marked because in the previous year the paramount chief had behaved falsely, had been publicly censured, and there was some uncertainty as to what further punishment he might be called upon to endure.

While Mr. Lagden was solemnly pronouncing judgment, a leader of the insurgents, as if by instinct, surmised its purport, and bolted from the assembly, escaping on horseback. There was a momentary burst of excitement, but as the English Resident treated the matter casually, the audience once more calmed down, and the proceedings went on. The title to some land in dispute was adjudged; the man who had killed the envoy was ordered to be brought to trial, and the form of his trial was prescribed. The parties guilty of instigating this insurrection were ordered to pay a fine within twelve hours; that same night the great council was dispersed, but the people refused to disband. Many lying messages were sent for the purpose of gaining time; the party of insurrection were seeking in this manner to discover whether the government intended to back up the judgment pronounced, and they soon saw by Mr. Lagden's uncompromising answers that he was in earnest. However, as an act of grace he extended the time of payment a further twelve hours, and waited on the spot to learn the result. At the end of the twenty-four hours a few cattle were seen straggling over the hill-tops, the insurgent chiefs hoping that these would be accepted as sufficient.

school-children, they squabble, grow excited, and in a moment of anger hurl at one another any objects within reach of their inexperienced hands. They are for the moment like madmen, and when the excitement has passed they sing and laugh together, and wonder how they could ever have so far forgotten themselves as to wish to harm each other.

It is hard for us, trained in a school where men and women realize from moment to moment the far-reaching effect of every act, to understand that black men and women of equal age and stature, and presumably of similar knowledge of the human heart-that such big people are, after all, merely children in mental development, and make progress only while under the guidance of white people who treat them according to their nature.

The individual negro most nearly entitled to be called great-in so far as history leaves any record-is Moshesh. He died in 1870, at the age of seventy-seven, and was buried by French-Swiss missionaries on the top of his great sacred mountain, called Taba-Basio. Moshesh is now a divinity in the minds of Basutos, and Taba-Basio an object of pilgrimage to thousands of his race, who proudly think of him as their champion who successfully waged war against the white man, and at times threatened him with extinction. From the very beginning of Boer life outside of the Cape Colony-that is to say, from 1836 down to the day when But noMoshesh died and Basutoland became a protectorate of England-the great political problem of the Boers was how to protect themselves against the Basutos. Every advance in civilization was checked by the dread of raids from over the border, all inspired, if not personally directed, by this chief.

thing short of full payment could be tol erated if English authority was to be further maintained, so Mr. Lagden at once called another council of chiefs together. The insurgents evidently had signals prearranged between the council court and the valleys where their cattle were, for no sooner had this second council been called together than all the cattle representing the fine were seen coming down the mountain-side from the place where they had been concealed. So ended a national crisis which, but for an experienced Governor, would undoubtedly have led to another of the many negro wars which constitute the monotonous and melancholy record of African life.

This episode is a typical one, as it illustrates the childlike behavior of negroes when playing at self-government with dangerous weapons in their hands. Like

The negro, at least in Africa, regards deception of any and every kind as not merely legitimate, but distinctly praiseworthy, if thereby he can accomplish some good to himself or his chief; to find fault, therefore, with Moshesh for being all his life a persistent liar is not fair in us who are brought up with different notions regarding right and wrong. The lying of Moshesh served purposes apparently very important to his country, and, from his point of view, was amply justified by results. He first of all drew the missionaries to him by pretending that he be

Europeans use, would quickly destroy the discipline which he sought to maintain over his tribe. Strong drink was a new thing at that day among the Basutos, and there was no vested liquor interest rich enough to create an opposition on the subject. At the very beginning, therefore, of this chief's conflict with the Orange Free State, he posed-before the English world particularly-as a humane and wise man, calculated, under proper missionary guidance, to effect the wholesale evangelization of the African race.

was able to skilfully profit by the prejudices which prevailed in the English cabinet against the South African Boers. Since the great Trek of 1836 England had acknowledged the two Boer republics as independent, but had not forgiven them their acts of rebellion, and the English public was ready to listen to any tales against these people. They were commonly represented as slaveholders and hostile to missionaries. Both of these charges were false, but circulated amongst willing listeners, who did not trouble themThe Orange Free State was forced three selves about hearing two sides in the times into war with Moshesh, although matter. The Boers, on their side, even the years intervening were so much occu- had they been so disposed, had no mapied with cattle-stealing and other out- chinery at their disposal by which they rages from across the Caledon that this could exert influence in Europe. They portion of South Africa may be said to were isolated in almost every sense from have had in our century something akin the outer world, had no agents abroad. to a sixteen years' war (1854-70). So and were engrossed in the mere struggle successfully, however, did Moshesh manip- for existence. The missionaries, on their ulate the missionaries about him that he side, had command of a sympathetic Engmade the English authorities, and through lish press, which from day to day perpetthem the English people, believe that the uated a suspicious attitude towards the Boers were always in the wrong, and that Boers, while it ostentatiously advocated he was deserving assistance. After each the cause of the negro. of the most violent wars the British High Commissioner at the Cape would be in voked to settle the terms of a truce, when the Orange Free State would demand simply that Moshesh should keep to his side of the boundary and punish those of his tribe who raided upon the Boer farmers. Moshesh in turn promised everything which the colonial Governor demanded, and, what was more to the point. always carefully brought into relief his warm devotion to the British crown and his love of peace; but so soon as the British High Commissioner had turned his back the raiding would go on as before, so that the kindly meant interference of the English government did practically more harm than good. One day Moshesh would give his signature to a recognition of certain boundary marks, and the next day he would say that he knew of no boundary; the treaties which he made were kept or not, as he pleased; he was false in nearly every one of his dealings with the Orange Free State, and yet the British government lent him its countenance and protection during years when his conduct was no better than that of the pirate.

The word great which I have ventured to apply to Moshesh is partly justified by the very fact that for so many years he

There is no man more inclined to speak the truth and act fairly than the Briton; and in South Africa it would be wrong to say that the English government had exercised its power with conscious cruelty or even unfriendliness towards any race or nation. But in government ignorance produces mischief akin to tyranny, and it is a melancholy fact that the race hatred now prevailing in South Africa, and which has prevailed to a greater or less degree throughout this century, can be traced to a long series of petty interferences by men who were, no doubt, wellmeaning, but incapable of forming correct opinions.

In one of the Basuto wars, for instance, the Boers had made such a successful campaign that Moshesh began to fear for his country, and so he prayed to the English authorities that they might interfere. Now as the Boers had been struggling against odds of ten to one in numbers, and as they were by treaty a quasi-independent republic, they had at least a right to expect that England would observe neutrality and allow them to fight this war out to the end; but England threw herself on the side of the Basutos by forbidding the Free State to purchase ammunition from the English surrounding colonies, thus preventing the Boers from