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 rHUR PROBSTHAIN 
 
 • 4 I D I II. _

 
 REV. J. D. HEPBURN.
 
 TWENTY YEARS 
 IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 AND 
 
 PIONEERING AMONG THE BATAUANA 
 OE lAKE NGAMI 
 
 JO x^' 
 
 0^ 
 
 rHE LETTERS OF 
 
 TOLD INJl^HE L^' 
 
 REV. f, Dt HEPBURN 
 
 EDITEP BY 
 
 C. H. LYALL 
 
 WITH ILL US TEA TIONS 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW 
 
 ijpcccxcv
 
 
 Frintfcihy Haze II, ll'atson, Sr" riney, Ld., London atid Aylesbury.
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 /^~AN one of the first days of the year 1894 
 ^~^^ a cable message flashed from England's 
 frost-bound shores, to these lying in the rich 
 glow of midsummer radiance, the unexpected 
 tidings that the Rev. J. D. Hepburn "was 
 not," for God had taken him. 
 
 Henceforth, to our earth-holden ears, the 
 living voice of " Khama's friend" is for ever 
 silenced. Not again shall we listen to its 
 tones of tender pleading on behalf of his 
 loved children in the faith, the Bamangwato 
 and Lake Ngami Christians ; or for those other 
 neighbouring tribes still left in the pitchy black- 
 ness of heathen darkness, with never a hand
 
 vi EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 Stretched forth to lead them out into the 
 Light. 
 
 Not again will it be given to us to hear 
 him pour forth burning words of faith and 
 hope for Africa's future, such as he had but 
 just spoken in the course of one of his latest 
 addresses in Manchester : — 
 
 *' Africa will yet rise from the ashes of her 
 humiliation, clothed in her beautiful white 
 garments.' 
 
 For the living voice is hushed for evermore 
 on earth. 
 
 And from that " other room " in the Father's 
 house, whither our friend has passed out of our 
 sight for "a little while," no spoken words can 
 reach us. 
 
 Is his work amongst us altogether over 
 then } I venture to think not. 
 
 Before me lie a series of letters, written 
 during IMr. Hepburn's twenty years' sojourn
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE vii 
 
 among the Bamangwato, in order to fulfil the 
 requirements of the Society under whose 
 auspices he laboured. But for their rule that 
 every missionary in the Foreign Field should 
 furnish the Home Committee with consecutive 
 and detailed accounts of the progress of their 
 work from time to time, as well as at the con- 
 clusion of each decade of their service, the 
 Church of Christ would assuredly be the poorer 
 to-day. 
 
 The Cape Times, when referring a few 
 months since to an interesting little sketch of 
 Khama recently published, speaks of " the 
 fuller, grander, and more philosophical MS. 
 letters of the late Rev. J. D. Hepburn, which, 
 if published, will make the most valuable of all 
 our works on European influence on Native 
 Tribes." I am " a worker whom the Lord has 
 seen fit, in His infinite goodness, to bless ; but 
 I am not, nor do I claim to be, one of those
 
 viii EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 who can write so as to interest the home 
 Churches in my work," is Mr. Hepburn's own 
 estimate of his hterary powers. 
 
 But without desiring notoriety of any kind 
 for these simple " talks from the end of the 
 pen," written by a busy missionary, too often 
 under severe mental and physical pressure, and 
 with no thought of their publication, I yet feel 
 that these letters, " all dead paper mute and 
 white " though they may seem, are verily 
 " alive and quivering " with a God-taught mes- 
 sage for the Church to-day. And that thus, 
 His servant, " being dead," can " yet speak " to 
 us by and through them. 
 
 No attempt whatever has been made to 
 write a biography of the Worker ; rather it 
 has been my reverent care to stand aside, and 
 let the letters themselves speak of the Work — 
 the Work, which the writer tells us again 
 and again, was " not his own — but God's."
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE ix 
 
 And if I were asked, What then has been 
 my own share in the following pages ? I should 
 answer that 
 
 " I culled a garland of flowers, and have 
 
 nothing to call my own, but the string that 
 
 binds them." 
 
 C. H. LYALL. 
 
 Wynberg, Cape Colony, 
 
 %* We are indebted for the use of the photographs of 
 the Rev. J. D. Hepburn and the Chief Khama, to the 
 courtesy of Mr, S. B. Barnard of Cape Town, to whom we 
 beg to tender our grateful acknowledgments ; as well as 
 to the various friends who have so kindly placed the other 
 pictures at our disposal.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 l-AGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. KHAMA BECOMES CHIEF ... I 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE, AND HIS CHIEFTAINSHIP IS 
 
 ESTABLISHED . . • • • • •14 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 THE STORY OF THE FIRST JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI . 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION . . . • 1^ 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES, WITH A 
 
 TEN years' RETROSPECT . . . . -97
 
 xii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING AND OTHER HEATHEN RITES IN 
 
 SHOSHONG, AND THE DRINK DEVIL TURNED OUT . 1 24 
 
 CHAPTER Vn 
 
 death of the rev. joseph cockin and the ba- 
 mangwato church " passing on the word of 
 i^ife" 153 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO THE BATAUANA . . . 181 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES, BAMANGWATO 
 
 AND BATAUANA 2IO 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR . . . . -23! 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SORROW UPON SORROW. THE FOURTH AND LAST LAKE 
 
 JOURNEY 259 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE REMOVAL OF THE TRIBE FROM SHOSHONG TO 
 
 PALAPYE ........ 304
 
 CONTENTS xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BRIEF GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS . . -322 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 351 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 CONCLUSION 394
 
 " Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
 Jesiis Christ."— CiAL. vi. 14. 
 
 " As labourers in Thy vineyard, 
 
 Send us out, Christ, to be 
 Content to bear the burden 
 
 Of weary days for Thee ; 
 We ask no other wages, 
 
 When Thou shalt call us home, 
 But to have shared the travail 
 
 Which makes Thy kingdom come." 
 
 J. S. B. MOXSELL.
 
 Extract from the Report of the London 
 Missionary Society, 
 
 For the Year ending ■}^\st March, 1894. 
 
 " James Davidson Hepburn was a man of saintly spirit, 
 simple as a little child in his faith and in his unworldly Hfe, 
 fearless as one of the old prophets in his exposure of wrong, 
 and in his uncompromising maintenance of the sovereign 
 rights of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 " He devoted himself, with a noble self-forgetfulness, to 
 the interests of the Bamangwato tribe, suffering in mind 
 and body through his exposure to fever in his endeavour 
 to establish a mission among the Batauana of Lake Ngami, 
 and has left a monument more enduring than brass in the 
 Christian community, which he had nurtured and cared for 
 with many prayers and tears since 1870."
 
 CHAPTER I * 
 
 INTRODUCTORY.— KHAMA BECOMES CHIEF 
 
 "For I determined not to know anything among you, save 
 Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." — i Cor. ii. 2. 
 
 "Then Balak sent and called Balaam to curse you: but I 
 would not hearken unto Balaam ; therefore he blessed you still : 
 so I delivered you out of his hand."— Josh. xxiv. lo, ii. 
 
 TN 1870 my husband was appointed mis- 
 -'■ sionary to the Bamangwato tribe, at first 
 as colleague to the Rev. John Mackenzie, 
 but afterwards, on the removal of the latter 
 to Kuruman, to take charge of the Moffat 
 Institution (a native training college), we 
 were alone in the work until 1885, when the 
 Rev. E. Lloyd was sent to assist us. 
 
 In company with Mr, and Mrs. Mackenzie 
 who had been in England on furlough, we 
 arrived at Shoshong in August 1871. 
 
 At a little distance from the town we were 
 met by the two young chiefs, Khama and 
 
 * Written by Mrs. Hepburn.
 
 2 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 Khamane. Their welcome of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Mackenzie was very hearty. Mr. Mackenzie 
 had been their missionary for several years. 
 His well-known book, " Ten Years North of 
 the Orange River," gives a full, graphic, and 
 deeply interesting account of his work among 
 the Bamangwato. 
 
 For a few weeks we lived with Mr. and 
 Mrs. Mackenzie, until an old, ruined cottage, 
 which had once been inhabited by Mr. and 
 Mrs. Price, could be repaired. The year that 
 followed our arrival was a very hard and trying 
 one for all of us. 
 
 Macheng, a usurping heathen chief, was 
 ruling the tribe when we arrived. He had 
 been installed as chief by Sekhome, in order 
 to keep out Khama, his son and lawful heir. 
 Sekhome was now in exile, his own unnatural 
 conduct and suspicious fears the cause. 
 
 Macheng had a visitor, Kuruman, a son of 
 Moselekatse, and brother of Lobengula, who 
 had lately become chief of the Matabele. 
 Kuruman (so named by his father, in honour 
 of Dr. Moffat, who had been highly esteemed 
 by Moselekatse), incited Macheng, if indeed 
 he needed incitement, to do his best to get
 
 KHAMA BECOMES CHIEF 
 
 rid of his missionaries, and of all white people. 
 He, Kuruman, meant to send all white people 
 out of the Matabele country when he assumed 
 the government there. 
 
 " Why," he asked, " was Macheng such a 
 fool as to allow the missionaries to take away 
 the pillow from under his head?" If he per- 
 mitted them to stay up the kloof, between him 
 and the water, they would take possession of 
 it some day. 
 
 Thus he tried to work upon Macheng's 
 feelings, and the pair were well mated. 
 Macheng agreed to help Kuruman, and sent 
 three regiments with him to Matabele country 
 for that purpose, giving the command to a 
 relative of his own, but a person of inferior 
 rank in the tribe. 
 
 On the march the Bamangwato refused to 
 obey orders, and said they knew no leader 
 but Khama, the son of Sekhome. Macheng's 
 relative returned in disgrace. This greatly 
 incensed Macheng. He determined to get rid 
 of Khama. In fear of the Bamangwato, who 
 had become alienated from him, if indeed they 
 had ever regarded him as truly their chief, he 
 began to work secretly with native charms
 
 4 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 and medicines at first ; but these proving of 
 no effect, he tried to buy strychnine for the 
 purpose of poisoning the sons of Sekhome. 
 
 A worthless white man took Macheng's ivory, 
 and promised to get the stuff for him from a 
 store where it was kept to poison wolves. 
 A sharp-witted fellow in the store, suspecting 
 things were not right, sold Macheng's ignorant 
 European accomplice marking ink, and Ma- 
 cheng got, as he thought, the much-prized 
 powerful agent in his possession. Khama and 
 Khamane were invited by Macheng's wife to 
 drink coffee, but they respectfully declined, 
 and so Macheng could not succeed in any way. 
 
 Macheng now openly persecuted the Chris- 
 tians, giving orders for certain regiments to 
 go out to the veldt (country) to herd his cattle 
 every Sunday, while others were ordered to 
 appear at the khotla (chiefs courtyard) to 
 sew and bray skins of wild animals — anything 
 to prevent the young people from going to 
 school or church. 
 
 During those days of persecution several 
 of our young men became sincere Christians, 
 and in later times gave great assistance to their 
 missionary. Many of the young people would
 
 KHAMA BECOMES CHIEF 
 
 iricirch up the kloof, pretending to obey orders ; 
 but as soon as they were out of sight of the town 
 they would hide among the hills, and return 
 to the mission premises to attend the services. 
 
 Macheng was the most repulsive-looking 
 African I have ever seen. He had lived with 
 Moselekatse in Matabeleland for many years, 
 and had thoroughly imbibed the abominable 
 customs of these people. He was enormously 
 stout, very fond of fine clothes, indulged unduly 
 in eating and drinking, native beer and Cape 
 brandy being his favourite beverages. 
 
 I remember one day he was dining at Mr. 
 Mackenzie's house. Mrs. Mackenzie asked 
 him a question about a servant whom he had 
 promised to procure for her. Macheng paid 
 no attention to the question, but proceeded 
 diligently with his dinner. When he had 
 finished, he looked up at Mrs. Mackenzie 
 and said, "One warfare is enough at a time ; 
 now I will speak about that business." 
 
 Matters at last reached a crisis, and in August 
 1872 Khama, with the assistance of Sechele 
 — a neighbouring chief — drove Macheng away, 
 and Khama the Good was chief of the 
 Bamangwato.
 
 6 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 So secretly and quietly had the coup d'Mat 
 been arranged, that Macheng had not the 
 least inkling of his precarious position ; indeed, 
 so secure was he and unsuspicious, that he 
 had, with his usual effrontery, the evening 
 before ordered a trader to send him a present 
 of a bag of sugar. 
 
 There was little sleep in the mission houses 
 that night. When the dawn broke the poor 
 unsuspecting women and girls, with their 
 earthenware pots on their heads, began troop- 
 ing up the kloof to procure their daily supply 
 of water. 
 
 Suddenly a volley was heard in the town, 
 and we saw the women throw down their pots, 
 and run up the hills in all directions. The 
 firing became louder and sharper, and presently 
 Khama, at the head of a body of armed men, 
 marched quickly past our houses to guard the 
 water. He ran up for a minute to inform us 
 of what had taken place. 
 
 Macheng and his adherents had made a 
 hasty flight, but it was feared that they would 
 return and try to possess the wells far up in the 
 kloof, and the only water supply for the whole 
 Bamangwato people.
 
 8 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 This they attempted to do ; and one party 
 climbed to the top of the hill, immediately at 
 the back of our house, and from this position de- 
 liberately fired down upon our houses, and upon 
 Khama's men who were guarding the water. 
 
 Towards evening the firing became serious, 
 some of the bullets falling quite close to us. 
 One hit the ground beside our dog, almost 
 grazing his foot. The poor animal was scared, 
 and began to cry pitifully. Several fell round 
 my husband as he was looking after the sawing 
 of some timber. Even inside our house we 
 were not safe, as the thatch was of reeds, and 
 very worn. 
 
 We decided at last to go down to Mr. 
 Mackenzie's house, which was a good brick 
 building with iron roof. I carried my baby, 
 while my husband, with the other little one 
 in his arms, walked close behind me. As 
 the darkness came the firing ceased ; but from 
 the front door of Mr. Mackenzie's house we 
 could see the burning of the large Makalaka 
 town behind the hills. 
 
 For the next few days Khama's people 
 were occupied in driving Macheng and his 
 followers out of Bamangwato territory.
 
 KHAMA BECOMES CHIEF 
 
 The following Sunday (August 1872) 
 Khama inaugurated his reign by holding a 
 Christian service in his courtyard, and an- 
 nounced that henceforth only such services 
 should be held there. We all hailed the 
 change with real gratitude and delight, but our 
 joy was shortlived. For on the arrival of old 
 Sekhome heathen abominations were again 
 revived. 
 
 A few months after Sekhome's arrival 
 Khama left Shoshong, and went to live at 
 Serne, a place only a day or two's journey 
 from the town. Nearly all the Bamangwato 
 followed him, a tew old people and some 
 subject tribes remaining with Sekhome and 
 Khamane. 
 
 This was a peculiarly dreary and hopeless 
 time, but afterwards it proved to be only the 
 dark hour immediately preceding the dawn, 
 for we shall see, by-and-by, how Khama's 
 absence was overruled by God to bring about 
 wide-spreading blessing. 
 
 " 111 that He blesses is our good, 
 And unblest good is ill, 
 And all is right that seems most wrong. 
 If it be His sweet will."
 
 10 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 About this time, corn being very scarce, 
 and Mr. Mackenzie not being able to leave 
 his work, my husband decided to go into 
 Makalaka country to purchase food for the 
 native students and their families. 
 
 Two of these students, Khuke and Diphukwe, 
 accompanied us. They were natives of South 
 Bechuanaland, and earnest, good men. They 
 subsequently offered to go to the Lake Ngami 
 with us when the directors decided to com- 
 mence that mission. 
 
 We were the first missonaries who had visited 
 these Makalaka. They were subject to Loben- 
 gula, the chief of the Matabele, and he ruled 
 over them most tyrannically. We have seen 
 the men l^ury their guns in the veldt to hide 
 them from the Matabele, who periodically 
 would swoop down upon them, robbing and 
 killing, and making slaves of the young people 
 and children. 
 
 My husband preached to the Makalaka every 
 Sunday while we were in the country. They 
 understood Sechuana, our language. On our 
 journey back to Shoshong we were overtaken 
 by a party of Matabele, one of Lobengula's 
 brothers being among them.
 
 KHAMA BECOMES CHIEF n 
 
 Next morning we were informed that this 
 chief held been murdered during the night, 
 and that for this purpose he had been sent out 
 of the country by Lobengula's orders. 
 
 A few months after our return nearly all 
 our Bechuanaland and Matabeleland mission- 
 aries came to hold meetings at Shoshong. 
 
 Our friends from Matabeleland had no sooner 
 left their homes than Lobengula sent a large 
 war party into Khama's country, with orders 
 to annihilate a certain village of Bamangwatvo, 
 a very short distance from Shoshong. 
 
 When Messrs. Sykes and Thompson went 
 back all that remained of the village was 
 smoking ruins and corpses. The Matabele 
 soldiers had already returned to their chief 
 with the young people, children, and cattle. 
 All the time we lived in Khama's country 
 raiding; of this kind went on in one direction 
 or another. 
 
 The nights at Shoshong during the first 
 few years of our residence there were inde- 
 scribably painful. 
 
 Now and again the mournful wailing for the 
 dead would mingle with the cries of some 
 poor maltreated wife, or slave, who had been
 
 12 TWENTV YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 unfortunate enough to spoil the husband's or 
 master's supper. Again, the weird beat of 
 the drum, accompanying the monotonous chant 
 of the young girls, observing their abominable 
 ceremony, would break upon our ear. For 
 weeks at a time these girls would not be 
 allowed to sleep. They were dressed in reeds, 
 and the part of the town where the orgies 
 were carried on was considered sacred. Any 
 one comina: near mio-ht be stoned with im- 
 punity, and intruders could be put to death. 
 On one occasion we were walking past the 
 town, when suddenly we were surprised by a 
 shower of stones. 
 
 Then there were the gatherings for beer- 
 drinking, and the consequent quarrels, also the 
 noisy war-dances. 
 
 Truly a cleansing was required ; but if we 
 had been told that within a few years these 
 horrible noises would give place to hymn 
 singing, and those devilish ceremonies would 
 be supplanted by quiet meetings for the read- 
 ing and study of God's word, and praise and 
 prayer, we should have been slow to believe it. 
 
 " Come unto Me." " And Jesus rebuked 
 him, saying. Hold thy peace, and come out
 
 KHAMA BECOMES CHIEF 13 
 
 of him." " I will ; be thou made clean." 
 " Son, thy sins are forgiven." " Whosoever 
 shall do the will of God, the same is My 
 brother and sister and mother." " Come 
 forth, thou unclean spirit, out of the man." 
 " Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole ; 
 go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." 
 *' And she went away unto her house, and 
 found the child laid upon the bed, and the 
 devil gone out." 
 
 " Over the surging multitudes falls the voice 
 of eighteen hundred years ago, quiet, and sweet, 
 and true. That voice will never die. It goes 
 behind, and beneath all time-differences ; it 
 enters a region where humanity is one ; and 
 the ' Come unto Me ' which soothed troubled 
 human hearts in the first century has a balm 
 as soft for the weary men of the nineteenth." * 
 
 * From "Studies from the Unseen."-
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE, AND HIS CHIEF- 
 TAINSHIP IS ESTABLISHED 
 
 " In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his 
 presence saved them : in his love and in his pity he redeemed 
 them ; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." 
 — IsA. Ixiii. 9. 
 
 "Shoshong, April 2ofk, 1875. 
 
 OUR short experience of mission work 
 has been of a discouraging rather than 
 of an encouraging nature. My words do not 
 refer to the lethargy lying with the weight of 
 centuries upon the consciences of the people, 
 but to the anarchy and revolution, the plotting 
 and counter-plotting, which has distracted the 
 Bamangwato without intermission during our 
 short residence among them. It may be said 
 to have been a time of upheaving and over- 
 turning. 
 
 " Owing to the misrule of Macheng, the year 
 which followed our arrival at Shoshong, from 
 August 187 1 to 1872, was a year of unhappy
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE 
 
 15 
 
 lawlessness. Traders were robbed, abused, 
 and vilified almost beyond human endurance. 
 The missionaries did not entirely escape the 
 evils of his reign. Jealous that so many young 
 men should place themselves under the teach- 
 
 THE CHIEF KHAMA. 
 
 ino- of the Word of God, he resented it with 
 undisguised bitterness, and the malice of those 
 over whom he still continued to exercise any in- 
 fluence began to manifest itself in various ways. 
 The following is one instance out of many. 
 " One Sunday morning, accompanied by two
 
 1 6 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 of the students, I went to some towns lying 
 along the base of the mountain range to the 
 westward. We had reached the last town we 
 were to visit that day. The headman (or petty 
 chief) was absent on a visit to Macheng. 
 The people collected, and we proceeded with, 
 and finished our simple service. We had no 
 sooner done so, however, than the headman, 
 returning, rushed in upon us, with every sign 
 of rage and fury, snatched up a great stick, and 
 scattered, with a curse, the women and children, 
 who fled like timid sheep before a wild beast. 
 A few kindly words were spoken to soothe 
 him. But he gruffly responded that our teach- 
 ing was not wanted there. 
 
 " A crisis, however, was at hand. The 
 people were growing weary of a chief who was 
 virtually no chief, who never could be got to 
 give a decision ; from whom the injured could 
 obtain no redress, and who left disputes to 
 right themselves, or, what was more likely, to 
 become only the more complicated. In the 
 end of August 1872 the culminating point was 
 reached, and Khama, with the aid of Sechele, 
 drove Macheng from the town. 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie narrated the facts at the
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE 
 
 time ; but the hopes to which he gave expres- 
 sion in his letter to you — hopes which we 
 mutually entertained — were speedily dissipated. 
 
 " The morning was bright, and full of 
 promise, but murky clouds soon began to 
 gather overhead, and grew thicker and blacker, 
 until in the beginning of February last they 
 burst in one loud thunderclap. How long we 
 shall continue as we are it would be unsafe for 
 any one to predicate. 
 
 " Our life at Shoshong is certainly no 
 romance. In August Macheng was banished 
 from the town, and for a few months things 
 moved on apparently smoothly enough on the 
 surface ; but it was evident that there existed a 
 strong under-current of mutual want of confi- 
 dence between Khama and Khamane. Khama 
 publicly and distinctly refused to ' make rain.' 
 Plied with earnest and repeated entreaties by 
 the old heathen headmen, who naturally clung 
 tenaciously to the customs of their forefathers, 
 he only reiterated his public announcement. 
 His fathers' customs he regarded as equally 
 wrong and helpless. 
 
 "If some of them, he said, felt that they 
 must either make rain, or perish, he did not 
 
 2
 
 1 8 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 forbid it ; but it must not be done in his court- 
 yard, but out of his sight and hearing ; and 
 they must pay for it with their own cattle. 
 He did not seek to force his reHgion upon 
 them ; but he could neither conform to their 
 customs himself, nor suffer them to be forced 
 upon those who, with him, wished to follow 
 the Word of God. 
 
 " Khamane was loud in his protests against 
 this toleration as weak and vacillating, and 
 falsely informed Mr. Mackenzie and myself 
 that Khama was making rain. Yet, in spite 
 of this show of righteous indignation, when 
 Khamane afterwards lost some ivory, he him- 
 self allowed a friend to throw the dice, and 
 charm what remained with medicine, in order 
 to discover the thief! 
 
 " Of course he said that he only availed him- 
 self of the superstitious fears of the people in 
 order to recover his ivory ; but to the heathen 
 mind it could be capable of only one inter- 
 pretation — Khamane used, and therefore he 
 believed in, 'medicine' — i.e., sorcery. 
 
 "And it is not to be supposed that the dis- 
 covery of the thief could have presented much 
 difficulty to the son of the chief of the town.
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE 19 
 
 "About the end of the year 1872 Khama 
 unexpectedly announced that he had recalled 
 his father Sekhome, who was still a refugee 
 at Kanye. What led Khama to take this 
 step is not clear. It is possible that, relying 
 implicitly upon the steadfast adherence of the 
 young men, he felt he had nothing now to 
 fear, and listening in the spirit of his religion 
 to the promptings of filial regard, he determined 
 to bring his old father home to spend the 
 remainder of his days in the bosom of his 
 family, and be buried among his own people. 
 The first month of the new year, 1873, there- 
 fore, saw the wily, determined old heathen 
 chief, after having endured six years' expatria- 
 tion, seated again in the khotla (courtyard) 
 of the Bamangwato chiefs. 
 
 " Sechele was so strongly opposed to Sek- 
 home's return, that he denied him the direct 
 road through his country, and swore, if he could 
 lay his hands upon him, to kill him. Sekhome, 
 therefore, took a circuitous route ; but proud 
 and resolute, preferred to walk rather than to 
 ride, and travelled on foot a distance of about 
 two hundred miles. 
 
 "In no way daunted by the humiliating
 
 20 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 lessons of the past, he did not suffer a day 
 to pass before he began to ply his cunning, 
 with a view to obtain a complete ascendency 
 over the tribe. 
 
 " The great lever with which Sekhome re- 
 solved to accomplish the overthrow of Khama 
 was the ambition of Khamane. In public and 
 in private he was observed to be in close 
 counsel with his younger son, while Khama 
 was totally ignored. 
 
 " Khamane was repeatedly warned of the 
 danger of his new and anomalous position. 
 He was reminded that Sekhome was a heathen, 
 and a man of no ordinary character and 
 ability, and that his brother was a member, 
 with himself, of a Christian Church. But the 
 strong currents of ambition and pride had 
 swept him clean away from his moorings ; and, 
 dazzled and blinded by his present prospects, 
 and the possibilities of the future, he did not 
 scruple to put forth and to defend the state- 
 ment that Khama and he were equals, and did 
 not stand in the relation to one another of 
 superior and inferior. 
 
 " The crowning fault of Sekhome and 
 Khamane was committed when the former
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE 21 
 
 made over, and the latter consented to receive, 
 a town of Bushmen (vassals), which belonged 
 strictly to the chieftainship. Khama regarded 
 this act as tantamount to a public reversal of 
 their respective positions, and felt that he 
 must now bestir himself or let the chieftain- 
 ship slip from his hands altogether. 
 
 " The recalling of Sekhome was his own act. 
 Less than five months had elapsed since his 
 arrival, and here was the result. He regretted 
 it exceedingly, and was determined, if pos- 
 sible, to retrieve the disastrous effects of his 
 folly. 
 
 "Withdrawing wholly from the town, Khama 
 went to live at his cattle-post at Serne, a day's 
 ride on horseback through the mountains. 
 His highest hopes in taking this step must 
 have been exceeded. The young men who 
 were out hunting, instead of returning to their 
 homes, flocked around him. They put up 
 temporary huts, and collected their cattle. 
 The movement began to be felt in the town, 
 and soon became a general one. For weeks 
 long strings of people — women with baskets 
 on their heads, men, some with bundles, 
 and others driving pack-oxen — filed up the
 
 2 2 TWENTY YEA RS IN KHA MA'S CO UNTR Y 
 
 kloof. The stream flowed steadily on, until 
 the town of Bamangwato proper became 
 almost deserted, and only a few old men 
 and servants remained with Sekhome and 
 Khamane. 
 
 " The subject tribes looked on in silence to 
 see what would happen next. Would Sekhome 
 and Khamane take the hint, and depart quietly 
 and peacefully before anything more serious 
 befell them? Instead of doing this they sat 
 doggedly down, as if to say, ' Let Khama do 
 his worst. At any rate, we know he won't kill 
 us ; let him come and drive us away.' 
 
 " For months matters continued in a state of 
 inaction. 
 
 " An attack from the Matabele had been long 
 talked of, and the time when it was expected 
 had begun to draw near. False alarms increased 
 the tears of the already anxious people. 
 
 " At one time it was even reported that the 
 forerunners of the Matabele army had been 
 seen. At last one night a man, preparatory to 
 cleaning his gun, fired off the charge that was 
 in it, and in the darkness accidentally killed 
 one of his neighbours. The poor people 
 became panic stricken. Nightly our hearts
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE 23 
 
 were made sore by seeing them forsake the 
 town, and betake themselves to the mountains 
 for safety ; and at daybreak, having reassured 
 themselves by a careful survey, they ventured 
 back again to their houses, only to repeat their 
 folly in the evening. 
 
 " Messengers were sent to ask Khama to 
 return, but they came to say that they had been 
 received with indignation, and that he had 
 begun to dig gardens at Serne. Things looked 
 ominous. Khamane was urged to seek a per- 
 sonal interview with his brother, so that, if 
 possible, this distressing state of affairs might 
 be brought to some happier issue than that 
 which appeared every day to be becoming more 
 and more inevitable. ' Never,' he replied, 
 'never. He has gone. Let him go. I will 
 never condescend to humble myself to him by 
 going to ask him to return.' 
 
 " However, on Sunday, October 19th, after 
 morning service, he informed us that if we 
 would go with him he was now willing to go to 
 Serne, and see what could be done to prevail 
 on Khama to return. Our first impulse was to 
 refuse outright ; for we saw that he wanted to 
 shield himself under our name. He could not
 
 24 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 condescend to go alone. It was more dignified 
 to eo with his missionaries. Little as we re- 
 spected his feelings, we feared lest by our 
 refusing he should be led to change his mind, 
 and we consented, with the distinct understand- 
 ing that we were going to hear but not to 
 speak. We were as anxious to avoid all 
 interference, except privately, and by moral 
 suasion, as we were to avoid throwing any, even 
 the least, obstacle in the way of his going. 
 
 " So, on Monday morning, after an interview 
 with Sekhome, we got our horses, and started 
 for Serne. 
 
 " Khamane took a servant with him who was 
 supposed to know the exact whereabouts of 
 Khama's encampment, but it turned out that 
 he had only a general idea, like that of his 
 master. Night overtook us while still in search 
 of it ; ultimately, however, we had the satisfac- 
 tion of finding ourselves inside the hedge in 
 front of Khama's hut. 
 
 "He recognised our voices, and rose to greet 
 us, somewhat astonished that his missionaries 
 should present themselves at his door at such 
 an untimely hour of the night. Our errand 
 was understood.
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE 25 
 
 " ' Khamane has wearied you for nothing,' 
 he said ; ' it is too late now ! To what do they 
 invite me to go back ? To a ruin ? l^hey hate 
 rue, but they seek my people. They are anxious 
 to obtain one chance more, and they shall not 
 have it.' 
 
 " All this time Khamane was hidinof himself 
 behind us. He now came forward, and com- 
 menced to speak for himself. He begged, he 
 pleaded, he used every persuasion that he could 
 think of, but it was of no avail. The die was 
 cast ; Khama was inflexible. 
 
 "'When I was with you,' he replied, 'my 
 presence was soreness to the eyes. You treated 
 me as a dog in my own courtyard and before 
 my own people ; therefore I refuse to sit in the 
 same town with you and Sekhome. I have 
 had enough of that ; let us separate. Do you 
 take your path, and I shall take mine. Those 
 who prefer to stay with you, let them stay ; 
 and those who wish to come to me, let them 
 come.' It was patent that nothing was to be 
 gained by delay ; and on Wednesday we re- 
 turned home to Shoshong. 
 
 " As Serne has no strong mountains — the 
 natural fortress of the country, to remain there
 
 26 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 for any length of time was like inviting an 
 attack from the Matabele. So a short time 
 after this Khama went to live on the River 
 Zonga (Botletle or Lake River). Water being 
 scarce, and his cattle numerous, they were 
 scattered very much on the journey. Some 
 of his cattle fell into the hands of a Boer, 
 who was told to keep them until he, Khama, 
 could find an opportunity to send for them. 
 Sekhome heard of this, and sent and took 
 the cattle himself Some women also, belong- 
 ing to Khama's people, were found in the 
 veldt, and brought back to the town, although 
 Khamane told us that he had tried to dissuade 
 his father from doing what was sure to lead to 
 farther trouble. Khama. on the other hand, 
 had allowed a waggon and oxen with ivory to 
 pass on intact to Khamane. 
 
 "In the end of February 1874 Mr. and 
 Mrs. Mackenzie and ourselves left home to go 
 to Kuruman to our annual committee meetings. 
 Our first Sunday in the veldt, which fell on the 
 first day of March, we spent at Selenye. 
 
 " On Monday morning it was announced in 
 the khotla of the Bamangwato that Khama 
 had come to seek the women and the cattle
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE 
 
 27 
 
 which had been stolen, and that he had no 
 intention of fighting if he could obtain them 
 peacefully. To this was returned the haughty 
 answer : 
 
 '" The cattle and the women are ours. Do 
 not imagine that you are dealing with old 
 women like Macheng and his followers. We 
 are men, and speak with guns, not with words 
 like you ! When you left the river it was as a 
 war party.' 
 
 " The subject tribes were called, and a party 
 found and despatched to engage with Khama in 
 the veldt. Sekhome's last words to them were : 
 
 " * Fight only with the horsemen, and may 
 Khama die ! ' 
 
 " They waylaid him at the Pass of Manako- 
 longme, a strong narrow pass, about eight or 
 ten miles from the town. 
 
 " Not suspecting any attack there, he was 
 riding along in company with his horsemen, 
 but without his gun, when suddenly the first 
 volley rattled round them. They fought, and 
 Khama drove them from the mountains. 
 
 " Having done so, he sent a second message 
 to say : 
 
 " * Do not send the women and children to
 
 28 2WENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS C0UN2RY 
 
 hide in the caves to-night ; I shall not attack 
 you. Khamane has fought with me, but that 
 can go for nothing, I refuse to recognise him. 
 I only know Sekhome. To-morrow morning 
 when the sun is high you may expect to see 
 me draw up in front of the town. If you give 
 me the wives of my young men and the cattle, 
 I shall return without firing another shot.' 
 
 " Sekhome, still hoping that some charmed 
 bullet would find Khama, placed his men at 
 the entrance to the town and waited for him 
 to appear. 
 
 " Near midday they saw him coming, as he 
 had said he would do, down the valley. 
 
 " They allowed him to approach, and then 
 fired. 
 
 " ' Don't fire,' he said to his men. ' Charge 
 right into the town. Drive them out and 
 burn it down.' 
 
 " The subject tribes now hastened to Khama, 
 to sue for peace, pleading that they had only 
 acted in obedience to Sekhome's orders, whom 
 they could not do otherwise than obey so long 
 as he (Khama) remained at the river. 
 
 " Khama returned their cattle which he had 
 taken, and told them that he should go back to
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE 29 
 
 the river, but not to stay, that he should now 
 make his arrangements to return and possess 
 the mountains of the Bamangwato, 
 
 " ' Obey Sekhome in all matters connected 
 with the town,' he said to them, ' but remem- 
 ber that you are keeping these mountains for 
 me ; and when I shall return, all I ask of you 
 is to sit still and refuse to fight for Sekhome 
 and Khamane. It is on these conditions that 
 I leave you here, and give you back your 
 cattle.' 
 
 " They promised to attend implicitly to his 
 injunctions, and I believe they meant at the 
 time what they said ; but Sekhome and 
 Khamane knew well how to employ the inter- 
 val, as Khama found when he returned. 
 
 " In January 1875 reliable information was 
 obtained that Khama was on his way to 
 Shoshong, with all his people, to occupy the 
 mountains, in accordance with his declaration 
 to the subject tribes in the previous March. 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie and I offered to carry any 
 messaofe from Sekhome to his son which it 
 might be hoped would prevent any further 
 bloodshed, 
 
 "'Have you no word .'^ ' we asked him.
 
 30 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 ' Are you determined to speak only with 
 guns ? ' 
 
 " ' No ' I have no word,' he answered, ' and 
 besides, if I sent you, and we still fought, then 
 the people would blame you for not having 
 prevented what appears to me to be inevit- 
 able.' 
 
 " We told him we should not shrink from the 
 task on that account. He thanked us, and said 
 he would speak with Khamane about it ; but ke 
 did not think it would be right for him to put 
 his missionaries into the fire, which they them- 
 selves were kindling. 
 
 " We could not but respect Sekhome for this 
 expression of genuine feeling, and for the con- 
 sideration which it showed for our i)Osition. 
 
 " We were never sent. On Tuesday after- 
 noon, February 3rd, shots were exchanged 
 between Khama's people and the Makalaka 
 in the gardens of the latter behind the moun- 
 tains. Scouts were out all night. There 
 passed up the kloof alone upwards of one 
 hundred men, appointed to watch the ap- 
 proaches to the town. 
 
 " During the eleven months' respite Sek- 
 home and Khamane had been indefatigable in
 
 KHAMA TESTS HTS PEOPLE 31 
 
 binding together the several tribes into one 
 compact whole ; and they had succeeded to such 
 an extent, that they felt confident of success, 
 in the decisive struggle which was looked for 
 on the morrow. 
 
 " But, notwithstanding all their vigilance, 
 Wednesday morning's sun began to rise, and 
 they neither knew where Khama was nor from 
 what quarter they might expect to be attacked, 
 
 " Their scouts were so numerous that it was 
 held to be impossible that he could elude them, 
 yet he had come up almost to Seshosho — the 
 water from which the town receives its name — 
 without their having even an inkling of it, 
 until he himself sent to say : 
 
 " ' Khamane, I am here. It is said you 
 mean to fight ; make haste then, and set your 
 battle in array. Mine is already set. To-day 
 we shall fight for the water of Seshosho.' 
 
 " Khamane's own regiments found me up the 
 kloof, looking for our men, and with a few 
 hasty greetings they passed on at a quick trot, 
 disappearing round the mountain. 
 
 " A short distance farther on and I should 
 have seen them go into action. But that 
 Khama was so near I had not then the least
 
 32 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 idea, nor had Mr. Mackenzie, whom I met 
 with three of the students. 
 
 " Before I reached the house there was the 
 sharp rattle of musketry — very loud, indicat- 
 ing great nearness. 
 
 " Presently I saw Khamane and two of his 
 younger brothers, with two or three servants, 
 coming up on horseback. 
 
 " They dismounted ; and we went on a little 
 distance together, walking rapidly, Khamane 
 explaining to me that just thus it had hap- 
 pened on the last occasion — he heard the firing 
 while he was still at a distance. In fact, he 
 did not get into the fight then, any more than 
 he was destined to go into it now. We had 
 not gone far when the servants behind called 
 
 out : 
 
 " ' See, see ; there is danger, there is death ! '" 
 
 "He gave an exclamation of despair and 
 disappointment. 
 
 " I looked up at the mountains, and could 
 scarcely credit my senses. Men appeared to 
 be throwing themselves from its crown head- 
 long, and to be coming down its sides as if 
 they had wings. 
 
 " ' Run, Monare, run,' said Khamane, mean-
 
 KHAMA TESTS HIS PEOPLE ,33 
 
 inof me to run on after Mr. Mackenzie ; and, 
 turnina: on his heels, he left me. 
 
 " And soon the men whom I had seen such 
 a short time before running up the kloof 
 dashed past me downwards, as fast as their legs 
 could carry them, and I felt the very sides of 
 the kloof vibrating with volleys of musketry. 
 
 " Our hands were soon full of work, receiving 
 the wounded, burying, with the aid of the 
 students, the bodies of those who had fallen 
 between our houses and the water. 
 
 " At first the wounded lay all about Mr. 
 Mackenzie's house, but afterwards we turned 
 the Church into a hospital. 
 
 " It will not surprise you that Mr. Mackenzie 
 and I, unable to regard Khamane as pursuing 
 the path of strict rectitude, deemed it necessary 
 to suspend him from Church fellowship, and 
 that when Khama came we desired him and 
 his brother Seretse not to present themselves 
 at Our Lord's Table until we had had an 
 opportunity for making further observation and 
 inquiry. 
 
 " Thus our little Church of Bamangwato, 
 which we hoped, when we formed it, was to be 
 the nucleus around which would eventuallv be 
 

 
 34 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 gathered a large, vigorous, Christian community, 
 has been, for the time, all but destroyed, by 
 the vices of pride, ambition, and deep-seated 
 animosity. 
 
 " The mariner should stand firm in the 
 stormiest night. 
 
 " It is fatal to the missionary as to the mariner 
 to lose hope. Yet hope rises in the mariner's 
 breast, as the strength o{ the storm goes past, 
 and faint streaks of light are seen breaking 
 through the clouds. 
 
 "Our Shoshong mission has been passing 
 through night and storm. We would fain hope 
 that we have seen the dawn of a new day ; and 
 we look for the breaking of the blessed Light. 
 
 " May the wild wastes yet blossom into life 
 under the warmth of a Saviour's love."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE STORY OF THE FIRST JOURNEY TO 
 LAKE NGAMI 
 
 '' Go ye . . . atid make disciples of all the nations. . . . Lo, I am 
 with you ahvay . . . even unto tiie end of the world." — Matt. 
 xxviii. 19, 20. 
 
 " Come over . . . and help us, and . . . straightway we sought 
 to go forth . . . concluding that God had called us for to preach 
 the gospel unto them." — Acts xvi. 9, 10. 
 
 WITH the establishing of ' Khama the 
 Good ' as undisputed chief of the 
 Bamangwato, was ushered in the dawn of a 
 brighter day, not only for his own people, but 
 also for the missionaries and their work. 
 
 The year 1875, the earlier months of which 
 had witnessed Khama's triumphant return to 
 Shoshong from his self-imposed banishment, 
 was yet to bring blessing, in its later weeks, to 
 others. 
 
 In October of the same eventful year (1875) 
 we find the Rev. J. D. Hepburn writing to the 
 
 35
 
 36 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 Directors of the London Missionary Society, 
 asking their sanction to a proposal of his for 
 going further afield, in response to an urgent 
 appeal for teaching from a neighbouring tribe. 
 And it is very interesting to note how truly — 
 
 " There is a Providence that shapes our ends, 
 Rough hew them how we will." 
 
 To the missionaries and the infant church 
 at Shoshong it had doubtless appeared to be 
 nothing but an unmitigated evil when the 
 Christian chief and his followers were driven 
 from the town by the wickedness of others ; 
 yet God, in His wisdom, was using that very 
 expatriation as a link in the chain of circum- 
 stances which finally led to the uplifting of the 
 Standard of the Cross of Christ, and the 
 planting of a native church among the Batauana 
 at Lake Ngami. 
 
 As will be seen from the after-narrative of 
 the new Mission, Mr. Hepburn's suggestion 
 in this letter was what was eventually adopted 
 and successfully accomplished, until, in 1892, 
 the Rev. A. J. Wookey and Mr. Reid went 
 ^nto the Lake District and established the 
 missio n on a permanent basis. 
 
 For several years before this, however,
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 37 
 
 Khukwe and Diphukwe, at first together, and 
 afterwards the former by himself, carried on 
 the work — aided by the native converts — Mr. 
 Hepburn paying them an occasional pastoral 
 visit when his own duties at Shoshong would 
 admit of his absence. Twice, during these 
 years, the Rev. E. Lloyd also went into the 
 Lake for a short time. 
 
 On October 28th, 1875, Mr. Hepburn 
 wrote : — 
 
 " The late chief Lechulatebe, of Lake Ngami, 
 was exceedingly anxious to have a missionary, 
 and frequently applied for one. 
 
 " His son Moremi is equally solicitous. 
 When Khama and his people were living at 
 the Lake River (Zonga or Botletle) Moremi 
 sent men to him, begging Khama to use his 
 influence to obtain for hini a missionary like 
 his own ; also to teach his people to read, and 
 to give them all information about the new 
 teaching of the Word of God. 
 
 ''A more earnest Mecedonian cry one could 
 not well imagine. 
 
 " The American, French, and Wesleyan 
 societies are all pressing for an open door, but
 
 38 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 none of them know of the call which is being 
 addressed to us from the Lake. 
 
 "It appears to me, therefore, that we ought 
 either to occupy at once, or make known to 
 others, the necessities of that district, otherwise 
 we shall be guilty of standing between these 
 people and the Word of Life. I feel this 
 deeply, and it is this feeling that has led me to 
 place myself at the disposal of the committee, 
 as I beg now, in a formal manner, to place 
 myself at the disposal of the Directors. 
 
 " My wife is in entire sympathy with me in 
 this matter. We could not occupy a more 
 important or a more useful sphere of labour 
 than that of Shoshong ; but the claims of the 
 Lake are urgent, and, if possible, the work 
 should be entered upon without delay, while 
 the young chief is still new to the duties of the 
 chieftainship. 
 
 " If the Directors decide to make a trial of the 
 Lake District, I could go in with our evange- 
 lists, Khukwe and Diphukwe ; and if we find a 
 healthy high-lying country, I could leave them, 
 and in the meantime pay them a yearly visit, 
 until a man or men come out, either to take my 
 place at Shoshong, or to go up to the Lake.
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 39 
 
 " We are perfectly willing to occupy either the 
 one sphere or the other, as the Directors may 
 deem most advisable for the best interests of 
 the Mission." 
 
 How Mr. Hepburn, after eighteen months' 
 preparation, carried out his desire to bear the 
 Glad Tidings of Salvation to the Batauana 
 is next recorded. 
 
 " SvLosHonG, Nove?nber i6th, 1877. 
 
 " We * left home on April 26th, and arrived 
 at Yanana (Lake Ngami) June 2nd. We 
 crossed the river with our waggons, and out- 
 spanned under the large trees close to the 
 town. 
 
 " I cannot describe the feelings which I ex- 
 perienced as our waggons slowly approached 
 the town, and the people ran out to see us. 
 Thoughts of the eternal interests of a people 
 wrapped up in the insignificant and unostenta- 
 tious arrival of three waggons that Saturday 
 midday, passed in swift succession through my 
 mind. Inwardly and earnestly I prayed for 
 
 * Viz., Mr. and Mrs. Hepburn, their three Httle children — 
 one a baby in arms — and the native evangelists, Khukvve and 
 Diphukwe.
 
 40 TIVENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 a glorious future for the Batauana and their 
 subject slaves, which I saw as in prophetic 
 vision, spread out to view, and stretching away 
 into the far-distant ages — even into eternity — 
 a future when they should be clad in the 
 beautiful white robes of holiness, praising their 
 Redeemer and their God. 
 
 " Such a feeling I can scarcely hope ever to 
 know again. 
 
 " The only thing to which it bore any relation 
 was the joy of my own conversion, when 
 eternity first burst upon my bewildered sight. 
 It was such a joy as was not to be exchanged 
 for all the wealth of worlds. 
 
 "In the afternoon I had an interview with the 
 old chief's brother Meno. He was very gracious, 
 and welcomed us to the town of Batauana. 
 Moremi, the son of the old chief, and the 
 present chief of the town, was from home on 
 a hunting expedition. Meno said he believed 
 the mother of Moremi had sent to her son 
 to inform him of mv arrival. But when we 
 went to pay our respects to Ma-Moremi,* the 
 
 * Literally " the mother of Moremi," just as the Bamangvvato 
 addressed Mrs. Hepburn as " Ma-George " — viz., by the name of 
 her eldest child, with the prefix " ma " or "mother."
 
 \ 
 
 THREE DAUGHTERS AND NIECE OF KHAMA, PUPILS OF MRS. HEPBURN.
 
 42 TU^ENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 young chief's mother, we found that she had 
 not done so. She said she was waiting for me 
 to arrive first, and not to send off messengers 
 on a mere report of my coming, which might 
 or might not prove true. 
 
 " I expressed my regret at his not being at 
 home to receive me, seeing that he had sent 
 for me. Had I not sent a special messenger, 
 paying him to come and report that I was on 
 the road, and would make no delay ? 
 
 " ' Yes, it is true,' she said, ' but we did not 
 think you would come on so quickly. Your 
 messenger only came in the day before yester- 
 day, and you are here yourself to-day ! We 
 always hear of the traders a long time before 
 we see them.' 
 
 " On Sunday Khukwe was unwell, and Di- 
 phukwe and I preached to large gatherings of 
 people, both morning and afternoon. Greeting 
 them heartily in the name of the Directors, and 
 in the name of the Christian Churches of 
 England, I thanked them for their kindness 
 to Mr. Price, and to the children of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Helmore, and especially I thanked Ma- 
 Moremi for the care she had taken of them. 
 1 described the cruel conduct of the Makololo,
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 43 
 
 and the calamity which had befallen them.* 
 I referred to the great anxiety which Lechula- 
 tebe had shown to obtain teachers, and how, in 
 answer to their frequent and earnest applica- 
 tions, the Directors had at last sent to hear 
 what they had to say about it, and to see where 
 they thought the missionary and his tamily 
 could live, so that they also might be taught, 
 as others in many parts of the world were being 
 taught, the word of God — the great, the living 
 God. Then I led them on to my subjects, the 
 great, good Shepherd Jesus Christ, the Son 
 of God, the Saviour of mankind. 
 
 " Diphukwe went on to say that once he was 
 an elephant hunter, but now he was a hunter 
 of men. Once he sought only his own profit, 
 now he sought the profit of others. Lechulatebe 
 had known him as an elephant hunter, but not 
 as a Christian. When Lechulatebe knew him, 
 he had come to beg hunting ground that he 
 might get ivory, and make himself rich. But 
 all his people died by the fever, and he got 
 such a great fright, that he had made up his 
 mind never to return to the river again. He 
 
 * Reference is here made of course to the sorrowful issue of 
 Dr. Livingstone's disastrous mission to the Makololo.
 
 44 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 never should have returned had he not learned 
 to know Jesus Christ. What the love of ivory 
 coitld not do the love of Jesus Christ had done. 
 The love of Christ had brought him again to 
 the town of the Batauana, and a waggon load 
 of ivory could not have brought him. He told 
 how the love of Christ had conquered him, 
 wild as he once was ; he told how he went 
 to the school to be taught by Mr. Mackenzie, 
 that he might know how to teach others ; 
 how, when, at the great meeting of all the 
 Baruti (teachers) at Kurunan, they were asked 
 who would volunteer for the new mission to 
 the Batauana, his heart said to him, ' You 
 must go.' 
 
 " But he had a second coward heart that 
 said, ' Don't go ; the river kills people.' 
 
 " But the love of Jesus Christ conquered ; 
 and although he did not hide his fear, he had 
 volunteered to go in, and seek a place where 
 his wife and children could live in safety. 
 
 " ' You are people, and ought to be taught,' he 
 continued; 'and if the Christians of England 
 have teachers to send to you, what a piercing 
 of shame it would be to us if no one would 
 volunteer to come with them, and help them.
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 45 
 
 seeing that it is our country cind not theirs, and 
 seeino' that it is to teach the children of our 
 fathers, for we are one stock, and our fore- 
 fathers were your forefathers.' 
 
 " ' The Christian people of England sent out 
 teachers long ago to Kuruman ; and although 
 our people have been slow to learn they have 
 not grown weary. The Makololo behaved 
 cruelly to them, and were the cause of their 
 death, but they have not turned back. They 
 are not disheartened by difficulty, and shall 
 we be ? They are not dismayed by fear, and 
 shall we be ? Death takes them away, but 
 others come forward to fill their places, and 
 carry forward the work of teaching. 
 
 " ' To-day the Bangwaketse, the Bakwena, the 
 Bamangwato, all your own people, have all got 
 teachers, and are learning the Word of God, 
 and to-day, this day of God, the white teacher 
 has come to you, with a word from the great 
 ones of the Churches of England, to say, where 
 can the teachers live ? And with a word from 
 the living God, to say, the Good Shepherd 
 Jesus Christ, who is My Son, gave His life tor 
 the sheep, and you are the sheep, Batauana ; 
 and now you must know what you shall do
 
 46 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 with the teacher to-day, and what you shall do 
 with the other teachers who may come to teach 
 you, and what you have to say to the message 
 of God which they bring to you. 
 
