This Could Only Be Effected
By Establishing A Highway From The Coast Into The Centre Of The Country.
As there was no hope of the Boers allowing the peaceable instruction
of the natives at Kolobeng, I at
Once resolved to save my family
from exposure to this unhealthy region by sending them to England,
and to return alone, with a view to exploring the country
in search of a healthy district that might prove a centre of civilization,
and open up the interior by a path to either the east or west coast.
This resolution led me down to the Cape in April, 1852,
being the first time during eleven years that I had visited
the scenes of civilization. Our route to Cape Town led us to pass
through the centre of the colony during the twentieth month of a Caffre war;
and if those who periodically pay enormous sums for these inglorious affairs
wish to know how our little unprotected party could quietly travel
through the heart of the colony to the capital with as little
sense or sign of danger as if we had been in England,
they must engage a "`Times' Special Correspondent" for the next outbreak
to explain where the money goes, and who have been benefited
by the blood and treasure expended.
Having placed my family on board a homeward-bound ship, and promised
to rejoin them in two years, we parted, for, as it subsequently proved,
nearly five years. The Directors of the London Missionary Society
signified their cordial approval of my project by leaving the matter
entirely to my own discretion; and I have much pleasure in acknowledging
my obligations to the gentlemen composing that body for always acting
in an enlightened spirit, and with as much liberality
as their constitution would allow.
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