Chap. I. HIS DESIRE TO CONVERT HIS TRIBE. 17 



he knew how to speak." Sechele invariably offered me some- 

 tliing to eat on every occasion of my visiting him. 



Seeing me anxious that his people should believe the words 

 of Christ, he once said, " Do you imagine these people will ever 

 believe by your merely talking to them ? I can make them do 

 nothing except by thrashing them ; and if you like, I shall call 

 my head men, and with our litupa (whips of rhinoceros-hide) we 

 will soon make them all believe together." The idea of using 

 entreaty and persuasion to subjects to become Christians — 

 whose opinion on no other matter would he condescend to ask — 

 was especially surprising to him. He considered that they ought 

 only to be too happy to embrace Christianity at his command. 

 During the space of two years and a half he continued to profess 

 to his people his full conviction of the truth of Christianity ; and 

 in all discussions on the subject he took that side, acting at the 

 same time in an upright manner in all the relations of life. He 

 felt the difficulties of his situation long before I did, and often 

 said, " O, I wish you had come to this country before I became 

 entangled in the meshes of our customs !" In fact, he could not 

 get rid of Ins superfluous wives, without apj)earing to be ungrateful 

 to their parents, who had done so much for him in Ins adversity. 



In the hope that others would be induced to join him in his 

 attachment to Christianity, he asked me to begin family worship 

 with him in his house. I did so ; and by-and-by was surprised 

 to hear how well he conducted the prayer in Ins own simple and 

 beautiful style, for he was quite a master of Ins own language. 

 At tins time we were suffering from the effects of a drought, 

 which will be described further on, and none except his family, 

 whom he ordered to attend, came near his meeting. " In former 

 times," said he, "when a chief was fond of hunthig, all his 

 people got dogs and became fond of hunting too. If he was 

 fond of dancing or music, all showed a liking to these amuse- 

 ments too. If the cliief loved beer, they all rejoiced in strong 

 drink. But in this case it is different. I love the Word of God, 

 and not one of my brethren will join me." One reason why we 

 had no volunteer hypocrites was the hunger from drought, which 

 was associated in their minds with the presence of Clmstian in- 

 struction ; and hypocrisy is not prone to profess a creed which 

 seems to ensure an empty stomach. 



c 



