THEY MAKE WAR ON THE BAKWATNS. 45 



of the "Commissioner." This remark, if uttered at all, was 

 probably made in joke : designing men, however, circulated it, 

 and caused the general belief in its accuracy which now prevails 

 all over the country, and doubtless led to the destruction of three 

 mission stations immediately after. The Boers, four hundred in 

 number, were sent by the late Mr. Pretorius to attack the Bak- 

 wains in 1852. Boasting that the English had given up all the 

 blacks into their power, and had agreed to aid them in their sub- 

 jugation by preventing all supplies of ammunition from coming 

 into the Bechuana country, they assaulted the Bakwains, and, 

 besides killing a considerable number of adults, carried off two 

 hundred of our school children into slavery. The natives under 

 Sechele defended themselves till the approach of night enabled 

 them to flee to the mountains ; and having in that defense killed 

 a number of the enemy, the very first ever slain in this country 

 by Bechuanas, I received the credit of having taught the tribe 

 to kill Boers ! My house, which had stood perfectly secure for 

 years under the protection of the natives, was plundered in re- 

 venge. English gentlemen, who had come in the footsteps of 

 Mr. dimming to hunt in the country beyond, and had deposited 

 large quantities of stores in the same keeping, and upward of 

 eighty head of cattle as relays for the return journeys, were 

 robbed of all, and, when they came back to Kolobeng, found the 

 skeletons of the guardians strewed all over the place. The books 

 of a good library — my solace in our solitude — were not taken 

 away, but handfuls of the leaves were torn out and scattered over 

 the place. My stock of medicines was smashed ; and all our fur- 

 niture and clothing carried off and sold at public auction to pay 

 the expenses of the foray. 



I do not mention these things by way of making a pitiful wail 

 over my losses, nor in order to excite commiseration ; for, though 

 I do feel sorry for the loss of lexicons, dictionaries, &c, which had 

 been the companions of my boyhood, yet, after all, the plundering 

 only set me entirely free for my expedition to the north, and I 

 have never since had a moment's concern for any thing I left 

 behind. The Boers resolved to shut up the interior, and I determ- 

 ined to open the country, and we shall see who have been most 

 successful in resolution, they or I. 



A short sketch of African housekeeping may not prove unin- 



