354 THE LAND OF THE LION 
regular Government work. The men on that sort of work 
are in gangs, keep regular hours, and are easily super- 
vised. They cannot desert as soon as they get their 
advance and blanket, for there are armed guards to look 
after them and they would be caught and punished. They 
might desert in a body, but could not take that extreme 
step unless they had been badly treated indeed. 
But now take the case of a settler needing a dozen 
or a hundred day labourers to herd his cattle or break 
his land. ‘To obey this law for him means ruin. To pay 
the labourer beforehand, to give him blankets, etc., is to 
put temptation under his nose. He finds himself with 
wealth he has not worked for in his hands, and the much- 
coveted blanket on his back. It is too much for native 
human nature. Next morning he is gone. The unfor- 
tunate employer is quite helpless. Now more than before 
it is impossible to leave his shamba. His crops, his 
stock, need every instant of his time. He is driven from 
morning to night. ‘The last thing he can do is to chase 
natives in the wide country, or among native villages, 
where half a hundred of them might easily and success- 
fully hide. 
It was the issuing of this last order in council that 
caused such disturbance at Nairobi, during the spring 
of 1908. Popular feeling against the Government ran 
very high. The settlers hada strong case, but their mis- 
take lay in their method of presenting it. There can be 
no prosperity, no steady progress made in the Protector- 
ate till this question of native labour has been thrashed 
out, till the black man has been taught that whether he 
will or no he must work, or he will be taxed until he does. 
Now let me turn for a little to this question of native 
taxation and diffidently offer a suggestion. Of course, 
a mere traveller through the country has not time fairly 
to estimate difficulties that might arise to prevent the 
