CHAPTER II 
THE FIRST HALF OF THE VOYAGE. FROM NAPLES TO 
THE RED SEA, WITH A FEW SIDE LIGHTS 
ON INDIAN OCEAN TRAVEL 
Lion hunting had not been fraught with any great 
hardships or dangers up to this time. The Mediter¬ 
ranean was as smooth as a mill-pond, the Suez Canal 
was free from any tempestuous rolling, and the 
Red Sea was placid and hot. After some days we 
were in the Indian Ocean, plowing lazily along and 
counting the hours until we reached Mombasa. 
Perhaps after that the life of a lion hunter would be 
less tranquil and calm. 
The Adolph Woermann was a six-thousand- 
three-hundred-ton ship, three years old, and so 
heavily laden with guns and ammunition and steel 
rails for the Tanga Railway that it would hardly 
roll in a hurricane. There were about sixty first- 
class passengers on board and a fair number in the 
second class. These passengers represented a dozen 
or so different nationalities, and were bound for all 
sorts of places in East, Central, and South Africa. 
Some were government officials going out to their 
stations, some were army officers, some were profes¬ 
sional hunters, and some were private hunters going 
out “for” to shoot. 
is 
