Mr. Read Succeeds in Obtaining Consent

Mr. Read succeeds in obtaining consent — Great wisdom required — Suspicions of the natives — Difficulty of obtaining confidence — A Commando defeated — Encouraging tokens — An untoward circumstance — Mr. Campbell’s departure — The loaf stolen — The Author returns to the Mission — Position of the Missionary among the Becbuanas — Difference of Missionary fields — Peculiar difficulties — Total absence of idolatry — Early professions no criterion — A rain-maker’s reasoning — Bechuana government — Pitshos, native parliament — National customs — Barriers to the Gospel — Labours of the women — Bechuana character — Lichtenstein and Thompson’s testimonies.

Notwithstanding these gloomy reverses, Mr. Hamilton, nothing daunted, resolved on making another effort. In the mean time, Mr. Read arrived at Griqua Town with a large party of Hottentots, from Bethelsdorp; and as there were no provisions for their support, Mr. Hamilton was compelled to proceed to the Colony for supplies, without which their stay at Lithako must have been but temporary; while Mr. Read continued his journey, determining either to settle at that place or at the Kuruman River, which the Becbuanas had recommended. On reaching the town, Mr. Read thought it prudent to take no notice of Mothibi’s refusal of the brethren, but simply to remind him of the agreement with Mr. Campbell, and told him “that Mr. C. had influenced the good people beyond the

Great Waters to send missionaries; that they rejoiced much at his promise to receive them, and had been very generous in sending by the missionaries a plentiful supply of articles to make him and his people liajipy, some of which were at Griqua Town, and some at Bethelsdorp, hut which should he sent for.” This information produced the desired effect on Mothihi’s mind, and softened down his opposition. Some approved of the missionaries remaining, hut not to preach or to teach; and others on condition that they should aid them in their expeditions to plunder the Bauangketsi nation. To the latter stipulation they would not accede; hut at the same time assured them that, should an enemy invade the town, assistance would he given by the missionaries. By kindness and perseverance, the various objections raised against their residence with them were eventually overcome. Thus was an important point gained; and which, of course, ought to be the first sought by such as would introduce the Gospel to barbarians; but it requires no little caution and prudence, in such a critical juncture, to avoid introducing a system which may afterwards involve either themselves or their successors in responsibilities and engagements,’ which circumstances put it out of their power to continue or fulfil. I confess I know of no part of the missionary’s life in which he more requires the wisdom of the serpent in union with the harmless¬ ness of the dove, than in his first intercourse with a savage people. What wisdom, what meekness, are necessary to him who proposes to introduce the elements of a spiritual empire, to sweep away refuges of lies, to prostrate idols and altars in the dust, to

abolish rites and ceremonies, to transform barbarous and antiquated judicial systems, and after apostolical example, ‘‘ to turn the world upside down!”

As a people like the Bechuanas, who never had the slightest idea of idols, or of idol service, could have no notion whatever of the object of mission¬ aries, beyond that of secular interests, it is necessary to refer to the temporal advantages to be expected from the establishment of Christianity, and this is the critical moment which gives a character to succeeding years! While they had had intercourse with the Griquas, amongst whom they had witnessed the progress and results of missionary labours, they were not ignorant of the political connexion in which they stood to the Colony; and had been informed by some of the evil-disposed, that the missionary there was an agent of Government, and a pioneer to prepare, by pacific measures, the minds of the natives for the control of a foreign power. Thus, kind promises, a profusion of gifts, bodily service, fascinating as these were to such thoroughly sensual beings as were the Bechuanas, did not entirely remove their suspicions, that the missionaries were only the emissaries of the Colonial Governor. I have frequently heard at a subsequent period, the views which were then entertained by men who are now instructed, enlightened, and established in the faith of the Gospel, and on whose minds not a lingering doubt remains that the missionaries are indeed the messengers of the Church of God. These men in their natural state, altogether devoted to sensual enjoyments, narrowly watched the conduct of the strangers, as well as that of their attendants; and what might have been supposed unknown or too minute for the apparently obtuse perceptions of the popular rabble, was analysed with scrutiny and precision; and deductions were drawn rarely in favour of the objects of their observation.

