Another stab at learning more African history via the hunter. This is one of the books included in the Capstick Collection put out by St. Martins Press several years ago. Good ol' PHC put together a list of about 10 or 12 books that he said were good reading for the African hunter and student. I have been working through this list and found this one a bit different that the title suggests.

Buckley was an adventurer of the Selous, Sutherland, Bell, Rhoades era in Zim, Kenya and RSA. He left London at a young age, much like the others at the same time in history, to seek his fortune in Africa. The book starts as a typical hunting/poaching elephant story much like many others but turns into a tale of survival during the Matebele Rebellions in the late 1890's and the Boer Wars. He mined diamonds, gold and travelled a great deal. His prose is a bit average but he, like Selous and others, understates his adventures and his own ability to survive what looked like certain death at the hands of natives or beasts. He was followed by Karamojo Bell into the Lado Enclave to poach elephants, he knew most of the great hunter/adventurers of the day and got caught up in the Boer War to boot. His book abruptly ends with me wanting to know more about his life. He tells a great tale that I hope someday a researcher will complete as he was every bit the adventurer as Selous and others and tells a great story.

I rate this a solid 7 out of 10 as it ends too soon and is so understated that I had to re-read parts to be sure I understood the fanatastic tale he told or the escape he just made. Read this if you are a student of the history in Africa at the end of the 1800's and early 1900's. It fills in a few gaps if you have read other works (Washing of the Spears, anything on the Boer Wars or Cecil Rhoades).

You've sold me. I intend to find a copy.

Bill Quimby