288 
RESIDENCE AT LA.TTAKOO. [1813, 
extension of Clirists kingdom throughout the earth. 
The time of meeting was not selected by us, but by 
a heathen king, who knew nothing of what christians 
were about. We had our prayer and thanksgiving 
meeting in the square after the business was over. 
6th. After breakfast I walked over to the king's house, 
and made a present of a pair of earrings to each of 
the queens. Mateebe now embraced the opportunity 
to ask what seemed to have all along been in his 
heart, viz. for a gun. I assured him I had not one 
gun. He said he had seen us have plenty. I told 
him the guns he had seen were not mine, but every 
gun belonged to the person who had it, and that 
I had put myself under their protection — that we 
had a long journey of several moons yet before us, 
intending to cross over to the Namacqua country, and 
that as a great part of the journey was to be among 
wild Bushmen, he would certainly think we had not 
more than was necessary. Then, said he, Adam Kok 
must give his gun for mine, which is a bad one. 
The family were at dinner, in the corner of 
their yard, outside the house. The king's distinction 
seemed to consist in his sitting next the pot that 
contained the boiled beans, on which they were dining, 
and having the only spoon we saw, with which he 
helped himself and his friends, by putting a portion 
into each hand as it was held out to him. One of 
the princesses was employed in cutting, with an axe, 
a dried paunch, into small pieces, and putting them 
