Page:The Past, Present and Future Trade of the Cape Colonies with Central Africa.pdf/17

 see that those countries which gave us in former times large quantities of ivory, and very little of it at present, would produce a great many articles, and our trade must increase. There are many parts of this interior which for twenty or forty miles are nothing but one fertile humus soil, the best soil to be wished for. We tried rice, &c., and we could observe that it would grow in those parts, with the best success; so it needs men to preach among natives how to rear these different articles, rice and cotton, and we should see in a few years the crops we should have, and a large export of those articles towards the South African Colonies and this country. But the law passed that no guns should be brought in, I believe had still more than these material advantages. I believe it was not the proper way to hunt the elephant down and extirpate that useful animal; and I believe now where the native has not the opportunity to kill an elephant, that he cannot do that, for he cannot do that with his assegai as he did in former times, and the best thing is to give them the chance of showing to the kings how they can get the elephants and how they can be tamed. In former times, when they had guns, there was no hope that something similar would take place. If that law had not been settled and they had still guns it was to be expected that the trade must collapse, as the elephants would soon have been extirpated. Yes, as it is in the first, it would have taken place in the second and third divisions; and, if the killing of useful animals had been going on as it was in former times, in two or three years there would have been none left in all those parts of the interior, and for this reason we must have recourse to this law. Through this law the natives are also obliged to work and to take to agriculture; and, by doing so, we may be sure that the trades of the parts will increase. (Hear, hear.) In the fifth division there are elephants plentiful still. I did not find any ostriches in the Marutse country; they commence again about 500 miles to the north. Since the death of King Sepopo and since our trade collapsed, the Portuguese are there again very successful. It would be good to give them the advice to take more care of their elephants, that they should not go and extirpate them; that also there they might be tamed—they would prove so very important as carriers in the limits of the tsetse-fly. All this has to be taken in hand as soon as possible. A great deal can be done. I observed alike among the tributary tribes of the Marutse empire that they could cultivate cotton; and I brought with me a very beautiful, and a very good, blanket which the people make themselves. There needs not much to encourage these people to make in a few years cotton as an export article.