398 MOTHIBI'S EXPERIENCE. visited us, that he was becoming much concerned about the state of his soul, and could no longer conceal his fears, which only increased the longer he kept silent. Being quite overwhelmed, he made known_his alarm to the believers, and requested their counsel and sympathy. Morisanyane, the native reader at his residence, was made useful to him. Mothibi at length urgently entreated his sons 'to take him to Kuruman, to see his own missionaries:' immediately on his arrival, he bent his feeble steps to the mission house. Never before, I believe, did he visit a missionary with so much anxiety and diffidence. I found him not inclined to speak much, but rather to hear what might be said to him. He said, however, that 'he had come to speak about his soul-that he was an old man, great from age, but without understanding: there is nothing left,' he exclaimed, but my old bones and withered skin; I heard the word" from the beginning (twenty-five years ago,) but never understood, and now have no rest night nor day; my soul is sorrowful, and burning with anguish; my heart is sick, and rises into my throat; my mind is dark, and my memory cannot retain the good word; but though it forsakes me, it does me good; it leaves something behind in my soul, which I cannot explain, but which causes me to hope. I wish to cast myself at the feet of Jesus the Son of God, in hope and expectation that he will have mercy on me. I feel that it will be my wisdom to sit at the feet of believers, who are grown to manhood in knowledge, to be ever instructed by them in the paths of duty and salvation.' "On inquiring among those who had observed him of late, I found that they all thought favourably of him, for they had seen him weep repeatedly over his sins, and his lost state as a sinner. He expressed ardent desires to live and die at the feet of Christ, and to be united to his people; and there being no scriptural objection, he was proposed, and received by the church in this place. Though the rightful chief of 20,000 Bechuanas, Mothibi stood with as much humility, as others of his people beside him, whom he formerly considered as his 'servants' or 'dogs,' to receive the ordinance of baptism. He may not be a bright star among the believers, but if enabled to follow up his desire, 'to live and die at the feet of Jesus,' though he go halting the few remaining days of his life, he will be at last received to glory, a monument of what grace can do even in the eleventh hour." In reference to this pleasing event, Mr. Hamilton remarks, "Things are now coming to close quarters. The surrounding heathen chiefs are in a state of consternation, at the father of their cause embracing the faith, and becoming a little child in the kingdom of God; and on being assured that this is really the case, shake their heads as mournfully as if he were dead." It is a remarkable fact, that some of the heathen chiefs, upwards of one hundred miles distant, are opposed to the introduction of the Gospel among their people, though they view missionaries as their benefactors, receive them with civility, and attend upon their ministry; when, at the same time, those of more distant tribes are anxiously desiring to have missionaries both for themselves and their people. us this is not at all surprising, the latter being sensible only of the temporal benefits enjoyed by those who have received To THE BASUTO MISSION. 399 the Gospel, but comparatively ignorant of the strict requirements of the word of God; while such as live nearer, and have mingled with Christians, often have the enmity of their carnal hearts aroused by witnessing the havoc it makes among their heathenish customs and darling sins, without having tasted the blessedness of being turned from them to serve the living God.* CHAPTER XXXIV. HAVING already exceeded the limits of the present work, the Author feels it necessary to confine the different subjects on which he intended to dilate within a very narrow compass. It is with the greatest satisfaction he refers to the French and Wesleyan brethren in the Basuto country, south-east of the Kuruman, whose labours have been abundantly blessed, not only in that district, but to the borders of the Colony. Mosheshe, king of the Basutos, had long desired to receive a missionary, in order to procure for his subjects those advantages which he had heard other tribes had derived from the residence of a missionary among them. After long reflection, in 1833, he sent two hundred oxen to some of his servants, ordering them to go and find the great chief of the white people, and obtain from him, in exchange for the cattle, men capable of instructing his subjects. His servants obeyed; but, after a few days' march, they fell in with some Corannas, who deprived them of their cattle. This adverse circumstance did not discourage Mosheshe; for, having heard that a Griqua from our missionary station at Philippolis was hunting in his dominions, he sent for him, inquired respecting the object and labours of the missionaries, and entreated the stranger's assistance in the accomplishment of his wishes. This was promised; and on the Griqua's return to Philipolis, he related the affair to his missionary; and it is worthy of remark, that just at this junc * Mr. Edwards accompanied by one of the younger missionaries has lately gone into the interior, with the prospect of commencing a mission among the Bakone tribes. 400 THE SPEECH OF MOSHESHE. ture three missionaries from the Paris Society arrived at the station. They were on their way to the Bechuanas beyond the Kuruman; but, on learning this circumstance, they could not but consider it as an unequivocal call, which they were bound to obey. That was a part of the country which had been but little traversed by Europeans, and had been made the theatre of crime and bloodshed by the Bergenaars. The brethren arrived in July, 1833, when Mosheshe gave them a most friendly reception, and assisted in selecting a suitable spot for a mission station, which they called Morija. Messrs. Casalis, Arbousset, and Gosselin, commenced this important mission, and they now exert an influence over at least twelve thousand souls. Public worship is well attended, and the Sabbath punctually observed, by those of the people who make a profession of the Christian religion. The unremitting and self-denying labours of these valuable men have been remarkably blessed, and their hands have been strengthened by additional labourers from the same Society. They have translated portions of the word of life into the native language. The influence exerted by Mosheshe over the minds of the people has been a most effective auxiliary to the labours