The Rediscovered Country

“Edward White’s ‘The Rediscovered Country’ is one of the best books of travel and hunting published in a long time…records…the existence of an immense region swarming with game and forgotten by the world since a few German officials many years ago.” –Idaho Statesman, August 7, 1915

“The Rediscovered Country is a true tale of hunting experiences in what was the last virgin territory in Africa; a country teeming with game, which had never before heard the sound of a gun….White writes with force and a sense of humor…fresh and entertaining.” –Daily Telegraph, Jan. 1, 1916

“One of the most interesting word pictures of African adventure…a well-rounded story of people, animals, and the customs…a delightful morsel.” –Times Union, April 2, 1915

“Cunninghame…was probably the leading white hunter of his day…among his more famous clients were…American novelist Stewart Edward White.” –White Hunters: The Golden Age African Safaris (2014)

What wonders did American novelist/big game hunter Stewart Edward White and his famous hunting guide Cuninghame discover when they visited the last remaining area of Africa that had never been hunted by white men as of 1913? How did he survive being attacked by four lions at one time?

In 1915, Stewart Edward White published a narrative of his hunting adventures in the unknown portion of German East Africa in his book titled “The Rediscovered Country.” It is this book of 250 pages that has been republished here for the convenience of the interested reader.

The book is made up of the diary kept by Mr. White on his hunting trip taken in company with Mr. R. J. Cunninghame into an unknown region in German East Africa. This region lying in the northeastern corner of the German protectorate was shut in on all sides by natural barriers and had remained unexplored except for a German military reconnaissance a number of years prior. “As far as we could find out,” says the author, “no sportsman or traveller had ever traversed this territory. If not its discoverers, we were at least its rediscoverers.” Mr. White predicted that this region would supplant British East Africa as the world’s greatest big game field.

Mr. White was an experienced traveller and hunter-naturalist, and his delight in this undiscovered hunting field will be shared by all big-game shooters. Here were found lion, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, giraffe, buffalo and zebra, besides greater kudu, eland, impala, and many other species of antelope and other game. In places thousands of animals were seen at one time. The author records his adventures vivaciously, and in his native language-Mr. White is an American. The encounter with four lions makes a thrilling story, but the best yarn in the book is that of the hunt after elephant in the Kenia forest on the way home.

In introducing his book, White writes:

“That unknown to sportsmen there still remained in the beginning of the year 1913 a country as big as the celebrated hunting grounds of British East Africa and even better stocked with game is due, briefly, to three causes: In the first place, the district in question has escaped the knowledge of English sportsmen because it is situated in a very out of the way corner of a German protectorate. The Englishman is not at home in German territory….In the second place, the German himself, being mainly interested in administrative and scientific matters, is rarely in the technical sense a sportsman….In the third place, this new country is protected on all sides by natural barriers.”

About the author: Stewart Edward White (1873 – 1946) was an American writer, novelist, and big game hunter noted for his book on his African safari adventures.