Introd. KURUMAN MISSION STATION. 7 



ceed to China. I had hoped to gain access to that then clotted 

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

 pect of an early peace, I was induced to turn my thoughts to 

 Africa; I embarked in 1840, and reached the Cape after a 

 voyage of three months. I shortly afterwards went to Algoa 

 Bay, and soon proceeded inland to the Kuruman mission station 

 in the Bechuana country. This station is about seven hundred 

 miles from Cape Town, and had been established, nearly thirty 

 years before, by Messrs. Hamilton and Moffat. The mission- 

 houses and church are built of stone. The gardens, irrigated 

 by a rivulet, are well stocked with fruit-trees and vines, and 

 yield European vegetables and grain readily. The pleasant- 

 ness 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 missionaries. Externally it pre- 

 sents a picture of civilised comfort to the adjacent tribes ; and 

 the printing-press, worked by the original founders of the 

 mission, and several younger men who have entered into their 

 labours, gradually diffuses the light of Christianity through the 

 neighbouring region. This oasis became doubly interesting 

 to me, from something like a practical exposition of the text, 

 Mark x. 29; for after nearly four years of African life as a bache- 

 lor, I screwed up courage to put a question beneath one of the 

 fruit-trees, the result of which was that in 1844 1 became united 

 in marriage to Mr. Moffat's eldest daughter, Mary. Having been 

 born in tne country, and being expert in household matters, 

 she was always the best spoke in the wheel at home ; and when 

 I took her with me on two occasions to Lake Ngami, and far 

 beyond, she endured more than some who have written large 

 books of travels. In process of time our solitude was cheered 

 by three boys and a girl, and I think it useful to mention 

 that we never had the least difficulty in teaching them to speak 

 English. We made it a rule never to talk to them, nor allow 

 them to talk to us, except in our own tongue. Indeed they 

 rarely attempted to use the native language, though they spoke 

 it perfectly. When they went on board ship they refused to 

 utter another word of it, and have now lost it entirely. 



In consequence of droughts at our station further inward, 

 we were mainly dependent for supplies of food on Kunmian, 

 and were often indebted to the fruit-trees there and to Mrs 



