884 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



I decided sliould be my central collecting!; sta- 

 tion; and we started to bring the animals there. 



Now the real trouble commenced. The Golah 

 people refused to carrj' them ! For the bia; ani- 

 mals, I needed at least fort}' men each, to cut 

 roads and carry. 



Had it not been for the unselfish assistance I 

 liad from the Liberian Government, which had 

 appointed me Major on the Geographical Staff, 

 I never would liave been able to bring my ex- 

 pedition to a satisfactory end. 



Nobody can imagine the enormous difficulties 

 of tlie transport of those heavy animals, which 

 we had to carry in self-invented native-made 

 baskets, through the roadless hinterland of Li- 

 beria. From the farthest place inland, where I 

 caught three animals, it took me, even after the 

 men had cut the roads, twelve days to reach the 

 first river on which I could use boat-transi)ort to 

 the Coast. 



A native king. Gongzoo, had, on the promise 

 of a big present, promised carriers for the first 

 animal caught in liis district, but when I asked 

 for the men, he point blank refused! By that 

 time I had put the Hippo in a basket, and had 

 brought it with my own carriers, under the most 

 frightful difficulties, to his town. It was a 

 matter of getting men from him, or standing the 

 chance of losing mv hard-won animal. 



I tried a bluff, with only my sergeant for 

 supjiort. I arrested the chief in the middle of 

 his own town, kept him in front of mj' revolver, 

 loaded all my guns, put them before me on the 

 table, and declared war provided the men were 

 not forthcoming within two hours. It succeeded. 

 When the people saw their king a prisoner, the 

 men came. What would have happened if they 

 had accepted my challenge, I do not know ! 



After I had got tlie first three animals to my 

 central station, and handed them over into the 

 charge of one of Hagenbeck's most experienced 

 keepers, I returned to Monrovia, to arrange all 

 about the further transport, and to meet my 

 wife, who had come out to join me, and to put 

 the experience which she had gained during an 

 eight-months horse-back ride through the hinter- 

 land of the Cameroons, into the services of 

 Hagenbeck. 



Shortly after we had returned to Alacca, 

 another big bull and a youngster were caught; 



and tluii it was high time to return to the coast, 

 before the rains should set in and make the 

 country imjjassible. His Excellency, President 

 D. E. Howard, very kindly put soldiers at my 

 disposal, to assist me in collecting sufficient car- 

 riers. 



After I had managed to tame a full-grown 

 Mwe, the natives feared me so much that I 

 succeeded in collecting l.'iO men in three days. 

 While !Mr. Moltmann, the keeper sent by Hagen- 

 beck, and I hurried ahead to arrange for the 

 food for the animals, Mrs. Schomburgk super- 

 intended the transport, as it was absolutely 

 necessary that one European should keep an eye 

 on the carriers so that they did not drop the 

 heavy baskets on the uneven and ])artly-moun- 

 tainous trails. 



At last we had reached Japacca, and could 

 l)ut our i)oor, ill-treated animals into proper 

 cages, which had been sent out from Hamburg. 



Now our greatest troubles were over. The 

 animals were in good condition and feeding well, 

 so that we could expect to get them safe to Ham- 

 burg. But another trouble arose. \A'iien we 

 got to the coast at Cape iSIount, we were 

 proi>hecied a bad sea for the first of June, the 

 dav the steamer Alexandra IVoermann was to 

 call for us. But even then our luck did not 

 desert us. Certainly with difficulties, but with- 

 out mischief, we shipped our valuable cargo. 

 In the Bay of Biscay we had stormy weather. 

 The ship rolled heavily, but the animals did 

 not seem to mind it. 



The enormous expenses of these two expedi- 

 tions can easily be imagined when one con- 

 siders tliat in Liberia everything has to be 

 carried. Great quantities of trade goods are 

 necessary to procure food for the carriers, and 

 also as presents for the native chiefs. 



Fortune has again been kind to Hagenbeck's 

 colors. For forty j'ears attempts had been 

 made to bring these animals to Europe; and we 

 had succeeded. The greatest satisfaction to me, 

 liowever, was when I had the honor to be pre- 

 sented by Mr. Hagenbeck to His Majesty Kaiser 

 Wilhelm II, when he visited Hagenbeck's Ani- 

 mal Park, at Stellingen, on the 17th of June, 

 where he congratulated me on my success. 



