Europeans arrive!

3rd June 1894

The whites arrived on our land. Actually from far, it looked like a sea monster landing on our state. Then when it came closer, it looked peculiar and gigantic. I have never seen such a monster before. Then a few people started alighting from the monster. They were whites and spoke in a funny accent in which I do not understand. They gestured wildly, trying to communicate with me. After a while they gave up and went off. Soon, I heard from fellow villagers that this whites had went to the head of the state and negotiated for them to establish a market in our state. The state immediately went into a state of excitement as all the villagers were guessing the implications of the new treaty. Some villagers felt that this would bring about a new economic system of trade while some felt that it would allow our men to have a higher standard of living. To put it simply, everyone was optimistic about the bright future ahead. I was particularly inspire by the great "monster" in which the whites used to travel by sea to reach our state. For most of us, our wooden boats could hardly get far out into the sea, not to say witness such a modern thing sail to great seas from lands that we could not even see. The whites, later known to us as British, seemed powerful and overwhelming with their modern technological advancement and generally, the whole village felt that this could do no harm to us. We felt that they were going to impart their knowledge to us, hence developing and honing our skills. Little did we know what we would go through in the following years, in which those changed my thinking and mindset about the British.