Colonial Office mission and a couple of thousand pounds. I need
hardly say what has been the case now. The first steps were taken
with needless disasters, and the effect has been far different
from what we intended or what was advisable. For a score of years
we (travellers) have been advising the English statesman not to
despise the cunning of barbarous tribes, never to attempt
finessing with Asiatic or African; to treat these races with
perfect sincerity and truthfulness. I have insisted, and it is
now seen with what reason, that every attempt at deception, at
asserting the "thing which is not," will presently meet with the
reward it deserves. I can only regret that my counsels have not
made themselves heard.

Yet this ignoble war between barbarous tribes whom it has long
been the fashion to pet, this poor scuffle between the
breechloader and the Birmingham trade musket, may yet in one
sense do good. It must perforce draw public attention to the West
Coast of Africa, and raise the question, "What shall we do with
it?" My humble opinion, expressed early in 1865 to the Right
Honourable Mr. Adderley, has ever been this. If we are determined
not to follow the example of the French, the Dutch, the
Portuguese, and the Spaniards, and not to use the country as a
convict station, resolving to consume, as it were, our crime at
home, we should also resolve to retain only a few ports and
forts, without territory, at points commanding commerce, after
the fashion of the Lusitanians in the old heroic days. The export
slave-trade is now dead and buried; the want of demand must
prevent its revival; and free emigration has yet to be created.
As Mr. Bright rightly teaches, strong places and garrisons are
not necessary to foster trade and to promote the success of