QUALITIES OF THE SETTLER 119 



the proposals of whomsoever was prepared to reheve 

 it of its administrative responsibilities. Properly 

 carried out, the idea was a good one, and even as 

 it stood the system became in time an excellent 

 instrument of effective occupation. I have no 

 hesitation in saying that, to whatsoever degree the 

 individual Portuguese may be hampered by want 

 of capital or want of encouragement, he does not, 

 as a rule, lack any of those qualities which go to 

 make a successful tiller of the soil. He is sober, 

 tenacious, a good workman, and resists the effects 

 of climate more successfully than other Europeans. 

 He has still within him, moreover, a dash of that 

 adventurous spirit which in the past led his old- 

 time countrymen so far ; and it therefore followed 

 that, at a time when the inland confines of the vast 

 Portuguese sphere of influence were but vaguely 

 known, men of the class described no sooner found 

 themselves transformed into rulers of immense 

 districts and controlling a force which they were 

 by law permitted to maintain, than they at once 

 turned their eyes towards the unknown, and enlarged 

 their borders as they imposed their influence at 

 one and the same time. By this means, before 

 our attention came to be directed by Livingstone 

 and his missionary successors to what is now the 

 colony of Nyasaland, the Portuguese occupation 

 had been carried on so far inland that it enabled 

 a very strong claim to be laid to portions of the 

 regions bordering on Nyasa which have since come 

 under British administration. An excellent com- 

 parison of the prevailing characteristics of the 

 Anglo-Saxon and the Portuguese colonists was 