 " ' For myself I say that we ought to be glad 
 and thankful to the people of England who 
 have brought this good word to us ; and when 
 we get hold of it to understand it, we ought to 
 imitate them and carry it on to others, for God 
 has said the whole world must be filled with 
 the glad sound of it.' 
 
 " The astonished people listened with curio- 
 sity and wondering amazement. 
 
 "It was not only the new and wonderful 
 words spoken by a white man in their court- 
 yard and in their own tongue that day that 
 astonished them, but that a black man, one, 
 who, though not of the same tribe was one of 
 the same language, that he also should have 
 the self-same news to tell, while he told it in 
 his own words — it was this that made it such 
 a wonderful thing to their ears. As you can 
 imagine, much curious comment was put forth, 
 but the prevailing feeling awakened was one 
 of amazement. 
 
 "'We expected,' said they, 'to hear about
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI ^7 
 
 white people and white people's customs, and 
 you spoke to us about our own customs and 
 about ourselves — strange words such as we 
 had never dreamed of hearing.' 
 
 " ' After the morning service, the mother of 
 the young chief and his wife came to visit my 
 wife at her own waggon - 
 
 " They were accompanied by the old chief's 
 wives and daughters, who were dressed in 
 European clothing, and whose demeanour 
 indicated that they thought themselves persons 
 of no little importance. The mother of the 
 chief is a quiet, thoughtful old woman, and she 
 speaks in a subdued, gentle tone of voice. It 
 is to be hoped that she will exercise a healthy 
 influence over her son for his good. It was 
 she who urged him, after his father's death, to 
 send messengers to Khama to seek for teachers. 
 She is anxious as to how he will conduct 
 himself now that he is chief, and she did not 
 attempt to conceal her anxiety. 
 
 " She stated that she was perplexed how to 
 advise him in many things. She does not 
 want him to follow the example of his father, 
 who kept a number of wives shut off from the 
 rest of the town, in a separate block of huts.
 
 48 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAAIA'S COUNTRY 
 
 No man was allowed to look at them as they 
 went to their gardens, nor to go in the direc- 
 tion of the town in which they lived. But 
 immediately after the death of the old chief 
 the people destroyed the houses of these 
 women ; and by this summary action, more 
 emphatic than words, they plainly showed that 
 they were determined not to bear one day 
 longer with the hateful innovation. 
 
 " Moremi's wife is an unformed, thoughtless 
 girl, under sixteen years of age. She is con- 
 stantly admiring herself in her glass, and 
 although not without some marks of beauty, 
 she was too vain and silly to impress us with 
 a favourable opinion of her fitness to occupy 
 the position of wife to the young chief, the 
 more especially as we could perceive no 
 redeeming quality of mind. 
 
 " Mamoremi introduced her daughter to us, 
 the former playmate of the two orphan children 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Helmore. She is a jet black, 
 laughing creature, full of lite and happiness, 
 genuine and free, and now a mother. She 
 must have been a cheerful playmate it the 
 woman is the daughter of the child. 
 
 " They were all slightly embarrassed at first,
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 49 
 
 but they soon got over that, and asked ques- 
 tions, commented upon the appearance of my 
 wife and children, made themselves generally 
 comfortable, and eventually departed very 
 much pleased with themselves, and not at all 
 displeased with us. 
 
 "In the afternoon my address was directed 
 to the women, from the beautiful and precious 
 words of the Good Shepherd to the woman at 
 the well, concerning the well of water springing 
 up into everlasting life. There was the same 
 close attention manifested throuQ^hout as in the 
 morning. 
 
 " I may here briefly state that the follow- 
 ing formed subjects of my discourse to them 
 also : ' The creation and fall of man,' ' The 
 covenant with Abraham,' ' The ten com- 
 mandments, clearly indicating the path of duty 
 towards God and towards man, if mankind 
 could have listened to their voice,' ' Death 
 and the resurrection,' ' The standing before 
 the Judgment seat of Christ to give every 
 man his account of the deeds done in the 
 body,' ' The law of marriage,' ' The duties of 
 a chief towards his people, and the duties 
 of a people towards their chief.' . . . Words 
 
 4
 
 50 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 cannot tell the blessedness of preaching the 
 Gospel to the heathen. 
 
 " On Monday morning we began school work 
 under the trees, which offered us large and 
 cool shade. , . . There was much bewilder- 
 ment of mind, accompanied by frequent and 
 mutual banter ; and loud and hearty laughter 
 followed the ridiculous floundering of some of 
 the more obtuse ones. Many of them could 
 not divest themselves of the idea that they 
 were learning some strange and comical 
 language, or some species of necromancy. 
 The alphabet was a great puzzle. I prepared 
 a lot of straws, and explained the formation of 
 the different letters by them. 
 
 " Meno, who came and found us at the work, 
 frequently exclaimed : 
 
 " ' We are taking hold of a great bull-calf of 
 a ceremony.' 
 
 " He is an old man, and is feeble and withered 
 looking. I would not say that he looked upon 
 the undertaking with absolute disfavour, but 
 I am sure that he contemplated it with suspicion 
 and concern. 
 
 " Where will this new custom lead to } What 
 will be the outcome of it ? What are these
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 51 
 
 incomprehensible books ? What mystery do 
 they contain ? What sort of power is there 
 wrapped up in them ? These were the ques- 
 tions he was asking himself, and I sympathised 
 with him, for I instinctively felt that he was 
 troubled and distressed, with the anxious 
 foreboding of one who is looking out into the 
 future, without being able to forecast what 
 shape it will take to itself; and fearing lest 
 some calamity should befall the tribe in whose 
 councils he has been a great one, in whose wars 
 he has fought, and in whose service he has 
 become the withered, white-bearded, feeble old 
 man that he is. 
 
 " The people have no clear idea of what is 
 before them. They have been taken hold of 
 by an irresistible desire to be taught. If asked 
 to give a reason for this desire, they would 
 most likely find no satisfactory explanation. 
 Shall we conjecture wrongly if we put it down 
 to the working of that free and mighty Spirit, 
 who bloweth where H e listeth ? But if we do so, 
 then we must also see in it an indication ot the 
 Divine will concerning these people, and hear 
 in it a Divine voice calling to the Christian 
 Church to give them the Gospel. My sincere
 
 52 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 and earnest conviction is, that the door has 
 been opened to us, and we have been called 
 to enter in. If so, both men and means will 
 be forthcoming, and that speedily. 
 
 " I can only allude to the way in which I tried 
 to gain the confidence of Meno by attending to 
 his son-in-law, who was brought home disabled 
 by a fall from a horse. 
 
 " The horse had kicked him and trodden upon 
 him, and he was in great pain. My medicine 
 worked the potent charm of procuring for him 
 his first night's sleep, which was little less than 
 miraculous in the eyes of Meno, for the power 
 of opium is unknown to him. 
 
 " The poor fellow recovered rapidly under my 
 treatment, and came with Meno afterwards to 
 thank me for doctoring him. My wife heartily 
 seconded my efforts to gain Meno, and showed 
 him many little attentions ; but he is a shrewd, 
 suspicious old man, and feared lest we should 
 beguile him into having anything to do with 
 the books. He was as much afraid of my 
 medicine chest, and its numerous botdes, as he 
 was of the books. Altogether, I was evidently 
 a man to be feared, if not avoided. 
 
 " Thaben, the son of Mogalakwe, who is a
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 53 
 
 man of great influence in the town, and whose 
 daughter the young chief has taken for his 
 wife, became very friendly with us. 
 
 "He wished to know if I had no medicine 
 to give people to enable their hearts to under- 
 stand the books. He is one who is most 
 anxious that they should learn to read the 
 books. 
 
 " Thaben and I had often long talks in our 
 tent. 
 
 " There are two others who stood out more 
 prominently that the rest, and of whom I 
 shall barely make mention before I pass on to 
 speak of Mogalakwe, whose case was specially 
 interesting. 
 
 " One was a wife of the old chief She was 
 so much in earnest about learning to read, 
 that when the others were inclined to laugh, 
 she took her book and sat down by herself to 
 try to master its mysteries. She made great 
 progress, leaving the other women far behind. 
 
 " Another was a man of some standing in the 
 town, an old friend of Diphukwe's. He was 
 astonished to find that his old companion in 
 the hunt had become a teacher. He applied 
 himself with all his heart to the spelling-book.
 
 54 TWENTY YEARS TN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 He would come and get a few lines explained, 
 and then set off home to make himself master 
 of them. He persevered in this way, and was 
 able to read short sentences at the end of a 
 week. He is a man of whom, if spared, I 
 should have great hopes of his becoming useful 
 to the mission. 
 
 " I shall now speak briefly of Mogalakwe, an 
 old man so hale, hearty, and transparent- 
 natured, that I felt I should have liked to 
 transplant him to the Mission House in 
 London, for the Directors to see and hear him 
 for themselves. 
 
 "He heard my words on Sunday, both 
 morning and afternoon, and was very much 
 impressed by what he heard. When he came 
 to visit me at my tent he inquired about the 
 books. We had a long and interesting con- 
 versation. During our conversation I pur- 
 posely turned up the place, and put my finger 
 upon it. 'Now see,' I said, ' what the book 
 of God says here ' (Lev. xix. 32). 
 
 " ' Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, 
 and honour the face of the old man, and tear 
 thy God. I am the Lord.' 
 
 " ' Read that again,' he said ; and I read it
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 55 
 
 again, and read it a great many times over to 
 him at his request. 
 
 " He took the book in his hands, and looked 
 at the place I pointed out to him with my 
 finger. How his heart yearned to read the 
 words, but he could not. 
 
 " ' What am I to do ?' he said. ' I can't read, 
 and these old eyes of mine will never learn. 
 Oh, if the teachers had been sent out when 
 I was still a young man, how I should have 
 learned ! I should have surpassed them all, 
 but it is too late now for Mogalakwe ; he can 
 never learn.' 
 
 " ' Not too late,' I said, ' if Mogalakwe truly 
 desires to learn. The eyes may be too old, but 
 the heart is not.' 
 
 " I then proceeded to illustrate and explain 
 what I meant by allusions to their own 
 customs. 
 
 "He said, * You must tell my son all this, and 
 he must make haste and learn to read, then 
 he will be able to explain and read it all to 
 me.' 
 
 " He is a most intelligent old man, and I trust 
 some rays of light fell upon his path while we 
 were with him. He is the uncle of Lechulatebe
 
 56 TWENTY YEARS IN TEHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 and Meno. The old man had behaved most 
 magnanimously to Lechulatebe. While the 
 latter was still a child Mogalakwe might easily 
 have obtained possession of the town, but 
 instead of that, he took great care of the old 
 chiefs property until his son Lechulatebe should 
 be old enough to take possession of it. He 
 fought bravely for the deliverance of Lechu- 
 latebe and Meno when they were made 
 prisoners, and obtained their release. So noble 
 and unselfish was he, and Lechulatebe was so 
 struck with it, that he made him his chief 
 adviser, and placed the most unlimited con- 
 fidence in him. 
 
 " From all I saw of Mogalakwe and from all 
 I heard about him, I believed him to have 
 been, although a heathen, a truly brave and 
 great-souled man. 
 
 " Who can tell whether even now the message 
 of salvation may not find its way into his heart ? 
 
 " My heart went out to him as the heart of 
 a son towards his father. I gave him one of 
 the best Bibles, marked the verse with a pencil, 
 and put the place keeper in, so that he might 
 find it easily. He went home with it, and 
 entered his courtyard with the Bible open,
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 57 
 
 holding it in both his hands, and repeating 
 the words, which he had committed to memory. 
 
 " The next day he brought both his wives to 
 me to teach them to read. 
 
 " ' They are younger than I am,' he said, 
 ' and they must be my eyes.' 
 
 "We had many long conversations together, 
 and he showed us much kindness. 
 
 " On Thursday morning, soon after sunrise, 
 Moremi came to see me. He had ridden a 
 whole night and day, and had arrived too late 
 to come to see me before morning. I was 
 exceedingly glad to see him, as he said he was 
 to see me. He is a young, raw lad, active, but 
 with nothing prepossessing in his appearance. 
 He was a little disconcerted at first. But I 
 soon put him at rest by taking him into the 
 tent, where coffee was prepared for us by my 
 wife. Mokwati (one of Khama's people), 
 Thaben, Diphukwe, and Khukwe, were all 
 present, and while they sipped their coffee. I 
 entered on a full explanation of the errand upon 
 which the Directors had sent me. 
 
 " It would be too much to enter into details 
 of a conversation which lasted several hours, 
 but I had fully prepared myself for it, and 1
 
 58 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 believe that I left little unsaid that it was 
 desirable or possible to say. 
 
 " I took up in order the several steps in the 
 history of the Society's communications with 
 the Batauana, from the time of Livingstone, 
 Helmore, Price, and Mackenzie, until my own 
 arrival. I tried to make clear to him the reasons 
 for the long delay in the tribe's receiving a 
 teacher from the London Missionary Society, 
 explaining the large field of the Society's opera- 
 tions. I explained the necessity for the long 
 lapse of time after his own messengers were 
 sent out to Khama ; how we got his message 
 from Khama, and discussed it at our meeting at 
 Kuruman ; how the answer from the Direc- 
 tors arrived too late for me to come into the 
 Lake District that year, and therefore we had 
 to wait for the next season. 
 
 " I explained fully the position of the Directors, 
 that an indispensable condition to their sending 
 him teachers was, that a healthy locality be 
 found as the site of the mission, and that the 
 Directors urged upon him the necessity of his 
 removing thither with his people. I assured 
 him that the Directors having sent me was 
 a guarantee that they would find him teachers
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 59 
 
 if he could find a place where they could live 
 in safety ; but that they had too much work 
 upon their hands to think of wasting a single 
 life upon a mere experiment, and that they had 
 too much love for the men and women whom 
 they sent out to place their lives at risk, even 
 if they had more to spare and less large a field 
 for their operations. 
 
 " Moremi expressed himself as very greatly 
 pleased by their thinking of him, and thanked 
 me for coming to see him. 
 
 " He said his heart was set upon obtaining 
 
 teachers, and that, despairing of my ever coming 
 
 to see him, he had asked the traders to write 
 
 to the teachers in Damaraland to see if they 
 
 would not help him. He had not received an 
 
 answer from them ; but I heard afterwards that 
 
 they had replied that they thought it was the 
 
 work of the London Missionary Society, because 
 
 it is a different language from the one in which 
 
 they are working, while the London Missionary 
 
 Society had both men working, and books 
 
 printed, in the language. 
 
 " Moremi said he was prepared to go with his 
 young men wherever the teachers could find 
 a safe place to live in ; but that he must talk
 
 6o TWENTY YEARS TN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 it over with his headmen before he could 
 speak definitely of a place. 
 
 " Nothing: could be more desirable than the 
 manner in which Moremi spoke, but he is 
 young, and can scarcely, in the nature of things, 
 be expected to have gained much influence 
 over the old headmen, thouo^h his influence 
 with the very young men is undoubtedly great. 
 And therefore the thing that gratified me most, 
 and which I considered to be of the greatest 
 weight, was the manner in which Thaben spoke 
 about it. 
 
 " Thaben is a man about forty years of age, 
 and something like our own good Khama in 
 his appearance and manner. He speaks calmly, 
 and with a full consciousness of the meaning of 
 his words. 
 
 " He spoke strongly about the earnestness 
 of the people to obtain teachers ; but he was 
 not over ready to state that they would move 
 the town from where it now stands. He 
 saw a great many difficulties in the way of 
 their taking that step. Their very great riches 
 are obtained by their present position on the 
 river. 
 
 " Much as the people desired to be taught.
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 6i 
 
 he did not know if they would be prepared to 
 forego their property for the sake of it. That 
 would require to be seen. 
 
 " If the teachers could find a place where they 
 could live, he felt sure that numbers, and 
 especially the young men, would go and stay 
 for a time to be taught, and in fact, that they 
 would never be without some of them learning 
 their books. Afterwards, when they knew the 
 value of it, they might be more ready to remove, 
 and build beside the teachers. My own im- 
 pression is, that that is the true state of the 
 case. 
 
 " We must first find and fix upon a place, and 
 proceed with the work gradually, and I have 
 little doubt that the people would eventually 
 gather round the mission station. 
 
 " Before the chief came I had been ailing 
 a litde, and before he rose to go I began to 
 suspect that I had got an attack of fever. 
 
 " The medicines I employed were unavailing 
 to stave it off; all the symptoms increased. On 
 Friday I grew worse, passed a miserable night, 
 and on Saturday morning was so ill that nothing 
 was left but to get the waggon ready and trek 
 out into the veldt.
 
 62 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 "It was midday before the oxen came. 
 
 " As I was unable to rise, my wife tried hard 
 to get the men to make haste to inspan the 
 oxen ; at the same time she was doing her 
 utmost to put things in order in the waggon. . . . 
 
 "On Sunday morning the chief rode out 
 early to hear how I was. 
 
 " Then, as I learnt from Khukwe, they all 
 united in very earnest prayer on my behalf 
 They wrestled in prayer, or, as Khukwe says, 
 ' fought for me.' 
 
 " He says they forgot everything else, and 
 were absorbed by the one thought that I might 
 in God's mercy recover. 
 
 " Their prayers prevailed, with those of all 
 our dear friends both in this country and at 
 home, who were praying for our preservation. 
 
 " We never know how much we owe to the 
 prayers of friends for us. I have often felt, out 
 here in Africa, that some one was praymg, or 
 had been praying for me. 
 
 " On Tuesday I began to recover, and on 
 Wednesday I was able to move about short 
 distances. It was a trying time to my poor 
 wife, and it was a trying time to me. Her 
 anxiety arose from seeing me parched and
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 63 
 
 burnt up with fever and thirst, and I had to 
 go four days without tasting water. The 
 water which we got out at the roots of the 
 reeds by digging pits for it was so pecuHarly 
 flavoured that I could not bear even the smell 
 of it. My wife tried to disguise it in every 
 possible way by making tea, by mixing it with 
 oatmeal, etc., but all were alike. As soon as 
 I attempted to taste it both taste and smell 
 drove me away from it. It seemed to be 
 impregnated with the very poison which was 
 in my system. At last the ingenuity of my 
 wife hit on a happy device. We had a few 
 bottles of Morton's preserved fruits, which had 
 been bought for us at the ' Diamond Fields ' 
 by our friends the Mackenzies for the journey, 
 and we had never touched them. My wife 
 eot a bottle out of the box, and mixed the 
 sour juice with a litde milk, and I sipped 
 slowly at that. Every sip was like iced water, 
 and refreshed and cooled me beyond con- 
 ception. I can recommend it most heartily 
 to any one placed in similar circumstances. . . . 
 " We journeyed on, in a south-westerly direc- 
 tion, up and along a lime-stone ridge, which 
 rises to about one thousand feet above the Lake,
 
 64 TWENTY YEARS TN KHAMA S COUNTRY 
 
 and went as far as Ghantse, nearly one hundred 
 and fifty miles distant from the town of the 
 Batauana. We found water at nine or ten 
 different places, some larger, some smaller, 
 according as Boers or other travellers had 
 opened them out. The nearest water is about 
 two days with the waggon from the Lake, and 
 about four days from the town. There is a large 
 water at which a Mr. Bauer is living, about six 
 days from the town. The largest water which 
 we saw is that at which Mr. Van Zyl, a Dutch- 
 man, is living, Ghantse, about eight days with 
 the waggon. It is a large, beautiful water, 
 and is quite capable of supplying the whole 
 town of the Batauana with water for drinkino: 
 purposes, but whether it could be led out to 
 water gardens would have to be proved. Then 
 there is a still larger water called Rietfontein, 
 at which a large number of Boers were lying, 
 waiting for those who were to follow them, 
 before they all trekked into the country across 
 the Chobe River. It is about two hundred 
 miles from the town of the Batauana. But our 
 oxen were so thoroughly knocked up with 
 long trekking that they could not have gone 
 further.
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 65 
 
 " Again, we heard from Mr. Bauer and Mr. 
 Van Zyl that there is a beautiful healthy 
 country, lying to the north-east of the town 
 of the Batauana, called Gam (or by the 
 Masarwa Ysgam). It is well watered, high- 
 lying, free from fever, and in every respect 
 answers to the kind of country we should desire 
 to find. 
 
 " The Batauana also on our return established 
 the truth of this. But we could not see it with- 
 out waiting until the rainy season had fairly set 
 in. It is about a fortnight's journey with the 
 waggon, and, except in the rainy season, there 
 are several days', six or eight, thirst to get to 
 it. We therefore gave up all idea of seeing it. 
 
 "There is also another place farther away 
 still, high and mountainous, entirely free from 
 fever, thickly populated, and the Batauana are 
 living on very friendly terms with the people. 
 This place was mentioned by several of the 
 Batauana, and many of them seemed to have 
 their hearts set upon it. 
 
 '' But my impression is, that it would be 
 advisable for the missionary to be in no great 
 haste in fixing upon a place, until he had had 
 some time to look well over the country, and 
 
 5
 
 66 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 also, by making inquiry of the veldt people, had 
 made himself thoroughly familiar with it in all its 
 details, both its waters and mountains, and their 
 freeness or otherwise from miasmatic poison. 
 This, to be done thoroughly, would require 
 one or more missionaries to settle down, say 
 at Ghantse or Mr. Bauer's place, teach all who 
 would come to them, and ride out with horse 
 or with waggon, according to the distance, as 
 often as they possibly could. To do this they 
 ouo-ht to be free, and therefore unmarried men 
 would be the best for it. 
 
 " My offer then stands just as it stood — 
 I am willing to go and I am willing to stay. 
 My heart is perfectly at rest. I have been 
 blessed here (at Shoshong, with Khama's 
 people) in my work far beyond my highest 
 expectation. Traders and hunters, English 
 gentlemen and colonial, have expressed their 
 amazement at what they have seen. 
 
 " Mr. Cockin, a young missionary visiting 
 Shoshong, was astonished when he saw it, and 
 has had his heart stirred by it. 
 
 " The native teachers declare that no such 
 work has ever been known in Bechuanaland 
 before. The people have been roused and
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMT 67 
 
 shaken as in Ezekiel's vision, and by the self- 
 same Spirit of God, I trust. My own heart has 
 been refreshed beyond measure. The church 
 was filled twice to excess, and then as many 
 were left outside as had been in. I abandoned 
 the church, and collected the people on the 
 hillside, and still they increased, until our 
 numbers could not have been less than five 
 thousand people, sitting for four or five hours 
 to hear the Gospel. But all this I have yet to 
 tell. At the Lake I saw that there also God 
 was giving me the same power to move the 
 people by my preaching. 
 
 " The consciousness that I am where God 
 would have me be, and that He is with me and 
 is blessing me in my work, is all I desire. 
 This I have had in a reniarkable degree ; and I 
 know I shall have it as long as I continue to 
 seek it and labour faithfully. Having then this 
 consciousness, I unhesitatingly throw myself 
 into the hands of the Directors, and without 
 any reserve. I know that they are sincere 
 men, earnestly desiring and striving for the 
 extension of our Saviour's Kingdom. I know 
 the spirit of prayer which has pervaded our 
 meetings, and the blessing which has come into
 
 68 TWENTY YEARS IN KHARIAS COUNTRY 
 
 our hearts, and especially at our last meeting 
 at Bakwena, where it was more full and 
 overflowing than ever. I know that I went 
 in the strength of that blessing many days. 
 To it I attribute, in a great measure, the 
 blessing which we have received here. I 
 know, and believe, and have the most un- 
 bounded confidence, in the singleness of aim 
 with which the Directors labour to aid, direct, 
 support, and encourage us who are labouring in 
 the field. I believe that you at home and w^e 
 in the field shall yet see clearly the right course 
 and pursue it unitedly, for the uplifting of the 
 Bechuana tribes from Kuruman to the Lake. 
 
 " I feel that we who are in the field ought 
 to show a willing readiness to go forward, and 
 in this and every possible way to aid in the 
 carrying onward to its completion this highest 
 and best of all earthly service. 
 
 " Let me then say most earnestly once for 
 all, I am or shall be at any future time ready 
 to go forward to wherever I can best serve to 
 advance this glorious cause, for which our 
 Saviour laid down His lite, not counting that 
 too dear for the prize upon which He had set 
 His heart. May He who rules and guides
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 69 
 
 guide US all. and the glory and the praise be 
 His. Amen. 
 
 " Moremi came over with his people the last 
 Sunday afternoon to hear my parting words 
 to them. They were all very attentive, and 
 appeared to be very deeply impressed. He 
 was most unwilling to leave us. Meno also 
 was there, and was very kind. 
 
 " On Monday I had a long conversation with 
 the chief. 
 
 " On Tuesday I spent the whole morning in 
 plain, direct, and, I may honestly say, affection- 
 ate advising and instructing. 
 
 " My spirit yearned to impart something that 
 might be of true advantage and real service to 
 him as chief of the Batauana. I knew it was 
 possibly the last time that I was to see him, 
 that possibly it would be a long time before 
 any European missionary again arrived, there- 
 fore I was all the more desirous to leave him 
 with the most valuable thoughts which it was 
 in my power to bestow. The best that it was 
 mine to give him he got that morning. . . . 
 
 " On Wednesday and Thursday nights we 
 were once more in the ' Fly,' * now on our 
 
 * The 'Fly ' — the tract infested with the tsetse, a poisonous fly.
 
 70 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 return journey. After working very hard these 
 two nights to get the waggons through the 
 infested district, one of the servants came up on 
 horseback a few minutes after outspanning my 
 waggon to say : ' Khukwe has sent me on to 
 tell Monare that we came up to our loose- 
 cattle herds, sitting at a fire, and they said that 
 all the cattle are lost in the ' Fly.' 
 
 " ' It's too bad of those fellows,' I said to mv 
 wife, ' after two such nights, and they knowing 
 how weak I am. Nothing for it but to go 
 back. Pray for me.' 
 
 " Calling the drivers and leaders of the two 
 waggons to follow me, with the exception of 
 one who must stay to watch the cattle that had 
 pulled the waggons, I started off, uttering, as 
 I ploughed through the sand, many a short, 
 earnest prayer for help, but with a hopeless, 
 sinking feeling at my heart. 
 
 " I thought I had had enough to vex and try 
 me that last night. I had walked a great part 
 of the road, urging the drivers to push on, 
 calling to the cattle myself, and trying to cheer, 
 by my voice, both the cattle and the men. 
 
 " From one waggon to the other I had gone, 
 watching, warning, rousing, so as to get my 
 family safely through that dread district.
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 71 
 
 " Two or three times that night the men had 
 got my spare waggon jammed fast against a 
 tree, and had broken the trek-tow.* Axes 
 had to be got out, and trees cut down, waggon 
 shunted back, trek-tow mended in some fashion, 
 but nothinfj done without ' Monare.' 
 
 " But God heard and helped me, for all the lost 
 oxen were found together, and were got out of 
 the District without being bitten by a single fly. 
 
 " The sun rose on me with not a bit of pith 
 left in my bones, ploughing my way back again 
 to the wao^orons. 
 
 " Stopping under the shade of a tree, I stripped 
 off all my extra clothing which I had put on 
 for the cold night. Then I tried again. At last 
 my tongue was parched, and my legs refused 
 to move, and I dropped down upon the sand 
 weary, and wishing for water. 
 
 " Faint for want of food, and perspiring at 
 every pore, I tried again, and again I lay down 
 to rest. 
 
 " ' O God, my Heavenly Father, send some 
 one with a bottle of water and a little bread,' 
 was my prayer uttered in deep distress. 
 
 * The thong made of hides by means of which the oxen draw 
 the waggon.
 
 72 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " ' Prayer won't make the rain fall,' say some. 
 ' It's very risky work praying for rain with these 
 Bechuanas,' said a trader the other day, ' I 
 wonder you run the risk, because you know 
 perfectly well that God doesn't always answer.' 
 
 " ' The Boers ought to have been getting 
 through "The Thirst," and not wasting their 
 time praying for the rain to fall in the dry 
 season, the silly fools,' said a trader to me on 
 the road. But God sent the Boers water when 
 they were dying with thirst. 
 
 " And Khukwe was driving his waggon all 
 night himself, because his driver was too lazy 
 to do it, and wanted to sleep. He outspans his 
 waggon, and white with sand-dust goes to say 
 good-morning to my wife. 
 
 " ' Did you see Monare, Khukwe ? ' 
 
 "'Yes, Missese, I saw him. It's far, very 
 far to the cattle.' 
 
 " ' But what are we to do, Khukwe ? He has 
 nothing to eat and no water, and he's sick too. 
 Who is there that can be sent back again ? ' 
 
 " ' Me, Missese ; I'll go back.' And so, with 
 a botde of tea and a bottle of water slung one 
 over each shoulder, and a little bread, he 
 returns in answer to my prayer.
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI -^ 
 
 "No need to envy those who can explain away 
 all these things by natural laws and chance. 
 If it is a delusion, it is then a very happy one 
 to believe, as I must do — there is no help for 
 me — that a kind Heavenly Father is about my 
 path, and that a tender, loving eye is ever 
 beholding me with affectionate regard. 
 
 " But these are things almost too sacred to 
 be spoken or written about, and yet it is un- 
 kind to keep them back. 
 
 " Ay, Khukwe, there is One, not I, who will 
 reward you for that cup of cold water which you 
 carried, travel-worn, weary, and dust-whitened 
 as you were, back into the Tsetse ' Fly.' 
 
 " At last we got into the kloof, and out- 
 spanned once more in front of our own door a 
 little before sunset, on Thursday, September 
 13th ; and, notwithstanding many prophecies to 
 the contrary, not one was wanting in our little 
 family circle. 
 
 " So had our Heavenly Father, in His good- 
 ness, shielded us, that, with the exception of 
 my own sickness, and a little ague which 
 Khukwe experienced at the Lake immediately 
 after our arrival there, not even a servant had 
 been sick until we got home, when one of the
 
 74 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 servants had a mild attack of fever, brought on 
 by exposure to the sun and overwork. 
 
 " We had gone out with trembhng, and had 
 returned with joy. Our first act, therefore, was 
 to offer thanks to our Heavenly Father, and 
 to praise Him for His wonderful protecting care. 
 
 " Our good chief Khama not only did me the 
 great service of lending me his two spans of 
 oxen to take us through ' The Thirst ' — one of 
 which spans I took the liberty of taking on 
 with me, when I found the heavy sand through 
 which I had to travel, and saw that my own 
 young oxen were of no use for it — but he said 
 he should have been grieved if I had not clone 
 so, and he refused to ask anything for the three 
 oxen which he lost by it, saying : 
 
 " ' I do not understand charging my friend 
 for accidents which occurred through no fault 
 of his.' 
 
 " There is no doubt about the feasibility of 
 establishing a mission successfully in the 
 country of the Batauana. 
 
 " Difficulties will have to be met there as 
 elsewhere in the Mission field, with unflagging 
 and patient labour long continued. 
 
 " To enter upon the work with too sanguine
 
 JOURNEY TO LAKE NGAMI 75 
 
 hopes of the success which must eventually 
 attend our labours there as elsewhere, will 
 not hasten that success, while disappointment 
 may damp the spirit of those who labour. 
 
 " To be engaged in the work of the uplifting 
 of Africa out of her degradation, slavery, and 
 ignorance, into freedom, purity, and light, is so 
 noble and glorious a work, that a man may 
 well be content to stand even in the breach 
 of the ' forlorn hope ' with Livingstone and 
 others, who have already laid down their lives 
 for Africa's swarthy sons and daughters. Men 
 of some such stamp, animated by some such 
 spirit, are the men for the Lake. 
 
 " I think no other ought to go there."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION 
 
 "And the multitudes gave heed with one accord unto the things 
 that were spoken by PhiUp. And there was much joy in that 
 city." — Acts viii. 7, 8. 
 
 ''T^HE work at Lake Ngami, started at the 
 
 -L cost of so much suffering, and In the 
 
 face of so many and serious difficulties, was 
 
 too near the missionary's heart for him to 
 
 be satisfied to let it lapse, even for a time. 
 
 The year following that in which he made 
 
 his first entrance there, so nearly paying for 
 
 the effort with his life, Mr. Hepburn, while 
 
 awaiting instructions from England, sent in 
 
 the two native teachers, Khukwe and Di- 
 
 phukwe, with their families, that they might 
 
 "hold the fort" amongst the Batauana, until 
 
 more permanent arrangements could be made, 
 
 " lest," as he says, " their zeal and earnestness 
 
 to have the gospel should grow cold, with the 
 
 hope deferred of long waiting." 
 
 76
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION "jy 
 
 In tht; following letter he enters into his 
 reasons for this : — 
 
 " Shoshong, /;/■;/<', 1880. 
 
 ■' I have taken it upon myself to send 
 Diphukwe and Khukwe with their families to 
 Lake Ngami. The men themselves were im- 
 patient to enter upon the work ; their hearts 
 have been drawn out largely to the Batauana ; 
 and hence I decided to encourage their ardour 
 by placing confidence in them rather than 
 repress it by bidding them wait. 
 
 " The Batauana are thoroughly in earnest 
 about taking up the teaching, and have had 
 to wait a long time already ; and hence it 
 appeared to me wiser to feed the fire which is 
 consuming them, rather than to let it burn low 
 or go out, and have to fan it into a flame from 
 smouldering ashes, or light it altogether afresh, 
 " After earnest thought and prayer spent 
 upon the whole matter, I felt assured that the 
 Directors would be glad to have two such 
 trustworthy native evangelists as Diphukwe 
 and Khukwecarrying on the teaching. . . . 
 
 " Khukwe arrived at Lake Ngami on a 
 Friday, and began his work of preaching
 
 78 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 on the Sunday to a large congregation of 
 Batauana, and on the Monday week following 
 he commenced his school work of daily teach- 
 ing. He found that they had made great 
 progress in their reading since our former visit. 
 Many were able to read a little, and about 
 a dozen men and women were able to read 
 their Bibles well. 
 
 " This was most encouraging, and the recep- 
 tion they met with cheered them much. 
 
 " Khukwe remarks that nowhere throughout 
 the whole of Bechuanaland has there been such 
 an evident earnestness shown in the desire to 
 learn to read. He speaks of it as exceeding 
 all his conceptions of what Bechuanas could do 
 when they set their hearts upon doing it. . . . 
 
 " ' The Masarwa ' (Bushmen vassals) ' showed 
 themselves to be just like other people,' says 
 Khukwe. ' Some were eager to learn, while 
 others were more inclined to laugh at it all. 
 There is, however, one Masarwa woman who 
 has learned to read her Bible, and she can read 
 it as well as my own wife Dikeledi herself 
 
 " She acted as their interpreter when they 
 preached, for all the Masarwa do not know 
 Sechuana well.
 
 t^: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 m^-^*^-"^ 
 
 fe- 
 
 
 i^:-^- 
 
 
 .T-«.<^ 
 
 FOUR OF THE EVANGELISTS WHO WENT TO THE LAKE.
 
 8o TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " She often rebuked those who were not 
 inclined to learn, and in Khukwe's estimation 
 this woman has not only learned to read her 
 Bible well, but she has learned to understand 
 and appreciate its teachings. 
 
 " Here is probably our first Bush woman 
 Christian in the district of Lake Ngami. 
 
 " A reference to my letter giving an account 
 of my journey to the Lake will show that I 
 laid special stress upon teaching the Bushmen, 
 because I know well in what estimation they 
 are held by their masters, who claim them 
 as slaves, and treat them as of less value than 
 their dogs, 
 
 " Khukwe has great hopes that many among 
 the Batauana have felt the power of the 
 Gospel, both men and women. Inhere are 
 some who are most diligent in searching the 
 Scriptures. When some passage strikes them 
 as particularly new they go and show it to 
 their friends, asking them — 
 
 " ' Have you seen that God's book says 
 
 so-and-so ? ' 
 
 " ' No,' is probably the answer given to the 
 
 inquiry. 
 
 " ' But it does ; see, here it is.'
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LA ICE MISSION 8i 
 
 " Their Bibles are compared, and the passage 
 carefully read and discussed. 
 
 " In return the question will be put, ' Have 
 you seen this?' The same answer being 
 given, again Bibles are compared, and again 
 the passage is carefully read and discussed, and 
 so the work goes on. 
 
 " The Bible is a new-found treasure to the 
 Batauana. They are digging in it, and find- 
 ing something more precious than African 
 diamonds. 
 
 " The sons of South Africa move slowly, very 
 slowly ; but if they move slowly, there is a 
 steadiness in their movement that needs to be 
 felt to be understood. This is very marked in 
 their learning to read. It is a tedious process 
 to teach them ; but they labour for hours over 
 their books — at cattle posts, in the veldt, herd- 
 ing, away on the hunt — over their evening 
 fires. There is a steady, slow, onward, up- 
 ward movement, and it is from heathenism to 
 God. 
 
 " Khukwe mentioned several names of men 
 and women among the Batauana who have 
 evidently a God-consciousness about them, 
 which is steadily growing. 
 
 6
 
 82 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 "He also relates how MoremI silenced a 
 trader's driver in his khotla (courtyard) one 
 day. 
 
 " The driver was indulging in sneers regard- 
 ing the idea of its being wrong to have lots of 
 wives, when Moremi took him up and asked 
 him if he could explain how it came about that 
 men did take several wives. 
 
 " The driver admitted that he could not. 
 
 "Then it's time you knew,' said Moremi. 
 ' Come here to me, and I'll tell you.' 
 
 " He took up his Bible and read about Cain 
 killing Abel, and then about his son Lamech. 
 
 " ' Now,' said Moremi, ' the first man who 
 took many wives came of a bad lot, and that is 
 how it has been in the world ever since.' 
 
 " But the best evidence of the power of the 
 Word of God is in the deeply interesting story 
 which Khukwe told me respecting a man 
 named Tsapo. One day when Khukwe was 
 teaching school a sick man came to him to 
 beg medicine. 
 
 " As soon as school was over he went to his 
 waggon to procure the medicine. When he 
 was in the waggon Moremi said to those about 
 him —
 
 MORE ABOU'I IHE LAKE MISSION 83 
 
 " ' He has gone to get the water of faith, and 
 when he conies out he will sprinkle us all and 
 then say, " Now leave your wives and live with 
 only one woman, and don't do this and don't 
 do tha.t, for I have made you believers." ' 
 
 " Tsapo was there, and as soon as he heard 
 this he went and sat down by himself at a 
 little distance t'rom the others. 
 
 " The first man I see him sprinkle with 
 water I shall run ! ' he said to himself When 
 Khukwe came out he noticed that there was 
 something strange, but he gave the sick man 
 the medicine, and did not ask any questions. 
 This took place soon after Khukwe's arrival 
 at the Lake. 
 
 " After they returned from their visit to 
 Ntare's country the first thing they heard of 
 anion Of the Batauana was — 
 
 " ' We have got our own teacher at the Lake 
 now. Tsapo is our teacher, and he is an 
 earnest teacher too, and he knows how to teach. 
 He prays and preaches regularly.' 
 
 " Tsapo himself told them of the change, 
 and how it took place. 
 
 " One day he was reading in the First Epistle 
 to the Corinthians, and he came to the fifth
 
 84 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 chapter. He read, and read himself into it as 
 he read. 
 
 " Tsapo had three wives — his own wife, 
 his father's wife, and his brother's wife. His 
 father and brother were dead. 
 
 " Tsapo was overwhelmed with amazement 
 and conviction of sin ; he could not rest. He 
 dared not go on any longer, and he put away 
 his father's and brother's wives. 
 
 " After a while, when it became rumoured all 
 over the town that Tsapo had put away his 
 wives and become a believer, Tsapo thought 
 it best to go and explain publicly why he had 
 done so. 
 
 "He read the Scriptures to them in public, 
 and henceforward became more and more 
 earnest in proclaiming his faith, and the peace 
 he had obtained in believing. 
 
 " From Khukwe's whole account of him, 
 Tsapo is evidently a most zealous and enthu- 
 siastic worker for Christ. 
 
 " Moremi has been to Shoshon^ to see 
 Khama and myself. He was most anxious for 
 me to go back to his town. He got good advice 
 from Khama, if he had had sense to act upon 
 it. He saw how Khama rules his people, but
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION 85 
 
 he had the conceit to affect to despise Khama's 
 rule. He pleaded with Khama for native beer. 
 He got Khama's youngest brother to let drink 
 be brought to his house for him secretly. 
 
 " Khama had told him what a labour it had 
 been to him to break down the habit in his 
 town, both among white and black, and that 
 if he, Khama, ever visited Moremi's town he 
 could depend upon him not interfering with 
 any of his laws. 
 
 " Moremi professed to acquiesce, and yet 
 secretly disregarded Khama's injunctions, and 
 the consequence was that Khama's brother had 
 his house burnt down afterwards by Khama's 
 own hand, for his having acted as an accom- 
 plice in Moremi's duplicity. 
 
 " While Moremi was here I spoke to him 
 and his people about their slaves. I related 
 the sad and dreadful stories which had been 
 retailed about Batauana cruelties, and quoted 
 Scripture to impress upon them and him that 
 the cries of the oppressed ascended up into 
 the ears of God. 
 
 " But it has all been like water spilt upon 
 the ground to Moremi. 
 
 "He went back and killed the Masarwa. He
 
 86 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 had a quarrel in his town which ahnost ended 
 in a rupture, and but for old Mogalakwe's 
 influence must have done so. 
 
 " I can now understand why his quiet old 
 mother wished so much that I might give him 
 good advice. She knows what his father was, 
 and she has seen her son grow up from infancy, 
 and has no doubt, with all a mother's tender- 
 ness, made in her secret heart a correct estimate 
 of his character. 
 
 " The Directors will see from this that I hold 
 no high opinion of Moremi, and do not expect 
 to gain much from his influence on the side of 
 good. But he is not beyond the almightiness 
 of the Spirit of God in his Gospel. 
 
 " Diphukvve has just arrived from the Lake. 
 The work has prospered greatly. He says 
 that great numbers have learned to read the 
 spelling book. 
 
 " The chief Moremi can both read his Bible 
 and ask intelligent questions, which show that 
 he "understands what he is reading ; and he can 
 write letters, and does so, although he writes 
 slowly. He can read any letter written to 
 him. 
 
 " Masekuromelo, the mother of the chiefs
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION 87 
 
 wife, not only reads well, but her heart is evi- 
 dently under the power of God's word. Unfor- 
 tunately she is one of three wives, and the fear 
 lest the heart of her husband Thaben should 
 cling to the other two restrains her from openly 
 declaring herself on the side of Christ. 
 
 " Madiphoir, one of the wives of Ledimo, is in 
 front of all the women in reading, and always 
 in all the women's classes, young or old, she 
 teaches. 
 
 " Thaben, Moremi's father-in-law, still asks if 
 there is no medicine that can teach him to read 
 like his wives. 
 
 " The accounts of Tsapo, Maropin, and 
 Keseilwe are most interesting. 
 
 " Tsapo I wrote about in my former letter. 
 
 " I shall give a short account of the other two. 
 It will show how the gospel is working among 
 that people. There are many others, but these 
 are the three who carry on the work in the 
 absence of Khukwe and Diphukwe. 
 
 " Maropin's wife died. He went to the chief 
 to beg, according to native custom, to marry 
 one of the old chief's wives. She was given 
 to him at a meeting of all the great men of the 
 town, but being considered to be only lent to
 
 88 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 him and not his own wife, his children by her 
 all belonged to the chief. Maropin came as an 
 inquirer to Diphukwe. After a long and care- 
 ful examination Diphukwe said — 
 
 •' ' How can you be a Christian and live with 
 a woman who is not your own wife ? ' 
 
 " At last Maropin went to the chief about it. 
 
 " Moremi listened, and promised she should 
 be his own wife. 
 
 "'Who were with you?' asked Diphukwe, 
 when he reported his success. 
 
 " ' We were alone.' 
 
 " ' Did you get her at first in that way ? ' 
 
 " ' No, all the headmen were there.' 
 
 " ' Then the headmen must be called again. 
 
 " Maropin spoke to the woman about it, and 
 she went at once to the chief 
 
 " ' Chief,' she said, ' Maropin is a Christian. 
 A Christian cannot live with a woman who is 
 not his own wife. Maropin wants to marry me, 
 I do not want Maropin's heart made sore on 
 my account. I want to live with Maropin as 
 his own wife, chief 
 
 " She compelled Moremi to call all the great 
 men at once. She told them her mind, and 
 they sent for Maropin and heard him.
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION 89 
 
 " ' Take her, then,' they said. ' She is your 
 wife ; we give her to you.' 
 
 " This woman can read better than Maropin, 
 and Diphukwe told Maropin to read the Bible 
 with her, and explain it to her, so that she also 
 may become a Christian. 
 
 " Keseilwe, the son of Ledimo, one of the 
 greatest men of the town next to Mogalakwe, 
 is very intelligent. 
 
 " Keseilwe had two wives. All three read 
 together. They picked their way together, 
 and talked over the word of God. 
 
 " They all made the discovery that a man 
 may have only one wife. The second wife 
 watched her husband closely, and madeup her 
 mind that he was secretly troubled in spirit 
 about her. 
 
 " Without a word she slipped away to her 
 former home. As soon as Keseilwe knew she 
 had gone to stay he went to her. 
 
 " ' You ought not to have run away from 
 me,' he said. ' You have done no evil. We 
 have never quarrelled. Come back, and let 
 me send you away nicely. If you must go, it 
 is not because any change has come over us, 
 but because we have made the discovery that
 
 90 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 we had gone astray, and v/ere not living as 
 God meant us to live." 
 
 " He sent her away with her own children, 
 giving her cattle, and all her own property ; and 
 if he hears of any trouble she has he looks into 
 it and sends her help. For he says, ' Is she 
 not my dear friend, and shall I not continue to 
 show her every kindness ? ' 
 
 " Keseilwe is an earnest, active Christian. 
 
 " ' It only wants,' says Diphukwe, ' some 
 head woman of the town to come out and 
 declare herself, and many would follow, for 
 the women have not the courage of the men ; 
 and beside, it is a more serious matter for a 
 woman to declare herself a Christian than for 
 a man to do so.' 
 
 " A word in passing about Ledimo, the father 
 of Keseilwe. 
 
 "In a conversation with Diphukwe he 
 said — 
 
 " ' The word you speak is all one. It has 
 no change. Perhaps you think I do not pray. 
 I pray — I pray to God. It is long since I 
 began to pray to God. / am a God's 7nan. 
 I heard the same words when the Doctor ' 
 (Livingstone) ' came. It was the same word
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION 91 
 
 when Hepburn came. I heard it. I have 
 heard you, and it is only one word. I can't 
 come to the gathering church because I am 
 getting old. But see what you are doing. It 
 is God's word. For what has brought you 
 here, Diphukwe, away from your own people ? 
 Look again at my son Keseilwe. His heart is 
 full of it. He will go away next, and leave me 
 and his people. What has done that ? It is 
 God's word truly.' 
 
 " In my own work here at Shoshong, I am 
 convinced of this fact. It is my constant ex- 
 perience. Years before a person declares 
 himself an inquirer the work of God has 
 been going on in the heart. I find the work 
 is constantly referred to years back. Some- 
 thing occurs, and a decision is made. I am 
 reaping now the fruits of my open-air preaching 
 before I went to the Lake. 
 
 " Diphukwe speaks highly of Meno and 
 Mogalakwe. He says — 
 
 " ' These three old men, Mogalakwe, Ledimo, 
 and Meno, are the most upright men of the 
 town.' 
 
 " The Makoba slaves are learning to read, 
 and are doing so with their master's knowledge.
 
 92 IWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " There is a large town of Makoba where 
 the chief says : ' Oh that God would send us 
 a missionary to teach us also ! ' 
 
 " He says : ' When you, Monare' (Sir), 'went 
 to the Lake, the Makoba heard what you had 
 to say, and were rejoiced ; and somehow, no 
 one knows how they got the spelling books, 
 and learned to read, and taught one another.' 
 
 " The poor degraded, down-trodden Masarwa 
 (Bushmen) were filled with delightful wonder 
 when they heard that God was their God ; 
 that they also came from one Father with their 
 masters ; that they also must be taught. 
 They had not the slighest notion that the 
 teaching of God's word could have any refer- 
 ence to them. Their masters treat them as 
 animals; mere beasts of burden. Their masters 
 go to hunt, and take no waggons or oxen, and 
 the Masarwa are their waggons and oxen. 
 
 " ' My heart was sore for them, but I could 
 not speak their language,' says Diphukwe. 
 
 " Truly the poor Masarwa are in need of 
 help. The cruelties they endure are not known 
 to Europeans. It is only now and again that 
 some glimpse of it astonishes us. The morality 
 of the town has changed greatly. The walking
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION 93 
 
 to and fro in the town at night for evil purposes 
 has ceased 
 
 "The great difficulty that presses upon the 
 Batauana is their having already taken several 
 wives. 
 
 " What are we to do ? is the question. 
 
 " To many no doubt this will prove a great 
 stumbling-block. But God's word has taken 
 up its permanent abode among them. I am 
 satisfied of that, whether the teachers of that 
 word may be able to do so or not. 
 
 " I have written very hurriedly and shortly, for 
 I am anxious that you should get this before 
 the end of the year. With Khukwe's account 
 it will show that the work of the Lake has not 
 been in vain. 
 
 " The reaping has overtaken the sowing," 
 
 "■December 1880. 
 
 " One of our headmen has been in to the 
 Lake District on a visit, and he told me the 
 other day he was greatly struck with the work 
 there. 
 
 " * The great people have given themselves 
 up to the teaching,' he said. ' I went to see for 
 myself, and I was greatly struck with that fact.'
 
 94 
 
 TWENTY YEARS JN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " This man has himself been constant in his 
 attendance at our services since his return from 
 the Lake. We had an earnest conversation in 
 my study on Tuesday last. 
 
 "He says the story of the prodigal son first 
 gave him light, and he determined to return to 
 his Father. He begged me not to forget him. 
 I have not seen an old man so eager and 
 earnest as he was. I could not finish a single 
 sentence in our conversation. He leaped for- 
 ward, and finished it with some apt illustration 
 from native life and custom. 
 
 " Some of the old head women are beginning 
 to present themselves as inquirers, one among 
 them a blind woman. 
 
 " During the whole time of the garden dig- 
 ging this year our schools have had scholars. 
 
 " My daily afternoon Bible readings have 
 been largely attended, and great interest has 
 been manifested. 
 
 " I have been holding a regular night service 
 from eight to ten o'clock in the open air, and it 
 has been attended by thousands. The people 
 after a hard day in the gardens have rejoiced 
 to come. 
 
 " Regarding the Masarwa Bushmen I can say
 
 MORE ABOUT THE LAKE MISSION 95 
 
 but little yet ; although there are not wanting 
 signs that they are beginning to hear the 
 Gospel, and that their masters are beginning 
 to see that they have a duty to perform to 
 them. 
 
 " I never lose an opportunity of pressing the 
 matter upon their attention, and I never come 
 across a passage of Scripture which will in any 
 way apply without pointing it out and pressing 
 its importance on those who desire to become 
 followers of Christ. 
 
 " Many have begun to hold services with 
 their Bushmen slaves at their cattle posts. 
 
