HUNTING WE WILL GO." 
45 
Then there is another side to the subject and one 
equally important, so I think. The Rev. W. Chap- 
man, one of the bravest of missionaries, tells us 
in his book that when the Rev. F. Pickering, Mrs. 
Pickering, and he first went to Nanzela to found a 
mission there, they spent the first night in a little 
hut trying to sleep on a heap of mud inside. The 
chief's interpreter and huntsman called Lesapo, 
woke them at six o'clock in the morning, and gave 
them his master's request that they would be good 
enough to go and hunt big game, for his people 
needed food — indeed were starving — owing to the 
failure of the native crops and rinderpest. When 
the distance between our missionaries and the 
nearest shops could be reckoned in hundreds of 
miles, and the time to get fresh supplies of foods 
from England covered as much as two years, it is 
not difficult to understand that the missionaries 
were compelled to say immediately after breakfast 
of maize made into porridge, A-hunting we will 
go." They simply had to, if they were determined 
to keep alive. Once in stalking his prey, Mr. 
Chapman got separated from Mr, Pickering and 
lost his sense of direction after he had plunged into 
the thicket. Fortunately he had sufficient presence 
of mind to let off his rifle several times in quick 
succession, and this brought answering shots from 
Mr. Pickering, and very soon they were together 
once more. 
I wonder how the missionary critics would like 
to dine off antelope, roast zebra, leopard chops, 
elephant steak or native locusts or rat — the two 
latter when the gun had failed to bring anything 
down ! On one occasion our brave missionaries 