From these remarks the reader will perceive how much missionaries require Divine guidance in their first intercourse with heathen tribes and nations. It is extremely difficult adequately to conceive of the extent of the ignorance even of their wise men, on subjects with which infants are conversant in this country. Yet it cannot be denied, in spite of general appearances, that they are acute reasoners, and observers of men and manners. But to return: the prospect of a permanent settlement on the part of the missionaries, did not depend upon the caprice of one, but of many; and especially on Mahuto, the queen, whose influence over her husband was great. Her favour was not procured with¬ out a very considerable tax upon the comfort of the missionaries, whose resources, she presumed, were at her command. She, with many others, like the multitude of old, could express her attachment and admiration, so long as the loaves and fishes were available! Not unfrequently, if she was incensed, she would instigate her husband to acts in themselves harsh and severe. Her favour, therefore, was of no little importance when it could be secured, i Nor is this at all surprising to those familiar with the heathen character; but, woe to those who remain, or who succeed to carry on the work, and to stru SS’e with the difficulties consequent on such a system! We rarely find that this mode of proceeding among ignorant savages, eventually melts away in the light

of Gospel day. There are exceptions; but these are associated with painful and protracted conflicts with the evils which the system now deprecated engenders.

The brethren had not remained long at Lithako, before an event occurred, which, though disastrous in itself, produced consequences of great importance to the future interests of the mission. Mothibi mustered a large expedition against the Bakuenas, nearly 200 miles to the north-east. Their object was to capture cattle. The supposed invincible commando was repulsed, driven, and scattered. Many were slain, others were dashed to pieces over precipices; and Mothibi, wounded in the foot, narrowly escaped with the loss of m.any of his warriors. The women had just been wailing over the loss of many cattle taken by the Bauangketsi; and now their husbands were gone to inflict the same distress on others! Bitter were their lamentations, as each succeed¬ ing party announced to many a distracted mother and child, that they were widows and orphans. Soon after this calamitous event, Mothibi and the majority of the town, were influenced to remove to the Kuruman River, which was in June, 1817. From this period to the arrival of the author, in company with Mr. Campbell, in 1820, the interests of the mission continued to fluctuate, but without any decisive evidences of the influences of the Holy Spirit being poured out. The public services were carried on,

, though by means of very imperfect interpreters; a serious drawback, of which, however, they were not sufficiently aware at that time. Notwithstanding these and many other impediments, good was being done, and the natives were gradually led to believe that the missionaries were their friends, though, as it afterwards appeared, few indeed attended for the sake of instruction. About this time an event occurred, which produced a very unpleasant sensation on the minds of the Bechuanas. A fair had been established at Beaufort, a village on the northern boundaries of the colony, for the purpose of affording means to the Griquas and Bechuanas, to avail them¬ selves at one season of the year, of an opportunity of purchasing, by barter, what they might require. A considerable party of Bechuanas were persuaded to go, but they returned disappointed and mortified; and three of their number were drowned in crossing the Orange River. They were not able to obtain the beads and other articles they desired, and were rather roughly treated by some of the farmers, from whom they expected to receive the same attentions as from the missionaries. The journey was to them unprofitable and disastrous; and they long suspected and insinuated that they were advised to go thither, to be robbed and treated with contumely.

Mr. Campbell, after his very successful journey to the Bahurutsi, at Kurrichane, about 200 miles north-east of Lithako, returned, accompanied by Mr. Read, to the Colony, while I was appointed to remain at Griqua Town for a short season, and then join the mission at the Kuruman.

