0444_Bk

I. A_ICIE_T HISTORY, 3
tn'bes, had from generation to generation preceded them
from the common ancestral home. These now viewed
with natural anxiety this encroachment on their preserves,
but were nevertheless compelled to submit to the iron law
of humanity and retire, ttm fierce hunter before the peaceloving
farmer, to the north, the south, the west, and possibly
even across the eastern waters. To this day some
such tribes still maintain an isolated existence in the land,
hedged in more by hereditary ignorance and apathy than
by the active oppression of their masters, or the mountain
fastnesses anmngst which they dwell.
When the Chinese invasion set in the Lolo, th_ Shan,
the Miao-tz_, and many another tribesman roamed the
country at will ; to-day he must adopt the civilisation oi
his conqueror, or win his livelihood from the sheltered
mountains of Ytinnan, Kueichou, Ss6ch'uan, Kuangsi,
Kuangtung, Ch&kiang, and of the islands of Formosa and
Hainan. The original denizen of American wood and
prarie strove with reeking tomahawk against the relentless
invader of his hunting grounds, and with his face to the foe
and his belt gory with white men's scalps, he took payment
in blood for the land from which with tardy footsteps
he receded. In China the conquest, though equally effective,
was carried out more slowly, the tribes were less
fierce and probably fewer in number than were the redskins,
the disparity in numbers also between the races was tess
marked, and whilst violent collisions occurred, "occurred
indeed all down the ages until the Manchu Tartars acquired
the throne, early Chinese history records rather a
policy of mutual toleration than of implacable hostility,