SEKELETU’S PRESENT. 
101 
should prefer to see him trading with Fleming, a man of 
color from the West Indies, who had come for the purpose 
I had, during the eleven years of my previous course, 
invariably abstained from taking presents of ivory, from an 
idea that a religious instructor degraded himself by accept- 
ing gifts from tkoso whose spiritual welfare he professed 
to seek. My precedence of all traders in tho line of d if 
covcry put mo often in the way of very handsome offers , 
but I always advised the donors to sell their ivory to 
traders, who would bo sure to follow, and when at some 
future time they had bccomo rich by barter they might 
remember mo or my children. When Lake Ngann was 
discovered, 1 might h *ve refused permission to a trader 
who accompanied us ; but when he applied for leavo to 
form part of our company, knowing that Mr. Oswell 
would no moro trade than myself, and that tho people of 
the lake would be disappointed if they could not dispose 
of their ivory, I willingly granted a sanction, without 
which his people would not at that time have venturod so 
far. This was surely preferring the interest of another to 
my own. Tho return I got for this was a notice in one 
of the Cape papers that this “ man was the true discoveroi 
of the lake !” 
The conclusion I had como to was that it is quite lawful, 
though perhaps not expedient, for missionaries to trado; 
but barter is tho only means by which a missionary in the 
interior can pay his way, as money has no value. In all 
the journeys I had previously undertaken for wider diffu- 
sion of tho gospel, tho extra oxponses wero defrayed from 
my salary of £100 per annum. This sum is sufficient to 
cnablo a missionary to livo in tho interior of South Africa, 
supposing ho has a garden capable of yielding corn and 
vegetables; but should ho not, and still consider that six 
or eight months cannot lawfully be spent simply in getting 
goods at a lower price than thoy can bo had from itinerant 
traders, tho sum mentioned is barely sufficient for the 
poorest fare and plainest, apparel. As wo novor felt out. 
