520 
African Game Trails 
and endless internecine warfare. They can 
not govern themselves from within; there¬ 
fore they must be governed from without; 
and their need is met in highest fashion by 
firm and just control, of the kind that on 
the whole they are now getting. At Ki- 
tanga the natives on the place sometimes 
worked about the house; and they took 
care of the stock. The elders looked after 
the mild little humped cattle—bulls, steers,' 
the time to do their full part in ensuring a 
successful hunt to me, an entire stranger. 
All the settlers I met treated me with the 
same large and thoughtful courtesy—and 
what fine fellows they were! And their 
wives even finer. At Bondoni was Percival, 
a tall sinewy man, a fine rider and shot; 
like so many other men whom I met, he 
wore merely a helmet, a flannel shirt, short 
breeches or trunks, and puttees and boots, 
From a photograph by Lady Pease. 
and cows; and the children, often the 
merest toddlers, took naturally to guarding 
the parties of pretty little calves, during the 
day-time, when they were separated from 
their mothers. It was an ostrich-farm, too; 
and in the morning and evening we would 
meet the great birds, as they went to their 
grazing-grounds or returned to the ostrich 
boma, mincing along with their usual air of 
foolish stateliness, convoyed by two or three 
boys, each with a red blanket, a throwing 
stick, copper wire round his legs and arms, 
and perhaps a feather stuck in his hair. 
There were a number of ranches in the 
neighborhood—using “neighborhood” in 
the large Western sense, for they were many 
miles apart. The Hills, Clifford and Har¬ 
old, were Africanders; they knew the coun¬ 
try, and were working hard and doing well; 
and in the midst of their work they spared 
leaving the knee entirely bare. I shall not 
soon forget seeing him one day, as he walked 
beside his twelve-ox team, cracking his long 
whip, while in the big wagon sat pretty Mrs. 
Percival with a puppy, and a little cheetah 
cub, which we had found and presented to 
her and which she was taming. They all— 
Sir Alfred, the Hills, every one—behaved as 
if each was my host and felt it peculiarly in¬ 
cumbent on him to give me a good time; 
and among these hosts one who did very 
much for me was Captain Arthur Slatter. I 
was his guest at Kilimakin, where he was run¬ 
ning an ostrich-farm; he had lost his right 
hand, yet he was an exceedingly good game 
shot, both with his light and his heavy rifles. 
At Kitanga, Sir Alfred’s place, two Boers 
were working, Messrs. Prinsloo and Klop- 
per. We forgathered, of course, as I too 
was of Dutch ancestry; they were strong, 
