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CHAPTER XXVI
The Faunal Naturalist in Africa

E
VEN in Africa Mr. Roosevelt was in a certain sense an official of the United States Government. He was the head of a scientific expedition, authorized by the Smithsonian Institution, to obtain faunal specimens for the National Museum. His expenses were otherwise provided for, but his mission was public and official. His preliminary report, made to Dr. Walcott as head of the Smithsonian, was forwarded from Khartum when the expedition disbanded.

MEETING  OF  SOVEREIGNS IN  THE  CENTER  OF AFRICA
His majesty, the king OP the desert: "In the name of that Nobel whose
prize covers you with glory,  O  Teddy,  I  implore you to spare other thousands
of my subjects."	From Pasquino  (Turin)

THEODORUS   AFRICANUS From the World  (New York)

TEDDY   AT   HOME   IN   AFRICA
(This is a specimen of a great number of drawings by American cartoonists in the summer and fall of 1009, humorously associating Mr. Roosevelt with the fauna of Africa.)
From  the Press   (Pittsburg)

196

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

roosevelt : " Oh, this is bully !     Just  think  of poor Taft back home wrestling with Congress." From the News-Tribune  (Duluth)
Mr.  Roosevelt has fortunately given us,
BWANA TUMBO
(" Bwana Tumbo," the name given to Mr. Roosevelt by the African natives, means " Big Chief," and the cartoonist here gives us his idea of Mr. Roosevelt arrayed in that character.)
Prom the World (New York)
first in magazine articles in Scribner's and
then   in   permanent   form   as   a   notable
volume,   under   the   title   " African   Game
Trails," an account of his experiences and
achievements from the time of his leaving
New York, March 23, 1909, to his arrival at Cairo in March,  1910.    No quest of wild
creatures was ever more carefully planned or better justified by its purposes, its methods,
and its results.    Its success was beyond Mr. Roosevelt's ardent expectations.

The first of two results that will best serve to give this expeditipn a place of its own, memorable and influential, must be the vast collection of African animals and birds that will be the chief treasure of the National Museum at Washington and that will be familiar to young Americans for generations to come. The second result must be the book itself,—written by Mr. Roosevelt while on the ground,—constituting one of the best volumes in the long series of his writings, and also one of the most valuable contributions to the literature of animal life and natural conditions in Africa.
Most of Mr. Roosevelt's experiences were in British East Africa and Uganda, where he came in contact also with British officials, missionaries, and ranchmen, whose fondness for the African wilderness recalled to him his own experiences as a ranchman on the
MR.   ROOSEVELT'S   REAL   HEROISM	^^	^^   ^   Montana
From  the  Inter-Ocean   (Chicago)

The Faunal Naturalist in Africa

197

WHAT A CHANCE- IF
I WERE ONLY THKE

THE   AGE   OF   ACHIEVEMENT	MISSING   THE   PUN
From the World  (New York)	From the Eagle (Brooklyn, N. Y.)
(The announcement of Dr.  Cook's discovery	of the Pole   was brought to Roosevelt in Africa,  and he received
the news with mental reservation and in silence.	A few days   later   the   Peary   announcement   came,   and   he   in
stantly   cabled   his   enthusiastic   congratulations.	Commander   Peary   made   his   polar   expedition   in   a   ship  named
the Roosevelt.)

intensely interested in race questions, and in all phases of life and nature in the portions of Africa where he sojourned,, hunted, and camped.
All of his experiences
are set down in vivid
form upon the fascinating
pages of his book, just as
other volumes of his tell
us with swift and firm
narration — but with the
discursiveness of a nat
uralist who sees the whole
environment — all about
the hunting of game
in our own Western
wilds. The habit, to
which we have already
made reference, of giving
immediate, vivid, and	bkminiscent.-f™ the SmM (Washing

198

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

charming literary form to all of his active experiences out of doors, is one of the very best things attributable to his early life in his frontier ranch-house, where he had good books and not too many of them, and the power to see a narrative worth telling in each well-considered expedition after bear, mountain lion, or other creatures of highland and plain.
HUNTING   A   CANDIDATE
(Previous to  the New  York  municipal  campaign in  1909 there   was   some   talk of  tendering  the nomination  for  Mayor to  Colonel   Roosevelt.)
en-
can
Accompanying Mr. Roosevelt, as his fellow-members of the scientific Smithsonian Afri-Expedition
Prom  Coler's Bulletin  (Brooklyn,  N.  Y.)
trusted   to  his   charge,
were and
Messrs. Mearns, Heller, and Loring, American naturalists; and Messrs. Cunninghame Tarlton, who were British experts on African hunting and travel.    More than 11,000

specimens   were   secured   for  the   National / Museum, including  nearly  5000  mammals, —most of them large, about 4000 birds, and
large
a
\ creatures.

