20 
THE AFRICAN EXPEDITION AND ITS OBJECTS 
stands forth as prominently before us another mighty hunter, pitting 
his strength and boldness against the greatest and most savage beasts 
the world knows. 
The country in which Theodore Roosevelt was long lost to sight is 
one that less than half of a century ago was as unknown to us as the 
mountains of the moon, the depths of that “dark continent” in whose 
interior civilized man had scarcely set foot. Where Roosevelt and his 
son Kermit hunted dwelt groups of warlike tribes, some of them the 
most bloodthirsty of all the African natives. Slowly the pioneers of 
discovery penetrated to their haunts, and slowly the vanguard of 
civilization marched into this wild realm, subduing the natives, forcing 
them to submit to the beneficent bonds of civilization, bringing peace 
and order to their land, and finally bridging it with that greatest agent 
of civilization, the railroad. To-day men may ride in luxurious ease 
where Stanley and the other daring African travelers trudged with 
endless toil so short a time ago. 
Then came the hunter, for the land through which this railroad 
runs—from Mombasa, on the ocean border, to the waters of the Vic¬ 
toria Nyanza—was one of the greatest game preserves on the face of 
the earth. Here roamed in multitudes the lordly African elephant, the 
savage and nearly invulnerable rhinoceros, the lion, that terrifying 
desert lord, the stately giraffe, the ferocious buffalo, antelopes in pro¬ 
fusion and variety, and many other animals, some of which were 
unknown to civilized man. 
And latest of these hunters went thither that Nimrod of the Far 
West, Theodore Roosevelt, to share the perils and taste the excitement 
of the fight for life with these wildest and most savage beasts. Thus 
we introduce our hero into the African wilds, that Paradise of the 
hunter whose delight lies in tlie pursuit of great game and the thrill 
of perilous adventure. 
A skilled, trained, alert hunter was he whose course we are now 
tracing. Many years before he had served his apprenticeship in this 
field of effort, when he exchanged his, early legislative career for a 
period of life on a western ranch and the enjoyment of hunting the 
big game of the Rocky Mountains. During his later years this love of 
the wild clung to him. At every convenient interval he threw off the 
