398 - “THE: LAND OFS PERELigN 
was ever a rover, a mere huntsman or the most indifferent 
of farmers. The incomer was gladly rid of him. The red 
man perished or was driven back. No one dreamed of 
employing him to develop the country that strong hands 
had wrested from him. In Africa all this is reversed. 
Africa is the black man’s country. Nothing has been 
done, it seems unlikely that anything of consequence can 
be done, in its vast tropic regions, without him. Here 
and there isolated spots may be found where the white man 
can make a home and rear his children. ‘Too often his 
most abiding memorial in it has been the graves of his dead. 
In other countries, too, settlement and occupation have 
proceeded gradually. By slow degrees the conquered 
country has come under the influence of the conquering 
colonizer. In Africa’s case it may be said, that a vast 
continent, neglected for thousands of years, has,in a sud- 
den access of international jealousy, been hurriedly cut up 
and partitioned among the great nations of the earth, each of 
them solely bent on outdoing his competitors, and grabbing 
for himself all that might be grasped. The native has, of 
course, been utterly forgotten, and ignored — but he remains. 
The national pirates have laid violent hands on pos- 
sessions they had no moral or other claim to, but their booty 
is valueless to them without the aid of the forgotten and 
despised native. This is the state of things to-day, and 
so far as the future can be forecast, this must ever remain 
the truth of Africa. The one atonement that it is in the 
power of civilization to make to the native, is to improve 
him, lead him forward, help him to develop his magnificent 
country, and see that he benefits by that development. 
Personally, I am not at all doubtful that this will be 
done, for, apart from all emotional or moral considerations, 
Africa cannot advance without him, and,as a mere matter 
of business, his safeguarding and fair treatment will there- 
fore be assured. 
