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 ON THE THRESHOLD OF 
 CENTRAL AFRICA 
 
 A RECORD OF TWENTY YEARS' PIONEERING AMONG 
 THE BAROTSI OF THE UPPER ZAMBESI 
 
 FRANgOIS COILLARD 
 
 Of the SociExi des Missions Evangeliques de Paris 
 
 Translated from the French and Edited by his Niece 
 
 CATHERINE WINKWORTH MACKINTOSH 
 
 With Forty-Four Illustrations from Photographs by the Author 
 
 LONDON 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW 
 
 1897
 
 Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
 
 
 THE BELOVED AND BLESSED MEMORY 
 OF HER 
 
 WHO FOR THIRTY YEARS 
 
 SHARED AND ADORNED MY LIFE AND MISSIONARY ACTIVITY, 
 
 JOYFULLY FACED THE WANDERINGS, HARDSHIPS, 
 
 AND DANGERS OF PIONEER WORK, 
 
 WHO 
 
 BY HER SUFFERINGS AND DEATH 
 
 CONSECRATED THE BAROTSI MISSION, 
 
 AND 
 
 NOW SLEEPS AT SEFULA. 
 
 " She hath done what she could." 
 
 l3 'O,- i ooo
 
 CIIUISTINA COILLAHD (NKI: MAtKIMOSll). 
 
 [To face page v.
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 TO THE ENGLISH READER 
 
 THE present work is not a systematic history, either of 
 my own missionary career of forty years, or of the 
 Barotsi Mission. These are only scattered leaves, collected, at 
 the request of friends, from the pages of the Jourtial des 
 Missions Evangeliques, where they have appeared from time 
 to time during the last twenty years, and now published less 
 for those who already know them than for the rising generation, 
 for whom the Africa of the ox-waggon and the assegai will 
 soon be little but a name. Jotted down in the intervals of 
 arduous toil, often by the light of camp-fires, cramped in a 
 canoe, or jolted in a cart, they make no literary pretensions ; 
 they are but simple descriptions, which have already proved 
 interesting to some, and which God has deigned to bless. I 
 should have liked to condense them much more, and above 
 all to revise them ; but time and health have failed me to do 
 more than glance over the proofs. After all, the untrammelled 
 style of the traveller sits better upon an old African wanderer. 
 In an academical garb, to which 1 have no title, my friends 
 would not recognise me. 
 
 I am no painter, but I do admire Nature. Nowadays every 
 one practises photography, myself amongst the number. The 
 illustrations to this volume have been executed from very 
 indifferent negatives ; they are the work of a tyro, hampered 
 by adverse conditions of climate and the lack of suitable 
 appliances ; and their sole value — if they possess any — is that 
 they are instantaneous views. Though not artistic, they are
 
 viii NOTE 
 
 Part I. in order of time. The others were all taken after his 
 visit to Europe, when he first studied photography. That of 
 Mr. Waddell and the leopard was not taken at the time referred 
 to in the text, but on one of many similar occasions later on. 
 
 The portrait of M. Coillard is from a photograph by Vandyk, 
 Gloucester Road, S.W. ; that of Mme. Coillard from one by 
 Penabert, Paris. 
 
 C. W. M.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 THE BANYAI EXPEDITION 
 
 1877— 1879 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE BANYAI EXPEDITION ........ 3 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Off to Banyai-land — Preparations for Departure — Visit to Natal — English 
 Farmers — Return to Leribe — Conference at Morija — Evangelists 
 chosen — Farewell to Leribe — Harrysmith — Arrival at Pretoria — 
 British Proclamation — Mr. Bosman — British Soldiers — The Bush 
 Veldt — Kindness of Boers — Goedgedacht — Valdezia — MM. Creux 
 and Berthoud — Mr. Hofmeyr's Work — Volunteers from his Con- 
 gregation — Departure from Goedgedacht 8 
 
 CHAPTER n 
 
 On the Banks of the Limpopo — Palm Tree Fountain — Crossing the 
 Crocodile River — Lions — Arrival in Banyai-land — The Chief 
 Nyamonto — Adventures at Masonda's Mountain — Cattle carried off 
 — A Great Deliverance — Messengers sent from Maliankombe at 
 Nyanikoe to Lobengula 20 
 
 CHAPTER HI 
 
 Alone among the Banyai — Treacherous Cowards — Carried to Bulauayo 
 — Cattle restored — Lobengula's Captives — An Embarrassing Inter- 
 view — A Month's Probation — Permission for Banyai Mission refused
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Mission to Mozila proposed — Alternative Plans — The North Bank 
 of the Zambesi proposed — Sickness and Discouragement — Loben- 
 gula's Second and Final Refusal — Dismissal 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Departure from Matabele-land — Final Interview with Lobengula — Misery 
 of Africa — Ferocious Character of the Matabele — Barrenness of 
 Mission Work — Tati Gold Fields — " Ruined Cities " — Ethnological 
 Problems — Sickness in Camp — Accidents on the Road — Arrival at 
 Khama's Town — Warm Welcome — Khama's Character and Govern- 
 ment — Missionary Meeting — Future Plans discussed — Decision to 
 go to Barotsi-land 43 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Expedition to the Barotsi Valley — Desert Journey — False Guides — No 
 Water — Liponkoe (L.M.S.) — Arrival at Leshoma — Victoria Falls — 
 Sesheke — Making Acquaintance with Barotsi Chiefs — Their Cor- 
 diality — Barotsi Politics — Livingstone's Traces — Breaking Ground 
 — First Gospel Preaching — Return to Leshoma — Lions — Death of 
 Khosana — Return to Sesheke — King requests Missionaries to come 
 back soon — Death of Eleazar — Of Bushman — Major Serpa Pinto . 53 y 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Shoshong to Valdezia — Seeking a Temporary Field for Basuto Catechists 
 — Khama's Kindness — Seleka — Adventures near the Blaauwberg — 
 Mr. Stech's Station — Mr. Hofmeyr's — Sickness and Death at Val- 
 dezia — Mochache's — A Sad Journey — Pretoria and Potchefstroom — 
 Welcome to the Expedition — The Trek-menschen — Evangelists sent 
 to Seleka — Bad News from Barotsi-land — Decision to visit France 
 — State of Lerib6 — Journey to the Cape — Arrival in Europe . . 73 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 London — The Whirlpool — A Reminiscence — Coffee Palaces and Cab- 
 men — Mildmay Conference — The Sunday-School Festival — Plead- 
 ing the Cause of Africa — Molapo's Death — A Contrast .
 
 CONTENTS XI 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE BAROTSI EXPEDITION 
 
 1882— 1887 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE BAROTSI EXPEDITION 99 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Return to Africa — Arrival at the Cape — The Huguenot School — 
 Stellenbosch — Wellington — Natal — Travelling New Style and Old 
 Style — A Trying Journey — Arrival at Leribe — Disastrous Effects of 
 the War — -Jubilee of the S.M.E.P. — Disappointments — Tour with 
 M. Jeanmairet among the Churches — An Appeal to the Friends of 
 Missions — Arrival of the Weitzeckers — Departure from Leribe . 102 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Across the Transvaal to Shoshong — A Trying Journey — Difficulties at 
 Pretoria — Duties remitted — General Joubert in a New Role — Pros- 
 pects of Scarcity — The Staff of the Expedition — Bad Roads — 
 Saul's Poort — Delay and Losses at the Marico^Aaron's Arrival — 
 Shoshong — Seleka — A Baptism there — Return to Shoshong — Gene- 
 rosity of Khama and his People — Messages from Barotsi-land — 
 The Post — Starting again 114 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Shoshong to Leshoma — Kane — Cold — Khama's Envoys to Robosi — 
 M. Coillard's Fiftieth Birthday — Pata-matenga — The Jesuits' Mis- 
 sion — Their Kindness — Difficulties of the Journey — Waddell — 
 Aaron — Levi — Leshoma — A Pilgrimage 130 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Sesheke and Leshoma — Retrospects — A Heavy Washing Day — Arrival 
 at the Zambesi Ford — No Response — Return to Leshoma — Ex- 
 planations — A Matabele Scare — The Market at Leshoma — Mission 
 Work — Messengers to fetch Missionaries — Hospitality at Sesheke 
 — Start for the Capital — Revolution — New Delay — Ben's Troubles 
 — Making Nets — Return to Leshoma — Zambesian Languages — A
 
 XU CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Boy for Sale — Departure of the Basuto — Life at Leshoma — M. Coil- 
 lard and Aaron to Sesheke and Back — Akufuna chosen King — 
 Sends to fetch Missionaries — Fever — Darkest Africa — Lavishness 
 of Traders — Journey to Sesheke — Studies in Philology — A Direful 
 Discovery — " The Chiefs in my Pocket " 141 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 First Journey to the Capital — A Prosperous Voyage — Camping on the 
 Banks — The Rapids of Death — Pirates and Brigands — Ngonye Falls 
 — The Barotsi Valley — A Royal Tomb — Nalolo and Queen Maibiba 
 Lealuyi — An OfBcial Reception — Inspecting a Site — A Night Adven- 
 ture — Respect of the Barotsi for the Basuto — Return to Sesheke — 
 Death of Aaron's Daughter- — Leshoma once more — A Dark Prospect 
 Disasters with the Post and the Draught Oxen — To our 
 Collaborators . . .165, 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Winter at Leshoma — Kamburu and Nguana-Ngombe — Soap-making — 
 Neighbourly Intercourse with the Jesuits — Fresh Political Troubles 
 and Delays — A Bargain in Goats — British Protectorate of Khama's 
 Country — Engagement of Mile. Coillard to M. Jeanmairet — The 
 Passage of the Zambesi — Life at Kazungula — Death of Little Monyai 
 — Arrival at Sesheke — The Jesuits — Dr. Holub — Revolution and 
 Civil War — Treachery and Robbery — Perils of Waters and Perils of 
 Wild Beasts — Marriage of Elise Coillard and M. Jeanmairet — A 
 Wedding Party under Difficulties — Building the Station — A Reign 
 of Terror — Middleton sent to Pretoria \l 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Second Journey to the Capital — A Zambesian Charybdis— The Hunter's 
 Paradise — Boat lost in the Rapids — Vandalism — Nalolo and Queen 
 Mokwae — An Unexpected Meeting — King Lewanika — Lealuyi — 
 Visit of the Chief Moremi — The Barotsi Lckhothla — Conversation 
 with the King — Barotsi Legends — The Natamoyo — Sunday Service 
 Back to Sesheke— Visit to Mambova — Murder and Cattle-lifting— 
 An Appeal — Middleton returns from Pretoria — Dr. Holub . . 209. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Third Journey to the Valley— Sesheke to Sefula by Land— The Vanguard 
 with Waggons — Nguana-Ngomb6 — The Morantsiane — Progress 
 under Difficulties — The Tse-tse Fly — Refractory Servants— Kalangu
 
 CONTENTS xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 An Eclipse of the Sun — Dr. Holub's Disaster — Njoko — A Catas- 
 trophe — The Lumbe River — A Vision — ^Depopulated Districts — 
 Misfortunes never come singly — A Rare Treat — The Motondo River 
 The Forest of Thirst — The Ruyi River — A Conjuration — Sefula 
 Springs — Hidden Riches of Vegetation — Matsa — Sefula at Last . 233 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 The Station of Sefula — Clearing the Ground — Lewanika's Palace — In- 
 dustry of the Barotsi — Departure to fetch Mme. Coillard — The Thief 
 of Time — An Ardent Sportsman — Justice at Sesheke — The Shadow 
 of the Almighty — The Source of Weakness — A Ten Years' Pil- 
 grimage — An Anxious Parting — Prosperous Journey to Sefula — 
 Miseries of the V'assal Tribes — A Natural Phenomenon — Rapid 
 Progress of Mission Buildings — The King's Tribute — A Visit from 
 Lewanika ............ 260 
 
 PART II I 
 
 A7 SEFULA 
 
 1887— 1892 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Beginnings of the Work at Sefula — A Council at Lealuyi — The Barotsi's 
 View of Missions — The Execution of a Sorcerer — The Marriage 
 Question — Poison v. Bloodshed — The House Built — School estab- 
 lished — Difficulties of Discipline — Trial by Ordeal — " Thou shalt 
 not kill " — The Missionary's Daily Life — Industrial Skill of the 
 Barotsi — Their Character — Arrival of Reinforcements — Plots and 
 Counterplots — MM. Dardier and Goy — An Equestrian Adventure — 
 A Tragedy 277 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Barotsi on the War-path — A Cattle Raid in Prospect — " To the Mashuku- 
 lumboe ! " — A Full-dress Parade — On the March — The Prophetess 
 — Break-up of the School — Thieves — Fate of the Rebel Mathaha and 
 of the loyal Tahalima — " The Commune " — False Reports . . 297
 
 xiv CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 The Return of the Army — Its Reception at the Capital — Distribution of 
 Loot — " She" — Death of Dr. Dardier and the Jallas' Babj' — Reflec- 
 tions and Hardships — The Basuto Evangelists — The Spirit of Mis- 
 sions — The King's Diplomatic Illness — Divining Bones — Blossoms 
 in the Desert — Nguana-Ngombe's Confession of Faith — Visit of Mr. 
 Selous — " Lost Whites "... 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 A Visit to Lealuyi — Famine at the Capital — A Memorable Pitso — The 
 King proposes to place the Country under British Protection — A 
 Storm — Liomba the Scapegoat — Mme. Coillard and the Barotsi 
 VS^'omen — The King's Daughters as. Mission Pupils — Difficulties of 
 Evangelisation — Departure of Aaron, Levi, and M. Goy — Alone at 
 Sefula — Mad Dogs 326 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A Serious Talk with Lewanika — Queen Mokwae — Ex-queen Maibiba — 
 At Death's Door — Improvement in the School — Sickness and Mor- 
 tality — Hostility at Nalolo — Break-up of the School — The Mokwe 
 Tunga and his Troubles — Nalolo to Lealuyi — The Nalikuanda — A 
 Prodigal's Return — Losses of Cattle — A Mining Concession . . 342 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 A Journey from Sefula to Sesheke — Nalolo and Queen Mokwae — A Hard 
 Soil — How to reach the Zambesi Women — Seoma — An Anniversary 
 — Entertainments at the Bivouac — Sesheke — Kazungula — A Con- 
 ference — The Return — Unpacking Cases — A Letter from Lewanika 358 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Still alone at Sefula — The School — Nyondothe Moshukulumboe — Litia, 
 the Heir-apparent — A Sale of Books — Lewanika's Efforts to put 
 down Crime — The Canal begun — New Year's School Feast — Royal 
 Visitors — A Picnic — First Concession to the British South African 
 Company — "The evil that you hinder" — Prohibition of Slave-dealing 
 and Intoxicants — M. Adolphejalla — Nguana-Ngomb6's Baptism — A 
 Visit from the British South African Company's Agent — Native In- 
 trigues and Suspicions — History of the Negotiations — The Treaty 
 Signed — Terms of the Concession — Delimitation of the Barotsi 
 Frontier — Khama's Embassy — The European Mail — The Station 
 on fire 373
 
 CONTENTS XV 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Journey to Sesheke — Losses of Cattle and Waggons — M. Jeanmairet's 
 Illness and Departure for Basuto-land — Arrival of Mile. Kiener — 
 Difficulty of Obtaining Canoes — Kazungula — Death of the Jallas' 
 Second Child^Litia's Courage and Progress — The Absence of the 
 Marriage Tie among the Barotsi — Infanticide — The Tyranny of Cus- 
 tom — A City of Refuge — Progress — An Ox to sell — Return to Sefula 
 — Difficulties of Transport — Litia's Departure for Morija . . . 392 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 Dark Days — Political Calumnies — The Floods — Narubutu and the Con- 
 servatives — Temporary Capital at Sana — A Royal Water-party^- 
 Easter Sunday — A Visit to the King and Queen — Revival of Thieving 
 in the School — A Sad Story — A Visit from the Jallas — Levity of the 
 Zambesians — A Hunting Expedition — Death of the Only Horse — A 
 Clever Thief and his Punishment—" Alexander the Coppersmith " — 
 The Primitive Methodist Mission — "The Terror of the King " . 406 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 The Death of Mme. Coillard — Her Last Visit to the Capital — Litia's Con- 
 fession of Faith — Her Last Illness — " Do be in earnest, do ! " — The 
 Burial-place — Sympathy ol the Barotsi — The Firstfruits of the 
 Harvest — A Little Slave-boy — Nyondo — Queen Victoria confirms 
 the Agreement of the Chartered Company — A Deficit . . . 427 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 De Profundis — A Visit to Lealuyi — The Yellow Heart of the Barotsi — 
 Painful Defections — Dr. Johnston — Arrival of Paulus — The 
 Methodist Mission — A Thunderstorm— Plan for a Station at the 
 Capital — An Appeal 439 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 Rays of Comfort — Disappearance of "Alexander the Coppersmith" — 
 Degrading Superstition — The Primitive Methodists — Sympathy — 
 A Reminiscence of Mme. Coillard — The Joy of Pentecost — " En- 
 quirers " — Ten Men wanted 453 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Distresses and Deliverances — In a Canoe to Lealuyi — Good Reception 
 — Military Ceremonies — A Camp Meeting — Sunday at the Capital — 
 A Slave Market — How long ? 462
 
 xvi CONTENTS 
 
 PART IV 
 LEA LU Y I 
 
 1892 — 1896 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lealuyi at last — A Double Anniversary — The Fourth Station founded — 
 The Small-pox— The Kingdom of Darkness— The Plagues of Egypt 
 — The Fighting-ants — Levvanika's Vacillations — The Stations boy- 
 cotted — The Blockade raised — Warriors decorated .... 477 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 The Interdict withdrawn — A Coup d'etat — Warriors decorated — Build- 
 ing Operations — Lewanika's Skill in Handicrafts — Christmas at 
 Sefula — A Hurricane — Mashukulumboe-land opened to the Gospel 
 — Painful Defections — Litia and Andreas — Mackay of Uganda — 
 " Quit you like men " 493 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 -Clearances at Loatile— Forced Sales — A Royal Bargainer — A New Boy- 
 cott — The League of Prayer — A Final Victory — Women attending 
 Church at last — Opening of the School — Course of Instruction — The 
 Church — The Causeway — Mokwae's Magic Sovereign — Emulation 
 — Mr. Waddell's Devotion — Lay-helpers 506 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 The Mail lost — The Primitive Methodist Missionaries — Absence of 
 Skilled or Unskilled Labour — Procuring Thatch — Construction of 
 the Causeway — The Bridge — Termites again — An Important Ques- 
 tion of Fashion in Beads — The Rainy Season — The Water-supply — 
 The Abyssinian Well — A Terrible Disappointment — The Matabele 
 Invasion — Faint-hearted Patriots 5^^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 Fall of the Matabele Kingdom — Levity of the Barotsi — A Royal Weather- 
 cock — House-to-House Visitations — Prisoners — A Sad Story — 
 Queen Mokwae's Visit — A Lesson in Good Manners — Ilfautsouffrir
 
 CONTENTS XVU 
 
 PAGE 
 
 p07ir etre belle — Dedication of the Church — A Festival — Lewanika's 
 Oratory — The King as a School Inspector— A School Treat — -Drastic 
 Discipline — ThciChief Sinde — The Great Flood — Matindis — Flight 
 of the Natives — Their Return — The Goliath of Paganism . . 532 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 Arrival of M. and Mme. Beguin — Conference at Kazungula — Hopeful 
 Prospects — Journey from the Capital to Kazungula — Projected 
 Journey to Basuto-land — An Appeal for Medical Missionaries — 
 Sixtieth Birthday — The Victoria Falls — The Plain on Fire — Sefula 
 forsaken — An Awakening of Consciences at last — Lewanika and his 
 Converted Wife — Hindrances in starting for Basuto-land — Inaugura- 
 tion of the Station at Nalolo — The Waggon breaks down — Renun- 
 ciation of the Journey — A Work of God — Litia's Prefecture at 
 Kazungula — His Repentance . -552 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 A Parish Visitation — The King's Mother — Two Staunch Conservatives — 
 The Resurrection — Wina and the Question of Polygamy — Hugging 
 their Chains — A Royal Baby — A Little Prisoner — Photography 
 under Difficulties — Nyondo's Wedding — Christian v. Heathen Mar- 
 riage — Paulus's Zeal outruns Discretion — " Before Governors and 
 Kings " — The Christians acquitted — Sickness — The Water-supply — 
 The Bible School begun — The New Year 570 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 The Drought — Medical Missions — M. and Mme. Beguin at Nalolo — A 
 Visit to Sefula — Locusts — The Return of a Prodigal (Mokamba) — 
 A Bible-woman — A Real Awakening — Average Rainfall — Royal 
 Pretensions 582 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 A Missionary Exploration — Liomba (Mokamba's) Escort — Katuramoa — 
 The Oracle — A Sturdy Protest — Libonda — Memories of Lidngstone 
 — A Little Missionary — Lepakae — The King's Messengers — Horn- 
 less Cattle— The Mamboe Tribe— A "Son of Thunder "—The 
 King's Canal — Confluence of the Kabombo — Bread upon the Waters 
 —Customs of the Balunda and Balubale— Siyonda— The Chief 
 Sinde — His Hospitality — A Halt at Mosoandunga's — The Rapids of 
 
 b
 
 xvni CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sapuma — Short Commons — An Inhospitable Neighbourhood — 
 Kakenge's — A Rude Reception — Famine — A Trial of Faith — A 
 Wonderful Deliverance — Tragi-comedy — Conversion of Boatmen — 
 Return to Lealuyi 593 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 Serious Illness — A Journey South — Lewanika's Farewell — Death of 
 Seonjri — MM. Gibbons, Reid, and Bertrand — A Retrospect — A 
 Grave in the Wilderness — Bulawayo — A Contrast — A Forecast — The 
 Matabele Rising — The Rinderpest — Mafeking — Kimberley— Cape 
 Colony — The Dutch Mission — The Drummond Castle — Farewell to 
 Africa 619 
 
 Conclusion 633 
 
 Glossary 649 
 
 Index 655
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PORTRAIT OF F. coiLLARD Frontispiece 
 
 Facing page 
 
 CHRISTINA COILLARD (nEE MACKINTOSH) V 
 
 THE CARAVAN IN THE MAKARI-KARI DESERT I 
 
 THE CAMP, NEAR HARRYSMITH I7 
 
 ON THE LIMPOPO (cROCODILE) RIVER ........ 25 
 
 SUNRISE IN THE DESERT . • 5^ 
 
 THE MISSION PARTY, MAY 1 884 . -97 
 
 CROSSING THE MARICO (MALIKOE) RIVER I20 
 
 A NEW SORT OF TEAM 127 
 
 A MOSAROA OR BUSHMAN 1 35 
 
 LESHOMA A MARKET DAY ........... I44 
 
 MASATOANE — A CHIEF OF SESHEKE 1 63 
 
 FALLS OF NGONYE, UPPER ZAMBESI 1 69 
 
 AKUFUNA (tATIRA), THE USURPER . . . . . . . . • '75 
 
 WATHAHA (SEFANO), THE REBEL CHIEF X75 
 
 LESHOMA — M. JEANMAIRETS SCHOOL 188 
 
 QUEEN MOKWAE — SLAVES BRINGING HER FOOD 2I3 
 
 LEWANIKA AND HIS CHIEF WIFE MA-MORAMBOA (1886) 224 
 
 THE YOUNG MORANTSIANE ........... 224 
 
 SEFULA — MR, WADDELL AND HIS UNWELCOME VISITOR 256 
 
 THE LEKHOTHLA AT LEALUYI — .MATOLELA BRINGING TRIBUTE AND SALUTING 
 
 THE KING 269 
 
 BAROTSI WARRIORS ON THE WAR-PATH 296 
 
 BREAD-MAKING 316 
 
 A CROCODILE OF THE UPPER ZAMBESI ........ 324 
 
 LIOMBA . 332 
 
 "NALIKUANDA" — THE STATE BARGE ......... 354 
 
 CARRYING CANOES PAST THE RAPIDS OF SEOMA 36 1 
 
 zix
 
 XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Facing page 
 
 MR. WALL AND HIS BUFFALO , 366 
 
 RAPIDS OF NGAMBOE, UPPER ZAMBESI 373 
 
 ON THE ZAMBESI, BELOW NGONYE FALLS ........ 393 
 
 " NALIKUANDA " A ROYAL PROGRESS 4O9 
 
 GRAVE OF MADAME COILLARD, SEFULA ........ 432 
 
 SEFULA — MR. WADDELL AND THE BOYS AT WORK ...... 453 
 
 A SACRED PLACE — A ROYAL TOMB AT LIRUNDU, NEAR LEALUYI . . . 475 
 
 HOME OF A MAKUENGO FAMILY — A BUSHMAN TRIBE ...... 497 
 
 RAPIDS OF SAPUMA 529 
 
 KAZUNGULA — THE MISSION STATION . . . . . . . . -SS^ 
 
 AT NALOLO THE QUEEN 's BARGE, AND SITE OF MISSION STATION . . . 565 
 
 KABAKO RIVER — RAPIDS ABOVE THE FALLS ....... 577 
 
 KABAKO FALLS — TRIBUTARY OF THE ZAMBESI, RIGHT BANK .... 593 
 
 VILLAGE OF BALUNDA TRIBE, SHOWING HUTS AND GRANARIES .... 604 
 
 THE CHIEF KAKENGE — SLAVE PRESENTING SNUFF-BOX . ... 615 
 
 LEWANIKA AND HIS CHIEF WIFE 636 
 
 MAP. 
 
 MAP OF SOUTH AFRICA 646
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE banyan tree is the true emblem of the Church of God. 
 Each one of its mighty branches bears roots ; each root 
 that touches the soil, and grows there, becomes a new trunk, 
 which in its own time must spread its branches farther, and 
 strike new roots. 
 
 If the Church's mission begins, and sJiould\iQ.^\x\^ at Jerusalem, 
 it must not stop short there. Her movements are always 
 tending farther and farther afield ; her aspirations are ever 
 towards the " regions beyond," to the uttermost parts of the 
 earth ; her spirit is the spirit of conquest and aggression. 
 " Forward ! forward ! " is her never-changing motto. 
 
 Never has the Church grasped this more thoroughly than 
 to-day. Modern missions sufficiently proclaim that. And what 
 inspires us personally with joy and confidence is less the actual 
 and immediate result which can be tabulated, than the spirit 
 of reproduction and extension which animates the missions 
 themselves. That has its root in the nature of things. It is 
 the essential condition of vitality. Woe to us who conduct 
 them, woe to the missions themselves, if we hold them too long 
 in leading-strings, and if, kept thus in an abnormal childhood, 
 they lose the power of independent action and of responsibility ! 
 Their members acquire a false conscience, their development 
 is blighted, and the moment their guardians are removed they 
 are condemned to dwindle and — disappear themselves. 
 
 Perhaps this education presents peculiar difficulties among 
 the natives of South Africa. Certain it is that among them, 
 unhappily, it has not assumed those proportions which astonish 
 us among the South Sea islanders and elsewhere. This is due 
 in part to the local circumstances, to the immigration of the
 
 xxii INTRODUCTION [1833 
 
 white man, which undoubtedly changes the conditions of exist- 
 ence. But it is due also in part to a certain reserve in the 
 confidence we bestow on our still infant Churches, and in their 
 members, who have so recently emerged from the slough of 
 heathenism. Perhaps, too, we shrink from the personal responsi- 
 bility of straying from the beaten track. 
 
 Yet which of us does not reiterate — sincerely reiterate — 
 the utterance, that, if ever Africa is to be evangelised, it must 
 be by her own children ! What is so far only a beautiful theory 
 ought to become 2l practice. Our Churches and our Christians 
 must send out missionaries. There, as in Europe, that is the 
 thermometer of religious life. To give, and give oneself in the 
 spirit of Him Who loves us and gave Himself for us — that is 
 its essence. 
 
 The following pages form an account of a humble effort 
 in this direction. Up to what point the attempt has succeeded, 
 it is for the reader to judge. 
 
 The Banyai Expedition, which eventually led to the founding 
 of the Barotsi Mission, was proposed and undertaken by the 
 native Christians of Basuto-land — a fact which must never be 
 lost sight of in following its history. 
 
 The question is often asked, why, when France has such 
 extensive colonies of her own, the French Protestant missionaries 
 are found labouring in British colonies. The answer is two- 
 fold. First, that, in the early part of the present century, 
 the Protestants of France were prohibited from missionary 
 work in their own colonies. Secondly, that the two fields 
 they now occupy within the British sphere of influence were 
 not under the protection of any European power when they 
 first entered upon their labours. About 1830, a wave of 
 missionary interest swept over the Reformed Churches of 
 France. But where should they find a field? While they 
 were discussing this question, they received an appeal from 
 Dr. Philip, of the L.M.S. in Cape Town, to which they at 
 once responded ; and this led to the establishment of the 
 Basuto Mission, at the request of Moshesh, the supreme chief. 
 
 Of the three French missionaries who came to Basuto- 
 land in 1833, one name stands out pre-eminently — that of
 
 I86s] , INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 M. Arbousset. The more his work and character are studied, 
 the greater the reverence they inspire. He belonged to that 
 race of giants whose exploits in the first half of the century- 
 have shed such lustre on our African missions. He possessed 
 in a rare degree the gift of evangelisation, and of communi- 
 cating it from the very first to the native Christians. In his 
 flock, men always formed a remarkable proportion of the 
 congregation ; and each of them, in his own degree and 
 capacity, took a share in the propagation of the Gospel. Not 
 content with this home mission, M. Arbousset more than 
 once sent his catechists for short excursions on foot, with a 
 baggage animal for their provisions, to spend an indefinite 
 time among the Bapeli, in the country now known as the 
 Transvaal. 
 
 Some of these catechists had been noted warriors before 
 their conversion : their consciences were burdened with the 
 depredations they had made upon these same tribes, and 
 they wanted to atone to them by bringing them the Gospel 
 of Peace. Later on, in 1863, Isaiah Seele went, with the 
 approbation of all the missionaries. Seele was a man of high 
 social position, of rare intelligence and remarkable character ; 
 he spoke French and English and several native languages, 
 and possessed an extensive knowledge of medicine. He spent 
 several years evangelising those tribes among whom the Berlin 
 Society of Missions has since founded and carried on a pros- 
 perous work. Many of these tribesmen were in the habit 
 of passing through Basuto-land on their way to and from 
 Cape Colony, whither they went to earn money and buy 
 guns. Thus they had seen something of the benefits of 
 missions, and their chiefs were willing and even anxious to 
 have permanent stations. 
 
 But this movement was checked by the long and disastrous 
 wars of the Orange Free State with the Basuto. In 1865, 
 all the French Protestant missionaries were expelled from the 
 country, ourselves among the number. The only exception 
 was the one at Thaba Bossiou, a stronghold which the Boers 
 had not been able to take. Armed men brought waggons 
 to our door, and carried us off in such haste that Mme. Coillard
 
 xxiv INTRODUCTION [1886 
 
 had not even time to take her bread from the oven ! It was 
 with very heavy hearts that, bidding good-bye to our weeping 
 flock, we set out, exiles from our only home on earth, and 
 followed the waggons, where they had hurriedly piled up our 
 property. The church bell, carelessly packed, sounded a 
 funeral knell all along the road. " Make the best of it," 
 said the commandant, M. de Villiers, who was a personal 
 friend of mine, and who did his best to cheer us up in his 
 own way. " Leave nothing behind, for you will never come 
 back here." 
 
 So the Government of Orange Free State had decreed ; 
 but the Master we served had ordained otherwise, for three 
 years later, in 1868, when Basuto-land became a British colony, 
 we did come back. We had spent part of the interval in 
 Natal, working with the American missionaries among the 
 Zulu, and gaining a knowledge of the language, which, later 
 on, was to be of the utmost service to us. 
 
 It was during this forced exile of their pastors that the 
 Basuto Christians awoke to a sense of their individual responsi- 
 bility, and gave themselves up to preaching the Gospel most 
 zealously, and with remarkable results. On their return, the 
 missionaries, who had suffered so bitterly at being torn from 
 their field of labour, found it completely transformed. It was 
 a garden which the Lord had watered and blessed. 
 
 Their first care was to organise and consolidate the move- 
 ment. They selected among the Christians those whom they 
 judged most worthy of confidence, placed them here and there 
 as evangelists, and began to cover Basuto-land with a network of 
 stations, which have gone on multiplying year by year ever since. 
 
 It was impossible that religious life should thus develop 
 among the Christians without their desiring to spread still 
 farther the Name of Jesus ; and this missionary spirit was 
 ardently fostered by my friend Mabille, the worthy successor 
 of M. Arbousset. Before long their .spiritual and material 
 prosperity had alike reached such a pitch, that they desired once 
 more to send native catechists to other heathen tribes, and to 
 equip and maintain them. This gave the first impulse to the 
 Banyai Expedition.
 
 1870] INTRODUCTION XXV 
 
 But whither should they carry the Gospel? The Berlin 
 Society had asked and obtained permission from the Boer 
 Government to carry on work in its territories among the 
 tribes they had previously visited, and it became necessary to 
 look farther afield. Accordingly, M. Mabille, accompanied by 
 M. Berthoud, went on an exploration in the extreme north of the 
 Transvaal, with a view to finding there a field for the Mission 
 de la Suisse Vaudoise, of which MM. Berthoud and Creux 
 were the pioneers. They left the Basuto catechists Eliakim 
 and Asser among the Magwamba tribe. Others afterwards 
 joined them, and together they carried on a work of perse- 
 verance and devotion, of which the Swiss missions have since 
 reaped the blessed fruits. 
 
