The British Empire Series Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 Excerpt: ...strip, literally middlemen, are used and abused as such. Very little is done to benefit them. So long as they are serviceable and convenient, or necessary as intermediaries for the trade with the interior, which is nearly all that English exploiters of West Africa care about and are anxious to enlarge, they are humoured. So soon as they are found troublesome they are trampled on, and their savage ways, from which we have done little or nothing to convert them, are made excuses for the trampling. This, in brief, is the meaning and method of nearly every one of the dozens of "little wars" that we have been waging in West Africa for years past; and the faults and dangers of the process are glaringly exhibited in the troubles consequent on the attempts made in the present year (1898), to force what is called civilised rule on the savages in the Sierra Leone Protectorate. It appears to be inevitable, and it may be desirable, that we should establish efficient control over all the millions of inhabitants in so much of West Africa as we lay claim to; that we should put an end to the base superstitions and cruel practices which are prevalent among them, to the polygamy, the domestic slavery and much else, in some districts the human sacrifices and cannibalism, which we object to; that we should induce them to supply us with the palm-oil, the rubber, and other commodities their country yields, and, by scientific cultivation, to greatly increase the quantity and variety of its produce; even that we should teach them to wear European clothing, and adopt European ways of living. If these objects, or any of them, are to be aimed at, however, surely the work ought to be done, and can only be really done, by humane methods. The negro, like other beings superior ...