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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 V 
 
 https://archive.org/details/gospelamongbechuOOprim 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 
THE GOSPEL 
 
 AMONG 
 
 THE BECHUANAS, 
 
 AND OTHEE 
 
 bribes of Southern Africa. 
 
 ft. f y uJ ' 
 
 ffj ^ / ^ ^ 
 
 PREPARED FOE THE AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, AND 
 REVISED BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 
 
 NO. 146 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1846, by 
 the American Sunday-school Union, in the clerk’s office of the 
 District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The labours and adventures of Robert 
 Moffat, an English missionary, among the 
 savage tribes of southern Africa, form one 
 of the most striking chapters in the history 
 of modern missions. His work has been 
 read by thousands in this country as well 
 as in England, and to bring some of its 
 most interesting and instructive passages 
 before the young, who might be deterred 
 from the perusal of the larger volume, the 
 following abridgment has been prepared. 
 
 That the noble, self-denying spirit of the 
 intrepid Moffat may be awakened in the 
 hearts of our children, and that many of 
 
 them may devote themselves to the service 
 1 * 5 
 
6 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 of God among the heathen, is the prayer 
 of the author of this abridgment, who with 
 the same desire has already given to the 
 Sunday-school libraries, through the Ame- 
 rican Sunday-school Union, the life of the 
 “ Martyr Missionary.” 
 
 The Rev. Robert Moffat was sent out by 
 the London Missionary Society, in 1816 , 
 and has been in their service in South Africa 
 about a quarter of a century. The mis- 
 sions in that part of the continent have been 
 strengthened by the labours of other socie- 
 ties, and have been greatly blessed, so that 
 the history of no missions in modern times 
 affords more precious and remarkable evi- 
 dence of the omnipotence of divine grace. 
 
THE 
 
 GOSPEL AMONG THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Early Missionary Efforts in South Africa. 
 
 Two young men stood up together in Sur- 
 rey Chapel, London, in the year 1816, and 
 were set apart for the missionary work. One 
 of them "was named John Williams. He 
 went to the South Sea Islands, and was there 
 the means of turning many of the pagans to 
 righteousness ; and, after a short career of 
 great usefulness, he was murdered by the na- 
 tives of an island to which he was attempting 
 to carry the news of salvation. He has since 
 been called “The Martyr Missionary;” and 
 his memoirs have been widely read among the 
 books of the American Sunday-school Union. 
 
8 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 The other young man was Robert Moffat, 
 who went to Africa. His adventures there have 
 attracted much attention, and the accounts 
 which he has given of the triumphs of the 
 gospel among the degraded people of that be- 
 nighted continent, are among the most won- 
 derful records of modern missions. 
 
 Before we enter upon the narrative of Mof- 
 fat’s labours, let us look at Africa as it is, and 
 see what a field it opens for missionary efforts. 
 There is no part of the world of which so little 
 is known as of the interior of this continent. 
 Many travellers have lost their lives in trying 
 to explore it ; and it is probable that the mis- 
 sionary, with the “lamp of life ” in his hand, 
 will penetrate its dark places before the travel- 
 ler who goes with the torch of science, or the 
 trader in search of gain. 
 
 Once this land was blessed with the light 
 of the gospel. But long centuries of darkness 
 have settled upon it. The sons and daughters 
 of Africa have been carried captive into dis- 
 tant lands : her people have sunk into the 
 lowest depths of mental and moral degrada- 
 tion ; till now it would be impossible to find on 
 the face of the earth a race of men who need 
 the gospel more, or who are more incapable 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 9 
 
 of receiving it. Some of the African people are 
 among the most debased of the human family. 
 
 The labours of Mr. Moffat were in South Af- 
 rica, where the lowest specimens of the race 
 may be found, and the peculiar beauty of the 
 gospel of Christ appears in its power to change 
 the hearts and the lives of men, even of Hot- 
 tentots, whose savage and brutal habits seemed 
 to place them almost beneath the human race, 
 and in the rank of the beasts of the field. 
 
 The Moravians were the first to attempt a 
 mission to the Hottentots. In 1736, George 
 Schmidt left Germany, his native country, and 
 raised the standard of the cross in the “ Vale 
 of Grace,” as his first station in South Africa 
 was called, and there pointed the poor, de- 
 spised, and perishing natives to the Lamb of 
 God. His labours were attended with success, 
 and he had the joy of seeing some of these de- 
 graded people led, as he hoped, to the foot of the 
 cross. The Dutch, at this time, had a colony 
 at the Cape of Good Hope, and when the mis- 
 sionary was compelled to go home on a visit 
 in 1743, the Dutch refused to permit him to 
 return and resume his mission, lest the instruc- 
 tion of the natives should interfere with the 
 avaricious designs of the colonists. 
 
10 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 For fifty years no missionary was there. In 
 1792, three Moravians went out and found 
 the spot where Schmidt had planted the seeds 
 of divine truth. And they found some of 
 the fruit ! One old woman remembered the 
 missionary, and produced a New Testament 
 which he had given her. Others, who had 
 heard of Schmidt, welcomed the new mission- 
 aries, and though their trials were many and 
 great, the Lord blessed them, and their mis- 
 sions have prospered there to this day. 
 
 Dr. Vanderkemp landed at Cape Town, 
 with two associates, in 1799 ; and leaving the 
 colony, he penetrated into the interior, and 
 took up his residence near to the Kafirs, a 
 barbarous people, who looked upon him as a 
 spy, and suspected that he had come to get 
 possession of their land and cattle. These 
 people had suffered so much from the Dutch 
 farmers, that they regarded every white man 
 as their enemy; and it is wonderful that they 
 did not fall upon the missionary and put him 
 to death. He carried nothing to recommend 
 himself to them, nor any means of defence, and 
 his appearance was not likely to make much 
 impression on their minds. He went without 
 hat, or shoes, or stockings, and trusted in God 
 
THE BECHTJANAS. 1 1 
 
 and the truth to win his way to the hearts of 
 the natives. 
 
 They wondered what brought him there, 
 and one of them said to him, “ Did this plan 
 spring out of your own heart?” for they could 
 not believe that a man would come there only 
 to tell them of God and the way to escape the 
 wrath to come. When at last Dr. Vander- 
 kemp and his companions obtained permission 
 to remain, they selected a spot and built a hut, 
 which they thatched with grass and rushes. 
 Dr. Vanderkemp was a learned and polished 
 man ; he had received honours in Europe for 
 his progress in literature, in philosophy, di- 
 vinity, physic, and the military art. He was 
 not only a profound student in ancient lan- 
 guages, but in all the modern European 
 tongues, even to that of the Highlanders of 
 Scotland; and had distinguished himself in 
 the armies of his country, in connection 
 with which he rose to be captain of horse and 
 lieutenant of the dragoon guards. Yet this 
 man, constrained by the “love of Christ,” 
 could cheerfully lay aside all his honours, 
 mingle with savages, bear their sneers and 
 contumely, condescend to serve the meanest 
 of his troublesome guests — take the axe, the 
 
12 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 sickle, the spade, and the mattock — lie down 
 on the place where dogs repose, and spend 
 nights with his couch drenched with rain, the 
 cold wind bringing his fragile house about his 
 ears. Though annoyed by the nightly visits 
 of hungry hyenas, sometimes destroying his 
 sheep, and even seizing the leg of beef at his 
 tent door, — though compelled to wander about 
 in quest of lost cattle, and exposed to the per- 
 plexing and humbling caprice of those whose 
 characters were stains on human nature — 
 whisperings occasionally reaching his ears 
 that murderous plans were in progress for his 
 destruction — he calmly proceeded with his be- 
 nevolent efforts, and to secure his object, would 
 stoop with “the meekness of wisdom” to please 
 and propitiate the rude and wayward children 
 of the desert whom he sought to bless. 
 
 In the midst of all his discouragements, 
 when he discovered the faintest image of his 
 Lord and Master in a poor Hottentot or Kafir, 
 he was enraptured. When told by a Hotten- 
 tot woman that she incessantly prayed to Je- 
 sus to reveal himself to her, and teach her 
 what she ought to know, his heart was filled 
 with joy ; and he adds, “ I have prayed the 
 Lord that it might please him to accompany 
 
THE BECHUANA9. 
 
 13 
 
 the unworthy efforts of his vile servant with 
 the influences of his Spirit. And, oh, how did 
 my soul rejoice that the Lord had given me, in 
 this wilderness among tigers and wolves, and 
 at such a distance from Christians, a poor hea- 
 then woman with whom I could converse con- 
 fidently of the mysteries of the hidden com- 
 munion with Christ. Oh, that I may not be 
 deceived. Lo, my winter is past — the voice 
 of the turtle is already heard in the land.” 
 
 Dr. Vanderkemp continued to reside among 
 the Kafirs for some time, but was, by and by, 
 compelled to retire, and labour with the Mora- 
 vian missionaries among the Hottentots. He 
 took a bold and decided stand in behalf of these 
 natives against their white oppressors, and ter- 
 minated a life of great devotion and usefulness 
 in 1811 , dying with these memorable words 
 on his lips : “ All is well.” 
 
 In the year 1816 ., Mr. Joseph Williams, 
 with his wife and child, took up his abode at 
 the Kat river. Short as Dr. Vanderkemp’s 
 labours among the Kafirs were, he left a sa- 
 vour of the gospel behind him, which pre- 
 pared the way for others, after many long 
 years had rolled by, during which many of the 
 Doctor’s acquaintances had been taught, by 
 2 
 
14 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 fearful lessons, not to admire the nation of 
 whites, but rather to increase their suspicions 
 and alarms. But Jankanna’s (Vanderkemp’s) 
 name still diffused a fragrance among the yet 
 untamed and unsubdued Kafirs. 
 
 Temporary houses were raised, ground was 
 cleared for cultivation, a water-course and dam 
 were in preparation, while the Kafirs assem- 
 bled for daily instruction ; and the beautiful 
 vale which had often echoed to the din of 
 savage war, was likely soon to become a 
 peaceful Zion, to which the Kafir tribes would 
 repair to hold their solemn feasts. Little more 
 than two years had run their round when 
 Williams was numbered with the dead. His 
 beloved partner, a woman of no common forti- 
 tude, was his sole attendant in the lonely vale, 
 and saw in her expiring husband the bright 
 prospects they had of permanent success 
 afaiong the Kafirs, and into which she had en- 
 tered with all her energies of mind and body, 
 blasted for a season. About to be left with two 
 fatherless babes, her circumstances were such 
 as even her own pen would fail to describe ; 
 but the widow’s God was there. After being 
 enabled to resign her dearest earthly friend, 
 she asked one of the Kafirs if he had “ No 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 15 
 
 wish to see his teacher before the Lord took 
 him to himself? ‘ Yes,’ was his reply, ‘ but I 
 do not like to ask you, because I think it will 
 make your heart sore.’ He then approached, 
 and sat down by the bedside. I asked him if 
 he prayed! ‘Yes,’ he said. And what do 
 you pray for ? £ I pray the Lord, as he had 
 
 brought us a teacher over the great sea water, 
 and hath thus long spared him to tell us His 
 word, that He would be pleased to raise him 
 up again to tell us more of that Great Word.’ 
 I asked, Do you pray for me ? ‘ Yes ; I pray 
 
 that if the Lord should take away your hus- 
 band from you, he would support and protect 
 you and your little ones in the midst of this 
 wild and barbarous people.’ ” 
 
 Cheerless and lonely must have been the 
 first days of her widowhood. She instructed 
 her semi-civilized attendants to prepare the 
 wood, and make a coffin ; and, with a weep- 
 ing band, followed the desire of her eyes to 
 the silent dust, there to slumber till* the morn- 
 ing of the resurrection, when he who cuts 
 short his work in righteousness, will show that 
 Williams, in his short career, finished the work 
 given him to do. 
 
 These are the beginnings of the missionary 
 
16 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 work in South Africa. Those engaged in it 
 were few and feeble, and often ready to perish ; 
 but the God of missions watched over them, 
 and other labourers, including those sent out 
 by the Glasgow, the London, the Wesleyan, 
 and American Missionary Societies, have en- 
 tered those fields. The united efforts of these 
 ardent men have already accomplished won- 
 ders there. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Bushmen of South Africa. 
 
 The Bushmen in Southern Africa are a 
 savage and degraded race of men, whose his- 
 tory and habits have been the subject of much 
 difference of opinion among those who have 
 come in contact with them. They are evi- 
 dently the poorest and feeblest and most de- 
 spised of all the sable descendants of Ham. 
 When Dr. Vanderkemp went to Kafri-land, 
 three missionaries, Messrs. Kicherer, Kramer, 
 and Edwards took their way toward the Zak 
 river, between four and five hundred miles 
 north-east of the southern point of Africa. 
 The circumstances that led them to this dis- 
 tant and unpromising field were remarkable, 
 and showed the hand of God most clearly. 
 It seems the Dutch Farmers, having suffered 
 severely from the ravages of the Bushmen 
 among their flocks and herds, had made a 
 treaty with these barbarians. The Bushmen 
 seeing Florus Fischer, who was a good man, 
 2 * 
 
18 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 solemnly appeal to Almighty God to witness 
 the transaction, and observing that he was in 
 the habit of assembling his family for worship, 
 morning and evening, were led to inquire into 
 the Divine character, and to solicit a Christian 
 teacher. Mr. Fischer cheerfully afforded en- 
 couragement ; and, though it appeared some- 
 thing like hoping against hope, he, at their re- 
 quest, took some of the principal of them to 
 Cape Town for this purpose. 
 
 They arrived there just before the three 
 missionaries reached Cape Town, a circum- 
 stance which left the latter no reason to doubt 
 of being called of God to labour in that quarter. 
 The brethren received unbounded kindness 
 and attention from the government, and assist- 
 ance from the farmers, who loaded them with 
 things requisite to commence the station ; 
 while some accompanied them to the spot they 
 first selected, which they named “Happy 
 Prospect.” Here Messrs. Kichererand Kra- 
 mer laboured with primitive zeal and simpli- 
 city, to raise the most abject of our species ; 
 and had not their faith been strong in the pro- 
 mises of God, they must have sunk under the 
 very thought of making an attempt. 
 
 From this station on Zak river the mission- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 19 
 
 aries looked farther on to other tribes and more 
 distant regions ; to the Namaquas, the Caran- 
 nas, the Griquas, and Bechuanas ; and from 
 the accounts furnished by these missionaries, 
 the civilized world became acquainted with 
 the fact that these tribes inhabited those re- 
 gions. The station at Zak river was aban- 
 doned in 1806 , on account of the difficulty of 
 sustaining the labourers in a sterile country, 
 where rain seldom fell, and where it was 
 necessary to depend on foreign supplies which 
 were obtained only at great expense and with 
 great difficulty. But the station was aban- 
 doned with painful regret. The missiona- 
 ries had rejoiced in the conversion of a num- 
 ber of the degraded natives, who were after- 
 wards greatly useful in the extension of the 
 gospel. 
 
 It will be interesting, before we proceed, to 
 give a more particular description of these 
 Bushmen, who are considered by many to be 
 the most ignorant and miserable people on the 
 face of the earth. 
 
 They are originally Hottentots, and are to 
 be found scattered, though thinly, among all 
 the Bechuana tribes of the interior with which 
 we are acquainted, even as far as the Mam- 
 
20 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 poor lake, about eight hundred miles north of 
 Lattakoo. The Marosa, or Baroa Bushmen, 
 are found of the same description as those ju9t 
 beyond the boundaries of the colony ; and from 
 the oldest traditions we can find among the 
 Corannas and Namaquas, who are the un- 
 mixed Hottentots, as also from the Bechuanas, 
 it may be demonstrated, that they existed a 
 wandering people without homes, or cattle, or 
 even nationality of character. That they de- 
 scended from Hottentots, requires little argu- 
 ment to prove. Probably there are connected 
 with all the tribes of Africa numbers of a 
 nomadic character, whose origin will throw 
 light on the history of the Bushmen. Con- 
 nected with each of the towns among that 
 people, there are great numbers of what are 
 called “ Balala,” poor ones, who stand in the 
 same relation to the Bechoanas in which the 
 Bushmen formerly stood to the Hottentots, and 
 whose .origin was doubtless of the same nature. 
 These Balala were once inhabitants of the 
 towns, and have been permitted or appointed 
 to live in country places for the purpose of 
 procuring skins of wild animals, wild honey, 
 and roots, for their respective chiefs. The 
 number of these country residents was in- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 21 
 
 creased, by the innate love of liberty, and the 
 scarcity of food in towns, or within the bound- 
 aries to which they were confined by water 
 and pasture. These again formed themselves 
 into small communities, though of the most 
 temporary character, their calling requiring 
 migration, having no cattle of any description. 
 Accustomed from infancy to the sweets of 
 comparative liberty, which they vastly prefer 
 to slavery in the settlements, they would make 
 any sacrifice to please their often distant supe- 
 riors, rather than be confined to the irksome- 
 ness of a town life. Such is their aversion, 
 that chiefs sometimes take armed men, and 
 travel a hundred miles into desert places, in 
 order to bring back Balala, whom they wished 
 to assist them in watching and harvesting the 
 gardens of their wives ; and in such seasons 
 they will frequently wander about, and fix their 
 domiciles in the most desert and unfrequented 
 spots, to escape this easy, but to them galling 
 duty, which is only required in a year of 
 plenty. 
 
 Though in general they are able to state to 
 what chief or tribe they belong, yet, from want 
 of intercourse, and from desolating wars, which 
 are only waged where there is a prospect of 
 
22 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 plunder, great numbers of them become, in 
 their isolated position, independent. They are 
 never permitted to keep cattle, and are exposed 
 to the caprice, cupidity, and tyranny of the 
 town lords, whenever they happen to come in 
 their way. They live a hungry life, being- 
 dependent on the chase, wild roots, berries, 
 locusts, and indeed any thing eatable that 
 comes within their reach ; and when they 
 have a more than usual supply, they will bury 
 it in the earth, from their superiors, who are in 
 the habit of taking what they please. Resist- 
 ance on their part would be instantly avenged 
 with the deadly javelin. When hunting par- 
 ties go out to kill game, the Balala, men and 
 women, are employed to carry grievous bur- 
 dens of flesh to the rendezvous of the hunters ; 
 in return for which, they receive the offals of 
 the meat, and are made drudges so long as the 
 party remains. They are never permitted to 
 wear the furs of foxes and other animals they 
 obtain. The flesh they may eat; but the 
 skins are conveyed to the towns, for which 
 they obtain a small piece of tobacco, or an old 
 spear or knife. Indeed, all the valuable skins 
 of the larger animals, which they sometimes 
 procure by hunting and pitfalls, as well as the 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 23 
 
 better portions of the meat, they have to yield 
 to their nominal masters, except when they 
 succeed in secreting the whole for their own 
 use. From the famishing life to which they 
 are exposed, their external appearance and^ 
 stature are precisely to the Bechuanas what 
 the Bushmen are to the Hottentots. Those, 
 however, who live in places which afford a 
 better supply of food, are generally of equal 
 stature with those who live in towns. The 
 natives, throughout southern Africa, are like 
 plants on a sterile soil, stunted in growth, 
 while under better circumstances the same 
 race would be as trees instead of shrubs. 
 
 Mr. Moffat, from whom we have derived 
 these facts, further says concerning these poor 
 Bushmen : “ They have neither house nor 
 shed, neither flocks nor herds. Their most 
 delightful home is ‘afar in the desert,’ the 
 unfrequented mountain pass, or the secluded 
 recesses of a cave or ravine. They remove 
 from place to place, as convenience or neces- 
 sity requires. The man takes his spear, and 
 suspends his bow and quiver on his shoulder ; 
 while the woman frequently, in addition to the 
 burden of a helpless infant, carries a mat, an 
 earthen pot, a number of ostrich egg-shells 
 
24 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 and a few ragged skins, bundled on her head 
 or shoulder ; and these Saabs, as they have 
 been designated, bearing in their character a 
 striking resemblance to the Sauneys, or Ba- 
 lala, (poor,) among the Bechuanas, have, with 
 few exceptions, as already shown, been from 
 time immemorial the sons of the field. Ac- 
 customed to a migratory life, and entirely de- 
 pendent on the chase for a precarious subsist- 
 ence, they have contracted habits which could 
 scarcely be credited of human beings. These 
 habits have by no means been improved by in- 
 cessant conflict with their superior neighbours, 
 who, regarding might as identical with right, 
 kill their game, plunder their honey nests, 
 seize upon their fountains, and deprive them 
 of their country. 
 
 “ Poor Bushman ! thy hand has been against 
 every one, and every one’s hand against thee. 
 For generations past they have been hunted 
 like partridges in the mountains. Deprived 
 of what nature had made their own, they be- 
 came desperate, wild, fierce, and indomitable 
 in their habits. Hunger compels them to feed 
 on every thing edible. Ixias, wild garlic, the 
 core of aloes, gum of acacias, and several 
 other plants and berries, some of which are 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 25 
 
 extremely unwholesome, constitute their fruits 
 of the field ; while almost every kind of living 
 creature is eagerly devoured, lizards, locusts, 
 and grasshoppers not excepted. The poison- 
 ous, as well as innoxious serpents, they roast 
 and eat. They cut off the head of the former, 
 which they dissect, and carefully extract the 
 bags, or reservoirs of poison, which communi- 
 cate with the fangs of the upper jaw. They 
 mingle it with the milky juice of the euphor- 
 bia, or with that of a poisonous bulb. After 
 simmering for some time on a slow fire, it ac- 
 quires the consistency of wax, with which they 
 cover the points of their arrows. 
 
 “ Though the natives of South Africa have 
 an aversion to fish, the Bushmen in the neigh- 
 bourhood of rivers make very ingenious bas- 
 kets, which they place between stones, in the 
 centre of a current, and thus they sometimes 
 procure a fry of fish, which in their frequent 
 necessity must be acceptable. They ascend 
 the mountain’s brow or peak, and, with an 
 acuteness of sight perhaps superior to our 
 common telescopes, survey the plains beneath, 
 either to discover game or cattle, or to watch 
 the movements of those whose herds they may 
 have stolen. If danger approaches, they as- 
 3 
 
26 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 cend almost inaccessible cliffs, from which no- 
 thing but the rifle ball could dislodge them. 
 When closely pursued, they will take refuge 
 in dens and caves, in which their enemies 
 have sometimes smothered scores to death, 
 blocking up the entrances with brushwood,: 
 and setting it on fire. 
 
 “ One characteristic in their plundering ex- 
 peditions is exceedingly provoking. When 
 they have taken a troop of cattle, their first 
 object is to escape to a rendezvous, a cave or 
 an overhanging precipice, or some sequestered 
 spot difficult of access to strangers for want 
 of water. As soon as they perceive that any 
 of the cattle are too fatigued to proceed, they 
 stab them ; and if the pursuers come within 
 sight, and there is the slightest probability of 
 their being overtaken, they will thrust their 
 spears, if time permit, into every animal in 
 the troop. I have known sixty head levelled 
 in this way. This habit, which obtains uni- 
 versally among that unfortunate people, exas- 
 perates their enemies to the last degree, and 
 vengeance falls on men, women, and children, 
 whenever they come within reach of their 
 missiles. Though their poisoned arrows can- 
 not take in one-third of the length of a musket- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 27 
 
 shot, they aim with great precision. I have 
 known men shot dead on the spot with poi- 
 soned arrows, and others who did not at first 
 appear to he mortally wounded, I have seen 
 die in convulsive agony in a few hours. 
 
 It is impossible to look at some of their domi- 
 ciles, without the inquiry involuntarily rising 
 in the mind — are these the abodes of human 
 beings ? In a bushy country, they will form a 
 hollow in a central position, and bring the 
 branches together over the head. Here the 
 man, his wife, and probably a child or two, lie 
 huddled in a heap, on a little grass, in a hollow 
 spot, not larger than an ostrich’s nest. Where 
 bushes are scarce, they form a hollow under 
 the edge of a rock, covering it partially with 
 reeds or grass, and they are often to be found, 
 in fissures and caves of the mountains. When 
 they have abundance of meat, they do nothing 
 but gorge and sleep, dance and sing, till their 
 stock is exhausted. But hunger, that impe- 
 rious master, soon drives them to the chase. 
 It is astonishing to what a distance they will 
 run in pursuit of the animal which has re- 
 ceived the fatal arrow. I have seen them, on 
 the successful return of a hunting party, the 
 merriest of the merry, exhibiting bursts of en- 
 
28 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 thusiastic joy ; while their momentary happi- 
 ness, contrasted with their real condition, pro- 
 duced on my mind the deepest sorrow. Many 
 suffer great distress when the weather is cold 
 and rainy, during which not unfrequently their 
 children perish from hunger. A most inhu- 
 man practice also prevails among them, that 
 when a mother dies, whose infant is not able 
 to shift for itself, it is, without any ceremony, 
 buried alive with the corpse of its mother.” 
 
 Mr. Moffat had a boy brought up in his own 
 house, who was thus rescued from his mother’s 
 grave, when only two years old. 
 
 To the above melancholy description, may 
 be added the testimony of Mr. Kicherer, 
 whose circumstances, while living among 
 them, afforded abundant opportunities of be- 
 coming intimately acquainted with their real 
 condition. 
 
 “ Their manner of life is extremely wretched 
 and disgusting. They delight to besmear their 
 bodies with the fat of animals, mingled with 
 ochre, and sometimes with grime. They are 
 utter strangers to cleanliness, as they never 
 wash their bodies, but suffer the dirt to accu- 
 mulate, so that it will hang a considerable 
 length from their elbows. Their huts are 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 29 
 
 formed by digging a hole in the earth about 
 three feet deep, and then making a roof of 
 reeds, which is, however, insufficient to keep 
 off the rains. Here they lie close together, 
 like pigs in a sty. They are extremely lazy, 
 so that nothing will rouse them to action but 
 excessive hunger. They will continue several 
 days together without food, rather than be at 
 the pains of procuring it. When compelled to 
 sally forth for prey, they are dexterous at de- 
 stroying the various beasts which abound in 
 the country ; and they can run almost as well 
 as a horse. They are total strangers to do- 
 mestic happiness. The men have several 
 wives, but conjugal affection is little known. 
 They take no great care of their children, and 
 never correct them except in a fit of rage, when 
 they almost kill them by severe usage. In a quar- 
 rel between father and mother, or the several 
 wives of a husband, the defeated party wreaks 
 his or her vengeance on the child of the con- 
 queror, which in general loses its life. Tame 
 Hottentots seldom destroy their children, ex- 
 cept in a fit of passion ; but the Bushmen will 
 kill their children without remorse, on various 
 occasions : as when they are ill-shaped, when 
 they are in want of food, when the father of a 
 3 * 
 
30 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 child has forsaken its mother, or when obliged 
 to flee from the farmers or others ; in which 
 case they will strangle them, smother them, 
 cast them away in the desert, or bury them 
 alive. There are instances of parents throw- 
 ing their tender offspring to the hungry lion, 
 who stands roaring before their cavern, refus- 
 ing to depart till some peace-offering be made 
 to him. In general, their children cease to be 
 the objects of a mother’s care as soon as they 
 are able to crawl about in the field. In some 
 few instances, however, you meet with a spark 
 of natural affection, which places them on a 
 level with the brute creation.” 
 
 Oh the miseries to which human nature is 
 heir! Hard is the Bushman’s lot. Friendless, 
 forsaken, an outcast from the w r or!d, greatly 
 preferring the company of the beasts of prey 
 to that of civilized man ; he takes his Gorah, 
 a piece of catgut stretched on a bow, and 
 by strong effort with his breath, produces a 
 few soft notes of music, which soothe his soli- 
 tary hours, although its sounds are often re- 
 sponded to by the lion’s roar, or the hyena’s 
 howl. He knows no God, knows nothing of 
 eternity, yet dreads death ; and has no shrine at 
 which he leaves his cares or sorrows. We can 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 31 
 
 scarcely conceive of human beings descend- 
 ing lower in the scale of ignorance and vice ; 
 while yet there can be no question that they 
 are children of one common parent with our- 
 selves ; and if, during a period of some thou- 
 sands of years, they have sunk thus low, what 
 would the world become if left without Divine 
 revelation, to grope in the mazes of heathen 
 darkness ? But, degraded as the Bushmen 
 really are, they can be kind, and hospitable too; 
 faithful to their charge, grateful for favours, 
 and susceptible of kindness. It is habitual 
 with them, on receiving the smallest portion 
 of food, to divide it with their friends ; and 
 generally it is observed the one who first re- 
 ceives the boon, retains the least for himself ; 
 and a hungry mother will not unfrequently 
 give what she may receive to her emaciated 
 children, without tasting it herself. 
 
 In order to get the people to congregate, 
 Mr. Kicherer found it necessary to give them 
 daily a little food, and especially small portions 
 of tobacco, with which he was most liberally 
 supplied by the farmers. “ Without that,” 
 he says, “ it would have been impossible to 
 bring these poor people to any means of in- 
 struction, as they are compelled continually 
 
32 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 to go from one place to another for food.” 
 While, however, the message of Divine mer- 
 cy at times made an impression so great that 
 the missionaries were led to suppose that they 
 had surmounted every difficulty, they were 
 again humbled and grieved to see (as they ex- 
 pressed it) the natural inconstancy of the Bush- 
 men reverse every promising sign. 
 
 The Directors of the London Missionary 
 Society, most anxious to impart to this degrad- 
 ed portion of the human family the means of 
 grace, recommended the establishment of a 
 station for that object at Toornberg, now 
 Colesberg, south of the Great River ; and Mr. 
 Erasmus Smith and Mr. Corner went thither 
 in 1814, when about 500 Bushmen took up 
 their abode with them. The missionaries were 
 thus cheered by a people waiting to receive 
 them ; but their joy was of short duration. A 
 long and mortal enmity had existed between 
 the Bushmen and the farmers ; and they soon 
 began to suspect that the missionaries were 
 employed only as instruments to betray them 
 into their hands. Groundless as this suspi- 
 cion was, it nevertheless so operated for a 
 while as to damp the zeal of the missionaries. 
 They very naturally expected that it would 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 33 
 
 require a long and laborious course of culture 
 and tuition before such pupils could be ex- 
 pected even to apprehend the doctrines of 
 Christianity. This, however, was not the 
 case. The light and power of the gospel, at 
 an early period of the mission, accompanied 
 the proclamation of its glad tidings, and a 
 number of these barbarous people, when they 
 heard the word of life, believed. And here a 
 Christian church arose, extensive gardens 
 were laid out, and these were cultivated with 
 the Bushmen’s own hands. 
 
 Another mission was commenced among 
 that people at Hephzibah, where there was a 
 prospect of permanent success. It was, how- 
 ever, found extremely difficult, from the Bush- 
 men coming into unpleasant contact with the 
 farmers in their vicinity, and the missionaries 
 being brought into collision on their account. 
 These evils, to which their locality exposed 
 them, soon proved the means of blasting their 
 pleasing hopes among that people. An order 
 was received from the Cape authorities, re- 
 quiring the missionaries to retire within the 
 colony. Thus ceased the operations of the 
 Society among the poor wild Bushmen at 
 these stations ; and it is impossible to read the 
 
34 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 following extract of a letter to the Rev. Dr. 
 Philip, from the Rev. A. Faure, then minister 
 of GraafF Reinet, without deeply lamenting, 
 with that enlightened individual, that these 
 stations should have been broken up. 
 
 “ Some of the Bushmen whom Mr. Smith 
 baptized had acquired very rational ideas of 
 the principles of the Christian religion ; and 
 appeared to feel its constraining influence on 
 their habitual conduct. They were zealous 
 in trying to convey the same inestimable 
 blessing to their unhappy countrymen, who 
 live without God and without hope in the 
 world. It was delightful to hear the children 
 sing the praises of Jehovah, and to witness 
 the progress they had made in spelling and 
 reading. These facts, *which have come under 
 my own observation, prove that the conversion 
 of this race of immortal beings is not impos- 
 sible.” 
 
 The last effort of the Society to establish a 
 mission among that people, was attempted in 
 the vicinity of the Caledon river. Captain A. 
 Kok, the late chief of Philippolis, most muni- 
 ficently presented the Bushmen who congre- 
 gated at that place with a good supply of 
 cattle, sheep, and goats. This mission, now 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 35 
 
 called Bethulie, was afterwards transferred by 
 Dr. Philip to the Paris Society, and it has 
 since become a Bechuana mission, where the 
 gospel has had great success. 
 
 The history of the missions among the 
 Bushmen is an important lesson. It shows 
 that the most stupid and brutal people on 
 earth may be reached by the gospel, and 
 brought to the feet of Christ. 
 
 An instance of the power of kindness to 
 melt the heart is here mentioned by Mr. Mof- 
 fat : “I know,” says he, “an individual who 
 was struck with the difficulties the Bush- 
 women had in rearing their infants after the 
 season of suckling, from the entire absence of 
 any thing in the shape of milk or grain. Dried 
 meat, or ixia bulbs, is hard fare for a babe. 
 He tried to persuade them to purchase (milch) 
 goats, with ostrich feathers, or skins of game 
 procured in the chase. At this proposal they 
 laughed inordinately, asking him if ever their 
 forefathers kept cattle ; intimating, that they 
 were not intended to keep, but to eat, as their 
 progenitors had always done. He recom- 
 mended the plan to all who happened to come 
 in his way, but with no better success. It at 
 last occurred to his mind to present some of 
 
36 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the principal individuals among them with a 
 few goats a piece. This he did, promising 
 that, if they took good care of them for a given 
 time, he would add to their number, and make 
 them their own. This proposal, though to 
 them scarcely to be believed, went to their 
 hearts ; and the very looks of the men, and 
 the grateful gesticulations of the women, were 
 felt by the missionary as a rich reward. His 
 anticipations were fully realized. They al- 
 lowed their little flocks to increase, and even 
 took some trouble to make additions by barter ; 
 and it was no uncommon thing to see several 
 of these resorting to the house of prayer on 
 Sabbath days, though their homes were many 
 miles distant.” 
 
 The young reader will be amused with a 
 description of their mode of catching the os- 
 trich. The Bushman dresses himself up with 
 feathers, to look as nearly as possible like the 
 bird. A cushion is stuffed with straw, and 
 covered with feathers ; the neck and head of 
 an ostrich are fastened to this cushion, which 
 is then placed on the shoulders of the Bush- 
 man, who whitens his legs, takes his bow and 
 poisoned arrows, and sets out in pursuit. At 
 a few hundred yards distant it is not possible 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 for the human eye to detect the fraud. This 
 human bird appears to pick away at the ver- 
 dure, turning the head as if keeping a sharp 
 look-out, shakes his feathers, now walks, and 
 then trots, till he gets within bow-shot, when 
 he draws with certain aim on one of the flock ; 
 as they flee from the wounded bird he runs 
 too. The male ostrich will on some occasions 
 give chase to the strange bird, when he tries 
 to elude them, in a way to prevent their 
 catching his scent ; for when once they do, 
 the spell is broken, and no sooner is the fraud 
 discovered, than they all flee beyond his reach, 
 and far beyond his pursuit. Should one hap- 
 pen to get too near in pursuit, he can only 
 run to the windward, or throw off his saddle, to 
 avoid a stroke from a wing which would lay 
 him prostrate. 
 
 4 
 
40 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1 he Story of Africaner. 
 
 On the map of Africa, a short distance above 
 the Cape of Good Hope, the reader will see 
 the Orange river emptying into the Atlantic 
 Ocean. In 1806, the missionaries of the Lon- 
 don Missionary Society crossed that river, to 
 carry the gospel to the miserable dwellers 
 in that wild and desolate region. The people 
 were Hottentots, and in many respects were 
 like those we have already described. They 
 had had no intercourse with white men, whom 
 they called Hat-wearers , except such as came 
 among them to plunder them, and therefore 
 they looked on all white men as they did upon 
 wild beasts. 
 
 The missionaries suffered great hardships 
 on the journey to this region, and when at 
 last they pitched their tents for a temporary 
 residence, they named the spot “ Silent Hope 
 and when they had found another place that 
 promised to be more permanent, they called 
 it “ Happy Deliverance.’* 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 41 
 
 In this region lived a most noted robber 
 by the name of Africaner, who was the ter- 
 ror of all the surrounding country. The his- 
 tory of this robber is wonderful, and deserves 
 to be recorded as signal among the triumphs 
 of the gospel over the most abandoned and 
 wicked men. If so cruel, savage, and wicked 
 a man as this robber, can be made a meek, 
 humble, and devoted friend of Christ, what 
 may not the gospel effect in the conversion of 
 men. A memoir of Africaner is published by 
 the American Sunday-school Union, but we 
 will nevertheless give the leading points of his 
 history in the present place. 
 
 Jager (afterwards Christian Africaner) and 
 his father once roamed on their native hills 
 and dales, within 100 miles of Cape Town ; 
 pastured their own flocks, killed their own 
 game, drank of their own streams, and min- 
 gled the music of their heathen songs with the 
 winds which burst over the Witsemberg and 
 Winterhoek mountains, once the strongholds 
 of his clan. As the Dutch settlers increased, 
 and made room for themselves, by adopting as 
 their own the lands which lay beyond them, 
 those of the Hottentots, (the aborigines,) inca- 
 pable of maintaining their ground against these 
 
42 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 foreign intruders, were compelled to give 
 place by removing to a distance, or yielding 
 themselves in passive obedience to the far- 
 mers. From time to time be found himself 
 and his people becoming more remote from 
 the land of their forefathers, till he became 
 
 united and subject to a farmer named P . 
 
 Here he and his diminished clan lived for a 
 
 number of years. In Africaner, P found 
 
 a faithful and intrepid shepherd ; his valour in 
 defending and increasing the herds and flocks 
 of his master enhanced his value, and at the 
 same time it matured habits and principles 
 which afterwards recoiled on that devoted 
 family, and carried devastation to whatever 
 
 quarter he directed his steps. Had P 
 
 treated his subjects with common humanity, 
 not to say with gratitude, he might have died 
 honourably, and prevented the catastrophe 
 which befel the family, and the train of rob- 
 bery, crime, and bloodshed which quickly fol- 
 lowed that melancholy event. But at last, 
 exasperated by ill usage, and determined on 
 freedom, Africaner and his brothers rose upon 
 their master, and having put him to death, 
 they seized what fire-arms they could lay 
 their hands on, and fled. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 43 
 
 Africaner, with as little loss of time as pos- 
 sible, rallied the remnant of his tribe, and, with 
 what they could take with them, directed their 
 course to the Orange river, and w r ere soon be- 
 yond the reach of pursuers, who, in a thinly 
 scattered population, required time to collect. 
 He fixed his abode on the banks of the Orange 
 river ; and afterwards, a chief ceding to him 
 his dominion in Great Namaqua-land, it hence- 
 forth became his by right, as well as by con- 
 quest. 
 
