Chap. I. 
RELATIONS WITH THE PEOPLE* 
19 
good seed, and have no doubt but it will yet spring up, though 
we may ■ not live to see the fruits. 
Leaving this sketch of the chief, I proceed to give an equally 
rapid one of our dealing with his people, the Bakuena, or Bak- 
wains. A small piece of land, sufficient for a garden, was pur¬ 
chased when we first went to live with them, though that was 
scarcely necessary in a country where the idea of buying land 
was quite new. It was expected that a request for a suitable 
spot woffid have been made, and that we should have proceeded 
to occupy it, as any other member of the tribe would. But we 
explained to them that we wished to avoid any cause of future 
dispute when land had become more valuable; or when a foolish 
'chief began to reign, and we had erected large or expensive 
buildings, he might wish to claim the whole. These reasons 
were considered satisfactory. About 5?. worth of goods were 
given for a piece of land, and an arrangement was come to 
that a similar piece should he allotted to any other mis¬ 
sionary, at any other place to which the tribe might remove. 
The particulars of the sale sounded strangely in the ears of the 
tribe, but were nevertheless readily agreed to. 
In our relations with this people we were simply strangers 
exercising no authority or control whatever. Our influence de¬ 
pended entirely on persuasion; and, having taught them by kind 
conversation as well as by public instruction, I expected them to 
do what their own sense of right and wrong dictated. We never 
wished them to do right merely because it would be pleasing to 
us, nor thought ourselves to blame when they did wrong, although 
we were quite aware of the absurd idea to that effect. We saw 
that our teaching did good to the general mind of the people by 
bringing new and better motives into play. Five instances are 
positively known to me in which by our influence on public 
opinion war was prevented; and where, in individual cases, we 
failed, the people did no worse than they did before we came 
into the country. In general they w'ere slow, like all the African 
people hereafter to be described, in coming to a decision on re¬ 
ligious subjects; but in questions affecting their worldly affairs 
they were keenly alive to their own interests. They might be 
called stupid in matters which had not come within the sphere 
of their observation, but in other things they showed more 
c 2 