number   of   reptiles   and   smaller
rJ \
J    C'
"BWANA   TUMBO From the Press
FOR   MAYOR
(New York)
IN   DANGER    OF   BEING    KIDNAPPED (Apropos of a statement by C. D. O'Brien, a prominent St. Paul Democrat, that the Democratic party will nominate and elect Roosevelt President in  1912.) From the yews-Tribune  (Duluth)

The  Faunal  Naturalist  in  Africa

199

UNANIMOUS
(Colonel Roosevelt laying a cornerstone at Kijaue, Africa.) From the Inter-Ocean  (Chicago)

AFRICA    AND— IX    THE    UNITED    STATES Fr°m the Journal  (Minneapolis)

The expedition would have been followed through Africa by an army of press representatives but for Mr. Roosevelt's stern insistence. So great, however, was the demand for news that there was some yielding to the tendency to manufacture it on the coast,

or else to send to the European and American papers exaggerated tales based upon half-accurate rumors. There was no indis-

VALBNTINE'S   DAY   IN   AFRICA From the News  (Detroit)

THE   FAUNAL   NATURALIST   AT   WORK From   the   Traveler   (Boston)

200

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons
MR.  ROOSEVELT  AND  ONE  OF  HIS  BIG  LIONS
(From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt in Theodore Roosevelt's   " African Game Trails," published by
Chnrles Scribner's Sons.)
criminate slaughter of animals, and no departure from the excellent plans originally made. Such plans, obviously enough, took into account all questions of climate, risk of illness, and sanitary precautions. Mr. Roosevelt was accompanied by his son, Mr. Kermit Roosevelt, whose skill and prowess as a hunter form a part of the true story of the expedition. Mr. Roosevelt's habit of applying all proper means to the ends that he wished to secure was perfectly illustrated in the African expedition throughout. Every detail of the itinerary had been planned and every item of equipment had been considered to a nicety. Even the books that he meant to read were carefully selected in advance, and all bound in pigskin, forming a compact little library for entertainment, diversion, and intellectual

The  Faunal  Naturalist  in Africa.

201

stimulus   in   hours   of   leisure   during  the African twelvemonth.
Thus the results to which we have alluded,—namely, the great Smithsonian collection of African fauna and the admirable . volume on " African Game Trails," together with the building up of physical vigor a»d the ripening of knowledge concerning ccflo-nial, imperial, and racial problems, as well as knowledge of natural history,—all these results, and many others, were not in the least matters of " Roosevelt luck " so-called, but were all of them matters of Roosevelt industry, perseverance, and faithful application of the right means to the desired ends.
The human family has grown very rapidly during the past century, in spite of that tendency to apply Malthusian checks which, —in highly civilized countries like France and the United States,—has led Mr. Roosevelt to utter warnings against what he has   _ called " race suicide."    And with    the mul-  ' tiplication   of  the  members  of  the   human species there has naturally been growth in
-•

Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons
Mil. ROOSEVELT, RHINO AND BUSTARD
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt In Theodore Roosevelt's "African Game Trails" published by Charles Scribner's Sons

THE END OF A  REMARKABLE
EXPEDITION From Hojas Selcctas  (Barcelona)
the numbers of domesticated animals. But the wild creatures which had shared with man the vicissitudes of mundane existence have perforce become fewer in numbers and subject to conditions ever more precarious.
A knowledge of these fellow creatures,—t heir ways and struggles,—constitutes a very noble and interesting department of science. Mr. Roosevelt has taught the boys of America, and now also those of Europe as well, not merely to slaughter birds and beasts, but to know about them and to

202

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

Copyright, 1919, by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.
MR.  ROOSEVELT  AS   HE  APPEARED   IN   EGYPT
have the true attitude of mind towards them. His relation towards these fellow creatures has always been humane, never cruel.
There is always struggle among the animals themselves, whether in the American wilderness or in the African jungle. And if mankind had not struggled against powerful beasts of prey, the human race must long ago have perished from the earth.
Mr. Roosevelt's teachings and example in all these things,—from the time of his college essays and studies as a naturalist, and his early Western hunting trips, down to his last great quest of animals in Africa,—have been of immeasurable value in leading young Americans to the love of enjoyment of out-of-door things, and away from pleasures and occupations that would enervate mind and body.