 " There are four slaves who have been re- 
 leased by their masters with a young cow each. 
 " I find a strange notion has to be combated. 
 If a man has purchased slaves with money he 
 believes he has done wrong, and must release 
 them, or he will be punished by Christ for 
 wrongdoing ; but if he has inherited slaves 
 from his father he thinks they occupy the same 
 place as his cattle, and are property which he 
 is entitled to hold in possession, and hand on 
 to his children. 
 
 " But God's judgment on the Egyptians for 
 their treatment of the Israelites, and the
 
 96 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 special reference to it in Stephen's speech, 
 which we lately came across in our Bible 
 readings in the Acts of the Apostles, which 
 we have just finished, has made a deep impres- 
 sion upon the people's minds."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES, 
 WITH A TEN YEARS' RETROSPECT 
 
 " Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My 
 holy mountain." — Joel ii. i. 
 
 " O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst ol' tlie years, in the 
 midst of the years make it known." — Hab. iii. 2. 
 
 " Shoshong, Mo}' 1880. 
 
 1READ with pleasure the letter addressed 
 to the Directors by Mr. R. Arthington 
 (a valued and life-long friend of the Society). 
 Most heartily I unite in the wish ' that the 
 whole Church of Christ on earth would arise 
 in her proper strength,' and lay herself down 
 upon her work, and especially ' leave Jio part 
 unvisited with the Gospel.' This last is of 
 great importance in the interests of the future 
 welfare of our infant churches. 
 
 "It is a point that has not received that 
 full consideration which it needs, and which 
 I believe it will yet receive. 
 
 97 7
 
 98 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " If Other missions are like our Bechuanaland 
 mission, then there are, lying all over the 
 mission field, numerous small places — villages 
 and hamlets — and also, what is a more serious 
 matter, many not inconsiderable towns, almost 
 entirely, if not altogether, uncultivated. Such 
 places left uncultivated by the Christian Church 
 are not left uncultivated by the devil, and they 
 become centres of evil, and are ready to burst up 
 volcano-like and pour out a sudden curse, wither- 
 ing and blasting the patient labour of years. 
 
 " We have recently had a sorrowful mani- 
 festation of this in and round the district 
 of Kuruman. For if the devil is powerless to 
 hold men's hearts where the Gospel is preached 
 he can work his own will where he is left to 
 himself, and he does not neglect his oppor- 
 tunity. He knows how to use it to the hurt, 
 if not the destruction, of an infant Church. If 
 he has been cast out of heaven he has not been 
 cast out of the earth, and he is ever closing 
 up his ranks, and urging to more deadly con- 
 flict, as he sees the area of the battle widening. 
 He fights, doubtless, with the desperation of 
 despair ; but if it is a hopeless battle, it is a 
 furious battle while it lasts.
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES 99 
 
 " Never in the history cf the Church did 
 he strike a more swift, a more well-rimed, and, 
 for the moment, a more paralysing blow, than 
 that which he aimed at the mission Church 
 of South Africa, and from which we are just 
 beginning to pick ourselves up. 
 
 "Not a single mission station south of the 
 Zambesi but felt the shock ; and the wave of 
 battle has not yet quite died away ; there are 
 still some distant rumblings along the line. 
 
 It was well-timed, for almost every section 
 of the Christian Church was girding itself for 
 vigorous action in the interior of South Africa. 
 The shout had gone forth from Europe and 
 America — 'Africa for Christ! New mis- 
 sions were undertaken, or were in contempla- 
 tion. This was the chosen moment. Swift, 
 loud, and rushing as the desert-wind, came the 
 hurricane of war. Round about the American 
 and other missions in Natal, round about 
 Lovedale, the French Basutoland, and other 
 colonial missions, round ^ibout our own Moffat 
 Institution and Bechuanaland missions, raged 
 the noise and cruel curse. 
 
 " England had become embroiled in ignoble 
 batde.
 
 100 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " White man against black man. 
 '' The foe was never in any sense our nation's 
 equal. But if the foe was feeble, when com- 
 pared with the power against which it was 
 matched, it nevertheless succeeded in making 
 England feel the smart, threw a cloud of 
 sorrow over her people, paralysed ;her trade 
 and commerce, and brought the funds of her 
 missionary societies to such a state of de- 
 pression as to stop the thought of progress—- 
 thus raising in many breasts the anxious 
 question whether the Church would be able 
 to hold her ground. 
 
 " Let us hope that under her great Captain 
 she has not only stood her ground and borne 
 the shock, but that she is now ready to 
 advance, and carry every position which she 
 had set herself to win. 
 
 " Let the ministers of Christ go forward. 
 The Church is more than able. She does 
 not know her own strength. She has not 
 yet thrown out her forces upon the Foreign 
 field. 
 
 " What are her few hundred missionaries but 
 scouts sent out to observe the enemy, bring in 
 tidinofs of the nature and extent of the field,
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES loi 
 
 the forces required and the preparations to be 
 made, and routes to be taken. 
 
 " Now what is the report ? 
 
 " Numerous forces absolutely necessary. 
 Wide doors for immediate operations open 
 everywhere. Loud calls for help come across 
 all waters. 
 
 "Is the Church unequal to her Lord's com- 
 mand, ' Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature ' ? Let it not be. 
 
 " Let 1880 become memorable for the forces 
 sent out to occupy fully every part of the 
 mission field. Let the Church lay down her 
 golden pathways to the nations. Let her sons 
 and daughters go forth, the chariot-men and 
 the chariot-women of the chariots of the Lord 
 and of fire. 
 
 " Will it weaken the Home Churches ? 
 
 " Then has God never said, ' I will pour out 
 My Spirit.' 
 
 " Strengthen weak Churches, raise the 
 stipends of poorer ministers — nothing will do 
 it so thoroughly, so effectually as the doubling, 
 ay, the trebling, of the funds of all Foreign 
 Mission societies. 
 
 " It would send a throb of life through the
 
 102 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 Churches, that would soon settle all the trouble- 
 some Home questions. 
 
 "No surer means could be found for bring- 
 ing the promised outpouring of the Spirit, and 
 that is the one great need of the Church of 
 Christ. We want all the members of every 
 congregation baptised with the baptism of the 
 Spirit and of fire. Have we no promise ? 
 
 " 'Consider now from this day and onward, 
 from the four-and-twentieth day of the ninth 
 month, from the day that the foundation ot 
 the Lord's Temple was laid. Consider ye. . . . 
 From tJiis day will I bless yon!' 
 
 " Does this large promise — large because 
 unlimited, unqualified — does this large promise 
 not apply to every new effort, and to every 
 renewed effort to build — not an earthly house, 
 however beautiful, however costly, but a great, 
 a glorious. Spiritual House for the Lord our 
 God to dwell in ? 
 
 " There has of late been a great deal said 
 and written about little Churches and little men. 
 May the Lord not ask our wealthy Churches 
 this question, ' Is it time for you yourselves 
 to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this House 
 is waste ? And now, thus saith the Lord of
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES 103 
 
 Hosts : Consider your ways. Ye have sown 
 much and brought in little. . . . Thus saith the 
 Lord of Hosts, Consider your ways. Go up 
 to the mountains and bring wood, and build 
 the house ; and I will take pleasure in it, 
 and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye 
 looked for much, and lo, it came to little ; 
 and when ye brought it home, I did blow 
 upon it. Why ? saith the Lord of Hosts : 
 Because of My house that is waste : and ye 
 run every man into his own house. Therefore 
 the heaven over you is restrained from dew, 
 and the earth restrained her fruit.' 
 
 "It may be said of course that this passage 
 referred to the building of the earthly temple. 
 Yes; and Paul says, ' It is written in the law 
 of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle an ox while 
 treading out corn.' ' Is it for oxen that God 
 careth?' he asks, 'or saith He it altogether 
 for our sakes ? ' ' For our sakes no doubt it 
 is written ; because he that plougheth, ought 
 to plough in hope, and he that thresheth, to 
 thresh in hope of partaking.' 
 
 " I answer, then, if the above-quoted passage 
 applied to the earthly temple once, it applies 
 to that earthly temple now no longer, but only
 
 104 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 to the spiritual Temple which is now building, 
 and which, until it is completed, we cannot 
 hope that the Lord our God will descend to 
 take possession of. 
 
 " Another thing that we sometimes hear, is the 
 great need for evangelistic labours at home ; 
 and it is all too true. But Jerusalem had not 
 been evangelised when the great persecution 
 against the Church arose, and the disciples 
 were all scattered abroad, and went everywhere 
 preaching the word. 
 
 "Yet the Master Himself had placed Jeru- 
 salem first on the list. Was the Church of 
 Jerusalem impoverished or enriched by that 
 great outpouring of her spiritual wealth ? 
 
 " I plead for Africa ; and not only for Africa, 
 but for India, and for China; for the nations with 
 their millions, sitting in chains and darkness. 
 
 " Heathenism is but little understood at home ; 
 albeit so much has been written and spoken 
 about it. 
 
 " Brethren in the ministry, you who are the 
 leaders of the Churches, what is to be done ? 
 Are we helpless } Can nothing be done } 
 Will the Spirit of God no longer give the 
 three thousands in a day for Christ ? Has the
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES 105 
 
 time not come for you to take the lead in all 
 this great work ? 
 
 "Not long ago I saw a letter in the Indepen- 
 dent, asking you to go to the mission field 
 and preach through interpreters. 
 
 " The writer was surely not a missionary, and 
 had very little idea of what he was asking. 
 
 " The fine finish of your Dr. Raleighs would 
 be all lost here. 
 
 " Ail the soft, tender beauty of the title of his 
 book, ' Quiet Resting Places,' would vanish 
 as soon as translated into many languages. 
 The sense of calmness and peace which the 
 words carry to English hearts would be gone. 
 I do not ask for what is neither feasible nor 
 necessary. But it does not follow that there- 
 fore you can do nothing. 
 
 " It appears to me you can do much. Travel- 
 ling is rapid and easy to every part of the world 
 nearly. . . . Six months would give time to 
 see much, and twelve months would enable 
 you to visit most of the colonial missions, our 
 Bechuanaland mission, including Matabeleland, 
 the German, and other Transvaal missions, 
 and the missions of Natal. 
 
 "It would amply repay the travellers.
 
 io6 TWENTY YEARS IN K HA MA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " After such a journey they would return 
 to England, with a knowledge of the mission 
 field south of the Zambesi, such as all the 
 reports and all the books written by mission- 
 aries could never convey, 
 
 "At the great yearly meetings and in many 
 other ways they could pour out that fulness. 
 
 " Missionaries would be encouraged and re- 
 freshed. A thrill of sympathy would pass 
 quickly throughout the Churches. They would 
 awake to the joy of new life. The funds of the 
 Society would flow, and the glorious gospel of 
 the blessed God would once more go bounding 
 forward to sound its glad news in the ears of 
 the nations. 
 
 " ' O Zion, that bringest good tidings ; get 
 thee up on a high mountain. O Jerusalem, 
 that bringest good tidings ; lift up thy voice 
 with strength, lift it up and be not afraid. 
 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet 
 of him that bringeth good tidings, that pub- 
 lisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of 
 good, that publisheth salvation. The watchmen 
 shall lift up the voice, with the voice together 
 shall they sing aloud, for they shall see eye to 
 eye. Break forth into joy, sing aloud together.
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO TLLE HOME CHURCHES 107 
 
 •' ' The Lord maketh bare His Holy Arm in 
 the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of 
 the earth shall see the salvation of our God.' 
 
 " Bear with me ; my heart burns for my 
 Master's work, and for the spread of the know- 
 ledge of His name. 
 
 " You have done great things. You have put 
 forth great efforts to help to arouse the Church 
 and the nation to a sense of truth and duty 
 in reference to England's place and policy 
 among the nations, and God has crowned your 
 efforts and your prayers with success. But 
 you are able to put forth a still greater effort 
 to help to arouse the Church, and the nation, 
 too, to a sense of truth and duty in reference 
 to the publication of the Gospel to the 
 nations. 
 
 " God is prepared to crown your efforts and 
 your prayers in this direction with still more 
 success, and you will then lift England into her 
 rightful place, make her ' paramount ' among 
 the nations, and give her a ' supremacy ' that 
 will bring as its sure and everlasting reward 
 ' peace with honour.' 
 
 " Look at the wealth of England ! Think of 
 the strong courage of her sons and daughters
 
 io8 TWENTY YEARS TN TtHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 — brave even to death ; witness Isandlwana. 
 Direct that wealth and that courage, then, into 
 their only proper channel. England's sons and 
 daughters will never be content without noble 
 deeds and mighty conflict, to try their hearts 
 and prove the spirit of courage that is in them. 
 They know that the nation has a history. They 
 recall a noble ancestry. They regard them- 
 selves as the sons and daughters of brave men 
 and women, and they will not brook to be 
 outstripped in deeds of courage and boldness 
 by any of their forefathers. 
 
 The greatest and most glorious outlet for it 
 all is the mission field. Your Home Mission 
 work will never satisfy hundreds of the bolder 
 spirits among your children. To some of them 
 it is as tame as training in barracks is to the 
 soldier. Let this bolder element have a free 
 outlet, and it will add to the life and vigour of 
 the whole Church. 
 
 " What are England's navy and her ships 
 of commerce to-day as compared with those of 
 a hundred years ago ? 
 
 '' Let us do the same thing for our missions. 
 Let the vessels, little and few, manned by 
 our Careys, Williams, Moffats, Livingstones,
 
 TRUMrET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES 109 
 
 and Others, give place to great ships and many, 
 pouring out spiritual wealth upon all the 
 nations, and returning laden with great riches 
 and precious blessing, wherewith to enrich and 
 bless the Christian Church at home. 
 
 " Other Christian nations will soon follow, 
 and we shall have as hard work to keep our 
 surpremacy as our merchants are having to 
 hold theirs against their rivals in the world's 
 trade. 
 
 " The tramp of the onward march of the 
 world to-day is heavy. It is the loud tramp of 
 many feet. The Church must not lag, and 
 missions, of all things, the very glory of the 
 Church, must not fall to the rear. 
 
 " But who are to lead? Not the mission- 
 aries. 
 
 "It must be the loved and trusted Home 
 ministers ! 
 
 " Come and see what has been done and is 
 being done, and tell the people that ! Tell 
 them also what i^eniains to be done, and urge 
 the doing of it — and done it shall be. 
 
 " The glory of the Lord shall go before 
 and behind. You will have a revived Church, 
 and the opposition of infidelity will melt
 
 no TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUN'IRY 
 
 away before the fierce glow of her burning 
 heat. 
 
 " ' The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, 
 Every beast of the forest is Mine. 
 The cattle upon a thousand hills. 
 All the birds of the mountains. 
 And that which moveth in the field is Mine, 
 The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, 
 Saith the Lord of Hosts. 
 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the 
 
 former, saith the Lord of Hosts. 
 Ye sons of Zion, be glad, and rejoice in the Lord your 
 
 God; 
 And ye shall praise the name of the Lord your God, 
 Who hath dealt wondrously with you ; 
 And My people shall never be ashamed. 
 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, 
 And that I am the Lord your God, and none else : 
 And My people shall never be ashamed. 
 And it shall come to pass afterwards, 
 That I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh : 
 And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. 
 Your old men shall dream dreams, 
 Your young men shall see visions ; 
 And even upon the servants, 
 And upon the handmaids, 
 In those days 
 Will I pour out My Spirit.' 
 
 " Would it be difficult to appoint men, well 
 chosen, whose duty it should be to go for six 
 months once in three years, or twelve months
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES iii 
 
 once in five years, and visit every part of the 
 mission field ? 
 
 " They would not be specially biased as 
 missionaries may become. They would make 
 it their business to see the whole field, a thing 
 that it seldom falls to the lot of a missionary 
 to do ; and they would be able to speak with 
 the authority of eye and ear witnesses to our 
 Home Churches. 
 
 " This, and much more which it is unnecessary 
 for me to stay and put on paper, would be 
 accomplished by such a visitation of the infant 
 Churches. There would be the sympathy 
 which it would be a mutual benefit for the 
 older and stronger Home Church to give, 
 and the young and growing Foreign Churches 
 to receive ; but above all, it would increase the 
 interest of the Home Churches in Foreign 
 Mission work to an incalculable extent ; and 
 that is the great object to be aimed at. 
 
 " For myself, I may claim to be a worker 
 whom the Lord has seen fit, in His infinite 
 goodness, to bless, but I am not, and do not 
 claim to be, one of those who can write so as 
 to interest the Home Churches in my work. 
 There are probably others like myself in the
 
 112 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 mission field. But on the other hand, what 
 did Binney's visit to AustraHa do for the 
 Churches there ? 
 
 "It appears to me that ten men appointed 
 specially by the Church to such work would 
 soon change the whole aspect of Foreign 
 Missions, and put them on a more solid basis 
 than they yet occupy in the heart of the 
 Church, and, I believe, of the nation also. 
 
 " Efforts have recently been made to render 
 our colleges more efficient. Let the same 
 thine be done for our missions. Missions, like 
 everything else, have grown, and they are the 
 special marks— and marks of honour, too — of 
 a vis^orous and livelv Church life. 
 
 " But let those who are able work out the 
 idea. I make no pretensions to be able to do 
 it. I have only tried to indicate the idea that 
 something substantial might be accomplished by 
 the great leading men of the Church for the 
 furtherance of the mission cause in every direc- 
 tion, and to the great benefit of the Church of 
 Christ. For missions can claim to be the work 
 that lies nearest to the heart of our Saviour — 
 they have His special word of command — 
 while annexation of territory certainly cannot
 
 TRUMPET CALL 10 THE HOME CHURCHES 113 
 
 claim anything of the kind, while it costs the 
 nation millions of money, the blood of her 
 people, and is but a doubtful gain in the 
 end. 
 
 " Let us win the nations by our love ; let us 
 kindle a mutual trustfulness ; and we may 
 confidently wait for them to come and ask 
 for our protection and leadership. I do not 
 say the chiefs will do it ; but the people will, 
 if we have only patience to wait. 
 
 ** I shall now tell you something of our 
 Shoshong mission, of which this is the prelude 
 — a prelude which, when I put my pen on the 
 paper, I had no thought, you may be sure, I 
 was going to write." 
 
 It should perhaps be explained here (for the 
 benefit of those readers who have not read the 
 Preface) that it is to the fact of the mission- 
 aries of the London Missionary Society being 
 required by the Directors to furnish, at the 
 close of each decade of their foreign service, 
 a special and detailed account of the ten years' 
 work, that we owe this grand trumpet-call to 
 the Home Churches to " come to the help of 
 the Lord against the mighty " ; as well as the 
 
 8
 
 114 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 following letter, to which Mr. Hepburn calls 
 this the prelude. 
 
 It will, therefore, be understood that this 
 being a r^sumd of the ten years during which 
 the letters in the foregoing chapter were 
 written from time to time, it is retrospective, 
 recapitulating much of what has been already 
 alluded to. 
 
 " Ten years ago Macheng was chief at 
 Shoshong. Shoshong is the name of the place 
 where the people, called the Bamangwato, 
 have built their town. 
 
 " Macheng was hostile to the Gospel. His 
 people mostly followed him. There was even 
 then, however, a little mass of leaven working. 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie, whose book, ' Ten Years 
 North of the Orange River,' gives a full ac- 
 count of the planting of the Gospel here, had 
 not spared himself, and his labours had been 
 greatly blessed. 
 
 " There was a school, a congregation, and 
 a sprinkling of those whose hearts the Lord 
 had touched. 
 
 " The traders on the station, at the time, 
 were godless men. Drinking, gambling,
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES 115 
 
 swearing, wild horseplay, and utter reckless- 
 ness and folly, were the characteristic features 
 of their daily life. 
 
 " True they came, some of them, to the 
 Sunday afternoon English service, but only, 
 as they put it, out of respect. 
 
 " One of their number, under the influence 
 of drink, had blown up his place with gun- 
 powder. Then they had daily strife with the 
 people. They were plundered in every way. 
 Their lot was a hard one. Their cattle pens 
 were opened in the night, and their cattle 
 driven out to the gardens. Every owner of 
 a garden claimed a cow in payment of the 
 damage done, and the natives would not take 
 any cow, but went among the cattle, and drove 
 out the best they could find. Purchases were 
 made, and days were allowed to pass ; then 
 when the purchaser knew the feathers had 
 been made up for sending away, the goods 
 were returned, and some better and more 
 expensive article demanded, or more feathers 
 were claimed than had been paid. A week, 
 and sometimes a fortnight, was allowed to 
 elapse between the purchase of the goods and 
 their being returned. Any appeal to Macheng
 
 ii6 TWENTY YEARS IN KH A MA'S COUNTRY 
 
 was worse than useless ; he upheld the claim 
 and abused the trader. Shoshong was held 
 to be the worst place in the country. Some 
 even went so far as to describe it as a * perfect 
 hell.' Traders of the Bakwena or of the 
 Matabele country would explain carefully that 
 f/iey did not belong to Shoshong. It was little 
 credit to do so. 
 
 "It was essentially the place for a young 
 man to go to, if he wished to be ruined in 
 both body and soul. This was trader's own 
 talk, not the missionary's ; and there was no 
 exaggeration in the statement. 
 
 " Here then was the place, if there can be a 
 place on earth, to test the power of the Gospel. 
 If there is any efficacy in it to purify the 
 unclean,, here was uncleanness to be purified. 
 What an opportunity for watching the working 
 of the mighty power of God ! And truly my 
 eyes have beheld that power at work, both 
 in Providence and in Grace, or it has never 
 been seen on earth. 
 
 " God in His providence made many changes 
 in the accomplishment of His purposes of grace 
 at Shoshong. Macheng was removed. He 
 soon afterwards died from brandy drinking.
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCLIES 117 
 
 Brandy sellers will have many a death to 
 account for among the chiefs and native head- 
 men when the day of reckoning comes. 
 ' Civilise them off the face of the earth ' is the 
 sentiment expressed by some men, who call 
 themselves Christians, and pride themselves on 
 belonging to the good old Church of England. 
 And brandy is their civilising agent. Neither 
 the good old Church nor the good old country 
 has much to thank such for. War, waste of her 
 wealth, and the blood-shedding of her brave, 
 that is the debt she has paid to them already. 
 
 " And it is enough to make the heart of 
 any man sad to recall how many an Interior 
 white trader has also been civilised off the 
 face of the earth by it. Yes, it is indeed true, 
 that many an Interior trader has paid the price 
 of his life to the propagation of this gospel. 
 They were not all drunkards when they became 
 traders either. 
 
 " Some, as young men, have come out fresh 
 from a godly mother's care, baptised with her 
 tears, and her Bible packed safely away at 
 the bottom of their box. 
 
 " Others have, as they said, fled into the 
 Interior to get away from the cursed stufi', and
 
 ii8 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 it has followed them and slain them in their 
 exile. 
 
 " O God, what a world is this ! What a 
 dark mystery enshrouds us all ! 
 
 " Then it often happens that the brandy 
 seller is brandy proof, and he sells for the 
 profit he gets, and holds himself blameless for 
 the consequences. Whether his profit is gain 
 the future will reveal. 
 
 " But if the missionary who tries to bring 
 to such men the only help that can be any 
 real help to them — the help of God— if the 
 missionary who seeks to save a struggling, 
 wandering brother, and also at the same time 
 labours to lift the degraded from their dung- 
 hill — if he is the man to be ' kicked,' * then 
 what reward shall we bestow upon the man who 
 will go and hide his casks of brandy in the 
 caves of the mountains, and come to the town 
 of a native chief who refuses to allow it to 
 come into his country, getting the missionary 
 himself to go with him and interpret his lies, 
 in order that he may get the stuff smuggled 
 up country anyhow.'* If the interloping mis- 
 
 * This refers to an outburst on tlie part of a baffled propagator 
 of this Gospel.
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES 119 
 
 sionary is to be ' kicked,' then, to be thoroughly 
 consistent, some reward of merit ought to be 
 provided for the enterprising brandy seller 
 who will run his waggon load of brandy across 
 country, at the risk of being caught, his stuff 
 poured out on the ground, and his waggon 
 and oxen confiscated, so that he may carry it 
 right up to the Zambesi, and sell it there for 
 valuable ivory, which ought to go to Cape 
 Town, Port Elizabeth, Natal, or Diamond Fields 
 merchants, in payment for valuable goods sent 
 into the country. Isaiah appears to have 
 known something about all this if we may 
 judge from what he has written in his fifth 
 chapter and twentieth and following verses. 
 
 " But if it is gain to the brandy seller it 
 is certain loss to the merchant. At the out- 
 skirts of civilisation things are not so com- 
 plicated as at the centre ; and if that intricate 
 piece of machinery called civilisation works 
 everywhere else as it works here, then brandy 
 selling means a heavy yearly loss to the 
 merchants and manufacturers of the world. 
 The money price paid for the brandy is a 
 very small item in the account. Sooner or 
 later the close competition in trade will compel
 
 120 TWENTY YEARS IN I<:HAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 men to face the question in this light, all the 
 more that new openings for commerce are so 
 eagerly sought. 
 
 " Here at Shoshong the loss It has caused 
 to trade Is enormous. Fortunately for Sho- 
 shong, we have also a different and a much 
 more pleasant tale to tell. The other will 
 probably remain untold until the end of time. 
 Would there was not only no one to tell It, but 
 no such fearful story lying buried among the 
 deeds of our fellow-countrymen in this unhappy 
 land of darkness, cruelty, and crim.e ! 
 
 " But the eye of God has seen It all. His 
 day tor telling it will come. 
 
 " After Macheng, Khama became chief of 
 the Bamangwato. Old traders died out or 
 were removed from the station. A new class 
 of men was brought in, mostly young men ; 
 and there is slowly springing up a Christian 
 community of young married men, who are 
 not only in sympathy with the work of the 
 missionary, but who are ready to put their 
 hands to his work, and to render him some 
 assistance in it. 
 
 "It would be instructive to trace exactly, 
 amid alternations of progression and retrogres-
 
 TRUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES 121 
 
 sion, the silent growth that has led up to so 
 great a change. But my powers fall far below 
 the accomplishment of such a design, and I 
 must be content with the very humble attempt 
 of barely indicating those characteristics of it 
 that have struck my own eye. 
 
 " For a long time Khama's position was one 
 of conflict. He had the old heathen element 
 against him again. He had to fight against a 
 class of traders who, as he said, " trod his laws 
 under their feet because he was a black man." 
 
 " Finally, he had to hold his own against the 
 trek-Boers who came up out of the Transvaal, 
 and at one time threatened to take possession 
 of his country. 
 
 " Then there have been the Matabele — who 
 are a standing menace — and a most severe 
 famine, to increase the burden of his govern- 
 ment of the tribe. 
 
 " I know no other Interior chief who has 
 even attempted the half that Khama has accom- 
 plished in the advancing of his people towards 
 the goal of civilisation. 
 
 "He has not only stopped the introduction 
 of brandy into his country, but he has stopped 
 his people from making their own native beer.
 
 122 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " He has not only put an end to rain-making, 
 and introduced Christian services in its place, 
 but he has put his foot down firmly upon their 
 time-honoured ceremony of circumcision. 
 
 "He has not only made a law against the 
 purchase of slaves (Masarwa or Bushmen), and 
 declared himself the Bushman's friend, but he 
 has abolished bogadi or the purchase of wives 
 by cattle, and introduced the law of marriage 
 from free choice, at an age when young men 
 and young women are capable of forming such 
 an attachment intelligently. 
 
 " Out of the ruins of anarchy, lawlessness, 
 and general disorder, he has been building up 
 law, order, and stability. 
 
 "His people are living in peace, his fields 
 are laden with corn, the white man's home is 
 as sacred as in his own country, and a purer 
 morality is growing up from day to day. 
 
 "It will of course require the growth of many, 
 many years before it attains to the beauty and 
 strength of our own high standard of Christian 
 morality ; but contrasted with the past history 
 of life at Shoshong, there is a light and glory 
 lying along the hills, which is as surely the 
 work of God as is that light and glory which
 
 2RUMPET CALL TO THE HOME CHURCHES xz}. 
 
 bathes our own beloved, happy, Christian 
 England. Long may such work continue, far 
 may it spread, and rich will be the blessing to 
 England, to the rising colony of South Africa, 
 to the aboriginal tribes, and to the Church of 
 God."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING AND OTHER HEATHEN 
 RITES IN SHOSHONG, AND THE DRINK 
 DEVIL TURNED OUT 
 
 "O Lord ... let it be known this day that Thou art God in 
 Israel. . . . And when all the people saw it . . . they said, The 
 Lord, He is God ; the Lord, He is God." — i Kings xviii. 36-39. 
 
 " Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put 
 darkness for light, and light for darkness ; . . . they have re- 
 jected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of 
 the Holy One of Israel." — Isa. v. 20-24. 
 
 " T N January 1875 Khamane and Sekhome, 
 
 X as was narrated in Chapter II., fled to 
 
 Sechele's country. Khama was now at Sho- 
 
 shong, and chief of the Bamangwato and the 
 
 subject tribes. Fever, famine, fire, and war — 
 
 refugees everywhere, north, south, east, and 
 
 west. Surely the Lord's hand will stay. . . . 
 
 Khama will have nothing to do with ?'ain- 
 
 inaking. He will compel no one to attend 
 
 his religion, but neither will he pay any respect 
 
 to their old heathen customs. Almost all the 
 
 124
 
 THE LAST RAIN- MA KING 125 
 
 old people who accompanied him to the river 
 had died there. The old men who had 
 remained at Shoshong with Khamane and 
 Sekhome, and who did not go out to fight, 
 are living, and they are as deep in their 
 heathenish customs as ever they were. They 
 tried hard to re-establish the old rites, but 
 could not succeed. Khama remained firm. 
 He held his Christian services at the digging 
 and sowing time, and his thanksgiving for first 
 fruits. 
 
 " ' But you will let us circumcise as always ? ' 
 his opponents ask him. 
 
 " ' You may do as you like with your own 
 sons, but you shall compel no one.' 
 
 "He made it known that no one was com- 
 pelled to go to the ceremony, nor should they 
 suffer in any way for not doing so ; their man- 
 hood should be secured by himself. 
 
 " The old men set themselves to work to get 
 up a specially great ceremony. 
 
 " The girls were induced to declare that they 
 would marry none but men who had been 
 through the ceremony, to which consequently 
 a great many went. 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie, who was still at Shoshong,
 
 126 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 told them at the thanksgiving service of the 
 great sin they were committing against God. 
 
 " ' You have prayed for rain, and now your 
 fields are full to overflowing, and your old men 
 are about to take the first fruits, and give 
 them to the old ceremony ; and this is how you 
 thank God.' 
 
 " The day that the company marched out 
 of the town to go to the veldt to perform the 
 ceremony there was a thin, drizzly rain. From 
 that day not a drop fell, and the corn in the 
 gardens was literally burnt up. 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie left Shoshong June 1876 to 
 take charge of the Native Training College at 
 Kuruman (the scene of Dr. Moffat's labours), 
 and when I returned from our committee 
 meeting at Sechele's I found that the Boers 
 were playing with Kuruman on the one side 
 and Khamane on the other. 
 
 " Their object undoubtedly was, at that time, 
 to get the Bamangwato, Makalaka, Mashona, 
 and Matabele country right across to Lake 
 Ngami, and right up to the Zambesi. 
 
 " Khamane played into the hands of the 
 Boers, but they were both seeking their own 
 ends, and both failed.
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 127 
 
 " This was one great trouble for Khama and 
 his people. But there was a worse trouble 
 than that. They had lost their harvest. It 
 was a time of famine ; famine creeping on 
 slowly and steadily and beyond all hope. Corn 
 reached the fabulous price of £20 per bag. 
 Cattle were sold, sheep and goats and cattle 
 slaughtered. Still on came the famine. A 
 few loads of corn did nothing for the people. 
 
 "It came to my knowledge that the dead 
 were even being left unburied. I spoke to 
 Khama, and he gave an order to have all 
 dead buried. Then we found old women in 
 the fields eating grass, or hidden in the caves 
 to die. 
 
 " I gathered the Christians together and 
 spoke out plainly. 
 
 " ' But we cannot do anything.' 
 
 " ' We must,' I said. ' There is my subscrip- 
 tion and my wife's, and there is my children's,' 
 mentioning each one by name, as I put the 
 money down. 
 
 " They were bewildered. It was the first 
 time the Bamangwato Church had been asked 
 to subscribe to anything. But after a time 
 they came to me to say they would try.
 
 128 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 *' We bought a waggon load of meal. Seven 
 old people who were dying were soon on our 
 hands. 
 
 " The chief gave away all his hunt that year 
 in order that the people might be fed. Then 
 he made a law that no one should be punished 
 for killing sheep or goats. 
 
 "In addition to what we had already done, 
 my wife had a large quantity of food cooked 
 every morning, and fed those who were 
 destitute, but who were strong enough to walk 
 out to the veldt to pick up roots, etc. 
 
 " The European traders fed many in the 
 same way. But notwithstanding all that was 
 done, a great many people died, especially the 
 old people. 
 
 "It was the last ceremony of circumcision 
 for the Bamangwato. 
 
 " They wanted to go to finish the ceremony 
 the next year, but Khama said, ' No ! we have 
 had enough of that to satisfy us all.' 
 
 " It was a sad time, and a time of hard 
 work for me, but I made good use of it. 
 
 " Next year I was to go to Lake Ngami 
 to try to establish a mission there. Thus the 
 Bamangwato would soon be some months
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 129 
 
 without ci missionary, and perhaps even 
 lono^er. 
 
 " From the first I have acted upon the prin- 
 ciple of giving a Christian work to do for Christ. 
 Male or female, I press upon them the duty 
 of working for Christ, and at once, with no 
 delay Grow as you work, is the principle I 
 have adopted in my own mind, and it has been 
 a blessing to my people here. But I had to 
 thrust them into their work sometimes. Pray- 
 ing and trusting, working and growing, is just 
 as efficacious among these degraded nations as 
 among ourselves for producing robust Chris- 
 tians. . . . Famine, people dying, the veldt as 
 hard as a fiint, not a cloud in the sky, no 
 water in the river bed, scarcely enough to 
 drink, even when you take turns to sit all night 
 for it, the hearts of the people dead within 
 them, the Boers writing threatening letters to 
 Khama — it was a hard time for Khama. 
 
 " * What shall I do Monare ? ' 
 
 " * Do what a Christian only can do, Khama ; 
 lay it all before God.' 
 
 " I pointed him to the example of Hezekiah 
 and Nehemiah in their times of distress. 
 
 '' The Boers' letter, in which they charged 
 
 9
 
 130 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAAIA' S COUNTRY 
 
 Khama with being the cause of their leaving 
 home, and upon whose head they threw the 
 blame of all the bloodshedding that was 
 about to take place, was laid before God 
 publicly. 
 
 "In like manner we pleaded with God pub- 
 licly for rain. 
 
 " A neighbouring chief sent Khama a taunt- 
 ing message — 
 
 " ' You are the wise man ! Go on praying ; 
 that's the proper thing to do. You are the 
 man with wisdom.' 
 
 "It was hard for Khama to hold his ground. 
 
 " We held a week of prayer, and the bless- 
 ing of rain came in torrents. 
 
 " Again the spiritual windows of heaven had 
 been opened, and again the water was flowing, 
 this time the water of life. 
 
 " I can see, and have seen, that God hears 
 and answers prayer to-day as much as in the 
 times of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. 
 
 " Water won't flow in the desert, and especi- 
 ally it won't flow up a sandy hill in the desert 
 if you pray ever so earnestly for it, you say ? 
 I'm not so sure about that ! Perhaps it will, 
 if your necessities absolutely require it, and
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 131 
 
 you have not become too learned to be able to 
 pray for it in the simplicity of your heart. 
 
 " The trek- Boers got into the desert, and were 
 dying for want of water, and their cattle died in 
 thousands. There was necessity, at any rate. 
 Some poor, uneducated, simple-minded Boers 
 are climbing up one side of along, heavy, sandy 
 hill ; the hot African sun is blazing overhead ; 
 the sand under their feet sends up its hot 
 breath into their faces ; the sky is clear of every 
 speck of cloud. Here is a single tree by the 
 wayside. 
 
 " ' Let us kneel down and pray for rain 
 under this tree.' 
 
 " ' But the rain season is over.' 
 
 " * Let us pray for it. God is good.' 
 
 " They knelt down and prayed together. 
 There were doubters to grumble even there. 
 
 " ' We misfht have been far on if we had not 
 stayed here to pray for rain which won't come,' 
 they said. 
 
 " But there is a missionary two days off with 
 the waggon, who accidentally heard, on the 
 very morning he was to trek from a certain 
 pan of water, that the Boers were dying for 
 want of water in the Thirst desert. He off-
 
 i;,2 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 loaded his waggon at once, and sent back a 
 waggon load of water, and while the poor 
 ignorant Boers are praying on one side of the 
 hill the waofofon is climbinQ- the other. 
 
 " This time it is manna in the wilderness. 
 " The Boers are starving in the wilderness, 
 and the Cape Town people hear of it, and send 
 a ship round with provisions and other neces- 
 saries. 
 
 " Was there no prayer in the wilderness ? 
 " Again the water supply was failing at Sho- 
 shong. The women were sitting in crowds 
 round the wells waitino;- their turn. . . . The 
 feeling of oppression silenced me. I had not 
 heard the least mention of the state we were in. 
 " We had had our public service at the time 
 of digging, and had prayed for the regular 
 yearly rains. 
 
 " Should I call for a week of prayer, or wait 
 God's time ? At last I d(^cided, and com- 
 municated with my evangelist, Khukwe, and 
 the members of the Church. 
 
 " We commenced our week of prayer together 
 early on the Sunday morning. At this meet- 
 ing it was announced that the week was to be 
 spent in prayer to God for rain. There was
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 
 
 U3 
 
 no compulsion. Those would come who felt 
 that God only could give the rain. 
 
 " The clouds had come up on the Sunday 
 morning, but they all went away, and the sun 
 blazed in all its South African glory. 
 
 VIF.W OF THE PART OF SHOSllONC. WUEKE THE MEETINGS FOR 
 PRAYER WERE HELD. 
 
 " ' Why ! they have driven the clouds away,' 
 said the Makalaka rain-maker. 
 
 " All that week the sun blazed in brightness, 
 and on the following Sunday afternoon I heard 
 from Khukwe's address to the people what
 
 134 TWENIY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 the Makalaka rain-maker had been savina:, and 
 that the Makalaka god * was angry, and was 
 going to give us no more rain, because all 
 these years he had given it, and Khama would 
 not acknowledge him. 
 
 " As I sat and listened the wind was blowing 
 down the kloof — a strong, steady wind from 
 the north, the direction of the Makalaka god's 
 mountains ; and I had noticed across the 
 valley to the south that the clouds had begun 
 to show themselves almost as soon as I had 
 sat down from interpreting for Mr. Cochin, the 
 young missionary previously mentioned. 
 
 * Rev. Mr. Thomas, in his book, " Eleven Years in South 
 Africa," thus describes the "rain god": "The cave god, the 
 Makalaka god, is a man called Ukvvali, who lives near a cave in 
 the Amadobo hills, and has succeeded, by his many and cunning 
 incantations, in sadly deluding the multitude. The Makalaka 
 themselves say that the god is a man with only one foot, 
 dwelling under one of their mountains in a cave, that he knows 
 all things, and is very greedy. In reality, however, he is no other 
 than one of the orginal Makalaka aristocrats of the country, who, 
 being well versed in the traditions of his forefathers, the priest- 
 craft and witchcraft of his tribe, manages to blind the people and 
 hide his true character from them. The rise and influence of 
 tliis cave god do not seem to be very remote. On arriving in 
 their land, about forty years ago (1830), Mosilikatse found 
 several Makalaka doctors and wizards there. As long as they 
 were of service to him they were treated as princes, but as soon 
 as they failed to discover any more Makalaka and Amaswina 
 cattle they were despatched."
 
 THE LAST RATN-MAIvING 135 
 
 " All the time Khukwe was speaking I 
 watched the clouds. 
 
 " When he sat down I got up and said — 
 
 " ' So the god of the mountains has deter- 
 mined to give us no more rain, and his rain- 
 maker is here to tell us so. He savs we have 
 driven aivay by our prayers the clouds which 
 Jie had brought ! " 
 
 " ' Go you, Makalaka rain-maker, and ask 
 your god of the mountains to tell us how it is 
 that the wind is blowing hard from the north, 
 from the direction of the god of the mountains ; 
 and how it is that there are the heavy rain 
 clouds coming up from the south.' 
 
 " ' What I say, Bamangwato, is that God has 
 heard our prayers from the first day till now. 
 He sent away the empty clouds that contained 
 no rain, and that floated high in the sky last 
 Sunday morning, when we commenced to pray 
 to Him ; and all the week we have been pray- 
 ing, and all the week God's hot sun has been 
 making rain for us ; and now this last Sunday 
 evening, as we have prayed our last prayers, 
 the rain clouds have gathered on the moun- 
 tains across the valley, and I have watched 
 them all the time, and here they come. The
 
 136 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 wind blows in an opposite direction, and the 
 Makalaka rain doctor and the Makalaka god of 
 the mountains cannot tell us how that is.' 
 
 " ' Let him tell you if he knows, and let him 
 stop the rain if he can.' 
 
 " ' That will puzzle him, sir,' said some of 
 the people as we came away from our service 
 on the hillside. 
 
 " That night it rained a beautiful, heavy, 
 ground-soaking rain. All that week and the 
 next we had very heavy rains. 
 
 '' For a long time the people talked about 
 it, and about the Makalaka rain-maker and his 
 threat. It was an unfortunate threat tor the 
 Makalaka god. 
 
 " The clouds came up and covered us over, 
 and poured out rain for twenty-seven days. 
 
 "If i/iai was not answering prayer, then I 
 don't know koiv God is to answer prayer. 
 
 " ' Another curious coincidence," some men 
 will say, and nothing more. Well, they are 
 very happy coincidences for those who live in 
 them, and it was a most unfortunate coinci- 
 dence for the Makalaka god. He had been 
 doing his utmost to get a hold on Khama. 
 He had even got Lobengula, the Matabele
 
 THE LAST RAIN- MAKING 137 
 
 chief, to send out special messengers to Khama 
 to ask for various articles, karosses, certain 
 animals, etc., etc., and Khama had refused, and 
 sent back the message, that Lobengula was 
 only giving himself trouble for the mountain's 
 god for nothing, and that if Lobengula believed 
 in him, he, Khama, did not. He could not 
 see how ' a god who ate porridge like himself 
 could be of any use to him.' 
 
 " This defeat completely ruined the cause of 
 the IMakalaka god and the rain-makers here at 
 Shoshong. 
 
 *' Not even the Makalaka peo[)le could con- 
 tinue to respect him after that, and now they 
 are as eager as the Hamangwato in their desire 
 to learn." 
 
 Mr. Hepburn's next letter chronicles yet 
 another victory for Christ and righteousness 
 achieved by Khama's steadfast, God-inspired 
 determination. 
 
 "One thing I have observed in connection 
 with these more remarkable answers to prayer," 
 he writes, " is, that they are always preceded 
 by some special recognition of God's govern- 
 ment in the world.
 
 138 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA\S COUNTRY 
 
 " One thing also I should say is required of 
 the servant of God, and that is, wholehearted- 
 ness in the service of Jehovah. By that ex- 
 pression I mean the continual beholding the 
 Father, Son, and Spirit as Jehovah. 
 
 " One thing I should regard as necessary 
 among the people, and that is, some progress 
 being made towards godliness. It is possible 
 that it may be very small indeed ; still, pro- 
 gress in some small degree and among some 
 small section of the people. 
 
 " I think I should be afraid to ask publicly 
 for these special acts of mercy if I had what 
 I thouQ-ht to be clear indications of back- 
 sliding among the people, and if my own 
 heart were growing slack and the fire of 
 devotion burning low. 
 
 " If it were extinguished, then it would be 
 bold presumption to ask anything, and I 
 should expect to be visited with marked 
 displeasure. 
 
 " But I think boastfulness would deserve 
 reproof, and would assuredly be put to shame. 
 If I might, therefore, I would hide my work 
 out of the world's sight, but it is perhaps right 
 that God's dealings with His people should be
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 139 
 
 made known. If, however, I might do my 
 work and never say a word about it at all, I 
 cannot say how grateful it would be to my own 
 feelings ; and God knows that such is the case. 
 
 " My mission seems to me to have gone 
 right through those stages described in Ezekiel 
 xxxvi. 16, xxxvii. 8; and I feel myself to be 
 standing at the very door of verses 9 and 10. 
 
 " I am waiting for the great manifestation 
 of the mighty Spirit of God. My people 
 know that I am waiting in this state, and the 
 Church is in the same state also. From this 
 day we must either go backward or forward. 
 I well know that. O gracious God, send us 
 forward for Thy glory. 
 
 " There was yet another purification of the 
 town required of another nature, and which 
 has been as complete as that of which my last 
 letter told. 
 
 " This time the whole of it is to be referred 
 to the chiefs own course of life, a course which 
 he marked out for himself when still a young 
 man, and which has grown with him. 
 
 " The missionaries have been credited in 
 some quarters with being the originators of it 
 all ; but this arises from a want of knowledge
 
 140 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 of Khama's true character, and of the quiet, 
 steady way he has of going straight towards 
 the object upon which his eye is fixed. 
 
 " ' When I was still a lad,' said Khama to 
 me, ' 1 used to think how I would (govern 
 my town, and what kind of a kingdom it should 
 be.' 
 
 " One thing he determined, among others, 
 not to have in his town, and that was drink. 
 He would not rule over a drunken town and 
 people. He made up his mind to that. 
 
 " Khama himself neither drinks, smokes, nt)r 
 uses snuft'; nor has he ever consented to be- 
 come the possessor of a plurality of wives, 
 although f/ial is the great Bechuana idea of 
 ' Hig-chiehsm,' as it is of all the South African 
 races. 
 
 " Khama has never had anything to do with 
 native charms and medicines, customs such as 
 witchcraft, etc., etc. 
 
 "He was circumcised as a lad by the com- 
 mand of his father, but he refused afterwards 
 to go and perform the same ceremony for his 
 younger brother, even at the risk of being 
 disinherited. 
 
 " Khama would have no drink sold in his
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKIKG 141 
 
 town. He had seen the evils of that, and he 
 wanted to rule over a ' nice town,' as he said. 
 
 "He called the white men together and told 
 them his desire. 
 
 "They pleaded to be allowed to bring in 
 the cases of brandy (for it was medicine), and 
 the large casks they promised to leave un- 
 touched. 
 
 " Khama consented, but he must see no 
 drunkenness ; most certainly not. 
 
 " The cases came, and drunkenness was the 
 result. 
 
 " While at the river Khama had refused to 
 send the boats for one man's goods because he 
 had brought a cask of brandy. 
 
 "When Khama came back from the river 
 he called the white men together again, and 
 declared his determination to have no drink 
 brought into the town. 
 
 " ' But you will allow us to bring in a case 
 for private use at our own table ? ' 
 
 -' ' Bring none,' said Khama, ' 1 will allow 
 none. You made me a promise, and broke it, 
 that if I allowed the cases only, you would 
 bring no casks, and that there should be no 
 drunkenness.'
 
 142 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " One man ventured to press his point, and 
 got effectually put down. 
 
 "He was an old hotel keeper, and he liked 
 
 the trade. 
 
 " ' What ! ' said Khama ; ' will yon venture to 
 speak ? You made me such and such a pro- 
 mise, and then brought in a huge cask to the 
 river. No! I refuse even the cases; and 
 there's an end of it.' 
 
 " That was enough for that day. 
 
 " Khama had his own way, and kept to 
 
 it. 
 
 "He tried fines and threats, and finally 
 the Bechuana chief's last resort — banishment 
 from the country. 
 
 "It appears a summary process ; but it is 
 really less hurtful to the European than our 
 own mode of confiscation, fine, or imprison- 
 ment, for smuggling the drink through the 
 country without a licence. 
 
 " The hotel keeper above referred to brought 
 in a waggon-load of corn for our poor famish- 
 ino- natives. What trouble he had had to get 
 it ! What expense ! 
 
 " Shortly after a trader left the town for the 
 Zambesi. On the way out of the town one of
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 143 
 
 his drivers fell drunk under the waggon wheel, 
 and was killed on the spot. 
 
 " But where did he get the drink ? 
 
 " The trader himself got away into the veldt. 
 He began to rave, and shot his oxen as they 
 trekked in the yoke. He shot some of his 
 people, and at last the report came that he was 
 killed by the Bushmen among whom he had 
 run wild — mad ivitJi bad brandy. 
 
 " Who sold it to him ? 
 
 "Who but our superfine hotel keeper, who 
 left the town immediately. 
 
 " The bags of corn contained casks of 
 brandy, and the whole affair was simply a smart 
 thine, in some men's estimation. 
 
 " At last the drink question came to a crisis. 
 
 " One act piled itself upon another in quick 
 succession. 
 
 " One trader, who had been warned and fined 
 amongst others, became delirious. Morning 
 after morning the chief got up long before 
 daybreak, and went to his place to try and 
 catch him sober. But he was locked inside, 
 naked, and raving, and drinking as long as 
 he had any drink left. 
 
 " Not one of the Europeans dared go near.
 
 144 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 " They feared he might blow his place up as 
 another had done. 
 
 " At last the drink was done, and the man's 
 strength so spent that he almost died from the 
 effects of it. 
 
 "When Khama could speak he did, and 
 informed the man that he would not fine him ; 
 but one more such act, and he should leave 
 the town and go back to his own people. He 
 promised amendment and expressed his sorrow. 
 
 " The final act of this tragic drama came 
 one Saturday. The chief had warned some 
 of the traders, and this one man in particular, 
 that very Saturday morning ; but, as if in pure 
 defiance, he and several more went and got 
 thoroughly drunk. The house where they 
 were drinking was the house of one of the 
 worst and most noted drunkards on the place. 
 He, drunk as he was, sent off his own boy to 
 call the chief, that he might come and see 
 what was going on in his house. 
 
 " The chief went, and found them with their 
 white shirts stained with blood. Their goods 
 were strewn about the floor, a huge cask of 
 water upset, and everything floating. 
 
 " The chief came up to my house on the
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 145 
 
 Saturday night to tell me about it. saying 
 that he must have a meeting on Monday 
 morning as soon as they were sober, and send 
 every man out of the station. 
 
 "I was ill of fever at the time, and was 
 greatly shocked and humbled to hear such an 
 account of my fellow-countrymen. 
 
 " I had imagined they had turned over a new 
 leaf, and were living sober lives. 
 
 " What shocked me more was the mention 
 of some men's names v/hom I had never ore- 
 viously heard as drinking at all. 
 
 " ' But you must be m.istaken about such 
 and such men, chief,' I said. 
 
 " ' No, there is not any mistake. I saw them.' 
 
 " ' Yes, but did you speak to them ? ' 
 
 " ' No, because they made oft as soon as they 
 knew I had come.' 
 
 '''Well, chief, I can't believe it about some 
 of them.' 
 
 " ' It's too true.' 
 
 " ' Let us go and see again.' 
 
 " We went, ill as I was, on a cold, bleak 
 night, and to my sorrow, awful as it had sounded 
 in my ears, il vvas worse when I saiv the men, 
 whom I hoped to find innocent. 
 
 10
 
 146 TWENTY YEARS IN TEHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 "'Well,' I said, 'chief, I don't think we 
 need go anywhere else. However, there is one 
 man, who, seeing I am here, it is perhaps only 
 fair I should go and see.' 
 
