LECTURE IT. 20 



sign, which we shall soon see; 1 ' for they thought it strange 

 that a man should leave his own tribe to preach to others : 

 this caution was rather a good trait in their character, for 

 it prevented them making sudden professions like the 

 South Sea Islanders. 



Their chief 1 is a remarkable man, not an average 

 specimen of his people. He resolved at once to learn 

 to read ; and on the very first day of my visit acquired 

 the alphabet. Sechele one day said to me, after I had 

 been preaching to the tribe, " Do you imagine you will 

 get these people to believe by just talking to them \ 

 I can do nothing without thrashing them. If you 

 want them to believe, I, and my under- chiefs, will get 

 our whips of Ehinoceros 1 hide, and soon make them all 

 believe. 1 '' That was before he understood the Gospel; 

 he soon after began to feel its influence, but, as he ex- 

 pressed himself, could not disentangle himself from his 

 country's custom of having more wives than one. This 

 was a source of disquietude to him. Feeling the Gospel 

 at heart, he talked no longer of thrashing his people, but 

 suggested frequent prayer-meetings. Accordingly, when 

 he consulted me on the subject pressing so much on his 

 mind, and especially about baptism, for which he applied 

 about two years after he professed Christianity, I simply 

 asked him if he thought he was doing right \ What he 

 thought he ought to do? I never preached against 



1 The chief here mentioned is Sechele. For an account of him, see 

 note, p. 4. 



