300 A MORAL LESSON. Chap. XIV. 



it had any power to dispose of the property of the orphan 

 children ; and Sekeletu was told that should Mr. Moffat, in 

 answer to a letter, say that the doubt had weight, the wagon 

 ought to be paid for in ivory : this the Chief readily agreed 

 to ; and had it been possible for one with the wisdom, experi- 

 ence, and conciliating manners of Mr. Moffat to have visited 

 the Makololo, he would have found them easily influenced to 

 fairness, and not at all the unreasonable savages they were re- 

 presented to be. Unquestionably a great amount of goodness 

 exists in the midst of all their evil ; and we know of no more 

 desirable field for an active and sensible missionary. 



In trying to benefit them it was often pointed out that 

 the necessary consequence of these lawless forays, such as 

 that they had made the year before against a tribe ofDamaras 

 to the west, was to produce a lawless state at home. They 

 did not relish the idea of the reflected action on themselves, 

 nor did they like being plainly told that those who shed the 

 blood of other tribes, and then returned to kill each other at 

 home on charges of witchcraft, were the only real sorcerers ; 

 that murdering the children of the same Great Father, for the 

 sake of cattle which did not belong to them, entailed guilt 

 in His sight ; that those who gave no peace to others could 

 hope from the Supreme Ruler for none among themselves. 

 It all seemed reasonable and true ; they would not dispute it ; 

 "They needed the Book of God. But the hearts of black 

 men are not the same as those of the whites. They had real 

 sorcerers among them. If that was guilt which custom led 

 them to do, it lay between the white man and Jesus, who had 

 not given them the Book, nor favoured them as He had the 

 whites." None ever attempted to justify the shedding of 

 human blood ; but some, in reference to cattle-lifting, said, 

 " "Why should these Makalaka — " a term of contempt for all 

 the blacker tribes — " possess cattle if they cannot fight for 



