HIS DESIRE TO CONVERT HIS TRIBE. 9 



offered me something to eat on every occasion of my 

 visiting him. 



Seeing me anxious that his people should believe the 

 words of Christ, he once said, " Do you imagine these 

 people will ever believe by your merely talking to them ? 

 I can make them do nothing except by thrashing them ; 

 and if you like, I shall call my head men, and with our 

 litupa (whips of rhinoceros-hide) we will soon make them 

 all believe together." The idea of using entreaty and 

 persuasion to subjects to become Christians — whose 

 opinion on no other matter would he condescend to ask — 

 was especially surprising to him. He considered that they 

 ought only to be too happy to embrace Christianity at his 

 command. During the space of two years and a half he 

 continued to profess to his people his full conviction of the 

 truth of Christianity ; and in all discussions on the subject 

 he took that side, acting at the same time in an upright 

 manner in all the relations of life. He felt the difficulties 

 of his situation long before I did, and often said, " O, 

 I wish you had come to this country before I became 

 entangled in the meshes of our customs ! " In fact, he 

 could not get rid of his superfluous wives, without appear- 

 ing to be ungrateful to their parents, who had done so 

 much for him in his adversity. 



In the hope that others would be induced to join him 

 in his attachment to Christianity, he asked me to begin 

 family worship with him in his house. I did so ; and 

 by-and-by was surprised to hear how well he conducted 

 the prayer in his own simple and beautiful style, for he 

 was quite a master of his own language. At this time we 

 were suffering from the effects of a drought, which will 

 be described further on, and none except his family, whom 

 he ordered to attend, came near his meeting. " In former 

 times," said he, " when a chief was fond of hunting, all his 

 people got dogs and became fond of hunting too. If he 

 was fond of dancing or music, all showed a liking to these 

 amusements too. If the chief loved beer, they all re- 

 joiced in strong drink. But in this case it is different. 

 I love the Word of God, and not one of my brethren will 

 join me." One reason why we had no volunteer hypo- 

 crites was the hunger from drought, which was associated 

 in their minds with the presence of Christian instruction ; 

 and hypocrisy is not prone to profess a creed which seems 

 to ensure an empty stomach. 



