trouble taken nor � � � � � � � � � � � � temper and if my plain � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � i i m fer l cost me any of the friends that i still count i shall be sorry but i need not be ashamed in one particular the of words has been altered and the characteristic n of the language written throughout ng instead of g thus i put instead of the sound being that of soft ng in english as in singer not as in finger xv l s contents preface v chapter i elements of discord native i chapter n elements of discord foreign chapter hi the sorrows of i j to september chapter iv september i y to august chapter v the battle of september � � � � � viii contents chapter vi last of september ber chapter the november � i s chapter affairs of and november december chapter ix december to march i g chapter x the f march i g chapter xi and i g i g map op a part or the north coast of � a inch to x eight years of trouble in chapter i the elements of discord native the story i have to tell is still going on as i write the characters are alive and active it is a piece of contemporary history in the most exact sense and yet for all its and the part played in it by and and iron war ships the ideas and the manners of the native actors date back before the roman empire they are christians singers of hymns at family worship hardy their books are printed in london by or the tract society but in most other points they are the of our ancestors who drove their on the wrong side of the roman wall we have passed the eight years of trouble in they are not yet clear of the we are in the thick of the age of they are in a period of and this makes them hard to understand to us with our ideas has the first appearance of a land of an elaborate marks the race alone among terms of ceremony fly thick as oaths on board a ship each other when they meet � and as they play and for the real noble a whole private dialect is set apart e common names for an axe for blood for a knife a pig food and an oven are in his presence as the common names for a and for many offices and members of the body are in the drawing rooms of english ladies special words are set apart for his leg bis face his hair his belly his eyelids his son his daughter his wife his wife s his wife s with his wife his dwelling his spear his comb his sleep his dreams his anger the mutual anger of several chiefs his food his pleasure in eating the food and eating of his his his elements of discord native cough his sickness his recovery his death his being carried on a the of his bones and his skull after death to address these is quite a branch of knowledge and he who goes to visit a high chief does well to make sure of the of his to complete the picture the same word the watching of a virgin and the of a chief and the same word means to cherish a chief and to a favourite child men like us full of memories of hear of a man so addressed so flattered and we leap at once to the conclusion that he is hereditary and absolute hereditary he is bom of a great family he must always be a man of mark but yet his office is and in a weak sense is held on good behaviour compare the case of a chief bom one of the great ones of his he was sometimes appointed its chief officer and conventional father was loved and respected and served and fed and died for if he gave loyalty a chance and yet if he sufficiently outraged sentiment was liable to as to eight years of trouble in authority the parallel is not so close doubtless the chief if he be popular a great influence but it is limited important matters are in a f or native parliament with its and parade its endless speeches and polite allusions i say � not decided for even a small will often strike a or a province impotent in the midst of these the chief sits usually silent a kind of a audience for village and the of the seems for the moment to be final the absolute chiefs of and were addressed as plain john and thomas the chiefs of are with but the seat and extent of their actual authority is hard to find it is so in the members of the state and worse in the belly the idea of a sovereign the air the name we have the thing we are not so sure of and the process of election to the chief power is a mystery certain provinces have in their gift certain high titles or names as they are called these can only be attributed to the descendants of elements of discord native lar lines once granted each name at once the whatever that be worth of the province which it and counts as one towards the general of to be king they say � or some of them say i find few in perfect harmony � a man should resume five of these names in his own person but the case is purely local jealousy its occurrence there are rival provinces far more concerned in the of their than in the choice of a right man for king if one of these 