176 DIFFICULTY IN USING THE GUN. Chap. XIV. 



for a "very small bit. He also gave some elephant's tusks worth 

 30?. for another medicine which was to make him invul- 

 nerable to musket-balls. As I uniformly recommended that 

 these things should be tested by experiment, a calf was anointed 

 with the charm and tied to a tree. It proved decisive, and 

 Sechele remarked that it was " pleasanter to be deceived than 

 undeceived." 



I tried to teach my men the nature of the gun, but, as I 

 found they would soon have expended all my ammunition, 

 I was obliged to do all the shooting myself. Their inability 

 was rather a misfortune ; for, from working too soon after I 

 had been bitten by the lion, the bone of my left arm had not 

 united well. Continued labour, and some falls from ox-back, 

 lengthened the ligament by which the bones were united, and 

 a false joint was the consequence. The limb has never been 

 painful, but 1 could not steady the rifle, and was always 

 obliged to shoot with the piece resting on the left shoulder. 



We spent a Sunday on our way up to the confluence of the 

 Leeba and Zambesi. Eain had lately fallen, and the woods 

 had put on their gayest hue. Flowers of great beauty and 

 curious forms, unlike those in the south, grow everywhere. 

 Many of the forest-trees have large palmated leaves and trunks 

 covered with lichens; and the abundance of ferns Avhich 

 appear in the woods indicates a more humid climate than any 

 to the south of the Barotse valley. The ground swarms with 

 insect life ; and in the cool mornings the welkin rings with 

 the singing of birds, whose notes, though less agreeable than 

 those of the birds at home, because less familiar, nevertheless 

 strike the mind by their loudness and variety as the wellings 

 forth of praise to Him who fills them with overflowing glad- 

 ness. We all rose early to enjoy the balmy air of the morning 

 and assembled for Divine worship ; but amidst all the beauty 

 with which we were surrounded, a feeling of want was 

 awakened in my soul at the sight of my poor companions, and 

 at the sound of their bitter impure wcrds, and I longed that 

 their hearts might be brought into harmony with the Great 

 Father of Spirits. I pointed out to them in the simplest 

 words the remedy which God has presented to us in the 

 precious gift of His own Son, on whom the Lord "laid the 

 iniquity of us all." The great difficulty in dealing with these 



