M’PLAANK,

Son of Maguende, brother of Cetewayo.”

There is unhappily a tendency among persons living for any length of time among heathen people, to think and speak with a certain contempt for those people, at whose moral elevation they may even be sincerely aiming.  They see all that is bad in these “inferior races,” and little that is good.  This was not so in the case of the greatest and most successful Missionaries.  They never lost faith in human nature, even at its lowest estate, and hence they were able to raise the standard of the least promising of the outcast races of the world.  This faith in the possibility of the elevation of these races has been firmly held, however, by some who know them best, and have lived among them the longest.

Mr Rider Haggard writes thus on this subject:—­“So far as my own experience of natives has gone, I have found that in all the essential qualities of mind and body they very much resemble white men.  Of them might be aptly quoted the speech Shakespeare puts into Shylock’s mouth:  ’Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?’ In the same way, I ask, has a native no feelings or affections? does he not suffer when his parents are shot, or his children stolen, or when he is driven a wanderer from his home?  Does he not know fear, feel pain, affection, hate, and gratitude?  Most certainly he does; and this being so, I cannot believe that the Almighty, who made both white and black, gave to the one race the right or mission of exterminating or of robbing or maltreating the other, and calling the process the advance of civilization.  It seems to me, that on only one condition, if at all, have we the right to take the black men’s land; and that is, that we provide them with an equal and a just Government, and allow no maltreatment of them, either as individuals or tribes, but, on the contrary, do our best to elevate them, and wean them from savage customs.  Otherwise, the practice is surely undefensible.

“I am aware, however, that with the exception of a small class, these are sentiments which are not shared by the great majority of the public, either at home or abroad.”

A French gentleman, who has been for many years connected with the Missions Evangeliques of France, related recently in my presence some incidents of the early experience of French Missionaries in South Africa.  One of these had laboured for years without encouragement.  The hearts of the native people around him remained unmoved.  One day, however, he spoke among them especially of Calvary, of the sufferings of Christ on the Cross.  A Chief who was present left the building in which the teacher was speaking.  At the close, this Chief was found sitting on the ground outside, his back to the door, his head bent forward and buried in his arms.  He was weeping.  When spoken to, he raised his arm with a movement of deprecation, and, in a voice full of pity and indignation,