cH. IV] THE WHITE MAX'S WORK 101 



in the other direction. 'Vhe effort has been to avoid 

 wherever possible all interference with tribal customs, 

 even when of an immoral and repulsive character, and 

 to do no more than what is obviously necessary, such 

 as insistence upon keeping the peace, and preventing 

 the spread of cattle disease. Excellent reasons can be 

 advanced in favour of this policy, and it must always be 

 remembered that a fussy and ill-considered benevolence 

 is more sure to awaken resentment than cruelty itself; 

 while the natives are apt to resent deeply even things 

 that are obviously for their ultimate welfare. Yet I 

 cannot help thinking that with caution and wisdom it 

 would be possible to proceed somewhat farther than has 

 yet been the case in the direction of pushing upv/ard 

 some at least of the East African tribes, and this though 

 I recognize fully that many of these tribes are of a low 

 and brutalized type. Having said this much in the 

 way of criticism, I wish to add my tribute of unstinted 

 admiration for the disinterested and efficient work being 

 done, alike in the interest of the white man and the 

 black, by the goverinnent officials whom I met in East 

 Africa. They are men in whom their country has every 

 reason to feel a just pride. 



We lunched with the American missionaries. Mission 

 work among savages offers many difficulties, and often 

 the wisest and most earnest effort meets with disheart- 

 eningly little reward ; while lack of common sense, and 

 of course above all, lack of a firm and resolute disinter- 

 estedness, insures the worst kind of failure. There are 

 missionaries who do not do well, just as there are men 

 in every conceivable walk of life who do not do well ; 

 and excellent men who are not missionaries, including 

 both government officials and settlers, are only too apt 



