APPENDIX V 

 THE AMERICAN IN AFRICA 



WHAT HE SHOULD TAKE 



BEFORE going to Africa I read as many books as I 

 could get hold of on the subject, some of them by 

 Americans. In every case the authors have given 

 a chapter detailing the necessary outfit. Invari- 

 ably they have followed the Englishman's ideas al- 

 most absolutely. Nobody has ventured to modify 

 those ideas in any essential manner. Some have 

 deprecatingly ventured to remark that it is as well 

 to leave out the tinned caviare if you do not like 

 caviare; but that is as far as they care to go. The 

 lists are those of the firms who make a business of 

 equipping caravans. The heads of such firms are 

 generally old African travellers. They furnish the 

 equipment their customers demand; and as English 

 sportsmen generally all demand the same thing, 

 the firms end by issuing a printed list of essentials 

 for shooting parties in Africa, including caviare. 

 Travellers follow the lists blindly, and later copy 

 them verbatim into their books. Not one has 

 thought to empty out the whole bag of tricks, to 



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