but seeing no signs of his compliance he then ordered the neighbouring chiefs to fall on him and at length withdrew his � none too soon that very night a p of s men came down to kill him and the tent in which he and his companion had slept standing at its supposed occupants through the canvas was defeated by the forces ordered out by the resident with a loss of about men it is however worthy of note and shows how was the conspiracy that out of all the thousands promised mr was only able to call out two thousand men the appointment however that has occasioned the most criticism is that of john who got the share of in preference to his brother chiefs the of an englishman into a chief is such a very odd proceeding that it is difficult to know what to think of it john is an ambitious man and most probably has designs on the throne he is also a man who understands the value of money of which he makes a great deal out of his at the same time it is clear that so for as it goes his rule is better than that of the other chiefs he has a uniform tax fixed and has even done something in the way of starting schools and making roads from all that i have been able to gather his popularity and influence with the are though he has lived amongst them so many years and taken so many of their women to wife his appointment was a experiment and in the long run is likely to prove a mischievous one since any attempted of the settlement will be violently resisted by him on the ground of interests also if white men are set over at all they should be in the position of government officers not successful perhaps the only wise thing done in connection with the settlement was the appointment of mr c m as british it is not easy to find a man fitted for that difficult and dangerous position for the proper filling of which many are required possessed of an intimate knowledge of the their language and their mode of thought and life and being besides a very able and energetic officer mr would have saved the settlement from breaking down if anybody could have saved it as it is by the exercise of ceaseless energy and at great personal risk he has preserved it from total of the dangers and anxieties to which he is exposed the account i have given of the incident is a sufficient he is in fact nothing but a shadow for he has no force at his command to obedience to his or to prevent civil war and in oddly enough force is a remedy should one chief threaten the peace of the country he can only deal with him by calling on another chief for aid a and the settlement that is neither dignified nor right what is t of all is that the are beginning to discover what a shadow he is and with this weakened position he has to pit his single brains against all the thousand and one plots which are being woven throughout the whole country with plots the late prime minister and one of the and perhaps the most influential man in is for the return of bishop again is as usual working his own wires and creating to forward his ends whatever they may be at the moment john on the other hand is to succeed and so on ad such is the state of affairs with which our unfortunate resident has to contend invested with large imaginary powers he has in reality nothing but his personal influence and his own wits to help him he has no white man to assist him but living alone in a broken down tent and some mud huts built by his son s hands for the government have never kept their promise to put him up a house in the midst of thousands of restless and savages amidst plots against the peace and against his authority he has to do the best he can to carry out an settlement and to maintain the character of english justice and the honour of the english name were mr to throw up his post or to be the authorities would find it to keep the whole settlement fi om like a card castle nobody who understood character and aspirations could ever have executed such a settlement as sir s unless he did it in obedience to some motive or instructions that it was not advisable to publish it is true that sir s experience ot the was extremely small and that be put aside the advice of those who did know them with that contempt with which he is wont to treat and their opinions sir does not like people possibly because they are so as to openly say that in their opinion he did more mischief in africa in a few months than it would take an ordinary official a lifetime to accomplish however this may be stop his ears as much as he might sir cannot have been entirely blind to the import of what he was doing and the only tion of his action is that he entered on it more witli the idea of flattering and gratifying english public opinion than of doing his best for the or the white on their borders a great had been raised at home where in common with most south african affairs the matter was not thoroughly understood against the supposed intended of for the benefit of greedy it was argued that were anxious for the in order that they might get the land to with and doubtless this was in individual instances true i fully agree with those who think that it would be unwise to throw open to 