia particularly tigers and in Africa and around the world. It also tells how the author changed his philosophy from predator to environmentalist and conservator of the beasts he used to hunt.

J R Smeaton-Stuart

Safari For Gold by J R Smeaton-Stuart (1942) is an account of the author's attempts at gold-mining with his associate Roger Courtney. Like Courtney, John Roland Smeaton-Stuart married a daughter of Charles Cottar, Thelma Cottar.

H A Snow

Henry Adelbert Snow (1869 - 1927) was an American adventurer, film maker and big game hunter who, in 1919, went on African hunting expedition to collect African animal specimens for a new natural history museum in Oakland. He returned with 169 mammals, 1500 birds, 5000 bird eggs and 40000 insects for the museum, hoping that a large museum building would be built to house the collection. However, Oakland purchased the Cutting Mansion to serve as a temporary location for the collection which opened in 1922, named the 'Snow Museum of Natural History'.

The eccentric Snow had further grand schemes for the city of Oakland such as digging a 40' deep cave on the shore of Lake Merritt, which he would stock with lions, rhinos, hippos and "a giraffe or two". There would be no animal cages - just a wide, deep water-filled moat to stop the animals escaping. The idea did not get city approval.

Henry Snow died of blackwater fever, a severe complication of malaria, he picked up while hunting in Africa. Read more about Henry A Snow.

Hunting Big Game In Africa by H A Snow (1922) is a 24 page, privately published booklet possbly as a promotional piece for Winchester guns ... "which were used exclusively in the film 'Hunting Big Game In Africa'..." . Snow travelled to Kenya to film a movie with the same title as this booklet which contains photographs from the movie of Snow and his son, Sidney A Snow (1898 – 1959) with a lion, elephant and rhino, as well as camp scenes. (Sidney A Snow is mistakenly referred to as Henry's brother by some booksellers).

Neil G Speed

Major Charles Joseph Ross (1857 - 1922) was an Australian (born of Canadian parents) soldier who started his military career as a US army scout in the Indian wars before joining the Canadian Mounted Police for 6 years. In the South African Anglo Boer War he was awarded a DSO whilst riding with Roberts' Horse.

Ross stayed in Africa trading and buying land in German East Africa. He also started ivory hunting there until the German authorities seized his land in retaliation for poaching. He then moved to British East Africa to continue his elephant hunting, selling his ivory to a trader across the border in GEA. Angry about the loss of his land Ross used to seize herds of native cattle across the GEA border which further infuriated the German authorities.

In an effort to curtail these activities, British East Africa appointed him as an Assistant Game Ranger in 1907. Ross gradually became respectable, and was one of the guides on Theodore Rooseveldt's safari in 1909. A year later he was involved with another safari, this time for 'Buffalo' Jones to lassoo animals. On this safari the photographer was Cherry Kearton who later served in East Africa in the 25th Royal Fusiliers, as Ross was likely to have done too.

Upon the declaration of World War I, he was appointed to form his own unit of Scouts and in 1914 the 40 men of Ross's Scouts were sent to secure the western end of the British East Africa-German East Africa border area. Eventually Ross's Scouts were disbanded in 1915 with many of the men going into Intelligence service.

What Major Ross himself did next is rather a mystery...even though military records have him qualified for the 1914/15 Star, the War & Victory medals and his medal card lists him as a Major in Ross's Scouts, East African Mounted Rifles and East African Service Corps, there is no record of his service with the East African Mounted Rifles. The author, Neil G Speed, believes he that he may have joined 25th Royal Fusiliers founded by Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Patrick Driscoll in 1915 - the unit with which his friend Frederick Selous served and ultimately was killed. After the war Ross re-joined the BEA Game Department, working in what is now Kenya. He died of double pneumonia caused by exposure after a fall whilst out on patrol in 1922.

Born To Fight: Major Charles Joseph Ross DSO: A Definitive Study Of His Life. Was He Australian, American Or Canadian? by Neil G Speed (2002) is a biography of the extraordinary life of Major Charles Joseph Ross DSO.

