0^ 'o. *'":^T» /v '^^ -^^ .0^ •^^ .. 5-^ ^ * O M O '^ -^^ '/ .^*^°- "■. ^o. ' ' -^"^ » WWW.* Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/adventuretraveleOOunge ;D- '^• P oa 5 THEODORE ROOSEVELT Leader of the African Expedition under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution Adventure-Travel-Exploration TRIP TO AFRICA The Story of his Life, the Voyage from New York to Mombasa, and the Route through the Heart of Africa Including The Big Game and Other Ferocious Animals, Strange Peoples and Countries found in the Course of his Travels. By FREDERICK WILLIAM UNGER THE FAMOUS AFRICAN TRAVELER Author of "With Bobs and Kruger," "Russia and Japan," Etc. Former African Correspondent of the "London Daily Express." Celebrated Lecturer, War Correspondent, Traveler in the Klondike, Manchuria. Africa and other parts of the World. LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS JUST TAKEN IN AFRICA and numerous beautiful engravings and maps. GEORGE A. PARKER Philadelphia, Pa. Copyright, 1909, by W. E. Scull \D ^a'7^^'^ eClA2754b7 ( > TABLE OF CONTENTS o BOOK ONE The Marvelous Career of Theodore Roosevelt " No man has lived more fully than he the life of his time " CHAPTER I. PAGE The African Expedition and Its Objects 19 CHAPTER n. Boyhood and Early Life 25 CHAPTER HI. Exposing Graft in New York State 31 CHAPTER IV. Among the Cowboys and in the Hunting Field 37 CHAPTER V. Fighting the Spoils Hunters and Rascals 44 CHAPTER VI. Naval Secretary and Rough Rider 51 CHAPTER VII. Governor and Vice-President 57 (ix) K TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII. In the Presidential Chair 63 CHAPTER IX. Reformer and Peacemaker = 69 BOOK TWO Roosevelt's Interesting Journey Through the Heart of Africa CHAPTER X. From New York to Mombasa '/y CHAPTER XL The East African Railroad 88 CHAPTER XII. Nairobi and Mt. Kenya loi CHAPTER XIII. Westward 10 Lake Victoria Nyanza 114 CHAPTER XIV. Beautiful Uganda 124 CHAPTER XV. Down the Victoria Nile 136 Copyright, iqoS, by Harris & Ewmg KERMIT ROOSEVELT Who accompanied his father on the expedition to Central Africa Copyright, iqo8 by Harris & £«i)if DR. AND COL. EDGAR A. MEARNS Surgeon- Doctor of the African Expedition and Noted Scientist TABLE OF CONTENTS xi BOOK THREE The Big Game of Central Africa CHAPTER XVL PAGE Preparations for the Expedition 151 CHAPTER XVH. The Great Thick-Skinned Animals 155 CHAPTER XVni. The Giraffe — Camel — Buffalo 189 CHAPTER XIX. Graceful African Antelopes 199 CHAPTER XX. The Lion and Other Beasts of Prey. . , . „ , 216 CHAPTER XXL The Wild Dogs of Africa 234 CHAPTER XXn. The Civet Family 238 CHAPTER XXin. The Monkey Tribes 241 CHAPTER XXIV. Bats or Hand-Winged Animals , 2^4 Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER XXV. African Gnawers 258 CHAPTER XXVI. Toothless Ant-Eaters • 262 CHAPTER XXVII. Crocodiles and Snakes • 266 CHAPTER XXVni. Birds of Prey ^77 CHAPTER XXIX. Poisonous Insects 283 BOOK FOUR Thrilling Adventures of Other Great Explorers Strange Peoples and Countries Discovered by Pioneers Who Preceded Roosevelt CHAPTER XXX. Early Explorers of Africa 293 CHAPTER XXXI. David Livingstone, the Beloved Missionary 299 CHAPTER XXXII. Livingstone's Missionary Travels 306 CHAPTER XXXIIL Livingstone's Journey Across Africa 314 TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER XXXIV. Livingstone on the Zambesi 3^1 CHAPTER XXXV. Livingstone's Last Journey 3^9 CHAPTER XXXVL Stanley's Search for Livingstone - 337 CHAPTER XXXVn. Stanley's Journey Through Africa 34^ CHAPTER XXXVin. Stanley's Great Congo Expedition 355 CHAPTER XXXIX. The Relief of Emin Pasha 3^1 CHAPTER XL. Cameron's Journey Across Africa 3^7 CHAPTER XLI. Sir Samuel Baker and the Slave Trade 373 CHAPTER XLII. In the Land of Gorillas and Pygmies 3^0 CHAPTER XLIII. A Brave German Among the Cannibals 3^7 BOOK ONE THE MARVELOUS CAREER OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT CHAPTER I The African Expedition and Its Objects IT is a difficult matter to follow the path of Theodore Roosevelt. Not that it is in any sense a crooked path. It is, on the contrary, remarkable for its undeviating straightness. But the hero of our work has cut so wide a swath in his course through modern history, has found interest in such a multitude of subjects, has taken a prominent part in so many fields of human endeavor, that one stands almost appalled before the varied panorama of his career. It is a fact of striking signifi- cance, yet one thoroughly character- istic of the man, that, after filling for years one of the highest places in the civilized world, as ruler of the great- est of modern nations, he has leaped at one plunge into the heart of un- adulterated nature, the realm of native savagery, and exchanged his gladiatorial struggle in the arena of politics for as strenuous a one with the savage denizens of the African wilds. While proposing here to deal with the whole story of his life, we seem drawn at the start to its final episode, so far as his life's story has yet developed, that having to do with his career as a modern Nimrod, a fearless hunter of fearless beasts. The figure of the hunter has ever stood prominent in history. In fact, history almost begins with it, for the image of Nimrod, "a mighty hunter before the Lord," stands out in clear outlines before our eyes on the misty border line of history. And here, at history's end, so far as the present day is concerned, (19) THEODORE ROOSEVELT 20 THE AFRICAN EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECTS stands forth as prominently before us another mighty hunter, pitting his strength and boldness against the greatest and most savage beasts the world knows. The country in which Theodore Roosevelt is now lost to sight is one that less than half of a century ago was as unknown to us as the mountains of the moon, the depths of that "dark continent" in whose interior civilized man had scarcely set foot. Where Roosevelt and his son now are were then groups of warlike tribes, some of them the most bloodthirsty of all the African natives. Slowly the pioneers of discovery penetrated to their haunts, and slowly the vanguard of civilization marched into this wild realm, subduing the natives, forcing them to submit to the beneficent bonds of civilization, bringing peace and order to their land, and finally bridging it with that greatest agent of civilization, the railroad. To-day men may ride in luxurious ease where Stanley and the other daring African travelers trudged with endless toil so short a time ago. Then came the hunter, for the land through which this railroad runs — from Mombasa, on the ocean border, to the waters of the Vic- toria Nyanza — was one of the greatest game preserves on the face of the earth. Here roamed in multitudes the lordly African elephant, the savage and nearly invulnerable rhinoceros, the lion, that terrifying desert lord, the stately giraffe, the ferocious buffalo, antelopes in pro- fusion and variety, and many other animals, some of which were unknown to civilized man. And latest of these hunters came hither that Nimrod of the Far West, Theodore Roosevelt, to share the perils and taste the excitement of the fight for life with these wildest and most savage beasts. Thus we introduce our hero into the African wilds, that Paradise of the hunter whose delight lies in tlie pursuit of great game and the thrill of perilous adventure. A skilled, trained, alert hunter was he whose course we are now tracing. Many years before he had served his apprenticeship in this field of effort, when he exchanged his early legislative career for a period of life on a western ranch and the enjoyment of hunting the big game of the Rocky Mountains. During his later years this love of the wild clung to him. At every convenient interval he threw off the Copyright, 1909, by Undcncood d- Underwood A HUGE HIPPOPOTAMUS SHOT IN DEEP WATER Ex-President Roosevelt was attacked by twenty of these monsters while in a small rowboat on Lake Naivasha. He succeeded in killing two and driving the rest away THE AFRICAN EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECTS 21 fettering bonds of public duties and sought the haunts of animal life, not so much for the pleasure of killing as for the delight of escaping for a time from the trammels of civilization. In that critical interval when President McKinley lay between life and death, his strenuous Vice-President broke away and lost himself in the breezy depths of the Adirondacks, where a long hunt was needed to find him when tidings came of the President's dying state. In this instance, for once in his life, the hunter became the hunted, and proved as hard to find as the shyest of wild creatures. At a later date, when the cares of the Presidency lay heavy on his shoulders, we find him again breaking away and burying himself in the cane- brakes of the Mississippi in ardent pursuit of the elusive bear. For a hunter of this calibre, trained and ardent, a man of steady nerves and deadly aim, a fearless soldier who had charged up San Juan Hill through a rain of plunging bullets, we can well understand the refusal to accept again the bonds of the Presidency, the schoolboy delight in winning a period of freedom from work, and the gleeful enthusiam with which he sought a new field of hunting adventure, the one fullest of the spice of danger and promise of thrilling experience of any upon the face of the earth. Can we justly appreciate the feelings of Theodore Roosevelt when he finally set foot on African soil; made his way inland from the sea- shore to that crowded domain of wild life where roamed in freedom wild animals which hitherto he had only seen behind the bars of strong cages ; saw from the train as it plunged onward into the depths of the land the graceful- giraffe, the crouching lion, the lumbering rhinoceros, the various other wild animals which had learned to disrep-ard the speeding engine and its rattling cars, having found it a place of safety rather than danger, since no bullets came from it to decimate the trust- ing herd ? The world of civilization lay behind him. Before him opened a world of savagery. Men there were as savage as beasts, all alike scions of open nature, free to give way to instinct, destitute of training and education except that which adapted them to the needs of wild life. Here for ages the struggle for existence had gone on in its primitive phase. Now civilization, armed with new weapons and new laws, 2 2 THE AFRICAN EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECTS had made its way into this homestead of savagery ; and while the stern rule of the whites forced the warlike natives to take up the arts of peace, the death-dealing rifle began to decimate the crowding multi- tude of wild beasts. Among them had now come a hunter from the West, one who had tried every phase of adventure to be found in the hills and forests of America, and who came eager for the fresh hunting experiences offered by Africa. He came in good time. The slaughter of the herd had begun, but wild animals roamed there still in vast abundance, and the enthusiastic hunter could not fail to find opportunities for the most nerve-straining experiences. It is not our purpose here to follow Roosevelt step by step through these primitive scenes, to describe how animal after animal fell before his unerring rifle, to tell how he faced the lion in his lair or the fero- cious rhinoceros or buft'alo in his charge, and laid him a victim before his victorious feet. Later on the reader will be regaled with adven- turous feats of this kind, but here we are concerned only with the gen- eral phases of the hunter's life, the preliminary topic of our work. And here it may be said that it was not the bloodthirst pure and simple that animated the hunter. He had another object in his jour- ney, that of aiding the cause of science, of furnishing the galleries of the Smithsonian Institution with specimens of the varied animal life of Africa, before this should perish in the general battle which had begun. This done, and it had been fairly completed by mid July, his mis- sion in Africa would be at an end and he would be ready to return to civilized lands. He had now nearly reached that stage, as news under date of July 19 stated that only rare specimens were being shot, the collection for the Smithsonian being complete. And civilization was beginning to lay its grasp again upon the hunter, for we are told that he had stopped hunting to write a book — another of the favorite occu- pations of his leisure hours: one of his relaxations, if we may call it' such. And his request to a correspondent to "give the news" shows that his cutting loose from the civilized world was not complete, that a touch of homesickness at times disturbed his nerves. Yet with this tidings came to us incidents of thrilling adventure. THE AFRICAN EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECTS 23 We are told of the arrival at Naivasha of a member of the expedition, who came to the town in unloitering haste, being chased in by five lions. Roosevelt at the same time had his most threatening experience. He had set out on a hippopotamus hunt on the waters of Lake Naivasha in a small boat with two native attendants, and unexpectedly found himself assailed by a dozen of these huge water monsters. The situ- ation was one of extreme peril and the natives were thrown into a panic, especially when some of the brutes dove under the boat and sought to lift it on their clumsy heads. Coolness and nerve were needed at this moment of peril and they did not fail Colonel Roosevelt. He shot two of the largest of the hip- popotami, scared away the others, and came triumphantly ashore, towing in his prizes. But if the United States is to have the benefit of his future services it will be just as well that he does not repeat such experiences. As for his son Kermit, it is said that this youthful hunter has shown more enthusiasm than caution in the pursuit of African game, some of his animal encounters approaching recklessness and calling for caution from his experienced father. We may conclude this chapter with a few remarks on a co-ordi- nate topic, that of the ethical bearing of a hunter's life. It cannot be denied that, aside from all purposes of scientific reward from the use of his rifle, our hunter was largely moved by the desire for pure sport, the bloodthirst that has animated the hunter in all ages. Yet is this as reprehensible as it is held to be by many? Is the life of one of these brute tenants of the African wilds a matter of ethical moment? "They toil not, neither do they spin." They live mainly to eat and reproduce their kind. No useful powers of thought animate their undeveloped brains, no provision for the morrow dis- turbs their narrow intellects ; when they fall before the hunter's bullet it is with as little disturbance of the economy of nature as when a huge oak falls before the forester's axe. To destroy an entire forest may be a serious injury. To annihilate an animal species may disturb the balance of nature. Yet to fell an individual tree or rhinoceros can have no such effect, and aside from the passing spasm of pain in the latter instance it does not appear to have any ethical significance. That is, so far as the animal is concerned, since it may be saved by the 24 THE AFRICAN EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECTS bullet from greater suffering in its after life. So far, however, as the man is concerned it has a different significance. To kill for pure sport cannot but dull the finer elements of human feeling and develop the sentiment of destruction. Yet while there are wild animals there will be hunters. The active, adventurous spirit of man leads him inevitably in this direction, and Roosevelt, in his hunting expedition, aside from the scientific purpose involved, has been yielding to the native instinct derived from primeval man and from wdiich few of us wholly escape. Copyright, 1009, by Under wood & Underwood REWARD OF A ZEBRA SHOOT Zebras are aa common ai deer In the Jungle. Ex-President Roosevelt added them to his collection for the Smltbaonian Institution Copyright, 1909, iy Undei-wood d Uiidencood THE GIANT MAN-EATING CROCODILE OF CENTRAL AFRICA •The crocodile was caught asleep ashore and nailed down with a high-power Winchester rifle" CHAPTER II Boyhood and Early Life THEODORE ROOSEVELT comes to us from good old Amer- ican stock, the family of the Roosevelts tracing their career on this continent to the days of the sturdy old Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant. Klass Martenson Van Roosevelt, the first of the name in this country, landed in New Amsterdam in 1649. From that time on the family occupied a position of prominence in New York City, taking an active part in the war for independence, and later on becom- ing energetic and wealthy members of the mercantile community. Born in New York City October 27, 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was given his father's name and inherited some of his father's char- acteristics, especially his love of outdoor life and his interest in the doings of the ''common people." A thin, pale, delicate lad, weak and short-sighted, he did not seem a hopeful case for the building of a strong man. Indeed, to keep him from the rough play of the public schools, which he seemed unfit to bear, he was taught at home and in private schools. Yet the boy had under this pale exterior the inborn energy from which strong men are made. Determined to be the equal of his fellows, "to make a man of himself," as he has said, he took part in all sorts of boyish sports and exercises. He learn.id to swim, to row, to ride; he tramped over hill and dale. In this way the delicate child grew up to be a hardy boy and developed into a man with muscles of steel and indomitable vim and endurance. Stories of animals and adventure interested him from early boy- hood. The favorite pursuits of the man began to declare themselves in the child when he was but six ye^rs of age. And his love for a good, hard fight in later life manifested itself as early. There are several stories extant of his boyhood contests, one of which may be worth telling,;. /.{^ ., (as) • 2 6 BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE One day he came home from school with muddy clothes and scratched and bleeding- face and hands. "What is the matter, Teddy?" asked his father. **Why, a boy up the street made a face at me and said: 'Your father's a fakir.' He was a good deal bigger than me, but I couldn't stand that; so I just pitched in. I had a pretty hard time, but I licked him." "That's right, I am glad you licked him," said the older Theodore, who evidently was born with fighting blood, like his combative son. We may quote from the younger Theodore a statement which lets in a good deal of light upon the character of the father and upon the inheritance and training of the son. He tells us this : '*]\Iy father, all my people, held that no one had a right to merely cumber the earth; that the most contemptible of created beings is the man who does nothing. I imbibed the idea that I must work hard, whether at making money or whatever. The whole family training taught me that I must be doing, must be working — and at decent work. 1 made my health what it is. I determined to be strong and well, and did everything to make myself so. By the time I entered Harvard College I was able to take my part in whatever sports I liked. I wrestled and sparred and ran a great deal while in college, and though I never came in first, I got more good out of the exercise than those who did, because I immensely enjoyed it and hever injured myself." SikIi was the training of the boy Roosevelt. We have had abun- dant examples of its result in the career of the man Roosevelt. The daring spirit which he has manifested in later life seems to have been born in him. His boyish escapades were many and often perilous. A woman who lived next door to the Roosevelt house once saw young Theodore hanging from a second-story window and ran in alarm to warn his mother. "If the Lord," she said, "had not taken care of Theodore, he would have been killed long ago." The boy's life was an active one throughout, but his time was not wasted. He was taking in knowledge as well as winning hardi- hood. In his tramps through the woods his eyes were kept busy, and he grew especially to know the birds, their songs, their nests^ their BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE 27 plumage. He thus cultivated the habit of observation and study, while his active outdoor life gave strength to his muscles and tough- ened his frame. And in these early days that love of the wild which has become a marked element of his character began to develop. He read stories of the great Western plains and began to long to set foot in the wilderness. Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales fell into his hands and these he devoured with a strong appetite. His friend Jacob Riis asked him once if he liked them. "Like them!" he exclaimed, with kindling eyes. "Like them! Why, man, there is nothing like them. I could pass an examination in the whole of them to-day. Deerslayer with his long rifle, Jasper and Hurry Harry, Ishmael Bush with his seven stalwart sons — do I not know them? I have bunked with them and eaten with them, and I know their strength and their weakness. They were narrow and hard, but they did the work of their day and opened the way for ours. Do I like them? Cooper is unique in American literature, and he will grow upon us as we get farther away from his day, let the critics say what they will." Roosevelt as a boy was a busy reader, as he has managed to be a busy reader amid the absorbing labors of his later life. But he was a true boy, one of the type which he has since laid down for the genuine American boy. "The chances are strong," he says of young hopeful, "that he won't be much of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must work hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived, and able to hold his own under all circumstances and against all comers. In hfe, as in football, the principle to follow is : Hit the line hard; don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the line hard." He seems here speaking of himself. The time came when the active, energetic, somewhat strenuous lad with whose life story we are concerned entered Harvard College to complete his education. He was then eighteen years of age. It was an education of the type of that of his earlier years, one of much physical exercise and a fair share of mental discipline. He did his 28' BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE best to ''hit the line hard." We are not told that he shone as a student or graduated amid acclamations, bul during his years within college walls he added much to the strength of his physical and mental fibre. The anecdotes extant of his college career are evidence of this. He lived the life strong, took active part in all that was going on, and became quickly a favorite with his class. They laughed at his odd ways and at his enthusiasm, voted him "more or less crazy," but respected him for his scholarship and found themselves falling into his ways. There was an instance of this when he began the child-like exercise of skipping the rope, claiming that it was excellent for strengthening the leg muscles. Soon his classmates, convinced by his arguments, were following in his track, and rope-skipping became a pastime of the class. In the gymnasium they wore red stockings with their exercise suits. Roosevelt donned a pair of patriotic red-and- white striped ones, and did not know at first at what his fellows were laughing. \Mien he was told he laughed, too, but kept them on. There were none of the college games in which he did not take part. He did not shine in any of them, but they gave him strength and vigor, which was what he was after, rather than victory. He played polo, he wrestled and ran with his fellows, he drove a two- wheeled gig — badly enough, but he enjoyed it. His first bout with the boxing gloves was with the champion of the class, a man twice his size and weight, with whom he instinctively matched himself. The pummeling that followed he took with good will, and though his glasses fell off, leaving him half blind, he grimly refused to cry quarter, and pressed tlit? fight home with all the vim of a berserker. Never since has he learned how to cry quarter or to acknowledge in any fight that he has been whipped. There is one story told of him worth repeating, though it may be a college fable. In one of his boxing bouts his antagonist took a mean advantage, and struck him, drawing blood, while Roosevelt was still adjusting his glove. "Foul!" cried the bystanders, but Roosevelt merely smiled grimly. *T gTiess you have made a mistake. That is not our wav here," he said, offering his hand to the fellow as a sio^l to beofin hostihties. BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE 29 Instantly his right hand shot out, taking the man on the point of the jaw. The left followed. Down went the culprit with a crash. The unfair blow had stirred up all the Roosevelt fighting blood, and it is a hot grade of blood when it is up. Other things than games and exercise attracted the college boy s attention. His father had been active in the work of public aid. He died while the boy was at college, and young Theodore sought to walk in his footsteps. He became Secretary of the Prison Reform Associa- tion and acted on several committees. In addition he became a teacher in a Sunday-school. His family faith was the Dutch Reformed, but he found no church of that denomination at Cambridge, and drifted into a mission school of the high church Episcopalian faith. He did not stay there long. One day a boy came to his class with a black eye. When questioned, he acknowledged that he got it in a fight, and that, too, on Sunday. The class was scandalized and the teacher questioned him sternly. The fact came out that "Jim,'' the other boy, had sat beside the lad's sister and had pinched her all through the school hour. A fight followed, in which Jim got soundly punched, the avenger of his sister coming out with a black eye. "You did just right," was Roosevelt's verdict, and he gave the young champion a dollar. This pleased the class highly. It appealed to them as justice. But when it got out among the school officers they were scandalized. And Roosevelt was a black sheep among them in other ways. He did not observe the formalities of the high church service as they thought he should. They asked if he had any objection to them. None in the world, but— he was Dutch Reformed. This was too much. Some words followed and Roosevelt got out and entered a Congregational Sunday-school near by, where he taught during the remainder of his college term. Just what he taught we are not aware, but it seems rather amusing to think of Theodore Roosevelt as a Sunday-school teacher. What now about the real work for which one goes to college, the studies, the diligent pursuit of knowledge? That he was an earnest student of those subjects which especially interested him we may be sure from what we know of the man. His tastes turned toward the 30 BOYHOOD AND EARLY LIFE study of living things, men and animals. As the years went on he grew deeply interested in the study of human life, history and institu- tions. Political principles attracted him and he read the "Federahst" with deep absorption. To become lost in a book, indeed, was common with him. The story goes that, when visiting a fellow-student, he would be apt to pick up a volume, and immediately become so buried in its contents that a cannon would hardly have awakened him to the social duty of the hour. Before leaving college he had gone beyond reading to the task of writing a book. Reading the extant histories of naval battles in the War of 1812, he found them unfairly partisan. \Mlliam James's history, an English work, was full of one-sided statements. The American histories he examined seemed as much on the other side. An impartial history appeared to be needed, and he set out to write one. He studied the official files, and "The Naval History of 1812," his first work, is an acknowledged authority. Its fairness led to his being complimented by an invitation to write the chapter on this war for the monumental British work, "The Royal Navy." We cannot go further into the details of Roosevelt's college life. It must suffice to say that when, in 1880, graduation day arrived, he stood among the first twenty of the one hundred and forty of his class ; not at the top, but at a very respectable distance from the bottom. His college career ended, he went abroad to get a glimpse of the world outside America. But he did not stay long. His love of walking led him to take a tramp afoot through Germany. The sight of the Alps inspired him to climb the Jimgfrau and the Matterhorn. He halted for a period of study at Dresden. His journey reached as far east as Asia. But he was back in New York in the year after his graduation, prepared to take his part in the battle of life. CHAPTER HI. Exposing Graft in New York State THE career of a lawyer, which was the first idea of the college graduate, did not long hold the ambitious young man. Engag- ing in legal study in the office of his uncle, Robert B. Roosevelt, at the age of twenty-three, he at once took part in the political afifairs of his district, and with such energy and effect that he was elected as a State representative before the year ended. It happened, as he tells us, in this way: "After leaving college I went to the local political headquarters, attended all the meetings and took my part in whatever came up. There arose a revolt against the member of Assembly from that dis- trict, and I was nominated to succeed him and elected." A rapid beginning this for so young a man. His innate power must have been very evident to meet with the sudden recognition. His legal studies ended then and there, for from that time on he was too deeply engaged in public duties to be able to devote time to so exhausting a pursuit as the law. It was in the fall of 1881 that he was elected, and when he entered the State House at Albany in 1882 he was the youngest member of the Assembly. Yet he was full of ideas, overflowing with energy, and instead of keeping in the background, as such youthful legislators are expected to do, he soon made himself a storm center in the House. Beginning with a study of his colleagues, within two months he had classified them all, dividing them into two classes — the good and the bad. The former were decidedly in the minority, but the young Assemblyman lost no time in identifying himself with them, and this with such force and ability that he was soon their undisputed leader. There was corruption, abundance of it, deep and intrenched, corrup- tion much of which had slept serene and undisturbed for years, and it was against this that he couched his lance. (3O 32 EXPOSLYG GRAFT IX XEW YORK STATE Some of the veterans were at first amused at the precocious assaults of the young member from the Twenty-first District, and rather inchned to laugh at his undisciplined energy. But they soon found that he was a fighter who could not be kept under. He was a ready and attractive speaker, good-natured yet hard-hitting, and could be savagely sarcastic when he had some piece of rascality to expose. His good clothes and eye-glasses made some of the members think him effeminate, but they were not long in learning that he had plenty of courage, both mental and physical, and public opinion outside of the legislative halls was quickly in his favor. Thus from the start young Roosevelt made his mark in that career upon which he had now definitely launched himself. He was a born reformer and strongly backed all measures for the public good that came before the House. A new and reformed charter was badly needed for New York City and for several years attempts had been vahily made to enact one. It was this for which he most ardently fought. The corrupt city departments had found strength in union, and intrenched in this they defied the reformers. Roosevelt attacked them separatelv and one by one he overthrew them. He was twice re- elected and during his three terms in the Legislature he saved the people hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, which would other- wise have gone into the "grab-bag" of the grafters. Shall we give some of the particulars of his legislative career? One of the most significant came early in his first session, one in which he took his stand and made his mark as a born foe of corruption. He was new then to the ways of legislators. He was soon to learn some- thing of them and to teach his fellow-members something of his o^^^l ways and ideas. The occasion was the following: Such high ofticials as the Attornev-General of the State and a judge of the Supreme Court became involved in an unsavory bit of corruption connected with an elevated railwav ring. The people were aroused by the scandalous atTair and petitioned the Legislature. Yoimg Roosevelt waited to see what thov would do. That the honor of the judiciary shotild be smirched was a thing of horror to him. ^^'hen he saw that they proposed to do nothing and smother tlie inquiry, the knightly spirit in him arose. EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE ^3 It was the true opening day in his pubHc career when, on April 6, 1882, he rose from his seat in the Assembly and demanded that Judge Westbrook, of Newburg, should be impeached. The speech he made was one not strikingly eloquent, but it was one in which he did not hesitate to call a spade a spade. To him a thief worth a million was still a thief and deserved no softer name. He told the plain truth in indignant words and slashed savagely at the two corrupt officials. The leader of the Republicans in the House followed the insurgent with soothing words. He desired that young Mr. Roosevelt should have time to think if his course had been wise, saying mildly, 'T have seen many reputations in the State broken down by loose charges made in the Legislature." The vote was taken and "Young Mr. Roosevelt" was squelched. But he did not stay squelched. He defied the party leaders and their admonitions to wisdom. The next day and the next day and the next day he was up again, pounding away with all the strength in him. Reporters took it up. The scandal got into the papers and the public indignation widened. After eight days of this unwearying assault he demanded a new vote on his resolution. By this time the thing had spread throughout the State. The Assemblymen did not dare put themselves on record as seeking to hide corruption. The opposition collapsed. Roosevelt won by a vote of 104 to 6. In the end the delinquent officials escaped through a whitewashing report. But Roosevelt had won his fight. From that time he was a marked man on the side of justice and truth. What his constituents thought of him was shown in the next election, when he was sent back with a big majority in a year in which his party went to pieces before Democratic assault. What his fellow-members thought of him was shown when the Republicans of the Assembly chose him as their candi- date for the Speaker of the House. He did not win ; his party was in the minority ; but the nomination showed that this young man of twent}^- four had made himself a power, a man to be reckoned with. - Other battles he fought ; telling ones. The Board of Aldermen at that time had the power to confirm or reject the Mayor's appointments of New York officials. With such a board as then existed George Washington himself would have been helpless in an efifort to have a pure administration. To elect a reform board was hopeless. The 34 EXPOSIXG GRAFT IX XEW YORK STATE cnlv remedy lay in taking from the Aldermen their power. This Roosevelt fought for and achieved. His bill gave the control over appointments to the IMayor himself, and in this way did much to strengthen the hands of honest government in New York. As for ihc prevailing system of appointment to ofrice — the "spoils system," as it had long been called — it did not appeal to him as the wav to get good service. The best men could be obtained only by a public inquiry into their attainments and fitness, and he was from the start a supporter of the merit system which was then in the air. Civil Service Reform, alike in nation and State was being demanded, and Roosevelt had the honor of introducing the first intelligently dra\\Ti civil service bill ever presented to the New York Legislature. Passed in 18S3. bv an odd coincidence it was signed by Governor Cleveland, at nearlv the same time as the civil service bill passed by Congress was signed by President Arthur. By this time the young Assemblyman was looked upon by all parties as a rising man. The pot-house politicians could not see why "Teddy with the kid gloves" and a fat bank account wanted to meddle