Africasi Artidte f Ate
Atag; IRoaevete Own
minim
The Wonder Trip By Railroad
Through the Heart of the Wr!ds
Greatest Natural 'Zoo.
State
Scenes and Experiences That Will Be CoL Roosevelt s on the Fir'st Stage of His
Journey from Mombasa, on the Seacoast, to Nairobi, His First Headquartera in
Africa--The Plains Are Crowded With Wild Animals. From the WindowVof
the Carriage the Whole Zoological Gardens Can Be Seen oTsPorting RsTl?
Yet the Railroad Is As Fine As Any In Europe and Its Comf Zrll A. Cat--Chared
By a Rhinoceros-The Method of Hunting the Behemoth.
Only m. fw montlii ilko "Winston
Churchill, Under Secretary of Stat
for ths Colonics of Great Britain,
completed an exploration and hunt
Ins trip In Africa that took him owr
precisely the same ground that ex
Presldent Theodore Roosevelt will
cover durlnc the months that he Js
In the rark Continent. Mr. Church
ill has set down. In his entertaining
way, the more striking- of the travel
and biff same hunting adventures
that befell him during; the course of
his African Journey. These befell
him, as already said, along the same
route that Mr. Roosevelt will travel.
Therefore, the seven African articles
by Mr. Churchill that The Oregonian
begins publishing this Sunday will
give the reader a very good and
vivid idea of what la la store for Mr.
Roosevelt as he follows Mr. Churchill
on the various stages of his journey
from Mombasa, through the heart of
the jungle and big game country,
to Khartoum on the Nile, where civ
ilisation will be reached one more.
In todays article Mr. Churchill de
scribes In Interesting detail the
scenes and experiences that art In
store for Mr. Roosevelt as he travels
from the seacoast to the town of
Nairobi, where he will establish his
first headquarters'for the bunting of
big game.
BY WINSTON CTTURCHTXX.
THil acpect of Mombasa as she rises
from the eea and clothes herself
wlUi form arid color at the- swift ap
proach of the ahlp Is allurtni and even
delicious. But to appreciate all these
'harms the traveler should come from
tho North. He should aee the hot stones
of Malta, baking and glistening on a
steel-blue Mediterranean. He should visit
the Island of Cyprus before the Autumn
rains have revived the oil, when the
Messaorla Plain Is one broad wilder
ness of dust, when every tree be It
only a thorn-bush Is an heirloom, and
'very drop of water Is a jewel. He
should walk for two hours at midday
In the streets of Port Said. He should
thread the long, red furrow of the Sue
Canal, and swelter through the trough
of tho Red Sea. He should pass a day
among the cinders of Aden, and a week
among the scorched -rocks and stones
of Northern Somaliland; and then, af
ter Ave days of open sea, his eye and
mind will be prepared to salute with
feelings of grateful delight these
Hhores of vivid and exuberant green.
On every side Is vegetation, moist,
tumultuous, and varied. Great trees,
lad In dense foliage, shrouded in
reppei s, springing from beds of ver
dure, thrust themselves through the
undergrowth: palms placed together by
Hovering trailers; every kind of trop-lt-Hl
plant that lives by rain and sun
shine; high waving grass, brilliant
patoheji of purple bougainvlllea, and In
the midst, dotted about, scarcely keep
ing their heads above the fertile flood
of nature, the red-roofed houses of the
town and port of Mombasa.
The vessel follows a channel twist
ing away between high bluffs, and
finds a secure anchorage, land-locked,
in 40 feot of water at a stone's throw
i from the shore. Here we are arrived
at the gate of British East Africa; and
more, at the outlet and debouchment of
all the trade of all the countries that
lap the Victoria and Albert Lu.kes and
the head-waters of the Nile. Along
the pier now being built at Killndinl,
the harbor of Mombasa Island, must
flow, at any rate for many years, the
main stream of East and Central Afri
can commerce. Whatever may bo the
produce which, civilized srovernment
and enterprise will draw from the error
moua territories between Southern
Abyssinia and Lake Tanganyika, be
tween Lake Rudolf and Ruenzorl, as
far west as the hea'd streams of the
Congo, as far north a.a the Lado en
clave; whatever may be the needs and
demands of the numerous populations
comprised within those limits, it is along
the unpretentious Jetty of Killndinl that
the whole trofflo must pass.
