438 ROOSEVELT'S RETURN TO CIVILIZATION 



retinues, arrived to see the Great Sheik, whose fame as a hunter will 

 probably go down into desert mythology. 



Trainloads and boatloads of tourists arrived, bedecked with red, 

 white and blue. Khartum normally is quite a town and has many 

 modern improvements, but its population was doubled by the Roose- 

 velt welcomers. And every man and woman had only one interest 

 in life — the coming of the former President. 



All of Colonel Roosevelt's blacks were on the deck of the Dal 

 as it approached, enjoying the novelty of the sight, never having 

 before seen anything approaching a city. They were dressed in cast- 

 oflf clothes, one wearing some apparel belonging to Colonel Roosevelt 

 and Kermit. They were rather uncomfortable, as they never before 

 were clothed as whites. 



The tent men and Colonel Roosevelt were particularly affected 

 at the prospect of separating, they all saying that Bwana Makuba, 

 meaning the Great Master, had been good, thinking always of the 

 comfort of others. 



"We are losing a fine friend, a man who is big-big. We are 

 sorry." 



Colonel Roosevelt came to Khartum in a khaki suit and gray 

 shirt, with pigskin boots that reached almost to the knee, a helmet 

 and a green tie, which constitute a hunter's dress suit. But he had now 

 reached civilization, and at dinner that night at the palace he was 

 garbed in evening clothes, which were brought by his wife, the first 

 time he had worn any such suit since he left Nairobi. 



The sight-seeing program the next day began with a visit to the 

 Gordon Memorial College, built in 1902 by aid of subscriptions 

 solicited from the English people by General Kitchener. From there 

 they drove around the town and in the afternoon went into the suburbs 

 in a motor car, an innovation which had reached that city in the wilds. 



The following day was set for a visit to the battlefield of Omdur- 

 man, on the bank of the Nile opposite Khartum, where the Arab 

 fanatics had been finally defeated in 1898, and the Soudan recovered 

 for Egypt. It was of especial interest to the visitor for two reasons, 

 one being that his host. Sir Francis Wingate, had commanded the 

 Anglo-Egyptian troops under Lord Kitchener on that eventful occa- 



