Ch. VI. SECHELE’S INTENDED JOUENEY TO ENGLAND. 121 
excused myself on the ground that my arrangements were already 
made for exploring the north. On Explaining the difficulties of 
the way, and endeavouring to dissuade him from the attempt, on 
account of the knowledge I possessed of the governor’s policy, he 
put the pointed question, WiU the Queen not hsten to me, sup¬ 
posing I should reach her ? ” I replied, I believe she would 
Listen, but the difficulty is to get to her.” ‘‘Well, I shall reach 
her,” expressed Ms final determination. Others explained the 
difficulties more fully, but nothing could shake his resolution. 
When he reached Bloemfontein he found the Enghsh army just 
returning from a battle with the Basutos, in which both parties 
claimed the victory, and both were glad that a second engage¬ 
ment was not tried. Our officers invited Sechele to dine with 
them, heard Ms story, and collected a handsome sum of money 
to enable him to pursue his journey to England. The com¬ 
mander refrained from noticing him, as a single word in favour 
of the restoration of the children of Sechele would have been a 
virtual confession of the failure of his o^Y^l policy at the very 
outset. Sechele proceeded as far as the Cape; but his resources 
being there expended, he was obliged to return to his own country, 
one thousand miles distant, without accomplishing the object of 
his journey. 
On his return he adopted a mode of punishment which he had 
seen in the colony, namely, making criminals work on the public 
roads. And he has since, I am informed, made Mmself the 
missionary to his own people. He is tall, rather corpulent, and 
has more of the negro feature than common, but has large eyes. 
He is very dark; and Ms people swear by “ Black Sechele.” He 
has great intelligence, reads well, and is a fluent speaker. Great 
numbers of the tribes, formerly living under the Boers, have 
taken refuge under Ms sway, and he is now greater in power 
than he was before the attack on Kolobeng. 
Having parted with Sechele, we skfrted along the Kalahari 
Desert, and sometimes within its borders, giving the Boers a wide 
berth. A larger fall of rain than usual had occurred in 1852, 
and that was the completion of a cycle of eleven or twelve years, 
at which the same phenomenon is reported to have happened 
on three occasions. An unusually large crop of melons had 
appeared in consequence. We had the pleasure of meeting with 
