CHAPTER XXIIL 
Rooskvklt and His Party rrom Hunger—Without 
Food and Watkr i^or a Whote Day—Supptie:s Rushed For¬ 
ward TO Their ReeiEE—Bags Two Rhinoceroses and a 
Wiedebeeste—Kermit Gets a Femaee Hippopotamus to 
THE Deeight oE His Father. 
W HEN the decision was reached by Colonel Roosevelt to accept 
the generous invitation of Commander Frederic Atten¬ 
borough to pay him a visit upon his vast estate and spend a few 
days hunting for big game, the entire party seemed overjoyed, as 
all felt that the hunt could be pursued with far greater comfort 
here than from the temporary camps. 
R. J. Cuninghame, the practical director of the movements of 
the party, expressed great satisfaction with the proposed arrange¬ 
ment, as he said it would give an excellent opportunity for Colonel 
Roosevelt to secure some fine specimens of big game; as the locality 
was famous for its great abundance of large animals. Although 
having had years of experience in traversing the country con¬ 
tiguous to the Attenborough estate, Cuninghame seemed unaware 
of the actual dangers the party would have to encounter before 
reaching their destination. 
He failed to take into consideration the dry spell, which had 
prevailed for so long, and underestimated the distance the party 
would have to travel or the time it would take them to complete 
the journey, which was the occasion of considerable deprivation and 
some suffering while the party were on the march. 
Careful preparations were made, as it was thought at the time, 
to provide a sufficient supply of water and food to enable the party 
to reach the Attenborough brothers’ estate without danger of run¬ 
ning short, but the miscalculation of time and distance exhausted 
their store long before they were near their journey’s end. It was 
necessary for the party to cross an arm of the desert on their way, 
365 
