102 
NAIROBI AND MT. KENYA 
Lion hunting is good here. The traveler’s host insists on pro¬ 
viding him with a lion, and to do this they first beat him up out of the 
reed beds and try to bring him to bay. Ordinarily this dreaded beast 
does not seek a quarrel unless it is forced on him. So the hunters in 
this neighborhood ride on ponies, and when they have aroused the 
monarch they pursue him as fast as they can, never losing sight of him 
for a moment, trying to head him off and enrage him by their harass¬ 
ing. Naturally, he resents this treatment and begins to growl and 
roar, perhaps making short charges at his pursuers to scare them off. 
At last, when he sees that the huntsmen intend to attack him, he turns 
at bay, and then there is no fear that he will try to escape. He will 
fight to the death, and when a lion frantic with the agony of a bullet 
wound is at bay death is the only thing that will stop his frenzied 
charges; broken jaws or legs, and body full of bullets, not for an 
instant daunt the courage of this ferocious beast. Either he must be 
killed before he reaches his pursuer, or the man will die for it, 
crushed by the powerful paw, poisoned with claws and feet, or crunched 
in the lion’s mouth. It is a dangerous business, but one which Mr. 
Roosevelt was fully nerved for by previous experiences in his exten¬ 
sive hunting trips before he landed on the coast of Africa. 
Let us return to Nairobi and take up Colonel Roosevelt in an¬ 
other aspect than that of soldier and hunter, the one in which we are 
more familiar with him, as statesman and dealer in world politics. On 
the 3d of August he and his son Kermit were the guests at a public 
banquet given in his honor at Nairobi, Frederick J. Jackson, Governor 
of British East Africa, presiding, and one hundred and seventy-five 
guests occupying places at the table. 
Captain Sanderson, the town clerk of Nairobi, read an address of 
welcome to the former President of the United States and afterward 
handed him the address inclosed in a section of elephant tusk mounted 
in silver and with a silver chain. 
The American residents of the protectorate presented Mr. Roose¬ 
velt with a tobacco box made of the hoof of a rhinoceros, silver 
mounted; the skull of a rhinoceros, also mounted in silver, and a 
buffalo head. 
Mr. Roosevelt, in reply to the toast proposed by Governor Jack- 
son, said: 