 " We went back home that wav ; and as we 
 came to his yard door, he threw open the half 
 door of his house, and throwing himself half out 
 yelled out a drunken oath. 
 
 " ' That is enough,' I said, and hastened past, 
 and so home. 
 
 Few who were present will forget the 
 Monday morning that followed. I shall never 
 forget it. 
 
 " A cold, dreary, dark day, the chief in the 
 sternest mood he ever assumes, but which, it 
 is said, always means a fixed purpose with 
 K hama. 
 
 " He did not ask any questions, but simply 
 stated what he had seen ; how he had taken 
 the trouble to warn them, and they had 
 despised his laws ' because lie zvas a black man, 
 and for nothing else.' 
 
 " ' Well, I am black, but if I am black I am 
 chief of my own country at present.' He went 
 on: 'When you white men rule in the 
 country then you will do as you like. At
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 147 
 
 present / rule, and I shall maintain my laws 
 which you insult and despise. 
 
 " ' You have insulted and despised me in 
 my own town because I am a black man. You 
 do so because you despise black men in your 
 hearts. If you despise us, what do you want 
 here in the country that God has given to us ? 
 Go back to your own country.' 
 
 " And he mentioned them one by one by 
 name. 
 
 " ' Take everything you have ; strip the iron 
 roofs off the houses ; the wood of the country 
 and the clay of which you made the bricks, you 
 can leave to be thrown down. Take all that 
 is yours, and go. More than that, if there is 
 any other white man here who does not like 
 my laws let him go too ! I want no one but 
 friends in my town. If you are not my friends, 
 go back to your own friends, and leave me and 
 my people to ourselves. You ought to be 
 ashamed of yourselves. 
 
 " ' I am trying to lead my people to act 
 according to that word of God which we have 
 received from you white people, and you show 
 them an example of wickedness such as we 
 never knew. You, the people of the word of
 
 148 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 God ! You know that some of my own 
 brothers have learned to like the drink, and you 
 know that I do not want them to see it even, 
 that they may forget the habit ; and yet you 
 not only bring it in and offer it to them, but 
 you try to tempt me with it. I make an end 
 of it to-day. Go ! Take your cattle, and leave 
 my town, and never come back again ! ' 
 
 " The utmost silence followed Khama's words. 
 Shame and utter bewilderment fell upon most 
 of them. They had expected nothing like 
 this, and they lost the very power to reply. 
 
 " After sitting some time in silence, not so 
 much as a move on the part of any one, I 
 thought I had better get up and go home. 
 
 " ' Do not go,' said one man, who, I am 
 happy to say, never has had anything to do 
 with the drink, ' everybody is stunned. It 
 has come like a thunderclap.' 
 
 " ' Surely some of you have something to 
 say in reply ? ' I suggested. 
 
 "'What can we say? He has simply told 
 us to go.' 
 
 " ' But you, Mr. , you must have a 
 
 word to say for yourself, and if not for yourself, 
 tor your absent partners, at any rate?' I said.
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 149 
 
 'And if you wish to say anything I'll stay and 
 interpret certainly.' 
 
 " I then asked Khama if he would kindlv 
 take us into the house, because I was afraid, 
 on account of my illness, of the cold and the 
 rain. He took us into his house, but the 
 answers he gave were terribly severe. He 
 was not angry, but spoke like a man deeply 
 wounded and highly indignant ; calm but 
 with the consciousness that the very men who 
 asked for pity despised him in their secret 
 hearts. One man especially pleaded that 
 he had grown up from being quite a lad 
 in the country, and Khama and he were old 
 friends. ' Surely, for old friendship's sake, he 
 would pity hiiii ? ' 
 
 " ' Friendship ! ' said Khama ; ' do you call 
 yourself my friend ? You are the ringleader 
 among those who insult and despise my laws. 
 If you have grown up in the country, then you 
 know better than any one how much I hate 
 this drink. Don't talk to me about friendship. 
 I give you more blame than any of them. 
 You are my worst enemy. I had a right to 
 expect that yoii would uphold my laws, and 
 you bring in the stuff for others to break
 
 150 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 them. You do not know what pity is, and yet 
 you ask for pity. You ask for pity and you 
 show me no pity. You despise my laws, and 
 defy me in the presence of all my people. My 
 people and I are not worthy of pity because 
 God has made our faces black and yours white. 
 No ! I have no pity. I have shown you 
 pity again and again, and then you tell me that 
 because I did so you thought I had rescinded 
 my own law. When did I ever tell you that 
 I had rescinded it ? Did I ever cease to warn 
 you ,^ You pray for pity, and if I show pity 
 you say I rescind my own laws. No ; I have 
 had enough of such pity. It is my duty to 
 have pity on my people, over whom God has 
 placed me, and I am going to show them pity 
 to-day ; and that is my duty to them and to 
 God.' 
 
 " How much lono^er in the same burninor 
 language the chief spoke I shall not attempt 
 further to say ; but he held to his word, and 
 purified his town of white man's drink that day. 
 
 "The next step he took was to forbid the 
 sale of their own native beer. He called out 
 his young men and forbade them drinking it. 
 
 *' He followed this up by calling a great
 
 THE LAST RAIN-MAKING 151 
 
 meeting of the whole town, and forbade its 
 being made at all. 
 
 " He said : ' You take the corn that God has 
 given us in answer to prayer and destroy it. 
 You not only destroy it, but you make stuff 
 with it that causes mischief among you.' 
 
 " He had a hard struggle, but h(; has suc- 
 ceeded so far. He said to me : 
 
 " ' At one time, I thouo^ht there was nothing 
 
 O ft) 
 
 but death in front of me. I told them they 
 could kill me, but they could not conquer me.' 
 
 " Then he said, in answer to my remark, that 
 I thought it was regarded by the people as 
 food in some respects : 
 
 " ' No, Monare, these are the lies that you 
 missionaries are told about it. It is all lies, 
 and only lies. The drink our people like is as 
 bad among us as yours is among you. If a 
 man desires to concoct any wickedness he uses 
 beer for his purpose. Every possible mischief 
 that men can work is done among us by 
 means of the beer ; things that you mis- 
 sionaries have never thouo^ht or heard of 
 No, we may deceive you, our missionaries, but 
 we do not deceive one another. Why, even 
 our own heathen father Sekhome never allowed
 
 152 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 any of his sons to drink it." And I heard him 
 tell the people publicly that they knev/ he had 
 learnt to let the beer alone, not by the teaching 
 of missionaries, not by the Word of God, but 
 first of all by the teaching of his own father 
 Sekhome ; and not himself alone, but all 
 Sekhome's sons, had been taught the same 
 thing as lads. And they assented. 
 
 " Long may God uphold Khama in his 
 earnest endeavours to raise and purify the 
 people over whom He has placed him. He 
 has had many a hard battle to fight against 
 those who are arrayed on the side of unrighte- 
 ousness, and no doubt there is many a day of 
 difficulty yet before hini ; but with a continued 
 trust in God he may sately leave the result in 
 God's hands, and the issue will not be on the 
 side of evil if he does so."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCKIN AND THE 
 BAMANGWATO CHURCH ''PASSING ON THE 
 WORD OF LIFE" 
 
 " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gciin." — Phil. ii. 21. 
 "Whom shall I send, and who will go for iis ? . . . Here am I, 
 send me."— ISA. vii. 8, 9. 
 
 THE sorrow of bereavement v/as now to 
 sadden for a time the family circle usually 
 so bright with life and happiness, the merry 
 voices of the children making perpetual music 
 in the little Mission house. 
 
 Mention has already been made in the pre- 
 ceding chapter of the young missionary to 
 the Matabele, the Rev. Joseph Cockin, who, 
 with his wife, was staying at Mr. Hepburn's 
 on his way south. 
 
 But, while at Shoshong-, the Master saw fit 
 to call His young servant Home, and the 
 shadow of death fell upon its Mission house. 
 So in these next extracts the pen of the 
 
 153
 
 154 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 veteran in the field tells* not of his own work, 
 or aspirations, but of the finished earthly 
 service of the younger soldier, who had, as it 
 were, barely buckled on his armour for the 
 fight, ere he was bidden to put off his sword, 
 as one who had gotten the victory, and enter 
 into rest. 
 
 Two years only had Mr. Cockin left Eng- 
 land, and just eighteen months previously he 
 had preached at Shoshong in the full strength 
 of his youth. 
 
 This letter is dated February 13th, 1880 : — 
 
 " You would receive by last post a brief 
 notice I sent you of Mr. Cochin's death," it 
 begins, " and now post-morning has again 
 arrived, and I have not yet found time to write 
 fuller details. The work of my mission leaves 
 me little time for attention outside of it ; and 
 the calls upon my time have been very 
 numerous indeed durinQ' this last week. 
 
 " Added to these, I have had a slight attack 
 of ague myself. My little daughter has also 
 had a bad attack of fever. She was very ill, 
 and caused my wife and myself much anxiety 
 yesterday ; but she is now, I hope, over the
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCK IN 155 
 
 danger, and will soon recover her former 
 health, Mrs. Cockin has now been seized 
 with an attack of it during the night, and she 
 is very ill this morning, 
 
 " These are the times that one feels the 
 great blessing a brother missionary to con- 
 sult would be. My wife and I feel the re- 
 sponsibility thrown so suddenly upon us to 
 be very great. There is much sickness in 
 the town, too, both among Europeans and 
 Bamangwato. 
 
 " And now I must give you some account 
 of Mr. Cockin's illness and death. It appears 
 they left Matabele country earlier than neces- 
 sary, in order to go as far as Klerksdorp for 
 provisions and for windows, etc., etc., for his 
 house, which he was very anxious to finish 
 quickly and once for all, so that he might get 
 into full work at the earliest possible moment. 
 That, to my mind, has been his characteristic 
 effort. Haste, great, nay, even extreme haste. 
 He exhibited ever the utmost impatience of 
 delay. And he gave great promise of good 
 work. 
 
 " Everything about him was big, but he was 
 a man, and an intensely earnest man — a man
 
 156 TWEA^TY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 who had almost any amount of hard work in 
 him. He did not, and he could not, spare 
 himself. He burned to do work for Christ. 
 He has cast off all impediments now ! 
 
 "He had said to me on the Thursday even- 
 inof before his death — 
 
 " ' I am ready, ready to do anything, or go 
 anywhere, whenever the Directors might wish 
 to forward the work, as far as I possibly can.' 
 
 "I believe he was equally ready for the 
 Master's call, although I am sure it was not 
 expected. . . . 
 
 " On the Saturday morning he had greatly 
 enjoyed the native prayer-meeting. Tears 
 came to his eyes as the people sang their 
 favourite hymn — a hymn written by Mr. 
 Hughes, which they always sing with great 
 feeling. After our meeting, he told me that 
 his heart was full. 
 
 " ' If ' he said, ' you were to go to our poor 
 Matabeleland and see what it is there, it would 
 satisfy you to bear all you have to bear, and 
 a great deal more, for the sake of your work 
 here.' 
 
 " On the Sunday I hoped to have his assist- 
 ance. He was to take my English service,
 
 DEA2H OF THE REV. JOSEPH CO C KIN 157 
 
 and also, he was to assist me on Sunday morn- 
 ing in setting apart two Deacons for the special 
 work of the Church. We were to have our 
 united rejoicing at the Lord's table too. It 
 was to be a happy, soul-refreshing day. No ; 
 for that was our arranging. The Master 
 Himself had arranged it otherwise. 
 
 " On Sunday morning, in answer to my 
 inquiries, I was told Mr. Cockin could not 
 come. During the service, and while they 
 were singing a hymn, I went again to ask it 
 he could not come. No, he was not able. 
 My heart was sad and heavy, and I ordained 
 mv deacons alone. 
 
 " In the afternoon he could not come to 
 unite with us at the Lord's Table. I had 
 to take my English service myself" 
 
 All Sunday and Monday the young mis- 
 sionary grew gradually worse, and at last it 
 was evident that his sickness was to be unto 
 death. 
 
 Mr Hepburn resumes : — 
 
 " At last Mrs. Cockin left the room. It was 
 now nearing two o'clock (on Tuesday). I sat
 
 158 TWENTY YEARS IN KIT A MA'S COUNTRY 
 
 down to look at him and listen to his breath- 
 ing. I spoke to him, but got no answer. I 
 gave him some brandy and lemon juice. ... I 
 gave him some lemon juice alone. I then 
 gave him a little w^ater. He made no sign 
 that one was more palatable than the other. 
 Indeed, he made no sign at all. He was per- 
 spiring. His pulse was strong, but his brain 
 seemed to be dead. I gave the brandy more 
 frequently. Then I requested my wife to send 
 for Mr. Frank Whiteley. ... Mr. Whiteley and 
 Mr. Wright (English traders) came up. 
 
 " ' Let us pray for him,' I said to them when 
 they got into my room. We all three knelt 
 down and prayed. 
 
 " Then I saw him breathe three or four 
 very quiet breathings, one shorter and slower 
 than the rest, and he was gone, without a sign 
 or a sound. . . . 
 
 " ' He can speak no more,' I said gendy, in 
 order that his wife might understand what had 
 happened. 
 
 " On Wednesday morning we buried him on 
 the hillside, all the Europeans attending and 
 also all the male members of the Bamangwato 
 Church. His death has created a deep impres-
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCKIN 159 
 
 sion on the minds of both white and black, 
 that the call may be as sudden and swift to any 
 of us. He was the last one to have been 
 thought so near to death by his fellow-men ; so 
 young, so strong, so full of life and energy, 
 so much promise of earnest, vigorous work. 
 Such an unquenchable fire of life, and zeal, 
 and enthusiasm, blown out, as it were, with the 
 merest whiff of wind ; a sudden puff, and not 
 even a spark of all that vitality was left to tell 
 that it had been there. 
 
 " Yes, the essential, the spiritual was gone, 
 and had left behind it the clay, which had 
 already begun to melt away, before we could 
 carry it to its last earthly rest. 
 
 " With loud, stentorian voice he had preached 
 here at Shoshong ; but the loudest sermon he 
 was privileged to preach was preached on that 
 morning, when, in silence, his coffin, borne by 
 eight bearers, exchanging three times on the 
 way, was carried to its grave. I believe, and 
 I sincerely trust not fruitlessly, the lesson was 
 forced home upon every heart there. 
 
 " ' Be ye also ready.' 
 
 " I must bring my letter to a close, and have 
 not time to go on to tell of the spiritual joy
 
 i6o TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 I have had since. There are two Europeans, 
 at least, who are now anxiously asking the way 
 of life, and one of them is already rejoicing in 
 it. And thus the European members of our 
 little J3amangwato Church are increasing. 
 
 " We now number eight Europeans, who sit 
 down at our Lord's Table with native mem- 
 bers ; and these two, I hope, will soon be 
 added. And may the Lord Himself continue 
 to manifest His presence." 
 
 About this time the Society's funds were 
 very low, and it was thought expedient not 
 to proceed with the mission to Lake Ngami. 
 And to the letter communicating this decision 
 of the Home Committee Mr. Hepburn re- 
 plies :~ 
 
 " The Directors' letters were followed by 
 many sleepless nights. Our brother mis- 
 sionary, Mr. Cockin, had been taken away from 
 us suddenly, and there came down upon me 
 the thought which overwhelmed me, that a 
 mere matter of expense was to be the one 
 cause why Lake Ngami should not get the 
 Gospel.
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCHIN i6i 
 
 " Now that was not a light thought to 
 carry, and no man could have felt more utterly 
 miserable and lonely than I did, 
 
 " Still we had the one resource of every 
 Christian, and that was to turn to our God in 
 prayer and cast our burden upon Him. For 
 that I think we have reason to thank God the 
 trial was sent to us. It brought us nearer 
 than ever to Him. 
 
 " On one of those sleepless nights, as my 
 mind travelled over the whole ground from 
 the beginning to the end, the fact that the 
 Batauana of Lake Ngami were an offshot 
 from our own Bamangwato, presented itself 
 vividly before my mind. 
 
 " The duty of the Bamangwato Church to 
 give them the Gospel followed quickly upon it. 
 
 " I went to my study to pray. The idea 
 grew, shaped itself, possessed me. The 
 traders' professions of friendly regard, and 
 their expressed interest in my own work, sug- 
 gested the thought that they would benefit 
 themselves by putting out their hands to such 
 a work, and they would show their regard for 
 myself in a way most acceptable to me ; whilst 
 their interest in the work, growing under their 
 
 II
 
 i62 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 own supervision, would be drawn out most fully. 
 Often I had asked myself what work for Christ 
 I could get for them to do ; for I have a con- 
 viction that no man can develop his Christian life 
 if he is not personally engaged in Christ's work. 
 The white man, not less than the black man, 
 must act on the one universal principle here." 
 
 Mr. Hepburn had no sooner made up his 
 niind than he set to work, for he was never 
 one to let the grass grow under his feet. He 
 proceeded at once to consult with the chief, 
 and call together the members oi his Church. 
 
 " A messenger," continues his narrative, 
 " soon came to say the people had assembled, 
 and we went down to find a large gathering of 
 Bamangwato and several Europeans, but not 
 all of the latter. I pleaded with them for the 
 Batauana of the Lake. 
 
 " ' They are the children of your forefathers. 
 They need the Gospel ; they have asked for 
 it. The Churches of England cannot send 
 the Gospel to them to-day ... as I have 
 already explained to you.' 
 
 " ' Now, Bamangwato,' I said, ' I ask you 
 this one question — •
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCKIN 163 
 
 " ' Is the ivord of God to stop heix at Sko- 
 s/ioiiQ-? Are the Batauana to have the Gospel, 
 or are they not ? ' The answer came from 
 every direction — v 
 
 " ' The Gospel shall not stop here with us. 
 The Batauana shall have the Word of God. 
 If the Churches of England cannot send it to 
 them, we can. We shall put our hands in.' 
 
 " And one after another stood up and said 
 what he would giv-e. An ox here and an ox 
 there ; a sheep from one man, and a goat 
 from another. Some would give in money, 
 one man a pound, and another a few shillings. 
 Some were poor, and could only give a 
 very little, but they would give something; 
 and so the word passed from the one end of 
 the Church to the other, to the wonder of all. 
 
 " Then I went home to thank God in my 
 study, with a heart too full for utterance, for 
 the great burden was lifted oft^ that day. Not 
 altogether, perhaps ; but it was no longer the 
 heavy burden it had been. 
 
 " The next thing I had to do was to lay the 
 subject before the traders. 
 
 " All expressed their very deep interest. 
 Nearly every man promised help. Never did
 
 1 64 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 I get such kindness, and kindness expressed 
 with such real feeHng, from traders before. 
 Never did I rejoice more fully in the con- 
 sciousness of God's hand upon me than I did 
 that day. 
 
 " And if it was a joy to me, it was doubly a 
 joy to my wife. She had the happiness both 
 of seeing the great burden lifted off me, of 
 losing her own, and of hearing of the willing- 
 ness of our people to take in hand the Lake 
 Mission. . . . 
 
 " Now, regarding the idea of a Bushman's 
 children's home. . . . The first thing that put the 
 idea into my mind was a sermon of Binney's, 
 in which he said he had heard some one at 
 the British Association say — 
 
 "'Why, a native Australian is not much 
 better than an ape. . . . You cannot call him 
 a man.' 
 
 " ' Well,' says Binney, ' I had stood among 
 the native Australians, and I had certain 
 thoughts passing through my mind. ... I stood 
 amongst a certain set of them over at a 
 coroborce, where the natives paint themselves 
 in the most grotesque form . . . the men unite 
 and go on exciting themselves by the most
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCK IN 165 
 
 ferocious yells and leaps until they throw off" 
 everything that is upon them, and they are just 
 like a set of demons. . . . 
 
 " ' On the very day I had seen this I went to 
 visit an intellio^ent Christian ladv, who had 
 gathered some of the children of these very 
 men, and trained them from their infancy. I 
 saw these children. They were decently, 
 plainly dressed. They stood up and read to 
 me a chapter out of the New Testment. They 
 sang a hymn — ■ 
 
 " ' " I think when I read that sweet story of old." 
 
 " ' I gave them a lesson to write from dicta- 
 tion, and they wrote it without a single syllable 
 or letter wrong in the spelling. Now, these 
 were the children of some of those very men 
 that I had seen in the coroborce ; and if these 
 very men had been taken when they were 
 children they could have been developed, theu'- 
 faculties could have been refined, they would 
 have risen above the rudeness and ferocity 
 which they manifested, and might have been 
 instructed in moral distinctions and moral ideas 
 in them which their children had now got.'
 
 i66 TWENTY YEARS IN TEHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " The possibility of the Masarwa Bushmen 
 being lifted up out of their degradation and 
 cruel slavery, and becoming the paid Christian 
 labourers of the country was set before me in 
 these words. The thought of their certain 
 destruction had often been before my mind. 
 I had prayed and preached about them fre- 
 quently ; but I had never thought of a Bush- 
 man's Children's Home. I prayed to God that 
 if the idea presented so vividly to my mind 
 was His, I might have the door opened for me 
 to do it. 
 
 " Beyond my wife I communicated my 
 thoughts to no one. I made no reference to 
 the subject to the Bamangwato. I did not 
 see my way. . . . About a week passed, and 
 after one of my lectures which I was holding 
 daily with my class of Christian workers, 
 they all sat still and perfectly silent, as they 
 do when they have something important to 
 communicate. Then one of their number 
 said — 
 
 " ' We have a question to ask you, sir. One 
 of us is in a difhcultv. He has a Mosarwa slave 
 girl. He bought her at the Lake River, and 
 he cannot rest about her. His conscience tells
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCHIN 167 
 
 him that he has done wrong, and he would Hke 
 you to take her that she might be free.' 
 
 " Now, I need not attempt to describe the 
 thoughts that passed through my mind. It 
 came to me Hke water to a thirsty man. . . . 
 
 " Thus we got our first Mosarwa girl. A 
 few days elapsed, and again my class spoke. 
 
 " ' One of the inquirers has heard about 
 your taking that slave girl. He says he has 
 a Mosarwa slave whom he bought for money, 
 and he knows it is wrono- ; and now he asks 
 if the teacher will take him.' 
 
 " ' Do you mean a man ? ' I asked, 
 
 " ' Yes, a man.' 
 
 " ' But,' I said, ' I have never had any 
 thought of doing such a thing. I have thought 
 of taking a few Masarwa children, and trying 
 to do something for them ; but I have never 
 thought of men and women.' 
 
 " I then explained to them for the first time 
 what I thought we could do. . . . 
 
 " ' However, I shall take a little time to con- 
 sider about it,' I added, ' and I shall see the 
 inquirer himself, you can tell him. One thing 
 I shall require if I do anything, and that is, 
 that the man must be released before the chief,
 
 1 68 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 and he must be released with a young cow, so 
 that everybody will know that all claims on 
 the slave have been foregone. The man must 
 not come out empty-handed. I shall consent 
 on no other conditions.' . . . 
 
 " The man was set free with his cow, and 
 I took the first Bushman, and a wild one, 
 under my care. The man is now as tame as 
 a child. 
 
 "At first he was utterly bewildered. He 
 used to lie flat on his back in the sun the whole 
 day long, and got up only to eat his food and 
 return to lie in the sun. 
 
 " Once he ran away. But he came back, 
 and he will never run away again. 
 
 " The next step was the thought that took 
 hold of me about the Lake Ngami Mission 
 being carried on by the Bamangwato Church. 
 
 " Then the whole thing took shape. 
 
 " The mission must be a mission for the 
 evangelisation of the Bacwapon, the Bakalagadi, 
 and others ; and lastly, it must have for its 
 object the deliverance of the Masarwa and 
 Makoba from slavery, and provide a home for 
 their children ; and it must ultimately embrace 
 schools and workshops, but it must grow with
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCKIN 169 
 
 the growth of the Bamangwato Church, and it 
 will be Christian work for both the BamanQ-- 
 wato themselves and for the Europeans resid- 
 ing at Shoshong. 
 
 " Everything must be, I said to myself, of 
 the simplest. The thing must just be allowed 
 to grow and shape itself as God shall direct me 
 from day to day. 
 
 " This is the wider view that I speak of 
 having taken of my work. 
 
 "All I have to ask is ; do not hinder me. . . . 
 Anything but asking me to give up the work. 
 That I could not accept. The work is not my 
 own, it is God's work. 
 
 " ' No man having put his hand to the plough, 
 and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of 
 God.' 
 
 '' Of course I do not expect that my brethren 
 
 at home can look at my work through my eyes, 
 
 and therefore, all I ask is, do not hinder me. 
 
 " No man can tell what God shall enable 
 
 him to do until he has tried." 
 
 So the tiny seed was planted by the Spirit 
 of God in the hearts of the Bamangwato 
 Christians, in answer to the prayers of His
 
 170 TWENTY YEARS IN IvHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 servant ; and by-and-by he was able to rejoice 
 over the springing blade which, by God's 
 fructifying grace, was in due time to bear 
 precious fruit, to His glory, and to the rearing 
 of a Native Church among the Batauana on 
 Lake Ngami. 
 
 What a ring of holy joy we find in the 
 opening sentence of the glad-hearted mis- 
 sionary's next chronicle : — 
 
 " At sunrise," — just when the new day breaks 
 forth smiling in all its young hopefulness, — " at 
 sunrise " — type also surely of the dawn of the 
 Sun of Riofhteousness over the darkness of 
 Batauana ignorance and heathenism, — 
 
 " At sunrise," writes Mr. Hepburn, " the 
 whole town came together to see four men 
 appointed by the Church to go to Lake Ngami 
 with me to do Christ's work. . . . 
 
 " I gave the Bamangwato a history of the 
 wonderful doings of God among us since the 
 time when they went out to perform their 
 heathen ceremony of circumcision for the last 
 time, and their doing so was followed by 
 famine and death. When all their money was 
 spent in buying food, cattle and sheep were
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCKIN 171 
 
 eaten up, and the town was a town of mourn- 
 ing. Then came the good years, every suc- 
 ceeding year better than the one before it. And 
 last of all has come this year — the year the Ba- 
 mangwato had said, * We will put our hands 
 to God's work.' 
 
 " There has never been such a year known 
 as this. The gardens are a marvel. No one 
 could even think in his heart of rain-makinof 
 (as they say themselves), because the rain was 
 never away. And the hearts of the people are 
 rejoicing with the bounty of God. 
 
 " I contrasted the hand of God with the 
 hand of man. I pointed out how every man's 
 gift had been returned to him over and over 
 again. Their cattle, sheep, and goats are once 
 more multiplying, and all the pretensions of 
 rain-making gods to send them the sun, and 
 destroy them utterly, have vanished from men's 
 thoughts, simply because of the fulness of the 
 blessing of God. . . . 
 
 "It was a day such as at one time I did not 
 think to see. 
 
 " If God is not blessing me in my work, 
 then it is vain for me to expect to know when 
 blessing comes.
 
 172 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 "How often have I tried to stir up the 
 people, and come home heavy with the stoHdity 
 and immovableness of their nature. 
 
 " Now they are throbbing with every sign of 
 new Hfe — a sense of new-found joy burning in 
 their faces. It is the joy of a spiritual child- 
 hood, very beautiful to see, and it is, I sincerely 
 trust and believe, the joy of the Holy Spirit 
 which will advance from day to day to spiritual 
 manhood in Christ Jesus the Lord. It will 
 need much care, much watching, much culture 
 for many years. But by the grace of God the 
 Bamangwato Church shall yet become a living, 
 earnest, working Church. 
 
 " There will be a constant tendency to relapse 
 into a state of indifference, from which they 
 must be again and again aroused. But that 
 is not a thing to be wondered at, simply 
 because we are working with spiritual children. 
 
 " Faults will frequently have to be over- 
 looked and forgiven. We must not expect 
 too high things. Generosity and liberality 
 must not be looked for overmuch. 
 
 " But with a definite object before them — 
 something they can call their own, something 
 to work at and to talk together about — this will,
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCK IN 173 
 
 I believe, develop spiritual life, and in God's 
 time and way bring out the full, vigorous life 
 of true manhood in Christ Jesus. The only 
 thing I can blame myself for is, that 1 did not 
 see it all sooner than I have done." 
 
 '\Ji(iic 1880. 
 
 " At daybreak this morning, and while the 
 light was growing from early dawn to sunrise, 
 we held our first monthly mission prayer- 
 meeting. The meeting was called early on 
 account of the people being so busy with their 
 gardens, and it was well attended. The 
 prayers were exceedingly direct and spiritual, 
 and were natural also. There were several 
 short passages of scripture read, and a few 
 remarks from Khukwe and myself 
 
 "It was a simple, natural, and earnest meeting 
 for prayer and thanksgiving to God for the 
 new day of grace which the Bamangwato feel 
 their new undertaking to be to them. It has 
 put new joy into their life and new life into 
 their hearts. l^hey do not appear ever to 
 have realised that the Gospel was so thoroughly 
 their own until now. Now it is truly a Gospel 
 for the black man himself . . . 
 
 " They needed to have their sympathy
 
 174 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S C0UN7RY 
 
 drawn out to a definite and tangible object. 
 That object has been found for them, and I 
 beHeve it will be one source of blessing to 
 the tribe, among many others, by which their 
 spiritual life will be drawn out into fuller 
 manifestation, and built up into stronger and 
 more abiding steadfastness. 
 
 " I have vainly striven to educe the spirit 
 of Christian giving by various methods in 
 the past ; but I sincerely hope that I have 
 struck upon the right path at last, not only 
 for the Bamangwato, but also for the resident 
 Europeans. 
 
 " They also need Christian work to which 
 they can put their hands. Any kind of Christian 
 work will be better than none at all. The 
 want of it has been felt to be a great loss to 
 the European element of my church ; and I 
 have often tried to find out some means by 
 which I could meet it. Here is work for 
 both Europeans and natives, and it will tend 
 to unite harmoniously that which has a 
 tendency to separate and remain distinct — a 
 state of things most undesirable, and the con- 
 tinuance of which will always more or less 
 a-lvance to war. If the English nation cannot
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH CO C KIN 175 
 
 unite with the native races without war then 
 we have still something to learn from the 
 Gospel of our Saviour, But it is quite pos- 
 sible to become one with the native races, 
 to lift them up and bless them, and to our 
 own advantage in every possible way. We 
 may do it without the hatred which war must 
 always bring with it. Why, if a tithe of the 
 amount that England has spent on war in 
 South Africa had been spent in missions 
 the country would have been far advanced 
 in civilisation ! The trade of the country 
 would have increased enormously, and peace 
 and plenty might have reigned where hunger 
 and distress and war have furrowed the land 
 with woe. The cause of missions is not only 
 the cause of the Christian Church in England ; 
 it is the cause of the nation. Would that the 
 Church and the nation were more thoroughly 
 alive to this fact ! As a nation, we possess 
 the highest code of morality — the Christian ; 
 as a nation, we profess to stand forward as the 
 most earnest exponents of that code ; but too 
 often its principles, so far from being inculcated, 
 are openly disregarded, and the utmost licence 
 allowed by educated Englishmen in their trans-
 
 176 TWENTY YEARS IN TEHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 actions with the native races. What Africa 
 needs is an incoming of Christian men and 
 women. We want Christian men as magis- 
 trates, as residents, as traders, as mission- 
 aries — in one word, everywhere ! Christian 
 men who will inculcate and enforce, by every 
 legitimate means in their power, the morality 
 of Jesus Christ. Let the heathen tribes of 
 South Africa be civilised into purity, not into 
 devilishness worse than their own ; for that is 
 already devilish enough. 
 
 " To do so, it will require that the heathen 
 be made to feel the full force of the pure white 
 life of genuine truthfulness in every sphere of 
 their contact with Europeans, and especially 
 with all who call themselves Englishmen. 
 
 " We have fallen far short of our ideal as 
 a nation in our dealings with these tribes in 
 the past. The people will soon come under 
 our sway if they find that it is to their tem- 
 poral advantage to submit ; and they are quick 
 to learn what is to their advantage and what 
 is not. 
 
 " They are eager to become possessed of 
 all our great inheritance of civilisation, as they 
 see it embodied in those signs of wealth —
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCKIN 177 
 
 clothing, guns, horses, waggons, well-built 
 houses, well-cultivated gardens, artificial irriga- 
 tion, means of communication by reading and 
 writing, etc., stable laws, and, above all, 
 freedom to go where we please over the wide 
 world. 
 
 " There is nothing that is more precious, 
 and upon which the native mind places a 
 higher value, than freedom. 
 
 " Hence the system of passes which prevails 
 in the colony is cruel, and ought to be abolished, 
 as we have abolished slavery. Let us secure 
 to the native his small plot of land, his cattle, 
 sheep, and goats, and whatever else by his 
 industry he can make his own, and we shall 
 soon see the absolute power of the heathen 
 chiefs wane and die. 
 
 "In the past they have had no encourage- 
 ment to work, for all they possessed was not 
 their own but the chiefs. Heathen chiefs 
 dread the change, but the Christian chiefs, 
 who have the welfare of their people at heart, 
 will welcome it, where it is not thrust upon 
 them harshly and suddenly. 
 
 "It is quite possible to conquer Africa by 
 a bloodless warfare. Let commerce, civilisa- 
 
 12
 
 178 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 tion. and just government go hand in hand, 
 upon the basis of a common Christian life, 
 and heathenism will fall and crumble like old 
 ruins fall and crumble into dust before the 
 teeth of time, 
 
 " We do not, here in South Africa, fight a 
 system hoary with age and carrying its meaning 
 down the stream of antiquity in elaborate and 
 complicated symbolic imagery ; or embodied 
 and compacted in history and literature, striking 
 deep roots and reaching far. Hoary enough, 
 no doubt, their heathenism is, if we go back 
 to its first origin, but the South African knows 
 nothing of it ; to him it is but of yesterday, 
 he learnt it from his father, and that is all he 
 knows about it ; just as he learnt to bray a 
 skin for his shoulders, to herd a few cattle, 
 to follow a spoor in the veldt, to eat certain 
 roots and avoid others, to tip his arrow and 
 trim his bow ; and when Christianity comes 
 in, accompanied with all her civilising forces, 
 the faith of his father vanishes from his mind, 
 and there only remains the foulness of his 
 mind, of his home, and of his nation's life to 
 contend with. 
 
 "It is bad enough in its way, but it is not
 
 DEATH OF THE REV. JOSEPH COCKIN 179 
 
 like those hoary systems of India and China, 
 and it is not supported by educated priests, 
 who can point to the ancient literature and 
 history of their forefathers, handed down from 
 generation to generation for thousands of years ; 
 it has no grand temples, unmistakably marked 
 with the age of centuries, speaking volumes 
 to the eye of entranced beholders ; and it has 
 to be met in exactly the same way in which 
 the heathenism of our own large towns is to 
 be met — not by war and bloodshed, by im- 
 prisonment and confiscation, but by truth and 
 lovingkindness, helping them to provide them- 
 selves with better homes, better clothing, and 
 honourable employment, honestly paid for in 
 cash ; by encouragement and by freedom, and 
 the firm, strong hand of law justly administered, 
 without favour and without fear. 
 
 " There are bad men everywhere, and a bad 
 man among the heathen is a power for mis- 
 chief that can only be put down by the swift 
 execution of unpitying justice falling upon 
 the mischief-maker, upon his comxmitting a 
 crime. 
 
 " Law is the onlv education that some men 
 listen to.
 
 i8o TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " We have one such man at least here at 
 Shoshong, from a neighbouring tribe. 
 
 " He is one of the worst among the bad. . . . 
 A murder is always possible where such a man 
 exists, and, like that of the Burnesses (a cold- 
 blooded murder in Griqualand), may be the 
 only thing wanting to carry war into a country 
 where law would have been more effective in 
 curing the evil, besides being less destructive, 
 in fact, not destructive at all, and would not 
 alienate the people from us. 
 
 " In war the innocent suffer, and sometimes 
 the guilty escape ; and, at any rate, if the guilty 
 fall, they -fall by accident and not as an act of 
 justice inflicted upon the wrongdoer. 
 
 " War is a powerful instrument for making 
 the native tribes feel our power, and will make 
 us feared, but it will make us hated too. . . . 
 
 "To prevent war, expenditure, and stagnation 
 to trade, the country should be flooded with 
 missionaries, and it is apparent that the mem- 
 bers of the " Society of Jesus" have come to 
 this conclusion, for they are sending up more 
 men, and say they are going to send up eleven 
 new men every year, until every part of their 
 field is fully occupied."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE SECOND VISIT TO THE BATAUANA 
 
 " It seemed good unto us, to choose out men and send them 
 unto you witli our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have 
 hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." — 
 Acts xv. 25, 26. 
 
 " Fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, men that have 
 been a comfort unto me." — Col. iv. 11. 
 
 '' September I'jth, 1881. 
 
 WHEN it became known through the 
 town that four men, Gogakosi, Khoati, 
 Motlapesi, and Rampodu, had been selected 
 by the Church to accompany their teacher on 
 a visit to the Lake the greatest enthusiasm 
 prevailed. Women began to prepare corn. It 
 was cleaned, bruised, and sifted, and the meal 
 dried in the sun. Then gifts of the finest 
 native meal were brought and presented to the 
 four men. They soon had more than they 
 needed, more than their waggon could carry, 
 and eventually some had to be left at home. 
 
 There would have been no hardship in allowing 
 
 181
 
 1 82 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 them to provide their own food. All were well 
 able to do it. Two of them are important 
 men in the town, and wealthy. A hint 
 thrown out at one of my daily afternoon Bible 
 readings, that a suitable opportunity for show- 
 ing goodwill to Christ had arisen, was the 
 occasion of these offerings being made. The 
 reply to this hint of mine was not less than 
 five hundred small gifts of meal, money, goats, 
 sheep, and coin, and even three large dogs to 
 guard us from wild animals ; and a dog is as 
 an ox among the Bamangwato ; they are of 
 equal value. With the money the men bought 
 for themselves coffee, tea, sugar, candles, soap, 
 and many other necessary articles. Thirty 
 trek-oxen were lent for the journey. Presents 
 of money were offered to myself also, but I 
 refused to receive it, for obvious reasons, and 
 recommended that it be placed to the Church 
 funds. A slaughter ox was given to me by 
 the chief This animal, making the journey to 
 the Lake and back again, was sold, with one 
 received by us from Moremi, the chief at the 
 Lake. The two brought in^ 1 2 ; and this money 
 was handed over to the men to meet certain 
 expenses they had incurred by the journey.
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE BATAUANA 183 
 
 " On Sunday, March 26th, before a congre- 
 gation of thousands, including some of the 
 white faces of our traders, the four men were 
 formally sent forth to the work. The service 
 was held at sunrise. It was entirely conducted 
 by black men. I sat, as an interested onlooker, 
 with other Europeans. With the usual order 
 of hymns and prayers, addresses were delivered 
 to the people explaining the object of the 
 meeting, and the work which was being that 
 day taken in hand. It was only now, they 
 said, that the duty which their teacher had 
 laid upon them, nearly a year before, was 
 being acted upon, of sending God's Word to 
 the Lake. The chief, Khama, and his brother 
 Seretse, now addressed the men themselves, 
 urofinof them to do their work with earnestness 
 and faithfulness, and to allow no evil report ot 
 misconduct to return to the town, as was the 
 case on their teacher's former journey. Then 
 the chief and Raditladi, with a number of the 
 leadinof men in the Church, laid their hands 
 upon the heads of the four evangelists, and the 
 two named offered prayer on their behalf, 
 asking that " God would scud them Himself 
 by His Holy Spirit." The keynote of all said
 
 1 84 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 was, to quote the words of Khama : ' The 
 work in which we are engaged to-day is not 
 work of the kingdom of the Bamangwato ; it is 
 the work of the kingdom of the great King 
 Jesus Christ. It becomes us to be faithful, to 
 be earnest, to do what we are doing with our 
 hearts, and not with our lips, and to rejoice 
 that God has given us such work to do.' 
 
 " When the service had ended, I stood up 
 and recapitulated the main points of God's 
 dealings with them as a people ; stated how 
 great a pleasure it had been to me to be 
 present at the service I had just witnessed, 
 and how great the joy would be to the Chris- 
 tian Churches in England when they heard 
 of it. 
 
 " ' Surely,' said a number of traders whom 
 I saw together a day or two afterwards, ' you 
 never expected to see this sort of thing when 
 you called us together ten months ago.' 
 
 " ' Yes,' I replied, ' I expected it, and I 
 expect more than this yet.' 
 
 " ' Well, we never did,' they answered. ' We 
 never thought the Bamangwato could be so 
 much in earnest about mission-work as this ; 
 and when you called upon us that morning
 
 SECOND VISIT 70 THE B ATA U ANA 185 
 
 we thought you were certainly very enthu- 
 siastic to expect them to do what you desired.' 
 
 " The remainder of that Sabbath I left in 
 the hands of the people, and a glorious day 
 they made it. The services were continued 
 almost without intermission until after sunset. 
 They said they could not get enough ; and 
 when the day was done they ' had never 
 been so filled.' 
 
 " The people went about with a briskness 
 quite unusual to them. In the afternoon they 
 prepared a very happy surprise for me. The 
 children must have their hands in that day's 
 work, as they said, that they might remember 
 it when they were men and women. I was 
 preparing for my European congregation when 
 they came to my study door to say, — 
 
 " ' We have brought the children's gifts for 
 you to count.' 
 
 " I did not fail to let them know how glad 
 I was that they had put their young hands to 
 God's work too. We counted, and found a 
 total of ^12 \\s. od. One sovereign, eleven 
 half-crowns, thirteen florins, one hundred and 
 twenty shillings, one hundred and three six- 
 pences, and twenty-four threepences, or two
 
 1 86 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 hundred and seventy-two gifts in all ; and their 
 faces beamed with the gladness of their 
 hearts. 
 
 " It must not be thought, however, that the 
 enthusiasm with which the Bamangwato have 
 taken up mission work is an indication that 
 the work of Christianising the Bamangwato 
 town is a work completed. It is simply the 
 breaking forth of the Christian life of an infant 
 Christian Church, growing up in the very heart 
 of a profoundly heathen town. I should not 
 like that fact to be lost sight ot. Heathenism 
 possesses depths so profound, and shows itself 
 in forms so repulsive, against which an infant 
 Church must do battle for its existence, that 
 we should not greatly wonder if our Church 
 here yet needs much of that care which Paul 
 exercised over the Corinthian and Galatian 
 Churches, and exhibits something of their 
 failings and forms of life. 
 
 " On the way to Lake Ngami we visited 
 many small towns, and preached to the poor 
 Gospel-hungry people. Hungry and unfed ! 
 There was only here and there a town where 
 the people did not press us with the question, — • 
 
 "'When will you come and teach us?'
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE B ATA U AN A 187 
 
 urging as their plea, ' We have no one to 
 teach us.' 
 
 "It led me to make the remark to my 
 companions, — 
 
 " ' Why, we might have come with a dozen 
 men, and left them two and two on the river, 
 and taken them up again on our return.' 
 
 " Ah ! when in the history of the Church 
 of Christ were His words of compassion more 
 applicable than now ? ' The harvest truly is 
 plenteous, but the labourers are few.' 
 
 " When the news of our arrival reached the 
 town of the Batauana, Moremi and a number 
 of his people came riding out to meet us, 
 accompanied by the European traders of the 
 station. They received us with many ex- 
 pressions of gladness and surprise. They had 
 heard of my efforts to stir up the Bamangwato 
 on their behalf, and it had made their hearts 
 glad ; but not because they hoped soon to 
 see me coming with Bamangwato to teach 
 them, for they knew how much their unhealthy 
 district is dreaded by them, and they had 
 concluded that Bamangwato would never come 
 among them for that purpose. Their gladness 
 arose from the evidence it gave them that /
 
 1 88 TWENTY YEARS IN K?IAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 had not forcrotten them nor cast them off, 
 and that I would yet find some means of going 
 to teach them myself personally. 
 
 " We found a number of earnest spirits who 
 were rendering Khukwe much assistance in the 
 work. In the afternoon of the day of our 
 arrival Saturday, we held a meeting for mutual 
 encouragement and prayer. It was a meeting 
 at which every one present was deeply solemn- 
 ised by the consciousness of the presence of 
 God. Near its conclusion, and whilst we were 
 engaged in subdued fervent prayer for the out- 
 pouring of God's Holy Spirit upon the people 
 and ourselves in the work we were about to 
 commence, our hearts were lacerated by hearing 
 the heavy blows of a rhinoceros-hide whip, 
 and the screams and earnest cries for mercy of 
 the victim, unheeded by the cruel oppressor. 
 
 "Every space for breathing time, we could 
 hear the trembling, quavering voice piteously, 
 vainly pleading, followed by the rapid strokes 
 of the merciless whip, which rained down 
 blows, until the master who wielded it had 
 to stop again for another brief breathing time. 
 This he repeated furiously until so exhausted 
 that his arm had no longer power to strike ;
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE B ATA VAN A 1P9 
 
 and then there was only to be heard the low, 
 sobbing murmuring of an almost dying man. 
 
 "Gladly, oh, how gladly! if it had been 
 possible, I would have bought that poor slave, 
 and have taken him away and dressed his 
 bleeding wounds, and comforted his hope- 
 less heart. But I thought it better not to 
 attempt it, lest it should create a prejudice 
 against me, and injure my work from its very 
 commencement. It would have placed in the 
 hands of those who might be antagonistic to 
 my work a weapon which they would not 
 have been slow to use. It might, and in all 
 probability would, have been a failure to 
 attempt it too, for the master would hardly 
 have allowed me to take away such an exhibi- 
 tion of his merciless cruelty. My heart bled, 
 and I could only give a sleepless night to 
 prayer. Would that poor slave be alive in 
 the morning ? If he were not, he would not 
 be the first I had known to be whipped to 
 death, for some comparatively insignificant 
 fault. And yet there are men who have had 
 a Christian education who will defend slavery. 
 
 " I know a man who argued this very ques- 
 tion with a Christian brother trader, and not
 
 1 90 TWENJ^Y YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 long afterwards had the terrible ordeal inflicted 
 upon him of seeing twenty-nine Masarwa shot 
 down close to his waggons, and with all his 
 efforts he could not save one. 
 
 "What fault had they committed? They 
 had gone to get the meat which the trader 
 had killed, and their masters shot them down 
 without mercy. 
 
 " It was surely an argument which ought 
 to have clenched the question of slavery for 
 him for ever, if he had the heart of a man still 
 in him, and I believe he had. 
 
 " The next morning, Sunday, May ist, I 
 discoursed on the great mercy of God in Christ 
 Jesus, dwelling upon it at great length, until 
 I felt that the hearts of the people had warmed 
 to it, and then I drew the contrast of cruelty 
 in Vv^hatever form ; and especially denounced 
 cruelty to their wives who were their equals, 
 cruelty to their children who were their own 
 flesh and blood, cruelty to their slaves, who 
 bore God's image, and tor whom Christ died 
 equally with themselves ; and I pointed out 
 the injustice of taking the bones and flesh, the 
 marrow and sinews which God had oriven to 
 another man, and using them as if they were
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE BATAUANA 191 
 
 their own without any payment in return. I 
 did not speak mincingly, and I did not spare 
 the Batauana slave-holders ; but I did not 
 forofet that there was another side of the ques- 
 tion to be considered, and as I knew that I 
 had a large number of Bakoba slaves hearing 
 me, I told them I should return to the subject 
 in th(^. afternoon, and that I had a word specially 
 for them. 
 
 " I then went and lay down for an hour on 
 a skin Hat on my back in the shade of Khukwe's 
 house, for I was very tired with our hard work 
 of almost night and day travelling, ending with 
 the two trying nights in the Tsetse fly ; and my 
 companions in labour were so thoroughly tired, 
 that the whole duties of the day had devolved 
 on me. Khukwe we found without any voice 
 to speak above a whisper from a very bad cold. 
 Diphukwe, however, read scripture for me, 
 and some one gave out the hymns. But God 
 strengthened me for my work as He has done 
 many a time in like circumstances. 
 
 " I was soon told that the people had gathered 
 again, for they were anxious to hear me. I 
 went and took up the subject for the masters 
 against the servants, showing how it was pos-
 
 192 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 sible for the servant to be cruel to his master, 
 especially for a bad servant to injure the 
 property of a good master, and telling them 
 I had not come to teach them to rebel against 
 their masters, but to teach master and servant 
 to do that which is just and right ; and after 
 producing scriptural illustrations, I concluded 
 by earnestly enforcing upon them Peter's 
 doctrine as being emphatically the word of 
 the Gospel to them. 
 
 " On Monday there was a meeting of the 
 town to talk over the subject of my two 
 discourses. Great indignation was expressed 
 against the man who had been so cruel to his 
 slave on Saturday night. It did not perhaps 
 spring from any deep sense of sympathy with 
 the slave, so much as from a feeling of shame 
 that my first night's experience among them 
 should have been what it was. And yet it 
 is only fair, and no more than true, to state 
 that a change is coming over the minds of the 
 Batauana respecting the treatment of slaves. 
 One man has taught his Masarwa to read, and 
 some are able to read so well that they teach 
 Batauana in the schools. Still, I by no means 
 wish to imply that the neck of slavery has
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE B ATA U ANA 193 
 
 been broken. It is far, very far from that 
 yet. 
 
 " But the preaching of the Gospel by the 
 Batauana themselves to the Bakoba and 
 Masarwa must lead to that in the end. In 
 fact, the Batauana have been led, in the won- 
 derful providence of God, to step out upon a 
 course of conduct with reference to the Gospel, 
 the end of which is hidden from their own 
 ken, and which I should deem it imprudent to 
 venture to predict with positiveness. We can 
 only say we know where it ought to end, and 
 where it would end, if they went steadily for- 
 ward and turned not aside, to the right hand or 
 to the left. But there is One who knows, who 
 can see the end from the beginning, and we 
 know that His purposes shall stand. It is at 
 least a very remarkable thing that Batauana 
 Christianity should have taken the shape it 
 has from its first commencement. 
 
 " My earliest concern was to make such 
 arrangements as would enable us to proceed 
 with our work most effectually. The matter 
 had been well considered in my own mind 
 beforehand, but I had now to get my thoughts 
 to take shape in the minds of others in order
 
 194 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 to get them embodied into facts. With some 
 little management it all fell out as I desired. 
 
 " The Batauana built a nice native house 
 for my four companions outside the town. I 
 had a small tent made for myself close to my 
 companions' house. We were thus together. 
 Khukwe and Khoate, with a Tauana Christian, 
 went away among the Batauana cattle posts, 
 where a large number of people live, and 
 where the great mass of the Masarwa are. 
 Diphukwe, with Motlapesi and another Tauana 
 Christian, went away among the Bakoba. The 
 reception which they got made all their hearts 
 glad, and when they returned it was with great 
 rejoicing of spirit. Gogakosi and Rampodo 
 remained with me to assist in the work at 
 the town. 
 
 " The Batauana have prayer in all the head- 
 men's courtyards every morning at sunrise ; for 
 this we divided our forces to go and conduct 
 short services for them. 
 
 " Then schools at eight o'clock. They have 
 several, and I had time only to visit them 
 and set them upon a better system of teaching 
 to read ; and in fact my visits were more 
 visits of observation than anything else, for
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE BATAUANA 195 
 
 my spare time was wholly occupied with 
 inquirers. 
 
