RAVAGES OF LIONS. H 



the Beclraanas ever knew, and this they thought might portend 

 something as bad, or it might only foreshadow the death of some 

 great chief. On this subject of comets I knew little more than 

 they did themselves, but I had that confidence in a kind, over- 

 ruling Providence, which makes such a difference between Chris- 

 tians and both the ancient and modern heathen. 



As some of the Bamangwato people had accompanied me to 

 Kuruman, I was obliged to restore them and their goods to their 

 chief Sekomi. This made a journey to the residence of that chief 

 again necessary, and, for the first time, I performed a distance of 

 some hundred miles on ox-back. 



Returning toward Kuruman, I selected the beautiful valley 

 of Mabotsa (lat. 25° 14' south, long. 26° 3CK?) as the site of a 

 missionary station, and thither I removed in 1843. Here an 

 occurrence took place concerning which I have frequently been 

 questioned in England, and which, but for the importunities of 

 friends, I meant to have kept in store to tell my children when 

 in my dotage. The Bakatla of the village Mabotsa were much 

 troubled by lions, which leaped into the cattle-pens by night, and 

 destroyed their cows. They even attacked the herds in open 

 day. This was so unusual an occurrence that the people be- 

 lieved that they were bewitched — "given," as they said, "into the 

 power of the lions by a neighboring tribe." They went once to 

 attack the animals, but, being rather a cowardly people compared 

 to Bechuanas in general on such occasions, they returned without 

 killing any. 



It is well known that if one of a troop of lions is killed, the 

 others take the hint and leave that part of the country. So, the 

 next time the herds were attacked, I went with the people, in 

 order to encourage them to rid themselves of the annoyance by 

 destroying one of the marauders. We found the lions on a small 

 hill about a quarter of a mile in length, and covered with trees. 

 A circle of men was formed round it, and they gradually closed 

 up, ascending pretty near to each other. Being down below on 

 the plain with a native schoolmaster, named Mebalwe, a most 

 excellent man, I saw one of the lions sitting on a piece of rock 

 within the now closed circle of men. Mebalwe fired at him be- 

 fore I could, and the ball struck the rock on which the animal 

 was sitting. He bit at the spot struck, as a dog does at a stick 



