GUEST,Jim Maffie - PM
Date: 13 Jul 06 - 01:08 PM
Does anyone know the origins and name of a ditty about nineteenth-century British colonial forces in African that includes the lines, "In the end, we have the Gatling gun, and they do not"?

A bit late, but that's not unusual with us here on the Mudcat. It's not in any way a warmongering ditty, but an extract from Hilaire Belloc's Modern Traveller, which is a very funny attack on the whole myth of British Imperialism, written at it's height. (And it's a Maxim, not a Gatlin)

Blood understood knew the native mind;
He said you must be firm, but kind.
A mutiny resulted.
I shall never forget the way
That Blood stood upon this awful day
Preserved us all from death.
He stood upon a little mound
Cast his lethargic eyes around,
And said beneath his breath:
'Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim Gun, and they have not.'