NZOIA PLATEAU AND ITS TRIBES 213 
evil will for countless years, British rule should be just, wise 
and strong. Here, it would be but unkind flattery to describe 
it as being anything of the kind. The fault is not with the 
individual civil officers. These must impress any fair minded 
man as being usually most hard working and competent. 
But there is no sign of settled policy anywhere in the Pro- 
tectorate. There is a too evident lack of system, of 
cooperation; no man is sure of being firmly supported if 
he does his job well. Men are aimlessly shifted from post 
to pillar. From work they have but just begun to under- 
stand and to do, to other work, for which they cannot, in 
the nature of the case, be as well prepared to do. Good 
material is wasted, good lives and much money thrown away, 
and everybody is grumbling. 
The southern portion of the plateau is now well known. 
A district commissioner has taken up residence there, and 
stores will soon spring, up like mushrooms round the 
“rock.” ‘Three years ago it was a no man’s land, where all 
who came looked for enemies and sometimes found them. 
There can be few places, even in Africa, where the laws of 
change have worked so rapidly. 
The northern portion has as yet scarcely been travelled 
or hunted atall. South of the Nzoia, since the Nandi war — 
that is, for the last three years — raiding by the tribes has 
generally ceased. And the small but continuous blood let- 
tings, so common wherever the country is not actually policed 
have stopped. The Nandi whose rich lands lie to the west 
of the Plateau, till they were defeated and brought to reason, 
were responsible for most of the quarrelling. 
They were far more numerous than the other tribes to 
east or north of them, and their young warriors found amuse- 
ment and adventure in raids, big and little on their feebler 
neighbours. The Nandi are an intelligent and interesting 
people. Some of the women especially, having features 
that strike you at once as refined. Like the Massai they 