with things which had gone on well enough for a century. But he knew why; the air was tainted and he wished to make it fit for an honest man to breathe. Therefore, when any odor of corruption arose, he dashed in regardless of anything except the warm desire to clear the air of its malodorous taint. Meanwhile he kept up a degree of interest in New York social life, and spent some of his leisure time in the management of the con- siderable estate which the death of his father had left to his care. His sporting proclivities were manifested in the dogs and horses which he kept around him and an occasional dash away with his gun for a sporting trip of a month or two. Active outdoor life was a panacea which he could not long live without. ^Ir. Roosevelt married during this legislative period, his wnie being ^liss Alice Lee. of Boston, a yotmg lady who deeplv admired the young Hotspur of the Assembly. This first married life was a brief one. his yoimg wife dpng in little over a year. She left him a daug^hter. Alice, who was ver\' dear to him. By a sad contingencv. his m.other died in the same week with his wife, leaving him doublv alone. His second marriage, to Miss Edith K, Carow, took place in 1SS6, EXPOSING GRAFT IN NEW YORK STATE 35 In his third legislative year Roosevelt was made chairman of the (Committee on Cities, an appointment due to the thorough knowledge he had attained of affairs in New York and other cities. As such he introduced much reform legislation, one of his most important bills being that which abolished fees in the offices of the Register and the County Clerk. In 1884 he was a member of the Republican State Convention and was elected by it one of New York's four delegates-at-large to the National Republican Convention to nominate a candidate for the Presi- dency. George F. Edmunds was his choice for this office. James G. Blaine proved the favorite candidate of the conventioi;i. Roosevelt was one of the strong members in opposition and fought hard to prevent Blaine's nomination. The result was a sore thrust to him. Some of Blaine's bitter opponents went over to Cleveland, but in this defection Roosevelt would not take part. "Whatever good I have accomplished has been through the Republican party," he said, and held that no results of importance could be gained except through the regular party organization. As to how he impressed his party at this time we have evidence in the words of George William Curtis, a fellow-delegate. He had his first meeting with Roosevelt during the heat of the strife and was surprised at his youthful appearance. This he said of him to a reporter : "You'll know more, sir, later ; a deal more, or I am much in error. Young? Why, he is just out of school almost, and yet he is a force to be reckoned with in New York. Later the nation will be criticisins" or praising him. While respectful to the gray hairs and experience of his elders, none of them can move him an iota from convictions as to men and measures onre formed and rooted. He will not truckle nor cringe, he seems to court opposition to the point of being somewhat pugnacious. His political life will probably be a turbulent one, but he will be a figure, not a figurehead, in future development." This year (1884) ended Roosevelt's legislative life. He left it for a long holiday in the West, the scene of his boyhood dreams and aspirations. The story of this outing must wait till our next chapter. It must suffice here to say that it ended in 1886, when, sitting by a 36 EXPOS IXG GRAFT IX XEW YORK STATE campfire, he read in a newspaper sent him from New York that a con- vention of independent citizens had chosen him as their nominee for ]\Iayor of that city. That night he hung up his rifle, packed his trunk, and bade good-bye to his Hfe on the plains, starting East to phmge once more into the troubled pool of politics. There were two other candidates for the office, Abram S. Hewitt, the choice of Tammany, and Henry George, the single-tax advocate, the nominee of the United Labor part\\ The citizens who nominated Roosevelt did so because they wanted a hard tighter and knew they would have one in him. His fight was vigorous, but the opposing forces were too strong, and Hewitt was chosen with a plurality vote of about 22,000. He had "ruined himself" politically, some said, as others .had said he had "ruined himself in his fight Avith the Organization in the Assembly. He was one who did not stay "ruined." In theearlv eis^hties Andrew D. AMiite. President of Cornell University, said to his class : '' Yoimg gentlemen, some of you will enter public life. I call your attention to Theodore Roosevelt, noAv in our Legislature. He is on the right road to success. It is dangerous to predict a future for a young man, but let me tell you that if any man of his age was ever pointed straight for the Presidency, that man Is Theodore Roosevelt." Hazardous as 'Mr. ^^llite deemed the prophecy, it proved a true one. CHAPTER IV Among the Cowboys and in the Hunting Field WE do not know if the spirit of adventure and the love of wild Hfe is innate in the Roosevelt blood, or if Theodore Roose- velt got these traits from the Scotch-Irish strain of his mother's race. What we do know is that he has them implanted in the very fibre of his being. Civilized life and the strife of politics are persistent in their demands, but they have never been strong enough to hold him a close prisoner. He has broken away from them at frequent intervals for a bout in the hunting field, and did so decidedly after his three years of legislative life at Albany, seeking a region wide enough for him to breathe in freely on the vast plains of the wide West. Shaking the mire of legislative life from his feet, he sought a new field of activity in the frontier region of Dakota, where he spent several years in the enjoyment of unadulterated nature, hunting, fishing, ranching and roughing it in true Western style, while gath- ering an ample supply of that buoyant health that has stood him in such good stead since. He started and ran a cattle ranch of His own, living in a rough log house partly the work of his own hands. It was so far in the wilderness that he had the experience of shooting a deer ' from his own front door. He had his own herds to care for and did so in true cowboy style. Dressed in a fllannel shirt and rough overalls tucked into alligator boots, he would help his men in rounding up the cattle, riding with the best of them and keeping In the saddle to the end. Then he would go home, tingling with the spice of wild outdoor life, to sleep ofif his fatigue in bearskins and buffalo robes, the former wearers of which may have fallen under his own rifle. It was a rough and ready life, .but Roosevelt seemed to the manner born, and enjoyed it as thor- oughly as if he had never known what luxury and ease meant. (37) 3^ AMONG THE COWBOYS AXD IX THE HUXTIXG FIELD His ranch lay on both sides of the Little ^lissouri, in Dakota Territory, that section of it which is now the State of North Dakota. He lived here in the open, making friends with the un- disciplined ranchmen and frontiersmen, taking part in all the duties of the ranch, and varying this with hunting excur- sions for big game in the surrounding plains and on the not di'stant flanks of the Rock}- ^fountains. A'ignettes of his life here stand out pictur- esquely. Thus he tells us, not without a sense of exultation, of being thir- ty-six hours in the saddle as one of a part}-, dis- mounting only to change horses and to eat. Again we behold him with one cowboy keeping night guard over a herd of a thousand cattle in a dry camp. spending the whole night on horseback in strenuous efforts to keep the thirsty . cattle from stampeding in search of water. More interesting still -is the story of the round-up of a herd of some two thousand in the midst of a driving blizzard, with pouring rain that stretched out in stinging level sheets before the wild wind. \\'itli this were blinding lightning flashes and terrific thunder which maddened the frightened animals, rendering it next to impossible to hold them. It reads like the stor}^ of a Homeric battle. Round and round rode Roosevelt and his men. wheeling and swa\'ing, galloping '^yf'.iV' .THEODORE ROOSE\-ELT IX HIS HUNTING COSTU}vrE AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 39 madly round the stampeding herd, at times checking their horses so sharply as to bring them to their haunches or even throw them to the ground, until finally they got the beasts corralled and made a mad break for the wagons. "Though there is much work and hardship, rough fare and monotony and exposure connected with the round-up," writes Mr. Roosevelt, "yet there are few men who do not look forward to it and back to it with pleasure. It is superbly health-giving and is full of excitement and adventure, calling for the exhibition of pluck, self- reliance, hardihood and daring horsemanship; and of all forms of physical labor the easiest and pleasantest is to sit in the saddle." Certainly the late legislator found exhilaration and enjoyment m it, and when he came back from this wild life to New York it was with a fresh stock of sturdy health. When winter came life on the plains lost much of its attraction. Grim desolation replaced the genial summer climate. From the north blew furious gales, driving blinding snows before them. Or if the howling winds ceased for a season, a merciless cold hooded over the land, turning the earth to stone, the rivers to sheets of crystal ice. In this season there was less work for the ranchmen. The horses shifted for themselves and needed no care. The cattle demanded some looking after, but much of the time was spent in the ranch-house before the huge fireplaces filled with blazing logs. During this period Roosevelt spent much time with his pen, describing his experience in his "Hunt- ing Trips of a Ranchman." Another book dealing with this period of his life was his "Ranch Life and Hunting Trail." About this time also he wrote two works of biography, "Life of Thomas Hart Benton" and "Life of Gouverneur Morris." As may well be supposed, a man of Theodore Roosevelt's character made himself felt in the West as he had done in the East. The cowboys looked on him as a true comrade, a man who led instead of following, who could ride and shoot with the best of them and srave no sip-n of considering himself better than they. Certain anecdotes of his doings are among the fireside lore of the plains. - Here is the story of the frontier "bad man," who took the "four- eyed" stranger for a tenderfoot and set out to have some sport with 4° AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD him. The rough, well primed with whisky, faced him with a revolver in each hand and with a curse bade him treat, enforcing his demand by an exhibition of "gun-play." Around sat a roomful of men, none oi them friends of Roosevelt, who was a stranger in the town. It was a case in which common sense counseled obedience, and the seeming tenderfoot rose as if to obey. The next instant his left hand went out with one of his old Harvard hits and the bully crashed against the wall and measured his length on the floor, his pistols exploding in the air. When he came to his wits he looked up to see what sort of an elephant had trodden on him, and found the tenderfoot standing over him, with battle in his eyes. "Served him right," was the decision of the crowd and the astounded rough incontinently surrended and gave up his guns. This was Roosevelt's only experience of this kind. Not unlike it, however, is the story of the sheriff who favored some cattle thieves, letting them escape. At least there was reason to believe that he sided with the outlaws and a meeting of ranch owners was held to consider the case. The sheriff was present, and in the midst of the meeting Mr. Roosevelt arose and squarely accused this official with aiding the cattle thieves. He told him that he and his fellows believed the charges to be true. He w^as unarmed, while from the pockets of the rough westerner peeped the handles of two big revolvers. And the reputation of the man was such that few of the ranchmen would have dared to face him with such charges. But the keen unflinching gaze of the inquisitor cowed the fellow. The ranchmen sitting around awaited his reply. None came. By his silence he acknowledged the truth of the accusation. Then there is the story of the IMarquis de Mores, a queer French- man who had a ranch near Roosevelt's. Some trouble had arisen between their cowboys and the Alarquis was offended by something Roosevelt was reported to have said. Without waiting to inquire into its truth he sent Roosevelt a challenge, writing that "there was a way for gentlemen to settle their dift'erences." Roosevelt's reply was that the story set afloat was a lie, that the Marquis had no business to believe it upon such evidence as he had, and that he would follow his note in person within the hour. He AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 41 started out, but before reaching the town where the Marquis was he met the messenger returning with a second note in which the French- man apologized and cordially invited Roosevelt to dine with him. The most exciting of Roosevelt's adventures was that of his win- ter hunt for a gang of cattle thieves, down a stream filled with pack ' ice. He got them, three of them, and held them prisoner by mak- ing them take off their boots. It was a cactus country, through which no one would dare to go unshod. The nearest wagon was fifteen miles away, but Roosevelt went for it, leaving his assistants on guard over the thieves. The settler loaned it, though he swore that he could not understand why so much trouble was taken with thieves who might be hanged off hand. With his three prisoners in the wagon Roosevelt set out for Dick- inson, the nearest town. The roads were very bad and it took two days and a night to make the journey. His two assistants having to leave him, he had nobody but himself and the driver, of whom he knew nothing, to guard the three "bad men." Putting them in the wagon, he walked behind, a Winchester across his shoulder to use in case of need. The road was ankle deep in icy mud. The night passed in a frontier hut, in which the self-appointed guard sat wide awake all night against the cabin door and watched his cowed captives. Late the next day he handed over his prisoners to the sheriff of Dickinson. Nothing could show better the dogged deter- mination of Theodore Roosevelt when he had made up his mind to do a thing. Such are the current anecdotes of Roosevelt's ranch life in the West. But there was another side to this life, the hunting one, which calls for some attention. The Indians of the West at that time were fairly quiet, though he did have one adventure with the "noble red- man" in which a ready show of his rifle prevented something worse. But there was big game in abundance, the grizzly bear, the elk, the mountain sheep, the deer and antelope, and even the bison, which as yet had not been quite exterminated. Of the several tales of his hunting life much the most thrilling is that of an encounter he had with a grizzly, at a time when he was hunt- ing alone in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Having made his 42 AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD camp by the side of a crystal brook he strohed out to see if he could get a grouse for supper. To his surprise he encountered instead a giant grizzly. He fired at and wounded the animal, which took refuge in a laurel thicket. Night was at hand and the hunter peered into the thicket, eager for a second shot. AMiile he did so the bear came sud- denly out. "Scarlet strings of froth hung from his lips; his eyes burned like embers in the gloom." Roosevelt fired again, the bullet, as it afterwards proved, shatter- ing the point of the grizzly's heart. A\'e must let the hunter himself tell the remainder of this story : "Instantlv the great bear turned with a harsh roar of fury and challenge, blowing the bloody foam from his mouth, so that I saw the gleam of his white fangs; and then he charged straight at me, crash- ing and bounding through the laurel bushes, so that it was hard to aim. I waited until he came to a fallen tree, raking him as he topped it with a ball that entered his chest and most through the cavity of his body, but he neither swerved nor flinched and at the moment I did not know that I had struck him. "He came steadily on and in another second was almost upon me. I fired for his forehead, but my bullet went low, entering his open mouth, smashing his lower jaw, and going into his neck. I leaped to one side almost as I pulled the trigger, and through the hanging smoke the first thing I saw was his paw as he made a vicious side blow at me. The rush of his charge carried him past. As he struck, he lurched forward, leaving a pool of bright blood where his muzzle hit the ground; but he recovered himself and made one or two jumps onwards, while I hurriedly jammed a couple of cartridges into the magazine — my rifle holding only four, all of which I had fired. Then he tried to pull up, but as he did so his muscles seemed suddently to give way, his head drooped, and he rolled over and over like a shot rabbit. Each of my first three bullets had inflicted a mortal wound.^' The skin and head of this monarch of the Rockies are still among ]\Ir. Roosevelt's cherished treasures. Not so thrilling, yet in a sense more unpleasant, was his shooting of a "silver-tip" bear cub. which he hastened to pick up, Icnowing what it meant if ^ladame Bruin should happen that way and find her cub AMONG THE COWBOYS AND IN THE HUNTING FIELD 43 meddled with. Making a wild grab, for a quick get-away, he found his hand impaled upon a hundred porcupine quills. That was the kind of cub he had brought down. It is probable that he laughed at this in after years, but he was in no laughing humor just then. We have not space to tell of his hunting the prong-horn antelope, the black-tail mountain deer, the stately elk of the hills, the jig-horn, cliff-haunting sheep, the mountain goat, and the many smaller crea- tures of the wilds. It must suffice to say that our daring hunter had many exciting, though not dangerous, adventures in search of these, winning many trophies of his skill, and left the West with the double reputation of being an able rancher and a daring hunter. CHAPTER V Fighting the Spoils Hunters and Rascals THE years of Roosevelt's early political life were those of the origin of legalized Civil Service Reform in the United States. It is generally recognized that the assassination of President Garfield was a direct outcome of the moss-grown spoils system that had so long prevailed. This dire event hastened the reform, and in 1883 a Civil Service Act was passed which provided for a board of commissioners and for the appointment to office by examination of candidates. The power of appointment w^as in a n:easure taken out of the President's hands, the law giving the first chance for an office to those who best stood the test of examination. President Harrison, after taking his seat in 1889, appointed the dauntless young New^ York reformer on the Civil Service Commission, and made him chairman of that body. The President had good reason for this act. In 1884 Roosevelt had succeeded in securing the passage of a Civil Service Reform law for New York, and his work in this direction had made him the logical head of the difficult Federal reform. No better selection could have been made. Roosevelt was a man capable of a vast amount of work, and saw that in this new field there was a call for his utmost energy. The law had been widely evaded or ignored, the spoils system was fighting hard for its control of the perquisites, and only a fighter ready to hit square from the shoulder was fitted to enter the contest. The law had its loopholes, as all such laws are almost sure to have, and its enemies took the utmost advantage of this. The new head of the commission saw that he had heroic work before him, and that he would have bitter opposition to meet both in and out of Congress. But no condition of that kind ever stopped Theodore Roosevelt. While it may not be fair to say that he dearly loved a fight, no one can say that the prospect of a fight ever had any terror for him. For six years (44) FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 45 he filled the office, for, after President Harrison's term ended. Presi- dent Cleveland, who recognized his ability, courage and sterling integrity, continued him in it. It was a work he liked. With the conviction that the spoils- monger and the bribe-giver were equally bad, he assailed them both without favor or mercy, "ousting the rascals" and enforcing the law as it had never been enforced before. He was a Republican from the North. Two members of the commission were from the South, — Democrats, who had served in the Confederate Army, — but in all the dealings of the commission there was no instance in which the politics of any person was considered in any case that came before them. When one day a paragraph got into the papers to the effect that only Republicans need try to enter the government service during a Republican administration, Roosevelt was quick in taking up the challenge. "This," he said, "is an institution not for Republicans and not for Democrats, but for the whole American people. It belongs to them and will be administered, as long as I stay here, in their interest with- out discrimination." And to prove his words he asked the representatives of the South- ern papers in Washington to publish in their papers that the young men of the South have not been seeking their proper share of positions under the government, and that if they chose to come forward they would be given an equal opportunity with everyone else, regardless of their political opinions. They did come forward, plenty of them. The examinations on the Southern route began to swarm with bright young fellows, and the word of Roosevelt was quickly proved, that not party, but merit, ruled in appointments to office. Commissioner Roosevelt opened himself to much criticism and faced many opponents, — but he has ever since been doing the same thing and with much the same effect. Criticism and opposition have never deterred him from doing the thing which he deemed right. Once the opponents of the merit system sought to tie the hands of the Commission by refusing to give it an adequate sum of money for its work. Roosevelt met them half-way. Sending for the list of exam- 46 FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS ination routes, he revised it, cutting out the districts represented by the men who had voted against the grant. He explained through the newspapers that, since some districts must be sacrificed through lack of money, it was only just that those members who had voted against the necessary appropriation should be the ones to lose its benefit. There was talk of ''impeachment," ''removal,'' etc., but nothing was done, and the Commission got its money after that. Before the Roosevelt period the Commission did its work in secret. But secrecy is alien to the Roosevelt instincts. The new Commissioner was a man who liked to be in the open air and did not fancy hiding his arts behind a veil. Hence, upon his entrance into the Civil Service Commission, its doors, for the first time in its existence, were thrown open to all comers. No one could say now, as had been said before, that there was any mystery connected with its workings. Afterwards, if any member of Congress showed himself ignorant of the conditions of the merit system, he would be cordially invited by the next mail to explore the whole work of the Commission to his heart's content. The newspaper correspondents were made welcome, and furnished with any information that could properly be given out. During Roosevelt's six years on the Commission things were done. Of course we cannot give him the credit for all these things. He was not the Commission, but only one of its members. But another member, ]\Ir. John H. Procter, has said this about his activity. "Every day I went to the oftice as to an entertainment. I knew something was sure to turn up to make it worth my while, with him there. \Mien he went away, I had heart in it no longer." And President Cleveland wrote this to Roosevelt when he regret- fully accepted his resignation to engage in a new line of work : "You are certainly to be congratulated upon the extent and per- manence of Civil Service Reform methods which you have so substan- tially aided in bringing about." A\'hat had taken place may be expressed in figures as follows: When he entered the Commission there were 14,000 officers under Civil Service rules. \\'hen he left there were 40,000. And the work had been put on a solid foundation which has never since given way. The spoils system has largely passed away; the merit system has taken its place. FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 47 The cause of his leaving the Commission was a summons from his native city, which wanted him for President of its Board of PoHce Commissioners. This strongly appealed to him. It was bringing him back upon his old battlefield. It was a field which he knew inch by inch. And it was one in which there was strenuous work to be done. The rottenness of party politics had deeply invaded this department and it sadly needed an earthquake shaking up. He went into it with the earnest vim with which he was soon after to go into the Spanish War. "I thought the storm center was in New York," he said, ''and so I came there. It is a great piece of practical work. I like to take hold of work that has been done by a Tammany leader and do it as well, only by approaching it from the opposite direction. The thing that attracted me to it was that it was to be done in the hurly-burly, for I don't like cloister life." A reform administration, that of Mayor Strong, was then in power, and soldiers of reform were needed to lead the ranks. The new Commissioner stirred up the town. The regulation reformers did not know whether to applaud or curse. Many declared that his rigid enforcement of the Excise law enabled Tammany to return to power by capturing the votes of liquor men who had temporarily joined the reformers. In reply Roosevelt said he had sworn to enforce all the laws and he would not compromise his conscience. Besides, he held that the best way to get a bad law repealed was to rigidly enforce it. The "Arabian Nights" features of Mr. Roosevelt's police adminis- tration, his sudden appearance in unexpected places, his unheralded personal tours of inspection about the city after dark, catching many a policeman napping — all this and several volumes more are a part of history. Roosevelt made fame and friends during his police regime, and all classes admitted that he was an honest man. He said once, at the close of a meeting, that he believed a majority of policemen were good men. He believed in giving every applicant a chance to show what he could do and treating him honestly and fairly, regardless of his nationality, politics, religion or "pull." "We have every country represented on the police force," he said. "Hebrews working harmoniously with Irishmen; Germans making 48 FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS good records with Spaniards — in fact, every nationality is represented almost but the Chinese, and I find the men as a class willing to give faithful service. When men find the official in charge of them consis- tent, always keeping his word to the letter, they will soon begin follow- ing the example set before them. Treat a man squarely and you will get square treatment in return. That is human nature and sound doctrine, whether in the police or in any other department." Being an honest man and determined to do his duty fearlessly and without favor, Mr. Roosevelt w^as not caught in the many traps set for him. All attempts to ensnare him were failures and soon appeared so ridiculous that he became the best "let alone" official in the city government. Jacob Riis says that "Jobs innumerable were put up to discredit the President of the Board and inveigle him into awkward positions. Probably he never knew of one-tenth of them. Mr. Roosevelt walked through them with perfect unconcern, kicking aside the snares that were set so elaborately to catch him^. The politicians who saw him walk apparently blindly into a trap and beheld him emerge with dam- age to the trap only, could not understand it. They concluded it was his luck. It was not. It was his sense. He told me once after such a time that it was a matter of conviction with him that no frank and honest man could be in the long run entangled by the snares of plotters, whatever appearances might for the moment indicate. So he walked unharmed in it all." But the new Police President had no path of roses to walk in. Corruption was deepl}^ planted and it was not easy to uproot it. The system of blackmail by police and officials was hard to overcome. It was the enforcement of the Sunday liquor law, in particular, that gave trouble to the Commission. There w^ere plenty of arrests, indeed, for its violation, but these were of people who had no political pull or refused to pay the police for shut eyes. This system of blackmail existed in the case of all illegal pursuits, which could be carried on unseen by the police if the necessary money were forthcoming, but to which refusal to pay brought sudden retribution. Dishonesty at elections was another of the prevailing forms of vice. Honesty at the ballot box had almost ceased to exist, and it FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS 49 needed strenuous labor on the part of the Commission to overcome this, as in the case of various other vicious practices. All we can say here is that during the two years of Mr. Roosevelt's presidency the Police Commission did much toward clearing the atmos- phere. The number of arrests and convictions for misdemeanor largely increased, the citizens had better protection than they had had for years, and the reign of corruption largely ceased. Mr. Roosevelt had the faculty ■ for organization strongly developed. Honor and reward came to the men who did their duty, discredit or dismissal to those who shirked it. A police force should be a military force, and this is what Roosevelt made of the men under him. He was not the chief of police, but when he came into police headquarters, his quick nervous stride and alert eyes affected every policeman in sight as though he had felt an electric shock. There was an involuntary straightening up, both physical and mental. Disorder and bad admin- istration prevailed before he entered the Board. When he left it New York had an admirably trained and effective military force of blue- coated public protectors, men who had won the esteem of respectable citizens and whose honesty was beyond question. There is a story of his dealing with strikers who had trouble with the police which reminds us of that of the Western sheriff. It is thus told by Jacob Riis : ''Roosevelt saw that the trouble was in their not understanding one another, and he asked the labor leaders to meet him at Clarendon Hall to talk it over. Together we trudged through a blinding snow- storm to the meeting. This was at the beginning of things, when the town had not yet got the bearings of the man. The strike leaders thought they had to do with an ambitious politician and they tried bluster. They would do so and so unless the police were compliant; and they watched to get him placed. They had not long to wait. Roosevelt called a halt, short and sharp. " 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'we want to understand one another. That was my object in coming here. Remember, please, that he who counsels violence does the cause of labor the poorest service. Also, he loses his case. Understand distinctly that order will be kept. The police will keep it. Now, gentlemen !' 