 Attempts were made on the part of the co- 
 lonial government and the farmers, to punish 
 
 this daring outrage on the P family ; 
 
 but though rewards were offered, Africaner 
 dared them to approach his territories. Some 
 of the farmers had recourse to another strata- 
 gem to rid the frontiers of such a terror ; they 
 bribed some of the Bastards, who were in the 
 habit of visiting the colony, from the upper 
 regions of the Orange river. This gave rise 
 to a long series of severe and sometimes bloody 
 conflicts between the Africaners and the chief 
 Berend and his associates; — Berend being im- 
 pelled by a twofold reward, and Africaner by 
 a desire to w r reak his vengeance on the farm- 
 ers, who were once his friends, but now the 
 4 * 
 
44 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 instigators of the deeply laid scheme* Though 
 these two chiefs dreadfully harassed each 
 other, neither conquered ; but continued to 
 breathe against each other the direst hatred, 
 till, by the gospel of peace, they were brought 
 to “ beat their swords into ploughshares, and 
 their spears into pruning-hooks.” 
 
 As soon as Africaner had discovered the 
 origin of the plot, which had well-nigh over- 
 thrown his power,, he visited the boundaries 
 of the colony. A farmer named Engelbrecht, 
 and a Hottentot, fell victims to his fury, 
 and their cattle and other property were car- 
 ried off, to atone for the injuries inflicted by 
 the machinations of the farmers. Africaner 
 now became a terror, not only to the colony on 
 the south, but also to the tribes on the north* 
 The original natives of the country justly 
 viewed him as a dangerous neighbour, even 
 though he had obtained, by lawful means, a 
 portion in their country. They considered 
 him as the common enemy. This led to pil- 
 fering and provocations on their part ; conduct 
 which he was sure to pay back in their own 
 way, with large interest. The tribes fled at 
 his approach. His name carried dismay even 
 to the solitary wastes. At a subsequent pe- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 45 
 
 liod, as I was standing with a Namaqua chief, 
 looking at Africaner, in a supplicating attitude, 
 entreating parties ripe for a battle, to live at 
 peace with each other : “ Look,” said the 
 wondering chief, pointing to Africaner, “ there 
 is the man, once the lion, at whose roar even 
 the inhabitants of distant hamlets fled from 
 their homes ! Yes, and I,” (patting his chest 
 with his hand,) “ have, for fear of his approach, 
 fled with my people, our wives and our babes, 
 to the mountain glen, or to the wilderness, and 
 spent nights among beasts of prey, rather than 
 gaze on the eyes of this lion, or hear his 
 roar.” 
 
 After the general aspect of affairs began to 
 settle in that part of the country where Afri- 
 caner’s head-quarters were, other distant and 
 interior parts of the country became a theatre, 
 in which the inhabitants of the colony were 
 pursuing a bloody game, in shooting the abo- 
 rigines, and carrying off their cattle. The 
 landrost of one of the colonial districts sent a 
 message to Africaner, requesting him to try 
 and put a stop to these proceedings, and espe- 
 cially those of a farmer, who, with his attend- 
 ants, had secured themselves in a stronghold 
 in the country. Africaner promptly obeyed 
 
46 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the call, and as he did not intend to fight them, 
 he went with some of his chief men on oxen, 
 to recommend them peaceably to retire from 
 the country in which they were such a 
 scourge. On approaching the temporary 
 dwellings of these free-booters, and within 
 gun-shot, the farmer levelled his long roer at 
 the small party, and several shot entering 
 Africaner’s shoulder, instantly brought him to 
 the ground. His companions immediately 
 took up their arms, and the farmer, knowing 
 that their shots were deadly, kept out of the 
 way, allowing the wounded chief and his at- 
 tendants to retire, which they did, and re- 
 turned home brooding revenge. 
 
 As soon as the shot were extracted, and the 
 wound partially healed, though the arm was 
 lamed for life, Africaner, who was not a man 
 to be frightened from his purpose, resumed 
 his campaign; and the result was, that this 
 marauder, under a Christian name, was driven 
 from his stronghold, and compelled to take re- 
 fuge in the colony whence he had come. The 
 success which, in almost every instance, fol- 
 lowed the arms of such a small and inconsider- 
 able body of banditti as that of Africaner, may 
 be ascribed to his mode of warfare. He en- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 47 
 
 deavoured always to attack his enemy on the 
 plain ; or, if entrenched, or among bushes, he 
 instantly drove them from their sheltering- 
 places ; where, if both parties were of the 
 same mind, they would continue, from day to 
 day, occasionally discharging their missiles. 
 By Africaner’s mode of warfare, the conflict 
 was soon decided. His reasons were these : 
 he did not like suspense when life was at 
 stake ; he preferred to conquer a people be- 
 fore they had time to be alarmed, which saved 
 them much agony of mind, and spared the un- 
 necessary effusion of blood. Africaner was a 
 man of great prowess, and possessed a mind 
 capable of studying the tactics of savage war- 
 fare. His brother, Titus, was perhaps still 
 more fierce and fearless ; and, though a little 
 man, he was an extraordinary runner, and able 
 to bear unparalleled fatigue. He has been 
 known, single-handed, to overtake a party of 
 twenty possessing fire-arms, and only retired 
 when his musket was shot to pieces in his 
 hand. On one occasion, Berend’s party, who 
 were far superior in numbers, headed by Ni- 
 cholas Berend, unexpectedly carried off every 
 ox and cow belonging to Africaner ; only a few 
 calves being left in the stall. After a despe- 
 
48 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 rate, though very unequal, contest for a whole 
 day, having repeatedly taken and lost their 
 cattle, they returned home, slaughtered the 
 calves which were left them, and rested a cou- 
 ple of days in order to dry the flesh in the sun, 
 ready for the intended campaign. For several 
 days they pursued their course along the 
 northern banks of the Orange river ; and hav- 
 ing, by spies, found out the rendezvous of the 
 enemy on the southern side of the river, they 
 passed beyond them, in order to attack them 
 from a quarter on which they fancied they 
 were safe. They swam over in the dead of 
 the night, with their ammunition and clothes 
 tied on their heads, and their guns on their 
 shoulders. The little force thus prepared, not 
 unlike that of Bruce at Bannockburn, seized 
 their opportunity, and, when all the enemy 
 were slumbering in perfect security, aroused 
 them by a volley of stones falling on their 
 fragile huts. The inmates rushed out, and 
 were received by a shower of arrows ; and 
 before they could fairly recover their senses, 
 and seize their guns, the discharge of musket- 
 ry convinced them that they were besieged by 
 a host encamped in the most favourable posi- 
 tion. They consequently fled in the greatest 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 49 
 
 consternation, leaving the captured cattle, as 
 well as their own, in the hands of the Africaners. 
 
 Nicholas Berend, to whom reference has 
 been made, was once engaged in a desperate 
 conflict with Titus Africaner, from whose lips 
 1 had heard the same tale. The two had been 
 engaged for hours in mutual strife, taking and 
 re-taking a herd of cattle. By means of the 
 large drove and bushes, each had managed to 
 conceal himself. Suddenly a passage opening 
 in the troop, which exposed the enraged com- 
 batants to each other’s view, their rifles were 
 instantly levelled. The moment they touched 
 the triggers, a cow darted in between, and the 
 two balls lodged in the centre of the animal, 
 which fell dead on the spot. But for this in- 
 terposition, both would, in all probability, have 
 fallen, as they were most expert marksmen. 
 A man who would deliberately smile the 
 moment he laid the lion dead at his feet, who 
 appeared incapable of fear, and reckless of dan- 
 ger, could not help acknowledging being most 
 powerfully struck with his escape from the 
 ball of his antagonist ; and would say to me, 
 when I referred to the fact, “ Mynheer knows 
 how to use the only hammer which makes my 
 hard heart feel.” 
 
50 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 Nicholas finished his Christian course under 
 the pastoral care of the Rev. T. L. Hodgson, 
 Wesleyan missionary at Boochuap. His end 
 was peace. 
 
 It was in the neighbourhood of this terrible 
 robber and murderer that the missionaries took 
 up their abode. The Messrs. Albrecht (this 
 was the name of the two missionaries) endured 
 hardship, as good soldiers, while here. But 
 they, with their wives, were about to be ex- 
 posed to the severest trials of their faith in 
 God, who has promised to be with his ser- 
 vants even unto the end of the world. The 
 mission was just enjoying the prospect of per- 
 manence and success, when the hostility of 
 this noted desperado was awakened against it, 
 and he threatened its destruction. 
 
 “ Africaner, being ail outlaw, could not visit 
 the colony or Cape Town, and, in order to 
 procure supplies, employed others. He en- 
 trusted Hans Drayer with three teams, or 
 thirty oxen, commissioning him to purchase a 
 wagon with the twenty, and with the remain- 
 ing ten to bring it home ; and at the same 
 time allowing an ample reward for Hans. He 
 had not gone far into the colony before he met 
 
THE BECHUANA9. 
 
 51 
 
 a farmer to whom he owed a large debt, and 
 who very naturally seized the whole. Hans 
 returned chop-fallen to Mr. Seidenfaden’s 
 missionary station at Kamiesberg, of which he 
 had the charge during Mr. S.’s absence. Af- 
 ricaner, hearing of what had happened, went 
 in quest of Hans, whom he expected to find 
 humble, but who was insolent to the last de- 
 gree. On their punishing him with a sam- 
 bock, he seized a gun, and levelled it at Afri- 
 caner, but he was instantly despatched.” 
 
 Mr. Seidenfaden having left debts behind 
 him, among the Great Namaquas, and some 
 of the Africaners, a portion of his property 
 was seized. After this the friends of Hans, with 
 the assistance of the Namaquas, sought re- 
 venge on the people of Africaner, but not 
 succeeding, obtained assistance from the peo- 
 ple of Warm Bath. This, with a false report 
 that they had taken some of his cattle, and 
 that the missionaries were their abettors, 
 dreadfully enraged Africaner, who vowed ven- 
 geance on the mission. 
 
 The situation of the missionaries and their 
 wives was now most distressing. Among a 
 feeble and timid people, with scarcely any 
 means of defence, a bare country around, no 
 5 
 
53 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 mountain-glen or cave in which they could 
 take refuge, a burning sun, and a glowing 
 plain ; two hundred miles from the abodes of 
 civilized men, between which lay a waste- 
 howling wilderness, and the Orange river, 
 seldom fordable by wagons ! Such was their 
 position with the human lion in his lair, ready 
 to rouse himself up to deeds of rapine and 
 blood. This is no coloured picture, for the 
 writer has with his family been placed in cir- 
 cumstances not dissimilar : experience is re- 
 quisite to aid in just conceptions of so trying 
 a moment. For a whole month they were in 
 constant terror, hourly expecting the threaten- 
 ed attack. The hearts of the missionaries 
 were riven with anguish ; their souls revolted 
 at the idea of abandoning the people, who 
 were now suffering f ’rom want, to become a 
 prey to one from whom they could expect no 
 quarter. On «ne occasion they dug square 
 holes in the ground, about six feet deep, that 
 in case of an attack they might escape the 
 balis; there they remained buried alive for 
 the space of a week, having the tilt sail of the 
 wagon thrown over the mouth of the pit to 
 keep off the burning rays of an almost vertical 
 sun. As one of the sufferers told me, she 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 53 
 
 scarcely knew whether they had to suffer 
 most by day or hy night, for the heat some- 
 times amounted nearly to suffocation. From 
 this place they removed, at the suggestion of 
 Fledermuis, a chief, northward to the base of 
 the Karas mountains ; but finding it impossi- 
 ble to settle, they retired to the colony to seek 
 counsel and assistance. 
 
 But to return to Africaner. He spread de- 
 vastation around him, attacked the Namaquas, 
 and proceeded to Warm Bath. Finding it 
 abandoned, his followers commenced a rigid 
 search for any articles which might have been 
 concealed for safety in the earth, and were 
 but too successful. While the plunderers 
 were engaged in their destructive operations, 
 an incident occurred, almost too ludicrous for 
 so melancholy a recital. As the triumphant 
 chief and his adherents were revelling in their 
 ill-gotten spoils, not without some qualms of 
 conscience, derived from the light (however 
 little) which they had received, especially as 
 they now stood upon holy ground, which re- 
 called the scenes of bygone days, one of the 
 chieftain’s attendants strayed into the burying 
 ground, where already a few mounds distin- 
 guished it from the surrounding waste as the 
 
54 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 place of the dead. Stepping over what he 
 supposed a newly closed grave, he heard, to 
 his surprise, soft notes of music vibrate be- 
 neath. He stood motionless, gazing over his 
 shoulder, with mouth and eyes dilated, hesi- 
 tating whether to stand still, and see the dead 
 arise, which he had heard the missionaries 
 preach about, or to take to his heels. After 
 no little palpitation of heart, in order to assure 
 himself, he mustered courage to make another 
 trial, for the tones he had heard had died away. 
 His second leap again roused the sepulchral 
 harp, which now fell in soft but awful cadence 
 on his ear. Without casting an eye behind, 
 he darted off to the camp, and, with breathless 
 amazement, announced to Africaner the start- 
 ling discovery he had made of life and music 
 in the grave. The appearance of the man 
 convinced Africaner that he was in earnest. 
 The chief, fearless of the living or the dead, 
 was not to be scared even by the supposed 
 spectre of the tomb, arose, and ordered his men 
 to follow him to the spot. One jumped and 
 another jumped, and at each succeeding leap, 
 succeeding notes of the softest music vibrated 
 on the ear from beneath. Recourse was had 
 instantly to exhumation. The mysterious 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 55 
 
 musician was soon brought to light. It proved 
 to be Mrs. Albrecht’s piano-forte, which she 
 had taken with her from London, and which 
 was the first ever conveyed into these regions. 
 Being too cumbrous to be taken in a hasty 
 flight, it had been buried in a soil where, from 
 the entire absence of moisture, it might, but 
 from this circumstance, have remained un- 
 scathed. Africaner, whose martial spirit made 
 him a fitter associate for Mars than for the 
 Muses, allowed the instrument to be dissected, 
 parts of which I have seen, from which those 
 fingers now silent in the grave had called forth 
 divine harmony. 
 
 To finish the varied but sorrowful detail, 
 one of the men of Africaner, on seeing him 
 depart, took a fire-brand, and set fire to the 
 houses and huts, which were soon reduced to 
 ashes ; and thus the light of Divine truth, 
 which had just been enkindled in those gloomy 
 regions, was extinguished for a season ; and a 
 peaceful Zion reduced to a heap of ruins. 
 
 The missionaries returned to Cape Town, 
 and afterwards Mr. and Mrs. C. Albrecht at- 
 tempted to come back and resume the mis- 
 sion among the Namaquas. Mrs. Albrecht 
 died on the journey, and her husband resumed 
 5 * 
 
56 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the work at Pella, south of the Orange river, 
 but his labours were soon terminated by death ; 
 yet before his death he had the joy of making 
 peace with Africaner , and of seeing the stand- 
 ard of the cross reared in the very settlement 
 of the man whose deeds of blood had made 
 his name a terror to the missionaries and the 
 heathen. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 57 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Story of Africaner , continued. 
 
 In 1812, the Rev. J. Campbell, who visited 
 Africa in behalf of the London Missionary 
 Society, finding, wherever he went, in cross- 
 : * ing the continent, that the name of Africaner 
 was a terror to the people, determined to write 
 to him, and endeavour to persuade him to 
 have a missionary in his own village. It 
 was long before he could find any one who 
 was not afraid to carry the letter. Africaner 
 received the letter at last, and some time after- 
 wards he sent a reply to it, which Mr. Camp- 
 bell did not receive, and consequently did not 
 send a missionary. But his letter to Africaner 
 awakened his mind. In that letter he told 
 Africaner he was sorry that he should be the 
 occasion of so much misery and oppression in 
 that part of Africa — that as he knew there was 
 a God, and a judgment to come, he could not 
 believe but that Africaner must be an unhappy 
 
58 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 man by being the cause of so much unhappi- 
 ness to others. 
 
 The savage robber resolved to have a mis- 
 sionary, and sending a messenger to Pella, 
 below the Orange river, he obtained one — 
 Mr. Ebner — who at once proceeded to Afri- 
 caner’s settlement, and there, in the very den 
 of the beast, began to preach Christ crucified. 
 And that preaching was made the power of 
 God to the salvation of the bloody warrior. 
 The hard heart of Africaner was melted by the 
 grace of God under the preaching of the mis- 
 sionary, and soon we hear of the savage sitting 
 at the feet of Jesus, and saying, “ I am glad 
 that I am delivered. I have been long enough 
 engaged in the service of the devil, but now 
 I am free from his bondage. Jesus has deli- 
 vered me ; him will I serve, and with him 
 will I abide.” 
 
 Mr. Moffat went to Africaner’s village to 
 succeed Mr. Ebner, who returned to Pella. 
 On his way there, Mr. Moffat says : “ As I 
 approached the boundaries of the Dutch colony, 
 the farmers, who, of course, had not one good 
 word to say of Africaner, were skeptical to the 
 last degree about his reported conversion, and 
 predicted my destruction. One said he would 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 59 
 
 set me up for a mark for his boys to shoot at ; 
 and another, that he would strip off my skin, 
 and make a drum of it to dance to; another 
 most consoling prediction was, that he would 
 make a drinking cup of my skull. I believe 
 they were serious, and especially a kind mo- 
 therly lady, who, wiping the tear from her 
 eye, bade me farewell, saying, 4 Had you been 
 an old man, it would have been nothing, for 
 you would soon have died, whether or no ; 
 but you are young, and going to become a prey 
 to that monster.’ ” 
 
 Mr. Moffat pushed on, and after a journey 
 attended with great fatigue and exposure, he 
 reached the village, where he was received 
 with kindness by Africaner, and his brothers. 
 But there was no warmth in the reception he 
 met, and the young missionary was not much 
 encouraged by the appearance of things. 
 Titus Africaner was decidedly hostile to the 
 gospel, and there was ground to fear that this 
 man would proceed to violent measures. Even 
 Christian Africaner did not show any zeal in 
 support of the missionary. Under these trying 
 circumstances Mr. Moffat commenced his la- 
 bours, and the Lord was with him. He open- 
 ed a school and had public religious services 
 
60 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 with all who would attend, every morning and 
 evening. Soon, he says, “ I was cheered with 
 tokens of the Divine presence. The chief, 
 who had for some time past been in a doubtful 
 state, attended with such regularity, that I might 
 as well doubt of morning’s dawn, as of his at- 
 tendance on the appointed means of grace. To 
 reading, in which he was not very fluent, he 
 attended with all the assiduity and energy of 
 a youthful believer ; the Testament became 
 his constant companion, and his profiting ap- 
 peared unto all. Often have I seen him under 
 the shadow of a great rock, nearly the livelong 
 day, eagerly perusing the pages of Divine 
 inspiration ; or, in his hut he would sit, uncon- 
 scious of the affairs of a family around, or the 
 entrance of a stranger, with his eye gazing on 
 the blessed book, and his mind wrapt up in 
 things divine. Many were the nights he sat 
 with me, on a great stone, at the door of my 
 habitation, conversing with me till the dawn 
 of another day, on creation, providence, re- 
 demption, and the glories of the heavenly 
 world. He was like the bee, gathering honey 
 from every flower, and at such seasons he 
 would, from what he had stored up in the 
 course of the day’s reading, repeat generally 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 61 
 
 in the very language of Scripture, those pas- 
 sages which he could not fully comprehend. 
 He had no commentary, except the living 
 voice of his teacher, nor marginal references, 
 but he soon discovered the importance of con- 
 sulting parallel passages, which an excellent 
 memory enabled him readily to find. He did 
 not confine his expanding mind to the volume 
 of revelation, though he had been taught by 
 experience, that that contained heights and 
 depths, and lengths and breadths, which no 
 man comprehends. He was led to look upon 
 the book of nature ; and he would regard the 
 heavenly orbs with an inquiring look, cast his 
 eye on the earth beneath his tread, and re- 
 garding both as displays of creative power and 
 infinite intelligence, would inquire about end- 
 less space and infinite duration. I have often 
 been amused, when sitting with him and others, 
 who wished to hear his questions answered, 
 and descriptions given of the majesty, extent, 
 and number of the works of God ; he would at 
 last rub his hands on his head, exclaiming, * I 
 have heard enough ; I feel as if my head was 
 too small, and as if it would swell with these 
 great subjects.’ 
 
 “ Before seasons like these to which I am 
 
62 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 referring, Titus, who was a grief to his bro- 
 ther, and a terror to most of the inhabitants on 
 the station, as well as a fearful example of un- 
 godliness, had become greatly subdued in 
 spirit. I had again and again addressed him 
 in soft and affectionate language, on his best 
 interests, till he at last entered the house of 
 God, and became at once a steady and un- 
 wavering friend, and many times did he min- 
 ister to my wants in that hungry land. He, 
 too, would not unfrequently sit nearly a whole 
 night with the chief and myself, in compa- 
 rative silence. He thought his doing so 
 would be pleasing to me, but he would never 
 make a profession. He was wont to say his 
 head had become too hard with sin, adding, 
 ‘ I hear what you say, and I think I sometimes 
 understand, but my heart will not feel.’ He 
 was the only individual of influence on the 
 station who had two wives, and fearing the 
 effects of example, I have occasionally made 
 a delicate reference to the subject, and, by de- 
 grees, could make more direct remarks on that 
 point, which was one of the barriers to his 
 happiness ; but he remained firm, admitting, 
 at the same time, that a man with two wives 
 was not to be envied ; adding, ‘ He is often in 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 63 
 
 an uproar, and when they quarrel, he does not 
 know whose part to take.’ He said he often 
 resolved when there was a great disturbance, 
 he would pay one off. One morning I had 
 thought the anticipated day had come. He 
 approached my door, leading an ox, upon 
 which one of his wives was seated. ‘ What 
 is the matter V I inquired. Giving me a 
 shake of his hand, and laughing, he replied, 
 ‘Just the old thing over again. Mynheer 
 must not laugh too much at me, for I am now 
 in for it.’ The two wives had quarelled at 
 the outpost, and the one in a rage had thrown 
 a splinter from a stick at the other, which had 
 entered the palm of her hand, and left a piece 
 about an inch long, and the thickness of a fin- 
 ger. The hand had swollen greatly. ‘ Why,’ 
 I asked, ‘ did you not bring her sooner ?’ ‘She 
 was afraid to see you, and would not come, 
 till I assured her that you were a maak 
 mensche ’ (a tame man.) Having made an 
 incision, and extracted the piece of wood, she 
 was melted into tears with gratitude, while I 
 earnestly exhorted her to a better course of 
 life. 
 
 “ But to return to the character of Africaner. 
 During the whole period I lived there, I do 
 
 6 
 
64 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 not remember having occasion to be grieved 
 with him, or to complain of any part of his 
 conduct; his very faults seemed to ‘lean to 
 virtue’s side.’ One day, when seated to- 
 gether, I happened, in absence of mind, to be 
 gazing steadfastly on him. It arrested his 
 attention, and he modestly inquired the cause. 
 
 *1 replied, ‘I was trying to picture to myself 
 your carrying fire and sword through the 
 country, and I could not think how eyes like 
 yours could smile at human wo.’ He answer- 
 ed not, but shed a flood of tears ! 
 
 He zealously seconded my efforts to improve 
 the people in cleanliness and industry; and it 
 would have made any one smile to have seen 
 Christian Africaner and myself superintending 
 the school children, now about one hundred 
 and twenty, washing themselves at the foun- 
 tain. It was, however, found that their 
 greasy, filthy carosses of sheepskins soon 
 made them as dirty as ever. The next thing 
 was to get them to wash their mantles, &c. 
 This was no easy matter, from their being 
 made chiefly of skins, not tanned, and sewed 
 together with thread made of the sinews of 
 animals. It required a great deal of coaxing 
 argument, and perseverance, to induce them 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 65 
 
 to undertake this Herculean task ; but this, 
 too, was also accomplished, to their great com- 
 fort, for they willingly admitted that they for- 
 merly harboured so much company, that they 
 could not sleep soundly. It may be emphati- 
 cally said of Africaner, that ‘ he wept with 
 those that wept,’ for wherever he heard of a 
 case of distress, thither his sympathies were 
 directed ; and notwithstanding all his spoils 
 of former years, he had little to spare, but he 
 was ever on the alert to stretch out a helping 
 hand to the widow and fatherless. At an 
 early period I also became an object of his 
 charity ; for finding out that I sometimes sat 
 down to a scanty meal, he presented me with 
 two cows, which, though in that country 
 giving little milk, often saved me many a hun- 
 gry night, to which I was exposed. He was 
 a man of peace ; and though I could not ex- 
 pound to him that the ‘ sword of the magis- 
 trate’ implied, that he was calmly to sit at 
 home, and see Bushmen or marauders carry 
 off his cattle, and slay his servants ; yet so 
 fully did he understand and appreciate the 
 principles of the gospel of peace, that nothing 
 could grieve him more than to hear of indivi- 
 duals, or villages, contending with one another. 
 
66 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 “He who was formerly like a firebrand, 
 spreading discord, enmity, and war among the 
 neighbouring tribes, would now make any sa- 
 crifice to prevent any thing like a collision be- 
 tween two contending parties ; and when he 
 might have raised his arm, and dared them to 
 lift a spear, or draw a bow, he would stand in 
 the attitude of a suppliant, and entreat them to 
 be reconciled to each other ; and, pointing to 
 his past life, ask, ‘ What have I now of all the 
 battles I have fought, and all the cattle I took, 
 but shame and remorse V At an early period 
 of my labours among that people, I was deeply 
 affected by the sympathy he, as well as others 
 of his family, manifested towards me in a sea- 
 son of affliction. The extreme heat of the 
 weather, in the house which I have described, 
 and living entirely on meat and milk, to which 
 I was unaccustomed, brought on a severe at- 
 tack of bilious fever, which, in the course of 
 two days, induced delirium. Opening my 
 eyes in the first few lucid moments, I saw my 
 attendant and Africaner sitting before my 
 couch, gazing on me with eyes full of sympa- 
 thy and tenderness. Seeing a small parcel, 
 containing a few medicines, I requested him 
 to hand it to me, and taking from it a vial of 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 67 
 
 calomel, I threw some of it into my mouth, for 
 scales or weights I had none. He then asked 
 me, the big tear standing in his eye, if I died, 
 how they were to bury me. * Just in the 
 same way as you bury your own people,’ 
 was my reply ; and I added, that he need be 
 under no apprehensions if I were called away, 
 for I should leave a written testimony of his 
 kindness to me. This evidently gave him 
 some comfort, but his joy was full, when he 
 saw me speedily restored, and at my post, from 
 which I had been absent only a few days. 
 
 “ In addition to Christian Africaner, his bro- 
 thers, David and Jacobus, both believers, and 
 zealous assistants in the work of the mission, 
 especially in the school, were a great comfort 
 to me. David, though rather of a retiring dis- 
 position, was amiable, active, and firm ; while 
 Jacobus was warm, affectionate, and zealous 
 for the interests of souls. His very counte- 
 nance was wont to cheer my spirits, which, 
 notwithstanding all I had to encourage, would 
 sometimes droop. Long after I left that people, 
 he was shot, while defending the place against 
 an unexpected attack made on it by the people 
 of Warm Bath. This intelligence deeply af- 
 fected me, for I knew that he and David, with 
 6 * 
 
68 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 a select few, continued, in accordance with the 
 dying charge of their elder brother, to keep 
 the lamp of God alive ; while Jonker, the son 
 and successor of the departed chief, turned to 
 those courses from which he had been warned 
 by the last accents which fell from his father’s 
 lips, though he had been a promising youth, 
 without having made any profession of faith in 
 the Gospel. The following fact will serve to 
 illustrate the character of Kobus, as he was 
 usually called. The drought was excessive ; 
 the people were distressed at the idea of being 
 compelled to leave the station in search of 
 grass. Special prayer-meetings were held ta 
 implore the blessing of rain. Prayer was soon 
 answered, and the heavens, which had been as 
 brass, were covered with clouds, the thunders 
 rolled, and rain fell like a torrent. The dis- 
 play of Divine condescension produced a pow- 
 erful effect on the minds of the people, and 
 many were the eyes that wept tears of grati- 
 tude. I went out of my hut, where I had 
 been nearly blinded by the vivid glare of the 
 lightning, and witnessed Kobus comforting his 
 wife, who was not a believer, while she seemed 
 terror-struck at the tremendous peals which 
 even yet were rending the heavens, and mak- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 69 
 
 the very earth to tremble beneath. He 
 asked her how she could be afraid of a God so 
 kind, and who could send down the rain of his 
 grace, with equal abundance, on dry and 
 parched souls ; and, falling on his knees, he 
 adored God for the blessings of salvation. 
 At this time, another interesting event greatly 
 encouraged me. The subject was a vene- 
 rable mother, a member of the church, and 
 one of the fruits of the mission on the Orange 
 river. Entering her hut, and asking how she 
 felt, looking upwards with an expression of 
 sweet composure, 4 1 am looking for the com- 
 ing of the Lord Jesus,’ was her reply. Ob- 
 serving me addressing her unbelieving daugh- 
 ters, who were weeping around her bed, she 
 remarked, 4 Yes, I have called them, that they 
 may see a Christian die and a few hours 
 after, she was called to the bosom of her 
 God.” 
 
 After Mr. Moffat has given these interest- 
 ing particulars of his labours, and the blessing 
 of God upon them, we might follow him on 
 an exploring tour still further north, and into 
 the interior, carrying the gospel to those who 
 bad never yet heard of God. But he had not 
 the means of travelling ; the only wagon he 
 
70 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 had was broken down, and he had to turn 
 blacksmith himself to mend it. In this work 
 he had not the advantage of John Williams, 
 ' the “ Martyr Missionary/’ who had learned 
 the trade when he was a boy. To repair the 
 wagon he must heat and weld the iron ; and 
 to do this he must have a pair of blacksmith’s 
 bellows ; and he tells us how he went to 
 work. 
 
 “ After ruminating for a day or two on 
 what I had seen in smiths’ shops in Cape 
 Town, I resolved on making a trial, and got a 
 native bellows, made of goat’s skin, to the neck 
 end of which was attached the horn of an elk, 
 and at the other end two parallel sticks were 
 fastened, which were opened by the hand in 
 drawing it back, and closed when pressed for- 
 ward, but making a puffiing like something 
 broken-winded. The iron was only red-hot, 
 after a good perspiration, when I found I must 
 give it up as a bad job ; observing to the chief, 
 if I must accompany him, it must be on the 
 back of an ox. Reflecting again on the im- 
 portance of having a wagon for the purpose 
 of carrying food, when game happened to be 
 killed, (for our sole dependence was on the 
 success of hunting,) and Africaner evidently 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 71 
 
 not liking, on my account, to go without a 
 wagon, I set my brains again to work, to try 
 and improve on the bellows ; for it was wind 
 I wanted. Though I had never welded a bit 
 of iron in my life, there was nothing like 
 ‘ Try.’ I engaged the chief to have two 
 goats killed, the largest on the station, and 
 their skins prepared, entire, in the native way, 
 till they were as soft as cloth. These skins 
 now resembled bags, the open ends of which 
 I nailed to the edge of a circular piece of 
 board, in which was a valve ; one end of the 
 machine was connected with the fire, and had 
 a weight on it to force out the wind, when the 
 other end was drawn out to supply more air. 
 This apparatus was no sooner completed, than 
 it was put to the test, and the result answered 
 satisfactorily, in a steady current of air ; and 
 soon I had all the people around me, to witness 
 my operations with the new-fangled bellows. 
 Here I sat, receiving their praises, but heartily 
 wishing their departure, lest they should laugh 
 at my burning the first bit of iron I took in 
 my hands to weld. A blue granite stone was 
 my anvil ; a clumsy pair of tongs, and a ham- 
 mer never intended for the work of a forge. 
 My first essay was with some trepidation, for 
 
72 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 I did not like so many lookers-on. Success, 
 however, crowned my efforts, to the no smalt 
 delight of the spectators. Having finished 
 what was necessary for the wagon, I was en- 
 couraged to attempt the repair of some gun- 
 locks, which were as essential for the comfort 
 and success of the journey as the wagon. In 
 doing this, I began with one which I thought 
 I could not spoil, should I not succeed ; and 
 accomplishing that, I was able to put the others 
 in order.” 
 
 Having thus succeeded in making the ne- 
 cessary preparations, Mr. Moffat, with Afri- 
 caner and a large party, set out on a journey, 
 the immediate design of which was to find a 
 place where water was more abundant, and 
 where the settlement might be made with 
 more comfort and health. During this jour- 
 ney he suffered greatly from hunger, so much 
 so that he would sometimes “tie a string 
 around his stomach to prevent the gnawing 
 of hunger;” and in these circumstances he 
 would break the bread of eternal life to the 
 perishing heathen. 
 
 The ignorance of the people whom he met 
 in the native villages was most distressing. 
 Instead, however, of dwelling on his own ol> 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 73 
 
 servations of the condition of those degraded 
 heathen, Mr. Moffat gives us extracts from the 
 accounts of other travelling missionaries, which 
 he says were confirmed by what he saw and 
 heard. These extracts are important to show 
 how little knowledge the heathen obtain of 
 God. In 1815, Mr. Schmelen was in Nama- 
 qua land, and had this conversation with one 
 of the natives, as given in his own journal: — 
 
 “ Did you ever hear of a God ?” 
 
 “Yes, we have heard that there is a God, 
 hut we do not know right.” 
 
 “ Who told you that there is a God ?” 
 
 “We heard it from other people.” 
 
 “ Did you ever see a ship ?” 
 
 “Yes, we have seen them a long time 
 ago.” 
 
 “ Did you ever hear who made the first 
 one ?” 
 
 “ No, we never heard it.” 
 
 “ Did you never hear old people talk about 
 it.” 
 
 “ No, we never heard it from them.” 
 
 “ Who made the heavens?” 
 
 “We do not know what man made them.” 
 
 “ Who made the sun ?” 
 
 4l We always heard that those people at the 
 
74 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 sea made it ; when she goes down, they cut 
 her in pieces, and fry her in a pot, and then 
 put her together again, and bring her out at 
 the other side. Sometimes the sun is over 
 our head, and at other times she must give 
 place for the moon to pass by. They said the 
 moon had told to mankind that we must die, 
 and not become alive again ; that is the rea- 
 son that when the moon is dark we sometimes 
 become ill.” 
 
 “ Is there any difference between man and 
 beast ?” 
 
 “We think man has made the beasts.” 
 
 “ Did you ever see a man that made beasts?” 
 
 “ No, I only heard so from others.” 
 
 “ Do you know you have a soul ?” 
 
 “ I do not know it.” 
 
 “ How shall it be with us after death ?” 
 
 “ When we are dead, we are dead ; when 
 we have died, we go over the sea-water, at 
 that side where the devil is.” 
 
 “ What do you mean by the devil ?” 
 
 “He is not good ; all people who die, run 
 to him.” 
 
 “ How does the devil behave to them, well 
 or ill ?” 
 
 “ You shall see ; all our people are there 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 75 
 
 who have died (in the ships). Those people 
 in the ships are masters over them.” 
 
 This reference to their people dying in 
 ships, seems to show that these Africans have 
 derived their notions from the slave-dealers, 
 whom they justly look upon as emissaries of 
 the devil. 
 
 Mr. Campbell says that Africaner “ being 
 asked what his views of God were before he 
 enjoyed the benefit of Christian instruction, 
 his reply was, that he never thought any thing 
 at all on these subjects ; that he thought about 
 nothing but his cattle. He admitted that he 
 had heard of a God, (well might he, being- 
 brought up in the colony,) but he at the same 
 time stated that his views of God were so er- 
 roneous, that the name suggested no more to 
 his mind than something that might be found 
 in the form of an insect or the lid of a snuff- 
 box.” 
 
 Having found water by digging near the 
 branches of the Fish river, they proposed to 
 remain ; but the natives manifested so much 
 opposition that the party resolved to return. 
 
 7 
 
76 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Lion and the Giraffe — Terror of oxen 
 when lions are near — A mother left to die 
 — -Mr. Moffat is poisoned , but recovers . 
 
 Mr. Moffat mentions some remarkable 
 adventures on his way back to the station ; 
 and the first that he relates is so extraordinary 
 that we would scarcely believe it, were it not 
 confirmed by the circumstances which Mr. 
 Moffat saw. He says, that near a very small 
 fountain stood a camel thorn-tree ; it was a 
 stiff tree, about twelve feet high, with a flat, 
 bushy top. Many years ago, a boy was re- 
 turning to his village, and having turned aside 
 to the fountain for a drink, lay down on the 
 bank, and fell asleep. Being awakened by the 
 piercing rays of the sun, he saw, through the 
 bush behind which he lay, a giraffe browsing 
 at ease on the tender shoots of the tree, and 
 to his horror, a lion, creeping like a cat, only a 
 dozen yards from him, preparing to pounce on 
 his prey. The lion eyed the giraffe for a few 
 
THE BECHTJANAS. 
 
 79 
 
 moments, his body gave a shake, and he 
 bounded into the air, to seize the head of the 
 animal, which instantly turned his stately 
 neck ; and the lion, missing his grasp, fell on 
 his back in the centre of the mass of thorns, 
 like spikes, and the giraffe bounded over the 
 plain. The boy instantly followed the exam- 
 ple, expecting, as a matter of course, that the 
 enraged lion would soon find his way to the 
 earth. Some time afterwards, the people of 
 the village, who seldom visited that spot, saw 
 the eagles hovering in the air; and as it is 
 almost always a certain sign that the lion has 
 killed game, or some animal is lying dead, 
 they went to the place, and sought in vain, 
 till, coming under the lee of the tree, the smell 
 of the carcass directed them to where the lion 
 lay dead in his thorny bed. 
 