One of Uio World's Most Wonderful
Ilailwujs.
Kor Killndinl (or Mombasa, as I may
be permitted to call It) is the starting
point of one of the most romantic and
most wonderful railways In tho world.
The two iron streaks of rail that wind
away among the hills and foliage -of
Mombasa Island do not break their
smooth monotony until, after piercing
equatorial forests, stretching across im
mense prairies, and climbing almost to
tho level of the European snow liue,they
pause and that only for a time upon
the edges of the Great Lake. And thus
Is made a sure, swift road along which
the white man and all that Ve brings
with him, for good or ill, may penetrate
into the heart of Africa as easily and
safely us he may travel from London
t Vienna.
Short has been the life, many the vi
rispltudrs. of the Uganda Railway. The
adventurous enterprise of a Liberal gov
ernment, it was soon exposed, disowned,
to the merciless criticism of its parents.
Adopted as a cherlshel foundling by the
Conservative party, it almost perished
from mismanagement in their hands.
Nearly 10,000 a mile were ex-
I'riiura upon iin ctmnLrucuon, ana SO
, eager were all parties to be done with
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COJVSTRUCTfOM
suing its proper and natural route across
the plateau to the deep waters of Port
Victoria, it fell by the way into the shal
low Gulf of Kavlrondqi lucky to get so
far. It is easy to censure, it is impos
sible not to criticize, the administrative
mistakes and miscalculations which tar
nished and nearly marred a brilliant con
ception. But it is still more easy, as
one traverses in 48 hours countries which
10 years ago would have baffled the toil
some marches of many weeks, to under
rate the difficulties in which unavoidable
Ignorance and astonishing conditions
plunged the pioneers. The British art
of "muddling through" is here seeh in
one of its finest expositions. Through
everything through the forests; through
the ravines, through troops of maraud
ing lions, through famine, through
war, through five years of excoriating
Parliamentary debate. muddled and
marched the railway, and here, at last, in
some more or lees effective faslrlon. It is
arrived at Its goal. Other nations pro
ject Central African railways as lightly
and as. easily as they lay down naval
programmes; but here is a railway, like
the British fleet, "In being" not a pa
per plan or an airy dream, but an Iron
fact grinding along through the Jungle
and the plain, waking with its whistles
the silences of tho Nyanza, and start
ling the tribes out of their primordial
nakedness with "Americana" piece goods
made in Lancashire.
Let us. then, without waiting in Mom
basa longer than is necessary to wish
it well and to admire the fertility and
promise of the coastal region, ascend
this railway from the sea to the lake.
And first, what a road It Is! Every
thing is in apple-pie order. The track
smooxnea and weeded and ballasted,
as if it were the London & North
western. Every telegraph-post has Its
number; every mile, every 100 yards,
every change of gradient has its mark
not In soft wood, to feed the white ant,
but In hard, well-painted iron. Con
stant labor has steadily improved the
grades and curves of the permanent
way, and the train one of the com
fortable, practical Indian trains rolls
along as evenly as upon a European
line.
Nor should it be supposed that this
high standard of maintenance is not
warranted by the present financial po
s.tion of the line. The Uganda . Rail
way is already doing what it was never
expected within any reasonable period
to do. ' It is paying its way. It is be
ginning to yield a profit albeit a small
profit upon its capital charge. Pro
jected solely as a political railway to
reach Uganda, and to secure British
predominance upon the Upper Nile, it
has already achieved a commercial
value. Instead of the annual deficits
upon working expenses which were
regularly anticipated by those most
competent to Judge, there Js already a
substantial profit of nearly 80,000 a
year. And this Is but the beginning;
and an Imperfect beginning for
at present the line is only a trunk
without its necessary limbs and feed
ers, without its deep-water head at
Killndinl. without its full tale of steam
ers on the lake; above all, without its
natural and necessary extension to the
AiDen nyanza.
Riding in Front of the Engine.
Wm mQV rlii.M. ,V. . .
