Colonel Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [348]
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;