Family Bereavements

Early in 1825 the immediate danger seemed to have passed, and the Moftats, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, rejoined Mr. Hamilton, who had remained throughout at his lonely post. The western banditti had for the time retired. Though the noise of war had ceased in their own neighbourhood, yet elsewhere a spirit of madness seemed to have seized on all the interior tribes. AVasting and destruction were the order of the day eastward and northward. Tribes of the same character, and in similar circumstances to those who had been called Mantatees, roved about, carrying terror and devastation through wide regions. Even the hitherto invincible Makaba had been overcome and slain, and his Bangwaketsi were scattered far and wide; but there was at all events a lull in the neighbourhood of Kuruman.

Once more the missionaries took heart, and commenced laying out the new station. They raised three temporary dwellings, each consisting of a wooden framework filled up with reeds cut from the adjacent valley, and plastered within and without; and they meanwhile laid the foundations of more permanent dwellings.

But their troubles were not yet over. The young chief Peclo died suddenly, and his death scattered to the winds many bright hopes which the missionaries had entertained of what might have been done by his means. Again a cloud came up from the west in the shape of a band of marauders. They were a part of those who had come before, but greatly reduced in numbers. Few as they were, however, their boldness and their possession of guns and horses made them irresistible. The Batla[)ing at the old station gave way before them, losing nearly all their cattle. The roving band drew near to the Kuruman itself, but the missionaries had determined this time to hold their ground; and the marauders retired, and again they were left in peace to carry on their labours. Unhappily the Batlaping could not be prevailed upon to return to their deserted town. They drifted away eastward, and eventually settled down on the Hart or Kolong River, where the bulk of the tribe has remained until now the greater part of what remains now being under Mankoroane, a nephew of Mothibi.

The missionaries found themselves surrounded by a much reduced population, though probably more amenable to th-^ir influence, as those who remained did so for the most part from confidence inspired by their presence. IMeanwhile the Moffats themselves were called to mourn over the death of a little boy, who only lived five days. In the month of October the mothei of Mary Moffat passed away, after some years of declining health. She had done her work at home, and had the blessing and comfort of having a daughter like-minded in the missionary field, and of being present a few months before her death at the ordination of her son, and his induction into the charge of a church at Hulme, which he afterwards gave up in order to go to Madras as a missionary.

She died early in October. In April of the following year her daughter received the news, so slow were the means of communication then. She writes as follows to her father:

“The account of my dear mother’s heavy bodily affliction distresses us much, but to hear at the same time of the consolations of the gospel being so abundantly supplied causes the voice of joy and praise to be heard in our tabernacle; and though the event of her death will be inexpressibly painful to us, the bitterness of the stroke will be in no small degree mitigated by having heard of the brightness of her evidences and her comfortable experience of the efficacy of the blood of Christ.”

She writes again in June:

“It is with mingled feelings of sorrow and gratitude that I retire from the bustle of my domestic cares to write to you once more: sorrow that you are now alone, and that the endearing name of mother is no longer united with that of father, and gratitude that I have still yourself to address, and trust that the great Disposer of all events will continue to spare your life for a few years longer; but these repeated strokes teach us not to set our hearts too much on any earthly object.

“My dear Moffat and myself were for thirty years exempted from such bereaving dispensations; the commencement was at length made with the beloved offspring of our own bodies: and what is very remarkable, Robert’s elder brother Alexander died within ten days of my ever-beloved mother — we received the accounts of both their deaths by the same post, and you will judge of our feelings on the occasion. For my own part, with regard to my dear mother, I was long before I could in any degree feel reconciled to her approaching dissolution, though for more than two years I have opened every letter with a palpitating heart, expecting the painful intelligence that would at once blast the feeble hope which was sometimes cherished of again beholding her in the flesh. I never felt anything like resignation till I heard how repeatedly and heavily she was afflicted, and how happily she was prepared for the last remove. I felt that it was cruelly selfish to wish her to live: when I say selfish you must not suppose that 1 did not consider you, my dear father, for my heart does testify that this was the last struggle in my feelings, a consideration of your desolate condition, when she should be called to leave you in this vale of tears, knowing how uncommonly happily you have lived together, and sensible that the widowed life would be comparatively dreary.

“May the God of all grace grant you consolations equal to the loss you have sustained, and enable you to pursue your earthly course with Christian cheerfulness.”

Moffat’s brother Alexander, mentioned above, was a man, to judge from his letters, of great talent, but his life was marred by a want of purpose and of the devotion which inspired his missionary brother. He had been a soldier in the East India Company’s service, but had come home invalided, to die.

It had been hoped that Mr. and Mrs. Hughes would be a permanent addition to the band at Kuruman; but the health of the former suffered so much from the excessive heat that he had to seek change, and after a time he became attached to the Griqua Mission, in which he remained till the close of his life in 1870.

About this time Robert Moffat commenced his first regular efforts towards laying the foundation of a Sechwana literature. A spelling-book was prepared, and sent to the Cape to be printed.

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