50 FIGHTING THE SPOILS HUNTERS AND RASCALS "There was a moment's amazed suspense, and then the hall rang with their cheers. They had him placed then, for they knew a man when they saw him. And he — he went home proud and happy, for his trust in his fellow-man was justified." CHAPTER VI Naval Secretary and Rough Rider IN 1897 the scent of war was in the air. The barbarities of Spanish rule in Cuba were becoming too flagrant for our country to long endure, and it was growing evident to many that the United States might soon have to take a hand in the game. It was at this interval of growing indignation at Spanish methods that another President found occasion to avail himself of Mr. Roosevelt's services. His efficiency in the police service of New York had become the talk of the country, and President McKinley found it desirable to offer him the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, feeling sure that he was the man for the" place. The new American navy was then in the making, and needed a man of energetic character and efficient methods to give it the shaking up it needed in the event of a war. It was important to make it ready for any emergeficy, and Roosevelt was amply fitted for the work. While occupying the minor post of assistant, his hand was soon felt in every detail of naval affairs, and for a time he was virtually at the head of the department. The most important work he did was to collect ammunition and to insist on the naval gunners being well practiced in marksmanship. He was not long in his new post before he felt sure that war was coming and that it was his duty to see that the ships were prepared for it. Another thing he did was to fill every foreign coaling station with an ample supply of fuel. It was this that enabled Dewey to make his prompt movement from Hons^kong to Manila. We have testimony to his acuteness in the words of Senator Cushman K. Davis, then head of the Committee on Foreign Relations : "If it had not been for Roosevelt Dewey would not have been able to strike the blow that he dealt at Manila. Roosevelt's fore- thought, energy and promptness made it possible." (51^ 52 NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER What Roosevelt did was to visit the various naval reserves throughout the country, inspecting and inquiring into conditions and actively pushing repairs upon the ships. As for the practice of the men at the guns, there is afloat an anecdote that shows in picturesque outline the work of the Assistant Secretary in this direction. Not long after his appointment he asked Congress for an appro- priation of $800,000 for ammunition. The appropriation was made, but, to the surprise of the lawmakers, before many months had passed he asked for a second appropriation for the same purpose, this time demanding $500,000. "What has become of the other appropriation?" he was asked. "Every cent of it has been spent for powder and shot, and every ounce of powder and shot has been fired away," he replied. "And what do you propose to do with the $500,000 you now want?" "I will use every dollar of that, too, within the next thirty days in practice shooting." It was costly practice, but it paid, as was soon to be shown by the effectiveness of American gunnery at Manila and Santiago. Another thing done by Roosevelt in the same direction was to help in passing the personnel bill, which did away with the standing cause of bitter feeling between the officers of the line and staff. "It is useless,^' he said, "to spend millions of dollars in the build- ing of perfect fighting machines unless we make the personnel which is to handle these machines equally perfect." The time was soon to come when his work would tell. In Feb- ruary, 1898, occurred that criminal disaster which blew up the battle- ship "Maine," with all her crew, in Havana harbor. Diplomacy was called in to settle this, if possible, but Roosevelt, like most of his coun- trymen, felt sure that war would follow, and he redotibled his efforts to put the navy into first-rate fighting trim. We have told how Roosevelt helped Dewey when the war broke out. That was not all. It was due to him that Dewey was on the ground at the time. When a man was wanted to command in the East, Roosevelt selected Dewey, and stuck to his choice in spite of those who said that the Commodore was only a well-dressed dude. "It does not matter what kind of clothes and collars he wears," said NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER S3 Roosevelt, "the man will fight. He is the man for the place. He has a lion heart." He not only kept Dewey in Chinese waters, but held his fleet together. The "Olympia" was ordered home, but Roosevelt secured the repeal of the order. "Keep the 'Olympia,' " he cabled him, "and keep full of coal." He saw clearly what was in the air. And when the day for fighting came the blood throbbed strongly in his veins. "There's nothing more for me to do here," he said. "I've got to get into the fight myself. I have done all I could to bring on the war, because it is a just war. Now that it has come I have no business to ask others to do the fighting and stay at home myself." The fact is, chains could not have kept him at home. There was in him too much of the berserker strain for that. He had been fighting all his life. Whether in the legislature, on the ranch, in the hunting field, in the police service ; it was not in him to lose the chance to feel the blood-boiling sensation of the battlefield. It was a happy idea of his that suggested the Rough Rider regi- ment. The name "Roosevelt's Rough Riders" struck the popufar fancy, and helped greatly to make Roosevelt's name a household word. Before the regiment was organized it had become famous. The taking title, "Roosevelt's Rough Riders," was on every one's tongue. Never before had such a body of athletes and daredevils been got together. Only America could have furnished them. The cowboy, the Indian trailer, the hunter, the Indian himself, the pick of the West', formed the bulk of the regiment, but with them were mingled the athletes of the East, the college football player, the oarsman, the polo champion, the trained policeman, even the wealthy society man of athletic training. The one pity is that they were not able to show their prowess as horsemen, for such a body of cavalry as they would have made the world has rarely seen. They were out of their native element afoot, and their humorous title for themselves, "Wood's Weary Walkers," after their long marches in the Cuban jungle, had more truth than poetry in it. Roosevelt had been for four years a member of the Eighth Regi- ment of the New York State National Guard, and had risen to the 54 NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER grade of captain in its ranks. He might have been the colonel of the new regiment if he had chosen, but he felt that in actual war a man who had seen service in the field was needed, and he selected his friend. Colonel Leonard AA'ood, of the Regular Army, to command, contenting himself with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. How to get to Cuba was the first important question that arose. Of the enlisted men only a small proportion could go on the projected expedition to Santiago. Mounted men were debarred and the horses had to be left behind, one squadron remaining to take care of them. The Rough Riders were among the last of the regiments that received permission to go, and might have been left behind but for "Teddy" Roosevelt's insistence. Then, when orders came to move to Tampa, transportation was refused. In his usual mode of cutting the Gordian knot, he seized a train, jumped aboard the engine, and demanded that it should move. The train moved. Port reached, he did not wait for an official assignment to a transport, but put his men without hesitation on board the nearest vessel. Aluch the same thing happened when the landing place in Cuba was reached. Following the same bold tactics, he did not wait for orders to land his men, but got them ashore among the first, and on the night of the landing began to march to the front. He even passed General Lawton, who was holding the advance guard position under orders from General Shafter. In all these active movements we hear the name of Lieutenant- Colonel Roosevelt, not that of Colonel AA'ood. The two men, however, were of much the same calibre and were intimate friends. They worked together as one man. Later on Colonel Wood was promoted to the rank of general and his subordinate took the post of colonel. Throughout he was identified with the Rough Riders and they with him. Readers of the war know what followed, how the regiment passed the advance outpost — without orders, it is said — and at daylight the next morning encountered the Spaniards at Las Guasimas and began the first fight of the short war. When General Shafter received the news of this fight he was not pleased, for he was told that the Amer- icans had been cut to pieces. He swore roundly and declared that he NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER 55 "would bring that damned cowboy regiment so far in the rear that it would not get another chance." But when later on news of the cowboy victory reached him he wrote a flattering letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, in command, congratulating him on the brilliant success of his attack. Roosevelt' and his men were not to be kept back. They fairly struggled to the front. On July ist a correspondent saw them moving in columns of twos through a densely wooded roadway leading to the "Bloody Angle," and while his men were falling wounded around him Roosevelt answered the correspondent's "Hello, there!" with a wave of his hand and an exclamation that showed that his heart was in the fight. Up San Juan Hill they went, Roosevelt leading the charge, the Spaniards, from their intrenchments at the top, pouring down a thick hail of shells and Mauser bullets. This is the way the charge was described in press despatches from the field: "Roosevelt was in the lead waving his sword. Out into the open and up the hill where death seemed certain, in the face of the con- tinous crackle of the Mausers, came the Rough Riders, with the Tenth Cavalry alongside. Not a man flinched, all continuing to fire as they ran. Roosevelt was a hundred feet ahead of his troops, yelling like a Sioux, while his ov/n men and the colored cavalry cheered him as they chai;ged up the hill. There was no stopping as a man's neigh- bor fell, but on they went faster and faster. Suddenly Roosevelt's horse stopped, pawed the air for a moment, and fell in a heap. Before the horse was down Roosevelt disengaged himself from the saddle and' landing on his feet, again yelled to his men, and, sword in hand, charged on afoot. "It seemed an age to the men who were watching, and to the Rough Riders the hill must have seemed miles high. But they were undaunted. They went on, firing as fast as their guns would work. At last the top of the hill was reached. The Spaniards in the trenches could still have annihilated the Americans, but the Yankees' daring dazed them. They wavered for an instant and then turned and ran. The position was won and the blockhouse captured. In the rush more than half of the Rough Riders were wounded." 56 NAVAL SECRETARY AND ROUGH RIDER , Let us go on to another incident a month or more later. The war was ended. That charge up San Juan Hill had practically ended it. During this month the victorious army had been kept in Cuba, doing nothing and suffering from a malarial attack that had put more than 4,000 of the men on the sick list. If an attack of yellow fever, indig" enous to that climate, had broken out among the weakened troops, it would have proved ten times more fatal than the Spanish bullets. Colonel Roosevelt — he was a colonel then — chafed and fretted. Doing nothing did not agree with his constitution. He broke out at length in the famous "round robin," which he wrote and his fellow officers signed, protesting against keeping the army longer in Cuba, exposed to the perils of that pestilential climate. People shook their heads when they heard of this and talked of precedents. They did not recognize that he was a man to break and make precedents. Whatever their opinion, the "round robin," and letter which he wrote to General Shafter, making a powerful presentation of the perils of the army, had the intended effect. The men were recalled and shook the malarial dust of Cuba from their feet. With that event closed the war experience of Colonel Roosevelt and his Rough Rider regiment. CHAPTER VII Governor and Vice-President THE end of the brief but effective Cuban war left Colonel Roose- velt the popular hero of that event. Every war has its popular hero, and the dramatic picturesqueness of the cowboy regi- ment, with its tehing title, the "Rough Riders," was sure to strike the public fancy. The newspaper stories of their spectacled colonel dash- ing at their head up San Juan Hill, yelling with the loudest and as fearless as the best, added to the completeness of the picture in the public mind, and Roosevelt was lifted upon a pedestal of public appre- ciation on which he dwarfed every other soldier who took part in the affair, as Dewey similarly figured as the chief naval hero. That a man of such sudden and great popularity would be allowed to sink back into insignificance was very unlikely to follow. The American people likes to reward its heroes, the canvass for a new governor of New York was in the air, and Theodore Roosevelt was the man of the moment. His services in the war had scarcely ended before the nomination came. The Citizens' Union was the first to nominate him, but he declined the compliment, saying that he was a Republican. He proposed to stand by his colors. The Democrats, who dreaded him as a popular candidate, hoped to prevent his nomination by trying to prove that he had lost his legal residence in the State. Their plan failed, and the Republican Convention chose him as its candidate by a vote of 752 to 218 for Governor Black. Van Wyck was the Democratic nominee. Their candidate, Parker, had been elected Judge of the Court of Appeals the year before by 61,000 majority and on this the party based its hopes, though feeling that the personal popularity of Colonel Roose- velt was an element in the situation that might override all party lines and claims. It did so, for he carried the election by a majority of T 8,000 over Van Wyck. (57) 58 GOVERXOR AXD VICE-PRESIDEXT He took a personal part in his own campaign. It is not the Roosevelt way to be silent and wait while events are in the air. Out- spoken advocacy of everything in which he is interested is his way, and he took the stump in his own cause, speaking in many parts of the State. That these speeches were characterized by lire, force and direct- ness we need not say. They had also that common sense and practi- cal application to the situation which are among his characteristics. As in his legislative career, corrupt politics were handled by him with indignant sarcasm, while the wrongs the people heaped upon themselves by not asserting their right to be well and honestly gov- erned strongly engaged his attention. The stand he took in the campaign was not the most pleasant one to the professional politicians. They felt that as Governor this man would make the feathers of corrupt methods fly. They had reason for their feeling, for when seated in the Governor's chair it quickly became clear that the reign of jobbery for the time was at an end. so far as it came under executive control. Hasty in action as he had often shown himself, his impetuous disposition was now held in by a wise caution and deliberation. In selecting the heads of the important State departments he moved with especial care, .and when announced the appointments were everywhere greeted as wise and appropriate. Francis Hendricks, put at the head of the Insurance Department, made this department an honor to the State, and the same may be said of the work of Colonel John N. Partridge, appointed Superintendent of P\iblic Works. Roosevelt was not now charging with a yell of martial defiance up San Juan Hill. He was cautiously providing for the best interests of a State. For a just criticism of what he did in the Governor's chair we quote from Dr. Albert Shaw, the clear-headed editor of the "Review of Reviews." He thus characterized the Roosevelt administration: "He found the state administration thoroughly political; he left it business-like and efficient. He kept thrice over every promise that he made to the people in his canvass. Mr. Roosevelt so elevated and improved the whole tone of the state administration and so effectually educated his party and public opinion generally, that future governors will find easy what was before almost impossible." GOVERNOR AND VICE.PRESIDENT 59 We must deal briefly with the story of his administration. He was hardly seated in the Capitol at Albany when he had a consultation with a body of labor leaders, for whom he had sent. Labor laws were not wanting on the statute books, designed to benefit the laborer; but half of these were dead letters, and some of them had always been valueless. "These laws are your special concern," said the Governor to his visitors. 'T want you to look over them with me and see if they are fair, and, if they are, that they be fairly enforced. We will have no dead-letter laws. If there is anything wrong you know of, I want you to tell me of it. If we need more legislation we will go to the legisla- ture and ask for it. If we have enough, we will see to it that the laws we have are carried out and the most made of them." And this was done, so far as he was able to do it. There arose a question about the factory law, which it was claimed was not properly enforced. The sweatshops were a disease hard to cure. To satisfy himself as to the actual conditions the Governor came down from Albany and went through a group of the worst type of tenement houses himself. He saw much to disapprove of. "There is improvement," he said to the factory inspector, "but not enough. I do not think you quite understand what I mean by enforcing a law. I don't want to make it as easy as possible for the manufacturer. Make the owners of tenements understand that old, badly built, uncleanly houses shall not be used for manufacturing in any shape. Put the bad tenement at a disadvantage as against the well-constructed and well-kept house, and make the house owner as well as the manu- facturer understand it." The result of this personal inspection was the Tenement House Improvement Bill, the need of which he made the legislators see, and the effect of which was all on the side of sanitation and fair play. Its effect was to check the doings of the slum landlord. Democratic orators had predicted that Governor Roosevelt would be "too impetuous." He was impetuous by nature, he acknowledged that, but he thought he had schooled himself in this particular. Yet on the final day of the legislative session of 1899 his impetuous spirit blazed out, though in a way that few found amiss. He declared 6o GOVERMOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT positively that the Franchise Act, which efforts had been made to shelve, ought to be passed — and it was passed. The members of the legislature knew that the Governor had A-oiced public opinion in what he said to them, and they did not venture to defeat the measure. Another "impetuous" act was the removal from office of Asa B. Gardiner, District Attorney of the County of New York, on the charge that he had given aid and comfort to Chief of Police Devery, after that officer had him indicted for issuing a seditious order to the police force regarding violence at the polls. Other measures urgently advocated by him were bills to prevent the adulteration of food products and fertilizers, to protect game, and especially to aid the efficient administration of the state canals and the extension of civil service regulations. He further saved the treasury of New York City from heavy legalized looting by his unyielding- opposition to the notorious Ramapo job. As Governor he had to do with many momentous questions, and he dealt with them all from a lofty standpoint of duty. Alany times he went opposite to the wishes of his party, but in each case his action was creditable to him. He did not escape misunderstanding and mis- representation. He had always opposed boss rule, yet he openly consulted j\lr. Piatt as the leader of the party. Yet with all such con- sultation he lived up to his own convictions. That man would have had a hardv frame of mind who sought to press any scheme of corrupt politics upon him. For two years he occupied the Governor's chair. During the iirst vear little was done in the way of reform. The utmost he could do was to see that no bad laws were enacted. During the second year he got a hrmer hold and nuich beneficial legislation was obtained. His work was not yet done. There were some reforms which he desired earnestly to see accomplished before he left the Governor's chair, reforms which he view^ed as essential to the well-being of the state. Therefore, when in looo his name was mentioned as a candi- date for the A^ice-Presidency, the suggestion was distasteful to him. His work at Albany was not finished. An interesting convention was that held by the Republicans at Philadelphia in 1900, for the nomination of candidates for the Presi- GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT 6i dency and Vice-Presidency. In regard to the former there was no doubt WilHam McKinley was the man ; no other was thought of. For Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt's name was early set afloat, much to his discomfort. He had proposed to be a candidate again for Gov- ernor of New York. There was live work to be done. To sit as the voiceless Chairman of the Senate was very distasteful to a man of his temperament. There was opposition to him. Senator Hanna was strongly opposed. The man who most wanted to make him Vice-President was Senator Depew, of New York — not from any desire to do him honor, but to get rid of him in state affairs. The nomination was made somewhat in this way. When Presi- dent McKinley was nominated and the thunder of the cheering had died away, Governor Roosevelt rose to second the nomination. His speech was a strong one. He had a speech in his hand, type-written, but this he did not once look at, and probably did not follow, speaking the thoughts that rose in his mind and speaking them powerfully and well. What he had to say evidently hit the mark, for the members of the convention at once hailed him as Vice-President, shouting for McKinley and Roosevelt. At this Senator Depew, seeing his oppor- tunity, drawled out, 'Tn the East we call him Teddy." At this the shouting grew roof-lifting; "Teddy Roosevelt! Teddy Roosevelt!" Depew was achieving his scheme to "shelve" Roosevelt. When the latter's name was formally presented to the convention calls for a vote rose on every side, and the taking of it quickly began. It ended as it only could end under such circumstances. McKinley and Roose- velt were the men of 1900. Never had a man been nominated for the Vice-Presidency more against his will. He did not want the office, and he fully understood the purpose of those who were pressing him into it. For a time he strongly resisted persuasions to get him to accept, and when he did yield it was sorely against his will. Neither he nor those who sought to shelve him dreamed for a moment of the coming result, that Vice- President Roosevelt would never preside over a session of the Senate, but before the year ended would fill the President's chair. 62 GOVERNOR AND VICE-PRESIDENT He made the campaign, however, vigorously and effectively. He was tireless and indefatigable, traveling during it no less than twenty- two thousand miles, making six hundred and seventy-three addresses, speaking to three and a half millions of people. The feat was unpre- cedented, and it made him known to the people to a remarkable extent. He was highly popular before; he was doubly popular Avhen this remarkable campaign ended. AMien the day of election came the popu- larity of the candidates was shown in a plurality of 850,000 votes and an electoral majority of 137. On the 4th of IMarch, igoi, he took the oath of office and became Vice-President of the United States. CHAPTER VIII In the Presidential Chair ON the 6th of September, 1901, a lamentable act took place, one of those tragic occurrences that are apt to arise from the mad ferment of modern life. President McKinley, while shaking hands in friendly spirit with his fellow-citizens in the great hall of the Buffalo Exposition, was foully shot down by a half-insane An- archist, whose hand the victim had just cordially grasped. For a week the suffering martyr lay between life and death, for a time showing such signs of recovery that hope overspread the country, then rapidly sinking until death came to him in the early morning of the 14th. His sad passing away left Theodore Roosevelt President, a consummation no one had dreamed of when, against his will, he was induced to become a candidate for the Vice-Presidency. The death of McKinley was followed by an event of dramatic interest. For a time the recovery of the stricken President seemed so assured that Roosevelt felt secure in making a hunting excursion in the Adirondacks, for which he had previously arranged. When, on Friday, September 13th, word reached the Tahawas Club House, where the Vice-President had his headquarters, that the exalted victim was fast sinking, Roosevelt was not to be found. He had set out early that morning for a tramp in the mountains, and no one knew just where he was. Before starting he had received a despatch from Buffalo saying that the President was in splendid condi- tion and not in the slightest danger. Under these circumstances he had felt it safe to venture upon his mountain stroll. The fresh and startling news caused guides and runners to be sent out in all directions, with orders to sound a general alarm and find the Vice-President as quickly as possible. Yet hours passed away and the afternoon was verging into early evening before the signals of the searchers were heard and answered and it became evident that the Roosevelt party was near at hand. (63) 64 IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR When Colonel Roosevelt was reached and the news of the critical condition of the President told him he could scarcely credit it. Startled and alarmed, he hurried back to the Tahawas Club House, feeling that he must hasten to Buffalo with the utmost despatch. But the nearest railroad station was thirty-five miles distant, and this distance had to be covered by stage, over a road rendered heavy by a recent thunder- storm. When he reached there the Adirondack Stage Line had a coach in readiness and had provided relays of horses covering the whole distance. All night long the stage coach, bearing its distinguished passenger rolled along through the woods, the latter part of the jour- ney being through heavy forest timber, which rendered it one of actual peril. President McKinley had already passed away, though this news was not received until he reached the station at North Creek at 5.22 on the following morning. A special train awaited him and dashed away the moment it received the awaited passenger. The trip that followed was a record-breaking one, the speed in many instances exceeding a mile a minute. It was 1.40 p. m. when it pulled into the station at Buffalo, the President, as Roosevelt now was, going to the house where his deceased predecessor lay. That afternoon he took the bath of office as President of the United States, the oath being administered by Judge Hazel, in the presence of Secretaries Root, Long, Hitchcock and Wilson, Attorney- General Knox and other distinguished persons. The oath taken and the document signed, all the preliminaries were finished, and Theodore Roosevelt became the legally authorized President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man in the history of the country to become President of the United States; he had not yet completed his forty-third year. The youngest before him being Presi- dent Grant, who was forty-seven at the date of his first inauguration. The oldest was President Harrison, who took office at the age of sixty-eight. It was a heavy responsibility to fall on so young a man. How he would act in his new office was the anxious query asked by those who remembered the records of Presidents Tyler, Filmore and Johnson, who like him had begun as Vice-Presidents. President IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR 65 McKinley stood for certain principles, certain promises to the people made in the platform of the year before. Could an impulsive man like Theodore Roosevelt, a man full of ideas and views of his own, be expected to carry out his predecessor's policy? There was a distinct feeling of relief in the community when he came out with a declaration that this was what he proposed to do. Yet McKinley's policy did not cover the whole range of legisla- tion, and the remembrance of Roosevelt's radical reform administra- tion in New York was not altogether agreeable to the hide-bound conservatives or the class of shady politicians who had axes to grind. They felt that a man like this in the Presidential chair might prove like the proverbial bull in the china shop. Roosevelt's last speech as Vice-President gave some indications of his attitude. It was given at Minneapolis on September 2d, three days before the tragedy at Buffalo, and gave strong indications of his mental attitude. Some quotations from it may not be amiss. "Our interests are at bottom common; in the long run we go up or go down together. Yet more and more it is evident that the state, and if necessary the nation, has got to possess the right of supervision and control as regards the great corporations that are its creatures; particularly as regards the great business combinations which derive a portion of their importance from the existence of some monopolistic tendency. The right should be exercised with caution and self- restraint ; but it should exist, so that it may be invoked if the need arises." In these few words we have the keynote of much of Roosevelt's Presidential career. Throughout his nearly eight years of office he hammered away at the monopolies that had arisen in the land, and to some degree succeeded in fettering them. A strong advocate of America for Americans, this is what he had to say about the Monroe Doctrine: "This is the attitude we should take as regards the Monroe Doc- trine. There is not the least need of blustering about it. Still less should it be used as a pretext for our own aggrandizement at the expense of any other American state. But, most emphatically, we must make it evident that we intend on this point ever to maintain the 66 IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR old American position. The Monroe Doctrine is not international law, but there is no necessity that it should be. All that is needful is that it should continue to be a cardinal feature of American policy on this continent. If we are wise we shall strenuously insist that under no pretext whatever shall there be any territorial aggrandizement upon American soil by any European power, and this no matter what form the territorial aggrandizement may take." These extracts serve not alone to indicate President Roosevelt's attitude in certain particulars ; they serve also to give some conception of his oratorical manner. Fluent as he has shown himself as a speech- maker, he has the faculty of dealing mainly with hard facts. It is the same with his messages to Congress. Some of them have been so expanded that he seemed rather writing a book than a message. But his seeming wordiness came from a desire to omit no matter of national interest and to leave none without a comprehensive treatment. Yet in them all he hammers away with hard facts. Flowery language and inconclusive verbosity have no place in his category. During Roosevelt's first term in office he did little in the way of proposing radical legislation. He felt that his hands were tied in that respect by the way into which he came into the Presidency. But he showed his untrammeled character in a dozen other ways. Precedents had np sacredness for him; he was always breaking them. One instance was that in which he invited Booker Washington to dinner. The event raised a stir out of all accordance with its significance, for Roosevelt was not the first President to have a colored man at his table, and Booker Washington had shown himself a man whose presence at their tables would honor kings. The storm broke and the thunders of denunciation rolled, but they passed innocuously over Roosevelt's head. He never hesitated to step outside the lines of routine and break through the cobwebs of red tape. When a coal strike broke out in Pennsylvania and went on with such obstinacy as to threaten disaster to the people he stepped resolutely into the breach and by his influence settled the labor war. The sticklers for precedent cried out in dismay. No President has done such a thing before ! It is a dangerous stretch of the executive power ! But those citizens whose fires threatened to IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR 67 go out in midwinter for want of coal had nothing but praise for this salutary interference. When the Republic of Colombia refused to sustain the action for the building of the Panama Canal and the State of Panama seceded in consequence and proclaimed its independence, President Roosevelt with what seemed unnecessary haste recognized the new republic and proceeded to negotiate with it instead of Colombia. His impatience in this instance seemed to run away with his judgment, for a little delay would not have stood in the way of getting what he desired. In November, 1906, his interest in the progress of the canal took him in person to Panama. Here was a flagrant violation of another precedent. No President before him had ever gone beyond the juris- diction of the flag. But Roosevelt lost no sleep in consequence ; he saw what he wanted to see, and the solar system sufl:ered no disruption. What else did he do? During the three and a half years of his first administration the country owed several important executive acts to him. In addition to settling the anthracite coal strike and recog- nizing Panama, he prosecuted the Northern Securities Company for violating the anti-trust law; he established reciprocity with Cuba; he created the new Department of Commerce and Labor ; he founded the permanent census ; he reorganized the army ; he strengthened the navy ; he advocated the national irrigation act which is reclaiming vast arid tracts to cultivation; he submitted the Venezuela imbroglio to The Hague Court of Arbitration; he sent America's protest against the Kishenev massacre to the Czar of Russia. The way the latter was done was an apt illustration of the Roose- velt method of doing things. He well knew that if the petition was sent to the Czar in the usual way he would not receive it and his gov- ernment would probably hint that this country had better attend to its own business. Roosevelt cut the Gordian knot in a different way. He tele- graphed the whole petition to the American Ambassador at St. Peters- burg, bidding him to lay it before the Czar and ask him if he would receive such a petition if it came regularly before him. The Czar politely replied that he would not. But in spite of diplomacy he had received it and read it, and in this way he learned something of what 68 IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR was going on in his dominions. Salutary results soon followed' from the Roosevelt diplomacy. We have told some of the things for which President Roosevelt stood sponsor. They were not all. His activity was enormous. He not only stood for the best things, but he worked and fought for them, and in some instances stood the test of making powerful enemies in order to secure them. The faculty of persistence in him was strongly developed. The word "strenuous," which he has bound up with his own name, aptly illustrates his character. His was a true example of the "strenuous life." There was always "something doing" in his neighborhood, and always will be while he breathes the breath of life. The Roosevelt doctrine of a "square deal," the enforcement of the laws and statutes of the United States, and the upholding of the dignity and integrity of the nation were ever the keynotes of his administration. CHAPTER IX Reformer and Peacemaker 44/^^IT-THAR ROOSEVELT" is a familiar cowboy designation Ij" of our late President, and it is one that well fits. All his life he has been "gittin' thar/' Ability and impetuosity have carried him headlong forward from one position to another in the public service, his rare vacations from political labor being those of his ranch and hunting life in the Wild West, and of his active career as a soldier. These were his recreations, his intervals of holiday enjoyment. As for resting — the man cannot do it; it is not in him. He has got the posts he wanted throughout his life; and got one post he did not want, that of Vice-President. It is one that would appeal to the ambition of most of us, but it was a restful post, and Roosevelt was not hankering after rest. Yet by a strange dispensa- tion of Providence it lifted him to the very summit of an American political career; it made him President. He would not have been human if he had not felt a sense of triumph over those plotting politicians who had fairly forced him into the Vice-Presidential office, fancying in their shrewd souls that they had the inconvenient reformer shelved. Fate had broken the threads which bound down this modern Gulliver and set him free to carry his ideas to their highest ultimate. Yet that he was satisfied cannot be said. It was a bitter and sorrowful reflection that he had reached this high office over the slain body of his lamented predecessor, the loved and lovable McKinley. He would ten thousand times rather have spent his four years as voiceless chairman of the Senate than to be made President through the assassination of a dear and cherished friend. Nor was it altogether pleasant to feel that chance, not the act of his fellow-citizens, had lifted him to this high office. Did they want him? Was he not in some sense an interloper? That could only be (69) 70 REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER told when they had the opportunity to express their real sentiment, and he mttst have looked forward with some hope and some anxiety to the election of 1904, to learn if the people really approved him, or if they merely waited their opportunity to shelve him effectually. If he really had any doubt in this direction, it was dispelled when the time came to act. The enthusiastic nomination which he received was enough to show that he was by all odds the first choice of the Republican party. And when the vote of the people was cast it became evident that he was the first choice of aU parties, that the magic of his name had swept hosts of converts from the Democratic ranks. This was shown by his immense plurality in the popular vote of over 2,500,000, far the greatest that any President had ever received, and his large Electoral College majority of 196. Evidently the people at large wanted Roosevelt, and it remained for him to justify their faith in him. That we are correct in crediting him with a strong desire for election to the Presidency we may quote his own words to show. This he has said: "I do not believe in playing the hypocrite. Any strong man fit to be President would desire a nomination and re-election after his first term. Lincoln w^as President in so great a crisis that perhaps he neither could nor did feel any personal interest in his own re-election. But at present I should like to be elected President just as John Quincy Adams, or McKinley, or Cleveland, or John Adams, or Washington himself desired to be elected. It is pleasant to think that one's country- men think well of one. But I shall not do anything whatever to secure my nomination save to try to carry on the public business in such shape that decent citizens will believe I have shown wisdom, integrity and courage." On the 4th of March, 1905, this favorite of the American people, for in the highest sense he w^as that, w^as inaugurated President of the United States. He was now a man unhampered, except by the plat- form of the Convention, and that w^as broad enough to carry out all the reforms in which he felt an interest. No purpose of running for another term trammeled him. He had cut the bridges in that direction behind him by announcing positively that he had no such intention. REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER - 71^ There were some not ready to believe him, even when in December, 1907, he reiterated his determination not to run for a third term. It was not until 1908, when he absolutely refused a nomination, that all the people felt that he meant just what he said. He might justly for other reasons have declined a re-election, for the Presidency for him had been no bed of roses. He had worked to win his aims with all the strength of his strong character and was justified in looking forward for a period of reprieve — not exactly of rest, but of occupation not quite so nerve-str? ining. During this term of office the President worked strenuously for the reform legislation he had at heart. T hat he got all he wanted cannot be said, for Congress was hard to handle, but he gained enough to make the path easier for later reformers. Chief among his victories over intrenched privilege was that of the Anti-Rebate Law, which forced the railroads to come out into the open and to desist from the unfair practices which they had so long maintained. Another