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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (May 23, 1909)
jl ; ; ' fitft ' PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 23,1909 K MIA T7 W rr Mill JLa Wf a. t nnro m 3 kJ&Tr-JinVri it; I : C :V V ' A 17 B?r-U-lfVawJ' SfrsMc MP .mi. n ' 4 V;-:.-. V " f jf . III 1W ' ' II Seious, Who iu ides Mr. ooseveff on V :m f rr 0v c. iiaointinis. 4 14 11 "..-V-v v. Ss.rf.y A'--V.r IVj r ?2(f upon Roosevelt, the "great wh chief," whose fame had penetrated the most abysmal jungles of their habitat. A GRAY-BEARDED, grizzled, slen- Yet when the assembled tribesmen be- juk dcr man walked at the side of for- held the slender, tough-sinewed figure be- mer President Roosevelt as the dis- side the broad-shouldered form of the great tinguished American disembarked from the white chief they had journeyed so far to steamer Admiral at Mombasa, in British see, whispering awe spread hurriedly from East Africa, to enjoy the dinner tendered man to man, until it seemed as though all him and his party by the Mombasa Club must have scca him before and learned to before he made his way inland for the hunt- do reverence to his prowess, ing grounds. "It is he Macumazahn!" they mur- All the way from Naples Mr. Roose- mured, one to another. "It is the mighty velt and the gray, slender man wJio joined hunter of elephants, Macumazahn he who him there had sought every opportunity to ts awake in the night. rr-r tii- A.fv,'", 7 - J be in each other's company, while for hours It "was indeed the mightiest Nimrod of at a time the new member of the party told modem times, Frederick Courtenay Seious, stories of such elephant hunting in Africa companion, guide and intimate friend of as no other man ever had the chance to Mr. Roosevelt, and the original of that dar- hear. ing shrewd, dryly humorous, staunch and All the way from Naples, too, cabled gaflant Allan Ouatermain, whom the novels news of the progress of the ship had been oft Rider Haggard have made as familiar forwarded to Mombasa, drawing from the to the civilized xvorld as Seious' exploits interior thousands of natives, who traveled in the wilds have made his African name hundreds of miles simply for the chance to familiar among the savages. "There knelt the bull, aa I had left him last night; and there, too, knelt the other bulls. "'Do those elephants eleepr I whispered to the astonished Oobo. ' Te, Hacumasahn, they sleep.' " 'Nay Oobo, they are dead.' , " 'Dead? How can they be dead? Who killed themr '"What- do people call me. Gobo?' 'They call you M&cumazahn.' " 'And what does Hacumasahn mean?" " 'It means the man who keeps hip eves open, the man who gets up in the nirht.' " H. Rider Haggrard, in "Malwa's Revenge." SHERLOCK HOLMES may have achieved a wider fame as a distinctively literary creation; but t lie character --of Alia a Quatermain yields to none in - modern fiction for the affection it has inspired 'in read: ers or for deeds that surpass the1 inarvelons. The famous Holmes himself never excelled in . detection' the. exploits of Quatermain in. hunt ing." " -' - But the remarkable facts about Haggard's hero are that his living original has achieved all and more than the wonderful tales told of him in fiction; that he has faced and conquered the most dangerous of wild beasts as many and as ferocious as those of all in Haggard's tales; and also that, where civilization knows the un real hunter as well as it knows its own butchers or brothers-in-law perhaps better savagery knows the real hunter as it has known and reverenced no other white man. . . As for any Sherlock Holmes in . the flesh, the people who have met all the originals that ever claimed to be the astute detective's; proto type' dwindle to a mere coterie in comparison . with the thousands,. from the Rockies' to5 the upper Nile, who have testified 'to the 'prowess of Seious.' Ho is the greatest elephant hunter Africa, has ever held. It is said of him that, he has slain mors jt i i i"ta 'iv :,'-''v.i .. m 'i Y9 - 'A'XZWi V- S.. - - A " 1 ii 'S-jiJi ... if mill i 'I II ii . ,. ' V I'" 11 I than 100 elephants, nearly half a hundred lions, and j as. for ihihoceri 'and buffalo, both danger-oas-foes to meet, their'numbels bring the total of his really; perilous encounters Jnto the thou sands. ' ' ' ' The number of head of big game that have fallen to his gun has been