 The station of Goedgedacht, in the Zoutpansberg Mountains, 
 was occupied at this time by Mr. Hofmeyr, the first missionary 
 ever sent out by the Dutch Reformed Church of the Cape. 
 He, like M. Mabille, was an ardent evangelist ; and a year or two 
 later, by their joint advice, Asser, the leader of the Basuto 
 catechists, undertook a missionary exploration in the Banyai 
 country, in the neighbourhood of Zimbabye. He started in 
 1874, accompanied by Jonathan, from the Leribe Church, and 
 two members of Mr. Hofmeyr's flock. 
 
 Asser was a very remarkable man, for a native. He had 
 the true pioneering spirit, and would not allow any hindrance, 
 sickness, or danger to turn him back or break up his little band. 
 Moreover, he kept a regular diary, in which he noted not only 
 their adventures, but the hours and distance of their travelling, 
 the water-holes, names of chiefs, and similar details, important 
 for the future. His report was that three great chiefs gladly 
 gave full assent to the coming of missionaries, and had at once 
 chosen sites for the stations. Some of the Banyai had, on 
 hearing the Gospel, found a striking analogy to one of their 
 ancient traditions — namely, that the son of one of their great 
 chiefs had disappeared mysteriously, and that every tenth day 
 ought to be observed among them in his memory until he should 
 come back. They also shaved their heads at the new moon in 
 his honour. He added : " The Banyai cultivate maize, rice, etc. 
 Very industrious, but they say they never ivash themselves^
 
 xxvi INTRODUCTION [1875 
 
 Asser's return to Basuto-land in May 1875 was the electric 
 spark which kindled into flame the missionary zeal of his 
 fellow-Christians there. It would be difficult to exaggerate the 
 effect of his addresses. " Ah ! why could I not cut off my arms 
 and legs," he cried, " and make every limb of mine a missionary 
 to these poor Banyai ! " At one memorable meeting, an old 
 man rose at the back of the church. " Enough of talking," 
 he said ; " let us do something." And, advancing to the 
 communion table, he put down a modest half-crown. The 
 impetus had been given. The whole assembly followed his 
 example ; and the movement spread to all the other stations. 
 On a Communion Day one saw men, women, and children, even 
 babies at their mothers' breast, pressing reverently round the 
 communion table to lay down their offerings. The sum of 
 ;^500 was raised in a very short time, without counting quantities 
 of cattle, great and small. The Missionary Conference could 
 no longer hesitate. At its next session, in August of the same 
 year, the mission was unanimously decided upon. The money 
 found, the men offered themselves. Four were chosen, and 
 they at once prepared to start with their families. 
 
 While these outward events were in progress, circumstances 
 were taking place unobserved which had far-reaching and 
 undreamt-of effects upon the future of the mission. Several of 
 us, especially my friend Mabille and myself, were feeling dis- 
 satisfied with the state of things in our respective congregations: 
 there were few conversions from among the heathen ; and 
 though there seemed plenty of zeal among the converts, we 
 were conscious it was not all spiritual energy. Just at this 
 time, we received a visit from Major Malan, whose name is 
 affectionately remembered by many both in England and South 
 Africa. He was the grandson of Caesar Malan, of Geneva. 
 Having resigned his commission in the British army in order 
 to devote himself more freely to the service of the King of 
 kings, he had undertaken a tour among the South African 
 missions ; and God made use of him as a channel of the 
 greatest blessing. His journey through Basuto-land was the 
 occasion of a fresh revival. He did great good to us poor 
 labourers as well, choked with the dust of our clods, as is so
 
 I875] INTRODUCTION xxvii 
 
 often the case, alas ! and he bestowed on us an affection which 
 we cordially returned. 
 
 Later on, at his instigation, a great " consecration meeting " 
 was convened at King William's Town. Mabillc and myself 
 urged by a common need, resolved to make the journey, of over 
 three hundred miles, on horseback, in order to be present at it. 
 
 The subjects were : — 
 
 ist day. — Christ — Emmanuel. " In Him dwelleth all the 
 
 fulness of the Godhead bodily." 
 2nd day. — Ourselves — believers. " Ye are complete in 
 
 Him." 
 ■^rd day. — The necessary consequence of these two facts 
 
 — complete consecration to God. "Your bodies . . . 
 
 a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Him, which 
 
 is your reasonable service." 
 
 To Mabille and myself it was more than a spiritual feast ; 
 it was a revelation. There we approached the sunlit summits, 
 the Tabor of Christian life, which had always been represented 
 to us as inaccessible : we had, as it were, a vision of the Lord. 
 It seemed to us that we had never given ourselves, that we did 
 not even know the A B C of renunciation, and we were haunted 
 by the sense of this. 
 
 On the other hand, our project of extending the mission, 
 which everywhere attracted attention and interest, occupied a 
 very large place in our thoughts. It was the one theme of 
 our conversation as we rode back with our honoured friend, 
 for Major Malan was specially interested in mission work by 
 native agency. One day, we were crossing the River Key, and 
 climbing the slope, when, in obedience to an irresistible impulse, 
 we all three sprang from our horses, knelt in the shadow of a 
 bush I still see before me, and, taking each other as witnesses, 
 we offered ourselves individually to the Lord for the new 
 mission — an act of deep solemnity which made us all brothers- 
 in-arms. Immediately we remounted, Major Malan waved his 
 hat, spurred his horse, and galloped up the hill, calling out, 
 ' Three soldiers ready to conquer Africa ! " 
 
 Mabille and I said to each other, " We are the soldiers : he
 
 XXViii INTRODUCTION [1876 
 
 is an officer — one of the ' thirty ' perhaps, like David's mighty 
 men. But, by God's grace, we will be true till death." 
 
 And we meant it. That marked a new era in our Christian 
 life, and was, in so far as we were concerned, the true origin 
 of the Barotsi Mission. 
 
 On our return, in the autumn of 1875, the Banyai Expedition 
 was preparing to start. We had at first intended to send our 
 native missionaries alone. But the Transvaal Government, which 
 had got wind of it, opposed their passage, on the ground that the 
 Basuto, coming as foreigners among the Banyai, might stir up 
 trouble on their northern frontiers. Upon this, it was decided 
 that one of us should escort them. But which one ? Mabille 
 urged that he should be sent, but the Conference could not 
 agree to this, in view of the important position he held, not 
 only as pastor and evangelist of a large district, but as the head 
 of the Training School for Evangelists at Morija. Instead, 
 it accepted the offer of a newly arrived missionary, young, 
 unmarried, and as yet without a definite post. This was 
 M. Dieterlen. His character as much as his talents inspired 
 us with the greatest confidence, which subsequent events amply 
 justified. 
 
 The third General Synod of our Churches took place at 
 Leribe from the 5th to the nth of April, 1876. Seventy-eight 
 delegates, besides the missionaries and catechists themselves, 
 represented the various Churches. Large numbers of native 
 Christians, too, came together from all parts of the country, 
 even from other Churches in Kaffraria and elsewhere, some of 
 whom brought us tangible proofs of their interest in the form 
 of subscriptions, besides their messages of encouragement and 
 brotherly affection. Even the heathen chiefs could not remain 
 indifferent to this great demonstration, and the British authorities 
 of the country did not fail to come and bring us their good wishes. 
 
 It was under these happy auspices that, after numerous and 
 deeply impressive meetings, we commended our pioneers, our 
 dear brother Dieterlen and his four companions with their 
 families, to the Lord's keeping. We were bidding them farewell 
 in the very place whence in bygone days bands of marauding 
 cannibals used to scour the country, and whence at the head
 
 1876] INTRODUCTION XXIX 
 
 of his clan emigrated the chief Sebetoane, the founder of the 
 Makololo kingdom on the Upper Zambesi. Survivors of those 
 days were present, some converted, some still heathen, to see 
 their fellow-countrymen, equipped by the freewill offerings of 
 other native Christians, going forth on a mission of peace. 
 It was a striking object lesson, and representatives from every 
 part of the tribe were there to witness it. 
 
 Who would have believed that, scarcely a month later, this 
 expedition would come to an abrupt end in the prison of a 
 civilised and Christian state ? Yet so it was ; and this is the 
 5tory of the disaster. 
 
 M. Dieterlen had started at the end of April 1876. He had 
 expected some custom-house delays on the frontier, but, meeting 
 with none, passed on to Pretoria, which the waggons traversed 
 in broad daylight without being stopped. Two days later. 
 May loth, they were arrested at nightfall by two field-cornets, 
 the women and children sent to a farm several miles away, the 
 waggons and goods confiscated and searched, the men taken 
 back to Pretoria and imprisoned, one in the condemned cell. 
 Owing to the kindness of a German missionary, Mr. Griineberger, 
 who bailed him out for ^^300, M. Dieterlen was free to plead 
 for the release of his companions. They were accused of carry- 
 ing contraband, but this was proved not to be the case ; and 
 the officials then said they did not care to have French mis- 
 sionaries settled north of the Limpopo. M. Dieterlen pointed 
 out that they had no jurisdiction over those territories, and that 
 no white traveller had ever yet been asked for a passport. " Do 
 you know what our intentions are ? Do you know what treaties 
 we may have made with the natives or the Portuguese ? " asked 
 the official. They were ordered to leave instantly, on pain 
 of confiscation and imprisonment. M. Dieterlen, who acted 
 throughout with the utmost courage and discretion, tried every 
 expedient to move the Government, but in vain. After being 
 fined £14 ("costs"), he was allowed to take his waggons, and 
 the catechists were released after two nights and a day of 
 imprisonment. 
 
 It is only fair to say that many of the Transvaal burghers 
 expressed their sympathy with the young missionary and his
 
 XXX INTRODUCTION [1876 
 
 companions ; and indeed the kindness shown to the subsequent 
 expeditions by all the Boers they met sufficiently proves that 
 this treatment was only the work of a small political clique, 
 hostile to foreign missions. 
 
 This unexpected check greatly distressed our young Churches, 
 but without discouraging them. The missionaries, urged to 
 some extent by their flocks, met in conference at Thaba 
 Bossiou, and decided not to abandon the enterprise. The 
 Transvaal Government itself had thought better of it, and let 
 us know indirectly that it would place no obstacle in the way 
 of a new expedition, provided that it were conducted by a man 
 in whom they felt confidence, and that a formal declaration of 
 merchandise were made to the authorities on entering the 
 territory of the Republic. 
 
 But the man — where was he to be found ? M. Dieterlen had 
 by this time received an important appointment to our Normal 
 School, and we could not do without him. And then, too, we 
 had to consider the susceptibilities of those whose consciences 
 were already somewhat ill at ease on his account. 
 
 For such a delicate and difficult mission it was desired that 
 one whose views had long been well known should offer himself 
 But he had not offered himself the previous year, neither did 
 he do so now. Before " running," he felt he must be " sent." 
 Thereupon, his colleagues unanimously addressed a pressing 
 appeal to him. 
 
 What follows will show how he and his beloved wife obeyed 
 this appeal, and what a new direction this angle of the road, 
 which they had reached so suddenly, was to give to their lives. 
 
 The station of Lerib6, which twenty years before we had 
 been called upon to found, was an advance post in a province 
 which the old inveterate paganism, elsewhere considerably under- 
 mined, had made its fortress. It was ruled by an intelligent 
 chief, Molapo, a man of iron will, but long a renegade from 
 Christianity, irascible and jealous of his authority. 
 
 Yet in spite of his incessant opposition, our labours had been 
 blessed. A congregation, small in numbers, but rich in faith 
 and works, had gradually grown up around us. The continual 
 vexations, often amounting to persecutions, to which we and
 
 l877] INTRODUCTION XXxi 
 
 they were alike exposed, had specially drawn us together. We 
 lived with them and for them ; we were one family. 
 
 For seventeen years, when not travelling, we had lived in 
 temporary and very primitive abodes. We had often sighed 
 for something better, but our life had been singularly chequered 
 and adventurous. During the last year or two, however, our 
 desires had been satisfied. Since the completion of our beau- 
 tiful stone-built church, we had been able to attend to our own 
 dwelling. We now inhabited a fine spacious house, in the midst 
 of a lovely garden, the work of our own hands. " Shall we ever 
 eat of it, I wonder?" said Mme. Coillard one evening, as we 
 were walking round our newly planted quince hedge. We 
 never did. 
 
 Leribe, nestling in the shadow of its great mountain, with 
 its picturesque gorge and its magnificent panorama, had become 
 an ideal station. I moved in the midst of an immense district, 
 making frequent evangelising excursions, riding for days and 
 weeks together, accompanied by the young men of my flock, 
 sharing their food, sleeping with them under the rocks or 
 in hospitable huts. There was an unspeakable fascination in 
 this life. 
 
 Yes, but the charm must needs be broken, innocent as it 
 was. We needed another discipline in the Lord's school ; it 
 was His will that, " emptied from vessel to vessel," we should 
 learn the lesson that consecration, a true and full consecration^ 
 is not a mere doctrine, nor yet a single isolated act, but the 
 fabric, the very principle of life. Vague presentiments haunted 
 us ; for, as we started, my beloved wife said, not without 
 emotion, " We have weighed anchor ; we are out on the wide 
 ocean : God knows where we shall land. But," she added, 
 with happy calm, " * He knoweth my wanderings ; my tears are 
 in His book.' " ^ And when we saw the column of fire rise, there 
 was no more hesitation. God had spoken, " Arise, depart, for 
 this is not your rest " ; and our hearts had responded, " Lo, 
 I am continually with Thee ; Thou hast holden me by my right 
 hand ; Thou wilt guide me by Thy counsel, and afterward 
 receive me to glory." ^ 
 
 * Ps. Ivi. 8, * Ps. Ixxiii. 23, 24.
 
 xxxii INTRODUCTION [1877 
 
 Nor were we alone. Among those whose watchful care 
 followed and surrounded us, my two friends — true comrades — 
 Major Malan and Mabille held the first place. They envied 
 the post assigned me in the mission to which they had given 
 themselves equally with myself. " But as his part is that 
 goeth down to the battle, so is his part that tarrieth by the 
 stuff." ^ And from that honourable position they unfalteringly 
 upheld us. 
 
 I cannot lay too much stress upon the fact that this mission, 
 springing spontaneously as it did from the religious life of 
 our native Christians, could not, even in developing, lose all 
 traces of its origin. The natives, indeed, were very deter- 
 mined about this, and mingled with this determination a 
 certain presumption natural to adolescence. But, in spite of 
 this, from the very first it began to take on an eclectic 
 character, which it has ever since maintained. This was partly 
 owing to the unlooked-for wanderings of the expedition, 
 bringing its members in contact with various other agencies, 
 both political and religious, which all helped it on. But it was 
 due, in the first place and above all, to Major Malan. He it 
 was who aroused for it the interest of Christians, both black 
 and white, in almost every denomination throughout Cape 
 Colony and Natal. He also founded an association in England 
 to promote South African missions by native agency, and 
 edited a magazine with the same object in view. He believed 
 in the mission, and through all its phases his confidence in 
 God was always the same. He pleaded with God for it in 
 secret, and with men by word and pen ; while at every turn, 
 at every check and disappointment, he was ready with letters 
 of sympathy and encouragement, and substantial help from 
 himself or his friends. His ardent faith and love, which 
 recognised no barriers between the different members of the 
 One Family, won many friends for our mission in England, 
 and especially in Scotland, who have been its faithful supporters 
 ever since. In a word, his devotion ceased only with his life ; 
 and shortly before his death, already in the grip of the disease 
 which he knew would soon arrest his earthly activities, he wrote 
 
 ' I Sam. XXX. 24. • •
 
 l883] INTRODUCTION XXXlii 
 
 to me, " Don't speak about it, but I do believe God will after 
 all grant me my heart's desire, and let me go and join you. 
 ' Be thou faithful unto death, and He will give thee a crown 
 of life.'" 
 
 What Major Malan was in Europe, Mabille was in Africa. 
 By evil report and good report, when we were borne forward 
 on the waves of popularity and enthusiasm, and when we had 
 to battle against the current, the enterprise almost stranded, 
 and ourselves abandoned, criticised, and condemned by every 
 one, he never forsook us. He was one of those true and 
 valiant men one can always count upon. In our worst 
 moments, he always had tender, hopeful words for us. How 
 many times, when we were almost overwhelmed, has God not 
 made use of him to rekindle our courage ! It was not that 
 he merely interested himself in the mission ; it was his own 
 just as much as it was ours. For him as much as for ourselves 
 it was a work of faith, and he caused it to be known and loved 
 everywhere through the magazine he edited, La Petite Lumiere 
 du Lessouto, which circulates so widely among the natives of 
 South Africa. 
 
 When, in 1883, I preached my farewell sermon at his church, 
 he said to me, as I was entering the pulpit, " Speak, and the 
 Lord bless thee. And if the best of my catechists should 
 respond to the appeal, remember I give him gladly." As we 
 came out, he said, " Yes, God has asked for my best ; it is 
 Levi. Ah well ! I did not expect it ; but — he shall go." And 
 from that time forth the evangelists of the Zambesi Mission 
 were recruited almost always from his Church or his Bible 
 School at Morija. From first to last, he never failed us. 
 
 Our hearts were knit like those of David and Jonathan by 
 an uninterrupted friendship of more than thirty years. We 
 had absolutely no secrets from each other, except between our 
 souls and God. First as students, and later on in the ministry, 
 we shared everything — our plans, our difficulties, our struggles, 
 our encouragements. What he was to me personally, what 
 the evangelisation of Africa, above all of the Zambesi, owes to 
 him, God only knows. Even on the threshold of eternity, he 
 could not forget either the friend of his heart or the Mission 
 
 c
 
 XXXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION [1893 
 
 of the Zambesi ; and his solicitude for both shone out amid the 
 prayers and exhortations, the almost prophetic utterances, that 
 glorified his death-bed. He was eagerly awaiting news of the 
 last reinforcement he had sent us, and suddenly he exclaimed 
 joyfully, " Arrived at last ; they have reached the Zambesi ! " 
 And it was so. Doubtless the Lord had granted him that 
 mysterious and unerring vision He so often bestows upon His 
 dying saints. Then, in a fresh transport of triumphant faith, 
 he cried in the native tongue, " Oho Coillard senatla sa Molimo ! 
 motsualle da ka" (" O Coillard— my own friend ! "). ..." Quoi- 
 qiion en dise, tu as de la foi. Courage ! " These were almost 
 his last words. 
 
 Now these two men, full of the Holy Ghost, mighty in faith 
 and works, have passed away. God has taken them. Eternity 
 will reveal their part in the Barotsi Mission : my own is pro- 
 bably the least. They were " true till death." May I be like 
 them ! May I. as they did, glorify God by my life and by my 
 death, and like them know but the one motto, " To live is 
 Christ " / 
 
 F. Coillard.
 
 PART I 
 
 THE BANYA'i EXPEDITION 
 1877— 1879 
 
 When Israel by Divine command 
 
 The pathless desert trod, 
 They found throughout the barren land 
 
 A sure resource in God. 
 
 A cloudy pillar marked the way 
 And screened them from the heat, 
 
 From the hard rock the water flowed, 
 And manna was their meat. 
 
 Like them, we have a rest in view, 
 Secure from hostile powers ; 
 
 Like them, %ve tread a desert too ; 
 But Israel's God is ours !
 
 ITINERARY OF THE BANYAI EXPEDITION 
 
 
 Lerib6 Mission Station 
 
 ... Left April i6th, 1877. 
 
 Arrived April 24th, 1877 
 
 .. Harrysmith ... 
 
 
 ? 
 
 May 6th 
 
 .. Heidelberg 
 
 
 May nth 
 
 ,, May 19th 
 
 .. Pretoria 
 
 
 May 30th 
 
 ,, June 15th 
 
 .. Marabastadt 
 
 
 ? 
 
 ,, June 22nd 
 
 .. Goedgedacht 
 
 
 June 28th 
 
 ,, June 30th 
 
 .. Valdezia 
 
 
 July nth 
 
 July 13th 
 
 .. Goedgedacht 
 
 
 July 17th 
 
 July 26th 
 
 .. Crossed Limpopo River 
 
 
 July 31st 
 
 Aug. 8th 
 
 .. Michael's I"ountain ... 
 
 
 Aug. loth or nth 
 
 Aug. nth 
 
 .. Crossed Bubye River 
 
 
 ? 
 
 Aug. i8th ... 
 
 .. Crossed Nguanetsi River 
 
 
 Aug. 2ISt 
 
 Aug. 22nd ... 
 
 fNyamonto's (in sight of 
 i Bohoa Mountain) 
 
 } : 
 
 ? 
 
 Aug. 28th ... 
 
 [Crossed Zingwesi and) 
 
 ? 
 
 
 Lundi Rivers 
 
 J " 
 
 
 Aug. 31st ... 
 
 rMasonda's Mountain (near 
 " \ Fort Victoria) 
 
 
 Sept. 3rd 
 
 Sept. 4th 
 
 .. Nyanikoe 
 
 ,, 
 
 Sept. 17th 
 
 ,, Dec. isth 
 
 .. Bulawayo 
 
 
 ? 
 
 Jan. 19th, 1878 
 
 .. Hope Fountain, Bulaway 
 
 3 11 
 
 end of Feb. 1878 
 
 ,, about March loth 
 
 .. Inyati 
 
 II 
 
 March 31st 
 
 ,, April 27th ... 
 
 .. Shoshong 
 
 ,, 
 
 June 14th 
 
 July 26th 
 
 .. Leshoma 
 
 
 Aug. 19th 
 
 about Aug. 28th 
 
 .. Sesheke 
 
 
 ? 
 
 Sept. 6th 
 
 Leshoma 
 
 ,, 
 
 ? 
 
 ,, Nov. ist 
 
 ... Sesheke 
 
 ,, 
 
 Nov. 6th 
 
 ,, Nov. 7th 
 
 .. Leshoma 
 
 >) 
 
 about Nov. i8th 
 
 ? 
 
 .. Deka 
 
 II 
 
 Dec. 2nd 
 
 ,, Dec. 31st 
 
 ... Shoshong 
 
 ,, 
 
 Feb. 25th, 1879 
 
 ,, March 3rd, 1879 
 
 .. Seleka (Old) 
 
 • 1 
 
 ? 
 
 about March 6th 
 
 .. Blaauwberg, W. (Thateli's) 
 
 ? 
 
 ? 
 
 .. Goedgedacht 
 
 11 
 
 ? 
 
 March 29th ... 
 
 .. Valdezia 
 
 II 
 
 April 17th 
 
 ,, about May 8th 
 
 .. Pretoria 
 
 II 
 
 May 19th 
 
 ,, July i6th, 1879 
 
 ... Lerib6 
 
 
 
 
 Left Cape in the Cofiway 
 
 Casik 
 
 Jan. 13th, 1880.
 
 THE BANYAi EXPEDITION 
 
 AVERY few words are needed to enable English readers to 
 follow the history of the Barotsi Mission. As the fore- 
 going pages have shown, it was an offshoot of the Basuto 
 Mission, now so well known, Francois Coillard had come out 
 to Africa under its auspices in 1857. Three years later, he 
 married Christina Mackintosh, with whom he had become 
 acquainted before leaving Paris. She was the daughter of a 
 Baptist minister in Edinburgh, the Rev. Lachlan Mackintosh. 
 
 After twenty years' labour, they were in the act of preparing 
 for this first European furlough, when the news of M. Dieterlen's 
 disaster arrived. " The Gospel entered Europe by a prison. 
 Forward ! forward ! " were M. Coillard's words to the Synod, on 
 hearing of it ; and little as they expected the call themselves 
 at such a moment, there could be no question of refusing it. 
 They had offered themselves once for all. 
 
 The expedition left the Leribe station on April i6th, 1877, 
 an^ returned to it about July i6th, 1879. Besides the four 
 Basuto catechists, Azael, Aaron, Andreas, and Asser, with their 
 wives g.nd families, it included four men as drivers and leaders 
 for the waggons — namely, Fono, Bushman, Eleazar, and Khosana. 
 Of these, the last three were Christians, who volunteered out 
 of love for the work, and not one of whom lived to return. 
 The number was completed by M. and Mme. Coillard, and 
 M. Coillard's niece, Elise, a girl of eighteen. 
 
 It had at first been planned that they should go round by 
 Bechuana-land, avoiding the Transvaal ; but this proved unneces- 
 sary. Already the Boer authorities had offered to let M. Coillard 
 pass through ; and when he arrived at Pretoria, he found they 
 had been superseded by the British Government, whose repre- 
 sentatives at Pretoria gave the mission party every encourage- 
 ment. After crossing the Limpopo, the party turned to the
 
 4 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 north-east, and ^'plunged literally into a trackless wilderness.N^ 
 They had only the compass to steer by, and had to cut their 
 way, as they went along, through forest and prairie grass. 
 Jhis route was pretty nearly identical with that now con- 
 necting the Chartered Company's line of forts, and was' beset 
 with every peril, from swollen rivers to wild beasts and /wilder^ 
 men.- Masonda, a treacherous Mashona chief, almost suc- 
 ceeded in destroying the whole caravan. A few weeks after 
 their escape from him, they were seized by an armed band, 
 and carried off to Bulawayo, to Lobengula, the Matabele king, 
 who '"^ accused' them of having entered his te rritories without 
 permission and by a new route,__ 
 
 Lobengula kept them prisoners nearly four months, treating 
 them with personal kindness, but constantly putting off the 
 official reception in which he must finally grant or refuse them 
 permission to settle among the Banyai'. He would not believe 
 they had entered his realms from the Transvaal. Queen 
 Victoria, he understood, was now sovereign of the Transvaal, 
 and consequently his next neighbour. How was it, then, that 
 she had not charged them with a present for him ? 
 V " No doubt she would have done so," incautiously remarked 
 a European who was present, " if she had known of your 
 existence." 
 
 " What ! " angrily muttered the king, " who could there be 
 who does not know ME and the extent of my kingdom?" 
 Lobengula seldom raised his voice, even in anger.^ ' 
 
 " Yes," interposed Mme. Coillard, " difficult as your Chief- 
 tainship must find it to believe such a thing, there ar-e beings 
 on earth so wretched and benighted as never even to have 
 heard of YOU." And Lobengula did not pursue the subject. 
 Indeed, beseemed rather overawed generally at the tone adopted 
 by these captives, helpless though they were, in the hands of a 
 chief continually surrounded by executioners. 
 Y In the end, he absolutely refused permission for the mis- 
 sionaries to settle anywhere within his dominions, and sent 
 them out of his country. For, although they had not known 
 of it, and the Banya'i strenuously denied his authority, he 
 claimed suzerainty over the whole of Mashona-land — a claim 
 which a few years later was to cost him dear^ 
 
 They next went to Khama's town. A few days before
 
 i879] THE BANYAi EXPEDITION 5 
 
 leaving Bulawayo, however, they met some refugees from the 
 north, speaking the _Sekololo tongue, which is identical with 
 Sesuto. At once the thought presented itself, " Perhaps this 
 is to be our field " ; and when they reached Shoshong, both 
 Khama and his missionary, Mr. Hepburn, warmly took up the 
 idea. The chief himself was in frequent communication with 
 the Barotsi king, Robosi (since known as Lewanika), who, like 
 himself, had to be always on the defensive against the Matabele, 
 and he volunteered to send ambassadors with or before the 
 expedition, setting before Robosi the advantages of having 
 missionaries, and urging him to receive them. Accordingly, 
 the Coillards set off with Azael, Asser, Khosana, and Eleazar, 
 leaving the families with the other two evangelists under 
 Khama's hospitable care. Six months later, they returned to 
 Shoshong. They had succeeded in reaching Sesheke, on the 
 left (north) bank of the Zambesi ; but the delays imposed by 
 etiquette had prevented their obtaining an interview with the 
 king before the rainy season, when the whole Barotsi Valley 
 is under water for some months, and Lealuyi, the capital, is 
 practically inaccessible. However, he had granted them leave 
 to return with the evangelists and establish a mission there. 
 Within these six months, the three devote d servant s, Khosana. 
 Bushman, and Eleazar, had passed away. 
 
 The expedition now left Shoshong, and cut across country 
 to the\Swiss mission station of Valdezia, in the north of the 
 Transvaal. Here two of the catechists were left temporarily ; 
 while Asserj the hero of the original Banyai exploration, was 
 placed with Aaron at Seleka, a small heathen village on the 
 borders of Khama's territory. On July i6th they found 
 themselves once more in Basuto-land, and in the following 
 January the Coillards started on their long-deferred visit to 
 Europe. 
 
 C. W. M.
 
 6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 A Letter from M. Coillard to his Committee in Paris 
 
 RESPECTING HIS PROPOSED MISSION TO THE BANYAI. 
 
 Leribe, Jamiafy lyd, 1^77. 
 
 Gentlemen and dear Brethren, — The Secretary of our 
 Conference has doubtless already informed you of the pro- 
 position which my colleagues have made — namely, to confide 
 to us the projected expedition to the Limpopo. This news 
 will have surprised you all as much as it did ourselves. 
 The reasons which have led our brethren to address this call 
 to us, fully realising what it would mean to us, have been 
 submitted to you, and you have been able to judge of them. 
 If this appeal, no less pressing than unanimous, had been 
 made last year, when it was first talked about in the mission, 
 it would have found my wife and myself g?i2te ready. But 
 coming just at the moment when we were thinking of starting 
 for Europe, at first it overwhelmed us. The overthrow of all 
 our plans, an indefinite farewell to our station at Leribe, the 
 responsibility of such an undertaking, the strange new prospects 
 which it opened up to us, and all so sudden and unexpected, 
 stunned and bewildered us. We both felt the need for being 
 alone before God, and for seeking His will together at His feet. 
 The darkness which had gathered so swiftly round our path 
 seemed very mysterious. But light broke little by little ; and 
 then we saw that our road had taken another direction. From 
 the moment we realised that the foundation of the Banya'f 
 Mission was in danger, and that nothing less was at stake than 
 its postponement to an indefinite date for want of a labourer, 
 we understood what the Master demanded of us, and we no 
 longer hesitated to obey. After ten days of communion with 
 Him, we were able joyfully to silence the " counsels of flesh 
 and blood," and to say to Him once more, " Here we are ; send 
 us." He has deigned to accept our sacrifice, and in token 
 thereof He has filled our hearts with perfect peace. 
 
 It is an honourable and a confidential mission with which 
 He is charging us, one of which any one else would have been 
 more worthy than ourselves. We are haunted by the painful 
 sense of our own incapacity and ignorance ; but what upholds 
 us is that God is often pleased to make use of the weak things
 
 l877] A LETTER TO THE COMMITTEE 7 
 
 of this world to confound the wise, tJiat 710 flesJi should glory in 
 His pi-esence. 
 
 The question of health is an ever-present menace, and not 
 a little disquieting ; but we keep reminding each other that 
 if the Master is calling us, " He knoweth our frame " ; and also 
 that we do not belong to ourselves, but to Him Who has loved 
 us and given Himself for us. But we shall not be alone in 
 those unknown regions. You will identify yourselves with our 
 work ; your prayers will uphold us. God will send His ministers 
 before us to prepare the way; and besides, the Angel of the Lord 
 Himself will encamp round about us, as He did about the prophet, 
 with His legions of angels, and will deliver us. That is our 
 confidence, our strength, and our joy. 
 
 We are quite taken up now with our preparations for 
 departure. I intend (D.V.) to ride over next week to Natal, to 
 arrange about our waggons and purchases myself. My dear wife 
 will stay here to prepare supplies of food and clothing, and set 
 everything to rights, with her usual activity. Thus, on my return, 
 we shall have nothing more to do, except to settle some details 
 as to the catechists and the expedition in general. We hope 
 to start in April at latest. Then, and till then, we shall have 
 a time of fatigue and emotion. I dread the farewells. But the 
 Lord will uphold us to the end. He will be our strength. 
 
 Asto our itinerary, it is not yet settled. Availing ourselves 
 of som^ indirect overtures from President Burgers, we have 
 once moVe applied to the Transvaal authorities for a passport 
 We have) as yet received no answer. And, also, we are anxious 
 to know what will be the result of the mission undertaken 
 by Sir Theophilus Shepstone at the request of the British 
 Government, both as to the Transvaal and as to Sekoukouni.^ 
 Up to the present, the news is anything but reassuring. The 
 newspapers of these parts talk of irruptions made into the 
 territory of the Republic by Cetewayo's savage hordes. Strange 
 rumours, to which we cannot attach much credence, circulate 
 among the natives. In case of that road being barred to us, 
 I should not consider it a misfortune if we were obliged to 
 go by way of Mangwato, and even to go as far as Inyati in 
 Matabele-land. But there, too, the Lord will guide us. 
 
 ' Or Seccocoeni, a rebel chief whom the Boers had in vain been striving to 
 subdue. See " The Life of Sir Bartle Frere."
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Off to Banya'i-Iand — Preparations for Departure — Visit to Natal — English 
 Farmers — Return to Leribe — Conference at Morija — Evangelists chosen 
 — Farewell to Leribe — Harrysmith — Arrival at Pretoria — British Pro- 
 clamation — Mr. Bosman — British Soldiers — The Bush Veldt— Kindness 
 of Boers — Goedgedacht — Valdezia — MM. Creux and Berthoud — Mr. 
 Hofmeyr's Work — Volunteers from his Congregation — Departure from 
 Goedgedacht. 
 
 Heidelberg, May 6th, 1877. 
 
 YES, we are off to Banyai-land, the Zambesi regions, the 
 interior of Africa! It is almost a dream! These last three 
 months have been so full of work, of preparations, preoccupa- 
 tions, and emotions of every kind, that it almost makes me 
 giddy to think of it all ; and I cannot help repeating with 
 David, " It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh 
 my way perfect" (Fr. Ver., smooths viy way). 
 
 First of all, I had to go to Natal to purchase our waggons 
 and provisions. I found our expedition excited the most lively 
 interest everywhere. I arrived in Durban on a Wednesday 
 evening, and immediately betook myself to the church, where, 
 according to the custom of the country, a meeting was going 
 on. I entered noiselessly, and sat down by the door. The 
 pastor, Mr. Mann, who had caught sight of me at the close of 
 his address, calling to me, bade me welcome in the name of 
 the Church, invoked the blessing of God upon our enterprise, 
 and begged me to close the meeting. On the following Sunday, 
 in spite of rainy weather, the church was full, and I preached 
 on these words : " And other sheep I have, which are not of 
 this fold : them also must I bring." 
 