J Granville Squiers

Alone In An African Swamp by J Granville Squiers (1938) is a memoir of the author's experience in the First World War campaign against German East Africa and his safari expeditions. He was experienced hunter and trader and was hired to examine the mangrove forests of East Africa for possible harvesting. He travelled down the Rufiji River spending time examining the wrecked German warship Koenigsberg, with several incidents of hunting hippopotamus and crocodile.

William B Stanley & Courtenay Hodgson

Elephant Hunting In West Africa by William B Stanley & Courtenay Hodgson (1919) is not only an interesting account of hunting elephant in Sierra Leone and the Gambia but also provides details on other west African game. Elephant hunting throughout the west African coast. Also lion and Cape buffalo hunting. Ranks with the best of the better known African elephant hunting titles and is one of the few on hunting these animals in western Africa. Also good photos of west African antelope.

Peter Stark

The White Bushman by Peter Stark (2012) is the author's memoir about his experiences in the former German South West Africa, now Namibia - first as a farm manager and lion hunter and later as a nature conservationist. Tales include lions chasing San trackers, elephants trampling a campsite or the spearing of 32 scorpions with a kebab-skewer.

Colonel J C B Statham

Colonel John Charles Baron Statham (1872 - 1933) was an English surgeon, sportsman and hunter. He served in The RAMC and was killed by wild bees while on an archaelogical investigation in India.

Through Angola: A Coming Country by J C B Statham (1922) contains much remarkable material on the Giant Sable Antelope. Free eBook

With My Wife Across Africa By Canoe And Caravan by J C B Statham (1924). Colonel Statham knew Africa from previous hunting trips. His wife suggested that for their wedding trip they cross Africa. They decided to make the crossing from Mossamedes to the Kubango river, and down it and the Zambezi river system to the Indian Ocean. This part of the trip had never been done by white people and there were very few accounts of the region. So this was to be a wedding trip, a hunting trip and an exploratory trip of a life time. The trip was in fact not completed as originally thought out because of unforeseen dangers from the hippopotami and crocodiles.

Richard Stead

Adventures On The Great Rivers: Romantic Incidents And Perils Of Travel, Sport And Exploration Throughout The World by Richard Stead (1907) is a fascinating book of travel, sport and exploration throughout the world. With chapters on elephant hunting, the river Nile, elk hunting, rough times on the Amazon, big game in South Africa and much more on the world's great rivers. Free eBook

Daring Deeds Of Great Mountaineers: True Stories Of Adventure, Pluck And Resource In Many Parts Of The World by Richard Stead (1921) Free eBook

Major P M Stewart

Major Percy Marlborough Stewart (1871 - 1962) was a British traveller, big game hunter and angler. He made seven round the world sporting trips over a period of twenty years.

Round The World With Rod And Rifle by Major P M Stewart (1924) covers shark and tarpon fishing in Mexico, black buck shooting in India, rhino hunting in Rhodesia, trout and salmon fishing in Norway, lechwe shooting in the swamps of Bangweulu and sword-fish angling in Florida.

Tales Of Travel And Sport by Major P M Stewart (1930) is an entertaining work, with hunting in both Africa and Canada.

Travel And Sport In Many Lands by Major P M Stewart (1928) covers shark fishing, caribou hunting in British Columbia, bear hunting in Alberta and angling in England.

Jack Stodel

Jack Stodel (1899 - 1979) was a South African theatre personality and entrepreneur who tried his hand at many projects the world in theatre, movies and acting. He was also a big game hunter and a game fisherman but shifted from hunting to take up the cause of wildlife conservation before the end of his life. He fought for South Africa and allies in three theatres of war - in German South West Africa (now, Namibia), German East Africa and in France. After surviving malaria and injuries, he returned to South Africa, still only aged 19 with the rank of Captain, to later serve in World War II and become the branch manager of the African Theatres in Cape Town.

The Jackpot Story by Jack Stodel (1965) is an entertaining account of hunting with the San people in Namibia and includes chapters on sport after steenbok, duiker, crocodiles and leopards, with big game fishing off the African coast. Most of the remaining content involves his experiences travelling in America and as as soldier during the Great War.

H W Struben

Hendrik Wilhelm Struben (aka Henry William Struben or Harry Struben) (1840 - 1915) was a German-born South African pioneer gold miner and later, a politician.