was the pure food law, to save the people from being poisoned by villainous purveyors, and the law against the sale of unclean meats. Other acts sustained by him were those to protect the forest reserves and national parks, to enlarge the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and to prevent corporations from making contributions to election expenses. The old soldiers, especially the veterans of the Civil War, for whom he had a warm place in his heart, felt the benefit of his sympathy in the General Service Pension Act, which gave to each of them, whether injured or not, a liberal pension after he had reached his sixty-second year. In 1906 he made a speech advocating an inherit- ance tax, a measure of which his successor. President Taft, is strongly in favor. All this was matter which brought him under the limelight of the people of his cotmtry. In 1905 he brought himself under the lime- light of the world, when he appealed to Japan and Russia to bring to an end their desolating war by negotiating a treaty of peace. The offer took hold. Both parties to the conflict were glad enough to see this hand stretched out to them across the two great oceans, bearing the olive branch of peace. While Europe dallied and delayed, America 72 - REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER had acted, and Roosevelt's suggestion bore its legitimate fruit in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of September 5, 1905. In 1904 President Roosevelt had taken steps to have a second Peace Conference held at the Hague. His merits as a peacemaker were now sounded from end to end of the earth, and his .success was fully recognized in 1906, when there was awarded to him the Nobel Peace Prize, annually given to the one who had done the most in bring- ing about peaceful relations among the nations of the earth. We are not attempting here more than a passing glance at Presi- dent Roosevelt's activities during his term of office. There is one more of them of v/hich we must speak. In May, 1908, there was held in the White House, at his suggestion, a conference of the governors of all the states and territories to consider the highly important sub- ject of how best to conserve the natural resources of this country. These were disappearing at an alarming rate. The forests were being destroyed by wasteful methods of lumbering and by devastating fires. The coal supply was being wastefully handled. Ignorance and greed were exhausting the fisheries. The soil was being washed away through the removal of its natural covering and the beds of streams were being filled up with it. This and other things needed wise and honest treatment and the conference led to the formation of a National Conservation Commission to take these matters in hand. Such were some of President Roosevelt's multitudinous activities and their results. Now let us say something of the man himself. If we come to investigate the manner of his life we can but say that there was never a more thorough democrat. The bane of aristocratic pride had never infected his blood. All men, whatever their station, were alike to him. He had but one criterion of respect. Is the man honest; is he taking his due part in the work of life? He would grasp the grimy hand of the railroad engineer with much more comradeship than that of the pampered scion of wealth. In traveling he preferred the cowcatcher of the locomotive, with its sweeping outlook, to the most comfortable palace car seat. The word strenuous, of which he made so much use and which so aptly fitted him, was first made his slogan in his speech at the Hamilton Club of Chicago in 1899. Here is the sentence which contained his dogma of the "strenuous life" : a w K ^ «. o REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER 73 "I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous hfe, the Hfe of toil and effort, of labor and strife ; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardships, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph." It was the kind of life that Roosevelt loved. He was strenuous in everything, in his executive acts, his legislative demands, his exer- cises and pleasures, his walks and rides. An amusing example of his strenuosity in this direction is that long walk in which he led a party of army officers through a broken country, wading streams, climbing and descending hills, facing all sorts of difficulties, until they were utterly worn out, while their leader showed no trace of weariness. Roosevelt, in addition to his Presidential term, had another Hfe, that home life which all of us possess in some measure and which he thoroughly enjoyed. The society of his wife and children was more to him than all the stately show and empty adulation of his official position. His home at Oyster Bay, Long Island, is a place of great attraction and one which any man might well enjoy. Standing on the crest of a little hill and approached by a steep and winding roadway, part of which runs through a thick wood, it presents a picturesque aspect when first seen. From it appears a beautiful view in every direction, and especially that over the waters of the Sound. Shade trees of many kinds stud the lawn and a broad porch runs around three sides of the house, shaded in front by a luxuriant Virginia creeper. Within, the house is beautifully furnished, and in nearly every room are trophies of the hunter's life on the Western plains or mementos of the soldier's life on Cuban soil. President, or Governor, or Colonel, or Commissioner Roosevelt, or whatever we may call him, is never so happy as when sitting quietly at home with his wife and children. Home is to him the dearest place on earth, and he never suffers the cares that fall upon him thickly without to invade its hallowed pre- cincts. Here he finds his one place of rest, of that relaxation of which he permits himself so little. With his wife— a woman of beauty and charm, one able to keep pace with him in his outdoor walks — his daughter Alice, the child of his first wife, and his five other children. 74 REFORMER AMP PEACEMAKER Theodore, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald and Quentin, with all of whom he has held years of companionship, his home life is a delightful one. Here are an abundance of the books that he loves and to which he has found time to add a goodly number of his own writing, descrip- tions of outdoor and hunting life, biographies and histories, especially his "\\'inning the A\'cst," his most ambitious work, devoted to the history of that great section of our land. Such is the home and home life of that great-soulod, clean-lived, impulsive, energetic, enthusiastic lover of his kind — the honest and straightforward kind — the man who for years has battled fraud and corruption, with none of their mire clinging to him, the man of such broad aspirations and success-compelling genius that he has won the admiration, not only of his country, but of the world. We have already stated how, at the end of his first term of elective Presidency, he refused a renomination, not for rest, for the chief object he then had in view w^as to seek the wilds of Africa, and take his part in the hunting of big game such as America has none to match. BOOK TWO ROOSEVELT'S INTERESTING JOURNEY Through the Heart of Africa <^5) CHAPTER X From New York to Mombasa ON the morning of March 5, 1909, Theodore Roosevelt, as we may well judge, roused from sleep with a fervent sense of freedom and exhilaration. He had cast off the weight of political responsiblity which had laid heavily upon him for nearly eight years, and at last was free from the burdens of office and in a position to enjoy to its full a genuine holiday. That "Call of the Wild" which had rung in his ears in his younger days and led him west to the companionship of the cowboy and the perils of the hunting field, was ringing again in his ears. A born huntsman, with a native love of adventure and a strong zest for stirring and perilous scenes, the "Call of the Wild" now drew him in a different direction, to that African wilderness which is the haunt of the most savage and dangerous beasts on the face of the earth. Hunting in America is a tame and mild enjoyment compared with hunting in Africa. We have the grizzly bear, to be sure, a foe not safe to despise. But there may be found the elephants, the rhinoceros, the bufTalo, the lion, creatures to be challenged on their native soil only by the most hardy and daring of men.. It was not alone these lordly beasts that our huntsman had to fear. The district he sought is one where lurk deadly diseases, fevers that enervate the frame, that mysterious "sleeping sickness" from whose slumbers few awake, disorders that lie in wait for those not native to tropical climes; and earnest warnings were sent the ex- President that he was going to his doom, that in the African fevers he would find foes tenfold more deadly than the wildest beasts. So far as we know all this rather whetted Roosevelt's appetite for these new hunting fields than deterred him from them. We cannot say that he is devoid of the faculty of fear, but he has a happy faculty of concealing it. He had thrown off the harness of the Presidency, 78 FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA which had fettered him so long. He had refused to hsten to the voice of the tempter, which told him that the White House and the Presi- dent's chair still awaited him and were his to be had for the asking. No, he had amply earned a holiday and was determined to have it — "a holiday as is a holiday," in the midst of the African wilds and in the presence of the earth's most terrible beasts. Eager to get away, to shake the dust of civilization from his feet, to breathe the free air of uncultured nature, to feel the thrill of new adventure, the released President hurried his preparations. The members of the expedition were carefully selected, the juvenile of the party being his youthful son Kermit, who was trained to be its photog- rapher, but who has since shown himself to be a true "chip of the old block" in his hunting intrepidity and success. Everything likely to be of need in the wild was carefully selected, with the judgment and skill of one who knew just what the hunter requires and what he can well do without. The sporting pieces especially were chosen with care, with the knowledge that life might often depend on the accuracy of the rifle and the trustworthy character of the ammunition. The 23d of March, less than three weeks from the close of his Presidential career, was the date selected by Mr. Roosevelt for his start, and as may be imagined his life was a busy one during that brief interval. It is interesting to state that one of the last visitors at Oyster Bay before his departure was his mountaineer companion, M. F. Cronin, the Adirondack guide and stage driver who, seven and a half years before, had brought him through his breakneck midnight drive to the railroad station at North Creek, a rough and headlong ride in which it is said a pair of horses was killed. Word had come of the perilous condition of President McKinley, and the bold driver felt that he was bringing a new President to his chair. Now, that his Presidential career was at an end, his moun- taineer friend came to bid him godspeed on the eve of his setting out upon a new career. On the morning of March 23, 1909, ex-President Roosevelt set off on his long journey from Oyster Bay to Mombasa. The ride to New York was an ovation. At every station a crowd had gathered to wave FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 79 good-bye and wish good luck to the departing hunter. On reaching the wharf of the Hamburg-American Line, where waited the ocean greyhound "Hamburg," ready to convey him to Naples, a cheering throng, thousands in number, awaited to give him an enthusiastic send-off. It was no easy matter to reach the deck of the steamer through this mass of admiring humanity. Many friends and members of his late administration accom- panied him on board, and as the great steamer slowly glided out from her dock the distinguished traveler stood on the captain's bridge, wav- ing a parting farewell with his black slouch hat. By his side stood his son, Kermit, both gladdened by the cheers of the friendly multitude. One of the latest and most pleasing incidents of the departure was the advent of a messenger from President Taft, who brought as a present a collapsable gold ruler, one foot long, with pencil attached, and inscribed as follows : "To Theodore Roosevelt from William Howard Taft. Good-bye and good luck. Best wishes for a safe return." That the outgoing traveler was highly pleased with this parting tribute need scarcely be said. The returning messenger bore back his grateful thanks. What shall we say of the voyage? What can be said other than of the innumerable voyages of innumerable tourists, whose principal aim is to prevent the journey from becoming wearisomely monoto- nous. That there was little rest for Roosevelt on board ship, we may be sure. He is of the unresting type. Those who wished to interview him had to do so en route, for every day he walked a good ten miles to and fro on the deck. And the deck did not limit the range of his activity. He pervaded the ship. Not a part or a feature of it escaped his attention. From the bridge to the coal-heavers' den he made his way, everybody who knew anything was obliged to give up his last item of useful information, and by the time shore was reached again the traveler had learned enough about life on shipboard to write a nautical novel. Meanwhile his diet was of the simplest, his meals being limited to two a day. The purpose of this abstemiousness was to keep down his weight. Lightness and agility were requisite in the purpose he had in view. 8o FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA In former times the Atlantic traveler cut loose from the world. During his voyage the only world he knew was the cramped and narrow one bounded by the walls and decks of the ship. The ocean of tossing waves cut him off from all beside. But in these days we have ''reformed all that." Wireless telegraphy keeps us in touch with the land we have left and the land to which we are bound, and all through his voyage the darting of the electric waves through hundreds of aerial miles told our traveler of what was being done on land and told the friends he had left the daily occurrences of his life at sea. One of these was rather startling. The news came that a crazed Italian, a steerage passenger, had sought to assassinate him and had been seized and fettered in the stronghold of the ship. It gave, how- ever, only a passing thrill to those at home, for it was quickly con- tradicted and proved to be based upon an event of small significance. The harbor of Fayal, in the Azores, was reached on March 29. Roosevelt landed at Horta, the island capital, and was taken a two hours' drive about the town by the governor. A second stop was made at Ponta Delgada, the largest city on the group and the third in size of Portuguese cities. Here the ex-President met with a real peril, far more dangerous than that of the crazed Italian. There was a rough sea on, so boisterous that only three passen- gers were willing to accompany the intrepid Roosevelt in the small boat that took him ashore. It was on his return, after visiting the United States Consul and seeing the city, that the peril was encoun- tered. The small boat was tossed about like a cockle-shell on the unquiet sea, and as it neared the ship was dashed violently against its side. At the same time a ten-foot wave rolled over it, drenching the travelers to the waist. Roosevelt coolly waited his chance, made a leap at the right moment, his hand was caught by the first officer, and in an instant more he was safe on board. The next stopping place was at Gibraltar, which was reached on April 2. Here Colonel Roosevelt had the opportunity to make a thor- ough inspection of this impregnable outlying fortress of Great Britain. Certain festivities also took place, including a dinner and a dance, in which Roosevelt, who is little given to "twirl the light fantastic toe," consented to open the ball with Miss Draper, one of his traveling FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 8i companions. Here also he made a brief speech, ending humorously with the words: "Everybody has been very kind to me, but I think it must be an infernal nuisance to have a retired President on board." Three days later, on April 5, the harbor of Naples was entered, the "Hamburg" reaching her voyage end at that great and famous metropolis of Southern Italy. Roosevelt's stay here was to be short, but it was one of continuous ovation. As the great steamer entered the harbor it was greeted by a deafening peal of steam whistles, the music of many bands, and a splendid show of bunting from the vessels of all types and nations that occupied the ample bay. There was present an Italian warship and a multitude of other craft, all gay with flags and bunting from stem to stern. On land the welcome was as enthusiastic. Had our plain Ameri- can tourist been a conquering king returning from a glorious cam- paign, he could not have been received more heartily by the vast crowd assembled to gaze on the late head of the American republic. Floral ofiferings were superabundant, among them a great group of red, white and black carnations from Emperor William and a splendid garland of fragrant blooms from the Empress. A letter from the Emperor accompanied the gift, cordially inviting him to stop at Berlin on his return and ending with "Hail to the successful huntsman!" On landing, the Hotel Excelsior was sought, where the traveler met various Ita'Jan officials and was greeted by scores of prominent Americans. He subsequently had an interview with the Duke and Duchess of A-osta in their splendid palace at Capodimente, affairs of state preventing the King of Italy from meeting him during his brief stay. From Naples the traveler proceeded to Messina, the scene of the recent devastating earthquake. His observations here were condensed in a telegraph cable message in which he warmly praised the splendid work done at Messina and Reggio with the building lumber shipped from this country. Visiting the American camp, he found two hun- dred and fifty houses already completed and arrangements made for the rapid construction of one thousand two hundred and fifty more. The work was under the general direction of Ambassador Griscom 82 FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA and the immediate care of Lieutenant-Commander Belknap, assisted by other navy officers. Working under these were forty able sailors and a number of stalwart American carpenters. ''In addition," he concluded, "there is a fine group of Americans, such as J. Elliott, Win- throp Chandler, J. Bush and R. Hale, who are giving their time and energies to help the philanthropic work, I wish to say that I consider that the American people are deeply indebted to each and every one of these men." Two days only were given to the sightseeing at Naples and Mes- sina, with the arrival and departure, the Roosevelt party leaving oiii the 6th in the steamer "Admiral," which was to carry them to Mom- basa. A matter of some minor interest is that, while on board the "Hamburg," an army surgeon presented him with a syringe filled with an anti venom for snake poison. This was to guard him against pos- sible perils more insidious than those likely to come from wild beasts. How efficacious it would be apt to prove is another question. As may be seen, Colonel Roosevelt had lost little time so far in sightseeing on land. He would have enough of shore experience on reaching Africa; now straightforward to Mombasa was the cry. From Naples the "Admiral" sped through the most historic waters of the world, those of the eastern Mediterranean, the scene of the com- merce and naval wars of Phoenicia, Greece, Carthage and Rome. Passing Port Said and worming its w^ay through the narrow channel of the Suez Canal, it kept on down the Red Sea, famous principally for its tropic heats. The only stop was made at Aden, at the extremity of Arabia, and this a brief one. Thence the steamer plunged into the waters of the Indian Ocean for its final goal at Mombasa. This final lap of the voyage lasted a week, its only interesting incident being a dinner given by the captain of the "Admiral" to his distinguished passenger, the table being finely decorated and speeches and toasts being features of the occasion. ]\Iombasa was reached on April 21, the total voyage having taken rather less than a month. The "Admiral" entered Kilindin harbor in a heavy rain, almost a deluge, the water pouring in drenching floods. The steamer flew the American flag at fore and main, which was saluted by the British cruiser "Pandora," then Iving in the harbor. FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 83 Darkness had fallen, but Roosevelt and his son lost no time in leaving the ship, being taken ashore in the commandant's surf boat and carried to a place of shelter in chairs on the shoulders of stalwart natives. Such was the landing on Africa's shores, at night, in a downpour of rain, and on the shoulders of natives of the soil. But Colonel Roose- velt had no thought of bad omens. He was in splendid health and eager for the start to the hunting grounds, which he said he could not reach a minute too soon. A military guard was drawn up to receive him and a picturesque crowd of Europeans, East Indians and negroes crowded to gaze upon the famous American potentate, while the governor of the place gave him a cordial welcome. He had intended to stay two days at Mom- basa, but the flood of fain induced a change of plan, and on the fol- lowing day he set out on a special train for the ranch of Sir Alfred Pease, where his first fortnight was to be spent. With this story of how Roosevelt reached Africa, let us proceed to describe the make-up of his expedition and the purpose for which this long journey was undertaken. That the desire to see the greatest animals of the world in their native haunts and to enjoy the exciting experience of facing these great creatures in a state of freedom, with an opportunity to fight for their lives, was a moving influence in his journey no one can justly doubt. But that he sought the African jun- gle moved solely by what the censorious Frenchman said was the Eng- lishman's spirit: "Good morning; it is a fine day; let us go out and kill something," we should be loath to affirm. For back of Roosevelt's journey was a scientific purpose, for which we must give him due credit. It is not "The Roosevelt African Expedition," but rather "The Smithsonian African Expedition," with which we are concerned, for it was outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution and its underlying pur- pose was to collect specimens of the African mammalia for this great educational institution. Mr. Roosevelt, it is true, proposed to pay his own expenses and those of his son Kermit, including their outfit and transportation, but he simply proposed to obtain an adult specimen of each sex of the big African game, and also of the smaller mammals 84 FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA and birds so far as possible, and to do no other killing than was necessary to supply the camp with meat. The specimens collected were to be deposited in the United States National Museum for scien- tific study. Mr. Roosevelt has added more than any other man to our knowledge of the big game of the United States, and we can appre- ciate the desire of the Smithsonian scientists to secure the services of a man of his training in held life and the pursuit of big game to add to their scientific treasures. The men who believe in the study of the mammal and the bird in their living state and in their native haunts, the hunting with the field glass rather than with the rifle, know the advantage of museum col- lections in order that field identification may be made certain and that the life study of mammals may be stimulated, and the purpose of these scientists was to secure such a valuable addition to its educational exhibit, for the use of students who need such material for compara- tive purposes. v The true nature lover gets the zest of outdoor life, the sense of the freshness and beauty of things to be obtained from a trip afield, and to obtain these laudable experiences it is not necessary to keep his rifle constantly at work, shooting at every crack of a twig or rustle of a leaf. And that Theodore Roosevelt has in his make-up nuich of this wholesome spirit everyone who is familiar with his history nuist acknowledge. Back of this, however, there is in his make-up the spirit of the hunter, the zest of the daring impulse, the love of facing and over- coming ])eril, the intense excitement of putting his own life in pawn in a struggle with a dangerous antagonist, and while feeling that science would be benefited by the results of his adventurous journey, there was in it much of the heroic spirit that moved him when he charged up San Juan Hill in the face of the Spanish batteries. His skill and daring were to cope with the strength and alertness of the lords of the wilds and the soul of the soldier stirred within him as much as the spirit of the scientist. Mr. Roosevelt and the scientists of the Smithsonian were already familiar -with every kind of big game that he was likely to encounter. As for the leader of the expedition, he had the name of every species FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 85 of antelope at his instant command and bore a picture in his mind of every kind of creature that through his instrumentahty might be added to tlie National Museum's stores. During his last months in the White House a portion of the President's time was given over to the study of the fauna of that part of Africa which the American caravan would traverse. The smaller mammals and the birds had not been left out of Mr. Roosevelt's calculations. The scientific interest in a wild creature is not gauged by its size; the mouse has its interest no less than the lion. The expedition into Africa was thoroughly equipped. Every- thing that knowledge of conditions could suggest had its place in the outfit. The quarry that was secured was instantly prepared for trans- portation. The skins and the hides were well salted and dried, and packed in a way that made their preservation certain. Such skeletons as were to be saved, and the skulls which were of first value for com- parative purposes, were cared for as only field scientists knew how, and the collected treasures of the African trip were brought to Wash- ington in a condition to delight the hearts of the government scientists. We give below the names and personality of the members of the Smithsonian African Expedition. Of Theodore Roosevelt it is not necessary to write. What he has done as a scientist and as a hunter is known to all. Dr. and Colonel Edgar A. Mearns, United States army (retired), is a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City. He has been in the military service for twenty-six years and during that time while on field duty and on detached service he has pursued his zoological studies. Admittedly Dr. Mearns is one of the first field naturalists of the country, and his reports and books are ac- knowledged authorities. His publications include studies of mammals, birds and plants. He was the naturalist accredited by the govern- ment to the Mexican boundary expedition, and as the result of his researches the scientific world has the work entitled "Mammals of the Mexican Boundary of the United States." This work includes a summary of the natural history of the region covered, with a list of the trees of the country adjacent to the boundary. Dr. Mearns knows birds as he knows mammals, and his knowledge of American ornith- 86 • • FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA ology is second to none, while he is one of the most successful surgeons and physicians in the service list. He is inured to the hardships of held life. He is a good shot and a good companion. Of him a Wash- ington scientist who has been in the field with him time and again has said of him: "He is the kindest man I ever knew. If it is cold he wants you to take his coat in addition to your own ; if it is hot he wants to help take off your coat before he will take off his own. He knows nothing of contention and no man can be found to make a better camp companion." Edmund Heller is a graduate of Stanford University of the Class of 1 901. He is a thoroughly trained naturalist, whose special work was the preparation and preservation of specimens of the large ani- mals that the expedition secured. Mr. Heller w'ent with Carl E. Akeley into Africa on a collecting trip for the Field Columbian Mu- seum. The expedition was successful in every way. Mr. Heller has conducted successful scientific excursions into Alaska and through the Death Valley. In the latter place he followed the trail which Dr. C. Hart Merriman, of the Biological Survey of Washington, had taken some years before and in a large measure he duplicated the Merriam collecting achievement. Mr. Heller has explored and collected in Mexico and in Central America, and it is said of him that he "always has made good." He has the faculty of making friends and never in the course of any of his expeditions has there been the slightest trouble with the natives. J. Alden Loring, of Oswego, N. Y., is known as a successful col- lector of birds and small mammals. In addition to this Mr. Loring is a field naturalist who understands the preservation of skins in all climates. He was attached for some time to the United States Bio- logical Survey, and later he was connected with the Bronx Zoological Park, New York City. Mr. Loring has made field trips in various parts of the LTnited States, British America and Mexico. The LTnited States National Museum once sent him abroad as a traveling collector of small mammals. In three months of field work in Sweden, Bel- gium, Germany and Switzerland he collected and shipped 900 speci- mens all carefully prepared. This stands as a record-breaking field achievement. Men who have been in the field with Mr. Loring say FROM NEW YORK TO MOMBASA 87 that it is impossible to discourage him, and that his hopefulness and spirit make things cheerful on every day that otherwise would be a blue day in camp. If preparation, enthusiasm, energy and ability to shoot straight, count as they should count, the Smithsonian African Expedition under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt was one that has rarely been surpassed and its fitness for its work was amply shown by its valuable results. CHAPTER XI The East African Railroad LANDING at Mombasa the Roosevelt party boarded a train on , the Uganda Railway to begin the long trip of more than five hundred miles from the east coast of Africa to the great Lake of Victoria Nyanza. This long journey may be divided into three principal stages : The Jungles, the Plains and the Mountains. The first quarter of an hour is spent in traversing the island on which the city of Mombasa is built, and the train reaches the mainland by a long iron bridge which spans' the separating channel. Westward the train runs, winding around among the uneven spots of the country on a fairly steep up grade, the landscape luxuriantly covered with vegetation thickly peopled with birds and butterflies of brilliant and beautiful colors. Palms and creeper- covered trees rise out of the glades on either hand, making a panorama of tropical vegetation calculated to prepare the traveler's eye for the wonderful luxuriance of Central Africa. For it nuist be remembered that this railroad has been built only a few years, and principally as a means of transporting men and goods between Mombasa, the seaport on the eastern coast, and the rich Pro- tectorate of Uganda, which lies on the north and northeastern shores of the enormous Lake Victoria Nyanza. Mombasa is a town of more than 20,000 population, and was acquired by the British East African Company in 1890 from Zanzibar. It was occupied by the Portuguese in 1505, and towards the end of the sixteenth century a fort was built there. These possessors, however, w^ere driven out in 1608, and in 1834 the city passed into the control of Zanzibar. It is a naval coaling station, and as the terminus of the Uganda Railwav an important commercial port for the traffic into the interior of Africa. The Uganda Railway, although built primarily as a political neces- (88) M a) O -a ^ s « o ^ a § ^ Photographed by Paul Thompson, N. Y. EX-PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT IN AFRICA. A common garden bench was firmly fastened on the pilot of the engine of the East African Railway which took the distinguished hunting party from Mombasa on the coast up through the interior. By this arrangement the hunters overlooked none of the big game which throngs the country near the railroad and fully enjoyed the wonderful scenery of the regions traversed in their long journey. Col. Roosevelt is seen at the left of the picture adjusting his helmet strap just before the train started. 