of our brethren. The following remarks, in a speech of his, taken from the journal of J. Backhouse, Esq., who himself heard it, will show that he is a man of considerable talent: "Rejoice, you Makare and Mokatchani! you rulers of cities, rejoice! We have all reason to rejoice on account of the news we have heard. There are a great many sayings among men. Among them some are true, and some are false; but the false have remained with us, and multiplied; therefore we ought to pick up carefully the truths we hear, lest they should be lost in the rubbish of lies. We are told that we have all been created by one Being, and that we all spring from one man. Sin entered man's heart when he ate the forbidden fruit, and we have got sin from him. These men say that they have sinned; and what is sin in them is sin in us, because we come from one stock, and their hearts and ours are one thing. Ye Makare have heard these words, and you say they are lies. If these words do not conquer, the fault will lie with you. You say you will not believe what you do not understand. Look at an egg! If a man break it, there comes only a watery and yellow substance out of it; but if it be placed under the wings of a fowl, there comes a living thing from it. Who can understand this? Who ever knew how the heat of the hen produced the chicken in the egg. This is incomprehensible to us, yet we do not deny the fact. Let us do like the hen. Let us place these truths in our hearts, as the hen does the eggs under her wings; let us sit upon them, and take the same pains, and something new will come of them." Mosheshe's son is a convert, and several have been admitted into church fellowship. In 1840 they had a large EXTENDED OPERATIONS. 401 number of candidates. "Thus," they write, "the hope of the missionary has not been deceived; for under the influence of Christianity there has been effected a sensible amelioration in the mind, character, and manners of the natives." Nor can we overlook the remarkable successes which have crowned the labours of Messrs. Rolland and Pellissier, of the same Society, located among the Bechuanas of the Caledon River. The Wesleyans had laboured among the Barolongs alternately at Makuase, Platberg, and Boochap, on the Yellow River, and eventually removed with their people to the Newlands, in the country of the Basutos. Among the Barolongs, Basutos, Mantatees, and Corannas, they have flourishing stations, and the Divine blessing evidently rests upon their labours. Chapels have been erected at all the principal places. A printing press is in operation, the work of civilization is advancing, and youths are under tuition for native agency, on which subjects copious information is before the public. It is impossible to look to the noble band of Church, Wesleyan, and Baptist missionaries, on the west coast, without being compelled to acknowledge the special blessing from on high which has rested upon their labours; and to admire the zeal of these men of God, who, with their lives in their hands, venture on those pestiferous shores. The result of their truly self-denying labours at once solves the problem: it is now demonstrated that the Gospel can transform these aceldamas, these dens of crime, weeping, and woe, into abodes of purity, happiness, and love. I leave these details of missionary labour to the judgment of the reader, who must now be in some measure acquainted with the character and extent of the operations of the London Missionary Society, as well as those of others, on behalf of the greatly injured and still suffering tribes of Southern Africa. From what has been stated, it must be evident, that if the tribes which still survive the devastations to which they have been exposed, are to be saved from annihilation, it must be by the diffusion of the Gospel. It is omnipotent; and if we had only a tithe of the money which is expended on the defence of our colonies against incursions of barbarous nations, we could adopt those means which, under the promised blessing of Him who holdeth the reins of universal sway, and who willeth that all should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved, would bring them under the reign of the Prince of Peace. And melancholy as is the past history of Africa, we are fully warranted to anticipate that the warlike and savage tribes of that immense continent will ere long present a scene, in the intelligence, holiness, and happiness of its regenerated nations, which will far exceed the most sanguine expectations of those who have laboured, and are still labouring, in behalf of her afflicted children. If we bring within the mind's view the history of that vast portion of our earth, to only one speck on the surface of which the author has been directing the attention of the reader, can we refrain from exclaiming, O Africa! how vast, how overwhelming thy burden! How numberless thy wrongs, the prey of fiendish men,-the world's great mart of rapine, bondage, blood, and murder! On no part of earth's surface, in no state or condition of mankind, can we find a parallel to thy woes! Thy skies have been obscured with smoke of towns in flames!-thy lovely landscapes and sunny groves transformed to lions' dens !-thy burning deserts bedewed with the agonizing tears of bereaved mothers!-and thy winds have re-echoed back to thy blood-stained soil the orphan's cry, the widow's wail! There is yet hope for Africa. The deep groan of her untold sorrows has been responded to by the sympathies of the British heart. Her almost boundless plains have invited the enterprise of nations; a vast amount of property has been expended, and a still greater sacrifice of life and talent has been made, to heal her bleeding wounds; but are these to suffice, or have we paid the debt we owe? Are we, on slight discouragement, to abandon the noble project of Africa's salvation? Have all the energies which have been employed been spent in vain? Surely not. They have been the developments of moral worth, the results of Christian philanthropy. We have thereby become better acquainted with her real condition, more conversant with her wrongs, and more convinced that it is to the everlasting Gospel we must look, as the instrument to chase away the mass of darkness brooding on her bosom. Yes, her unknown regions must be explored by the messengers of the churches, and her vast moral wastes must be watered by the streams of life. The truth of God is the grand engine by which the demon of slavery will be repelled from her shores, and her sable sons and daughters made to sit under their own vine and figtree,-when her ransomed millions shall reiterate from shore to shore her jubilee. Yes even now thy beams |