Recollection Of Adventures 1850 - 1911: Pioneering And Development In South Africa by H W Struben (1920) is a collection of incidents and stories from the author's life as a gold miner, including his big game hunting trips for buffalo, lions, hyenas and giraffes, bushveld treks and ivory trading. The book was revised and edited by his daughter Edith Struben. Free eBook

Robert Briggs Struthers

Robert Briggs Struthers (1822 - 1892) was a Scotsman who emigrated to the Colony of Natal in 1849. Between 1852 and 1856 he hunted on foot in the Zulu kingdom and in the regions known as Tsongaland and southern Mozambique. Thereafter he served in the Natal colonial service until his retirement in 1882.

Hunting Journal 1852-1856 In The Zulu Kingdom And The Tsonga Regions by Robert Briggs Struthers (1991) is a transcript of his hunting, ivory trading and exploration diaries of travel in the Zulu Kingdom & the Tsonga regions.

J T Studley

John Tatchell Studley (1863 - 1916) was a British big game hunter and angler. Newspaper reports of his rather lurid divorce court case has him stating to have been in Africa just over a year, returning to Britain in 1895. He said he went firstly as the private secretary to Sir Claude MacDonald, then left for his East African hunt. At this time, MacDonald was Commissioner and Consul-General in the West African Oil Rivers Protectorate.

Journal Of A Sporting Nomad by J T Studley (1912) is about the author's hunting trips - he hunted lion near the Pungwe River in South Africa, then proceeded on an extended hunting trip to British East Africa where he successfully hunted buffalo, lion and eland. He also hunted whales near Spitsbergen, fished for salmon in Iceland, pursued tarpon off the Florida coast and hunted Dall sheep and moose on the Kenai in Alaska and in British Columbia.

Robert Sutherland

Zambesi Camp Fires by Robert Sutherland (1935) is a scarce book about hunting in the Zambesi Valley of Rhodesia for leopard, lion, buffalo and elephant, etc.

Colonel Harold G Swayne

Colonel Harold George Carless Swayne (1860 - 1940) was a British army officer who served in Somaliland. Swayne's hartebeest, Alcelaphus buselaphus swaynei and Swayne's dik dik, Madaqua swaynei were named after him in 1892 and 1894 respectively. Colonel Swayne still holds the Rowland Ward record for Swayne's hartebeest which is now extinct in Somalia but still to be found in Ethiopia. (His name may sometimes be seen spelt as 'Harald George Carlos').

Seventeen Trips Through Somaliland: A Record Of Exploration And Big Game Shooting 1885 To 1893 by Colonel Harold G Swayne (1895) is the narrative of several journeys in the hinterland of the Somali Coast Protectorate, dating from 1884 up to 1893. At that period Somalia was under British Protectorate. Swayne considered himself the first traveller to cross the country with the object of exploration. In his account he presents the different phases of life in nomadic Galla tribes who inhabit the land between the Gulf of Aden and the great African lakes. Most of the illustrations in this work are direct reproductions from the authors own drawings. The book covers wide variety of subjects including, the ethnology of the country, the nomadic life, camel and horse breeding, the government exploration surveys, and visits to the Abyssinian border and Ras Nakunan of Harar in 1893. Free eBook

Through The Highlands Of Siberia by Major H G C Swayne (1904). Swayne and his shooting companion, noted sportsman H W Seton-Karr, travelled from Moscow, across the Urals and into the mountainous regions of Mongolia and the Altai Shan. Near the Chagan-Burgaza Pass, Ovis ammon were bagged. In the Laki Valley, ibex and more Ovis ammon were collected. There are excellent descriptions of the terrain throughout. The author used Elim Demidoff's 'After Wild Sheep in the Altai and Mongolia' as a guide. Free eBook

Captain Clement A Sykes

Clement Arthur Sykes (1871 - 1938) was a British army officier and big game hunter.

Service And Sport On The Tropical Nile by Clement A Sykes (1903). 'Some records of the duties and diversions of an officer among natives and big game during the re-occupation of the Nilotic province'. Sykes relates his military duties in the Sudan along the Nile, but also mixes in some exciting elements of big game hunting. Free eBook

Patrick M Synge

Major Patrick Millington Synge (1910 - 1982) was a famous British plant collector and horticulturalist. In 1934 he made an important expedition to Ruwenzori mountain region in East Africa to study and collect the flora and fauna for the British Museum. Synge also travelled to Mount Kenya, Mount Elgon, the Virunga volcanoes and the Aberdare Mountains.

