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 was long 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 Kermit hunted dwelt 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 \Vhich 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 went thither that Ninn-od 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 