Mrs. Moffat and myself could not but feel deeply when we hade what, at that time, we supposed to be a long and a last adieu, to the man who had always been dear to us, and who was then still dearer. We had travelled with him over many an African hill and plain; we had held converse with each other on the

interests of Christ’s kingdom in Africa; and we had often howed our knees together before the throne of God, on hehalf of the sahle sons and daughters of that desolate country, among whom we wandered, and for whose sakes we were strangers in a strange land. The memory of our beloved friend is very pleasant. It was refreshing to meet him once more on our return to our native shores. He has now terminated his pilgrimage, and entered into rest. Let us who survive imitate him who now, through faith and patience, inherits the promises!

Mr. Hamilton was now left alone, to struggle with a variety of difficulties. His lot had been a hard one. In addition to great manual labour, in digging a long watercourse, preparing ground, and building, he had been compelled, from his scanty allowance, to toil with his own hands, to preserve himself and family from perfect beggary, while exposed to heavy taxes to keep nobles in good humour, enduring un¬ remitting liberties, taken by those who seemed to think that they had a lawful right to obtain, by any and by all means, what they could lay hands upon of the missionary’s property. One day, having no mills at that time to grind corn, he sat down, according to ancient custom, and with two hand-stones, as they were called, the upper being turned with a handle fixed into the top, he laboured and perspired for half a day, in order to obtain as much meal as would make a loaf sufficient to serve him (then alone) for at least eight days. Having kneaded and baked his gigantic loaf, such a one as had not graced his shelf for many a month, he went to the chapel, and returned to his hut in the evening, with a keen appetite, promising himself a treat of his coarse home-made bread, when, alas! on opening the door of his hut, and very naturally casting his eye to the shelf, he perceived the loaf was gone. Some one had forced open the only little window, which appeared too small for a human being to enter, but which served as a place of egress for thief and loaf too; and thus vanished all his hopes for bread to supper, and to many succeeding meals.

Not discouraged by a multitude of similar mortifications, he continued his cheerless and noiseless career, his heart glowing with compassion for perishing souls, instant at all seasons to recommend the Saviour’s love, and his iron frame of body daily bending to hard labour. He did not possess those means by which a few, who had been influenced to attend to instructions, might be prevailed upon to persevere. The results of the Beaufort fair still rankled in their minds; and when Mr. Hamilton inquired for the young people who were wont to profess a design to learn, he found the spell was broken which had for a season made them the objects of ‘hope. This lay heavy upon his mind, as, though a most faithful, laborious, and persevering missionary, he was very naturally concerned lest he might be charged with depriving them of a single privilege, or manifesting the shadow of inattention to the interests of the meanest child.

In May, 1821, according to arrangements made when Mr. Campbell left the country, I returned, with my family, to the mission; an event earnestly desired and prayed for by Mr. Hamilton, as well as ourselves, and which would have taken place much POSITION OF THE MISSIONARY

earlier, had not paramount duties at Griqua Town prevented. The following chapters will contain the continuation of missionary conflicts for successive years, during which our faith was severely tried, while the object of our incessant labours and prayers seemed to fly farther from our grasp. As each succeeding wave rolled heavier and darker still over our heads, the heathen would ask, in derision, “Where is your God?” They will also exhibit the dawn of Gospel light on the minds of that people, the triumph of divine truth crowning our labours with success; so that now, instead of a solitary missionary station, once like the burning bush, we can look, with feelings no pen can describe, on temples raised to Jehovah, and crowds assembled, not to hear the vociferations of the fierce warrior, or the eloquent and martial strains of the senator, labouring to arouse his audience to revenge and war, but the heavenly message of peace and love.

Our day, sabbath, and infant schools, as also our printing-presses, are at work, to supply the increasing wants of a reading population; while the advanced standard-bearers see opening doors, and hear Macedonian voices saying, Come over and help us.” The Basuto country, once the theatre of plunder and bloodshed, is now studded with missionary stations of the French Evangelical and Wesleyan Missionary Societies; so that, from the eastern borders of the Southern Zahara to Fort Natal, a phalanx presents itself, which, if zealously supported by faith and prayer, will ere long enter the tropics, and advance towards nations which will require another mode of warfare, to oppose pioneers of Islam delusion.

