8 SECHEI<E YEARNS TO READ. 



was brought before them, to put questions on it ; and he 

 begged me to allow him to do the same in this case. On 

 expressing my entire willingness to answer his questions, 

 he inquired if my forefathers knew of a future judgment. 

 I replied in the affirmative, and began to describe the 

 scene of the " great white throne, and Him who shall sit 

 on it, from whose face the heaven and earth shall flee 

 away," &c. He said, " You startle me — these words 

 make all my bones to shake — I have no more strength 

 in me : but my forefathers were living at the same time 

 yours were, and how is it that they did not send them 

 word about these terrible things sooner ? They all passed 

 away into darkness without knowing whither they were 

 going." I got out of the difficulty by explaining the 

 geographical barriers in the North, and the gradual spread 

 of knowledge from the South, to which we first had access 

 by means of ships ; and I expressed my belief that, as 

 Christ had said, the whole world would yet be enlightened 

 by the Gospel. Pointing to the great Kalahari desert, 

 he said, " You never can cross that country to the tribes 

 beyond ; it is utterly impossible even for us black men, 

 except in certain seasons, when more than the usual supply 

 of ram falls, and an extraordinary growth of water-melons 

 follows. Bven we who know the country would certainly 

 perish without them. ' ' Re-asserting my belief in the words 

 of Christ, we parted ; and it will be seen further on that 

 Sechele himself assisted me in crossing that desert which 

 had previously proved an insurmountable barrier to so 

 many adventurers. 



As soon as he had an opportunity of learning, he set 

 himself to read with such close application that, from 

 being comparatively thin, the effect of having been fond 

 of the chase, he became quite corpulent from want of 

 exercise. Mr. Oswell gave him his first lesson in figures, 

 and he acquired the alphabet on the first day of my 

 residence at Chonuane. He was by no means an ordinary 

 specimen of the people, for I never went into the town but 

 I was pressed to hear him read some chapters of the Bible. 

 Isaiah was a great favourite with him ; and he was wont 

 to use the same phrase nearly which the professor of Greek 

 at Glasgow, Sir D. K. Sandford, once used respecting the 

 Apostle Paul, when reading his speeches in the Acts : 

 " He was a fine fellow, that Paul ! " " He was a fine man, 

 that Isaiah ; he knew how to speak." Sechele invariably 



