PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS — SECTION E. 123 



of these processes, and most have been influenced by all three 

 in varying degrees, and with ever-varying result. 



II. — Factors in Native Evolution. 

 I. The Influence of Missio)is. 



{a) The Product of Tmbalism. — Previously the native had 

 been the product of the machinery of tribalism, and, as is the 

 way of machinery, the articles produced were characterised by 

 unifomiity. In other words, the steam-roller of tribalism passing- 

 over them operated by sheer weight to reduce to a dead level 

 those latent capacities and powers which, rightly developed, 

 might have produced the highest results. And if we suffer 

 to-day to any extent for the shortsightedness of our forefathers, 

 who refrained from a resolute handling of the witchcraft that is 

 so binding a force in tribalism, it is to be remembered as a 

 solemn waming that those who come after us will either be 

 blessed by the vision, and wisdom, and courage, we show, or 

 else cursed by our blindness, and folly, and weakness. To-day, 

 undoubtedly, we face a grave challenge. At this most critical 

 juncture in the development of the South African natives the 

 whole situation demands wisdom and resolution, based on sympa- 

 thetic knowledge, and grave consequences are bound to follow 

 in default of these. 



Bearing in mind these considerations, we propose to review 

 seriatim the various factors in the process which we see now 

 proceeding before our eyes. In order, however, to appreciate 

 these to the full, and to secure an all-round, understanding. 

 view, it is necessary to indicate something of the background, 

 as well as to trace the subsequent developments in the transition, 

 for it is only after the ploughing, the sowing, and the growing, 

 that we may expect to come to the harvest, and any serious 

 study of the subject in hand would be incomplete without some 

 outline of the conditions which produced the complex situation 

 of to-day. and the promise of greater complications and per- 

 plexities to-morrow. 



(b) The Influence of Missionaries. — Now, the first con- 

 sideration that strikes the enquirer is that from the earliest times 

 the missionary' has played an important part in the raising of 

 the native races. It is a remarkable fact, and one not usually 

 realised, that the Government in early days actually encouraged 

 the settlement of missionaries amongst troublesome peoples, and 

 the chief frequently made special request that a tnissionary 

 should be sent into his country. The first to be sent on this 

 footing into Kafirland was an agent of the London Missionary 

 Society named Williams. " For political reasons," as Professor 

 G. E. Cory tells us,* " it was considered advisable to have some 

 trustworthy person stationed near Gaika," and. Mr. Williams 

 was officially estabHshed in 1816, choosing for his headquarters 



* "The Rise of South Africa," by Geo. E. Cory. 1. 300. 



