RELATIONS WITH THE PEOPLE. 21 



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 Bakena, or Bak- 

 wains. A small piece of land, sufficient for a garden, was pur- 

 chased when we first went to live with them, though that was 

 scarcely necessary in a country where the idea of buying land 

 was quite new. It was expected that a request for a suitable 

 spot would have been made, and that we should have proceeded 

 to occupy it as any other member of the tribe would. But we 

 explained to them that we wished to avoid any cause of future 

 dispute when land had become more valuable ; or when; a foolish 

 chief began to reign, and we had erected large or expensive build- 

 ings, he might wish to claim the whole. These reasons were con^ 

 sidered satisfactory. About £5 worth of goods were given for a 

 piece of land, and an arrangement was come to that a similar piece 

 should be allotted to any other missionary, at any other place to 

 which the tribe might remove. The particulars of the sale sound- 

 ed strangely in the ears of the tribe, but were nevertheless readily 

 agreed to. 



In our relations with this people we were simply strangers 

 exercising no authority or control whatever. Our influence de- 

 pended entirely on persuasion ; and having taught them by kind 

 conversation as well as by public instruction, I expected them to 

 do what their own sense of right and wrong dictated. We never 

 wished them to do right merely because it would be pleasing to 

 us, nor thought ourselves to blame when they did wrong, although 

 we were quite aware of the absurd idea to that effect. We saw 

 that our teaching did good to the general mind of the people by 

 bringing new and better motives into play. Five instances are 

 positively known to me in which, by our influence on public 

 opinion, war was prevented ; and where, in individual cases, wc 

 failed, the people did no worse than they did before we came 

 into the country. In general they were slow, like all the African 

 people hereafter to be described, in coming to a decision on re- 

 ligious subjects ; but in questions affecting their worldly affairs 

 they were keenly alive to their own interests. They might be 

 called stupid in matters which had not come within the sphere 

 of their observation, but in other things they showed more intel- 



