do to pacify them?" I recommended him to be an honest man, and confess that he had been misleading himself as well as the public. "They will kill me," he said. I repeated my advice, "Be honest," adding, that if he were in any danger, we would do what we could to save him. He arose, and retired with a sorrowful countenance, leaving Mr. Hamilton and myself to draw our own conclusions. Of one thing we were persuaded, that a storm was gathering, not such a one, however, as would cover the hills and valleys with verdure, and the fields with corn, but one which might sweep away the desire of our hearts, in breaking up the mission. At such seasons we were enabled by faith to realize the consoling assurance, "The Lord of hosts is with us; the

God of Jacob is our refuge."

The rain-maker kept himself very secluded for a fortnight, and, after cogitating how he could make his own cause good, he appeared in the public fold, and proclaimed that he had discovered the cause of the drought. All were now eagerly listening; he dilated some time, till he had raised their expectation to the highest pitch, when he revealed the mystery. "Do you not see, when clouds come over us, that Hamilton and Moffat look at them?" This question receiv ing a hearty and unanimous affirmation, he added, that our white faces frightened away the clouds, and they need not expect rain so long as we were in the country. This was a home-stroke, and it was an easy matter for us to calculate what the influence of such a charge would be on the public mind. We were very soon informed of the evil of our conduct, to which we pleaded guilty, promising, that as we were not aware that we were doing wrong, being as anxious as any of them for rain, we would willingly look to our chins, or the ground, all the day long, if it would serve their purpose. It was rather remarkable, that much as they admired my long black beard, they thought that in this case it was most to blame. However, this season of trial passed over, to our great comfort, though it was followed for some time with many indications of suspicion and distrust.

Shortly after, we accidentally heard that some one was to be speared. Violent as the natives some times were against us, we did not suspect injury was intended to ourselves. We imagined it was the poor rain-maker, and though we felt anxious by any means to save his life, the great difficulty was to find out whether he was to be the victim; for though we had several of their people about us, and their council chamber was in the open air exposed to the vulgar, it was a

220

THE RAIN-MAKER CONDEMNED.

difficult matter to discover secrets of that description. Anx ious to save life, which the Bechuanas will sometimes allow to be redeemed, it occurred to me that a very simple stratagem might unveil the mystery; I knew an individual of influence who was likely to know the affair. She was often ailing, and, like all the natives, fond of medicines, for among such a people a doctor is always welcome, especially if he asks no fee. My inquiries about the state of her health, and the expression of sympathy, were most acceptable, and the moment I saw her well pleased, I asked, as if it were a wellknown fact, "Why are they thinking of killing the rainmaker? they surely do not intend to eat him. Why not let the poor man go to his own land?" She very abruptly asked, "Who told you?" Rising, I said, "that is all I want to know;" when she called out after me, "Do not tell that I told you, or they will kill me." I entered the public fold, where about thirty of the principal men sat in secret council; it was a council of death. Had I put the question whe ther they really intended to commit that deed, they would have gazed on me with utter amazement, that I should have harboured such a suspicion, and have sworn, by all their forefathers that ever lived, that they had no such intention. I asked no question, but charged them with the fact, pointing out the magnitude of the crime of adding sin to sin, thus provoking Jehovah, by placing a man on His throne, and then killing him, because he was unable to do what they wished him to perform. I then pleaded hard that his life might be spared, and he allowed to return to his own country in peace. Á well-known old man arose, in a state of great rage, quivering his spear, and, adverting to the exces sive drought, the lean herds, the dying people, and the cattle which the rain-maker had eaten, vowed that he would plunge that spear into the rain-maker's heart, and asked who was to hinder him. I said I should, with my entreaties, and if these would not do, I should offer a ransom to save his life. I was asked if I was not aware that he was our enemy, and that if he had had his will we should have been dead. They had often thought us very silly and weak-minded, to persist in telling them the same thing so often about one Jesus;" but now to see a man labour to save the life of his enemy, was what they could not comprehend. His life was spared, however, and Mothibi, after conducting him over the plain towards the Matluarin River, returned, and enter ed our house with a smile of the most entire satisfaction or his countenance, perfectly sensible of his meritorious conduct,

PROSPECTS BECOME DARKER.

221

and expecting congratulations, which were liberally, and we thought deservedly, bestowed.

Thus ended, among the Batlapis, the career of a notable rain-maker, whom I shall have occasion to notice in my visit to the Bauangketsi nation, where he was eventually murdered. It is a remarkable fact, that a rain-maker seldom dies a natural death. I have known some, and heard of many, who had, by one means or other, fallen a prey to the fury of their disappointed employers, but notwithstanding this, there was no want of successors. There is not one tribe who have not imbrued their hands in the blood of these impostors, whom they first adore, then curse, and lastly destroy.

CHAPTER XX.