From the brief notices already given of the difficulties the missionaries had to encounter in obtaining a footing, and the still greater in advancing the objects of the mission, arising from the peculiar character and customs of the people, the reader will be comparatively prepared for the detail of events recorded in subsequent pages. The situation of the missionary among the Bechuanas is peculiar, differing, with slight exception, from any other among any nation on the face of the earth. He has no idolatry to arrest his progress, and his mind is not overwhelmed with the horrors which are to be found in countries where idols and idol temples are resorted to by millions of devotees; his ears are never stunned by their orgies; his eyes are not offended by human and other sacrifices, nor is he the spectator of the unhappy widow immolated on the funeral pile of her husband; the infant screams of Moloch’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 worship. No fragments remain of former days, as mementos to the present generation, that their ancestors ever loved, served, or reverenced 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 creation were not sufficiently profuse, vanity has excited a host of inventive and degenerate minds to form images, of every shaj)e and size, exhibiting the horrid, the ludicrous, and the obscene. While

Satan is obviously the author of the polytheism of other nations, he has employed his agency, with fatal success, in erasing every vestige of religious impression from the minds of the Bechuanas, Hottentots, and Bushmen; leaving them without a single ray to guide them from the dark and dread futurity, or a single link to unite them with the skies.

Thus the missionary could make no appeals to legends, or to altars, or to an unknown God, or to ideas kindred to those he wished to impart. His was not the work of turning the stream backward to its ancient course. Their religious system, like those streams in the wilderness which lose themselves in the sand, had entirely disappeared; and it devolved on the missionaries to prepare for the gracious distribution of the waters of salvation in that desert soil, sowing the seed of the word, breathing many a prayer, and shedding many a tear, till the Spirit of God should cause it to vegetate, and yield the fruits of righteousness.

It has often occurred to me, while perusing the letters and journals of missionaries in India, how very different our mode of husbandry is from theirs, though labouring in the same vineyard, with the same instruments, and having the same object in view, the gathering in of spiritual fruit to the garner of our God. Our difficulties are certainlv of a widely different character, and some have thought ours in Africa small compared with those which our brethren have to encounter in India and elsewhere. This may be so; but during years of apparently fruitless labour, I have often wished to find some¬ thing, by 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; hut nothing of this kind ever floated in their minds. “They looked on the sun,” as Mr. Campbell 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 redemption of the world, the resurrection of the dead, and immortality beyond the grave, was to tell them what appeared to be more fabulous, extravagant, 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 surprise, as if they were too preposterous for the most foolish to believe. Our labours might well be compared to the attempts of a child to grasp the surface of a polished mirror, or those of a husband¬ man labouring to transform the surface of a granite rock into arable land, on which he might sow his seed. To gain attention was the first great object of the missionary; and this was not to he done by calm reasoning, or exciting in their minds a jealousy for the honour of their own religious rites and ceremonies, for these they did not possess. What they heard was sure to please, provided they got a hit of tobacco or some little equivalent 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 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 would be the subject of merriment 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.

Although they had received much instruction, they appeared never for one moment to have reflected upon it, nor did they retain traces of it in their memories, which are generally very tenacious. Accordingly, most of those who at an early period made professions to please, died, as they had lived, in pro¬ found ignorance. Munameets, though an early friend of the mission, the travelling companion of Mr. Campbell, and one of the most sensible and intelligent men of the nation, who had enjoyed greater privileges than any one at the station, made the following remark to the writer, in his usual affectionate way, not long before his death: — “Ra-Mary, your customs may be good enough for you, but I never see that they fill the stomach,’’ putting his hand on his own: “I would like to live with you, because you are kind, and could give me medicine when I am sick. Though I am the uncle of Mothibi, I am the dog of the chief, and must gather up the crumbs (gorge at festivals). I am one of the elders of the people, and though I am still a youth (seventy years!) my thoughts and perceptions are neither so swift nor acute as they were. Perhaps you may be able to make the children remember your mekhua (customs).”