 At Pictcrmaritzburg, I also had several opportunities of 
 pleading the cause of missions. Thanks to the general interest, 
 of which my friend the Rev. J. Smith had set the example, 
 I was able to procure waggons on extraordinarily moderate
 
 i877] PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE 9 
 
 terms, and yet as complete and comfortable as they could 
 possibly be. In passing through Harrysmith, that little town 
 in the Free State where ten years before we had been led as 
 prisoners/ I found there was the same interest, so much so 
 that on my return I was able to add nearly £yo to the Mission 
 Fund, without ever having thought of making a collection. 
 
 One evening, I arrived at a farm ; the owner and his family, 
 English people, were earnest Christians. They thought I was 
 on my way to Europe ; but when I told them how the Master 
 had suddenly changed my route, and was sending me into 
 unknown parts, the old lady of the house, clasping her hands, 
 exclaimed with all a mother's emotion, " Blessed servants of 
 God ! carry the ark of the Lord ! go forward ! fear not ! And 
 we, if we are not strong enough to go with you, shall at any 
 rate follow you in thought ; we will shout with the sound of 
 trumpets and timbrels " (2 Sam. vi.). Then, once more taking 
 up this enthusiastic strain, she added, " My prayer is, that before 
 you leave Leribe God may grant you a mighty revival. Then 
 we will come and rejoice with you ; and while you and your 
 dear lady are taken up with speaking to the awakened souls, I, 
 who do not understand the language, will be preparing your 
 food, and I too will have my share of blessing." 
 
 Directly after my return to Leribe, I had to ride off again to 
 Morija, where special devotional meetings had brought most of 
 our brethren together. We considered the choice of evangelists, 
 for a new appeal had stirred up several new volunteers. Out 
 of the four who took part in the first expedition, one was left 
 to be employed in Basuto-land, because of an accident which 
 has almost entirely deprived him of the use of his right arm. 
 This was Onesimus, and great was his grief when he learned our 
 decision. In his place they chose Aaron Mayoro, of Leribe, 
 a young married man, the father of two children, and full of 
 manly zeal. He has given proofs of his perseverance and self- 
 abnegation in occupying the ungrateful post of Bouta-Boute.- 
 His wife, who is worthy of himself, was brought up in our house. 
 
 Next, I had to give my attention to the work of the district 
 
 ' By the Boers. See Introduction. 
 
 ^ A very dreary village — the native place of Moshesh, the supreme chief, 
 occupied since his death by one of his grandsons. An out-station confided to 
 a catechist.
 
 lO ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 I was about to leave. I had recently sent some young men to 
 occupy different posts as schoolmasters ; and now it was neces- 
 sary to go and install them officially. One of them, Philemon, 
 is a young man I should like you to know. A Mopeli by 
 birth, he had fled from his father's house while still a child, in 
 order to go to the white men, and earn enough to buy a gun. 
 Although he lived with a pastor, his hatred for the things of 
 God knew no bounds. On the journey back to his native 
 country, he stayed some time among us with a troop of his 
 fellow-countrymen. The truth made a deep impression on some 
 of them, and farther on their way, they informed him of their 
 determination to come back to Leribe and learn. He broke 
 into a violent rage, and so far forgot himself as to spit in 
 their faces. A fortnight later he followed them ; and standing 
 at our door quite broken down, and even shedding tears, asked 
 to be admitted among our pupils. His was one of those 
 striking conversions which leave no room for doubt ; and he 
 won the place of a son in our hearts as well as in our house. 
 We prepared him for the school of Morija : he has just left it 
 with his diploma. His gift for teaching is remarkable. In 
 three months, in a place where he had scarcely four or five 
 pupils, he has got together more than forty-five, all the children 
 of heathen ; and what he has taught them in this short space 
 of time astonishes us. His manners, frank and simple, but 
 respectful, have won the esteem of all the neighbouring petty 
 chiefs. 
 
 The dedication of the church of Tsikoane attracted a great 
 crowd of people. There were some there whose presence added 
 much to the solemnity of the occasion for me ; these were the 
 evangelists from Morija, who were to accompany us to the Banyai. 
 They arrived at Leribe the next day ; and then, in the midst of 
 meetings and private interviews with the members of my flock, 
 we had to put the finishing touches to our preparations for 
 departure, pack the cases, and load the waggons. 
 
 By the Saturday, everything was finished. Our friends 
 Jousse and Mabillc, and their companions, our brothers Duvoisin, 
 Casalis, Preen, Dieterlen, and Christmann, and some Christians 
 from other Churches, arrived. Those whom their age or other 
 circumstances prevented from coming wrote us encouraging 
 and affectionate letters. The presence of our dear Basuto-land
 
 i877] FAREWELL TO LERIB£ II 
 
 brethren and their fervent prayers powerfully upheld us. It 
 seemed like the angel whom the Lord sent to the prophet in 
 the desert with food and the message, " Arise and eat, because 
 the journey is too great for thee." 
 
 I ascended the pulpit for the last time. A ministry of nearly 
 twenty years unrolled itself before me, with all its blessings, its 
 few successes, but also its recollections of unfaithfulnesses and 
 miserable mistakes, now, alas ! beyond repair — a ministry the 
 fearful responsibility of which I had never so fully realised 
 before. We bade good-bye to each member of our dear flock. 
 For us, the Lord's promise has not been empty. If we have left 
 mothers, brothers, sisters, we have found them again in this life : it 
 was from them and from beloved children in the faith that we were 
 parting. We were leaving another fatherland, another France. 
 
 Besides the collection made in the church, our poor people 
 came again on the Monday, bringing us their little presents with 
 many tears. One of the most aged women of our flock came, 
 just as we were getting" into the waggons, and offered us a mat 
 she had long been working at. " I wanted to spread it under 
 your feet, servants of God," she said, bursting into tears. The 
 sun was already close to the horizon ; we felt it was impossible 
 to bear the emotional strain any longer. The brothers and 
 sisters who had stayed with us to the last moment assembled in 
 our parlour, and commended us once more to God and to the 
 word of His grace ; and after a few private moments with 
 my beloved wife in this house, which had witnessed so many 
 struggles and benedictions, one last look at the garden that 
 adorns this retreat, we entered the waggons and gave the signal 
 to start. Dear Leribe, at once our Bethel and our Ebenezer, 
 farewell, farewell ! Farewell, children of God, whose tender 
 affection has given us citizenship among you, and made us forget 
 the house of our fathers ! May our successors be as happy there 
 as we have been, and still more blessed ! Did we make the 
 mistake of looking on Leribe as our earthly home, and the 
 work we pursued here as our own ? The Lord has dispelled 
 that illusion ; but yet we cling to its very stones, watered by our 
 tears and the sweat of our brows. 
 
 Most of the people persisted in following our waggons. I 
 rode to bid good-bye to the poor chief Molapo, who was ill, 
 exhorted him for one last time, and prayed with him. I had
 
 12 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 just separated from M. Jousse. God only knows what I owe 
 him. Now I had to part from Mabille, the friend of my heart, 
 the witness of my conflicts and my weakness. We felt shaken 
 to the very foundations. But Jesus was there ; no separation 
 from Him. " I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." 
 
 The magistrate, the traders, and some Europeans of the 
 district also wished to give us a token of the interest they took 
 in our distant expedition, and sent us, together with a purse 
 of ten guineas, a letter, in which they were pleased to acknow- 
 ledge our labours, and to express the warmest wishes for the 
 success of our enterprise and regret for our departure. 
 
 The next day, many of our people came to our camp to 
 renew the painful scenes of the previous day. Men on foot 
 and on horseback accompanied us for several days' journey. It 
 was at Harrysmith that we parted from the last, and among 
 them Nathanael Makotoko, to whom I am closely bound by 
 a friendship of more than twenty years, and whom only the 
 most urgent duties prevented from going with us. The many 
 kindnesses we received at Harrysmith did not succeed in 
 softening the bitterness of this last drop. 
 
 The caravan is composed of three waggons and three tents. 
 The expedition includes the four evangelists Asser, Azael, 
 Andreas, and Aaron, with their wives and some of their children. 
 Besides these, we have three young men from Leribe who have 
 volunteered to lead the teams and graze the cattle. Eleazar, 
 the driver ^ of our waggon, is the son of Luka Ntsaba, who, in 
 1833, guided the first missionaries to Basuto-land. He is one 
 of the evangelists from Morija. He was burning with the desire 
 to go the Banyai" in that capacity, but his wife would not hear 
 of it ; and it was thereupon that, with her consent, he offered 
 himself to drive our waggon. His is a merry, playful tempera- 
 ment, and he possesses in a very unusual degree the gift of 
 speaking well. Four Bapeli have joined us for the sake of 
 returning to their own country, and they try to make them- 
 selves useful, one of them especially, who has long lived in our 
 house, and has never ventured to declare himself converted, 
 although I believe him to be a true child of God. Finally, 
 a niece of mine accompanies us ; a strange concatenation of 
 
 ' In Africa, tlie driver of an ox-team wields the long whip ; the leader 
 goes before the team to show the way.
 
 i877] PRETORIA I3 
 
 circumstances has brought her to us, and I hope she will be 
 a blessing to us and to others. 
 
 Our rule is to start before daybreak, and to travel late into 
 the night, resting for a few hours during the heat of the day to 
 take a meal and graze the oxen, for whom we have to sacrifice 
 our comforts, our habits, and our tastes. Besides family worship 
 morning and evening, at our chief halts we have prayer meetings 
 and regular services. The watchword which seems to have been 
 given us from the beginning of our journey, and which con- 
 stantly recurs in our conversations and our exhortations, is, 
 " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus " 
 (Phil. ii. 5). Needless to say, the most perfect harmony reigns 
 amongst us. We cherish no illusions as to the difficulties, priva- 
 tions, fatigues, and perils that await us ; but for that very reason 
 we feel all the more the necessity for strengthening ourselves in 
 the Lord. We know we are followed by the prayers of God's 
 children, and that the angel of the Lord encamps round about 
 us and delivers us. 
 
 GOEDGEDACHT, Jtlly l^th, 1 877. 
 
 It was from Heidelberg that I wrote last. An epidemic had 
 broken out among our teams and carried off several oxen. 
 After a week's rest, we were able to go on, and we arrived at 
 Pretoria about May 19th. We halted for a moment before 
 entering the town, just to compose ourselves, and look round 
 upon the panorama before us. A beautiful valley, encircled 
 by hills ; clumps of trees, through which we could descry a 
 confused mass of white houses, — this was Pretoria, Dieterlen's 
 prison, the great wall set up against the Gospel. But God has 
 broken through the gates of that prison ; and when He opens, 
 no man can shut. 
 
 We outspanned to the sound of cannon ; flags were flying 
 everywhere ; the streets were filled with excited people, and the 
 air with martial music. The town was holding festival. Sir 
 Theophilus Shepstone and the members of his government were 
 going to take the oath of allegiance to the Queen. The coin- 
 cidence of our arrival with this circumstance seemed to us very 
 remarkable. We set up our camp close to the prison, which was 
 surrounded by the tents of the English ; and it was under the 
 shadow of those very walls that on the Sunday evening we took
 
 14 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 the Communion together, our hearts overflowing with gratitude. 
 " There is our prison," said one of the catechists to me ; " we 
 must show you our cells." One time, when Asser was passing 
 close by it with one of his companions, he took it into his head 
 to knock at the door. " What do you want ? " asked the jailer 
 roughly. " We should like to see the cells once more where 
 they put us last year." " Get out with you, Kaffirs." This time 
 the door was shut tight enough ! 
 
 We went to pay our respects to Sir Theophilus Shepstone, 
 whom we had seen a great deal of in Natal. He seemed pleased 
 to see us again, and showed the greatest interest in our enter- 
 prise, as did the gentlemen attending him. He gave us all the 
 information and all the advice he could, and asked us to write 
 to him as often and as regularly as possible. He pressed us 
 very much to stay in Pretoria till the 24th, the Queen's birth- 
 day, so that our catechists, to whom he came and spoke very 
 kindly, might, as he said, realise that they had nothing more to 
 dread from the prisons of Pretoria, but had rather to confide in 
 a government which was friendly to missions and the protector 
 of the blacks. The Baron de Salis-Fanson, the Belgian consul, 
 also interested himself in our expedition. 
 
 Our stay in the capital could not fail to make a sensation. 
 The employes of different grades under the late Government 
 behaved very apologetically to us. One of them especially, 
 now a servant of the new Government (in what capacity I know 
 not), pressed me strongly to visit him at his house, " for he very 
 much wanted to have a long conversation with me, not to make 
 any exctises" he added, pulling himself up to assert his dignity, 
 " but to give us some explanations." But as I did not want any 
 explanations from him, I politely referred him to public opinion, 
 to his conscience and his God. If I had one regret, it was that 
 Dieterlen himself was not there to see with his own eyes the 
 change that has taken place. Every one we met thought it the 
 correct thing to talk indignantly about Burgers and his govern- 
 ment, and the way they had treated first Dieterlen, and then our 
 Swiss brethren, Crcux and Berthoud.^ It is a token of sympathy, 
 which costs very little under existing circumstances ; one must 
 just take it for what it is worth. We enjoyed the society of 
 the German missionary and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Griineberger, 
 ' See note on page 17.
 
 i877] THE BUSH VELDT 1 5 
 
 and of Mr. and Mrs. Bosnian. The latter friend, a young 
 Dutch pastor, who, like most of his fellow-students, does 
 credit to the South African School of Theology at Stellenbosch, 
 has only been a few months established at Pretoria. He has 
 the true " sacred fire," and assuredly his labour will not be in 
 vain in the Lord. In view of the prejudices of his congregation, 
 he would not have dared to offer his pulpit to a missionary ; but 
 he had the courage to transform his Sunday school into a 
 missionary meeting for us, and, as he had announced it at the 
 morning service, a large number of adults assembled and seemed 
 interested. I love the Dutch Church of the Cape, the asylum 
 of the old French refugees ; and wherever I can meet with it, I 
 love to report the Christian and missionary spirit that still 
 dwells in its bosom. The wars and antagonisms of races, their 
 continually conflicting interests, have stifled, but they have not 
 quite extinguished it. May God cause His Spirit to blow over 
 this Church and her pastors ! 
 
 We were impatient to be off again, and on a Wednesday 
 evening at sunset we inspanned. Some soldiers ran up to bid 
 us good-bye, and wish us a pleasant journey : we had been 
 neighbours for ten days, and had made acquaintance with 
 several of them. " Sir," one of them said to me, " the behaviour of 
 your people has been a wonder to us ; it has done us real good. We 
 have never seen such honest natives, nor any that were so polite 
 and religious. We often used to listen to their singing, and many 
 a time we would have come to your services, if we had dared." 
 
 It was icy cold, and as we passed along the streets we could 
 espy through the windows families sitting at their tea, or round 
 sparkling fires. We could not see a step before us ; in fact, we 
 lost our way. And how our thoughts did go back to our home 
 at Leribe ! — not regretfully though. We were only too happy 
 to be going forward. 
 
 We were now crossing a wooded country ; the road was 
 good, and so was the spirit animating all our people. They 
 sang hymns, they hunted or pretended to hunt, and all along 
 the road we kept meeting obliging people. We were the objects 
 of special kindness in what they call the Bush Veldt — a district 
 to which a great many Boers had betaken themselves in patri- 
 archal style, with their families and flocks, for the winter. 
 Here, where there is no telegraph, news flies at a surprising
 
 l6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 rate. Everybody knew about us, and the purpose of our 
 journey, and all expressed good wishes for us. It was curious 
 to see these forest camps. Often we would halt for the night, 
 believing ourselves to be quite alone, and then suddenly in the 
 middle of the night or very early in the morning we would hear 
 the sound of psalm-singing. It was the farmers' families at 
 prayer. These psalmodies, awaking sweet childish memories, 
 and making me think of the " assemblies of the Desert,"^ thrilled 
 strangely through us in the midst of these forest solitudes and 
 the silence of the night. All the farmers behaved most kindly 
 and obligingly to us ; they gave us milk, eggs, and meat, nearly 
 always refusing to accept payment. Indeed, the Lord's good- 
 ness and mercy accompanied us like two angel escorts ; and 
 when we came in sight of Mr. Hofmeyr's station at the foot of 
 the beautiful Zoutpansberg Range, beyond which no messenger 
 of Christ has yet carried the Gospel, we fell on our knees and 
 gave thanks to God. 
 
 Our brother the Dutch missionary, Hofmeyr, was absent, 
 and did not return till some days after our arrival, which, 
 however, did not prevent his people from receiving us with 
 touching affection. On his return, he lent us two teams ; and 
 leaving our luggage and one of the waggons at Goedgedacht, 
 we left for Valdezia. The journey occupied three days. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe the delights of finding 
 ourselves once more with our dear friends Creux and Berthoud, 
 the pioneers of the Mission de la Suisse Romande (as the 
 Mission Vaudoise is now called). The meeting of our cate- 
 chists with their brethren at Valdezia was a sight worth seeing. 
 Here, it was like being in Basuto-land ; the hamlet which 
 the evangelists occupy at the station even bears its name. 
 Every one talks Sesuto ; they sing our hymns, and among 
 these beautiful mountains the illusion is complete. Our arrival 
 was quickly noised abroad, and the same evening some young 
 men converts and a great many heathen came together to bid 
 us welcome. We spent ten days with our brethren — days too 
 quickly passed. One little excursion we made with M. Creux 
 to visit Mr. Schwellnus, a German missionary. Our Swiss 
 
 ' Asserablies of Protestants during the revolutionary period at the end of 
 last century and beginning of this, in the district of France known as the 
 Desert, around Nimes and the Cevennes.
 
 i877] VALDEZIA 1 7 
 
 friends have fraternised with the representatives of the Berlin 
 Society, and they share the mission field with each other in 
 a friendly spirit. Travelling through this country, I have been 
 struck with the influence of our Basuto Mission, its language and 
 literature, among these tribes, and in the Transvaal. Our three 
 waggons might have been loaded with books, and we could easily 
 have sold them all. Everywhere we were beset with demands for 
 books, especially New Testaments. Our friends had put off a 
 festival for our arrival. A modest and primitive church was 
 completed for the occasion ; the bell rang for the first time to 
 call both faithful and unbelievers together ; and six young men, 
 pagans not long ago, publicly confessed the Saviour's Name, and 
 received the seal of baptism. Generally in South Africa women 
 are more easily attracted to the Gospel than men ; servitude 
 has prepared them for it. Here, it is principally among the 
 young men that it is working, young fathers of families ; and 
 this is the true future for the Church. Asser in his address 
 made a touching allusion to the time when, all alone with 
 Eliakim, he first broke ground in this garden of the Lord. In 
 the evening, we took the Communion together. Valdezia is 
 the Elim of our journey. We parted from our friends, feeling 
 rested, refreshed, and encouraged. I say nothing of their 
 kindnesses to us ; and for a very good reason — I should not 
 know where to begin. They placed everything at our disposal, 
 even the provisions they have such difficulty in procuring for 
 themselves. They had not even waited for our arrival before 
 buying some cattle for us, and picking the best out of their own 
 teams to exchange them for our sick or worn-out oxen. The 
 Lord had used their captivity at Marabastadt ^ to make them 
 even more popular than they were before. Berthoud is a 
 doctor, and his success in this branch has won him as much 
 consideration and influence among the whites as among the 
 blacks. Creux is above all an evangelist, and his thorough 
 knowledge of English opens many doors to him. He preaches 
 in this language to the farmers, visits them, and keeps an especial 
 look-out on the spirits, which are the curse of the country. And, 
 indeed, people hereabouts stand considerably in awe of him. 
 
 1 They were taken from their station and brought there by the Boers, who 
 objected to their missionary work. The same Government which had arrested 
 M. Dieterlen kept them prisoners for several weeks. 
 
 2
 
 l8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 Goedgedacht is a mission entirely sustained by the children 
 of the Dutch Church at the Cape. It is here that MacKidd 
 died, a Scotchman, and a true servant of God, whose name the 
 natives never pronounce even now without the most profound 
 reverence. At present, Mr. Hofmeyr is at the head of the work.^ 
 He is an Afrikander, a man mighty both in faith and works, his 
 heart burning with love and enthusiasm in his Master's service. 
 His spirit has communicated itself to his people, and for them 
 this expedition is the answer to ardent prayers. He had always 
 been on fire to see the Banyai' evangelised, and he would have 
 started himself, if some one could have taken his place. He has 
 all the affection and admiration of the pious Cape Dutch for our 
 mission (the S.M.E.P.).^ So you may think what a reception 
 they gave us when we came back. They loaded our waggons 
 with flour, maize, and sweet potatoes, not forgetting fowls, pigs, 
 pigeons, cats, and I don't know what not ! Our people said, 
 " Look, master, how our waggons are growing ! " As for me, I 
 thought of Noah's Ark. 
 
 It was a solemn Sunday, the last we spent with our friends. 
 From the pulpit went forth pressing appeals to consecration and 
 devotedness, which we took home to ourselves. In a special 
 Church meeting, our friend said to his flock, " Who is going to 
 the Banyai with our brothers from France and Basuto-land ? 
 Let each one examine himself." The next day at dawn, he 
 came to me and said, " Dear brother, the Lord is asking my 
 right hand for you ; but it is all right ; you shall have him." 
 At midday two other men, the pillars of the Church, presented 
 themselves. " The Lord is taking my best men," he said, " but 
 they are His." On the eve of our departure, there was a fare- 
 well meeting in the evening, which went on far into the night, 
 and brought back to us all the sorrowful scenes of Basuto- 
 land. One could feel the beating of hearts full of faith and 
 devotion. " We are going to the wars," said those who were 
 going with us, " like the Israelites against the Amalekites. You 
 stay here, hold up the hands of God's servant, and pray for us." 
 " My beloved brother," said Mr. Hofmeyr, quite overcome by his 
 >elings, " here are three of our children, whom we are commit- 
 "^on-in-lavv of the Rev. F. and Mrs. Neethling, and nephew of Mr. Andrew 
 
 xi6t6 des Missions Evang6hques de Paris.
 
 i877] LEAVING GOEDGEDACHT 1 9 
 
 ting to you, to go with you and carry the Gospel to the Banyai, 
 for whom we have prayed so much. It costs us much to part 
 with them, because of the position they occupied among us. 
 But the Lord is calling them ; and if I have any regret, it is 
 that my sons John, Henry, and Christopher are too young to go 
 too." Then turning towards these three men, who were standing 
 up in the midst of the assembly, " Remember," he said, " that 
 the fertiliser which makes the seed of the Gospel grow is the 
 flesh and bones of Jesus Christ's disciples." 
 
 But I do not feel capable of telling you any more about it. 
 This is not the moment to be trembling and giving way to 
 emotion. It is the moment for us to draw near to God, to gird 
 ourselves with strength and courage, and go joyfully forward. 
 We are taking the desert way, which we do not know anything 
 about. The Creux have accompanied us thus far. It is like 
 the gangway that still joins us to the shore ; once raised, we 
 shall be cut asunder from all our friends, and deprived, no doubt 
 for a long, long time, of all intercourse with them and the 
 civilised world. But the Lord is our light and salvation. Of 
 whom should we be afraid ?
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 On the Banks of the Limpopo — Palm Tree Fountain — Crossing the Crocodile 
 River — Lions — Arrival in Banyai-land — The Chief Nyamonto — Adventures 
 at Masonda's Mountain — Cattle carried off — A Great Deliverance — Mes- 
 sengers sent from Maliankombe at Nyanikoe to Lobengula. 
 
 On the Banks of the Limpopo, July 2'jth, i?>77. 
 
 YESTERDAY we crossed the Limpopo, only a few days 
 after leaving Mr. Hofmeyr's station ; but they were days 
 that certainly counted for something. We had slept at a little 
 distance from the river, near a beautiful fountain with no name, 
 where, for the first time, we found palm trees laden with fruit. 
 We have given jt the name of Palm Tree Fountain ; it recalled 
 to us the Elim of the Israelites. We would willingly have 
 stayed beside it for some days, for we were very tired. During 
 the last two or three days, we had been obliged to cut our way 
 with axes. But knowing that the Limpopo was so near, we 
 struck our camp. We reached the river about eleven o'clock, 
 and outspanned on the north bank, when the last rays of the 
 sun were disappearing on the horizon. We had great difficulty 
 in crossing this river, because it flows over a bed of deep sand ; 
 and, once over, we were so exhausted with fatigue, that all we 
 could do, after penning the donkeys and tethering the cattle, 
 was to give thanks to God. Then we perceived that three sick 
 oxen had been left on the other side of the stream. Who would 
 go to fetch them ? The moon rose late. The crocodiles have 
 such a reputation in these quarters, that not for worlds would 
 one of our people have risked making a night excursion across 
 the reed thickets that fringe the river, nor would we have dared 
 to take it on ourselves to send them. We laid the matter 
 before the Lord in all confidence. Lions and hyaenas roared 
 and howled in various directions ; nevertheless, next morning
 
 i877] LIONS AND HYENAS 21 
 
 we found the three oxen walking about in the forest. To-day- 
 is Thursday, and we are going to rest till next Monday. We 
 have killed an ox, a present from Mr. Hofmeyr, so that we shall 
 not want for occupation in cutting it up and drying it. Every 
 one in the camp is happy. We bathe in the river and admire 
 the baobabs, which form a perfect forest hereabouts. The lions 
 have often sent us their salutations, but have never yet honoured 
 us with their visits. Our waggons are beginning to look very 
 deplorable ; their canvas covers are all so torn, that it seems 
 as though we should soon have to sleep al fresco. Passing the 
 bushes and thorn trees of these parts is no joke. 
 
 August gth. 
 
 You will notice on Baines's map a group of hills through 
 which the Bubye River flows ; we are at the angle of those to 
 the south-west of this river. Till now we have followed the 
 waggon tracks of an elephant hunter, Mr. Foster. Now we 
 must leave these tracks, for they would lead us too far from our 
 route. We shall have to cut our way through the woods, guided 
 by the compass. When we reach the Bohoa Mountain (Baines's 
 Wochua), we shall not be far from the first Banyai villages. We 
 hope to find a Makalaka chief on our way named Mathipa, at 
 whose place we shall be able to renew our stock of native 
 provisions, which is sensibly diminishing. 
 
 The country we are traversing is very dry, but God has so 
 guided us till now that neither we nor our cattle have suffered 
 from thirst. My wife always has a provision of cold tea in 
 bottles, so that from time to time she can give a draught to 
 a thirsty axeman, or a team driver hoarse with shouting. We 
 got no sleep last night : we had scarcely outspanned, and had 
 not had time to pen our beasts, when a lion came out of the 
 thicket and fell upon one of our dogs. As he on-ly succeeded 
 in leaving the traces of his claws upon the poor creature, he 
 prowled round the camp all night, defying the gleam of our 
 fires and the firing of our guns. He was not alone : the laughter 
 of the hysenas mingled with his roaring ; anything but a soothing 
 serenade for us. 
 
 All is peace and goodwill among us. The serpent of ill- 
 humour has not yet come in to poison our intercourse with one 
 another.
 
 22 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 Nyanikoe, Banyai-land, September 17th, 1877. 
 
 We have been, thank God ! nearly a fortnight in the Banyai" 
 country, which is locally known as Bombe, and have pitched our 
 tents near the residence of the chief Maliankombe. We crossed 
 the Bubye at its junction with the Mokokoe, a river whose bed 
 is fairly wide, but just then it was dried up. Our journey had 
 become extremely laborious and fatiguing. When we had with 
 great difficulty forced our way through a scrub, covered with tall 
 grass and brushwood, we found ourselves in an immense forest, 
 so thick that we could only advance very slowly, valiantly though 
 we hacked out a road for ourselves with our axes. We were 
 nearly two days without finding water, but a cloudy sky veiled 
 the full ardour of the sun's rays from us ; and when the last drop 
 in our barrels was exhausted, we came unexpectedly upon a pool. 
 
 The point we aimed at was the Bohoa Mountain. I shall 
 never forget the view that met our eyes on the day when, in 
 order to discover it, we climbed the first hills we came to. From 
 the bosom of this immense forest, in which we had been 
 burrowing like moles, wooded slopes rose billowing before us, 
 and mountains of bare rock, to which trees were nevertheless 
 clinging and struggling for existence. Always keeping to the 
 northward, we at last reached the Nguanetsi at the confluence 
 of its two streams, and then wandered about for two days before 
 we could find a fordable spot among the enormous rocks that 
 encumber the bed of this river. And then it was only by filling 
 up the interstices of these blocks with stones and trunks of trees, 
 and covering a very slippery boulder with sand, that we were 
 able to get our waggons across. It was near there that we met 
 our first Monyai', a man of middle age. At the sight of us, he 
 fled ; but seeing we were upon his heels, he sat down and 
 saluted us, trying to smile, but still gripping his bow and arrows. 
 Friendly words and a piece of meat reassured him. He gave 
 us some information, and showed us, quite close by, a trap for 
 wild beasts, a deep pit with sharp stakes at the bottom, and 
 lightly covered with grass. We shuddered at the thought of the 
 frightful accident that might have happened to us, if God had not 
 caused us to meet this native. The next morning, the flour sack 
 was shaken out for our people's breakfast. But He who sent 
 ravens to the brook Cherith to feed His prophet there could not 
 forget us. That very day, in this forest, which has hitherto been
 
 i877] NYAMONTO'S 23 
 
 SO solitary, we caught sight of black figures hiding behind trees, 
 who cast furtive glances at us, and disappeared like shadows. 
 Others, growing bolder, approached us little by little, and before 
 evening they brought us flour, peas, groundnuts, rice, etc. The 
 Lord had sent us abundance. From this moment, our waggons 
 were besieged by natives from far and near, who escorted us day by 
 day, and bivouacked beside us at night, to satisfy their curiosity. 
 The news of our coming had spread, it seems, with lightning 
 speed through the forests and mountains, and the strangest 
 tales were told about our heavy white machines, our waggons. 
 
 Between the Nguanetsi and the Bohoa Mountain, we arrived 
 close to the village of a petty chief named Nyamonto. Like all 
 the inhabitants of this region, he lives on a steep hill, strewn with 
 arTavalanche of rocks ; it is on these heights that one spies the 
 huts of the villages, perched there like eagles' eyries. Our arrival 
 was greeted from afar by the shouts of the whole population. 
 After exchanging a few messages with this chief, I climbed his 
 mountain, accompanied by Asser. Never could I have believed 
 that human beings could inhabit such a spot ! To me, it seemed 
 too dangerous even for baboons. But the terror with which the 
 Matabele inspire these poor people is such that they never feel safe 
 except in these inaccessible places. Agreeably to the etiquette 
 of the country, I offered a piece of stuff as a present to the old 
 chief, who seemed to be in a bad temper. " That is all very well 
 for a child," he said ; " it is unworthy of Nyamonto " ; and he 
 left us abruptly to confer with his council. Then sending for 
 me, he offered me with much ceremony a small elephant's 
 tusk. " The eyes of Nyamonto," he said to me, " have seen the 
 man of God, but thou hast not seen Nyamonto." " Of course 
 not," 1 replied, " since Nyamonto has not visited me yet at my 
 waggon." 
 
 Upon that, the chief, calling his men, took his bow and arrows, 
 and gave the signal for departure. He descended, sliding and 
 leaping over the rocks in a way that made me giddy, I paid 
 my respects to him with a cotton blanket, and his face lighted up. 
 " Now," he said, " thine eyes have seen Nyamonto." Then he 
 proceeded to inspect our vehicles, our beasts, etc., to the accom- 
 paniment of clappings and cries of astonishment, very amusing 
 to hear. My knowledge of Zulu was a great help to me on this 
 and subsequent occasions. My interpreter, who was also the
 
 24 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 chief's right-hand man, had worked in the diamond fields, and 
 had brought back some very undesirable notions therefrom. He 
 absolutely refused to convey to his chief what I said about the 
 benefits of the Gospel. "If God loves us, why do the Matabele 
 destroy us ? We want nothing of that sort here ; we will have 
 none of it," said he, with a significant gesture. 
 
 A little farther on, we met six or seven men, sent by a chief 
 named Masonda, who called himself the son of Maliankombe, and 
 strongly urged us to go to his place, adding that it was our best 
 road and our shortest. We had no reason to doubt his veracity 
 or refuse his invitation ; so we followed our new guides, gladly 
 resigning to them the hatchets which had grown so heavy in 
 our hands. We crossed the Singezi, and then the Lundi, a 
 little way above their junction. But the difficulties presented 
 by these rivers, where the waggon wheels sank up to their naves, 
 and thirty oxen could scarcely stir them, can only be under- 
 stood by those who have travelled in similar countries. While 
 ascending the steep bank, just at the very moment we thought 
 ourselves out of our troubles, the trek-tow (the chain to which 
 the oxen are attached) broke, four times over ; and four times 
 the waggon rolled violently back into the river. We closed 
 our eyes in terror, but it was neither upset nor broken. 
 
 Arrived at Masonda's, we outspanned under the shade 
 of a gigantic tree in a lovely glade. We could have fancied 
 ourselves in some magnificent park. Above the labyrinthine 
 valleys rose tier upon tier of heights, colossal piles of granite 
 ^ioulders interspersed with tropical vegetation. It was on one of 
 cse apparently inaccessible summits that our new friend had 
 fixed his residence. He received us with abundant protestations 
 of joy and friendship. " You arejwreary. ;_you come from afar," 
 he said : " here is a kidP^ (it was really a bullock) ; " eat and 
 rest." I returned the compliment by sending him a fine woollen 
 blanket, which he seemed to appreciate. 
 
