43§ 
ROOSEVELTS RETURN TO CIVILIZATION 
retinues, arrived to see the Great Sheik, whose fame as a hunter will 
probably go down into desert mythology. 
Trainloads and boatloads of tourists arrived, bedecked with red, 
white and blue. Khartum normally is quite a town and has many 
modern improvements, but its population was doubled by the Roose¬ 
velt welcomers. And every man and woman had only one interest 
in life—the coming of the former President. 
All of Colonel Roosevelt’s blacks were on the deck of the Dal 
as it approached, enjoying the novelty of the sight, never having 
before seen anything approaching a city. They were dressed in cast¬ 
off clothes, one wearing some apparel belonging to Colonel Roosevelt 
and Kermit. They were rather uncomfortable, as they never before 
were clothed as whites. 
The tent men and Colonel Roosevelt were particularly affected 
at the prospect of separating, they all saying that Bwana Makuba, 
meaning the Great Master, had been good, thinking always of the 
comfort of others. 
“We are losing a fine friend, a man who is big-big. We are 
sorry.” 
Colonel Roosevelt came to Khartum in a khaki suit and gray 
shirt, with pigskin boots that reached almost to the knee, a helmet 
and a green tie, which constitute a hunter’s dress suit. But he had now 
reached civilization, and at dinner that night at the palace he was 
garbed in evening clothes, which were brought by his wife, the first 
time he had worn any such suit since he left Nairobi. 
The sight-seeing program the next day began with a visit to the 
Gordon Memorial College, built in 1902 by aid of subscriptions 
solicited from the English people by General Kitchener. From there 
they drove around the town and in the afternoon went into the suburbs 
in a motor car, an innovation which had reached that city in the wilds. 
The following day was set for a visit to the battlefield of Omdur- 
man, on the bank of the Nile opposite Khartum, where the Arab 
fanatics had been finally defeated in 1898, and the Soudan recovered 
for Egypt. It was of especial interest to the visitor for two reasons, 
one being that his host, Sir Francis Wingate, had commanded the 
Anglo-Egyptian troops under Lord Kitchener on that eventful occa- 
