236 WHITE SAVAGE VERSUS BLACK. 



who would represent the ignorance of the savage as vir- 

 tuous simplicity, his miserable poverty as frugality and 

 temperance, and his stupid indolence as laudable con- 

 tempt for wealth. Widely differing, indeed, were the facts 

 which came under our observation ; and doubtless it will 

 ever be found that uncultivated man is a compound of 

 treachery, cunning, debauchery, gluttony, and idleness." 

 Here the hinge appears to turn upon the term unculti- 

 vated man ; and I am convinced that there are very many 

 in the most civilized countries of Europe who as well 

 deserve the term, without any of the excuses, as the 

 savages of Africa, at least, as those about Natal, of whom 

 I now speak. Was the treatment I received at the kraal 

 of Inkau, alone and at their mercy, either a compound of 

 "treachery," "cunning," or "debauchery"? The gluttony 

 and idleness I care not to defend ; but these are not very 

 grievous crimes to lay to the charge of able-bodied men 

 who can taste meat scarcely once a week. 



I doubt whether I should have been treated as well in 

 many of the manufacturing districts of England as I was 

 here in Africa. In the former place, the only notice a 

 stranger may get is having " arf a brick eaved at him," or 

 being " pinned by a bull pup." 



Imagine the feelings of a Highland chieftain and his 

 clan upon being quietly told that they must move away 

 from their mountains and their country, but must not 

 grumble, because the government has made a grant of 

 land of five acres per man for his people on the Plumstead 

 marshes, or some other place equally unsuited to their taste; 

 the only reason assigned for this act being that their an- 