They could not see that there was any thing in our customs more agreeable to flesh and blood than in their own, but would, at the same, time admit that we were a wiser and a superior race of beings to themselves. For this superiority some of their wise heads would try to account, but this they could only do on the ground of our own statements, that a Great Being made man.

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 reason, 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 were 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 exercised his power and skill and made the Bechuanas, which was a great improvement; and at last he made the white people: therefore,” exulting with an air of triumph at the discovery, the white people are so much wiser than we are, in making walking-houses (wagons), 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 discovery received the applause of the people, while the poor missionary’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.

With all their concessions, they vonld, with little ceremony, pronounce our customs clumsy, awkward, and troublesome. They could not account for our putting our legs, feet, and arms into bags, and using buttons for the purpose of fastening bandages round our bodies, instead of suspending them as ornaments from the neck or hair of the head. Washing the body, instead of lubricating it with grease and red ochre, was a disgusting custom; and cleanliness about our food, house, and bedding, contributed to their amusement in no small degree. A native, who was engaged roasting a piece of fat zebra flesh for me on the coals, was told that he had better turn it with a stick or fork, instead of his hands, which he invariably rubbed on his dirty body for the sake of the precious fat. This suggestion made him and his companions laugh extravagantly, and they were wont to repeat it as an interesting joke wherever they came.

The government of the people partakes both of the monarchical and patriarchal, comparatively 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 villages, each having its distinct head, under whom there are a number of subordinate chiefs. These constitute the aristocracy of the nation, and all ac¬ knowledge the supremacy 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 parliament, 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 making women his senators and his wife prime minister, while the audience were 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 welfare of his people. He generally opens the business of the day with a short speech, reserving his eloquence and wisdom to the close of the meeting, when he analyses the speeches that have been delivered, and never forgets to lash in the most furious language those who have exposed his faults, and who, as he would express it, have walked over his body, placing their feet upon his neck. This is all taken in good part, and the exhausted chieftain is heartily cheered when the meeting dissolves. These assemblies keep up a tolerable equilibrium of power between the chiefs and their king, hut they are only convened when differences between tribes have to be adjusted, when a predatory expedition is to be undertaken, or when the removal of a tribe is contemplated; though occasionally matters of less moment are introduced.

My object here is not to give a description of the manners and customs of the Bechuanas, which would require a volume, while it would be neither very instructive nor very edifying. They will, moreover, occasionally he referred to as they stand connected with circumstances narrated in the course of the work. I have briefly glanced at the national council as the stronghold or shield of the native customs, in which speakers have, in a masterly style, inveighed against any aggression on their ancient ceremonies, threatening

confiscation and death to those who would arraign the wisdom of their forefathers. This was their forum, while the responses of nobles were the pulse of the nation. But private thefts, murder, and a host of other crimes passed unnoticed in these assemblies, and were left to the avenger.

Of their customs they are as tenacious as the Hindoo could be of his caste, that dreadful barrier to evangelization in the East Indies. Their youth, for instance, would forfeit any thing rather than go uncircumcised. This national ceremony is performed from the age of eight to fourteen, and even to man¬ hood, though the children born previous to their parents being initiated cannot be heirs to regal power. There is much feasting and dancing on the occasion, and every heart is elated at these festivities. The females have also their boyali at the same age, in which they are under the tuition of matrons, and initiated into all the duties of wives, in which it merits notice, that passive obedience is especially inculcated.

After these tedious ceremonies are over, the youth appears lubricated, assuming the character, and wear¬ ing the dress of a man, while he is considered able to bear the shield and wield the javelin. The girls also, when they have gone the round of weeks of drill¬ ing, dancing, singing, and listening to the precepts of the grave old women, have a piece of iron rather hot put into their hands, which they must hold fast for a time, though painful, to show that their hands are hard and strong for labour. They are then anointed, and, having put on the usual female dress, the lower part of their hair is shaven off, and the upper part. profusely bedaubed with a paste of butter and sehilo, black shining ochre. Raised thus from comy)arative infancy to what they consider woman¬ hood, they view themselves with as much complacency as if

daughters of an eastern potentate. They have reached nearly to a climax in their life, for they expect soon to he married, and to be a mother they consider the chief end of a woman’s existence.

