314 TRIBAL ORGANISATION 



distribute the balance of power — to do away with 

 the positions of the chieftains with their many 

 abuses, perils, and inconveniences, and to resolve 

 the people into the more easily handled fraternities 

 which we now find in all parts of the country, 

 namely, small village communities. Very slowly 

 this was done, and from the moment the tribal 

 head was removed, responsibility for the preser- 

 vation of law and order naturally fell upon the 

 European who had produced these changes. Then 

 began the substitution of something resembling a 

 true jus gentium ; the commencement, however 

 rude and inefficient, of the creditable conditions 

 which everywhere excite our admiration to-day. 

 Gone are the turbulent spirits who fomented, in 

 years gone by, the bloody disturbances which 

 cost early European enterprise so dear ; another 

 generation has arisen now, a generation for whom 

 the tragic stories of the past have but little interest, 

 except perhaps to point to a future which shall be 

 for them and their descendants a future of peace. 



I have, however, met, in England and elsewhere, 

 a certain class of person who has listened to my 

 stories of how much has been done by European 

 nations in Africa to point the savage from the 

 darkness of savagery to the light of the wisdom of 

 the just, and on not a few occasions I have been 

 met with strong and stern disapproval. I have 

 been reminded that all the bloodshed and rapine of 

 early times was a just retribution for an unwarrant- 

 able intrusion by Europeans into a country in 

 whose destinies and welfare they were not con- 

 cerned. It is a singular view to take, and one 



