THE BAKWAIN COUNTRY. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Bakwain Country. — Study of the Language. — Native Ideas regarding Comets. 

 — Mabotsa Station. — A Lion Encounter. — Virus of the Teeth of Lions. — Names 

 of the Bechuana Tribes. — Sechele. — His Ancestors. — Obtains the Chieftainship. 

 — His Marriage and Government. — The Kotla. — First public Eeligious Services. 

 — Sechele*s Questions. — He Learns to Read. — Novel mode for Converting his 

 Tribe. — Surprise at their Indifference. — Polygamy. — Baptism of Sechele. — Oppo- 

 sition of the Natives. — Purchase Land at Chonuane. — Relations with the People. 

 — Their Intelligence. — Prolonged Drought. — Consequent Trials. — Rain-medi- 

 cine. — God's Word blamed. — Native Reasoning. — Rain-maker. — Dispute between 

 Rain Doctor and Medical Doctor. — The Hunting Hopo. — Salt or animal Food a 

 necessary of Life. — Duties of a Missionary. 



The general instructions I received from the Directors of the 

 London Missionary Society led me, as soon as I reached Kuru- 

 man or Lattakoo, then, as it is now, their farthest inland station 

 from the Cape, to turn my attention to the north. Without wait- 

 ing longer at Kuruman than was necessary to recruit the oxen, 

 which were pretty well tired by the long journey from Algoa Bay, 

 I proceeded, in company with another missionary, to the Bakuena 

 or Bakwain country, and found Sechele, with his tribe, located at 

 Shokuane. We shortly after retraced our steps to Kuruman ; 

 but as the objects in view were by no means to be attained by a 

 temporary excursion of this sort, I determined to make a fresh 

 start into the interior as soon as possible. Accordingly, after 

 resting three months at Kuruman, which is a kind of head station 

 in the country, I returned to a spot about fifteen miles south of 

 Shokuane, called Lepelole (now Litubaruba). Here, in order to 

 obtain an accurate knowledge of the language, I cut myself off 

 from all European society for about six months, and gained by 

 this ordeal an insight into the habits, ways of thinking, laws, and 

 language of that section of the Bechuanas called Bakwains, which 

 has proved of incalculable advantage in my intercourse with them 

 ever since. 



In this second journey to Lepelole — so called from a cavern of 

 that name — I began preparations for a settlement, by making a 

 canal to irrigate gardens, from a stream then flowing copiously, 