 The next day at his request we went to visit this chief, 
 Masonda, accompanied by our ladies. The ascent proved steep, 
 almost impracticable, and under the burning sun we felt utterly 
 exhausted. We duly announced ourselves, and the petty poten- 
 tate kept us dancing attendance out on the rocks in the noontide 
 blaze so long that at last I protested. They then led us into 
 a cave, formed by a chaos of heapcd-up rocks. A crowd
 
 i877] MASONDA'S MOUNTAIN 2/ 
 
 gathered round the entrance, and increased to such an exmd 
 that it aroused the suspicions of our evangelists. " We ar 
 blocked in," one of them whispered in my ear. " Blocked in ? 
 Let us get out then ! " And the Bany.ai^ fell back to let us pass. 
 Thereupon a brother of Masonda came up, who said he was 
 commissioned to do us the honours of the capital. This 
 personage, who had the most unbounded sense of his own 
 importance, was filthy, scowling, blind in one eye, and deeply 
 pitted with small-pox — the very personification of a demon ! 
 
 * He seized Mme. Coillard by one arm, whilst another took 
 her by the other, under pretext of helping her to climb a 
 steep, slippery rock ; and two more of equally forbidding aspect 
 led off my niece. I followed just behind them, full of vague 
 
 '^uneasiness. We were slowly and painfully toiling up, when one 
 of the evangelists, unable to contain himself any longer, said to 
 me in terror-struck tones, " Where are they leading our mother ? " 
 I started, as if out of a trance. In front of us rose the sharp 
 peak ; right and left, no sign of a habitation ; beyond, nothing 
 — an abyss ! In less time than it takes to tell, I had sprung 
 forward, seized my wife, and snatched her from the hands of the 
 savages. Aaron did the same for my niece, and we promptly 
 redescended. The Banyai offered us no opposition, and without 
 further parley we regained the camp. A messenger followed 
 close upon our footsteps to tell us how annoyed Masonda was 
 at our hasty departure. " I have not seen you," he added, " but 
 I have something in my heart, and I will come myself." 
 
 This he did ; and his easy manners, and his countenance 
 sparkling with intelligence, made a good impression upon us ; 
 while in the minute and studied etiquette with which he 
 approached us, there was something quite novel, and very 
 interesting to us. In the evening, we had a meeting for praise. 
 " O God," said one, " how good, how faithful, Thou art ! Thou 
 hast led us through the desert ; Thou hast fed us and quenched 
 our thirst ; Thou hast made us pass over great rivers ; and now 
 Thou hast brought us to the Banyai land. We are in good 
 health, our axes are keen, our waggons light, and our oxen 
 have grown fat under the yoke. Thy benefits are very many : 
 who can count them ? " Our hearts responded " Amen." 
 
 The following day, which was Sunday, messengers came from 
 Masonda to ask for gunpowder. This was what he " had in
 
 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 ^ heart." " Masonda does not like the blanket ; he wants a 
 
 anister of powder and a box of caps." I explained to them 
 
 that I was not a trader, but a messenger of peace, and that I had 
 
 nothing to do with selling powder ; but it was so much breath 
 
 wasted and they went away discontented. Not a soul came near 
 
 us that day. In the evening, Masonda arrived with some men, 
 
 Reiterating his demands more or less imperiously. Then J 
 
 / perceived we had fallen into a trap. To prove my amicable in- 
 
 / tentions, I offered the chief another present. He refused it with 
 
 1 disdain and sat down sulkily near our fire. After we had retired 
 
 into our tent to have tea, one of our people came and said in a 
 
 low voice, " We are surrounded, and the natives are still coming 
 
 down from the mountain." We immediately turned towards 
 
 Masonda, who was devouring a piece of meat we had given 
 
 him, and in friendly tones tried to persuade him to go away. 
 
 Although the night was very dark, we were able to discern the 
 
 black line our man had spoken of. The chief beset us with 
 
 demands of all sorts, but would not go away. He wanted a dog, 
 
 then he required two, then he wished to choose one himself, 
 
 and so forth. At last he took a sudden resolution and departed. 
 
 " I shall come back to-morrow," he said with emphasis. 
 
 The next morning at sunrise, our waggons began to move, 
 for we felt we dared not delay. It proved the signal for a 
 great tumult on the neighbouring hills. Troops of men rushed 
 towards us, uttering fierce cries, and armed to the teeth with 
 assegais, hatchets, bows and arrows, and sharp knives, which 
 they carry in a sheath on the left arm. Some few even had 
 antiquated firearms, and these were by far the least formidable ! 
 Having arranged the waggons side by side, and made the 
 women and children go inside, I went up to the chief, who was 
 trembling with rage. " Powder ! caps ! a gun ! " he shouted. 
 At last I made him accept an ox in place of the one he had 
 given us ; he must needs choose it for himself, and it was 
 only the fifth we took from the yoke that would satisfy him. 
 After that, I made the waggons go on, dividing the crowd. 
 " May Masonda sleep sound and in peace ! " cried some of our 
 people, who were now hoping to be delivered from the claws 
 of the Hon. I could not say as much myself. A crowd of armed 
 men continued to press round our waggon in a way that was 
 anything but reassuring. We were advancing with difficulty,
 
 i877] A GREAT DELIVERANCE 2/ 
 
 when, all at once, my waggon sank in the muddy stream, and 
 all our efforts to drag it out were unavailing. I let the other 
 waggons pass over the spur of a hill and outspan at a stone's 
 throw (for we had started so early the oxen had not had time 
 to graze, and were weak for want of food) ; and while we were 
 working to disengage the first one, my wife and niece sat down 
 under a tree to sew. An ever-increasing circle soon formed 
 around them ; and a native standing behind the tree began 
 jeering and brandishing a hatchet a few inches above my wife's 
 head. It was time to tell these people to withdraw ; but the young 
 man, who gave himself airs of great importance, answered me so 
 insolently that our ladies immediately yielded the place to him. 
 
 During this time the agitation rose higher and higher around 
 us. Now the valley was overflowing with people, and re-echoing 
 with their savage cries. It was Masonda returning. Then 
 ensued a scene I feel incapable of describing. Masonda, 
 standing on a rock and foaming with fury, disposed his troops 
 so as to surround us, ordered them to take away our oxen, and 
 dictated his terms to us. " So many sacks of powder, so many 
 caps, so many blankets, so many guns, and you shall go." 
 
 I had great difficulty in restraining our people, who were 
 already running for their guns. " We will die for our wives 
 and children," they said, " since there is nothing else for it, but 
 at least we will die like men." 
 
 " Like men, yes, my friends ; but like Christians too. Lay 
 down your guns. Put your trust in God, and remember ' they 
 that be with us are more than they that be with them.' " ^ 
 
 They submitted — with an ill grace it is true ; but I thanked 
 God, for the first shot would have been the signal for a general 
 massacre of our party. 
 
 I tried in vain to persuade Masonda to bring back some seven- 
 teen oxen he had carried off ; but when he saw I was having the 
 rest yoked, he ordered me in the most peremptory manner to 
 desist. However, I held out, and the oxen were inspanned. But 
 during this time, the tumultuous crowd, led by a " seer," a magi- 
 cian, who declared himself inspired, rushed towards the waggon, 
 shrieking wildly, and apparently bent on pillage. " The night is 
 falling," they cried, " and you are in our hands. We will have 
 
 ' 2 Kings vi. 14-17 : "The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire 
 round about."
 
 28 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 your blood and everything you possess, and we shall see if your 
 God will deliver you." 
 
 I trembled at the thought that one blow from a hatchet 
 might explode the chest lying outside the waggon, which con- 
 tained our whole provision of powder. Seeing me suddenly 
 reappear with a sjambok ^ in my hand, they withdrew a short 
 distance ; but for a moment I thought I should not be able to 
 hold them off any longer. The sun was going down, and our 
 position became more critical every instant. My wife on her 
 side was doing her own work ; she had assembled the wives and 
 children of the evangelists round her, to besiege the Throne of 
 Grace, and gather strength and calmness in prayer. 
 
 When once the bullocks were inspanned, we thought the cry 
 of " Trek ! " would be the signal for a hail of arrows and assegais. 
 But no ! It only provoked the yells of the infuriated mob, and 
 the bullocks were so excited thereby that they gave a vigorous 
 pull at the yoke, and dragged the waggon out ! 
 
 The effect upon the natives was magical. Those who were 
 blocking the way fell back to let us pass ; the others made no 
 attempt to pursue us. But while we had been inspanning, a troop 
 of them had carried off seventeen of our other oxen. All my 
 efforts to obtain another interview with the chief were in vain, 
 for it was only in the forest he would grant me audience, and 
 there he summoned me imperiously " to confer with him." Not 
 judging it prudent to follow him thither, I in my turn sent him 
 this message : " Understand that these seventeen oxen are not 
 mine ; they are the property of the God Whom we serve, and 
 Who has delivered us. Beware of slaughtering them ; tend 
 them well ; and one day it will not be I who will send for them, 
 but you who will bring them back to me yourself — every ojie." 
 
 Meanwhile, what was to be done ? Night fell, and the natives 
 would not retire. All around us, their fires were glowing along 
 the edge of the forest ; we could even hear them commenting 
 with much animation on the events of the day. And then it was 
 that the plot revealed itself, which laid bare the horror of our 
 adventure two days before. To throw our ladies down from the 
 crag we were climbing, and then fall upon us, massacre every 
 one, and plunder our possessions — such had been their design, 
 
 ' Pronounced shambuck: a riding-whip, usually made of hippopotamus 
 hide, short, and tapering to a point.
 
 i877] NYANIKOE 29 
 
 " And why did we not do it ? " they kept asking each other, 
 clacking their tongues. 
 
 Still, when we considered it calmly, we found we had more 
 reasons for thanksgiving than for murmuring. Our lives were 
 safe ; though our goods had been looted, our cases had not been 
 rifled ; and although we had lost a good many bullocks, thirty 
 remained, ten for each waggon. We could not go far, for the 
 night was very dark ; and at every difficult place we had to 
 double the teams. We had to resign ourselves to wait till the 
 morning. The natives surrounded us, but did not attack us. 
 Thus " the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that 
 fear Him, and delivereth them." 
 
 Next day, a troop of men from Maliankombe came to meet 
 us, and brought us to Nyanikoe without further adventure. 
 The chief received us with great reserve. We were arriving 
 like mariners escaped from shipwreck. Maliankombe sent to 
 Masonda to enquire what had just been happening, but a man 
 whom I sent with his messenger was not received. What came 
 back to us were Masonda's claims. " Give me ten sacks of 
 powder, and a waggon loaded with your baggage, and you shall 
 have your oxen." Now, the chiefs of the place where we were 
 began to carry out a system of spoliation on their own part, be- 
 yond all reason and ruinous in the highest degree. Our relations 
 narrowly missed being broken off altogether. We discovered that 
 the Banyai pay tribute to Lobengula, supreme chief of the Mata- 
 bele, and any Matabele who comes this way holds his head high 
 and permits himself to insult chiefs and subjects with impunity. 
 
 (Extract from a letter of Mme. Coillard's, dated September 15th.) 
 
 "Yesterday forenoon I was lying in the waggon (the 
 thermometer was 92° ; I felt quite overcome), when I heard a 
 loud noise behind, and saw a native leap over the fence which 
 we have had put round our camp, to keep our importunate 
 visitors off, who come by hundreds before daybreak, and only 
 leave after sunset. I saw in a moment, by the polished ring 
 this man had on the top of his head, that he was none other 
 than a Matabele warrior. He gesticulated and shouted, ' Here 
 I am ; I have arrived at last. How dare you come here without 
 our consent? Lobengula has sent me to claim tribute, and 
 to tell you Masonda did well to despoil you, for you have
 
 30 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1877 
 
 no business here unknown to us.' F. put him out of the 
 enclosure, and told him if he had any just claims they would be 
 listened to, but there must be no noise. We see that this man 
 has right on his side, but that he tried to frighten us by exag- 
 gerating : we think he is one of Lobengula's numerous spies, but 
 we wish to have to do with the chief, not with each one of his 
 subordinates, and we fear that we must ourselves go to Inyati." 
 
 (F. Coillard's narrative continued.) 
 
 Thereupon I decided to send messengers to Lobengula, and 
 to take advantage of this opportunity to open communications 
 with the missionaries of Inyati. But you have no idea of the 
 prudence, patience, and perseverance demanded for dealing with 
 the various susceptibilities of these Banyai. Finally, Asser has 
 gone off with one of our young men who speaks Zulu, and the chief 
 has sent his brother to accompany them. For a moment, we had 
 been on the point of going ourselves ; but the thought of leaving 
 our people and property here, and the fear of being surprised 
 by the rains, made us give up the idea. The impossibility of 
 our travelling with so few oxen also seemed to us a manifesta- 
 tion of God's will. When Asser comes back, we shall place 
 him here with Aaron, and we think of then going as far as 
 the chief Zemito, where Andreas and Azael can be installed, 
 and where we ourselves shall pass the rainy season. I can say 
 no more about our plans. We desire to be led step by step. 
 
 I send this letter by Mr. Hofmeyr's people, who are return- 
 ing home. They have been a great help to us, and have so 
 thoroughly identified themselves with us, that it costs us a great 
 deal to part with them. They have quite won our hearts.^ 
 
 ' As far as it can be identified on modern maps, with which Baines's chart 
 does not correspond very clearly, the scene of this adventure seems to have 
 been what is now called Providential Gorge, near Fort Victoria ; but it is not 
 •quite certain that it was not a valley which runs parallel to this. When the 
 B. S. A. Co.'s pioneers passed through the ravine, and gave it its name (some 
 ten years later), the Banyai assured them that no white men had ever been there 
 before ; but this in itself would not disprove the identification, for the Banyai 
 seem to have extraordinarily short memories ; and besides, their statements, 
 to say the least, are not to be implicitly relied upon. 
 
 M. Coillard's official intercourse with the Banyai chiefs was conducted by 
 an interpreter, but he managed to understand their language fairly well, from 
 its affinity with Zulu, and these too could follow him when he spoke the 
 latter tongue. Asser, the catechist, of course knew the Senyai quite well, 
 from having lived in the country.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Alone among the Banyai — Treacherous Cowards — Carried to Bulawayo — 
 Cattle restored — Lobengula's Captives — An Embarrassing Interview — A 
 Month's Probation — Permission for Banyai Mission refused — Mission to 
 Mozila proposed — Alternative Plans — The North Bank of the Zambesi 
 proposed — Sickness and Discouragement — Lobengula's Second and Final 
 Refusal — Dismissal. 
 
 Bulawayo, January \Zth, 1878. 
 
 IT was on December 15th that our waggons stopped before 
 Bulawayo. It was not till to-day that the chief, Lobengula, 
 would consent to discuss our business officially. 
 
 For two months, we awaited Asser's return from Bulawayo. 
 It would take a volume to recount our various experiences 
 and distresses during this time. We were exposed to the 
 greatest dangers. The country is a perfect slaughter-house ; 
 and there is no central authority of any sort. The independent 
 villages, perched as they are upon the most inaccessible heights, 
 are constantly at war with one another. 
 
 The prevailing insecurity is such that a Monyai never 
 ventures into his fields alone, nor yet without his weapons. 
 By night as by day, at home or abroad, he always carries his 
 assegais, bow and arrows, and on his left arm the terrible cut- 
 lass, which, on the slightest provocation or suspicion of danger, 
 is instantly unsheathed. If he is not called upon to defend 
 himself, he is all the better able to attack other people — a 
 proceeding from which he is never deterred for want of a pretext. 
 It was a hard time for us, alone among these savages, of whose 
 language and customs w^e were alike ignorant. The Banyai, 
 who go almost completely naked, have few wants ; a bit of 
 calico or a bead necklace is all they need. Nevertheless, if 
 we refused to buy their sky-blue milk or the siftings of their 
 flour, we could not escape violent altercations, wherein the 
 
 31
 
 32 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 cutlass gleamed among their flowers of rhetoric ! The chief 
 Chibi nearly murdered me, and would have succeeded, had not 
 Aaron flung himself between my person and his knife. 
 
 And with all that, what cowards they were ! Did but the 
 shadow of a Matabele darken the horizon, cries of terror 
 resounded on all sides. A general stampede took place, and 
 each man fled with his small cattle, and hid in the caverns and 
 underground passages of his mountain.^ For us, as for them- 
 selves, the alarms were of daily occurrence. 
 
 At last, one day, they had real cause for panic. An armed 
 force of one hundred and fifty men, commanded by three chiefs, 
 took up its quarters beside us. It had been sent by Lobengula, 
 who, furious at our having penetrated unknown to him into 
 a country which it was his interest to keep closed to Europeans, 
 had scornfully refused to accept my presents and salutations. 
 After forcing Masonda to give back everything he had stolen 
 from us, including the seventeen oxen to enable us to travel 
 faster, the chiefs ordered us to raise our camp, and, in fact, 
 made us their prisoners. 
 
 Poor Banyai ! When they saw us going, they understood 
 that they were losing friends ; and in spite of their terrors, we 
 saw them there grouped about the rocks, and heard them 
 lamenting. 
 
 How shall I describe what we went through, during those 
 three weeks of forced marches, across a country without roads, 
 rivers without fords, marshy valleys, and rocky wooded hills ! 
 Our every movement was watched. If we dared to wash 
 ourselves in a wayside stream, it was a crime. Did we not 
 know that we must appear before his Majesty covered with 
 dust and sweat, in proof of our eagerness to obey him ? If we 
 dared to pluck a flower, we were accused of taking specimens, 
 in order to seize the whole country afterwards. Writing ? Who 
 could say what black art we might be practising against them, 
 and what calamities we might not be bringing down upon 
 them ! And every day runners were despatched to the capital. 
 
 At length, we came in sight of Bulawayo. We were already 
 climbing the furrowed slopes of the ravines, when a messenger 
 
 ' See Colonel Baden-Powell's "Matabele War" for more detailed descrip- 
 tion of these " mountains," and a sketch "elevation " and " section," showing 
 the caves and svibterranean passages.
 
 1878] LOBENGULA 33 
 
 came with the order that we were to stop just where we were, 
 without taking a single step farther to choose a more suitable 
 spot. Towards evening, one of those magicians, whose repulsive 
 aspect is pretty familiar to us by this time, arrived at the head 
 of a company. 
 
 Our soldiers instantly rose, formed ranks, and stood at 
 attention. The witch-doctor, dipping a gnu's tail into some 
 slimy greenish mixture, sprinkled them with it back and 
 front. This was a ceremony of exorcism. Then, turning 
 abruptly towards us, he made us all pass through the same 
 disgusting rite ; our waggons, our oxen, men, women, and 
 children, no one escaped. " And this man," he said, fixing 
 his gleaming eyes upon me, " give him a double dose ; he 
 is the arch-sorcerer." And a double dose I had, right in 
 my face, and all over my clothes. All this was not calculated 
 to reassure us. 
 
 We spent two days thus, carefully watched and guarded. 
 No one dared approach our vehicles ; and every one went a 
 long way round to avoid us. The third day was Sunday, and 
 in the afternoon a messenger came to summon me to the king's 
 presence. " Run, white man ; the king is calling you." ^ 
 
 But the nearer I came, the less I felt disposed to hurry 
 myself. 
 
 I passed from one court into another. Naked men, with 
 crowns of polished leather encircling their heads in token of 
 their manhood, were squatting in dead silence all around. In 
 the centre stood a waggon, and I noticed a corpulent but 
 pleasant-faced man, carelessly leaning on his elbows upon the 
 packing-case which served as a coach-box. His smooth hands, 
 his nails of exaggerated length, the monkey skins he wore about 
 his loins, the men who approached him bowing, all told me 
 that this was Lobengula himself. I saluted him ; he saluted 
 me in Sesuto, and an embarrassing silence ensued. 
 
 " Where is your wife ? " he asked me at length, using the 
 second person singular. 
 
 " At our camp." 
 
 " Why didn't you bring her here to see me ? " 
 
 ' The insulting terms of the message can hardly be translated. An 
 equivalent on our part would perhaps be, " Look sharp, nigger, or it will be 
 the worse for you." 
 
 3
 
 34 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 " Because amongst us it is not customary for ladies to visit 
 gentlemen first." 
 
 Another pause. 
 
 " Moruti, where is your wife ? " 
 
 " Morena " (chief), " she is at my camp." 
 
 " Why have you not brought her to see me ? " 
 
 "Because with us it is the gentlemen who go to pay their 
 respects to the ladies, and not the ladies to the gentlemen." 
 
 " F/ bo! Is that possible ? " 
 
 A third pause, followed by a third repetition of the same 
 conversation, and another interval of silence. 
 
 Feeling that this interview was quite as uncomfortable for 
 his Majesty as for me, I took leave, I had seen his face, and 
 thenceforward our escort left us, and we felt more at liberty. 
 
 My strange conversation had much impressed me. I had 
 indeed tried to say a word about our expedition, but Lobengula 
 silenced me at once, saying the moment had not come. The idea 
 occurred to me that Mme. Coillard might be more successful. 
 It cost her a good deal to appear before this tyrant, not 
 knowing what his intentions towards us might be ; but she 
 yielded. 
 
 On her arrival, he came out of his hut, and, taking her 
 hand, escorted her to the shadow of his waggon. There he 
 took his seat upon a soap-box, saying to her, " Sit down there 
 on the ground, and let us have a chat." 
 
 " On the ground ! " I exclaimed. " With us, ladies do not 
 sit on the ground. Is there not a box or a block of wood 
 somewhere ? " 
 
 " Certainly," he replied, and rose with great alacrity to fetch 
 her a seat. " You have come a long way," he said, looking very 
 straight at her. " You must be very tired." 
 
 " Yes," replied Mme. Coillard. " We have come a long way, 
 and we are very tired." Then, with her habitual calm and 
 charm of manner, she recounted our journey and the object 
 of it, our experiences among the Banyai, and everything else. 
 Not once did he interrupt her, unless it was to ask a question. 
 He was conquered. 
 
 " I did not know all that," he remarked ; " but we will talk 
 about it later on." 
 
 Since then he has been very friendly. He made us camp
 
 1878] lobengula's cruelty 35 
 
 quite near him, and always sends us meat, " the portion of 
 honour," which no one else but himself may touch. But he 
 would not discuss our business, and kept putting it off for the 
 Council of Chiefs which will assemble later on. 
 
 We do not regret this delay. On the contrary, we are very 
 glad of this opportunity of making acquaintance with the king, 
 and making ourselves known to him, although it obliges us 
 too often to be the unwilling witnesses of his hideous cruelties. 
 One day, for instance, I was sitting in his court, when a little 
 herdboy came in, and, on being questioned about some trifling 
 offence, began to prevaricate. Lobengula ordered him to come 
 and crouch down before him, while he sat silent, every now and 
 then glaring at the cowering boy. Presently he sprang up and 
 said, " That lying mouth must be punished." He ordered four 
 men to hold him down backwards on the ground, and, seizing 
 a glowing brand, himself knelt on his chest, and applied it to 
 his lips. In vain I pleaded for a milder punishment. Next 
 day the poor little fellow's lips were quite burnt away. 
 
 However, to ourselves personally he has shown himself 
 very affable. He has often come to see us, apparently finding 
 as much pleasure in chatting with us as in drinking a cup of 
 coffee. What gave us chief pleasure, however, was that he 
 sent for Mr. Sykes (of the L.M.S.), so that he should be present 
 at the discussion of our business. This friend lost no time in 
 responding to Lobengula's summons ; nevertheless, he was kept 
 waiting for ten or twelve days. At last the chief decided to 
 deal with a question which he evidently finds a very thorny one. 
 His pride had been hurt to think we could possibly have been 
 ignorant of the fact that the Banyai were " his dogs," his slaves. 
 He understood this, however ; but he does not wish, he says, 
 that his slaves should be taught. His own country is already 
 provided with missionaries. He will soon have four, and he 
 does not want any more. He questioned me closely as to who 
 had sent us, and what part the Basuto chiefs had in this 
 expedition. My reply was perfectly straightforward. I tried to 
 make him understand that it was the Churches which had sent 
 the catechists, and that the chiefs had shown their goodwill by 
 contributing like others to the good work. As he was insisting 
 that we should return to those who had sent us, I pointed out 
 to him that such a proceeding would not be understood. It
 
 36 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 might have passed if he had sent us back from Nyanikoe ; but 
 it was no longer possible, after his having sent for us, accepted 
 our salutations, and treated us with kindness. He then said 
 that he would not give his reply yet, and that he would refer 
 the matter to his headmen, who were to assemble for some 
 great ceremonies at the end of the month. My impression — 
 and Mr. Sykes's too — is that the chief is personally very favour- 
 able to us, but that he finds himself in a difficult position. He 
 has his hands full this year. Some European hunters have been 
 maltreated by his people, and have gone away with anger and 
 threats. Expedition after expedition arrives, asking permission 
 to go to these same Banyai, one to explore the country, another 
 to look for gold, etc. He has refused each request peremptorily, 
 without even giving them the satisfaction of a discussion. So 
 how could he grant ours ? But all the same, it costs him some- 
 thing to refuse us. I fear that if he proposes to consult his 
 headmen, it will only be as a pretext for shirking his respon- 
 sibility. They are all opposed to our going to the Banyai ; 
 " for," they say, " if Lobengula once allows that, where shall we 
 go raiding ? " That is the root of the matter. 
 
 I hope that the chief will consent to a compromise, and 
 allow us to settle among the Makalaka, who are more imme- 
 diately under his power, or who at least recognise it and submit 
 to it. The L.M.S. missionaries would approve of us, and would 
 not say we were encroaching on their territory. But I doubt 
 whether Lobengula will consent even to that. " Go to Mozila's," 
 he says, " where there are no missionaries." The River Sabi is 
 the frontier between Mozila and the Matabele. Apart from the 
 Matabele and Mozila's people, all the other tribes are reduced 
 to the same state of slavery. Such are the Banyai, the Maka- 
 laka, the Mashona, etc., which once formed part of the powerful 
 kingdom of the Balotsoe which Moselikatse ruined. Please 
 take particular note of this fact : there is no independent tribe 
 on this side of the Zambesi, except the people of Lobengula 
 and of Mozila. It is said that this latter is very hostile to the 
 white man. The question of going to him would require the 
 most serious consideration. Another fact which I should point 
 out to you for your guidance is that the region we were in is 
 evidently a hotbed of fever. It was not the country which was 
 represented to us as being perfectly healthy, and people here
 
 1878] PRISONERS AT BULAWAYO 37 
 
 consider it providential that we quitted it in time. The L.M.S. 
 is going to begin a work on Lake Ngami at Sechulatebe's. On 
 this side of the Zambesi, from the lake as far as the gold mines 
 Baines discovered in Mashona-land ^ (at the north point of the 
 mountains marked on his map), the Matabele have devastated 
 everything ; there is no longer the vestige of any population. 
 I have heard this on good authority. There still remains the 
 other side of the Zambesi ; but before daring to cross it, even in 
 thought, let us pause and pray ! 
 
 I assure you, I have great difficulty in resisting the current 
 of discouragement which is bearing down every one around me. 
 But I have a profound conviction that God will open some door 
 for us, and that all the sacrifices which the poor Churches of 
 Basuto-land have made, all the prayers which have been, and 
 are still being, offered, will not be unavailing. We ourselves 
 are ready for anything, but less for returning to Basuto-land 
 than for any other course. We are in the field, and not thinking 
 of our hearths just yet. 
 
 My wife has been threatened with rheumatic fever, which 
 has kept her in bed for several days. I myself have been 
 suffering from nervous ophthalmia for nearly a fortnight. But 
 now we are well, thank God ! and so are all our people ; and 
 they would be perfectly happy, were it not for the heavy cloud 
 lowering over us. This is only natural ; indeed, it would not be 
 right, if joy and singing could go on in the camp as usual. 
 
 Matabele-land, March ^th, 1878. 
 
 The gloomiest predictions of those who profess to under- 
 stand the true state of affairs here have been more than realised. 
 
 After the great national festival, the sacrifice of fifteen 
 human lives and the customary purifications, Lobengula remem- 
 bered us. He sent for our friend Mr. Sykes, of the L.M.S., 
 who, in spite of the incessant rain, hastened to come with all 
 his family. We went together to the new camp of the Matabele 
 king, who leads a semi-nomadic life. We still had to await his 
 good pleasure for three or four weeks. 
 
 The Great Ones of the Nation at last assembled. They had 
 a private conference with their master, which lasted a whole day — 
 
 ' The Fort Salisbury region.
 
 ^S ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 and I do not suppose it was the first one. The next day the chiefs 
 held their assembly, to which we were admitted, at our camp. We 
 expected all the etiquette and decorum which are so rigorously 
 exacted in Basuto-land under similar circumstances. But it was 
 with Matabele we had now to do. Every one spoke at once, 
 each one louder than the other. They rained questions upon us, 
 without giving us time to reply. We were reproached with the 
 road we had made for ourselves into the Banyai country ; then 
 with the fact that we had no official character, not having been 
 sent by the supreme chief of the Basuto. We were prepared 
 for all that, but these were only the preliminaries. The stalking- 
 horse of these wily diplomatists was the afifair of Langalabalele.^ 
 "Tell us his crime? In what country, in what place, by whom 
 was he betrayed and made prisoner ? " In vain we attempted 
 to explain to them that the Basuto have lost their independence 
 that they cannot be held responsible for the acts of the English 
 Government, and that, as regards ourselves, we have absolutely 
 nothing to do with political questions : in vain Mr. Sykes told 
 them, in language they could not fail to comprehend, " Who 
 can know the heart of a king and sound its depths ? Did you 
 know Moselikatse's ? " It only brought down on us a volley of 
 such abuse as made our people tremble. In fact, it was really 
 against them that they had a quarrel. They put me on one 
 side, and made me all sorts of professions of confidence and 
 consideration and goodwill. " But you Basuto," they cried, 
 with threatening gestures, " you smell of Molapo, that unworthy 
 son of Moshesh, who betrayed and sold Langalabalele ! We 
 fear you. We shudder at the very sight of you. Allow you 
 to settle in our territory ? Never I Never ! There is the road 
 which leads out of our country — begone ! " 
 
 ' Langalabal6l6, a chief of the same race as the Matabele, but living in 
 Natal, where they themselves originated. Four or five years ago, this chief, 
 having, by purchases of arms, drawn upon himself the suspicion of wishing 
 to revolt against the British in Natal, was summoned to appear before the 
 Governor. Instead of obeying, he crossed the frontier with all his people, and 
 t<ook refuge in the territory of Molapo, son of Moshesh. The British authority 
 in Basuto-land then ordered Molapo to help in the capture of Langalabale]6, 
 which he was obliged to do, or else be treated as a rebel himself. Molapo 
 effected this capture, however, in the most treacherous way possible, inviting 
 Langalabal6l6 and his followers to a friendly reception, and then delivering 
 them over to the Britisli.
 
 1878] DISMISSED FROM MATABELE-LAND 39 
 
 Strange to say, Mr. Sykes and I did not lose all hope 
 even then. We tried to persuade ourselves that the Matabele 
 dignitaries wished to make us appreciate their favour, and at 
 the same time to put in their place those people whom they 
 despised while yet feeling their superiority. Cruel illusion ! 
 The chief called us, for this conference had taken place at our 
 camp, and he had abstained from taking part in it. We passed 
 long hours there in his court, sitting on the ground in the full 
 blaze of the sun, silent and gloomy, as if awaiting the hour of 
 a burial. Lobengula was in his shed, as silent as ourselves, but 
 in the shade ! It was only towards sunset that he broke the 
 silence. This audience was but a painful repetition of the 
 morning's conference, with no more decorum and a good deal 
 more abuse. The king gave the keynote, and the great chiefs, 
 vying with each other, fell upon our evangelists like dogs 
 unchained. Lobengula insisted upon the distinction he had 
 already striven to establish between our people and ourselves, 
 declaring that, if I had been alone, neither he nor his people 
 would have had any objection to treating with me, but that, 
 as for the Basuto catechists, he would under no consideration 
 permit them to remain in his country — entirely, as he said, 
 on account of this unhappy affair of Langalabalele, and of the 
 odious treachery of Molapo. Our brother, Mr. Sykes — let me 
 say it to his honour — did not leave me alone in the breach ; 
 and he too received his share of insults. 
 
 And so ended this official audience which we had waited for 
 so long. We fancied ourselves under the influence of some 
 frightful nightmare ; we could no longer recognise the son of 
 Moselikatse, who for more than two months had treated us with 
 so much consideration and cordiality. We might well repeat, 
 " The heart of a king is unsearchable ! " — especially of a Matabele 
 king. We stood as if nailed to the earth ; but when all the 
 chiefs one after another had done homage to their master and 
 taken leave, we too were obliged to salute him and depart. 
 We met in a tent to pray, but only tears could have eased our 
 hearts. 
 
 Four days have passed since then. The chief and his sister, 
 surprised that I had not visited them as usual, asked for me. 
 They are evidently very ill at ease. Lobengula tried to throw 
 all the responsibility of the affair on to his chiefs, and reiterated
 
 40 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 his protestations of benevolence towards me personally. I felt 
 all the advantage of my position. I had never spoken his 
 tongue with such facility ; and to this potentate, surfeited with 
 the most abject flatteries, it was given me to use a language 
 full of respect certainly, but full also of truth and plain-dealing. 
 " Chief, I also am a Mosuto. I am one with my people ; I am 
 at their head. The blow which strikes them strikes me first. 
 What grieves me, and will grieve all our friends, is that, after 
 permitting us to see your face, and treating us with so much 
 kindness, you are now driving us ignominiously out of your 
 country, and for an affair with which we have absolutely 
 nothing to do." He was silent and hung his head ; then, as 
 if to acquit his conscience, he added in a low voice, " If I had 
 known all that, perhaps we should have spoken otherwise." 
 Yes, perhaps ! Nevertheless, the verdict of his council remains, 
 and we are now preparing our waggons to take the road pointed 
 out to us, which leads " out of the country." So this is what 
 our missionary expedition has come to ! After nearly a year's 
 travelling, what is the result ?i 
 
 And now, will you ask what we are going to do ? The first 
 thing is, not to lose courage. And why should we lose courage ? 
 There is nothing extraordinary in our circumstances. Jesus 
 and His Apostles have gone through the same, as their blood- 
 stained traces testify. The ways of the Lord are not our ways, 
 and His thoughts not our thoughts. Should we forget this ? 
 We spoke of the Banyai, and their name was already dear to 
 us. But who knows if the Lord has not other views than ours, 
 other people for us to evangelise? If Lobengula had simply 
 and frankly refused to allow us to go amongst his slave 
 tribes, it seems to us that our horizon would not have been 
 ■ so dark. But this unhappy affair of Langalabalele, which his 
 people make the pivot of all their abuse, almost hopelessly shuts 
 for us the door of nearly every Zulu tribe. It is impossible at 
 present even to think of knocking at the door of Mozila, this 
 other Moselikatse, the terror of all the tribes from the Sabi 
 to Sofala. 
 
