100 
RHINO AND GIRAFFES [ch. iv 
McMillan’s place, Juja Farm, on the other side of the 
Athi. I stayed behind, as I desired to visit the Ameri¬ 
can Mission Station at Machakos. Accordingly, Sir 
Alfred and I rode thither. Machakos has long been a 
native town, for it was on the route formerly taken by 
the Arab caravans that went from the coast to the 
interior after slaves and ivory. Riding toward it, we 
passed herd after herd of cattle, sheep, and goats, each 
guarded by two or three savage herdsmen. The little 
town itself was both interesting and attractive. Besides 
the natives, there were a number of Indian traders and 
the English Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner, 
with a small body of native soldiers. The latter not a 
long time before had been just such savages as those 
round about them, and the change for the better 
wrought in their physique and morale by the ordered 
discipline to which they had submitted themselves 
could hardly be exaggerated. When we arrived, the 
Commissioner and his assistant were engaged in cross- 
examining some neighbouring chiefs as to the cattle 
sickness. The English rule in Africa has been of 
incalculable benefit to Africans themselves, and indeed 
this is true of the rule of most European nations. Mis¬ 
takes have been made, of course, but they have proceeded 
at least as often from an unwise effort to accomplish too 
much in the way of beneficence, as from a desire to 
exploit the natives. Each of the civilized nations that 
has taken possession of any part of Africa has had its 
own peculiar good qualities and its own peculiar defects. 
Some of them have done too much in supervising and 
ordering the lives of the natives, and in interfering with 
their practices and customs. The English error, like 
our own under similar conditions, has, if anything, been 
