354 THE LAND OF THE LION 



regular Government work. The men on that sort of work 

 are in gangs, keep regular hours, and are easily super- 

 vised. They cannot desert as soon as they get their 

 advance and blanket, for there are armed guards to look 

 after them and they would be caught and punished. They 

 might desert in a body, but could not take that extreme 

 step unless they had been badly treated indeed. 



But now take the case of a settler needing a dozen 

 or a hundred day labourers to herd his cattle or break 

 his land. To obey this law for him means ruin. To pay 

 the labourer beforehand, to give him blankets, etc., is to 

 put temptation under his nose. He finds himself with 

 wealth he has not worked for in his hands, and the much- 

 coveted blanket on his back. It is too much for native 

 human nature. Next morning he is gone. The unfor- 

 tunate employer is quite helpless. Now more than before 

 it is impossible to leave his shamba. His crops, his 

 stock, need every instant of his time. He is driven from 

 morning to night. The last thing he can do is to chase 

 natives in the wide country, or among native villages, 

 where half a hundred of them might easily and success- 

 fully hide. 



It was the issuing of this last order in council that 

 caused such disturbance at Nairobi, during the spring 

 of 1908. Popular feeling against the Government ran 

 very high. The settlers had a strong case, but their mis- 

 take lay in their method of presenting it. There can be 

 no prosperity, no steady progress made in the Protector- 

 ate till this question of native labour has been thrashed 

 out, till the black man has been taught that whether he 

 will or no he must work, or he will be taxed until he does. 



Now let me turn for a little to this question of native 

 taxation and diffidently offer a suggestion. Of course, 

 a mere traveller through the country has not time fairly 

 to estimate difficulties that might arise to prevent the 



