CHAPTER I. 
OBJECT OF ROOSEVELT’S AFRICAN EXPEDITION. 
Roosevelt’s Exciting Encounter with a Lion—A Frightful Spectacle—How the Lion is Traced 
and Finally Brought at Bay—Roosevelt’s Narrow Escape from the Lion’s Teeth—His 
Marvelous Presence of Mind Saves Him. 
R OOSEVELT had not been many days on African soil when he had 
a chance to show his record-breaking skill as a crackshot in the 
encounter with a lion. 
The lion hunt is one of the most exciting and perilous events in an 
African explorer’s experience. The king of the forests had to be found 
in his jungle bed and driven by mounted natives through grass, under¬ 
bush and morasses until he was brought at bay. Woe to the man who 
misses the target or loses his presence of mind when the lion, swifter 
than a galloping race-horse, darts at him in blind fury. 
Three lions had been discovered attacking a buffalo on the open 
prairie at the edge of a jungle. Two of Roosevelt’s companions were 
trying to drive the beasts in the direction of the other members of the 
party. Two of the lions, frightened by the sudden attack and instinct¬ 
ively trying to save themselves, bounded off and hid in the high grass, 
but the third and largest one with a terrific roar, that shook the ground 
almost like an earthquake, made for the terrified men with a leap 
through the air swift as lightning, and in one instant they would have 
been between his jaws—when ‘ 4 Crack!” echoed a rifle over the vast 
plains and down to earth tumbled Roosevelt’s first big African game— 
and the lives of the men were saved. 
The same day another lion was found. One of the frightened bearers 
fired at the beast but missed. The infuriated animal crouching for a 
last leap, which would have in a moment sent the bearer into eternity ^ 
charged at him with lightning speed, and the horrified man made a; 
wild dash to get under Roosevelt’s protection. The Ex-President was 
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