3 g8 THE LAND OF THE LION 



was ever a rover, a mere huntsman or the most indifferent 

 of farmers. The incomer was gladly rid of him. The red 

 man perished or was driven back. No one dreamed of 

 employing him to develop the country that strong hands 

 had wrested from him. In Africa all this is reversed. 



Africa is the black man's country. Nothing has been 

 done, it seems unlikely that anything of consequence can 

 be done, in its vast tropic regions, without him. Here 

 and there isolated spots may be found where the white man 

 can make a home and rear his children. Too often his 

 most abiding memorial in it has been the graves of his dead. 

 In other countries, too, settlement and occupation have 

 proceeded gradually. By slow degrees the conquered 

 country has come under the influence of the conquering 

 colonizer. In Africa's case it may be said, that a vast 

 continent, neglected for thousands of years, has, in a sud- 

 den access of international jealousy, been hurriedly cut up 

 and partitioned among the great nations of the earth, each of 

 them solely bent on outdoing his competitors, and grabbing 

 for himself all that might be grasped. The native has, of 

 course, been utterly forgotten, and ignored but he remains. 



The national pirates have laid violent hands on pos- 

 sessions they had no moral or other claim to, but their booty 

 is valueless to them without the aid of the forgotten and 

 despised native. This is the state of things to-day, and 

 so far as the future can be forecast, this must ever remain 

 the truth of Africa. The one atonement that it is in the 

 power of civilization to make to the native, is to improve 

 him, lead him forward, help him to develop his magnificent 

 country, and see that he benefits by that development. 



Personally, I am not at all doubtful that this will be 

 done, for, apart from all emotional or moral considerations, 

 Africa cannot advance without him, and, as a mere matter 

 of business, his safeguarding and fair treatment will there- 

 fore be assured. 



