In Our Relations With This People We Were Simply Strangers
Exercising No Authority Or Control Whatever.
Our influence depended
entirely on persuasion; and having taught them by kind conversation
as well as by public instruction, I expected them to do what
their own sense of right and wrong dictated.
We never wished them to do right
merely because it would be pleasing to us, nor thought ourselves to blame
when they did wrong, although we were quite aware of the absurd idea
to that effect. We saw that our teaching did good to the general mind
of the people by bringing new and better motives into play. Five instances
are positively known to me in which, by our influence on public opinion,
war was prevented; and where, in individual cases, we failed,
the people did no worse than they did before we came into the country.
In general they were slow, like all the African people
hereafter to be described, in coming to a decision on religious subjects;
but in questions affecting their worldly affairs they were keenly alive
to their own interests. They might be called stupid in matters
which had not come within the sphere of their observation,
but in other things they showed more intelligence than is to be met with
in our own uneducated peasantry. They are remarkably accurate
in their knowledge of cattle, sheep, and goats, knowing exactly
the kind of pasturage suited to each; and they select with great judgment
the varieties of soil best suited to different kinds of grain.
They are also familiar with the habits of wild animals, and in general
are well up in the maxims which embody their ideas of political wisdom.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 47 of 1070
Words from 14239 to 14521
of 306638