estimated at 3000, while the deer and other animals killed'for f ood would be beyond computation. During a single expedition, lasting six months, his prizes' included twentyrseven ele phants, nine rhinoceri, one hippopotamus, one lion, seven zebras and all the minor game re quired to keep his force ,of negro carriers in fresh meat. iluseuma of the world preserve ; ionumer- able specimens for which science is indebted to his daring and his skill. Sow, at the age of 59 years, wlrcn he is lending his unparalleled experience to this latest hunt, he is recognized as Africa's most indefatigable big-game pur suer since he was a boy of 15. Yet, while he has tracked numberless herds of elephants for their ivory tusks and faced scores of lions in deadly encounter, he has never killed for the mere sake of killing. The greater number of his shot have been fired for the prime need of man, food; and during one period, extending over fifteen years, apart from the rice which supplied the farinaceous portion of his diet, he lived exclusively upon the game he brought down with his rifle. The quotation from Haggard's well-told incident in "Maiwa's Kevenge" closes fiction's account of Quatermaiu's unrelenting pursuit of the huge bull elephants that made the mouth of the veteran hunter fairly water for their possession. He had wounded the largest of them; but, aided by his companions, the im mense beast succeeded in escaping -for the day. Quatermain took up the hunt and stuck to it until his negro followers, wearied and ap prehensive, were on the verge of rebellion. Then, in the night, while his men were all asleep, he heard the trumpet of an elephant. Alone, in the treacherous moonlight, he set out to stalk the dangerous brutes. Endeav oring to surprise them, he was himself beset by all three. By incredible agility and an amaz ing celerity of rifle fire he slew every one. Next morning he enjoyed the dismay and dis comiiture of Gobo, the leader of the rebellious carriers. Such a hunting story is, ordinarily, read able only in fiction, just as Haggard's account of how Quatermain shot a rhinoceros through the horn would be taken to be the allowable license of tho romancer. GOES BEYOND FICTION But it is precisely here that the real Nim rod of Africa has equaled, and often gone faf boyond, the exploits of the unreal Quatermain. The mythical Macumazahn's adventures with elephants and lions are no more thrilling than have been those which, in plain fact, befell the real one; and if Mr. Roosevelt have in his com pany anything like the hunter's luck which has attended his new comrade he will not only have wonders to relate on his own account, but he will be a little more than fortunate if he come through the trip with a skin entirely whole. It was while hunting in Mashonaland, be yond the Lundaza river, when weakened by fever, that Seious came upon a herd of nearly 200 ele phants. Besides his weakness he was handicap ped by riding a sulky and irritable horse. Nevertheless, he picked out the finest tusker of that vast herd, rode within 100 yards of him and shot him through the lungs. At that instant a powerful cow elephant wheeled and charged Seious. He succeeded in spurring his horse into the thick brush and the elephant abandoned the chase. Seious promptly -resumed the role of pursuer and attacked the herd, one after another. It was almost suicide, for he sustained charges by huge elephants that made two yards to his horse's one, and once, dismounting, he left his horse to its fate, in the hope of being him self overlooked. Instead of anything worse oc curring, the charging elephant simply stood be side the horse, which showed no more fear than if the giant beast had been a rook; then the elephant walked quietly away and Seious, a few minutes later, killed it. In all, that day he slew, single handed, five great elephants, a record that leaves the romanc ing by Haggard regarding Quatermain ver small potatoes, indeed. The rhinoceros, while not so dangerouf. in Mr. Seious' opinion, as an elephant or a lion, is a foe to be dreaded when aroused.. JU hat a fiendish temper, h'is wn-nigh'.oiHflipresf'rit, and he resents to the death the slightest intru sion upon his privacy. - A rare occasion on which he was conquered : by a native foe is,Bhown iu photographs in Mr.v 1 Seious own . book, where a rhino, '.enteric; a k '(COXTINUED O.V INSIDS rAOU.it "