Mountains Of The Moon: An Expedition To The Equatorial Mountains Of Africa by Patrick M Synge (1937) is his account of the natural history expedition by the British Museum in East Africa. Synge describes the Ruwenzori Mountains as "The most monstrous and unearthly landscape I have ever seen".

H Lincoln Tangye

Sir Harold Lincoln Tangye (1866 - 1935) was a British engineer involved with the development of gas and oil engines within his father's company, later becoming deputy chairman. In addition to his travels on the firm's business, he toured widely and wrote two books describing trips to South Africa and the Sudan.

In The Torrid Sudan by H Lincoln Tangye (1910) "...is to show the Sudan, or some portions of it, as it appears to the present-day observer, to the student of mankind and the lover of Nature, living and still; to describe the amenities of sport and travel in widely separated districts amongst varied peoples..." Free eBook

In New South Africa: Travels In The Transvaal And Rhodesia by H Lincoln Tangye (1896) is an account of the author's times in South Africa at the end of the 19th century. He addresses the issues of years of colonization and settlement and the the conflict between settlers and various of the indigenous tribes or war making leaders. He also gives a description of the land and peoples and resources of the region. Free eBook

Brian Taves

Talbot Mundy, born William Lancaster Gribbon (1879 – 1940, the subject of this book, was an English writer of adventure fiction. Many of his recollections of his own life and activities were proven to be as fictional as his books. After his travels in India, he arrived in Mombasa, British East Africa. He claimed that he initially worked as a hunter and also claimed that he was shot in the leg with a poison spear by a Masai who was stealing his cattle. Mundy then worked as an illegal elephant hunter, collecting and selling ivory and his later novel, 'The Ivory Trail', was inspired largely by his own experiences at this time. In later years he alleged that he met Frederick Selous, although Mundy's biographer has pointed out that Selous was not in East Africa at this time.

According to W R Foran, Mundy was back in the British colony in late 1904, trying to raise money under the false name of 'Sir Rupert Harvey, Baronet'. He was then arrested and sentenced to 6 months hard labour. Born William Lancaster Gribbon, he was later to use the name Talbot Chetwynd Miller Mundy and asserted he was the illegitimate son of the Earl of Shrewsbury.

Talbot Mundy, Philosopher Of Adventure: A Critical Biography by Brian Taves (2005) chronicles both the actual travels and the fictional travels of Talbot Mundy, one of the pioneers of the fantasy and adventure novel genre. Less celebrated than his contemporaries Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad, Mundy was no less gifted when it came to the literary portrayal of faraway lands.

Harold Robert Taylor

Jungle Trader by H R Taylor (1939) is the interesting tale of the author's life and adventures as a trader in Liberia.

Derek Temple

Ivory Poacher by Derek Temple (1930) is an autobiographical book which covers but a brief period of time in the life of the writer, and deals with but one phase of his activities as a hunter of big game. The book is dedicated to Temple's four gun bearers.

C J Thornhill

Christopher James Thornhill (1893 - 1974) was a British-born gold miner, hunter and ivory trader, hobo, intelligence officer and king of the Fang tribe who were reputed to be cannibals by slave traders and missionaries at the time. He was born Christopher James Brown, changed his name to Charles Brown then changed it again by deed poll to Christopher James Thornhill in 1921.

From Hobo To Cannibal King by C J Thornhill (1928) the author recalls years of wandering from Rhodesia to Portuguese East Africa and on to South Africa. He also describes numerous sporting activities after lion, buffalo, hippo, roan, impala and elephant near Broken Hill and the Victoria Falls.

Taking Tanganyika: Experiences Of An Intelligence Officer 1914-1918 by Chistopher J Thornhill (1937) are his reminiscences of the German East African campaign when he served with the Intelligence Force and the East African Mounted Rifles. The book casts new light upon the campaign, since Thornhill, unlike many of the officers, was an old east Africa hand and knew the terrain where the war was fought. His breezy and charming account, does not seek to gloss over the many difficulties and frustrations of the campaign, nor to glamourise his own role in it.

