Knowledge Settlers Require. 13 



9. Gardening, especially vegetable growing and planting. 

 10. Boating and fishing, 

 ii. Rough camp life and cookery. 

 12. Skinning and butcher work. 



Any youth who has some practical knowledge of these 

 subjects will make a most capable colonist. In wild 

 countries I have often met men who could not use a saw, 

 hammer, or file ; and as for using an axe or adze, they 

 would probably have amputated a toe at the first attempt. 

 Some could not even clean a rifle or gun properly, and 

 their knowledge of all useful subjects was practically nil. 

 In most of our best schools boys are now taught many 

 useful subjects, and in most cases such knowledge will be 

 vastly more useful to them in after life than a knowledge of 

 extinct languages, such as Latin or Greek. 



Certain very sensitive and refined persons might turn up 

 their noses at taxidermy, or skinning and butcher work ; but 

 it is quite possible to retain refinement, and yet have a 

 knowledge of how to use one's hands and brains ; and it 

 will certainly lead to comfort in the long run. 



There are doubtless thousands of Britons living at home 

 who would be glad to leave their occupations and go 

 abroad ; but circumstances prevent them doing so, and 

 they get rid of superfluous energy by playing games such 

 as football and cricket. But such games, strenuous exercise 

 though they may be, are a very inferior training for a wild 

 natural life in a primeval country. 



It has often been proved that the best men for a rough 

 life abroad are the moderate sized, wiry individuals, and not 

 the large, lusty men, who usually are the first to break 

 down under prolonged hardship and discomfort. 



The same applies to the natives of Central Africa, and 

 when starting out on a hard trip I usually pick out the 

 smaller men, some of whom show little fat or muscle on 

 their bodies. 



[Since the completion of this volume a new regulation 

 has come into force in Nyasaland regarding the occupation 



