It Was
With Unfeigned Delight I Became A Member Of A Profession
Which Is Pre-Eminently Devoted To Practical Benevolence,
And Which With Unwearied Energy Pursues From Age To Age
Its Endeavors To Lessen Human Woe.
But though now qualified for my original plan, the opium war was then raging,
and it was deemed inexpedient
For me to proceed to China.
I had fondly hoped to have gained access to that then closed empire
by means of the healing art; but there being no prospect of an early peace
with the Chinese, and as another inviting field was opening out
through the labors of Mr. Moffat, I was induced to turn my thoughts to Africa;
and after a more extended course of theological training in England
than I had enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840,
and, after a voyage of three months, reached Cape Town.
Spending but a short time there, I started for the interior
by going round to Algoa Bay, and soon proceeded inland,
and have spent the following sixteen years of my life,
namely, from 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary labors there
without cost to the inhabitants.
As to those literary qualifications which are acquired by habits of writing,
and which are so important to an author, my African life
has not only not been favorable to the growth of such accomplishments,
but quite the reverse; it has made composition irksome and laborious.
I think I would rather cross the African continent again
than undertake to write another book. It is far easier to travel
than to write about it. I intended on going to Africa to continue my studies;
but as I could not brook the idea of simply entering into other men's labors
made ready to my hands, I entailed on myself, in addition to teaching,
manual labor in building and other handicraft work, which made me generally
as much exhausted and unfit for study in the evenings as ever I had been
when a cotton-spinner. The want of time for self-improvement
was the only source of regret that I experienced during my African career.
The reader, remembering this, will make allowances for the mere
gropings for light of a student who has the vanity to think himself
"not yet too old to learn". More precise information on several subjects
has necessarily been omitted in a popular work like the present;
but I hope to give such details to the scientific reader
through some other channel.
Chapter 1.
The Bakwain Country - Study of the Language - Native Ideas
regarding Comets - Mabotsa Station - A Lion Encounter -
Virus of the Teeth of Lions - Names of the Bechuana Tribes -
Sechele - His Ancestors - Obtains the Chieftainship -
His Marriage and Government - The Kotla - First public Religious Services
- Sechele's Questions - He Learns to Read - Novel mode
for Converting his Tribe - Surprise at their Indifference -
Polygamy - Baptism of Sechele - Opposition of the Natives -
Purchase Land at Chonuane - Relations with the People -
Their Intelligence - Prolonged Drought - Consequent Trials -
Rain-medicine - God's Word blamed - Native Reasoning - Rain-maker -
Dispute between Rain Doctor and Medical Doctor - The Hunting Hopo -
Salt or animal Food a necessary of Life - Duties of a Missionary.
The general instructions I received from the Directors of the London
Missionary Society led me, as soon as I reached Kuruman or Lattakoo,
then, as it is now, their farthest inland station from the Cape,
to turn my attention to the north. Without waiting longer at Kuruman
than was necessary to recruit the oxen, which were pretty well tired
by the long journey from Algoa Bay, I proceeded, in company with
another missionary, to the Bakuena or Bakwain country,
and found Sechele, with his tribe, located at Shokuane.
We shortly after retraced our steps to Kuruman; but as the objects in view
were by no means to be attained by a temporary excursion of this sort,
I determined to make a fresh start into the interior as soon as possible.
Accordingly, after resting three months at Kuruman, which is
a kind of head station in the country, I returned to a spot
about fifteen miles south of Shokuane, called Lepelole (now Litubaruba).
Here, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the language,
I cut myself off from all European society for about six months,
and gained by this ordeal an insight into the habits, ways of thinking,
laws, and language of that section of the Bechuanas called Bakwains,
which has proved of incalculable advantage in my intercourse with them
ever since.
In this second journey to Lepelole - so called from a cavern of that name -
I began preparations for a settlement, by making a canal to irrigate gardens,
from a stream then flowing copiously, but now quite dry.
When these preparations were well advanced, I went northward
to visit the Bakaa and Bamangwato, and the Makalaka,
living between 22 Degrees and 23 Degrees south latitude.
The Bakaa Mountains had been visited before by a trader,
who, with his people, all perished from fever. In going round
the northern part of these basaltic hills near Letloche
I was only ten days distant from the lower part of the Zouga,
which passed by the same name as Lake Ngami;* and I might then (in 1842)
have discovered that lake, had discovery alone been my object.
Most part of this journey beyond Shokuane was performed on foot,
in consequence of the draught oxen having become sick.
Some of my companions who had recently joined us, and did not know
that I understood a little of their speech, were overheard by me
discussing my appearance and powers: "He is not strong; he is quite slim,
and only appears stout because he puts himself into those bags (trowsers);
he will soon knock up." This caused my Highland blood to rise,
and made me despise the fatigue of keeping them all at the top of their speed
for days together, and until I heard them expressing
proper opinions of my pedestrian powers.
-
* Several words in the African languages begin with the ringing sound
heard in the end of the word "comING". If the reader puts an `i'
to the beginning of the name of the lake, as Ingami,
and then sounds the `i' as little as possible, he will have
the correct pronunciation.
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