8 
KURUMAN MISSION STATION. 
Introd. 
was then raging, and it was deemed inexpedient for me to proceed 
to Cliina. I had fondly hoped to have gained access to that then 
closed empire by means of the healing art; but there being no 
prospect of an early peace with the Cliinese, and as another 
inviting field was opening ont through the labours of Mr. Moffat, 
I was induced to turn my thoughts to Africa; and after a more 
extended course of theological training in England than I had 
enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840, and, after a 
voyage of three months, reached Cape Town. Spending but a 
short time there, I started for the interior by going round to 
Algoa Bay, and soon proceeded inland to the mission station in 
the Bechuana country, called Kuruman, which is about seven 
hundred miles from Cape Town. This had been established, 
nearly thirty years before, by Messrs. Hamilton and Moffat, and 
may be considered the most southern point of the real missionary 
field on that side of the country. It i| an interesting spot on 
many accounts. The mission-houses and church are built of 
stone. The gardens, irrigated by the Kuruman rivulet, are well 
stocked with fruit-trees and vines, and yield European vegetables 
and grain readily. The pleasantness of the place is enhanced 
by the contrast it presents to the surrounding scenery, and the 
fact that it owes aU its beauty to the manual labour of the mis¬ 
sionaries. Externally it presents a picture of civiKsed comfort to 
the adjacent tribes; and by its printing-press, worked by the ori¬ 
ginal founders of the mission, and also by several younger men 
who have entered into their labours, the light of Christianity is 
gradually diffused in the sm-rounding region. This oasis became 
doubly interesting to me, from something like a practical expo¬ 
sition of the text, Mark x. 29; for after nearly four years of 
African life as a bachelor, Mr. Moffat having retoned from a 
visit to England in 1843, I screwed up courage to put a question 
beneath one of the fruit-trees, which, I believe, is generally ac¬ 
companied by a peculiar thrilling sensation in the bosom, and 
which those who have never felt it can no more explain than 
the blind man did who thought that scarlet colour was like the 
sound of a trumpet, and I became united in marriage to his eldest 
daughter, Mary, in 1844, For a man to say much about his 
wife would not only be distasteful to the public, but, as it is in 
this case, decidedly disagreeable to herself. Having been born 
