Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 24

Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 24

Penetrating the jungles of East and Central Africa, he and his party

remained for months almost entirely cut off from the outside world.

 

In his book, “African Game Trails,” published by Charles Scribner’s

Sons, the hunter-naturalist-author has described fascinatingly the

story of his encounters with lions, buffaloes, rhinoceroses, and other

dangerous animals.

 

At Heatley’s ranch, a place seventeen miles long and four miles wide,

he found the haunts of the buffalo, a creature it had been his desire

for a long time to shoot. Of these animals he wrote:

 

“There is no doubt that under certain circumstances buffalo, in

addition to showing themselves exceedingly dangerous opponents when

wounded by hunters, become truculent and inclined to take the offensive

themselves. There are places in East Africa where, as regards at least

certain herds, this seems to be the case; and in Uganda the buffalo

have caused such loss of life and such damage to the native plantations

that they are now ranked as vermin and not as game, and their killing

is encouraged in every possible way.”

 

Here is his account of his shooting of his first buffaloes:

 

“Cautiously threading our way along the edge of the swamp, we got

within 150 yards of the buffalo before we were perceived. There were

four bulls, grazing close by the edge of the swamp, their black bodies

glistening in the early sun rays, their massive horns showing white,

and the cow herons perched on their backs. They stared sullenly at us

with outstretched heads from under their great frontlets of horn.

 

“The biggest of the four stood a little out from the other three, and

at him I fired, the bullet telling with a smack on the tough hide and

going through the lungs. We had been afraid they would at once turn

into the papyrus, but instead of this they started across our front

directly for the open country.

 

“This was a piece of huge good luck. Kermit put his first barrel into

the second bull and I my second barrel into one of the others, after

which it became impossible to say which bullet struck which animal, as

the firing became general. They ran a quarter of a mile into the open,

and then the big bull I had first shot, and which had no other bullet

in him, dropped dead, while the other three, all of which were wounded

halted beside him.

 

“One bull dropped to the shot as if poleaxed, falling straight on his

back with his legs kicking, but in a moment he was up again and after

the others. Later I found that the bullet, a full metal patch, had

struck him in the head, but did not penetrate the brain, and merely

stunned him for a moment.

 

“All the time we kept running diagonally to their line of flight.

They were all three badly wounded, and when they reached the tall,

rank grass, high as a man’s head, which fringed the papyrus swamp,

the two foremost lay down, while the hindmost turned, and, with nose

outstretched, began to come toward us. He was badly crippled, however,

and with a soft-nosed bullet from my heavy Holland I knocked him down,

this time for good. The other two rose and though each was again hit

they reached the swamp, one of them to our right, the other to the

left, where the papyrus came out in a point.”

 

Roosevelt the hunter had faced many dangerous situations in his

adventures in the wilds, but his first encounter with an elephant

brought him closer to death than he had ever been. It was his comrade,

F. C. Selous, an able and experienced African hunter, who saved the

American on this occasion.

 

A shot from Roosevelt’s party had badly wounded a great lion. It had

finally taken refuge in a dense thicket. Selous advised the party that

it would be dangerous to come to close quarters with it. Roosevelt

excited by the chase, plunged into the thicket in pursuit of the beast.

 

The party had seen no elephants and were unaware that any were in their

vicinity. Selous, who, with Kermit, had followed Roosevelt, saw the

Colonel lift his gun hurriedly to his shoulder. He glanced in the same

direction and caught sight of a herd of elephants led by an enormous

tusker. This animal was less than two hundred feet away.

 

Selous shouted: “For the life of you, don’t shoot! A bullet will bring

a charge of the herd and we may be trampled to death. Follow me!”

 

Roosevelt reluctantly lowered his rifle. Selous led the Colonel and

Kermit to a safe spot and bade them climb a tree. From this position

Selous showed his companions how to aim. Roosevelt raised his

Winchester and sent a half-dozen bullets into the leader of the herd.

 

With a scream of pain, the elephant charged, but when close to the tree

he fell with a tremendous crash. He had received his death wound. The

rest of the herd fled, pursued by Kermit’s bullets.

 

Many a big game hunter has been killed by the swirling trunk or the

trampling feet of a wounded elephant. If the Colonel had fired from the

position from which Selous rescued him he would undoubtedly have been

crushed to death when the brute charged.

 

Roosevelt’s exploits in Africa aroused the intense admiration of the

natives, and as a compliment to his shooting ability they named him

“Bwana Tumbo,” the Great Hunter.