Mobree Of The Black Coast: A Tale Of Kenya Before The White Man Came by Christopher Thornhill (1955) is a novel in the form of a narrative by a slave raider, Mobree.

J B Thornhill

John Bensley Thornhill (1875 - 1932) was a British explorer in Africa and Canada. He was particularly interested in the actual and potential resources of south central Africa, in the region of the Congo/Zambezi watershed.

Adventures In Africa: Under The British, Belgian And Portuguese Flags by J B Thornhill (1915) is an account of his travels in the Congo, Angola and South Africa with lots of hunting on the way. He also relates the story of his friend, George Grey, who was killed by a lion while 'riding' lions with Sir Alfred Pease in 1911. This unfortunate event hit the headlines because George Grey was the brother of Sir Edward Grey, who was the British minister of foreign affairs. Another brother, Charles Grey was killed by a buffalo in Tanganyika in 1928. Free eBook

Lamberto Tofani

Forty Years In Africa by Lamberto Tofani (2006) is an autobiography. Lamberto Tofani was born in Somalia to Italian parents who died when he was 5 years old. After years in an orphanage and aged 17, Lamberto enlisted in the Italian Air Force and served in North Africa and Egypt before being captured and sent to England as a POW. In the late 1940s, he once again returned to Africa to work in the electricity industry in Tanganyika and Kenya. There are stories of big game hunting but he later exchanged his hunting rifle for a camera.

E Torday

Emil Torday (1875 - 1931) was a Hungarian anthropologist. Previously a bank employee, his interest in anthropology started when he accepted a colonial post in the Congo Free State in 1900. In 1907, he undertook an expedition on behalf of the British Museum in the Kwango River Basin in Belgian Congo, when he amassed a collection of 3000 objects for the museum.

Camp And Tramp In African Wilds by E Torday (1913) is "A Record of Adventure, Impressions, and Experiences During Many Years Spent Among the Savage Tribes Round Lake Tanganyika and in Central Africa, with a Description of Native Life, Character, and Customs". Torday describes his extensive travels in the Congo between 1900 and 1907, offering detailed observations on the folklore and customs of the tribes he encountered. There are incidents of hunting lion, leopard, hippopotamus and buffalo. Free eBook

On The Trail Of The Bushongo by E Torday (1925) is "An Account of a Remarkable & Hitherto Unknown African People, Their Origin, Art, High Social & Political Organization & Culture, Derived from the Author;s Personal Experience Amongst Them". Includes a hunting expedition with pygmies. Free eBook

C Court Treatt

Major Chaplin Court Treatt (1888 - 1954) was a British motoring pioneer and film-maker. With his wife Stella, he made a film in Africa about his motoring expedition from the Cape to Cairo and another in the Sudan.

Out Of The Beaten Track: A Narrative Of Travel In Little Known Africa by C Court Treatt (1931) describes hunting elephant with a spear, journey down the Bahr-el-Arab, the Dinkas, witchcraft and superstition, night photography, lions, Habbania, big game and smaller animals, with several chapters on the African elephant. Court Treatt spent over 20 years in Africa and travelled through Sudan, Abyssinia, Congo, Uganda and Kenya.

Stella Court Treatt

Stella Maud Court Treatt (1895 - 1976) was the South African born wife of Chaplin Court Treatt. She was an author and co-director of the films they made in Africa.

Cape To Cairo: The Record Of A Historic Motor Journey by Stella Court Treatt (1927) is the fascinating account of a group of six British citizens who crossed Africa in a Crossley automobile, a feat which took 17 months. Illustrated with 64 photos by a member of the team. The entire trip was through British territory.

Sudan Sand: Filming The Baggara Arabs by Stella Court Treatt (1930) is an account of an expedition which initially planned to film game in southern Sudan but which eventually expanded its theme to include the Baggara Arabs. The film was titled 'Stark Nature'. Free eBook

William Vasse

Three Years' Sport In Mozambique by William Vasse (1909) Translated from French by R & H M Lydekker. Guillaume Vasse (even his name was translated) sailed to Mozambique in 1904 to enjoy an extended hunting trip. In the foothills of the Drakensburg, he collected klipspringer and bushbuck, then travelled to the Zombi River where he bagged sable. Near the Pungwi River, Vasse hunted eland, hartebeest, waterbuck and buffalo. Numerous leopard were bagged in the region, as well as elephant. Continuing on to the Sungwi River, he also collected a number of lion. Entering the Zambezi, hippopotamus and kudu were hunted. Free eBook

Herbert Vivian

Herbert Vivian (1865 – 1940) was an English journalist, author and newspaper owner.