.. journey into lour
r -r j juugies, me plains.
lake is an essential part of the rali-
-vur-jway, ana a natural and Inexpenslv
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extension to its length. In the early
morning, then, we start from Mom
basa Station, taking our places upon
an ordinary garden seat fastened on to
the cow-catcher of the engine, from
which position the whole country can
be seen. For a quarter of an hour we
are still upon Mombasa Island, and
then the train, crossing the Interven
ing channel, by a long Iron bridge, ad
dresses Itself In earnest to the conti
nent of Africa. Into these vast re
gions the line winds perseveringly
upon a stift up-grade, and the land un
folds Itself, ridge after ridge and val
ley after valley, till soon, with one
farewell glance at the sea and at the
fighting tops of His Majesty's ship
Venus rising queerly amid the palms,
we are embraced and engulfed com
pletely. All day long the train runs
upward and westward, through broken
and undulating ground clad and en
cumbered with superabundant vegeta
tion. Beautiful birds and butterflies
fly from tree to tree and flower to
flower. Deep, ragged gorges, filled
by streams In flood, open out far below
us through glades of palms and creeper-covered
trees. Here and there, at
intervals, which will become shorter
every year, are plantations of rubber,
fiber and cotton, the beginnings of
those inexhaustible supplies which will
one day meet the yet unmeasured de
mand of Europe for those indispens
able commodities. Every few miles are
little trim stations, with their water
tanks, signals, ticket-offices, and flower
beds, complete and all of a pattern,
backed by impenetrable bush. In brief
one slender thread of scientific civiliza
tion, of order, authority, and arrange
ment, drawn across the primeval chaos
of the world.
Plains Crowded With Wild Animals.
In the evening a cooler, crisper air
Is blowing. The humid coast lands,
with their glories and their fevers;- have
been left behind. At an altitude of
4000 feet we begin to laugh at the
Equator. The jungle becomes forest.
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not less luxuriant, but distinctly dif
ferent in character. The olive replaces
the palm. j.'he whole aspect of the land
is more friendly, more familiar, and no
less fertile. After Makindu Station the
forest ceases. The traveler enters
upon a region of grata. Immense fields
of green pasture withered and whit
ened at this seasor. by waiting for
the rains intersected by streams and
watercourses densely wooded with dark,
flr-looklng trees and gorae-looklng
scrub, and relieved by bold upstanding
bluffs and ridges, comprise the ' new
panorama. And here is presented the
wonderful and unique spectacle which
the Uganda Railway offers to the Euro
pean. The plains are crowded with
wild animals. From the windows, of
the carriage the whole zoological gar
dens can be seen disporting Itself.
Herds of antelope and gazelle, troops of
zebras sometimes 400 or 500 together
watch the train pass with placid assur
ance, or scamper 100 yards farther
away, and turn again. Many are quite
close to the line. With field-glasses
one can see that It is the same every
where, and can distinguish long files
of black wlldebeeste "and herds of red
kongonl the hartebeeste of South Afri
ca the wild ostriches walking sedately
In twos and threes, and every kind of
small deer and gazelle' The zebras
come close enough for their stripes to
be admired with the naked eye.
We have arrived at Simba, "The Place
of Lions," and there is no reason why
the passengers should not see one, or
even half a dozen stalking across the
plain, respectfully observed .by lesser
beasts. Indeed, in the early days It was
the custom to stop and sally out upon
the royal vermin whenever met with,
and many the lion that has been carried
back to the tender- in triumph before
the guard, or driver, or any one else
could think of timetables, or the block
system, or the other Inconvenient re
strictions of a regular service. Farther
up the line, in the twilight of the even
ing, w saw, not a hundred yards away.
J a dozen giraffes lollopplng off among
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scattered trees, and at Nakuru, six yel
low lions walked in leisurely mood across
the rails In broad daylight. Only the
rhinoceros is absent, or rarely seen, and
after one of his species had measured his
strength, unsuccessfully, against an ' en
gine, he has confined himself morosely
to the river -beds and to the undisturbed
solitudes which." at a distance of two or
three miles. everywhere engulf the
Uganda Railway.
Hunting; From the Railroad Line.
