ly a mortal like
themselves, and so could not, as he had promised, bring miracles to
their aid, lost heart, and when Cecil Rhodes in person made overtures of
peace, his terms were accepted. During the hard days of the siege, when
rations were few and bad, Burnham's little girl, who had been the first
white child born in Buluwayo, died of fever and lack of proper
food. This with other causes led him to leave Rhodesia and return to
California. It is possible he then thought he had forever turned
his back on South Africa, but, though he himself had departed, the
impression he had made there remained behind him.

Burnham did not rest long in California. In Alaska the hunt for gold had
just begun, and, the old restlessness seizing him, he left Pasadena and
her blue skies, tropical plants, and trolley-car strikes for the new raw
land of the Klondike. With Burnham it has always been the place that is
being made, not the place in being, that attracts. He has helped to make
straight the ways of several great communities--Arizona, California,
Rhodesia, Alaska, and Uganda. As he once said: "It is the constructive
side of frontier life that most appeals to me, the building up of a
country, where you see the persistent drive and force of the white man;
when the place is finally settled I don't seem to enjoy it very long."

In Alaska he did much prospecting, and, with a sled and only two dogs,
for twenty-four days made one long fight against snow and ice, covering
six hundred miles. In mining in Alaska he succeeded well, but against
the country he holds a constant grudge, because it kept him out of the
fight with Spain. When war was declared he was in the wilds and knew
nothing of it, and though on his return to civilization he telegraphed
Colonel Roosevelt volunteering for the Rough Riders, and at once started
south, by the time he had reached Seattle the war was over.

Several times has he spoken to me of how bitterly he regretted missing
this chance to officially fight for his country. That he had twice
served with English forces made him the more keen to show his loyalty to
his own people.

That he would have been given a commission in the Rough Riders seems
evident from the opinion President Roosevelt has publicly expressed of
him.

"I know Burnham," the President wrote in 1901. "He is a scout and a
hunter of courage and ability, a man totally without fear, a sure shot,
and a fighter. He is the ideal scout, and when enliste