Abyssinia: Through The Lion-Land To The Court Of The Lion Of Judah by Herbert Vivian (1901) is a detailed travel memoir about Abyssinia, Ethiopia today, including chapters on the history of the country, life of its people, British Somaliland, Menelik, religious beliefs, political state and more. The author is not particularly keen on hunting himself but feels obliged to include information about hunting in Abyssinia for prospective sportsman. He met Major Percy Powell-Cotton on the road who allowed Vivian to publish his hunting photographs in this book.

Major Claude Wallace

Major Charles Claude Wallace (b.1872) served with the 14th Hussars, Lancashire Fusiliers as the only British officer at the 1916 naval Battle of Jutland. His observations during the action differ greatly from the official report. As a civilian he was in the colonial service conducting surveys in unknown areas of Liberia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Congo and Angola.

From Jungle To Jutland by Major Claude Wallace (1932) tells of the author's arrival in Liberia and subsequent encounters with a cannibal king, with doctors, a trek through the Devil's forest and a brush with the Lepoard Society. He also worked on a survey in the Congo and the survey for the Pointe Noire-Loudima railroad. There is also a chapter on his exploits in Angola.

Harold Frank Wallace

Harold Frank Wallace (1881 - 1962) was a British naval officer, acclaimed artist of Scottish red deer and Fellow of the Zoological Society. He travelled the world, writing and illustrating his books.

Stalks Abroad: Being Some Account Of The Sport Obtained During A Two Years' Tour Of The World by Harold Frank Wallace (1908) is an account of his turn-of-the-century world tour. Yellowstone and the Tetons for American mountain game, BC Canada for sheep and goat, deer in New Zealand and then East Africa and India. Free eBook

The Big Game Of Central And Western China: Being An Account Of A Journey From Shanghai To London Overland Across The Gobi Desert by Harold Wallace (1913) is a heavily photo-illustrated account of hunting, taking wild sheep, white-maned serow, roe deer and wapiti in Northern China and the southern reaches of the Gobi. Free eBook

Big Game: Wanderings In Many Lands by Harold Frank Wallace (1934) includes hunting Austrian chamois, Belgian deer and wild boar, Scottish and New Zealand stalking, big game hunting in China, Australia and the Sudan, plus a chapter on ouananiche fishing in Canada.

Hunting Winds by H Frank Wallace (1949) is mainly about deer-stalking and big-game hunting in Scotland, Europe, Asia and New Zealand, with a chapters on his hunting in Africa and in the hills around the Red Sea.

Cecil S Webb

A Wanderer In The Wind: The Odyssey Of An Animal Collector by Cecil S Webb (1953) is the story of thirty years of animal collecting all over the world. The author was a noted animal collector, ultimately becoming Superintendnant of the Dublin Zoo. Free eBook

Frank Weber

Colonel William Hermann Frank Weber (1875 - 1936) was a British army officer and big game hunter.

A Novice On The Nile: Big Game Hunting In The Sudan by Frank Weber (1929) is an true account of the author's first hunting trip along the White Nile in the Upper Sudan. Equipped with double .470's, light magazine rifles, a 10 bore and shotguns, they seek to take a number of specimens from the area's big game population. Their list of quarry include elephant, buffalo, eland, ibex, waterbuck, various gazelle, kob, crocodiles and hippos. Exciting anecdotes of their often dangerous attempts to bag specimens of each of these.

Montagu S Wellby

Captain Montagu Sinclair Wellby (1866 - 1900) was a British army officer who had befriended Emperor Menelik II in 1898, and was given permission to explore large unexplored parts of Abyssinia. He also travelled to Tibet before dying in the Boer War in 1900 - he was cornered by enemy troops and rather than surrender, "chose the nobler part," drew his sword, and was shot and killed, dying with honor.

