26 JESUIT AND PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES. Chap. II. 



to the spiritual welfare of a people should derive temporal 

 advantage from upright commerce ; but the present system of 

 missions renders it inexpedient. No missionary with whom 

 I ever came in contact traded ; and while the traders, whom 

 we introduced into the country, waxed rich, the missionaries 

 have invariably remained poor. The Jesuits in Africa were 

 wiser in their generation. They were a large community, 

 and went on the plan of devoting the abilities of every one 

 to that pursuit in which he was most likely to excel. One 

 studied natural history, another literature, and a third, skilful 

 in barter, was sent in search of ivory and gold-dust, that while 

 pushing forward the mission to distant tribes he might yet 

 afford pecuniary aid to the brethren whom he had left at the 

 central settlement.* We Protestants provide missionaries 

 with a bare subsistence, and are unsparing in our praise of 

 them for not being worldly-minded when our niggardliness 

 compels them to live as did the prodigal son. I do not need 

 to speak for myself, and for that very reason I feel at liberty 

 to interpose a word in behalf of others. It is quite possible 

 to find men whose devotion to the work of spreading the 

 Gospel will make them ready to submit to any sacrifice. 

 What, however, can be thought of the justice of Christians 

 who not only work their agents at the lowest terms, but regard 

 what they give as charity ! 



English traders had sold the Bakwains what the Boers most 

 dread, — arms and ammunition. When the guns amounted to 

 five, so much alarm was excited among our neighbours that 

 an expedition of several hundred whites was seriously planned 

 to seize these weapons. Knowing that their owners would 

 have fled to the Kalahari Desert rather than deliver them up, 

 I proceeded to the commandant, Mr. Gert Krieger, and pre- 

 vailed upon him to defer the attack. He wished in return 

 that I should act as a spy over the people. I explained the 

 impossibility of compliance, even if my principles had not 

 stood in the way, by referring to an instance in which Sechele 

 had gone, unknown to me, with his whole force, to punish a 



* The Dutch clergy, also, are not wanting in worldly wisdom. A fountain ia 

 bought, and the lands which it can irrigate parcelled out and let to villagers. As 

 they increase in numbers the rents rise and the Church becomes rich. The govern' 

 ment adds 200/. per annum, and the total salary amounts to 400/. or 500«. a-year 



