7 6 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CHAP. 
other many a good man went out. Gradually they 
made some order where there had been none, 
gradually they evolved a semblance of authority and 
rule where was but tribal war and anarchy, gradually 
they inspired respect for the British race by the best 
and only means they could employ, that is, by inspiring 
respect for themselves. Is it to be wondered at if they 
became somewhat swollen in the head ? No men 
ever had a better right. Admittedly, of course, there 
were occasional lapses—here and there a native roughly 
used or advantage taken of his credulity, here and 
there, and in the rarest instances, money or. ivory 
finding its way into channels other than legitimate. 
Still, taken as a whole, no country was ever given 
a better chance by its early administrators, and the 
work of these earlier officials was as fine as it was 
arduous. Well, upon these officials, who were looked 
upon by the natives, and to some extent perhaps by 
themselves, as Little Tin Gods, came the first trickle 
of the tide of settlers. And what manner of men were 
they ? Why, roughly speaking, they were just the 
same manner of men as those in opposition to whom 
force of circumstances had thrust them. Traders, 
prospectors, shooters, they wandered into the new 
country and found it good. Struck by the beauty of 
scenery and climate and by the obvious fertility of the ; 
soil and abundance of labour, they thought to make it 
their home. They too were men of their hands, men 
who had worked hard and lived hard ; they were 
probably, I speak of the very earliest pioneers, nearly 
all good men—-the inferior had gone under—and they 
knew it. Well when Tin God meets Tin God there is 
bound to be trouble. On the one hand, there was the 
official firm in the educated opinion that the Protectorate 