 " We had services at first during the after- 
 noon ; they were largely attended by the 
 masters, but the servants were employed in 
 the work of the gardens ; for the Batauana 
 were harvesting. When I found that it was 
 hindering them from hearing, I commenced 
 evening services for them. They were held 
 in the open air, and were attended by the 
 great mass of the people. They hurried home 
 from their work, and got their evening meal 
 cooked early in order to come to these services, 
 which were held every evening from seven 
 until ten o'clock. In the cool night air, seated 
 quietly on the ground, under the great starry 
 heavens, with a solemn stillness upon the 
 people which made itself felt, these services 
 were the most impressive and perhaps the 
 most fruitful for good of any that were held ; 
 for I believe they were signally favoured with 
 the demonstration of the Spirit and of the 
 power of God. 
 
 *' What a contrast these services were to their 
 noisy night dances, which largely prevailed at 
 the time of our arrival, but which were after-
 
 196 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 wards totally abandoned for them. We held 
 them right in the centre of the town, and the 
 people rose reluctantly to depart when we had 
 concluded. Had it been a physical possibility 
 for me to continue the greater part of the 
 night, they showed that they would have 
 listened attentively to the message I had come 
 amono[ them to deliver. 
 
 " When they went away it was in the same 
 deep silence, and as with a fear of God upon 
 their spirits. I believe there were many who 
 dared not sleep until they had sought help 
 from God. The working of God in the silence 
 of the night in their own houses was a thing 
 which was brought home to me, and struck 
 me with great force at Tauana. It impressed 
 me with the thought that God Himself, by 
 His own Holy Spirit, was in His own way 
 dealing with the human spirit in the depth 
 of night and in hidden darkness while others 
 slept. The birth of a spirit is known to Him, 
 and I was cheered and strengthened by the 
 thought to press on more earnestly with my 
 work. And He who knows of the birth of a 
 spirit knows also how to nourish and sustain 
 it, and there are instances of it at Tauana.
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE I3ATAUANA 197 
 
 How much God blessed me I cannot tell. I 
 only know that I felt that intense outgoing 
 of spirit for the Batauana which is almost 
 painful, and that I laboured night and day 
 for their salvation. 
 
 " One night I presented their heathen charms 
 framed in an image of death. Death hung 
 about their necks, on their foreheads, and round 
 their ankles. In graves roofed over with death 
 they lay down and slept. It was as if they 
 had written upon the supports and centre 
 poles of their houses and across their door- 
 ways, — 
 
 " ' Let not God enter here.' 
 
 " They were not only sinful and shelterless, 
 but they employed themselves in digging 
 graves into which they might fall, every man 
 into the grave which his own hands had dug. 
 They were digging them, too, when the Father 
 of His prodigal children had got His beautiful 
 house lighted up and the feast ready, and 
 guests waiting for their return. 
 
 " In speaking thus it was my purpose not 
 only to break their charms, but to destroy 
 their harmlessness, and make them positively 
 hurtful ; so as, if possible, to produce a sense
 
 198 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 of alarming insecurity, whilst throwing open 
 wide the door of hope. I was in that state 
 in which a Christian preacher sometimes feels 
 conscious that a Divine energy has been upon 
 him and upon his hearers at the same time, 
 and to my own mind it became marked as the 
 crisis in our work. 
 
 " The whole mass of the people was deeply 
 stirred. The Christian party became bolder 
 and more uncompromising in their attack upon 
 every form of heathenism, and they began to 
 urge friends and companions with a more 
 tender pity and compassionateness. They felt 
 more deeply and saw more clearly their own 
 great deliverance, and they had upon them 
 something of the spirit which Jude describes 
 in his epistle. It showed itself in the tones 
 of their voices, and in their manner of dealing 
 with their companions. They began to speak 
 to them in the spirit of love. 
 
 " At one of our meetings it was made known 
 to us that a man was dying, of whom there was 
 hope, although he had not made any open 
 profession of Christ. Three or four went to 
 pray with him and for him ; and the prayers 
 of those who remained were made with emotion
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE B AT A U AN A 199 
 
 in their voices. And thus God did His work 
 from day to day by many instruments, and in 
 many ways. In the very middle of it there 
 came a wave of fever over the town. I was the 
 first down with it, but also the first to recover. 
 
 "All my four companions took it, and also 
 Khukwe and Diphukwe, the chief and his 
 wife, and a great many people in the town. 
 
 " Gogakosi became at once delirious, and I 
 was very much afraid of its proving fatal in 
 his case. But this gave me the occasion to 
 visit the Bakoba up the Teoge River, where 
 I spent a week in the centre of a cluster of 
 towns with Gogakosi and Rampodo, and where 
 they rapidly recovered. They were unable to 
 render me any assistance, however, and indeed, 
 were a cause of much anxiety instead. Two 
 of the Batauana Christians who went with us 
 rode round the district, and made my coming 
 among them known at all the cattle-posts and 
 towns some distance up the river. There 
 was great eagerness to be taught among these 
 poor Bakoba, so much so, that the words were 
 literally fulfilled to me — there was ' no leisure 
 so much as to eat.' 
 
 " On Sunday morning the Bakoba began to
 
 200 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 gather at sunrise, and some had come from a 
 long distance up the river, notably several 
 young men. They had come from a town 
 where a prophet of lies was endeavouring to 
 work upon the feelings of the people by throw- 
 ing himself into a frenzied state, and in that 
 state dancing, singing, gesticulating, and pro- 
 phesying. I took my Bible, and having selected 
 a tree which would give me shade when the 
 sun became hot, and where there was also 
 plenty of shade for the people, I sat down. My 
 congregation, which consisted principally of 
 Bakoba with a sprinkling of Batauana from 
 the cattle-posts near, gathered round me and 
 sat down under the trees. 
 
 " Taking the first two chapters of Luke's 
 Gospel for the introduction, I turned to Mark's 
 Gospel, and went systematically through the 
 life of our Lord as recorded in that Gospel, and 
 set it before them in one complete, compact 
 whole. I explained, enforced, or summed up 
 as I went along ; and I did my best to interest 
 them and to keep up the connection in their 
 minds as we passed from stage to stage of that 
 beneficent and lofty and unparalleled self- 
 sacrifice.
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE B ATA U ANA 201 
 
 " We had only a short interval of about 
 twenty minutes at midday, and the people 
 showed, so far as looks and attention could 
 show it, the greatest interest in what they 
 were hearing. 
 
 " I do not know that I ever felt the drawing 
 power of our Saviour's life more than I did 
 when I set it before these simple Bakoba. 
 
 " Perhaps it might be thought they were 
 more than satisfied, as I was certainly tired, 
 but that was not the case. The people had 
 been dismissed and went away home, and I, 
 feeling faint, lay down on my comfortable bed 
 of rushes. I might have been resting about an 
 hour when a number of the Bakoba from the 
 towns on both sides of the river came back 
 to ask questions about what they had heard 
 from me. 
 
 " Once more the inspiration to speak of the 
 wonderful things of God was upon me, and we 
 sat together around three or four large fires 
 which they had made till nearly midnight, 
 they listening to the history of God's dealings 
 with Moses and His chosen people, the out- 
 pouring of the Spirit of God upon the Gentiles, 
 the founding of the Christian Church, with
 
 202 TWENTY YEARS IN I\HAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 its two simple ordinances, and the resurrection 
 and complete redemption of His people at the 
 second coming of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. 
 Gogakosi, who had been lying listening, for 
 he had begun to recover, sat up, and in a few 
 simple, touching words, offered prayer, and so 
 ended a long day's work for Christ. Sweet 
 is the sleep of God's weary ones, and very 
 short, sweet, and refreshing was mine. 
 
 " At three o'clock we inspanned the waggon, 
 and returned to the Batauana town. 
 
 " We reached it, after walking hard all day 
 right through the heart of a forest of large 
 trees, about nine o'clock at night. 
 
 " Another week of earnest work among the 
 Batauana, and then came the last Sunday that 
 I remained with them. The recollection of it 
 will not soon fade from my memory, but I 
 should fail if I attempted to describe it. Thirty 
 men and women with their children were bap- 
 tised. The day's services were all my own, 
 and were farewell services. A letter telling 
 me of illness in my family was causing me to 
 hasten away. I received it about four o'clock 
 on Saturday afternoon. 
 
 " My companions remained to carry on the
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE BATAUANA 203 
 
 work still another month. My leaving them 
 was in some respects no doubt beneficial. It 
 threw the responsibility of the work upon them, 
 and gave them greater fi-eedom in doing it. 
 The people, again, would be drawn nearer to 
 them when I was gone than when I was 
 present. I had been working hard, too, and 
 it was beginning to tell upon me, so that I 
 thought I saw's God's hand as much in taking 
 me away as in leading me there just when 
 He did. For I believe it has given shape and 
 some degree of solidity to the work. I was 
 most thankful to God, as I am still, for having 
 enabled me to go in and do what at the time 
 I did. I was planning a six weeks' or two 
 months' work up the rivers when I got the 
 call away, after I had perhaps done all God 
 wanted me to do then. 
 
 "In the evening we had the Supper of our 
 Lord, with the first handful of Batauana 
 Christians. The chief his wife, and his 
 mother, were among the number. Khoati, 
 assisted by Gogakosi, administered the ordi- 
 nance ; and as I sat a partaker of it with them, 
 my heart was filled with thankfulness to my 
 Divine Master. How little, I felt, was such
 
 204 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAAIA'S COUNTRY 
 
 a reward anticipated, when, with my family, I 
 took my first journey to see and report upon 
 the feasibihty of estabhshing a mission among 
 the Batauana. I gave a farewell address to the 
 Christians based upon Eph. ii. 11-22 and Heb. 
 xii. 22-24 ^^^ 28. Then my work was done. 
 It was one of the happiest days of my life, 
 and it had only one drawback, which I felt and 
 regretted, and that was, that my wife was not 
 there to share its pleasures with me as she 
 truly deserved. 
 
 " The Batauana Church has agreed to bear a 
 share of the burden of supporting its evangel- 
 ists. They gladly accepted the duty, when I 
 had taken some pains to show what it meant. 
 I explained that it was not for any European 
 missionary, but only for native evangelists, that 
 I was pleading. The Society. I said, sends out 
 its own people from England to spread the 
 Gospel, but it is unreasonable to expect that 
 they will pay black men also who are labour- 
 ing in their own country and among their own 
 people. They assented to the reasonableness 
 of that way of doing things, and made some 
 very sensible remarks. 
 
 " I found that many traced their spiritual
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE BATAUANA 205 
 
 history back to tht; first discourse I preached 
 to them in 1877. 
 
 " The substance of it had been preserved, and 
 was given back to me in many of my conversa- 
 tions with the inquirers. How Httle can we 
 measure the power for good of one discourse 
 in a heathen town if it is only followed up by 
 farther instruction to the newly awakened 
 heathen mind. 
 
 "After my departure, fifteen members were 
 added to the Church. Some were hunters, 
 who had returned, and were known to be 
 Christians. But the crown of it all was that 
 five were Bakoba from the towns I had visited, 
 three men, two of them having their wives 
 with them. These are not of course by any 
 means to be understood as the fruit of my one 
 week's labour amongst them. All who were 
 received were inquirers of some standing be- 
 fore I went in, and were selected from upwards 
 of one hundred, the majority of whom are still 
 continuing as inquirers. 
 
 "When I went among the Bakoba I found 
 one of themselves a self-taught preacher 
 labouring in the work of the Gospel or the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. His only book of Scripture,
 
 2o6 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 and the only copy of the Scriptures among 
 the Bakoba, is an old one. which contains 
 Chronicles to Job, the Books of Solomon, and 
 the Prophets, the joint work of Dr. Moffat 
 and the Rev. William Ashton, and printed by 
 the latter at Kuruman in 1857 for the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society. The fifty-third 
 chapter of Isaiah contains his Gospel of Sal- 
 vation for the sinner, through the blood of 
 the Lamb of God. ' My glory I will not give 
 to another.' And how remarkably simple are 
 the instruments which God uses for the ac- 
 complishment of His own ends. The Holy 
 Spirit of God can use a very feeble instrument, 
 and He has been, and is still, using an un- 
 educated Mokoba, with a mutilated Bible, for 
 the salvation of God's children up the Teoge 
 River. Let me give a few sentences from 
 Livingstone's ' Missionary Travels ' respecting 
 these same Bakoba. He says — 
 
 "'They' (the Bakoba) 'have never been 
 known to fight, and indeed, have a tradition 
 that their forefathers, in their first essays at 
 war, made their bows of the " Palma Christi," 
 and when these broke they gave up fighting 
 altogether. They have invariably submitted
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE BATAUANA 207 
 
 to the rule of every horde which has overrun 
 the countries adjacent to the rivers on which 
 they specially love to dwell. They are thus 
 the Quakers of the body politic in Africa. . . . 
 I liked the frank and manly bearing of these 
 men, and instead of sitting in the waggon, 
 preferred a seat in one of the canoes. . . , 
 Their submissive disposition leads to their 
 villages being frequently visited by hungry 
 strangers.' 
 
 " These Bakoba, of ' frank and manly bear- 
 ing, and of submissive and peaceful disposition,' 
 are the same people who are now^ becoming 
 subjects of the King of Peace. 
 
 " ' Twelve days after our departure from the 
 waggons at Ngabisani,' continues Livingstone, 
 ' we came to the north-east end of Lake 
 Ngami, and on the ist of August, 1849, we 
 went down together to the broad part, and 
 for the first time this fine-looking sheet of 
 water was beheld by Europeans.' 
 
 " That ' fine-looking sheet of water ' my 
 family and I beheld for the first time in 1877, 
 but in June 1881 it was not to be seen. The 
 waters flowing ' from a country full of rivers 
 — so many no one can tell their number —
 
 2o8 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 and full of large trees,' had failed to keep it 
 full, and Lake Ngami was dried up from one 
 end to the other. 
 
 " But although the waters of Lake Ngami 
 may fail, the waters from the infinite sea, 
 flowinc/ out from the Throne of God and of 
 the Lamb, are inexhaustible ; and around its 
 dry bed, and up those rivers which feed it, 
 they are advancing, and they will flow on 
 stronger and deeper and broader, for the 
 regeneration and rest of its weary, despised, 
 and downtrodden sons and daughters of peace. 
 
 " ' As is Thy name, O God, so is Thy 
 praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right 
 hand is full of righteousness.' ' It shall come 
 to pass in that day that the root of Jesse, 
 which standeth for an ensign to the people, 
 to it shall the nations seek ; and His resting- 
 place shall be glorious.' 
 
 " There, where Livingstone caught the in- 
 spiration for the great work of his life, the 
 standard of the great Captain under whom 
 he served has been raised — planted, too, as 
 was fit it should be, by the Society whose 
 agent Livingstone then was, and the Lord's 
 redeemed are gathering to its peaceful shelter.
 
 SECOND VISIT TO THE BAIAUANA 209 
 
 "It speaks peace — peace to the nations, 
 peace under the shadow of His Cross ; and the 
 gentle Mokoba and the fierce Motauana, slave 
 and master, can sit down together at one table 
 as brethren, to eat and drink together the 
 memorials of His sacrifice " 
 
 14
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES, 
 BAMANGIVATO AND B ATA U AN A 
 
 " Tend the flock of God which is among you. . . . And where 
 the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive a crown 
 of glory that fadeth not away."— i Peter ii. 4. 
 
 ON his return to Shoshong and his work 
 there, Mr. Hepburn did not by any 
 means forget the claims and needs of his other 
 spiritual flock — the Batauana Church. Much 
 and deep thought was given to it by night 
 and by day ; and many and earnest were the 
 prayers offered up to the Chief Shepherd on 
 behalf of these "few sheep in the wilderness " 
 whose welfare lay so near Mr. Hepburn's 
 heart. The following extracts from a letter 
 penned some few months later give evidence 
 of his solicitude : — 
 
 " Shoshong, 1881. 
 " I was led to reflect more closely upon 
 
 the state of the infant Church itself, and the 
 
 210
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 211 
 
 possible consequences to It, if left without 
 head or guide or responsible servant of any 
 kind. The result of my cogitations was that 
 a conviction began to grow upon my mind 
 that it was my duty to go in and arrange 
 matters personally with the Church itself 
 There are many important things known to 
 myself, but which I cannot explain now in 
 writing ; and I had to consider what would 
 be the position of the Church without a visit 
 from me for a period extending over a length 
 of time, sufficient for my journey to England 
 and my return, with the intervening and over- 
 lapping spaces accompanying it. Three years 
 at the very least would elapse, and that is 
 taking a very low estimate, unless some special 
 arrangements were made to enable me to do 
 it sooner. For, first, I could not go away at 
 present, not for some months at least. Then 
 if there is to be any committee meeting before- 
 hand, and a long waggon journey after that, 
 it would be long before I reached England. 
 And when I return, there will be so many 
 matters calling for my attention at Shoshong 
 that I could not expect to go to the Lake for 
 a year at least. Three years, therefore, is a low
 
 2 12 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 estimate. ... But after conversation and prayer 
 together, and much perplexity, my wife and I 
 both thought we saw our duty clear ; and we 
 have set ourselves to do it, as God our 
 Heavenly Father shall give us grace and 
 strength to carry it through. 
 
 "It appears to us to be my duty to Khukwe, 
 to be my duty to the Church, and in that case 
 my duty to Christ, to return to Lake Ngami, 
 and set things in order before I can think of my 
 journey to England with my wife and children. 
 
 " There were obstacles in my way, but we 
 have decided that they are not a sufficient 
 reason for my not going under the present 
 emergency. . . . Certainly there is the fact 
 that I have taken the roof off our Church here 
 to prevent it from being utterly destroyed by 
 the walls falling over, as they threaten to do. 
 But although I was about to commence a new 
 building in a more convenient spot for the 
 people themselves, still, I had entered into 
 no engagements with any one about it, which 
 it was necessary for me to fulfil. And as the 
 people are very busy with their ploughing, 
 it will be even a more suitable time for them 
 to do it on my return. This, then, could not
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 21;, 
 
 Stand as a sufficient obstacle in my way. But 
 there was another much more serious matter 
 for our consideration. Since my return from 
 the BacwapoQ I have been endeavouring to 
 put forth a fresh effort to stir up the Bamang- 
 wato Church and people and the Europeans 
 residing here. I was holding special meetings 
 for prayer with the Christians, and I was 
 striving to stir up a spirit of prayerful ex- 
 pectancy among them for the outpouring of 
 God's Holy Spirit upon us all, both upon the 
 members of the Church and upon the people. 
 Now this appeared at first to be a very serious 
 and real objection against my leaving the 
 Bamangwato town. But this also was removed 
 when we took into consideration the fact that 
 in a few months we purposed considering 
 earnestly the question of our journey to 
 England. For we thought if upon a sudden 
 emergency like the present, I cannot leave my 
 people to go in to attend to the Lake Church, 
 involving only an absence ot two or three 
 months, how can I go to England a few months 
 hence, seeing it will involve an absence of 
 nearly two years ? The only other matters 
 to hinder were private ones, and we could not
 
 214 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 let them stand in the way of duty to Christ. 
 If nothing comes in by the post expected to- 
 day to prevent it, I shall therefore start to- 
 morrow morning early, and I shall try to do 
 my work as quickly as I can, and return without 
 delay. . , . 
 
 " It will be more suitable to explain all 
 matters respecting Khukwe on my return. . . . 
 If he is doing his duty faithfully I shall take 
 upon myself the responsibility of instructing 
 him to go on until I can communicate further 
 with the Directors. . . . The Christians at the 
 Lake I found were preaching every day without 
 any preparation, and I requested and urged 
 them to discontinue the practice. 
 
 " ' It is your duty to learn first and then to 
 preach what you know is in the Word of God.' 
 And my request was that there should be a 
 Bible-class three days a week, and then they 
 could preach three days a week, and always 
 what had been studied and prayed over to- 
 gether the previous day. Then I stated my 
 opinion that Saturday should be devoted to 
 prayer and special preparation for Sunday, as 
 is the practice with the Bamangwato Church 
 here at Shoshong.
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 215 
 
 " When I return to England I shall now be 
 able to give the Directors reliable information 
 respecting the Lake Ngami Church ; and to 
 be in a position to do that is something that I 
 value more than my own convenience. 
 
 " Indeed, to come home and have nothing 
 better, after all my efforts for the Batauana, 
 to present to the Directors, than a mere uncer- 
 tain * peradventure ' respecting the Church's 
 position, would be as unsatisfactory as anything 
 could well be, both to the Directors and to 
 myself 
 
 " I should assuredly have no courage to 
 stand up before Christian Churches, and try 
 to convey certainty to the minds of others 
 respecting my work whilst my own was filled 
 with uncertainty in this matter of the Batauana 
 Church. But I also sincerely trust — ^as I 
 desire and pray to be — that I am actuated by 
 higher motives still ; and that to have been 
 found faithful to an infant Church, which the 
 Lord Jesus Christ has honoured me by making 
 me His instrument in planting, is one such 
 motive. My present purpose, if the Lord will, 
 is to return as soon as possible after my work 
 is done ; then, upon my return, to make all
 
 2 lb TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 haste I can to get a place built for the Bamang- 
 wato Church." 
 
 " Shoshong, /rt^/M/j' ic///, 1882. 
 
 " Yesterday week, Monday, I returned home, 
 having spent ten days at the Lake, where God 
 enabled me to accomplish all that I could have 
 hoped or desired to do. Our recent mission 
 there God has prospered abundantly. Khukwe 
 has followed up the work with earnestness, and 
 there has been a great increase in the number 
 of inquirers. The outcry for books was ex- 
 ceedingly great. The result of my visit has 
 been, that the Lake Church, numbering up- 
 wards of one hundred and twenty members, 
 and with a class of more than one hundred 
 inquirers, has now taken its stand as a self- 
 supporting, self-propagating Church. By self- 
 supporting I mean, of course, providing for its 
 own ministry of the Word, and by self-propa- 
 gating, I also of course mean preaching the 
 Word to the other tribes, and increasing, not 
 by any inherent power, but by that mighty 
 energy of the Holy Spirit of God, energising 
 in His mighty strength for the transformation 
 of a cruel, debased, godless people, into a con-
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 217 
 
 siderate, honest, God-fearing, gospel-preaching 
 people. I do not wish to convey the idea that 
 these qualities have been attained in any high 
 degree, but a formerly cruel and superstitious 
 people have turned Godwards. Cruelty and 
 superstition have fallen down under their first 
 heavy death-blow. They will no doubt recover 
 breath, rise and struggle again to obtain the 
 mastery ; still, the higher activities of the soul 
 have been called into being by the Spirit of 
 the living God, and He is able to nourish and 
 sustain them, until they shall become powerful, 
 all-embracing, irresistible. 
 
 " The traders at the Lake expressed them- 
 selves very earnestly and very emphatically 
 respecting the work. Their trade has changed 
 in two very important respects. The people 
 trade, for the most part, honestly — I say for the 
 most part, for they are not all changed equally, 
 although the change is felt through the whole 
 tribe more or less — ^and there is a large and 
 steadily growing demand for European cloth- 
 ing, and it is expected that ploughs will follow. 
 
 " Old debts that had been given up as bad 
 have been paid unasked. Quietness pre- 
 vails in place of former noise and strife ; and
 
 2i8 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 Khukwe's reply to the call he received to 
 be their Pastor, subject to the approval of the 
 committee and the Directors, contains these 
 striking words — 
 
 " ' You Bakoba and Masarwa know what 
 you were formerly. Now you see yourselves 
 to be also people. Formerly your dead were 
 left unburied, to be eaten by vultures. Now, 
 you bury one another, and again you are buried 
 by the Batauana, your masters.' These words 
 addressed to the Church of the Batauana, 
 Bakoba, and Masarwa, speak of a change that 
 is simply marvellous. There is nothing that 
 a heathen man shrinks fron^i so much as contact 
 with the dead. 
 
 " And the change is not the result of a charm, 
 but it is the result of a revolution in the man's 
 soul. It is the first great step in the direction 
 of universal brotherhood, springing out of that 
 sublimest of all truths, and still only dimly 
 grasped, of the Fatherhood of God in Christ. 
 
 " How much reason I have to be thankful 
 to God for leading me to turn my attention to 
 the Lake district. Every eftort I have put 
 forth for that people has been followed by 
 greater and greater blessing, although every
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 219 
 
 visit I have paid to the Lake has been ac- 
 companied by the penalty of an attack of 
 fever. 
 
 '' And then let me suggest to the Directors, 
 in addition to their Lake Tanganyika and Lake 
 Ngami Churches, there is needed yet another 
 to complete their work here, and that is a Lake 
 Bangweola Livingstone Memorial Church — to 
 stand upon the spot, consecrated as no Bishop 
 ever consecrated Church before, where — 
 
 " ' They built with grass and limber bough 
 A hut for him who fainteth mortally,' '"' 
 
 And where kneeling upon the floor, the head 
 bowed in the hands, Livingstone finished his 
 task in prayer ; and left it to the Church of 
 Christ to enter every door he had opened, for 
 the deliverance of Africa from slavery, super- 
 stition, and moral and spiritual death. . , . 
 
 " We have lost much time In availing our- 
 selves of the native element in our work. 
 Native evangelists ought to have been trained 
 and sent out many years ago. 
 
 '* They can do the work, that is quite evident. 
 Khukwe and Diphukwe are doing it ; and 
 Soldate is in the work here among the Baka-
 
 2 20 TWENTY YEARS IN K HA MA'S COUNTRY 
 
 lagadi towns. Tsapo did it in the absence of 
 the two, Khukwe and Diphukwe, at the Lake. 
 All the members of my Church here are in the 
 work, and they are growing as they work. It 
 is converting them into earnest Christian men 
 and women. 
 
 " Of course in such work we must lay our 
 account to meet with disappointment and dis- 
 couragement too. I have too much reason to 
 be prepared for all that. There is a dark side 
 to the picture as well as a bright side, but the 
 bright side grows ever brighter, and the area 
 of light increases from day to day. To an 
 entire stranger this town of the Bamangwato 
 would appear dirty and repulsive, and he 
 would not see the streaks of brightness that 
 mark the presence and power of the Gospel ; 
 but to me they are clear enough. The work is 
 by no means accomplished, and it is not my 
 intention to write as if it were. That which has 
 been done is as nothing when compared with 
 what yet remains to be done. The people live 
 in the same round huts ; their town is crowded 
 together ; it is filthy, there is little water ; the 
 men are nearly all clothed, but not so many of 
 the women ; the people have not learned any
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 221 
 
 kind of trade whatever ; and what else may I 
 not write about them ? 
 
 " The Qfreat work of civilisation still remains 
 to be taken in hand. But how can one man 
 single-handed overtake such a task ? . . . 
 
 " Have we no discouragement among natives 
 to record ? 
 
 " Sadly too many of them — cases of lapsed 
 Christians ; of promises unfulfilled, of pro- 
 pagators of false teaching, of true examples 
 of anti-Christ. We do not hide that fact, but 
 mourn over it . . . and so it has been, . . , 
 Many a time there have been leaves but no 
 fruit. Many a time hopes, but unfulfilled. 
 Many a half-formed Christian life, dying away 
 undeveloped, into dead carelessness and un- 
 concern. Then we have the bold, cunning, 
 determined hypocrite to check and repress, 
 the wolves in sheep's clothing who would 
 come in to rend and destroy. 
 
 " Then there are those who are always 
 learning but never can come to the knowledge 
 of the truth, because of the foulness and deceit- 
 fulness of their hearts. And almost every class 
 of people mentioned in Scripture is to be 
 found in the heathendom of South Africa, as
 
 222 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 everywhere else all over the world. They are 
 altogether too truly fallen human beings for 
 anything better to be expected with regard 
 to them ; and yet there are bright examples of 
 true Christian life that grow up out of this very 
 heathendom, and grow in it too ; and not in 
 hothouses or on hotbeds, affording special 
 facilities for their development. 
 
 " Here are problems for the evolutionists to 
 try their philosophical theorisings upon. How 
 the worn-out creed of Christendom, nineteen 
 centuries old, invades the heart of heathendom, 
 which means vice, lust, selfishness, duplicity, 
 lying, murder, cruelty, and every imaginable 
 evil, the accumulations of how many times 
 nineteen centuries, and causes to spring up 
 suddenly a spiritual activity, that cannot, will 
 not be repressed, and that manifests itself in 
 self-denial, in liberality, in purity, in truthful- 
 ness, in kind thoughtfulness for others, and in 
 love for the despised Nazarene. 
 
 " Does the unsophisticated South African 
 Rush woman do herself an injury for an idea ? 
 Has that idea power to cast out self-interest, 
 to possess, to purify, to glorify ? Because if it 
 has, it will be well to propagate the idea, for
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 223 
 
 it has a power in it that no creed of philosophy 
 ever possessed, and I am sure no doctrine of 
 evolution will ever accomplish the like, for it 
 is an old creed of Bechuanaland that man 
 descended from the monkeys. . . . Here is an 
 instance. One of our greatest native doctors 
 instructs his son carefully in all the arts of his 
 craft, and among them deception and cunning 
 hold a prominent place. He is an apt scholar, 
 and he learns well and follows fully his crafty 
 old father's purposes concerning this his 
 favourite son. Evolution or education does 
 its work for him. He grows, develops, 
 evolves. Now. in order to be perfect, he, at 
 the advice of his old father, comes to school to 
 learn to read and write, but that is all he means 
 to learn. He is not going to be trapped by 
 the missionary. He and his old father laugh 
 in secret over their cleverness. The son gets 
 on famously with both reading and writing. 
 He goes out to the veldt with his father's 
 cattle, he knows every horn, how it lies, and 
 every hoof-print in the sand, every mark and 
 each peculiar habit of every animal in the 
 troops of cattle at their several posts. They 
 are to be his when his father dies.
 
 2 24 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " He will be one of the richest and most 
 inlluential men of the town in his time. How 
 he chuckles over his success in getting all he 
 wanted from the missionary. 
 
 " Why may he not go on evolving ? Why 
 should he chana^e ? 
 
 "He does change. His father's quick eye 
 detects the change. There is too much atten- 
 tion to the book, and too little attention to the 
 charm dice. He will remedy that, however. 
 
 '* ' Lay your book aside, my son. Come, and 
 I will show you some very powerful medicines 
 which are to be found in a certain veldt, and 
 which you do not know. Then you had better 
 take a wife, it is time ; and I have provided for 
 that. Yonder she is, the daughter of a great 
 man.' 
 
 " The son does as his father wants him to. 
 
 " ' But you ought to have another wife or 
 two, for you are to be a great man, and you 
 had better take so-and-so, and so-and-so, for 
 your other wives.' 
 
 " What now? The son must consider. He 
 does consider, and he refuses. 
 
 " A change has come over him. He is 
 urged. He is threatened. He is besought.
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 22s 
 
 Finally he is disinherited, and another son is 
 put in his place. The cattle are no longer his. 
 The first place among his fellows is no longer 
 his, though his by birth. 
 
 " But nothing will move him. 
 
 "Why not ? He has not made any pro- 
 fession of Christianity. He has not communi- 
 cated with the missionary. 
 
 " What has happened to evolution here? 
 
 " Why will it not go on evolving ? 
 
 " Why should he begin, and, under the most 
 adverse circumstances, evolve into something 
 else silently, secretly, with wife, father, friend, 
 and brother all against him, the whole life of 
 the town against him, all his circumstances 
 and all his surroundings against him ? 
 
 " What kas come over the spirit of his 
 dream ? 
 
 " Jesus, the despised Nazarene, has con- 
 quered him. Friend, father, brother, wife, 
 position, wealth, power, cannot turn the wheels 
 of evolution any longer. 
 
 "He refuses to evolve. He will break 
 through. He does. He becomes the steady, 
 growing Christian. He has not evolved into 
 a native doctor, working with charms, and 
 
 15
 
 226 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 dice, and medicines, as he ought to have 
 done. 
 
 " He has evolved into one of the most 
 trusted deacons of my Church. He is steady, 
 firm, patient, and humble, the husband of 
 one wife, the opponent of circumcision, the 
 decrier of native doctoring, which he under- 
 stands better than any of the young men of 
 his time. 
 
 " The question forces itself Does evolution 
 suddenly turn all its machinery and work 
 backwards ? 
 
 " Here is another story. 
 
 " The worst man in the town, the most un- 
 scrupulous, the most vicious, the boldest, wildest, 
 maddest man among the sons of X . 
 
 " The missionary had never a thought of 
 his turning. 
 
 "Not that we despair of the worst. But 
 this man added to his other bad qualities 
 hypocrisy. He came a long time as an 
 inquirer ; he tried hard to get into the 
 Church ; he denounced me for refusing him, 
 and declared that the missionary had his 
 favourites whom he admitted, but if he disliked 
 any man he refused him.
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 227 
 
 "He could not be got to see himself as all 
 others saw him. He was fond of brandy, and 
 when he had been drinking he went to the 
 chiefs courtyard and denounced the chief and 
 everybody else. 
 
 " This man could read his Bible well. He 
 was an intelligent native, and saw the meaning 
 of a passage of Scripture when a Christian was 
 sometimes baffled by it. 
 
 "But his knowledge was all. of the worst 
 kind. It was head knowledge without any 
 heart knowledge. It often gave me pain to 
 feel that it was so with him. He came to 
 me with one passage of Scripture for years, 
 Isaiah i. 18. Always this one passage of 
 Scripture, and always the same unconscious- 
 ness of sin. 
 
 "He wanted to get into the Church, and 
 he thought this passage of Scripture ought to 
 open the door. He asked others what they 
 said ; he tried all ways to no purpose, and I 
 had little to hope for in him. 
 
 " During the time that he continued coming 
 in this way I would every now and again hear 
 of some of his evil conduct. 
 
 " He went away to hunt. Then he went
 
 228 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 to his cattle-post, and when he came back 
 to me one day I was struck with the altered 
 character of the man's answers. 
 
 " I made inquiries, and I found that no one 
 could tell me anything, but it set the Christians 
 observing him. Slowly and unostentatiously 
 the man's character made its impression, 
 until the town in his case also noted the 
 change. 
 
 " His probation was prolonged, but he is 
 now a member of my Church. His prayers 
 burn with intense nearness to God. Khukwe 
 said when he came back from the Lake, and 
 heard him pray for the first time, one Saturday 
 morning, — 
 
 " ' Why, Monare, it is as if you were taken 
 into His bosom.' 
 
 "He meant that the man's heart was so 
 transparent in his prayer. He preaches, and 
 his wife goes with him. He teaches a school 
 among the despised Makalaka. Here again 
 we are compelled to put our question : Does 
 evolution suddenly turn all its machinery and 
 work backwards ? 
 
 " The only explanation I can give in this 
 case is that suggested by i Peter iii. i. His
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS IN BOTH CHURCHES 229. 
 
 wife is spoken of as one by herself; but she is 
 •the most quiet and unassuming of all Christians. 
 Indeed my deacons were very doubtful about her 
 when I received her. She did not answer their 
 questions as they expected, and they did not 
 see evidence sufficient to satisfy them of her 
 conversion. There was nothing in her answers, 
 but her humility impressed me. I need not 
 say how glad I am I did not discourage her. 
 No one doubts her now. 
 
 " The other day, Khama, in reference to 
 this woman's husband, said — 
 
 "'Sir, it is nothing but the power of God. 
 It fills me with wonder.' ... 
 
 "Well, we must just go on. The trumpet 
 of the Gospel has not lost any of its power. 
 The voice of one crying in the wilderness is 
 still nothing but a voice, but the Spirit of God 
 is there, and no superstition, no religion, no 
 philosophical superstructure, however imposing, 
 ancient or modern — it is all the same — is any- 
 thinsf more than worm-eaten wood. It is all 
 alike unable to bear the weight of that one 
 single name among all the great names of earth 
 — the Name of Jesus, the despised Nazarene. 
 It is the duty of those who despise it to furnish
 
 230 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 us with another — a Name that brings peace 
 to the war-loving, freedom to the Bushman, 
 and purity to the polluted and dark-minded 
 sons of Africa."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 
 
 " Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock ? " — 
 Jer. xiii. 20. 
 
 " For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have 
 seen a lie ; and they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain : 
 therefore they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, because 
 there is no shepherd." — Zech. x. 2. 
 
 IN 1 882- 1 884 Mr. and Mrs. Hepburn and 
 their family spent eighteen months in the 
 old country on furlough. 
 
 " SHOSHONG,/rt««rtr}' \st, 1885. 
 
 " Let me first heartily thank the Directors for 
 the appointment of Mr. Lloyd to Shoshong. I 
 pray and hope that many days and rich bless- 
 ing may be before us together, in the work of 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 "Your kindly forethouo^htful words in refer- 
 ence to a return to one's work, after long 
 absence, are most grateful ; for the want of 
 some sympathetic friend, who could understand 
 all, made itself deeply felt on my return.
 
 232 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " I came back to ruins. It was work for a 
 stout heart to reconstruct the Church out of 
 ruins so overlaid with confusion. Mine was 
 stunned. Dismay and discouragement became 
 my daily food for weeks, and there were 
 moments when I was overwhelmed. 
 
 " The calamity which had come caused me 
 to reflect much on our system of work. I 
 came back prepared to make our schools better. 
 It is my purpose now to make them bi'oader. 
 The mass must be taught to read and write, 
 and all must be instructed in the Scriptures. 
 But it is like moving these Bamangwato hills. 
 Still it must be done. ... 
 
 "When I returned from Lake Ngami in the 
 beginning of the year 1882, my first thought 
 was how to get the Church built which I had 
 promised to do before I went to England. 
 There was some jealousy about the attention 
 which I was showing to other tribes. 
 
 " ' Our teacher no longer loves us,' they said 
 to one another. vSo that I was determined at 
 all costs to fulfil my promise. But I came 
 back from a very bad attack of fever, and most 
 unfit for such a heavy strain as the building of 
 a Church. After several unavailing attempts
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 233 
 
 to get a European to do it, with some very 
 indifferent assistance, I at last set to the work, 
 and built most of it with my own hands. It 
 has two faults. It is neither elegant nor com- 
 modious. The first is immaterial, the other is 
 much more serious. But it was the best that 
 I could accomplish at the time. When it was 
 finished my hands were sore and hardened as 
 much as ever Paul's were, or Peter's either, 
 and my strength was gone. Still, like many 
 another hard spell of work through which I 
 had struggled, I had got it done, and kept my 
 promise. 
 
 " Then, for the first time, we turned our 
 faces in the direction of England ; and soon 
 with loving farewells we left our twelve 
 years' home. 
 
 " But what did we leave behind us? Seven 
 schools in the town itself, large classes of 
 inquirers, evangelistic work among the towns 
 of the Bakalagadi and Bacwapoii, Sunday 
 Schools, and four deacons in charge of the 
 Church's services. 
 
 "Was it a fig-tree covered with leaves? 
 A Did I not speak earnest words in public and 
 iML in private ? Did I not counsel and warn the
 
 234 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 deacons ? Did I not plead that they would 
 guard every branch of the work faithfully ? 
 What could I do that I had left undone ? If I 
 had not built them that Church I should have 
 felt I could never forgive myself But I had 
 done all that it was in human hands to do. 
 " When I left it was with these words — 
 '' ' Now is your opportunity to show that you 
 are worthy to have the work wholly in your 
 own hands. It will rejoice my heart if you can 
 say to me, should God give me strength to 
 return, Go on to the regions beyond.' Alas ! 
 Alas! 
 
 " Two years' absence, and what do we find 
 of all the work we left behind? Nothing. 
 
 '' Day schools given up, inquirers' classes 
 given up, evangelistic work among the subject 
 tribes given up. . . . The whole spirit and life of 
 the Church gone down to slumbering ashes. . . . 
 But just as an African traveller may find under 
 the dead white ashes of wood fires, which here 
 and there spot the plains, hot coals, which, 
 though black without, broken between two 
 stones show a glowing heat within, and 
 brought into the air and patiently fmned may 
 light new fires, so I trust it will yet be found
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 235 
 
 ill the case of the Bamangwato Church. So at 
 least I have tried to cheer myself in this dark 
 hour, 
 
 " But how came the Church's life to be 
 reduced to slumbering white ashes ? 
 
 " There are so many intricate, interlacing 
 threads woven into such a complicated web, 
 that I fear an intelligent story is beyond my 
 power. Still I must try. If I fail I shall fiil 
 from inability, and not from desire ; for I 
 should like to tell it as I have seen it, and I 
 think it would show that a subtle mind had 
 planned and carried out skilfully a deep-laid 
 scheme. 
 
 " A report that the Matabele had made a 
 raid upon the Batauana at Lake Ngami threw 
 the Bamangwato into a state of alarm. Scouts 
 were sent off in all directions. Khamane 
 (Khama's younger brother, who had been 
 allowed to return on promising good be- 
 haviour) and Gogakgosi were left in charge 
 of the town, while Khama, with his horsemen, 
 went to the Bottetle (Lake) River to protect 
 the large posts of cattle kept there. 
 
 " This brought the Church to a sudden 
 stand in every branch of work. But by the
 
 236 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 natural working of spiritual laws — if 1 may be 
 allowed to use such unscientific language — 
 there should have been a general return, 
 accompanied by universal thanksgiving to God 
 for a great deliverance graciously bestowed ; and 
 the Church ought then to have resumed her 
 work in all its branches, and with something of 
 enthusiasm in her heart. 
 
 " Far from this was the result. And now I 
 come to the most intricate part of my story. 
 
 " Old Sekhome died (Khama had brought 
 him back in spite of all he had done). Kha- 
 mane, always ambitious to obtain the chief- 
 tainship, and unwarned by all the past, thought 
 he saw his opportunity once more, and he soon 
 began to show that he was determined not to 
 let it pass. He let the old heathen men know 
 that if he ruled the town they would have their 
 ceremonies of circumcision, their rain-makings, 
 their beer-drinkings, their songs and night 
 dances, and all they used to have under his 
 father's reign. He was not long in devising 
 ways of showing practically that he was in 
 earnest. He began to make beer at his own 
 house, and invited the old men to come and 
 drink it with him.
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 237 
 
 "He gave orders to the young regiment to 
 strip off all European clothing, to meet in the 
 chiefs' court, and go through all the evolutions 
 of old native war custom. Gogakhosi and 
 Mabessie, the chiefs wife, protested against 
 his conduct, but Khamane refused to regard 
 their protestations, or to pay any respect as to 
 what Khama might say on his return. 
 
 "Whether, knowing Khama's boldness, he 
 foresaw a probable engagement in which 
 Khama might fall, is of course quite unknown 
 to me, but his infatuation is bewildering ; for 
 the sharp lessons of past failures, with their 
 consequences, ought to have been sufficient to 
 deter him from incurring like risks again ; only 
 this time, no doubt, he was fully purposed to 
 leave no room for failure. 
 
 "Was his next step a suggestion from the 
 enemy, or is it simply evidence of the keen 
 astuteness of his mind ? Or was it merely 
 accident ? To me it was the first. 
 
 " It struck too surely at the Christians, and 
 threw them into too great perplexity for me 
 to be able to look upon it as anything but the 
 doing of the Evil One himself. 
 
 " Khamane ordered the war-cap to be made.
 
 238 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS C0UN2RY 
 
 The Christians had been lamenting in their 
 hearts, and to one another, the evils to the 
 young men and lads which must follow from 
 the return to old heathen war custom, and 
 they were astounded by the unexpected blow 
 struck home to themselves. 
 
 "It was like a call to break off their alle- 
 giance from Christ. 
 
 " They took secret counsel, for they were 
 afraid to be seen going to one another's houses. 
 
 " Where would this end .^ What did it 
 mean ? What was their true duty ? Were 
 they bound as Christians to obey ? Or was it 
 part of heathenism they were bound to reject } 
 It was a thing long cast away ; was it not sin 
 to revive it again ? If they acquiesced, would 
 it not be quickly followed by some more pro- 
 nounced act of heathenism, in which they would 
 be called upon to take their part ? No wonder 
 they were sore perplexed. 
 
 " They were like sheep having no shepherd, 
 and the wolf had come. Never did they so 
 much feel their need of their missionary, and 
 I am filled with sorrow that I was not with 
 them at the time. 
 
 " At one of their prayer-meetings they asked
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 239 
 
 the question whether Church members were 
 included in the order that had been given. 
 Khamane was there, and answered — 
 
 "■ ' Yes, every man.' 
 
 " Then said Gogakhosi, — 
 
 " ' I refuse.' 
 
 " Khamane retorted that Gogakhosi wished 
 to overthrow his authority. He instanced the 
 uniform worn by English soldiers, and said 
 they were raising objections simply because he 
 had Qfiven the command. If the deacons of 
 the Church claimed to be exempted because 
 of their office, all the more ought they to assist 
 him to rule the town, and not to be the leaders 
 in opposition against him., especially as it was 
 simply unreasoning opposition, since the wear- 
 ing of the war-cap was not in any way wrong. 
 
 *' He had not asked the Christians to put off 
 European clothing ; why did they not at once 
 obey him when he only ordered the tribe to 
 make the war-cap ? 
 
 "His reasonings were plausible, and he 
 wisely forebore from insisting upon Gogakhosi 
 obeying, since he could avail himself of the fact 
 that Gogakhosi was one of the deacons of the 
 Church.
 
 240 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " The Christians knew not what to do. 
 Their consciences told them the war-cap was 
 more than soldiers' uniform. It was heathen 
 soldiers' uniform. 
 
 "It indicated a return to abandoned customs 
 and ways ; and the end was charms, ceremonies, 
 idolatry, and a whole army of attendant evils 
 following in its train. 
 
 " I think their minds were too much per- 
 turbed, their spirits too much agitated by 
 fears, to see things in distinct proportions, 
 but Christian instinct shrank from touch of 
 heathenism ; the anointing from the Holy One 
 taught them — if not by laws of logic to per- 
 ceive, by spiritual intuition to feel, their 
 danger. 
 
 "At this critical juncture these tempest- 
 tossed Christians, feeling baffled and alarmed, 
 were still farther filled with consternation by 
 a rumour of murder, committed by members of 
 the Church. 
 
 " It is the most painful episode of my story, 
 and might fill any heart with tears, as it did 
 mine, and made me well-nigh wish myself away 
 from the sins and sorrows of poor, smitten, 
 bleeding Africa.
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 241 
 
 " Every circumstance combines to emphasise 
 the tragic nature of the heartless deed. . . . 
 
 "It may have been weakness, but I wept 
 when I listened to their plea ; and it was with 
 an unspeakable burden of pity in my heart, 
 such as I have never experienced when exer- 
 cising Church discipline for other sins, that 
 I dismissed the guilty men from the member- 
 ship of the Church. 
 
 " How would the Directors advise me to act 
 in future towards these men ? They profess 
 contrition for the act. They plead to be 
 allowed to return into the Church. It is a 
 question I shall ask in Committee. 
 
 "In itself it is of such importance that I 
 have decided to go down to Kuruman, to seek 
 such advice and brotherly help as may guide 
 me, in some measure, in such vital and terrible 
 relationships to the souls of men and to the 
 Church of Christ. 
 
 " It is pleasant to think that in future I shall 
 have Mr. Lloyd with me, although I hope we 
 shall never again have such a sadly terrible 
 case arising, to be dealt with by us. 
 
 "In justice to Khamane when he heard 
 what had been done he was most severe in 
 
 16
 
 242 TWENTY YEARS TN IvHAAIA' S COUNTRY 
 
 his condemnation of the heridman of the 
 
 regiment. 
 
 " The devil had put an instrument into the 
 hands of the heathen which they did not fail to 
 use arainst the Christians. 
 
 *' What was the wearing of the war-caps 
 compared with this act of betrayal and murder? 
 
 " Even in the eyes of the heathen, betrayal 
 is the blackest of crimes ; and although when 
 evil passions are aroused they will not hesitate 
 to betray, and with every act of cruelty destroy 
 an enemy, yet these were friends. 
 
 ■ff- -7^ -tF- 'TV' vv» 
 
 " Meanwhile at the Lake River, Khama and 
 his horsemen came so nearly upon the rear of 
 the Matabele army that a straggler was made 
 prisoner. The man expected to be killed. 
 He was very much exhausted, and Khama 
 ordered his men to give him food and drink. 
 He was then brought to Shoshong, and sent 
 back to the Matabele country with messages 
 to Lobengula. 
 
 "Again Khama gathered all the property 
 of the Makalaka together, and handed it over 
 to the men, who had been brought as prisoners
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 243 
 
 to the town, and sent them away to their own 
 country. He sent messengers to explain the 
 misunderstanding by which the Makalaka 
 trading party had been so cruelly murdered, 
 and to ask the Makalaka not to regard it as 
 his act. 
 
 " That the Makalaka accepted his explana- 
 tion as made in good faith is evidenced by the 
 fact that they are coming out in great numbers 
 (the Makalaka were subjects of Lobengula) to 
 take up their abode here among these hills. 
 
 *' They have asked our people to plough 
 large gardens this year, and a large number 
 of ploughs have been bought, and very ex- 
 tensive stretches of land have been cultivated 
 in prospect of it ; whilst already there are 
 arrivals every day of individual members of the 
 Makalaka tribe. 
 
 " God grant us that, whilst flying from their 
 dread enemy the Matabele, they may find they 
 were, by coming among us, in the gracious 
 providence of God, being led into the very 
 fold of Jesus Christ. 
 
 " It is not to be lost sight of, however, that 
 it means a great influx of the heathen element 
 into our mission here, and is fraught with
 
 244 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 consequences of incalculable possible injury to 
 the life of the Christian Church which is only 
 now beinsf re-established, unless it is met imme- 
 diately by intense and earnest conflict in the 
 Name of Christ. 
 
 " But on the other hand, if these Makalaka 
 can be won, it will be a glorious conquest for 
 the Church at Shoshong to make, and will 
 enrich her beyond measure ; and it will be a 
 triumph for the Gospel of Christ to have made 
 against such, humanly speaking, insuperable 
 conditions, that my heart leaps joyfully in the 
 hope that it may be accomplished. 
 
 " In that, God will be but over-ruling the 
 machinations of the devil for His own all-wise, 
 all-gracious purposes as He has ever done. 
 
 " Already I am trying what may be done by 
 holding night services along the hills in the 
 Makalaka part of the town. They have 
 such hard days in the gardens that the people 
 will not come out until after supper, and that 
 makes it late for me, but still I am glad to have 
 them come at all. They have brought out 
 with them a new form of idolatry, but I strive 
 to destroy it by the preaching of the Gospel ; 
 and already we are not without signs that God
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 245 
 
 is working by His own silent omnipotent grace 
 in their hearts." 
 
 ''March 1885. 
 
 " My latest news from Lake Ngami was 
 discouraging. Moremi, the chief, had been 
 giving way to the temptation to drink brandy, 
 which, it is said, one of our traders had taken 
 in from Shoshong without Khama's knowledge. 
 
 " A letter which I had written, Khukwe said, 
 had stirred him, and he was again promising to 
 live as a man should. 
 
 " At Shoshong we were beginning to get 
 more heart into our work. 
 
 " Our night services in the town were more 
 solemn. Still, when I left, Khama's last words 
 to me had been — 
 
 " ' We do not know what we shall see. 
 Only we are in God's hands. The old men 
 are still set upon the old customs.' 
 
 " Our work at the Cwapon Hills is cheering. 
 The people have given Pule, our native 
 teacher, a hearty welcome. They show a 
 desire to be taught. There are ten inquirers. 
 
