Chap. II. 
THEY MAKE WAE ON THE BAKWAINS. 
39 
of tlie ‘‘Commissioner.” Tins remark, if uttered at all, was 
probably made in joke: designing men, however, circulated it, 
and caused the general belief in its accuracy which now prevails 
all over the country, and doubtless led to the destruction of three 
mission stations immediately after. The Boers, four hundred in 
number, were sent by the late Mr. Pretorius to attack the Bak- 
wains in 1852. Boasting that the Enghsh had given up all the 
blacks into them power, and had agreed to aid them in their sub¬ 
jugation by preventing all supphes of ammunition from coming 
into the Bechuana country, they assaulted the Bakwains, and, 
besides kilHng a considerable number of adults, carried off two 
hundred of our school children into slavery. The natives under 
Sechele defended themselves till the approach of night enabled 
them to flee to the mountains ; and having in that defence killed 
a number of the enemy, the very first ever slain in tliis country 
by Bechuanas, I received the credit of having taught the tribe 
to kill Boers 1 My house, which had stood perfectly secure for 
years under the protection of the natives, was plundered in re¬ 
venge. English gentlemen, who had come in the footsteps of 
Mr. Gumming to hunt in the country beyond, and had deposited 
large quantities of stores in the same keeping, and upwards of 
eighty head of cattle as relays for the return journeys, were 
robbed of all; and when they came back to Eolobeng found the 
skeletons of the guardians strewed all over the place. The books 
of a good library—-my solace in our solitude—were not taken 
away, but handfuls of the leaves were torn out and scattered 
over the place. My stock of medicines was smashed; and all 
our furniture and clotliing carried off and sold at public auction 
to pay the expenses of the foray. 
I do not mention these things by way of making a pitiful wail 
over my losses, nor in order to excite commiseration; for though 
I do feel sorry for the loss of lexicons, dictionaries, &c., which had 
been the companions of my boyhood, yet, after all, the plundering 
only set me entirely free for my expedition to the north, and I 
have never since had a moment’s concern for anything I left 
behind. The Boers resolved to shut up the interior, and I deter¬ 
mined to open the country; and we shall see who have been most 
successful in resolution—they or I. 
A short sketch of African housekeeping may not prove unin- 
