i8 4 i-43-] FIRST TWO YEARS IN AFRICA. 51 



little else can be expected, for they are nearly naked, and endure the 

 scorching heat of the day and the chills of the night in that condition. 

 Add to this that they are absolutely omnivorous. Indigestion, 



rheumatism, ophthalmia are the prevailing diseases Many very 



bad cases were brought to me, and sometimes, when travelling, my 

 wagon was quite besieged by their blind, and halt, and lame. What 

 a mighty effect would be produced if one of the seventy disciples were 

 amongst them to heal them all by a word ! The Bechuanas resort to 

 the Bushmen and the poor people that live in the desert, for doctors. 

 The fact of my dealing in that line a little is so strange, and now my 

 fame has spread far and wide. But if one of Christ's apostles were 

 here, I should think he would be very soon known all over the con- 

 tinent to Abyssinia. The great deal of work I have had to do in 

 attending to the sick has proved beneficial to me, for they make me 

 speak the language perpetually, and if I were inclined to be lazy in 

 learning it, they would prevent me indulging the propensity. And 

 they are excellent patients too besides. There is no wincing ; every- 

 thing prescribed is done instanter. Their only failing is that they 

 become tired of a long course. But in any operation, even the women 

 sit unmoved. I have been quite astonished again and again at their 

 calmness. In cutting out a tumour, an inch in diameter, they sit and 

 talk as if they felt nothing. ' A man like me never cries,' they say, 

 ' they are children that cry.' And it is a fact that the men never cry. 

 But when the Spirit of God works on their minds they cry most 

 piteously. Sometimes in church they endeavour to screen themselves 

 from the eyes of the preacher by hiding under the forms or covering 

 their heads with their karosses as a remedy against their convictions. 

 And when they find that won't do, they rush out of the church and 

 run with all their might, crying as if the hand of death were behind 

 them. One would think, when they got away, there they would remain ; 

 but no, there they are in their places at the very next meeting. It is 

 not to be wondered at that they should exhibit agitations of body 

 when the mind is affected, as they are quite unaccustomed to restrain 

 their feelings. But that the hardened beings should be moved 

 mentally at all is wonderful indeed. If you saw them in their savage 

 state you would feel the force of this more. . . . N.B. — I have got for 

 Professor Owen specimens of the incubated ostrich in abundance, and 

 am waiting for an opportunity to transmit the box to the College. I 

 tried to keep for you some of the fine birds of the interior, but the 

 weather was so horribly hot they were putrid in a few hours." 



When he returned to Kuruman in June 1842, he 

 found that no instructions had as yet come from the 

 Directors as to his permanent quarters. He was preparing 

 for another journey when news arrived that, contrary to 

 his advice, Sebehwe had left the desert where he was 



