But though now qualified for my original plan, the opium war was then raging, and it was deemed inexpedient for me to proceed to China.  I had fondly hoped to have gained access to that then closed empire by means of the healing art; but there being no prospect of an early peace with the Chinese, and as another inviting field was opening out through the labors of Mr. Moffat, I was induced to turn my thoughts to Africa; and after a more extended course of theological training in England than I had enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840, and, after a voyage of three months, reached Cape Town.  Spending but a short time there, I started for the interior by going round to Algoa Bay, and soon proceeded inland, and have spent the following sixteen years of my life, namely, from 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary labors there without cost to the inhabitants.

As to those literary qualifications which are acquired by habits of writing, and which are so important to an author, my African life has not only not been favorable to the growth of such accomplishments, but quite the reverse; it has made composition irksome and laborious.  I think I would rather cross the African continent again than undertake to write another book.  It is far easier to travel than to write about it.  I intended on going to Africa to continue my studies; but as I could not brook the idea of simply entering into other men’s labors made ready to my hands, I entailed on myself, in addition to teaching, manual labor in building and other handicraft work, which made me generally as much exhausted and unfit for study in the evenings as ever I had been when a cotton-spinner.  The want of time for self-improvement was the only source of regret that I experienced during my African career.  The reader, remembering this, will make allowances for the mere gropings for light of a student who has the vanity to think himself “not yet too old to learn”.  More precise information on several subjects has necessarily been omitted in a popular work like the present; but I hope to give such details to the scientific reader through some other channel.

Chapter 1.

The Bakwain Country—­Study of the Language—­Native Ideas regarding Comets—­Mabotsa Station—­A Lion Encounter—­Virus of the Teeth of Lions—­Names of the Bechuana Tribes—­Sechele—­His Ancestors—­Obtains the Chieftainship—­His Marriage and Government—­The Kotla—­First public Religious Services—­Sechele’s Questions—­He Learns to Read—­Novel mode for Converting his Tribe—­Surprise at their Indifference—­ Polygamy—­Baptism of Sechele—­Opposition of the Natives—­Purchase Land at Chonuane—­Relations with the People—­Their Intelligence—­Prolonged Drought—­Consequent Trials—­Rain-medicine—­God’s Word blamed—­Native Reasoning—­Rain-maker—­Dispute between Rain Doctor and Medical Doctor—­The Hunting Hopo—­Salt or animal Food a necessary of Life—­Duties of a Missionary.