Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/220

 1G8 SOUTH AXD EAST AFRICA. repulsed Tho pacification of t!ie oiiutry was at last effected, at a cost to the Imperial exchequer of over £4,000,000. Basutoland, which is clearly marked off towards the south-east, east, and north- ei't by the main crest of the South African orographic system, and on the west by the course of the Caledon River, is now annexed to the colonial territory, but is separately administered by a Rijsident appointed by the Biiti^h Government. The whole region has an area of a little over 10,OiiO square miles, with a somewhat dense population, at least compared with most other South African lands. The census returns of 1881 gave a total population of over 128,000, which in 1887 had already risen to about 190,000, or nearly twenty to the square mile. Amongst the inhabitants are some thousand Barolong refugees from the Orange Free State, and about five hundred white settlers, missionaries and officials. Of all branches of the Bechuana family the Basutos have been the most carefully studied. Since the year 1833, Frtnch and other Protestant missionaries have been labouring in their midst, studying the national usages and contributing to modify them. Completely hemmed in as they are by the territories already occupied by European settlers — Cape Colony, Transvaal, Natal — the Basutos have been fain to adapt themselves to a new environment, and this they have doue with a remarkable degree of intelligence. In most other lands contact with the whites has been followed by the impoverishment, decay, and even extinction of the inferior races. But here the Basutos have successfully passed through the critical period of assimilation. While increasing their store of knowledge and acquiring habits of industry, they retain the full vitality of the race, and are rapidly increasing in numbers. Half a century ago their domain was almost uninhabited ; now it is one of the most flourishing countries in Africa. The civilisation of the Basutos is not merely an outward veneer, nor does it consist exclusively in the substitution of woollen and cotton garments imported from England for the native kaross of undressed skins, or in the building of little brick and stone houses instead of hovels made of mud and foliage. Thanks to the schools, to the support of which the nation devotes most of its income, the average standard of education is already higher than amongst many European populations, and at the public examinations the Basutos often take higher places than the competitors of European descent. Thousands speak English and Dutch ; they read Se-Chuana books and periodicals, and although nearly all Christians (about one-sixth of the whole nation have been educated under missionaries), they are not satisfied with slavishly accepting and repeating what they are told. Some amongst them have learnt to think for themselves, to discuss religious and social problems, and follow their own personal views. The various tribes have moreover discontinued their internecine strife, and war has ceased to be a permanent institution. The nomad pastors, plimdered of their herds, are no longer reduced to cannibalism, which formerly prevailed everywhere, and the natives now, regard with as much horror as do the whites the now abandoned " caves of the man-eaters." A sentiment of national coherence has replaced the petty village feuds, and thanks to this spirit of solidarity, com-