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Colonel Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [348]

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his trip, he had to be dissuaded from ordering the elaborate dress uniform of a colonel of cavalry, to wear at formal events on his emergence from the jungle. EKR clinched the matter by threatening to match his outfit with that of a camp follower. (Sylvia Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 333.) See Whitelaw Reid to TR (“My earnest advice would be not to wear it, since it would certainly attract enormous attention”), 23 Sept. 1908 (WR); Archibald Butt, The Letters of Archie Butt: Personal Aide to President Roosevelt, Lawrence F. Abbott, ed. (New York, 1924); Wood, Roosevelt As We Knew Him, 419.

33 “an outrage and an indecency” TR to Roy W. Howard of United Press, 16 Mar. 1909 (TRP). See also TR, Letters, 6.1403–5; Gary Rice, “Trailing a Celebrity: Press Coverage of Theodore Roosevelt’s African Safari, 1909–1910,” Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal, 22.3 (Fall 1996).

34 A touch bon marché EKR to KR, 19 Oct. 1917 (KRP). TR’s $50,000 contract in 1909 would be worth $888,000 in 2010. (Measuring Worth) “I think there is such a thing as making too much money out of a given feat,” TR rather embarrassedly wrote Henry Cabot Lodge. (Lodge, Selections, 2.305.) He was also earning $12,000 ($213,000) a year as contributing editor of The Outlook.

35 He rides out to hunt This excursion (24 Apr. 1909) is misdated in TR, Works, 5.27.

Chronological Note: In order to correct some confusion in earlier accounts, the following chronology gives the main dates, major kills, and general itinerary of the Smithsonian–Theodore Roosevelt Expedition. It is based on a compilation of TR’s safari diaries for 1909 and 1910 (TRC and TRB), supplemented by those of KR and F. Warrington Dawson, and articles in the East African newspapers. Capitalized place-names denote bases of operations.

1909

Apr. 21: TR arrives Mombasa; 22: overnight train inland; 23: arrives KAPITI depot.

FIRST SAFARI (5 WEEKS)

Apr. 24: begins to hunt and camp in KITANGA RANCH region; 29: 1st 2 lions. May 2: 2 lions, 1 lioness; 3: Bondini; 5: Kilima Kiu camp; 6: cow eland, rhino near Juja; 9: bull giraffe; 11: Potha camp; 12: visits U.S. Machakos mission; 13: JUJA FARM for 1 week; 16: cow rhino; 16: 1st hippo, Rewero River; 19: Nairobi Falls; 20: Kamiti camp; 21: 1st buffalo; 24: TR charged by buffalo; 25: breaks Kamiti camp; 26: NAIROBI for 8 days; stays at Government House; 27: governor’s reception, dance; 28: moves to McMillan townhouse; 31: dinner Norfolk Hotel.

SECOND SAFARI (7 WEEKS)

June 3: leaves NAIROBI, via U.S. Kijabe mission, en route SOTIK; 5: begins moonlight marches across “the Thirst”; 10: camps on southern Guaso Nyero (5 days); 14: kills lioness; welcomed by Masai; 15: limestone springs camp (9 days); 16: 3 giraffes; 18: rhino, topi, wildebeest; 20: rhino cow, calf; 23: lion; 24: Masai pool camp (3 days); 25: big maned lion; 27: plains camp (6 days); 29: 7 kills, including 1 rhino; 30:

First overseas mail. July 3: breaks camp; begins northward trek to Naivasha; 4: cow rhino; 6: rejoins naturalists at Guaso Nyero; 7: writing day; 11: reaches NAIVASHA; 12: camps on Attenborough Farm (12 days); 13: begins hippo hunting; 16: fever; 20: mass hippo kill; 23: employs Dawson as press secretary; 24: train to NAIROBI for 11-day stay in McMillan townhouse; 25ff: works on correspondence, chapters for Scribners. Aug. 3: dinner in his honor; speech, “Education in Africa.”

THIRD SAFARI (3 WEEKS)

Aug. 4: train via Kijabe mission (stone-laying ceremony) to NAIVASHA for 4 days; 8: leaves for Aberdare range; 11: arrives NYERI; Kikuyu dance welcome; 14: fever; ascends foothills of Mount Kenya; 18: begins elephant hunting; 19: 1st bull elephant; 22: returns NYERI to write.

FOURTH SAFARI (2 WEEKS)

Aug. 25: begins solo, 2-week hunt on the plains; 27: camps on headwater of northern GUASO NYERO; 29: trophy eland. Sept. 3: rejoined by main safari; 4: treks back north to Mount Kenya foothills; arrives MERU BOMA; 5: marching along equator; 7: begins 2-week hunt in and around Boma; 11: elephant bull; 13: elephant cow; 15: N’gouga Crater Lake; 16: rhino; 17: buffalo hunt; 21: safari divides;

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