Martinsburg Herald

WILL WELCOME
MR. ROOSEVELT

Mombasa Preparing For Much Heraided Trip.

BIG GAME
IS
PLENTIFUL

Greeting to Mr. Roosevelt Will Be More to the Sportsman Than to the Former President—Reports of Movements of Game Being Received.

Mombasa, British East Africa, March 11.—Mombasa is preparing already to welcome Theodore Roosevelt when he lands here the latter part of next month on his much heralded African trip, and the coming of the former president of the United States has given a decided impetus to the interest in the present hunting season. The governor of the protectorate, Lieutenant Colonel Sir James Hayes Sadler, is getting up a program of welcome and entertainment for the distinguished visitor, but in spite of these arrangements the greeting to Mr. Roosevelt will be more to the great sportsman, whose fame is well known to local hunters, than to the former president.

East African sportsmen were highly gratified to learn that Mr. Roosevelt had refused the offer of the authorities to grant him a special hunting license that would have permitted him to kill game to an unlimited extent, instead of confining himself to the two elephants, two rhinoceros, two hippopotami, etc., of the regular license.

Lions and leopards are classed as vermin and consequently no license to kill them is required.

The white population of Mombasa has heard much of Mr. Roosevelt's personality, and in a joking way frequent references to the "Big Stick" are being made.

The regular time for the big rains is from the end of January to the end of April. The prospects for good hunting this season are considered excellent. Many of the settlers in the outlying districts, realizing the increasing interest in the prospects for sport because of the coming of Roosevelt, are voluntarily sending in information about the movements of game. According to a dispatch received here a record group of lions, numbering thirty-two, was seen on the Nandi plateau at a point about fifty miles north of Port Florence. Among them were three huge males. Four families of giraffes have been seen at Makindu, 200 miles inland from here on the line of the Uganda railroad, and elephants have been seen at Elburgon, 475 miles inland on the railroad and along the Sabaki river, not far to the north of Mombasa.