 One night, says Mr. Moffat, we were quietly 
 encamped near a small pool; “we had just 
 closed our united evening worship, the book 
 was still in my hand, and the closing notes of 
 the song of praise had scarcely fallen from our 
 lips, when the terrific roar of the lion was 
 heard ; our oxen, which before were quietly 
 chewing the cud, rushed upon us, and over 
 our fires, leaving us prostrated in a cloud of 
 
80 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 dust and sand. Hats and hymn-books, our 
 Bible and our guns, were all scattered in wild 
 confusion. Providentially, no serious injury 
 was sustained; the oxen were pursued, brought 
 back, and secured to the wagon, for we could 
 ill afford to lose any. Africaner, seeing the 
 reluctance of the people to pursue in a dark 
 and gloomy ravine, grasped a firebrand, and 
 exclaimed, ‘Follow me!’ and but for this 
 promptness and intrepidity we must have lost 
 some of our number, for nothing can exceed 
 the terror of oxen at even the smell of a lion. 
 Though they may happen to be in the worst 
 condition possible, worn out with fatigue and 
 hunger, the moment the shaggy monster is 
 perceived, they start like race-horses, with 
 their tails erect, and sometimes days will 
 elapse before they are found. The number 
 of lions may be easily accounted for, when it 
 is remembered how thinly scattered the in- 
 habitants are ; and, indeed, the whole appear- 
 ance of the country impresses the mind with 
 the idea that it is only fit for beasts of prey 
 The people seem to drag out a miserable ex- 
 istence, wandering from place to place in quest 
 of grass, game, or wild roots. Those I had 
 met with had, from infancy, been living a no- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 81 
 
 madic life, with one great object in view, to 
 keep soul and body together. 
 
 ** ‘ A region of drought, where no river glides, 
 
 Nor rippling brook with osiered sides ; 
 
 Where sedgy pool, nor bubbling fount, 
 
 Nor tree, nor cloud, nor misty mount 
 Appears, to refresh the aching eye ; 
 
 But barren earth, and the burning sky, 
 
 And the blank horizon round and round 
 Spread — void of living sight or sound.’ 
 
 “Among the poorer classes it is, indeed, 
 struggling for existence ; and when the aged 
 become too weak to provide for themselves, 
 and are a burden to those whom they nursed 
 in infancy and reared to manhood, they are 
 not unfrequently abandoned by their own chil- 
 dren, with a meal of victuals and a cruse of 
 water, to perish in the desert ; and I have 
 seen a small circle of stakes fastened in the 
 ground, within which were still lying the 
 bones of a parent bleached in the sun, who 
 had been thus abandoned. In one instance I 
 observed a small broken earthenware vessel, 
 in which the last draught of water had been 
 left. ‘ What is this V I said, pointing to the 
 stakes, addressing Africaner. His reply was, 
 
 4 This is heathenism and then described this 
 parricidal custom. A day or two after, a cir- 
 7 * 
 
82 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 cumstance occurred which corroborated his 
 statements. We had travelled all day over a 
 sandy plain, and passed a sleepless night from 
 extreme thirst and fatigue. Rising early in 
 the morning, and leaving the people to get the 
 wagon ready to follow, I went forward with 
 one of our number, in order to see if we could 
 not perceive some indications of water, by the 
 foot-marks of game, for it was in a part of the 
 country w’here we could not expect the traces 
 of man. After passing a ridge of hills, and 
 advancing a considerable way on the plain, 
 we discovered, at a distance, a little smoke 
 rising amidst a few bushes, which seemed to 
 skirt a ravine. Animated with the prospect, 
 we hastened forward, eagerly anticipating a 
 delicious draught of water, no matter w T hat the 
 quality might be. When we arrived within a 
 few hundred yards of the spot, we stood still, 
 startled at the fresh marks of lions, which ap- 
 peared to have been there only an hour before 
 us. We had no guns, being too tired to carry 
 them, and we hesitated, for a moment, whether 
 to proceed or return. The wagon was yet 
 distant, and thirst impelled us to go on, but it 
 was with caution, keeping a sharp look-out at 
 every bush w T e passed. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 83 
 
 “ On reaching the spot, we beheld an object 
 of heart-rending distress. It was a venerable- 
 looking old woman, a living skeleton, sitting, 
 with her head leaning on her knees. She 
 appeared terrified at our presence, and espe- 
 cially at me. She tried to rise, but, trembling 
 with weakness, sunk again to the earth. I 
 addressed her by the name which sounds 
 sweet in every clime, and charms even the 
 savage ear : ‘ My mother, fear not ; we are 
 friends, and will do you no harm.’ I put 
 several questions to her, but she appeared 
 either speechless, or afraid to open her lips. 
 I again repeated, ‘ Pray, mother, who are you, 
 and how do you come to be in this situation?’ 
 to which she replied, ‘ I am a woman ; I have 
 been here four days ; my children have left 
 me here to die.’ 4 Your children !’ I inter- 
 rupted. 4 Yes,’ raising her hand to her shri- 
 velled bosom, 4 my own children, three sons 
 and two daughters. They are gone,’ pointing 
 with her finger, 4 to yonder blue mountain, 
 and have left me to die.’ ‘And pray why 
 did they leave you V I inquired. Spreading 
 out her hands, 4 1 am old, you see, and I am 
 no longer able to serve them ; when they kill 
 game, I am too feeble to help in carrying home 
 
84 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the flesh; I am not able to gather wood to 
 make fire ; and I cannot carry their children 
 on my back, as I used to do.’ This last sen- 
 tence was more than I could bear ; and though 
 my tongue was cleaving to the roof of my 
 mouth for want of water, this reply opened a 
 fountain of tears. I remarked that I w r as sur- 
 prised that she had escaped the lions, which 
 seemed to abound, and to have approached 
 very near the spot where she was. She took 
 hold of the skin of her left arm with her fin- 
 gers, and, raising it up as one would do a 
 loose linen, she added, ‘ I hear the lions ; but 
 there is nothing on me that they would eat ; I 
 have no flesh on me for them to scent.’ At 
 this moment the wagon drew near, which 
 greatly alarmed her, for she supposed that it 
 was an animal. Assuring her that it would 
 do her no harm, I said that, as I could not 
 stay, I would put her into the wagon, and take 
 her with me. At this remark she became 
 convulsed with terror. Others addressed her, 
 but all to no effect. She replied, that if we 
 took her, and left her at another village, they 
 would only do the same thing again. ‘ It is 
 our custom ; I am nearly dead ; I do not want 
 to die again.’ The sun was now piercingly 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 85 
 
 hot ; the oxen were raging in the yoke, and 
 we ourselves nearly delirious. Finding it 
 impossible to influence the woman to move, 
 without running the risk of her dying con- 
 vulsed in our hands, we collected a quantity 
 of fuel, gave her a good supply of dry meat, 
 some tobacco, and a knife, with some other 
 articles; telling her we should return in two 
 days, and stop the night, when she would be 
 able to go with us ; only she must keep up a 
 good fire at night, as the lions would smell the 
 dried flesh, if they did not scent her. We 
 then pursued our course ; and after a long 
 ride, passing a rocky ridge of hills, we came 
 to a stagnant pool, info which men and oxen 
 rushed precipitately, though the water was 
 almost too muddy to go down our throats. 
 
 “ On our return to the spot, according to 
 promise, we found the old woman and every 
 thing gone, but, on examination, discovered the 
 footmarks of two men, from the hills referred 
 to, who appeared to have taken her away. 
 Several months afterwards, I learned, from an 
 individual who visited the station, that the 
 sons, seeing from a distance the wagon halt at 
 the spot, where they had so unnaturally left 
 their mother to perish, came to see, supposing 
 
86 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the travellers had been viewing the mangled 
 remains of their mother. Finding her alive, 
 and supplied with food, and on her telling the 
 story of the strangers’ kindness, they were 
 alarmed, and, dreading the vengeance of the 
 great chief, whom they supposed me to be, 
 took her home, and were providing for her 
 with more than usual care. I have often rea- 
 soned with the natives on this cruel practice ; 
 in reply to which, they would only laugh. It 
 may be imagined, that people might devote 
 their friends, and nobles their first-horn, like 
 the Carthaginians, to appease some offended 
 deity ; and that mothers, too, should smile on 
 the infants their own hands had murdered, 
 from similar motives ; but it appears an awful 
 exhibition of human depravity, when children 
 compel their parents to perish for want, or to 
 be devoured by beasts of prey in a desert, from 
 no other motive than sheer laziness, or to get 
 rid of those on whose breast they hung in 
 helpless infancy, whose lips first directed their 
 vocal powers, whose hand led them through 
 many a weary waste, and who often suffered 
 the most pinching want, that the babes whom 
 nature taught them to love might be supplied. 
 I have more than once handed food to a hun- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 87 
 
 gry mother, who appeared to have fasted for 
 a month, when she would just taste it, and 
 give it to her child, when, perhaps, that very 
 child, instead of returning grateful service to 
 the infancy of old age, leaves that mother to 
 perish from hunger.” 
 
 The following fact will show the fearful dan- 
 gers to which solitary travellers are sometimes 
 exposed. A man belonging to Mr. Schmelen’s 
 congregation, at Bethany, returning home- 
 wards from a visit to his friends, took a circui- 
 tous course in order to pass a small fountain, or 
 rather pool, where he hoped to kill an ante- 
 lope to carry home to his family. The sun 
 had risen to some height by the time he reach- 
 ed the spot, and seeing no game, he laid his 
 gun down on a shelving low rock, the back 
 part of which was covered over with a spe- 
 cies of dwarf thorn-bushes. He went to the 
 water, took a hearty drink, and returned to 
 the rock, smoked his pipe, and being a little 
 tired, fell asleep. In a short time the heat 
 reflected from the rock awoke him, and open- 
 ing his eyes, he saw a large lion crouching 
 before him, with its eyes glaring in his face* 
 and within little more than a yard of his feeU 
 He sat motionless for some minutes, till he 
 
88 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 had recovered his presence of mind, then eye- 
 ing his gun, moved his hand slowly towards 
 it ; the lion seeing him, raised its head, and 
 gave a tremendous roar ; he made another and 
 another attempt, but the gun being far beyond 
 his reach, he gave it up, as the lion seemed 
 well aware of his object, and was enraged 
 whenever he attempted to move his hand. 
 His situation now became painful in the ex- 
 treme 5 the rock on which he sat became so 
 hot that he could scarcely bear his naked feet 
 to touch it, and kept moving them, alternately 
 placing one above the other. The day pass- 
 ed, and the night also, but the lion never 
 moved from the spot ; the sun rose again, and 
 its intense heat soon rendered his feet past 
 feeling. At noon the lion rose and walked to 
 the water, only a few yards distant, looking 
 behind as it went, lest the man should move, 
 and seeing him stretch out his hand to take 
 his gun, turned in a rage, and was on the 
 point of springing upon him. The animal 
 went to the water, drank, and returning, lay 
 down again at the edge of the rock. Another 
 night passed ; the man, in describing it, said 
 he knew not whether he slept, but if he did ? 
 it must have been with his eyes open, for he 
 
Pages 89 & 90. 
 

 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 91 
 
 always saw the lion at his feet. Next day, 
 in the forenoon, the animal went again to the 
 water, and while there, he listened to some 
 noise apparently from an opposite quarter, and 
 disappeared in the bushes. The man now 
 made another effort, and seized his gun ; hut 
 on attempting to rise, he fell, his ankles being 
 without power. With his gun in his hand, 
 he crept towards the water, and drank, but 
 looking at his feet, he saw, as he expressed it, 
 his “toes roasted,” and the skin torn off with 
 the grass. There he sat a few moments, ex- 
 pecting the lion’s return, when he was re- 
 solved to send the contents of the gun through 
 its head ; but as it did not appear, tying his 
 gun to his back, the poor man made the best 
 of his way on his hands and knees, to the 
 nearest path, hoping some solitary individual 
 might pass. He could go no farther, when, 
 providentially, a person came up, who took 
 him to a place of safety, from whence he ob- 
 tained help, though he lost his toes, and was 
 a cripple for life. 
 
 Mr. Moffat says, with all their boldness, 
 lions are sometimes great cowards. 
 
 “ On one occasion a man coming unexpect- 
 edly on a lion, fainted. The lion raised him- 
 8 
 
92 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 self to look over the bushes, and seeing no 
 one, seemed to suspect a plot, and scampered 
 off with his tail between his legs. It is but 
 justice to add, that the man was no less cow- 
 ardly; for, on awaking from his swoon, and 
 looking this way and that, he imagined the 
 object of his terror was still there, and taking 
 to his heels, he made towards the wagon. I 
 have known Bushmen, and even women, 
 drive the lion away from the prey he has just 
 seized, by beating their clubs on dry hides, 
 and shouting; nevertheless, by day, and es- 
 pecially by night, he is an object of terror. 
 Such subjects as these served sometimes to 
 amuse our evening hours ; more frequently, 
 however, I requested my companions to pro- 
 pose questions on Scriptural and other import- 
 ant subjects, in answering which I had an 
 opportunity of communicating much useful 
 and edifying instruction.” 
 
 During another journey, our missionary 
 relates the following incidents : 
 
 “ Reclining on a rock one day, waiting till 
 my shirt, which I had washed, was dry, I 
 noticed a crow rise from the earth, carrying 
 something dangling in its talons. On direct- 
 ing my companions to the sight, they said, ‘It 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 93 
 
 is only a crow with a tortoise ; you will see it 
 fall presently and down it fell. The crow 
 descended, and up went the tortoise again to a 
 still greater height, from which it dropped, 
 and the crow instantly followed. I hastened 
 with one of the men to the spot, and scared 
 away the crow from the mangled tortoise, on 
 which it was enjoying a feast. On looking 
 around the flat rock there were many wrecks 
 of former years ; and on my remarking I 
 did not think the crow was so cunning, 
 my companion replied, ‘The kites do the 
 same thing;’ which I have since frequently 
 observed. 
 
 “On one occasion I was remarkably pre- 
 served, when all expected that my race was 
 run. We had reached the river early in the 
 afternoon, after a dreadfully scorching ride 
 across a plain. Three of my companions, 
 who were in advance, rode forward to a Bush- 
 man village, on an ascent some hundred yards 
 from the river. I went, because my horse 
 would go, towards a little pool on a dry branch, 
 from which the flood or torrent had receded to 
 the larger course. Dismounting, I pushed 
 through a narrow opening in the bushes, and 
 lying down, took a hearty draught. Immedi- 
 
94 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 ately on raising myself I felt an unusual taste 
 in my mouth, and looking attentively at the 
 water, and the temporary fence around, it 
 flashed across my mind that the water was 
 poisoned for the purpose of killing game. I 
 came out, and meeting one of our number, 
 who had been a little in our rear, just entering, 
 told him my suspicion. 
 
 “ At that moment a Bushman from the vil- 
 lage came running breathless, and apparently 
 terrified, took me by the hand, as if to prevent 
 my going to the water, talking with great ex- 
 citement, though neither I nor my companions 
 could understand him ; but when I made signs 
 that I had drank, he was speechless for a mi- 
 nute or two, and then ran off to the village. I 
 followed; and on again dismounting, as I was 
 beginning to think for the last time, the poor 
 Bushmen and women looked on me with eyes 
 which bespoke heartfelt compassion. My com- 
 panions expected me to fall down every mo- 
 ment ; not one spoke. Observing the down- 
 cast looks of the poor Bushmen, I smiled, and 
 this seemed to operate on them like an electric 
 shock, for all began to babble and sing ; the 
 women striking their elbows against their 
 naked sides, expressive of their joy. How- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 95 
 
 ever, I began to feel a violent turmoil within, 
 and a fulness of the system, as if the arteries 
 would burst, while the pulsation was exceed- 
 ingly quick, being accompanied with a slight 
 giddiness in the head. We made the natives 
 understand that I wanted the fruit of the sola- 
 num, which grows in those quarters nearly the 
 size and shape of an egg, and which acts as 
 an emetic. They ran in all directions, but 
 sought in vain. By this time I was covered 
 with a profuse perspiration, and drank largely 
 of pure water. The strange and painful sen- 
 sation which I had experienced gradually wore 
 away, though it was not entirely removed for 
 some days. 
 
 “ I was deeply affected by the sympathy of 
 these poor Bushmen, to whom we were utter 
 strangers. When they saw me *laugh, they 
 deafened our ears with expressions of satis- 
 faction, making a croaking and clicking, of 
 which their language seemed to be made up. 
 And these barbarians to the letter ‘ showed us 
 no little kindness,’ for they gave us some 
 meat of zebras, which had died from drinking 
 the same water on the preceding day. This 
 was very acceptable ; for having fasted that 
 day, we were all ready for a meal ; and, 
 8 * 
 
96 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 though the poisoned water had partially blunt- 
 ed my appetite, I enjoyed a steak of the black- 
 looking flesh mingled with its yellow fat.” 
 
 But we will not follow the adventurous mis- 
 sionary further on this journey. Disappointed 
 in the objects of their search, the party return- 
 ed to the former station, where Mr. Moflfat re- 
 sumed his labours. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 97 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Africaner goes to Cape Town — A farmer's 
 surprise — Returns to his people — His 
 peaceful death. 
 
 Africaner was taken by surprise when 
 Mr. Moffat proposed that he should go to 
 Cape Town. He said to the missionary, “ I 
 thought you loved me, and do you want me 
 to go where I shall be seized and hung ?” 
 And then putting his hand to his head, he 
 said, “ Do you not know that I am an outlaw, 
 and that 1000 rix dollars have been offered for 
 this poor head ?” 
 
 So terrible had been the name of Africaner 
 in times past, and so fearful had been his 
 ravages among the colonists, that the govern- 
 ment had offered a reward for his head, and 
 it was very natural for him to think that if he 
 should go within the reach of the white men, 
 they would seize him and put him to death. 
 But after Mr. Moffat had assured him that he 
 
98 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 thought it would be a good thing for him to go 
 to Cape Town, and that his life would be per- 
 fectly safe, Africaner said, “ I shall commit my 
 way to the Lord. I know he will not leave 
 me.” 
 
 The point was soon decided, and prepara- 
 tions were made for the journey. A large 
 company followed the chief and the mission- 
 ary when they set out ; and the incidents of 
 the journey are so interesting that we shall 
 let Mr. Moffat describe them in his own way. 
 
 “Arriving at Pella, a missionary station 
 already mentioned, we had a feast fit for hea- 
 ven-born souls, and subjects to which the sera- 
 phim above might have tuned their golden 
 lyres. Men met who had not seen each other 
 since they had joined in mutual combat for 
 each other’s wo ; met — warrior with warrior, 
 bearing in their hands the olive branch, secure 
 under the panoply of peace and love. They 
 talked of Him who had subdued both, without 
 a sword or spear, and each bosom swelled 
 with purest friendship, and exhibited another 
 trophy destined to adorn the triumph of the 
 Prince of Peace, under whose banner each was 
 promoting that reign in which — 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 99 
 
 “‘No longer hosts encountering hosts, 
 
 Their heaps of slain deplore ; 
 
 They hang their trumpet in the hall, 
 
 And study war no more.’ 
 
 “We spent some pleasant days while the 
 subject of getting Africaner safely through the 
 territories of the farmers to the Cape was the 
 theme of much conversation. To some the 
 step seemed somewhat hazardous. Africaner 
 and I had fully discussed the point before leav- 
 ing the station ; and I was confident of suc- 
 cess. Though a chief, there was no need of 
 laying aside any thing like royalty, with a view 
 to travel in disguise. Of two substantial 
 shirts left, I gave him one ; he had a pair of 
 leather trousers, a duffel jacket, much the 
 worse for wear, and an old hat, neither white 
 nor black, and my own garb was scarcely 
 more refined. As a further precaution, it was 
 agreed, that for once I should be the chief, 
 and that he should assume the appearance of 
 a servant, when it was desirable, and pass for 
 one of my attendants. 
 
 “ Ludicrous as the picture may appear, the 
 subject was a grave one, and the season 
 solemn and important ; often did I lift up my 
 
100 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 eyes to Him in whose hands are the hearts of 
 all men, that his presence might go with us. 
 It might here be remarked, once for all, that 
 the Dutch farmers, notwithstanding all that 
 has been said against them by some travellers, 
 are, as a people, exceedingly hospitable and 
 kind to strangers. Exceptions there are, 
 but these are few, and perhaps more rare 
 than in any country under the sun. Some of 
 these worthy people on the borders of the 
 colony, congratulated me on returning alive, 
 having often heard, as they said, that I had 
 been long since murdered by Africaner. Much 
 wonder was expressed at my narrow escape 
 from such a monster of cruelty, the report hav- 
 ing been spread that Mr. Ebner had just es- 
 caped by the skin of his teeth. While some 
 would scarcely credit my identity, my testi- 
 mony as to the entire reformation of Africa- 
 ner’s character, and his conversion, was dis- 
 carded as the effusion of a frenzied brain. It 
 sometimes afforded no little entertainment to 
 Africaner and the Namaquas, to hear a far- 
 mer denounce this supposed irreclaimable 
 savage. There were only a few, however, 
 who were skeptical on the subject. At one 
 farm, a novel scene exhibited the state of feel- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 101 
 
 ing respecting Africaner and myself, and like- 
 wise displayed the power of divine grace un- 
 der peculiar circumstances. It was necessary, 
 from the scarcity of water, to call at such 
 houses as lay in our road. The farmer referred 
 to was a good man in the best sense of the 
 word ; and he and his wife had both shown me 
 kindness on my way to Namaqua-land. 
 
 “ On approaching the house, which was on 
 an eminence, I directed my men to take the 
 wagon to the valley below, while I walked 
 toward the house. The farmer, seeing a 
 stranger, came slowly down the descent to 
 meet me. When within a few yards, I ad- 
 dressed him in the usual way, and stretching 
 out my hand, expressed my pleasure at seeing 
 him again. He put his hand behind him, 
 and asked me, rather wildly, who I was. I 
 replied that I was Moffat, expressing my won- 
 der that he should have forgotten me. 4 Mof- 
 fat !’ he rejoined, in a faltering voice ; 4 it is 
 your ghost!' and moved some steps back- 
 ward. 4 1 am no ghost.’ 4 Don’t come near 
 me !’ he exclaimed, 4 you have been long mur- 
 dered by Africaner.’ 4 But I am no ghost,’ I 
 said, feeling my hands, as if to convince him 
 and myself, too, of my materiality ; but his 
 
102 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 alarm only increased. ‘Everybody says you 
 were murdered ; and a man told me he had 
 seen your bones ;’ and he continued to gaze 
 at me, to the no small astonishment of the 
 good wife and children, who were standing at 
 the door, as also to that of my people, who 
 were looking on from the wagon below. At 
 length he extended his trembling hand, say- 
 ing, ‘ When did you rise from the dead V As 
 he feared my presence would alarm his wife, 
 we bent our steps towards the wagon, and 
 Africaner was the subject of our conversation. 
 I gave him in a few words my views of his 
 present character, saying, ‘ He is now a truly 
 good man.’ To which he replied, ‘ I can be- 
 lieve almost any thing you say, but that I can- 
 not credit ; there are seven wonders in the 
 world, that would be the eighth.’ I appealed 
 to the displays of Divine grace in a Paul, a 
 Manasseh, and referred to his own experience. 
 He replied, these were another description of 
 men, but that Africaner was one of the ac- 
 cursed sons of Ham, enumerating some of the 
 atrocities of which he had been guilty. By 
 this time we were standing with Africaner at 
 our feet, on whose countenance sat a smile, 
 well knowing the prejudices of some of the 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 103 
 
 farmers. The farmer closed the conversation 
 by saying, with much earnestness, ‘ Well, if 
 what you assert be true respecting that man, 
 I have only one wish, and that is, to see him 
 before I die ; and when you return, as sure 
 as the sun is over our heads, I will go with 
 you to see him, though he killed my own 
 uncle.’ 
 
 “ I was not before aware of this fact, and now 
 felt some hesitation whether to discover to him 
 the object of his wonder; but knowing the 
 sincerity of the farmer, and the goodness of 
 his disposition, I said, 4 This, then, is Africa- 
 ner !’ He started back, looking intensely at 
 the man, as if he had just dropped from the 
 clouds. ‘Are you Africaner?’ he exclaimed. 
 He arose, doffed his old hat, and making a 
 polite bow, answered, 4 1 am.’ The farmer 
 seemed thunder-struck ; but when, by a few 
 questions, he had assured himself of the fact, that 
 the former bugbear of the border stood before 
 him, now meek and lamb-like in his whole 
 deportment, he lifted up his eyes, and ex- 
 claimed, *0 God, what a miracle of thy power ’ 
 what cannot thy grace accomplish !’ The kind 
 farmer, and his no less hospitable wife, now 
 abundantly supplied our wants ; but we hast- 
 9 
 
104 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 ened our departure, lest the intelligence might 
 get abroad that Africaner was with me, and 
 bring unpleasant visiters.” 
 
 The arrival of Africaner at Cape Town ex- 
 cited great curiosity and attention. He had 
 been heard of as a scourge of the desert, and 
 he was regarded as a monster. His name and 
 exploits had been familiar to the inhabitants 
 for more than twenty years. Many were 
 struck with the unexpected mildness and 
 gentleness of his demeanour, and others with 
 his piety and accurate knowledge of the Scrip- 
 tures. His New Testament was an interest- 
 ing object of attention, it was so completely 
 thumbed and worn by use. His answers to a 
 number of questions put to him at a public 
 meeting exhibited his diligence as a student 
 in the doctrines of the gospel, especially when 
 it is remembered that Africaner never saw a 
 Catechism in his life, but obtained all his know- 
 ledge on theological subjects from a careful 
 perusal of the Scriptures, and the verbal in- 
 structions of the missionary. 
 
 After spending some time at the Cape and 
 producing a deep impression on the minds of 
 those who saw him, of the value of missions 
 and the power of the gospel to subdue the 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 105 
 
 most wicked, Africaner returned home. It 
 
 was determined that Mr. Moffat should go to 
 
 another mission, and so they parted. The 
 
 good old Africaner, once a wild man of the 
 
 desert, now a meek and lowly disciple of 
 
 Christ, went back to his people, and in about 
 
 two years he was called to enter into the joy 
 
 of his Lord. This he had anticipated, with 
 
 the full assurance of hope, believing that, 
 
 “ when his earthly house should be dissolved, 
 
 he would have a building of God.” — The 
 
 . . 1 
 
 closing scene of his life is faithfully delineated 
 
 by the Rev. J. Archbell, Wesleyan missionary, 
 
 in a letter to Dr. Philip, dated March 14th, 
 
 1823:— 
 
 “ When he found his end approaching, he 
 called all the people together, after the exam- 
 ple of Joshua, and gave them directions as to 
 their future conduct. ‘We are not,’ said he, 
 ‘ what we were, savages , but men professing 
 to be taught according to the gospel. Let us 
 then do accordingly. Live peaceably with all 
 men, if possible ; and if impossible, consult 
 those who are placed over you, before you en- 
 gage in any thing. Remain together, as you 
 have done since I knew you. Then, when 
 the Directors think fit to send you a mission 
 
106 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 ary, you may be ready to receive him. Be- 
 have to any teacher you may have sent, as 
 one sent of God, as I have great hope that God 
 will bless you in this respect when I am gone 
 to heaven. I feel that I love God, and that 
 he has done much for me, of which I am to- 
 tally unworthy. 
 
 “ ‘ My former life is stained with blood ; but 
 Jesus Christ has pardoned me, and I am going 
 to heaven. Oh ! beware of falling into the 
 same evils into which I have led you fre- 
 quently ; but seek God, and he will be found 
 of you to direct you.’ 
 
 “Africaner was a man of sound judgment, 
 and of undaunted courage ; and although he 
 himself was one of the first and the severest 
 persecutors of the Christian cause, he would, 
 had he lived, have spilled his blood, if neces- 
 sary, for his missionary.” 
 
 This is one of the most remarkable instances 
 of the power of divine grace which the mis- 
 sionary work has furnished. We love to re- 
 cord it to the praise of the mercy of God in 
 Jesus Christ, which has regard to the chief of 
 sinners ! 
 
 If Africaner found peace in believing in 
 Jesus, who will despair? 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 107 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Bechucmas — Missionary efforts — Mr. 
 Moffat visits them — The awful ignorance 
 of the natives . 
 
 The Bechuanas are a race of Africans liv- 
 ing at a great distance from civilized society, 
 and very independent and savage in their 
 habits. About the year 1800, they were 
 visited by white men ; and subsequently mis- 
 sionaries, who were labouring among other 
 tribes, came occasionally into the country of the 
 Bechuanas. Afterwards frequent attempts 
 were made to open some intercourse with 
 them, in the hope that the way might be pre- 
 pared for the introduction of the gospel. But 
 too often these expeditions were made by those 
 who excited the jealousy of the people, and 
 the result was fearful. At one time a party, 
 composed chiefly of Hottentots, entered the 
 country. They were well armed and mounted 
 on oxen, and had some women with them. 
 9* 
 
108 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 They proceeded to the Moshen river, where 
 they found some cattle outposts belonging to 
 the Bechuanas, under Molehabangue, then 
 residing at Lithako (the Lattakoo of Mr. 
 Campbell.) Having nothing to offer in ex- 
 change, they supplied themselves with what 
 they liked; took some of the cattle, killed 
 those who resisted their depredations, and 
 pursued their course for some days along the 
 river. They reached the metropolis of that 
 part of the country, where the tidings of the 
 robbery had arrived before them ; and the in- 
 habitants had the mortification of beholding 
 two or three of their pack-oxen in the posses- 
 sion of the marauders. Of course no notice was 
 taken of it, and more than usual courtesy was 
 exhibited towards the ragamuffin visitors, who, 
 in order to keep up an appearance of an abun- 
 dant quantity of ammunition, which in reality 
 was exhausted, had filled some bags with sand 
 to deceive the natives. When the appetites 
 of the guests had been whetted, and the whole 
 party were anxious for a revel in beef, two 
 oxen were presented to them. One of them 
 being extremely wild, (which was part of the 
 stratagem,) took fright at the appearance of 
 the motley group, darted off, when all pursued, 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 109 
 
 eager to secure their fat and tempting prey. 
 This was the moment for revenge, and at a 
 given signal, the Bechuanas attacked the 
 strangers ; several were speared at once. 
 The others rallied, and retreated to one of the 
 stone folds ; but having scarcely any powder 
 and shot, they made but a feeble resistance. 
 Mercy in vain was asked, no quarter was 
 given ; and night put a close to the struggle ; 
 when the Bechuanas lay down by fires, sur- 
 rounding their intended victims, as they 
 usually do, even on the field of battle, and 
 slept. Those of the travellers who were not 
 wounded, aided by the darkness of the night, 
 made their escape, and directed their course 
 southward, as the colony was in that direction. 
 At day-light the women and wounded were 
 all put to death ; and those who had escaped 
 were pursued for three successive days, with 
 the determination to exterminate the whole 
 party. They had wellnigh succeeded; for 
 one alone, of about fifty, reached the waterfall 
 at the Orange river, there to relate the horri- 
 ble catastrophe which they had drawn upon 
 themselves, and to raise the hue-and-cry 
 against the Bechuanas, as savages of no com- 
 mon degree of barbarism. 
 
no 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 We will not dwell upon the various efforts 
 of Christian missionaries to cultivate an ac- 
 quaintance with this barbarous people. The 
 Rev. Mr. Campbell has given a very interest- 
 ing account of his travels in South Africa, 
 from which we might derive abundant mate- 
 rials for a more extended narrative than our 
 limits will allow. He visited the Beehuanas, 
 and was deeply interested in the people ; he 
 found them anxiously desiring to have a mis- 
 sionary. Mr. Moffat says : 
 
 ‘ 4 To cast his eyes over a field so inviting; 
 to hear the buzz of thousands of immortal be- 
 ings, and, above all, the declaration of the 
 chief, 4 Send missionaries,— I will be a father 
 to them f this was one of the happiest mo- 
 ments in the life of a man, whose whole soul 
 was engaged in an enterprise which had a 
 special reference to the welfare of the poor 
 degraded African, and the spread of the Re- 
 deemer’s cause throughout the world. Every 
 event in that important journey authorized the 
 most sanguine expectations on the part of Mr. 
 C., and he viewed that as the most interesting 
 period of his valuable life, the prelude to anew 
 era in the history of African missions.” 
 
 He returned to England, and his graphic 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 and deeply interesting details produced a 
 thrilling effect on the minds of the Christian 
 public, who gave ample proof of their estimate 
 of his labours and travels, by their increased 
 liberality to the cause of missions, and espe- 
 cially to missions in Africa. In 1815, four 
 missionaries were sent out to settle among the 
 Bechuanas. 
 
 On their reaching Griqua Town, they were 
 kindly received and encouraged by the bre- 
 thren of that station. The late Adam Kok of 
 Philippolis, Jan Hendreck, and others, as in- 
 terpreters, and as men of influence with the 
 Bechuanas, determined to accompany them to 
 Lithako. This was the more desirable, as the 
 Bechuanas, though heathens, having received 
 signal services from Kok’s father, greatly re- 
 spected him, who was an excellent character, 
 possessed of sound judgment and amiable dis- 
 position. 
 
 They reached the metropolis of that part of 
 the country on the 17th of February, 1816 ; 
 and the whole party, with their wagons, were 
 admitted into the public square, when Mothibi, 
 with many of his people, came up and shook 
 hands with them. Mothibi’s first question to 
 A. Kok was, “What have you brought for 
 
112 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMOIfG 
 
 barter?” This was veFy natural for people 
 who could not be supposed to- have any thing 
 like correct notions of the real object of the 
 missionaries. It nevertheless appeared that 
 their minds were made up on the subject ; for, 
 when informed of their object, and that they 
 were the men promised by Mr. Campbell, 
 chagrin marked the countenance of Mothibi, 
 and strong tokens of disapprobation were 
 evinced by the subordinate chiefs. This was 
 a comfortless reception for those who had made 
 a long voyage ; passed tedious and fatiguing 
 months of gipsy life in a desert and danger- 
 ous road ; and had now reached the spot on 
 which all their affections and hopes had cen- 
 tered, as the scene of future labour ! In the 
 evening, Kok, in a more formal way, intro- 
 duced the missionaries to the king, when they 
 presented to him the gifts of tobacco and beads 
 which they had brought for that purpose ; and 
 Mahuto, the queen, also came in for a share. 
 This was quite enough “to sweeten the heart,”' 
 as the natives express it. At this favourable 
 juncture, when they we rar exercised with un- 
 certainty as to the result, and their desires 
 were raised to the God in whose hands are the 
 hearts of all men, Kok again stated their ob- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 113 
 
 ject, and referred to the promise made by the 
 king to Mr. Campbell. He answered, “ They 
 may come and protect me ; but they want 
 water, much water.” Then, directing their 
 attention to the Kuruman river, he immediate- 
 ly proceeded to converse on other subjects. 
 He was again reminded that Mr. Hamilton 
 was a worker in wood, and that another mis- 
 sionary was on his way who was a smith, and 
 could make hatchets, etc. This statement 
 evidently afforded him satisfaction, and he ob- 
 served, at the same time, to Kok,that he could 
 not think of refusing persons recommended by 
 him. He still hesitated, however, cordially to 
 approve of their wish to reside with him, his 
 excuse being, “ There is no water, there are no 
 trees ; the people have customs, and will not 
 hear.” He was assured that the missionaries 
 only desired to remain in order to communicate 
 instruction to those willing to receive it. After 
 a couple of days’ intercourse, during which 
 they could elicit nothing satisfactory, — the 
 king at one time assenting, then promising, 
 and then cancelling, — he at length appealed to 
 his people, of whose judgment in the affair he 
 said he would approve, repeating his wish 
 that the missionaries would go and reside on 
 
114 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the Kuruman river, and traffic with them, bat 
 that they should on no account teach the peo- 
 ple. Mothibi then addressed his subjects thus : 
 “ Speak your minds. When the men were 
 at the other place,” viz., Messrs. Campbell 
 and Read, “you remained silent, and when 
 they departed you blamed me.” Many of the 
 people then exclaimed, “ The missionaries 
 must not come here ;” and the king respond- 
 ed, “ The missionaries must not come here !” 
 
 This was a dreadful disappointment, but 
 what could they do? 
 
 With sorrowful hearts they retraced their 
 weary steps over the waste-howling wilder- 
 ness, in which there were few charms to en- 
 gage, or in any degree to relieve their minds 
 from the dark and heart-rending scenes which 
 they had left behind, and which threw a sha- 
 dow more gloomy still, on minds alive to the 
 awful consequences of shaking off the dust of 
 their feet against a city containing many thou- 
 sands of immortal beings. They mused on 
 the mystery not uncommonly attached to the 
 ways of Him, who, though too wise to err, has 
 His footsteps in the sea, and His path in the 
 mighty waters. 
 
 The next attempt was more successful. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 115 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Read shortly afterwards pro- 
 ceeded to the Kuruman river, and taking with 
 him a large supply of articles for presents to 
 the natives, he succeeded in gaining their af- 
 fections so far as to obtain permission to settle 
 among them. 
 
 But this favour was only purchased, and 
 among those the most difficult to conciliate 
 was Mahuto, the queen, whose influence over 
 the king was very great. But the Lord en- 
 abled the mission to get a foothold among this 
 people. 
 
 In 1820, the Rev. Robert Moffat and his 
 wife joined the mission, and we shall follow 
 his narrative of the wmnderful works of God 
 among these heathen. He gives a very strik- 
 ing description of the state of the people 
 among whom he has come to reside. 
 
 The situation of the missionary among the 
 Bechuanas is peculiar. He has no idolatry to 
 arrest his progress, and his mind is not over- 
 whelmed with the horrors which are to be 
 found in countries where idols and idol tem- 
 ples are resorted to by millions of devotees ; 
 
 his eyes are never offended by human and 
 other sacrifices, nor is he the spectator of the 
 
 10 
 
116 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 unhappy widow immolated on the funeral pile 
 of her husband ; the infant screams of Mo- 
 loch’s victims never rend his heart. He meets 
 with no sacred streams, nor hears of voluntary 
 victims to propitiate the anger of imaginary 
 deities. He seeks in vain to find a temple, 
 an altar, or a single emblem of heathen wor- 
 ship. No fragments remain of former days, as 
 mementoes to the present generation, that 
 their ancestors ever loved, served, or rever- 
 enced a being greater than man. A profound 
 silence reigns on this awful subject. Satan 
 has been too successful in leading captive at 
 his will a majority of the human race, by an 
 almost endless variety of deities. As if crea- 
 tion w T ere not sufficiently profuse, vanity has 
 excited a host of inventive and degenerate 
 minds to form images, of every shape and 
 size, exhibiting the horrid, the ludicrous, and 
 the obscene. Satan has employed his agency, 
 with fatal success, in erasing every vestige of 
 religious impression from the minds of the 
 Bechuanas, Hottentots, and Bushmen; leav- 
 ing them without a single ray to guide them 
 from the dark and dread futurity, or a single 
 link to unite them with the skies. 
 
