THE FIGHTING POWER OF NEGROES.
ANATION which has to maintain its predominant position in the world and protect enormous commer- cial interests in every continent, while employing only a volunteer army, is bound to look somewhat carefully to its chances of recruiting. India furnishes a great army in part available overseas ; and the military career thus pro- vided for warlike races with a hereditary pride in courage has solved many political difficulties. But we question whether Great Britain has made the most of her negro subjects as fighting material. Since we are to be called Carthage, let us remember the example of Hannibal ; for if we are not greatly mistaken, the veterans who exter- minated the Romans at Canine, and but for the jealousies of an oligarchy might have changed the world's history, were drawn not only from Spain, but from the country of the blacks,—the Soudan. There is, however, no occasion to return to such remote annals ; only the other day Major Macdonald's brigade proved before Omdurman that Soudanese can be turned into infantry which it would be scarcely possible to surpass. All through the Nile Campaign the blacks had shown exceptional dash, -notably in the storming of Mahmoud's zareba at the Atbara ; and theaccount published by Lieutenants Alford and Sword pays a tribute to them, which perhaps gains in value from the -fact that it is written by officers serving in a British regi- ment. "Never could one wish for a more excellent set of men -to lead into action. They love soldiering, and when off .parade amuse themselves in drilling each other. In action their eagerness to come to close quarters is almost as much a curse as a blessing, for should they see a stray Dervish anywhere near, they at once forget all about keeping the ranks, and vie with each other as to who shall be the first in at the death.'" Yet even this "last infirmity" of born soldiers did not shake their steadiness in the critical moment when twenty thousand Dervishes were bearing down upon three thousand of them. This admirable material we use, up to the present, only in Egypt, although. if we are not mistaken, there is no limit to the supply. Is there anything to be said against our raising a negro army to employ throughout our African Empire, just as in India we raise an Indian one,—perhaps even to supplement garrisons like Malta and Gibraltar ?
So far as the question of courage is concerned, the negro has proved his value in every quarter of Africa, with the white man and against him. Certain races, like the Kroo boys of the Liberian coast, appear to have no stomach for a fight, although the Krooman is remarkable for physical strength. We have never heard of distinguished prowess -among any natives of the Congo region, though the Fans, • who inhabit the Gaboon and Ogowe districts, are said to be brave, as indeed their profession of elephant-hunting • requires. But, admitting that in some parts of Africa men can only be made soldiers, as the Egyptians have 'been, against the grain and by the slow growth of confi- dence in the superiority of their officers and their arma- ment, there is no want of material to pick from. The ' Seedee boys of the Somali seaboard have a great name as fighters, and are said to be the only population which instinctively hits from the shoulders in the English fashion, a characteristic which endears them, we believe, to the British sailor. (It is notable, by the way, that a large percentage of professional pugilists are negroes.) ' Yet we never heard of Seedee boys being enlisted under • British colours. The Masai, who live inland from -Mombasa, have proved their courage against us as well as to the sorrow of their neighbours ; and they are essentially 'a fighting tribe for whose energies in this direction some ' outlet will have to be provided. When civilisation comes into contact with a race of this kind it must either enlist or exterminate,—as we have done with the Dervishes, -many of whom took service in the Egyptian Army after the Atbara. But South Africa affords the most striking ' instance of a neglected opportunity. Here, as our frontier advanced, we came into contact with two branches of ' an exceptionally fine race, the Zulus. It is hardly 'necessary to recall how Chaka deliberately organised his • people for war ; he made military service compulsory on all males, and actually forbade marriage among the young men except with his permission. The warriors, enrolled in different impis were kept in military kraals, which were, in effect, barracks, under a savage discipline; and cowardice was more dangerous than valour ; for after every campaign the troops were assembled at the Cowards' Tree, and inquiry held if any had been slack in action. Cetewayo revived the • Draconic spirit of this discipline, though he reorgan- ised his army for the use of firearms. The result was that many fled over the border to escape the service ; and these men were not infrequently employed ' against the Zulus. Serving with white men, as half- ' drilled troops, they did not distinguish themselves, and 'it has been inferred that, if Cetewayo's men charged, as 'they so often charged, up to the very muzzles of guns, it was from a fear of punishment. This we hold to be a mistake. Experience points to the fact that the African of a fighting tribe, when entirely free from European in- fluence, is brave as a man can be ; that the African who has fairly settled down among Europeans is not less 'brave ; but that the negro, when Just touched with civilisa- tion, is very hard to train. The Zulus and Matahele prove sufficiently the first these points ; and the second is not hard to establish. the Matabeleland rebellion, which followed as a cc sequence upon the Jameson folly, two corps of "Os boys" were enlisted, and did excellent service. Maj Robertson's regiment was specially mentioned for brave in the attack on Thabas Amamba, and the only criticis passed upon their conduct was that they were reckless looting, entering caves with little care whether Matabe were hiding there or not. These, however, were irregulte On the West Coast there are the West India regiment who acquired, very undeservedly, a bad name in ti Ashanti Campaign of 1872, where they were kept chief to fatigue duty. But in 1894, under the late Colon Ellis, on the expedition against the Sofas, they show( admirable steadiness under the very trying night atta( made in error by a French force under Lieutenant Marit The detachment of frontier police, largely recruited froi the waifs of Freetown, who were present on tin occasion showed the characteristics which we hal attributed to the half-civilised negro. But the We Indian soldier has lost all the qualities of a natie if he has gained those of civilised troops ; he must I shod and fed like a European. Of those who retai the free movement of savages the French have i their Senegalese perhaps the best fighting men in th continent. Certainly they undertake and accomplisl marvels—of which Major Marchand's expedition is on]. one instance—with the merest handful of these men, an it is very rare to read of desertions—though, of course every negro chief is anxious to get the Senegalese fo drill-sergeants—and cowardice apparently does not occur The Senegalese will let themselves be cut to piece in defence of their officers. The Hausas, or tic people of mixed race, Yorubas and others, whom the Niger Company and Gold Coast authorities enlist undo this name, are probably less born fighters than the French tirailleura ; but their campaign against the Fulahs show extraordinary steadiness and discipline, as well as coura Moreover, and it is a point of great importance, they ar probably better fitted to be formed into peace-soldie No negro, so far as we know, can be trusted with authorit over other negroes ; even the Senegalese may be relied o to begin slave-trading on his own account when he gets free hand. The employment of Hausas involves the d culty which apparently presents itself everywhere in Afri —that relating to women. As a rule, we fancy that the Seu galese march with theirs ; and we imagine that the Haus have a good many camp-followers. It is part of the theor of African war that the women provide the commissana Zulu impis, it is said, could cover forty and fifty miles day ; but the women carried the provisions. We do n know precisely how this question was dealt with in the Ni Campaign, but we imagine that in every fixed camp the m had their wives with them. Only a severe discipline, h that of a regular army, or that of Chaka and Ceteway curbs this tendency of the blacks ; and the deplorab mutiny of the Soudanese in Uganda, a force which h never been got completely in hand since they were tak over from Emin, arose out of this cause. But when is said, the black has the makings of an excellent soldi and we see no reason why he should be unwilling to regularly regimented and shipped from place to pia He has two limitations ; all Africans are naturally b shots—both the Zulus and the Dervishes failed in t respect—and for some reason the negro, who has le aptitude for domesticating animals, has never been cavalry soldier. But he has the great advantage,. compared with the Indian, of having no caste ceremom or prohibitions to complicate arrangements.
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