Vol. XX, No. 3 



WASHINGTON 



March, 1909 



o 



MATIONAJL 



D 



WHERE ROOSEVELT WILL HUNT 



By Sir Harry Johnston, G. C. M. G., K. C. B., D. Sc. Combs 

 Late Special Commissioner in Uganda, etc., etc. 



THE history of the exploration of 

 East Central Africa is, of 

 course, of great interest not 

 only to Great Britain, but to the United 

 States, because it was not only British- 

 ers who revealed the features of the 

 geography of this region, but Americans 

 also have left their names among these 

 records of exploration. Among such 

 have been Col. Chaille Long, Mr Chan- 

 ler, and Dr Donaldson Smith. Col.. 

 Chaille Long was the first resident in 

 the kingdom of Uganda, and was sent 

 there by General Gordon. He was chief 

 of General Gordon's staff, and is living 

 in Washington at the present time. The 

 great Sir Henry Stanley might perhaps 

 be equally claimed by Great Britain and 

 America. 



Joseph Thomson was the first to reach 

 the Victoria Nyanza, coming direct from 

 the east coast of Africa. Previously ex- 

 plorers had approached the Victoria Ny- 

 anza by a circuitous route from the south 

 and west in order to avoid the Masai 

 tribes. But Joseph Thomson, who was 

 a man with a wonderful gift for getting 

 on with the natives and winning their 

 liking, managed to be the first of all 

 white men to go right through the Masai 

 belt and reach the Victoria Nyanza from 



the east. And when he finished his won- 

 derful journey he became the real foun- 

 der of British East Africa. He died at 

 the age of only thirty-seven, after carry- 

 ing out some of the most remarkable 

 journeys ever made in Africa — remark- 

 able because he never fired a rifle at a 

 native. I traveled immediately after- 

 wards in some of Thomson's tracks and 

 got on splendidly, because my name was 

 so like his that I was taken for his 

 brother, and I was careful not to unde- 

 ceive the people. 



I imagine that President Roosevelt 

 will make his starting point Mombasa, 

 and that from Mombasa he will probably 

 travel a certain distance on the Uganda 

 Railroad, and then strike off toward the 

 north and see what he can find there in 

 the way of interesting big game. 



Before we go up in imagination with 

 him along the routes he may follow, it 

 might be well to realize how this country 

 came to be known by Europeans, and 

 what vestiges remain there of the orig- 

 inal pioneers. 



ARABS AND PERSIANS CAME THREE THOU- 

 SAND YEARS AGO 



Lamu is an important place some dis- 

 tance to the north of Mombasa. To 



*An address to the National Geographic Society, supplemented by extracts fi 

 Uganda Protectorate," by Sir Harry Johnston. 



"The 



