44 
HOSTILITY OF THE BOEES. 
Chap. II. 
They roll away the droppings of cattle at once, in round pieces 
often as large as billiard-balls; and when they reach a place 
proper by its softness for the deposit of their eggs, and the safety 
of their young, they dig the soil out from beneath the ball, till 
they have quite let it down and covered it: they then lay their 
eggs within the mass. Wlhle the larvae are growing, they devour 
the inside of the ball before coming above ground to begin the 
world for themselves. The beetles with their gigantic balls look 
like Atlas with the world on his back; only they go back¬ 
wards, and, with their heads down, push with the hind legs, as 
if a boy should roll a snow-ball with his legs, while standiug 
on his head. As we recommend the eland to John Bull, and 
the gigantic frog to France, we can confidently recommend 
tliis beetle to the dirty Italian towns, and our own Sanitary 
Commissioners. 
In trying to benefit the tribes living under the Boers of the 
Cashan mountains, I twice performed a journey of about tliree 
hundred miles to the eastward of Kolobeng. Sechele had become 
so obnoxious to the Boers, that, though anxious to accompany me 
in my journey, he dared not trust himself among them. This 
did not arise from the crime of cattle-stealing; for that crime, so 
common among the Caffres, was never charged againt liis tribe, 
nor, indeed, against any Bechuana tribe. It is, in fact, unknown 
in the country, except duriug actual warfare. His independence 
and love of the English were Ins only faults. In my last journey 
there, of about two hundred miles, on parting at the river 
Marikwe he gave me two servants, “to be,” as he said, “his 
arms to serve me,” and expressed regret that he could not come 
himself. “ Suppose we went north,” I said, “ would you come ?” 
He then told me the story of Sebituane having saved his life, and 
expatiated on the far-famed generosity of that really great man. 
This was the first time I had thought of crossing the Desert to 
Lake Ngami. 
The conduct of the Boers, who, as will be remembered, had 
sent a letter designed to procure my removal out of the country, 
and their well-known settled policy which I have already de¬ 
scribed, became more fully developed on this than on any former 
occasion. When I spoke to Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter of the 
danger of hindering the Gospel of Christ among these poor 