'Twixt Sirdar And Menelik: An Account Of A Year's Expedition From Zeila To Cairo Through Unknown Abyssinia by Montagu S Wellby (1901) is a fascinating travel memoir which recounts in detail the author's daily adventures in Abyssinia. He writes interesting notes on the characteristics of the native soldiers, the ceremonies of Emperor Menelik II and the powerful Queen Taitu, the race for water in the midst of a drought, etc. Free eBook

Through Unknown Tibet by Montagu S Wellby (1898) is a narrative of Wellby and Lt. Malcolm's journey across Tibet and nothern China in 1896. They found a more northerly route to Peking than that of Bower. The journey started at Lucknow, continued to Simla and finished in the wilds of Waziristan. They traversed the entire breadth of Tibet, beginning at Ladakh in the west and finishing in Peking. They crossed the inhospitable Chang-Tang plateau of northern Tibet. Free eBook

Carveth Wells

Grant Carveth Wells (1887 - 1957) was a British adventurer, travel writer and television personality. His travels started in 1912 when the British government sent him to Malaya, to survey the route for a railway, and to explore the flora and fauna of the region. However, Wells' health suffered badly in Malaya and in 1918, he moved to the United States and started lecturing on his travel experiences. Wells led expeditions to Kenya, Tanganyika, Mount Ararat, Panama, Mexico, Japan, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, India and Manchuria.

In Coldest Africa: Adventures On The Mountains Of The Moon by Carveth Wells (1929) is an account of the Cudahy-Massee-Milwaukee Museum African Expedition (1928 - 1929) to Tanganyika, debunking the myth of Africa as just jungles. Includes big game hunting of lion and eland, collecting specimens and a trip to the Montains of the Moon in East Africa covered with snow and ice. To collect specimens for the Milwaukee museum, a Buick automobile was used to place the hunters in shooting range for lion and eland. There is reference to Osa and Martin Johnson and 'Samaki' Salmon.

Adventure! by Carveth Wells (1931) is an account of the author's travels and adventures in both polar regions, Africa, Pitcairn Island, Pacific, the Americas and Malaya.

Six Years In The Malay Jungle by Carveth Wells (1925) is an entertaining account based on the author's notes on his life and work in Malaya as an engineer. He lived in jungle clearings while surveying for a new railway.

Carl Wiese

Carl Wiese (d.1912) was a German adventurer, trader and ivory hunter in Portuguese East Africa from about 1883. He established extensive mining rights and other commercial concessions for himself with the local native chiefs, including the Ngoni King Mpezeni, much of whose territory fell within what was the British Central Africa Protectorate. Weise was courted by both the British and Portuguese to sway Mpezeni to their sides - he eventually convinced Mpezeni to place his allegiance with the Portuguese, incurring the wrath of Harry Johnson, the Governor of British Central Africa Protectorate.

He became a notable local figure due to his political and commercial acumen. He also married an Afro-Portuguese woman of high local status. He returned to Germany in 1909.

Expedition in East-Central Africa, 1888-1891: A Report by Carl Wiese (1983) is the first complete English translation of "Expediçao Portugueza a M'Pesene", published 1889-1892, by Carl Wiese. Wiese was a German hunter and trader who led an unofficial Portuguese mission to the court of the Ngoni king, Mpezeni. His journal is the only contemporary description of the culture and politics of early Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. Translated from Portuguese by Ramos Donald. Edited with an introduction and comments by Harry W Langworthy.

Henry St Clair Wilkins

General Henry St Clair Wilkins (1828 – 1896) was a British army officer who served the East India Company in India, Aden and later in Abyssinia. He was also a noted architect.

Reconnoitring In Abyssinia by Henry St Clair Wilkins (1870). "A narrative of the proceedings of the Reconnoitring Party, prior to the arrival of the main body of the Expeditionary Field Force". The author was an aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria and the commanding engineer in the Abyssinian Expeditionary Force - a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against Abyssinia. Free eBook

Sir James Willcocks

Brigadier-General Sir James Willcocks (1857 - 1926) was a British Army officer who spent most of his career in India and Africa.

