CHAPTER III. 



Dr. Livingstone arrives at Kuruman. — Missionary Experiences. — Visits the Bechnana 

 Tribes. — Resolves to settle among the Bakwains. — Adventure with a Lion. — 

 Marriage. — Journeys to the Zouga River. — The Bakwains attacked by the Boers. 



AKegularly ordained worker in the Christian field, and a well instructed 

 doctor and surgeon, with an enthusiastic love for the work he was en- 

 gaged in, after a brief stay at the Cape, Dr. Livingstone proceeded, in accord- 

 dance with the instructions he had received from the Missionary Society to 

 Kuruman, with the view of establishing a mission station still further to the 

 north, where ground had not then been broken. 



The calling of a Missionary in South Africa in these days was one 

 that offered no reward save that which follows the doing good to one's 

 fellow creatures. Under the best of circumstances life among the savages 

 was, and is, of the most comfortless description. For a large proportion 

 of the time so spent, the Missionary must suffer from hunger and from thirst; 

 from the inclemency of the weather and the total want of congenial society. 

 Dangers to life and limb from savage beasts and equally savage men, are 

 all but constant ; and to crown all, the good work, the reward of so much 

 suffering and self-denial proceeds but slowly, and, not unfrequently, days, 

 weeks, and months pass without a sign that the seed sown with such 

 anxiety has taken root in the heart of a single human being. The annals 

 of Missionary effort among the savage tribes of South Africa up to the 

 date of his entering upon his career were filled with a superabundance of 

 unpromising experiences, terminating in many instances, in disappointment 

 and. in an early death. True, during the previous twenty years Robert 

 Moffat and several others, had begun to reap, in some small degree, the 

 fruits of the incessant toil and effort of years; but there was little which 

 they had to tell which could be tempting to the young enthusiast, who thought 

 only of merely worldly distinction. 



To travel from place to place was then a work of great difficulty and 

 some danger even close to the colonial frontier. The following from Dr. 

 Moffat's "Missionary Labours" was no mere isolated experience: — 



"Having travelled nearly the whole night through deep sand, the 

 oxen began to lie down in the yoke from fatigue, obliging us to halt 

 before reaching water. The next day we pursued our course, and on 

 arriving at the place where we had hoped to find water, we were disap- 