Our carriage stopped upon a siding at
Simba Station for three days in order
that we might more closely examine the
local fauna. One of the best ways of
shooting game in this part of the world,
and certainly the easiest, is to get a .trol
ley and run up and down the lin?. The
animals are so used to the passage, of
trains and natives along the one great
highway that they do not.- as a rule, take
much notice, unless the train or trolley
stops, when their suspicious are at once
aroused. The sportsmen should, there
fore, slip off without allowing the vehicle
or the rest of the party to stop, even for
a moment: and in this way he will fre
quently find himself within 250 or 300
yards of his quarry, when the result will
be governed solely by his skill, or want
of skill, with the rifle.
There Is another method, which we
tried on the second day In the hopes
of finding a water-buck, and that is. to
prowl among the trees and undergrowth
of the river bed. In a few minutes one
may bury oneself In the wildest and sav
agest kind of forest. The air becomes
still and hot. The sun seems In an in
stant to assert his Just prerogative. The
heat glitters over the. open spaces of dry
sand and pools of water. High grass,
huge boulders, tangled vegetation, multi
tudes of thorn bushes, obstruct the
march, and the ground Itself is scraped
and guttered by the rains into the
strangest formations. Around you
breast high, shoulder high, overhead,
rises the African Jungle. There is a
, brooding silence, broken only by the cry
of a bird or the scolding bark of bab
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oons, and the crunching of one's own
feet on the crumbling soil. We enter the
haunt of the wild beasts; their tracks,
their traces, the remnants of their re
pasts, are easily and frequently discov
ered. Here a lion has passed since the
morning. There a rhinoceros has cer
tainly been within the hour perhaps
within ten minutes. We creep and scram
ble through the game paths, anxiously,
rifles at full cock, not knowing what
each turn or step may reveal. The wind,
when It blows at all, blows fitfully, now
from this quarter, now from that: so
that one can never be certain that it will
not betray the Intruder in these grim
domains to the beasts he seeks, or to
some other. less welcome, before he sees
him. At length, after two hours' scram
ble and scrape, we emerge breathless, as
from another world, half astonished to
find ourselves within a quarter of a mile
of tho railway line, with its trolly,
luncheon, soda-water. Ice, etc.
Off After Ithlnoceros.
But if one would seek the rhinoceros
in his open pastures, it is necessary to
go farther afield; and accordingly we
started the next morning, while the
stars were shining, to tramp over the
ridges and hills which shut in the rail
way and overlook remoter plains .and
valleys beyond. The grass grows high
from the ground honeycombed with holes
and heaped with lava boulders, and it
was daylight before we had stumbled
our way to a spur commanding a wide
view. Here we halted to search the
country with field-glasses and to brush
off the ticks detestable Insects which
infest all the resorts of game in Innu
merable swarms, ready to ppread any
poison among the farmers' cattle. The
glass disclosed nothing of consequence.
Zebra, wildebeests and kongoni were to
be seen in troops and herds, scattered
near and far over the plains, but never
a rhinoceros! So we trudged on. mean
ing to make a wldo circle. For an hour
we found nothing, and then, J'jst as we
were thinking of turning homewards
before the sun should get his full power,
three beautiful oryx, great, dark-colored
antelope with very long, corrugated
horns, walked over the next brow on
their way to water. Forthwith we set
oft in pursuit, crouching and creeping
along the valley, and hoping to inter
cept them at the stream. Two passed
safely over berore we could reach our
point. The third, seeing us, turned back
and disappeared over the hill, where, a
quarter of an hour later, he was stalked
and wounded.
It is always the wounded beast that
leads the hunter into adventures. Till
the quarry is hit every one walks del
icately, avoids going the windward
side of unexplored coverts, skirts a
reed-bed cautiously, notices a conven
ient tree, looks often this way and
that. But once the prize is almost
within reach, you scramble along after
it as fast as your legs will carry you,
and never trouble about remoter con
tingencies, be they what they may. Our
oryx led us a mile or more over rocky
slopes, always promising and never
giving a good chance for a shot, until
at last he drew us round the shoulder
of a hill and there abruptly was the
rhinoceros. The impression was extra
ordinary. A wide plain of white, with
ered grass stretched away to low hills
broken with rocks. The rhinoceros
stood in the middle of this plain, about
600 yards away In jet-black silhouette;
not a 20th-century animal at all. but
an odd, grim straggler from the Stone
Age. He was grazing placidly, and
abova him the vast snow dome of
Kilimanjaro towered, up In the clear
air of morning to complete a scene un
altered since the dawn 6f the world.