 It is true wc have met some people at Bulawayo who come 
 from the north side of the Zambesi. They have taken refuge 
 here to save their lives ; for their country, it seems, is frequently 
 subject to revolutions, and humap life is very cheap. What struck
 
 1878] FIRST MEETING WITH THE BAROTSI 4 1 
 
 US about them was that they speak Sesuto, as we do. I knew 
 already from Livingstone that the Makololo had introduced it 
 on the Zambesi, but I did not realise the fact that it is still 
 spoken there. " Why do you not come to us," they said, " and 
 save the nation ? " But the Zambesi — that is a long way to go ! 
 As far as we can judge at present, there are only two alter- 
 natives for us — either to return to Basuto-land, or to seek other 
 parts. Return to Basuto-land ! The very thought seems to us 
 treachery and a temptation of the Enemy. Our camp is not 
 exactly joyous these days, and no one thinks of parading his 
 stout-heartedness. But I have no doubt that, when our dear 
 travelling companions have recovered from this terrible blow, 
 energy and enthusiasm will revive in their hearts. They feel 
 as we do, that to return to Basuto-land in the present circum- 
 stances would be disastrous to the cause of the mission. I am 
 full of courage, and have good hope. For the moment, what 
 we have to do is to leave Matabele-land, and go to Shoshong — 
 alas ! a considerable retreat in the direction of Basuto-land. 
 There we will mature our plans, and await the counsels and 
 directions of our brethren. All the members of the expedition 
 charge me to send their salutations to you and to the Churches 
 of France. " We are not discouraged," they say ; " but, O 
 brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, do uphold us ! " I 
 join with all my heart in this message. 
 
 In leaving these parts, I think of the return of the Ark from 
 the land of the Philistines. Our thoughts and hearts constantly 
 return to the Banyal country, to Nyanikoe. I tell myself that 
 a miracle is not impossible, though it seems very improbable, 
 and that the Lord may still open the doors of that country, 
 which have been closed to us. The spark which has glimmered 
 in the darkness of that unhappy country may one day produce 
 a great light. No doubt we have done little during our stay of 
 six months ; nevertheless, I have the conviction that our testi- 
 mony will remain. They will long remember those whites and 
 blacks in strange garments, with their rolling houses drawn by 
 oxen. Will they forget the bell which daily summoned all to 
 prayer? Will no recollections remain of the history of the 
 Creation, the Fall, and the Redemption, which we have tried 
 to make the Banyai understand, stammering their language? 
 Among our memories of Nyanikoe are the moments when.
 
 42 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 surrounded by these poor people, I tried to fix in their minds, 
 by making them repeat it, that text which is the very essence 
 of the Gospel : " God so loved the world, that He gave His only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 May God have pity on the Banyai and remember them ! ^ 
 
 ^ The Banyai are now being evangelised by the missionaries of the Dutch 
 Reformed Church.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Departure from Matabele-land — Final Interview with Lobengula — Misery of 
 Africa — Ferocious Character of the Matabele — Barrenness of Mission 
 Work — Tati Gold Fields — "Ruined Cities" — Ethnological Problems — 
 Sickness in Camp — Accidents on the Road — Arrival at Khama's Town 
 — Warm Welcome — Khama's Character and Government — Missionary 
 Meeting — Future Plans discussed — Decision to go to Barotsi-land. 
 
 Mangwato (Shoshong), May 22nd, 1878. 
 
 YOU see now that our last ray of hope has vanished ! We have 
 definitely quitted Matabele-land, and here we are among 
 the Bamangwato, some hundreds of miles to the south. After 
 the stormy conference with the chiefs which I told you about, 
 our evangelists, terrified (and not without reason) at the hostile 
 attitude of the Matabele, would have liked to leave without 
 delay. I thought it better not to hurry, for fear of giving our 
 departure an appearance of flight. After having written to 
 Basuto-land, so that the directions of our brethren might reach 
 us at Shoshong without loss of time, we went to visit the stations 
 of Shiloh and Inyati, which took us three weeks. Our people 
 will never forget Shiloh. It is a bright spot to them, the only 
 one, indeed, in this hard experience of Matabele-land. 
 
 I went, as etiquette required, to pay Lobengula a last visit. 
 My presence evidently embarrassed him greatly, and he found 
 it difficult to receive my farewells with a good grace. He took 
 refuge once more in explanations and professions of personal 
 friendship ; he pressed me to settle in his country (without the 
 Basuto catechists, of course) ; he showed displeasure on learning 
 that I and my people were going to make some stay with the 
 Bamangwato chief; he even went so far as to offer me a passage 
 across his own territory, and some guides to conduct me to 
 Mozila, on the other side of the River Sabi. I told him I would 
 reflect seriously on all he had told me, and I took leave. Shall 
 
 43
 
 44 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 I confess it ? I had till then buoyed myself up with a vague 
 hope that at the last moment the path to the Banyai" might still 
 be opened to us. It was now evident to me that the Lord 
 Himself, for reasons that we cannot yet understand, had signed 
 our passport to turn us away from our chosen field. It only 
 remained for us to depart, and we left without any more idle 
 regrets, conscious of having left no stone unturned to make our 
 mission succeed, and strengthened by the conviction that in 
 going straight to the Banyai we had not strayed from the right 
 way, and that to-day, in leaving Lobengula's kingdom, we were 
 still following the path of duty. Yes ; but these countries, 
 which only a great black stain can adequately represent on the 
 map of Africa, are immense catacombs, which we cannot think 
 of without shuddering. There, be it not forgotten, vast popula- 
 tions live in constant terror, ruthlessly given up to pillage and 
 destruction. There is so much misery that the world knows 
 nothing of; but we are pursued by stifled cries, and that of the 
 Macedonian has never rung so loudly in our hearts : " Come over 
 and help us." But the door is shut. " How long, O Lord, 
 how long? " 
 
 The treacherous and cruel character of the Matabele is well 
 known. But no ! it is not. The atrocities which form their 
 pastime and delight defy all description. Their thirst for rapine 
 and pillage respects absolutely no one. They are a people sans 
 foi ni loi. The king can have his subjects massacred without 
 distinctions of rank, and he does so, remorselessly ; but he has 
 not the power to govern them. Here, indeed, is a country where 
 Satan has his throne. 
 
 You will ask me what influence the Gospel has had up till 
 now on this savage nation ? Alas ! apparently none whatever ! 
 I confess it is the most perplexing problem of modern missions. 
 The Revs. Thomas and Sykes have laboured for twenty years in 
 the country. Mr. John Moffat first,^ and then Mr. Thompson of 
 Ujiji, consecrated to it the first-fruits of their ministry. In spite 
 of all these efforts and sacrifices, there is no school, no church, 
 not a single convert — tiot one ! In fact, I do not know which 
 ought most to astonish the Christian world, the barrenness of this 
 mission field or the courage and perseverance of these noble ser- 
 vants of Christ who have for so long ploughed and sown in tears. 
 ' Son of Dr. Moffat.
 
 1878] TATI 45 
 
 It was at the beginning of April that we finally turned our 
 waggon booms towards the south. Each day's march took us 
 farther from the country where we had hoped to unfurl the 
 Gospel standard. Now everything had grown hard. Our men 
 were weary and discouraged, and the journey was one of the 
 most difficult imaginable. To add to our troubles, fever broke 
 out among us. Six of our people fell ill at once. Our waggons 
 would have reminded you of European ambulances. Ours 
 had two patients in it, whose gra.ss beds we renewed at every 
 halt. It was thus that we slowly and painfully arrived at Tati. 
 Several times, I thought we should be obliged to dig a grave 
 for my faithful Bushman (by name, not by race). He survived, 
 however, by a miracle of God's goodness. 
 
 We remained several days at Tati. Indeed, everybody 
 seemed in want of rest. A Boer was returning from hunting, 
 his waggon covered with wild-beast skins, and from him I bought 
 the almost entire carcase of a giraffe, at a moderate price. It 
 afforded a pleasant occupation for our people to dry it. I 
 myself profited by this respite to explore the neighbourhood. 
 You know what a talk the gold mines of Tati made a few years 
 ago. Hundreds of Europeans flocked thither to seek their 
 fortunes, and I am assured that numbers of cottages occupied 
 the slopes of the hills and the banks of the river. I visited with 
 great interest the quarries and deep pits whence the auriferous 
 quartz is extracted. Now everything is changed, and the popu- 
 lation has disappeared, owing to a quarrel among the promoters. 
 The pits are abandoned, grass and bushes cover the roads again, 
 the white houses have been swept away, and the few stores 
 which survived them are in ruins ; finally, the engine, over- 
 thrown by torrents, partly destroyed by the natives, who have 
 stripped off all the copper to make ornaments for themselves, lies 
 there, rusting and half buried in the sand. Ruins are always 
 mournful, but for the Christian and the missionary there is 
 something peculiarly melancholy in the abandonment of the 
 Tati mines. No one can tell what the diamond mines have 
 done to open the interior of Africa, and no one can say what 
 might have been done by the mines of Tati and of VValta,^ at 
 least three hundred miles farther north, which Lobengula allowed 
 Baines to exploit. However this may be, God directs all 
 
 1 Fort Salisbury.
 
 V 
 
 46 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 events. The flood of civilisation advances slowly, but surely, 
 / and with a might which Lobengula fears, but cannot arrest. 
 Yet a little while, and the waves of this flood will have rolled 
 over the whole of Central Africa, and swept away all obstacles. 
 
 Curiosity also led us to visit the ruins that are found almost 
 everywhere in these parts. These particular ones crown the 
 hills around Tati.^ The walls, which are four feet thick at the 
 base, are built, without mortar, of stones roughly squared and 
 reduced to the length of a brick. In the interior, and at certain 
 heights, rows of little stones are arranged so as to form zigzags, 
 and they display a taste which prevents me from attributing 
 them to natives.- Within the enclosure of these walls, one can 
 still see the traces of the furnaces where they smelted iron. 
 All the surrounding country and a large part of Matabele-land 
 is auriferous. In the environs of Tati, they still show some 
 very ancient mines which have been more or less filled up by 
 time. It would even appear that, while digging the shafts I 
 visited, they came across some galleries, evidently of very 
 remote date. All this raises the most captivating of all the 
 problems in this mysterious Africa — the ethnological. 
 
 What are the origins of the African families ? . , . Several 
 people have attempted to solve this, but no one has yet done so 
 satisfactorily. It would be as presumptuous as premature on 
 my part, were I to express an opinion. What strikes me, in 
 reading the books of modern travellers, is that the Banyai or 
 the Makalaka form part of an immense family whose branches 
 under different names extend as far as the region of the great 
 lakes. Although their language presents some affinity with the 
 Zulu tongue, their customs and habits would rather seem to 
 
 ' Similar in character to the celebrated ruins of Zimbabye. Those at 
 Tati have now completely disappeared. 
 
 - Mr. Selous points out that the designs found in the ruins of Mashona-land 
 bear a strong family likeness to those in fashion among the highly industrial 
 Barotsi, whom M. Coillard knew nothing of at this time. The traditions as 
 well as the language of the Barotsi point to their having once lived in Banyai- 
 land ; and the ground plan of their huts, which never varies (two concentric 
 walls, surrounded at some distance by a stockade), has a rudimentary 
 resemblance to that of the Zimbabye ruins. Professor Raoul Allier of Paris, 
 however, following out a suggestion of Semper (in the latter's " Studies of 
 Primitive Architecture "), inclines to the belief that the Barotsi zigzag and 
 wavy patterns are derived from wickerwork, in which they are very expert.
 
 iSyS] KHAMA AND HIS PEOPLE 47 
 
 connect them with the Bechuana, though without entirely 
 assimilating them to the latter. 
 
 But let us return to Tati. Seeing no change in the state 
 of my poor boy, and fearing the others would get worse, we 
 decided to resume our journey. We were now crossing a water- 
 less country, so it was impossible to halt, and we were obliged 
 to travel by night as well as by day. We had more than one 
 accident in these forests, partly through making sharp turns to 
 avoid large trees, and partly through lack of sufficient hands to 
 lead the waggons. Now it was our canvas tilt that was torn, 
 now the dessel-boom that broke ; the outside cases that were 
 smashed, or the wheels wedged between trunks of trees. Never- 
 theless, we are surprised and thankful that we were able to bear 
 it so easily. W^e expected to arrive here on Saturday, April 
 27th, and in order to do this we had made a good night's 
 march ; but suddenly, in the middle of the morning on a 
 beautifully level road, one of our waggon wheels sank, and 
 completely splintered up. What should we have done, if this 
 had happened a few days earlier ? Two of the catechists had 
 to remain with the waggon. We left them our water kegs 
 well filled, and our day's provisions, and hastened our march 
 tow^ards Mangwato, whence we could send them help. We 
 were not expected till two days later. The Rev. and Mrs. 
 Hepburn (of the L.M.S.) and the chief Khama received us with 
 a cordiality which at once put us upon the footing of old 
 acquaintances. 
 
 "You have stolen a march upon us," said our brother 
 Hepburn : " do you know that the chief and I had planned 
 to go and meet you, together with his people ? " " Oh," replied 
 my wife, laughing, " think what a deplorable figure our ragged 
 waggons would have cut in such a demonstration ; and our- 
 selves too, we should not have known where to hide our heads." 
 I too asked myself if such an ovation would not have turned our 
 heads. On Monday a wheel was sent to the friends we had 
 left out on the veldt, and by the evening we were all together 
 again. 
 
 The tribe of the Bamangwato is governed by a man who 
 is still young, Khama by name (the gazelle). Through the 
 civil wars which have often desolated this country, the population 
 of Shoshong, which might rise to thirty thousand, does not
 
 48 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 number now more than from fifteen to twenty thousand, so I 
 am assured. A remarkable feature is that one sees very few old 
 men here. Those that war and epidemics have spared have 
 emigrated with the old rival chiefs Sekomi and Macheng. But 
 the young men are quite devoted to their chief ; and it is not 
 surprising, for in him they find a protector and a father. Last 
 year, there was a terrible famine : the people were dying of 
 hunger, and subscriptions were organised. Khama, in addition 
 to his quota, distributed ostrich plumes and ivory to the value 
 of about ;^3,ooo sterling, — so the traders themselves tell me, 
 and they are well informed in this matter. This year there 
 is abundance ; and, according to custom, each man brings his 
 chief a basket of corn, the first-fruits of the harvest. In an 
 assembly of the tribe, I was touched to hear Khama thanking 
 his subjects and directing their thoughts towards God. " My 
 friends," he said, "this is neither Khama's corn, nor yet the 
 missionaries' ; no, it is the corn of Jesus, that King of kings 
 Who, this year, has given us rain and a fruitful season." This 
 corn, sold by auction under his eye at 35^'. the sack, produced 
 a sum of more than £80, which was devoted entirely to the 
 building of a church. And, mark this ; only a little time before, 
 Khama had given something between ;^24 and £28 out of his 
 own pocket. A Christian who knows how to give is a Christian 
 who knows and feels how much he has received. 
 
 The European population of the place, which is more or less 
 fluctuating, numbers about thirty fixed residents. They also 
 respect Khama's power. As soon as he succeeded to the throne, 
 he promulgated a decree against the sale of spirituous drinks. 
 Here, then, is a community entirely transformed, as if by magic, 
 and one may say in spite of itself, into a total abstinence society. 
 No one regrets it : every one feels the benefit. Moreover, 
 Khama is just, kind, and obliging to all. Thus, when some 
 European drunkards, whom he had expelled, sought to revenge 
 themselves by slandering him, all the residents at Shoshong 
 were so ashamed and indignant at it, that they published two 
 letters in the Cape newspapers (unknown to Khama, of course), 
 in order to refute these odious calumnies, and vindicate the 
 noble character of this Christian chief. 
 
 Mangwato is the chief centre for the commerce carried on 
 in Matabclc-land, on the Zambesi, and round Lake Ngami. The
 
 i878] A NATIVE MISSIONARY MEETING 49 
 
 traders have calculated that last year more than one hundred 1 
 and fifty thousand pounds of ivory passed through their hands, 
 being the tusks of more than twelve thousand elephants. At 
 this rate, one need not be a prophet to predict the early 
 extinction of these animals. One can understand that, in a 
 community where such great interests are at stake, more or less 
 serious commercial complications sometimes arise. When this 
 happens, all the Europeans form themselves into a court of 
 equity, under the presidency of the missionary ; and their 
 decisions, with the sanction of the chief, have the force of law. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hepburn, warm-hearted Scotch people, have 
 succeeded Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie, who have been called to 
 direct the Moffat Institution at Kuruman. Our friends have 
 been blessed in their work. Six months ago, they returned 
 from Lake Ngami, whither they had gone to found a new 
 mission like ours, and install two evangelists with Moremi, son 
 of Letsulathebe. During their absence, it was chiefly Khama 
 who evangelised his people. The Spirit of the Lord has breathed 
 upon the dry bones, and they are beginning to stir. There 
 could not be a finer sight than the compact crowds of men and 
 women coming to the services every Sunday, all clothed, and 
 a great many of them very well clothed too. When shall we 
 see such a thing among the Matabele ? 
 
 Mr. Hepburn and the chief Khama wished to have a special 
 missionary meeting the same week, at which we were to speak 
 in detail about our expedition. It was the middle of harvest- 
 time ; notwithstanding, from 8 a.m. on the appointed day an 
 audience of some five thousand people began to assemble. 
 
 I left the speeches to our evangelists, who all spoke very 
 interestingly, each according to the natural bent of his mind. 
 The assembly hung upon their words. I only gave a general 
 sketch of our expedition, and filled up the gaps in their story. 
 Mr. Hepburn gave us a beautiful address of welcome and 
 encouragement. But I should have liked you to hear Khama 
 in a quiet but powerful address, plead the cause of the Truth 
 among the heathen, and that of missionary duty among the 
 Christians ! It is a curious thing that whilst, among all the 
 Sechuana dialects known to us, that of the Batlapi is the furthest 
 removed from Sesuto, the Semangwato is the one which most 
 ■closely resembles it. They assure me that every one understands 
 
 4
 
 50 
 
 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 me very well, although I am a foreigner. You may imagine 
 how happy our people are ; they feel themselves quite among 
 their own people, at home. 
 
 After having enjoyed the hospitality of our devoted friends 
 the Hepburns for ten days, we installed ourselves in Mr. 
 Mackenzie's house, and our people occupied the former apart- 
 ments of the students. Our evangelists were longing for a little 
 family life. The public and common life which we had led for 
 thirteen months had become as distasteful to them as to our- 
 selves. At Mangwato, they resolved at all costs to make-believe, 
 and act as though they were in Basuto-land. For reasons of 
 economy, I should have liked to go on having only one fire and 
 one common pot ; but with one exception, they either could or 
 would not understand my reasons, and I had to give in. To 
 tell the truth, I cannot find it in my heart to begrudge them this. 
 
 We heard of M. Arbousset's death ^ indirectly, whilst among 
 the Matabele. In him, another giant has fallen, or, rather, 
 another warrior has entered into glory, there to receive the 
 crown of life. Africa has few missionaries of his stamp. 
 Another source of trouble to us is what you tell us about the 
 deficit of iJ"2,400 which still weighs on the Society. I infer from 
 this that we must be as economical as possible. From Basuto- 
 land, too, we hear of famine there — another lesson in frugality. 
 It has cost me some sleepless nights. Alas ! we are badly 
 situated for practising economy. First of all, our people are 
 tired out, and I do not know where to cut down our expenses. 
 A year ago, the matter would have been easier. And then the 
 necessaries of life have risen to fabulous prices here. Thus, 
 unsifted flour, which is often damaged or adulterated, is sold at 
 £^ \$s. the sack ; coffee at 2s. yd. the lb. ; sugar at is. 6\d. the 
 lb. ; potatoes and onions at £t, los. the sack ; sorgho at £2 los. ; 
 an ordinary cow is worth £10 ; and everything else in propor- 
 tion. Vegetables are a luxury we can dispense with, but one 
 cannot live without bread. Our conveyances too, whatever we 
 do, and wherever wc may go, viust be repaired. All this, I 
 repeat, is a nightmare to me. I find myself between two fires 
 I ask God for wisdom and faithfulness, so that, on the one hand, 
 our caravan may not have occasion to murmur, and that, on the 
 other, wc may not be too heavy a burden on the Churches. 
 ' A pioneer of the S.M.E.P., sent to Basuto-land in 1833.
 
 1878] STARTING FOR BAROTSI-LAND 5 1 
 
 June Zth, 1878. 
 
 Since I began this letter, I too have had to pay my tribute 
 to the fever of the country, and feel much shaken by it and very 
 weak. I must, nevertheless, tell you something of our plans. 
 You will remember that we only had two alternatives — to go 
 to Mozila, or to the Zambesi. It is a question which we have 
 weighed before God, and we have always been awaiting (so far 
 in vain) some light from Basuto-land. After mature considera- 
 tion, we have given up the thought of going to Mozila's : first, 
 because of the pretext which Lobengula made use of to expel 
 our Basuto ignominiously from his country ; and, secondly, 
 because of our ignorance as to the nature of the political relations 
 between Lobengula and Mozila ; finally, and above all, because 
 of the inveterate hatred between the Matabele and Basuto. I 
 knew this antipathy existed, but I had no idea it was so deeply 
 rooted. 
 
 Hence our faces naturally turn towards the Zambesi, and 
 our Mangwato friends, Khama and Mr. Hepburn, urge us to go 
 in that direction. Even though the Makololo no longer exist 
 as a tribe, we are told their influence has left its trace. The 
 Barotsi, who have now the upper hand, have adopted the 
 customs of their former masters, and speak their language — 
 namely, Sesuto. These are advantages which it would be 
 difficult to exaggerate. I do not ignore the fact that the 
 affinity of the Basuto to the Makololo may possibly prejudice 
 the Barotsi against our evangelists. But the Barotsi have 
 seen Livingstone, and have heard missionaries spoken of : if, 
 therefore, a European missionary could win their confidence, 
 the position of our native catechists could be established without 
 difficulty. The journey would be very long, but no longer than 
 it would be to go from here to the Banyai", perhaps not so far. 
 
 The great, great objection which 1 expect you will raise 
 is that the whole district is a fever country. But the Banyai 
 country is quite as unhealthy ; and if the door had been open, 
 we should not have hesitated to enter it on that account. We 
 should have sought out the most favourable localities there. 
 For a long time, the Bamangwato country was looked on as 
 such a hotbed of fever that traders did not dare to pass more 
 than one season there. Now, from twenty to thirty are in 
 permanent residence. Lake Ngami surpasses all that one can
 
 52 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 say in point of unhealthiness, and the frightful desert, which 
 has to be crossed before reaching it, has become sadly famous 
 through the sufferings of the Helmores in 1859, and yet a 
 mission like ours is being formed there by the L.M.S. But 
 forgive this pleading : it is premature. Our object at present 
 is 7iot to go and fo2ind a mission^ but simply to explore. We are 
 going as scouts ; and if God brings us back in health, we will 
 tell you what we have seen, and it will be for you to decide what 
 we can do. 
 
 We are thinking of starting in a few days with Asser, Azael, 
 and Eleazar, my leader. We are leaving all the families here 
 with Aaron and Andreas, under the care of our friends the 
 Hepburns, The chief Khama gives us his co-operation ; he has 
 procured two guides, and has sent messengers ^ to the chief of 
 the Barotsi to announce our arrival and recommend us to his 
 kindness. It is a very solemn moment for us, dear friends ; 
 we cannot refrain from asking ourselves, as we look at one 
 another, " Which of us will return ? " We foresee difficulties 
 and trials which make us tremble. But the sympathy and 
 prayers of the Churches, the sense of duty, and above all the 
 approval of our Divine Master, will sustain us as in the past. 
 
 1 I.e. an envoy with an escort.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Expedition to the Barotsi Valley — Desert Journey — False Guides — No Water 
 — Liponkoe L.M.S. — Arrival at Leshoma — Victoria Falls — Sesheke — 
 Making Acquaintance with Barotsi Chiefs — Their Cordiality — Barotsi 
 Politics — Livingstone's Traces — Breaking Ground — First Gospel Preach- 
 ing — Return to Leshoma — Lions — Death of Khosana — Return to Sesheke 
 — King requests Missionaries to come back soon— Death of Eleazar — 
 Of Bushman — Major Serpa Pinto. 
 
 Sesheske, on the Zambesi, August 30th, 1878. 
 
 THE date of my letter cannot fail, I am sure, to give you 
 joy. Here we are at the Zambesi, thanks to our kind 
 heavenly Father, who has led and protected us as He did His 
 people of Israel long ago. I will say little of our journey from 
 Mangwato across the most dreary of deserts. In the beginning 
 we missed the way, and travelled for three days without water, 
 through the fault of a guide who said he knew the road. 
 Happily, just at that time we had the company of Liponkoe 
 one of the evangelists whom the Bechuana Mission (an offshoot 
 of the L.M.S.) is sending to Moremi at Lake Ngami. This 
 excellent and energetic man had some horses, and, thanks to his 
 help, we were able to retrace our steps, and spend the Sunday 
 near a pool. Muddy and repulsive as it was, this water saved 
 the life of our beasts. A few days later, we separated from our 
 friend Liponkoe, after committing each other to God's care. 
 Alone with his family, he was making a journey which had 
 proved fatal to more than one white man : the place where he 
 is going to carry the Gospel is the most malarial spot in the 
 whole country round. He and his excellent wife showed such 
 spirit and cheerfulness we could not admire them enough. 
 Their colleague Konkoe had already preceded them to Lake 
 Ngami. 
 
 The only human beings we met afterwards were Masaroa, 
 the Bushmen of these countries, miserable creatures, who only 
 
 53
 
 54 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 live on roots, wild berries, and the produce of the chase. If 
 they happen to kill an elephant, a buffalo, a giraffe, or some 
 other game, the whole community emigrates, and sets up its 
 quarters near the slaughtered animal, till a new success induces 
 them to transport their penates elsewhere. Our waggon tracks 
 brouo-ht them to us. They thought we were hunters, and 
 dreamt of good living. Finding their hopes disappointed, they 
 revenged themselves by making us take a direction which would 
 have brought us to the Mababe Swamp. This made us lose 
 several days, and it was not without difficulty that we found the 
 right road again. The monotony of the country, coupled with 
 our own anxieties, made this part of the journey tiresome and 
 fatiguing. 
 
 It was towards the end of July that our waggons stopped at 
 Leshoma, the nearest place to the Zambesi known to us, and 
 thence we were able the very same night to send our cattle 
 beyond the belt of forest infested with tse-tse fly. On hearing 
 of our arrival, Khama's envoy came to us with the dis- 
 couraging news that he had not been able to penetrate into the 
 Barotsi country because of the political troubles which were 
 convulsing it. I sent him back with a present for the new king, 
 requesting the subordinate chiefs to despatch it without delay. 
 Supposing they did so, it would be at least six weeks before the 
 answer could reach me. We resolved to turn this regrettable 
 delay to the best possible account by making an excursion to 
 the Victoria Falls. 
 
 We set out — my wife in a litter of my own construction, 
 carried on the shoulders of four stout natives, my niece on a 
 donkey, the rest of us on foot, with a dozen porters, loaded with 
 a small tent and our provisions, all walking single file, camping 
 every evening in a shelter made of branches, and surrounded 
 with large fires to keep away wild beasts, starting off every 
 morning before sunrise, and only resting in the middle of the 
 day to prepare a meal, picnic fashion. Our porters, and the 
 visitors of whom there was no lack, belonged to various vassal 
 tribes of the Barotsi, and came from different quarters. We had 
 Masubia, Matolela, Matoka, Mashapatane, etc. ; and, would 
 you believe it ? all understand and speak our language — that is, 
 Scsuto ! Every morning we prayed with them, and every 
 evening we taught them a passage of Scripture, and that
 
 1878] THE VICTORIA FALLS 55 
 
 beautiful hymn of our brother Duvoisin, " A re bineleng Yesu " 
 (" Sing the praises of Jesus "). It is a pleasant thought that 
 this is no doubt sung now in more than one hamlet where the 
 name of Jesus had never before been heard. 
 
 It was on August ist that for the first time we contemplated 
 the majestic current of the Zambesi, its banks and islets clothed 
 with forests, dominated here and there by baobabs and palms. 
 We followed it as far as the cataracts, six days of moderate 
 marching. The beauty of the various points of view, the mag- 
 nificence and vastness of the panorama, which every turn and 
 every rising ground renewed, struck us dumb with admiration. 
 The cataracts themselves are formed by a fissure, which extends 
 from one bank to the other, about a mile across. The waters 
 of the Zambesi, calm and tranquil like a lake, are suddenly 
 precipitated into this gulf, leaping and breaking over enormous 
 rocks, raging, boiling, and sending into the air clouds of vapour, 
 which have earned for the falls the Sesuto name of Musi oa 
 Ttinya (The Thundering Smoke). From these sombre abysses, 
 in which the eye can scarcely distinguish the green foam of its 
 waves, it escapes, enclosed within another fissure equally deep, 
 which yields it a narrow passage near its left bank ; and, forming 
 numerous zigzags, it rolls into the distance with a muffled roar. 
 One can scarcely gaze into these depths for a moment, or follow 
 for an instant the tortuous and restricted current of this river, 
 without turning giddy. The beholder's first impression is one 
 of terror. The natives believe it is haunted by a malevolent 
 and cruel divinity, and they make it offerings to conciliate its 
 favour, a bead necklace, a bracelet, or some other object, which 
 they fling into the abyss, bursting into lugubrious incantations, 
 quite in harmony with their dread and horror. 
 
 The news had spread that the missionary announced by 
 Khama had arrived and was in these parts. Scarcely had they 
 caught sight of us or heard our gunshots before canoes crossed 
 the river, bringing us little presents and great salutations from ^ 
 the chiefs, and provisions, which their people sold at famine 
 prices. It is not their fault ; it is the education they have 
 received from some of the traders, and from travellers to the 
 cataracts. Our intercourse with the Barotsi chiefs has been 
 most pleasant. Some put their canoes at our disposal, so 
 pressingly that we could not have refused them without offence.
 
 56 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 But it required courage and good nerves for a lady to entrust 
 herself, not merely to these savage strangers (above all, with 
 our experiences of Masonda fresh in our memories), but also 
 to this roughly hollowed tree trunk, scarcely wide enough to 
 crouch in, and rocking at every stroke of the oar in anything 
 but reassuring fashion. Our boatmen, however, soon won our 
 confidence. Not only did we make a very pleasant trip in one 
 of their viekoros, but on our return, at the request of several 
 petty chiefs, we crossed the river and visited a large and beau- 
 tiful island, with many villages, inhabited by people who have 
 sought a temporary refuge there from political troubles. We 
 were received there with demonstrations of great joy, and much 
 clapping of hands, accompanied by the salutation of the country, 
 " Shangwe, SJuxngwe" which answers to the primitive meaning 
 of "Sir." Imagine what I felt on these islets of the Zambesi, 
 surrounded by a crowd understanding and speaking Sesuto ! 
 It was with full hearts that we spoke to them of the love 
 of God and sang the praises of Jesus. They were all eyes 
 and ears ; and when we stopped, our primitive congregation, 
 still open-mouthed with astonishment, expressed its pleasure 
 by renewed clapping and renewed " Shangwes." Then they 
 followed and preceded us noisily to the neighbouring village ; 
 and if they thought we were silent too long, they would say, 
 " Are you not going to sing about Jesus to us ? " We left the 
 island with all sorts of small presents, escorted by a little flotilla 
 of canoes. When we were in the middle of the river, clappings 
 and cries of " Shangwe " still reached our ears from the crowd 
 assembled on the bank. 
 
 This was one of the red-letter days of our journey. You 
 will understand, from what I have said, that the whole population 
 is beyond the river. The Matabele have exterminated or driven 
 away all the little tribes who lived on this side, and have reduced 
 the country to a frightful desert. 
 
 On returning to our waggons, which we had left in charge 
 of a native, as all hunters do (a fact which speaks volumes for 
 the honesty of these savage children of Africa), we heard all 
 -sorts of contradictory reports about the troubles of the country. 
 About eighteen months ago, the Barotsi, driven to extremities 
 by the tyranny and cruelty of their king, Sepopa, expelled him, 
 and sent him to die of hunger and his wounds, abandoned on
 
 l878] BAROTSI POLITICS 57 
 
 the banks of the Zambesi.^ He had made himself odious by 
 his want of respect for the wives and property of his subjects, 
 although otherwise very popular. His nephew, Nguana-wina, 
 seized the power, and so abused it that, at the end of eight or 
 ten months, a new revolt forced him to flee. Robosi, the son of 
 Sepopa, was then chosen chief, to the general satisfaction, and 
 Nguana-wina has vainly striven to stir up the vassal tribes to 
 re-enter the capital and restore him to sovereignty. This is 
 the origin of the troubles which I speak of, about which we 
 hear but few credible reports. The most influential man of 
 the tribe is Gambella, better known by his official name of 
 Serumbo, a man of whom every one speaks well. 
 
