1 857-58.] FIRST VISIT HOME. 239 



blessed fruits of peace and good- will. This is, I believe, your faith, as 

 I see it shining out in your deeds, and set forth in the pages of your 

 work on Southern Africa, which I have studied from beginning to 

 end with sentiments of reverence and honour for the past, and good 

 hopes for the future. 



" What a glorious prospect is before you ! the commencement of the 

 civilisation of Africa, the extension of our knowledge of all the king- 

 doms of nature, the production of great material benefits to the old 

 world, the gradual healing of that foul and fetid ulcer the slave-trade, 

 the one grand disgrace and weakness of Christendom, and that has 

 defiled the hands of all those who have had any dealings with it ; and 

 last, but not least — nay, the greatest of all, and the true end of all — 

 the lifting up of the poor African from the earth, the turning his 

 face heavenwards, and the glory of at length (after all his sufferings 

 and all our sins) calling him a Christian brother. May our Lord and 

 Saviour bless your labours, and may His Holy Spirit be with you to 

 the end of your life upon this troubled world ! 



" I am an old man, and I shall (so far as I am permitted to look 

 at the future) never see your face again. If I live till the 2 2d of 

 March I shall have ended my 73d year, and not only from what we 

 all know from the ordinary course of nature, but from what I myself 

 know and feel from the experience of the two past years, I am assured 

 that I have not long to live. How long, God only knows. It grieves 

 me not to have seen you again in London, and I did hope that you 

 might yourself introduce me to your wife and children. I hear that a 

 farewell dinner is to be given you on Saturday, and greatly should I 

 rejoice to be present on that occasion, and along with many other 

 true-hearted friends wish you ' God-speed.' But it must not be. I 

 am not a close prisoner to my room, as I was some weeks past, but I 

 am still on the sick list, and dare not expose myself to any sudden 

 change of temperature, or to the excitement of a public meeting. 

 This is one of the frailties of old age and infirm health. I have gone 

 on writing and writing more than I intended. Once for all, God bless 

 you ! and pray (though I do not personally know them) give my best 

 and Christian love to your dear wife (Ma-Eobert she was called, I 

 think, in Africa) and children. — Ever gratefully and affectionately 

 yours, A. Sedgwick." 



Sir Roderick, too, had a kind parting word for his 

 friend : — " Accept my warmest acknowledgments for 

 your last farewell note. Believe me, my dear friend, 

 that no transaction in my somewhat long and very active 

 life has so truly rewarded me as my intercourse with you, 

 for, from the beginning to the end, it has been one con- 

 tinued bright gleam." 