2' K c THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 89 sity in order to secure Britain's hold upon the rich inland states of Africa, is actually paying its way, which it was not expected to do within any reasonable period. Nearly fifty thousand dollars a mile were spent upon its construction, and every few miles are neat little stations with their ticket offices, water tanks, signals and flower beds, just as in a civilized country, though on all sides of them is the thick jungle of the tropics. Every telegraph post is numbered, the grades and curves are in line with modern development, and the trains, modelled upon the Indian railway pattern, are practically comfortable. As the train winds inland and upward the traveler forgets that he is under the equator, until at a height of 4,000 feet above the sea the jungle changes into forest, characteristic of a cooler climate than the tangled luxuriance of the jungles. Farther on the railway emerges into the plains. Vast fields of green grass intersected by streams, densely wooded with dark trees and coarse scrub, are broken by rough ridges and hills. Here right from the railway train can be seen crowds of wild animals, herds of antelope and gazelle, zebras, wilde- beeste, hartebeeste, wild ostriches and small deer. At Simba is a fruitful hunting ground. Lions and giraffes are abundant, and they say that in the early days of the railroad a rhinoceros measured his strength against the engine on the tracks with disastrous results to himself, after which the rest of his tribe retired to the river beds at some distance from the railway. A favorite way of shooting game in this section is to ride up and down the line on a trolley. The animals are so accustomed to the passage of trains and natives that they do not suspect danger unless the moving object stops. Accordingly the sportsman drops off the car and allows it to pass on, frequently finding himself within range of some of the big game of Africa. If anyone were asked the reasonable question why the multitude of animals which frequent the railway zone do so with such utter con- fidence and such lack of fear of' their natural enemy, man, the answer is that they are protected within this zone, shooting being forbidden within a fixed distance of the railway, except in the case of such dan- gerous brutes as the lion, the leopard, the hyena and the rhinoceros. The strange thing is that the animals have come to recognize this fact 90 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD and avail themselves of it. No one has issued a bulletin in animal language to the effect that a treaty of peace has been signed between man and beast, so far as this region is concerned. Yet the fact is that since the shooting of innocent creatures has ceased within the railway zone, it can be traversed in safety from the death-dealing bullet, and its native inhabitants have come to recognize this interesting fact. Much has been written in past times concerning the intelligence of animals. Some maintain that they are governed by instinct only, that they lack the faculties of thought and reason. But how are we to understand the fact just stated? Instinct is hereditary. It must develop as a native possession of the creature concerned. It cannot cover the question of adaptation to new conditions, unknown to the ancestry of the animal. We cannot well escape from the conclusion that thought is here involved, the power of recognizing a new situa- tion and taking advantage of it. In the small brain of the antelope, the ostrich or the giraffe must awaken some such conception as : "This place is safe. We hear no more the thunder and see no more the blinding flash of those black tubes in the hands of two-legged mur- derers, and no more behold our fellows fall dead. Safety dwells near the thunder engine; we can trust ourselves there." And this is not all. They not only say this to themselves, but seem able to tell the glad tidings to their fellows, so that multitudes of diverse creatures gather there in utter trust. Or the mere fact that some of these creatures have ceased to fear the engine and its laden train may inspire others to the same trustfulness. The example of animal intelligence here seen is by no means con- fined to this corner of Africa. Something like it is known in many lands. It is a common experience of hunters that birds, which fly in fear from the vicinity of the gun-bearing man they have learned to dread, pay no heed to a passing wagon, experience having taught them that danger does not lurk within it. The protected animals within the Yellowstone National Park have learned a similar lesson and have ceased to fear man within its charmed boundaries. It is said that an elk, heedful and fearful outside its bounds, puts on a different attitude when the magic limit is crossed, stalking about in proud confidence and seeming disdain of its native enemy. THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 91 The fact is a strange one, and one whose significance cannot be ignored. It vastly widens our conception of the native inteUigence of these lower forms of life. We cannot fail to admit that their brains work in somewhat the same manner as our own — not reaching as lofty conceptions, yet indicating powers of logical reasoning in the lower levels of thought. Certainly a significant evidence of this is the quickness with which the animal hosts of northeastern Africa have adapted themselves to the new situation, and seem to tell each other: "It is all right here. The thunder-wagon will not hurt you. You are safe where it passes." The state of affairs here described did not always exist in this region. Years before the arrival of Colonel Roosevelt and his train a very different condition prevailed. In the early days of the railway enterprise, when the building operations were in progress, no restric- tion to the methods of the hunter existed and it was a common prac- tice to shoot animals from the train. In those days, then, the happy confidence between man and brute did not exist and the approach of the engine was the signal for a wild scamper of the animals of the vicinity. They dreaded its approach then as much as they disregard it now. The animal intelligence of which we have spoken then acted to the opposite efifect and the warning probably went out to avoid this death-dealing monster that had invaded their haunts. But victory in the fray between man and beast was not solely upon the side of man. Lions haunted the locality, and though the hun- ter has found this maned and roaring animal to be anything but the king of beasts of old tradition, but rather a lurking and sneaking ten- ant of the wilds that fears and avoids the hunter, yet there is a phase of his career in which his whole character seems to change. When the lion has once tasted human flesh he acquires an ardent liking for it and is apt to pursue man with an inordinate appetite, the man-eating lion becoming the terror of the locality in which he is found. He ceases in a measure to care for his customary food and lies in wait for man with the intense desire of an epicure of the wil- derness. We speak of this here from the fact that during the building of the railway a number of man-eating lions infested its locality and 92 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD made such havoc among the workmen that the situation grew very serious. These men were largely East Indians, who did the work under the direction of English engineers, and at times the ravages of the man-eating lions became so great that the directors of the work were at their wits' end how to deal with them. These ravening creatures displayed a fiendish cunning, lurking in the thickets about the huts of the workmen and making sudden night rushes into their habitations in which they usually succeeded in carrying off some helpless victim. Various methods were taken to prevent their raids, the villages being surrounded with fences of barbed wire, but the least defect in the defences offered an opportunity for the cunning prowlers and the work of devastation went on. One of the engineers tells a graphic story of his efforts to destroy one of these man-eaters and the keen intelligence with which it evaded his efforts. In vain would he lie in wait near the scene of some recent raid; the next day tidings would come that a group of huts several miles distant had been invaded and some victim snatched from his bed and borne off in the strong jaws of the powerful brute. And the hunter became the hunted, the lion stalked the engineer himself in his sleeping place and only good fortune saved him from becoming its prey. Finally, driven to desperation by the nightly loss of his men, he instituted a ceaseless hunt for the brute, watching for it from the branches of a tree near one of its accustomed haunts, and finally suc- ceeded in bringing it down. The hide of this Napoleon of the wilds now perhaps decorates some London drawing-room. Since the railway has been finished the lion has largely deserted its vicinity. The noise of the trains may have disturbed his sulky majesty and caused him to shun the line, and the stinging thud of the hunter's bullet may have aided in this, for the lion is not classed among the protected animals. Yet there are places where he may be seen from the train. Chief among these is Simba, "The Place of Lions," where the train pas- sengers may have the fortune to see a half dozen or more of these great carnivora stalking proudly across the plain, a respectful width being left for them by the smaller animals. At Nakaisu, one traveler THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 93 incidentally tells us, he saw six yellow lions walk leisurely across the track in broad daylight, and spectacles of this kind are not uncommon in this locality. It may be, however, that the tawny brute measures his distance and keeps out of easy rifle shot from the train. There is another animal which avoids the train, or rarely comes within view, this being the huge and surly rhinoceros, who does not like this near- ness of civilization and seeks in preference the wooded river beds arid its native solitudes. The means of observing the splendid and well-peopled zoological garden through which the road runs is one of which Roosevelt was quick to avail himself, that in which the cow-catcher of the engine is used as an observation car. One does not need to seat himself, how- ever, on the iron bars, for an ordinary garden seat is fastened on to the engine front, resting upon the cow-catcher, and offering comfort- able accommodation for four or five sightseers, from which they may observe in ease and safety the interesting country through which they are borne. It should here be said that the road, though running through the heart of what was so lately a savage country, is admirably well built, its track neatly smoothed and ballasted, its grades and curves being like those of a well-appointed road in a civilized land, and the trains running along as smoothly and evenly as upon a European or Ameri- can line. This road is only a beginning. Taking passengers in comfort in forty-eight hours through a country which it formerly required months of hardship to traverse, it is but a pioneer, an iron wedge driven deep into the dark continent from which others are destined to branch out in various directions. Built with no special thought of profit, it is already paying its way. It is not yet a money-making concern, but it will be when that fertile land becomes gridironed with iron rails and its valued products are brought in increasing quantities to the sea- port of Mombasa, thence to make their way to the civilized lands of the earth. Roosevelt, a born lover of nature, had abundant opportunity to observe some of nature's choicest wonders and charms from his cow- catcher perch. Before him beautiful birds and brilliant butterflies 94 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD flew from tree to tree and flower to flower. Far below were deep and ragged gorges, over which the train passed on elevated bridges and down which ran flooded streams, flowing into glades of palms and trees embraced by climbing creepers. Everywhere was luxuriance, nature at her best. As the train ascended from the humid coast lands, with their heats and glories, the jungle was left behind and forest took its place, different but not less luxuriant. Here, at an elevation of four thousand feet, the olive replaced the palm and the country took on the aspect of temperate climes. When Makindu station was passed the forest ended and a new phase of African scenery opened before the traveler. A broad prairie land succeeded immense fields of green pasture spreading out before the traveler. This was intersected by streams with well-wooded banks, while bluffs and ridges broke the monotony of the panorama. It is on this grassy plain that the great multitude of animals of which we have spoken come into view. It must have given joy to Roosevelt's heart — a born lover of animated nature — to see these graceful creatures, never before beheld by him except behind the bounds and bars of a menagerie or a zoological garden, here wander- ing about at liberty and disporting themselves in their native haunts. These came not singly before his eyes, but in droves and herds. Multitudes of antelopes in great variety, from the graceful gazelle to the great wildebeeste and hartebeeste ; troops of zebras, at times as many as five hundred in a drove; ostriches walking sedately in twos and threes, and small animals of many kinds. With the aid of a field glass this spectacle could be traced for long distances, but many of the animals came within close view, and the traveler could readily see and admire the striped sides of the beautiful zebras, which would stand and watch the train with placid assurance, or perhaps scamper a few hundred yards away and then turn to gaze again. In it all was an innocent trustfulness which doubtless warmed the observer's heart. If one wished to indulge in a hunt, the opportunity could easily be embraced. It is well to say here that a variety of what we may call trolley cars are in common use in that part of Africa. In Mombasa is a system of narrow-gauge railways which follow the main streets, with branches running to every house. No white man walks in that THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 95 tropic town if he can in any way avoid doing so. Each official keeps his private car, not moved by electricity, but pushed by coolies, and bearing him from office to house and back again. It is such a conveyance of which the hunter avails himself. Leav- ing the train, he has only to get a trolley car and have himself pushed up and down the line. The animals pay no more attention to this than to the trains, becoming suspicious only when train or trolley stops. The shrewd hunter, therefore, slips off the car while it is in motion, and thus may find himself within a few hundred yards of his quarry, while the car goes on. His fortune then will depend upon his degree of skill with the rifle. This is one way of obtaining game. It is not the way in which a trained hunter like Colonel Roosevelt would be inclined to indulge largely. It looks too much like taking an unfair advantage of the animals. There is a second method which proved more to his taste. This is to leave the railway and prowl about among the trees and un- dergrowth of a neighboring river bed. Here in a few minutes one may bury oneself in the wildest and savagest kind of forest. The air becomes still and hot over the open spaces of dry sand and the pools of water. High grass, huge boulders, tangled vegetation, multitudes of thorn-bushes obstruct the march, and the ground itself is scarped and guttered by the rains into the strangest formations. Around the hunter, breaSt-high, shoulder-high, overhead, rises the African jungle. There is a brooding silence, broken now by the voice of a bird, now by the scolding bark of a baboon, or by the crunching of one's own feet on the crumbling soil. We enter the haunt of the wild beasts; their tracks, the remnants of their repasts, are easily and frequently discovered. Here a lion has passed since the morning. There a rhinoceros has certainly been within the hour — perhaps within ten minutes. We creep and scramble through the game paths, anxiously, rifles at full cock, not knowing what each turn or step may reveal. The wind, when it blows at all, blows fitfully, now from this quarter, now from that ; so that one can never be certain that it will not betray the intruder in these grim domains to the beast he seeks, or to some other, less welcome, before he sees him. At length, after two hours' scramble and scrape, probably without seeing a beast — lion or rhinoc- 96 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD eros — we emerge breathless, as from another ^yorld, half astonished to find ourselves within a quarter of a mile of the railway line, with its trolley, luncheon, soda water and other conveniences of civilization. Let us now follow our hunter farther on his route, to where the train descends into the famous Rift Valley, one of the most remark- able phenomena of nature which Africa presents. This celebrated valley is a strange depression in the elevated region of eastern Africa, beginning in the southern portion of German East Africa at an alti- tude of about 2,500 feet, and rising in height as it passes northward till it reaches its highest elevation of 6,300 feet at Lake Naivasha. Then its level slowly decreases until at Lake Rudolf it is only 1,200 feet above sea level. From this point it dwindles in elevation, with occasional ridges, until sea level is reached at the Gulf of Aden. It varies from twenty to forty miles in width and is bounded by precip- itous sides rising to a much greater elevation. It appears as though some convulsion of the earth had caused a section of the great eastern plateau to slip down about 3,000 feet below the ground level of the land, the great cut being traced by geologists from the lower end of Lake Tanganyika to the land of Palestine. On looking at a relief map of northeast Africa it almost suggests the idea that nature had been considering whether she would not cut off another slice of Africa in addition to Madagascar. Madagascar may have been originally separated from Africa in tha^way. In this curious depression of the "Rift Valley" is a series of lakes, salt in some instances and fresh in others. Particularly noteworthy is a salt lake named Lake Hannington, after a missionary bishop murdered by the natives. (This commemoration was rather inappropriate because he was killed at a distance of nearly four hundred miles from this place.) Lake Hanningtcm is visited at the present day by tourists who come to see the great number of flamingoes which make their home here. On Lake Hannington it is no exaggeration to say that there must be close upon a million flamingoes. These birds are mainly collected around the northern end of the lake and on the submerged banks which break up the deep blue-green of its still surface. The shores where they cluster, and these banks In the middle of the lake where they are THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 97 above the water's edge, are dazzling white with the birds' guano. These flamingoes breed on a flat plain of mud about a mile broad at the north end of Lake Hannington, where their nests, in the form of little mounds of niud with feathers plastered on the hollowed top, appear like innumerable mole-hills. The birds, having hitherto been absolutely unmolested by man, are quite tame. They belong to a rosy species (Phoeniconais minor) which is slightly smaller than the Mediterranean flamingo, but ex- quisitely beautiful in plumage. The adult bird has a body and neck of rosy pink, the color of sunset clouds. The beak is scarlet and pur- ple; the legs are deep rose-pink inclining to scarlet. Underneath the black-pinioned wings the larger feathers are scarlet-crimson, while beautiful crimson crescents tip the tertiaries and wing-coverts on the upper surface of the wings. Apparently the mature plumage is not reached until the birds are about three years old. The younger fla- mingoes very soon attain the same size as the rosy adults, but their plumage gradually varies from a gray-white, through the color of a pale tea-rose, before its full sunset glow is attained. The belt of flamingoes on the north side of the lake must be nearly a mile in breadth, reaching from the water's edge into the lake. As looked upon from above the great colony of birds is gray-white in color on the shoreward side, then in the middle of the mass it becomes white, while its lakeward ring is of the most exquisite rose-pink. This is due to the fact that the young birds frequent the outer edge of the semicircle, while the oldest ones stretch farthest out into the lake. When these birds rise the noise they make can be heard nearly a mile away, their "kronk, kronk, kronk," mingled with splashings and swishings, making such a tumult of sound as to fill the air with uproar. Their mode of rising is an ungainly one, their flight being preceded by an absurd gallop through the mud before they can lift themselves on their wings. It is not easy to make them take to flight, they being so tame that one can approach quite near to them without causing any signs of disturbance. Looking on the Rift Valley from above, as Colonel Roosevelt and his party did, one sees a magnificent view, full of the elements of grandeur. Standing on the northwestern edge of the Elgeyo escarp- 98 THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD ment, they were able to look down fully five thousand feet, to a shining river that followed the valley's level, threading in its flow a lake and many glittering pools. At this point begin those splendid forests of coniferous trees which form the characteristic feature of this region. Away westward may be seen the great blue mass of Mount Elgon and in the nearer view a land of noble aspect. Before the eye stretch rich rolling downs of luxuriant grass, bits of leafy woodland, forests of acacia, and lower down, along the watercourses of the valley, vege- tation of tropical type. The downs, which slope away northward for fifty or sixty miles, are clad with a soft, silky grass, with hues varying from a pale pink to mauve, gray or russet as the wind bends the flower- ing stems. In passing over this plateau region the American visitors were warned not to follow any seeming native path, as these were usually cunning devices to tempt wandering antelopes or other unsuspecting animals to concealed game-traps. Such a trap would probably be an oblong pitfall concealed by sticks and cut grass, through which the unwary creatures might fall into a pit from which they could not escape, perhaps to be impaled on a sharp-pointed stake planted in the bottom of the pit. Animals of various species roam here in countless numbers, and the few trapped in game pits by the nomad natives are too few in com- parison to be considered. What will be the effect, however, if the British sportsman is let loose among them, with his desire "to kill something," we cannot consider without alarm; especially when we consider the fate of the buffaloes of our w^estern plains. These hunts- men do not usually go abroad, as did Roosevelt and his companions, to bring down only a pair of each species, for scientific purposes, but rather to be able to boast how many creatures they had killed, with no object but that of pure slaughter in a morning's outing. To a nature-lover like Theodore Roosevelt, with his joy in the existence of animal life, the scene before him must have been one of inspiring delight. Gazing from his point of vantage he could see large herds of stately giraft'es, standing or stalking about as one may see cattle peacefully standing in an American grazing field. These giraffes — the camelopards of our old animal story-books — are the THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 99 finest examples known to us of the northern variety of this strange creature, a species which extends from east to west far over the north- ern part of Central Africa, with the exception of Somaliland, where a species of peculiar color is found. In the species we are now observing, the color of the adults is very dark on the upper part of the body, while they are white below, they being thus striking objects when seen from a distance. This is especially the case when they are beheld, as may often be the case, standing on the tops of some of the numerous ant-hills of this country and keenly surveying the region surrounding. Poised thus like a sentinel on a mound, a giraffe stands rigidly erect, scarcely moving his head ; so that, with his short body and long, tapering neck, he looks not unlike an unbranched tree trunk which has been struck by light- ning or scorched by a forest fire. Looking down from a distance on these broad, rolling downs, the giraffes are only one of the forms of large game visible. Herds of huge elephants may be seen at intervals, though these great creatures usually prefer the forest to the open plain. The rhinoceros may also be seen, sometimes a solitary female with her calf, sometimes a mated pair, the color a purple-black or a whitish-gray, according to the angle from which the light strikes them as they roam through the long grass. We have here spoken only of the big game, such great creatures as our party of scientific tourists could see at a great distance. Nearer at hand are visible great numbers of varied forms. These include herds of striped zebras and hartebeests mingled together, the zebras with their stripes of black and white, the hartebeests with their rich coats of red-gold hue. In the vicinity strut about pairs of jet-black ostriches, with white wings and tails and long pink necks. At a dis- tance appear groups of the noble waterbuck, the males with their branching antlers browsing beside their hornless, doe-like females. Here also is the reedbuck, gray-yellow in color, quietly browsing, or bounding along at a speed difficult to match. The damiliscus, or sable antelope, a creature of dainty proportions and rich coloring, is also visible, with others of the same graceful tribe, among them the wildebeest, an animal much better known to us by its common name of the gnoo or horned horse. The great, elk-like eland also may be seen here, though the woodland is its favorite resort. loo THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD There are other creatures to be seen, the shnking and snapping jackal, red and silver of hue, and the dirt-colored, uncouth wart-hog, with its bristled hide and erect tail. Lions and leopards are also vis- ible, hanging about on the skirts of the browsing herds, seeking prey, no doubt, yet causing no seeming tremors of fear in the grazing herds. In fact, the spectacle visible from our elevated point of observa- tion is one to be seen nowhere else upon the earth, and one upon which the party of hunters and nature lovers in whose path we are moving, must have gazed upon with the deepest interest and delight. CHAPTER XII Nairobi and Mt. Kenya NAIROBI, the capital of the East Africa Protectorate, Hes at the foot of wooded hills on the railway, three hundred and twenty- seven miles from Mombasa. The town is built on low swampy ground, in a rather unhealthy situation, without a very good water supply. This happened in the first place because the location was convenient for shops and supply depots used in the construction of the railway. The government buildings, however, the hospitals and bar- racks, are placed a mile farther west on higher ground. About 15,000 people, with" less than 1,000 whites, occupy the tin houses which con- stitute the town, but the stores are equipped to supply the needs of a very large neighborhood, and Nairobi is therefore headquarters for this portion of the world. A brigade of the King's African Rifles, and the Central Offices of the Uganda Railway, are also stationed here, and the incidentals of civilization which the English always carry with them make a strange contrast with the surrounding wilderness of the country. To see, for instance, a large company of men sitting down to dinner in evening dress would seem to us scarcely in harmony in a spot where ten years before lions and other wild beasts were undis- turbed. It was at this point that President Roosevelt picked up the greater part of his hunting outfit, and made a number of hunting excursions in the vicinity. To add to the incongruity of this landscape under the Equator, one hundred miles away rises the snow clad peak of Mt. Kenya, visible on a clear day from this higher ground above Nairobi. The flanks of the mountain can be reached by a fairly good road in an automobile. It passes through a fertile country, undulating and marked by numer- ous water courses, shaded with flourishing trees. A number of colonists have taken up large estates of many thousand acres, raising ostriches, sheep and cattle, or cofifee and other staple crops. (101) 102 NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA Lion hunting is good here. The traveler's host insists on pro- viding him with a hon, and to do this they first beat him up out of the reed beds and try to bring him to bay. Ordinarily this dreaded beast does not seek a quarrel unless it is forced on him. So the hunters in this neighborhood ride on ponies, and when they have aroused the monarch they pursue him as fast as they can, never losing sight of him for a moment, trying to head him off and enrage him by their harass- ing. Naturally, he resents this treatment and begins to growl and roar, perhaps making short charges at his pursuers to scare them off. At last, when he sees that the huntsmen intend to attack him, he turns at bay, and then there is no fear that he will try to escape. He will fight to the death, and when a lion frantic with the agony of a bullet wound is at bay death is the only thing that will stop his frenzied charges; broken jaws or legs, and body full of bullets, not for an instant daunt the courage of this ferocious beast. Either he must be killed before he reaches his pursuer, or the man will die for it, crushed by the powerful paw, poisoned with claws and feet, or crunched in the lion's mouth. It is a dangerous business, but one which Mr. Roosevelt was fully nerved for by previous experiences in his exten- sive hunting trips before he landed on the coast of Africa. Let us return to Nairobi and take up Colonel Roosevelt in an- other aspect than that of soldier and hunter, the one in which we are more familiar with him, as statesman and dealer in world politics. On the 3d of August he and his son Kermit were the guests at a public banquet given in his honor at Nairobi, Frederick J- Jackson, Governor of British East Africa, presiding, and one hundred and seventy-five guests occupying places at the table. Captain Sanderson, the town clerk of Nairobi, read an address of welcome to the former President of the United States and afterward handed him the address inclosed in a section of elephant tusk mounted in silver and with a silver chain. The American residents of the protectorate presented Mr. Roose- velt with a tobacco box made of the hoof of a rhinoceros, silver mounted; the skull of a rhinoceros, also mounted in silver, and a buffalo head. Mr. Roosevelt, in reply to the toast proposed by Governor Jack- son, said: NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA 103 "I wish to take this opportunity to thank the people of British East Africa for their generous and courteous hospitahty. I have had a thoroughly good time. I am immensely interested in the country and its possibilities as an abode for white men. Very large tracts are fit for a fine population and healthy and prosperous settlements, and it would be a calamity to neglect them. But the settlers must be of the right type. "I believe that one of the best feats performed by members of the white race in the last ten years is the building of the Uganda Railroad. I am convinced that this country has a great agricultural and indus- trial future and it is the most attractive playground in the world. It most certainly presents excellent openings for capitalists, and ample inducements should be ofifered them to come here. The home maker and actual settler, and not the speculator, should be encouraged in making this a white man's country. "Remember that righteousness and our real ultimate self-interest demand that the blacks be treated justly. I have no patience with sentimentaHsts, and I think that sentimentality does more harm to individuals than brutality. Therefore I believe in helping the mis- sionary, of whatever creed, who is laboring sincerely and disinter- estedly with practical good sense. 'Tt is natural that I should have a peculiar feeling for the settlers. They remind me of the men in our West with whom I worked and in whose aspirations I so deeply sympathize." In conclusion, Mr. Roosevelt drew a comparison of the conditions as he found them in British East Africa with those that confronted the pioneers of western America. It is hardly what one would expect in this country, in which little more than ten years before lions hunted their prey without fear of bullets, and white people were confined to a few daring travelers, to see long rows of diners in evening dress at a well appointed table, or perhaps, on a ball-room floor, to see a company in gay uniforms danc- ing with ladies in showy dresses. Verily, civilization has invaded the wilds and the days of savage dominion in Africa are nearing an end. Mr. Roosevelt's address gives us some idea of the state of affairs he found in this seat of the provincial administration, and of the I04 NAIROBI A\W MT. KENYA burning question which occupies the minds of the officials, that of the treatment of the natives. Hon. Winston Spencer Churchill tells us that : "Every white man in Nairobi is a politician; and most of them are leaders of parties. One would scarcely believe it possible, that a center so new should be able to develop so many divergent and con- flicting interests, or that a community so small should be able to give to each such vigorous and even vehement expression. There are already in miniature all the elements of keen political and racial dis- cord, all the materials for hot and acrimonious debate. The white man I'crsus the black; the Indian z'crsiis both; the settler as against the planter; the town contrasted with the country; the official class against the unofficial ; the coast and the highlands ; the railway admin- istration and the Protectorate generally; the King's African Rifles and the East x\frica Protectorate Police; all these dififerent points of view, naturally arising, honestly adopted, tenaciously held, and not yet reconciled into any harmonious general conception, confront the visitor in perplexing disarray. Nor will he be wise to choose his part with any hurry. It is better to see something of the country, of its quality and extent, of its promises and forfeits, of its realities and illusions, before endeavoring to form even a provisional opinion." On August 9, Colonel Roosevelt, with his son Kermit, Edmund Heller, the zoologist of the expedition, and E. J. Cunninghame, the ex- perienced naturalist and guide, set out for Nyeri, a government sta- tion in the northwest of Kenya province. At the same time Dr. Mearns and J- A. Loring, the other members of the expedition, left Naivasha for Nairobi to make preparations for the ascent of INIount Kenya. Of these places we may say that Nyeri is an important trade center of British East Africa. Indian bazaars have been established and there are native markets and a small colony of coast traders. The neighborhood is the headquarters of the Masai tribe, warlike nomads, who inhabit the northwestern plain of Kenya province. Mount Kenya is about 17,200 feet in height. It was ascended for the first time by Mackinder in 1899. The mountain supports numerous glaciers, and its timber line is at 10,300 feet. Formerly a volcano, it has long been extinct. Before setting out on this expedi- NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA 105 tion a large consignment of specimens collected by the party had been shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, a second lot being sent to Mombasa to be shipped on the steamship Admiral on August 16. The casks and cases sent contained skins, bones and skulls of the followine animals : Lion, seven ; leopard, one ; cheetah, one ; spotted hyena, one ; cape hartebeest, fourteen; white-bearded wildebeest, five; Neumann steinbuck, five ; Kirk dik-dik, one ; common waterbuck, three ; Chanler reedbuck, four ; Grant gazelle, nine ; Thomson gazelle, five ; eland, one ; cape buffalo, four; giraffe, three; hippopotamus, one; wart-hog, six; Burchell zebra, seven; black rhinoceros, two; impalla, two. The cheetah is similar to a leopard, the wildebeest is the African gnoo and the hartebeest, steinbuck, dik-dik, impalla and eland are varieties of antelope. The beasts were shot under the licenses granted Colonel Roosevelt and his son Kermit, and were packed by Dr. Mearns. They formed a principal part of the contribution to science made by the expedition, and, variously prepared and preserved, will be of util- ity in the study of zoology for many years to come. On ascending the slopes of Mount Kenya the Roosevelt party found abundant evidence of the rapid progress of civilization in this region. The fertile soil of the mountain sides has attracted numbers of planters from England, South Africa and elsewhere, and many plants suitable to the climate are being cultivated, with promise of large yield. After crossing the Tana River by aid of 'a rope ferry, they, came within view of a most magnificent country. Before them rose in majesty Mount Kenya, occupying always the center of the picture, but. never doing justice to its great height. It rises by long gentle slopes, more like a swelling of ground than a peak, from a broad up- land plain, and so gradual is the ascent that, but for the sudden out- crop of snow-clad rock which crowns the summit, no one would believe it- over seventeen thousand feet high. It is its gradual rise that imparts so great a value to this noble mountain; for-sabout its enormous base and upon its slopesf traversed: by hundreds ^^of streams of clear, ever- flowing water, there grows, or may grow, in successive, concentric belts, every kind of crop and forest known in the world, from the Equator to the Arctic circle. io6 NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA The landscape is superb. In beauty, in fertility, in verdure, in the coolness ot the air, in the abundance ot ruiniini; water, in its rich red soil, in the variety ot its vegetation, the scenery alunit Ivenya far sur- jiasses anv thing- to be seen ui India or South At'rica. attd challenges cotnparison with the fairest countries of lairope. It is only a tew years since regular control was established beyond the rana. not without some bloodshed, by a small military expedition. Yet so peaceful are the tribes — now that their intertribal tightittg has been stopped — that white ofticers ride freely about among their vil- lages without even carrying- a pistol, riuntgh the natives met with on the road are armed with sword and spear, they all otYer their cus- lomarv salutations, while many come up smiling ai\d holding oiu their hands to shake, till one grows weary of the civility. Indeed, the only dangers of the road appear to be from the butTaloes which iivfest the country, and after nightfall place the traveler in real peril. As lor the lion, unless otie encamps in the vicinity of a genuine man-eater, there is apparently little to fear. Much as we have beeit accustomed to speak in terms of respect of this "noble" lord of the w^ilds, African hunters fre(|uently describe him in accems of coiUempt. He is never "spoiling- for a tight*' — at least with man, and unless goaded to anger and cut otT from retreat, takes care to avoid battle with this new* and perilous foe. There are those who tell us that if an unarmed man comes by chance iiuo close vicinity with a half dozen or so of liotts. all he need do is to speak to them sternly and they will slink awav like scolded curs, the more rapidly if he throws a few stones at them to hurry up their pace. This course of treattnent is highly reconunendevl by some Afrikanders under such circiunstances. but it is doubtful if many of us would care to try the exix^riment. The. results of early education cannot btu instil in us a certain w holesome respect for this powerful and dangerous brute. How Colonel RcK^se- velt would have acted if he had met a half dozen of these tawny prowl- ers