8 KURUMAN MISSION STATION. Intkod. 



was then raging, and it was deemed inexpedient for me to proceed 

 to China. I had fondly hoped to have gained access to that then 

 closed empire by means of the healing art ; but there being no 

 prospect of an early peace with the Chinese, and as another 

 inviting field was opening out through the labours of Mr. Moffat, 

 I was induced to turn my thoughts to Africa ; and after a more 

 extended course of theological training in England than I had 

 enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840, and, after a 

 voyage of three months, reached Cape Town. Spending but a 

 short time there, I started for the interior by going round to 

 Algoa Bay, and soon proceeded inland to the mission station in 

 the Bechuana country, called Kuruman, which is about seven 

 hundred miles from Cape Town. This had been established, 

 nearly thirty years before, by Messrs. Hamilton and Moffat, and 

 may be considered the most southern point of the real missionary 

 field on that side of the country. It is an interesting spot on 

 many accounts. The mission-houses and church are built of 

 stone. The gardens, irrigated by the Kuruman rivulet, are well 

 stocked with fruit-trees and vines, and yield European vegetables 

 and grain readily. The pleasantness of the place is enhanced 

 by the contrast it presents to the surrounding scenery, and the 

 fact that it owes all its beauty to the manual labour of the mis- 

 sionaries. Externally it presents a picture of civilised comfort to 

 the adjacent tribes ; and by its printing-press, worked by the ori- 

 ginal founders of the mission, and also by several younger men 

 who have entered into their labours, the light of Christianity is 

 gradually diffused in the surrounding region. This oasis became 

 doubly interesting to me, from something like a practical expo- 

 sition of the text, Mark x. 29 ; for after nearly four years of 

 African life as a bachelor, Mr. Moffat having returned from a 

 visit to England in 1843, I screwed up corn-age to put a question 

 beneath one of the fruit-trees, which, I believe, is generally ac- 

 companied by a peculiar thrilling sensation in the bosom, and 

 which those who have never felt it can no more explain than 

 the blind man did who thought that scarlet colour was like the 

 sound of a trumpet, and I became united in marriage to his eldest 

 daughter, Mary, in 1844. For a man to say much about his 

 wife would not only be distasteful to the public, but, as it is in 

 this case, decidedly disagreeable to herself. Having been born 



