esort to compulsion. Though
it is quite true that the native hates to see the white men come in,
disturb his old way of life, and take the best land, still I doubt if
anything less than some positive grievance, such as forced labour or the
taking of cattle, will be likely to rouse him to another attack on the
strangers. Should such an attack occur, it would be less formidable than
that of 1896. The tribal system, already weakened, tends among the
Matabili to dissolve still further, as was seen by the absence of
notable leaders and the general want of plan and co-operation in the
late conflict. Among the Mashonas each village is independent, so that a
combined effort is still less to be feared.[58] Moreover the completion
of the two railways to Bulawayo on the western and Fort Salisbury on the
eastern side of the country now enables reinforcements to be rapidly
sent up from the coast, and has removed the only danger that really
threatened the whites in 1896--their isolation from help and from
supplies of ammunition and of food.

What, then, are the general conclusions to which this rapid survey
leads? I will summarise them.

1. Though parts of the country will remain malarious, great areas will
be sufficiently healthy to enable a large white population to grow up
and maintain itself on the soil in vigour of mind and body. In this
sense it will be a "white man's country."

2. The black population is, however, likely to remain by far the more
numerous element, partly because it is better fitted for the malarious
and the hottest regions, and partly because here, as elsewhere in South
Africa, it is by the blacks that nearly all manual labour will continue
to be done. In this sense, that of numerical preponderance, the country,
and of course especially the parts of it which lie near to and north of
the Zambesi, will be a "black man's country."

3. The material progress of the country, and the more or less rapid
increase of its white population, will depend, in the first instance, on
the greater or less success with which gold-mining is prosecuted. If the
reefs turn out well, growth will be rapid; if not, it will be slow. But
in the long run the soil and the climate will be the main factors in
material and social prosperity. These give abundant grounds for hope.
The rainfall is larger than in the interior of Cape Colony, and much of
the soil will therefore be more productive. Therewith other industries
will spring up; and