8 THE AUTHOR'S EMPLOYMENTS. Chap. I. 



Moffat's kind foresight for the continuance of good health. 

 When visitors arrive at most mission stations, the best of 

 everything is provided for them; but having heard that 

 some graceless fellows, who had been feasted, went back 

 to the colony, saying, " These missionaries live like fighting 

 cocks," we never made any change in our fare even for our 

 friends. 



I have spent the sixteen years from 1840 to 1856 in medical 

 and missionary labours in Africa, and my life has not been 

 favourable to literary pursuits. This has made composition 

 irksome to me, and I think I would rather creeps the African 

 continent again than compose another book. It is far easier 

 to travel than to write. I intended on going abroad to con- 

 tinue my studie-s ; but as I could not brook the idea of entering 

 into other men's labours, I undertook, in addition to teaching, 

 building and other handicraft work, which left me generally 

 as much exhausted and unfit for study in the evenings as when 

 I was a cotton-spinner. The want of time for self-improve- 

 ment was the only regret I experienced during my African 

 career. The reader remembering this will make allowances 

 for the deficiencies of a student who has the vanity to think 

 himself " not vet too old to learn." 



CHAPTER I. 



Residence at Kuruman, Lepelole, and Kolobeng. — Sketch of 

 career of sechele, chief of the bakwains, and notices of 

 his tribe. 



The instructions I received from the Directors of the London 

 Missionary Society led me, as soon as I reached Kuruman or 

 Lattakoo, their farthest inland station from the Cape, to turn 

 my attention to the north. Without waiting longer than was 

 necessary to recruit the oxen, which were pretty well tired 

 by the long journey from Algoa Bay, I proceeded, in company 

 with another missionary, to the Bakuena or Bakwains, who 

 are a section of the people called Bechuanas. 



The Bechuanas are divided into numerous tribes, named 



