This case, and the highly unsatisfactory influence it began forthwith to exert on those concerned as well as on others, had, by 1906, passed almost out of the recollection of Europeans; not so with the Natives. The Christians referred to and their children, having been accorded certain liberties by the highest legal authority, were not slow in assuming a more complete independence than the said authority had supposed they would do. In short, they became what are commonly known as Ethiopians, that is, a class whose church organization, like their social life, is wholly free from European control.[99] Their denomination was the African Congregational Church. They then became a set of "free-lances," socially, politically and religiously. Is it surprising, then, that a group of barbarians with the merest veneer of Christianity, cut off from all effective controlling influences, should, in course of time, have developed rebellious tendencies? The rigid application of the principles of European civilization to ordinary heathen life, without regard to after-effects, is one of the most subtle dangers to which Natal, in common with all other countries in which there are lower races subject to Christian government, has constantly been exposed. Among the Ethiopians referred to, but especially in connection with the Trewirgie outbreak,[100] two names--Makanda and Mjongo--stand out prominently. These men were the ringleaders of the attack in question. The former, otherwise known as David, had, years before, been turned out of the tribe by the Chief on account of seditious practice, but, during the last Boer War, he associated with Mjongo, a member of the same tribe, and returned to his old haunts near Byrnetown, under the guise of a sawyer. As such, he worked in the Enon forest along with Mjongo, but, in addition, claimed to be a 'teacher of religion.' So zealous was he in this respect that he was soon recognized as the local leader of the Ethiopians,--a position he held, in conjunction with another Native, until 1906. As sawyer, he resorted to dishonest practices; as preacher, his influence was subversive of law and order. Mjongo, at this time, was a man of about 58 years of age. For more than thirty years he had been employed, off and on, as a sawyer. "By skill and assiduity," says Mr. Frank Gordon of Enon, one of his oldest masters, "he was early taken note of by bush-owners, and must, during all these years, have broken in some hundreds of sawyers. Many of these set up on their own account no doubt; many formed a sort of gang who followed Mjongo, and who, in a measure, relied on him to support them with suitable work.... This gave him a certain ascendancy over this class of industry throughout the district." Although an intelligent and competent workman, and in receipt of high wages, he was never free from debt. * * * * *