BAPTISM OF SECHELE. 23 



shot- out, the very picture of unutterable disgust at his 

 new-fangled notions. 



When he at last applied for baptism, I simply asked him 

 how he, having the Bible in his hand, and able to read it, 

 thought he ought to act. He went home, gave each of his 

 superfluous wives new clothing, and all his own goods, 

 which they had been accustomed to keep in their huts 

 for him, and sent them to their parents with an inti- 

 mation that he had no fault to find with them, but that in 

 parting with them he wished to follow the will of God. 

 On the day on which he and his children were baptized, 

 great numbers came to see the ceremony. Some thought, 

 from a stupid calumny circulated by enemies to Chris- 

 tianity in the south, that the converts would be made to 

 drink an infusion of "dead men's brains," and were asto- 

 nished to find that water only was used at baptism. Seeing 

 several of the old men actually in tears during the service, 

 I asked them afterward the cause of their weeping ; they 

 were crying to see their father, as the Scotch remark over 

 a case of suicide, " so far left to himself." They eeemed to 

 think that I had thrown the glamour over him, and that 

 he had become mine. Here commenced an opposition 

 which we had not previously experienced. All the friends 

 of the divorced wives became the opponents of our re- 

 ligion. The attendance at school and church diminished 

 to very few besides the chief's own family. They all 

 treated us still with respectful kindness, but to Sechele 

 himself they said things which, as he often remarked, had 

 they ventured on in former times, would have cost them 

 their lives. It was trying, after all we had done, to see 

 our labors so little appreciated; but we had sown the 

 good seed, and have no doubt but it will yet spring up, 

 though we may not live to see the fruits. 



Leaving this sketch of the chief, I proceed to give an 

 equally rapid one of our dealing with his people, the Ba- 

 kena, or Bakwains. A small piece of land, sufficient for a 

 garden, was purchased when we first went to live with 



