20 
PEOLONGED DROUGHT. 
Chap. I. 
intelligence than is to be met with in our own uneducated pea¬ 
santry. They are remarkably accurate in thek knowledge of 
cattle, sheep, and goats, knowing exactly the kind of pasturage 
suited to each; and they select with great judgment the varieties 
of soil best suited to different kinds of grain. They are also 
familiar with the habits of wild animals, and in general are well 
up in the maxims which embody their ideas of political wisdom. 
The place where we first settled with the Bakwains is called 
Chonuane, and it happened to be visited, during the first year of 
our residence there, by one of those droughts which occur from 
time to time in even the most favoured districts of Africa. 
The belief in the gift or power of rain-making is one of the 
most deeply-rooted articles of faith in this country. The chief 
Sechele was himself a noted rain-doctor, and believed in it im¬ 
plicitly. He has often assured me that he found it more difficult 
to give up Ins faith in that than in an}d:hing else which Chris¬ 
tianity requhed liim to abjure. I pointed out to him that the 
only feasible way of watering the gardens was to select some 
good never-failing river, make a canal, and irrigate the adjacent 
lands. This suggestion was immediately adopted, and soon the 
whole tribe was on the move to the Kolobeng, a stream about 
forty miles distant. The experiment succeeded admffiably during 
the first year. The Bakwains made the canal and dam in ex¬ 
change for my labour in assisting to build a square house for 
their chief. They also built their own school under my superin¬ 
tendence. Our house at the river Kolobeng, wliich gave a name 
to the settlement, was the third which I had reared with my own 
hands. A native smith taught me to weld iron; and having im¬ 
proved by scraps of information in that line from Mr. Moffat, and 
also in carpentering and gardening, I was becoming handy at 
almost any trade, besides doctoring and preaching; and as my 
wife could make candles, soap, and clothes, we came nearly up 
to what may be considered as indispensable in the accomplish¬ 
ments of a missionary family in Central Africa, namely, the 
husband to be a jack-of-all-trades without doors, and the wife a 
maid-of-all-work within. But in our second year again no rain 
fell. In the tliird the same extraordinary drought followed. 
Indeed, not ten inches of water fell during these two years, and 
the Kolobeng ran dry ; so many fish were killed that the hygenas 