when unarn\ed. we are not prepared to say. as he never met even with a single one without his trusty rifle in hand. Here let us dispel the view w hich some seem to entertain that the tiger is a native of Africa. Even so prominent a statestnan — and unprotninent a naturalist — as ^fr. Bryan is on record as speaking of NAIROBI AND MT . KENYA 107 the tigers of Africa, and there appear to be others who hold the same bcHef. It nvdy be said, however, that no tiger skin appears among the trophies of the Roosevelt expedition and that its leader had no thought of adding so great a treasure to his list. If there are any tigers in Africa, they have succeeded for centuries in keeping out of sight, and had Roosevelt succeeded in bagging such a prize as a genuine African tiger, the Smithsonian Institution would have valued it far beyond all the other zoological treasures sent to America. But while African hunters are not likely to be assailed by tigers and have little fear of lions except when these creatures are cornered and enraged, there is one brute for which they entertain a wholesome respect— the rhinoceros. Letting this great brute alone does not act to calm its temper and it is apt *to charge the passer-by and seek to impale him on its dangerous horn at a moment's notice or without any notice at all. The Masai natives, who do not eat and therefore do not kill game, fear no wild beast but the rhinoceros. All other creatures, if let alone, rarely seek to make an attack on man, but the surly rhi- noceros makes absolutely unprovoked charges, and at times gores a man before he can get out of the way. By good fortune these huge beasts are stupid and short-sighted. They seem able to see nothing clearly that is ten yards or more away, and if the hunter perceives a charge in time he can easily spring out of the way. Yet while their sight is so poor, their sense of smell is remarkably keen, and the hun- ter who would successfully cope with the rhinoceros must avoid ap- proaching him from the windward side. Another tenant of the wilds that is not imprudently to be trifled with is the fearless and surly wart-hog. All is right so long as the hunter keeps on his horse. But if by any contingency he is unhorsed when hunting these animals he runs great risk of receiving a dan- gerous wound. Pig-sticking — chasing the hog on horseback and bringing it down with a spear — is a favorite sport alike in India and East Africa, and in both countries it is one in which the fighting powers of the animal have seriously to be reckoned with. Certainly no one can afford to disdain the courage and ferocity of the African wart-hog. And the danger is greatly added to by the roughness of the country it io8 NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA frequents, in which boulders hidden by high grass and deep ant-bear holes excavated in the soil keep the hunter in continual danger. The risk of the sport consists in the fact that he who would over- take and spear one of these animals must do so at full gallop, for they are adepts in rapid transit. Yet the hunter must give his attention at once to the ground he is traversing and to the brute he is pursuing. When the pig is neared within a few yards, the perils of the ground must be neglected and attention given solely to the brute, which may turn and charge upon its pursuer at any moment. A stumble of the horse and a fall at such a critical instant is very dangerous, as the hog would be sure to attack the unhorsed man and seek to rip him up with its sharp tusks. In such a crisis the spear is a poor dependence, and the hunter would find it serviceat)le to have a revolver strapped to his thigh — for emergency use. To quote a well-known American aphorism : "You do not want a pistol often, but when you do, you want it very badly." But neglecting for the time being these narratives of hunting ventures, let us follow the Roosevelt expedition farther into the land and look with the eyes of its members upon the huge brother mountain to Mount Kenya, the gigantic Mount Elgon, which lies more to the westward. This huge mountain mass is a natural phenomenon of great interest. While not so elevated as Mount Kenya — its height be- ing about 14,200 feet — it surpasses it greatly, and probably every other volcano in the world, in its enormous superficial extent. It is not a mountain only; it is a country. Its mass covers an area equal to that of the whole of Switzerland. If we could imagine this Alpine land as occupied by a single huge mountain mass of great elevation, we would gain some definite idea of the size of this mammoth African volcano. We may judge something of this when told that its crater alone is about thirty miles across. Caves, many of them, exist on the sides of this mountain mass at an average height of 8,000 feet, they lying at the bottom of abrupt terraces. They appear to have arisen in the first place from the action of water, and give undue evidence of having been enlarged by the hands of man. They imdoubtedly have been inhabited during a long period of past time. There is reason to believe that Elgon was a great NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA 109 center of trade in very ancient times, goods from the Land of Punt (Somaliland) in the early Egyptian period reaching Mount Elgon to be traded for the products of the negro forest-dwellers. The blue beads dug up here, and which are regarded as great rarities, seem to be of ancient Egyptian origin, the subjects of the Pharaohs appearing to have extended their commerce to this remote region. A common feature of the terraced slopes of Mount Elgon are its splendid waterfalls, the streams cascading beautifully from the brink of the terraces and in nearly every instance covering the entrance to a cave. It may be that the cavern was originally the channel of a stream which became blocked by an overflow of lava from the crater's lip, the stream taking a new course over the cooled lava while its former canyon became a cavernous opening. We may, passing behind a cascade which leaps down and out two hundred feet from the brink of the terrace, find hidden behind it the doorway to a dry and commodious natural rock dwelling. The stream thus completely masked the dwellings of the ancient cave-man from without. Instances may be found in which a rude stockade de- fends the entrance, huge stones being piled on top of branching boughs. We have reason to believe that the antique cave-men of Europe de- fended the openings to their habitations in this manner, and we here find the ancient people of Africa adopting the same methods. Sir Harry Johnston, in his very interesting paper, "Where Roose- velt Will Hunt," gives us the following information about the people of the region we have been describing. It is well Worth quoting as a vivid picture of a series of strange native tribes : "The human inhabitants of this part of East Africa mainly belong to the fine, handsome Masai race and the peoples of Nandi and Suk stock (closely allied in racial origin to the Masai), while in the coast regions bordering the Victoria Nyanza there are a few Nilotic and Bantu negroes. "The Suk natives of the northern part of the Rift Valley, south- west of Lake Rudolf, wear no clothes,' but devote considerable atten- tion to their hair. It is thought an unwomanly thing for the Suk women to have hair on the head. The men, however, encourage the hair to grow. When the father of a family dies his head-hair is divided no NAIROBI AXD MT. KENYA among his sons, and each one weaves his portion into a chignon. In this chignon is a hollow bag in which is put all a man's portable pos- sessions that he prizes most — his snuff box, ornaments, etc. "The Karamojo people who dwell to the west of Lake Rudolf do not go in so much for cJiignons, but their favorite ornamei.t is to make a hole through the lower lip and to wear in it the cone of some crystal. "Among the dense forests, the game-haunted wilderness, and un- frequented plateaux, wanders a mongrel nomad race, the Andorobo, who represent a mixture of Nandi, Masai, and some antecedent negro race of dwarfish, Bushman stock. These Andorobo reproduce in a most striking manner the life which we may suppose to have been led by our faraway ancestors or predecessors in the earliest Stone Ages. Thev lead, in fact, very 'much the life that the most primitive types of man led in Great Britain and France in the farback days of big animals, possibly before the coming of the glacial periods. They live entirelv bv the chase, often consuming the flesh of birds and beasts uncooked. Though they commit considerable devastations among the game of the province, they are a picturesque feature when encountered, and a striking illustration, handed down through the ages, of the life of primitive man not long after he had attained the status of humanity and had acquired' a knowledge of the simplest weapons. '"Lake Naivasha, one of the lakes of the Rift A^alley, is probably the center of a district where President Roosevelt will spend some time, because there are some very interesting things to be seen and possibly some remarkable animals to be obtained there.* The western side of Lake Naivasha has picturesque mountains, which have to be ascended by the Uganda Railway, further north than Lake Naivasha, at con- siderable difficulty and expense. Here the railroad is carried to an altitude of 8.300 feet before it begins to descend the western slope of the plateau. "Lake Naivasha is almost in the middle of the western ]\Iasai country. The dwellings of the cattle-keeping Masai are small flat- roofed structures. The IMasai' women are scrupulously clothed, orig- inallv in dressed skin, but to-day often in cloth. They are sharply dis- *It may be said that the ex-President spent considerable time here and had his most thrillin<' adventure on the waters of this lake. This we have elsewhere described . NAIROBI AND MT . KENYA in tinguished from their husbands and brothers, who very ostentatiously wear no clothing for purposes of decency. The Masai have attracted a great deal of attention ever since Joseph Thomson, the explorer, together with Dr. Fischer (an equally distinguished explorer of Ger- man nationality), laid bare to us Masailand. The Masai have been the occasion of terrible havoc throughout East Africa by the attacks they made on all settled peoples. At some unknown period in their racial career a very great part of the Masai decided they would not till the fields any longer, but that they would take away the cattle of other tribes not strong enough to resist them. This is one of the rea- sons why so many of these beautiful plateaus of the present day are absolutely devoid of human inhabitants except a few European settlers who have come there. It was not that the negroes objected to the climate ; they simply wiped one another out. This process has occurred over and over again in many parts of Africa. No one has ever been so cruel to the negro as the negro himself. The Masai are now great cultivators. "Their towns are surrounded by belts of tall trees, mainly acacias, some of which must be considerably over a hundred feet in height, with green boughs and trunks and ever-present flaky films of pinnated foli- age. In the rainy time of the year these trees are loaded with tiny golden balls of flowers, like tassels of floss silk, which exhale a most delicious perfume of honey. In the plains between the villages Grevy's zebra and a few oryz antelopes scamper about, while golden and black jackals hunt for small prey in broad daylight, with a constant whim- pering. "Enormous baboons sit in the branches of the htige trees ready to rifle the native crops at the least lack of vigilance on the part of the boy guardians. Large herds of cattle and troops of isabella-colored donkeys, with broad black shoulder stripes, go out in the morning to graze, and return through a faint cloud of dust, which is turned golden by the setting sun in the mellow evening, the cattle lowing and occa- sionally fighting, the asses kicking, plunging, and biting one another. "After sunset, as the dusk rapidly thickens into night, forms like misshapen, ghostly wolves will com.e from no one knows where, and trot about the waste outside the village trees. They are the spotted hyoiias, tolerated l\v ilio Masai hocause ihcy are llu^ li\in>;' sepulchres ol ilieir dead relations. \\ hen man. woman or child dies amoiii;" the ]\lasai, as^ricultural or pastoral, the corpse is placed o\\ the outskirts A^i die seillemenl lor die li\enas lo devour at lUL^hls. The crv ot' the hyena is not a laui^li. as people make out. hnl a lorn;- drawn falsetto wail endins;" in a whoop. It sounds exact l\ like what (>ne mi^ht iiua^in^^ to he the uioekiui^i- cry of a i^houl; and hut \ov the fact that we now lind that the L;houl myth has a very solid human oriL^in (^ since there are depraved ]>eople all oxer .\frica at the present da\- who ha\e a mania lor eatm;^ ci^rpsc llesh, and this trait max also ha\'e ci^opped out in pre Mohammedan days in Arahia and Persia \ one miL^lil verv well im as^'ine that the idea o\ the j^houl arose from the luena. as that o\ the harpy prohahly did from the \ulture. ".\11 these people are alike in their Une o\ hlood as an article o\ tood. They periodicall} hlced their cattle and drink the hUuHl hot, or else mix it w ith porridi^e. The women o\ these trihes do lun eat fowls, and neither men nor women eat cj^i^s. As amouL;' most ncj^ro races, the men Iced alone, and the women eat after the men ha\e done. "1 loney is a most important article oi diet oi all the p.ati\es in this roii'ion. In some districts the\ semi domesticate the wild hces In placins^ hark cylinders on ti-ees for them to hiiiUl in. h'rom honev is made an intoxieatiui;- mead. They also make a wine from the sa]"> oi the wild date palm. l»eer is u:ado from the 5.:rain o\ cleusine and sor L^hum. .\s a i^eneral rule fermented liqu(M-s are never drunk Iw the youui^' unuiarried wi)meu or the \ouu^- meu. r»oth sexes and j^eojile ot all ai;es use tohacco in one form or another. The tij^htiui.^" men take snutT. the old married men chew tohacco. and tlie old women smoke it. The l.umhwa people make tohacco juice h> keepiuj;- macerated tohacco . leaves soaked in water in a i^oat lu^rn sluui^' round the neck. Closiiiii" one nostril with a tinker, they tilt the head on one side, and then pour the liquid tobacco juice oiu of the horn into the other nostril, l^oth nostrils are then pinched for a few- nnnntes. after which the li(|nid is allowed to trickle out. " The nomad Andorobo people, besides killing- innimicrnble eol- obus monkeys in the dense woods of the Man and Xandi plateaux t^with po'soned arrowsV sally out into the ]>lains of the Rift A'allev NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA 113 or range over the opposite heights following up the elephant, and attacking and slaying most of the big antelope. They kill the ele- phant very often by shooting into his legs at close quarters a har- poon with a detachajjle and strongly poisoned head. Tlie power- ful arrow poison used by the Andorobo and Masai is made from the leaves and branches of Acocanthera schiniperi. The leaves and branches of this small tree are broken up and boiled for about six hours. The liquid is then strained and cleared of the fragments of leaves and bark. They continue to boil the ];oisoned water until it is thick and viscid, by which time it has a pitch-like appearance. The poison is kept until it is wanted on sheets of bark. After they have finished pre- paring the poison they carefully rub their hands and bodies free from any trace of it with the fleshy, juicy leaves of a kind of sage. "The ]Xjison is always kept high up on the forks of trees out of the reach of children, and the poisoned arrows are never kept in the people's huts, but are stowed away in branches. When a beast has been shot with these arrows, it dies very quickly. The flesh just around .the_ arrowhead is then cut out and thrown away, but all the rest of the beast is eaten and its blood is drunk. "All these peoples use dogs in hunting, and before starting for the chase they are said to give their dogs a drug which makes them fierce. They also catch birds with bird-lime. The Xandi go out in large numbers to hunt, surround a herd of game in a circle, and then ap- proach the animals near enough to kill them with arrows and spears. "The people who inhabit the eastern fringe of the plateau develop the fashion of the earring to a considerable extent. They begin when children to pierce a hole in the lobe of the ear through which they first pass a stick of wood the size of a match. This is increased in thickness until they succeed in stretching the lobe in the cour.':e of years into a huge loop. It is interesting to know that in some of the old Egyptian accounts of the Land of Punt (which we take to be somewhere near Somaliland, in northeast Africa), they mentioned people with ears that hung down to their shoulders. Obviously they are describing the people of Somaliland as they existed 3,000 or 4,000 years ago. Some of them have a physiognomy rather similar to the Hamitic people of the north, not altogether negroes,'' CHAPTl^R XTll Westward to Lake Victoria Nyanza W" l^ST of Nairobi the scenery is more magniticenl than on the journey from Mombasa. The train has been ascending- the high plateau for sixty miles by a series of wooded slopes to a height of i>\er 0,ooo feet. Then the ground falls away apparently more than j.ooo feet, almost like a precipice. Farther than the eye can see the Kikuyu b^scarpment stretches away as straight as a ruler to right and left. The train zig-zags downward along its western face, opening vislas of a wonderful panorama. Far below, the level surface of the plain is broken by volcanic hills and extinct craters, and in the far distance the opposite wall api)ears dimly like the other side of a gigantic trough. Fake Naivasha lies on the route, about ten miles square, with the rim of a submerged crater making a crescent-shaped island in its middle. The water is brackish and thronged with wald fowl and hip- popolanii. l^x-Fresidcnt Roosevelt had an exciting experience on this lake when he went out in a row-boat to hunt hippos. At some distance from the land about twenty of these monsters surrounded him, and the fearless sportsman was in great danger for a time. The enraged ani- mals charged upon the boat and nearly succeeded in overturning it. The native rowers became frightened, and it was the presence of mind and courage of Mr. Roosevelt that prevented disaster. He shot two of the beasts and succeeded in frightening the rest of the drove aw^ay. so that a launch v.hich was sent out from shore to their rescue found their chief safe and victorious. The bodies of the two victims w^ere towed to shore and added to the collection Avhich the party was making for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. The government stock farm at Naivasha proved to be of very great interest. Official experimenters are here crossing breeds to produce domestic animals adapted to the climate and country, and at the same ("4) WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA 115 time producing breeds which compare in profitabiHty with those raised in better circumstances. The hump of the African ox, for instance, disappears in the first generation, and in the next he more nearly resembles the European animal. By supplying settlers and natives with stock improved in this way, it is expected that the herds will be multiplied many times in value. The same may be said of the sheep, which has been similarly im- proved. In the various flocks visible may be seen the native breed, the half-bred, three-quarter bred and full Ijred English, the improve- ment visible being surprisingly ^reat, That :\Ir. Roosevelt was thor- oughly interested in this transformation goes without saying. He saw specimens of the native sheep, rough and hairy, to the untrained eye looking more like a goat than a sheep. Yet this undeveloped animal, when crossed with the Sussex or the improved Australian type, becomes a woolly beast that is very evidently a sheep. A second cross makes another great improvement, and soon the breeder has a flock that it is hard to distinguish from those of English fields, yet one that is better adapted to the sun and clime of Africa. In this way a remarkable change is produced alike in the ox and the sheep. The purpose of the experimental farm is not only to produce an improved type adapted to the conditions of the locality, but also to supply the farmers with blooded animals which will add greatly to the value of their flocks. This work is prosecuted with the greatest zeal and enthusiasm, though the experimenters are hampered by want of funds and seriously troubled by the ravages of the East Coast fever. This malady, to which their animals are very subject, came into the province from German East Africa several years ago, and is grad- ually spreading despite all eftorts to check it. A cow attacked by it will live thirty days or more, during which the ticks which attack it are infected with the poisons of the disease and transmit it to other cattle which may pass over the same ground. Experiment has shown that the ticks hold the virulent disease germs' for a year, and in that time they may infect many animals. Thus the efforts of the stock-breeders are largely negatived. Left to themselves the natives would be helpless and the disease spread until all their cattle were exterminated. But that is not the way with ,ii6 WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA the trained scientists of the Department of Agriculture. One way to clear the ground of its poison is to put sheep upon it, which are not harmed by the poison from the tick. Others are to divide the country up into fields by wire fencing, and thus keep the cattle within unin- fected areas ; to destroy suspected animals ; to search for remedies to the disease, and to bring to play upon the evil all the resources of mod- ern science. But let us continue our journey to the great African lake- -the Victoria Nyanza. Long before reaching Naivasha we left behind us the highland region and descended the steep Kikuyu Escarpment, ihe lofty and precipitous eastern wall of the Rift Valley. Crossing this wonderfully fertile valley, we reach the opposite wall, the Mau Escarp- ment, the lofty western ridge, up which the train creeps with as much difficulty as it had met with in descending the opposite wall. Through- out this whole region the railway is engaged in a constant battle with the luxuriant forces of vegetable nature in the tropics. Over the line hang great trees. The cuttings are invaded by multitudinous creepers, which trail downwards, covering the embankments, and seeking inces- santly to bury the roadway. Every neglected clearing is c[uickly taken captive by these swift-growing plants. Only for the ceaseless care with which the line is cleared and weeded it would soon be overrun. If abandoned for a year it would be difficult to discover where it ran. Wood is superabundant, coal is lacking, and the road is run entirely with wood fuel. Natives are kept constantly at work picking away at the trees with their native choppers, a feeble substitute for the American axe. It is a slow, wearisome and costly wa}^ of providing the engine furnaces with fuel. A steam-plant, to cut dov^^n and cut up the trees, would replace these slow-going native wood-butchers at a fraction of their cost and a shadow of their trouble. Doubtless this will ere long be introduced, but at present the "chop, chop, chop," of the hundreds of natives is all one hears. The valley level is left and we are now crawling up the Mau Es- carpment, getting steadily higher and finding changes in the aspect of the country as we advance. The forest through which we have long rolled onward, begins to give way to rolling hills covered with grass. And the odd feature of this is that there is no border of scat- WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA 117 tered trees or straggling brushwood. The woodland ends abruptly and the fields of grass run up to its very edge. Nature seems to do here what art does elsewhere, to produce a park-like effect. The top of the escarpment reached, at an elevation of about 8,300 feet, the highest level of the railway is attained. Thence it descends gradually to its terminus on the shores of the great lake, the waters of which may be seen from the top of a hill which looms upward about five hundred feet above the line. We are now again out of the tropic lowlands and in the lofty highlands, out of the steaming atmosphere, and in the crisp, chill upper air. Instead of shirt sleeves one instinc- tively turns to the comfortable overcoat. But as we go onward, down a steady slope, the overcoat is soon thrown oft" again, and mile by mile the train descends to tropic warmth, until, by the time the lake shore is reached, we find ourselves in a warm and damp tropical climate. Not that the lake lies at a low level. It occupies an elevation 4,000 feet above the sea. But the 4,000 feet we have descended to reach it makes a most perceptible change in the cli- matic conditions. The goal which we have had so long in view, Kis- umu, or Port Florence, is attained, and we see stretching before us like an island sea the waters of the great lake which we have sought so long. Port Florence is not the best terminus that could have been selected for the Uganda Railway, the location being unhealthy, partly from its climatic conditions and partly from the tendency of the sewage to accumulate in the shallow inlet. The natural terminus would have been at Port Victoria, where there is much deeper water. The ques- tion of cost prevented the railway from reaching this point, but this will have to be done eventually, unless the whole lake is deepened by a dam across its outlet at Ripon Falls. The landing from the railway train at Port Florence is, fortu- nately, not the end of civilized rapid transit in this region. From the wharf one may step on board a steamboat of spacious proportions and as 'neat and perfect in its appointments as if its port of entry was New York or Liverpool. Its low and wide decks are kept spotlessly clean ; the crew, though of ebony complexion, are smartly dressed and very eflficient under the command of skilled British ofticers; the table ii8 WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA is excellent, there is a well-furnished library, together with baths, electric lights and all needed conveniences. Those who find themselves on board this modern ship in the depths of the late savage Africa, certainly have reason to bless their lucky stars that they are not confined to the crude former methods of navigation on this magnificent inland sea. Darting along at a speed of ten miles an hour upon a great freshwater lake as large as the whole of Scotland, and at an elevation higher than that of Scotland's highest mountains, was a pleasant sensation worth the journey to expe- rience. With cool air and splendid scenery, except when out of sight of land and environed only by sea and sky, they certainly had reason to enjoy the trip. Now beautiful islands surrounded them, now they •glided past forested coasts with blue mountains rising in the distance, now other scenes of varied beauty attracted them, and all this in the heart of Africa, on the line of the Equator, and at an elevation of four thousand feet above the sea. Certainly it was an experience greatly to be enjoyed and long to be remembered. Voyagers on the lake, except those intent on geographical dis- covery, do not follow it for its entire length or trace the extended line of its coast waters, but simply cross its northern waters to the port of Entebbe on its northeastern side. This is the administrative center of the British Protectorate of Uganda, an interesting country with which we must deal in a chapter by itself. In the present one our interest lies in the lake itself. This immense body of water, an inland sea occupying a large sec- tion of east central Africa, is notable not alone for its size and for its high elevation, but is of the highest interest for another reason, since it is the source of one of the greatest and most famous rivers of the world, the historic and world-renowned Nile, the stream which has made Egypt and to which Egypt has given fame and glory. The source of this grand river was long unknown. It was traced farther and farther into Africa, travelers following southward step by step through endless hardships and difficulties. Still it held its own, a broad, deep stream, evidently coming from a great distance, but its origin was not discovered imtil about fifty years ago, when Captain John H. Speke reached the great lake which he named Victoria Nyanza, in honor of the English queen. WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA 119 This signal discovery was made on the the loth of July, 1858, at the end of a long and toilsome journey which he had made with Captain Richard F. Burton from Zanzibar. Speke was satisfied in his own mind that this great lake was the source of the great river whose origin had long excited so much interest, and on his return home suc- ceeded in inducing the Royal Geographical Society to send him out on a second exploring expedition to this interesting region. Setting out in i860 with another British officer. Captain Grant, he found himself in the summer of 1862 again gazing on the noble lake, and being confident now, from information received from the natives, that the Nile flowed from the northern end of the Victoria Nyanza, he set out in search of its outlet. Success now attended his efforts, and on the 21st of July he reached the river whose source had been sought so long and with such ardent enthusiasm. His discovery of its outlet from the lake is a story replete with interest. The northern shore of the lake is long and broken, being diversified by hundreds of gulfs and inlets, with nothing to distin- guish one from the other. No current is felt until within a few miles of the falls, and the explorers might have searched the lake for a year without discovering the spot. Yet as he drifted and paddled over its broad surface a slight increase was felt in the pace of his canoe and a far-off murmur told him of the nearness of the place he sought, that in which the waters of the lake were drawn into the mighty river. We give in his own words the story of how he finally reached the much-sought-for stream: "Here at last,'' he writes, "I stood on the brink of the Nile; most beautiful was the scene, nothing could surpass it ! It was the very per- fection of the kind of effect aimed at in a highly kept park; with a mag- nificent stream from six hundred to seven hundred yards wide, dotted with islets and rocks, the former occupied by the fishermen's huts, the latter by many crocodiles basking in the sun, flowing between fine grassy banks, with rich trees and plantations in the background, where herds of the hartebeest could be seen grazing, while the hippo- potami were snorting in the water, and florikin and guinea-fowl rising at our feet.^' They proceeded up the left bank of the Nile, at some distance 1 23 WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA from the stream, passing through rich jungle and plantain gardens, and reached the Isamba Rapids on the 25th of July. The river is here extremely beautiful. „ The water runs between deep banks which are covered with fine grass, soft cloudy acacias, and festoons of lilac convolvuli. On the 28th, they reached Ripon Falls, after a long march over rough hills, and through extensive village plantations lately devastated by elephants. But they were well rewarded, for the falls were the most interesting sight that Speke had yet seen in Africa. "Everybody," he says, "ran to see them at once, though the march had been long and fatiguing, and even my sketch-book was called into play. Though beautiful, the scene was not exactly what I expected; for the broad surface of the lake was shut out from view- by a spur of hill, and the falls, about 12 feet deep, and 400 to 500 feet broad, were broken by rocks. Still it was a sight that attracted one to it for hours — the roar of the waters, the thousands of passenger- fish, leaping at the falls with all their might, the Wasoga and Waganda fishermen coming out in boats and taking post on all the rocks, with rod and hook, hippopotami and crocodiles lying sleepily on the water, the ferry at work above the falls, and cattle driven down to drink at the margin of the lake, made, in all, with the pretty nature of the country — small hills, grassy-topped, with trees in the folds, and gar- dens on the lower slopes — as interesting a picture as one could wish to see." "The expedition," he adds, "had now performed its functions. 