6 LECTURE I. 



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 

 accustomed to thirst than you are, cannot cross that 

 desert ; how can you ? " I stated my belief in the pro- 

 mise 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 20th south latitude, there is a comparatively 

 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 in the waggons, the usual mode of travelling south 

 of the 20th degree of latitude being by ox- waggon. For 

 four days, upon several occasions, we had not a drop of 

 water for the oxen ; but beyond 20th south latitude, going 

 to the north, we travelled to Loanda, 1,500 miles, with- 

 out carrying water for a single day. The country in the 

 southern part of Africa is a kind of oblong basin, stretching 

 north and south, bounded on all sides by old schist rocks. 

 The waters of this central basin find an exit through 



