ch
they enjoyed on the coast of Africa. The methods employed by France and
Germany present a happy union of individual initiative with intelligent
and persistent direction by the State; for it must be remembered that up
to the year 1880 the former possessed few good bases of operation, and
the latter none whatever. The natural portals of Africa were in the
hands of Great Britain and Portugal. It is difficult to say what would
have been the present state of Africa if everything had depended on the
officials at Downing Street and Whitehall. Certainly the expansion of
British influence in that continent (apart from the Nile valley) would
have been insignificant but for the exertions of private individuals.
Among them the names of Joseph Thomson, Sir William Mackinnon, Sir John
Kirk, Sir Harry Johnston, Sir George Goldie, Sir Frederick Lugard, John
Mackenzie, and Cecil Rhodes, will be remembered as those of veritable
Empire-builders.

Viewing the matter from the European standpoint, the partition of Africa
may be regarded as a triumph for the cause of peace. In the years
1880-1900, France, Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, Italy, and Belgium
came into possession of new lands far larger than those for which French
and British fleets and armies had fought so desperately in the
eighteenth century. If we go further back and think of the wars waged
for the possession of the barrier towns of Flanders, the contrast
between the fruitless strifes of that age and the peaceful settlement of
the affairs of a mighty continent will appear still more striking. It is
true, of course, that the cutting up of the lands of natives by white
men is as indefensible morally as it is inevitable in the eager
expansiveness of the present age. Further, it may be admitted that the
methods adopted towards the aborigines have sometimes been disgraceful.
But even so, the events of the years 1880-1900, black as some of them
are, compare favourably with those of the long ages when the term
"African trade" was merely a euphemism for slave-hunting.

* * * * *

NOTE.--The Parliamentary Papers on Angra Pequena (1884) show that the
dispute with Germany was largely due to the desire of Lord Derby to see
whether the Government of Cape Colony would bear the cost of
administration of that whole coast if it were annexed. Owing to a change
of Ministry at Cape Town early in 1884, the affirmative reply was very
long in coming; and meant