CAUSES OF FAILURE.

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rich and poor, worrying them for tobacco and other articles; and as if determined to demonstrate their alliance to those who persecuted our Lord and his servants, the barbarous people followed these rejected heralds of salvation, as they re-yoked their wagons and departed from the place, with hooting and derisive vociferations, "Away with the white people," etc. With sorrowful hearts they retraced their weary steps over the waste-howling wilderness, in which there were few charms to engage, or in any degree to relieve their minds from the dark and heart-rending scenes which they had left behind, and which threw a shadow more gloomy still, on minds alive to the awful consequences of shaking off the dust of their feet against a city containing many thousands of immortal beings. They mused on the mystery not uncommonly attached to the ways of Him, who, though too wise to err, has His footsteps in the sea, and His path in the mighty waters. It may be profitable to trace the cause of this unexpected and mortifying reception, to its true source, as it exhibits to our view, how vigilant are the powers of darkness, when they witness their kingdom, which, for a lapse of ages, has been kept in peace, about to be assoiled by those who are appointed to break down their strongholds, and erect the standard of Him whose right it is to reign; and how good is often brought out of evil by Him, whose judgments are revealed even among the heathen.

Before the missionaries visited Lithako, C. Buys, to whom reference was made in treating on the mission to Kafir-land, had removed to the vicinity of the Yellow and Hart Rivers, and had intercourse with the Bechuanas. Into their minds he diffused his principles, which were hostile to the colonial government, and succeeded in making willing converts. Among them was Mothibi's brother. This man was at Lithako while the missionaries were there, and it was through his influence that they were rejected. This same person, in returning to the Hart River, probably to announce to Buys his success in opposing the settlement of the teachers at Kithako, was shot dead by the poisoned arrows of the Bushmen. After this enemy was removed, it appears that Mothibi felt more favourably towards those whom, with some degree of hesitation, he had refused as residents with his people. Messrs. Hamilton and Evans were still waiting at Griqua Town for an opening; and in one of their itinerating journeys, they were told, the king now seemed willing to receive them. This influenced them to make another journey to Lithako, but Mothibi, with about 1200 of his

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THE MISSIONARIES REJECTED.

ject, and referred to the promise made by the king to Mr. Campbell. He answered, "They may come and protect me; but they want water, much water." Then, directing their attention to the Kuruman River, he immediately proceeded to converse on other subjects. He was again reminded that Mr. Hamilton was a worker in wood, and that another missionary was on the way who was a smith, and could make hatchets, etc. This statement evidently afforded him satisfaction, and he observed, at the same time, to Kok, that he could not think of refusing persons recormended by him. He still hesitated, however, cordially to approve of their wish to reside with him, his excuse being, "There is no water, there are no trees; the people have customs, and will not hear.” He was assured that the missionaries only desired to remain in order to communicate instruction to those willing to receive it. After a couple of days' intercourse, during which they could elicit nothing satisfactory, the king at one time assenting, then promising, and then cancelling, he at length appealed to his people, of whose judgment in the affair he said he would approve, repeating his wish that the missionaries would go and reside on the Kuruman river, and traffic with them, as Edwards and Kok had done, but that they should on no account teach the people. Mothibi then addressed his subjects thus: Speak your minds. When the men were at the other place," viz., Messrs. Campbell and Read, "you remained silent, and when they departed you blamed me." Many of the people then exclaimed, "The missionaries must not come here;" and the king responded, "The missionaries must not come here!"

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The Kuruman River being upwards of thirty miles distant, and the country without inhabitants, they had no alternative but to return to Griqua Town, and thus was changed into more than the gloom of sadness, the pleasing prospect which the missionaries had, during their journey, painted in such glowing colours;-a king their nursing father-a people willing to receive the heavenly boon-overflowing audiences, in temples erected to Jehovah-the buzz of infant voices vibrating in the missionary's ear in the crowded school-room; and the healing streams of the water of life fertilizing the moral desert around. Instead of receiving gifts, as a means of promoting their temporal comfort, which, as the messengers of peace, whose object it was to impart the blessings of eternal life, they might have expected, they were surrounded by a host of importunate beggars,