Had the leaders of these invasions, or rather their clerkly secretaries,
written the plain tale of their doings they would have left some such
record as this: "There were we, a band of able-bodied, daring, needy
men. Our only trade was war; our only capital our suits of armour, our
swords and battle-axes. We heard that there was good land and rich booty
to be had in Anywhere; we went and fought for it. Our opponents were
brave men, too, but badly organised. In some places we won. There we
substituted our own law for the queer sort of law under which these
people had lived; when they resisted too strongly we had, of course, no
option but to kill them. In other places we got mixed up completely by
alliances and marriages with the old stock, and lived most agreeably
with them. In others again the natives killed us, and remained in
possession. Such was the Invasion of Anywhere."
But (I had almost said unhappily) the invaders were not content with
having swords, they had also consciences. They were Christians, and
thought it necessary to justify themselves before the High Court of
Christian Europe.
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