 I have often wished to find something, by 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 117 
 
 which I could lay hold on the minds of the 
 natives, — an altar to an unknown God, the 
 faith of their ancestors, the immortality of the 
 soul, or any religious association ; but nothing 
 of this kind ever floated in their minds. 
 “ They looked upon the sun,” as Mr. Camp- 
 bell very graphically said, “ with the eyes of 
 an ox.” 
 
 To tell them, the gravest of them, that there 
 was a Creator, the governor of the heavens 
 and earth, of the fall of man, or the redemp- 
 tion of the world, the resurrection of the dead, 
 and immortality beyond the grave, was to tell 
 them what appeared to be more fabulous, ex- 
 travagant, and ludicrous than their own vain 
 stories about lions, hyenas, and jackals. To 
 tell them that these were articles of our faith, 
 would extort an interjection of superlative sur- 
 prise, as if they were too preposterous for the 
 most foolish to believe. 
 
 What they heard was all right, provided 
 they got a bit of tobacco, or some little equiva- 
 lent for their time — a thing of no value to 
 them — which they spent in hearing one talk. 
 Some would even make a trade of telling the 
 missionary that they prayed, by which means 
 God directed them to their lost cattle, at a few 
 
118 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 yards’ distance, after having been in search of 
 them several days ; and that in the same way 
 he had brought game within reach of their 
 spears. Replies to questions as to what 
 they thought of the word of God, were very 
 cheap ; and if they supposed that by such 
 means they had obtained favour and respect, 
 their success Avould be the subject of merri- 
 ment in their own circles. Some individuals, 
 to my knowledge, who had carried on this 
 deception in the early period of the mission, 
 many years afterwards boasted how expert 
 they had been in thus gulling the missionary. 
 
 A wily rain-maker, who was the oracle of 
 the village in which he dwelt, once remarked, 
 after hearing me enlarge on the subject of 
 creation, “If you verily believe that that 
 Being created all men, then, according to rea- 
 son, you must also believe that in making 
 white people he has improved on his work ; 
 He tried his hand on Bushmen first, and he 
 did not like them, because they Avere so ugly, 
 and their language like that of the frogs. He 
 then tried his hand on the Hottentots, but these 
 did not please him either. He then exer- 
 cised his poAver and skill and made the Bech- 
 uanas, Avhich Avas a great improvement ; and 
 
THE BECHTJANAS. 
 
 119 
 
 at last he made the white people ; therefore,” 
 exulting with an air of triumph at the disco- 
 very, “the white people are so much wiser 
 than we are, in making walking-houses, (wa- 
 gons,) teaching the oxen to draw them over 
 hill and dale, and instructing them also to 
 plough the gardens instead of making their 
 wives do it, like the Bechuanas.” His dis- 
 covery received the applause of the people 
 while the poor missionaTj^’s arguments, drawn 
 from the source of Divine truth, were thrown 
 into the shade. They were always so averse 
 to reasoning on any subjects of this nature, 
 that the missionary felt it quite a treat to meet 
 with an individual who would enter into a 
 discussion, even though with derision and 
 scorn. 
 
 The government of the people partakes 
 both of the monarchical and patriarchal, com- 
 paratively mild in its character. Each tribe 
 has its chief or king, who commonly resides 
 in the largest town, and is held sacred from 
 his hereditary right to that office. A tribe 
 generally includes a number of towns or vil- 
 lages, each having its distinct head, under 
 whom there are a number of subordinate 
 chiefs. These constitute the aristocracy of 
 10 * 
 
120 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the nation, and all acknowledge the snpre- 
 macy of the principal one. His power, though 
 very great, and in some instances despotic, is 
 nevertheless controlled by the minor chiefs, 
 who in their pichos or pitshos, their parlia- 
 ment, or public meetings, use the greatest 
 plainness of speech in exposing what they 
 consider culpable or lax in his government. 
 An able speaker will sometimes turn the scale 
 even against the king, if we may call him 
 such. 
 
 I have heard him inveighed against for 
 
 O O 
 
 making women his senators and his wife prime 
 minister, while the audience was requested to 
 look at his body, and see if he were not getting 
 too corpulent ; a sure indication that his mind 
 was little exercised in anxieties about the wel- 
 fare of his people. 
 
 They had also many ceremonies, disgust- 
 ing in themselves, and producing a degrad- 
 ing effect upon the minds of the natives. 
 
 These ceremonies were prodigious barriers 
 to the gospel. Polygamy was another obsta- 
 cle, and the Bechuanas, jealous of any dimi- 
 nution in their self-indulgence, by being de- 
 prived of the services of their wives, looked 
 with an extremely suspicious eye on any in- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 121 
 
 novation on this ancient custom. While going 
 to war, hunting, watching the cattle, milking 
 the cows, and preparing their furs and skins 
 for mantles, was the work of the men, the 
 women had by far the heavier task of agri- 
 culture, building the houses, fencing, bringing 
 firewood, and heavier than all, nature’s charge, 
 the rearing of a family. The greater part of 
 the year they are constantly employed ; and 
 during the season of picking and sowing their 
 gardens, their task is galling, living on a 
 coarse, scanty fare, and frequently having a 
 babe fastened to their backs, while thus culti- 
 vating the ground. 
 
 The men, for obvious reasons, found it con- 
 venient to have a number of such vassals, 
 rather than only one, while the women would be 
 perfectly amazed at one’s ignorance, were 
 she to be told that she would be much happier 
 in a single state, or widowhood, than being 
 the mere concubine and drudge of a haughty 
 husband, who spent the greater part of his life in 
 lounging in the shade, while she was compelled, 
 for his comfort as well as her own, to labour 
 under the rays of an almost vertical sun, in a 
 hot and withering climate. Their houses, 
 which require considerable ingenuity as well 
 
122 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 as hard labour, are entirely tta work of the 
 women, who are extremely thankful to carry 
 home even the heavier timbers, if their hus- 
 bands will take their axes and fell them in 
 the thicket, which may be many miles dis- 
 tant. The centre of the conical roof will, in 
 many houses, be eighteen feet high, and it 
 requires no little scrambling, in the absence of 
 ladders, for females to climb such a height ; 
 but the men pass and repass, and look on 
 with the most perfect indifference, while it 
 never enters their heads that their wife, their 
 daughter, or their mother, may fail and break 
 a leg or neck. These houses, though tem- 
 porary, and requiring great labour to keep 
 them constantly in repair, are nevertheless 
 very well adapted to the climate. They ad- 
 mit little light, which is not desirable in a hot 
 country, and among millions of house-flies $ 
 but during the winter season they are uncom- 
 fortably airy and cold. 
 
 While standing near the wife of one of the 
 grandees, who with some female companions 
 was building a house, and making prepara- 
 tions to scramble by means of a branch on to 
 the roof, I remarked that they ought to get 
 their husbands to do that part of the work. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 123 
 
 This set them all into a roar of laughter. 
 Mahuto, the queen, and several of the men, 
 drawing near to ascertain the cause of the 
 merriment, the wives repeated my strange, 
 and, to them, ludicrous proposal, when another 
 peal of mirth ensued. Mahuto, who was a 
 sensible and shrewd woman, stated that the 
 plan, though hopeless, was a good one, as she 
 often thought our custom was much better 
 than theirs. It was reasonable that women 
 should attend to household affairs, and the 
 lighter parts of labour, while man, wont to 
 boast of his superior strength, should employ 
 his energy in more laborious occupations ; 
 adding, she wished I would give their hus- 
 bands medicine to make them do the work. 
 This remark was made rather in the way of 
 a joke. Poor woman, she little knew then 
 that there was one whose omnipotent voice 
 has declared, “I will put my Spirit into them, 
 and create new hearts within them but now, 
 blessed be His holy name, she, and hundreds 
 more, have been publicly baptized into the 
 faith of the gospel of the Son of God. 
 
 When we attempted to con vince them of their 
 state as sinners, they would boldly affirm, with 
 full belief in their innate rectitude, that there 
 
134 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 was not a sinner in the tribe, referring us to 
 other nations whom they dreaded, or with 
 whom they were at war ; and especially the 
 poor despised Bushmen. That they are less 
 ferocious than some tribes, we admit ; but this 
 is saying little in commendation of those who 
 could with impunity rob, murder, lie, and ex- 
 change wives. 
 
 When they are styled savages, the appella- 
 tion should be understood in a restrictive 
 sense, especially when compared with the 
 Zoolu tribes to the east, who, as we shall yet 
 have occasion to show, though they are not 
 cannibals, would, in fiercest barbarity, vie with 
 any of the inhabitants of the islands of the 
 Pacific. The Bechuana character is frank 
 and sociable, which, however, does not appear 
 to arise from a benevolence of disposition, so 
 much as from a degree of etiquette and habits, 
 arising from relationship and locality. It has 
 sometimes perfectly astounded the writer to 
 see individuals who he had supposed were 
 amiable and humane, when brought into cer- 
 tain positions, conduct as if in their native ele- 
 ment, and wallow in crimes, which he expected 
 they would naturally shudder to perpetrate. 
 Having had long intercourse with many tribes, 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 125 
 
 he feels persuaded that what he has stated 
 will he found a tolerably correct estimate of 
 the Bechuana character. But although they 
 are revengeful to the last degree, if an offender 
 propitiate the injured party by a gift, at the 
 same time confessing his error, or, as is com- 
 mon, put the blame on his heart, the most 
 perfect unanimity and cordiality succeeds. 
 
 Mr. Thompson in his travels correctly re- 
 marks, that, “ like most barbarians, their poli- 
 tical wisdom consists in duplicity and petty 
 cunning ; and their ordinary wars were merely 
 predatory incursions upon their weaker neigh- 
 bours for the purpose of carrying off cattle, 
 with as little exposure as possible of their own 
 lives. Their expeditions against the Bush- 
 men were peculiarly vindictive, and conducted 
 with all the insidiousness and murderous fero- 
 city, without the heroic intrepidity of Ameri- 
 can or New Zealand savages examples of 
 this will occur hereafter. All these charac- 
 teristics are only what the records of Divine 
 truth authorize us to expect from those who 
 walk according to the prince of the power of 
 the air. The inspired description given in 
 Rom. iii. 10-18, is the real transcript of the 
 condition of a people who have no fear of God 
 
126 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 before their eyes. Both ancient and modern 
 missionaries have found it so ; and whoever 
 goes to preach the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ among the heathen, goes on a warfare 
 which requires all prayer and supplication, to 
 keep his armour bright, and in active opera- 
 tion, to wrestle and struggle, and toil, in pull- 
 ing down the strongholds of Satan, whether 
 in Africa, India, the islands of the Pacific, or 
 in the wilds of America. 
 
 They had no ideas of religion. It was for 
 some time thought that a term was used by 
 them which meant a Supreme being, but it 
 was afterwards found to be the name of one of 
 their kings, by whom they swore. 
 
 In the midst of a thunder-storm they would 
 shoot their poisoned arrows at the lightning to 
 kill it. 
 
 For the name of “God,” the missionaries 
 introduced the word Morimo , the same that 
 was used for the purpose by the Kafirs and 
 Hottentots. Mr. Moffat says : 
 
 One of the most convincing proofs that the 
 minds of the people are covered by the pro- 
 foundest darkness is, that after the missionary 
 has endeavoured for hours to impart to them 
 a knowledge of the Divine Being, they not 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 127 
 
 unfrequently address to him the question, 
 “ What is it you wish to tell me ? ,J And if 
 any thing were wanting to confirm this con- 
 viction, surely this fact will he sufficient, that 
 even where he has succeeded in conveying to 
 the vacant mind of the savage, ideas which he 
 considers as paramount to all others, he is told 
 that certainly, these fables are very wonderful, 
 but not more so than their own. 
 
 Inquiring one day of a group of natives 
 whom I had been addressing, if any of them 
 had previously known that Great Being 
 which had been described to them; among 
 the whole party I found only one old woman, 
 who said that she remembered hearing the 
 name Morimo when she was a child, but was 
 not told what the thing was. Indeed, even in 
 towns, the general reply on that subject is, 
 that these are things about which the old peo- 
 ple can speak ; but as they are not in the ha- 
 bit of instructing the rising generation on such 
 topics, it is easy to see how even these vague 
 notions become extinct altogether, as they have 
 in many parts of the country. Nor is it sur- 
 prising that a chief, after listening attentively 
 to me while he stood leaning on his spear, 
 should utter an exclamation of amazement, 
 11 
 
128 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 that a man whom he accounted wise should 
 tell such fables for truths. Calling about 
 thirty of his men, who stood near him, to ap- 
 proach, he addressed them, pointing to me: 
 “ There is Ra-Mary, (Father of Mary,) who 
 tells me, that the heavens were made, the 
 earth also, by a beginner, whom he calls Mo- 
 rimo. Have you ever heard any thing to be 
 compared with this ? He says that the sun 
 rises and sets by the power of Morimo ; as 
 also that Morimo causes winter to follow sum- 
 mer, the winds to blow, the rain to fall, the 
 grass to grow, and the trees to bud and 
 casting his arm above and around him, added, 
 “God works in every thing you see or hear! 
 Did ever you hear such words?’* Seeing 
 them ready to burst into laughter, he said, 
 “ Wait, I shall tell you more ; Ra-Mary tells 
 me that we have spirits in us, which will 
 never die ; and that our bodies, though dead 
 and buried, will rise and live again. Open 
 your ears to-day ; did you ever hear litlamane 
 (fables) like these ?” This was followed by a 
 burst of deafening laughter, and on its partially 
 subsiding, the chief man begged me to say no 
 more on such trifles, lest the people should 
 think me mad ! 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 129 
 
 But it is to the testimony of such as have been 
 Drought out of darkness into the marvellous 
 light of the gospel, that we must look for de- 
 cisive evidence on this point. The following 
 is one example out of many which could be 
 given. The question being put to one whose 
 memory was tenacious as his judgment was 
 enlightened, “ How did you feel in your na- 
 tural state, before hearing the gospel? How 
 did you feel upon retiring from private as well 
 as public crimes, and laying your head on the 
 silent pillow ? Were there no fears in your 
 breast, no spectres before your eyes, no con- 
 science accusing you of having done wrong? 
 No palpitations, no dread of futurity?” “No,” 
 said he. “ How could we feel, or how could 
 we fear? We had no idea that an unseen 
 eye saw us, or that an unseen ear heard us. 
 What could we know beyond ourselves, or of 
 another world, before life and immortality were 
 brought to us by the word of God.” This 
 declaration was followed by a flood of tears, 
 while he added, “ You found us beasts, and 
 not men.” 
 
 Among the tribes, and especially those 
 nearer to the coast, some customs remain 
 which are thought to have a reference to sac; 
 
130 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 rifices, offerings, and purifications ; such as 
 might be expected to be found among people 
 descending from the East, as all the Bechuana 
 tribes appear to have done. In many instances, 
 their slaughtering of animals on occasions of a 
 tree being struck with lightning, or to procure 
 rain, or to restore the sick, may be easily 
 traced to the inventive brain of wily rain- 
 makers, who, in such a case, as at their public 
 festivals and ceremonies, never lose sight of 
 their stomachs. One will try to coax the sick- 
 ness out of a chieftain by setting him astride 
 an ox, with its feet and legs tied ; and then 
 smothering the animal by holding its nose in a 
 large bowl of water. A feast follows, and the 
 ox is devoured, sickness and all. A sorcerer 
 will pretend he cannot find out the guilty per- 
 son, or where the malady of another lies, till 
 he has got him to kill an ox, on which he 
 manoeuvres, by cutting out certain parts. 
 Another doctor will require a goat, which he 
 kills over the sick person, allowing the blood 
 to run down the body ; another will require 
 the fat of the kidney of a fresh slaughtered 
 goat, saying, that any old fat will not do ; and 
 thus he comes in for his chop. These slaugh- 
 terings are prescribed according to the wealth 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 131 
 
 of the individual, so that a stout ox might be 
 a cure for a slight cold in a chieftain, while a 
 kid would be a remedy for a fever among the 
 poor, among whom there was no chance of ob- 
 taining any thing greater. The above cere- 
 monies might with little difficulty be construed 
 into sacrifices, if we felt anxious to increase 
 the number of traditionary remains. Is it, 
 however, to be wondered at among a pastoral 
 people, whose choicest viand is broiled or 
 boiled meat, and to whom fat of any kind is 
 like the richest cordials, that they should so- 
 lemnize every event or circumstance with 
 beef? When a covenant is made between 
 parties, or a mutual treaty entered into, one 
 animal, or more, must be killed, and, like 
 Jacob and Laban of old, they eat together. 
 
 The ceremonies to be found among the Be- 
 chuanas, apparently of Mosaic or patriarchal 
 origin, are found upon examination to be like 
 shells without the kernel. Whatever may 
 have been their origin, they have merged into 
 the ordinary habits of savage life, and centu- 
 ries ago lost the last vestiges of the tradition 
 of their original design. Happy for us that 
 we have not been left to feel after God among 
 the distant orbs of heaven, or amid the diver- 
 11 * 
 
132 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 sified displays of power and skill in our own 
 world. “ If therefore natural theology is 
 rightly defined to be, that which is attainable 
 by the light of nature only, then all who have 
 the light of nature, and the use of reason, are 
 capable of attaining it ; otherwise, the defini- 
 tion will be false and imperfect. The general 
 character of man will hold true that he is with- 
 out knowledge, till he receives instruction, 
 and without conscience, till informed what the 
 will of God is.” 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 133 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Natives stealing from the Missiona- 
 ries — Acquiring the language — Encou- 
 raging circumstance ■ — The rain-maker — 
 Burials. 
 
 After Mr. Moffat had been labouring^e 
 years among these ignorant and degraded 
 Africans, be was ready to faint with discou- 
 ragement. The natives would yet steal from 
 the. missionaries, and even threaten violence if 
 they could not have their own way. 
 
 Mrs. Moffat, with a babe in her ams, beg- 
 ged, and that very humbly, of a woman, just 
 to be kind enough to move out of a temporary 
 kitchen, that she might shut it up, as usual 
 before going into the place of worship. The 
 woman, a plebeian, seized a piece of wood to 
 hurl it at Mrs. Moffat’s head, who, of course, 
 immediately escaped to the house of God, 
 leaving her the undisputed occupant of the 
 kitchen, any of the contents of which she 
 would not hesitate to appropriate to her own 
 
134 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 use. It required no little fortitude and for- 
 bearance in the wife of the missionary, who 
 had to keep at home, and attend to the cares 
 and duties of a family, to have the house 
 crowded with those who would seize a stone, 
 and dare interference on her part. As many 
 men and women as pleased might come into 
 our hut, leaving us not room even to turn our- 
 selves, and making every thing they touched 
 the colour of their own greasy red attire ; while 
 some were talking, others would be sleeping, 
 and some pilfering whatever they could lay 
 their hands upon. As it was not pleasant to 
 take our meals among such filth, our dinner 
 was often deferred for hours, hoping for their 
 departure ; but, after all, it had to be eaten 
 when the natives were butchering their game 
 at our feet. The attendance at public worship 
 would vary from one to forty ; and these very 
 often manifesting the greatest indecorum. 
 Some would be snoring; others laughing; some 
 working; and others, who might even be 
 styled the better sort, w T ould be employed in 
 removing from their ornaments certain nameless 
 insects, letting them run about the seats while 
 sitting by the missionary’s wife. Never hav- 
 ing been accustomed to chairs or stools, some, 
 
THE BECHTTANAS. 
 
 135 
 
 by way of imitation, would sit with their feet 
 on the benches, having their knees, according 
 to their usual mode of sitting, drawn up to 
 their chins. In this position one would fall 
 asleep and tumble over, to the great merri- 
 ment of his fellows. On some occasions an 
 opportunity would be watched to rob, when 
 the missionary was engaged in public service. 
 The thief would just put his head within the 
 door, discover who was in the pulpit, and, 
 knowing he could not leave that place before 
 a certain time had elapsed, would go to his 
 house and take what he could lay his hands 
 upon. When Mr. Hamilton and I met in the 
 evening, we almost always had some tale to 
 tell about our losses, but never about our gains, 
 except those of resignation, and peace, the re- 
 sults of patience, and faith in the unchangeable 
 purposes of Jehovah. “I will be exalted 
 among the heathen,” cheered our baffled and 
 drooping spirits. 
 
 Some nights, or rather mornings, we had to 
 record thefts committed in the course of 
 twenty-four hours in our houses, our smith- 
 shop, our garden, and among our cattle in the 
 field. These they have more than once driven 
 into a bog or mire, at a late hour, informing us 
 
136 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 of the accident, as they termed it ; and, as it 
 was then too dark to render assistance, one or 
 more would fall a prey to the hyenas or hun- 
 gry natives. One night they entered our 
 cattle-fold, killed one of our best draught oxen, 
 and carried the whole away except one 
 shoulder. We were compelled to use much 
 meat, from the great scarcity of grain and ve- 
 getables ; our sheep we had to purchase at a 
 distance ; and very thankful, if, out of twenty, 
 we secured the largest half for ourselves. 
 They would break their legs, cut off their 
 tails, and more frequently carry off the whole 
 carcass. Tools, such as saws, axes, and 
 adzes, were losses severely felt, as we could 
 not at that time replace them. 
 
 Very often, when employed working at a dis- 
 tance from the house, if there was no one in 
 whom he could confide, the missionary would 
 be compelled to carry all the knives and 
 spoons to the place where he went to seek a 
 draught of water, well knowing that if they 
 were left, they would be gone before he could 
 return. 
 
 The acquisition of the language was an object 
 of the first importance. This was to be done 
 under circumstances the most unfavourable, as 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 137 
 
 there was neither time nor place of retirement 
 for study, and no interpreter worthy the name. 
 A few, and hut a few words were collected, 
 and these very incorrect, from the ignorance 
 of the interpreter of the grammatical structure 
 either of his own or the Dutch language, 
 through which medium all our intercourse 
 was carried on. It was something like grop- 
 ing in the dark, and many were the ludicrous 
 blunders I made. The more waggish of those 
 from whom I occasionally obtained sentences 
 and forms of speech, would richly enjoy the 
 fun, if they succeeded in leading me into 
 egregious mistakes and shameful blunders; 
 but though I had to pay dear for my credulity, 
 I learned something. After being compelled 
 to attend to every species of manual, and fre- 
 quently menial, labour for the whole day, 
 working under a burning sun, standing on the 
 saw-pit, labouring at the anvil, treading clay, 
 or employed in cleaning a water-ditch, it may 
 be imagined that I was in no very fit condition 
 for study, even when a quiet hour could be 
 obtained in the evening for that purpose. And 
 this was not all ; an efficient interpreter could 
 not be found in the country ; and when every 
 thing was ready for inquiry, the native mind, 
 
138 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 unaccustomed to such efforts, would, after a 
 few questions, be completely bewildered. 
 
 A missionary who commences giving direct 
 instruction to the natives, though far from be- 
 ing competent in the language, is proceeding 
 on safer ground than if he were employing an 
 interpreter, who is not proficient in both lan- 
 guages, and who has not a tolerable under- 
 standing of the doctrines of the gospel. Trust- 
 ing to an ignorant and unqualified interpreter, 
 is attended with consequences not only ludi- 
 crous, but dangerous to the very objects which 
 lie nearest to the missionary’s heart. The 
 natives will smile, and make allowances for 
 the blundering speeches of the missionary ; 
 and though some may convey the very op- 
 posite meaning to that which he intends, they 
 know from his general character what it 
 should be, and ascribe the blunder to his igno- 
 rance of the language. They are not so cha- 
 ritable towards his interpreter, whose interest 
 it is to make them believe that he is master of 
 a language of which they know nothing, and 
 consequently they take for granted that all is 
 correct which comes through his lips. I have 
 been very much troubled in my mind on hear- 
 ing that the most erroneous renderings have 
 
THE EEC HU AN A3. 
 
 139 
 
 been given to what I had said. Since acquir- 
 ing the language, I have had opportunities of 
 discovering this with my own ears, by hearing 
 sentences translated, which at one moment 
 were calculated to excite no more than a smile, 
 while others would produce intense agony of 
 mind from their bordering on blasphemy, and 
 which the interpreter gave as the word of God. 
 
 This was one of the great trials of the mis- 
 sion, while the heathen laughed at our puny 
 efforts to reform the nation. They had boasted 
 that our Jesus and Jehovah , of whom we liked 
 to talk so frequently, should never get one 
 convert to bow the knee to their sway; and 
 now these boasts were reiterated with epithets 
 of contumely and scorn. Sometimes a cheer- 
 ing ray would pierce through the thick gloom 
 which hung over our prospects, in the form of 
 a kind word or action on the part of a chief or 
 person of influence, though that was generally 
 either the precursor of a favour to he asked, 
 or a return for one granted. We needed the 
 graces of faith and patience, and but for Al- 
 mighty support, we must have fainted and 
 fallen in the struggle. 
 
 A circumstance, giving some comfort to the 
 missionaries, now occurred. 
 
 12 
 
140 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 “We had been exceedingly tried by the 
 conduct of Fransinna, a Hottentot woman, 
 from Bethelsdorp. She had taken offence at 
 our having sent away a young Hottentot in 
 our service, on account of immoral conduct, 
 which disgraced the mission in the eyes of the 
 Bechuanas. She took this opportunity of in- 
 stigating the king and his people against us, 
 by insinuating that we had ascribed it to Mo- 
 thibi, who, of course, was hurt at being charged 
 with that wdiich was our own act. While 
 her unchristian and violent spirit was threaten- 
 ing the overthrow of the mission, she was sud- 
 denly seized with a remarkable distemper, 
 which prostrated her in a short time on a bed 
 of sickness. She was visited and faithfully 
 dealt with. 
 
 “ Her conduct in endeavouring to frustrate 
 our efforts among the Bechuanas was set be- 
 fore her in its true colours. She was soon 
 thoroughly convinced of the guilt of such 
 hostility, and of the reasonableness of the 
 step on our part which had excited her dis- 
 pleasure. She frankly confessed her crimes, 
 was cut to the heart for the injury she had 
 done to the cause, and earnestly implored for- 
 giveness, when she was directed afresh to the 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 141 
 
 fountain opened for sin. She remained seve- 
 ral months in severe affliction, and about a 
 month before her death, one of her legs from 
 the knee was consigned to the dust, the rest 
 of her limbs meanwhile gradually decaying; 
 but while worms were literally destroying her 
 body, she knew in whom she had believed. 
 From the commencement of her affliction, the 
 Lord had made her to feel that he had a con- 
 troversy with her, and thrice happy was it for 
 her that she heard the rod and Him who had 
 appointed it. She acknowledged that for 
 some time previous she had wandered from 
 God, and had done things to the grief of our 
 souls and the injury of the cause; she also 
 said that she had used her endeavours to per- 
 suade her husband and the other Hottentots to 
 abandon the station and return home, and that 
 in the midst of her fiery opposition to us, the 
 Lord laid his hand upon her. She had thus 
 been brought to a sense of her danger, and to 
 have recourse to the precious blood of Christ, 
 which cieanseth from all sin. She made a 
 full, free, and public confession of all her ini- 
 quity; and a short time before her death, re- 
 membering again the injury she had attempted 
 to do by endeavouring to persuade the men to 
 
142 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 abandon the mission, she called them together 
 to her bedside, and, as her dying request, en- 
 treated them not to leave the missionaries, 
 however accumulated their privations might 
 be ; adding, that it was at their peril if they 
 deserted them. During the whole of her ill- 
 ness not a murmur escaped her lips. Resting 
 on the righteousness of Christ, she gloried in 
 his cross. A lively gratitude to God, who 
 had redeemed her, beamed forth in her whole 
 demeanour, and when we were called to wit- 
 ness her last struggle with the king of terrors, 
 we beheld, with feelings no tongue can utter, 
 the calmness and serenity of her mind in the 
 lively anticipation of immortal glory, and 
 saw her breathe her last. Thus, as with 
 captive Israel of old, ‘our God did lighten 
 our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our 
 bondage . 5 55 
 
 The sorcerers, or rain-makers, were among 
 the most formidable enemies of the missiona- 
 ries. 
 
 The rain-maker is in the estimation of the 
 people no mean personage, possessing an in- 
 fluence over the minds of the people superior 
 even to that of their king, who is likewise 
 compelled to yield to the dictates of this arch- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 143 
 
 official. Each tribe has one, and sometimes 
 more, who are also doctors and sextons, or the 
 superintendents of the burying of the dead, it 
 being generally believed that that ceremony 
 has some influence over the watery treasures 
 which float in the skies. He will sometimes 
 give orders, that none of the dead must be 
 buried, but dragged to a distance from the 
 town to be devoured by the hyenas and jack- 
 als. One old woman died in her house, 
 not far from our premises ; we dared not 
 commit the body to the dust, and having no 
 friend to perform the needful duty, her son 
 was called from a distance. From their na- 
 tional horror of a corpse, he tied a thong to her 
 leg, avoiding the touch of that form which 
 gave him birth, dragged the corpse to some 
 bushes, and left the thong, because it had been 
 in contact with the body of his mother! 
 Though the bodies of the poor are habitually 
 exposed, the orders of the rain-maker apply 
 to all, because if any were buried it would not 
 rain. This shows that, in their ceremonies 
 connected with burying the dead, there is no 
 reference to pleasing the spirits of the de- 
 parted; on the contrary, a rain-maker him- 
 self contended that there were no such 
 12 * 
 
144 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 existences. “ What is the difference,” he 
 asked me, pointing to his dog, “ between me 
 and that animal ? You say I am immortal, 
 and why not my dog or my ox ? They die, 
 and do you see their souls ? What is the dif- 
 ference between man and the beasts ? None, 
 except that man is the greater rogue of the 
 two.” Such was that wise man’s view of 
 man’s dignity and man’s immortality. Yet, 
 notwithstanding this low estimate, when a 
 person was buried, a privilege granted to the 
 more noble, it was attended to with scrupulous 
 minuteness. 
 
 The following is a brief sketch of the cere- 
 mony of interment, and the custom which 
 prevails among these tribes in reference to the 
 dying. When they see any indications of 
 approaching dissolution in fainting fits or con- 
 vulsive throes, they throw a net over the 
 body, and hold it in a sitting posture, with the 
 knees brought in contact with the chin, till 
 life is gone. The grave, which is frequently 
 made in the fence surrounding the cattle-fold, 
 or in the fold itself, if for a man, is about three 
 feet in diameter, and six feet deep. The body 
 is not conveyed through the gate, but an open- 
 ing is made in the fence for that purpose. It 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 145 
 
 is carried to the grave, having the head cover- 
 ed with a skin, and is placed in a sitting pos- 
 ture. Much time is spent in order to fix the 
 corpse exactly facing the north ; and though 
 they have no compass, they manage, after 
 some consultation, to place it very nearly in 
 the required position. Portions of an ant-hill 
 are placed about the feet, when the net which 
 held the body is gradually withdrawn ; as the 
 grave is filled up, the earth is handed in with 
 bowls, while two men stand in the hole to 
 tread it down round the body, great care being 
 taken to pick out every thing like a root or 
 pebble. When the earth reaches the height 
 of the mouth, a small twig or branch of an 
 acacia is thrown in, and on the top of the 
 head a few roots of grass are placed ; and 
 when the grave is nearly filled, another root 
 of grass is fixed immediately above the head, 
 part of which stands above ground. When 
 finished, the men and women stoop, and with 
 their hands scrape the loose soil around on to 
 the little mound. A large bowl of water, with 
 an infusion of bulbs, is then brought, when the 
 men and women wash their hands and the 
 upper part of their feet, shouting “ pula, pula,” 
 rain, rain. An old woman, probably a rela- 
 
146 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMOPPG 
 
 tion, will then bring his weapons, hows, ar- 
 rows, war axe, and spears, also grain and 
 garden-seeds of various kinds, and even the 
 bone of an old pack-ox, with other things, and 
 address the grave, saying, “there are all your 
 articles.” These are then taken away, and 
 bowls of water are poured on the gFave, when 
 all retire, the women wailing, “ yo, yo, yo,” 
 with some doleful dirge, sorrowing without 
 hope. 
 
 These ceremonies vary in different loca- 
 lities, and according to the rank of the indi- 
 vidual who is committed to the dust. It is 
 remarkable that they should address the dead; 
 and I have eagerly embraced this season to 
 convince them that if they did not believe in 
 the immortality of the soul, it was evident from 
 this, to them now unmeaning custom, that 
 their ancestors once did. Some would admit 
 this might possibly have been the case, but 
 doubted whether they could have been so 
 foolish. But with few exceptions among such 
 a people, argument soon closes, or is turned 
 into ridicule, and the great difficulty presents 
 ’tself of producing conviction where there is 
 no reflection. When we would appeal to the 
 supposed influence of the dead body in neu- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 147 
 
 tralizing the rain-maker’s medicines for pro- 
 ducing rain, and inquire how such an influ- 
 ence operated, the reply would be, “ The 
 rain-maker says so.” 
 
148 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Cunning of a rain-maker — Is sent for to 
 bring rain — Finds it hard work — Wants a 
 baboon , then the heart of a lion — Orders 
 the missionaries away — The natives deter - 
 mine to murder the rain-maker — He is 
 spared , and departs. 
 
 Years of drought had been severely felt y 
 and the natives, tenacious- of their faith in the 
 potency of a man, held a council, and passed 
 resolutions to send for a rain-maker of renown 
 from the Bahurutsi tribe, 200 miles north-east 
 of the Kuruman station. It was natural to 
 suppose that the offer must he a tempting one 
 which could draw him from a post so lucra- 
 tive, and where he had so signalized his 
 boasted powers. The Bechuanas possess 
 very inventive minds ; and when they have a 
 point to gain, as truth and honour are never 
 regarded, they find no difficulty in embellish- 
 ing their story. The ambassadors received 
 
THE BECHTJANAS. 
 
 149 
 
 their commission with the strictest injunction 
 not to return without the mam No doubt 
 many were their cogitations on the journey 
 how they might best succeed. Promises were 
 cheap, and with a redundance of the fairest 
 kind, they succeeded beyond expectation. 
 This, however, was not surprising, when they 
 assured him that, if he would only come to 
 the land of the Batlapis, and open the heavens, 
 which had become as hard as a stone, cause 
 the rains to fall and quench the flaming 
 ground, he should be made the greatest man 
 that ever lived ; his riches should be beyond 
 all calculation ; his flocks covering the hills 
 and plains ; he should wash his hands in 
 milk, while all would exalt him in the song, 
 and mothers and children would call him 
 blessed. When a period had elapsed suffi- 
 cient to allow the messengers time to return, 
 it was rumored through the town, that they 
 had been murdered, a common event in those 
 days. The gloom which this cast over the 
 native mind, formed a striking contrast to the 
 dazzling rays pouring forth from an almost 
 vertical sun blazing in a cloudless sky. The 
 heavens had been as brass, scarcely a cloud 
 had been seen for months, even on the distant 
 
150 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 horizon. Suddenly a shout was raised, and 
 the whole town was in motion. The rain- 
 maker was approaching. Every voice was 
 raised to the highest pitch with acclamations 
 of enthusiastic joy. He had sent a harbinger 
 to announce his approach, with peremptory 
 orders for all the inhabitants to wash their 
 feet. Every one seemed to fly in swiftest 
 obedience to the adjoining river. Noble and 
 ignoble, even the girl who attended to our 
 kitchen fire, ran. Old and young ran. It 
 seemed as if nothing could have stopped 
 them. By this time the clouds began to 
 gather, and a crowd went out to welcome the 
 mighty man who, as they imagined, was now 
 collecting in the heavens his stores of rain. 
 
 Just as he was descending the height into 
 the town, the immense concourse danced and 
 shouted, so that the very earth rang, and at 
 the same time the lightnings darted, and the 
 thunders roared in awful grandeur. A few 
 heavy drops fell, which produced the most 
 thrilling ecstasy on the deluded multitude y 
 whose shouting baffled all description. Faith 
 hung upon the lips of the impostor, while he 
 proclaimed aloud that this year the women 
 must cultivate gardens on the hills, and not in 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 151 
 
 the valleys, for these would be deluged. After 
 the din had somewhat subsided, a few indi- 
 viduals came to our dwellings to treat us and 
 our doctrines with derision. “ Where is your 
 God ?” one asked with a sneer. We were 
 silent, because the wicked were before us. 
 “Have you not seen our Morimo? Have 
 you not beheld him cast from his arm his 
 fiery spears, and rend the heavens ? Have 
 you not heard with your ears his voice in the 
 clouds ?” adding with an interjection of su- 
 preme disgust, “ You talk of Jehovah, and 
 Jesus, what can they do ?” Never in my life 
 do I remember a text being brought home with 
 such power as the words of the Psalmist : 
 “ Be still, and know that I am God ; I will be 
 exalted among the heathen.” Then truly the 
 enemy came in as a flood, and it became us to 
 take refuge in the Most High, to be enabled to 
 lift up a standard against him. In conduct- 
 ing our evening service, my mind was power- 
 fully directed to Psalm xcvii. 2, “ Clouds and 
 darkness are round about him,” etc. 
 
