PiUfCSIDKNT's AdDRKSS — SkcT. F. 3~)1 



nunciati«)n of tlu'ir names ; still less his estimate of the characters of 

 his " kindly Gritjua friends," as he calls the " mild-mamieied " Bastards, 

 Barends and the Koks. 



Both in Eiii^land and South Africa the name of Robert Moffat is 

 a household word ; and his record of his twenty-three years' labours 

 beyond the Orange River is oidy second in missionary literature to the 

 MlKsionnri/ Travels of his son-in-law. Despatched by the London 

 Mission Society in 1816 to Namaciualand, liis first exploit was the 

 conversion of the redoubtable freebooter Titus Afrikaner ; and the 

 intluence he was able to exercise over the barbaric mind was still more 

 strikingly evinced in respect of the Matabele chief Uinsiligazi. liy 

 far the longest portion of his career was spent at Kuruman, near 

 Lithako, the residence of the Batlapin chief Mothibi ; but his naria- 

 tive of MisttiAMiary Labojtrs and Scenes in Southern Africa (1843), 

 althougli of high \alue to the historian of church or state, is somewhat 

 disappointing to the ethnologist. 



To Dr. Moffat, however, belongs the credit of being the first to 

 introduce the New Testament to the Bechuana in their own tongue. 

 He also left behind him a MS. \ocabulary of the Sechuana language, 

 which, initialled "R.M.," the writei- of this address remembers un- 

 earthing many years ago in the Grey Library, long before the advent 

 of the present librarian ; but, alas I upon a more recent search it could 

 not anj'where be found.* While on this subject, 1 should like to 

 point out that a comprehensive Sechuana dictionary on the scale of 

 Kropf's Xosa, Colenso's Zulu, or Kolbe's Herero dictionary is, I 

 believe, still to be compiled, and is much wanted. The Rev. John 

 Brown in 1876 issued under the auspices of the London jNIissionary 

 Societ}' an English-Sechuana Vocabular}", but this work seems very 

 ditticult of attainment. The society does not seem to care to make 

 its publicatio)is generally accessible, and only after repeated inquiry 

 was a copy very kindly presented to the Public Library at Capetown. 

 This work, which I have not yet seen, is not, judging from its title, 

 more than a word-list. One feels tempted to suggest that Mr. Wookey 

 or jNIr. Willoughby, or some other worker in Sechuana should supply 

 this want. But we will probably be informed that, formidable as this 

 task may be, it is nothing compared with the difficulties of printing 

 and publication. This seems one of those matters that might reason- 

 ably be taken up by the Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 a portion of whose funds could not be better devoted than as a grant- 

 in-aid of such a publication. f 



* This vocabulary was really compiled in the first instance by Livingstone 

 nnd re\isetl by Mottat. Since tlie fore<;oing was written we have to deplore tlie 

 jireniature death of the cultured and oonrteons librarian of the South African 

 Public Library, Mr. F. S. Lewis. It is a national loss. 



■[ Since the above was written I have l)een enalded, by the kindness of the 

 Rev. Mr. AV. C. \VilIou,s;liby, I'rincipal of the Tiger Kloof Native Institution, 

 near Vrybnrg, to obtain a copy of the second e<litioii (1S89) of Mi-. John 

 Brown's Scriran(( Dlctlonon/, which is fuller and more complete than 1 expected 

 to find it. It mijiht be called, however, more accurately a Setlaping Dictionary, 

 as it gives little, if any, infoririation as to the Serolon<; ami Sesuto diale<:ts. 