 " Mapanyane, the other native teacher from 
 Kuruman Institution, has gone to the Makalaka
 
 246 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 on the Lake River. My own feeling is that 
 there are signs of revived interest in the work, 
 and of the power of God's Holy Spirit upon 
 the people. Hence I look forward to a more 
 hopeful year of work on my return from 
 Kuruman. 
 
 " The change will do us all good, especially 
 myself, for I have begun to feel tired out with 
 my hard work. It has taken all the strength 
 of both heart and head to bring things back 
 to a right state once more." 
 
 " Shoshong, Novcfnbcr 1885. 
 
 " Khukwe has come out' from the Lake 
 N garni. ... His story of the Matabele raids 
 upon the Batauana is painful. 
 
 " Twice they have burned and destroyed 
 to the utmost of their power ; and the losses 
 which the Batauana have sustained are simply 
 enormous. 
 
 " Twice over the town has been burned, 
 with all the property in it. 
 
 " Twice over the whole of the gardens and 
 all the stock of corn has been totally destroyed, 
 eaten, and burned. 
 
 " On the first occasion, with the prisoners,
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 247 
 
 a large number of cattle were taken, and sheep 
 and goats. 
 
 " On the last occasion only Khukwe's cattle 
 and a few other stray oxen were taken. But 
 the Batauana drove all their cattle into one 
 place between the rivers for safety, and there 
 lung-sickness broke out, and almost swept them 
 all away. All the waggons were taken far up 
 the rivers, but the Matabele came in before 
 they could be crossed, and every waggon was 
 burned, with all their contents, by the Matabele. 
 
 " Tsapo's (our deacon's) waggon was burned 
 among others, and all our school materials, 
 books, and slates. A new Church, recently 
 finished, was also destroyed. The funds of 
 the Church, which Tsapo held, it is feared 
 would have been in the fore-chest of his 
 waggon, and thus would either be stolen or 
 destroyed, but Tsapo had not returned when 
 Khukwe left. In any case the loss to the 
 Lake Church has been considerable, and in the 
 impoverished state of the tribe, the Christians 
 will not be able to make it up. In fact, I fear 
 they will have no heart left in them to try. 
 
 " Lokgara, a Makoba woman and a member 
 of the Church, refused to leave her old mother.
 
 248 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 who was too ill to make her escape, and the 
 Matabele killed them where they found them. 
 
 " Acts of savage cruelty were committed by 
 them upon women and children, who fell into 
 their hands. One woman was flying with her 
 child. The Matabele stabbed the mother, 
 killing her outright, but only inflicted injury 
 upon the child, deliberately not killing it, but 
 leaving it to crawl and cry over its dead 
 mother. They cut oft' a slave's arms, and 
 told him to return with his bleeding stumps 
 to his people. 
 
 " Wherever they thought they could inflict 
 injury, and destroy, they did so. One trader 
 values his losses at ^1,600. They burnt his 
 house and store after wrecking it. 
 
 "On the other hand, the loss to the Matabele 
 army was unprecedented, and has alarmed 
 Lobengula. 
 
 " On the first occasion the Matabele came 
 upon the Batauana unprepared, because the 
 attack was unexpected. But even then, after 
 three brave and determined attempts they re- 
 tired, having failed to carry the Batauana 
 position. But the Batauana were impressed 
 with their bravery, and did not care to follow
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 249 
 
 too closely after them, so that they swept the 
 country of cattle in one direction, and made 
 prisoners of the slave tribes. 
 
 " On this last occasion the Matabele have 
 fared differently. They came with a picked 
 army, a trusted leader, and the chiefs own 
 brother. They had a large troop of cattle 
 for slaughter on the road. But then the 
 Batauana were better prepared, or rather, they 
 soon put themselves into a better position. 
 The Matabele delayed somewhat in their ap- 
 proach, and the Batauana took advantage 
 of their opportunity to take up a stronger 
 position, and in some measure to complete 
 their plans. 
 
 " They abandoned the town, and retired 
 three days up the river. The Matabele came 
 on to the town, and sat down to enjoy the 
 food they found before going on to annihilate 
 the enemy. They had come to make an end 
 of them, and they fully believed themselves 
 able to make a complete end ; and therefore 
 they went about it very leisurely. So leisurely 
 and deliberately did they advance, that they 
 were nine days before they made their attack. 
 Many an intense and struggling cry had gone
 
 250 'JIFENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 up to God from the Christians in that time, 
 we can be sure of that. 
 
 "At last the attack was made. It was led 
 by Lobengula's brother in person, mounted on 
 his horse, and conspicuous by his European 
 dress. 
 
 " The Batauana saw him ride through the 
 army haranguing his men. 
 
 " The Batauana had crossed the river by 
 means of a mass of weed, which grows over it 
 at its deepest part. They had cut reeds and 
 wood, and made a way for the people to cross 
 on foot, but it was not sufficiently strong for 
 waggons and oxen to be driven upon it. 
 
 " The Matabele crossed over with care, and 
 came on to where the Batauana awaited them 
 in the reeds. The king's (Lobengula's) brother 
 was among the first to fall. 
 
 " The Batauana, with their breech-loading 
 rifles, kept the Matabele at bay until panic took 
 hold of them. Then the Matabele made a 
 rush for the river, and the floating bridge gave 
 way, and more were drowned, than fell by the 
 rifle, in the crossing of the river. 
 
 "All day the Batauana followed up their 
 enemy. Once, in their eagerness, a party
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 251 
 
 of horsemen were nearly surrounded by 
 the Matabele, but they fought their way 
 through. 
 
 " All the way up the river, Khukwe says, 
 there are great mounds where they buried their 
 dead, and both the Matabele and the Batauana 
 have now learned the value of a breech-loading 
 rifle and a horse. This is Khukwe's account 
 
 of it. 
 
 "How thoroughly Lobengula has laid the 
 lesson to heart is clear enough. Every day 
 numbers of Makalaka, tens, twenties, thirties, 
 are passing on their way to the Diamond Fields. 
 They report that the order has gone forth to 
 all the Indunas of the Matabele army, that they 
 are to buy breechloaders and horses, and the 
 Makalaka are being sent to work for them at 
 the Diamond Fields. 
 
 " Khukwe reports of the Church — that the 
 Church members are fewer in number, but 
 more advanced and more reliable in character. 
 The men who assist him in the work, and will 
 carry it on now in his absence, number about 
 seven or eight. The Makoba Church is his 
 joy, and received his special commendation. 
 The number of members is small, but they
 
 252 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 have never swerved, and one of themselves 
 conducts the service. 
 
 " The heathen stand aloof, and attribute all 
 their evils to the coming among them of the 
 Word of God. The schools have fallen to 
 the ground. They have no slates to learn to 
 write, and only reading has been taught since 
 the first Matabele raid. The children of the 
 Christians are taught reading by their parents, 
 there being no longer a children's school. 
 From four o'clock until sunset there is a large 
 school of men and women, who meet to read 
 the Bible. This opens and closes with prayer. 
 
 " The heathen have also revived some of 
 their immoral customs, and very boldly, in 
 the face of open day. These customs are 
 indescribable. 
 
 " After having heard all that I could extract 
 from Khukwe, there remained a deep impres- 
 sion in my mind that God has been fulfilling 
 a gracious purpose in the education of the 
 Batauana Church, and that a blessing is there. 
 
 '• The Batauana have gone higher up the 
 river to build their town, fully another week's 
 journey with the waggon (into a fever district). 
 That adds to our clangers and labours ; but
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 253 
 
 we shall try what can be done next year, if no 
 unforeseen obstacle arises to hinder us." 
 
 Later in the same year {1885) Mr. Hepburn 
 says : — 
 
 " The Batauana (Lake Ngami) mission is, 
 I very greatly fear, utterly paralysed for the 
 present, and I am still baffled to get on. 
 
 " The reported raid of the Matabele upon 
 our people, the Bamangwato, was actually made 
 upon our Batauana again, 
 
 " A very strong and large army under one 
 of their greatest leaders, and provided with a 
 very large troop of oxen for slaughter, was 
 sent to the Lake. 
 
 " They fully purposed to annihilate the 
 Batauana. 
 
 " They have signally failed. They lost a 
 great number of men. The chief's own 
 brother was killed. 
 
 " Major Edwards and his party were in 
 Matabele country, and saw the remnants of 
 the army returning. 
 
 "He says that although Lobengula tried 
 hard to hide it, it was yet easy to see that he 
 was startled by what had happened.
 
 254 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 " He is acute enough to see that the prestige 
 of the Matabele army is gone. Its supposed 
 invincibleness, upon which success so largely 
 depended, has been disproved. The fascina- 
 tion of their terrible shields and spears has 
 been destroyed by the precision of the rifle. 
 Twice in succession they have returned with 
 fallen colours from the Batauana. 
 
 "It will be food for reflection to Lobengula 
 and his warriors, when they recount the times 
 they have attacked the much-despised Bamang- 
 wato, formerly here at the hills and now at 
 the Lake (the Batauana, the people at Lake 
 Ngami, are a branch of the Bamangwato, 
 Khama's people of Shoshong), and have 
 always had to retire with dismay. 
 
 " Just now I attributed their defeat to the 
 precision of the rifle ; and so, to the outward 
 vision, it was ; but when Khama went out 
 with his rifle, to give Lobengula the mark of 
 the bullet wound which he carries to-day, he 
 had first knelt in prayer with Mr. Mackenzie 
 on the top of the Shoshong hills to that God 
 who is higher than hill-tops, and is able to 
 ' throw down the mighty from their seat.' 
 
 "Now again Lobengula's army has gone
 
 DISAPPOINTMENTS AND WAR 255 
 
 twice to the Lake Ngami, the place where 
 prayer is now wont to be made by the two 
 or three gathering in the name of Him who 
 has said, ' I will be there ' ; and although the 
 Matabele have boastfully adorned themselves 
 with our school-books for head ornaments, and 
 sold the Christians' Bibles, yet there is an 
 avenging fear in their hearts, and they declare 
 — these Matabele who have already gone twice 
 ■ — that they will not go again, though Lobengula 
 should threaten to slay them. 
 
 " To me it is prayer, if it is also rifles ; and 
 this last discomfiture is surely significant of 
 coming woe, 
 
 " The blood of multitudes cries out against 
 that nation ; and now it is a very little handful 
 of God's anointed ones, yet their prayers may 
 give effect to that cry. 
 
 " We watch for the signs of God's hand, not 
 because we would not gladly save these Mata- 
 bele, if they would let us, but because they have 
 so lonar refused to listen to the words of recon- 
 ciliation, pressed, with long patience, upon their 
 acceptance, and have, with a high hand, done 
 their cruel work defiantly ; and we know that 
 He is a just God who reigneth in the earth.
 
 256 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " The signs are many that the end is not far 
 
 off . . . 
 
 " One cannot help lamenting ; but one cannot 
 wonder, and can only wish it had been other- 
 wise, where the Society has so long laboured 
 and spent so much ; but even there the remnant 
 will be saved out of the wreck, and out of the 
 ruin a handful for blessing shall be taken. One 
 feels sure of that, if one feels sure of anything. 
 
 " ' My word shall 7iot return unto Me void ; 
 it shall accomplish ... it shall prosper . . .' 
 is as true for the Matabele as it was for the 
 nation that despised and crucified the Christ. 
 
 " But how can one help the feeling from 
 deepening in one's heart, that it might, that 
 it ou^ht to be, otherwise ? That as a Christian 
 nation and as a Christian Church we are not 
 p-uiltless for not makins: it other than it threatens 
 to become ? . . . 
 
 " At home you are all oppressed because of 
 the dense masses of people needing space and 
 air and food to eat, and you do not know how 
 to meet the necessity. 
 
 " The piece of country (Mashonaland) which 
 lies between the north side of the Limpopo 
 River and the south side of the Zambesi is
 
 DISAPPOINTjMENTS and war 257 
 
 the richest and most valuable country between 
 Cape Town, and the Zambesi. 
 
 " There is not another piece of country to 
 compare with it ; whether for its mineral 
 wealth — for gold is to be obtained in its 
 sand rivers simply by hand-washing, and from 
 Mashonaland come axe-heads, spear-heads, and 
 native hoes by thousands ; whether for the 
 richness of its soil — for rice, cotton, corn, and 
 honey are ever abundant, and food can be 
 bought there cheaper than anywhere in South 
 Africa ; whether for its abundance of water — 
 every hunter speaks of it as a land of rivers 
 and streams and fountains. 
 
 " What a home for needy thousands ! 
 
 " Why should England not possess and 
 administer it ? We on the spot see nothing 
 to hinder it here. Here it is the confidendy 
 expressed belief that had Sir C. Warren been 
 free and unfettered in his action he could have 
 obtained from Lobengula a concession — will- 
 ingly and gladly given — of a strip of country 
 along the north bank of the Limpopo, to form 
 a border of separation between him and the 
 Transvaal. 
 
 " Had this been done what possibilities of 
 
 17
 
 258 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 hope rise before one's mind — hope for the 
 Mashona, hope for the Makalaka, and hope 
 even for the Matabele themselves ! 
 
 " What a wide door it would have opened 
 for the missionary's work of salvation! Is it 
 too late yet ? I fear it is ; but if it is not, the 
 time is short, and if anything is to be done it 
 will need to be done swiftly and at once. . . . 
 
 " If English money has been spent it is only 
 reasonable for England to reap the blessings 
 she has secured. . . . 
 
 " We want one man, a strong man, who can 
 * see clear and think straight,' for South Africa, 
 and such a man would be her saviour. It is 
 almost in the power of England to-day to say 
 whether South Africa shall be deluged with 
 blood, as was America, or not. Is the black 
 man to get fair play or is he not ? "
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SORROW UPON SORROW. THE FOURTH AND 
 LAST LAKE JOURNEY 
 
 " Ye have this day rejected your God, who Himself saveth you 
 out of all your calamities and distresses. " — Lam. x. 19. 
 
 " He endured as seeing Him who is invisible." — Heb. xi. 27. 
 
 " Shoshong, 1886. 
 
 IN writing to you of my Lake journey 
 it may not be unbecoming to place at the 
 head of my letter Paul's words. ' Out of much 
 affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto 
 you with many tears.' 
 
 "Conscious of the mournful spirit of Jere- 
 miah upon me, I would gladly bid to-morrow's 
 sun rise bright, to dispel the mist that blinds 
 to-day. 
 
 " But the remembrance of what fell to the 
 lot of the Master, and may therefore well be 
 that of the servant, holds me back. 
 
 " The knowledge (gained both from expe- 
 rience and from Scripture) that the sequel to 
 
 259
 
 26o TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 the unspeakable soul gladness of being made 
 of God, a sweet savour of Christ unto life, in 
 them that are being saved, is not infrequently 
 a sorrowful sadness, rising out of the conviction 
 of being also, by man's own wrong action, a 
 savour of death unto death in them that are 
 perishing. 
 
 " This knowledge does not permit that I 
 should pass lightly, as I fain would, over the 
 dark aspect of my story. 
 
 " The contrast we find between John iv. 
 30-42, and Luke ix. 51-56, in their respective 
 records of the reception accorded to the 
 Saviour by the Samaritans, coincides in some 
 of its aspects with my first experience, as 
 set against my last, among the Batauana. 
 
 " ' The Samaritans came " ' He sent messengers 
 
 unto Him.' l:)efore His face.' 
 
 " 'They besought Him to " ' They did not receive 
 
 abide.' Him.' 
 
 " What uplifting of soul ! ' I have meat to 
 eat that ye know not.' ' Lift up your eyes, 
 and look on the fields, that they are white 
 already unto harvest.' 
 
 " The exaltation of spirit and the bright
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 261 
 
 visions of hope which were given us on our 
 first visit, as, crossing the river, we approached 
 the Batauana town, were in contrast to that 
 desolation of spirit and dark foreshadowings of 
 fear, which fell upon me on my recent visit, 
 as, recrossinof the river, we left the Batauana 
 town behind. 
 
 " Through what a scene, solemn beyond 
 thought, had I been made to pass ! 
 
 " Twelve years ago, Moremi, coming to the 
 chieftainship of the Batauana. and all their 
 dependent tribes, announced his intention to 
 build his town with the word and teaching of 
 the only living God, and to banish every 
 heathen rite and every heathen custom of his 
 fathers. 
 
 " In course of time, Moremi himself, his 
 wife, his mother, some of his headmen, and 
 many of his people, became collected into a 
 Christian Church — a Church which resolved, 
 and actually commenced, to do evangelistic 
 work amonof the Bakoba and other slave tribes, 
 and has the honour of having won some from 
 these tribes to the faith of Christ. Bakoba 
 had sat down with Batauana at the table of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
 262 TWENTY YEARS IN IvHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " Now, Moremi, with his headmen and 
 people present in the town, having met in a 
 formally called council, to deliberate upon this 
 highest question of whether they shall receive 
 Christ, with one voice determine not to re- 
 ceive Christ, but affirm their steady resolve 
 to go back all the way and take up circumci- 
 sion, the one rite, which, at the same moment, 
 they themselves declare to be head and front 
 of every institution, ceremony, and heathen 
 practice of the past — a rite in abeyance since 
 the days of the old chief Lechulatebe, now 
 twelve years dead. 
 
 " Moremi, exalting himself against God, 
 proclaims with uplifted voice — 
 
 " ' Whether God will or not, we have always 
 killed Bakoba, and taken their children, and 
 we shall go on doing it. Yes, and if God goes 
 on for ever refusing, we shall still go on 
 killino- Masarwa and Bakoba — for ever and for 
 ever.' 
 
 " The Batauana, who gave glad welcome to 
 us on the first occasion of our going to teach 
 them, now surround me, ready armed to give 
 me a beating, and tumultuously uproarious, 
 shout —
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 263 
 
 " ' Let it be done ! Give him a beatino: ! 
 He ought to be killed ! ' 
 
 '' Moremi, who once rode all niofht to see 
 me, to whom I have taught the Scriptures, 
 and who has read his Bible through and 
 through, again and again — even as Sechele 
 did with Dr. Livingstone — now follows after 
 me to drive me from his khotla with savage 
 and furious yells, and wild gesticulations, bid- 
 dino: me beofone. . . . 
 
 " Christ, or circumcision ? 
 
 " God, or heathenism ? 
 
 " The proclamation of salvation, or the 
 sheddinof of human blood ? 
 
 " Twelve years ago Moremi's choice lay 
 with Christ, God, the proclamation of the 
 Gospel to the Bakoba. 
 
 " To-day it is circumcision, heathenism — 
 to shed the innocent blood of the Bakoba, 
 and take their children for slaves. 
 
 " Could I teach but in tears ? 
 
 "Is it strange that I should hide amongst 
 the trees, alone and broken-hearted, and weep 
 out prayers to God ? 
 
 " Was I unmanly, because 1 bade farewell 
 with a heart that could not speak ^.
 
 264 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 "Only five clays! But what days! 
 
 " From the time when on the river I heard 
 reports of their doings, I went forward hoping 
 for, and praying for the repentance of Nineveh, 
 and in its place found the wrath of Nazareth. 
 
 " ' Let the Matabele come,' said Moremi. 
 
 " ' Yes,' I replied to him. ' Where the 
 carcase is, there will the vultures gather.' . . . 
 
 " I have purposely first given prominence 
 to a conscientious record of the vital fact, 
 without any of that shading off of which we 
 missionaries are nowadays sometimes said to 
 be capable. I shall now proceed to set down 
 the incidents more or less worthy of note 
 of my three months' journey. 
 
 " On Monday, May 17th, 1886, the Bamang- 
 wato Church held a special Communion service, 
 at which we bade farewell, commending one 
 another to the Grace of God. 
 
 " On Tuesday evening we left home, with 
 one waggon and three horses. 
 
 " The two members of the Bamangwato 
 Church, who were my companions on this 
 journey, were Mopalen, my own child in the 
 faith, and Lesiapetlo, who, in great spiritual 
 anxiety, found rest in Christ as he read
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 265 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's translation of ' Come to 
 Jesus.' 
 
 " Five days from home, the first Sunday 
 night, there came a Httle bit of cheery Hght, 
 that made my glad heart musical with thank- 
 fulness to God. 
 
 " This Lake journey had some risk attached 
 to it — sufficient, at least, to put a qualm into all 
 our hearts ; but new strength came to me by 
 observing the change quietly going on in the 
 relationship existing between the Bamangwato 
 and their Rakalagadi, and lower down between 
 the Bakalagadi and their Masarwa. 
 
 " Under Khama's mild rule the Baka- 
 lagadi are increasing their possessions of cattle 
 and extent of gardens, and the poor Masarwa, 
 or Bushmen, have had goats given to them 
 in considerable numbers, Khama's own people 
 especially. These poor down-trodden people 
 are also becoming less timid. On other 
 journeyings I have heard the Masarwa speak 
 of himself to his master as ' your dog.' 
 On this journey I heard the Mongwato told 
 by them, 'and I, I am a person.' 
 
 " Khama, when he sees one, says, ' Mothsoa 
 mc ' (' One of my people ').
 
 266 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " Long ago the Masarwa were made a sub- 
 ject for special prayer to God, and special 
 pleading with the Bamangwato. 
 
 " Well does the clay stand out when in my 
 Bible-class I remonstrated with a prominent 
 member of my Church who maintained that 
 Masarwa were not people, but were only dogs, 
 without souls. 
 
 "Has that day passed for ever? Shall it 
 never more return ? Has Eternity fallen on it, 
 to draw over it the screen of its own eternal 
 silence ? Then what estimate shall that triBe 
 be valued at, and what angel of God is equal 
 to the calculation ? 
 
 " Let it go down as one of the trifles of 
 Christian missions ; yet, as I have said, it 
 made my glad heart sing. 
 
 " Perhaps the warmest friends of missions 
 hardly comprehend how, in some missions, we 
 must bear up with long years of patient wait- 
 ing against daily disappointment, daily failure, 
 almost to despair, 
 
 "Tender forethouQ^htfulness for the mission- 
 ary hid itself among the causes that moved the 
 Saviour to permit Himself to be so frequently 
 frustrated in His earthly task. Had His career
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 2bj 
 
 been full of triumph, had He laboured on for 
 a space of thirty years or more, until, by the 
 sheer force of His presence and character. He 
 had overcome every opposition of man, then 
 the record of His triumphs must have carried 
 dismay to every missionary's heart ; whereas 
 in our moments of deepest weakness and fear, 
 when Satan is most busy destroying our work, 
 we have a sure source of comfort, from whence 
 we draw new courage, in those records which 
 show Hi7ii as despised, rejected, baffled, hin- 
 dered at every step of His toilsome way, but 
 never growing weary, and at the last saying : 
 
 " ' Be of good cheer, I have overcome the 
 world.' 
 
 "If for no other thing than this, what 
 missionary can speak the debt he owes to the 
 Divine Saviour or the gratitude which thrills ? 
 
 "The last Sunday in May, our second 
 Sunday from home, found us preaching on the 
 Botletle River (Zonga). Of these services I 
 wrote to my wife at the time — 
 
 " * The people were evidently much under 
 the power of God's Holy Spirit. The earnest 
 look, which showed they heard, not with their 
 ears only, but with their hearts, impressed us
 
 268 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 all— Impressed us deeply. We felt that the 
 young men were ready to be taught ; and on 
 that account I have left Leslapetlo with 
 Pampa (the chief), giving him a bag of meal 
 and four goats. Slates and books I left with 
 them also.' 
 
 " Pampa's town is considerable, and an im- 
 portant centre for teaching on the river. On 
 our return we took up Leslapetlo again. He 
 had nothing but good to say of the kindness 
 of the people and their willingness to hear his 
 
 message. 
 
 " So were we made to recognise the good 
 hand of God which had guided us in this, as 
 in many another thing which befell us on this 
 journey. 
 
 " Nineteen days from Pampa brought us to 
 the site of the Batauana town of former 
 journeys ; but there were no Batauana living 
 there now. Bakhurutse, Bashuba, and Bakoba, 
 there were, but the Batauana themselves, we 
 were told, lived at a distance of ten days' 
 ordinary waggon travelling. 
 
 "It was a great disappointment to me. 
 Again and again we had been assured by 
 Batauana hunters, whom we met, that we
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 269 
 
 should find the Batauana had returned to the 
 old place. This had been mooted, it appeared, 
 but fear of the Matabele hindered. 
 
 " Ten days were spent among the Bakhu- 
 rutse, Bashuba, and Bakoba villages. 
 
 " The revulsion of feeling produced upon me 
 was most painful. Their heathen life manifested 
 itself in every degree of repulsiveness, loath- 
 someness, and shamelessness. My soul sickened 
 daily into deeper and deeper sadness, seeing 
 and hearing things to crush the heart of any 
 servant of Christ, seeking the amelioration of 
 human woes. Never, before, have I seen so 
 large a proportion of the people with so much 
 foul and ulcerous disease. It appeared as if 
 a small fraction only — men and women and 
 children — were in possession of sound bodies. 
 Not that, however, but thisy was the chief cause 
 of mv anafuish of heart. Never before had I 
 heard such foul language so constantly on 
 heathen lips ; never so loud its accompanying 
 laughter ; and yet, even here and among such 
 as these are, there were not wanting the 
 solitary few, whose silence witnessed to their 
 disrelish for its grossness. 
 
 "In preaching to them now I watched
 
 270 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 for that eager look that made the eyes the 
 soul's windows. What a sowing: it was 
 on hearts in every stage of slumber, all 
 slumbering ! 
 
 " Would any of the seed take root ? Or was 
 it all speedily to be devoured by the foul birds 
 that follow ever in the wake of the orgies of 
 their vile ceremonies. 
 
 "It is Monday, June 28th, and we are forty 
 days from home. On Friday the wish in my 
 heart to spend Sunday with the Christian 
 Bakoba Chief Mokgwati had become so 
 strong, as not longer to be resisted. One or 
 two earnest conversations with Mopalen result 
 in the united resolve to do each his utmost 
 to get over the long distance before Sunday, 
 There were two weighty reasons why he 
 should go. He had his horse, and by cross- 
 ing the river could make sure of reaching 
 Mokgwati's village by, at the latest, Sunday 
 morning, as he did, and held services there as 
 well as in the neighbouring villages ; whereas 
 I failed to reach the village before Monday 
 morning. 
 
 " Then we both feared to miss any help 
 which Moremi. it might be, had sent to us,
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 271 
 
 although it had not yet reached us. By 
 separating we made sure of not missing it. 
 
 "It was a relief to me when we had parted, 
 and I felt that I had secured, so far as human 
 effort could secure, services for Mokgwati's 
 people on Sunday. 
 
 " The place, we were leaving, had had from 
 us a full week's daily teaching. No one 
 had given expression to anxiety or concern. 
 Rather the evidence was the other way, 
 showing simple acquiescence in the new return 
 to old customs. Even the desire to read was 
 faint, and dying down to total extinguishing. 
 There were no books to nourish the desire, 
 for ' the Matabele have destroyed them all, 
 nor have they left us so much as a goat with 
 which to buy another.' So the pathetic story 
 ran. 
 
 " ' We are lost simply.' one young fellow 
 mournfully remarked. 
 
 " ' Has no one about here got a book ? ' 
 
 " ' Not a single book.' 
 
 " ' When do you meet for prayer ? ' 
 
 " ' We do not meet, unless it be when Maropin 
 comes and gathers us.' 
 
 " ' Are there no Christians amoncr vou ? '
 
 2']2 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA S COUNTRY 
 
 " ' There is one only, a Christian woman 
 in our village. You will not find another 
 Christian anywhere among the villages till 
 you come to Mokgwati's village. Mokgwati 
 is a true Christian. You will be glad when 
 you reach his village, for there you will find 
 the services held rea^ularlv,' 
 
 " I put my own Bible into his hands, and he 
 read beautifully. 
 
 " ' How is it you read so easily ? ' I asked. 
 
 " ' I often go over to Mokgwati's village 
 and read there. We were learning nicely. 
 Then Moremi left the Church, and we all 
 followed. You will see things that will surprise 
 you when you reach Moremi's town. I am 
 sorry for you. You will try, but you will not 
 be able to conquer.' 
 
 "It was my strange, sad fortune to reach 
 Mokgwati's village on the very morning, when 
 he was preparing to move with his people to 
 some distant place among the streams — 
 Moremi's jealous fears the cause. To leave 
 their gardens was a heavy loss to these poor 
 people. 
 
 " Here, too, I met with the Christian 
 Motauana Maropin, whose daughter had been
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 273 
 
 Stolen in the night by relatives, and taken to 
 the heathen ceremony. In our service I tried 
 to pour consolation into their wounded hearts 
 by pointing to the Christian's treasures that 
 are beyond the reach of man's destroying 
 hand. 
 
 " Mokgwati expressed himself with Christian 
 resignation, but deep sorrow, and gravely 
 doubted whereunto it all tended. Well mio^ht 
 he doubt. 
 
 " Moremi's present station lies far up in a 
 flat, marshy district, where the river flows out 
 in numerous broad streams, which spread over 
 the country in all directions. 
 
 " We arrived on Wednesday, June 30th, after 
 heavy riding, night and day. It was late, when 
 we reached the place of outspan under some 
 trees not far from the town. We were all 
 very tired. 
 
 " Late as it was, I had my bath filled with 
 water in order to relieve myself of the thick 
 coating of dust upon me, also to refresh myself 
 from weariness, and then went to see Moremi 
 before I slept. I could not show him a greater 
 act of respect. 
 
 " When I entered his court, I found him 
 
 IcS
 
 274 TWENTY YEARS JN KHAAIAS COUNTRY 
 
 lying on a mat before a great fire, his wife 
 sitting near, nursing her l:)aby, and some of his 
 people in attendance. 
 
 " After exchanging greetings with them all, 
 I began to speak with Moremi, as a friend 
 speaketh to his friend, quietly going over his 
 history. 
 
 " The reports of his return to the great 
 ceremony, his chastisement at the hands of 
 God, by bringing upon him and his people 
 the Matabele, who had before been unknown 
 to them, his being faithfully warned by me 
 on a former visit, that God would certainly 
 require the innocent blood of the Masarwa 
 (his slaves) shed at Kgwebe, his having cause 
 for gratitude to God for His merciful great 
 kindness in giving such a marvellous way of 
 escape, when the river came down as it had 
 not done in the memory of the Batauana, and 
 the Matabele were drowned by it, while he 
 was delivered out of the hands of the Matabele, 
 when they came the second time to take him 
 bound to Lobengula, his having especial cause 
 for gratitude to God for His so great patience 
 shown towards him in giving him by me, now, 
 this new opportunity to start afresh upon the
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 275 
 
 right path. After chastisement, I told him, 
 if followed by repentance came blessing ; if 
 followed by hardness, swift destruction. 
 
 " Shall it be destruction, complete and final ? 
 Or shall it be blessing, abundant and over- 
 flowing ? 
 
 " Once and again I broke off in my dis- 
 course to wait for some word to indicate the 
 working of his mind. No syllable escaped 
 his lips. 
 
 " Faithfully, prayerfully, and patiently to 
 follow on until a clear, complete, and truthful 
 statement of his present standing before God 
 was made, was my clear duty. Things that were 
 bitter were not kept back, nor words for his 
 encouragement. It was a task solemn enough ; 
 done well, or done ill, the day will declare. 
 
 " His wife had remained with us all the 
 time, only now and then giving her quiet order 
 to have the fire made up. Her child had long- 
 gone to its nurse's care. Moremi, in a sitting 
 posture, head bent forward, brooded over his 
 inward thoughts. 
 
 " When I ceased speaking, we all sat hushed 
 and still, and in yet deeper stillness the night 
 advanced, a silent witness of the scene.
 
 276 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 " Here were these two, husband and wife, 
 wearing the signs of heathenism upon their 
 necks, who both had been received by me 
 into the membership of the Church of Christ, 
 and whose child I had baptised. 
 
 " ' Moremi,' I said at length, ' do you wish 
 me to pray ? ' 
 
 '' His reply was an indefinite ' If you wish.' 
 
 " One of his people, a Christian lad, imme- 
 diately said to him, ' No, he asks you, sir, is 
 it your wish ? ' 
 
 " To this he answered, ' Yes, let him pray.' 
 
 " Rising, I stood and prayed for him, for 
 his wife beside him, and for their little boy, 
 with such tender pity as my heart was full of. 
 
 " Then I bid them good-night, and go out 
 bewildered and amazed. 
 
 "It had been a long day. I had hurried to 
 see Moremi, without waiting even to eat. At 
 the waggon all were in the deep sleep of men 
 exhausted with heavy labour ; their fire had 
 gone out, a cold, keen air breathed off the 
 surrounding waters. Keenly and to the quick 
 had gone the cold reception accorded to my 
 message ; for it, there is no glad welcome this 
 time.
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY z-j-j 
 
 " Faint, chilled, spirit-weary, travel-worn, 
 there was no one to hear my troubled story, 
 or aid me with wise counsel, I lay down to 
 wait for day, too tired to pray but in soul- 
 whispers, broken and disjointed, many memo- 
 ries and thoughts floating through my mind. 
 
 '' The dawn of Thursday came, and the 
 people began flocking to us, coming and going 
 the whole morning, the next three days being 
 crowded, from dawn to dark, with events which 
 so ran into one another as to make it difficult 
 to describe the gathering of the storm which 
 was soon to burst upon us in its wildest fury, 
 difficult to give any summaries of the conversa- 
 tions, which may possess such essential qualities 
 as exactness and coherence, as well as being 
 intelligible and brief For as was Job, when 
 one messenger of evil tidings came in upon the 
 heels of another in swift succession, so were 
 we quickly taught to know, that an evil work 
 being given into his hands to do, Satan is 
 rapid, gives no respite, holds no parley ; and 
 yet, never, in the heat of strife, or out of it, 
 had I beheld with like clearness of vision how 
 truly the battle is Christ's ; that Satan can go 
 no step beyond what it has been permitted him
 
 27S nVENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 to go. Never have I been lifted to the same 
 height of knowledge of that wondrous pos- 
 session of the Church of Christ for which He 
 taught His disciples to look, when He told them 
 beforehand of the coming of the Holy Spirit, 
 whom He would send unto them from the 
 Father, to be in them, and to abide with them 
 for ever, in the special activities ot His per- 
 sonal presence for the hour of conflict ; ' in 
 that very hour,' ' boldness,' ' it is not ye that 
 speak,' ' The Holy Spirit shall teach you 
 what ye ought to say.' 
 
 " The morning's excitement was pictured 
 in every face. The news of our arrival had 
 spread in the night. My conversation with 
 Moremi we thought to be of such a nature, 
 as to require to be reported to the headmen 
 before break of dav. One after another, each 
 with his troop of followers, they came, full of 
 curious expectation. 
 
 " One conversation after another was in- 
 terrupted, and turned back upon itself, to take 
 new phases and new shapes, to suit newcomers 
 and adapt itself to new inquiries ; but to all 
 alike a straight story was told, and warnings 
 were uttered.
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 279 
 
 " Many a passage of Scripture flashed out 
 its meaning, because of the conditions under 
 which they were referred to it ; and probably, 
 just because of these conditions, some, of these 
 passages of Scripture will retain a permanent 
 hold upon the memories of some, who heard 
 them. Such was the working of my thought 
 when quoting a passage and watching to see 
 its effect. The Christians especially showed 
 their eagerness to discover these Scriptures by 
 comine afterwards with their Bibles to have 
 them pointed out to them. 
 
 " The morning advanced towards midday, 
 and Moremi of set purpose had delayed to 
 come. No doubt snatches of the conversations 
 were steadily carried off to him. 
 
 " At last he came. 
 
 "He was walking very slowly ; his eye did 
 not seek mine ; he was ill at ease ; he was 
 evidently undecided how to shape his course 
 towards me ; and, taking note of all this, I went 
 forward and met him, greeted him kindly, and 
 requested a private interview with him. This 
 he readily granted, and we went together back 
 to the town. 
 
 " To press closely, kindly, and earnestly
 
 28o 7WENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 home was my object. He, on the other hand, 
 frankly acknowledged, that he had banished 
 the Christian services from his khotla to make 
 way for the ' ceremony,' that he had left off 
 praying altogether, that he had done so before 
 the Matabele came the first time, that he fired 
 upon them witli a charm in his gun, and his 
 headmen knew of it, and, in short, that he had 
 abandoned himself wholly to heathenism, and 
 forsaken God as his helper, although he still 
 read his Bible. 
 
 "It was all told without a shade of sorrow 
 in his face, without the slightest tremor in the 
 tones of his voice, and there was not even the 
 faintest effort at a smile. 
 
 " Consciousness of his sin, or fear of the 
 calamity which might overwhelm him, was 
 absent from his outward manner. Pharaoh- 
 like, incapable of forming a resolute decision 
 to do that which he knows to be the right, 
 like Pharaoh, he sits, careless or secure, amidst 
 judgments of God which have already brought 
 destruction, and which threaten him with ex- 
 tinction ; whilst all thoughtful men among his 
 people are alarmed, and have prepared them- 
 selves for flight.
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 281 
 
 " I do not know anything that wearies one's 
 spirit in the work more than to stand in the 
 presence of a man Hke Moremi, ready to do 
 anything in reason to help him, but whose 
 gritlessness and folly leave you powerless to 
 do him any good. 
 
 " ' Helpless, helpless, helpless,' I said of 
 myself, to myself, as I came away. ' Who 
 shall help you, or how shall you be helped?' 
 
 " From Moremi I went to hold a service 
 for the Christians in the round hut built out- 
 side the town. To the little company gathered 
 and waiting for me I tried to speak the con- 
 solation and encouragement which I did not 
 feel. The words, ' Comfort ye, comfort ye My 
 people, saith your God,' were as loud-ringing 
 bells in my ears. 
 
 " Immediately on coming out from this 
 service, a messenger called me to the private 
 meeting with Moremi and his headmen, for 
 which I had made request. 
 
 " Vital issues would fall out from this meeting. 
 
 "A deep, quick prayer shot up to Heaven 
 for help. 
 
 " Mopalen went with me, and we found 
 Moremi with his people discussing matters
 
 282 TWEN'TV YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 together. He rose and called his headmen 
 to follow ; and we retired apart. Close listeners 
 they were ; and it quickened me into more 
 Intense earnestness to know that attentive 
 ears caught every word, and active minds 
 watched every argument. Clear as light I 
 saw that I should fail (and I did fail) to accom- 
 plish my mission, unless I could compel these 
 headmen to an all-conquering recognition, that 
 God, who had sent me to them, was not a God 
 about whom we read in a book, merely a God of 
 the past afar off, but a God of to-day, who asks — 
 
 " ' Can any hide himself in secret places that 
 I shall not see him ? ' 
 
 " And swayed by this supreme object from 
 merely illustrating historical tacts, I sought to 
 let the conviction gather force in their minds 
 that the serious thing for them was this — them- 
 selves being the witnesses — that God has His 
 hand to-day upon every tribe known to them. 
 
 " ' You know well enough,' I appealed to 
 them, ' that when you place your children in 
 this ceremony you put it out of your power 
 to teach them ; how shall they learn, and how 
 shall we win them for Christ, when you have 
 already stolen their hearts away } '
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 283 
 
 " ' Yes, Monare, you are speaking truly,' 
 they said. 
 
 " ' God,' I said, ' has compelled you to make 
 a choice by bringing me here at this stage, 
 when you are midway between the two rites 
 of your ceremony. You are masters of the 
 country. You will make the choice. Will 
 you kindly let me know your choice when it 
 is made ? ' 
 
 " The headmen made the admission that 
 they were struck with the reality of the new 
 condition, in which my appearing at that 
 juncture had placed matters. Moremi had 
 nothing to say, and preferred silence. 
 
 " When we came away, Mopalen said to 
 me, ' They will decide now they are shut up to 
 it. May they decide to break the old custom ! ' 
 
 "It was an ominous shadow that no word 
 of that kind had fallen from any of them, but 
 I did not say so. My own heart was heavy, 
 but I did not wish to give heaviness of heart 
 to him. I wanted him to pray that night in 
 hope. 
 
 " In his innocency of spirit he thought, after 
 what he had heard me say to them, that there 
 was nothing for them but to close with the offer
 
 284 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNIRY 
 
 of God's help, which I had held out to them. 
 It is one of those gleams which reveal a revolu- 
 tion in the ways of thought ; it is a mark on 
 the spiritual indicator which shows a rise in 
 the atmosphere of the daily life ; it may be 
 slight, but it is real, and speaks volumes for 
 missions. And so it was a revelation to him 
 to see that men can reject Christ and become 
 His persecutors. 
 
 " But I also had my thoughts, and one of 
 then"! is this : there are scores of Christian 
 homes at Shoshong where the children are 
 brought up to honour Christ ; and so sincere 
 and deep did the love of some boys, not twelve 
 years of age, appear to Mr. Lloyd and myself, 
 that it had been mooted between us whether 
 or not we were doing right in keeping them 
 longer away from the Lord's table. As for the 
 children in Moremi's town — alas ! alas ! 
 
 " Friday came, and one of my earliest visitors 
 was a friendly headman, who had made it his 
 business to come betimes to say — 
 
 " ' Do not hope. It boded ill that no one 
 spoke last night. Why was Moremi silent ? 
 We have not spoken, neither have we called 
 the people.'
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 285 
 
 " During the morning most of the headmen 
 paid friendly visits, but they were reticent on 
 the subject of our evening's conversation. 
 
 BAMANGWATO BOYS NOW AT SCHOOL AT LOVEDALE. 
 
 ''It was a lull before the first threatening 
 
 oi the storm, but it was of very short duration. 
 
 "It was still morning when Moremi appeared,
 
 286 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 bringing with him a lot of his young men and 
 some of the rougher sort. A glance showed 
 me that his headmen were absent, with the 
 exception of his father-in-law, Thaben. For 
 hours they submitted me to an incessant fire 
 of malific and angry questions, and the meeting 
 culminated in Moremi, standing up with his 
 back against a tree, blown out with pride, 
 telling me that he needed none to teach him, 
 for I had taught him, and he knew the Scrip- 
 tures from end to end ; fulminating fiery 
 vengeance against the Matabele ; and uttering 
 his wicked defiance against God, who — do 
 what He would — should never prevent them 
 from killing Masarwa and Makoba for ever. 
 
 " I stood waiting until he had spent himself, 
 when I asked him to sit down, telling him he 
 was like a man driving his head against a rock. 
 The rock would not move, and he would break 
 his own head. 
 
 " ' God is too great for anything you can say, 
 Moremi, to move Him. He has said " Whoso 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood 
 be shed," and He knows how to fulfil His own 
 word ; " at the hand of every man will I require 
 the life of man."
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 287 
 
 "In reply to my words on future judgment 
 he exclaimed, ' We shall be many.' 
 
 " ' Say not so. God's universe is wide ; men 
 older than you have been made to feel the 
 weight of His hand. Macheng was a prisoner 
 among the Matabele ; Chukudu was murdered 
 at Bakwena ; Pelotona, whose son Khoati came 
 here to teach you about God, was a man skilled 
 in every charm and custom, known to your 
 father, and he died in exile. You all count 
 Sekhome a great man, a great warrior, one 
 who excelled all men in his wisdom in the use 
 of charms and medicines, and God made him 
 also a solitary wanderer, an outcast from every 
 tribe to which he fled, every man's hand against 
 him, no place on God's earth where he could 
 lie down to rest ; and you, Moremi, God is 
 able to take you out from among your people, 
 and send you abroad over the earth, a lonely 
 wanderer without wife, or child, or servant. 
 God casts down the lofty.' 
 
 " The conversations which followed became 
 more orderly, but I may not enlarge upon 
 them. When we parted the people were 
 somewhat subdued, but there were mutterings 
 and murmurings among them, and they were
 
 288 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS C0UN2RY 
 
 not of one mind. The meeting was an un- 
 mistakable sign that the current had set in 
 the wrong direction. 
 
 " Taking Mopalen aside, I warned him to be 
 prepared for an attack upon our persons with 
 fatal results. 
 
 " We were too evidently engaged in a hand 
 to hand encounter with Christ's great enemy, 
 the Prince of Darkness. We must be bold 
 with God's word, but we must be on our 
 guard to give no ground of offence in our 
 conduct. 
 
 " ' Warn the men to remain near the waggon, 
 and to be circumspect in their behaviour, and 
 you and I must give ourselves to prayer, as we 
 may expect treachery.' He thought they might 
 beat me, but not kill me. 
 
 " ' Be not too sure.' And I gave him in- 
 structions how to act in that event. 
 
 " ' Do not let us forget that we fight not 
 men only but with spiritual beings ; and let us 
 remember too that we have spiritual beings with 
 us, and we and they are under the leadership 
 of Christ in person.' So I sought both to warn 
 and encourage him. I was sorry to think I 
 had perhaps brought him into danger and the
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 289 
 
 men who were with us. God ordered it other- 
 wise, to whom be thanks and praise. 
 
 "A service at the Christians' hut for prayer, 
 to which spies were sent, and other matters I 
 pass over. They brought the day to a close at 
 a late hour. When I went to my waggon, I 
 arranged my books and papers, and saw that 
 everything was in order for whatever might 
 befall on the morrow. My heart dictated letters 
 to my wife, our boys in Scotland, and my little 
 daughters, but I was too tired to write more 
 than a line or two ; and I was at last content 
 to commend them all to the safe keeping of our 
 Heavenly Father, and lie down and take my 
 well-won sleep after a tiring day. 
 
 "It was yet dark when, on Saturday morn- 
 ing, we heard the loud, shrill shout of the crier 
 calling the people to meet ; and their discussion 
 lasted some hours. 
 
 " This was a most welcome interval in which 
 to brace myself in the quietness of secret 
 prayer with God before the coming conflict of 
 the day, and a solid sense of the presence of 
 Christ, as the great captain, Himself arranging 
 every action in the fight came upon me. 
 
 " It was, I judged, as late as nine o'clock 
 
 i9
 
 2 go TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 before the headmen, a number of the most 
 important people, among them Maropin and 
 several Christians, came to the waggon to 
 deliver the words of Moremi. 
 
 "In brief, they were, that the teachings of 
 the Christians, and the rites and customs of the 
 past, should exist together in his town, for they 
 were both good for the people. 
 
 " The basis of my reply was the twentieth 
 chapter of Exodus, which I commenced by 
 formally reading over in their hearing. Apply- 
 ing it to their present case, I asked what words 
 they objected to, going over them pointedly 
 and carefully in detail. 
 
 " ' God spake all these words,' What words 
 do you wish Him to withdraw? Shall He 
 withdraw the words which apply to you, the 
 people, for the safeguarding of whose rights 
 He has spoken ? Or shall he only withdraw 
 words which have sole reference to His own 
 honour and character as the only living God ? 
 Moremi forgets that I have not come here, but 
 he brought me. Did he not send and plead 
 with Khama to find a missionary for him ? 
 Does he now despise Khama who sent his own 
 missionary ? Does he despise the act of the
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 291 
 
 Bamangwato who honoured him by sending 
 their best- — the sons of Sekhome and Pelotona ; 
 — every woman in the town with mortar and 
 pestle beating the corn into meal for their food, 
 as she sang of the Messengers of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ going from the Bamangwato 
 Church to the Batauana ? It is a small matter 
 to despise men ; will he also despise God ? 
 Moremi asks to-day what no servant of Christ 
 can grant.' 
 
 " To go further into detail would make my 
 letter unreadable ; it was simply a patient follow- 
 ing from point to point the arguments brought 
 from a heathen standpoint. The whole line of 
 argument was unexpected. My answer won the 
 headmen ; but my personal references offended 
 Moremi. If they became more friendly he 
 became my more determined enemy. A 
 teacher should teach the people, not the chief 
 etc. 
 
 " About four o'clock a messenger came to 
 say, ' Moremi has collected the people together 
 to hear a public statement from you of all 
 that you have to say, and you must come at 
 once.' 
 
 " Through the thoughtful kindness of a
 
 292 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 brother missionary, Rev. W. A. Elliott, I had 
 in my possession the Bible which Moremi had 
 received from my own hands, — his first, a gilt- 
 edged, morocco bound Bible, and which had 
 fallen into the hands of the Matabele on their first 
 raid upon the Batauana. With purpose it had 
 been reserved for the public meeting on 
 Sunday, and I had not shown it yet. 
 
 "When I was called I immediately went 
 to my waggon and took this Bible. Mopalen 
 and two of our men went with me to the 
 meeting. 
 
 *' Moremi was sitting alone in the centre, 
 and a seat was placed for me beside some head 
 men who sat in front of him at a litde distance. 
 I sat down, and he called the people to ap 
 proach and hear my words. They made a 
 complete circle round us ; and the quick eyes 
 of my men saw that they were hiding rhinoceros- 
 hide whips under their karosses. 
 
 " Their purpose was to give me a beating at 
 a signal from their chief 
 
 " ' Tell him the people are here to hear what 
 he has to say.' This was to one of his head- 
 men, who passed the word to Mopalen to be 
 given by him to me.
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 293 
 
 " Rising at this word, I began by telling 
 them that I was glad to have thus an oppor- 
 tunity of speaking to them in a full meeting 
 about the word of God. After an introduction 
 I went on to say — 
 
 " ' Was it ever heard that a man who had 
 given to him a powerful charm threw it away 
 for a useless and valueless thing ? Moremi 
 had sent for me to help him to build his town, 
 and I had made a long journey at great expense 
 to come and put into his hands a most power- 
 ful charm. It was a bright, shining, and 
 beautiful charm to look upon. It was not a 
 charm to hang upon the neck like that which 
 Moremi was now wearing, but a charm to be 
 laid up in the heart. 
 
 " ' Where is that charm ? Moremi has it 
 no longer. He has thrown it away. He 
 has done worse ; he has despised it. He has 
 trodden it under the feet of his ceremony here 
 in this khotla. Where is the beautiful Bible I 
 gave him ? ' 
 
 " ' The Matabele have destroyed it,' he 
 said. 
 
 " ' Did any one.' I went on, ' ever hear of a 
 charm which was taken away by the enemy,
 
 294 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 and after travelling hundreds upon hundreds 
 of miles, coming back long afterwards to its 
 former owner? Is there any god known to 
 you who is able to protect his own charm ? 
 The Matabele came and fought with you, and 
 Moremi fired his first shot with a charm in his 
 rifle. But they destroyed you, and took your 
 people, your cattle, your sheep, and your goats. 
 Books were scattered about and destroyed, 
 you say, in great numbers. One book was 
 not destroyed. God put it into the hands of 
 a Matabele soldier, and said to him, 
 " ' " Take that book to your master." 
 " ' The book became dry in the hands of 
 that Sentebele. When he slept, he covered 
 it with his shield, and laid his spear beside 
 it. 
 
 " ' When Lobengula, the Matabele chief, saw 
 it, he asked the white trader to tell him what 
 name was written on the book. And the white 
 man read out — 
 
 " ' " Moremi, Lechulathebe chief." 
 
 "'God did not let them destroy that book, 
 
 but plucked it out of their hands. Lobengula 
 
 thought it was the charm in which Moremi 
 
 trusted, and despised it. He did not know
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 295 
 
 that Moremi had already thrown it away, and 
 fired upon him with another charm which was 
 powerless to protect. 
 
 " ' Again I ask Moremi where the Bible is I 
 gave him ? 
 
 " ' " I don't know," was his reply. 
 "'Then I will tell you, if you will listen'; 
 and, at length, I described the runners bringing 
 it out to me without Lobengula's knowledge, 
 and my bringing it again, so far round, by the 
 desert and the river. 
 
