TAMING THE SAVAGE 217 that such a people as the Matabele can, in the early days of deliverance from barbarous and despotic rule, be ruled entirely by loving-kindness, or by the slow method of law as at home, and that summary and stern dealing with them, even under the most strained circumstances, is reprehensible, is the idea of one who sleeps thousands of miles away, undisturbed by dreams of assault and murder by fierce and naked savages, and who is forgetful of the fact that cruelty and savagery require in justice the strong, resolute hand. These men, and the methods of ruling them, are not to be judged from a European standpoint ; appeal to right and justice would in general be pure futility ; a nation of butchers, steeped for generations in the blood of their weaker brethren, their only master is a perception of moral and physical superiority, and where this is the case, humanitarian principles, instead of dictating a milder course, in reality impose the sternest treatment."

It is seldom in the breaking of a broncho that lasso or spur is not at some stage required.

Generally the use of the former is the introduction to the process. The Government of this province has gone much farther than this in its dealings with the wild negroid, and has exerted remarkable influence with so small a display of force as to be practically nothing at all.

The great obstacles encountered are the impassability of the countries, and the difficulty of persuading the mass of the natives of honest