These ceremonies were prodigious barriers to the Gospel. Polygamy was another obstacle, and the Bechuanas, jealous of any diminution in their self-indulgence, by being deprived of the services of their wives, looked with an extremely suspicious eye on any innovation on this ancient custom. While going to war, hunting, watching the cattle, milking the cows, and preparing the furs and skins for mantles, was the work of the men, the women had by far the heavier task of agriculture, 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 cultivating the ground.

The men, for obvious reasons, found it convenient to have a number of such vassals, rather than only one, while the woman 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

they were enrobed in the attire of the

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 as hard labour, are entirely the work of the women, who are extremely thankful to carry home even the heavier timbers, if their husbands will take their axes and fell them in the thicket, which may be many miles distant. The centre of the coni¬ cal 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 fall and break a leg or neck. These houses, though temporary, and requiring great labour to keep them constantly in repair, are nevertheless very well adapted to the climate. They admit little light, which is not desirable in a hot country, and among millions of house-flies; but during the winter season they are uncomfortably airy and cold.

While standing near the wife of one of the grandees, who, with some female companions was building a house, and making preparations 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. 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. Ma¬ huto, 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 woman should attend to household afiairs, 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 a way of joke. Poor woman, she little knew then that there was One whose omnipotent voice has declared, “I wall put my Spirit into them, and create new hearts within them but now, blessed he his Holy name, she, and hundreds more have been publicly baptized into the faith of the Gospel of the Son of God.

Again, the habits of the people were such as to warn us that the vision would tarry, and that there as wxll as in the strongholds of idolatry, it was to be, “not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” A traveller, such as Lichtenstein, wdiose stay was very short among the Bechuanas, was not likely to form an adequate judgment of their real character. They are, it is true, like the Kafirs, a superior race, have a dignity and openness, the natural results of independence; and to him must have presented a striking contrast to the slaves of the Colony whence he had come: but that they manifest the utmost ‘‘ contempt of all chicane or deceit,” which he urges as a proof “of innate rectitude, and consciousness of natural strength,” is not correct; and had he dwelt among them, and sat with them in their public and private councils, lived in their dwellings, accompanied them on their journeys, and mingled with them on the field of battle, as the writer has

done, he would not have attempted to revive the fabled delights and bliss of ignorance reported to exist in the abodes of heathenism.

When we attempted to convince them of their state as sinners, they would boldly affirm, with full belief in their innate rectitude, that there 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 exchange wives. No matter how disgraceful the action might be, or what deceit, prevarication, duplicity, and oaths, were required to support it, success made them perfectly happy in a practice in which most were adepts.

When they are styled savages, the appellation 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 he had supposed to be amiable and humane, who would, when brought into certain positions, as if in their native element, wallow in crimes, which he expected they would naturally shudder to ’ perpetrate. Having had

Thompson’s testimony. long intercourse with many tribes, he feels persuaded that what he has stated will be 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 common, put the blame on his heart, the most perfect unanimity and cordiality succeeds.

Mr. Thompson in his travels correctly remarks, that, like most barbarians, their political wisdom consists in duplicity and petty cunning; and their ordinary wars were merely predatory incursions upon their wxaker neighbours for the purpose of carrying off cattle, with as little exposure as possible, of their own lives. Their expeditions against the Bushmen were peculiarly vindictive, and conducted with all the insidiousness and murderous ferocity, without the heroic intrepidity, of American or New Zealand savages;” examples of this will occur hereafter. All these characteristics 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. hi. 10 — 18, is the real transcript of the condition of a people, who have no fear of God 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 operation, to wrestle and struggle, and toil, in pulling down the strong¬ holds of Satan, whether in Africa, India, or the is¬ lands of the Pacific.