 " ' Now, Moremi, the same hands which first 
 brought it and put it into yours have brought 
 it again. Here it is ' ; and I took it out and 
 held it out open, and here is your name written 
 twice with your own hand. 
 
 " ' Moremi, LecJudathebe chief! 
 "His eyes leaped, and he recognised it 
 instantly. 
 
 " ' See,' I said to the people, ' the first pages 
 of the book are destroyed, but not the first 
 page on which Moremi wrote his name twice 
 with his own hand. God saw what Moremi 
 thoughtlessly wrote, and the book became a 
 sien between Moremi and God. Moremi cast 
 the book away carelessly ; he gave it to his
 
 296 TWENTY YEARS IN KIT AM A' S COUNTRY 
 
 servant, but God did not lose sight of it, 
 Moremi has forsaken God and broken his 
 covenant which he made with God, when he 
 wrote his name twice in God's book, at a time 
 when he said he would build his town with the 
 word of God. Here, in this khotla, where we 
 are met to-day, he has despised God's word, 
 treading it under with the many feet of his 
 heathen customs. Has he not himself told me 
 that he has banished the teaching of the word 
 of God from this khotla to make way for his 
 ceremony ?' God has brought His book back 
 again to this khotla ; and by my hand He 
 now lays it down at the feet of Moremi in the 
 presence of his people, whom he has himself 
 gathered to hear God's message from the lips 
 of His servant ; for my hand is God's hand, 
 and my mouth is God's mouth to Moremi 
 to-day, and the message is this — whether will 
 you, Moremi, take God's book up ? or will you 
 let it lie ? What do you mean to do ? The 
 people are witnesses.' 
 
 "He looked at me for a second or two in 
 alarm ; then he sprang up, and ran away in 
 the direction of his cattle kraal, as if he would 
 fly there for safety.
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAIvE JOURNEY 297 
 
 " * Never mind, it is nothing ; just wait a 
 little,' said his headmen to me. 
 
 " Suddenly he turned, and came flinging his 
 arms in the air, gesticulating and shouting, and 
 working himself into a passion. 
 
 " This was intended to stir up his people ; 
 but they were stunned by what they had heard, 
 and for the moment powerless to move. 
 
 " I had taken up the book, and stood with it 
 in my hands. 
 
 " ' Moremi,' I said, ' sit down like a wise 
 man, and hear what I have still to say to you 
 and to your people.' When I had said this, 
 and a few other words of like nature, he came 
 straight towards me ; but Dithapo, the man in 
 position next to himself, had been watching 
 him, and he quickly stepped between us. 
 
 " Again Moremi tried to arouse his people. 
 
 " He rushed at them shouting — ' Am I not 
 chief? ' 
 
 " The sound of their own voices gave them 
 courage, and they rose and closed round us all. 
 
 " Moremi made vain attempts to get hold of 
 me, but his headmen stood round and kept 
 him back, at the same time sternly and sharply 
 rebuking the people.
 
 298 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " Unable to get near me, he took hold of 
 Mopalen by his jacket, saying — 
 
 " ' Man, you are a Monwato, but I am a chief, 
 do you hear ? I am a chief.' 
 
 " Again he went towards his people, and 
 tried to stir them up into a like passion with 
 himself; and as I saw no sign of the storm 
 abating I sat down to wait. 
 
 " But soon I saw that the tumult, so far from 
 subsiding, rather grew worse. This will end 
 in some rash act on the part of some bold 
 fellow, I thought, and with this thought I rose 
 up and passed through the crowd— perhaps 
 there were three hundred men — which parted 
 and let me pass. 
 
 "As soon as Moremi found that I was gone 
 he came running after me, with wild shrieks 
 and yells, and telling me to leave his country. 
 My servants came presently, saying, ' He says 
 we are to inspan — now, at once.' 
 
 " The sun had set, and we had no cattle, 
 but I began to draw out our yokes and chains ; 
 and almost immediately the waggon, into which 
 I had put the cases of books and slates, came, 
 drawn by my own tired oxen. 
 
 " ' This is the finger of God to me,' I said
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 299 
 
 to Mopalen. ' We must go, tired as our oxen 
 are, if it be ever so short a distance.' 
 
 " But my work was not done, and I was 
 still to have the Sunday's services in the 
 khotla, for which I had asked. My readiness 
 to obey was the cause of it. I speak of course 
 only of the human side of things. 
 
 " Some one told the headmen that Moremi 
 had done a cruel thing. He had caused the 
 missionary's oxen to bring the waggon left at 
 Maropin's cattle post with the heavy cases in 
 it. They have travelled all day, and already 
 the missionary is putting them into his waggon 
 again. 
 
 "It ended in a message brought by the 
 chief's cousin, to say — 
 
 " ' You asked to preach in the khotla on 
 Sunday ; stay and preach, and go on Monday,' 
 
 " ' Tell Moremi I stay at his word,' was my 
 reply to this. 
 
 " On Sunday morning I had visits from the 
 headmen early, to see the book and Moremi's 
 name. Both men and women gathered in the 
 khotla, eager to hear more about its wonder- 
 ful history. 
 
 " Deuteronomy xxxi. 26 formed the basis for
 
 300 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 my subject. I showed them the book, and 
 retold its strange story. It was an impressive 
 service to us all. Moremi sat and listened 
 until he could evidently bear it no longer, and 
 then he rose and went and hid himself behind 
 his own palings. 
 
 " As soon as I had prayed with them, I 
 came away whilst they were singing a hymn, 
 but Moremi ran out, called on them to stop 
 sinofino^, and called to me to return to hear 
 what he had to say. 
 
 " ' You ought not to go until you have 
 heard,' he said. 
 
 " I returned to hear what it was, for he had 
 named some of the Christians, and I thought 
 he was going to begin some persecution of 
 them, 
 
 " ' These men have been speaking false 
 things to you about me,' he said. 
 
 " ' No men have spoken false things to me 
 about you, but I have taught you out of God's 
 word what I have spoken this morning, and 
 the passages of Scripture will show you that it 
 is so, if you will look them up for yourself,' and 
 saying this I came away. 
 
 " I had said I would speak with the Chris-
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 301 
 
 tians, in their own place, in the afternoon, but 
 I received instructions that I was to preach in 
 the khotla in pubHc again. 
 
 " When this service had ended, again 
 Moremi came shouting — 
 
 "'I shall make such and such children go 
 into the ceremony, and if their parents refuse 
 they shall become my children.' 
 
 " Again I went away without waiting to hear 
 him to the end. I wished to avoid any further 
 controversy with him, for I now saw it was 
 serving no good purpose with him. 
 
 "In the evening we had a Communion 
 service with the Christians in their hut. I 
 cannot pretend to describe that service, or the 
 attitude of the Christians. Their own descrip- 
 tion of themselves was — 
 
 " ' We are like Lot in Sodom.' Christ's 
 presence was felt ; I am sure of that. 
 
 " On Monday morning I handed over to the 
 care of the Christians all books and school 
 material with words to this effect. 
 
 " ' Make use of them.' I shall never ask for 
 any accounts from you. They are yours, as a 
 Christian Church, to use in Christ's service.' 
 
 "'Probably we shall never see each other
 
 302 TWENTY YEARS IN TEHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 again, and all I can say to you is " Use them, 
 and do not let them lie idle.'"' I cannot tell 
 what service God may have sent them by me 
 to do. I therefore urge upon you this one 
 thing, use them. Use them fi^cely, for they are 
 Christ si 
 
 " One more tearful meeting in the Christians' 
 hut, and Moremi could not keep himself away. 
 First he came to the outside and stood and 
 listened, and then he came in and sat down 
 in silence on the ground. 
 
 "My heart was too full to speak, and at last 
 we parted. 
 
 " Some came to see us as far as the stream 
 we had to cross, then turned, and never looked 
 back. 
 
 " Who can say what I had left behind .'^ I 
 cannot. With kindest regards I close my 
 weeping story." 
 
 And so ends this sorrowful letter. The 
 missionary lays down his pen that he may 
 wipe away his tears ; such tears as — with all 
 reverence we say it — such tears as those shed 
 by the Saviour well nigh nineteen hundred 
 years ago, when, beholding Jerusalem from
 
 FOURTH AND LAST LAKE JOURNEY 303 
 
 Olivet's crown, He wept over the city, 
 saying, 
 
 " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least 
 in this thy day, the things that belong unto 
 thy peace ! But now are they hid from thine 
 eyes." 
 
 Ah, well ! It is enough for the servant to 
 be as his Master, the disciple as /lis Lord.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWATO TRIBE FROM 
 SHOSHONG TO PALAPYE 
 
 " Arise ye and depart ; for this is not your rest. " — ^Micah ii. lo. 
 
 " Wae's me, vvha will care for her grave when we're far awa V 
 . . . It's no lichtsome tae leave the hoose whar we've livit sae 
 lang, . . , but its sairest to leave yir dead." — Ian Maclaren. 
 
 " O God of Bethel, by whose hand 
 Thy people still are fed ; 
 Who through tliis weary pilgrimage 
 
 Hast all our fathers led ; 
 
 *«■#*♦» 
 
 "Through each perplexing path of life 
 Our wandering footsteps guide. 
 Give us, each day, our daily bread, 
 And raiment fit provide." 
 
 " O spread Thy covering wings around 
 Till all our wanderings cease, 
 »■ And at our Father's loved abode 
 Our souls arrive in peace.' 
 
 THE year 1889, to which date we have 
 now brought these brief glimpses at the 
 progress of Christian life and work amongst 
 the Bamangwato, was destined to be one of 
 change and uprooting. 
 
 304
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWATO TRIBE 305 
 
 The entire tribe, men, women, and children, 
 so Khama decreed, were to forsake the old 
 town of Shoshong, and migrate en masse to 
 another part of the country — some one 
 hundred miles away — and there build up a 
 new town. 
 
 Mr. Hepburn himself appears to have written 
 no account of the actual removal ; but Mrs. 
 Hepburn has furnished us with the following 
 interestino^ reminiscences of the s^reat " He- 
 gira." 
 
 ''We were to leave Shoshong ! So Khama 
 had intimated to his people after the service 
 that June Sunday morning. 
 
 " If we had received the same intimation 
 eighteen years before, I, for one, should have 
 rejoiced indeed. It was different now. 
 
 " As a residence for Europeans, Shoshong 
 was in no wise desirable. Water was always 
 scarce, except for a few weeks, during the 
 annual rain season. 
 
 "All our food had to be imported, and 
 consequently was very expensive, while neither 
 fruit nor vegetables would grow, owing to the 
 lack of water. 
 
 20
 
 3o6 TWENTY YEARS TN K HA MA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " We had come to Shoshong, not for our 
 own enjoyment, but to carry the Gospel to the 
 people — and we had been permitted to see 
 the work prosper there ; the difference of the 
 town between 1870 and 1889 could be under- 
 stood by no one who had not lived there all 
 those years. 
 
 "It was indeed the difference as between 
 midnight and midday. 
 
 "So we had become absorbed in our work, 
 and accustomed to the hardships, etc., of the 
 place. Our children growing up about us too 
 had made Shoshong — dirty, ill-kept, and un- 
 comfortable as it was — homelike. 
 
 " My husband had just had a large class- 
 room built near our house, in which to instruct 
 the men who had not only become Christians, 
 but who manifested a desire themselves to 
 teach in their town, and to preach the Gospel 
 to their own people, and other neighbouring 
 tribes, who were still in the darkness of 
 heathenism. 
 
 " An English Protectorate had now been 
 proclaimed over Khama's country, so that 
 attacks from the Matabele, or any other 
 hostile people, would not again interrupt our
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWATO TRIBE 307 
 
 work, as they had so frequently done in the 
 past. 
 
 " When, therefore, Khama announced to his 
 people his determination to leave the ' hills,' 
 and go to live in another, better favoured, part 
 of his country, the news certainly filled my 
 heart with dismay and dread. 
 
 '' My husband and I were no longer young ; 
 our health was materially impaired by repeated 
 attacks of fever, and by the years of arduous 
 work in such an insalubrious climate. 
 
 " We had both suffered from sunstroke, and 
 I knew too well what we should risk in havinof 
 to encamp in the veldt without proper shelter. 
 
 " My husband looked more hopefully on the 
 removal. He saw his loved people making 
 a fresh start, building a new town with the 
 Word of God. He hoped that the Bamangwato 
 might be enabled to make a great advance 
 spiritually, and to this end he began at once 
 to influence the Christians to build a large 
 church. 
 
 " For an African to remove from one place 
 to another is, comparatively speaking, an easy 
 matter. His effects are few, and the round 
 hut can be substituted by a new one without
 
 3o8 TWENTY YEARS IN K HA MA'S COUNTRY 
 
 much difficulty or delay. For a European 
 family removal is a much more serious and 
 arduous matter. 
 
 " My husband had built part, at least, of our 
 brick house with his own hands. (In the 
 early years European builders were rare and 
 their labour very costly.) He could not again 
 commence, with his impaired health, hard 
 manual labour. 
 
 " Well, the removal commenced. Every 
 day for months long lines of men, women, and 
 children poured up the kloof — all with burdens 
 on their heads, and many of the women with a 
 baby on their back as well. 
 
 " The wealthier people had waggons with 
 which to remove their goods and possessions, 
 but such were few. By far the majority went 
 on foot. 
 
 " We were unable to remove at once, being 
 obliged to wait until after the departure of the 
 mass of the tribe for the waggons. Mean- 
 while, my husband made several journeys to 
 the new town on horseback, to conduct the 
 Sunday's services there. 
 
 " And, moreover, whilst the people were 
 slowly removing, there was always a congrega-
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWATO TRIBE 309 
 
 tion of some sort, although always a diminish- 
 ing one, left at Shoshong. 
 
 " Those days of compulsory waiting were 
 weary, trying ones for us, although there was 
 much to do. 
 
 " Several disabled old and sick people were 
 still in the town. To these, of course, we 
 ministered. Some of them shortly died, and 
 for others waggons were sent from Palapye. 
 
 " For many weeks meat was not procurable, 
 nor indeed any kind of fresh food, and our 
 premises began to be infested by starving rats 
 and mice. Poor friendless cats and dogs, too, 
 either stole our fowls, or died of hunger by 
 the roadside, thus adding considerably to the 
 already bad stench of the deserted and filthy 
 town. 
 
 ^ % % % =iii % 
 
 " The last Sunday comes. We pay our last 
 visit to the lonely little God's acre. 
 
 " From henceforth only wild animals will 
 prowl round our precious little graves. 
 
 " ' Our little ones have gone to sleep, 
 Why should a mother watch and weep ? 
 Earth's ills were gathering round their nest, 
 They crept into a Father's breast.'
 
 310 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNl'RY 
 
 " We gather a handful of leaves — for there 
 are no flowers — to send to the few distant 
 friends whose dead are also buried here ; and 
 turn away, blinded by our tears. 
 
 " The last service is held in our empty 
 parlour. 
 
 " The last hymn, 
 
 " ' O God of Bethel,' 
 
 is sung, to be sung again as our first hymn 
 next Sunday in our new home. 
 
 " Everything is ready at last. And with 
 indescribable feelings — joy and sorrow, regret 
 and hope strangely blent — I take my seat in 
 the waggon. 
 
 " But where are the children ? Ah ! there 
 they are, kissing the very walls of the old 
 house which has been their childhood's happy 
 home. 
 
 " And thus we left Shoshong. 
 
 ^ ^ 'N ^ "Sf" -K 
 
 " For some time after our arrival at Palapye 
 we lived in the huts which had kindly been 
 put up for us by Kharha's orders beforehand. 
 
 " After a while, a more commodious ' mud 
 and pole shanty ' — roofed with corrugated iron —
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWATO TRIBE 311 
 
 was erected ; and this, with the huts, was all 
 the home we had for the next two years. The 
 poles were kindly supplied by the young chief 
 Sekhome. 
 
 THE PALAPYE MISSION HOME. 
 
 " The chanofti of residence did not, at first, 
 at any rate, prove very successful. The death 
 ot Mabessie, the chief's wife, very soon after 
 our settlement, came upon us all as a great 
 shock. She was dear to me as a sister, and 
 until the bitterness of her children's griet
 
 3 1 2 TWENTY YEA RS IN I^HA MA ' S CO UNTR Y 
 
 abated I kept them almost entirely with me 
 amongst my own children, my little girls (ever 
 my loving aides-de-camp in all my work) doing 
 their utmost to cheer and comfort them. 
 
 " And now before I close this slio-ht sketch 
 of how the Bamangwato people moved from 
 Shoshong to Palapye, I feel I must say 
 something of their chief, of whom so much 
 has already been said and written by others, 
 who know little or nothing of him personally. 
 
 " It is now nearly a quarter of a century since 
 Khama and I h^c^mo. friends. 
 
 ' We were with him — my husband and I — ■ 
 through these long years, in sorrow and joy ; 
 through times of famine and of plenty ; through 
 the miseries of war, and in the quietude of peace 
 and prosperity. 
 
 " We have tasted persecution together ; and 
 together have been permitted to see the desert 
 rejoicing and blossoming as the rose, under the 
 good hand of our God upon us. 
 
 " But more than this ; for months at a time, 
 while my husband was visiting the Lake Ngami 
 people, have I been left, with my children, 
 under Khama's sole protection, and guardian- 
 ship ; and no brother could have cared for
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWATO 2RIBE 313 
 
 US more thoughtfully and kindly. During these 
 absences of his missionary 1 have often had 
 to assist the chief, interpreting and correspond- 
 ing for him, etc., and advising him in any 
 difficulties which mioht arise. And in all our 
 intercourse I can most gratefully say that he 
 was to me always a true Christian gentleman 
 in word and deed. 
 
 " No one now living knows ' Khama the 
 Good ' as / know him. Did they do so, they 
 could but honour and trust him, as I do from 
 my heart." 
 
 With the courteous permission of the editor, 
 we are able to reprint, for the interest of our 
 readers, the greater part of a most valuable 
 and delightfully written article which appeared 
 in the Cape Argus of October 20th, 1890, 
 descriptive of Palapye as it then was. of the 
 " King," '' one of the most hard-working men 
 living," and "an enlightened ruler," and also 
 of the missionary who " has exercised such 
 important influence " over Khama. 
 
 "We often speak, of Kimberley and Johan- 
 nesberg, as the Americans used to speak of 
 Chicago, as wonderful cities for their age.
 
 314 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 In my opinion, King Khama's Bechuana 
 city of Palapye, where the High Commissioner 
 of South Africa and the Premier of Cape 
 Colony are resting this 23rd day of October, 
 1890, is a city not one whit less wonderful 
 than either.' 
 
 " Palapye the Wondrous I christen it ; and 
 in so doing think of the palace which was 
 built in one night for Aladdin, of Araby the 
 Blest. 
 
 " Palapye is a native town covering some 
 twenty square miles of ground, holding some 
 thirty thousand inhabitants ; yet less than 
 fifteen months ago there was no such place 
 as Palapye in existence. 
 
 " You admire the comfortable red-clay, 
 thatched cottages — it seems sacrilege to write 
 them down huts — with their neat enclosures, 
 in which the ' aboriginal,' as they call him in 
 Australia, may sit under his own vine and fig 
 tree, none daring to make him afraid ; you 
 enjoy gratefully the shade of the trees, the 
 size of the oaks of Government Avenue, Cape 
 Town, which everywhere screen the dwellings 
 and paths from the sun ; at the same time 
 aftbrding homes for thousands of chirping.
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWATO TRIBE 315 
 
 twittering, and singing birds ; you note on 
 every hand neatness and comfort, and a simple, 
 innocent enjoyment of life ; and you marvel 
 at the native wisdom which has chosen such 
 a model site for the town. 
 
 "Yet it was only in August and September 
 last year that the first dwellings were built in 
 Palapye, and its inhabitants moved in a 
 body, men, women, and piccaninnies, from 
 their homes at Shoshong, at this day the 
 well-known starting point for hunters and 
 travellers. 
 
 " Shoshong is a mere heap of charred ruins 
 at the foot of the hills, which its former inhabit- 
 ants used as their fortress ; and here we have 
 in its place Palapye the Wondrous all alive, 
 healthy, and beautiful. 
 
 " We remember that this marvellous work, 
 the exodus from Shoshong and the re- 
 housing at Palapye, was carried out by a native 
 chief himself without the slightest European 
 assistance. . . . 
 
 " I paid a visit to the mission station, the 
 residence of the missionary, who has made his 
 home with these Bamangwato people for nearly 
 twenty years.
 
 3i6 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 ''It is a mile from the town, on one side of 
 a large hill, clothed thickly with cactus and 
 other trees, amongst which stand, sentinel-like, 
 a few aloes. From the house door you look 
 over the city — or rather the group of five 
 villages which together form this well-designed 
 Palapye, to a picturesque high hill, which 
 stands solitary at the gates like Arthur's Seat 
 and the Lion at Edinburgh ; and away beyond 
 your eye surveys a vast plain, almost covered 
 with trees and bush, the greens, and browns, 
 and yellows of which plain merge finally into 
 the blue of the distant horizon, where rise 
 groups of rugged mountains, and at regular 
 intervals other mountains, solitary, and re- 
 sembling, as they stand out blue against the 
 sky, a row of Egyptian pyramids. 
 
 " The view is lovely. 
 
 " Prettiest spot of all, however, is a kloof in 
 the mountain behind the house. 
 
 " The beautiful gorge, at one end of which 
 is the most romantic of waterfalls, overhung 
 with ferns, is a perfectly natural conservatory, 
 containing amongst other trees in the wildest 
 luxuriance, the candelabra-like cactus, the 
 flowering aloe, the elephant tree, the mimosa.
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWA'IO TRIBE 317 
 
 the fig tree, the wild cotton creeper, and a 
 large variety of curious and lovely flowers, 
 including one of those strange insect-devouring 
 
 WATERFALL AT PALAPYE 
 
 flowers which has the property of closing its 
 petals, so as to imprison the plundering-- bee ; 
 whilst as regards life of another kind, the trees
 
 3i8 TWENTY YEARS IN TEHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 were alive with birds, and the rock walls with 
 conies and frequently baboons, although most 
 of the latter, together with the snakes, which 
 once occupied the site of the missionary house 
 very thickly, have partly disappeared before 
 the invading step of human beings. 
 
 " Any stranger seeing the king for the first 
 time — spare, tall, erect, with thoughtful and 
 even intellectual face, strong jaw and keen 
 eyes — would be surprised to hear that 
 Kham.a is sixty years old, has lately married 
 his second wife, and has a son who was him- 
 self married in July last. 
 
 " The king is described as a thorough 
 Christian, who for many years has consistently 
 translated his professions into his practice. He 
 rules his people mercifully, justly, and kindly, 
 is friendly towards Europeans and their ways — 
 if these ways be good — and is, though an 
 absolute monarch, one of the most hard-work- 
 ing men living. 
 
 " Very early in the morning he is up and 
 about his work. 
 
 " First thing in the morning, the people are 
 gathered together in the khotla, or courtyard 
 of the king's house, for prayer — a custom which
 
 REMO VA L OF THE BA MA NG WA TO TRIBE 3 1 9 
 
 is followed by the several headmen in charge of 
 the several divisions of the town. 
 
 " Then the king does his business with the 
 Europeans, after which he sits regularly in 
 his courtyard, deciding cases of dispute, trying 
 offenders, and hearing the grievances or requests 
 of any of his subjects who approach him ; and 
 the remainder of the day is spent in the work 
 of managing his numerous gardens and lands 
 and cattle posts. 
 
 "In the matter of religious education, 
 Khama has shown himself an enlightened ruler 
 by the hearty co-operation he has given to his 
 missionary. 
 
 " Scattered about the divisions of Palapye 
 are no fewer than nine or ten different schools, 
 where the children are taught reading, writing, 
 and the Scriptures, by native teachers trained 
 by Mr. Hepburn. 
 
 " The characteristic of the native scholars is 
 their wonderful memory. 
 
 " I was informed that last year between four 
 and five hundred children, some not over ten 
 years old, learned by heart the whole, or nearly 
 the whole, of St. John's gospel in Sechuana, the 
 incentive being prizes of Testaments in their
 
 320 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 own tongue, which well-won rewards were pre- 
 sented to them on the day of the young chief 
 Sekhome's wedding. 
 
 " It should please some of my religious 
 readers to hear that Mr. Hepburn's native 
 flock have just subscribed no less a sum than 
 ^3,000 for the purpose of building a great new 
 Church. 
 
 " At present Palapye has no Church, but 
 every Sunday morning, at sunrise, an immense 
 conofreQfation, numberinQ^ sometimes nio^h two 
 thousand, assemble on the hillside near the 
 missionary's house for open-air service, followed 
 in the afternoons and evenings also by religious 
 services conducted by Mr. Hepburn's native 
 assistants in the various divisions of the town. 
 
 " I was much impressed by the frank, genial 
 bearine of the man who has exercised such 
 important influence on the character of the 
 native ruler and his subjects. 
 
 " As regards the king, there can be no 
 question. The result has been to give the 
 country a beneficent ruler, whilst as regards 
 the subjects, notwithstanding what is said of 
 the effect of civilisation on the ' aboriginal,' we 
 have the fact that the Bamangwato are a sober,
 
 REMOVAL OF THE BAMANGWATO TRIBE 321 
 
 well-conducted, and well-disposed people. The 
 men, although disciplined and well organised for 
 fighting if necessary, do not regard themselves 
 as mere fighting men, and let the women do 
 all the work, as is the savage custom. 
 
 "As regards the subject people, the Bakala- 
 hadi and the Masarwa, who were formerly the 
 slaves of the Bechuanas, and who could be 
 killed at pleasure by their masters, Khama's 
 Christianity has had the very practical result 
 of enabling them to live in peace and security, 
 on equal terms with the people who used to 
 persecute them, and encouraged to keep their 
 own flocks of goats and sheep, and herds of 
 cattle, instead of being forbidden to do so, and 
 thereby forced often to subsist on roots or 
 starve." 
 
 21
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 BRIEF GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 
 
 "And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will 
 refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried : 
 they shall call on My name, and I will hear tliem ; I will say, 
 It is my people ; and they shall say. The Lord is my God." — 
 Zech. xiii. 9. 
 
 " Fear not, little fiock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to 
 give you the kingdom." — Luke xii. 32. 
 
 " They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." — 'Heb. 
 xi. 16. 
 
 " For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the 
 city which is to come." — Heb. xiii. 14. 
 
 THE pitiful Story of the declension of his 
 Batauana children, wrung from the 
 shamed and disappointed heart of their spiritual 
 father, having left us with the sound of 
 weeping yet lingering in our ears, we are 
 scarcely prepared to find the next letter (a brief 
 retrospect of that year's work, 1886) opening 
 with the low, sweet tones of a joyful content- 
 ment. 
 
 " Upon the year gone past," writes Mr. 
 
 322
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TTrO YEARS 32^ 
 
 Hepburn, " my thoughts turn back in restful 
 thankfulness." 
 
 Like the great missionary apostle, he can 
 
 say, I am " troubled on every side, yet not 
 
 •distressed ; perplexed but not in despair ; . . . 
 
 cast down but not destroyed ; . . . sorrowful, 
 
 yet alway rejoicing." 
 
 And so, if in the last letter we were brought 
 under the shadow of wrecked hopes and 
 sorrowful backslidings, in this one we are led 
 out, by the same hand, into the sunshine, which 
 always dwells on the Godward side of every 
 trouble. 
 
 " My heart in joy upleapeth, grief cannot linger there, 
 She singeth high in glory, amid the sunshine fair. 
 The Sun that shines upon me is Jesus and His love, 
 And the fountain of my singing is deep in Heaven 
 above."* 
 
 ''February 1887. 
 
 " Upon the year gone past my thoughts 
 turn back in restful thankfulness, for it has 
 been a year rich in spiritual blessing to our 
 .Shoshong Church, holding the visible signature 
 of growth in the " Beauty of Holiness " among 
 our older members. 
 
 * Paul Gerliardt.
 
 324 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " Among them the spirit of prayer has had 
 a pathetic sweetness, has found utterance for 
 itself in deeper heart-tones, and by the all- 
 o-racious working of the Holy Spirit of God 
 they have become more responsive to the touch 
 of His word. To me how tender has been 
 this grace, how refreshing has been the 
 thought. Often it has inspired thanksgiving to 
 our good God, may His goodness enrich us 
 in the bestowment of yet more perfect soul's- 
 health, to the praise of His riches in Christ. 
 
 "We began our new year with a week of 
 prayer from Saturday to Saturday inclusive ; 
 and although to most of our members it was 
 a week of heavy garden work — under our 
 tropical sun, in the first week of January — yet 
 so highly valued were these meetings, that 
 many made an effort to attend them, all hurry- 
 ing away from the early morning meeting to 
 their gardens, to hasten back in the evening, 
 and arrive, hot and dusty, during service, glad 
 to obtain even a short time ; and for their sakes 
 we naturally sometimes prolonged our meeting 
 and called upon two of them to pray. 
 
 " On the third Sunday of this year, my last 
 before leaving home to go down to our
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 325 
 
 meetings at Kuruman, I addressed to them for 
 the first time those tuneful and lovingly- 
 encouraging words of our Saviour, ' Fear not, 
 little tiock ; for it is your Father's good 
 pleasure to give you the Kingdom,' carrying 
 on their thoughts to the words of verse 36, 
 * And be ye yourselves like unto men looking 
 for their Lord.' It was one of those mornings 
 of the pilgrimage, where earth and heaven hear 
 each the other's music, and leave a fragrant 
 memory behind. 
 
 '* The mere fact that such words should be 
 chosen under the inspiration of such feelings, 
 feelings of deep affection, carries its own 
 evidence and tells its own story. In the 
 afternoon I took for my European service the 
 same words. 
 
 " To the tribe it has been a year of great 
 sickness, largely fatal among the children. 
 Few families have escaped. Of our Church 
 members nearly every family has lost a child, 
 and from some two, from some even three 
 children have been taken, so great has been 
 the chastisement. But for them it has been 
 most precious, " yielding peaceable fruit." 
 
 " When the sickness was at its worst, and
 
 326 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 graves were being dug every day, a week 
 of public prayer, in the open air, was held 
 in the chiefs khotla in the evenings, to 
 which, for the sake of their children, many 
 heathen came, and from which time the Chris- 
 
 SEKHOME, KHAJMa's ONLY SON AND HEIR. 
 
 tians date that the sickness began to abate its 
 severity. 
 
 " One thing has given me great pleasure. 
 At a private meeting, one of the Church 
 members made the suggestion that they should 
 not let the schools be closed during the 
 ploughing season as formerly, but that all
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 327 
 
 engaged in teaching should be urged to go on 
 with their work, and the Church should take 
 the responsibility of ploughing gardens for 
 them. This was approved by the leaders 
 among them, and was faithfully carried out. 
 
 " I sincerely hope Sekhome is growing after 
 the pattern of his father, and will become 
 a chief of like mould. The early promise 
 is fair. 
 
 " We hav^e made no additions to our Church 
 from among the Bamangwato themselves, 
 although a large number are waiting to be 
 received. But since my return from England, 
 partly of set purpose, and latterly, partly 
 through unavoidable circumstances, I have 
 delayed to add new members to our Church. 
 Rather than do so, I have patiently watched 
 for a more healthful spiritual life in the Church 
 itself; and now for this, God has been using 
 an instrument which He graciously keeps in 
 His own hands — one which I should not have 
 dared to use had it been in mine. 
 
 " Although we have added no Bamangwato, 
 however, we have begun an important era in 
 our Church's future history ; for we have taken 
 a distinct step in advance, by receiving six
 
 328 TWENTY YEARS TN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 Bacwapon servants into the membership of our 
 Church. 
 
 " They were baptised by Mr. Lloyd on the 
 morning of Sunday, November 28th. One of 
 these Bacwapon was a bhnd man, who has 
 committed many passages of Scripture to 
 memory. 
 
 " Some heathen masters opposed their being 
 received at first, but they at last silently gave 
 way. 
 
 " One man was the servant of one of our 
 Church members, who expressed his gladness 
 at their being received, as also did all the 
 Christians, who spoke to them many kind 
 words. 
 
 " Nor were they content to speak in words 
 
 only. 
 
 " On the Saturday morning at our prayer 
 meeting, after Mr. Lloyd had read Galatians vi., 
 I let fall a few words on verse 10, and when 
 our meeting was over the Christians met to- 
 gether and agreed to obtain for these six men 
 decent and suitable clothes in which they might 
 appear for baptism on the morrow. 
 
 "I need not say how earnesdy in my address 
 to them I pressed the duty of their showing
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 329 
 
 themselves better servants, and especially to 
 bear in mind that now they served for 
 Christ. 
 
 " There is one thing about which I can say 
 nothing yet, but must wait to see how it shapes 
 itself and what progress it makes. I have not 
 found it easy to practise patience, but it is most 
 necessary to the growth of our work, if it is to 
 be natural and not forced growth. 
 
 " Experience teaches this lesson more and 
 more as the years go by. 
 
 " We are often greatly tempted to dig up the 
 seed to see whether it has sprouted. 
 
 " The members of the Church have held a 
 private meeting of the most earnest of them, 
 to consider the necessity of doing evangelistic 
 work in a more thorough and persistent and 
 deliberate way than has yet been undertaken 
 by them. 
 
 " They are awaking. God is working. 
 
 "It is for us to pray, and wait patiently 
 God's own time. 
 
 "One thought I have sought to impress 
 deeply upon their minds, because it has laid 
 deep hold upon my own soul — viz., that we 
 cannot think we shall continue long before the
 
 330 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 angel who opens the door shall begin to call 
 us singly home. 
 
 " Death has visited the children. 
 
 " Soon he will begin to take, not the children 
 but the fathers, and this thought should make 
 us feel that the time to do what we wish to do 
 is now, and quickly. God grant unto us an 
 awaking that shall be to us as life from the 
 dead." 
 
 " The time to do — -is nozv, and quickly^ 
 wrote Mr. Hepburn. 
 
 And so we are scarcely surprised to find that 
 from this period of his twenty years' work in 
 Khama's country the strain of the doing 
 gradually became so engrossing and all-absorb- 
 ing, that the home letters grew briefer and 
 scantier month by month. 
 
 The planning and building of the new 
 Church was an especially arduous and anxious 
 undertaking in the present circumstances of 
 the mission, and to a man of Mr. Hepburn's 
 temperament and impaired physical health and 
 vigour. 
 
 And just at this time (1888) it is a matter 
 of history how the Boers, under Grobbelaar,
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 331 
 
 came into the country, causing much alarm and 
 disturbance, and Grobbelaar was shot. 
 
 " There was also a political commission held 
 on the Crocodile or Limpopo River, when Sir S. 
 Shippard and General Joubert and others came 
 to investigate and report on the affair. To 
 this conference Mr. Hepburn accompanied his 
 chief, and was able to do so much to help him, 
 that he and his people were most grateful to 
 him for going. I3ut alas ! it was on this visit 
 to the deadly Limpopo that he contracted the 
 very worst attack of fever he ever experienced, 
 from the effects of which indeed he never fully 
 recovered. 
 
 What wonder then that henceforth the pen 
 was less ready with its long and graphic 
 epistles than formerly ? It may be, too, that 
 some even of the letters he did write, during 
 the two years between 1887 and 1889, have 
 been mislaid or lost ; for the next we have 
 bears the latter date, 1889. 
 
 "Palapye, December 1889. 
 
 " Mabessie (the chief's wife) has been ill 
 since the birth of her child, six weeks ago, 
 and she died this morning about three o'clock.
 
 332 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAAIA'S COUNTRY 
 
 I have been with Khama all day seeing to her 
 burial for him. At the grave I read His words 
 of peace. 
 
 " The new circumstances in which I find 
 myself put it quite out of my power to go to 
 Kuruman to committee this year. 
 
 " What I have done to stir up the Church 
 to build for herself, in the spirit of the prophet 
 Haggai's teaching, a house of God, is known 
 to Christ. 
 
 " And now the death of Mabessie has fallen 
 upon me. If you in England are ever anxious 
 for the future of Khama and his people, how 
 much more am I ? 
 
 " Can anything wound Khama or his people 
 and my heart not bleed ? I have removed here 
 with my family, and am, with Sekhome's assist- 
 ance, putting up a house of poles as quickly as 
 I can. You shall have a fuller account as soon 
 as I can find time for a little rest to write it. 
 P2verything is disorganised (by the removal 
 from Shoshong), and I must reorganise every- 
 thing." 
 
 " Palapye, May yd, 1890. 
 
 " The New Testaments (Sechuana) are to 
 be given away to school children, who have
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS zii 
 
 committed the Gospel and Epistles of St, John 
 to memory. 
 
 " Mv account of it shall come when once I 
 am out of my present great conflict. 
 
 " The battle at Lake Ngami * is now re- 
 peating itself on a greater scale here in the 
 town of Khama, and now I know why I 
 passed through that conflict. But I cannot 
 write to-day. The leaders of the Church are 
 waiting for me outside. 
 
 " A great effort has been made to win 
 Sekhome over to the old ceremony of circum- 
 cision. ... By God's great help I shall over- 
 come. Last Sunday the word was Jonah iii. 
 the Sunday before Joshua xxiv. They will 
 indicate the nature of my conflict, and the 
 weapons with which I am fighting against 
 heathenism," 
 
 " Palapye, //^w^ 1890. 
 
 " Paul was content to mark the patient 
 labours of years with few words and pass on, 
 ' The word of the truth of the gospel, in all 
 the world, bearing fruit and increasing.' 
 
 " I should be glad to write with the same 
 
 * Chapter XI.
 
 334 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 simple directness ; and I believe I might truth- 
 fully say the declaration of Epaphras is true 
 for the Bamangwato as for the Colossians. 
 
 " Yet the unexpected conflict with the old 
 heathenism, which came upon me like some 
 sudden surprise of Satan, has been so serious, 
 as to make me stay my hand in writing, and 
 even now I wish to stay my hand a little 
 longer. Yet I can to-day bear witness, that 
 it has stirred the Church to action, and the 
 whole town has been deeply moved, perhaps 
 as never before. 
 
 " We are quiet, and all hopeful of the 
 Government being successful in its efforts to 
 effect a peaceful opening up of Mashonaland. 
 
 " God is over all. His purpose will be 
 fulfilled. Christ's kingdom will yet advance 
 northwards. Let it come, and mav all else 
 go. 
 
 ****** 
 
 "What do you advise with regard to the 
 church ? Personally it would lift all responsi- 
 bility off me, if the Directors would take it all 
 entirely upon themselves, and build a large 
 church and schoolrooms or classrooms. Will
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 335 
 
 they do it ? And may I ask to pay the amount 
 into your hands ? " 
 
 " Palapye, October \ofh, 1890, 
 
 " The chief Khama was married yesterday 
 to the widow of one of Sechele's sons. 
 
 " She is the daughter of the late chief 
 Gaseitsiwe and sister of Batwen, the present 
 chief of the Banwaketse. The marriasfe was 
 a quiet and simple affair, in this respect a 
 contrast to that of his son Sekhome, which 
 took place a few weeks ago in the month of 
 
 July. 
 
 " So quietly did he go about it, that the 
 matter was not made known by him to his 
 people until the lady had arrived in town. 
 One full day was then allowed to pass. He 
 desired to make it as private as he could, that 
 it miofht be without noise and without notice. 
 To-day he is going about his duties, in his 
 usual active and quiet way. 
 
 " Our Matabele brethren have returned to 
 their stations again. All is quiet at present." 
 
 "Palapye, October i\th, 1890. 
 " Tuesday week, October 14th, the telegraph 
 was opened here in Khama's town, and the
 
 336 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 chief had an opportunity of sending his first 
 telegraphic communication to a native chief 
 
 "It was sent to the chief Montshime at 
 Mafekeng. 
 
 " Khama was much amused at finding him- 
 self able to strike the instrument, and to 
 receive, in a few minutes, a reply tap from 
 Mafekeng, a distance which it would take him 
 a month to reach with his waggon and oxen ! 
 
 " Reports from Matabele country are favour- 
 able as to peace continuing ; and the accounts 
 from Mashonaland promise an abundance of 
 gold, when machinery can be brought up to 
 crush the quartz. 
 
 '• The poor people are delighted, and can 
 only wonder at the great deliverance God has 
 wrought for them, from their terrible enemies, 
 the Matabele. And indeed it is a deliverance 
 to be wondered at — a deliverance which God 
 alone has wrought, and not man ; for it has 
 come about in the face of such powerful 
 influence as Mr. Gladstone's against it. It 
 makes us all wonder. No doubt it is all simple 
 enough in some men's eyes. Gold has done 
 it. Yes, but the striking thing is, the gold 
 was there ; and it was well enough known to be
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS i},-] 
 
 there at the time the great backward step was 
 taken. And now to-day the gold seekers are 
 waitino- in the Transvaal, like the vultures 
 sailing round and round in the sky waiting for 
 the lion to leave his prey, and let them sweep 
 down upon it en masse. We who have so long- 
 prayed and waited see not man's hand, but 
 God's. 
 
 " And now we wait and offer thanks, and 
 look for the still further developments of the 
 great purpose and mighty power of God. 
 
 " Deaths have been frequent since our re- 
 moval to Palapye. It is not so healthy as 
 Shoshong. 
 
 " You may have heard from my Matabele 
 brethren that I, too, have been very ill. 
 
 " We are simply living in great discomfort 
 in a temporary pole and mud house, and a 
 few native huts." 
 
 What that discomfort really meant, we, who 
 have always dwelt in our own comfortable 
 European houses of brick or stone, fitted with 
 all possible conveniences for sleeping, cooking, 
 etc., can have but a very inadequate notion. 
 Let us endeavour to picture to ourselves what 
 
 o o
 
 338 TIVENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 this " pole and mud shanty " was like. The 
 one which Mr. and Mrs. Hepburn and their 
 family called " home " for these two years 
 was simply a long, narrow structure made of 
 poles standing upright, and roofed with sheets 
 of corrugated iron. These poles were merely 
 the rough trunks of trees, with the bark left 
 on, the cracks and crevices between them 
 being filled in with a mixture of mud and cow- 
 dung, in lieu of cement or plaster. The heavy 
 rains soon washed this mixture off and the 
 wet leaked into the miserable house at every 
 corner, filling it inside with a stench better 
 imagined than described, Of windows there 
 were none, unless we dignify the apertures, 
 covered over with calico, by that name. 
 
 Until the House of God was built His 
 servants would not think of their own comfort. 
 " Is it a time for us to dwell in ceiled houses," 
 was their feeling, " when the House of God 
 lies waste ?" 
 
 " A church first, a house for myself and 
 my family afterwards '' And unfortunately 
 the waiting time was so lengthened by the 
 various delays in the work of rearing the 
 Church, that exposure and discomfort brought
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 339 
 
 Mrs. Hepburn down to such a state of pro- 
 stration and illness, that it necessitated her 
 removal from Palapye ; and in September 1891 
 she was compelled to reluctantly leave her 
 husband, and to proceed with their children 
 to the Cape for medical advice and re- 
 cuperation. 
 
 " ' So ! ' — by small, slow footsteps, 
 
 By the daily cross, 
 By the heart's unspoken yearning, 
 
 By its grief and loss : 
 So, He brings them home to rest, 
 With the victors, crowned and blest. 
 
 " ' So ! ' — oh, weary pilgrim, 
 
 Tis the Master's way. 
 And it leadeth surely, surely, 
 
 Unto endless day ! 
 Doubt not, fear not — gladly go ; 
 He will bring thee heavenward so ! " * 
 
 Thus with many tears the little home was 
 broken up ; the wife and mother leaving it 
 without a shadow of doubt as to her eventual 
 return, invigorated in mind and body for the 
 work ; but to the husband and father it seemed, 
 from the first, that the family life of the past 
 twenty years was ended, the music of the 
 
 * J. M. Harrisonj
 
 340 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMAS COUNTRY 
 
 houshokl sweetness silenced, never to be re- 
 awakened there, for him, at least. 
 
 " Palapye, January 1891. 
 
 " I am sorry to say Palapye is not proving 
 to be so healthy as we could wish. We have 
 had much sickness in our house. Some of the 
 children have had dysentery, myself also. It 
 has brought us down. 
 
 " I am holding our week of prayer with the 
 people. 
 
 " Next month we shall begin again to hear 
 all kinds of rumours of the Matabele. 
 
 " The great dance will take place, and all 
 will look to see what Lobengula will do. 
 
 " The strain is great. Yet we know that 
 God is working out His own wise ends." 
 
 '''PALM?YE,Jaimary 22nd, 1891. 
 
 " Yesterday you would receive from me the 
 Collowing cable message — 
 
 " ' Seat 1,000, stone, lime, iron. Please send 
 plans.' 
 
 " I thank you for your kind words. Y'ou 
 cannot of course be expected, with all your 
 pressure of work, and the very many things you 
 must have brought before you daily from other
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TIVO YEARS 341 
 
 and more important fields of the Society's 
 work — you cannot be expected to conjure up in 
 an instant in your imagination and enter into 
 the wearing anxiety arising from my present 
 position. How can I go through another year 
 without a House of God in which to gather 
 the people? Imagine then my dismay at the 
 prospect of further delay. We have now been 
 eight months corresponding, with the result 
 that I am confronted with this, ' Anyhow, 
 we should need to have full information not 
 only as to cost of labour, but as to the kind of 
 material available before any architect would 
 undertake to prepare plans.' And I simply 
 have no more information that I can give. 
 Nearly four months must elapse before I 
 receive the plans. 
 
 " Every day increases my anxiety. 
 
 " The new movement towards Mashonaland 
 is like a flood tide rising rapidly. Probably 
 no movement in South Africa has ever ap- 
 proached it. Transport, drivers' wages, 
 waggons, oxen, everything is in an advancing 
 market. 
 
 " The argument for an iron roof has been 
 clenched by two not very pleasant facts. First,
 
 342 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 we have been critically near being burnt out 
 of our huts. Second, not flir from our huts, 
 lightning the other day struck one of our 
 servants and nearly killed him. It lifted and 
 threw him a distance of eighteen yards. This 
 fact, coupled with that of the Rev. T. Jensen's 
 
 LKAVING PALAPYE FOR MASHONALAMj. 
 
 church at Linokana, which was recently struck 
 by lightning and burnt to the ground in a few 
 minutes, is, I think, sufficient to settle the matter. 
 " The pole house is very visibly going to 
 pieces. The rain comes through its walls and 
 roof So, too, with the huts. In a heavy rain 
 my papers and books are constantly destroyed.
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 343 
 
 My wife, in like ways, has great destruction 
 in food and clothing. We have no room to 
 which we can retire for the evening. In short, 
 the discomfort has distressed us all greatly. 
 In every way, and on every ground, we shall 
 be glad once more to enjoy the shelter, 
 protection, and comfort of a house. The 
 removal here has cost and tried us much in 
 many ways. 
 
 " God sent it, but it has been hard to bear. 
 And God knows why such a trial came, and 
 came when it did, at a time when more than 
 ever from the human point of view we needed 
 a house for our family. 
 
 "Yet I have never ceased to thank God for 
 the grace He then gave me to set my face 
 to the task and abide His providence. He 
 knows what pain it has been to us ; and we 
 would not forget Paul's words, ' Our light 
 affliction,' etc. 
 
 " But to go on yet again, on through another 
 year into the next without the shelter of a 
 House of God for the people, is an outlook too 
 hopeless. I cannot endure it, and I am per- 
 suaded it would carry with it most serious 
 injury to the Mission.
 
 344 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " Therefore I am resolved, if God will, to 
 prevent it. 
 
 " My prayer and my effort must be, that the 
 Church may be built this coming dry season, 
 and, if possible, it must be commenced immedi- 
 ately after the heavy rains, or at latest immedi- 
 ately after the harvest. 
 
 " But then to accomplish that, the material 
 ought now already to be loading up at 
 Kimberley. What can I do .'* To-day I am 
 helpless. And the worst of it is our Bamang- 
 wato cannot be expected to be able to compre- 
 hend the delay. 
 
 " Might I ask you to send us a large and 
 sweet-toned bell, of first quality, so that it may 
 not be easily broken ? The town covers a 
 wide area. The bell ought to sound far, and 
 I should like its tones to be sweet to the ear 
 on the Sunday morning. One of the things 
 have often longed to hear on Sunday mornings 
 has been the sweet, glad cheer of Church bells 
 coming over the hills. I should like the 
 Bamangwato children to hear the bell, and 
 find it as sweet to them as it was once to 
 me. 
 
 " My prayers join yours that you may this
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 545 
 
 year have one hundred volunteers for China, for 
 India, and for Africa. 
 
 " The chief Moremi, of the Lake Ngami, died 
 from drink. It is said a German brought large 
 quantities from Damaraland. 
 
 " Khama is most anxious that it should be 
 kept out of his country." 
 
 Extract from report of Rev. R. W. 
 Thompson, Foreign Secretary of the L. M. S. 
 
 " October 1892. 
 
 " The new Church and the site for the 
 Mission House are on a stony plateau 100 to 
 150 feet above the town, about midway between 
 the extreme ends of the native settlement, and 
 apparently much healthier. 
 
 " The Church is of simple Gothic design, 
 substantially built, and capable of accommodat- 
 ing fully one thousand people seated. 
 
 " The place is now fit for use ; and even as 
 it stands is a striking testimony to the generosity 
 of those who provided the funds and the labour 
 required for its erection, and not least of the 
 Rev. J. D. Hepburn.'^' 
 
 * i^3>ooo subscribed by a native Church and congregation for
 
 346 TWENTY YEARS TN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " Mr. Hepburn's temperament and special 
 gifts appear to me to have been peculiarly 
 unsuited for the practical supervision of such a 
 piece of work as this. He was already over- 
 strained by disease and long years of zealous 
 labour when the task had to be undertaken. 
 
 " Neither the Bamangwato people nor the 
 
 ^T^^ 
 
 THE NEW CHURCH. 
 
 Directors will ever know fully what it cost him, 
 in mental anxiety and in physical suffering, to 
 carry out the task he conceived to be set him 
 of erecting a place of worship worthy of the 
 Christian life and the Christian aspirations of 
 
 the building of a house of prayer, in which they and their children 
 after them might worship God, is certainly no small proof of the 
 reality of their Christianity.
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 347 
 
 the people, whom he loved as his own soul, 
 and to whose best interests he had given him- 
 self with unstinted devotion. 
 
 " Opinions may differ as to the advisability 
 of erecting so expensive a structure in the 
 present stage of the tribe's history ; opinions 
 may differ as to the suitability of the site 
 chosen, but the purpose and the performance 
 were worthy of the high-souled man who carried 
 them out. 
 
 " With the following short extract from a 
 letter written to Mrs, Hepburn a few weeks 
 after she and the children had left Palapye for 
 the Cape — obliged so to do on account of the 
 former's health, which had completely collapsed 
 —the letters from the mission field cease. In a 
 few months the devoted missionary himself had 
 quitted the scene of his long service for the 
 Master among the Bamangwato — as we know 
 now — for ever. A business visit to England 
 was all that his absence meant to them, and 
 then a speedy return to the work he loved. 
 Sunday by Sunday he would stand in their 
 midst within the walls of the beautiful house of 
 God now nearing completion, called thither by 
 the sweet tones of the Sabbath bells, sounding
 
 348 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 far and wide over the once heathen land. So 
 7nan said. But God, who, as he himself wrote, 
 • never makes mistakes,' willed otherwise ; and 
 it would almost seem as if in some subtle, in- 
 definable sense, He, who knows the end from 
 the beginning, revealed something of the future 
 to his dear and faithful servant. 
 