Charged fcy a Behemoth.
The manner of killing a rhinoceros
In the open Is crudely simple. It is
thought well usually to select the
neighborhood of a good tree, where
one can be found, as the center of
the encounter. If no tree is avnilablc.
you walk up as nrar as possible to
him from any sid. except the wind
ward, and then rhont him in the head
or the heart. If you .hit a vital spot,
as sometimes happens, he falls. If you
hit him anywhere else, he charges
blindly and furiously in your direction,
and you shoot him again, or not. as
the case may be.
Bearing all this carefully in mimi.
we started out to do battle with Behe
moth. We had advanced perhaps I'm)
yards 'towards him. when a cry from
one of the natives arrested us. We
looked sharply to the rlht. There,
not 150 paces distant, inuler the i-hade
of a few small trees, stood two other
monsters. In a few more fteps we
should have tainted their wind ttn.l
brought them up with a rush: anil
suppose this had happened, when per
haps we were already compromised
With our first friend, and had him
wounded and furious on our haiuls:
Luckily warned in time, to creep baek
to the shoulder of tho hill, to skirl
its crest, and to emerge 12 yards from
this new objective was the work of
only a fo.w minuteB. We hurriedly
agree to kill one first before touching
the other. At such a range it is easy
to hit so great a target; but the bulls
eyo is small. I fired. The thud of a
bullet which strides with an impact of
a ton and a quarter, tearitic through hide
and muscle and bone with the hideous
energy of cordite, came back distinctly.
The large rhinoceros started, stumbled,
turned directly towards tho sound and
the blow, and then horc straight down
upon us. in a peculiar trot, nearly as fast
as a horse's gallop, with an activity sur
prising in so huge a bea.st, and instinct
with unmistakable purpose.
Great is the moral effect of a fe who
advances. Everybody fired. Still the
ponderous brute camo on. as if he were
invulnerable; as if he were an engine,
or some great steam barce impervious
to bullets, insensible to pain or fear.
Thirty seconds more, and he will close.
An Impalpable, curtain serins to roll it
self up In tho nilnd. revealing a mental
picture, strangely lighted, yet very still,
where objects have new values, and where
a patch of white grass in the foreground,
four or five yards away, seenis to po.sseys
astonishing eiRiilfleunee. It Is there that
the last two shots that yot remain before
the resources of civilization are exhaust
ed must be tired. There is time to reflect
with some detachment that, after all, we
were the aggressors: we il is who have
forced the conflict by an unprovoked as
sault with murderous intent unon a
peaceful herbivore; tnat if there is such
a thing as right and wron between man
and beast and who shall Kay there is
not? rl?ht is plainly on his side: there, is
time for this before 1 perceive thai,
stunned and dazed by t lie frightful con
cussions of modern firearms, he lias
swerved sharp to the right, and ho is now
moving across our front, broudsldc on, at
the same swift trot. More firinjr, and as I
reload some one says he is down, and I
lire instead at his smaller companion,
already some distance off upon the plain.
But one rhinoceros hunt is like another,
except in its details, and I will not oc
cupy the reader with the account of this
new- pursuit and death. Suffice ft to say
that, in all tne elements of neurotic ex
perience, such an encounter seenis to me
fully equal to l-.air an hour's brisk skir
mish at 60 or 7u yards and with an im
portant addition. In war there is a cause,
there is duty, there is the hope of glory'
for who can tell what may not be woii
before nijrht? But here at the end is
only a hide, a horn, and a carcass, over
which the vultures have already benun to
wheel.
(Copyright. 1009, by Winston Churchill.)
Next Sunday's African article bv Mr.
Churchill will describe the town of Nai
robi, where ex-President Roosevelt will
have his hunting headquarters for sev
eral months: the country round about,
over which Mr. Roosevelt will hunt, and
the manner and adventures of Run tine
the lions of East Africa.
A