Chap. XI.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 91 



horrible butcheries they could never speak with 

 patience; representing him to be treacherous, op- 

 pressive, cruel, and capricious in an extraordinary 

 degree, and to exact from his subjects an abject 

 deference, little according with American notions 

 of tolerance. Amongst his more recent enormities 

 they adduced tiie murder of a trader, named Gibson, 

 with the whole of his followers, and of two servants 

 belonging to Captains Sutton and Moultry, the par- 

 ticulars of which shall hereafter be given. Although 

 the tyrant had not opposed the establishment of the 

 Mission, its presence was far from agreeable to him; 

 and not only had he entirely withdrawn himself from 

 Mosega, but he had also given great annoyance, by 

 interdicting his people from entering the service of 

 its members, alleging that they were capable of taking 

 care of themselves. Under so despotic a govern- 

 ment, it is not probable that the Matabili will ever 

 derive much advantage from the exhortations of 

 ministers of the gospel, were they even better dis- 

 posed to receive them. In lieu of the reverence to 

 which these worthy men were entitled, and which 

 they would have received from other savage tribes, 

 we not unfrequently observed groups of both sexes 

 gazing in at the windows of the mission-houses as 

 at wild beasts in a menagerie, with every demon- 

 stration of merriment at the expense of their inmates 

 —behaviour, which the proceedings on the part of 

 the king could not fail to induce on that of his 

 subjects. 