 " Long before this, ' I shall never preach in 
 this Church,' he had said to his wife ; and it 
 was significant of this feeling of his that for the 
 very last Sunday service he held in Palapye he 
 took for the Lesson of the day the seventeenth 
 chapter of St. John's Gospel. Surely none 
 who were then present will easily forget the 
 solemn reading of that farewell chapter, read 
 slowly and reverently in the familiar voice of 
 the ' teacher ' who was going away from them 
 for ' a little while,' like his Master. Not as 
 the Christ had finished His Father's work, yet, 
 in a lesser sense surely, the departing missionary 
 could also have said, I have ' finished the work 
 which Thou gavest me to do.' 
 
 " ' Others shall sing the song ; 
 Others shall right the wrong ; 
 i Finish what I begin, 
 
 And all I fail of, win.
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE LAST TWO YEARS 349 
 
 What matter, I or they, 
 Mine or another's day, 
 So the right word be said 
 And life the sweeter made ? ' 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 " Did his listening spirit see further yet than 
 this? we wonder. And as the Divine, 'And 
 now I come to Thee^ fell from his own lips on 
 that last Sunday in Palapye, did he catch, even 
 then, the first faint echoes of the Master's 
 ' Well done ' ? Did he see, with his spiritual 
 eyes, the earliest rosy streaks of the dawn of 
 the eternal morning that was not — for him — 
 very far off? It may well have been ; for it is 
 always to those who habitually ' dwell with the 
 King, for His work,' that He whispers His 
 Divine secrets. 
 
 " The eivins: of the Testaments referred to 
 here was a prize distribution, when over four 
 hundred children and young people, who had 
 committed to memory the entire Gospel of St. 
 John, received. 
 
 Extract from a letter written at this time 
 to Mrs. Hepburn — 
 
 " I have asked for men to go to the 
 Makalaka and Mashona. Yesterday I offered
 
 350 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 to support twenty myself for one year. They 
 have begun to respond already this morning. 
 
 Three men came together. Then N came. 
 
 Then the others who came with the children — 
 for I have been giving the remainder of the 
 New Testaments yesterday and to-day — spoke 
 of the power with which the words called 
 to them yesterday. ' All night and all this 
 
 morning,' P said, ' the words filled my 
 
 heart.' I trust the fire will burn brighter and 
 fiercer until the whole town is caught in its 
 flames. 
 
 " God can do great things. May all our 
 hearts be filled with flame. Oh, if all of us 
 might be filled for Christ's work ! "
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 
 
 "And the God of all grace who called you unto His eternal 
 glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall 
 himself perfect, stablish, strengthen you.— i Peter ii, lo. 
 
 " These mountains are Immanuel's Land, and they are within 
 sight of his city." " Now as they walked in this land, they had 
 more rejoicing than in parts more remote from the kingdom to 
 which they were bound ; and drawing near to the city, they had 
 a yet more perfect view thereof." — Bunyan. 
 
 " Death hath made no breach 
 In love and sympathy, in hope and trust ; 
 No outward sign or sound our ears can reach ; 
 But there's an inward spiritual speech 
 That greets us still though mortal tongues be dust, 
 
 It bids us do the work that they laid down — 
 Take up the song where they broke off the strain ; 
 So journeying, till we reach the heavenly town, 
 Where are laid up our treasures and our crown, 
 And our lost loved ones will be found again," 
 
 IN this chapter will be found extracts from 
 the letters written from England, where 
 the last few months of Mr. Hepburn's earthly 
 life were spent, to various members of his own 
 family. They are given as a fitting conclusion 
 
 351
 
 352 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUN'TRY 
 
 to those from the mission field, extendinof over 
 the long years of toil and trial spent there while 
 bearing the burden and heat of the day, in the 
 seirvice of the Lord of the vineyard. 
 
 The simple, childlike faith with which, as It 
 were, the veteran missionary now puts his 
 hand into his Lord's with joyful willingness to 
 do, or to be, just what He wills for him, may 
 well read us that oft-needed lesson — that " as 
 little children " we " enter the Kingdom of 
 Heaven." 
 
 And as the letters go on, and the time of 
 his departure was at hand — although none 
 knew it — we shall be struck by the feeling 
 that the writer was, unconsciously to himself, 
 gradually leaving behind all the things pertain- 
 ing to this world, with an ever-deepening sense 
 of the nearness of the eternal life, its vividness 
 to his spiritual vision, shutting out, as it were, 
 all lesser and finite things. Like the " angels " 
 of " the little ones," during these final earthly 
 days, his soul was ever — 
 
 " Radiant with the glory and the cahii 
 Of having looked upon the face of God." 
 
 For the radiance and the glory and the
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 353 
 
 calm breathe in every line of these last deeply 
 spiritual letters. 
 
 Those written from England to Mrs. 
 Hepburn are, however, prefaced by a short 
 extract from one sent to her from Palapye, 
 immediately after the '• stirring up " of the dear 
 home-nest there, by God's messenger of sick- 
 ness, which, as we know, obliged the wife 
 regretfully to remove (with the children) to the 
 Cape. 
 
 The spirit of Mr. Hepburn's last recorded 
 words from Shoshong, " His will — that is best'' 
 we trace like a golden thread throughout this 
 letter to the one who, as he says, " is bound up 
 in his life " ; and whom to " let go is his hardest 
 task," and reaching indeed a yet higher level 
 of joyous acquiescence in that holy will. How 
 satisfied, nay, ^y^n glad he is, to be " in God's 
 hands for some purpose," of which he himself 
 is quite ignorant ; glad because he knows that 
 " God is too full of love to us to let us lose 
 His blessing." Albeit the crown He would lay 
 upon his brow is one of thorns. 
 
 "All things work together for good." . . . "REJOICE!" 
 
 Let us take, then, as the keynote and essence 
 
 23
 
 354 nrEXTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 of these latest written words, from the heart of 
 Khama's friend and " teacher," penned by the 
 faihng hand on the very threshold of the Eternal 
 home, " His ivill is best. . . . Rejoice ! " 
 
 To One of his Daughters. 
 
 "England, October ^th, 1893. 
 
 "I am just like you. I feel I cannot do 
 without you, yet for some loving reason which 
 Jesus could give to us He does it, and it is for 
 our good. We do not see the way by which He 
 is Himself leading us. Abraham did not see- 
 it. Jacob did not see it. Joseph did not see 
 it for a long time. It is a rough road, and we 
 often do not like it. But it is the best always 
 for us, because it brings us to God in prayer. 
 If we had nothing to pray about, we should 
 often forget to pray. It is when we cannot 
 carry our burdens that we can best go to Him 
 and tell Him, * Lord Jesus, the burden is very 
 heavy, — too heavy for me ; please carry it for 
 me.' And leave it there with Him. Still I do 
 need you all. Why it has come that we are so 
 separated as we are, is not at all clear to me. 
 I must just leave it with Him ; He never 
 makes the least mistake. It was not even a
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 
 
 little mistake when He let Peter fall into deny- 
 ing Him with an oath ; He was to help his 
 brethren, after he recovered himself from the 
 snare of the devil. It is a strange life-history 
 ours, my little girl. But this w^orld is not our 
 home. This life is not for this world, although 
 we must live in this world to live it, just as 
 school life is not for the school but for the 
 home, and for the life out of the school and 
 after the school is over and has done its work 
 for us. Is that not it? Now, I didn't at all 
 think of writing a sermon. 
 
 " ' Last night I went to bed feeling very 
 unwell, and not able to read a word as I wished. 
 I had prayed to Jesus, simply asking Him, 
 ' Lord Jesus give me one word of Thine 
 Thyself 
 
 " After a little I began to think of Jesus 
 preparing for the supper, and that He knew 
 where the money was to pay for it. Then 
 there came such a beautiful thought about the 
 poor widow giving all she had, and so I 
 thought on and on, and I thought of His 
 knowing where the money was for any work 
 He wants to do. I felt so very happy. I had 
 quite forgotten all about my prayer, until after
 
 356 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 a long while the thought came to me all at 
 once, ' See how Jesus has answered your 
 prayer.' I have not written half of it. Was 
 it not a loving answer to His very tired 
 servant ? 
 
 " Always expect an ansvv'er to your prayer 
 when you pray. Pray for things you need 
 now, and for things which trouble you now, 
 and always try to remember to give Him 
 thanks afterwards. It is a life which He 
 knows how to build up. Then I think, too, 
 you will say, ' Lord Jesus, teach me Thy love, 
 and teach me to know the love of God 
 my Heavenly Father. Teach me to know the 
 meaning of Thy Cross.' If you look at the 
 sixth chapter of John's Gospel you will see 
 Jesus tells the Jews they must come to Him, 
 because He is the Bread of Life ; then He 
 goes on to speak of His death. By this Jesus 
 Himself would teach us that we must lay hold 
 of His death for us on the Cross. 
 
 "Now read verses 29, 33, 35, 51, 53, 54. 
 When you have time you will see that tie 
 is speaking about believing on Him in His 
 death, as He told Nicodemus (John iii. 14, 15). 
 
 " I am not ill, you know. I can still laugh at
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 357 
 
 J.'s funny remarks about the ' silly girl who 
 kept on saying she was queen of the May.' 
 
 "It is only a little indisposition, that is all, 
 then I shall be quite ready to join you in all 
 your laughter and fun. 
 
 " I had such ugly fever dreams last night, 
 arising out of the pain and fever in my head. 
 
 " No fever in heaven. No bad, ugly dreams. 
 No night there. No grey hairs and queer, 
 wrinkled faces. Only Eternal Life, Eternal 
 youth. It is a wonderful, beautiful life. Only 
 Eternal Life." 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 " Yes, it was right to think of Jesus and 
 heaven, when you heard of dear uncle's death. 
 We ought to live with all our thoughts in 
 heaven. We can only do it by thinking of 
 Jesus as there. The Africans have no heaven, 
 because they have no Jesus in their spirit- 
 world. They do a kind of formal prayer to 
 the spirits of their ancestors, but it is worth 
 nothing to them because they only propitiate 
 their ancestors to remove evil and give them 
 things they want. They do not pray to be 
 made good, because they think themselves as
 
 358 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAAIA' S COUNTRY 
 
 good as any one else. If they knew Jesus, 
 then they could ask to be made like Him. 
 
 "You can understand now, when I write 
 about these things, in a way which you could 
 not when you were little. You can go on 
 praying for me. All your prayers are answered, 
 and I am glad to think my work is helped so 
 much by the prayers of my own children. 
 
 " My hard work will begin at Manchester 
 on Sunday. Then I go on to November. 
 Perhaps I may have a litde rest, then another 
 long work, and then I may be coming out, who 
 knows ! I cannot tell yet. 
 
 " The first and last are particularly beautiful 
 hymns. Some day you will be trying to write 
 these hymns in your life, I mean the spirit of 
 them — in a special work for Christ. Once I 
 thought I should try. It is easy to give up, 
 especially when any great sickness or weakness 
 comes. Only the grace of Christ can keep us 
 firm unto the end. It needs that. You are 
 already beginning to understand, and you 
 can pray. Pray to the Lord Jesus to give you 
 a very earnest spirit — a spirit burning with 
 love to Him. We are only truly happy when 
 His love consumes us. Not our own pleasures.
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 359 
 
 but only His service, can ever satisfy us and 
 leave a sense of joy upon the mind. Not past 
 sin, but present sin is the trouble. Past sin 
 can be forgiven, but present sin keeps us away 
 from Christ." 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 "Sunday, November 12th, 1893. 
 
 " I have your letter open before me. 
 
 " Last Sunday evening I took the Com- 
 munion Service at a church in Manchester. I 
 spoke about the great desire Jesus has, that we 
 should be with Himself where He now is. It 
 is a longing desire. And I tried to show how 
 much it filled His heart that last night. 
 
 "It was always coming up, just as anything 
 does, when we desire it so much that it drives 
 out other things and forces itself up again and 
 again. 
 
 " First, when He is giving them the bread 
 and wine to remember Him by, after He has 
 said the great word, ' This is My blood . . . 
 shed for . . . remission of sins.' Then He 
 goes on, He adds something ; it does not quite 
 belong to what He is saying. But it is in his 
 heart. He sees it. He longs for it. And
 
 36o TWENTY YEARS IN TEHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 out it comes, forces itself out : ' But I say 
 unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this 
 fruit of the vine, until / drink it new zvitk yoit 
 in my Father s Kingdom! 
 
 " Then, when Judas had gone out, He 
 says, ' Let not your heart be troubled. In 
 my Fathers house are many mansions. I go 
 to prepare a place for you. And if I go and 
 prepare a place for you I come again, and will 
 receive you unto myself, that zvhere I am, there 
 ye may be also' 
 
 " Then, again in His great prayer, standing 
 with His eyes lifted up to heaven, near th.^ end, 
 the thought wells up again in almost one last 
 great word of burning prayer. ' Father, those 
 whom Thou hast given me, I will that zvhei^e 
 I am, they also may be with mel Does it not 
 all show how the thought filled up His heart 
 with a great desire ? 
 
 " Well, He means you and me. He longs for 
 you and me to go to be with Him, and to have 
 our hearts made glad by beholding His glory. 
 
 " It is our Father's house. It is His home. 
 And He longs to take us into it, as God's 
 dear and forgiven children. Yes, and our sins 
 cannot keep us out.
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 361 
 
 Peter was in a little while that very night 
 going to deny that he knew Christ, and swear 
 and blaspheme that he was not His disciple. 
 Yet Christ loved Peter, and was determined to 
 bring him in. If you read chapter xiii. from 
 verse '}^6 right on to chapter xiv. 2, you will 
 see how it was, because He had just told Peter 
 the sorrowful word, that He still went on to 
 comfort him and all of them, for He had told 
 them they would all forsake Him, and their 
 hearts were sad. 
 
 " So I say, even our sins cannot keep us 
 out ; just because Jesus loves us with an 
 unchanging love. 
 
 "If we are His disciples, and we are, 
 nothing, Paul says, can separate us from Him. 
 We pray ' Heavenly Father,' because the 
 spirit of children has been given us. 
 
 " Nothing can ever rob us of that. John 
 says, ' My little children, these things I write 
 unto you that ye sin not ; but if we sin,' he 
 says, ' we have an " Advocate," " Helper," 
 " Pleader," with the Father' — that is, one who 
 is able to help us, and ask forgiveness for us. 
 He is quicker to ask than we are. He asked 
 for Peter before he fell, and when he was
 
 362 TWENTY YEARS TN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 indignantly denying that he would sin. Yes, 
 He is quicker than we are, because He is 
 more in earnest in His love for us than we 
 are for ourselves. Oh, if we could but know 
 the love of Christ — its breadth, and length, 
 and height, and depth, the love which passeth 
 knowledge — then we should be filled with all 
 the fulness of God. 
 
 " I have been thinking of you all, all day, 
 and praying for you all. . . . Good-night, 
 o-ood-nio^ht." 
 
 To ANOTHER DAUGHTER. 
 
 "If you send me such lots of love the 
 postage will be double, and you must take care 
 it does not burst the envelope, for then it will 
 all get lost in the mail bag. 
 
 " But no, you cannot send too much love. 
 You may tell the little ones in your next 
 Sunday class that I shall be thinking of them, 
 and praying for them at the time when they 
 are thinking of me, and talking of me in class 
 and praying for me. . . . 
 
 " John's Epistles are the most wonderful 
 letters ever written, and there is never any 
 writer who can write letters like them. You
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HLS FAMILY 36J 
 
 see he lived to a great age, and all that time 
 he was in daily ' fellowship with Christ ' he 
 tells us in his own word. Our word for it 
 is ' companionship.' That was how he over- 
 came the fiery spirit he had at first. 
 
 "You know Jesus once told him and his 
 brother James that they did not know what 
 kind of spirit they had. If John had never 
 known Jesus he would have been ready to 
 burn the boats of his brother fishermen if they 
 had done anything to offend him. He and 
 James had fiery tempers, and on the way to 
 see Jesus crucified they quarrelled with all the 
 other disciples, because they wanted to be first 
 when Jesus became a King. So Jesus put off 
 His coat, and put a towel round Him, and 
 washed all their feet, and made them feel very 
 uncosy. John was very sorry, so he laid his 
 head on Jesus' breast at the supper. It was 
 his way of saying. ' Oh, I do so wish I were 
 like you ; I wish I had your spirit.' Well, he 
 kept on praying till he was eighty years old, 
 and then he was able to write those wonderfiil 
 letters when he had drunk in the spirit of 
 Jesus. Some people think he was a hundred 
 years old when he died.
 
 364 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 "In one of his tender passages in his first 
 letter John writes the word ' love ' fifteen 
 times in fifteen lines (only little short lines we 
 make in our books, you know, and not as he 
 wrote in his letter), and this is how he uses the 
 word, Beloved, love, love, loveth. loveth, love, 
 love, love, loved, loved. Beloved, loved, love, 
 love, love. Why, of course you see no one 
 would write about love like that who was not 
 always trying, and praying, and learning to 
 love as God loves. Then again he says, 
 ' Beloved, now are we children of God. Behold 
 what manner of love the Father hath bestowed 
 upon us, that we should be called children of 
 God.' And we are His children. I am sure 
 you will find my letter too long to read at 
 once. Good-night, good-night. 
 
 * ^i'c * # # # 
 
 "Jesus waits for us to come home to Him 
 with the same longing as you and I M^ait to see 
 each other. How glad we shall be to see Him 
 and receive His loving kiss, and hear His 
 loving welcome. Oh, how He loves us ! We 
 can never know all His love. It is like a 
 great river going over us in tender, patient 
 longing, and He is ever drawing us to Himself^,
 
 LAST LETTERS 70 HIS FAMILY 365 
 
 ' Even as a hen gathers her chickens under 
 her wings.' How warm and cosy they are ! 
 How they creep in close! How she pulls her 
 soft wings tightly over them ! Jesus wants you 
 and me to come in close to Him in the same 
 way. What do we fear? Is it sin? Well, 
 He came to destroy sin. He says to us, Come 
 in close to Me, and I will save you from all 
 sin. Cluck, cluck, cluck, says the mother hen. 
 Come quick ; here is a hawk. In they run ; 
 the hawk cannot get them. 
 
 " Come unto Me, says Jesus, and I will give 
 you shelter. I will take you closer than a hen 
 can take her chickens under her wings. I will 
 take you close to My heart of never-dying love. 
 Close to Me nothing shall harm you. Close 
 to Me nothing shall make you afraid. Close 
 to Me you shall always feel warm. Close to 
 Me My love shall always fill your heart, until 
 you will wish to be in heaven, where ycu can 
 look up into My face. You know the little 
 chicks don't see the mother hen's face when 
 they are under her wings, but they feel warm 
 and safe. We shall be safe if we creep in 
 close to Jesus. How kind and good and 
 loving He is! How loving He vmst be to
 
 366 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 say the words He said! Who but Jesus would 
 have even thought of such loving words, 
 ' Even as a hen gathereth her chickens under 
 her wings ' ? So you and I will nestle in close 
 against His warm, loving breast, and His 
 loving wings He will draw down over us, and 
 then we shall be safe from sin, and rest in 
 peaceful confidence that no harm can come 
 to us for ever. Good-nio-ht." 
 
 & 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 " My love to your little Sunday School. 
 
 " Yes, dear, to be like Christ is to be a lady, 
 but to dress grandly is not to be like Christ. 
 The rich man was clothed in purple and fine 
 linen, and he was not like Christ who went 
 about doing good. That is better than beauti- 
 ful underclothing, and fine grand outside dress ; 
 but the rich man did not think so, and in this 
 his heart was not like Christ's, who put off 
 His glory that He might put on a very humble 
 dress, so as to be able to do us good. We 
 can never think what the glory was that Jesus 
 laid aside. He speaks of it as the glory which 
 He had with the Father before the world 
 was.
 
 LAST LE7TERS TO HIS FAMILY 367 
 
 " Your Bible is my daily companion, and 
 you shall have it again when I return, and 
 then, as you say, it will always be very dear 
 to you for father's sake. But, in the mean- 
 time, let the words of Christ become very dear 
 to you for His sake. If you can think of me 
 so far away you can think of Jesus, and you 
 can tell Him what you think or wish to say 
 to Him. It is more quick than writing a long 
 letter. Now then, love to all the little ones. 
 
 " Yes, go on reading the ' Gentle Heart ' 
 to them, and may they all have gentle hearts, 
 then they will be like Jesus." 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 " December 2>id, Saturday Morning. 
 
 " If I don't know how you feel when you 
 receive my letters, I wonder if you know how 
 I feel when I get such a nice letter from you 
 as the last written on November 4th and 5th. 
 
 " It was very kind, and more than kind, to 
 get up early on the Sunday morning to read 
 your Bible and write to me before going in 
 
 to say ' good-morning ' to dear . How it 
 
 made me wish I could go as easily and say 
 'good-morning' to you all, on a quiet, peaceful
 
 368 TWENTY YEARS IN Iv HA MA'S COUNTRY 
 
 happy Sunday morning in our sweet and 
 happy home. How beautiful our heavenly 
 home will be, when the earthly one is so sweet. 
 Since Jesus died for us and rose again and 
 went to Heaven, He has almost brought 
 Heaven down to earth, and He has made the 
 earthly home so peaceful and so heavenly 
 that it fills our hearts, until sometimes we can 
 almost find ourselves saying, ' Can Heaven 
 be happier than this ? ' That is always so, 
 when we are free from the burden of sin. 
 
 " Well, we can at any time and always get 
 forgiveness for our sin, and lay it down at 
 Jesus' feet. ' Come unto Me ' is always His 
 word to us. ' Peace,' ' Forgiveness,' is always 
 His welcome to us. How good of you to think 
 of me and pray for me at the Communion. 
 
 "What a happy time it is when we are 
 young and can walk under God's beautiful 
 trees, and go to His house of prayer, to hear 
 His loving word explained to us, and to join 
 in His worship with His people! Yes, I 
 should have been so glad to go with you 
 and the others to the service. 
 
 " I could almost wish I was a little boy like 
 dear , so that I might begin it all again
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 369 
 
 with dear, dear mother to walk by my side and 
 be my mother to speak to me about Jesus. 
 
 On the Death of his Uncle, 
 Dr. Brown of Jersey. 
 
 To HIS Aunt. 
 
 ''August 1893. 
 
 "It was the Master's call to His servant 
 as soon as his work was done. Your loss is 
 great, yet you are also richer than you know. 
 
 "It is a great blow, and you may well feel 
 amazed, yet you can say, I think, what is 
 written of Stephen, ' They saw his face as it had 
 been the face of an angel ' ; and the same glory 
 is his now. You are left as those who 'remain,' 
 but you have a great treasure in heaven, and 
 the heart will follow the treasure. Yes, you 
 ' remain,' but it is for a little while, and to 
 remain is not to abide. Try not to let it make 
 you ill. Hide in Him. The world is dreary, 
 but ' let not your heart be troubled.' ' In the 
 world ye have tribulation ; but be of good 
 cheer, I have overcome the world.' ' I will 
 not leave you desolate, I come unto you.' ' The 
 cup, which My Father hath given Me, shall I 
 not drink it? ' ' With long life will I satisfy him 
 
 24
 
 370 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 and shew him My salvation.' I am sure you 
 feel that word has been fulfilled, and it is in 
 that, you are so rich. Do not let me add 
 anything to that. 
 
 " Yes, this first Sunday alone must have 
 been a Sabbath lying in deep shadow to you. 
 But the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will be a 
 Sabbath to you henceforth, more than ever, and 
 He will direct your heart into the love of God, 
 and into the patience and peace of Christ. No 
 sorrow and no pain can stay His hand, and 
 the passing moments will bring every one some 
 dropping of His healing balm. The shadow is 
 dark, but the cloud is only a swifdy passing 
 earthly cloud, and He will speedily lead you 
 into His own bright presence. ' And suddenly 
 looking round about they saw no one any more, 
 save Jesus only with themselves.' 
 
 " ' O Saviour, I have nought to plead 
 In earth beneath or heaven above, 
 But just my own exceeding need 
 And Thy exceeding love.' 
 
 " But God has better thoughts than ours, 
 and He lays down our lives for us day by day. 
 His will is best. He is our Heavenly Father 
 * Day by day He beareth our burden.'
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 371 
 
 "It is when the sorrow is a great heavy 
 burden, too heavy for us to carry, that we can 
 go and lay it down and ourselves with it, and 
 He will take up both us and our load, and 
 carry us in the arms of His gentleness and 
 strength. It is a wonderful journey. Never 
 one of our own desires, but always drawing us 
 out to Himself — nearer, ever nearer. All the 
 steps, too, are steps homeward. A few days 
 more, and, like tired children from school, we 
 shall be at Home. 
 
 " But He may have some special task for 
 you to do before He calls you, and some task 
 for which He has been giving you a special 
 training. 
 
 " Only of course you must first try to get 
 your health restored. Is it not the old loving 
 voice again saying, ' Come you yourself apart 
 with Me, and rest awhile ? ' 
 
 " How poor a comforter I feel myself to be, 
 and my strength so small, so very small. 
 
 "Ah me! if we had to depend upon any 
 human arm, how feeble we should find it. 
 
 " No, dear aunt, you are feeling it ; no love 
 is deep enough but His. 
 
 "He bears our griefs. He carried our
 
 2,-t2 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 sorrows in His own body on the tree in His 
 agony, and in the garden, and in His long and 
 bitter journey in a strange world to Him. 
 
 "It is, it must be a small thing now to 
 Him to take up any earthly sorrow that any 
 of His loved ones may be struggling under. 
 It is wonderful, but it is certain. He feels, 
 He sympathises with our sorrows. 
 
 "'He shall cover thee with His pinions, 
 and under His wings shalt thou take refuge.' 
 No winds can blow to shake His feathers 
 aside. All that drives to His breast must be 
 welcome, thrice welcome, for the peace it 
 brings. 
 
 " How strange all the journey appears to 
 me now. How strange the way uncle and 1 
 came so closely together. How strange to 
 me that first Sunday night when for the first 
 time I heard him preach, and stayed behind 
 to see him after the service. 
 
 "It has been like a golden link ever since, 
 and the love has been ever a deeper, closer 
 love. 
 
 " Do you not think it is a token that we 
 shall in some way work in the new service 
 together? Surely if the disciples are together.
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HTS FAMILY 2>n 
 
 then we also who have been brought into union 
 on earth in a way, so unsought by us, may 
 gladden our hearts with the thought of our 
 fellowship and companionship hereafter. 
 
 ** Then if I, how much more you. Your 
 sorrow must be so acute as to be pain. Per- 
 haps it may help you to come nearer to the 
 Cross, beside His mother. 
 
 " Do not think of yourself as selfish when 
 your grief is naturally so great. It would be 
 wonderful, if so great a loss as yours is, had 
 caused you not to sorrow, although you sorrow 
 not as those who have no hope. God does 
 not wish us to deny our sorrow, but only to 
 carry our sorrow to Him, and let Him comfort 
 us with His peace. To be His child is to bear 
 the chastisement which He sends as a special 
 mark of His own blessing— the blessing of 
 bringing us closer to His great loving heart. 
 
 "When I think of the great treasure you 
 have lost, I do not know how you can help 
 feeling utterly cast down, and only His 
 abundant grace can bear you up. But He 
 is able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
 that we can ask or think, according to the 
 power that worketh in us.
 
 374 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 "It is a Strange and beautiful power 
 working always in love. 
 
 " I am glad you had a letter from . 
 
 " I am sorry I am not with her when she 
 hears the news. 
 
 " She will have his letter with this last mail 
 arriving at the Cape. It is strange to think 
 of her reading a letter as it were from Heaven, 
 its writer being there when she reads. 
 
 "His love is wonderful. When we most 
 need it. He gives it the more. How I hope 
 you will have it more and more as you go 
 on your journey. 
 
 " You shall surely, dear aunt, know more and 
 more of His sure presence and strong love 
 right on to the end. 
 
 " He can never leave nor forsake His own. 
 
 "If He is so necessary to our hearts for 
 their comfort, so too He has found us necessary 
 to Himself An unchanging love cannot love 
 to-day and unlove to-morrow, and His is an 
 unchanging love. 
 
 " My earnest prayer is that His great love 
 may fill your heart, until you feel that your 
 great loss has become a great gain, and may 
 all sense of loneliness become filled with a new
 
 LAS! LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 375 
 
 presence and fellowship, from our Lord Jesus 
 Christ and God our Father." 
 
 "Palapye, November 1893. 
 
 " We are in God's hands for some purpose 
 which I hope will soon appear. 
 
 " I cannot tell how it is, but I have felt that 
 there is some deep meaning in your going to 
 the Cape with the children. 
 
 " God has some purpose. What is it ? We 
 need to pray. 
 
 " Is God calling me to be a homeless 
 wanderer for Christ's sake and the Gospel's ? 
 Matthew viii. 19, Luke ix. 57 : * Master, I will 
 follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And 
 Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, 
 and the birds of the heaven have nests ; but the 
 Son of man hath not where to lay His head.' 
 Did I need to be forced out of house and home 
 and Church to compel me to hear His voice ? 
 
 " I am utterly unable to understand the 
 meaning of the spirit upon me, and the strange 
 position into which God has at length brought 
 me. 
 
 " But God is too full of love to us to let us 
 lose His blessing.
 
 376 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 " My weakness is very great. It is weak- 
 ness at every point — bodily, mentally, spiritu- 
 ally — all at once. Well, He has said, ' My 
 strength is sufficient,' and that is enough. All 
 things work together for good, and God will 
 give me wisdom. 
 
 " I have had great comfort from God's word 
 this morning. 
 
 " It was so full of calm, so strong, so full of 
 peace. 
 
 " Christ's coming to the fig tree and looking 
 for, but finding not a single fig. Then His 
 one strong word to Peter, ' Have faith in 
 God.' ' All things whatsoever ye pray and 
 ask for, believe that ye have received them, 
 and ye shall have them' (Mark xi. 13, 22, 
 24). 
 
 " Luke X. 19 : ' Nothing shall in any wise 
 hurt you.' 
 
 "' Rejoice that your names are written in 
 heaven.' 
 
 " But I might fill page against page. Is 
 there any end to the great promises of our 
 Heavenly Father's word ? 
 
 " My hardest task is to let you go. You 
 are bound up in my life,"
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HLS FAMILY 377 
 
 " England, //(-/)' 1893. 
 
 " Yesterday W. and I went to the Church 
 he attends regularly, and I did enjoy the few 
 simple and quiet words in which the minister 
 opened out the meaning of the last half of 
 the verse, i Peter v. 10, Old Version. It reads 
 * But the God of all grace, who hath called us 
 unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after 
 that ye have suffered a while, make you 
 perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.' 
 
 "He was as simple as a child, but my heart 
 was so ready that I drank it all in with a 
 thirsty drink." 
 
 " Ai(gust 1893. 
 
 " My prayer is for us all to learn to set our 
 hearts not on this world, but on the glory to 
 be revealed when Christ comes in His great 
 glory to set up His eternal Kingdom. 
 
 " Paul prayed for the Ephesians that the 
 eyes of their heart might be enlightened, that 
 they might know the hope of His calling. 
 
 " May we, too, have this work of God's Holy 
 Spirit in our hearts, that so hope may become 
 in us a very sure and energetic force, inspiring
 
 378 TWENTY YEARS IN KHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 US for our work, and making this short life less 
 and less absorbing to you and me especially. 
 
 " I am much stronger in voice when I speak 
 to people than I was. My hearing is also a 
 little better. My general strength has re- 
 turned. Indeed it had need return, because 
 I have accepted the month in Yorkshire, as I 
 have already told you. May my strength grow. 
 May it be a time of spiritual growth also. I 
 know you will pray for me all of you, and I 
 promise — no, I do not promise — I do unceas- 
 ingly pray for you all, and I do not need to tell 
 you so. But we will all pray together. 
 
 "We will not let the sea divide us. In 
 spirit we are one. 
 
 " Oh would that that world might become so 
 near and real to us, that we might see it as if 
 it was part of this life, and see it so vividly 
 as to live in it as I do now in Africa though 
 my body is here in England. May Christ 
 make it so to us both. How much I desire to 
 see the future path for us and for the dear 
 children who still need schooling. We must 
 trust it to Him. God is our guide, and He 
 makes no mistakes. Let us settle that in our 
 minds. . . .
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 379 
 
 "A houseful of little children is such a great 
 opportunity for serving Christ as one cannot 
 get elsewhere in this world. It ought to be 
 heaven begun upon earth, and it is. Christ's 
 words are not ' shall have,' but ' hath' Eternal 
 life ; then heaven has begun upon earth in the 
 Christian home. 
 
 " Before I began my letter I read the words 
 of Psalm Ixii. i, 5. 
 
 " ' My soul is silent unto God. My soul, be 
 thou silent unto God.' 
 
 "It seemed to fit your words of resignation 
 about the children. God, our Heavenly Father, 
 protect you all." 
 
 The enclosed letter will tell its own sad 
 news (of his uncle's death), and except that we 
 sorrow for the pain which may be great I do 
 not know that we ought to write " sad news." 
 We know it is translation for him to a very 
 bright and happy home, the glad sunshine of 
 His love. 
 
 '' August \'?s<^l. 
 
 " Uncle's work is done. How quickly His 
 Master's welcome and reward. That is how
 
 380 TWENTY YEARS IN ICHAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 I am thinking of him. My heart sees him 
 already glorified. Can we think any other 
 thought about him ? I cannot. Nor can I in 
 the least desire to hold him back from the joy 
 of it. I can only sorrow for poor aunt. Every 
 hope and purpose of her life is to be taken 
 from her suddenly, and when her whole heart 
 was going out in plans for his comfort and rest. 
 How we do make mistakes to the end — plan- 
 ning for the passing life, and not clearly discern- 
 ing the abiding present. Uncle was, as he 
 told me, hoping to begin a new study of the 
 Scriptures, and so he was no doubt working 
 hard to arrange his books and papers. Happy, 
 happy uncle, to hear the loving voice say, ' I 
 have come to call you to Myself, that you may 
 be with Me where I am, and may behold My 
 glory.' Nothing brighter, and no earthly lot 
 happier than that. My heart feels as if it 
 could sing itself away at the thought. Oh ! 
 how we could gladly go together, if it were not 
 for all the little ones, who still need us for a 
 little while. The end will come, for it is not 
 far off, and we shall outspan for the last time, 
 you and I, but not at the old home at Shoshong 
 after the desert journey, but at the heavenly.
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 381 
 
 the restful home of our loving Heavenly 
 Father, in His home of peace, for is not our 
 Heavenly Father's name ' The God of Peace ' ? 
 And our loving Saviour's gift was ' My peace 
 give I unto you.' Then let us take His words, 
 ' Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it 
 be fearful.' That is the Revised, but I like the 
 word 'afraid.' ' Let not your heart be troubled ' 
 (verse 1). 'Let not your heart be troubled' 
 (verse 27). 
 
 " ' Let not your heart be troubled.' ' Let not 
 your heart be troubled.' Why, it is like the 
 ringing of sweet marriage bells, or like the 
 music of the morning when the blossoms are 
 breaking and the lark is high in the air, and 
 a deep quiet is entering into the heart, in the 
 springtime of life before the care of many 
 things. Oh, but it will all come back again, 
 and we shall be young with eternal youth. 
 Then the freshness of life will know no shadow, 
 and its peace shall be as the peace of God. 
 Oh, our Heavenly Father, give us always Thy 
 peace. The love of God is peace, and the 
 peace of God is love. It must be so. And 
 to be filled with His love must be to be filled 
 with His peace.
 
 382 TIVENTV YEARS IN KHAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 " I remembered Dr. Vaughan and his 
 removal. He was trying to put his study in 
 order, and the effort was too much. He took 
 ill, and died very quickly. We cannot bear 
 much, can we ? The new life is very near. 
 My time next month will be a trial to me ; and, 
 if it is Christ's will, may be the beginning of a 
 new day for me. 
 
 *' Is it the beginning of the last stage of the 
 wilderness journey ? 
 
 " Like Paul's, after his imprisonment at 
 Rome, and after his letters to the Ephesians, 
 Colossians, and Philippians, and before his 
 letters to Timothy and Titus. 
 
 *' If we had strength for a long, bright, last 
 effort for Christ ! He may do it. Can we get 
 a higher life and reach a higher, steadier, 
 clearer flight than any in the past ? 
 
 " How I wish that we might go once more 
 to the work, and do it in a new way by His 
 grace ! 
 
 "We shall one day do it in a new way 
 when sin can spoil no more. Oh to be there, 
 pure as the angels ! Is it coming ? Is it near ? 
 It cannot be far off. His dear, bright presence 
 will then make all things glad."
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 383 
 
 " Odobey 1893. 
 
 " News about the war (Matabele) is no news 
 to you. It will be all over, before you get 
 this. 
 
 "The Bamangwato must be all engaged in 
 the new move, which things are taking. 
 
 " Whether it is a renewing of things, a 
 real beginning, which is to be a better state 
 of things than the past, who can tell ? God is 
 not far off in it all. But, if Khama does his 
 duty well, it will place him in high favour with 
 the Government and the Chartered Company. 
 I hope he will find an opportunity of doing 
 something marked. God help Khama now." 
 
 " November. 
 
 " You will be very much stirred by the 
 news from Matabeleland, as we are here in 
 England. 
 
 "It has been a sharp business on the whole. 
 Now we may hope that the Matabele raiding 
 all over the country is no longer to be feared. 
 
 " How wonderfully God does work ! 
 
 " My own desire would be to get into the 
 Makalaka field, if I had been as strong as
 
 384 TWENTY YEARS IN KfTAMA'S COUNTRY 
 
 formerly. It is only known to God what we 
 can do and where we can serve. 
 
 " I am going to ask for a rest. The work 
 is a little trying, and my strength is not 
 great. 
 
 " Well, there are still the many mansions 
 and the welcome ' Well done.' Yes, I pray for 
 you, as you and the dear children do for me. 
 We can only leave the future in God's hands. 
 
 "Is it not strange that Khama and the 
 Bamangwato have gone to help to open 
 Makalaka country ? For surely that is what 
 is now being done. 
 
 " Now the iVlakalaka will have the Gospel. 
 Perhaps, too, the poor Matabele will find in 
 the Gospel the comfort and help they need. 
 Khama is praised very highly for his conduct 
 in it all. I am glad he is coming out so well. 
 
 "It may be the making of him and his 
 people, especially if they give themselves to 
 the Gospel with heart and soul now. 
 
 " Perhaps Mr. Willoughby * has been sent 
 for that." 
 
 * The missionary who succeeded the Rev. J. D. Hepburn at 
 Palapye, and who is still there.
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 385 
 
 '■'November i()th. 
 
 " I have been in all day, and I have spent 
 the day in reading and studying John xiv. 22-31. 
 Maclaren has been my helper. The whole 
 chapter has been my study these last few days. 
 It is wonderful. 
 
 "I am sorry I cannot give you all the 
 thoughts and prayers it has given me. It has 
 lifted me up in a way I cannot tell, my heart 
 sometimes seeming to go out of itself in 
 love, and prayer, and uplifting thought. Es- 
 pecially verses 28-31 have been full of light 
 and beauty, as they always are when we get 
 below the surface down to their meaning. 
 
 "Pages 150-153 in Maclaren I found very 
 helpful in enabling me to fix my mind upon 
 the deep thought presented in ' For the Father 
 is greater than I,' ' If ye loved Me, ye would 
 have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father.' 
 Why? 'For the Father is greater than I.' 
 Why bid the disciples rejoice in that He is 
 going to the greatness of the Father ? Is it 
 not because now it is to be His greatness.^ 
 The throne of God and of the Lamb is one 
 only. ' And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me 
 with Thine own Self, with the glory which I 
 
 25
 
 386 TWENTY YEARS IN A'HAMA' S COUNTRY 
 
 had with Thee before the world was.' Why 
 then does He say anything at this moment 
 al)out the greatness of the Father to His 
 disciples, and why must they rejoice if they 
 loved Him ? ' It is because the greatness to 
 which He alludes is such as He enters by 
 His ascension,' says Maclaren, * and the in- 
 feriority of whatever nature it may be, to 
 which He alludes, falls away when He passes 
 hence.' 
 
 " Especially read sermons fourteen and 
 fifteen in Dr. Maclaren's ' Holy of Holies.' I 
 do not know any book I prize so highly. 
 
 ''Sunday Night, December yd, 1893. 
 
 " I have been poorly to-day. The Deputa- 
 tion work has almost crushed me, and I shall 
 do no more. 
 
 " I shall of course be quite strong by the time 
 you get this. But it is best to write truly at 
 the time. Then one can feel confidence that 
 one knows all, and of course the future days 
 are coming when one will want to know all. 
 
 " How gladly I would write only of strength, 
 but at present God sees fit to send me rather 
 great prostration.
 
 LAST LETTERS 10 HIS FAMILY 387 
 
 "If our Lord Jesus has work for us in His 
 name He will find the strength for it. No, He 
 will Himself be the strength for it. He is the 
 Lite. Life is His being. ' I am the Resurrec- 
 tion and the Life.' ' I live, ye shall live.' 
 
 "He who gave His life for you and for me, 
 is now away from all humiliation. He is 
 seated on the Father's throne. He is in His 
 power and great glory. 
 
 "It is a little thing for Him to do anything 
 
 we can bring to Him to do now. John xi. 4 • 
 
 ' This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
 
 glory of God, that the Son of God may be 
 
 glorified thereby.' 
 
 " Glory of the Son, as Son of God. Power, 
 power to do anything. ' I am the Resurrection, 
 and the Life.' 
 
 " ' Said I not unto thee, that if thou be- 
 lievedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God}' 
 
 " Pov/er. Power in heaven now. Power 
 because on the throne. 
 
 " ' I am with you alway.' * I have all power 
 in heaven and on earth.' Again ' Now is the 
 Son of man glorified, and God is glorified 
 in Him.' 
 
 " Humiliation. In glory, power. On earth
 
 388 TWENTY YEA RS IN KHA MA ' S CO UNTR Y 
 
 humiliation. As Son of man on earth, the 
 humiliation is His glory, and the glory of the 
 Father in Him. As Son of God in heaven 
 the great power is His glory, and the glory of 
 the Father in Him. 
 
 " Of course, as on the earth, the Son of God 
 had power, but as Son of man He took all the 
 humble, lowly glory of suffering on our behalf 
 
 " In heaven on the throne, as glorified Son 
 of man, taken up into the glory of God, He is 
 full of power. It pleased the Father that in 
 Him should all the fulness dwell. How easy 
 then for Him to do anything we bring to Him 
 to do for us. 
 
 "It has been an answer to my prayers for 
 the children, again and again, to read your 
 news about them. 
 
 " I wish I were with you all. A happy 
 Sunday evening. Oh, how happy we shall 
 all be together yet some day, not far off in the 
 Father's heavenly home. 
 
 " Soon, soon, soon ; the days are fast bring- 
 ing us nearer. 
 
 " But I feel how one can truly pray, ' Come, 
 Lord Jesus, come quickly ! ' How that com- 
 ing would make our hearts rejoice.
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 389 
 
 " Yes, that is the Christian's one word from 
 
 the heart. 
 
 " Dear W. was so good. He came in to tea 
 with me this afternoon. We can speak about 
 heavenly things with the most perfect freedom, 
 he and I together, and his companionship is 
 a pleasure. 
 
 " Perhaps I may be better quickly, and I 
 may come soon yet. Not for Christmas. I fear. 
 Well, then, a very happy and truly Christian 
 Christmas to you all. 
 
 " What a jumble my letter is ! Does it give 
 you any pleasure to read such a jumble ? 
 
 " And does the dear Lord Jesus read it ? 
 Is He not always near? — 'I am with you 
 alway.' 
 
 "Yes, He reads it all — all. Well, in His 
 dear name I say again a happy, happy Christ- 
 mas to you all. 
 
 " Our Heavenly Father's blessing upon the 
 dear heads I love to lay my hands upon. 
 
 " So now good -night. I'll spend the next 
 hour in prayer for you all. I usually try to sit 
 with eyes shut, and call up all in my mind and 
 pray for us all. 
 
 " Yes, God knows all our ways. He will
 
 390 TWENTY YEA RS IN KHA MA ' S CO UNTR Y 
 
 guide us in the days before us, as in those 
 behind. 
 
 '' Tell Him all, and leave it all with Him. 
 
 " Now about myself. I am not well. The 
 work of deputation is beyond my strength. 
 
 " I suppose Lobengula is feeling very 
 miserable, poor fellow, with all his earthly 
 glory gone, and all the noise made about 
 him by his people silenced for ever. 
 
 " Will you give Mr. my very kind 
 
 words about his great loss ? What a heavy 
 blow to him. And now what an empty house 
 to him it must be. 
 
 " ' In My Father's house are many man- 
 sions.' 
 
 " None like that. ' I go to prepare a place 
 for you.' Yes, we need that. What a 
 wonder ; what a rest it will be to us ! We 
 shall find all the toil gone, all the wandering 
 done, all the uncertainty ; yes, and all the 
 cooking and the housekeeping and the tired 
 brain and weary body and the desire for rest. 
 
 "Oh, Heaven! Heaven! What a glory is 
 the rest and peace of the Father's home ! The 
 Feather's house, the Father s house. What can 
 be higher than the Father s house ? His house
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 391 
 
 must be the best — in every possible way the 
 best. 
 
 " The Father s house. How the thought of 
 it being the Father's house fills my heart this 
 morning. Jesus could say nothing so fijll of 
 rest, and greatness, and satisfaction, except ' I 
 come again, and will receive you unto Myself 
 To be with Jesus in the Father's house. What 
 a heaven that will be ! Well, not many more 
 days for you and me, and very soon after that 
 the children will come, and then our earthly 
 life is done, and we shall have union full and 
 unimaginable in the richness and sweetness of 
 the life that never ends. We must pray to 
 our Heavenly Father, and leave ourselves in 
 His loving and tender Fatherly hands. He 
 is kind, and all Fatherhood is from Him. He 
 knows what is best. My thanks often go up 
 for the wonderful dealing of God towards us 
 when we were exhausted, you and I. 
 " Our Heavenly Father be with you all." 
 
 " December yth. 
 
 " The one thing I can manage to read is my 
 favourite word John xiii. 31 and Chapter xiv. to 
 end. It is the most wonderful word of comfort- 
 
 /.
 
 392 TWENTY YEA RS IN KHA MA ' S CO UNTR Y 
 
 ing His disciples that He could Himself have 
 ever spoken, and I always add to it the word to 
 Peter after His resurrection, John xxi. 20-22, 
 the last word of verse 19, 'Follow Me,' and 
 verse 22, ' Follow thou Me,' and again, * Peter, 
 turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus 
 \ov^A following! It was not a mere spiritual 
 following, but a real following. 
 
 " Where ? Where did He take Peter and 
 John ? Did the others stay with the fish until 
 they were sold perhaps, or what ? 
 
 " But it is the wonderful word spoken so 
 distinctly to Peter, ' Follow Me.' How it must 
 have come back constantly to his memory in 
 after life, especially after the word, ' Whither 
 I go, thou canst not follow Me now, but thou 
 shalt follow Me afterwards.' ' I go to prepare 
 a place for you.' 
 
 " I hope once more to go to the work of 
 Christ in the mission field somewhere. 'Where? 
 He knoivs. That is best! " 
 
 On the last day of this same month, 
 December 1893, the tired worker was " with 
 Christ, which is far better." 
 
 " These are they which came out of great
 
 LAST LETTERS TO HIS FAMILY 393 
 
 tribulation, and they washed their robes, and 
 made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
 Therefore are they before the throne of 
 God ; and they serve Him day and night in 
 His temple ; and He that sitteth on the 
 throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. 
 They shall hunger no more ; neither thirst 
 any more ; neither shall the sun strike upon 
 them, nor any heat : for the Lamb which is in 
 the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, 
 and shall guide them unto fountains of waters 
 of life ; and God shall wipe away every tear 
 from their eyes" (Rev. xii. 14-17).
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 " WHERE?— HE KNOWS. THAT IS BEST" 
 
 YES, He knew. And knowing, crave, 
 what was the very "best," for His weary 
 child. 
 
 Not strength to ^o once more to the work 
 he so loved. 
 
 Not power for the " last bright effort " for 
 Christ the loyal heart would fain have made, 
 " if it were His will." 
 
 But instead — the word came to " outspan 
 for the last time, at the end of the wilderness 
 journey," before the golden gates of the restful 
 heavenly home, to which there is "no outer 
 door.' 
 
 "Is it coming? Is it near? It cannot be 
 far off! Soon, soon, soon ? The days are 
 bringing it nearer," had been his cry a little 
 while before. He was so tired, so very tired. 
 And he longed with a great longing for the 
 
 394
 
 " WHERE ?— HE KNOWS. THAT IS BEST" 395 
 
 " Rest that remaineth," to see " the King in 
 His beauty," but not until there was nothing 
 more for him to do here. 
 
 In November he wrote, worn out with the 
 Deputation work upon which he was then 
 engaged : " I am going to ask for a rest." To 
 crave of his fellow-man just a brief temporary 
 resting time for the overtaxed brain and weary 
 body was all he thought. 
 
 But it was not man but God who gave the 
 answer to his request — giving, as He ever 
 does, liberally, royally, beyond all we ask or 
 think. For — 
 
 " Out of the strain of the Doing, 
 Into the peace of the Done ; 
 
 Out of the thirst of Pursuing, 
 
 Into the rapture of Won ; 
 
 Out of grey rnist into brightness, 
 Out of pale dusk into dawn. 
 
 Out of all wrong into rightness," 
 
 He lifted him in a moment, giving " unto His 
 beloved sleep," " Until the appearing of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 " We bless Thee for the quiet rest Thy servant taketh 
 now ; 
 We bless Thee for his blessedness, and for His crowned 
 brow ;
 
 396 TWENTY YEA RS IN KHA A/A ' S CO UNTR Y 
 
 For every step he trod in patient following Thee, 
 And for the good fight foughten well, and closed right 
 valiantly." *" 
 
 And now our task is done. The flowers — 
 
 " Those fallen leaves that keep their green — 
 The noble letters of the dead," 
 
 have been gathered one by one and laid in 
 their places, ready for the binding string, which 
 shall hold them together, that nothing of their 
 beauty or fragrance may be lost. 
 
 Here we have a handful of great white lilies 
 — emblem of the stainless thoughts, and true, 
 pure motives, underlying every written page ; 
 while beside the lilies is a posy of roses, full 
 blown and crimson-hearted, standing for the 
 wealth of over-flowing love, which would, if it 
 might, have " poured /liinse/f mio his brothers, 
 and lived for them alone." So we have but 
 to tie the string, which shall be like that of 
 the high-priest of old, a " riband of blue," 
 that we " may look on it, and remember all the 
 commandments of the Lord, and do them " 
 (Num. XV. 38, 39). 
 
 " A// the commandments." Then that in-
 
 ''WHERE?— HE KNOWS. THAT IS BEST'' 397 
 
 eludes His last co77imand'. " Go ye into all 
 the world, and preach the gospel to every 
 creature" (Mark xvi. 15). 
 
 May the reading of these pages, by God's 
 grace, be to some of His true-hearted servants 
 the inspiration to make glad reply : "At Thy 
 Word / ivilir 
 
 Printed by Hazeli, Watson, <Sr» Viney, Ld., Lottdon and Aylesbury.
 
 7 
 
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