 It was natural for us to calculate on our 
 already dark course becoming more gloomy 
 still, from the excitement which the magic 
 powers of the rain-maker could produce with 
 13 
 
152 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 a masterly hand. He had before his reception 
 among his new friends been particularly in- 
 formed of the character and objects of the 
 missionaries, which his discerning mind would 
 soon discover stood in fearful opposition to 
 his own. The rain-makers, as I have since 
 had frequent opportunities of observing, were 
 men of no common calibre, and it was the con- 
 viction of their natural superiority of genius, 
 which emboldened them to lay the public 
 mind prostrate before the reveries of their 
 fancies. Being foreigners, they generally 
 amplified prodigiously on their former feats. 
 The present one, as has been noticed, was 
 above the common order. He kept the chiefs 
 and nobles gazing on him with silent amaze- 
 ment, while the demon of mendacity enriched 
 his themes with lively imagery, making them 
 fancy they saw their corn-fields floating in the 
 breeze, and their flocks and herds return low- 
 ing homewards by noonday from the abund- 
 ance of pasture. He had in his wrath deso- 
 lated the cities of the enemies of his people, 
 by stretching forth his hand, and command- 
 ing the clouds to burst upon them. He had 
 arrested the progress of a powerful army, by 
 causing a flood to descend, which formed a 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 153 
 
 mighty river, and arrested their course. 
 These, and many other pretended supernatu- 
 ral displays of his power, were received as 
 sober truths. The report of his fame spread 
 like wild-fire, and the chiefs of the neighbour- 
 ing tribes came to pay him homage. We 
 scarcely knew whether to expect from him 
 open hostility, secret machinations, or professed 
 friendship. He, like all of his profession, was 
 a thinking and calculating soul, in the habit of 
 studying human nature, affable, engaging, with 
 an acute eye, and exhibiting a dignity of 
 mien, with an ample share of self-esteem, 
 which, notwithstanding all his obsequiousness, 
 he could not hide. He waited upon us, and 
 it was well ; for though we wished at all 
 times to become all things to all men, he would 
 have grown old before we could have con- 
 strained ourselves to pay court to one, who, 
 under the influence of the great enemy of souls, 
 had reached the very pinnacle of fame. He 
 found we were men of peace, and would not 
 quarrel. For the sake of obtaining a small 
 piece of tobacco, he would occasionally pay us 
 a visit, and even enter the place of worship. 
 He was also studious not to give offence, 
 while in the course of conversation he would 
 
154 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 give a feeble assent to our views, as to the 
 sources of that element over which he pre- 
 tended to have a sovereign control. He said 
 he was poor, and this fact, to thinking minds, 
 would have proved that his successful achieve- 
 ments must have been either gratuitous or ill 
 rewarded. When I put a question on the 
 subject to one of his admirers, in order to ex- 
 cite suspicion, the reply was, “ The Bahu- 
 rutsis,” the people from whom he came, “ are 
 stingy ; they never reward people for their 
 services.” 
 
 It might be briefly noticed, that in order to 
 carry on the fraud, he would, when clouds 
 appeared, order the women neither to plant 
 nor sow, lest they should be scared away. 
 He would also require them to go to the fields, 
 and gather certain roots and herbs, with which 
 he might light what appeared to the natives 
 mysterious fires. Elate with hope, they would 
 go in crowds to the hills and dales, gather 
 herbs, and return to the town with songs, and 
 lay their gatherings at his feet. With these 
 he would sometimes proceed to certain hills, 
 and raise smoke ; gladly would he have raised 
 the wind also, if he could have done so, well 
 knowing that the latter is frequently the pre- 
 
THE BECIIUANAS. 
 
 155 
 
 cursor of rain. These people practised their 
 deceptions, not self-deceived in their supposed 
 powers. I met one among the Barolongs, 
 who, from some service I had done him, 
 thought me very kind, and, before he knew 
 my character, became very intimate. He had 
 derived benefit from some of my medicines, 
 and consequently viewed me as a doctor and 
 one of his own fraternity. In reply to some 
 of my remarks, he said, “ It is only wise men 
 who can be rain-makers, for it requires very 
 great wisdom to deceive so many adding, 
 “ you and I know that.” At the same time 
 he gave me a broad hint that I must not re- 
 main there, lest I should interfere with his 
 field of labour. 
 
 The rain-maker found the clouds in our 
 country rather harder to manage than those 
 he had left. He complained that secret rogues 
 were disobeying his proclamations. When 
 urged to make repeated trials, he would reply, 
 “ You only give me sheep and goats to kill ; 
 therefore I can onty make goat-rain : give me 
 fat slaughter oxen, and I shall let you see ox- 
 rain.” One day, as he was taking a sound 
 sleep, a shower fell, on which one of the prin- 
 cipal men entered his house to congratulate 
 13 * 
 
156 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 him, hut, to his utter amazement, found him 
 totally insensible to what was transpiring. 
 “Hela ka rare, (Halloo, by my father,) I 
 thought you were making rain,” said the in- 
 truder, when, arising from his slumbers, and 
 seeing his wife sitting on the floor shaking a 
 milk-sack in order to obtain a little butter to 
 anoint her hair, he replied, pointing to the 
 operation of churning, “ Do you not see my 
 wife churning rain as fast as she can ?” This 
 reply gave entire satisfaction, and it presently 
 spread through the length and breadth of the 
 town, that the rain-maker had churned the 
 shower out of a milk-sack. The moisture 
 caused by this shower was dried up by a 
 scorching sun, and many long weeks followed 
 without a single cloud, and when these did 
 appear, they might sometimes be seen, to the 
 great mortification of the conjuror, to discharge 
 their watery treasures at a distance. This 
 disappointment was increased when a heavy 
 cloud would pass over with tremendous thun- 
 der, but not one drop of rain. There had 
 been several successive years of drought, 
 during which water had not been seen to flow 
 upon the ground ; and in that climate, if rain 
 does not fall continuously and in considerable 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 157 
 
 quantities, it is all exhaled in a couple of hours. 
 In digging graves we have found the earth as 
 dry as dust at four or five feet depth, when 
 the surface was saturated with rain. 
 
 The women had cultivated extensive fields, 
 hut the seed was lying in the soil as it had 
 been thrown from the hand ; the cattle were 
 dying from want of pasture, and hundreds of 
 living skeletons were seen going to the fields 
 in quest of unwholesome roots and reptiles, 
 while many were dying with hunger. Our 
 sheep, as before stated, were soon likely to be 
 all devoured, and finding their number daily 
 diminish, we slaughtered the remainder, and 
 put the meat in salt, which of course was far 
 from being agreeable in such a climate, and 
 where vegetables were so scarce. 
 
 All these circumstances irritated the rain- 
 maker very much ; but he was often puzzled 
 to find something on which to lay the blame, 
 for he had exhausted his skill. One night a 
 small cloud passed over, and the only flash of 
 lightning, from which a heavy peal of thunder 
 hurst, struck a tree in the town. Next day 
 the rain-maker and a number of people assem- 
 bled to perform the usual ceremony on such 
 an event. It was ascended, and ropes of grass 
 
158 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 and grass roots were bound round different 
 parts of the trunk, which in th e Acacia giraffe 
 is seldom much injured. A limb may be tom 
 off, but of numerous trees of that species which 
 I have seen struck by lightning, the trunk ap- 
 pears to resist its power, as the fluid produces 
 only a stripe or groove along the bark to the 
 ground. When these bandages were made, 
 he deposited some of his nostrums, and got 
 quantities of water handed up, which he 
 poured with great solemnity on the wounded 
 tree, while the assembled multitude shouted, 
 “Pula, pula.” This done, the tree was hewn 
 down, dragged out of the town, and burned to 
 ashes. Soon after this unmeaning ceremony, 
 he got large bowls of water, with which was 
 mingled an infusion of bulbs. All the men 
 of the town then came together, and passed in 
 succession before him, when he sprinkled each 
 with a zebra’s tail, which he dipped in the 
 water. 
 
 As all this and much more did not succeed, 
 he had recourse to another stratagem. He 
 knew well that baboons were not very easily 
 caught among the rocky glens and shelving 
 precipices ; therefore, in order to gain time, he 
 informed the men that, to make rain, he must 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 159 
 
 have a baboon : that the animal must he with- 
 out a blemish, not a hair was to be wanting on 
 its body. One would have thought any sim- 
 pleton might have seen through his tricks, as 
 their being able to present him with a baboon 
 in that state was impossible, even though they 
 caught him asleep. Forth sallied a band of 
 chosen runners, who ascended the neighbour- 
 ing mountains. The baboons, from their lofty 
 domiciles, had been in the habit of looking 
 down on the plain beneath, at the natives en- 
 circling and pursuing the quaggas and ante- 
 lopes, little dreaming that one day they would 
 themselves be objects of pursuit. They hob- 
 bled off in consternation, screaming and leap- 
 ing from rock to rock, occasionally looking 
 down on their pursuers, grinning and gnash- 
 ing their teeth. 
 
 After a long pursuit, with wounded limbs, 
 scratched bodies, and broken toes, a young 
 one was secured and brought to the town, the 
 captors exulting as if they had obtained a great 
 spoil. The wily rogue, on seeing the animal, 
 put on a countenance exhibiting the most in- 
 tense sorrow, exclaiming, “ My heart is rent 
 in pieces ; I am dumb with grief;” and point- 
 ing to the ear of the baboon, which was 
 
160 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 scratched, and to the tail, which ha(‘ lost some 
 hairs, added, “Did I not tell you I could not 
 make rain if there was one hair wanting ?” 
 After some days another was obtained ; but 
 there was still some imperfection, real or al- 
 leged. He had often said, that if they would 
 procure him the heart of a lion, he would show 
 them he could make rain so abundant that a 
 man might think himself well off to be under 
 shelter, as when it fell it might sweep whole 
 towns away. He had discovered that the 
 clouds required strong medicine, and that a 
 lion’s heart would do the business. To obtain 
 this, the rain-maker well knew, was no easy 
 matter. One day it was announced that a lion 
 had attacked one of the cattle outposts, not far 
 from the town ; and a party set off for the 
 twofold purpose of getting a key to the clouds 
 and disposing of a dangerous enemy. The 
 orders were imperative, whatever the conse- 
 quences might be, which, in this instance, 
 might have been very serious, had not one of 
 our men shot the terrific animal dead with a 
 gun. This was no sooner done than it was 
 cut up for roasting and boiling ; no matter if it 
 had previously eaten some of their relations, 
 they ate it in its turn. Nothing could exceed 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 161 
 
 their enthusiasm when they returned to the 
 town, bearing the lion’s heart, and singing the 
 conqueror’s song in full chorus ; the rain- 
 maker prepared his medicines, kindled his 
 fires, and might be seen upon the top of the 
 hill, stretching forth his puny hands, and 
 beckoning the clouds to draw near, or even 
 shaking his spear, and threatening that if they 
 disobeyed, they should feel his ire. The de- 
 luded populace believed all this, and wondered 
 the rains would not fall. Asking an experi- 
 enced and judicious man, the king’s uncle, 
 how it was that so great an operator on the 
 clouds could not succeed, “Ah,” he replied, 
 with apparent feeling, “there is a cause for the 
 hardhearted ness of the clouds, if the rain- 
 maker could only find it out.” A scrutinizing 
 watch was kept upon every thing done by the 
 missionaries. Some weeks after my return 
 from a visit to Griqua Town, a grand discovery 
 was made, that the rain had been prevented 
 by my bringing a bag of salt from that place 
 in my wagon. The charge was made by the 
 king and his attendants, with great gravity 
 and form. As giving the least offence, by 
 laughing at their puerile actions, ought always 
 to be avoided when dealing with a people who 
 
162 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 are sincere, though deluded, the case was on 
 my part investigated with more than usual 
 solemnity. Mothibi and his aid-de-camp ac- 
 companied me to the store-house, where the 
 identical bag stood. It was open, with the 
 white contents full in view. “ There it is,” 
 he exclaimed, with an air of satisfaction. 
 But finding, on examination, that the report- 
 ed salt was only white clay or chalk, they 
 could not help laughing at their own credu- 
 lity. 
 
 We pointed out to them their delusion, and 
 our only wonder was that we had not been ac- 
 cused before ; we had heard whisperings that 
 we were not guiltless of the great drought. 
 We tried both in public and in private to im- 
 press them with the sublime truths of creation, 
 providence, and redemption, but the universal 
 reply was, “ maka hela,” only lies. In a con- 
 versation with Mothibi, and the rain-maker, 
 and a few others, I remarked, in reference to 
 some insinuations, that I should with great 
 pleasure meet him before an assembly of the 
 people, and discuss the subject. To this he 
 at first consented, but soon afterwards retracted, 
 for this reason, that the subject which we should 
 have to discuss was far too high for the people, 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 163 
 
 being what only rain-makers and wise men 
 could talk about. 
 
 The people at last became impatient, and 
 poured forth their curses against brother Ha- 
 milton and myself as the cause of all their sor- 
 row's. Our bell w'hich was rung for public 
 worship, they said, frightened the clouds ; our 
 prayers came in also for a share of the blame. 
 “ Don’t you,” said the chief rather fiercely to 
 me, “ bow down in your houses, and pray and 
 talk to something bad in the ground?” A 
 council was held, and restrictions were to be 
 laid on all our actions. We refused compli- 
 ance, urging that the spot on which the mis- 
 sion premises stood, had been given to the 
 missionaries. The rain-maker appeared to 
 avoid accusing us openly ; he felt some sense 
 of obligation, his wife having experienced that 
 my medicines and treatment did her more 
 good than all his nostrums. He would occa- 
 sionally visit our humble dwellings, and when 
 I happened to be in the smith’s shop, he 
 would look on most intently when he saw a 
 piece of iron welded, or an instrument made, 
 and tell me privately he wished I were living 
 among his people, assuring me that there was 
 plenty of timber and iron there. 
 
 14 
 
164 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 One day he came and sat down, with a face 
 evincing inward dissatisfaction. On making 
 inquiry, I found, as I had heard whispered the 
 day before, that all was not right ; the public 
 voice was sounding alarms in his ears. He 
 inquired how the women were in our coun- 
 try ; and supposing he wished to know what 
 they were like, I pointed him to my wife, 
 adding, that there were some taller, and some 
 shorter than she was. “That is not what I 
 mean,” he replied; “I want to know what 
 part they take in public affairs, and how they 
 act when they do so.” I replied, “ that when 
 the women of my country had occasion to take 
 an active part in any public affairs, they car- 
 ried all before them ;” adding, in a jocose 
 strain, “wait till we missionaries get the wo- 
 men on our side, as they now are on yours, 
 and there will be no more rain-makers in the 
 country.” At this remark he looked at me 
 as if I had just risen out of the earth. “ May 
 that time never arrive !” he cried, with a 
 countenance expressive of unusual anxiety. 
 I replied, “that the time would assuredly 
 come, for Jehovah, the mighty God, had spo- 
 ken it.” He was evidently chagrined, for he 
 had come for advice. “ What am I to do?” 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 165 
 
 he inquired ; “ I wish all the women were 
 men ; I can get on with the men, but I cannot 
 manage the women.” I viewed this as a 
 delicate moment, and, feeling the need of 
 caution, replied, “that the women had just 
 cause to complain ; he had promised them 
 rain, but the land was dust, their gardens 
 burned up, and were I a woman, I would 
 complain as loudly as any of them.” To his 
 inquiry, “ What am I to do to pacify them?” 
 I recommended him to be an honest man, and 
 confess that he had been misleading himself 
 as well as the public. “ They will kill me,” 
 he said. I repeated my advice, “ Be honest,” 
 adding, that if he were in any danger, we would 
 do what we could to save him. He arose, 
 and retired with a sorrowful countenance, 
 leaving Mr. Hamilton and myself to draw our 
 own conclusions. Of one thing we were per- 
 suaded, that a storm was gathering, not such 
 a one, however, as would cover the hills and 
 valleys with verdure, and the fields with corn, 
 but one which might sweep away the desire 
 of our hearts, in breaking up the mission. At 
 such seasons we were enabled by faith to real- 
 ize the consoling assurance, “ The Lord of 
 
166 
 
 TIIE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our 
 refuge.” 
 
 Shortly after, we accidentally heard that 
 some one was to he speared. Violent as the 
 natives sometimes were against us, we did not 
 suspect injury was intended to ourselves. We 
 imagined it was the poor rain-maker, and 
 though we felt anxious hy any means to save 
 his life, the great difficulty was to find out 
 whether he was to he the victim ; for though 
 we had several of their people about us, and 
 the council chamber was in the open air ex- 
 posed to all, it was a difficult matter to disco- 
 ver secrets of that description. Anxious to 
 save life, which the Bechuanas will sometimes 
 allow to be redeemed, it occurred to me that a 
 very simple stratagem might unveil the mys- 
 tery ; I knew an individual of influence who 
 was likely to know the affair. She was often 
 ailing, and, like all the natives, fond of medi- 
 cines, for among such a people a doctor is 
 alWays welcome, especially if he asks no fee. 
 My inquiries about the state of her health, and 
 the expression of sympathy, were most accept- 
 able, and the moment I saw her well pleased, 
 I asked, as if it were a well-known fact, 
 « Why are they thinking of killing the rain- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 167 
 
 maker? they surely do not intend to eat him. 
 Why not let the poor man go to his own 
 land ?” She very abruptly asked, “ Who told 
 you ?” Rising, I said, “ That is all I want to 
 know when she called out after me, “ Do 
 not tell that I told you, or they will kill me.” 
 I entered the public fold, where about thirty 
 of the principal men sat in secret council ; it 
 was a council of death. Had I put the ques- 
 tion whether they really intended to commit 
 that deed, they would have gazed on me with 
 utter amazement, that I should have harboured 
 such a suspicion, and have sworn, by all their 
 forefathers that ever lived, that they had no 
 such intention. I asked no question, but 
 charged them with the fact, pointing out the 
 magnitude of the crime of adding sin to sin, 
 thus provoking Jehovah, by placing a man on 
 His throne, and then killing him, because he 
 was unable to do what they wished him to 
 perform. I then pleaded hard that his life 
 might be spared, and he allowed to return to 
 his own country in peace. His life was spared, 
 and Mothibi, after conducting him over the 
 plain towards the Matluarin river, returned, 
 leaving him to make the best of his way 
 home. 
 
 14 * 
 
168 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 War among the natives — Mr. Moffat visits 
 Cape Town — Surprise of the chiefs — Re- 
 turn— Another journey — Natural wells — 
 Children for sale — Makaba receives them 
 — His astonishment at the resurrection. 
 
 The departure of the rain-maker did not 
 deliver the missionaries from all their ene- 
 mies. The evils which the people suffered 
 were laid to the charge of their teachers ; and 
 sometimes they were ordered to take their 
 leave. But they returned good for evil. An 
 opportunity soon occurred for Mr. Moffat to 
 render a great service to the poor people with 
 whom he was dwelling. For a year past, 
 reports had come to their ears that a mighty 
 woman, of the name of Mantatee, was at the 
 head of an invincible army, numerous as the 
 locusts, marching onward among the interior 
 nations, carrying devastation and ruin wher- 
 ever she went ; that she nourished the army 
 

iges 1G9 & 170. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 171 
 
 with her own milk, sent out hornets before it, 
 and, in one word, was laying the world deso- 
 late. Concluding that these might be only 
 rumors of a destructive war carrying on by 
 Chaka, the tyrant of the Zoolus, and that he 
 was at too great a distance from us to affect 
 our operations, I resolved, (says Mr. Moffat,) 
 on a journey which I had been contemplating 
 for some months. This was to visit Makaba, 
 the chief of the Bauangketsi, a powerful tribe, 
 situated upwards of two hundred miles north- 
 east of Lithako. I had various reasons for 
 taking this step. The Batlapis,and the neigh- 
 bouring tribes were living in constant dread of 
 an attack from so powerful an enemy. 
 
 “About this time, receiving an invitation 
 from Makaba, the path of duty was plain ; 
 but Mothibi, and indeed all the people, were 
 greatly opposed to my design. Every thing 
 injurious to the character of the Bauangketsi 
 was raked up and placed before me. All the 
 imaginary and real murders Makaba had ever 
 committed were set in array, and every one 
 swore by their king and their fathers, that if 
 I went my doom was fixed, for I should never 
 return, and therefore Ma-Mary and the two 
 children might leave and return to our friends 
 
172 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 in England, for she would never see me 
 again. We, with Mr. Hamilton, had delibe- 
 rated together, and prayed over the subject, 
 and were not dismayed by their representa- 
 tions. When the day arrived for my depart- 
 ure, Mothibi, finding he could not prevail by 
 arguments, positively forbade those under his 
 control to accompany me. Feeling no incli- 
 nation to give up my intention, I started with 
 such men as I had. On reaching Old Lith- 
 ako, on the third day, I found the reports 
 about the Mantatees somewhat revived, and 
 the natives strongly advised me to proceed no 
 farther than Nokaneng, about twenty miles 
 distant. The reports being such as we had 
 heard before, and knowing that they wished, 
 by every means, to intimidate me, I proceeded 
 on the following day, after having preached 
 to a great number of the natives. On arriving 
 at Nokaneng, I found that rumors had reached 
 that place that the Barolongs, at Kunuana, 
 about one hundred miles off, had been also 
 attacked, and the towns were in the hands of 
 the marauders ; but as spies had been sent 
 out to ascertain the truth, I remained, employ- 
 ing every opportunity afforded to impart in- 
 struction.” 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 173 
 
 Mr. Moffat pursued his journey until he 
 found it was indeed true that a vast horde of 
 savages was coming to make war upon the 
 Batlapis, and returning to his station, mea- 
 sures were taken for defence. Obtaining aid 
 from the Griquas, they went out to meet the 
 advancing army, whom they found encamped 
 in immense numbers ; and so hostile and sa- 
 vage,- that no efforts on the part of the mis- 
 sionaries to bring them to a parley were suc- 
 cessful. When they drew near to make over- 
 tures of peace, which they did on foot and 
 unarmed, the enemy would rush towards them 
 with clubs and spears to destroy them. 
 
 An engagement at length took place, and 
 the mighty army of undisciplined natives was 
 put to flight. Had it not been for the pru- 
 dence and forethought of Mr. Moffat and Mr. 
 Hamilton, the poor people with whom they 
 were labouring would have been destroyed ; 
 and yet, on their return from their successful 
 expedition, they had the mortification to hear 
 that the Bechuanas had actually dug up and 
 stolen many of the articles they had buried, 
 in the prospect of being driven away by the 
 Mantatees, and that the houses had been 
 broken into and ransacked, notwithstanding 
 
174 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 Mothibi’s endeavours to prevent what now 
 appeared to him and his chiefs great ingrati- 
 tude. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, when all apprehensions 
 of war were over, Mr. Moffat visited Cape 
 Town, taking with him some of the Bechu- 
 ana chiefs, who manifested unbounded sur- 
 prise at every thing they saw among civilized 
 people. 
 
 It was with some difficulty that they were 
 prevailed upon to go on board one of the ships 
 in the bay ; nor would they enter the boat till 
 he had preceded them. They were perfectly 
 astounded, when hoisted on deck, with the 
 enormous size of the hull, and the height of the 
 masts ; and when they saw a boy mount the 
 rigging, and ascend to the very mast-head, 
 they were speechless with amazement. Taisho 
 whispered to the young prince, “ A ga si 
 khatla?” Is it not an ape ? When they en- 
 tered the splendid cabin, and looked into the 
 deep hold, they could scarcely be convinced 
 that the vessel was not resting on the bottom 
 of the ocean. “ Do these water-houses (ships) 
 unyoke, like wagon-oxen, every night ?” they 
 inquired. “ Do they graze in the sea to keep 
 them alive ?” A ship in full sail approaching 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 175 
 
 the roads, they were asked what they thought 
 of that. “We have no thoughts here; we 
 hope to think again when we get to the shore,” 
 was their reply. 
 
 The visit being completed, and the health 
 of Mrs. Moffat, for which the journey was un- 
 dertaken, being improved, they returned to 
 the station in 1824, with Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hughes, who had come out from England to 
 join the African mission. During Mr. Mof- 
 fat’s absence on this visit, Mr. Hamilton had 
 laboured with no great success, except in mak- 
 ing more favourable impressions on the natives, 
 so that they seemed to be kinder than before. 
 
 It was then thought best that Mr. Moffat 
 should visit Makaba, the king of the Bauang- 
 ketsi, which journey he undertook, accom- 
 panied by some Griquas, who were goingpart 
 of the way to hunt elephants. 
 
 Losing their way, and travelling back in- 
 stead of onwards, quite an amusing scene oc- 
 curred. 
 
 While preparing a cup of coffee, (says Mr. 
 Moffat,) I took out my compass, to assure the 
 party that for more than two hours we had 
 been travelling towards the Mashaua, from 
 whence we had come. The more sagacious 
 
176 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 looked for some time at the little instrument, 
 and then, looking around and upwards to the 
 stars, pronounced it to be an impostor. Others 
 remarked, that it might know the right way 
 in its own country, but how was it to find it 
 out there ? 
 
 While eating a morsel of food, for which 
 we had an uncommon relish, the waning 
 moon began to diffuse a pale lustre on the 
 eastern horizon. “ What a fire !” said one. 
 “ It is the moon,” I replied. All, starting to 
 their feet, exclaimed, “ The moon cannot rise 
 on that side of the world and Antonie, a 
 venerable old man, who had been once a slave, 
 said, very respectfully, “ Sir, your head has 
 turned ; the moon never rose in the west in 
 my life, and I am an old man.” “ It is the 
 moon,” I again said ; but no one believed me, 
 and we resumed our repast. Presently the 
 moon’s horn was seen above the horizon, 
 when all rose again, some saying, “ What is 
 that ?” I had no further need to argue the 
 point. Antonie, in grave amazement, ex- 
 claimed, “ The moon has for once risen on the 
 wrong side of the world !” Soon after the 
 sun’s rays threw additional light on their be- 
 wildered imaginations, and showed to all that, 
 
THE BECHUANA9. 
 
 177 
 
 for half the night, we had been travelling 
 towards the station of the former day, instead 
 of from it. 
 
 During this journey, Mr. Moffat says, “We 
 halted at two natural wells of rather an extra- 
 ordinary description, about one hundred yards 
 from each other. One is about sixteen feet 
 deep, with four feet of water : they are both 
 nearly perpendicular, and about two feet and 
 a half in diameter. The hill in which they 
 are, is composed of a conglomerate mass of 
 iron schist, and near the mouth, as well as 
 in the sides of these holes, are appearances 
 as if the whole had once been in a state of 
 fusion, and that these were the apertures of 
 some internal fires, but nothing like lava ap- 
 pears in the neighbourhood. From the older 
 natives who have resided near these wells 
 all their lives, I learned that they were once 
 much deeper. The water was excellent, 
 and to obtain sufficient for ourselves and 
 horses, we fastened a vessel to the end of a 
 rope ; the oxen we sent to a water at a dis- 
 tance, called Khuari. 
 
 “ Here we spent a quiet, and I believed a 
 profitable Sabbath. There were members of 
 the church at Griqua Town in our party, who 
 
 15 
 
178 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 often proved interesting society in a desert. 
 I conversed some time with the poor, ignorant 
 Sauneys; they appeared lively and interest- 
 ing, especially when they had eaten plenty of 
 meat, of which there was, on that occasion, no 
 lack. I made many inquiries to discover if 
 they had any sense of moral evil ; it was with 
 great difficulty I could convey to their under- 
 standing what I meant to say. They assured 
 me again and again, that they could not com- 
 prehend that there was evil in any thing they 
 could do. The term boleo (sin) did not con- 
 vey to them the same meaning it does to us ; 
 they applied it to a weapon, or any thing else 
 which they thought was not made as they 
 wished. Thus, what we should call an im- 
 perfect knife or arrow, they would call a sin- 
 ful arrow. But of a sense of sin arising from 
 responsibility, they had no conception ; they 
 did not even seem to think that the conduct of 
 those who tyrannized over them was wicked, 
 but that it had fallen to their lot to be so treat- 
 ed, or was a thing that happened, like a lion 
 killing a man. When I directed their thoughts 
 to a great Being in the heavens, some looked 
 up with a vacant stare, as if they expected to 
 see something appear. When I asked, Who 
 
THE BECHT7ANAS. 
 
 179 
 
 made all things ? they were only surprised 
 that I should ask such a question. They 
 wondered at our singing hymns, which “ these 
 valleys and rocks never heard,” and inquired 
 if they were war songs. My books puzzled 
 them ; they asked if they were my 6 Bola/ 
 prognosticating dice. Hapless beings, they 
 drag out a miserable existence ! The principal 
 part of the game they obtain is caught in pit- 
 falls. I have seen some of these holes sixteen 
 feet deep, where even the tall giraffe and pon- 
 derous rhinoceros are entrapped. 
 
 At last the party reached the Barolongs, 
 where they were saluted by Tauane the prin- 
 cipal chief. “Anxious to make the best use of 
 my time,” says the Missionary, “especially 
 of the Sabbath, I first held divine service in 
 the Dutch language, for the Griquas ; but the 
 noise of the multitude which had congregated, 
 obliged us to desist. I then attempted at two 
 different parts of the town to address the 
 people through an interpreter, and by the in 
 fluence of the chiefs obtained a hearing. I 
 conversed with the principal men on the sub- 
 ject of a missionary settling among them. 
 One said, “ You must come and make rain 
 and another, “ You must come and protect 
 
1$0 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 as.” Of coarse I gave them to understand 
 that the object of the missionary was neither 
 to make rain, nor to protect them, and referred 
 to our mission at the Kuruman, of which some 
 had a perfect knowledge. Multitudes, who 
 appeared to have nothing to do, crowded 
 around us from morning till night. 
 
 Wooden bowls, spoons, and ornaments in 
 abundance, were brought to exchange for 
 commodities which we possessed ; among 
 others, two elderly men came and presented 
 their children for sale ; a sheep was expected 
 for one, and a quantity of beads for the other. 
 I embraced the opportunity of pointing out to 
 them, and to all present, how unnatural such 
 conduct was, and the direful consequences 
 which must arise from such a course ; that a 
 sheep would soon be eaten, and a few orna- 
 ments could avail little when compared with 
 the assistance they might expect from their 
 children; how useful they might become to 
 the tribe generally, and to themselves in par- 
 ticular, w^hen age and weakness w^ould make 
 them thankful to have a friend, a relative, and 
 particularly a child. They walked off, evi- 
 dently disappointed, while those around, who 
 were listening to what I said, professed their 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 181 
 
 fullest conviction of the horrors to which such 
 a system, if connived at, would lead. It is 
 proper, at the same time, to remark, that sla- 
 very, in the general sense of the term, does 
 not exist among the Bechuanas. The feudal 
 system prevails among the tribes. There are 
 two grades, the rich, who are hereditary chiefs, 
 and the poor. The latter continue in the same 
 condition, and their lot is a comparatively 
 easy kind of vassalage. Their lives are 
 something like those of their dogs, lives of 
 hunger and idleness, but they are the pro- 
 perty of their respective chiefs, and their 
 forefathers have, from time immemorial, been 
 at the mercy of their lords. 
 
 Proceeding on the journey, they were at 
 length met by messengers from Makaba, who 
 had heard of their approach and sent to wel- 
 come them. They reached his town, and he 
 received them with every expression of joy. 
 He insisted on their having the wagons drawn 
 through his town, to the great injury of his 
 fences which were broken down as they 
 passed. 
 
 On the day after their arrival they were 
 formally received by the king. The reception 
 is thus described. 
 
 15 * 
 
182 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 “About ten o’clock, a. m., Makaba made 
 his appearance with his retinue, and sat down 
 opposite to my w r agon. The bustling crowd 
 retired to a distance, and a dead silence ensued. 
 He addressed us nearly as follows : — ‘ My 
 friends, I am perfectly happy ; my heart is 
 whiter than milk, because you have visited 
 me. To-day I am a great man. Men will 
 now say, “Makaba is in league with white 
 people.” I know that all men speak evil of 
 me. They seek my hurt. It is because they 
 cannot conquer me that I am hated. If they 
 do me evil, I can reward them twofold. They 
 are like children that quarrel ; what the 
 weaker cannot do by strength, he supplies 
 with evil names. You are come to see the 
 villain Makaba ; you are come, as the Batla- 
 pis say, “ to die by my hands.” You. are 
 wise and bold to come and see with your 
 eyes, and laugh at the testimony of my ene- 
 mies.* A long conversation afterwards ensued 
 respecting the state of the country, and the 
 Mantatee invasion. On this topic he was 
 eloquent while describing the manner in which 
 he entrapped many hundreds of the enemy 
 by ambuscades ; and stretching forth his mus- 
 cular arm in the direction of the field of con- 
 
JHE BECHUANAS. 
 
 183 
 
 diet, he said, * There lie the bleached bones 
 of the enemy, who came upon our hills like 
 the locusts, but who melted before us by the 
 shaking of the spear;’ adding, with a sten- 
 torian voice, and with superlative self-compla- 
 cency, ‘ Who is to be compared to Makaba, 
 the son of Meleta, the man of conquest ?’ The 
 listening multitude broke the silence in deafen- 
 ing applause. I then told him that the object 
 of my present journey was to open a commu- 
 nication, that we might consider him in future 
 as one of our chief friends, and, as a pledge 
 of that friendship, a missionary should come 
 and reside with him; to which he replied, 
 that * in future he hoped no grass would be 
 allowed to grow on the road between the Ku- 
 ruman and Kuakue. Mothibi, I know, will 
 hinder you, because he is afraid of losing you ; 
 he is afraid that you will build your houses 
 with me.’ 
 
 “ I embraced another opportunity of convers- 
 ing with Makaba on the subject of a mission- 
 ary residence with him, with which idea he 
 professed to be highly pleased. I also hinted 
 that it was probable that a missionary would 
 go to the Bahurutsi, on which he remarked, 
 4 that men of peace should live in every na- 
 
184 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 tion, that a friendly intercourse might be kept 
 up.’ 
 
 “ I had embraced diderent opportunities of 
 conversing with the chief and his people ors 
 divine things, but with little success ; at least y 
 it appeared as if he did not hear a word I said* 
 Sometimes, when I have been trying to arrest 
 his attention by repeating something striking 
 in the works of God, or in the life of the Sa- 
 viour, he would interrupt me by asking a ques- 
 tion as distant as the antipodes from the subject 
 to which I hoped he was listening. I felt par- 
 ticularly anxious on the Sabbath to obtain a 
 hearing, and resolved to pay him a formal 
 visit for that purpose. I had felt miserable at 
 the prospect of leaving him without the satis- 
 faction of having told him what was the only 
 object of the missionary, especially as he had 
 professed his wish to have one. On the Sab- 
 bath morning early, we had our prayer meet- 
 ing, but such was the crowd and noise, that to 
 hold the service was out of the question. The 
 more we entreated them to be quiet, the 
 greater uproar they made, so that we were 
 compelled to desist. In the forenoon, taking 
 some of my company with me, I went into the 
 town, and found Makaba seated amidst a large 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 185 
 
 number of his principal men, all engaged 
 either in preparing skins, cutting them, sew- 
 ing mantles, or telling news. 
 
 “ Sitting down beside this great man, illus- 
 trious for war and conquest, and amidst nobles 
 and counsellors, including rain-makers and 
 others of the same order, I stated to him that 
 my object was to tell him my news. His 
 countenance lighted up, hoping to hear of 
 feats of war, destruction of tribes, and such 
 like subjects, so congenial to his savage dispo- 
 sition. When he found that my topics had 
 solely a reference to the Great Being of whom, 
 the day before, he had told me he knew no- 
 thing, and of the Saviour’s mission to this 
 world, whose name he had never heard, he 
 resumed his knife and jackal’s skin, and 
 hummed a native air. One of his men, sit- 
 ting near me, appeared to be struck with the 
 character of the Redeemer, which I was en- 
 deavouring to describe, and particularly with 
 his miracles. On hearing that he raised the 
 dead, he very naturally exclaimed, ‘ What an 
 excellent doctor he must have been, to make 
 dead men live !’ This led me to describe his 
 power, and how that power would be exer- 
 cised at the last day in raising the dead. In 
 
186 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the course of my remarks, the ear of the 
 monarch caught the startling sound of a resur- 
 rection. ‘ What !’ he exclaimed, with aston- 
 ishment, * what are these words about ? the 
 dead, the dead arise !* * Yes,’ was my reply, 
 ‘all the dead shall arise. 7 ‘Will my father 
 arise ?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘your father will 
 arise.’ ‘ Will all the slain in battle arise ?’ 
 ‘ Yes.’ ‘ And will all that have been killed 
 and devoured by lions, tigers, hyenas, and 
 crocodiles, again revive?’ ‘Yes; and come 
 to judgment.’ ‘ And will those whose bodies 
 have been left to waste and to wither on the 
 desert plains, and scattered to the winds, again 
 arise ?’ he asked, with a kind of triumph, as if 
 he had now fixed me. ‘Yes,’ I replied; ‘not 
 one will be left behind.’ This I repeated with 
 increased emphasis. After looking at me for 
 a few moments, he turned to his people, to 
 whom he spoke with a stentorian voice : — 
 ‘ Hark, ye wise men, whoever is among you, 
 the wisest of past generations, did ever your 
 ears hear such strange and unheard of news?’ 
 And addressing himself to one whose counte- 
 nance and attire showed that he had seen 
 many years, and was a personage of no com- 
 mon order, ‘ Have you ever heard such strange 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 187 
 
 news as this V 4 No/ was the sage’s an- 
 swer; 4 1 had supposed that I possessed all 
 the knowledge of the country, for I have heard 
 the tales of many generations. I am in the 
 place of the ancients, but my knowledge is 
 confounded with the words of his mouth. 
 Surely, he must have lived long before the 
 period when we were horn.’ Makaba, then 
 turning and addressing himself to me, and lay- 
 ing his hand on my breast, said, 4 Father, I 
 love you much. Your visit and your pre- 
 sence have made my heart white as milk. 
 The words of your mouth are sweet as honey, 
 but the words of a resurrection are too great to 
 be heard. I do not wish to hear again about 
 the dead rising ! The dead cannot rise ! The 
 dead must not arise !’ 4 Why,’ I inquired, 
 
 * can so great a man refuse knowledge, and 
 turn away from wisdom ? Tell me, my friend, 
 why I must not “add to w r ords,” and speak of 
 a resurrection ?’ Raising and uncovering his 
 arm, which had been strong in battle, and 
 shaking his hand as if quivering a spear, he 
 replied, 4 1 have slain my thousands, (bontsint- 
 si,) and shall they arise ?’ Never before had 
 the light of divine revelation dawned upon his 
 savage mind, and of course his conscience had 
 
188 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 never accused him, no, not for one of the thou- 
 sands of deeds of rapine and murder which 
 had marked his course through a long career. 
 