From Kabul To Kumassi: Twenty-Four Years Of Soldiering And Sport by Sir James Willcocks (1903) is a memoir recording his soldiering and big game hunting before his posting to the South African War, the Great War and latterly, his time as Governor of Bermuda. Free eBook

The Romance Of Soldiering And Sport by General Sir James Willcocks (1925) is a memoir of a professional soldier and his hunting experiences in India in the 1870s, Sudan in the 1880s, The North West Frontier in 1890s, Nigeria and the Ashanti expedition in 1900 culminating in France 1915-17.

Charles Williams

Narrative And Adventures Of Travellers In Africa by Charles Williams (1859) includes chapters on hunting elephant and more.

Captain John C Willoughby

Sir John Christopher Willoughby (1859 - 1918) was a soldier and big game hunter. After Joseph Thomson published his work about the abundance of game in the Masai region, Willoughby and his friend Robert Harvey set off on a big game hunting campaign.

East Africa And It's Big Game by John C Willoughby (1989) is the narrative of a sporting trip from Zanzibar to the borders of the Masai. Hunting big game in Africa in the late 1800s, the author and Sir Robert Harvey, bagged rhinoceros, lion, buffalo, hippopotamus, eland, elephant and other game. Free eBook

Captain H A Wilson

Captain Henry Allen Wilson (1879 - 1913) served with the Prince of Wales's Own, West Yorkshire Regiment in India before joining the King's African Rifles in East Africa.

A British Borderland: Service And Sport In Equatoria by Captain H A Wilson (1913). An officer in the King's African Rifles, Wilson mixed military activities with sport. En route to an assignment on the Nile, he bagged his first elephant. Along the Mara River he collected roan antelope, eland and lion and hunted buffalo from a machan. His best chapters recount his elephant hunting adventures near Nimule on the White Nile where he meets Major Powell-Cotton. Wilson commanded the military escort to the Anglo-German East African Boundaries Commission in 1904, and served in the Nandi Expedition of 1905-6 alongside Meinertzhagen. He joined forces with Captain Francis Arthur Dickinson at Guaso Nyiro River to hunt buffalo. Free eBook

Harry F Witherby

Harry Forbes Witherby (1873 – 1943) was a noted British ornithologist, author, publisher and founding editor of the magazine 'British Birds'. From an early age Witherby devoted himself to the study of ornithology, travelling extensively, including visits to Iran, the Kola Peninsula as well as the White Nile.

Bird Hunting On The White Nile: A Naturalist's Experiences In The Soudan by Harry F Witherby (1902) is an account of the author's journey to expand the knowledge of the birds and beasts of the Soudan. This journey to the Soudan was undertaken in the driest months of the year and Witherby was disappointed by the small number of mammals he came across. He was accompanied by taxidermist C F Camburn for this journey. Free eBook

Lord Frederick Glyn Wolverton

Lord Frederick Glyn Wolverton (1864 - 1932) was a British banker and Conservative politician.

Five Months' Sport in Somali Land by Lord Frederick Glyn Wolverton (1894) is an account of five months' shooting with Colonel Arthur Paget, mainly for lions, in Somaliland in the days when lions were plentiful and this was one of the best places to bag a big and big maned lion. They also took gazelles, crocodiles and a variety of other animals.

J G Wood

Joseph Garbett Wood (1833 - 1892) was a South African born son of a British settler. He became a farmer who served as a Captain of Yeomanry during the Morosi rebellion of 1878 and as a local politician.

Through Matabeleland: Ten Months In An Ox Waggon Through Mashonaland And Matabeleland by Joseph Garbett Wood (1893) is an account of the author's life as part of a syndicate determined to get gold mining concessions from Lobengula. The trip took place in 1888-1889, a year before the Pioneer Column organised by Rhodes and Jameson. Free eBook

Augustus B Wylde

Augustus Blandy Wylde (1849 - 1909) was a British civil servant and trader in wild animals. He became vice consul at Suakin in Sudan during the early years of the Mahdist revolt.

'83 To '87 In The Soudan: With An Account Of Sir William Hewett's Mission To King John Of Abyssinia by Augustus B Wylde (1888) Free eBook Vol I Free eBook Vol II

Modern Abyssinia by Augustus B Wylde (1901). Wylde returned to Ethiopia after the battle of Adwa in 1896 to report on it for the Manchester Guardian. This is one of the few books of the period written from an essentially pro-Ethiopian standpoint. Free eBook

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