had had it for years.  He used to refer to certain tribes near Griqualand that had got a little instruction, but had no stated missionaries; they used to send some of their people to the Griquas to learn what they could, and afterward some others; and these persons, returning, communicated what they knew, till a wonderful measure of knowledge was acquired, and a numerous church was formed.  If the seed had once been sown in any place it would not remain dormant, but would excite the desire for further knowledge; and on the whole it would be better for the people to be thrown somewhat on their own resources than to have everything done for them by missionaries from Europe.  In regard to the Bakwains, though they had promised well at first, they had not been a very teachable people.  He was not inclined to blame them; they had been so pinched by hunger and badgered by the Boers that they could not attend to instruction; or rather, they had too good an excuse for not doing so.  “I have much affection for them,” he says in his Journal, “and though I pass from them I do not relinquish the hope that they will yet turn to Him to whose mercy and love they have often been invited.  The seed of the living Word will not perish.”

The finger of Providence clearly pointed to a region farther north in the country of the Barotse or beyond it, He admitted that there were pros and cons in the case.  Against his plan,—­some of his brethren did not hesitate to charge him with being actuated by worldly ambition.  This was the more trying, for sometimes he suspected his own motives.  Others dwelt on what was due to his family.  Moreover, his own predilections were all for a quiet life.  And there was also the consideration, that as the Directors could not well realize the distances he would have to travel before he reached the field, he might appear more as an explorer than a missionary.  On the other hand: 

“I am conscious,” he says, “that though there is much impurity in my motives, they are in the main for the glory of Him to whom I have devoted myself.  I never anticipated fame from the discovery of the Lake.  I cared very little about it, but the sight of the Tamanak’le, and the report of other large rivers beyond, all densely populated, awakened many and enthusiastic feelings....  Then, again, consider the multitude that in the Providence of God have been brought to light in the country of Sebituane; the probability that in our efforts to evangelize we shall put a stop to the slave-trade in a large region, and by means of the highway into the North which we have discovered bring unknown nations into the sympathies of the Christian world.  If I were to choose my work, it would be to reduce this new language, translate the Bible into it, and be the means of forming a small church.  Let this be accomplished, I think I could then lie down and die contented.  Two years’ absence will be necessary....  Nothing but a strong conviction that the step will lead to the