 

Carl Akeley, head of the elephant hunting expedition in Africa for the

American Museum of Natural History, met the Roosevelt expedition in

Africa and spent several days hunting with the Colonel.

 

Mr. Akeley found that while the Colonel took a huge interest in the

hunt for big game, he was yet so much of a naturalist that he showed

a keen interest in even the most insignificant of wild creatures. A

small rodent had been discovered on the North American Continent. The

discovery was of small moment. Few men remembered it, yet the Colonel

was found to know all about it. Akeley says:

 

“I found Colonel Roosevelt one of the most refreshing and delightful

companions I ever had the pleasure of knowing. He was as ideal and keen

a sportsman as ever lived. The least of his pleasure was in the killing

of animals. He found infinite joy in studying wild animal life in its

native haunts. His greatest pleasures lay in seeing and learning,

thereby proving himself an ideal naturalist.”

 

 

 

 

XVI

 

“The River of Doubt”

 

 

At Gondokoro, Uganda, Roosevelt ended his African hunts. He came

through his many perilous situations unharmed. Kermit was also in the

best of health. The latter was praised by Scout Cunninghame as one of

the best shots and most daring hunters he had ever seen.

 

The Colonel on his journey back to civilization, visited first the

Congo Free State, where the Belgian officers in charge of that colony

gave him a warm welcome.

 

The journey was then continued by way of the Nile to Khartum, where the

first newspaper men Roosevelt had seen for months raced up the Nile to

greet him. Here Mrs. Roosevelt and her daughter met Kermit and him,

and there was an affectionate family reunion. The party then traveled

through Egypt.

 

In a speech at Cairo the Colonel referred jokingly to Wall Street’s

attitude toward him by saying that when he left America to hunt in

Africa “Wall Street expected every lion to do its duty.”

 

[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

 

ROOSEVELT’S HOME, SAGAMORE HILL, OYSTER BAY]

 

From Alexandria the Colonel took a steamer for Italy and, on landing

in Naples, found a mountain of letters and cablegrams from America

awaiting him. After a tour of Austria Roosevelt went to France.

Ambassador Jusserand was the first to greet him. In an address in Paris

Roosevelt spoke these prophetic words:

 

“Made to understand and love each other, our two countries have been

friends from the beginning, and no doubt will always remain friends in

the future. Every civilized man who comes to France learns something,

because France is the cradle of modern civilization.”

 

The Colonel then visited Belgium, Holland--the home of his

ancestors--Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany and England.

 

Roosevelt arrived in London while Britain was mourning the death of

King Edward. He took part in the great ceremonial funeral procession,

made a sensational speech in regard to England’s rule in Egypt, became

the guest of Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, and left

England for home with this remark:

 

“My day in New Forest with Sir Edward Grey was the crowning experience

of the whole three months.”

 

His landing in Manhattan was marked by one of the greatest ovations an

American citizen had ever received in New York City.

 

 

THE FATEFUL JOURNEY THROUGH BRAZIL

 

One day in 1908, when Roosevelt’s Presidential term was drawing to

a close, Father Zahm, a priest, called on him. The priest had just

returned from a trip across the Andes and down the Amazon. He proposed

that when Roosevelt left the Presidency he should take a trip with him

into the interior of South America.

 

Roosevelt’s African trip was then uppermost in his mind, so the subject

was dropped. Five years later, however, Roosevelt accepted invitations

from Argentina and Brazil to address certain societies. It occurred to

him then that after making this tour he could come north through the

middle of the continent into the valley of the Amazon. His plans for

the trip were soon under way. Frank Chapman, curator of the American

Museum of Natural History, New York, gladly appointed the naturalists

George K. Cherrie and Leo E. Miller to accompany the party. Both were

veterans of the tropical American forests. Father Zahm also agreed to

go. Kermit Roosevelt joined the party.

 

On December 9 of the same year, as the party left Asuncion to ascend

the Paraguay, Colonel Rondo and other Brazilians joined the expedition

as representatives of the Brazilian government.

 

In the latter part of the next February the party started their

long descent of the Duvida--“The River of Doubt.” Colonel Roosevelt

describes this voyage interestingly in his book “Through the Brazilian

Wilderness.” Many dangers confronted them. The descent of the rapids

was perilous to men and boats. They were in danger of being slain

through encounters with Indians. They faced the necessity of long,

wearing portages or contact with impassable swamps. Fever and dysentery

were ills that haunted that region. Starvation, caused by the loss of

supplies, was not beyond the bounds of possibility.