I Regret This Now,
As It Contained Valuable Notes On The Habits Of Wild Animals,
And The Request Was Made
In the letter to convey the volume to my family.
The prospect of passing away from this fair and beautiful
World
thus came before me in a pretty plain, matter-of-fact form,
and it did seem a serious thing to leave wife and children - to break up
all connection with earth, and enter on an untried state of existence;
and I find myself in my journal pondering over that fearful migration
which lands us in eternity, wondering whether an angel will soothe
the fluttering soul, sadly flurried as it must be on entering
the spirit world, and hoping that Jesus might speak but one word of peace,
for that would establish in the bosom an everlasting calm.
But as I had always believed that, if we serve God at all, it ought to be done
in a manly way, I wrote to my brother, commending our little girl to his care,
as I was determined to "succeed or perish" in the attempt to open up
this part of Africa. The Boers, by taking possession of all my goods,
had saved me the trouble of making a will; and, considering the light heart
now left in my bosom, and some faint efforts to perform
the duty of Christian forgiveness, I felt that it was better to be
the plundered party than one of the plunderers.
When I committed the wagon and remaining goods to the care of the Makololo,
they took all the articles except one box into their huts;
and two warriors, Ponuane and Mahale, brought forward each a fine heifer calf.
After performing a number of warlike evolutions, they asked the chief
to witness the agreement made between them, that whoever of the two
should kill a Matebele warrior first, in defense of the wagon,
should possess both the calves.
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