270 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



Five years before Darwin published the Origin of 

 Species, Gallon in his Narrative of an Explorer in 

 Tropical South Africa was giving wide currency to 

 the view that the vast difference between the position 

 in the world of the advanced and less advanced 

 races was due to a corresponding difference in their 

 inborn mental qualities. The inborn mental faculties 

 of aboriginal peoples, like the intelligent Damara 

 tribes amongst whom he travelled in South Africa, 

 was made by him the starting-point for generaliz- 

 ations which were widely repeated throughout 

 civilization. 



Galton formed a very low estimate of the mental 

 capacity of peoples like the Damaras. The evid- 

 ence upon which his conclusions were formed was 

 mainly evidence to the fact that they could not 

 count. When bartering for cattle, the Damaras 

 appeared to have no conception of number. Two 

 sticks of tobacco had to be put into the native's 

 hand and one sheep driven away, and then another 

 two sticks and the second sheep driven away, or 

 he could not follow the transaction. Galton 

 described how he observed a Damara floundering 

 hopelessly in a calculation of this sort, while his 

 own spaniel which had new-born puppies from 

 which two or three had been removed was equally 

 confused. She evidently, said Galton, had a vague 



