76 A COLONY IN THE MAKING chap. 



other many a good man went out. Gradually they 

 made some order where there had been none, 

 gradually they evolved a semblance of authority and 

 rule where was but tribal war and anarchy, gradually 

 they inspired respect for the British race by the best 

 and only means they could employ, that is, by inspiring 

 respect for themselves. Is it to be wondered at if they 

 became somewhat swollen in the head ? No men 

 ever had a better right. Admittedly, of course, there 

 were occasional lapses — here and there a native roughly 

 used or advantage taken of his credulity, here and 

 there, and in the rarest instances, money or ivory 

 finding its way into channels other than legitimate. 

 Still, taken as a whole, no country was ever given 

 a better chance by its early administrators, and the 

 work of these earlier officials was as fine as it was 

 arduous. Well, upon these officials, who were looked 

 upon by the natives, and to some extent perhaps by 

 themselves, as Little Tin Gods, came the first trickle 

 of the tide of settlers. And what manner of men were 

 they ? Why, roughly speaking, they were just the 

 same manner of men as those in opposition to whom 

 force of circumstances had thrust them. Traders, 

 prospectors, shooters, they wandered into the new 

 country and found it good. Struck by the beauty of 

 scenery and climate and by the obvious fertility of the 

 soil and abundance of labour, they thought to make it 

 their home. They too were men of their hands, men 

 who had worked hard and lived hard ; they were 

 probably, I speak of the very earliest pioneers, nearly 

 all good men — the inferior had gone under — and they 

 knew it. Well when Tin God meets Tin God there is 

 bound to be trouble. On the one hand, there was the 

 official firm in the educated opinion that the Protectorate 