1 saw that Old Father Nile without any doubt rises in the Victoria Nyanza, and, as I had foretold, that lake is the great source of the holy river which cradled the first expounder of our religious belief. I mourned, however, when I thought how much time I had lost by the delays in the journey which had deprived me of the pleasure of going to look at the northeast corner of the Nyanza to see what con- nection there was, by a strait frequently spoken of, between it and' the other lake where the Waganda went to get their salt, and from which another river flowed to the north, making 'Usoga an island/ But I felt I ought to be content with what I had been spared to accom- plish, for I had seen full half of the lake, and had information given me of the other half, by means of which I knew all about the lake, as 3 O p ft 3 3 ^ P B'. > P- t;^ z- C o ^ 3- > crq ft :^ (D ft u p ^ r 3 O •-1 ft ^ 3 ft 3 ^_^ w ft ^ 1 3 P 1 < H ft' m 3' P* M S g 3" S p ft P 3 ft d ft 3 z- P* 3 t?i Ci p' w «■ 3- i^ =1 C/l o 3 ^ s p » 3: « ft ^-t td o > 3 « £i. 3 HIPPOPOTAMUS DEFENDING HER YOUNG The Roosevelt party secured specimens of this leviathan. The name means River Horse. It can remain beneath the water four to six minutes at one time. The hide is thick and chiefly used for whips AN ELEPHANT HUNT A fate which sometimes overtakes the hunter ELEPHANT AND RHINOCEROS IN BATTLE Both these animals were found in the course of Roosevelt's travels, and both belong to the class called Pachyderms, or thick-skinned animals. The tusks of the one and horn of the other are dangerous weapons WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA 121 far, at least, as the chief objects of geographical importance were concerned. Let us now sum up the whole and see what it is worth. Comparative information assured me that there was as much water on the eastern side of the lake as there is on the western — if anything, rather more. The most remote water, or top head of the Nile, is the southern end of the lake, situated close on the third degree of south latitude, which gives the Nile the surprising length, in direct meas- urement, rolling over thirty-four degrees of latitude, of above two thousand three hundred miles, or more than one-eleventh of the cir- cumference of our globe." The cataract by which the Nile leaves its parent lake was named by the discoverer, Ripon Falls, in honor of the President of the Royal Geographical Society, and the area of water from which it issued he named Napoleon Channel, out of respect to the French Geo- graphical Society, which had presented him its gold medal in honor of his discovery of the lake. Since this day the source of the Nile has been frequently visited and Ripon Falls looked upon by hundreds of tourists, among them the members of the Roosevelt expedition. Many descriptions of it might be quoted, of which a brief and graphic one is the following from the pen of Winston Spencer Churchill: "Although the cataract is on a moderate scale, both in height and volume, its aspect— and still more its situation — is impressive. The exit or overflow of the Great Lake is closed by a natural rampart or ridge of black rock, broken or worn away in two main gaps to release the waters. Through these the Nile leaps at once into majestic being, and enters upon its course as a perfect river three hundred yards wide. Standing upon the reverse side of the wall of the rock, one's eye may be almost on a plane with the shining levels of the lake. At your feet, literally a yard away, a vast green slope of water races downward. Below are foaming rapids, fringed by splendid trees, and pools from which great fish leap continually in the sunlight." At the output, on the lake shore, has grown up a town with the unmusical name of Jinja, of which Mr. Churchill writes : "Jinta is destined to become a very important place in the future economy of Central Africa. Situated at the point where the Nile 122 U'ESTWAKI) TO LAKE VICTORIA A'r-lA'Z.l Hows out of the Great Lake, it is at once on the easiest Une of water communication with Lake Albert and the Soudan, and also a place where great waterpower is available. In years to come the shores of this splendid bay may be crowned \\\t\\ long row^s of comfortable tropical villas and imposing offices, and the gorge of the Nile crowded wdth factories and warehouses. There is power enough to gin all the cotton and saw all the wood in Uganda, and it is here that one of the principal emporia of tropical produce will certainly be created. In these circumstances it is a pity to handicap the town wath an out- landish name. It w^ould be much better to call it Ripon Falls, after the beautiful cascades w4iich lie beneath it, and from whose force its future prosperity will be derived. "The Ripon Falls are, for their own sake, well worth a visit. The Nile springs out of the \^ictoria Nyanza, a vast body of w^ater nearly as wide as the Thames at Westminster Bridge, and this impos- ing river rushes down a stairway of rock from fifteen to tw^enty feet deep, in smooth, swirling slopes of green \vater. It would be per- fectly easy to harness the w'hole river and let the Nile begin its long and beneficent journey to the sea by leaping through a turbine. It is possible that nowhere else in the world could so enormous a mass of water 1)e held up l)y so little masonry. Two or three short dams from island to island across the falls would enable, at an incon- ceivably small cost, the \yhole level of the Victoria Nyanza — over an expanse of a hundred and fifty thousand square miles — to be gradu- ally raised six or seven feet; would greatly increase the available water-power ; would deepen the water in Kavirondo Bay, so as to admit steamers of much larger draught ; and, finally, would enable the lake to be maintained at a uniform level, so that immense areas of swampy foreshore, now submerged, now again exposed, according to the rainfalls, would be converted either into clear w'ater or dry land." As \\e ha^•e described the natives of the Rift Valley, a brief account, from the pen of Sir Harry Johnston, of some of those who dwell in the vicinity of the Great Lake will not be without interest. Those who reach this region before civilization has done away w4th the customs of its native inhabitants "will see before them coal-black WESTWARD TO LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA 123 handsomely formed negroes and negresses without a shred of cloth- ing, though with many adornments in the way of hippopotamus teeth, bead necklaces, earrings, and leglets of brass. They are very pictur- esque as they strut about the streets in their innocent nudity, decked with barbaric ornaments. "The men wear not one earring, but fifteen! Holes are pierced all round the outer edge of the ear, and in these are inserted brass fillets, like melon seeds in shape, to which are attached coarse blue beads of large size and dull appearance. These beads the knowing tourist should collect while they can be purchased, as they are of mysterious origin and great interest. They have apparently reached this part of the world from Nubia in some very ancient trading inter- course between Egypt and these countries of the upper Nile. As the figures thus exhibited are usually models for a sculptor, this nudity is blameless and not to be discouraged; moreover, it characterizes the most moral people in the Uganda protectorate. "This ebon statuary lives in pretty little villages, which are clus- ters of straw huts (glistening gold in the sun's rays), encircled w^ith fences of aloes, vvdiich have red, green, and white mottled leaves, and beautiful columns and clusters of coral-red stalks and flowers. There are a few shady trees that from their appearance might very well be elms but are not, and some extraordinary euphorbias, which grow upright with the trunk of a respectable tree and burst into uncounted sickly green spidery branches. Herds of parti-colored goats and sheep, and cattle that are black and white and fawn color, diversify these surroundings with their abrupt patches of light and color. "They belong to the better class of Bantu negroes, of that immense group of African peoples w^iich has dominated the whole southern third of Africa from the regions of the White Nile and A^ictoria Nyanza to the upper Congo, Kamarun, Zanzibar and Zulu- land." CHAPPTER XIV. Beautiful Uganda WHEN the traveler in the "dark continent" crosses the groat I'^ast African lake. X'ictoria Nyanza. and hinds at the port ol luitobbo, he tinds himself on the threslu^ld of one oi the most fertile and heantifnl kingdoms in the dark continent, lovely Uganda. This was formerly the seal oi the most remarkable o\ the African native go\ernments, and is now oi as remarkable a coUniial realm, for the old governmental system has been left nnchanged nnder the shadcnv of the i>ritish protectorate. What the r>ritish have bronght arc the blessings oi ]K\\ce. oi civilized habits, oi edncation and (."hrisiian leaching; while no bnrdcn oi fi>rcign rule rests uptMi the neck oi \\\c naii\cs. nnIiosc old system ]>crsisis nnchanged. What is to be found there can best be indicated by a brief descrip- tion oi this singular civilization in the heart oi F,ast Africa, l^xtend- ing westward and northward from the \'ictoria Xyanza. reaching to and embracing the Albert Nyanza, and traversed by the upper channel oi the Nile, Uganda is an extensive equatorial realm, its administrati\e cajMtal of Entebbe lying nearly on the lu]nator, yet its elevation of from J.ooci to 4,000 feet gives it a partly temperate climate, while its vegetation has all the regal luxuriance of the tropics. Nowhere else in Africa is there a region to be compared in charm and attractiveness with Uganda. Different from all others in scenery, in vegetation, and in the character and condition of its people, it stantls alone. Tn reaching it by sail, we leave the breezy uplands lying east of the great lake and enter a garden spot of the tropics. Entebbe glows with floral beauty — violet, yellow, purple and crimson blooms. Plants and trees of beautiful form and color grow in pro- fusion, before the Government House is a stretch of level green lawn, and hi the distance the great blue lake and purple hills attract the (i«4) BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 125 eyes, while the soft, cool air seems to belong to climes far removed from the tropics. Such is Uganda, from end to end a charming garden spot, where food grows in abundance with the least quota of labor, and anything which can be grown anywhere seems to grow more luxuriantly here. The soil is jjhenomenally rich. Cotton yields an abundant product. and its other useful plants include coffee, tea, coca, vanilla, cocoa, cinnamon, oranges, lemons, pineapples, rubber, and other native or introduced fruits and products. Among these, of course, mu-:t be named the banana, that most productive food plant of the tropics, yielding more nutriment with less care and labor than any other vegetable production of the earth. From an agricultural point of view the banana groves form the distinguishing feature of Uganda, the plant being indispensable to the inhabitants. It sujjplies him not only with a nourishing vegetable pulp and a dessert fruit, Init also with sweet beer and heady spirits, with soap, plates, dishes, napkins, and even materials for foot bridges. Passing along the road from Entebbe to Kampala, the native capital, one gets an idea of the delightful aspect of the country and also of its wealth of useful products. On both sides of the road, along its whole length, extends a double avenue of young rubber trees, and back of these are broad fields of cotton, beautiful alike when in flower or Avhen snowy white with expanded bolls. It is said that the cotton grown here, from American upland seed, commands a higher price in the Manchester market than the same variety of cotton from the United States. We cannot do better here than quote a description of some inter- esting features of Uganda scenery and life from Sir Harry John- ston's "Where Roosevelt Will Hunt," in the "National Geographic Magazine" : "There is a remarkable similarity abotit all the landscapes in Uganda. There are rolling, green downs rising in places almost into the mountains and every valley in between is a marsh. This marsh is often concealed by a splendid tropical forest. Sometimes, however, it is open to the sky, and the water is hidden from sight by dense- growing papyrus. 126 BEAiniFUr. U(^A\rnA "The broad native roads make as straic^lil as possible for their mark, Hke the roads of the Romans, and, to the tired traveler, seem to pick out preferentially the hii^hest and steepest hills, which they ascend perpendicularl}- and withonl compromise. "The road is as broatl as an iuii^iish country roatl, cjuite different from the ordinary African i)ath (which is barely the breadth of the space occupied by men walking- in single file). ( )n either side of the road the grass grows high, perha])s to heights of seven or eight feet, but it is interspersed with gayer-llowering i)1ants and shrubs. The road asceiuls a steep hill through this country of luxuriant grass. The hilltop reached and the descent begun, the traveler sees before him a broad marsh in the valley below. The descent to this marsh is possibly so abrupt that it is deemed wiser to get off the horse or nuile and lea\e that beast to slither down sideways. "Looking" on either side as the marsh is being crossed, the trav- eler will notice first of all the gigantic papyrus, which may be growing as high as fifteen feet above the water rnd interspersed amongst papyrus roots are ([uantities of fern, of amaranth, or "U)\c lies-a-bleed~ ing," and the gorgeous red-i)m'ple Pissofis llowers, a vellow composite like a malformed daisy, and large masses of pink cm- lavender-colored rcufas. There are also sages and nnnts which smell strongly of peppermint, and a rather handsome plant with large white bracts and small mauve llowers. "In and out of ihis marsh vegetation Hit charming little (inches of the waxbill type. One o^ them is particularly beautiful, with a body of black, white, and dove color and a crimson back. The next ascent of the inevitable hill which succeeds the marsh may lead one through a more wooded count rv. where, anuMig many other fiowering shrubs, grows a sj^ecies of mallow (. (biifilon), with blush-pink tlowers in clusters, like dog-roses in general aiipearance. "The forests and marshes of Uganda abound in remarkable monkeys and brilliantly colored birds to a degree not conmion else- where in tropical Africa; but the Kingdom of Uganda, as may be imagined from its relatively dense j^opulation — a jwpulation once much thicker than to-day — has been to a great extent denuded of its big game, and it is imlikely the President will s]->end much time there. BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 127 "Some of the forest trees of Uganda offer magnificent displays of flowers. There is one, the Spathodea, with crimson-scarlet flowers larger than a l^reakfast cup and not very dissimilar in shape. These flowers grow in bunches like large bouquets, and when in full blossom one of these trees aflame with red light is a magnificent spectacle. Other trees jjresent at certain seasons of the year a uniform mass of lilac- white flowerets, as though they had been powdered from above with a lavender-colored snow. "The india-ruljber trees and lianas have white flowers, large and small, with yellow centers exhaling a delicious scent like jas- mine, but the blossom of one of these rubber trees is vivid scarlet. The Lonchocarpus trees have flowers in color and shape like the Wis- taria; from the branches of the lofty eriodendrons depend, on thread- like stalks, huge dull crimson flowers composed of innumerable stamens surrounded by thick carmine petals. The Erythrina trees on the ^(\g(t of the forest seldom bear leaves and flowers at the same time. When in a leafless state they break out into a crimson-scarlet efflorescence of dazzling beauty. The Ptcrocarpus trees have large flowers of sul])hur-yellow. "Many creepers have blossoms of orange, of greenish-white, pink, and mauve. Some trees or creepers (Combretiun raceinoswn) are like the Boiigainvillia, throwing out wreaths and veils and cas- cades of the most exquisite mauve or red-violet, where the color is given by bracts, the flower itself being crimson and of small size. "Blue alone appears to be missing from this gamut of color in the forest flowers, though it is frequently present among herbaceous shrubs or plants growing close to the ground, and, so far as the trees are concerned, is often supplied by the beautiful species of turaco that particularly affect the forest, and by large high-flying butterflies. "Whatever may be the case in the Congo basin, where the forests often appear sadly lifeless, the woodlands of Uganda are full of color and noise from the birds, beasts, and insects frequenting them. Monkeys are singularly bold and frequently show themselves. There is the black-white colobus with the long plume-tail which has been already described; there is a large greenish-black Cerco- ij8 beautiful UGANDA pitlicciis, and another species of the same g-enns which is known as the White-nosed monkey. This is a charming creatnre of hriglit cokirs — chestnut, hhie-hkick, yellow-gTcen, and gray, with a snow- white tip to its nose. I beheve its specific name is rufo-ririclis. Bright- cokM-etl turacos are even more abmidant in these Ugancki forests, and there are green and red kn-e-hirds, gray parrots with seark^t tails, and the nsnal harlxMs, hornhiUs, shrikes, tly-catcliers, bee-eaters, roll- ers — all of them birds of bright plumage or strange form "There are inher forest creatures that are not harmless stnu'ces of gratitication {o the eye. Lying among the dead leaves on the path may be the dreaded putT-adder, with its beautiful carpet-jxittern oi ]iinkish-grav. black, lemon-yellow, and slaty blue, and with its awful head coiuaining poison glands more rapidly fatal than those perhaps oi any other viper. "Numerous pytluMis, from tifteen to twenty feet in length (gener- allv disinclined to attack human beings, however), are coiled on the branches of the trees, or hang by their tails like a pendent branch, swaving to ami fro in the wind. Their checkered patterns o\ brmvn and white arc rendered \ery beautiftil sometimes by the bknim of iridescence which imparts rainbow colors into the scales when the skin is new. "The natives think nothing oi laying hold oi the wild python, who mav perhaps have coiled himself tip in some hole, and however much the snake hisses and ]M-otests, it seldom seems to bite. Yet these snakes could crush a man between their folds, and do crush and devour numbers oi sheep and goats. They seem, however, very loath to attack mankind and will allow extraordinary liberties to be taken with them. The vividly i>ainted puff-adders are as common as the pythons, and although their bite is absolutely deadly, they, too, seem too sluggish to attack unless by some blunder you tread on them and wait to see the consequences. "Therefore the snakes are far less an annoyance or an impedi- ment to the exploration of these forests than the biting ants. These creattu'es are a veritable plague in moist, hot regions where there is abundant vegetation. T suppose they are sometimes at home and resi- dent in their underground labyrinths, but they are a restless folk, BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 129 forever seemingly on llie line of march. They traverse forest paths in all directions along- causeways of their own, worn in the soil by the passage of their thousands. "When you come across one of these armies of ants in motion, on either side of the main stream, which is perhaps only half an inch broad, there may be a cou])le of feet of biting warriors in a swarming mass on either side of the ra])idly marching army of workers carry- ing pupcC. Sentinels are out far and wide in all directions, and if you pause anywhere within a few feet of this marching body of ants you will very soon feel the consequences in a series of painful nips as though from red-hot pincers. These warrior ants know no fear. They attack any creature which comes near their line of march, burying their powerful mandibles in the flesh, and will then let the head be torn from the l)ody sooner than give way. "One prominent feature in the landscape of Entebbe, and in fact of much of southern Uganda, are the lofty incense-trees (Pachy lobus). These grow to a great height and are ])erennially covered with a rich green pinnate foliage. The rugose trunk of thick girth sweats a whitish gum, which, scraped off and burnt on hot coals, produces the smoke of fragrant incense. These trees produce at certain seasons of the year enormous quantities of blue-black plums, which are the favorite food of gray parrots, violet plantain-eaters, and the great ])lue Corytliocola, besides monkeys and hornbills. Wherever, there- fore, there is one of these trees growing those who live in the neigh- borhood may enjoy all day long the contemplation of the gorgeous plumage of these birds, the antics and cries of the parrots, and the wild gambols of the monkeys." Let us now take a glance at the people who inhabit this rich realm of Uganda — the happy people we would say, but for a fact with which we have yet to deal. On the opposite side of the Victoria Lake we passed through the tribe of the Kavirondos, a people who have a de- cided objection to the wearing of clothes, preferring the primitive sim- plicity of nature to all the allurements of fashion. As for their man- ners and customs, they have none other than such base shreds of manners as savages usually possess. Landing at Entebbe, with not many miles of water between, we i^o BEAUTIFL'J. Uh'AXJ'A seem to be on another i^lanoL. Vhc inhabilanls arc 1)lacks, l)ul blacks of a dift'crcnt type. 1 lore is to he seen a poHle. well-chul, j^cnial and intelligent peoj)le. with a fully organized government. They have their king, their ])arliament and a innverful feudal system; with a court, ministers and nobles; laws and ecnu'ts; industry. ])eaee and edu- cation. It gives us a new idea io learn that more than iwd hundred thousand o\ these ebon natives are able to read and wriie. Idiis they owe to the devoted labors of a large bovly o\ earuesi missionaries, who ha\e made I'hrisiianily the state religi('>n o\ I'^ganda. Such is the status o\ ihe r>aganda nation, and its governmental system is o\ old date. The native government which now exists has persistctl for at least several centuries, and though nmv under the Brit- ish Hag, the oUl svsiem has not been disturbed, except to correct the abuses thai had cvc\A in. Safe now frctm attack by exiernal enemies or rebellious oud>reaks. all goes on swimmingly. The iiresent king. Daudi Cehewa, is a half-grown boy; but, surrounded In his ofhcers of state, he presides at the meetings of his cinmcil and parliament, the prime minister. Sir Apolo Kagwar. being the i>(n\er behind the throne. Associated wiih this p(">litical organizaticMi. and with the control - Hng authorit\- o\ the l»ritish ofticials, is a system o\ missionar\- labor on an unequaled scale. The workers are o\ differem nations and ditlerent chtu-ches, yet are united in their charitable labors, working together with noite oi the discord which has at times attended the endeavors of dilTerent sects in a single tield. At Kampala, the tiative capital, max be seen on dilTerent elevations a Protestant cathedral. ;i Catholic missioit, and a White blather's monastery, each engaged in the same good work in harmony. Dressed in their long white robes, the r)agamla ])eople carry their native ixiliteness to ait extreme. Sir Marry Johnstone has well called them '"the Japanese of Africa." Their system o\ friendl\" salutations approaches the ludricrous in its elaborate expressioits oi regard. Two Bagandas meeting begin to salute each other while still yards asunder. "How' are you?" cries one. "Who am T that you shouUl care to know?" asks the second. "Humble though T be, yet 1 have dared to ask," rejoins the first. "But tell me hrst how are yoii:'^" requests the second. BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 131 "The better for the honor you have done me," is the ceremonious reply. "The honor is mine and I shall treasure it." By this time they have passed each other, and their expressions of poHte good-will die away as they go on. Of course the dialogue may be greatly varied, but the above will suffice for an example. Happiness is easily conferred on a Baganda. Simply say to a native, "Way wally" ("splendidly well done"), likely enough he will fall upon his knees, clasp his hands together and sway them from side to side, while his face beams with the gladdest of smiles, and he purrs forth his delight as if to say, "You have filled to overflowing my cup of joy." Yet we miist not take this as indicating servility. It is simply the Baganda idea of good manners. The people are not wanting in self-respect, and while yielding to the constituted authorities, do so without loss of dignity. Yet it adds an idea of a new type to our con- ceptions of the native African to find a nation of blacks with exagger- ated forms of greeting similar to those prevailing in China and Japan. And they do not end with verbal signs of good-will, but are kindly in nature and extremely hospitable. Sir Harry Johnstone tells us that when he traversed their kingdom, he would be met by hun- dreds of people, sent by the local chiefs, and each bearing a bunch of bananas. In some instances cows, goats or sheep would be sent. They would go so far as to send spies into his camp to find out his tastes. In this way they learned that he was very fond of tea between five and six o'clock in the afternoon. Then, judging from his time of starting what point he would reach at this hour, a resting place would be prepared near the road, a table set, and a clean cloth spread on it. At the proper time the kettle would be set boiling, and when he a])- peared near by the tea would be poured out and handed to him in a shady arbor. In his opinion the Bahima — the aristocracy of Western Uganda — may be descended from the people of ancient Egypt or bear some affinity to them. Though black in complexion and with negro hair, their profile is of the Caucasian type, and the indication is that a people of Hamitic race gradually made their way southward, infused their BI'.Ar lIFll. r(/.lA7'.l blood into that o\ the native tribes, and bnilt np a political system fat- in advance of that native to the land. Vvo\\\ this infnsion the people on the \\est and northwest o\ the lake stained a relinenient o\ manners an^l a cnhnre far in advance oi those on the opposite siile o\ the lake. N et ihe niin;.;lini;' o\ races has been S() complete, and the ne^ro t lenient in it so ninch in excess, that the modern people o\ Lli;-anda differ from ordinary nci^roes in appearance only by havinj^- lari^vr and clearer eyes and slii^htly paler skins. To show thai the conditions now existins;- in U^i^anda are not dne to cixili'/ed ideas recei\ed from the l'^n>;lish. it Nvill be o\ interest to ([note from the first visit o\ a white man t(^ the conrt o\ Uganda, that of Captain Speke, in iS()j. Sotlini;- onl on Jaiinary i i, in three days the caraxan reached and cr(>ssed the Kitan^nle River, which llows int(> the N'ictoria \van/a tr(>m ihc west. rhe\- were now in l\i;anda lei-ritor\-. and were treated everyw here as the kind's onests, tlunii^h the indolence o\ the condnctor delayed them L^reatly in the earlier marches, (^n the jSth, crestini;- a small hill. Speke can^^ht sij;hl o\ the lake for the first time. "Next, day. alter crossim;- more o\ tluxse abominable rnsh-clrains, while in sig-ln o\ the \'ictoria Xyan/a. we ascended the most iieantifnl bills covered w iili verdnre o\ all tlescri]>tions. At Mernka, where 1 pnt niv, there resided some i^randecs, the chief o\ whc^n was the kini^"'s annt. v^be sent me a !.;"ixit, a ben, a basket o\ ei;"i;'s and some j^kintains, in relnni \ov x\hich 1 sem her a wire aiul some beads. \ felt iTiclined to sti>p here a momb, everything- was so very pleasant. The tempera- tnre was perfect. The roads, as indeed thev were everywhere, were as broail as onr ccxich-rixuls, cnt thrimi;'h the lon^' j^'rasscs, straij^'bt ewer the hills and doNvn tbrtnij^b the woods in the dells — a stranj^'e contrast to the wretched tracks in all the adjacent connlries. 'l^he lints were kept sc> clean and so neat, not a fanlt ccmld be foniul with them — the i;ardens the same. Wherever T strolled T saxv nothinj:;- bnt richness, and wliat oui^-bt to be wealth. The whole land was a i^ctnre o\ qniescent beanty. with a bonndless sea in the backi^-ronnd. T.ookinjx over the hills, it strnck the fancy at once that at one period the whole kind mnst have been at a nnit'onn level with their present tops, bnf that, by the constant denudation it was subjected to bv freqnent rains. BEAUTIFUL UCAXDA 133 it had been cut down and sloped into those beautiful hills and dales which now so much pleased the eye; for there were none of those rjuartz dikes I had seen protruding through the same kind of aqueous formations in Usui and Karagwe, nor were there any other sorts of \'olcanic disturbance to distort the calm, quiet aspect of the scene." After a journey through the country, where they found every- where similar evidences of civilized conditions, on the i8th of Feb- ruary, 1862, they came within view of the king's court. "It was a magnificent sight. A whole hill was covered with gigantic huts, such as I had never seen in Africa before. I wisherl to go up to the palace at once, but the officers said 'Xo, that Avould be considered indecent in Uganda; you must draw up your men and fire your guns off, to let the king knov/ you are here ; we will then show you your residence, and to-morrow you will doubtless be sent for, as the king could not now hold a levee while it is raining.' "On the 19th the king sent his pages to announce his intention of holding a levee in my honor. I prepared for my first presentation at court, attired in my best, though in it I cut a poor figure in com- ])arison with the display of the dressy Waganda. They wore neat 1)ark cloaks resembling the best yellow corduroy cloth, crimp and well set, as if stiff"ened with starch, and over that, as upper cloaks, a patch- work of small antelope skins, which I observed were sewn together as w^ell as any English glovers could have pieced them; while their head-dresses, generally, were abrus turbans, set off with highly pol- ished boar-tusks, stick-charms, seeds, beads, or shells, and on their necks, arms and ankles they wore other charms of wood, or small horns stuffed with magic powder, and fastened on by strings generally cov- ered with snake-.skin. "The palace, or entrance, quite surprised me by its extraordmary dimensions, and the neatness with which it was kept. The whole brow and sides of the hill on which we stood were covered wdth gigan- tic grass huts, thatched as neatly as so many heads dressed by a Lon- don barber, and fenced all round with the tall yellow reeds of the common Uganda tiger-grass; while within the enclosure the lines of huts were joined together, or partitioned off into courts, with walls of the same grass. It is here most of Mtesa's three or four hundred 134 BEAUTIFUL UGANDA women are kept, the rest being- quartered chiefly with his mother, known by the title of Nyamasore, or (|uecn-tknvager. They stood in httle groups at the doors, looking at us, and evidently passing their own remarks, and enjoying their own jokes, on the triumphal ]:>roces- sion. At each gate as we passed, officers on duty opened and shut it for us, jingling the big bells which are hung upon them, as thev some- times are at shop-doors, to prevent silent, stealthy entrance. "The first court passed, I wms even more surprised to find the unusual ceremonies that awaited me. There courtiers of high dignity stepped forward to greet me, dressed in the most scrupulouslv neat fashions. IMen, women, bulls, dogs and goats were led about bv strings ; cocks and hens were carried in men's arms; and little pages, with rope turbans, rushed about, conveying messages, as if their lives depended on their swiftness, every one holding his skin cloak tightlv about him. lest his naked legs might by accident be shown." The details of Captain Speke's reception by the king are too voluminous to be given here, and in place of this we will give a brief description of Kampala, the present king's capital. Or this, perhaps, had best be styled Mengo, wdiich is the name of the king's quarter. Mengo is a city of seven hills, each suburb of the straggling town being a separate hill, the sides being often so steep that thev cannot be ascended on horseback. Between these hills are marshy bottoms, with streams slowly percolating through them. The inhabited parts of the town, which has a population of about 70,000, are clean and picturesque, from the king's palace to the- dwellings of the common people. On each side of the broad roadway are reed fences, behind which are yards in which bananas grow and back of these the family man- sions rise. Everything is kept neat and clean and the handsome trees and abundant vegetation make it a city of gardens. In fact, so dense is the growth of bananas, which afiford shade and food to the people, that the huts of the people are quite concealed. All that the traveler sees in approaching the city are the government buildings and resi- dences neatly built on one hill; the palace of the king and chvelling-s of his ministers on another ; on still others the cathedral and other Chris- tian churches. Everything else is lost under a broad sea of leaves BEAUTIFUL UGANDA 135 between which run the wide and straight roadways. The whole place is extraordinarily unlike what one would look for in an African king- dom and very different from what is to be seen elsewhere in that con- tinent. Kampala lies on the northwest corner of the lake, about twenty- four miles north of Entebbe. The road between the English and native capitals is of firm, smooth sandstone, over which the officials travel in automobiles, which have recently been introduced. The rickshaw, a bicycle-wheeled carriage, drawn by one man in the shafts and pushed by three from behind, was formerly the ordinary mode of travel, though the bicycle itself was much used and proved of great utility in the narrow native paths. CHAPTER XV Down the Victoria Nile THOSE who would leave British East Africa can do so by two routes. They can return by way of the Uganda Railway, retracing- their steps to Mombasa, and thence to Europe via the Red Sea, or can go onward down the long course of the Nile, fol- lowing that noble river from its headwaters in the Victoria Nyanza to its delta on the shores of the Mediterranean. The first and one of the most interesting parts of this journey lies within the kingdom of Uganda and fits in with our description of that singular realm. About two hundred miles from the Victoria Nyanza lies another lake, the Albert Nyanza, small in comparison with the former, yet anything but a dwarf, as it is more than one hundred miles long and correspondingly wide. Between these two lakes, like a silver chain of connections, wanders the Nile, now in a broad deep flow, now rushing down many miles of rapids, now tumbling sheer downward in great cataracts — the Ripon and Murchison Falls. Down this splen- did river — known as the Victoria Nile in this section — we shall jour- ney and gaze upon its varied and attractive scenes. The whole length of the Nile, from its lake course to its outlet in the Mediterranean, is three thousand five hundred miles, and those who follow it to its termination have a long journey to make, part by foot-paths past the rapids, part by canoe and steamboat on the stream, part by rail down its lower course, where for many miles now runs the northern length of the Cape to Cairo Railway, a dream of Cecil Rhodes, w4iich is now in process of being realized. The Great Victoria Lake is lifted high in the air, almost on a mountain top, for it is higher than the highest mountain in England. From this lofty elevation of nearly four thousand feet the Nile flows ever downward, now descending siowly, now rapidly, the steepest part of its course being that with which we are now concerned. (136) A FIGHT BETWEEN THE OCTOPUS AND LOBSTER The Octopus or Cuttle Fish is a moUusk found in the Eastern Seas. Has eight long and flexible arms equipped with suckers by which it seizes fish or lobster and with its beak devours them J* ^. THE ZEBRA A n;»ti\v of Cdiiti'ul aiKl Southern Aiiica — Marked with ciixular stripes — They have never been tamed for use. A GROUP OP ("tAZELLES Beaxitiful and graeeful animals of Central Africa THE LEOPARD AND HER YOUNG THE PORCUPINE A remarkable animal covered with spines with which it defends itself DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 137 The Albert Nyanza lies at a height of two thousand three hun- dred feet above sea level, so that in its first two hundred miles the Nile descends more than one-third of its whole fall. This is done in two long stretches of rapids, one about thirty miles long below the Ripon Falls, and another of the same length above the Murchison Falls. Between and below these rapids it flows level and smooth, midway in its course running through another large body of water. Lake Chi- oga, which, like the other two lakes, forms one of the feeders of the Nile. With this necessary explanation, we can go on in our path down the Victoria Nile, the first part of which must be made in a march through the forest to Kakindu, the head of navigation on the Nile; the second part by canoes or motorboats down the stream and across Lake Chioga; the third part again through the forest past the Mur- chison rapids, and then by boat or through the woods along the lower stream to the Albert Lake. The forest travel of our first stage, from camp to camp, is a cus- tomary incident in the life of a Central African traveler. He goes "on safari" as the Boer goes ''on trek." "Safari" is a Swahali word, of Arabic origin, meaning an expedition and all its belongings. In it are included the traveler and all his companions and baggage. It embraces his food, tents, rifles, clothing; his cooks, servants, escort and porters, the latter especially, as porters are essential elements of forest travel, in which all the impedimenta of an expedition must be carried on men's heads and shoulders. The British officer, on an official expedition, comes to think of a ten or twenty days "Safari" as we would of a journey to Alaska or Hawaii. Instead of making the wearisome journey ourselves, let us follow in the footsteps of a traveler who gives us a graphic and picturesque description of the route. Here is the experience of Winston Churchill, in his forest trip down the stream. After taking a long and lingering look at Ripon Falls he committed himself to the forest depths. The porters had already been long on the road with their burdens and he thus describes the route by which he followed them : "The native path struck northeast from the Nile, and led into a hilly and densely wooded region. The elephant grass on each side of 138 JK)\VN riijc vurwKiA ,\ilk the track rosi' lilt ecu feci liigh. In the valleyvS great trees grew and arched alxnc our heads, laced and twined together with curtains of flowering creepers, liere and there a glade oi)cned to the right or left, and patches of vivid sunlight splashed into the gloom. Around the crossings of little streams butterilies danced in brilliant ballets. Many kinds o\ birds Hew about the trees. The jungle was haunted by game — utterly kxst in its dense entanglements. "Our lirst march was about fourteen miles, and as we had not started till the hot hours of the day were upon us, it was enough and to spare so far as I was concerned, l^p hill and down hill wandered our path, no\\- plunged in the tw ilight of a forest valley, now winding up the side of a scorched hill, and 1 had for some time been hoping to see the cam]) round every corner, when at last we reached it. It consisted of two rows of green tents and a large 'banda,' or rest-house, as big as a large barn in England, standing in a nice, trim clearing. These 'bandas' are a great feature of African travel; and the dutiful chief through ^\•hose territory we are passing had taken pains to make them on the most elaborate scale. He was not long in making his ap- pearance with i>resents (^f various kinds. A lanky, black- faced sheep, with a fat tail as big as a i)umpkin, was dragged forward, bleating, by two retainers. Others brought li\'e hens and earthenware jars of milk and baskets of little round eggs. The chief w^as a tall, intelli- gent-looking man, with the winning smile and attractive manners characteristic of the country, and made his salutations wath a fine air of dignity and friendship. "The house he had ])repared for us w^as built of bamboo frame- work, supported upon a central row of Y-shaped tree stems, with a high-pitched roof heavily thatched with elephant-grass, and walls of whittled reeds. The floors of .