It was he who set the native lawyer unceremoniously aside and urged competent representation in London.

The great law firm headed by Sir John Brodney was chosen; a wide-awake representative of the distinguished solicitors was now on his way to the island with the swarthy committee which had created so much interest in the metropolis during its brief stay.
Jacob von Blitz came to the island when he was twenty years old.

That was twenty years before the death of Taswell Skaggs.

He had worked in the South African diamond fields and had no difficulty in securing employment with Skaggs and Wyckholme.

Those were the days when the two Englishmen slaved night and day in the mines; they needed white men to stand beside them, for they looked ahead and saw what the growing discontent among the islanders was sure to mean in the end.
Von Blitz gradually lifted labour and responsibility from their shoulders; he became a valued man, not alone because of his ability as an overseer, but on account of the influence he had gained over the natives.