WITH LIVINGSTONE IN SOUTH AFRICA 151 



way, if made, will help to suppress slavery, by giving carriage 

 for the ivory, its only cause at present no ivory, no slavery. 

 May the venture turn out better than many another has 

 done, and not end in that very questionable blessing, a rum- 

 civilisation ! 



The influx of immigrants into Mashonaland will, in time, 

 with the gold and diamond seeking population further south, 

 tend to minimise the power of the Boers over the native tribes. 

 Dutchmen are slow colonists, and will not be able to hold their 

 own with the incomers in enterprise, or in a few years in 

 numbers or power, and the evil influence and oppression they 

 have at times exercised upon the black race will be at an end. 

 I hope no worse regime may come in with the new rule. 

 There were many good points in the Dutch farmers, and I 

 think they compare very favourably with English squatters in 

 other lands. Where antagonistic races are brought together, 

 the minority, the whites, if they are to hold their ground, are 

 almost inevitably forced for very existence to terrorise the black 

 majority that would otherwise overwhelm them. I am not 

 arguing that their conduct is moral or legal, but it has been, 

 and will continue to be, the rule where whites settle in black 

 men's lands uninvited. We may hold up our hands in a 

 Pharisaical way, and when we are once secure, I grant we try 

 to improve our subjects ; but they must be our subjects first. 

 But would Englishmen under similar conditions have done 

 much better than the Dutchmen ? I think not. Without the 

 pale of law, they would hardly have been so much of a law unto 

 themselves. No doubt the Boers have many faults, and with 

 respect to the native races have shown great cruelty my con- 

 tention is they could hardly have held their own without. 

 We must not be too hard on them because they have twice got 

 the better of us in the field, and twice in diplomacy. English- 

 men have not forgotten Laings Nek and the Majuba Hills. 

 Diplomatically, too, we were twice worsted : the Boers had very 

 troublesome neighbours, and sought the suzerainty of our Queen 

 for their own ends, not by a unanimous vote I know ; but 



