46 LIFE OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



the agency of whips made of rhinoceros-hide. Thinking- of the difficulties in 

 the way of being baptized and making an open professson of his belief in 

 Christianity, more especially as regarded the number of his wives ; the putting 

 away of all whom, save one, would get him into trouble with their relatives, 

 he frequently said, " Oh, I wish you had come into this country before I be- 

 came entangled in the meshes of our customs." At his own request, Livingstone 

 held family worship in his hut, in the hope that it might induce his 

 people to become attached to Christianity. But as the country was at that 

 time suffering from a long-continued drought, which was attributed to the 

 chief taking up with the new religion, few attended save the members of his 

 own f amily. Speaking of the influence of the example of a chief in all other 

 things, he said, bitterly, " I love the word of Grod, and not one of my breth- 

 ren will join me." No doubt if he had become a drunkard or a plunderer 

 of other tribes, he would have had plenty of followers, so powerful is evil 

 example ! 



When he applied for baptism, Livingstone asked him, since he knew his 

 Bible, and his duty as laid down therein, how he was to act ? He went home 

 and sent all his superfluous wives to their parents, with all the goods and chat- 

 tels they had been in the habit of using, intimating that he had no fault to find 

 with them, but that he only followed the will of God. Crowds attended to 

 witness the baptism of Sechele and his family ; many of them shedding tears 

 of sorrow over what they termed the weakness of their chief in forsaking the 

 ways of his forefathers. Notwithstanding that he made few converts, Liv- 

 ingstone had the satisfaction of seeing that the influence of himself and his 

 devoted and energetic helpmate — he had married a daughter of Robert Moffat's 

 in 1844 — was attended with valuable results if only temporal, in introducing a 

 higher tone of morality among the people. This influence was so strong as 

 to have prevented war with neighbouring tribes on no less than five distinct 

 occasions. 



The drought which afflicted the country shortly after Livingstone settled 

 among the people, and after they had removed to the Kolobeng, — a stream 

 forty miles distant from the previous settlement; where an experiment in 

 irrigation, under the direction of Livingstone, was tried with much success for 

 a time, until the parent stream became dried up, — was popularly believed to 

 be the result of the evil influence of the missionary over the mind of the 

 chief, the more especially as he had previously been a believer in rain-making, 

 and had a high reputation among his people as a rain-doctor. After his con- 

 version and baptism, he forswore the medicines and incantations with which 

 he had previously charmed the rain-clouds to descend upon the land ; and as 

 this was attributed to Livingstone's influence, and the people were starving 

 for want of food and water for months, it proved a great hindrance to the 

 good work amongst them. 