-Vfrican 'bandas' w4ien newly made are beautifully smooth and clean, and strewn with fresh green rushes: the interior is often cunningly divided into various apartments, and the main building is connected with kitcJiens and offices of the same unsub- stantial texture by veranda-shaded passages. In fact, they prove a high degree of social knowledge and taste in the natives, who make them wnth almost incredible rapidity from the vegetation of the sur- rounding jttngle ; and the sensation of entering one of these lofty, dim. DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 139 cool, and spacious interiors, and sinking into the soft rush-bed of the floor, with something to drink which is, at any rate, not tepid, well repays the glaring severities of a march under an Equatorial sun. The 'banda,' however, is a luxury of which the traveler should beware, for if it has stood for more than a week it becomes the home of innu- merable insects, many of approved malevolence and venom, and spiril- lum fever is almost invariably caught from sleeping in old shelters or on disused camping-grounds. "The best of all methods of progression in Central Africa — how- ever astonishing it may seem — is the bicycle. In the dry season the paths through the bush, smoothed by the feet of natives, afford an excellent surface. Even when the track is only two feet wide, and when the densest jungle rises on either side and almost meets above the head, the bicycle skims along, swishing through the grass and brushing the encroaching bushes, at a fine pace ; and although at every few hundred yards sharp rocks, loose stones, a water-course, or a steep hill compel dismounting, a good seven miles an hour can usually be maintained. And think what this means. From my own experience I should suppose that with a bicycle twenty-five to thirty miles a day could regularly be covered in Uganda, and, if only the porters could keep up, all journeys could be nearly trebled, and every white officer's radius of action proportionately increased. Nearly all the British officers I met already possessed and used bicycles, and even the native chiefs are beginning to acquire them. "But the march, however performed, has Its termination; and if, as is recommended, you stop to breakfast and rest upon the way, the new camp will be almost ready upon arrival. During the heat of the day every one retires to his tent or to the more effective shelter of the 'banda,' to read and sleep till the evening. Then as the sun gets low we emerge to smoke and talk, and there is, perhaps, just time for the energetic to pursue an antelope, or shoot a few guinea-fowl or pigeons." Thus on and on the traveler goes, through the forest shades, out of sight and hearing of the Nile, till at length, after a three days* tramp, the latter part of which is through a native settlement, with its crop of bananas and other plants, the Nile again appears, a glowing I40 DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE breadth of doop. clear water, nearly a third oi a inilo wide, and flowing calndv ouwaid. ivcc from the turmoil o\ tho I'apids through which it has tossed and lumhled for the lirst forty miles iti its ciMU-se. Mere, at the iiati\e \ illaj^c c^f Kakindu. we lirst lake to the river and lloal smoiUhly and easily dcnvn its course nutil hake Clno<^-a is reached and we j^lide o\er the limpid expanse oi that iulaud waterway. This lake is alxnU lift\' miles Umij;" from east to west, and ele\en hrtKul, its area heiuL; nuich extended hy a series of louj;- arms, which stretch far out and yield access to witlo surronndini;- districts, .Ml these arms and much o\ the lake itself arc half choked with reeds. s;rass aud water lilies, ^\hile the Nile, as it uears the lake, broadens into w itle la^'oous. hiiL^h walls o\ ihe pap\rus reed biirderiui^- them and hidiu;^' the snr- riMindiuL;' comUry. (">n the lake the voyai;er can usualh' ccnint on a depth o{ alnnit twcKe feet, but IliKniui;" weeds and water plants nmch impeile navii;'a- tion, while in times o\ storm lloatin*;" ishuuls o\ mud and papvrus are (^ften detached and tkxil about, pu/./lin^" the pilot b\- blockiui;- up the channels familiar to him. ()ne thiui;' in especial nnist l>e diine. t'he voyai^'cr nursl ax'oid the northern and ]>articularl\ the northwestern shore, for here dwell wild and lu\stile tribes which ha\e ne\er been brouj^'bt under ct"»ntro1. TluniiL^h this rci^ion fiMaus ]"»art o\ the in-tMcc- torate. its people acknowledge no masters and are e\er ready to attack intcrloiHM-s a\ ith their spears, ov their nuiskets, when they have them. Now, without followiui;' the Nile step b\- step throiij^-hont its course, let us make a leap forward ti) its j^reatest cataract, the IMurchisiMi I'alls. (. ")n leaxins^" I .ake c1hi\!:;a it s])reads {o a 1>road stream oi more than a mile in width, tlowini^^* between walls o\ soliil papyrus and dotted' with tloatiui;- islands of plant formation. After a considerable leui^th of level stream we reach Karuma brails and the rapids aj^ain set in. endinii", about forty miles further down, in the g'reat. cataract aboxe mentioned. Tf we seek it through the jiinq-le-like TToinia forest, it is to find ourselves in such a wilderness of veg'etation as is seldom seen. The forests of U£i"anda in <;-eneral are, for magnificence of tree s^Towth, for varied form and coKm*, fiir profusion of lit'e, for the xast scale on which nature's processes work, almost unequalled; and the fecundity of DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 141 animal life is astonishing. Here are birds as bright as butterflies; butterflies as big as birds. The air hums with flying creatures, the earth fairly crawls with creeping life. Through it passes the telegraph wire running north to Gondokoro, the very poles of which break into bud. In the forest itself huge trees jostle each other for room to live, lower plants throng the soil, and the trees are fettered together with a thick tangle of twining parasites, which at intervals burst into a sea of bright blossoms. But we must hurry on to the falls themselves, the most remark- able in the whole course of the Nile. The cataracts begin many miles above, the river hurrying forward in foam down a continuous stair- way inclosed by rocky walls. It is still, however, a broad flood, but, about two miles above Fajao, these walls suddenly contract until they are less than six yards apart, and through this narrow opening the whole great stream shoots like water from the nozzle of a hose, pour- ing in a single jet and with a far-reaching roar down an abyss of a hundred and sixty feet in depth. On seeing the great size of the river below the falls it is difficult to believe that this vast volume of water comes through that single spout. On climbing to the summit of the rock, through clouds of spray and a thunder of sound, the observer can walk within an inch of the edge, and lying down can look over into the torment of foam below. It seems as if the rock must have been worn away to a great extent below, for otherwise it seems impossible for so much water to pass through so narrow a space. The Nile below the falls swarms with crocodiles, and farther down are herds of hippopotami, so that the stream throbs with life. The crocodiles haunt this spot on the lookout for the dead fish and animals carried over by the water, even the great hippos from the upper river being often caught and hurled down the watery cliff. So numerous are the saurians that at a rifle shot hundreds of them may be seen rushing from the banks into the Nile, the water of which they churn into milk-white foam. We can perhaps best tell the story of these falls and also of the lake of which they form the threshold, in the words of their discov- erer, Sir Samuel Baker. On his journey of exploration into Central 142 DOWN I'llK VUTORIA NILE Africa in 1863, he had met with Captain Spoko. who told him of his disco\ erv o\ the N'ictoria Nyan /a, and ol iho existence of another larj^e lake \\hich the natives caUed the l.uta Nzis^'c. "Speke expressed his coiuiclion iliai the hnta Nzig'c nuist l>e a second sonree ol" the Nile, and that i^eoi^raphers would l>e thssatistied that he had not explored it. To ine dus was most g-atil'vini^-. 1 had heen ninch disheartened at the idea ihat the g'reat work was aeconi phshed. and that nothini;" remained t\n- exploratiini ; 1 e\er. spoke to Speke, 'Does lun one leat" ot' die laurel remain I'or me?" 1 now heard that the field was not oiil\' open, but thai an additional interest was given 10 the expkM-ation In die proot" that the Nile llowed ont ot cnie g-reai lake, the \detoria; but tliat it e\idently mnst derive an addi- tional snpplv from an unknown lake as it entered it at the itortJicrn extremity, while the bod\' oi the lake eame from the s^nnh. The fact of a L^reat hodv of water sneh as the l.uta Nzige extending in a direct line from scnith to north, while the general system of drainage of the Nile was from the same direction, showed nuist conclusively that the Liita Nzige. if it existed in the form assnmed. must have an important position in the basin oi the Nile." After a long and toilsome journey Sir Samuel and his devoted wife, who had accompanied him on this expedition, reached the vicinity of the lake. Uoth I'aker and his wife were suffering from fever and its etTects; thev had had great dit'ticuhy in tinding porters, and the prospect before them was most depressing and disconraging. Matters were very bad. but thev were soon to become worse. On the tourth dav thev came to the River Kafoor. which, bending south, they were obliged to cross. This could he done only in a very curious way. The whole stream was matted over with a carpet oi tloating weeds, so strcMig and so thick that it was sufficient ti> hear the weight ot a man if he ran quickly. The width w^as ahout thirty yards. Baker started, begging his wife to follow him rapidly, keeping exactly in his foot- steps. \Mien he was half-way across, he turned to see why she was not with him, and, to his horror, saw her standing in one place, and sinking thnnigh the weeds, her face distorted and purple, and almost at the moment of his catching sight o^ her, she fell hcadU^ig down wdth a stmstroke. 1j(jW\' 'I III'. VICJOKIA MLE 143 In llir; flc;speralioi'j 01 llic njoi-jjcni, 1j(: and se\-eral of his men seized licr, anrl dra^'^'ed her across, -inking- in the weeds up to their waists, and just keejjing; lier liead ahove water. She lay perfecth- inscnsilde, as thougli dear], with clenelied hand^ and set teeth, all effort.'! at restoring aniin.'Ltion he-ing for a time utterly u-zdev^,. W'lien at leng-tli tliese had -uecccrlcd, dje wa-, geijtly l^r^rne forward like a corpse — the rattle wa- in lier thrrj,-Li, ai-ul tlie enrl seenied to he verv near, 'f hree day-, <>{ inseii-jhilitx- were frdlowerl hy -.even more of hrain lever anr] delirinm. Prejjaration-, were made for the worst. which it was helieverl har] actually come; hut the -^park of life was not fully exting-uislied, and it Ijegaii lo hrighten, anrl hy and hv- hurnt more steadily. It wa-, nou- ];ossihle lo mrn-e, anrl at tlie clo-,e of the sixteentli day from M'ror>li ihe\- were at the village of Parkani, one hundrerl mile- on a -traight line froiu AlVr^oli; anrl the}- l^egan to liope once more thai the ohjecl oi ijiese two years' weary wanderings was close at liand. d he)' (hd not W-i]j|j(;-,e tliat it was actually within one rjay'- marcli; yet such was really ihe case. On tlie da\- hefore the\- arivcrj at Parkani, liaker had ohserved, at a great (hstance to the north we-t of their course, a rang-e of very lofty mountain-,. He fancier} that the lake mu-,t lie ()\^ the other side of thi^ range, hut now he was informed ihat these mountains were the western Ijoundary of the Xzi,ge, and that if he started early he irii^ht reach it hy noon. Accordingly on the f4th of March, 1864, starting early, he, "the first European who had ever seen it,"' looked on this magnificent ])<)(\y of water. ''ft is imjjossihle," he says, "to rlescrihe the triumph of that mrjment; — here was the rewarrl for all our lahor — for the vears of ten- acity with wfiich we harl toiled thrrjugh Africa, fijiglanrl had won the sources of tlie Xile! [ was ahout 1,500 feet ahove the lake, and I IrjrA-ed down from the steep granite cliff upon those welcome waters, ujjrjn tliat vast reservoir which nourisherl Egypt and hrought fertility where all was wilderness, upon that great source so long hidden from mankind, that source of bounty and of hlessings to million-, of human beings; and as r^ne of the greatest objects of nature, I determined to lionor it with a great name. As an imj^erishahle memorial of one loved and mourned by our gracirjus Queen anrl dejdored by every Eng- 144 ' DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE lishman, I called this great lake the 'Albert Nyanza.' The Victoria and the Albert lakes are the two sources of the Nile." He subse- quently procured the means, and gave his men a feast in honor of the discovery and in gratitude for his wife's recovery. Baker on the occasion of his first sighting the water stood on a point 1,500 feet above it. Opposite to him, the lake was about sixty miles broad, but to the south and southwest lay a boundless horizon like the ocean. Immediately on the other side rose a grand range of mountains, some of them seven thousand feet high, and down two streams in their rifts there streamed great waterfalls, visible even at that vast distance, to add their contributions to the fresh-water ocean. This, then, was the Luta Nzige, the lake of the dead locusts, the reser- voir of the Nile. Mrs. Baker, utterly worn out with sickness, was assisted with -difficulty to reach this first point of discovery. The ascent was too steep for cattle, but leaning on her husband's shoulder she accomplished it, and they both descended to the shore. Wild waves were sweeping over the surface of the water, and bursting at their feet upon the white shingly beach. In his enthusiasm, Baker dashed in headlong, and drank deep of the pure, fresh element which in so vast a body was now actually before their eyes. Preparations were now made for a fortnight's voyage on the lake. Two canoes were selected, — the one twenty-six and the other thirty- two feet long, both made of single logs. A cabin was constructed in the smaller of these, and they started. The scenery was most beau- tiful. Sometimes the mountains to the west were quite invisible, and the canoes usually kept within a, hundred yards of the shore. At one time the cliffs would recede, and leave a meadow more or less broad at their base; at another the rocks would go right down into deep water; and, again, a grand mass of gneiss and granite, 1,100 feet high, would present itself feathered with beautiful evergreens and giant euphorbia, with every runnel and rivulet in its clefts fringed with graceful wild date-trees. Hippopotomi lazily floated about ; and croco- diles, alarmed by the canoe, would rush quickly out of the bushes into the water. On one occasion Baker killed one of them with his rifle, and it sank in eight feet of water; but the water was so beautifully transparent that it could be seen plainly lying at the bottom bleeding. DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 145 They once saw an elephant cunie down out of the forest to bathe. At another time, fourteen of those majestic animals were seen disporting themselves in a sandy bay, throwing jets of water in all directi'ons. On another occasion they pased a waterfall, 1,000 feet high, made by the river Kaiigiri, which rises in the swamp which turned them out of their way on leaving M'rooli. Such were the sights of their voyage, but at the same time it was not in all respects a pleasant one. They were both still suffering from fever, and they were cramped together in this narrow boat, under a low awning of bullock's hide. At night they camped on the shore. Besides, the weather was bad. At one o'clock every day a violent tor- nado lashed the lake into fury, and placed their craft in imminent danger. In the course of their sailing explorations, they were nearly lost by this means, having been caught by the gale four. miles from land, and obliged to run before it, being nearly swamped at times by the heaviness of the swell. They managed to reach the shore, how- ever, but their boat was overturned on the beach, and all the live-stock was drowned; and it was with difficulty that they recovered the boat. After thirteen days, when they had rowed for ninety miles, the lake began to contract, and vast reed-beds extended from the shore to the distance of a mile, there being a floating vegetation similar to that of the bridge which they were crossing when Mrs. Baker was struck down. Preferring to find a gap in this false shore to the ordinary method of walking over it, he coasted the floating reeds for a mile, and came to a broad still channel, bounded with reeds on both sides. This was the embouchure of the Victoria Nile — the river which con- nects the Albert with the Victoria Nyanza. Speke had followed the Nile downwards from the Victoria Nyanza to the Karuma Falls, at the head of the Murchison Rapids, but from that point to the Albert Nyanza the river was still unknown and Baker determined to explore it. The chief of Magungo and all the natives assured him that the broad channel of dead water at his feet was positively the brawling river which he had crossed below the Karuma Falls, but he could not understand how so fine a body of water as that had appeared could possibly enter the Albert Lake as dead water. The guide and natives laughed at his unbelief, and declared 146 DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE that it was dead-water for a considerable distance from the junction with the lake, but that a great waterfall rushed down from the mountain, and that beyond that fall the river was merely a succession of cataracts throughout the entire distance of about six days' march to Karuma Falls. Having resolved to explore the Victoria Nile as far as those falls, and the boats being ready, Baker took leave of the chief, leaving him an acceptable present of beads, and descended the hill to the river, thankful at having so far successfully terminated the expedition as to have traced the lake to the important point of Magungo, which had been his clue to the discovery even so far away in time and place as the distant country of Latooka. Both Baker and his wife were very weak and ill, he endeavoring to assist his wife, and she doing her best to assist him. Reaching the boats they started at once and made good progress till the evening. The river seemed to be entirely devoid of current, and had an average breadth of about five hundred yards. Before halting for the night, he had a severe attack of fever, and was carried on shore on a litter, perfectly unconscious, to a village in the neighborhood of their landing-place. At daybreak, he was too weak to stand, and both he and his wife were carried down to the canoes. Many of the men were also sufifering from fever, the malaria of the dense masses of floating vegetation being most poisonous. At about ten miles from Magungo the river rapidly narrowed to two hundred and fifty yards. The great flats of rush banks were left behind them, and they entered a channel between high ground on both sides, the hills being covered with forest. There was not even yet, however, any perceptible stream. The water was clear and very deep. They halted and slept on a mud-bank close to the shore. On waking next morning, the river was covered with a thick fog; and as, before arousing his men, Baker lay watching the fog as it was slowly being lifted from the water, he was struck bv the fact that the little sfreen water-plants, like floating cabbages, were certainly moving, although very slowly, to the west. He immediately jumped up and examined them more carefully ; there was no doubt about it ; they were traveling towards the Albert Lake. They were now about eighteen miles in a direct line from Magungo, and there was a current in the river, which, DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 147 though sHght, was perceptible. They had lain themselves down wath their clothes on; their toilet was therefore the more easily arranged, and they at once entered their canoe and gave orders to start. As they proceeded, the river gradually narrowed to about one hundred and eighty yards ; and when the paddles ceased working, they could distinctly hear the roar of water. The roar of the fall was extremely loud, and after hard pulling for a couple of hours, during which time the velocity of the stream increased, they arrived at a few deserted fishing huts, at a point where the river made a slight turn. There was here a most extraordinary show of crocodiles ; they lay like logs of timber close together, and upon one bank they counted tw^enty- seven of large size, and every basking-place was crowded in a similar manner. From the time that they had fairly entered the river, it had been confined by somewhat precipitous heights on either side, but at this point they were much higher and bolder. From the roar of the water there was reason to believe that the fall would be in sight if they turned the corner of the bend of the river ; and he desired the boatmen to row as fast as they could. They objected to this at first, wishing to stop at the deserted village, and contending that, as this was to be the limit of their journey, further progress was impossible. "However," he says, "I explained that I merely wished to see the fall, and they rowed immediately up the stream, which was now strong against us. Upon rounding the corner, a magnificent sight burst suddenly upon us. On either side of the river were beautifully wooded cliffs rising abruptly to a height of about 300 feet; rocks were jutting out from the intensely green foliage ; and rushing through a gap that cleft the rock exactly before us, the river, contracted from a grand stream, was pent up in a narrow gorge of scarcely fifty yards in width ; roaring furiously through the rock-bound pass, it plunged in one leap of about 120 feet perpendicular into a dark abyss below. "The fall of water was snow-white, which had a superb effect as it contrasted with the dark cliffs that walled the river, while the grace- ful palms of the tropics and wild plantains perfected the beauty of the view. This was the greatest waterfall of the Nile, and in honor of the distinguished President of the Royal Geographical Society, I named it the Murchison Falls, as the most important object throughout the entire course of the river." 148 DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE The boatmen were promised a present of beads to induce them to approach the fall as close as possible, and they succeeded in bringing the canoe to within about three hundred yards of the base, but the power of the current and the force of the whirlpools prevented their going nearer. A sandbank on their left was literally covered with crocodiles, which had no fear of the canoe till it came within twenty yards of them, and then they slowly crept into the water, all except one — an enormous fellow who lazily lagged behind, and who dropped dead immediately as a bullet struck him in the brain. The boatmen were alarmed at the unexpected report of the rifle, and sought shelter in the body of the canoe, not one of them using a paddle, and nothing would induce them to attend to the boat, especially as a second shot had been fired as a quietus, and they could not tell how often the alarming noise might be repeated. They were therefore at the mercy of the powerful stream, and the canoe was whisked round by the eddy and carried against a thick bank of high reeds. They had scarcely touched it when a tremendous commotion took place in the rushes, and in an instant a great bull hippopotamus charged the canoe, and with a severe shock striking the bottom he lifted them half out of the water. The natives who were in the bottom of the boat positively yelled with terror, not knowing whether the shock might not in some way be connected with the dreaded report of the rifle. A few kicks bestowed by Baker's angry men upon the recumbent boatmen restored them to the perpendicular, and the first thing neces- sary was to hunt for a lost paddle which was floating down the rapid current. The hippopotamus, proud of having disturbed them, raised his head to take a last view of his enemy, but sunk too rapidly to permit a shot. Crocodile heads of enormous size were to be seen in all directions, and it would have been good sport to these monsters if the bull hippopotamus had been successful in his attempt to capsize the canoe. Baker prevailed upon the boatmen to keep the canoe steady while he made a sketch of the Murchison Falls, which being completed they drifted rapidly down to the landing-place at the deserted fishing-village, and bade adieu to the navigation of the lake and river of Central Africa. BOOK THREE BIG GAME OF CENTRAL AFRICA And Other Animals, Birds and Reptiles, Found in the Course of Roosevelt's Travels ps, particularlv those wliich sold horhs and fruit, whoro ho was woll roooivod, oxoopl hv a coiiplo o\ hnital oohhlors. \\\u\ without any oauso. look olTouso at tho i^onorous oroatuio. and otioo or (wioo atlon)plod io wound his pioln^sois w ith ihoir aw Is. I'ho noMo animal, w lio know it was honoath him I(> ornsh llioni, did not disdain to ohastiso thom hv cMhor moans. llo lillod his laij^o trunk with a oonsiilorahlo nuantitN' ol" wator. no[ of tho oloanost ([ualitw and advanoinj;' tit thom as usual, oovorod thom at cMioo with a dirty tlood. Tho iooh woro lau^hod at. a.nd tho puuish- mom applandod. riir: Im i-rii AN r's CouuAia:. — An olophaut. with a «;-ood driver, i^'ives, perhaps, the host iustanoo ol disoij^linod oonrai;o tii ho soon in the animal witrUl. I'dophants will snhmii, da\ after da\-. io ha\o pain- Inl winmds drossod in ohodionoo to their keepers, and moot damper in (.^hodioneo to their orders. iIiou!l;1i ilioir intollii^oneo is sullieient to understand the peril, and far too i;"reat for man to triek thom into a helief thai there is no risk. No animal will faoo danj^er move readily at man's hiddini;-. As an example, it is told that a small female elephant was ehari;od hy a InilTalo. in hij^h i;rass. and her rider, in the hurry oi tho moment, and iHM-hajis owiui;- to the sudden stojipaj^o of the elephant, lired an oxplosi\e shell from his ritlo. uoi into the hulTalo. hut mio tho elephant's shoulder. The wound was so severe, that it had not healed a year later, ^'ot (ho elephant stood firm, althouj^h it was i^'orod hy tho lnilTaK>. whieh was (hen killoil hv another i^nn. The elephant is usually i^'reg'arious and is comuuMi in the exten- sive plains and forests of the interior. Unfortunately they have been hunted down for their i\ory during so many years that the supply is diminishing. There are many ways of hunting an elephant. The most common among sportsmen is to follow the trail on horsebaek up to within sight of the desired speeimon and being earot'ul to ride "up the wind," or so as to keep the wind blowing from (he olojthants toward the hunter. Their sense eif smell is a very keen one and should the wind shift and blow for an instant from the hunter's direction they would be off with squeals of anger and dismay. Due care having been THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS i6i exercised in this, the sportsman advances through country presenting every variety of feature. He may cross stony ridges and plunge into the heart of shady, tangled forests, traverse fields of waving grass, and reach the open \-eldl. He mu.n take great care to let no noi^^e or sight of him reach the herd. Should he arri\-e vithin range without alarming the intended ^•ictim, he may adojA an\-one of a nurnljer of methods of procedure. Perhaps the country is flat and open and in this case the hunter will jjrobably shoot from the saddle and trust to his horse to e.-cape the charge of the wounderl elephant in case the first shot fails to kill, as often happens. In the fore.-t or in -\-er\- rough ground, however, a horse is worse than u.-ele.-s and is sent to the rear, the shooting being done on foot and the men taking advantage of the trees and dense underbru.sh to escape should the elephant sight them. In any case this animal i~ one of the mo.-t dangerou.^ and the sight of a wounded elephant, furious with rage and pain, charging dov.n is one never to be forgotten should the adventurou- huntsman survive to tell the tale. Having taken up the de-ired po-ition the hunter awaits a favor- able opportunity and then tries to shoot the elephant either in the forehead between the eyes or ju-t back of the foreshoulder. as many times as possible. .Should one of these -hots take efifect, the elephant will fall, but often a great many shots are necessary because of the thick tough .-kin. A fa:moi:.s hunter tells thls thrillixg story. "On the 27th, as day dawned, I left my shooting-hole, and pro- ceeded to inspect the spoor of my wounded rhinoceros. After follow- ing it for some distance I came to an abrupt hillock, and fancying that from the summit a good view might be obtained of the surrounding country, I left my followers to seek the spoor, while I ascended. I did not raise my eyes from the ground until I had reached the highest pin- nacle of rock. I then looked east, and to my inexpressible gratification, beheld a troop of nine or ten elephants quietly browsing within a quarter of a mile of me. I allowed myself only one glance at them, nnd then rushed down to warn my followers to be silent. A council of war was hastilv held, the result of which was mv orderim? Isaac to \(>: iiiK (;i niiu'kK .is possil>K\ .u\-omp.inkHl h\ kloinlnn . .nul u> hrinj^ \\\c m\ tloi^s. tlio l.n^o Piitrh vitlc. .uul A hosli luMsc. 1 once luoro ast.\Muloil ilio 1u1Kh-U lo least \\\\ o\\\s uinni \\\c ouchatUiiiL; sii^lu luMorc \\\c. aiul, ilr,i\\in>; oiii \\\\ sp\ i;lass, nartowlv watched the uu>li(Mis o\ the eloi^hanls. Tlio hoid t'otisistOil iMiiucK ol tcinalos. soxcial ot \\hi(,-h wore lollowod hy small calx OS. "riosontly. on \\xo\u\o'\{cv\uiX t''*^' siiitoinulini; ot^uutiv, 1 dis- ooNOiod a soooiul luM\l, ootisist iu!.; ol li\o hull oU^phants, whioh wore quioth loodinj; ahoiit a milo to tho uorlhward. Tho oow s woro looil ini; toward a iook\ ridsi^o ih.it sirotohod aw.w IriMu tho h.iso ol iho Ihllook on whioh 1 stood. lUirniuii' with imp. uiouoo to OiMumotioo tho .utaok. 1 rosoKod to \v\ tho stalking systom with ihoso. .uul to luiul tho troop ol hulls wuh doi;s aud horsos. it.ixiu^ thus dooidod. I (lirootod tho guides to w.itoh tho oloph.uus iVotti tho suu\uiil ol" tho hillock, aud w ith .i ho.itiu^ ho.nt 1 approached thoui. The L^rouud aud w iud I'axoriuj^ uio, I soiMi i;.iiuod tho rock\ ridL;o toward which thoy w 010 loodiuiL^'. rho\- wore now within one hundred yards, atid 1 rosoKod to ouio\ tho plo.isuro ol watchiu>; their uio\omouts lor a liulo holiMO I tired. riie\ oouiiuued to leed slowK toward mo. hreak- iu!:;' the hr.uichos from the trees w ith their trunks, and eaiinL; the leaves and lonvler shoots. I soon selected the linest in the herd, .uul kepi niv o\'0 on her in pariicnkii-. At Icui^th two o\ tho troop had walked slowh past at .ihoul sixty yards, .uul the one which I luid seleciod was foodini.^" with two others, on a tlioriu tree hel'ore mo, "Mn li.iud was now as steady as the rock on which it rested; so, takinj; .i dohhoraio aim. I let lly ai her head, a little hohiiul the eye. She i;oi it hard and sharp, just whoi-o I aimed, hut it ilid not seom i<> atVoct her much. I'ttorin^" a loud cr\ . she wheeled ahout, when I L^.iw^ her the sov-oiul h.iU ckwe heliiud the shoulder. All the elephants littered a straiiL^o rnmhling noise, and luado otT in a lino to the north- ward at a brisk ambliui;- pace, their hni;-o. t'an-liko oars llappiiii^' in the ratio o\ ihoir speed. 1 did not wait to load, hut ran back to the hillock tvi obtain a view. On iL^aininL: its summit, tho i^uidos pointed out the elephants: they wore standing; in a j^rove of shndN- trees, but the womuU\l one was svMue distance behind with aiiotlier elephant, doubt- 77//': CKfLVr I'ff/CK-SK/NNKJJ ANIMALS 163 less its ]jarli;ulai- fi-icii'l, who was endeavoring to assist ii. These elephants had probably never before heard die ropori of ;i, '^un, and, having neither scf-n nor '-;nK:1l nic, diey were uuhwuTc <>] tlie jjre.^ence of man, and did ]\p sjjced, dn-illy trumpet- ing, and fr^llowing an old black pointer named Schwarl, that was per- fectly deaf and trotted along before the enraged ele]>li;iiit rpiite uiKiware of what was behind him. T felt certain tliat slie would have eitfier me or my horse. I, however, rletermined not to r(dinf|uish my steed, but to hold on by the bridle M\- men, who, of course, kcjA at a safe dis- tance, stood aghast with their mouths ojjen, and for a few seconds my position was certainly not an enviable one. h'^ortunately, however, the dogs took off the ,-i11eri1 ion of tlie elc]jlimit - ; ;iiifl ju-t ;i~ tkic_\- were upon rue, ( m;iii;ig(.'d to spring into the sad'lle, where I was s;jfe. As 1 turned my back to mount, the elejjhants were so very near that 1 really expected to feel one of their trunks lay hold of me. I rode up to Kleinboy for my double-barreled two-grooved rifle: he and Isaac were pale and almost speechless with fright. Returning to the charge, I was soon once more alongside and, firing from the saddle, I sent another brace of bullets into the wounded elephant. Colesberg was extremely unsteady, and destroyed the correctness of my aim. 164 THE GREAT TJl U'K-SKIA'XED AM MATS "The frieiul lunv seemed resolved to do sonio iniscliief, and charged me furiously, pursuius;- mo to a distance oi se\cral hundred yards. 1 therefore deemed it proi^or to give her a gentle hint to act less ofli- ciously, and. accordingly, having loaded, I approached within thirty yards, and ga\o it hor sharp, right and Iclt. hohintl the shoulder, upon which she at once made otT with drooping trunk, evidently with a mortal wound. 1 never recur to this day's elephant shooting without AX ELEPHAXT KOOTIXG UP A TRICK regretting mv folly in contenting myself with securing only one ele- phant. The hrst was now dying, and could not leave the ground, and the second was also mortally wounded, and I had only to follow and finish her ; but I foolishly allowed her to escape, while I amused myself with the iirst, which kept walking backward, and standing by every tree she passed. Two more shots finished her : on receiving them, she THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS 165 tossed her trunk up and down two or three times, and, faUing on her broadside against a thorny tree, which yielded hke grass before her enormous weight, she uttered a deep, hoarse cry, and expired. This was a very handsome old cow elephant, and was decidedly the best in the troop. She was in excellent condition, and carried a pair of long and perfect tusks. I was in high spirits at my success, and felt so perfectly satisfied with having killed one, that, although it was still early in the day, and my horses were fresh, I allowed the troop of five bulls to remain unmolested, foolishly trusting to fall in with them next day." A herd of elephants is one of the most impressive sights known. To look down in a valley on a herd of two or three hundred, as is not unusual — every height and knoll dotted over with groups of them, while the Ijottom of the valley is filled with a dense and noble, living mass, is truly a marvelous sight. Their colossal forms at one moment are partially concealed by the trees which they are disfiguring with giant strength; and at another seen majestically emerging into the open glades bearing in their trunks the branches of trees with which they indolently protect themselves from the flies. The African elephant has never been domesticated as his Indian cousin has. Many good stories are told of the bravery, high intelli- gence and afifection of elephants in India. Kipling tells us of ''ele- phants a pilin' teak," and it is a familiar sight in a lumber yard. In tiger hunting they are fearless and invaluable. Some there are so noted for their skill and reliability that they are reserved for royal sportsmen. However, the barbarous tribes of Africa have never dreamed of the possibility of rendering this lord of the jungle service- able in a domestic capacity; and even among the colonists there exists an unaccountable superstition that his subjugation is not to be accom- plished. In India elephants become very adept at the catching and breaking of wild elephants, and were this method adopted in Africa and the native animal domesticated and used against other big game, it would become one of the greatest sports in the world. Once killed the elephant is of no use except for the ivory of his tusks. The natives and some Europeans, however, esteem elephant .steak and baked elephant's feet great luxuries. The tusks are em- 1 66 77//': (;/