IN THE HEART OF AFRICA 



CHAPTER I 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY 



I WAS first induced to visit Africa in 1902. During the month 

 of March that year I was in Ceylon, where I had been hunting 

 in the neighbourhood of Anaradjapura. Whilst there I received 

 an invitation from Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India, 

 asking me to accompany him on a tiger hunt or two, and I 

 was very nearly unfaithful to my plan of having a look at 

 Africa. However, the land which I knew from books, and the 

 history of whose discovery and development had possessed my 

 mind from earliest youth up, exercised an unconquerable fas- 

 cination over me. I am thankful to-day that I did not allow 

 myself to be led away by the tempting offer and that, aban- 

 doning India, I threw in my lot with Africa. 



After visiting Daressalam and the great settlements in East 

 and West Usambara, and whilst on a hunting tour in the Kilwa 

 hinterland which I had embarked upon in company with the 

 Governor, Mr. Rhode, District Judge, and Count von Gotzen, I 

 learnt to know, and became thoroughly imbued with, the spirit 

 and charm of African camp life. 



In the year 1904 a plan matured for a further journey to the 



land of my desire, but even at that period my ambitions soared 



higher than a mere hunting and pleasure trip. I hoped to 



connect a scientific mission with my new expedition, and acting 



on the advice of the authorities of the Berlin Zoological Museum, 



I decided in favour of the eastern shores of Lake Victoria, a 

 B 