 Having established our camp on one of the sandy, wooded 
 hills of Leshoma, the highest point I was able to find, I decided 
 to start without delay for Mpalira. Eleazar and Asser accom- 
 panied me. We had long dreaded this moment of separation, 
 and not without reason. I bade farewell to my dear wife, whom 
 I left quite alone with my niece and Azael, in the Lord's 
 care. I did not know, under present circumstances, whether 
 I should be allowed to cross the river ; but I was quite deter- 
 mined not to turn back, if the door were only opened the least 
 little way. 
 
 Mpalira is a sandy isle at the confluence of the Chobe and 
 Zambesi. Three Barotsi chiefs, whose powers are subordinated 
 to one another, are established there, governing the tributary 
 tribe of Masubia, and guarding the principal ford of the river, 
 the entrance to the country. No one can cross it without 
 special authorisation. I had no difficulty whatever. Living- / 
 stone has left the name of vnssiojiary in such high honour that 
 my character as such was a sufficient passport. The chief, 
 Mokumba, a man of unusual intelligence, received me with 
 many attentions. Still, before consenting to let me pass on 
 to Sesheke, the headman of which had sent me a pressing 
 invitation, he had to forward a special message, and obtain 
 formal permission, as all entrance to their country, and even to 
 the left bank of the river, is absolutely forbidden to strangers. 
 
 ' There was a fitness in this fate. One ot Sepopa's favourite amusements 
 had been to kidnap children, and cast them to the crocodiles, sometimes 
 dismembering their living limbs one by one, sometimes throwing them in 
 whole.
 
 58 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 I must tell you that Sesheke has been the theatre of political 
 troubles, and that, it being at the very entrance of the Barotsi 
 valley, strangers have been forbidden to approach it. When 
 all the formalities had been gone through, which took a week, 
 Mokumba, assured of the Sesheke chiefs' favourable dispo- 
 sition, conducted us thither himself. The journey generally 
 takes a day and a half by canoe. We took longer, and passed 
 a delightful Sunday on an islet of the Zambesi. There, the 
 river flows across a flat and denuded country ; one can only 
 see the woods in the distance ; zebras and antelopes of every 
 kind abound to such an extent that in the distance, and above 
 all at sunrise, one might easily take them for an immense forest. 
 
 On approaching Sesheke, several gun-shots announced our 
 arrival, and gathered a curious crowd on the bank. Mokumba 
 was proud of his canoes, which cleft the water like fish. Each 
 had for rowers five or six vigorous young men, standing up, one 
 only at the stern, and the others at the prow, exactly as they 
 are represented in old Egyptian paintings.^ Sesheke, from its 
 position, is one of the most important posts in the Barotsi 
 country. It is the residence of twelve petty chiefs, the principal 
 of which, the Morantsiane, has all the attributes and powers 
 of a viceroy. One of these dignitaries came to receive us and 
 conduct us to the lekhothla, where they came with the greatest 
 solemnity to bid us welcome. The discourses of this person 
 and that, and the minute scrutiny to which my poor person was 
 subjected, seemed to me very long, all the more so as I was very 
 tired, and was sitting on a drum, which would persist in rolling 
 away from under me. During all this time, young men were 
 executing grotesque and noisy dances — in our honour, no doubt. 
 At the end, the Morantsiane placed a hut at our disposal, and 
 gave orders for " my bed to be made." 
 
 I had scarcely retired, when all the chiefs, even those who had 
 arrived from Naliele^ with their sovereign's ivory (which they were 
 going to sell at Mpalira), came one after the other to visit me. 
 The ice was now broken, and we felt at ease, like old acquaintances. 
 
 ' See Livingstone's "Travels." He points out that the pestle and mortar 
 used by the Zambesians for pounding their corn are exactly the same as those 
 in the Egyptian paintings. 
 
 "^ Higher up the Zambesi; it was the capital of the Makololo in Living- 
 stone's time, but is no longer a place of much importance.
 
 i878] THE MAKOLOLO 59 
 
 1 must say that this was not difficult, for the Barotsi are true 
 Basuto. All their chiefs have been the servants or slaves of 
 Sebetoane and Sekeletu. It is from these Makololo potentates, 
 of whom they always speak with affection and the highest 
 respect, that they received their education, and formed their ideal 
 of the dignity, manners, and power of a sovereign. The warrior 
 tribe of Barotsi, once subdued, had become the most devoted of 
 all to the interests of the Makololo ; and if Mpololo, the cousin 
 and successor of Sekeletu, had not shown himself so capri- 
 ciously cruel, they would never have thought of revolting. But 
 once they had resolved to free themselves, there was no atrocity 
 they would stop at. I had feared they would look with suspicion 
 on our Basuto evangelists ; but no, it was quite the reverse. 
 The Barotsi have nothing more to fear from the Makololo, 
 of whom they have exterminated the whole male population. 
 When they heard us relating our journey, they said, " You are 
 true Makololo : no distance frightened them." They surround 
 me and my people with the greatest attentions. They bring 
 us the usual presents of food, with all the delicacy of the Basuto. 
 " This pitcher of milk is only a little water to moisten your 
 lips " ; " This basket of flour is only a crumb of bread to beguile 
 your hunger." The influence of the Makololo over the tribes 
 they subdued has been extraordinary : it would be interesting 
 to compare it with that of Moselikatse and his Matabele. And 
 when we hear every one around us speaking Sesuto, when 
 we find here the same customs, the same manners, the same 
 costumes, the same sociability, the same code of official polite- 
 ness, great herds of cattle, and abundance of milk, it really 
 requires an effort of mind to believe oneself at the Zambesi, 
 and not in some retired and still heathen part of Basuto-land. 
 If the door of this country is opened, and the Churches of 
 Basuto-land enter courageously, they will have reason to admire 
 the ways of that Providence which has made use of Sebetoane 
 and his Basuto bands to prepare these numerous tribes to be 
 evangelised by the Basuto Christians of to-day. Could we pass 
 lightly over the fact that, from six days' march below the 
 cataracts up to the north-west extremity of Barotsi-land, and as 
 faf as Lake Ngami, Sesuto is the medium of communication 
 between these diverse tribes, each of which has, nevertheless, 
 its own private dialect ? — and that, if ever this field becomes ours,
 
 6o ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 all our books, our institutions, and our workers would serve for 
 this mission as well as for that of Basuto-land ? This is an 
 incalculable advantage. And what is still more remarkable is 
 that the Barotsi and all their tributary tribes belo?ig to the great 
 family of the Makalaka ; their dialects prove it. So it cannot 
 be without reason that the Lord has removed us from amid the 
 Makalaka of Nyanikoe to bring us to the Barotsi country, to 
 these Makalaka who are half Basuto. 
 
 From another point of view, this is a classic country for me. 
 I have found the traces and memories of Livingstone here. 
 This man had guided his canoe, and was there when he planted 
 the seeds of the trees on the island above Musi oa Tunya ; 
 that one was his cook ; a third his factotum. Some had gone 
 with him on his perilous journey from Loanda ; others had 
 accompanied him to the Zanzibar coast. In Europe, people 
 admired the intrepid traveller ; but one must come here, where 
 he has lived, to admire the man. If some travellers have 
 engraved their names on the rocks and tree trunks, he has 
 engraved his in the very hearts of the heathen population of 
 /Central Africa. Wherever Livingstone has passed, the name 
 of Moruti (missionary) is a passport and a recommendation. 
 Must I confess that I have been humiliated not a little to 
 see myself fitted with a doctor's cap by these gentlemen of 
 Sesheke ? Whether I will or not, I am Nyaka (doctor), Living- 
 stone's successor. Thus it is that the first missionary that 
 comes by is invested with the boots of this giant.^ 
 
 ' This was in 1878. M. L. Jalla, writing in 1893 from Moru in the 
 Batoka country, says : " Among the inhabitants was a native whom Living- 
 stone had once taken to the east coast and brought back in i860. I got some 
 interesting details from him about this long journey : how the Doctor had 
 inspired the Mashukulumboe with salutary terrors, when they were about to 
 pillage him, by firing ten revolver shots into the air ; he had put another band 
 of natives to fliglit by sending rockets into their camp. At that epoch, a gun 
 still passed for a great marvel. Of all Livingstone's teaching, this worthy 
 man had retained only one thing — namely, that at the coast they would all 
 grow rich. You see legend is already beginning to mingle with history in 
 all that concerns Livingstone. For instance, all the Batoka maintain that 
 the Doctor entered the abyss of the Victoria Falls, that he held converse with 
 the deity who hides there and calls the water down, and that he brought 
 pearls up from it, with the news that whoever penetrated thither would find 
 great treasures. In a little time, the great Doctor will not fail himself to 
 acquire a halo of legendary divinity."
 
 1878] FIRST GOSPEL TREACHING 61 
 
 Leshoma, September 20th, 1878. 
 
 A great disappointment awaited me at Sesheke. In the 
 official interview which took place the day after my arrival, 
 I discovered that the message from the chief Khama, in passing 
 from one mouth to another, had been so garbled that it was 
 reduced to purely political salutations, and there had been 
 absolutely no mention made of our expedition. The supreme 
 chief of the Barotsi was completely ignorant of my arrival. 
 The present I had sent him had never been despatched. For 
 this, they alleged a multitude of reasons, the validity of which 
 it was quite impossible for me to gauge. After six weeks' 
 waiting, therefore, I had to do everything over again, and send 
 new messengers to the king to announce my arrival, to request 
 an interview, and to transmit to him my gift of salutation. 
 In vain I pleaded to be allowed to follow them at some 
 days' interval : that might have cost some of the chiefs their 
 lives, as it is against the law of the Barotsi. So I had to 
 renounce the idea, and accept with good grace my hosts' 
 excuses and protestations of goodwill. They sent a messenger 
 immediately, whose return is expected at the end of the month. 
 
 During our stay at Sesheke, we of course occupied ourselves 
 with evangelisation. Every day we had numerous congregations, 
 chiefly of men, for the women kept themselves at a distance, 
 or hid themselves in neighbouring courts. You would be 
 astonished at the difficulty one experiences in teaching the 
 rudiments of the Gospel to heathen, with whom everything is 
 still to be begun. They understood our language perfectly ; 
 but what we said of God, of His greatness and His love, left 
 them bewildered. Prayer seemed a great mystery to them, 
 and a terrifying ordeal. " Yuala" they said to one another on 
 kneeling down, " hoa sJiuoa " (" Now we are going to die "). 
 When they asked me the hour of prayer, they said, " Re thla 
 shua neneng ? " (" When are we going to die ? "). If they were 
 counting the days since our arrival, they said, " We died so 
 many times." This unfortunate expression comes from the 
 Makololo, of whom certain chiefs, hostile to the missionaries, 
 could not decide to kneel down and close their eyes in silence, 
 while the lekhoa (the white man) remained standing and spoke 
 alone. They feared his evil designs. To banish all suspicion, 
 I knelt down at first with the evangelists, and then made them
 
 62 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 repeat the Lord's Prayer all together. As for the singing, it 
 excited their curiosity in the highest degree. Livingstone, it 
 appears, did not sing. Simple as they seem to us, our Sesuto 
 hymns were far above the heads of these poor people. So I 
 composed two or three very short ones. The first, which we 
 sang to the tune of the Old Hundredth, became so popular 
 that the words were soon repeated by the whole village. The 
 native songs are composed of recitatives and choruses of a 
 single syllable, " He, he ! ha, ha ! " ad libitum. And the great 
 difficulty was to get these people to sing the words. They 
 thought it was sufficient if we sang them, and they repeated in 
 chorus some monosyllable rhyming with the end of each line. 
 
 The Morantsiane and his counsellors, fearing I should be 
 discouraged by their delays, pressed me to wait at Sesheke for 
 the return of their messenger. The temptation to do so was 
 very great, on account of the work we had begun there ; but 
 after ripe reflection, I came to the conclusion that duty recalled 
 me to those I had left at Leshoma. So they supplied me with 
 canoes, and I started off. My principal object in returning was 
 to make the necessary arrangements for bringing my wife to 
 Sesheke, which I believe to be healthier, and where she could 
 easily await my return from Naliele, while devoting herself to 
 the work. The sand-hills and woods of Leshoma are a melan- 
 choly solitude which has lately revealed unsuspected dangers. 
 It is infested with lions. We did not know of this ; all the 
 same, prudence had prompted us to fortify our camp with a 
 strong palisade. This did not prevent the lions from penetrating 
 it, and tearing the last of our watchdogs to pieces at the very 
 door of our tent. 
 
 Natives are not always a help in these circumstances. Once, 
 when we were travelling, and a lion had helped himself from 
 our peripatetic farmyard, a servant of ours, named Jons, worked 
 himself into the greatest state of excitement. He always did, 
 when there was any hunting in prospect ; but he had so far 
 never had a chance of exhibiting his prowess. " Master," he 
 said, " you must let me help ; there is not my equal for a lion 
 hunt. I never lose a bullet ! " And this proved to be no idle 
 boast, for the excellent reason that Jons was never known to 
 fire one off: at the first alarm, he invariably fled, usually leaving 
 his gun behind him. On this occasion, as the lion was not likely
 
 1878] DEATH OF KHOSANA 63 
 
 to return for a few hours, I sent him with some of the others 
 to rest, while I watched. He seemed very unwilling to yield to 
 such unsportsmanlike laziness, but complied. I had the greatest 
 trouble to wake him. When he could no longer, with any show 
 of decency, pretend he had not heard me, he opened his eyes a 
 little way, and said, " Oh, master, I am so disappointed I cannot 
 join in the lion hunt ; I really have such a dreadful headache ! " 
 " Nonsense ! " I answered : " who thinks of headaches when 
 there are lions about ? Take your gun like a man, and come 
 along ! " He followed me, trembling, and allowed himself to 
 be posted like the others in position to shoot. The lion crept 
 towards us, and the signal was given, " Fire ! " But at the 
 critical moment, we heard no shot from Jons's direction ; indeed, 
 he was nowhere to be found. We finally discovered him, 
 clinging panic-stricken to the back of the women's waggon in 
 the darkest and remotest corner of the kraal. But that was on 
 another journey : we have no skulkers this time. 
 
 While returning to Leshoma, I fell ill, and had much diffi- 
 culty in doing the ten or twelve miles between this place and 
 the Chobe. I reached it only to take to my bed, and for some 
 days they believed my life to be in danger. Thanks to God 
 and to the skilled nursing of my dear wife, the crisis proved 
 favourable, and I am now quite convalescent One of our young 
 men, Khosana, fell ill at the same time as myself. The same 
 cares were lavished upon him by my wife as well as by our 
 men, but the disease went to his head ; though not delirious, 
 he kept uttering heart-rending groans. All remedies proved 
 unavailing, and at the end of three days he passed away. This 
 was on the morning of Friday, September 13th. The next 
 day we sorrowfully carried him to his last resting-place, under 
 the shadow of a beautiful mahogany tree, there to await the 
 resurrection dawn. Passers-by may not know the whereabouts 
 of his tomb ; but the Lord knoweth them that are His, and 
 their death is precious in His sight. It is the first death we 
 have had among the members of this expedition during the 
 eighteen months we have been travelling ; and it has taken us 
 by surprise. The Lord has baptised us by affliction. 
 
 This tomb at the entrance of the Barotsi country is a serious 
 call to the youth of Basuto-land. Khosana was a young man 
 from Leribe, who volunteered for this expedition. His conversion
 
 64 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 dates from the visit of Major Malan. He endeared himself 
 more to our hearts every day, through his unfailing obedience 
 and respect ; while his gay and lively character made him a 
 universal favourite. He was very fond of singing ; and his 
 sweet, unostentatious piety made him a popular evangelist. 
 Exhortation was not exactly his province : he left that to his 
 elders. But, after the meetings, he loved to sit in the midst of 
 a group of heathen, and teach them to repeat a verse of God's 
 Word or to sing a hymn. He leaves a blank among us ; but it 
 is of his father's and mother's grief we are thinking. May God 
 sustain and comfort them ! 
 
 Leshoma, November <^th, 1878. 
 
 I have once more returned from Sesheke. The first part 
 of my letter will have shown you already that the Barotsi like 
 to take their time, even when dealing with business affairs. 
 Thus the messenger sent to the capital, whose return they led 
 me to expect at the end of September, only arrived at the end 
 of October. The king had not understood the message, and 
 politely refused to let me enter the country, under pretext of 
 the civil war which was threatening it. He sent me a tusk 
 of ivory at the same time, evidently mistaking me for a trader. 
 The chiefs of these parts, surprised at such an answer, invited 
 me to Sesheke, whither I betook myself immediately with Asser. 
 Eleazar had already preceded us thither, and had been awaiting 
 us for six weeks. 
 
 The Morantsiane, while officially delivering the chief's 
 answer, told me that since then the officers who had come 
 to sell the ivory had returned to the capital, that they had 
 represented the affair to Robosi, and that they were expecting 
 another messenger every day. In spite of the slender confidence 
 with which these fresh proceedings inspired me, I was detained 
 longer than I wished, as much by Eleazar's illness as by that 
 of the Morantsiane himself, and by the impossibility of getting 
 a canoe. Thereupon, one of the Sesheke chiefs came from the 
 capital with a new message. Robosi, the king, informed me 
 that he much regretted not having received the first, and 
 put all the blame on his officers, who had sent it by a slave 
 instead of by one of themselves. He expressed a great desire 
 to receive us. But he added, that if the missionary were in
 
 1878] THE BAROTSI VALLEY 65 
 
 a hurry to leave the country before the rainy season, it must 
 only be on the condition that he returned before the beginning 
 of winter in June, when the corn would be ripe. He himself 
 was building his town just now, but by that time he would be 
 in a position to receive me. He was already giving orders that, 
 on our return, we should be brought to him without delay. 
 By cross-examination, we assured ourselves of the veracity of 
 this message from the supreme chief ; and after freely discussing 
 it with all the headmen, we are quite satisfied with it. We y^ 
 have arrived at the conviction that he and his people are 
 sincerely anxious to have us, and that they are frankly opening 
 the door of their country to us. Unfortunately, the fact still 
 remains that I have not been able to have an interview with 
 the king himself. This will always be a matter of keen regret 
 to me, and perhaps in your eyes it may invalidate the invitation 
 of the Barotsi. If they are counting on our return, it is of course 
 understood that it means with the families of the evangelists^ 
 in order to establish ourselves definitely in the country. 
 
 I did not dare to make any promises. The advanced season, 
 the low state of our stores, which threaten soon to give out, and, 
 above all, the condition of our people's health, make it impossible 
 for me to attempt any further steps, and make it our duty to 
 turn back to Mangwato. I foresee that we are going to find 
 ourselves once more in a position of extreme embarrassment. 
 I know the establishment of a mission in these parts presents 
 immense difficulties, and raises grave objections. One of the 
 greatest, besides polygamy, will be slavery, which is at the 
 very foundation of the social edifice. The great question 
 certainly is that of fever. Livingstone has already made known 
 the Barotsi Valley : it is unromantic, and the climate is deadly. 
 To be convinced of this, one need only remember that, when 
 the waters of the Zambesi rise, the whole Valley is inundated, 
 and the villages are nothing more than islets. They are then 
 left to the care of slaves, while the owners establish themselves 
 on the hills, and give themselves up to feasting and hunting. 
 But the Banya'i country is quite as unhealthy, if not more so. 
 Without going into any further questions, it is evident that the 
 Barotsi and their dependants, who all speak Sesuto, should be 
 evangelised : they ought to be, if the Saviour died for them too. 
 This post will evidently be a perilous one, a post of self-devotion. 
 
 5
 
 66 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1878 
 
 But let US say at once, if the post of danger be the post of 
 honour, here it is. The question is a very serious one, when 
 one thinks of the precious lives which may be sacrificed there. 
 But where shall we find a missionary sphere which unites the 
 conditions of being easy of access and healthy and everything 
 else we desire? For my part, I see none. It is for you to 
 judge if young Churches which are making their first missionary 
 efforts, and a society like ours, always poor in resources, both 
 of men and money, can or cannot undertake such a work. You 
 know the opinion of our evangelists. Mine is, that it is a 
 question of time. When I think that God in His providence 
 made use of the Basuto (then called Makololo) to subdue these 
 tribes, and make them adopt their customs, and, above all, their 
 language, I cannot resist the conviction that He was then pre- 
 paring them for the Basuto to go and evangelise them, and thus 
 complete the work of Sebetoane.^ It is an important fact, and 
 one which I ought not to pass over in silence, that the very 
 nationality of our evangelists assures them an influential position 
 among the Barotsi. The latter have exterminated the Makololo 
 out of policy, not out of hatred. They never speak of Sebetoane 
 and Sekeletu but with the greatest respect, and the Barotsi 
 chiefs still pride themselves on the civil posts they held under 
 them. The women and children who survived the massacres 
 of the Makololo, far from being reduced to slavery, occupy 
 honourable positions. 
 
 I have another piece of news to tell you, but I can hardly 
 bring myself to speak of it. We have just lost another member 
 of our expedition, Eleazar Marathane. When we returned from 
 our first visit to Sesheke, he, knowing how prone the Barotsi are 
 to let things slide, begged me so earnestly to let him go, first 
 to Mpalira, and then to Sesheke, to look after our affairs, and 
 hasten them as much as possible, that, after several days of 
 hesitation, we ended by letting him start. He enjoyed our full 
 confidence, he let us know all he was doing and all that 
 happened, and great was the joy of seeing him again, when 
 we reached Sesheke a fortnight ago with Asser. We found 
 
 ' The conquering chief of a Basuto tribe which invaded and subjugated 
 the Barotsi country a generation or two before Livingstone's day. The 
 Barotsi gave the name of Makololo to him and his people. Sekeletu was 
 iiis son and successor.
 
 1 878] DEATH OF ELEAZAR 6^ 
 
 he had been doing the work of a good evangelist ; he had gained 
 the affection and esteem of the Barotsi chiefs and their people. 
 " He is no longer a Mokololo," they said ; " he is a Morotsi, a 
 brother." This pleased me very much. The same day he fell 
 ill ; the next day, feeling a little better, he was able to help 
 us with our business ; and seeing that the chiefs, trembling for 
 their lives, refused to give me permission to go to the capital 
 (this was before the king's second message), he entreated me 
 most urgently to ask this permission for himself. " They won't 
 object," he said ; " I shall only be a letter." It took more 
 courage than we thought, perhaps, to make such an offer, for 
 the Barotsi have the reputation of being incorrigible poisoners 
 and traitors. A few days before my arrival, a fire had reduced 
 two of the chief's huts to ashes : I had lost thereby all the 
 clothes, books, medicines, provisions for the way, etc., which 
 I had left there for the voyage which I counted upon making 
 to the capital. Nothing had been saved. Happily, I had 
 brought with me some of the most necessary medicaments. 
 In spite of all my care, the disease made such terrible progress, 
 that I saw the Lord was going to take our friend. If only 
 I could have procured a canoe, and transported my dear patient 
 to Leshoma ! But the chief, who was ill himself, wanting to 
 keep me till the arrival of Robosi's second message, always put 
 me off till the next day. 
 
 As the malady increased, our superstitious visitors became 
 fewer and fewer, and we were left to ourselves. The Monday 
 morning, the 4th instant, we made one last effort. They had 
 supplied us with two canoes, and our luggage being on board, 
 we had to move our patient. He had such a desire to see my 
 wife again that he begged us every instant to start. It was 
 too late ; he almost died in my arms, and we had to give up the 
 thought. He sank rapidly ; he knew that the moment of 
 departure was near for him, and he was happy. Only, he 
 said, he suffered on our account, who were nursing him, and 
 on that of my wife, who was alone at Leshoma. 
 
 Incessant drowsiness and difficulty of speech already pre- 
 vented him from telling us what was passing in his mind. But 
 his radiant face, and his lips, which often moved, showed us he 
 was in communion with his Saviour. When I repeated a verse 
 to him, he would say, '' Ki teng!" ("It is well!"); and until
 
 68 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 a little while before his death, he still replied to my questions, 
 " Ntate ! " ^ (" My father ! "). The Tuesday evening at eight 
 o'clock, he yielded the last sigh without an effort. I had some 
 difficulty about the funeral. They wanted us to have it at 
 night. I obtained permission, however, to have it in broad 
 daylight, and even succeeded in getting all the chiefs of Sesheke 
 to attend it. Of course, everything fell upon Asser and myself. 
 But in spite of all the fatigues and emotions of the preceding 
 days and nights, the Lord upheld us. We were enabled to sing 
 a hymn, and myself to explain very calmly to my trembling 
 auditors the mysteries of Death and Resurrection. Instead of 
 a hastily dug ditch, far in the forest, the tomb of our dear 
 Eleazar is five minutes from the village, on the edge of a wood, 
 under the shade of a tree. He had said to me a few days 
 before, when he heard the king's second message, " God be 
 blessed ! The door is open ! My tomb will be the finger-post 
 of the mission — a Uheletso ! " (the earnest of what one expects). 
 
 The next day we were descending the river ; the weather 
 was in perfect harmony with our feelings — it was raining. But 
 news from Leshoma had made me uneasy, and I was hurrying 
 to arrive. 
 
 Eleazar was a friend to us all. His heart was thoroughly 
 in this expedition. He wanted to go with us as an evangelist ; 
 but not being able to overcome the obstinate resistance of his 
 wife, he had eagerly seized the offer I had made him to come 
 with us as driver. Three days were enough for him to make 
 his arrangements. With him the sacrifice was complete. I 
 asked him before his death if he had never regretted, or if he 
 did not now regret, having come. " Master," he said a little 
 sadly, " you have forgotten my salutations to the Church at 
 Leribe. I have offered my life to the Lord ; it is for Him 
 to say where my grave is to be dug. For me it is all one : at 
 the Zambesi, as in Basuto-land, heaven is near to us." 
 
 Shoshong, Jamiayy 10th, 1879. 
 What did you say, when you received my last from Sesheke 
 and Leshoma ? Those are dates in our missionary life which 
 
 Ntate, a Sesuto word used for " father," really meaning " The one who 
 loves me," a term of affection. Monere, or Monare, also meaning " father," 
 is a term of respect, usually applied to missionaries.
 
 i«79] KHOSANA'S HISTORY 69 
 
 neither my wife nor I can ever forget. Beyond all our sufferings 
 and experiences, it is there that the pioneers of the Basuto 
 Churches sleep. It is very mysterious that God should have taken 
 to Himself Eleazar, Khosana, and Bushman, three out of the 
 four helpers whom I had taken from my flock at Leribe. Fono 
 is the only survivor. It was in response to an appeal made to 
 my Church that they offered themselves to accompany us. It 
 was a solemn meeting, and a memorable, in which these three 
 men, placing their persons and their lives at God's service, 
 addressed to the deeply moved assembly their last exhortations 
 and farewells. The Lord has accepted their sacrifice. 
 
 In Eleazar we have lost a sure counsellor, a precious friend. 
 If at Leribe my official relationships with him occasionally 
 left something to be desired, because of a misunderstanding, 
 in travelling it was quite the reverse. Would you believe that, 
 during the eighteen months we have been travelling together, 
 not the slightest cloud has even for an instant troubled our 
 intercourse? I told you he had a high standard oi duty. His 
 warm affection, his devotedness, his delicate attentions to my 
 wife and niece, especially had endeared him to us. His death- 
 bed, so calm and radiant, was the worthy crown of such a 
 beautiful epoch of his life. His memory will always be blessed 
 to us. It was a great privilege that the Lord permitted me to 
 tend him and close his eyes. What an ardent soul was his ! 
 How much he had at heart the success of our expedition ! It 
 was at his own entreaty that I yielded and sent him to Sesheke 
 all alone. When we rejoined him, he renewed his entreaties, 
 this time that I would send him quite alone, to carry my 
 message to the Barotsi king. And when I set before him 
 the dangers of such an enterprise, he replied, with a smile and 
 a depth of conviction that were alike ^irresistible, " It is the 
 Lord's work :; what does it matter, if we do die for Him?" 
 He had at least the joy of learning before he died that the 
 Barotsi countiy was open to us. 
 
 Khosana was a remarkably intelligent lad. His parents 
 were Christians, and all his father's pride was centred in this 
 son, whom he wished to send to the south for a first-class 
 education, so that he might become a schoolmaster. My heart 
 misgave me, when I heard him volunteer for Banyai-land in 
 the midst of a crowded congregation in our church at Leribe.
 
 70 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 I thought his father would never allow him to go. Outside 
 the church door, I said to him," You heard your son to-night?" 
 " Yes, I heard." " And will you let him go ? " He answered 
 with some surprise, " My son has given himself to the 
 Lord, the same as I have: what right have I to hold 
 him back ? " " Ah ! but if we return without him ? " " My 
 father, the journey to heaven is as short from there as from 
 Leribe." ^ At Leshoma, our last care was to carve the name 
 of our dear Khosana on the trunk of the tree that shadows 
 his tomb. We left that place on November 13th, at ten o'clock 
 at nio-ht, in wet and windy weather. We had to stay some 
 time at Deka, near the sources of the river so called. We 
 travelled under great difficulties, for want of experienced hands. 
 Fono, though unwell, took Eleazar's whip, and a young 
 Morotsi (Seajika), whom I had hired, took Fono's place at the 
 head of my team ; while another of the same nation, Karumba, 
 took Khosana's. Half-way on our road, Andreas came to meet 
 us from Shoshong with the oxen, and with the sad news that 
 Bushman, whom we had left convalescent, had also died. 
 
 My poor Bushman ! I could not believe he was dead. He 
 had been more than twelve years with us, having followed us 
 to Natal, when we were in exile. I had sent him with our 
 faithful Jonathan, who was returning to his country, near 
 Valdezia ; and when our expedition was preparing to start 
 thence, he offered himself to " graze our cattle." " I am a very 
 stupid boy," he said ; " I can't teach ; but won't you take me to 
 feed your beasts ? " And it was not an empty offer on his part. 
 Never were cattle better cared for. At whatever hour, in what- 
 soever weather, we might outspan, he cheerfully took his spear 
 and his book, if it were daylight, his cloak, if it were night, and 
 set off. It was not a rare thing for him to spend whole nights 
 quite alone, tending and feeding our cattle in the lion-haunted 
 forests. He never complained either of the cold or of the heat, 
 nor of fatigue, nor even of hunger ; and I sometimes found that 
 people might have been more considerate of him. If he were 
 dull, a word of affection cheered him up, for he was sensitive to 
 
 ' On his return to Leribe, M. Coillard scarcely knew how to greet the 
 bereaved father. " You see," he said, grasping his hand, " we have not 
 brought him back." "My father," repHed the old man, "do not grieve. I 
 offered the Lord the best tiling I had, and He has accepted my sacrifice."
 
 i879] MAJOR SERPA PINTO 7 1 
 
 affection. He was faithful in little things. How many times in 
 watching him have I not wished from the bottom of my heart 
 to be as faithful a shepherd as he ! Bushman did not shine like 
 Khosana by his intelligence and gaiety ; and though he had 
 already reached a certain age, he would sit down in the school 
 with quite little children, and preferred to educate himself rather 
 than to earn money. All his relations were, and still are, 
 heathen ; and although he was without resources, without friends, 
 and often ill received even by some Christians, he had won a 
 place among them by his astonishing perseverance. As I have 
 already told you, he fell very ill near Tati, and had to be left 
 at Shoshong while we went to the Zambesi. Being very weak, 
 he was carried every day to the prayer meeting. One day, 
 when they came to fetch him, he shook his head, and said, " I 
 have done with prayer — I praise." A few hours later, he had 
 gone to another meeting — no more to pray, but to praise. 
 
 What a sad return to Basuto-land these three bereavements 
 are preparing for us ! But if these graves are our title-deeds, as 
 Machpelah was for Abraham, we must be prepared to see our 
 men fall, and also to replace them. I am happy to say Fono has 
 grown more serious, and seems to be sincerely seeking the Lord. 
 
 I was forgetting to speak to you of a travelling companion 
 whom we have had on our return from the Zambesi — namely, 
 a Portuguese explorer, Major Serpa Pinto. He had entered 
 Africa by Benguella at the head of a scientific expedition. His 
 two partners left him at Bihe to go more northwards, while he 
 went to study the sources of the Chobe. He arrived at the 
 Barotsi country, and was preparing to direct his way to the 
 Lualaba, when all his porters, to the number of one hundred and 
 fifty, abandoned him. He had no one left with him but three 
 men, three little boys, and two women. Not being able to 
 procure an escort from the Barotsi, and being attacked by fever, 
 he found himself in the greatest straits. It was then that he 
 heard us spoken of, and obtained from the chief some canoes 
 and rowers to come and find us. While I was acting as head 
 nurse to our dear Eleazar at Sesheke, my wife lavished her care 
 on Major Serpa Pinto. He was very ill. But assiduous care, 
 better diet, and rest at length brought about a happy change of 
 mind and body. We offered him such hospitality as travellers 
 can : a place in our waggon. His culture and natural amiability
 
 72 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 made him a pleasant travelling companion. We considered 
 that it was a real privilege to be able, in the name of our society, 
 to show some attentions to so distinguished a man. He left 
 us ten days since to go straight to Pretoria, and thence to 
 the coast for Europe. We parted from each other with the 
 keenest regret, and his departure leaves a blank among us. 
 He is one of the warmest friends to Africa that I have 
 yet met. The importance of his work cannot fail to attract 
 the attention of the scientific as much as of the religious public.^ 
 Since he left us, he has had all sorts of adventures. The 
 rains have come on — torrential rains : the Limpopo, the Marico, 
 all the rivers are overflowing ; and the country on the other 
 side is nothing but one frightful quagmire. And he took great 
 trouble to inform us of this, so that we should take a different 
 route. Our tents are worn out, and the canvas of our waggons 
 is in rags. All the same, we are preparing to start next week, 
 making an immense detour by Sechele's country, Nylstroom, 
 Marabastadt, etc. Although we were in such sorrow, we left 
 the Zambesi full of hope for this mission. Once at Valdezia 
 we shall see what we can do. 
 
