70 



HIS RETURN. 



I replied, "I believe she would listen, but the difficulty is 

 to get to her." "Well, I shall reach her," expressed hia 

 final determination. Others explained the difficulties more 

 fully, but nothing could shake his resolution. When he 

 reached Bloemfontein he found the English army just re- 

 turning from a battle with the Basutos, in which both 

 parties claimed the victory, and both were glad that a 

 second engagement was not tried. Our officers invited 

 Sechele to dine with them, heard his story, and collected 

 a handsome sum of money to enable him to pursue his 

 journey to England. The commander refrained from no- 

 ticing him, as a single word in favor of the restoration of 

 the children of Sechele would have been a virtual confes- 

 sion of the failure of his own policy at the very outset. 

 Sechele proceeded as far as the Cape; but, his resources 

 being there expended, he was obliged to return to his own 

 country, one thousand miles distant, without accomplishing 

 the object of his journey. 



On his return he adopted a mode of punishment which 

 he had seen in the colony, namely, making criminals work 

 on the public roads. And he has since, I am informed, 

 made himself the missionary to his own people. He is tall, 

 rather corpulent, and has more of the negro feature than 

 common, but has large eyes. He is very dark, and his peo- 

 ple swear by " Black Sechele." He has great intelligence, 

 reads well, and is a fluent speaker. Great numbers of the 

 tribes formerly living under the Boers have taken refuge 

 under his sway, and he is now greater in power than he 

 was before the attack on Kolobeng. 



Having parted with Sechele, we skirted along the Kala- 

 hari Desert, and sometimes within its borders, giving the 

 Boers a wide berth. A larger fall of rain than usual had 

 occurred in 1852, and that was the completion of a cycle 

 of eleven or twelve years, at which the same phenomenon 

 is reported to have happened on three occasions. An un- 

 usually large crop of melons had appeared in consequence 

 We had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. J. Macabe return • 