The

ALTHOUGH We were thus delivered from the machinations of one who, as we afterwards learned, was an active, though covert, enemy to our influence among the people, and though his removal afforded us the sincerest gratification, the public mind was opposed to our residence in the country. Every change appeared for the worse; and as we proceeded with our work, our prospects became darker than ever. Bushmen had been very troublesome in taking cattle and killing the watchers. We could not approve of the Bechuana system of vengeance and extirpation, which, instead of diminishing the evil, appeared only to add fuel to the fire of their fierce passions. We were suspected of befriending that hapless race of beings, from charging our men, who sometimes went to assist in retaking cattle, on no account to shoot the Bushmen. It was in vain we appealed to the injunctions of Jesus, our Lord and Master: every argument of that description was always met with vehemently savage vociferations of " Màka héla," lies only. They candidly acknowledged that we wronged no man, and that we had no wish to inflict an injury on a single individual; but they would with equal candour tell us, that we were the cause of all the drought; and we have been more than once asked if we were not afraid of lying down in our beds, lest we

and our reed-built houses should be burned to ashes before morning.

Every thing wrong done by a Griqua while hunting in the country, was thrown in our teeth; and if any one of the natives felt himself aggrieved during a visit to that people, we were told that we ought to have prevented it. The improper conduct of some professors who came to hunt and barter, as in the first instance when the mission was commenced, was held up to us as the fruits of the Gospel, and they would tell us to go to certain people, and make them good, before attempting the renovation of the Bechuana nation. We became inured to such threatening reproaches and scorn; but many were the melancholy hours we spent in gloomy forebodings. Much gratitude is, however, due to Him who "restraineth his rough wind in the day of his east wind," that we were never allowed to suspect that they would do us any personal violence.

The

The following fact will illustrate, in some measure, the position in which we stood with the people, who, by this time, were chafed in spirit by the severe drought, and mortified to the highest degree to see all their boasted powers vanish like a vapour on the mountain's brow. One day, about noon, a chief man, and a dozen of his attendants, came and seated themselves under the shadow of a large tree, near my house. A secret council had been held, as is usual, in the field, under pretence of a hunt, and the present party was a deputation to apprise us of the results. I happened at that moment to be engaged in repairing my wagon near at hand. Being informed that something of importance was to be communicated, Mr. Hamilton was called. We stood patiently to hear the message, being always ready to face the worst. principal speaker informed us, that it was the determination of the chiefs of the people that we should leave the country; and referring to our disregard of threatenings, added what was tantamount to the assurance that measures of a violent kind would be resorted to, to carry their resolutions into effect, in case of our disobeying the order. While the chief was speaking, he stood in a rather imposing, I could not say threatening, attitude, quivering his spear in his right hand. Mrs. M. was at the door of our cottage, with the babe in her arms, watching the crisis, for such it was. We replied, "We have indeed felt most reluctant to leave, and are now more than ever resolved to abide by our post. We pity you, for you know not what you do; we have suffered, it is true; and He whose servants we are has directed us in His word,

THE SEASONS CHANGED.

223

* when they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another;' but although we have suffered, we do not consider all that has been done to us by the people amounts to persecution; we are prepared to expect it from such as know no better. If you are resolved to rid yourselves of us, you must resort to stronger measures, for our hearts are with you. You may shed blood or burn us out. We know you will not touch our wives and children. Then shall they who sent us know, and God who now sees and hears what we do, shall know, that we have been persecuted indeed." At these words the chief man looked at his companions, remarking, with a significant shake of the head," These men must have ten lives, when they are so fearless of death; there must be something in immortality." The meeting broke up, and they left us, no doubt fully impressed with the idea that we were impracticable men.

We could not help feeling deeply thankful for the turn this short, but solemn interview, had taken. The charge brought against us by the rain-maker was, by every passing cloud and whistling blast from the torrid zone, brought fresh to their minds; and they thought that, having teachers of strange doctrines among them, such as their forefathers never knew, the country would be burned up. They were wont to tell us of the floods of ancient times, the incessant showers which clothed the very rocks with verdure, and the giant trees and forests which once studded the brows of the Hamhana hills and neighbouring plains. They boasted of the Kuruman and other rivers, with their impassable torrents, in which the hippopotami played, while the lowing herds walked to their necks in grass, filling their makukas (milk sacks) with milk, making every heart to sing for joy. It was in vain that we endeavoured to convince them that the dry seasons had commenced at a period long anterior to the arrival of the missionaries. Independent of this fact being handed down by their forefathers, they had before their eyes the fragments of more fruitful years in the immense number of stumps and roots of enormous trunks of acacia giraffe, when now scarcely one is to be seen raising its stately head above the shrubs; while the sloping sides of hills, and the ancient beds of rivers, plainly evinced that they were denuded of the herbage which once clothed their surface. deed, the whole country north of the Orange River lying east of the Kalagare desert, presented to the eye of an European something like an old neglected garden or field. As, however, the natives never philosophized on atmospheric

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