Trade and the Flag 47 



Another difficulty in the way of increasing native trade is the 

 fact that most natives want what the government does not care to 

 furnish them, firearms and spirits. The decline of native races 

 from the use of intoxicants is a fact that must be reckoned with 

 from whatever standpoint the future of the tropics is regarded. 

 " It matters not at what end or part of the scale of colour the 

 man may be — whether he is a woolly-haired, baboon-jawed nigger 

 from Central Africa, a grave, intelligent, educated Maori of New 

 Zealand, or a gentle child-like native of Tahiti, barely cafe-au-lait 

 as to colour — all the same, and all the time, spirits are sure to 

 convert him, temporarily, into a raging beast, and, in the long 

 run, to wipe out him and his kind altogether." 158 Lorenzo 

 Marques in Portuguese East Africa with its population of 1,200 

 whites has supported ninety drinking shops, a feat that could 

 only be accomplished by the aid of native patronage chiefly. 150 

 According to Nevinson the whole population of Angola is de- 

 generating, the people becoming bloated and stupid, and the saying 

 common, "You see no fine old men now." This condition is 

 likely to remain unchanged so long as the Portuguese find that 

 rum plantations of cane or sweet potatoes pay better than 

 others. 100 The liquor laws in Tahiti under French rule are also 

 defective and a further impetus is thereby given to the decline 

 of the native population — an encouragement that is not at all 

 needed since there is already a pronounced tendency among the 

 people of almost every island in the Pacific to diminish in num- 

 bers. 101 British East Africa and Uganda lie within the zones in 

 which the importation of spirituous liquors is forbidden and the 

 restrictions are very well enforced as far as European beverages 

 are concerned, but the natives manufacture many intoxicating 

 liquors from such things as palms, sugar-cane, and honey. 102 



In the discussions on colonial trade in general, a point seldom 



Grimshaw, In the Strange South Seas, 22. 

 Bigelow, White Man's Africa, 67-68. 

 Nevinson, A Modern Slavery, 145-146. 

 Grimshaw, /;/ the Strange South Seas, 23. 

 'Eliot, East Africa Protectorate, 182. 



223 



