308 ANTHROPOLOGY 



The last idea that would occur to them is that of 

 combined action — a circumstance which has con- 

 tributed in no small degree to the imposition and 

 maintenance of European influence throughout 

 these parts of Africa. Of course, two or three 

 centuries ago it was otherwise, in so far that war was 

 at that time the negro's second nature, and although 

 not always serious, rebellion, with its consequent 

 bloodshed and reprisals, was an event by no means 

 rare ; but a tribe is far from being an entity ; its 

 component members exist in a constant condition 

 of change, and, as outside influences leave their 

 imprint upon the nature as upon the appearance of 

 the tribes, so, I think, it is not too much to hope 

 they may, in the future, be gradually moulded by 

 beneficent precept and example to abandon such 

 old-time habits and customs as have hitherto re- 

 tarded their advance towards enlightenment and 

 progress. 



To compass the foregoing desirable condition of 

 things, there are growing up many children, as 

 there are doubtless already many adults, of mixed 

 blood, the result of fusions between the tribes who 

 so constantly fought among each other, between 

 Europeans and natives, and lastly, as I have stated 

 elsewhere, between Indians and natives. I think 

 on the whole, therefore — and assuredly the time has 

 come when we have justification for forming an 

 honest opinion — the intermingling of these different 

 peoples is largely responsible for the settled and 

 peaceful conditions we find to day. Not so much 

 in the case of the European share in it, perhaps, 

 but assuredly so in that of the mingling of the 



