Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/542

 Other things that have been very fatal to the establishment of a proper relationship are the introduction of alcoholic liquors, the spread of contagious diseases, and the want of integrity on the part of those commissioned by the government to open traffic with the natives, and who have only too often consulted their own selfish interests without the least regard to the welfare of those with whom they were sent to deal. On this latter point, however, as far as South Africa is concerned, there is not much to be said; the veracity of the reports made by the commissioners can be easily put to the test, and the slightest abuse of power is quickly visited by chastisement. In the previous chapter I have attempted to show that the authorities are now in a fair way of understanding the best mode of dealing with the natives. With respect to the sale of spirits, we find, incredible as we might have imagined it, that it has been prohibited by several native princes, and that some of the colonial governments have, if not forbidden, at least limited the traffic with the independent tribes.

With so warlike a people as the Zulus, a settlement of the question of their relations with the colonists could not possibly be arrived at without an appeal to arms; and it has to be remembered that it was a question as important to South Africa as “the Eastern Question” to many of the European powers. My long residence amongst many of the tribes, and especially my peculiar sphere of work, gave me repeated opportunities of seeing them in different aspects, and of considering their relations not only with each other, but with the English and