A PLEA FOR THE NATIVE 373 
If the explorer was obliged to be ruthless in Africa, 
if his impressions were of necessity those of a man met by 
hostile forces, and so not of highest value, what shall be 
said of the value of the impressions poured forth by game 
hunters, or those who were but pleasure seekers, during a 
brief stay of weeks? 
These are, of course, of still less value, yet they have 
not been without their effect in influencing the reading world. 
The gulf between the white man and the black is wide 
enough and profound enough, God knows, it needs not to 
be exaggerated, it must somehow be bridged. For Africa 
is preéminently the black man’s country, he is necessary 
to it, it cannot possibly prosper without him. All its pos- 
sible advancement depends on his advancement. There 
he was found, and there he will remain though every white 
man perish from the continent. Continental conditions 
are being made plain, rivers traced to their sources, moun- 
tains robbed of their mystery, impenetrable forest regions 
opened to the light, animals, a few years ago unknown to 
science, stand stiffly in our museums, and of all these we 
know something. Now it is time that human pity and 
Christian compassion should turn with a fuller, deeper 
purpose to the study of real Africa, to the study of the man. 
I was often amazed at the amount of half-cooked food 
my people could consume at a sitting, or series of sittings. 
In the sefari were a few Kavorondo and these were cham- 
pions in this respect. Once I remember we were camped 
in a good game country, and the camp remained stationary 
for some days. Potio for three days was given out, that is, 
each man received four and a half pounds of good, well- 
ground Indian corn meal. ‘There was at the time a large 
supply of zebra meat in camp, and each man had at the 
very least a ten-pound chunk of this venison, of which they 
are inordinately fond, for his own eating. Next morn- 
ing David Rebman (the headman) brought round the 