 ' See Major Serpa Pinto's book " How I Crossed Africa," vol. ii., pp. 131-276, 
 for a detailed account of the journey from Leshoma to Shoshong, and a 
 generous tribute to the Coillard family. — Tr.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Shoshong to Valdezia — Seeking a Temporary Field for Basuto Catechists — 
 Khama's Kindness — Seleka — Adventures near the Blaauvvberg — Mr. Stech's 
 Station — Mr. Hofnieyr's — Sickness and Death at Valdezia — Mochache's — 
 A Sad Journey— Pretoria and Potchefstroom — Welcome to the Expedition 
 — The Trek-menschen — Evangelists sent to Seleka — Bad News from 
 Barotsi-land-- Decision to visit France — State of Leribe — Journey to the 
 Cape — Arrival in Europe. 
 
 Near Pretoria, May 6th, 1879. 
 
 IN my last letter, I took leave of you before two alternative 
 routes, and in a great perplexity. In proposing that our 
 evangelists should remain temporarily at Shoshong, so as to 
 allow of our conferring together and maturing our plans, the 
 Basuto-land Conference (at bottom unfavourable to our projects) 
 might seem to have solved the difficulty. But, for several 
 reasons, the catechists positively refused to remain there. And, 
 sooner than return with them to Basuto-land, we decided to 
 follow the directions our brethren had first sent, and go together 
 to Valdezia, to seek in the north of the Transvaal the field of 
 labour we had once caught a glimpse of.^ It was against the 
 grain, I admit, for we saw no light in that direction, but we were 
 afraid of straying from the path of duty and missing our way. 
 
 We therefore left Shoshong on February 25th. It would 
 be impossible to tell you all the kindness showered upon us 
 by the Bamangwato. Mr. and Mrs. Hepburn set the example : 
 Khama and the Christians followed. During our journey to 
 the Zambesi, they supported the families who remained with 
 them, and did so with a liberality and delicacy that touched 
 us deeply. On our departure, they loaded our waggons with 
 provisions, and overwhelmed our evangelists with presents, 
 clothes, and rich furs. We too had our share of attentions 
 
 ' The missionaries at Valdezia would seem to have pointed out a corner 
 to them on their previous visit. 
 
 73
 
 74 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 from the chief and other persons. The little community of 
 Europeans, to whom I had the privilege of preaching the Gospel 
 during our stay at Shoshong, also made a point of testifying 
 their sympathy at the moment of our departure. 
 
 As the rainy season was already well advanced, we ventured 
 to take the most direct road — if, indeed, there is any trace of 
 a road in these deserts. Six days later, we were at Seleka's. 
 They say we ought to have made the journey in four days, 
 which I somewhat doubt. Seleka is a small tributary chief 
 of Khama's. His village is picturesquely placed just where a 
 wooded gorge opens out : his power extends over several 
 hamlets scattered along the banks of the Limpopo. We had 
 scarcely outspanned in the forest at the entrance of the gorge, 
 when a number of people on foot, on horseback, and on oxen 
 hastened to visit us. The old chief was ill ; nevertheless, I saw 
 him. He ordered one of his sons to collect his people and bring 
 back my words to him. When the preaching of the Gospel 
 was over, I was quite surprised to see the men consult together, 
 and then, in concert with their chief, implore us to settle near 
 them. Something they had let fall the day before ought to 
 have prepared me for this. " For a long time," they said, " we 
 have been wishing for a missionary, but we don't know to whom 
 we should address ourselves, and no one thinks of us. Surely 
 God has sent you to us ; do not go away." This appeal moved 
 our catechists deeply ; but you will easily understand that I did 
 not feel free to respond to it just then, as Khama had told us 
 his missionaries of the L.M.S. thought of making Seleka an 
 annexe to Shoshong. Still, we promised to confer with the one 
 whose right it was to decide — namely, Mr. Hepburn — and to let 
 them know our decision later. Poor things ! how regretfully 
 they watched us inspan and go away ! They gave us guides 
 to replace Khama's ; and in the hope of being able to cross the 
 Limpopo, we travelled by forced marches, through deluges of 
 rain, and across a flooded country. 
 
 We crossed the river at a spot where we were assured the 
 waggon of a hunter had once ventured : trees have grown and 
 the banks have deepened since then, and I should not now 
 recommend this ford to anybody. We took nearly all day to 
 effect the crossing, firing our guns now and then to scare the 
 crocodiles. Thence our guides had to conduct us through
 
 i879] ADVENTURES IN THE BLAAUWRERG 75 
 
 the woods, towards the top of a mountain in the Blaauwberg 
 where a petty chief named Mapena lives. After having wan- 
 dered in this desert for several days, we found ourselves 
 entangled among hills, gorges, and brushwood, so thick and 
 thorny that we could hardly get through them. We had missed 
 our way. 
 
 Knowing myself to be in the neighbourhood of the chief 
 Malebogo, I sent to the nearest village to ask for guides. A 
 troop of armed men soon appeared ; their bearing and their 
 dances were hardly calculated to reassure us. At Shoshong, 
 one of our friends who came from Potchefstroom had informed 
 me the tribes of the Zoutpansberg were rising against the 
 English Government, and that a regiment of volunteers was 
 being raised to subdue them. But my desire to take the most 
 direct way had silenced the voice of prudence in me. What 
 I saw now gave me food for reflection. Very soon, these wild- 
 looking creatures dashed tumultuously towards us. Thateli 
 was their chief, and he addressed me haughtily : " Who has 
 given you right of way here ? You must pay. Let us see what 
 you have in your waggons." You can easily picture the scene of 
 confusion which ensued. Nevertheless, I succeeded in calming 
 our importunate visitors, and in keeping them at a respectful 
 distance, while I led Thateli away with me to explore the rocky 
 flanks of the mountain and to open a way with hatchets. 
 
 Unfortunately, in the dusk, my waggon was thrown violently 
 against a clump of thick trees, through a sharp turn they obliged 
 us to make. I thought it was completely smashed up. There 
 was nothing for it but to outspan there in these thickets, one 
 behind the other.^ It was no small labour to cut down these 
 big trees, and clear away the undergrowth by the light of a 
 lantern ; but I was able to discover, with gratitude to God, that 
 the damage was much less serious than I had feared. 
 
 While we were working, our pretended guides had left us, 
 and I now perceived that they had plundered us : tent, bedding, 
 blankets, clothes, hatchets, even the food on which we had 
 counted for our people, exhausted with fatigue — all had vanished. 
 " Will they attack us during the night ? " we asked each other. 
 We committed ourselves to the Lord, and in spite of the barking 
 
 ' African travellers always try to form an enclosure (or laager) with their 
 waggons when halting for the night, for greater security.
 
 76 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 of our dogs (we had been given new ones at Shoshong) we 
 slept in peace. Next morning, thinking we were intimidated, 
 Thateh's men came back in a body, noisily claiming wages 
 for what they called their services the evening before ! But 
 torrents of rain soon delivered us from their incessant impor- 
 tunities. We were not deterred from pursuing our way all 
 the same, harassed and hungry ; and at nightfall we reached the 
 mission station of Blaauwberg, where Mr. Stech (B.M.S.^) received 
 us cordially. But we had great difficulty in getting there. 
 The waggon of one catechist had the tilt utterly destroyed ; 
 the other had lost the tire of a hind wheel, and only reached 
 the station next day with a borrowed one. Mine was also 
 a pitiable spectacle ; and several of our oxen had fallen lame. 
 Nevertheless, we had much cause for thankfulness ; for, in a 
 country where fever rages pitilessly, we were all in life and health. 
 Still, we had to separate for a few days, and send the useless 
 waggon to a farmer of these parts, who in case of need works 
 as a blacksmith. This pious and interesting man, a descendant 
 of Huguenot refugees, would not accept a penny for his labour. 
 The extraordinary rains, which delayed us five days with our 
 friends the Stechs, had soaked the soil to such an extent, that 
 there were nothing but bogs to be found, out of which we could 
 scarcely tug our heavy mud-clogged waggons, though we yoked 
 thirty oxen. 
 
 Directly our brother Hofmeyr heard we were in these parts, 
 although he was ill, he harnessed his waggon and hastened to 
 meet us. Like most pious Africanders, he is a warm-hearted 
 man. Let us not try to tell the emotions this meeting called 
 up. When we saw this friend once more, who had been the 
 last to wish us God-speed two years ago, we felt indeed that we 
 were coming from a far country, and that we had not all returned. 
 Yes, but we must not weep for those whom the Master has so 
 honoured. 
 
 We found our friends the Hofmeyrs in trouble : they had 
 all been visited by fever at once — father, mother, and children ; 
 so that their friend the blacksmith farmer had sent a waggon and 
 taken them all to his own house. Mr. Hofmeyr had been unable 
 to move, and his wife was so weak she seemed a mere flicker that 
 a puff would put out. In the village, too, many people were 
 ' Berlin Missionary Society.
 
 1 879] SHE-WHO-MUST-BE-OBEYED 77 
 
 laid up. We only stayed two days with them : our desires were 
 towards Valdezia — that Valdezia we had left overflowing with 
 life and health, flooded with light and refreshed by the dew from 
 above. Alas ! we found it buried in the gloom of sickness : our 
 arrival was scarcely noticed. Mr. and Mrs. Berthoud were both 
 ill in bed ; nearly all the six little children of the two families 
 had fever ; and all called for ceaseless care. Add to all that the 
 isolated position of our friends, each with a new-born infant, and 
 the lack of good servants, and it would be difficult to conceive 
 a more deplorable situation than theirs. It was certainly time 
 we came. My niece Elise lent a helping hand for the children. 
 My wife, the sick nurse of our expedition, who has never found 
 time to be ill herself the moment there was any one else to be 
 tended, took her place beside Mrs. Berthoud — only for a brief 
 time, alas ! The sickness had already made terrible progress, 
 and five days after our arrival our sister passed away. The 
 lucid moments that lighted up her last days will ever leave 
 sweet memories in the hearts of those who were privileged to 
 be near her : her words bore witness to her inward peace, her 
 faith and perfect confidence in her Saviour. 
 
 As for me, I had not the comfort of being with our friends 
 in these solemn circumstances. Two days after our arrival at 
 Valdezia, I had set off with two of the evangelists to Mochache's, 
 to see if the little field of work every one had seemed so sure 
 of were really accessible. The journey took us a fortnight : 
 half the time the rain fell pitilessly ; the roads were frightful. 
 Mochache, you must know, is the high priestess of the neigh- 
 bouring tribes. She has her sanctuary in a wooded gorge, where 
 the rites and sacrifices are performed which she ordains and 
 presides over. With the exception of a few privileged " ancients," 
 none dared approach the sacred grove ; and if by chance some 
 head of cattle venture across the boundary stream, whoever the 
 owner may be, they at once become the property of the priests 
 in charge, and are sacrificed without appeal. No stranger is 
 allowed to penetrate into the village of this chieftainess : it 
 can only be seen from afar, perched upon the mountain side 
 like an eagle's eyrie, on the edge of a black forest. She herself 
 is invisible, so that certain individuals take it upon themselves 
 to doubt her existence. Those best informed assert that 
 Mochache really exists, and they even add that she is immortal !
 
 78 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 All I know is that, like all the fraternity of magicians, she is 
 o-ifted with a penetration which sets her far above the common 
 herd. For two days, she made us wait, in order to heighten 
 her dio-nity : then when pressed by my messages, she refused 
 to see us, asking haughtily the object of our visit. Her answer 
 was already prepared. " I have my god, and I am his priestess ; 
 I do not want you or your God. Besides, your week has only 
 seven days ; mine has eight : so how could we ever come to an 
 understanding ? If I allowed you to come to me, either you 
 would be in prison, or you would ruin my authority." 
 
 All our arguments struck against this rock without shaking it. 
 In vain we warned and pleaded ; in vain we had prayed and hoped : 
 the door was indeed closed. They ordered us to leave. While 
 once again turning my waggon pole from this door, at which 
 I had just knocked in vain, I was, in spite of my sorrow, too 
 deeply conscious of the presence and sovereign will of God to 
 yield to discouragement. I thought of the strange remark my 
 friend Mr. Buchanan had made, after the check we experienced 
 from the Matabele : " God has sent you as an advertisement 
 through the heathen tribes of tropical Africa." An advertise- 
 ment ! Well, so be it ! And then those words of my Saviour 
 took hold of me : " What I do thou knowest not now, but thou 
 shalt know hereafter." 
 
 On my return to Valdezia, I found two letters — one from 
 a German missionary inspector of the Berlin Society, whom 
 I had acquainted with my projects, and whom my brother 
 Creux and I had jointly invited to a fraternal conference. Not 
 being able to come himself, he reminded me that all that part 
 of the Transvaal was the field of labour of their Society, and that 
 a division could not take place without inconvenience. The 
 other letter was from Mr. Hepburn, burning with affection. He 
 deplored our departure from Shoshong, and told me of two 
 important decisions of their conference, by which they invited 
 us and our American brethren to share their field of labour, 
 pressed me to occupy the post of Seleka, and welcomed us there 
 in advance in God's Name. 
 
 What light in our darkness ! Was this to be the hereafter 
 of the Master ? After having conferred with our companions, 
 it was decided that Asser and Aaron should go immediately 
 to Seleka ; that for reasons of economy and prudence Azael
 
 i879] VALDEZIA TO PRETORIA 79 
 
 and Andreas should follow them later on ; but that for the 
 present they should remain at Valdezia, under the care of 
 our friends Creux and Berthoud. It must be clearly under- 
 stood that the post of Seleka is not an important one. It 
 would make a fine annexe to Shoshong, but it is too re- 
 stricted for an independent field. For us, alone, it would be 
 a forlorn hope. But it is a finger-post planted on the road either 
 to the Banyai or the Barotsi. What will you think of it, dear 
 friends ? For my part, when I see how the Lord has led us 
 by a way that we knew not, and when I try to discern His 
 holy will, I am filled with gratitude. We have knocked at 
 all the doors pointed out to us ; we have found every one of them 
 barred — all, with one exception ; and it seems as though the 
 Lord would force us to enter there. Perhaps you will say it 
 is only half open ; but at any rate it is not quite shut. We have 
 no choice : the field of Barotsi-land is certainly, in my opinion, 
 the only one the Master indicates for our Basuto Churches. 
 
 The moment of separation from our evangelists was a solemn 
 one. For two years we had lived together in perpetual con- 
 tact ; we had shared the same fatigues, the same trials, the 
 same blessings ; we had run the same risks ; we had experienced 
 the same deliverances. We were one family. We had learnt to 
 know one another — not always, perhaps, to each other's advan- 
 tage ; but our mutual affection had never faltered. To say 
 that we had been able to travel together for so long, without 
 having had any serious misunderstandings, is I think the greatest 
 praise I can give to our evangelists and their excellent wives. 
 In their last prayer with us, while casting themselves on the 
 Lord, they asked that to us " might be given eyes that looked 
 backward, that the window of our secret closet might be always 
 open towards the regions whither they were returning." Could 
 it be otherwise ? May He who is sending them, to Whom all 
 power is given in heaven and on earth, accomplish for them 
 also His promise : " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the 
 end of the world." 
 
 It was thus that, comforted, but heavy-hearted, we separated. 
 The society of our friends Creux and Berthoud, who are going 
 as far as Pretoria with us, softened the parting for us. We 
 are travelling by short stages — a dismal ambulance hospital. 
 My wife took the fever at Valdezia, and has been very ill ; she
 
 80 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 was eight or ten days in bed. She was scarcely convalescent 
 when it was the turn of my niece. There can be nothing more 
 dreary than travelling by waggon with invalids ; but our friends 
 Creux and Berthoud are a living lesson to us in devotion and 
 Christian resignation. 
 
 Near Potchefstroom, .Transvaal, May 2()th, 1879. 
 
 We are hastening back to Basuto-land. It is important 
 above all things to know whether our Churches there are 
 prepared to charge themselves with the responsibility of a work 
 at the Zambesi, and to face all the sacrifices it will involve. 
 Without first knowing this, it would have been absolutely impos- 
 sible for us to leave Shoshong with the catechists to begin 
 the Barotsi Mission, so the placing of these latter at Seleka will 
 permit of our plans ripening. And we are not deserting the 
 cause we have at heart ; indeed, I am sure that in the present 
 circumstances our return to Basuto-land can but promote it. 
 You will see we are making an immense detour. The tempta- 
 tion to go straight to our station at Leribe and rest was very 
 great ; but we felt it was our duty to visit the Churches, and 
 learn their inclinations. If we can thus do some good, we 
 shall not regret this extension of our journey in mid-winter. 
 
 You would, I am sure, be astonished at the interest our 
 expedition excites all through this country. The Zambesi is the 
 end of the earth ; evidently we must have seen everything, and 
 every one makes it his business to bombard us with questions. 
 You know that in the Transvaal there is a strong party of 
 discontented Boers, who chafe under the British Government. 
 The newspapers will perhaps have told you of the hostile 
 demonstrations in this country at the time of the British High 
 Commissioner Sir Bartle Frere's visit, a few days before our 
 arrival at Pretoria. It seems that two emissaries have gone 
 from here to explore the Banyai country, and that their reports 
 represent it as a perfect Canaan. Consequently, if the dis- 
 contented Boers go to these parts, we may expect the wars of 
 extermination necessary for the conquest of this second Land 
 of Promise. Hence the questions with which we are plied 
 incessantly, as to the natives, the country, the resources, etc. 
 Already, two years ago, there was an exodus of six hundred 
 Boer families who would not submit to English domination.
 
 i879] THE TREK-MENSCHEN 8 1 
 
 Unhappily, this caravan of warrior patriarchs was badly com- 
 manded, and plunged recklessly into the frightful Kalahari 
 Desert, seeking its way towards Lake Ngami. The tale of their 
 sufferings goes to one's very heart. Tortures of thirst decimated 
 their teams and scattered their flocks ; it is said that their way 
 is strewn with baggage, thrown out to lighten their waggons — 
 furniture, utensils, tools of every kind. They found all the 
 pools emptied or dried up : then men and beasts, maddened with 
 thirst, threw themselves pell-mell into the mud and fought for 
 it, and there at last found death. One day, at the last extremity, 
 their chiefs assembled a meeting for prayer : they had scarcely 
 finished when a transport waggon arrived loaded with barrels 
 and leather bottles full of fresh water. Mr. Hepburn, the 
 zealous missionary of Shoshong, who had preceded them by 
 several days, had heard of their distress, and sent them this help. 
 The remainder of this unhappy expedition directed its course 
 towards the west of the lake, and was further reduced by fever, 
 privations, and the attacks of the natives ; dissensions broke out 
 among themselves ; and since then no one has been able to give 
 any news of them.^ But we who come from the Zambesi are 
 supposed to know everything, and it is touching to hear these 
 poor peasants asking us for news of the trek-vienscJien : one has 
 a brother among them, another a cousin, every one has some 
 relation, more or less distant. 
 
 At Pretoria, our friends the Bosmans constrained us to 
 accept the most cordial hospitality at the Dutch manse. It 
 was insisted that I should give a public lecture on our journey- 
 ings in what we should call in France the Palais de Justice- 
 The governor, Sir Owen Lanyon, whom imperative duties 
 summoned to the seat of war, expressed his regret that he could 
 not be present, but all the civil and military authorities honoured 
 us with their presence. Although the newspapers spoke very 
 indulgently of this lecture, I had the feeling it had not been 
 a success. I could not feel at ease in that same hall where 
 Dieterlen and our evangelists had been cited to appear as 
 prisoners three years before. 
 
 At Potchefstroom, to which a week's journey brought us, 
 
 ' The survivors reached Damara-land and Benguella, where they are still 
 living under the German and Portuguese Governments. See Mr. Hepburn's 
 " Twenty Years in Khama's Country." 
 
 6
 
 82 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 we found the same interest. We arrived there on a Saturday 
 evening. Not only had I to preach the next morning in the 
 Wesleyan church, and at night in one of the Dutch churches, 
 but they prevailed upon me to stay over the Monday, and in 
 the evening I was obliged to do the best part of the talking 
 at a public conversazione, convened for the occasion. The 
 Wesleyan, Dutch, and English pastors were present. We were 
 told it was the first missionary meeting ever held in Potchef- 
 stroom ; and they might have added — in the Transvaal. I felt 
 happy to plead the cause of missions before such a sympathetic 
 assembly. 
 
 Klerksdorp, June 2nd. 
 
 We arrived here on Saturday evening (the day before 
 yesterday) in time to pass a pleasant Sunday, but a little too 
 late to meet a party of Zambesi traders who had just left again. 
 They bring news which gives me great concern : it is that since 
 my departure Nguana-wina, the expelled king, has returned 
 at the head of troops from Makumba-Kumbe, fallen upon 
 several petty Barotsi chiefs of my acquaintance, and put them 
 to death. He then went to attack Robosi in his capital. It 
 seems that the latter had time to gather his forces to resist 
 him. What will be the end of this civil war ? 
 
 Leribe, November 12th, 1879. 
 
 How I wished for telepathic communication, so that you 
 might know my delight on learning the deficit had at last been 
 wiped out ! The spirit of conquest is the vital principle of 
 mission work. The Church of our day has certainly grasped 
 this, and no part of the world offers a more striking spectacle 
 of emulation, enterprise, and zeal than our Dark Continent. 
 Doubtless science, by the intrepidity of its explorers, gives 
 a powerful impulse to this movement. But, let us say it to 
 the glory of God, the Christians of England and America show 
 themselves no less intrepid, no less devoted, than the geographers 
 and traders. And shall not we take a part, however humble 
 it may be, in the evangelisation of Central Africa? Could 
 we not from now onwards create a special fund for this new 
 mission ? You will have learnt officially the decision of our 
 .Synod about it. The urgency of this work seems to impress
 
 i879] LERIBE ONCE MORE 83 
 
 itself on every one. We must go forward ; everything drives us 
 But it is felt at the same time that such a work ought not to 
 be undertaken lightly. And it has been thought that, instead 
 of going straight back to the Zambesi regions, as I begged 
 to be allowed to do, it would be better for me to visit France 
 first. This decision would have pained my wife and me very 
 acutely, if we had not witnessed the good spirit and perfect 
 harmony which have reigned all through the discussions of the 
 Synod. So we are going to France, as we should have gone 
 to the Zambesi, in the spirit of duty and obedience. The Lord 
 shows us the way so clearly that we have no right to hesitate. 
 
 December yth, 1879. 
 
 Starting for France ? We must believe it, though we cannot 
 realise it. It seems to us that this is only taking up our 
 expedition again, and our prayer is that our journeys in Europe 
 may be yet more blessed than our peregrinations in tropical 
 Africa. And that is saying much, but not too much. If we 
 should live to be very old, these two and a half years would 
 always stand out for us like summits flooded with sunshine in 
 a panorama where dark shades abound. 
 
 The spirit of the Leribe Churches is excellent. A little 
 movement which had shown itself recently has added some 
 members to our class of catechumens, and what rejoices me 
 is that these are conquests over paganism. Another proof is 
 furnished by our collections. We have had three in three 
 months. The first produced a little more than £^, the second 
 nearly ;!^9 15^., and the third nearly i^ 10. The collection with 
 us is a part of the service. Each brings his offering to the 
 table, and the whole is afterwards consecrated to the Lord by 
 prayer. Nothing touches me like seeing with what eagerness 
 and what radiant faces the little ones bring their mites. Even 
 the babies in their mothers' arms have their threepenny-bits, 
 which their little hands put into the Lord's treasury. They 
 have told me of children crying because they had nothing for 
 the collection, or because they had only a threepenny-bit, the 
 sou of this country, where the copper of Europe is not yet 
 known. It is impossible that this education should not bear 
 fruit in the future lives of these little creatures.
 
 84 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1879 
 
 Our meetings, like all our farewell meetings, were solemn : 
 especially the last, that on Monday morning, where several 
 spoke. A thrill passed through me, when I saw my old 
 friend rise, Nathanael Makotoko, whose friendship of more 
 than twenty years has never faltered. At first, he could 
 hardly control himself. Addressing M. Dormoy, my successor, 
 " Young servant of God," he said, " we receive you with love 
 amongst us ; but it is needful you should know what we are 
 passing through to-day. You see us assembled here, a great 
 company : we are saluting our spiritual father ; we know him, 
 and he knows us. Do you know where we were and what we 
 were, when, young like you, he came here, twenty years ago ? 
 Where we were ? Lost in the world ! What we were ? Wild 
 beasts ; yes, beasts of the field ! " And he burst into tears. 
 
 This moment of parting had awakened memories. Nathanael 
 is no longer the young man of old, vigorous and valiant. Of 
 those bygone days, nothing is left him but the scars which 
 recall the dauntless courage he displayed in fighting for his 
 country, and defending the fortress of Moshesh. To-day, he is 
 growing grey, he is shattered ; the persecutions he suffered from 
 another chief, to whom he had devoted himself, have, while 
 fostering his piety, left a shade of melancholy upon his character. 
 He is a chief too, and yet he works on the roads that his house 
 may maintain its position ; and as he does nothing by halves, 
 he works like a convict. No evangelist has done more than he. 
 He speaks of nothing but his approaching departure for the sky, 
 and of the little hope we can cherish of seeing each other again 
 down here. However that may be, the meeting-place is sure, 
 and it is not far distant.^ 
 
 After the private and official farewells, and a last interview 
 with Molapo, to whom it was given me to speak once more 
 some serious words, we at last left Leribe. We spent the first 
 night at the district magistrate's, Major Bell, who had specially 
 invited us. The report had gone about that in the evening I 
 was to give a lecture on our journeys in the Court-house, which 
 had been arranged for it. White people had come riding and 
 driving from great distances, in spite of the late hour. The 
 room was packed. Some Basuto, too, moved by curiosity, had 
 
 ' Nathanael Makotoko is still alive (1897).
 
 i88o] STARTING FOR EUROPE 85 
 
 collected outside, and impromptu interpreters repeated to them 
 all that was being said inside. We went on to Cana and 
 Berea ; and there too, as at Leribe, we met good Christians, who 
 brought us, some their shillings, others a little flour for the road. 
 
 On Board the "Conway Castle," January loth, 1880. 
 
 Our journey through the Colony, after crossing the Orange 
 River, was by no means devoid of interest. We did part of it 
 by train, a novelty to people like ourselves, who had not heard 
 the puffing of the iron horse for twenty-three years ! And 
 here the railway did not lack local colour. Once the engine 
 stopped short on a mountain-side. There was no station near, 
 and every one ran to the doors, not without alarm. But our 
 minds were quickly relieved. Right down in the valley a 
 farmer's wife was waving her umbrella, and signalling to the 
 guard to wait for her. Soon she began trying to run up the 
 hill with her daughters — no easy task for a lady of her propor- 
 tions, under a burning sun and the relentless gaze of her future 
 fellow-travellers. But she got there all the same, and was 
 received with a storm of hurrahs. After which episode we 
 continued our journey. 
 
 At Kimberley, we were received with the greatest cordiality 
 by Mr. and Mrs. Calvert of blessed memory ; it was of him, 
 if I mistake not, that it was said, " He arrived at the Fiji Islands 
 without finding a single Christian ; he quitted them without 
 leaving a single heathen." 
 
 There is a kind of free-masonry — the real kind this — which 
 unites the Lord's builders ; but one feels it an honour to be 
 in the company of such devoted men — men, too, whom God 
 has so honoured. 
 
 Here, too, we were invited to hold a meeting, over which Sir 
 Charles Warren presided, and the audience was both numerous 
 and sympathetic. We have carried away the happiest memories 
 of Kimberley. A black evangelist, the pastor of a large and 
 active congregation, pressed us very much to visit him. He 
 sent a conveyance for us, and, when we arrived, we found he 
 had arranged a perfect festival for us. When we left the meet- 
 ing, the evangelist put a number of little diamonds into my 
 hands. " M. Coillard," he said, " these represent a day's work 
 of my men ; choose which you like."
 
 86 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1880 
 
 I took a long time to look over them ; there were yellow, 
 black, and white. At last I chose a black one. 
 
 " Oh, but that is the least valuable," he said. 
 
 " Perhaps so, but I like black diamonds ; they are the 
 jewels I am seeking myself for the Saviour's crown." ^ 
 
 Not far from East London, seething with the feverish activity 
 of civilised life, Dr. Stewart and his excellent wife offered us 
 the warmest hospitality at Lovedale, that splendid establish- 
 ment with its thousands of Kaffir pupils. Our voyage through 
 the Colony was fatiguing in every respect. I could not shake 
 off a feeling of lassitude, which overcame me to such a point 
 that all the sources of life and thought seemed dried up within 
 me. Dr. Stewart said it was one of the sequelae of the Zambesi 
 fever ; and he himself, since his return from Livingstonia, has 
 experienced the same thing. We stayed a fortnight at the 
 Cape. I did not feel capable of going on. And then, too, we 
 wanted to leave my niece at the Huguenot Institution at 
 Stellenbosch until our return. I need not speak further of 
 the interest our mission aroused in all the Churches, especially 
 among the pastors of the Dutch Church. 
 
 We left Cape Town on January 13th in the Conway Castle, 
 and spent two weeks at Madeira, where our dear friends the 
 Rev. Mr. Buchanan and his wife received us with open arms. 
 It was a time of physical rest and deep spiritual refreshment. 
 
 Madeira, with its wonderful scenery, its beautiful sky, its 
 magnificent climate, but also the human misery which displays 
 itself everywhere, and the shameless beggary which accosts you 
 at every step, is a ruin and a petrifaction. That is what the 
 phylloxera and Romanism have done between them. There 
 is no hope for the poorer classes but in emigration. 
 
 ' This was before the days of LD.B. and other mining regulations. 
 One day during this visit, Mme. Coillard was making friends with a dog 
 in the street, when the owner, a prosperous-looking lady, invited them both 
 into her house. In the course of conversation, she told them her husband 
 had been a tailor, and, after bringing her and their children to Kimberley, 
 they had found themselves in a state of destitution, not being able to get 
 work. Sitting in their wretched hut one day, he began turning over the 
 earthen floor, for want of better occupation, and found diamonds. It was 
 the site of a mine, supposed to have been worked out ; but, by diligent search, 
 they found enough small diamonds to ay the foundations of a comfortable 
 fortune. Such things would not be possible now.
 
 i88o] ARRIVAL IN PARIS 87 
 
 Dr. Kalley, of Edinburgh, came to settle there about 1830, 
 curing the sick and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, after 
 the example of his Saviour. Eighteen years later, a minister, 
 also Scotch, Dr. Hewitson, came to help him. But incessant 
 and terrible persecutions in the end forced these servants of the 
 Lord to leave the isle, and the Madeira Christians to exile 
 themselves. A vessel conveyed the latter to Trinidad, and 
 thence most of them went to America, where they founded 
 prosperous Churches. There are only about thirty of them left 
 in Funchal, all very poor, but rich in faith and life. 
 
 Paris, March lUh, 1880. 
 
 Bless the Lord with us ! He has led and guarded us ; He 
 has brought us here in health and peace. We can sing the 
 23rd Psalm with overflowing hearts. 
 
 We reached Paris the evening before last. After twenty- 
 three years' absence, we could not believe we were once more in 
 the capital of the world, the centre of modern civilisation. The 
 next day, we went to a mission sale. I would not have missed 
 it for worlds ; the object lies too near my heart. It was for 
 the education of missionaries' children. We have no children 
 of our own, but we are all the more interested in those of our 
 little colony in Bastuo-land. 
 
 Shall I confess it? In the midst of all these people who 
 thronged the hall, we experienced at first a feeling of sadness 
 and isolation. We recognised no one : no one recognised us. 
 We were strangers in our fatherland ! 
 
 But, after all, it was only the faces that had altered : only 
 the " earthly tabernacles " had grown old. Directly our pre- 
 sence was known, we found ourselves in the midst of friends 
 and acquaintances, " Is it really you ? How glad we are to 
 see you back again ! " And some added, " But I thought you 
 were much taller and bigger." It is always the same, you 
 see : at a distance, people as well as things assume abnormal 
 proportions.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 London — The Whirlpool — A Reminiscence — Coffee Palaces and Cabmen — 
 Mildmay Conference — The Sunday-School Festival — Pleading the Cause 
 of Africa — Molapo's Death — A Contrast. 
 
 London, August 6th, 1880. 
 
 LONDON! Another landmark! A few more stages 
 perhaps, then the last, and the journey will be ended. 
 Thus every milestone we pass makes life more solemn. 
 London is the centre of the whirlpool of modern commercial 
 life. And this life seems to incarnate itself in this maze of 
 iron roads, among these trains which whistle, cross, and intersect 
 one another, from the roofs of the houses down to the bowels 
 of the earth, under the very foundations of this feverish city, 
 everywhere casting out floods of human beings. A stranger 
 from the deserts, seeing these multitudes hurrying, hustling 
 one another, and running breathlessly after their business, 
 receives a painful impression. After all, London is a desert to 
 him, if he knows no one there. It seems that in this perpetual 
 movement a poor man is not allowed to stop. The moment he 
 sits down on a doorstep to rest his tired limbs, a policeman 
 comes up and says pitilessly, " Move on, move on." He moves 
 on, only to hear the same imperious order, until at last he seeks 
 a refuge in the grave. 
 
