22 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 buffalo 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 largely completed by mid July, his 

 mission in Africa would be at an end and he would be ready to return 

 to civilized lands. At the date named he was rapidly nearing a stage 

 after which only rare specimens were to be shot, the collection for 

 the Smithsonian having been in great part completed. And civiliza- 

 tion 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 occupations 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. 



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