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108 • S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S hunter was Arthur Blayney Percival, the ranger for Game Protection in BEA and older brother of the more famous Philip Percival. The party was assisted by a brigade of the King's African Rifles. As Churchill's party traveled through the varied terrain, its deep gullies, steaming jungles, dramatic volcanic landscapes, and vast plains covered in tall grass, the red roofs of Mombasa soon became a distant memory. Their ultimate destination was Simba Station— "The place of the lion"—where Churchill and his party stayed for three days, enabling him to do some serious hunting. Churchill's carriage was moved to a siding from which they could travel up and down the line by trolley. Once they spotted an animal, the hunters would jump from the slow-moving vehicle, pursue their quarry, then climb back onto the trolley and return to the siding. Churchill was eager to hunt any big game, but particularly black rhino. He was aware of his physical limitations and modest about his abilities as a shooter. He wanted to get as close as possible to his target, which can be difficult in the African bush. O n their second day at Simba, Churchill's party found rhino sign within their first hour, but soon discovered that following the beast was easier said than done. Carrying his heavy .450 double, Churchill struggled to push through the thorny tangle. After several hours of walking, the hunters had no idea how far they had traveled or in what direction. When they finally emerged from the dense scrub, they were less than a quarter-mile from their trolley where, thankfully, a welcome luncheon and ice cold sodas were waiting. Winston now realized they would have to proceed into more open country, if they were going to have any success at bagging a rhino. The next day they got an earlier start and headed out while it was still dark. As they stepped down from the trolley, a glittering mosaic of stars cast an eerie, silvery light over the vast savannah, sprinkled with the dark shapes of various animals. The men marched in a big circle, carefully scanning their surroundings for a rhino. Then, as the sun began to break the horizon and they were on the verge of heading back, they came across a large antelope with long, curled horns. It was an oryx, and soon two more appeared. Hunched over, the hunters traced the edge of a deep gully as they slipped toward the small herd, which was headed for the brow of a hill. Winston's party split into two groups: one in pursuit of two oryx, the other, led by Churchill, pursuing the animal with the tallest horns. Churchill followed the beast up and down the rocky slopes, then around the steep shoulder of a hill. As he moved in for a shot, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. There, not 500 yards away, was the dark silhouette of a rhino in the middle of an open plain—"like a prehistoric creature from another time," he would recall. Behind the rhino was the snow- covered dome of Mount Kilimanjaro standing proudly in German East Africa (then Tanganyika, now Tanzania). To young Winston, it looked like a scene unaltered since the dawn of time. There were no large trees, only a few sparse bushes that Churchill could use to screen his approach. He was well aware of his dangerous situation, particularly if his first shot was not fatal. He knew that rhinos were known to charge blindly and furiously when confronted. Churchill, along with his trackers and two other hunters, had crept to within 200 yards of the beast when one of the natives pointed out two more rhinos behind some bushes to their right. The men immediately halted, fearful that if they continued they W hile Theodore Roosevelt was close to completing his second term as president and dreaming of an African safari, a British aristocrat was just stepping onto the Dark Continent. Like TR, he would go on to become one of the most important political figures of the 20th Century and achieve legendary status as a military leader. His name was Winston Churchill, and in 1907, at age 33, he would climb aboard the Uganda Railway in Mombasa and take his seat atop the engine's cowcatcher to begin his journey through British East Africa (now Kenya), just as Roosevelt would do two years later. Churchill had arrived in Africa after traveling to Vienna, Syracuse on the island of Sicily, and Malta, where he was invested in the palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta. From there, he sailed to Cypress before heading for Mombasa on Africa's east coast. As with TR, the young Winston was in awe of Africa's vast beauty and its variety of wildlife as he rode through the endless savannah. He was intrigued, and somewhat amused, that his seat was an ordinary garden bench attached securely, he hoped, to the top of the cowcatcher. It could seat four people. His journey also brought back memories— perhaps not the fondest— of fighting under General Sir Herbert Kitchener in 1898 when the British defeated Mahdist forces defending the Sudan city of Omdurman. Because of that earlier experience, Churchill was well aware of the Uganda Railway's checkered history and the terrible toll that man-eating lions had taken on the railroad's workers. By the time he returned to BEA, the railway had survived those early years of tragedy and overcome its nickname "The Lunatic Express." The concept of building a railroad through one of the most inhospitable countries in the British Empire— once described as a line "from nowhere to absolutely nowhere"—had been the subject of much debate in the British Parliament. By 1907 all that was in the past, and the Uganda Railway was paying its way. Indeed, it had become a gleaming example of British stubbornness and determination, becoming a major commercial asset to the British Protectorate. It had also become a useful tool for pioneering hunters of the time. The wild animals were used to the trains and paid little attention to them. When game was sighted, the hunters would simply slip from the halted train, or travel up and down the line on a trolley to get within range of their quarry. Africa's searing heat made sitting in front of the engine on the cowcatcher quite unpleasant, and its novelty would soon wear off for Churchill, who decided to move inside the train. There, he could still observe herds of antelope, giraffes, ostrich, wildebeest, and zebras stretching across the plains as far as the eye could see. Churchill's exploration into Africa was on a much smaller scale than that of Roosevelt's massive undertaking in 1909, which was organized as a scientific expedition to gather plant and animal specimens for American museums. Churchill's primary objective was to examine the potential for future settlers in British East Africa and, of course, to hunt along the way. W hen Churchill's party departed from Mombasa, it included shipping tycoon Sir Donald Currie, writer Edward Marsh, Col. D. J. Wilson, and Capt. Sir J. Hayes-Sadler, the British consul for the East African Coast. When it reached the Thika camp, Churchill was joined by Maj. Riddell; Marquis Gandolfi-Hornyold, who, like Winston, was a knight of the Sovereign Order of Malta; and Hon. K. Dundas. Their professional