NEED OF PROTECTION. 273 



negro tribes everywhere in complete subjection. 

 This is not the case at Delagoa Bay, where a 

 stronger force is imperatively required, sur- 

 rounded as it is by warlike Kafir tribes, and 

 where at present we have not even a police 

 force, and the few black soldiers now here are 

 confidently believed to be the principal actors 

 in a few petty burglaries and robberies that 

 have lately taken place. 



" As to the effect of the slave trade, or the 

 complicity of the Portuguese in it being the 

 bane of the country, &c., it is simply ridiculous 

 moonshine. It is the phlegmatic apathy of the 

 Government in not supplying the necessary 

 money, and in paying their officials badly, often 

 abandoning them for months without pay to 

 their own resources, and making their stay and 

 duties in Africa more a punishment or forcible 

 transportation than anything else. It is Portugal 

 who must be blamed for all this ; her conduct 

 to her colonies is simply disgraceful and without 

 excuse, as she is prosperous and her credit is 

 good; and but a moderate outlay, to be repaid 



