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


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which would not be easy to answer were we not
able at once to point to the many blessings which
European occupation and protection have brought
to almost all parts of the great continent. Africa
is not, as these persons say, intended to be occupied
solely by the African, and in conditions which
permit the aborigines to war upon, destroy, and
devour each other as was their early wont. Neither,
assuredly, have the European nations assumed the
guidance and governance of the black races from
purely philanthropical motives. Europe is in need
of more and still more fields for the settlement of
redundant population—that is an ever-present
necessity ; and I have never elicited a satisfactory
reply from objectors to European expansion in
Africa when I have asked them what the position of
Great Britain would be to-day if the British popula-
tions of her vast over-sea possessions were all now
confined within the restricted area of the small group
of islands which forms the cradle of the Empire.
