THE EUROPEAN SETTLERS 
169 
speaking, round Blantyre; and if our labourers do not receive sufficient food cloth 
or money in lieu thereof they are bound to steal from the native gardens and so get into 
trouble. I wonder some of the planters and traders here do not see that it is far and 
away the best policy to treat one’s labourers generously in the way of food. There 
is nothing which will attach the negro more to your service than to give him plenty 
to eat. A man who feeds him welL may beat him as much as he pleases in moderation 
and the man will still remain attached and return to the same plantation year after year ; 
besides you can get a lot more work out of the men if they are well nourished, and 
really I assure you no one ever did such credit to good food as a negro whose eyes 
are bright whose skin is clear and whose temper is sunny, when he is well fed. 
“Talking about beating; of course it goes on to some extent though it is illegal 
in the eyes of the Administration, but a certain amount 
of discipline must be kept up by the head man of a 
gang and trifling corrections are not noticed by the 
authorities provided the men make no complaint; but 
in old days, I am told, before there was any Government 
here the amount of flogging that went on was a great 
deal too bad, and some cases were downright savage. 
The instrument used is a ‘ chicote ’ 1 — a long, thin, 
rounded strip of hippopotamus hide about the thickness 
of a finger .... stiff but slightly pliant. If this is 
applied to the bare skin it almost invariably breaks it 
and causes bleeding. For my part I am jolly careful 
not to get into trouble, and when one of my chaps was 
caught stealing the other day I preferred to bring him 
up before the Police Court and have him punished there 
instead of taking the law into my own hands. 
* * * * # 
“ The first part of the estate we began to clear was 
the possible site for a house. I chose this on 'a little 
knoll overlooking the Lunzu and about fifty feet above 
the bank of the river which is seventy yards distant. I 
flattened the top of the knoll and had to cut down one 
or two trees. After this I selected the site of my 
nurseries and resolved to thoroughly clear, in addition, 
about 100 acres for planting. The process of clearing 
is now going on briskly. I get up every morning at six and walk over from McClear’s 
house to my own plantation and turn out my Atonga who are living in misasa (ram¬ 
shackle shelters of sticks and thatch which they make to house themselves). Then the 
men turn out with cutlasses and axes and set to work cutting down the terribly rampant 
grass and herbage, and here and there a useless, shadeless tree or shrub. I am carefully 
leaving all the big trees for the shade they will give to the coffee ; they will grow all the 
finer for the clearing of the growth around them. 
“All the bush which is thus cut down will be left to lie in the sun and dry. 
Then the Atonga will pile it into heaps a few yards distant one from the other and 
set fire to it, and when it is burnt to ashes they will spread the ashes over the soil 
and dig it in. I am advised to get native women of the district to do this for me 
with native hoes. The women here work exceedingly hard — much better than the 
men — and ask less pay. A little while later on they will be beginning to prepare 
their own plantations before the big rains so it is as well to get them now if 1 can. 
For chance labour like this, for any term less than a month and within their own 
district I shan’t have to register them.” 
1 A Portuguese word.—H. H. J. 
A “CAI'ITAO” 