 “ While the chieftain and myself were en- 
 gaged in the above conversation, the most 
 profound silence reigned, and continued till 
 interrupted by one whose features appeared 
 to indicate that he was a man of war. ‘ 1 
 have killed many, but I never saw the im- 
 mortal part which you describe.’ ‘ Because 
 invisible,’ I replied; and referred him to 
 many invisible things, the existence of which 
 he never doubted. Makaba again muttered, 
 ‘ What do my ears hear to-day ! I am old, 
 but never thought of these things before 
 and hinted that he had heard enough. One 
 of the Griquas who was with me, observing 
 the strong excitement which had been pro- 
 duced, partook of the spirit, and addressing 
 me in the Dutch language, said : — ‘ Oh I was 
 thinking if you would only exercise a little 
 more faith, and cure that lame man, the whole 
 of the thousands of the Bauangketsi would be 
 believers.’ 
 
 “ They were greatly interested when I ex- 
 plained to them the use of writing, and books, 
 but appeared to be a little superstitious about 
 
THE BECHtTANAS. 
 
 189 
 
 touching them. It afforded me no little grati- 
 fication that these subjects of conversational 
 instruction had excited considerable interest, 
 for many afterwards came to our wagons to 
 make farther inquiries.” 
 
 The time having come for the departure of 
 Mr. Mofiat, he took leave of this savage king, 
 and set out on his return to the station. On 
 the way back they met with numerous strik- 
 ing adventures, which the limits to which we 
 are confined do not permit us to describe. 
 
 WWVr 
 
 16 
 
190 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Civil war — Missionaries suspected — Trials 
 increasing — Death of a prince — Cruel 
 superstition — Plague of locusts. 
 
 Mt. Moffat now resumed his labours 
 among the Bechuanas, but in the midst of 
 great discouragements. The people came 
 but irregularly to divine worship, and the fear 
 of war diverted their thoughts from the con- 
 cerns of their souls. 
 
 Soon a civil war broke out, which compelled 
 the missionaries to abandon the station and re- 
 tire to Griqua Town, where they were still 
 exposed to danger. Two of the neighbouring 
 tribes being engaged in war, a public meet- 
 ing was called to bring about a settlement. 
 Mr. Moffat made a speech, and tried in vain 
 to make peace. 
 
 The missionaries were suspected by the 
 Bechuanas of being more friendly to the Gri- 
 quas than to them, and this circumstance ex- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 191 
 
 posed them to great danger. One evening, 
 whetl an atack from the Griquas was expected, 
 the missionaries endeavoured to conciliate the 
 feelings of the Bechuanas ; but they scoffed 
 and raged, and told them to go and convert the 
 enemy. At length the situation of things be- 
 came even more fearful. Mr. Moffat gives 
 the following description of the scenes through 
 which they passed : — 
 
 “ Our situation became ten times more pre- 
 carious than ever, having now discovered that 
 their numbers were formidable, and that they 
 had butchered hundreds in cold blood, and 
 committed acts of horrid barbarity in cutting off 
 the hands of the women in order the more 
 easily to remove from their arms the rings 
 which they wore. Some prisoners who had 
 escaped, gave us, moreover, every reason to 
 expect that they would attack our station, 
 with the hope of obtaining ammunition. 
 Though this was a hackneyed threat, the ap- 
 pearance of our men, and their ignorance of 
 our motives for allowing them to go, did not 
 leave the shadow of a doubt on our minds 
 that our situation was a dangerous one, par- 
 ticularly as all the natives were fleeing, and 
 we could expect little quarter from the mass 
 
192 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 of Griquas, Bastards from the colony, Nama- 
 quas, Corannas, Bushmen, and Batlaros, 
 which composed the banditti. After much 
 deliberation and prayer for Divine guidance, 
 we felt, however reluctant, we ought to pack 
 up during the night the most useful of our 
 goods, that Mr. Hughes and myself, with our 
 families, should leave on the coming morning, 
 while Mr. Hamilton, who was without family, 
 and one man, should remain, with a couple of 
 horses, in case of danger, till wagons should be 
 sent to his assistance from Daniel’s Kuil. 
 
 “ To us the Sabbath was not a day of rest ; 
 hut though we hung our harps upon the 
 willows, we were enabled to wrestle with 
 God in prayer for the poor Bechuanas, who 
 appeared to be given over to infatuation ; and 
 thousands of whom were scattered on *the 
 lonely desert, pinched with hunger, and 
 threatened with misery, famine, and death. 
 Many females, lame with walking, and feeble 
 in body, had sought refuge in our houses, 
 while others had sunk under accumulated 
 toil. It was deeply affecting to look on such 
 objects of pity, while we could render them 
 little assistance.” 
 
 After a journey of five cheerless days they 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 193 
 
 reached Griqua Town, and were kindly re- 
 ceived by the missionary there. The Bech- 
 uanas soon sent them word that they were 
 anxious for their return, but the unsettled 
 state of things rendered that inexpedient. The 
 interior tribes were, according to the most 
 authentic information, deluging the country 
 with blood, appearing to depend for their sup- 
 port on the destruction of others. The pow- 
 erful and hitherto invincible Bauangketsi were 
 dispersed by a combined force, and Makaba 
 had been slain in the midst of heaps of war- 
 riors . In the south-east the Batau and Le- 
 goyas were carrying on the same destructive 
 game. The Wesleyan mission at Makuase 
 was also broken up, and the missionaries re- 
 tired to the colony. 
 
 Mr. Moffat afterwards returned and sought 
 to do good among the Bechuanas. In the 
 year 1825, the young prince named Peclu 
 died of a strange and malignant disease. This 
 event brings to light a cruel superstition that 
 prevailed in that country. He says : — 
 
 “ In this disorder, as in every other, when 
 a person of influence is taken ill or dies, the 
 cause is eagerly sought after, not in the nature 
 of the disease, but in some person who was 
 16* 
 
194 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 at enmity with the deceased, or who had acted 
 in some way to excite suspicion. This was 
 very natural in them, as they did not believe 
 in an overruling Providence. It was the 
 universal belief, as well as their wish, that 
 men should live alway, and that death was 
 entirely the result of witchcraft, or medicine 
 imparted by some malignant hand, or of some 
 casualty or want of food. The death of the 
 poor excited but little sorrow, and less sur- 
 mise ; on the other hand, I have known in- 
 stances when the domestics of a principal 
 man have been murdered in cold blood, just 
 because it was suspected that they had some- 
 thing to do with their master’s sickness. Ap- 
 proaching the abode of a sick chief, I was 
 informed by one of his attendants, with an air 
 of satisfaction, that he would now recover, as 
 two of his servants who had been seen scatter- 
 ing medicine somewhere in the neighbourhood 
 of his dwelling, had just been speared ; and 
 while he yet spoke the stifled sighs and moans 
 of their widows and children were entering 
 my ears. This chief is now a Christian. 
 
 “When Peclu died, suspicion fell on the 
 parents of his bride, from some little misun- 
 derstanding which had existed at his marriage. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 195 
 
 They would all have been butchered had not 
 the more enlightened views of Mahura, the 
 king’s brother, who had received orders to 
 carry the bloody purpose into effect, induced 
 him to apprize the chief and his family of 
 their danger, that they might flee to the Baro- 
 longs, which they did. Mahura and his war- 
 riors pursued, but determined not to overtake 
 them. As the law of retaliation was a prin- 
 ciple recognised by the Bechuana rulers, 
 events like those recorded were of almost 
 daily recurrence during the first years of the 
 mission, but which now rarely happen, even 
 for hundreds of miles beyond the missionary 
 stations. Thus the gospel, which has brought 
 the startling sound of immortality to the savage 
 ear, exerts, as a secondary benefit, a salutary 
 influence even among those who do not re- 
 ceive it, and who remain comparatively igno- 
 rant of its chief requirements.” 
 
 The narrative of the trials of the mission- 
 aries continues : — 
 
 “ While witnessing these trying and myste- 
 rious providences, we were often deeply 
 affected, to see that all our efforts to induce 
 them to improve these dispensations were of 
 no avail. 4 Go and teach the marauders not 
 
196 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 to destroy us,’ was constantly thrown in our 
 teeth. We much needed divine grace to 
 enable us to persevere ; but it often afforded 
 us strong consolation to know that we were 
 remembered in our native land, the multitude 
 of voices ever ascending to the throne of God. 
 We continued our public services, and when 
 the people would not cnme to us we went to 
 them. 
 
 “About this time another powerful body 
 from the Orange river, with horses and guns, 
 made an attack on the tribes to the westward 
 of our station, and perpetrated great cruelties. 
 The people again fled in consternation, and, 
 at Mothibi’s request, a messenger was de- 
 spatched to Griqua Town, entreating assist- 
 ance ; but it was not in the power of Water- 
 boer to afford it, however willing he might 
 have been to do so. As we had suffered 
 greatly both in our health and property, by 
 the last flight, and as we had no confidence in 
 the old tale which the natives invented, that 
 the enemy would attack us, we resolved to re- 
 main at our post.” 
 
 Eut the trials of Mr. Moffat were not these 
 alone. He was called to bury his son when 
 a few days old, and his wife’s health was 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 197 
 
 feeble. Mr. Hughes, another missionary, was 
 compelled by ill health to abandon the station. 
 Armed robbers were continually making in- 
 roads, threatening death and extirpation. The 
 missionaries were obliged to work daily at 
 every species of labour, most of which was 
 very heavy, under a burning sun, and in a 
 dry climate, where only one shower had fallen 
 during the preceding twelve months ; at the 
 same time, the language, which was entirely 
 oral, had to be acquired. A spelling-book, 
 catechism, and small portions of Scripture, 
 were prepared, and even sent to the Cape to 
 be printed in 1825 ; but, as if the measure of 
 disappointment was not full, they were by 
 some mistake sent to England, and before 
 they could possibly return to the station, they 
 might have had several improved editions. 
 
 Again were they threatened with war ; and 
 when the missionaries declined to take sides 
 against the enemy, the people were displeased : 
 especially the brother of the king. He became 
 so much enraged, that he would show the 
 missionaries that his name, instead of being 
 Molala, (poor,) should henceforth be lion. 
 
 To display his terrible fierceness, he went 
 off with a party to hunt wild beasts. One 
 
198 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 afternoon, seeing a giraffe in the distance, he 
 seized his spear, mounted his horse, and or- 
 dered his attendant to follow with his gun on 
 another. The master being on the swiftest 
 animal, and evening coming on, he disap- 
 peared on the undulating plain, and the ser- 
 vant returned to the rendezvous. Next day, 
 the latter, with some companions, pursued the 
 trail, found where his master had come up 
 with the giraffe, and appeared to have made 
 attempts to stab it, and then, from the course 
 he took, it was evident he had wandered. 
 They slept, and with the returning day con- 
 tinued to pursue his footmarks, which in the 
 evening brought them to a spot where a 
 number of lions had been. Beside a bush, 
 ■where they supposed the chieftain had laid 
 himself down the second night, they found 
 the horse, killed by the lions, but scarcely 
 touched ; while the man was eaten up, and 
 nothing left but the cranium. What was 
 rather remarkable, the master, seeing he was 
 leaving his servant in the rear, turned about 
 and gave him his tinder-box for fear of losing 
 it himself. Had he retained this, he might 
 have made a fire, which would have protected 
 him from the lions, and led to his earlier dis- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 199 
 
 covery. This event was too striking to be 
 overlooked by the people, who had frequently 
 heard of a Divine Providence, but they were 
 silent, and endeavoured to relieve their minds, 
 by driving from their memories the visage and 
 vain boastings of him who had been devoured 
 by the very beast of prey whose name and 
 powers were to be his motto, and the charac- 
 teristics of his future actions. 
 
 And now the reports of war coming in were 
 so numerous and fearful, that the native as- 
 sistants of the missionaries abandoned them. 
 “Thus,” says Mr. Moffat, “we were left, but 
 were still wonderfully supported, realizing the 
 fulfilment of the gracious promise, that as our 
 day is, so shall our strength be.” 
 
 To all the other trials of the missionary life 
 in South Africa, was now added anew plague. 
 After a long drought, when plentiful showers 
 of rain at last were given, the hopes of abun- 
 dance were cut off by swarms of locusts. Mr. 
 Moffat says : 
 
 “ They had not been seen for more than 
 twenty years before, but have never entirely 
 left the country since. They might be seen 
 passing over like an immense cloud, extend- 
 ing from the earth to a considerable height, 
 
200 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 producing, with their wings, a great noise. 
 They always proceed nearly in the direction 
 of the wind, those in advance descending to 
 eat any thing they light upon, and rising in 
 the rear, as the cloud advances. ‘ They have 
 no king, but they go forth, all of them, by 
 bands,’ and are gathered together in one place 
 in the evening, where they rest ; and from 
 their immense numbers, they weigh down the 
 shrubs, and lie at times one on the other to the 
 depth of several inches. In the morning, 
 when the sun begins to diffuse warmth, they 
 take wing, leaving a large extent without one 
 vestige of verdure ; even the plants and shrubs 
 are barked. Wherever they halt for the night, 
 or alight during the day, they become a prey 
 to other animals, and are eaten not only by 
 beasts of prey, but by all kinds of game, ser- 
 pents, lizards, and frogs. When passing 
 through the air, kites, vultures, crows, and 
 particularly the locust bird, as it is called, 
 may be seen devouring them. When a 
 swarm alights on gardens, or even fields, the 
 crop for one season is destroyed. I have ob- 
 served a field of young maize devoured in the 
 space of two hours. They eat not only every 
 thing vegetable, but also flannel and linen 
 
THE BECHUANA3. 
 
 201 
 
 The natives embrace every opportunity of 
 gathering them, which can be done during 
 the night. Whenever the cloud alights at a 
 place not very distant from a town, the inhabit- 
 ants turn out with sacks, and often with pack- 
 oxen, gather loads, and return the next day 
 with millions. 
 
 “ It has happened, that in gathering them, 
 individuals have been bitten by serpents ; and 
 on one occasion a woman had been travelling 
 several miles with a large bundle of locusts on 
 her head, when a serpent, which had been 
 put into the sack with them, found its way 
 out. The woman, supposing it to be a thong 
 dangling about her shoulders, laid hold of it 
 with her hand, and feeling that it was alive, in- 
 stantly precipitated both to the ground, and fled. 
 
 “ The locusts are prepared for eating by 
 simple boiling, or rather steaming, as they are 
 put into a large pot with a little water, and 
 covered closely up ; after boiling for a short 
 time, they are taken out and spread on mats 
 in the sun to dry, when they are winnowed, 
 something like corn, to clear them of their legs 
 and wings ; and when perfectly dry, are put 
 into sacks, or laid upon the house floor in a 
 heap. The natives eat them whole, adding a 
 17 
 
202 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 little salt when they can obtain it; or they 
 pound them in a wooden mortar, and when 
 they have reduced them to something like 
 meal, they mix them with a little water, and 
 make a kind of cold stir-about. 
 
 When locusts abound, the natives become 
 quite fat, and would even reward any old lady 
 who said that she had coaxed them to alight 
 within reach of the inhabitants. They are, 
 on the whole, not bad food ; and when hunger 
 has made them palatable, are eaten as matter 
 of course. When well fed, they are almost as 
 good as shrimps. There is a species not eat- 
 able, with reddish wings, rather larger than 
 those described, and which, though less nu- 
 merous, are more destructive. The exploits 
 of these armies, fearful as they are, bear no 
 comparison to the devastation they make be- 
 fore they are able to fly, in which state they 
 are called ‘ boyane.’ They receive a new 
 name in every stage of their growth, till they 
 reach maturity, when they are called ‘ letsie.’ 
 They never emerge from the sand, where they 
 were deposited as eggs, till rain has fallen to 
 raise grass for the young progeny. In their 
 course, from which nothing can divert them, 
 they appear like a dark red stream, extending 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 203 
 
 often more than a mile broad ; and from their 
 incessant hopping, the dust appears as if 
 alive. Nothing but a broad and rapid torrent 
 could arrest their progress, and that only by 
 drowning them ; and if one reached the oppo- 
 site shore, it would keep the original direction. 
 A small rivulet avails nothing, as they swim 
 dexterously. A line of fire is no barrier, as 
 they leap into it till it is extinguished, and 
 the others walk over the dead. Walls and 
 houses form no impediment ; they climb the 
 very chimneys, either obliquely or straight 
 over such obstacles, just as their instinct leads 
 them. All other earthly powers, from the 
 fiercest lion to a marshalled army, are nothing 
 compared with these diminutive insects. The 
 course they have followed is stripped of every 
 leaf or blade of verdure. It is enough to make 
 the inhabitants of a village turn pale to hear 
 that they are coming in a straight line to their 
 gardens. When a country is not extensive, 
 and is bounded by the sea, the scourge is soon 
 over, the winds carrying them away like 
 clouds to the watery waste, where they alight 
 to rise no more. Thus the immense flights 
 which pass to the south and east rarely return, 
 but fresh supplies are always pouring down 
 
204 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 from the north. All human endeavours to 
 diminish their numbers would appear like at- 
 tempting to drain the ocean by a pump. 
 
 We could not, however, feel otherwise than 
 thankful for this visitation, on account of the 
 poor; for as many thousands of cattle had been 
 taken from the natives, and gardens to an im- 
 mense extent destroyed, many hundreds of 
 families, hut for the locusts, must have perished 
 with hunger. It was not surprising that our 
 scanty supplies, which we were compelled to 
 procure from a distance, were seized by the 
 hungry people. If our oxen or calves were 
 allowed to wander out of sight, they were in- 
 stantly stolen. One day two noted fellows 
 from the mountains came down on a man who 
 had the charge of our cattle, murdered him, 
 and ran off with an ox. Some time before, 
 the whole of our calves disappeared ; two of 
 our men went in pursuit, and found, in the 
 ruins of an old town, the remains of the calves 
 laid aside for future use. On tracing the foot- 
 marks to a secluded spot near the river, they 
 found the thieves, two desperate-looking cha- 
 racters, who, seizing their bows and poisoned 
 arrows, dared their approach. It would have 
 been easy for our men to have shot them on 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 205 
 
 the spot, but their only object was to bring 
 them, if possible, to the station. After a dan- 
 gerous scuffle, one fled, and the other precipi- 
 tated himself into a pool of water, amidst reeds, 
 where he stood menacing the men with his 
 drawn bow, till they at last succeeded in seiz- 
 ing him. He was brought to the station, with 
 some of the meat, which, though not killed in 
 the most delicate manner, was acceptable, and 
 was the first veal we ever ate there ; for calves 
 are too valuable in that country to be slaugh- 
 tered, not only because they perpetuate the 
 supply of milk from the cow, but are reared 
 to use in travelling and agriculture. 
 
 The prisoner had a most forbidding appear- 
 ance, and we could not help regarding him as 
 a being brutalized by hunger ; and, in addition 
 to a defect in vision, he looked like one capa- 
 ble of perpetrating any action without remorse. 
 His replies to our queries and expostulations 
 were something like the growlings of a disap- 
 pointed hungry beast of prey. There were 
 no authorities in the country to whom we 
 could appeal, and the conclusion to which the 
 people came was, to inflict a little castigation, 
 while one of the natives was to whisper in his 
 ear that he must flee for his life. Seeing a 
 17 * 
 
206 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 young man drawing near with a gun, he took to 
 his heels, and the man firing a charge of loose 
 powder after him, increased his terror, and 
 made him bound into the marsh, and flee to 
 the opposite side, thinking himself well off to 
 have escaped with his life, which he could 
 not have expected from his own countrymen. 
 He lived for a time at a neighbouring village, 
 where he was wont to describe in graphic style 
 his narrow escape, and how he had outrun the 
 musket-ball ! When told by some one that 
 the gun was only to frighten him, he saw that 
 it must have been so ; he reasoned on our cha- 
 racter, made inquiries, and, from our men 
 sparing him in the first instance, and our- 
 selves giving him food, and allowing him to 
 run off after he had received a few strokes 
 with a thong, he concluded that there must be 
 something very merciful about our character ; 
 and at last he made his appearance again on 
 our station. He was soon after employed as 
 a labourer, embraced the gospel, and has, 
 through Divine grace, continued to make a 
 consistent profession, and is become an exam- 
 ple of intelligence, industry and love. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 207 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Journey to the Barolongs — Lions — Mr. Mof- 
 fat's situation — Cruel practices. 
 
 In the year 1826, Mr. Moffat went to the 
 Barolongs, to devote himself to the study of the 
 language, leaving Mr. Hamilton at the station. 
 In this journey he had fearful encounters with 
 lions, which seem almost incredible to us who 
 have no experience of such adventures. One 
 night, while on the way with two natives, 
 after they had pitched their oxen, and Mr. 
 Moffat had lain down in the wagon to sleep, 
 they were roused by six lions, one of whom 
 seized a cow belonging to the natives, dragged 
 her a few rods off, and devoured her so near 
 them that they could hear him breaking the 
 bones. 
 
 He came to a village where the people had 
 never heard of a missionary, and to whom it 
 was impossible to convey any idea of God, or 
 of the sinfulness of man. 
 
 Having reached the village of Bogachu, 
 
208 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 a Barolong chief, Mr. Moffat took up his abode 
 with him and devoted ten weeks to the study 
 of the language. Here he had to lead a semi- 
 savage life among heathenish dance and song, 
 and immeasurable heaps of dirt and filth. 
 
 And how painful it must have been to be 
 in the midst of such people, with no other 
 society, and with no human sympathy. “ The 
 people,” he says, “were kind, and my blun- 
 dering in the language gave rise to many 
 bursts of laughter. Never, in one instance, 
 would an individual correct a word or sen- 
 tence, till he or she had mimicked the original 
 so effectually, as to give great merriment to 
 others. They appeared delighted with my 
 company, especially as I could, when meat 
 was scarce, take my gun and shoot a rhinoce- 
 ros, or some other animal, when a night of 
 feasting and talking would follow. They 
 thought themselves quite lucky in having such 
 company, as one who could supply them oc- 
 casionally with both food and medicine. 
 
 “As the people had no gardens, the women 
 had very little to do, and they considered it 
 quite a luxury to spend a couple of hours in 
 noisy and often deafening conversation at my 
 wagon. Every opportunity was gladly em- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 209 
 
 braced in which I could impart instruction to 
 the people of the different villages around, 
 which were inhabited by Barolongs, Bamairis, 
 and some Bahurutsi refugees from Kurre- 
 chane. My preaching and speaking did in- 
 deed appear to be casting seed by the wayside 
 or on the flinty rock, while they would gravely 
 ask, if I were in earnest, and really believed 
 that there was such a Being as I described! 
 It was indeed painful to hear them turning the 
 theme of man’s redemption and the cross into 
 ridicule, and making a sport of immortality. 
 
 “ The people, to please me, would assemble 
 on the Sabbath, as I told them I could not be 
 happy without telling them about their souls 
 and another world. One day, while describ- 
 ing the day of judgment, several of my hear- 
 ers expressed great concern at the idea of all 
 their cattle being destroyed, together with 
 their ornaments. They never for one mo- 
 ment allow their thoughts to dwell on death, 
 which is, according to their views, nothing 
 less than annihilation. Their supreme hap- 
 piness consists in having abundance of meat. 
 Asking *a man who was more grave and 
 thoughtful than his companions, what was the 
 finest sight he could desire, he instantly re- 
 
210 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 plied, * A great fire covered with pots full of 
 meat adding, ‘ how ugly the fire looks with- 
 out a pot !* 
 
 “ My situation was not very well suited for 
 study, among a noisy rabble and a constant 
 influx of beggars. Writing was a work of 
 great difficulty, owing to the flies crowding 
 into the inkhom or clustering round the point 
 of the pen, and pursuing it on the paper, 
 drinking the ink as fast as it flowed. The 
 night brought little relief, for as soon as the 
 candle was lighted, innumerable insects 
 swarmed around so as to put it out. 
 
 “ During my sojourn among this portion 
 of that people, I had no little difficulty in ob- 
 taining a hearing when I wished to talk to 
 them about their eternal interests. Molala 
 was a complete heathen, and had obtained 
 his riches, as well as his influence, by intrigue 
 and rapine. I was in the habit of concluding 
 from facts, about which I have not deemed it 
 necessary to be very minute, that the Batlapis 
 were, as a people, not only very ignorant and 
 depraved, but exceedingly brutal : however, 
 a short stay among the Barolongs convinced 
 me that the latter far exceeded the former. 
 An intelligent traveller, who sojourned for 
 
THE BECHtTANAS. 
 
 211 
 
 a time among the Batlapis, was not mis- 
 taken when he was obliged, most reluctantly, 
 to come to the conclusion, that ‘ the foulest 
 blot on their character is the indifference with 
 which murder is viewed among them. It ex- 
 cites little sensation, excepting in the family 
 of the person who has been murdered ; and 
 brings, it is said, no disgrace upon him who 
 has committed it ; nor uneasiness, excepting 
 the fear of their revenge. Shall we not hesi- 
 tate to assert that human nature is superior to 
 the brute creation, when we find among this 
 people instances of the fact, that the shedding 
 of human blood, without the pretext of provoca- 
 tion or offence, and even by the basest treachery, 
 has fixed no infamy upon the perpetrator of so 
 awful a crime, and rarely drawn upon him 
 any punishment from the chief authority ; 
 an authority which the Giver of power intrusts 
 to mortal hands, only for the weak, and for 
 the common good ? Such, at least, are the 
 sentiments which they express, and such 
 were the replies to my questions on this sub- 
 ject.’ 
 
 “ During my stay at Kongke, an instance 
 occurred confirming this view. A man was 
 quarrelling with his wife about a very trifling 
 
212 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 affair, when, in a fit of rage, he grasped his 
 spear, and laid her at his feet — a bleeding 
 corpse ! Here there were no coroners nor 
 jury to take cognisance of the fact, and he 
 walked about without a blush, while the life- 
 less body was dragged out to be devoured by 
 the hyenas. When I endeavoured to repre- 
 sent to the chiefs, with whom I was familiar, 
 as old acquaintances, the magnitude of such 
 crimes, they laughed, I might say inordinately, 
 at the horror I felt for the murder of a woman 
 by her own husband.” 
 
 A custom prevailed among this people of 
 removing to a distance from the towns and 
 villages persons who have been wounded. 
 A man would go out and make a fire in the 
 evening by the side of the wounded one, but 
 this would sometimes go out, and then the 
 lions would come and devour him. 
 
 Mr. Moffat had a very interesting interview 
 with a native blacksmith , who had really 
 acquired some skill in working metals ; and 
 when he had secured his confidence, Mr. 
 Moffat tried to talk with him about his soul. 
 He says, “ When I talked with him about the 
 power of knowledge ; explaining the bellows 
 and other mechanical improvements, which 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 213 
 
 insure accuracy as well as save time and 
 labour, to this he listened with great attention ; 
 but when I introduced divine subjects, man’s 
 misery, and man’s redemption, he looked at 
 me with mouth dilated, and asked, ‘ A ga u 
 morihi?’ Art thou a rain-maker? This 
 man had also an interesting son and daughter, 
 to whom I often spoke, as well as to some 
 others, in social converse, which I hoped and 
 prayed might be blessed ; but what became 
 of these families, I never knew. 
 
 “ After ten weeks’ sojourn among this peo- 
 ple, who showed me no little kindness, I pre- 
 pared to return home ; and on the Sabbath 
 collected all, and gave them my concluding 
 address, on the importance of believing the 
 gospel of mercy. After a thirsty journey, I 
 reached home, with a heart filled with grati- 
 tude to God for the comforts I enjoyed, and 
 the progress I had made in the language, 
 during these months of a semi-savage life.” 
 
 18 
 
214 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Brightening prospects — Disappointments — 
 Attacks from the natives — Suspension of 
 the mission— Judgments of God upon the 
 natives. 
 
 Several thousands of the natives had now 
 taken up their abode in the neighbourhood 
 of the missionaries. They were more disposed 
 to be at peace. They would come together 
 more cheerfully to hear the word, and the 
 school was better attended than it had for- 
 merly been. The missionaries began to feel 
 that they could labour in hope, and they be- 
 lieved that the day of the Lord was at hand. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, whose ill health had 
 compelled them to leave the station, now re- 
 turned from the colony with renewed strength. 
 But all those fond hopes were destined to a 
 sudden disappointment. 
 
 The news arrived at the station that the 
 Bergcnaars were coming down upon them 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 215 
 
 to take their property and break up the mis- 
 sion. The Bechuanas urged the missionaries 
 to flee before the enemy should arrive. They 
 were finally compelled to yield to the desires 
 of their friends, and once more pack up their 
 things as well as they could, and retire from 
 the field they were cultivating with such fair 
 prospects of success. After a melancholy 
 journey of five days, they reached Griqua 
 Town. But they were sorry they went. 
 There seemed nothing before them but starva- 
 tion. False reports of danger every day gave 
 them fresh occasion for alarm, and they were 
 convinced that it would have been quite as 
 well for them to have remained at the station, 
 trusting in God for protection. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton, the only missionary without 
 a family, returned to the station first, and was 
 afterwards followed by Mr. Hughes and Mr. 
 Moffat. 
 
 Mr. Wright, who was labouring among the 
 Griquas, desired to unite that mission with 
 the Bechuanas ; but it was finally decided 
 thatMr. Hughes should remove toMr. Wright’s 
 station and share his labours. 
 
 On Mr. Moffat’s return to the Kuruman, 
 the Bechuana mission station, he found things 
 
216 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 in a sad plight. “ Half of our oxen,” he 
 says, “ and nearly all our cows were dead ; we 
 were too poor to purchase more ; not a quart 
 of milk on the station, and what was worse, 
 nearly all our people gone ; heaps of ashes, 
 where crowds once lived, who but for these 
 reports would have been there still ; we felt 
 as if we could never forgive ourselves for hav- 
 ing fled, and resolved afresh to resume our 
 labours among the few poor who had remained 
 on the station, and who were on the in- 
 crease.” 
 
 The superintendent of the missions, Mr. 
 Miles, arrived at this time, and his visit was 
 of great service to the mission. He sug- 
 gested the importance of some hymns in the 
 native language ; Mr. Moffat made the attempt 
 to prepare them, and the first hymn overwrit- 
 ten in the language is one of the many now 
 in extensive use. The arrival of the spelling- 
 books, &c., at the same time, enabled them to 
 commence a school in the Bechuana. This 
 was the dawning of a new era on the mission. 
 For ten years they had toiled with no fruit to 
 cheer them in their labours. But brighter 
 days were at hand. 
 
 The fragments of various tribes, that had 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 217 
 
 been scattered by wars among- themselves 
 now gathered around the mission, and the 
 field of usefulness was thus extended. It is 
 encouraging to read such a record as this in 
 the journal of Mr. Moffat : — 
 
 “ The day-school began to cheer our droop- 
 ing spirits, to which we added one in the 
 evening, having about forty scholars in 
 each, and some we heard began to pray ! 
 The attendance on public worship was good, 
 and the introduction of singing hymns in the 
 language, only three in number, produced a 
 very pleasing effect on the savage mind, and 
 no less so on our ow r n, though we could not 
 discover any inw r rought feeling produced by 
 the preaching of the gospel. 
 
 “ One mission-house had been finished, 
 another was raised as high as the beams, and 
 though we had faith to take joyfully the 
 spoiling of our goods, and to expend our lives, 
 yet as the friends at home were beginning to 
 despair of success, we did not like to expend 
 any more money. I remember when it was 
 signified to us, though not officially, that the 
 abandonment of the mission was in contempla- 
 tion, we felt our souls at once riveted to the 
 country and people, and even had our re- 
 18 * 
 
218 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 sources been withdrawn, we were confident 
 of Divine interference in our behalf.” 
 
 Mr. Hamilton, who had long and faithfully 
 toiled in this field, now found it necessary to 
 visit the colony. 
 
 Shortly after his departure, a party of hos- 
 tile Corannas visited the station, and pretend- 
 ing to be peacefully disposed, watched for a 
 favourable moment of attack, and in the affray 
 that followed, Mr. Moffat came very near 
 losing his life. The savages were repulsed, 
 and fled to the mountains. These men had 
 been engaged in plundering other villages, 
 and murdering in cold blood all who fell into 
 their hands. Mr. Moffat asked some of them 
 who were taken prisoners, if their minds did 
 not revolt at such crimes, as deliberately kill- 
 ing innocent females and children, who pos- 
 sessed nothing to tempt their cupidity, but 
 who had cheerfully served them with wood 
 and water. After sitting some minutes mo- 
 tionless in deep reflection, one of them said, 
 “ Mynheer, the heart of man is a wonderful 
 thing ; there is nothing which it cannot do. 
 Custom makes even murder a plaything.” 
 
 This was indeed having a seared conscience, 
 or being past feeling, and he, like many 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 219 
 
 others, was unmoved by any conviction of the 
 enormity of such crimes. These men were 
 afterwards sent home to their friends, evidently 
 struck by the kindness which had been shown 
 them, and which it was hoped might have a 
 beneficial influence upon their minds. Some 
 time after, the missionaries were informed by 
 an individual from their neighbourhood, that 
 their chief had sharply reproved them for so 
 daring an attempt on a missionary station, 
 adding, “ that the results were such as they 
 might have expected.” 
 
 Two months after this attack, the mission- 
 aries were again warned that a chief from the 
 Orange river was coming to make war upon 
 them and their station. Nor were they aware 
 of his near approach until the enemy was 
 within eight miles. “ We had,” says Mr. 
 Moffat, “ very few men able to use a gun, and 
 only two of these on whom we could depend. 
 We were weak indeed, and to save our cattle, 
 we sent them off with some men to the wide 
 wilderness, in the Bushman country. We 
 were consoled to know that an omnipotent 
 Jehovah saw our condition, that He could de- 
 fend by many or by few, and could so order 
 and overrule affairs as even to prevent blood- 
 
220 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMOKG 
 
 shed. For this my dear partner and I united 
 again and again in fervent supplication to Him 
 who had said, ‘ Call upon me in the time of 
 trouble, and I will deliver.’ Our souls sick- 
 ened at the idea of seeing- the ground of the 
 mission station dyed with human blood, and 
 we felt a strong persuasion that it would be 
 prevented. Another night, in which infants 
 only could forget their cares and fears, passed 
 by. Early next morning the band emerged 
 from behind a rising ground, where they had 
 passed the night, within half a mile of the 
 place. The enemy seeing the entrenchments 
 full of people, and that their approach was 
 discovered, had no alternative but to advance. 
 The confused rabble of horse and infantry 
 came on, evincing all the pageantry of slug- 
 gish pomp. I had previously ordered, begged, 
 and entreated that no one should fire, as it was 
 not likely that they would gallop into the place, 
 hut leave them to expend their ammunition on 
 the hillocks of stone. I stood with my tele- 
 scope on one of these hillocks, to see whether 
 I could recognise any of the party, as we had 
 been informed that there were several rebel 
 Griquas among them. When they came 
 within gun-shot, they sheered off to the river. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 221 
 
 where they intercepted some cattle belonging 
 to our people, and a few sheep, the property 
 of Mr. Hamilton ; while a number went to the 
 tops of the heights to look around for more 
 booty. We counted their force, amounting to 
 forty muskets, nine horses, and about ninety 
 men, among whom were a number of Griquas 
 well dressed. 
 
 “ After debating for about an hour, a man 
 was sent with a flag, — a rag suspended on the 
 end of a rod. To prevent his seeing the 
 weakness of the place, I met him at a dis- 
 tance. He did not hesitate to acknowledge 
 that it was their intention to attack the place 
 for purposes of revenge, and that Jantye Goe- 
 man, one of the principal men, though not the 
 chief, begged first to have an interview with 
 me at their camp, and the favour of a piece of 
 tobacco. I refused to go to their camp, but 
 engaged to meet him half way, if he was un- 
 armed. After a long pause this was agreed 
 to, when he advanced, and was soon followed 
 by two more, the most ruffian-like beings I 
 ever beheld. I went, accompanied by Aaron, 
 and approaching Jantye Goeman, whom I 
 knew well, he having been separated from 
 the church at Griqua Town while I was 
 
222 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 there, he drew near with his hat drawn over 
 his eyes, and without looking me in the face, 
 held out his hand. I said to him, ‘Jantye, 
 let me see your face ; you may well blush 
 that your old friend should find you in so 
 horrible a position, among a people determined 
 on the destruction of a missionary station.’ ‘I 
 am dumb with shame,’ was his reply; and he 
 then manufactured an excuse for his being 
 found among such company, adding that he 
 would rather defend my person than see a 
 weapon raised against me. He then informed 
 me that there were several other Bergenaars, 
 desperate characters, among them; but the 
 head of the band was one Paul, chief of the 
 Karoshebbers ; intimating that it was neces- 
 sary for me to see him before we could come 
 to any understanding, for I found Jantye was 
 not empowered to make arrangements. In 
 fact, he appeared embarrassed ; his counte- 
 nance displaying a hidden conflict, and being 
 the index of guilt. He assured me that to 
 obtain an interview with Paul was out of the 
 question, for ever since he had left home he 
 had been ■vowing that he would rather die 
 than exchange one word with me, or see my 
 face. Perfectly unable to conceive how I had 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 223 
 
 become so odious in the eyes of any one, I 
 made many inquiries, and at length learned 
 that this Paul was one to whom I had preached 
 the gospel, and he had sworn not to see me, 
 lest I should succeed in persuading him to 
 abandon his intentions of murder and rapine. 
 After many entreaties, I got Jantye to go and 
 invite Paul, while I remained on the spot. 
 During his absence, one of the two forbidding 
 characters who continued near me, remarked 
 in a growling tone, that I better get out of the 
 way, and let the band do with the Kafirs 
 (Bechuanas) as they pleased. To this I re- 
 plied, that they must first kill game before 
 they could eat venison ; that for my own part 
 I had no intention to use any other weapon 
 than prayer to God ; but I would not vouch 
 for what the people on the station might do ; 
 that I was the teacher of some, but the master 
 of none. Jantye came slowly back again, as 
 if unwilling to tell his message. It was, that 
 Paul was resolute in his determination not to 
 see me. At this moment a wagon appeared 
 in sight ; and fearing it might be some one 
 from Griqua Town, who of course would be 
 instantly despatched, I rose, and was proceed- 
 ing to meet it, as it had to pass the camp of 
 
224 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 the banditti. Jantye prevented my going. I 
 then sent a man, who, on passing the camp, 
 was taken prisoner. When observing some 
 of the party shouldering their guns, and ap- 
 proaching the wagon, I got up and said to 
 Jantye, ‘ I shall not see your face till the wa- 
 gon and its owners are safe on the station.’ 
 He instantly ran off, and brought the wagon 
 through the party ; when, to our pleasing sur- 
 prise, we found that our visitors were Mr. and 
 Mrs. Archbell, from the Wesleyan mission at 
 Platburg. 
 
