THE FUTURE STATE. 305 



Christianity, since such was the custom of their country when 

 any new subject was introduced to their notice. I said, " By 

 all means." He then inquired " If my forefathers knew of a 

 future judgment?" I said, " Yes ; " and began to describe the 

 scene of the great white throne, and Him who should sit on 

 it, from whose face the heavens shall flee away, and be no more 

 seen ; interrupting, he said, " You startle me, these words make 

 all my bones to shake, I have no more strength in me. You 

 have been talking about a future judgment, and many terrible 

 things of which we know nothing," repeating, " Did your fore- 

 fathers know of these things?" I again replied in the affirma- 

 tive. The chief said, " All my forefathers have passed away 

 into darkness, without knowing anything of what was to befall 

 them ; how is it that your forefathers, knowing all these things, 

 did not send word to my forefathers sooner ? " This was rather 

 a poser ; but I explained the geographical difficulties, and said 

 it was only after we had begun to send the knowledge of Christ 

 to Cape Colony and other parts of the country, to which we had 

 access, that we came to them ; that it was their duty to receive 

 what Europeans had now obtained the power to offer them ; 

 and that the time would come when the whole world would re- 

 ceive the knowledge of Christ, because Christ had promised that 

 all the earth should be covered with a knowledge of himself. 

 The chief pointed to the Kalahari desert, and said, " Will you 

 ever get beyond that with your gospel ? We, who are more ac- 

 customed to thirst than you are, cannot cross that desert ; how 

 can you ? " I stated my belief in the promise of Christ ; and 

 in a few years afterwards that chief was the man who enabled 

 me to cross that desert ; and not only so, but he himself preached 

 the gospel to tribes beyond it. 



In some years more rain than usual falls in the desert, and 

 then there is a large crop of water-melons. When this occurred 

 the desert might be crossed: in 1852, a gentleman crossed it, 

 and his oxen existed on the fluid contained in the melons for 

 twenty-two days. In crossing the desert different sorts of country 

 are met with ; up to twentieth south latitude there is a compa- 

 ratively dry and arid country, and you might travel for four 

 days, as I have done, without a single drop of water for the 

 oxen. Water for the travellers themselves was always carried 