 And yet London attracts me. Twenty-three years ago, I 
 passed through it on my way to Africa, At that time, I did 
 not know a word of English. On the eve of our departure, I 
 had made an important purchase of books ; but when they were 
 brought to our hotel that night, I found, to my dismay, that I 
 had lost the banknote into which I had changed all my French 
 money. The manager of the hotel, who was a Christian, paid 
 my bill ; but we were to leave next day at eight o'clock. I spent
 
 i88o] COFFEE PALACES AND CABMEN 89 
 
 all the night praying, unpacking, searching, and ransacking 
 every imaginable thing — in vain ! As early as possible, I went 
 with a friend to all the shops where I had made any purchases 
 the previous day ; but they laughed in my face at the idea of 
 enquiring after a lost banknote in a London shop, I was at 
 last returning sadly to our hotel, where the cabs were already 
 waiting, when I heard a voice calling me. I turned back, and 
 went into a stationer's shop. " Excuse me, but did you not buy 
 something here yesterday ? " " Yes ; some paper and an ink- 
 stand : but why ? " " Did you not lose anything, sir ? " " Yes, 
 indeed ; I lost a banknote : have you found it by any chance ? " 
 " Here it is, sir ; you dropped it out of your purse yesterday." 
 
 My emotion may be imagined. To recover a banknote lost 
 in London — in the City — seemed to be a miracle ! The young 
 man who restored it to me had no need to tell me he feared 
 God. He was a member of the Y.M.C.A. A few moments 
 later, we left London and embarked for Africa. 
 
 My impressions of London, this time, have by no means 
 effaced the first. It is true that side by side with great wealth 
 exists abject misery, but nothing is more touching than to see 
 the generosity and activity displayed by Christians. I shall 
 not easily forget the warm reception given to us two or three 
 times in Temperance Coffee Palaces, and with what uncere- 
 monious heartiness they applauded all I said. The poor people 
 wanted to make a collection. I only expected a few pence, and 
 they handed me over more than £2. After the meeting, a 
 cabman came up to me and said, " I am going to take you home 
 in '}ny cab," and nothing would induce him to accept a fare from 
 the hands of a friend. We met several of these cabmen, whom 
 we recognised as brothers in Christ ; and such meetings are 
 especially pleasant in London. Let those take courage who 
 " go into the streets and lanes of the city," as well as those who 
 search " the highways and hedges." Their work is not in vain 
 in the Lord. 
 
 The meetings that specially interested us were those of 
 Mildmay. One of the characteristic features of these meetings 
 is the part taken by laymen, such as Mr. Stevenson Blackwood. 
 What power there is in the piety of such men ! I noticed the 
 same thing wherever I went : laymen have broken through all 
 barriers, and carried the position, even in the Church of England.
 
 90 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1880 
 
 And what astonishes me no less is their knowledge of the Holy 
 Scriptures. In fact, wherever you go now, you hear nothing 
 talked of but " Bible readings." You would think people had 
 only just struck on this diamond mine ; and certainly never 
 were such riches dug out of it. 
 
 The Mildmay meetings were scarcely over when those of 
 the Sunday-school centenary began. We were present at the 
 great demonstration at the Crystal Palace. Such an event is 
 an epoch in a man's life. I seem still to hear that choir of 
 five thousand picked voices within the Palace itself, and then 
 that of thirty thousand in the Palace garden, singing, not music 
 written for effect, but hymns in praise of the Saviour. In such 
 demonstrations, and their popularity, there is not only some- 
 thing profoundly impressive, but something, too, which reveals 
 the secret of this nation's power. At every step this secret 
 betrays itself: even the public monuments proclaim it. With 
 us, you see everywhere " Liberie, egalite, fraternite." Here, 
 inscriptions like this, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but 
 unto Thy name give glory " (" Non nobis, Domine ") ; or even, 
 as on the front of the Royal Exchange, " The earth is the Lord's, 
 and the fulness thereof" 
 
 After the meetings of which I have just spoken, I found 
 my work had been cut out for me ; so, with our devoted friend 
 Major Malan, I bravely took the field, and pleaded for Africa 
 and the Zambesi wherever I was given the opportunity. W^e 
 began with the House of Commons, where Captain Gosset, the 
 Serjeant-at-Arms, had brought together in his rooms some 
 Christian friends, eminent men, who took a great interest in 
 the evangelisation of Africa. Afterwards we had drawing-room 
 meetings here and there, and then made a tour in the country : 
 Aldershot, Guildford, Weymouth, Dorchester, Wareham, Wool- 
 wich, Wimbledon, and Sevenoaks were thus visited. Everywhere 
 we had interesting meetings, each having its own special stamp. 
 Here, it would be a colonel who presided in true British fashion, 
 and the meeting had a martial tone ; there, it would be the 
 mayor in a public room, or even in the townhall itself; 
 elsewhere, again, it was a Church of England clergyman who 
 had put himself to expense for the occasion had had a large 
 marquee erected on his lawn, and assembled all the elite of 
 the place ; once, it was even a bishop, Mr. Moule, who has
 
 i88o] THE DISARMAMENT ACT 91 
 
 laboured for long years in China as a missionary, and is going 
 back as a bishop. Just think of China pleading for Africa, and 
 the Church of England giving a token of affection to the 
 Reformed Churches of France and Switzerland ! Going from- 
 place to place like this, making fresh acquaintances and seeing 
 new faces every day, is very fatiguing, and requires more courage 
 than one would think. But beside a gallant officer, who would 
 feel cowardly ? 
 
 The time of our visit to England was very ill chosen. It 
 was the end of the season ; every one was tired of meetings- 
 and collections ; and I dare say more than one person, on 
 seeing the notices announcing the Rev. F. Coillard and Major 
 Malan, said to themselves, " What ! another meeting ! another 
 collection ! " But what would be the use of our collecting the 
 money needed, scraping it together no matter how, and then 
 finding ourselves left in the lurch as soon as the work was 
 begun ? The money will find itself : the great thing is ta 
 awaken a living interest which will sustain us when we have 
 gone to the front. 
 
 Meanwhile, I received a telegram one day, announcing the 
 arrival of my friend Mabille at Southampton. He brought me 
 sad news. First, of the disarming of the Basuto, and since 
 then telegrams have been arriving one after the other, causing 
 us the greatest anxiety. Now, it seems the excitement is dying 
 down. The Basuto will not revolt, thank God ! All the more 
 crying is the injustice to which they have been subjected ; and 
 nothing can extenuate it, unless it is the fact, as they, poor 
 things, suggest themselves, that they have black skins. " And 
 yet," they add in their prayers, " it is Thyself, Lord, Who hast 
 made us black." 
 
 Another piece of news which went to our hearts was that 
 of Azael's death.^ What a loss ! He was the oldest of the 
 band. Converted late in life by the instrumentality of Eleazar 
 Marathane, he was but little developed intellectually. But, on 
 the other hand, he was one of the most pious men I have ever 
 met in Africa. He was a kindly man who did not know how 
 to be angry, everybody's friend, full of simple faith, always the 
 same, always feeding on the Word of God and prayer. And 
 
 1 See pages 78, 79.
 
 92 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1880 
 
 God has taken him ! Well, well ! We are always trembling 
 for the Ark of the Lord, always ready to cry out and stretch 
 forth our hands to keep it from falling ! He knows what He 
 is doing. 
 
 The other day, at an underground railway station, I hap- 
 pened to take up a newspaper, and read this : " The chief 
 Molapo of Basuto-land is dead." I felt stunned ; the words 
 seemed to swim before my eyes. What ! Molapo dead ! How 
 mysterious, how inscrutable, are the ways of God ! No one who 
 did not know what Molapo had been to me, and what I had 
 perhaps been to him during my missionary career, could under- 
 stand what I felt. Alas ! I was his Micaiah ! He thought that 
 in religious matters I never prophesied anything good for him. 
 As a man he possessed fine qualities. He gave signal proof of 
 intelligence and bravery in his youth, thus gaining the favour 
 of his father Moshesh, and obtained great influence in the 
 country. He was born to command, and could not brook 
 opposition. He made every one tremble before him, and the 
 spell of his name lay heavy as lead over his whole district ; not 
 the remotest hamlet but felt its weight. Immensely rich in 
 cattle, as later on in specie, he made use of his wealth as a 
 means of subjugating all wills to his own. Like all tyrants, he 
 would take the lead in everything, and rule the progress of 
 civilisation and the Gospel according to his own caprices. 
 Nevertheless, his opulent nature had beautiful impulses of 
 generosity, that set him in happy contradiction to his usual self ; 
 but, jealous of his authority, and intoxicated with his power and 
 the flatteries of his petty courtiers, he had grown suspicious, 
 irritable, unjust, and extraordinarily suspicious. No one who 
 had read the touching story of his conversion would doubt its 
 reality. If he had remained a Christian, he would have been the 
 salvation of the tribe. Unhappily, he relapsed into heathenism, 
 and became the most implacable and formidable enemy of 
 the Gospel. Shortly before my arrival in Basuto-land, he had 
 persecuted the Christians of his district as much as lay in 
 his power, stripped the most conspicuous of their cattle, and 
 deprived others of their fields : he was always on the alert to 
 stop a sinner on the way to conversion, if possible. And yet his 
 con.science still spoke, in spite of all his efforts to stifle it. It is 
 asserted that, for a long time, he never went to rest without
 
 i88o] DEATH OF MOLAPO 93 
 
 reading the Word of God and praying, even while he was living 
 in sin. At times, the struggle was such as to affect his reason. 
 Then he would flee to the mountains, and retire with a few 
 attendants to a cave. I often had most intimate conversations 
 with him ; and one day I asked him, during one of these private 
 talks : " Tell me frankly, Molapo, what did you feel when you 
 were converted ? Do you believe that you were only a Christian 
 in name then ? or did some real change take place in you ? " 
 
 He looked fixedly at me. " My pastor," he said at last, sigh- 
 ing, " it was not any illusion of my imagination. In here," pointing 
 to his breast, " there was a fire that devoured me — I could not 
 hold it in ; but now," he added in a tone of bitter sadness, " it 
 has all gone out— there is nothing left but a heap of ashes. As 
 to the things of God, I no longer understand them : it is like 
 the sound of a chariot that has disappeared into the distance." 
 
 Another time, when I went to him to beg for the liberation 
 of six of his wives, who were to be baptised, he said, after a long 
 discussion, " I will set free four of these women, but not the two 
 others. I know what it is to be converted ; my own baptismal 
 name was Jeremiah. These four women are really converted ; 
 the others are not ; and if you baptise them, you will one day 
 see I was right." And, as a matter of fact, one of these latter, 
 after some years of Christian profession, did fall into sin, and 
 returned to paganism. 
 
 On my return from the Zambesi, I found him attacked with 
 a partial paralysis, which had affected his face. But our prayers 
 had not been granted : his heart was in no way softened, and he 
 still kept harassing our Christians. M. Dormoy wrote to me 
 again only a little time ago that another of our members found 
 himself obliged not only to leave the station, but to emigrate 
 from the country, on account of the perpetual injustice of which 
 he was the victim. And the next news was that of Molapo's 
 death ! In spite of all our exhortations, all our prayers, and 
 those of the Church, in spite of his own conflicts, and the cries 
 of his conscience, can he have died an apostate, only " breathing 
 out blasphemies against Christians and the Gospel," as they 
 wrote to me a little while since ? Who can penetrate the 
 secrets of a soul with his God ? and who can say whether at the 
 last hour this wandering child did not fall into the arms of his 
 Father ?
 
 94 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1880 
 
 My position towards him, and my deep affection for him, 
 make me feel the anguish of David over the death of Absalom.^ 
 
 Another friendly face at Leribe had also passed away some 
 weeks before, that of Elia Mapike, also one of the first converts 
 of MM. Casalis and Arbousset. He was a weak man, and, 
 like David, had a deplorable fall ; but he was restored, and 
 always remained a faithful Christian, in spite of the terrible 
 temptations which beset him. He was an elder of our Church ; 
 and his peaceful, happy end contrasted with that of Molapo, 
 the man who had persecuted him so malignantly, and with 
 whom he was to appear before God. His last words were 
 characteristic. He had, like Moses, chosen rather to suffer 
 
 ^ Molapo and his brother Letsie were the two first Basuto to welcome the 
 French missionaries in the name of their father, the chief Moshesh, in 1833. 
 Seven years later, Molapo, the younger, declared himself a Christian, and was 
 baptised. His was not a nature to do anything by halves ; and nothing was 
 lacking either in his conduct, his astonishing knowledge of the Scriptures, 
 his complete abandonment of heathenism, or his zeal for the progress of the 
 Gospel. He made a Christian (i.e. not a cattle) marriage with Lydia, the first 
 woman baptised in Basuto-land. His courage, generosity, and great intelligence 
 made him the idol alike of his father, his tribe, and all the missionaries. But 
 his abilities being greater than those of his elder brother Letsie, Moshesh, to 
 avoid collisions between them, assigned him the district of Leribe to govern, 
 the only condition being that he should have a resident missionary, which he 
 too desired. Unfortunately, the Paris Society had not a man to send, nor 
 yet the means to maintain one. Hence, it was settled he should only make 
 administrative tours in his province, delaying his establishment there till he 
 could have a missionary. Gradually his visits grew longer and longer. He 
 got into the habit of doing without the ministry of a pastor. His district, too, 
 became the refuge of those who wished to escape from the missionary 
 sphere, and their influence was too strong. First tolerating pagan customs, 
 he next yielded to them, and became a polygamist, and by the time 
 M. Coillard was appointed to the district the mischief was done. Incessant 
 conflicts with the Boers on his frontiers, while all the missionaries were 
 exiled, fostered in him a hatred of everything connected with white men. 
 Before long, he was actually persecuting all Christians. On his death- 
 bed, he was jealously guarded by two attendants, who would not allow the 
 missionary or any other Christian to come near him. But his first and 
 still faithful wife, Lydia, was summoned with Rahab, another Christian 
 woman, and they daily read the Bible aloud and prayed with him. One 
 night, he burst into tears, and begged that they would remove him from 
 Avhere he was, and take him to the ynissionarfs. But he was dying of 
 paralysis, and before the missionary's arrival he had already lost the power 
 of speech.
 
 i88o] A CONTRAST 95 
 
 affliction with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasures 
 of sin for a season, and he had a foretaste of future bliss. 
 Though he was a happy Christian, yet, when the first rays of 
 heavenly glory were lighting up the tomb, he went down to 
 it with a joy never felt before, which he expressed in these 
 words : " Kalo has^ phetho ! " " The beginning is nothing to 
 the end ! "
 
 PART I I 
 
 THE BAROTSI EXPEDITION 
 
 1882— 1887 
 
 O God of Bethel, by Whose hand 
 
 Thy people still are fed, 
 Who through this weary pilgrimage 
 
 Hast all our fathers led ! 
 
 Through each perplexing path of life 
 Our wandering footsteps guide, 
 
 Give us each day our daily bread. 
 And raiment fit provide. 
 
 Oh spread Thy covering wings around, 
 Till all our wanderings cease, 
 
 And at our Father's loved abode 
 Our souls arrive in peace ! 
 
 97
 
 THE BAROTSI EXPEDITION 
 
 January 1884 to January 1887 
 
 CHRONICLE 
 
 Aug. 1882 
 
 Jan. 2nd, 1884 
 
 ,. 30th 
 
 Feb. nth or 12th 
 
 23rd — March 3rd 
 March 15th — 30th 
 
 April 8th 
 
 ,, 15th— 26th 
 
 May 2ist 
 
 24th — June ist ., 
 July 15th (about) 
 
 ,, 26th 
 
 Aug. 10th — Sept. 24th 
 
 Dec. i2th 
 
 Jan. 8th, 1885 {first 
 voyage) 
 
 Feb. nth 
 Aug. 14th — 2ISt 
 
 ,, 29th 
 Sept. 24th 
 
 Nov. 4th 
 
 Dec. 2oth (about) 
 March 6th, 1886 
 
 23rd 
 April 17th 
 June 15th 
 
 Aug. 1 6th 
 
 (Sept. 22nd 
 Oct. nth 
 Dec. 2nd 
 
 Jan. loth, 1887... 
 March 4th 
 
 M. 
 
 M 
 
 Return of M. and Mme. Coillard to Lerib6. 
 Expedition started for Barotsi-land. 
 ,, reached Pretoria. 
 
 ,, left Pretoria. 
 
 ,, delayed at Saul's Poort. 
 
 ,, ,, ,, Marico River. 
 
 ,, reached Shoshong (Khama's). 
 
 M. Coillard to Seleka to fetch the evangelist Aaron and his 
 
 family. 
 Expedition left Shoshong. 
 ,, delayed at Kan^. 
 
 ,, reached Pata-matenga. 
 
 , , , , Leshoma (right bank of Zambesi). 
 
 Coillard starts for the capital, and is turned back by news 
 of revolution deposing King Robosi (Lewanika). 
 Coillard, with Aaron and Middleton, starts for Lealuyi by 
 canoe. 
 M. Coillard officially received by King Akufiina (Tatira), and 
 invited to establish a station as soon as floods permit of 
 transport. 
 M. Coillard returns to Leshoma. 
 Expedition crosses Zambesi to Kazungula. 
 Catechists Aaron and Levi stationed at Mambova. 
 Expedition reaches Sesheke — Station established under M. Jean- 
 
 mairet's charge. 1 
 
 Marriage of Elise Coillard and M. Jeanmairet. 
 News of counter revolution restoring Lewanika to power, and 
 
 preventing establishment of a station at the capital. 
 Middleton sent to Pretoria to renew exhausted supplies. 
 M. Coillard's second voyage to Lealuyi [alone). 
 Official reception by King Lewanika. 
 M. Coillard returns to Sesheke. 
 Middleton returns from Pretoria, and is detained six weeks at 
 
 Kazungula. 
 M. Coillard and Waddell, Aaron and Middleton, start for Sefula 
 to found station, taking the waggons, and travelling over- 
 land. 
 Birth of Marguerite Jeanmairet at Sesheke.) 
 Expedition arrives at Sefula — Station founded. 
 M. Coillard returns to Sesheke to fetch Mme. Coillard. 
 M. and Mme. Coillard start for Sefula. 
 ,, ,, ,, arrive at Sefula. 
 
 Foundation of school at Sefula station. 
 98
 
 THE BAROTSI EXPEDITION 
 
 IT was in August 1882 that M. and Mme. Coillard returned 
 to Leribe. During their furlough (it could scarcely be called 
 a holiday) of two and a half years, they had travelled through 
 France, England, Scotland, and the Protestant communities of 
 Switzerland, Italy, Holland, and Belgium, awakening interest 
 in the new Barotsi Mission. The Paris Committee felt unable 
 to accept the onus of so risky and costly an experiment, but 
 it was sympathetic and encouraging, and undertook to receive 
 any contributions subscribed to a special fund for the purpose. 
 The sum of ;^5,ooo had to be collected : an English friend 
 headed the list with ;^i,ooo; the rest was got together little 
 by little. Basuto-land was to maintain its own evangelists, and 
 Europe the Europeans, the whole responsibility being cast upon 
 M. Coillard, for the field seemed highly unpromising. The 
 country was generally believed to be the unhealthiest in South 
 Africa ; and it was inhabited by about seventeen different tribes, 
 nominally under the sway of the Barotsi kings, but perpetually 
 at war with one another. The difficulties of getting there were 
 almost overwhelming. Nevertheless, when the Coillards left 
 Europe, it was with the intention of starting immediately for 
 the Zambesi. 
 
 But they found the state of things in Basuto-land very 
 different from what they had left two years before. The war 
 which followed the Disarmament Act had changed everything. 
 Many of the Christians had died or apostatised ; Churches had 
 been broken up ; civil war was raging between the loyal and 
 the rebel chiefs ; and the people were so impoverished, spiritually 
 as well as materially, that to rely on any substantial help from 
 them was out of the question. Before going farther afield, it 
 was absolutely necessary to reconstruct the work at Leribe, 
 and a year and five months were thus spent. In December 1882, 
 
 99
 
 lOO ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Weitzecker arrived from Italy to take up the 
 work of the station. They were the first missionaries the 
 Waldensian Church ever sent to the foreign field, and their 
 coming gave the first impulse to the movement which has 
 since led that Church, poor as it is in wealth and numbers, to 
 send ten workers to South Africa from its fifteen parishes. In 
 January 1884, the long caravan at last set out for the Barotsi 
 Valley. 
 
 The party consisted of M. and Mme. Coillard, their niece 
 Elise, and M. Jeanmairet, a young Swiss missionary, with the 
 evangelists Isaiah and Levi and their families, and two artisans, 
 Middleton and Waddell, the former English, the latter Scotch. 
 The start was made under depressing circumstances. The 
 indispensable drivers and cattleherds were no longer an eager 
 band of volunteers, as in the first expedition, but merely hired 
 servants. Moreover, during the long delay, the enthusiasm of 
 many supporters, both in Europe and Africa, had cooled down ; 
 and so deplorable was the state of Basuto-land, that many of 
 their colleagues and other equally devoted friends of missions 
 thought they were forsaking an immediate and a crying need 
 for a mere quixotic enterprise. But the Coillards felt too strong 
 a conviction of their call to hesitate. When they passed through 
 the Transvaal, the Boer Government, by this time reinstated 
 at Pretoria, at first made great difficulties ; but in the end it 
 gave way, and remitted all customs duties. At Shoshong, the 
 party was rejoined by the catechist Aaron and his family, who 
 had been left to carry on mission work at Seleka ever since the 
 previous expedition had halted there, in March 1879. 
 
 At the time of the first expedition, trade with the Barotsi 
 Valley had been entirely in the hands of native and half-caste 
 Portuguese merchants, but it had since then been opened up to 
 white traders from the south. The devoted missionary explorer 
 Mr. F. S. Arnot had been over two years at Lealuyi, keeping 
 the place open, in spite of terrible difficulties and privations.^ 
 The mission party reached Leshoma on July 26th, 1884, and 
 was preparing to cross the Zambesi, when news arrived that 
 Mr. Arnot's health had obliged him to leave for Benguella, 
 and that immediately after his departure a revolution had 
 
 ' See Mr. Arnot's book " Garenganze " (Hawkins & Co.).
 
 i885] THE BAROTSI EXPEDITION lOI 
 
 broken out, by which the king, Robosi (Lewanika), had been 
 driven into exile. The country was in a state of anarchy, 
 which continued until his restoration in October 1885 ; and 
 this obliged the missionaries to stay thirteen months at Leshoma. 
 In August 1885, the expedition crossed the river, and 
 a station was established at Sesheke, under the charge of 
 M. Jeanmairet, whose marriage with Elise Coillard took place 
 in the following November. Soon after Lewanika returned to 
 power, he sent for M. Coillard (March 1886), received him very 
 cordially, and pointed out a site for the station ; but meanwhile 
 supplies had run out, and the missionaries had been obliged to 
 send all the waggons to Pretoria to renew them. Consequently, 
 it was not until Mr. Middleton returned with them, that the 
 materials necessary for founding the new station could be 
 transported to the interior. It was on August i6th that the 
 pioneers started, and the journey of two hundred and twenty 
 miles occupied exactly two months. They followed the native 
 paths, cutting a road through the forest, step by step, to allow 
 of the waggons passing. Sefula, the site of the future station, 
 nineteen miles from Lealuyi, the capital, was finally reached 
 on September nth. 
 
 As soon as the work of installation had been put in train, 
 M. Coillard hastened back to Sesheke for his wife (who had 
 been obliged by the state of Mme. Jeanmairet's health to remain 
 with her for a time), and together they reached Sefula on 
 January loth, 1887. This date marked the conclusion of the 
 Barotsi Expedition, and the commencement of the Barotsi 
 Mission. 
 
 C. W. M.
 
 CHAPTER Vril 
 
 The Return to Africa — Arrival at the Cape — The Huguenot School— 
 Stellenbosch — Wellington — Natal — Travelling New Style and Old Style 
 — A Trying Journey — Arrival at Leribe — Disastrous Effects of the War — 
 Jubilee of the S.M.E.P. — Disappointments— Tour with M. Jeanmairet 
 among the Churches— An Appeal to the Friends of Missions — Arrival of 
 the Weitzeckers — Departure from Lerib6. 
 
 Lerib6, August ztth, 1882. 
 
 BY God's goodness, we have at last arrived at Leribe. We 
 had to regret five or six days delay at the Cape ; but we 
 profited by it to go to Wellington, and shake hands once more 
 with that venerable veteran M, Bisseux,^ who still represents 
 the heroic days of the beginnings of our mission. We also 
 visited the Huguenot School. The creation of this establish- 
 ment, due to the efforts of a truly apostolic pastor, Mr. Andrew 
 Murray, has initiated an important reform in the system of 
 education for young girls in South Africa. It is a /w7ne rather 
 than a school. Every day the pupils there devote about an hour 
 to domestic work ; but the hour is reckoned in minutes, to 
 remind them of the value of time. At the same time, they 
 carry on really serious studies there. To me, one of the best 
 fruits of the system and the influence of the house is the fact 
 that many of the pupils on leaving feel the desire to do some- 
 thing for others, and in their turn devote themselves to teaching 
 Already, institutions of this kind are arising in the principal 
 towns of the Colony, the Free State, and the Transvaal. It 
 
 ' M. Bisseux, one oi the first party of French Protestant missionaries to 
 land in South Africa in 1829, died in 1896. These missionaries, when they first 
 arrived, were welcomed by the colony of descendants of French Huguenots 
 at the Cape, who begged M. Bisseux to stay with them and be a missionary 
 to their native servants ; and to this work he devoted his whole life, never 
 returning to France. 
 
 102
 
 i882] AT THE CAPE IO3 
 
 was a beautiful thought on Mr. Andrew Murray's part to 
 connect this work with France, by calling it the Huguenot 
 School. It is a homage to the memory of our persecuted 
 forefathers, many of whom sought refuge at the Cape, and 
 whose names are still met with among the pupils of the school 
 at Wellington. 
 
 We also visited Stellenbosch : it is a little Edinburgh^ 
 a centre of education. There is a girls' school of the same 
 kind as the one at Wellington — two, indeed, one of which belongs 
 to the Rhenish Mission, and is very prosperous. Above all, 
 there is the Theological Faculty of the Dutch Church : it is 
 thoroughly evangelical, and has been a source of great blessing 
 to the country. What especially rejoices us is to see the 
 missionary spirit developing in the Dutch Church, and gradually 
 dissipating the prejudices of former days. Thus among the 
 theological students, at the same table and on the same benches 
 there is actually a young man of colour. This is a victory 
 indeed. The Rev. Th. Ferguson has also carried on for 
 some years a missionary school, which has already sent out 
 workers, and which numbers many pupils, all Dutch or 
 colonists. 
 
 At the Cape, I was naturally occupied with Basuto-land 
 business. I saw the Governor, the Ministers, and some members 
 of Parliament. Then, after eight days' coasting in the Indian 
 Ocean, we were at Natal, and were cordially welcomed at 
 Durban by old friends. We next started for Pietermaritzburg. 
 It was not in ox-waggons that we did the fifty miles this time, 
 but on a real railway, still a great novelty. The line is simple 
 and very narrow — no tunnels ; it follows the contours of the 
 mountains, and gently climbs the slopes when necessary, and 
 then the unpleasant rocking makes one feel sea-sick, and calls 
 forth loud abuse from the passengers on all sides. But in 
 imagination we were going over the adventurous journeys of 
 olden times ; we were enjoying the grand panorama that 
 unrolled itself before us, and were thankful and happy. A 
 farmer was sitting beside me ; and in the evening, when we 
 stopped at a station, and every one had run into the buffet or 
 the bar, my neighbour came to me, as I was walking up and 
 down the platform. " Sir," he said, " will you share my food ? " 
 It was biscuit. I was not hungry ; indeed, I have no particular
 
 104 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1882 
 
 fancy for that kind of bread. But his invitation was so cordial, 
 that I broke the brick, and began to nibble it, chatting with 
 him meanwhile. It was truly a bit of Africa — hospitable Africa ! 
 I do not remember such a thing ever happening to me in all 
 my European journeys. 
 
 Many changes have taken place in the fourteen years since 
 we left Natal. The Zulu, who inhabit it or have sought refuge 
 there, are reckoned at nearly four hundred thousand. For 
 the sixteen or eighteen thousand colonists, the great ques- 
 tion of the day is the labour question, as at the Cape. The 
 Zulu are so proud and independent that they only work to 
 get the means of obtaining wives for themselves. Thus, people 
 are obliged to import coolies from India. And to-day, these 
 coolies are everywhere : on the railroad, in the shops, the hotels, 
 the private houses, the market, and the prisons. Their shops 
 and their Oriental costumes impart a distinctive character to the 
 towns of Natal. People say they are born shopkeepers ; and 
 their stores, thronged with customers, are looked on with no 
 favour by those tradesmen who cannot compete with them- 
 The Wesleyan Church carries on a work of evangelisation 
 among them, but it must be owned the soil is singularly 
 arid. 
 
 At Maritzburg, it was my old and intimate friend Mr. Smith, 
 the pastor, who gave us hospitality. We thought it would only 
 be for a few days, and it was for weeks. No waggons anywhere — 
 we must have them made to order ; no oxen to be had either. 
 At last, we managed to procure some ; but at what a figure ! 
 We had to take them ; there was nothing else for it. One day, 
 I was in the garden, watching some soldiers go by : I never 
 see them without feeling the strongest sympathy. Out of the 
 black rabble that followed them, two individuals emerged, and 
 dashed up to me, gesticulating, laughing, and shouting, as soon 
 as they could get near enough — and indeed a good deal sooner : 
 " Lumela Ntaie, lumela Ntate " (" I greet you, father "). It was 
 Gideon and Fono.^ They were bringing my waggon from 
 Basuto-land ! The sight of it, our home on wheels, filled me 
 with sadness. It had been left out of doors for two years and 
 a half without shelter, exposed to sun and rain, and was in a 
 
 ' Two black servants. Fono, it will be remembered, was the only 
 survivor out of the four Basuto who volunteered for the first expedition.
 
 i882] A PAINFUL JOURNEY 105 
 
 pitiful State of dilapidation. It was no use to think of selling 
 it ; no one would have given me anything for it. The repairs 
 alone cost me about £^,6 ! 
 
 But the oxen are bought, the waggons are ready. Let us 
 load up and set out. How delightful to sit cosily in a corner 
 of one's chariot, and look at the long team v/inding before one ; 
 to hear the " Trek " of the leader, and the crack of his long 
 whip ; to make one's way leisurely on, camping like gipsies ; in 
 a word, living the real African life again ! Alas ! the charm 
 is very shortlived. A cattle plague, which has made terrible 
 ravages in South Africa, prevails also about here. Even before 
 we left the town, two of the oxen sent from Basuto-land had 
 succumbed. I had scarcely sold their skins, when others 
 dropped on the road. We halted on a rising ground about 
 three miles from the town. It was a complete disaster : care, 
 rest, remedies — nothing was of any use. In a few days, I lost 
 twelve. To-day, at the moment I am writing, they are cutting 
 up the seventeenth. I made myself perfectly wretched about 
 it ; and every ox that died drew from me the lament of the 
 prophet's son, when he lost his axe-head : " Alas ! for it was 
 borrowed." But that did not repair our losses. The journey 
 had no lack of other adventures of all sorts : we had gales that 
 carried everything before them ; dust-storms overwhelming the 
 waggons ; rain, snow, and rotten roads. It was one of the most 
 wearying journeys I ever made. 
 
 I hasten on to our arrival at Leribe — our dear Leribe. Alas ! 
 it is no longer what it was five years ago ! We knew that well 
 enough ; and yet I confess the reality surpasses the darkest 
 pictures our imagination had conjured up. True, some few 
 people came to meet us, and are happy to have us back ; and 
 Nathanael Makotoko, grown somewhat greyer, but with all his 
 habitual friendliness and courtesy, was there too with a troop of 
 young men. But there are gaps among those who surround 
 them, both Christians and pagans. The station, deserted and 
 dilapidated, might be a tomb, were it not for the presence of a 
 few women, and above all of our friends M. Marzolfif and Mile. 
 Louise Cochet, who did all they could to give us a welcome. 
 The village, once so neat and gay and smiling, is now nothing 
 but a heap of silent and desolate ruins. I cannot speak of the 
 mission garden ; it is the emblem of the Lord's vine, though
 
 I06 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1883 
 
 wasted by a very different enemy.^ War, and the worst of all, 
 civil war, has sown the seeds of implacable hatred and revenge. 
 The life of the camps, those camps which are the sink of the 
 worst and most shameless corruptions of our civilisation, has 
 given such an impetus to the current of demoralisation that few 
 of our Christians, I fear, have been able to resist it. Some have 
 openly returned to wallow in the mire of paganism ; others, and 
 perhaps the greater number, have taken to brandy. The ranks 
 of the young men, those young people on whom we had founded 
 so many hopes, have been broken up by the violence of passions. 
 The Christians, whose profession had resisted so many attacks, 
 have come under such hurtful influences that their life seems 
 paralysed. In the presence of so many disasters and such ruin, 
 the heathen mock at the Gospel, the church is deserted, " and 
 the highways of Zion mourn." 
 
 Here, the district is torn between the two principal sons 
 of Molapo. Jonathan, the legitimate heir of the power, whom 
 our Christians have followed, has obeyed Letsie's orders, has 
 remained loyal to the British Government, and has lost every- 
 thing, like his partisans. Joel, son of his father's second wife, by 
 raising the standard of rebellion, carried with him the greater 
 part of the tribe, and thus acquired an imposing position in the 
 eyes of the British Government, but one which the latter cannot 
 respect without trampling on all its promises and engagements, 
 and mercilessly sacrificing Jonathan and the loyal Basuto. The 
 situation is still most strained. 
 
 It is springtime here. Let this lovely season spread her 
 mantle of flowers and verdure over all our ruins and desolations. 
 Doubtless the contrast is painful to the heart ; but it also 
 inspires us with confidence and hope for the future. The winter 
 will not last for ever. It was in the midst of the smoking and 
 deserted ruins of Jerusalem that Jeremiah exclaimed : " It is 
 of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His com- 
 passions fail not ; they are new every morning : great is Thy 
 faithfulness." 
 
 Leribj^, July loth, 1883. 
 
 In a few days, we shall have been back here a whole year. 
 And we were only to stay six uiojtths ! But the Zambesi 
 
 ' Ps. