JOURNEYS AND RESEARCHES 

 IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



CHAPTER I. 



The general instructions I received from the Directors of 

 the London Missionary Society led me, as soon as I reached 

 Kuruman or Lattakoo, then, as it is now, their farthest 

 inland station from the Cape, to turn my attention to the 

 north. Without waiting longer at Kuruman than was 

 necessary to recruit the oxen, which were pretty well tired 

 by the long journey from Algoa Bay, I proceeded, in 

 company with another missionary, to the Bakuena or 

 Bakwain country, and found Sechele, with his tribe, 

 located at Shokuane. We shortly after retraced our steps 

 to Kuruman ; but as the objects in view were by no means 

 to be attained by a temporary excursion of this sort, 

 I determined to make a fresh start into the interior as 

 soon as possible. Accordingly, after resting three months 

 at Kuruman, which is a kind of head station in the country, 

 I returned to a spot about fifteen miles south of Shokuane, 

 called Lepelole (now Litubaruba). Here, in order to 

 obtain an accurate knowledge of the language, I cut my- 

 self off from all European society for about six months, 

 and gained by this ordeal an insight into the habits, ways 

 of thinking, laws, and language of that section of the 

 Bechuanas, called Bakwains, which has proved of in- 

 calculable advantage in my intercourse with them ever 

 since. 



In this second journey to Lepelole — so called from a 

 cavern of that name — I began preparations for a settle- 

 ment, by making a canal to irrigate gardens, from a stream 

 then flowing copiously, but now quite dry. When these 



B 



