346 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



camp when we saw a white man in the trail ahead; and on 

 coming nearer whom should it prove to be but Carl Akeley, 

 who was out on a trip for the American Museum of Natural 

 History in New York. We went with him to his camp, 

 where we found Mrs. Akeley, Clark, who was assisting him, 

 and Messrs. McCutcheon and Stevenson who were along 

 on a hunting trip. They were old friends and I was very 

 glad to see them. McCutcheon, the cartoonist, had been 

 at a farewell lunch given me by Robert Collier just before I 

 left New York, and at the lunch we had been talking much 

 of George Ade, and the first question I put to him was 

 "Where is George Ade?'* for if one unexpectedly meets an 

 American cartoonist on a hunting trip in mid-Africa there 

 seems no reason why one should not also see his crony, 

 an American playwright. A year previously Mr. and Mrs. 

 Akeley had lunched with me at the White House, and we 

 had talked over our proposed African trips. Akeley, an old 

 African wanderer, was going out with the especial purpose 

 of getting a group of elephants for the American Museum, 

 and was anxious that I should shoot one or two of them 

 for him. I had told him that I certainly would if it were 

 a possibility; and on learning that we had just seen a herd 

 of cows he felt as I did that the chance had come for me to 

 fulfil my promise. So we decided that he should camp with 

 us that night, and that next morning we would start with 

 a light outfit to see whether we could not overtake the herd. 

 An amusing incident occurred that evening. After dark 

 some of the' porters went through the reeds to get water from 

 the pond in the middle of the swamp. I was sitting in my 

 tent when a loud yelling and screaming rose from the swamp, 

 and in rushed Kongoni to say that one of the men, while 