 “ Their safe arrival was a cause of gratitude, 
 but the great point was yet undecided. I again 
 met my half-way delegates ; when, after a long 
 conversation with Jantye, and another message 
 to Paul, he made his appearance, slowly and 
 sadly, as if following a friend to execution, or 
 going himself to be slain. His face appeared 
 incapable of a smile. Taking his hand, as 
 that of an old friend, I expressed my surprise 
 that he, who knew me, and who once listened 
 to the message of salvation from my lips, 
 should come with such a force for the express 
 purpose of rooting out the mission. I referred 
 him to the time when, more than once, I had 
 slept at the door of his hut, and partaken of 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 225 
 
 his hospitality. He replied, that his purposes 
 were unalterable, because, more than a year 
 ago, a body of his men, who had passed into 
 the interior to take cattle from the Barolongs, 
 were attacked by Mothibi’s people ; and that, 
 although Mothibi had fled, many of his subjects 
 and the Batlaros were on the station. His eyes 
 glared with fury as he said, ‘I shall have 
 their blood and their cattle too !’ People in 
 this country can scarcely conceive how diffi- 
 cult, not to say sometimes how impossible, it is 
 to argue with such characters, for some will 
 not hear ; but Paul could argue ; and having 
 once listened to my voice with pleasure, the 
 long time w'hich had elapsed had not effaced 
 the impressions made by the visit and presence 
 of a teacher. Although I was not preaching, 
 I spoke with great solemnity, asking him if 
 the bleached bones on the Barolong and Kala- 
 gare plains, the souls his clubs and spears had 
 hurried into eternity since he left home, and 
 the innocent blood with which he had stained 
 the desert but a few days ago, were not suf- 
 ficient to glut his revenge ; or, rather, to make 
 him tremble for the judgments which such a 
 career w ould certainly bring upon himself and 
 his people, and which had already begun to 
 19 
 
226 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 be poured out on the blood-guilty tribes of the 
 Orange river? After having talked to him 
 for some time in this strain, I begged him to 
 call to mind his first and only visit to me while 
 with Africaner ; and his declaration, at a sub- 
 sequent period, that he and his people were 
 leaving, because it was rumoured that Africa- 
 ner was about to remove from the country, in 
 which his presence had been the bond of 
 union ; entreating him to compare his state of 
 mind at that time with what it was now. This 
 had scarcely passed my lips, when he ordered 
 his men to go and bring the cattle which had 
 been taken from our people, and added, that 
 he would not go a step farther, but return by 
 the way he came. In the course of a subse- 
 quent conversation, I inquired why he was so 
 determined on not seeing me. ‘ I could not 
 forget your kindness to me in Namaqua-land,’ 
 was the reply. In this the reader will observe 
 a fresh instance of the omnipotence of love, 
 even among the most barbarous of the human 
 race.” 
 
 These same murderers and robbers after- 
 wards said that such had been their terrors of 
 conscience for nights before, that a hyena or 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 227 
 
 jackal had been enough to frighten them from 
 their rendezvous. 
 
 This savage horde, on leaving the station, 
 resumed their plundering career, and finally 
 fell into a snare that was laid for them, and 
 almost every one of them came to a violent 
 and miserable death. These were among the 
 last efforts of the wandering hordes. The 
 judgments of God fell on them. Pestilence, 
 prodigality, and beasts of prey, deprived 
 them of their thousands of cattle ; disease and 
 famine thinned their camps ; till, at length, in 
 places which had echoed with the shouts of 
 savage triumph over slaughtered tribes, and 
 the noises of rude revelry and debauch, no- 
 thing is heard but the howl of the hyena, as 
 an appropriate funeral dirge over the remains 
 of a people, the victims of ferocity and lust. 
 
 These awful judgments on some were not 
 without the most salutary results to others. 
 So evidently was the hand of God displayed, 
 that the atheistical Bechuanas were wonder- 
 fully impressed with the truth of an overruling 
 Providence ; which doctrine they had, as a 
 nation, hitherto treated as visionary and false. 
 They had ocular demonstration of what we 
 had told them was the tvord of God, that the 
 
228 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 triumphing of the wicked is short, and that 
 Jehovah would scatter them that delight in 
 w r ar. The notorious apostate, Jacob Cloete, 
 the ringleader of that section which had scat- 
 tered devastation among the Kuruman tribes, 
 was impoverished by his companions in crime, 
 and retired to Berend’s people a beggar. He 
 visited us as such at the Kuruman. It would 
 not have been unnatural to expect that the 
 Bechuanas, to w r hom he had been as the 
 demon of destruction, would have treated him 
 with contumely, or sought revenge. No: 
 though they were yet comparative heathens, 
 they looked on his tall, haggard form, and 
 emaciated countenance, with sympathy ; and 
 seeing him look wild, and start, as if the air 
 he breathed was charged with spectres, ar- 
 rows, and death, they presented him with 
 food, and retired, remarking, “ He is seized 
 by terrors.” He soon afterwards died, the 
 victim of remorse and shame. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 229 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Outpouring of the Spirit — Wonderful works 
 of God — Another journey — Interesting 
 incidents — The stolen children. 
 
 The day of promise dawns at last. The 
 chapel becomes too small to hold the people 
 that crowd to hear the word. The sun of 
 righteousness is rising on this benighted peo- 
 ple. Mr. Hamilton, the father of the mission, 
 returns to his field, and rejoices in the pros- 
 pect of harvest. The glad missionary writes : 
 
 “ Shortly after this we were favoured with 
 the manifest outpouring of the Spirit from on 
 high. The moral wilderness was now about 
 to blossom. Sable cheeks bedewed with tears 
 attracted our observation. To see females 
 weep was nothing extraordinary ; it was, 
 according to Bechuana notions, their province, 
 and theirs alone. Men would not weep. 
 After having, by the rite of circumcision, be- 
 come men, they scorned to shed a tear. In 
 19 * 
 
230 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 family or national afflictions, it was the wo- 
 man’s work to weep and wail ; the man’s to 
 sit in sullen silence, often brooding over deeds 
 of revenge and death. The simple gospel now 
 melted their flinty hearts; and eyes now wept, 
 which never before shed the tear of hallowed 
 sorrow. Notwithstanding our earnest desires 
 and fervent prayers, we were taken by sur- 
 prise. We had so long been accustomed to 
 indifference, that we felt unprepared to look 
 on a scene which perfectly overwhelmed our 
 minds. Our temporary little chapel became 
 a Bochim— a place of weeping; and the sym- 
 pathy of feeling spread from heart to heart, so 
 that even infants wept. Some, after gazing 
 with extreme intensity of feeling on the 
 preacher, would fall down in hysterics, and 
 others were carried out in a state of great 
 exhaustion.” 
 
 Aaron Josephs, who had once been a run- 
 away slave, was awakened to a sense of his 
 sin and danger, and was soon baptized. The 
 scene was deeply impressive and exciting. 
 The sounds most frequently heard through 
 the village for days afterwards, were singing 
 and prayer. Prayer-meetings were held from 
 house to house, and continued till a late hour, 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 231 
 
 and then the people would come together 
 again before morning dawned. What a won- 
 derful change was this ! Behold these African 
 savages in the dust at the feet of Jesus, crying 
 for mercy ! 
 
 Now the natives undertook to build a house 
 of worship. All who were interested, even 
 women and children, took hold together, car- 
 rying clay, lath from the bushes, material for 
 thatching, and whatever else they could get 
 to help on the work. The building was com- 
 pleted in May, 1829, and in the following 
 month six persons were baptized. This was 
 not done without much prayer and delibera- 
 tion. These had given very satisfactory 
 proofs of a change of heart. After particular 
 private examination, separately, they were 
 found to possess a much larger knowledge of 
 Divine truth than was expected ; and their 
 answers were most satisfactory. It was truly 
 gratifying to observe the simplicity of their 
 faith, implicitly relying on the atonement of 
 Christ, of which they appeared to have a very 
 clear conception, considering the previous 
 darkness of their minds on such subjects. 
 They were therefore baptized on the first 
 Sabbath of July, when other circumstances 
 
232 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 concurred to impart additional interest to the 
 solemnity. It appeared as if it had been the 
 design of Providence to call together, from all 
 quarters, an unusual and most unexpected 
 number of spectators from Philippolis, Camp- 
 bell, Griqua Town, and Boochuap. From 
 these places there were present about fifty 
 Griquas, who happened to congregate here 
 previous to their proceeding on a hunting 
 expedition. These were suitably and profit- 
 ably impressed with what transpired, for they 
 themselves had been for some time previous 
 in a lukewarm state, and were thus awakened 
 to jealousy about their own condition, by see- 
 ing the Bechuanas pressing into the fold of 
 Christ, while they by their backslidings were 
 being thrust out. 
 
 There were also present, parties from dif- 
 ferent places of the interior, who had come 
 for purposes of barter. The place of worship 
 was crowded to excess, and the greatest in- 
 terest excited by a scene which was indeed a 
 novelty to many, the service being conducted 
 in the Bechuana language. After a sermon 
 on John i. 29, a suitable address was given to 
 the candidates, and when a number of ques- 
 tions had been asked, they were baptized, 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 233 
 
 with five of their children. Among them was 
 Rachel, the wife of Aaron, whom Mr. Hamil- 
 ton addressed in Dutch, she being more con- 
 versant in that language ; the others were 
 Bechuanas. In the evening they sat down 
 together to commemorate the death of our 
 Lord. 
 
 “ Our number,” says the missionary, “ was 
 twelve. It was an interesting, cheering, and 
 encouraging season to our souls ; and we con- 
 cluded the delightful exercises of the day by 
 taking coffee together in the evening. Our 
 feelings on that occasion were such as our 
 pen would fail to describe. We were as those 
 that dreamed, while we realized the promise 
 on which our souls had often hung : ‘ He that 
 goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious 
 seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 
 bringing his sheaves with him.’ The hour 
 had arrived on which the whole energies of 
 our souls had been intensely fixed, when we 
 should see a church, however small, gathered 
 from among a people who had so long boasted 
 that neither Jesus, nor we, his servants, should 
 ever see Bechuanas worship and confess him 
 as their king.” 
 
 Thus, after ten years of darkness and appa- 
 
234 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 rently fruitless toil, the day-spring from on 
 high visits this people. And here the mis- 
 sionaries take occasion to speak of the fact 
 that the gospel is the only power that can 
 make a savage people civilized. They find 
 that to make the fruit good, the tree must be 
 good, and now the glorious results began to 
 appear in this hopeless and degraded race of 
 men. When they felt the power of the gos- 
 pel on their hearts, they began to rise from 
 the rank of brutes, and to feel that they were 
 men. Now it was common to hear them 
 exclaiming, “We have been like the beasts 
 before God, what shall we do to be saved ?” 
 and the missionaries, as they heard such 
 words, were moved as was the aged Simeon 
 when he held the infant Saviour in his arms. 
 
 The natives began to make decent clothing 
 for themselves. Mrs. Moffat opened a sewing 
 school ; for the same gospel which had taught 
 them that they were spiritually miserable, 
 blind, and naked, discovered to them also that 
 they needed reform externally, and thus pre- 
 pared their minds to adopt those modes of 
 comfort, cleanliness, and convenience which 
 they had been accustomed to view only as the 
 peculiarities of a strange people. Thus, by 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 235 
 
 the slow hut certain progress of gospel prin- 
 ciples, whole families became clothed and in 
 their right mind. Ornaments which were 
 formerly in high repute, as adorning, but more 
 frequently disfiguring their persons, were now 
 turned into bullion to purchase skins of ani- 
 mals, which, being prepared almost as soft as 
 cloth, were made into jackets, trousers, and 
 gowns. When opportunity was afforded by 
 the visit of a trader, British manufactures 
 were eagerly purchased. 
 
 For a long period, when a man was seen to 
 make a pair of trowsers for himself, or a wo- 
 man a gown, it was a sure intimation that we 
 might expect additions to our inquirers ; 
 abandoning the custom of painting the body, 
 and beginning to wash with water, was with 
 them what cutting off the hair was among the 
 South Sea islanders — a public renunciation of 
 heathenism. In the progress of improvement 
 during the years which followed, and by 
 which many individuals who made no profes- 
 sion of the gospel were influenced, we were 
 frequently amused. A man might be seen in 
 a jacket with but one sleeve, because the other 
 was not finished, or he lacked material to com- 
 plete it. Another in a leathern or duffel 
 
236 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 jacket, with the sleeves of different colours, 
 or of fine printed cotton. Gowns were seen 
 like Joseph’s coat of many colours, and dresses 
 of such fantastic shapes, as were calculated to 
 excite a smile. 
 
 These efforts, however trifling they may 
 appear, were the precursors of a mighty 
 change, and the elements of a system which 
 was destined to sweep away the filth and cus- 
 toms of former generations, and to open up 
 numberless channels for commerce, which, 
 but for the gospel, might have remained for 
 ever closed. 
 
 The reform extended into all the affairs of 
 life. They must have chairs, and chests, and 
 candles, and many other things which showed 
 the progress of light and civilization among 
 them. The desire for these things was 
 always attended with a desire for the word of 
 God. The expressions of the inquirers and 
 of the believers were often very striking. “ I 
 seek Jesus,” one would say ; and another, “ I 
 am feeling after God ; I have been wandering, 
 unconscious of my danger, among beasts of 
 prey ; the day has dawned, I see my danger.” 
 A third would say, “ I have been sleeping in 
 the lion’s den ; or been blown to and fro like 
 
THE BECHTTANAS. 237 
 
 a calabash upon the water, and might have 
 sunk.” 
 
 A woman on her death-bed, but before she 
 was considered in danger, declared the most 
 lively hope of eternal life through the atone- 
 ment of Jesus. A few days subsequent to this 
 declaration, feeling that death was near, she 
 called her husband and friends, and addressed 
 them in language affecting and arousing, ex- 
 horting them to believe in the words of Jeho- 
 vah, to flee for refuge to Jesus as the only 
 Saviour. “ I am going to die.” This was 
 startling language from the lips of a Bechu- 
 ana. Some listened with amazement, and 
 others wept. “Weep not,” she said, “be- 
 cause I am going to leave you, but weep for 
 your sins and weep for your souls. With me 
 all is well, for do not suppose that I die like a 
 beast, or that I shall sleep for ever in the 
 grave. No ! Jesus has died for my sins ; he 
 has said he will save me. I am going to be 
 with him.” Shortly after bearing this testi- 
 mony, she, who a few months before, accord- 
 ing to her own language, was as ignorant as 
 the cattle in the fold, now left the world with 
 the full assurance of an eternal life beyond the 
 grave. 
 
238 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 In this year, (1829,) the station was visited 
 by some chiefs from a people called Matabele, 
 They came to see the wonderful change of 
 which they had heard as having taken place 
 among the Bechuanas. The houses, the 
 ditches conveying water out of the bed of the 
 river, and the smith’s forge, filled them with , 
 admiration and astonishment, which they ex- 
 pressed, not in the wild gestures generally 
 made by the mere plebeian, but by the utmost 
 gravity and profound veneration, as well as 
 the most respectful demeanour. “ You are 
 men, we are but children,” said one ; while 
 the other observed, “ Moselekatse must be 
 taught all these things.” When standing in 
 the hall of our house, looking at the strange 
 furniture of a civilized abode, the eye of one 
 caught a small looking-glass, on which he gazed 
 with admiration. Mrs. Moffat handed him 
 one which was considerably larger ; he looked 
 intensely at his reflected countenance, and 
 never having seen it before, supposed it was 
 that of one of his attendants on the other side ; 
 he very abruptly put his hand behind it, tell- 
 ing him to be gone, but looking again at the 
 same face, he cautiously turned it, and seeing 
 nothing, he returned the glass with great gra- 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 239 
 
 vity to Mrs. Moffat, saying that he could not 
 trust it ! 
 
 Nothing appeared to strike them so forcibly 
 as the public worship in our chapel. They saw 
 men like themselves meet together with great 
 decorum ; mothers hushing their babes, or 
 hastily retiring if they made any noise, and 
 the elder children sitting perfectly silent. 
 When the missionary ascended the pulpit, 
 they listened to the hymn sung, and though, 
 from their ignorance of the Bechuana lan- 
 guage, they could not understand all that was 
 said, they were convinced that something very 
 serious was the subject of the address. The 
 order and fervour which pervaded all parts of 
 the service, bewildered their minds, which, 
 from their infancy, had been accustomed to 
 observe every public meeting introduced and 
 characterized by the hoarse war-song and dis- 
 plays of chivalry. They were inquisitive 
 about every thing, and were surprised to find 
 that the hymns were not war-songs, expressive 
 of the wild reveries which the associations of 
 music brought to their minds. 
 
 At their earnest solicitations Mr. Moffat 
 accompanied them on their return home, and 
 the journey was marked by some interesting 
 
240 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 incidents. But we must pass them by, though 
 we cannot withhold the description of a sin- 
 gular dwelling which he saw in his travels. 
 
 “ My attention was arrested by a beautiful 
 and gigantic tree, standing in a defile leading 
 into an extensive and woody ravine, between 
 a high range of mountains. Seeing some in- 
 dividuals employed on the ground under its 
 shade, and the conical points of what looked 
 like houses in miniature, protruding through 
 its evergreen foliage, I proceeded thither, 
 and found that the tree was inhabited by 
 several families of Bakones, the aborigines of 
 the country. I ascended by the notched 
 trunk, and found, to my amazement, no less 
 than seventeen of these aerial abodes, and 
 three others unfinished. On reaching the 
 topmost hut, about thirty feet from the ground, 
 I entered, and sat down. Its only furniture 
 was the hay which covered the floor, a spear, 
 a spoon, and a bowl full of locusts. Not hav- 
 ing eaten any thing that day, and from the 
 novelty of my situation, not wishing to return 
 immediately to the wagons, I asked a woman 
 who sat at the door with a babe at her breast, 
 permission to eat. This she granted with 
 pleasure, and soon brought me more in a 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 241 
 
 powdered state. Several more females came 
 from the neighbouring roosts, stepping from 
 branch to branch, to see the stranger, who 
 was to them as great a curiosity as the tree 
 was to him. I then visited the different 
 abodes, which were on several principal 
 branches. The structure of these houses was 
 very simple. An oblong scaffold, about seven 
 feet wide, is formed of straight sticks. On 
 one end of this platform a small cone is 
 formed, also of straight sticks, and thatched 
 with grass. A person can nearly stand up- 
 right in it ; the diameter of the floor is about 
 six feet. The house stands on the end of the 
 oblong, so as to leave a little square space be- 
 fore the door. On the day previous I had 
 passed several villages, some containing forty 
 houses, all built on poles about seven or eight 
 feet from the ground, in the form of a circle ; 
 the ascent and descent is by a knotty branch 
 of a tree placed in front of the house. In the 
 centre of the circle there is always a heap of 
 the bones of game they have killed. Such 
 were the domiciles of the impoverished thou- 
 sands of the aborigines of the country, who, 
 having been scattered and peeled by Mosele- 
 katse, had neither herd or stall, but subsisted 
 20 * 
 
242 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 on locusts, roots, and the chase. They 
 adopted this mode of architecture to escape 
 the lions which abounded in the country. 
 During the day the families descended to the 
 shade beneath to dress their daily food. When 
 the inhabitants increased, they supported the 
 augmented weight on the branches, by up- 
 right sticks, but when lightened of their load, 
 they removed these for firewood.” 
 
 Mr. Moffat pursued his journey with these 
 chiefs, until he came to their country, which 
 gave evidence of former improvement beyond 
 any thing he had seen in South Africa. The 
 mins of many towns showed signs of immense 
 labour and perseverance. The walls and 
 door-ways were also neatly ornamented with 
 a kind of architraves and cornices. The pil- 
 lars supporting the roof in the form of pilasters, 
 projecting from the walls, and adorned with 
 flutings and other designs, showed much 
 taste in the architectresses. This taste, how- 
 ever, was exercised on fragile materials, for 
 there was nothing in the building like stone, 
 except the foundations. The houses, like all 
 others in the interior, were round, with coni- 
 cal roofs, extending beyond the walls, so as to 
 afford considerable shade, or what might be 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 243 
 
 called a verandah. The raising of the stone 
 fences must have been a work of immense 
 labour, for the materials had all to he brought 
 on the shoulders of men, and the quarries, 
 where these materials were probably obtained, 
 were at a considerable distance. The neigh- 
 bouring hills also gave ample demonstration 
 of human perseverance, with instruments of 
 the most paltry description. 
 
 Arriving at their destination, Mr. Moffat was 
 received by the king Moselekatse, in extra- 
 ordinary style. 
 
 “We proceeded directly to the town, and 
 on riding into the centre of the large fold, 
 which was capable of holding ten thousand 
 head of cattle, we were rather taken by sur- 
 prise to find it lined by eight hundred war- 
 riors, besides two hundred which were con- 
 cealed in each side of the entrance, as if in 
 ambush. We were beckoned to dismount, 
 which we did, holding our horses’ bridles in 
 our hands. The warriors at the gate instantly 
 rushed in with hideous yells, and leaping 
 from the earth with a kind of kilt around their 
 bodies, hanging like loose tails, and their large 
 shields, frightened our horses. They then 
 joined the circle, falling into rank with as 
 
244 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 much order as if they had been accustomed to 
 European tactics. Here we stood surrounded 
 by warriors whose kilts were of ape skins, and 
 their legs and arms adorned with the hair and 
 tails of oxen, their shields reaching to their 
 chins, and their heads adorned with feathers. 
 
 “ Although in the centre of a town, all was 
 silent as the midnight hour, while the men 
 were motionless as statues. Eyes only were 
 seen to move, and there was a rich display of 
 fine white teeth. After some minutes of pro- 
 found silence, which was only interrupted by 
 the breathing of our horses, the war-song 
 burst forth. There was harmony, it is true, 
 and they beat time with their feet, producing 
 a sound like hollow thunder, hut some parts 
 of it was music befitting the nether regions, 
 especially when they imitated the groanings 
 of the dying on the field of battle, and the yells 
 and hissings of the conquerors. Another 
 simultaneous pause ensued, and still we won- 
 dered what was intended, till out marched the 
 monarch from behind the lines, followed by a 
 number of men bearing baskets and bowls of 
 food. He came up to us, and having been 
 instructed in our mode of salutation, gave each 
 a clumsy but hearty shake of the hand. He 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 245 
 
 then politely turned to the food, which was 
 placed at our feet, and invited us to partake. 
 By this time the wagons were seen in the dis- 
 tance, and having intimated our wish to be 
 directed to a place where we might encamp 
 in the outskirts of the town, he accompanied 
 us, keeping fast hold of my right arm, though 
 not in the most graceful manner, yet with per- 
 fect familiarity. ‘ The land is before you ; 
 you are come to your son. You must sleep 
 where you please.’ When the ‘ moving 
 houses,’ as the wagons were called, drew 
 near, he took a firmer grasp of my arm, and 
 looked on them with unutterable surprise ; 
 and this man, the terror of thousands, drew 
 back with fear, as one in doubt as to whether 
 they were not living creatures. When the 
 oxen were unyoked he approached the wagon 
 with the utmost caution, still holding me by 
 one hand, and placing the other on his mouth, 
 indicating his surprise. He looked at them 
 very intently, particularly the wheels, and 
 when told of how many pieces of wood each 
 wheel was composed, his wonder was in- 
 creased. After examining all very closely, 
 one mystery yet remained, how the large band 
 of iron surrounding the felloes of the wheel 
 
246 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 came to be in one piece, without either end or 
 joint. ’Umbate, my friend and fellow-travel- 
 ler, whose visit to our station had made him 
 much wiser than his master, took hold of my 
 right hand, and related what he had seen. 
 ‘My eyes,’ he said, ‘saw that very hand,’ 
 pointing to mine, ‘cut these bars of iron, take 
 a piece off one end, and then join them as you 
 now see them.’ A minute inspection ensued 
 to discover the welded part. ‘ Does he give 
 medicine to the iron ?’ was the monarch’s 
 inquiry. ‘No,’ said ’Umbate, ‘nothing is 
 used but fire, a hammer, and a chisel.’ 
 Moselekatse then returned to the town, where 
 the warriors were still standing as he left 
 them, who received him with immense bursts 
 of applause. 
 
 “During one of my first interviews with 
 Moselekatse, the following incident took place, 
 which shows that, however degraded and cruel 
 man may become, he is capable of being sub- 
 dued by kindness. He drew near to the spot 
 where I stood, with some attendants bearing 
 dishes of food ; the two chiefs who had been 
 at the Kuruman were with me, but on the 
 approach of their sovereign they bowed and 
 withdrew, shouting, as usual, ‘ Baaite ’nkhosi 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 247 
 
 enkolu,’ but were instantly desired to return. 
 Mosekelatse, placing his left hand on my 
 shoulder, and his right on his breast, addressed 
 me in the following language : ‘ Machobane, 
 (his father’s name,) I call you such because 
 you have been my father. You have made 
 my heart as white as milk ; milk is not white 
 to-day, my heart is white. I cease not to 
 wonder at the love of a stranger. You never 
 saw me before, but you love me more than 
 my own people. You fed me when I was 
 hungry ; you clothed me when I was naked ; 
 you carried me in your bosom and, raising 
 my right arm with his, added, ‘ that arm 
 shielded me from my enemies.’ On my re- 
 plying, I was unconscious of having done him 
 any such services, he instantly pointed to the 
 two ambassadors who were sitting at my feet, 
 saying, * These are great men ; ’Umbate is 
 my right hand. When I sent them from my 
 presence to see the land of the white men, I 
 sent my ears, my eyes, my mouth ; what they 
 heard I heard, what they saw I saw, and 
 what they said, it was Moselekatse who said 
 it. You fed them and clothed them, and 
 when they were to be slain, you were their 
 shield. You did it unto me. You did it 
 
248 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 unto Moselekatse, the son of Machobane.’ 
 These expressions received additional colour- 
 ings from his retinue, who added fresh fuel to 
 the flame of pride which ever burned in his 
 heart, by assuring him that it was the renown 
 of his mighty name which had commanded 
 the homage of distant nations. The testimony 
 of his gratitude was duly appreciated and ac- 
 knowledged, and the assurance given that it 
 was in my power to tell him news. This 
 was the news of the love of God, to which he 
 listened at first with apparent attention, but 
 his countenance soon betrayed a truant mind, 
 while his eyes looked with delight on the 
 droves of sleek cattle approaching the town, 
 and which possessed charms infinitely more 
 captivating than the topics of our conversation. 
 
 “ The following morning was marked by a 
 melancholy display of that so-called heroism 
 which prefers death to dishonour. A feast 
 had been proclaimed, cattle had been slaugh- 
 tered, and many hearts heat high in anticipa- 
 tion of wallowing in all the excesses of savage 
 delight ; eating, drinking, dancing, and sing- 
 ing the victor’s song over the slain, whose 
 hones lay bleached on the neighbouring 
 plains. Every heart appeared elate but one. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 249 
 
 He was a man of rank, and what was called 
 an Entuna, (an officer,) who wore on his head 
 the usual badge of dignity. He was brought 
 to head-quarters. His arm bore no shield, nor 
 his hand a spear ; he had been divested of 
 these, which had been his glory. He was 
 brought into the presence of the king and his 
 chief council, charged with a crime, for which 
 it was in vain to expect pardon, even at the 
 hands of a more humane government. He 
 bowed his fine elastic figure, and kneeled be- 
 fore the judge. The case was investigated 
 silently, which gave solemnity to the scene. 
 Not a whisper was heard among the listening 
 audience, and the voices of the council were 
 only audible to each other and the nearest 
 spectators. The prisoner, though on his 
 knees, had something dignified and noble in 
 his mien. Not a muscle of his countenance 
 moved, but his bright black eyes indicated a 
 feeling of intense interest, which the moving 
 balance between life and death only could 
 produce. The case required little investiga- 
 tion ; the charges were clearly substantiated, 
 and the culprit pleaded guilty. But, alas ! 
 he knew it was at a bar where none ever 
 heard the heart-reviving sound of pardon, even 
 21 
 
250 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 for offences small compared with his. A 
 pause ensued, during which the silence of 
 death pervaded the assembly. At length the 
 monarch spoke, and addressing the prisoner, 
 said, ‘ You are a dead man, but I shall do to- 
 day what I never did before ; I spare your 
 life for the sake of my friend and father’ — 
 pointing to the spot where I stood. ‘ I know 
 his heart weeps at the shedding of blood ; for 
 his sake I spare your life. He has travelled 
 from a far country to see me, and he has made 
 my heart white. He has pleaded with me not 
 to go to war, nor destroy life. I wish him, 
 when he returns to his own home again, to 
 return with a heart as white as he has made 
 mine. I spare you for his sake, for I love 
 him, and he has saved the lives of my people. 
 But,’ continued the king, ‘you must be de- 
 graded for life ; you must no more associate 
 with the nobles of the land, nor enter the 
 towns of the princes of the people ; nor ever 
 again mingle in the dance of the mighty. Go 
 to the poor of the field, and let your compa- 
 nions be the inhabitants of the desert.’ 
 
 “ The sentence passed, the pardoned man 
 was expected to bow in grateful adoration to 
 him whom he was wont to look upon, and 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 251 
 
 exalt in songs applicable only to One, to 
 whom belongs universal sway over the des- 
 tinies of man. But no ! holding his hands 
 clasped on his bosom, he replied, ‘O king, 
 afflict not my heart ! I have merited thy dis- 
 pleasure ; let me be slain like the warrior ; I 
 cannot live with the poor.’ And, raising his 
 hand to the ring he wore on his brow, he con- 
 tinued : ‘ How can I live among the dogs of 
 the king, and disgrace these badges of honour 
 which I won among the spears and shields of 
 the mighty ? No, I cannot live ! Let me die, 
 O Pezoolu !’ His request was granted, and 
 his hands tied erect over his head. Now, 
 my exertions to save his life were vain. He 
 disdained the boon on the conditions offered, 
 preferring to die with the honours he had 
 won at the point of the spear— honours which 
 even the act that condemned him did not tar- 
 nish- — to exile and poverty, among the children 
 of the desert. He was led forth, a man walk- 
 ing on each side. My eye followed him till 
 he reached the top of a precipice, over which 
 he was precipitated imo the deep pool of the 
 river beneath, where the crocodiles, accus- 
 tomed to such meals, were yawning to devour 
 
252 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 him ere he could reach the bottom ! This 
 was a Sabbath morning scene, such as hea- 
 thenism exhibits to the view of the Christian 
 philanthropist; and such as is calculated to 
 excite in his bosom feelings of the deepest 
 sympathjr. This magnanimous heathen knew 
 of no hereafter. He was without God and 
 without hope. But however deplorable the 
 state of such a person may be, he will not be 
 condemned as equally guilty with those who, 
 in the midst of life and knowledge, recklessly 
 rush into the presence of their Maker and 
 their Judge. We have often read of the 
 patriotism of the Greeks and Romans, and 
 heard that magnanimity of soul extolled 
 which could sacrifice honour, property, and 
 life itself, for the public good, rather than be- 
 come the vassals of a foe, and five divested of 
 the poor trappings of human glory ; if this be 
 virtue, there are, even among Afric’s sons, 
 men not inferior to the most illustrious of the 
 Romans. The very monarch who was thus 
 influenced by the presence of the Christian 
 missionary, needed only to ask his warriors, 
 ‘ Who among you will become a sacrifice for 
 the safety of the state, and the country’s 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 253 
 
 good?’ and his choicest men would have 
 made good the challenge. 
 
 “ Moselekatse’s conduct in this affair pro- 
 duced a strange impression among his people, 
 some of whom regarded me as an extraordi- 
 nary being, who could thus influence one 
 more terrible to them than the fiercest lion of 
 the forest. His government, so far as I could 
 discover, was the very essence of despotism . ” 
 
 Among the people who had joined the 
 party with which Mr. Moffat had come to 
 this barbarous people, was a poor man with 
 his wife, in seach of two children who had 
 been carried off as captives by a party of Ma- 
 tabale warriors. The story of his attempt to 
 obtain his children is thus told by Mr. Moffat : — 
 
 “ The owner of his sons came and seated 
 himself before my wagon, as I drew near to 
 witness the transaction. The poor man spread 
 his ragged mantle on the ground, and laid on 
 it a few strings of beads and some native-made 
 ornaments, valuable to him, but on which the 
 haughty noble would scarcely deign to cast 
 his eye. The father sighed to see his look 
 of scorn. He then drew from his tattered 
 skins, which he had brought wfith him, and 
 21 * 
 
254 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 on which he reposed at night, a small dirty 
 bag, containing a few more strings of half-worn 
 beads, and placed them beside the former: 
 these were borrowed. The scornful look 
 was again repeated. He then took from his 
 arms two old copper rings, and rings of the 
 same material from his ears. The chief 
 answered the anxious eyes of the now de- 
 sponding father with a frown, and an indig- 
 nant shake of the head. He then took from 
 his neck the only remaining link of beads 
 which he possessed, and which it was evi- 
 dent he had worn many a year. This, with 
 an old, half-worn knife, he added to the 
 offered ransom. It was his all ; and it is im- 
 possible even to forget the expression of those 
 eyes, which, though from national habit would 
 not shed the tear of sorrow, were the index 
 of the deepest anxiety as to the result. 
 Neither the man or his ornaments excited the 
 smallest emotion in the bosom of the haughty 
 chief, who talked to them around him about 
 general affairs, maintaining the most perfect 
 indifference to the object of paternal agony 
 before his eyes. He at last arose ; and being 
 solicited by one who felt something of a 
 father’s love, to pity the old man, who had 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 255 
 
 walked nearly two hundred miles, and brought 
 his little all to purchase his own children, he 
 replied with a sneer, that one had died of 
 cold the preceding winter, and what the father 
 offered for the other was not worth looking at ; 
 adding, 4 I want oxen.’ ‘ I have not even a 
 goat,’ replied the father. A sigh- — it was a 
 heavy sigh — -burst from his bosom : — -one 
 dead, and not permitted even to see the other 
 with his eyes. The chief walked off, while 
 the man sat leaning his head on the palm of 
 his right hand, and his eyes fixed on the 
 ground, apparently lost to every thing but his 
 now only son, now doubly dear from the loss 
 of his brother, and he, alas 1 far beyond his 
 power to rescue. On taking up his mantle 
 to retire, he and his party being obliged to 
 leave early to return to the place whence they 
 came, he was told to be of good cheer, and 
 an effort would be made to get his son. He 
 started at the sound, threw his mantle at my 
 feet, and spreading out his hands to what he 
 had offered, said, 4 Take these, my father, and 
 pity me.’ 4 Retain them for yourself,’ was the 
 reply. He kissed the hand of his pledged 
 benefactor, and departed, saying, Ki tla na le 
 
256 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 boroko. ‘I shall have slumber,’ (peace of 
 mind.) 
 
 “In the course of the following day, a 
 favourable moment was sought to bring the 
 case before the king. He instantly ordered 
 his brother, the individual who possessed the 
 boy, to wait upon me, which he promptly 
 did : and on receiving several pounds of a 
 valuable kind of bead, he immediately de- 
 spatched a messenger to bring the boy, who 
 was at a distance, and who arrived the follow- 
 ing day. 
 
 “ On my return to Mosega, and approach- 
 ing the base of one of those hills amidst 
 which the town lay embosomed, a human 
 being was seen rushing down the steep 
 towards the wagons, with a rapidity which 
 led us to fear that she would fall headlong. 
 Every eye was upon her, while some said, 
 ‘ It is the alarm of war.’ The wagon-driver 
 who sat by me, most emphatically exclaimed, 
 * It is a woman, either running from a lion or 
 to save a child.’ Yes, it was the mother. 
 She had heard from some of the party who 
 preceded the wagons that morning, that her 
 son was there : she had ascended the hill 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 257 
 
 behind which the town lay, and gazed till the 
 wagon emerged from a ravine. Frantic with 
 joy, she ran breathless towards me. To pre- 
 vent her coming in contact with the wagon 
 wheels, I sprang to the ground, when she 
 seized my hands, kissed and bathed them 
 with her tears. She spoke not one word, but 
 wept aloud for joy. Her son drew near, when 
 she instantly rushed forward, and clasped him 
 in her arms.” 
 
 While the missionary remained here, he 
 laboured diligently to prepare the way for the 
 introduction of the gospel. He set before the king 
 and the people the glory and power of those na- 
 tions where God is worshipped, and the dreadful 
 miseries of those who live and die without lov- 
 ing and serving the “ King of kings and Lord 
 of lords.” Once while speaking with the king. 
 Mr. Moffat alluded to man’s ruin and redemp- 
 tion. 
 
 “ Why,” he asked, “ are you so earnest 
 that I abandon all war, and not kill men ?” 
 
 “ Look on the human bones which lie scat- 
 tered over your dominions,” was the reply. 
 “ They speak in awful language, and to me 
 they say, ‘ Whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, 
 by man also will his blood be shed.’ ” 
 
258 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 This was fearful language in the ears of 
 such a murderer. “You say/’ he added* 
 “ that the dead will rise again.” The re- 
 marks on this subject were startling in the 
 ears of a savage, and he interrupted them by 
 hastily assuring the missionary that he would 
 not go to war. 
 
 Mr. Moffat was at length obliged to leave 
 this people, and return to his own field. The 
 king accompanied him a considerable dis- 
 tance on his journey, and expressed his de- 
 sire that missionaries should be sent to his 
 country. Thus the way was opened for the 
 introduction of the light of divine truth among 
 a people more cruel and dreadful than any 
 among whom missionaries have ever laboured. 
 If any doubt is felt on this point, the reader 
 will find the proof of it in the awful descrip- 
 tions of the customs of the tribes of South 
 Africa, when they go to war ; but which de- 
 scriptions we do not think it useful to spread 
 out upon these pages. The “ tender mercies”' 
 of the heathen are cruel. One of the most 
 striking characteristics of pagans will always 
 be that they are to so great a degree with- 
 out natural affection. It is the gospel that 
 makes men kind, and gentle and forgiving* 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 259 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A new Criurch — Printing — The Gospel — 
 Natives' wonder at the Printing-press — 
 New Books— Another War. 
 
