160 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
remember showed a contented lion sitting up on his 
haunches with drawn and bulging stomach. Be- 
neath, the caption read, “He was a good President.” 
I was planning an expedition to collect materials 
for an elephant group in behalf of the American Mu- 
seum of Natural Histery about the time that Roose- 
velt was arranging for his African hunt, and it was a 
fancy of mine that he should shoot at least one of the 
elephants for my group. Upon my request that he 
should do so, we planned to meet in Africa, but as I 
was delayed in getting over, it was only by chance 
that his safari and mine met on the Uasin Gishu 
Plateau. 
One day while on the march I sighted a safari. I 
was aware that the Roosevelt outfit had gone into 
that region, but I assumed that he had already left 
there for Uganda. Nevertheless, while we made 
camp on the banks of the river, I sent a runner to see 
if it could be the Roosevelt safari. My runner met 
a runner from the other outfit and returned with a 
message from Roosevelt himself which said that if 
we were Akeley’s party he would go into camp at a 
near-by swamp. I mounted my pony and went to 
meet him as he approached on horseback accom- 
panied by his son, Kermit, Edmund Heller, and their 
guide, Tarlton. We all went back to our camp for 
luncheon, where I gave Roosevelt a bottle of very 
choice brandy, a present from Mr. Oscar Strauss, 
Mr. Strauss had been one of our steamer companions 
across the Atlantic and, learning that I was likely to 
meet Roosevelt, he asked me to take this choice 
