is a Zulu spoiled," said Cetywayo, King of the Zulus, when
arguing the question of Christianity with the Secretary for Native
Affairs; and such is, not altogether wrongly, the general feeling of
the natives. With the traders it has been different. Some have dealt
honestly--and more, it is to be feared, dishonestly--not only with those
with whom they have had dealings, but with their fellow-subjects and
their Government. It is these men chiefly who have, in defiance of the
law, supplied the natives with those two great modern elements of danger
and destruction, the gin-bottle and the rifle. The first is as yet
injurious only to the recipients, but it will surely react on those who
have taught them its use; the danger of possessing the rifle may come
home to us any day and at any moment.

Civilisation, it would seem, when applied to black races, produces
effects diametrically opposite to those we are accustomed to observe
in white nations: it debases before it can elevate; and as regards the
Kafirs it is doubtful, and remains to be proved, whether it has much
power to elevate them at all. Take the average Zulu warrior, and it
will be found that, in his natural state, his vices are largely
counter-balanced by his good qualities. In times of peace he is a
simple, pastoral man, leading a good-humoured easy life with his wives
and his cattle, perfectly indolent and perfectly happy. He is a kind
husband and a kinder father; he never disowns his poor relations; his
hospitality is extended alike to white and black; he is open in his
dealings and faithful to his word, and his honesty is a proverb in the
land. True, if war breaks out and the thirst for slaughter comes upon
him, he turns into a different man. When the fierce savage spirit is
once aroused, blood alone will cool it. But even then he has virtues. If
he is cruel, he is brave in the battle; if he is reckless of the lives
of others, he regards not his own; and when death comes, he meets
it without fear, and goes to the spirits of his fathers boldly, as a
warrior should. And now reverse the picture, and see him in the dawning
light of that civilisation which, by intellect and by nature, he is some
five centuries behind. See him, ignoring its hidden virtues, eagerly
seize and graft its most prominent vices on to his own besetting sins.
Behold him by degrees adding cunning to his cruelty, avarice to his love
of possession, replacing his bravery by coarse bombast and insolen