 During the absence of Mr. Mofiat, the work 
 of God had advanced among the Bechuanas. 
 After his return, a new house of worship was 
 commenced, which was not completed for se- 
 veral years. The money necessary for this 
 work, Mr. Modat expected to raise in the colo- 
 ny, but when the natives heard that he was 
 going abroad for aid, they determined to do 
 more themselves. Some subscribed oxen, 
 others goats, and a few, money, though it was 
 still very scarce among them, and a number 
 engaged to give some months’ labour. 
 
 When the work was fairly in progress, Mr. 
 Moffat proceeded on his journey to Cape Town, 
 which he reached in October, 1830. He took 
 with him the translation of the gospel by Luke, 
 upon which he had long been labouring, and 
 now sought to print it. But there were no 
 
260 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 printers in the colony who could set the types 
 for the language, and he learned the art of 
 printing, himself ; and, being joined by a 
 young missionary, named Edwards, he perse- 
 vered until the work was completed. A small 
 hymn book was also printed, and, with these 
 precious treasures, Mr. and Mrs. Moffat re- 
 turned to their station, where they arrived in 
 June, 1831, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Ed- 
 wards, who had been sent out from England 
 to join the same mission. They carried also 
 a printing press and type, paper and ink, and 
 funds to enable them to go on with the build- 
 ing the church. 
 
 Great was the joy of the people, when they 
 had the word of eternal life in their own hands. 
 This was a new era in the mission, and the 
 press was soon called into operation, when 
 lessons, spelling books, and catechisms were 
 prepared for the schools. Although many of 
 the natives had been informed how books 
 were printed, nothing could exceed their sur- 
 prise when they saw a white sheet, after dis- 
 appearing for a moment, emerge, spangled 
 with letters. After a few noisy exclamations, 
 one obtained a sheet with which he bounded 
 into the village, showing it to every one he 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 261 
 
 met, arid asserting that the missionaries had 
 made it in a moment, with a round black ham- 
 mer (a printer’s ball) and a shake of the arm. 
 The description of such a juggling process 
 soon brought a crowd to see the segatisho, 
 (press,) which has since proved an auxiliary 
 of vast importance. 
 
 Dr. Philip, the distinguished minister at the 
 Cape, visited the mission the ensuing year, and 
 his presence greatly strengthened the hearts 
 of the labourers. With his advice, a new sta- 
 tion was commenced at Motito, about forty 
 miles north-east of the Kuruman, where now 
 a lovely village may be seen, with a thriving 
 population. 
 
 While Dr. Philip was at the mission, five 
 persons made public profession of their faith 
 in the gospel. Most of these were foreigners, 
 who, by the wars in the interior, had, in the 
 mysterious providence of God, been brought 
 by a way they knew not, to find an eternal 
 home by becoming fellow citizens with the 
 saints, and of the household of God ; and often 
 did they endeavour to describe, with native 
 eloquence, the distinguishing love and mercy 
 of that God who had directed their feet to the 
 Kuruman mission. Mamonyatsi, one of these, 
 22 
 
262 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 some years after, died in the faith. She was 
 a Matabele captive, and had accompanied 
 Mr. Moffat from the interior; had remained 
 some time in the service of Mrs. Moffat, and 
 early displayed a readiness to learn to read, 
 with much quickness of understanding. From 
 the time of her being united with the church, 
 till the day of her death, she was a living 
 epistle of the power of the gospel. 
 
 One day, says Mr. Moffat, while visiting the 
 sick, as I entered her premises, I found her 
 sitting, weeping, with a portion of the word of 
 God in her hand. 
 
 Addressing her, I said, “My child, what is 
 the cause of your sorrow ? Is the baby still un- 
 well ?” “ No,” she replied, “ my baby is 
 
 well.” “Your mother-in-law?” I inquired. 
 “ No, no,” she said, “ it is my own dear mo- 
 ther, who bore me.” Here she again gave 
 vent to her grief, and, holding out the gospel 
 of Luke, in a hand wet with tears, she said, 
 “My mother will never see this word, she 
 will never hear this good news !” She wept 
 again and again, and said, “ Oh, my mother 
 and my friends, they live in heathen darkness ; 
 and shall they die without seeing the light 
 which has shone on me, and without tasting 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 263 
 
 that love which I have tasted !” Raising her 
 eyes to heaven, she sighed a prayer, and 
 I heard the words again, “My mother, my 
 mother !” 
 
 This was the expression of the affection of 
 one of Afric’s sable daughters, whose heart 
 had been taught to mourn over the ignorance 
 of a far-distant mother. Shortly after this evi- 
 dence of divine love in her soul, I was called 
 upon to watch her dying pillow, and descended 
 with her to Jordan’s bank. She feared no roll- 
 ing billow. She looked on the new-born babe, 
 and commended it to the care of her God and 
 Saviour. The last words I heard from her 
 faltering lips were, “ My mother.” 
 
 How affecting is this evidence of the power 
 of filial love in the heart of a poor African ! 
 She longed to give the bread of life to her 
 poor mother, who never heard of Jesus and 
 the way to heaven ! 
 
 Mr. Moffat next undertook the translation 
 of Scripture lessons, which proved a great 
 blessing to the natives. New and enlarged 
 editions of elementary works were also printed, 
 and portions of the Scripture lessons were 
 turned off, each additional sheet being re- 
 ceived by the readers with increasing avidity 
 
264 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 It was no uncommon thing to see the children 
 around the printing-office door, waiting for a 
 new sheet, and inquiring when additions were 
 to be made to their little treasures of know- 
 ledge. We were visited at this time with re- 
 freshing showers of Divine blessing, and very 
 considerable accessions were made to the 
 number of believers. Strangers from distant 
 tribes were received into the fellowship of the 
 children of God. Among these, three very 
 aged women, all grandmothers, were striking 
 instances of the power of Divine grace. One 
 of them has finished her course since the 
 author came to England. Although blind, 
 the eyes of her understanding were opened 
 by the entrance of that word which giveth 
 light. From that time till her death, a period 
 of several years, she continued to adorn her 
 profession by a consistent walk and conversa- 
 tion. The infirmities of age prevented her 
 attending public worship as often as she de- 
 sired. Two or three months prior to her de- 
 cease she was confined to the house, when, 
 as Mr. Edwards writes, “she appeared to 
 dwell with delight on the marvellous goodness 
 of the Lord to her and adds, — 
 
 “ On one occasion when I visited her, I had 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 265 
 
 positively to restrain her, that she might not 
 exhaust her strength. Sensible that she could 
 not survive, she admonished all who visited 
 her to think for eternity. A few days before 
 her death she wished her children to be 
 gathered together in her presence, desiring to 
 speak to them before she left them. They 
 surrounded her bed ; and when informed that 
 all were present, she addressed them : — ‘ My 
 children, I wish you to know that I am to be 
 separated from you, but you must not on that 
 account be sorrowful. Do not murmur at the 
 thought of my decease. The Lord has spared 
 me not a few days ; He has taken care of me 
 many years, and has ever been merciful to 
 me. I have wanted no good thing. I know 
 Him to whom I have trusted the salvation of 
 my soul. My hope is fixed on Jesus Christ, 
 who has died for my sins, and lives to inter- 
 cede. I shall soon die and be at rest ; but my 
 wish is, that you will attend to these my 
 words. My children, hold fast your faith in 
 Christ. Trust in Him, love Him, and let not 
 the world turn you away from Him ; and 
 however you may be reviled and troubled in 
 the world, hold very fast the word of God, and 
 faint not in persevering prayer. My last 
 22 * 
 
266 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 word is, strive to live together in peace. 
 Avoid disputes. Follow peace with all, and 
 especially among yourselves. Love each 
 other ; comfort each other ; assist and take 
 care of each other in the Lord.’ ” 
 
 Thus ended the career of Mamotlobogi, 
 whom the author knew when her enmity to 
 the gospel made her a terror to her own chil- 
 dren ; hut in answer to many prayers she was 
 thus completely transformed. She was often 
 seen leaning on a stick, led by a grandchild 
 to the house of prayer. 
 
 Another of these grandmothers, who had 
 wallowed in the very sewers of heathenism, 
 the dupe of all the superstitions of former 
 times, had been an active agent of the wicked 
 one in opposing the progress of the gospel. 
 As the representative of by-gone ages — for 
 the snows of many a year were seen through 
 the mass of grease and dirt which adorned 
 her head — she was regarded with reverence 
 by the younger females on the station, as the 
 oracle of ancient wisdom. She was wont to 
 tell them what they knew not, of the customs 
 of their ancestors. Had she been a man, her 
 contaminating influence would long have been 
 arrested ; for there were those on the station 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 267 
 
 whose influence would have driven her to seek 
 an asylum elsewhere, but she was borne with 
 because she was a woman. She hated the 
 very sight of the place of worship, and had 
 taught many to blaspheme. One day she 
 entered the chapel in quest of a child, and 
 was constrained to sit a few minutes. She 
 had not heard many sentences, when she fled 
 from the hated spot. On the Sabbath follow- 
 ing she came again, when all who saw her 
 felt alarmed, lest violence was intended against 
 some one ; but she quietly heard the voice of 
 mercy, and retired in an orderly manner. In 
 the course of a few days she came to the mis- 
 sionary in a state bordering on distraction. 
 “ My sins, my sins !” was the language of her 
 lips ; tears streaming down her already fur- 
 rowed cheeks. Her half frantic soul would 
 hear no comfort, nor listen to any counsel. 
 Mr. Moffat says, “Night after night she would 
 call me out of bed to tell her what was to be- 
 come of her soul. One day meeting her in 
 the street, with both hands she grasped mine, 
 and, as if her heart would break, exclaimed, 
 1 To live I cannot — I cannot die.’ Again she 
 was directed to the Lamb of God, and the 
 fountain opened for her sins ; but she inter- 
 
268 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 rupted, by saying, ‘You say the blood of. 
 Christ cleanses from all sins ; do you know 
 the number of mine ? Look to yonder grassy 
 plain, and count the blades of grass or the 
 drops of dew ; these are nothing to the 
 amount of my transgressions.’ After con- 
 tinuing in this state several weeks, she was 
 enabled to believe, when the being who once 
 persecuted and cursed all who bore the Chris- 
 tian name, a mass of filth, which had given 
 to her haggard and aged form an unearthly 
 look, was found sitting at the feet of Jesus, 
 clothed, and in her right mind, adoring the 
 riches of Divine grace, to one who was, as 
 she would describe herself, ‘ like the mire of 
 the street.’ Remarking to her, one day, that, 
 from her constant attendance on every means 
 of instruction, she seemed like the Psalmist 
 of old, desiring ‘ to dwell in the house of the 
 Lord for ever,’ she replied, ‘ I am old in the 
 world, but I am still a child in the school of 
 Christ.’ She continued fervent in spirit ; the 
 subject of Divine mercy and love so com- 
 pletely absorbing all the powers of her mind, 
 that when visited in seasons of affliction, it 
 was difficult to elicit any thing about her dis- 
 ease ; fc.« f her answer commenced with the 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 269 
 
 flesh, it was certain to end with the spirit. 
 When subscriptions were making for the 
 Auxiliary Missionary Society, she one day 
 brought in her hand her mite — a pumpkin ; 
 end when my wife remarked that she might 
 retain it, and she would put down her name 
 for a small sum, her soul seemed to melt 
 within her, while she asked, ‘ Who is so great 
 a debtor to the Saviour as I am 1 Is it too 
 small ? I shall go and borrow 7 another.’ ” 
 
 Villages several miles distant were regu- 
 larly visited by the missionaries, and after 
 long years of fruitless labour, the Spirit of the 
 Lord was at length poured out, and souls w'ere 
 converted to Christ. 
 
 Mr. Moffat, in company with an expedition 
 from Cape Town to explore the interior of the 
 country, made another visit to the country of 
 the Matabele, to the King Mosel ekatse, who 
 w r ill be well remembered. He spent two 
 months with this king, and again tried to pre- 
 vail upon him to relax his cruel oppression, 
 and give to his people something of the en- 
 joyments of freedom. Mr. Moffat endeavoured 
 to obtain some knowledge of the views of this 
 people as to the spiritual world ; but they 
 seemed to have little or no idea of the soul or 
 
270 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 of God. While he was with them, Mr. Moffat 
 received letters from the station which he had 
 left, and among them was one from some 
 American missionaries, proposing to com- 
 mence a mission among the Matabale. He 
 laid the subject before the king, and having 
 obtained his cordial consent, Mr. Moffat re- 
 turned once more to his own station. 
 
 During his absence, Mr. Edwards had 
 printed several tracts in the language, and 
 now a Catechism and lessons from the Scrip- 
 tures were put to press. In the mean time, 
 the work of conversion was steadily advancing 
 among the people, and the demand for books 
 was on the increase. 
 
 Messrs. Wilson, Yenables and Lindley, the 
 American missionaries, went, in 1836, to Mo- 
 sega, and established themselves there, but 
 were compelled by the inroads of the Dutch 
 farmers, and by sickness, to abandon the sta- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. Moffat, near the close of this year, 
 made a journey along the Kolong river, and 
 found large congregations of attentive readers, 
 and a demand for books which he could not 
 supply. He ministered to thousands, and not 
 to their souls only ; but they brought their 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 271 
 
 sick to him, that he might give them medicine. 
 He finally reached a village called Mosheu, 
 where a chief of the same name resided. He 
 had formerly visited the mission station at the 
 Kuruman. There he was addressed most 
 faithfully upon his condition as a sinner, but 
 he seemed to give no heed to it. “ After some 
 time,” sajrs Mr. Moffat, “ he repeated his visit 
 to our station, bringing with him a large reti- 
 nue, which included his brother, their wives, 
 and other relations. The journey occupied 
 about five days on ox-back. Nothing could 
 equal our surprise, when we discovered that 
 he was not far from the kingdom of God, and 
 that he was striving, or rather agonizing, to 
 enter. All the powers of his soul seemed 
 overwhelmed with the contemplation of the 
 love of God. He had only to open his bps, 
 and his tears would flow ; his experience was 
 simple, and his affection ardent. When asked 
 the cause of his sorrow, he said, ‘ When I 
 first visited you I had only one heart, but now 
 I have come with two. I cannot rest, my eyes 
 will not slumber, because of the greatness of 
 the things you told me on my first visit.’ It 
 was evident that an especial blessing had de- 
 scended on the seed sown at that time, though 
 
272 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 it was little more than the outlines of Chris- 
 tian doctrine. It also appeared, that during 
 his solitary ride across the lonely plains, his 
 mind became deeply interested in the subject. 
 On his arrival among his own people, he not 
 only began to teach them all he had heard, but 
 he desired to affect their hearts ; nor did he 
 labour in vain. The efforts of this inquiring 
 disciple were attended with a blessing. His 
 brother, an intelligent man-, had evidently de- 
 rived benefit; while their wives, and others 
 of his retinue, were so far interested in the 
 subject, as to inquire, ‘ What shall we do to 
 be saved?’ Their knowledge was scanty, 
 and their views very imperfect, but they be- 
 lieved in the Divine Being, and that he sent 
 his Son into the world to save sinners. These 
 truths were the spring of their emotions, and 
 they thirsted and sighed for further instruc- 
 tion, and more light on subjects of which they 
 possessed but the glimmering rays. Delight- 
 ful was our task to pour into their souls the 
 light of heaven, and direct them to the Lamb 
 of God. Their deportment was serious and 
 devout, their attendance on public and private 
 instruction incessant and unwearied.” 
 
 When at last they were obliged to go home. 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 273 
 
 they entreated Mr. Moffat to visit their distant 
 village. And now the missionary comes to 
 his door. The moment he enters the village, 
 the cry is raised that he has come, and hun- 
 dreds flock to see him. They crowd one upon 
 another to shake his hand, and it was midnight 
 before they would disperse and let the weary 
 traveller lie down in his wagon to rest. He 
 had but a short sleep ere the crowd assembled 
 again, and before he could have time to eat, 
 he must get up and preach. He says: “I 
 confess I was more inclined to take a cup of 
 coffee than to preach a sermon, for I still felt 
 the fatigues of the preceding day. I took my 
 Testament and a hymn-book, and with such 
 singers as I had, gave out a hymn, read a 
 chapter, and prayed ; then taking the text, 
 ‘God so loved the world,’ etc., discoursed to 
 them for about an hour. Great order and pro- 
 found silence were maintained. The scene 
 was in the centre of the village, composed of 
 Bechuana and Coranna houses, and cattle-folds. 
 Some of these contained the cattle, sheep, and 
 goats, while other herds were strolling about. 
 At a distance a party were approaching riding 
 on oxen. A few strangers drew near with 
 23 
 
274 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 their spears and shields, who, on being beck- 
 oned to, instantly laid them down. The na- 
 tive dogs could not understand the strange 
 looking being on the front of the wagon, hold- 
 ing forth to a gazing throng, and they would 
 occasionally break the silence with their bark, 
 for which, however, they suffered the penalty 
 of a stone or stick hurled at their heads. Two 
 milk-maids, who had tied their cows to posts-, 
 stood the whole time with their milking ves- 
 sels in their hands, as if afraid of losing a 
 single sentence. The earnest attention mani- 
 fested exceeded any thing I had ever before 
 witnessed, and the countenances of some indi- 
 cated strong mental excitement. 
 
 “ After service I walked to an adjoining 
 pool in the bed of the river to refresh myself 
 with a wash, hoping on my return to get 
 something like a breakfast, but found, owing 
 to some mistake, that the kettle was not boil- 
 ing. The people were again assembling, and 
 again requested me to preach. On begging 
 half an hour for refreshment, the chief’s wife 
 hobbled off to her house, and immediately re- 
 turned with a large wooden vessel full of sour 
 milk, saying, with a smile on her countenance, 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 275 
 
 4 There, drink away, drink much, and you 
 will be able to speak long.’ Having cheer- 
 fully accepted this hasty African breakfast, I 
 resumed my station, and preached a second 
 time to, if possible, a still more attentive con- 
 gregation. When I had concluded, my 
 hearers divided into companies, to talk the 
 subject over, but others, more inquisitive, 
 plied me with questions. While thus en- 
 gaged, my attention was arrested by a simple- 
 looking young man at a short distance, rather 
 oddly attired. He wore what was once a pair 
 of trousers, with part of one leg still remain- 
 ing. For a hat he had part of the skin of a 
 zebra’s head, with the ears attached, and 
 something not less fantastic about his neck. 
 I had noticed this grotesque figure before, 
 but such sights are by no means uncommon, 
 as the natives will hang any thing about their 
 bodies, either for dress or ornament, without 
 the slightest regard to appearance. The per- 
 son referred to was holding forth with great 
 animation to a number of people, who were 
 all attention. On approaching, I found, to my 
 surprise, that he was preaching my sermon 
 over again, with uncommon precision, and 
 with great solemnity, imitating as nearly as 
 
276 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 he could the gestures of the original. A 
 greater contrast could scarcely be conceived 
 than the fantastic figure I have described, and 
 the solemnity of his language, his subject 
 being eternity, while he evidently felt what 
 he spoke. Not wishing to disturb him, I 
 allowed him to finish the recital, and seeing 
 him soon after, told him that he could do what 
 I was sure I could not; that was, preach 
 again the same sermon verbatim. He did 
 not appear vain of his superior memory. 
 ‘ When I hear any thing great,’ he said, 
 touching his forehead with his finger , 4 it re- 
 mains there.’ This young man died in the 
 faith shortly after, before an opportunity was 
 afforded him of making a public profes- 
 sion. 
 
 “ In the evening, after the cows were milked, 
 and the herds had laid themselves down in 
 the folds to chew the cud, a congregation, for 
 the third time, stood before my wagon. The 
 bright silvery moon, holding her way through 
 a cloudless starry sky, and shining on many 
 a sable face, made the scene peculiarly 
 solemn and impressive, while the deepest 
 attention was paid to the subject, which was 
 the importance of religion illustrated by Scrip- 
 
► 
 
 Moonlight in Africa.— Parses 27 & 28 . 
 

 
 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 279 
 
 ture characters. After the service, they lin- 
 gered about the wagon, making many in- 
 quiries, and repeating over and over again 
 what they had heard. Mosheu very kindly 
 presented a sheep the evening before for my- 
 self and people, and the wives took care that 
 we should not want milk. It had been a day 
 of incessant speaking, and at a late hour I 
 was thankful to retire to rest with the hum of 
 voices around the wagon.” 
 
 The next day was spent in visiting the 
 sick, in addressing the people, and in giving 
 them some first lessons in reading. The de- 
 sire to learn was so great, that Mr. Moffat was 
 obliged to teach the alphabet to some of the 
 chief men of the place. This scene, as he 
 describes it, was very amusing. 
 
 “ After a search, I found, among some 
 waste paper, a large sheet alphabet, with a 
 corner and two letters torn off. This was laid 
 down on the ground, when all knelt in a cir- 
 cle round it, and of course the letters were 
 viewed, by some, standing just upside down. 
 I commenced pointing with a stick, and when 
 I pronounced one letter, all hallooed out to 
 some purpose. When I remarked that per- 
 23 * 
 
280 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 haps we might manage with somewhat less 
 noise, one replied, he was sure the louder he 
 roared, the sooner would his tongue get ac- 
 customed to the ‘ seeds,’ as he called the let- 
 ters. As it was growing late, I rose to 
 straighten my back, which was beginning to 
 tire, when I observed some young folks com- 
 ing dancing and skipping towards me, who, 
 without any ceremony, seized hold of me. 
 ‘ Oh, teach us the ABC with music,’ every 
 one cried, giving me no time to tell them it 
 was too late. I found they had made this, 
 discovery through one of my boys. There 
 were presently a dozen or more surrounding 
 me, and resistance was out of the question. 
 Dragged and pushed, I entered one of the 
 largest native houses, w r hich was instantly 
 crowded. The tune of ‘ Auld lang syne’ was 
 pitched to A B C, each succeeding round 
 was joined by succeeding voices till every 
 tongue was vocal, and every countenance 
 beamed with heartfelt satisfaction. The longer 
 they sang the more freedom was felt, and 
 Auld lang syne was echoed to the farthest 
 corner of the village. The strains which in- 
 luse pleasurable emotions into the sons of the 
 north, were no less potent among these chii- 
 
THE BECHTJANAS. 
 
 281 
 
 dren of the south. Those who had retired 
 to their evening’s slumbers, supposing that 
 we were holding a night service, came ; 1 for 
 music,’ it is said, 4 charms the savage ear.’ It 
 certainly does, particularly the natives of 
 Southern Africa ; who, however degraded they 
 may have become, still retain that refinement 
 of taste, which enables them to appreciate 
 those tunes which are distinguished for melody 
 and softness. After two hour’s singing and 
 puffing, I obtained permission, though with 
 some difficulty of consent, and greater of 
 egress, to leave them, now comparatively pro- 
 ficient. It was between two and three in the 
 morning. Worn out in body and mind, I lay 
 myself down in my wagon, cap and shoes 
 jpd all, just to have a few hours’ sleep, pre- 
 paratory to departure on the coming day. As 
 the ‘ music hall’ was not far from my pillow, 
 there w r as little chance of sleeping soundly, 
 for the young amateurs seemed unwearied, 
 and A B C to Auld lang syne went on till 
 I was ready to wish it at John-o’-Groat’s 
 house. The company at length dispersed, 
 and awaking in the morning after a brief re- 
 pose, I was not a little surprised to hear the 
 old tune in every corner of the village. The 
 
282 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 maids milking the cows, and the boys tending 
 the calves, were humming their alphabet over 
 again.” 
 
 A mission was afterwards established at 
 this village, and it has been greatly blessed of 
 God. Perhaps a more wonderful example of 
 the power of the gospel is not on record, than 
 the mission at this place produced. A single 
 incident will illustrate it. 
 
 “ The congregation met one Sabbath morning 
 to hold the early prayer-meeting before the ser- 
 vices of the day. They were scarcely seated, 
 when a party of marauders approached from 
 the interior, w T hither they had gone for plunder, 
 and not having succeeded to their wishes, had 
 determined to attack this Coranna village on 
 their return. Mosheu arose, and begged the' 
 people to sit still and trust in Jehovah, while 
 he went to meet the marauders. To his in- 
 quiry, what they wanted, the appalling reply 
 was, ‘ Your cattle ; and it is at your peril you 
 raise a weapon to resist.’ ‘There are my 
 cattle,’ replied the chief, and then retired and 
 resumed his position at the prayer-meeting. 
 A hymn was sung, a chapter read, and then 
 all kneeled in prayer to God, who only could 
 save them in their distresses. The sight was 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 283 
 
 too sacred and solemn to be gazed on by such 
 a band of ruffians ; they all withdrew from 
 the spot, without touching a single article be- 
 longing to the people.” 
 
284 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Glorious works of grace — The claims of 
 Africa. 
 
 During the years 1837 and 1838, a rich 
 blessing descended on the Bechuana mission, 
 on all the stations, at every place where the 
 gospel was read and preached. Large addi- 
 tions of Bechuanas to the church at Griqua 
 Town have already been noticed ; and in 
 1838 great accessions were made to that of 
 the Kuruman. Under the superintendence 
 of Mr. Edwards, the number of readers con- 
 nected with the mission had increased in an 
 equal ratio ; while the Infant School, com- 
 menced and carried on by Mrs. Edwards, 
 with the assistance of a native girl, gave the 
 highest satisfaction. The people made rapid 
 advances in civilization ; some purchasing 
 wagons, and breaking in their oxen for those 
 labours which formerly devolved on the female 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 285 
 
 sex. The place of worship was so far in 
 readiness that it was opened in November, 
 1838. This was a deeply interesting season 
 to all, and especially to the missionaries and 
 the church which had been gathered from 
 among the heathen. Between eight and nine 
 hundred entered those walls, now sacred to 
 the service of Jehovah. A deep sense of 
 the Divine presence was felt during the ser- 
 vices on that memorable occasion. The Rev. 
 P. Lemue, of Motito, took part with the resi- 
 dent missionaries in the solemnities. In the 
 afternoon of the following Sabbath, one hun- 
 dred and fifty members united in commemo- 
 rating the dying Jove of Him who had re- 
 deemed them by his blood, and brought them, 
 by his providence and grace, from tribes — 
 some very distant — to participate in the hea- 
 venly banquet. Many, with eyes suffused 
 with tears, compared their present happy con- 
 dition with the ignorance and degradation 
 from which they had been graciously deli- 
 vered. The church has since increased to 
 two hundred and thirty. 
 
 Mr. Edwards writes : “ Mothibi, our old 
 king, feeble from age, stood forth with others 
 to make a public profession of his faith by 
 
286 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 being baptized. He has for some time been 
 reckoned among the dead ; his people view- 
 ing him as one of the past generation. I had 
 heard, a few months before he last visited us, 
 that he was becoming much concerned about 
 the state of his soul, and could no longer conceal 
 his fears, which only increased the longer he 
 kept silent. Being quite overwhelmed, he 
 made known his alarm to the believers, and 
 requested their counsel and sympathy. Mori- 
 sanyane, the native reader at his residence, 
 was made useful to him. Mothibi at length 
 urgently entreated his sons ‘ to take him to 
 Kuruman to see his own missionaries.’ Im- 
 mediately on his arrival, he bent his feeble 
 steps to the mission-house. Never before, I 
 believe, did he visit a missionary with so 
 much anxiety and diffidence. I found him 
 not inclined to speak much, but rather to hear 
 what might be said to him. He said, how- 
 ever, in substance, that ‘he had come to speak 
 about his soul — that he was an old man, great 
 from age, but without understanding. There 
 is nothing left,’ he exclaimed, ‘but my old 
 bones and withered skin. I heard ‘ the word’ 
 from the beginning, (twenty-five years ago,) 
 but never understood, and now have no rest 
 
THE BECHUANA3. 
 
 287 
 
 night nor day; my soul is sorrowful and 
 burning with anguish ; my heart is sick, and 
 rises into my throat; my mind is dark, and 
 my memory cannot retain the good word ; hut 
 though it forsakes me, it does me good ; it 
 leaves something behind in my soul, which I 
 cannot explain, but which causes me to hope. 
 I wish to cast myself at the feet of Jesus, the 
 Son of God, in hope and expectation that he 
 will have mercy on me. I feel that it will be 
 my wisdom to sit at the feet of believers who 
 are grown to manhood in knowledge, to be 
 ever instructed by them in the paths of duty 
 and salvation. 
 
 “On inquiring among those who had ob- 
 served him of late, I found that they all 
 thought favourably of him, for they had seen 
 him weep repeatedly over his sins, and his 
 lost state as a sinner. He expressed ardent 
 desires to live and die at the feet of Christ, 
 and to be united to his people ; and there be- 
 ing no scriptural objection, he was proposed 
 and received by the church in this place. 
 Though the rightful chief of 20,000 Bechua- 
 nas, Mothibi stood forth with as much humi- 
 lity as others of his people beside him, whom 
 he formerly considered as his ‘ servants’ or 
 24 
 
288 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 ‘dogs,’ to receive the ordinance of baptism. 
 He may not be a bright star among the be- 
 lievers, but if enabled to follow up his desire 
 ‘ to live and die at the feet of Jesus,’ though he 
 go halting the few remaining days of his life, he 
 will be at last received to glory, a monument of 
 what grace can do even at the eleventh hour.” 
 
 In reference to this pleasing event, Mr. Ha- 
 milton remarks : “ Things are now coming to 
 close quarters. The surrounding heathen 
 chiefs are in a state of consternation, at the 
 father of their cause embracing the faith, and 
 becoming a little child in the kingdom of God ; 
 and on being assured that this is really the 
 case, shake their heads as mournfully as if he 
 were dead.” 
 
 Other missionaries have entered this wide 
 and most unpromising field. The Wesleyan 
 Society, the Church Missionary Society and 
 the American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions have sent labourers into 
 South Africa, and the Lord has been with 
 them. There is no part of the world where 
 a darker night of moral death hangs over the 
 land, and if those who need the gospel the 
 most should have it first, these Africans 
 should have it without delay. If the tribes 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 289 
 
 which still survive the devastations to which 
 they have been exposed, are to be saved from 
 annihilation, it must be by the diffusion of the 
 gospel. It is omnipotent ; and if we had only 
 a tithe of the money which is expended in 
 defence against incursions of barbarous na- 
 tions, we could adopt those means which, 
 under the promised blessing of Him who 
 holdeth the reins of universal sway, and who 
 willeth that all should come to the knowledge 
 of the truth and be saved, would bring them 
 under the reign of the Prince of Peace. And 
 melancholy as is the past history of Africa, 
 we are fully warranted to anticipate that the 
 warlike and savage tribes of that immense 
 continent will ere long present a scene, in the 
 intelligence, holiness, and happiness of its 
 regenerated nations, which will far exceed 
 the most sanguine expectations of those who 
 have laboured, and are still labouring, in be- 
 half of her afflicted children. If we bring 
 within the mind’s view the history of that 
 vast portion of our earth, can we refrain from 
 exclaiming, O Africa ! how vast, how over- 
 whelming thy burden ! How numberless 
 thy wrongs — the prey of fiendish men — the 
 world’s great mart of rapine, bondage, blood, 
 
290 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 and murder ! On no part of the earth’s suqface, 
 in no state or condition of mankind, can we 
 find a parallel to thy woes 1 Thy skies have 
 been obscured with smoke of towns in 
 flames ! — thy lovely landscapes and sunny 
 groves transformed to lions’ dens ! — thy burn- 
 ing deserts bedew^ed with the agonizing tears 
 of bereaved mothers ! — and thy winds have 
 re-echoed back to thy blood-stained soil the 
 orphan’s cry, the widow’s wail !” 
 
 Who does not long and pray for the time 
 when Ethiopia will stretch forth her hands 
 unto God ? This subject has occupied the 
 attention of the noblest minds ; and the excel- 
 lent of the earth are generally agreed that, in 
 order to civilize, we must evangelize Africa. 
 Nothing can be more to the point than the 
 following extract from the valuable work on 
 the Slave Trade and its Remedy, by Sir T. F. 
 Buxton. 
 
 “Africa still lies in her blood. She wants 
 our missionaries, our schoolmasters, our Bibles 
 — all the machinery we possess, for ameliorat- 
 ing her wretched condition. Shall we, with 
 a remedy that may safely be applied, neglect 
 to heal her wounds ? Shall we, on whom the 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 29 
 
 *amp of life shines, refuse to disperse her 
 darkness ? 
 
 “ If there be any consolation in Christ, if 
 any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the 
 Spirit, if any bowels of mercies ; we must 
 awake to the duty, amidst every difficulty, of 
 freely and liberally distributing to others those 
 rich and abundant blessings which have been 
 intrusted to us. 
 
 “ Missionaries find less difficulty than any 
 other class of persons, perhaps, in winning 
 the confidence of the native tribes. The se- 
 cret of their success is the spirit of fair deal- 
 ing, and the manifestation of upright and 
 benevolent intentions which they carry with 
 them. These speak to all men, but especially 
 to the uncivilized, in a language which they 
 accurately comprehend, and to which they 
 freely respond.” 
 
 These principles speak for themselves, 
 and they ought to speak ; for the destinies of 
 unborn millions, as well as the millions who 
 now exist, are at stake. To rescue Africa 
 from the abyss of misery in which she has 
 been plunged, as the same able advocate 
 writes, “ Let missionaries and schoolmasters, 
 the plough and the spade, go together, and 
 24 * 
 
292 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 agriculture will flourish, the avenues of legiti- 
 mate commerce will be opened, confidence 
 between man and man will be inspired, whilst 
 civilization will advance as the natural effect, 
 and Christianity operate as the proximate 
 cause of the happy change.” 
 
 The preceding chapters show what has 
 been accomplished among the tribes in the 
 southern portions of this vast continent. 
 What now remains to be done, but to go up 
 and take possession of the land ? The means 
 have been described, and our prospects are in- 
 viting ; avenues have been opened up ; trans- 
 lations of the word of God have been made 
 into different languages ; a native agency is 
 in operation. Many of the sons of Africa, 
 born and brought up in Christian lands, are 
 now ready to go and proclaim the liberty of 
 the gospel to their captive brethren. We are 
 warranted to expect, from what has already 
 occurred, great and glorious results, as the 
 consequence of the simple distribution of 
 scriptural truth, and the influence of that 
 truth in connection with native agency. 
 When only the Gospel of Luke was printed 
 in the language, and the first edition of Scrip- 
 ture lessons had been put into the hands of the 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 293 
 
 natives, Mr. Hughes, writing from an out-sta- 
 tion, made the following striking remarks : — 
 
 “ The good work here is making progress. 
 What has been accomplished by feeble means 
 (in our eyes) makes me exclaim, ‘ What hath 
 God wrought?’ The sword of the Spirit is 
 truly in unskilled hands, but it hath shown 
 itself two-edged. Its success here is evidently 
 not owing to the hand that wields it, bat to its 
 own native power and destination from above. 
 Jesus and the apostles teach here without any 
 human infirmity intruding between them and 
 the hearts of the hearer. The great princi- 
 ples of the Bible Society are exemplified here, 
 — the simple reading and study of the Bible 
 alone will convert the world. The mission- 
 ary’s work is to gain for it admission and 
 attention, and then let it speak for itself. The 
 simplicity of means in connection with the 
 greatness of the effect, is quite in character 
 with its Divine Author. To Him be all the 
 praise.” 
 
 The vast importance of having the Scrip- 
 tures in the language of the natives, will be 
 seen when we look on the scattered towns and 
 hamlets which stud the interior, over which 
 one language, with slight variations, is spoken 
 
294 
 
 THE GOSPEL AMONG 
 
 as far as the equator. When taught to read, 
 they have in their hands the means not only 
 of recovery from their natural darkness, but 
 of keeping the lamp of life burning amidst a 
 desert gloom. “ In one of my early journeys,” 
 says Mr. Moffat, “ with some of my com- 
 panions, we came to a heathen village on the 
 banks of the Orange river, between Namaqua- 
 land and the Griqua country. We had 
 travelled far, and were hungry, thirsty, and 
 fatigued. From the fear of being exposed to 
 lions, we preferred remaining at the village to 
 proceeding during the night. 
 
 “ The people at the village rather roughly 
 directed us to halt at a distance. We asked 
 water, but they would not supply it. I offered 
 the three or four buttons which still remained 
 on my jacket for a little milk ; this also was 
 refused. We had the prospect of another 
 hungry night at a distance from water, though 
 within sight of the river. We found it diffi- 
 cult to reconcile ourselves to our lot, for in 
 addition to repeated rebuffs, the manner of the 
 villagers excited suspicion. When twilight 
 drew on, a woman approached from the height 
 beyond which the village lay. She bore on 
 her head a bundle of wood, and had a vessel 
 
THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 295 
 
 of milk in her hand. The latter, without 
 opening her lips, she handed to us, laid down 
 the wood, and returned to the village. A 
 second time she approached with a cooking 
 vessel on her head, and a leg of mutton in 
 one hand, and water in the other. She sat 
 down without saying a word, prepared the 
 fire, and put on the meat. We asked her 
 again and again who she was. She remained 
 silent till affectionately entreated to give us a 
 reason for such unlooked-for kindness to 
 strangers. The solitary tear stole down her 
 sable cheek, when she replied, ‘ I love Him 
 whose servant you are, and surely it is my 
 duty to give you a cup of cold water in his 
 name. My heart is full, therefore I cannot 
 speak the joy I feel to see you in this out-of- 
 the-world place.’ On learning a little of her 
 history, and that she was a solitary light burn- 
 ing in a dark place, I asked her how she 
 kept up the life of God in her soul in the en- 
 tire absence of the communion of saints. She 
 drew from her bosom a copy of the Dutch 
 New Testament, which she had received from 
 Mr. Helm when in his school some years pre- 
 vious, before she had been compelled by her 
 connections to retire to her present seclusion. 
 
296 THE GOSPEL AMONG THE BECHUANAS. 
 
 ‘This,’ she said, ‘is the fountain whence I 
 drink ; this is the oil which makes my lamp 
 burn.’ I looked on the precious relic, printed 
 by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and 
 the reader may conceive how I felt, and my 
 believing companions with me, when we met 
 with this disciple, and mingled our sympa- 
 thies and prayers together at the throne of our 
 heavenly Father. Glory to God in the 
 
 HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL 
 TO MEN !” 
 
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