A PLEA FOR THE NATIVE 379 



some ground for the protest I desire to make against the 

 common statements you read everywhere, of the utter 

 immorality and untruthfulness of the native population 

 between the sea and the great lakes. Those who bunch 

 them all together and speak of them as beasts, liars, and 

 thieves, prove simply that, though they may have rushed 

 through the country, they know little of the inhabitants. 



No man who has written on the problem of East Africa 

 knows his subject better than does Sir Harry Johnston. I 

 remember that he somewhere says: "It may have required 

 one million years for the evolution of the brute into the man, 

 and half a million more to raise him to the level of the 

 Australian savage. On the other hand, a few hundred 

 years were probably enough for the development of the 

 savage Hamitic races into the civilized Egyptians/' 



The best informed can only venture a guess on these 

 subjects, and when it comes to guessing on what has been, 

 or what may yet be, in Africa, there are everywhere so 

 many unknown factors that they who know most will ven- 

 ture fewest guesses. But so much "is certain, the East 

 African is so far behind his white instructor that the latter's 

 processes of thought are quite beyond his understanding. 

 As I said before, he is an atheist, he has no idea of causation, 

 death itself he makes no effort to explain, unless it be to 

 attribute it to a witch doctor. Witchcraft is not a religion 

 with him, but perhaps it is the nearest thing he knows to 

 religion. The spirits help the witch doctors, the witch 

 doctors set the spirits at their evil work; but back of it all is 

 no idea of Creator or of Supreme Cause producing good 

 or evil. He is content with things as they are. Only when 

 some calamity strikes him does he look about for its cause, 

 and if it continues he will probably burn some witch doctor 

 alive. If he believes in nothing else he believes in witch- 

 craft, and this, his one belief, offers to the missionary a most 

 difficult obstacle. Only as this is eradicated can the native 



