I Replied In The Affirmative,
And Began To Describe The Scene Of The "Great White Throne,
And Him Who Shall Sit On It, From Whose Face The Heaven And Earth
Shall Flee Away," &C. He Said, "You Startle Me:
These words
make all my bones to shake; I have no more strength in me;
but my forefathers were
Living at the same time yours were, and how is it
that they did not send them word about these terrible things sooner?
They all passed away into darkness without knowing whither they were going."
I got out of the difficulty by explaining the geographical barriers
in the North, and the gradual spread of knowledge from the South,
to which we first had access by means of ships; and I expressed
my belief that, as Christ had said, the whole world would yet be enlightened
by the Gospel. Pointing to the great Kalahari desert,
he said, "You never can cross that country to the tribes beyond;
it is utterly impossible even for us black men, except in certain seasons,
when more than the usual supply of rain falls, and an extraordinary
growth of watermelons follows. Even we who know the country
would certainly perish without them." Reasserting my belief
in the words of Christ, we parted; and it will be seen farther on
that Sechele himself assisted me in crossing that desert which had previously
proved an insurmountable barrier to so many adventurers.
As soon as he had an opportunity of learning, he set himself to read
with such close application that, from being comparatively thin,
the effect of having been fond of the chase, he became quite corpulent
from want of exercise.
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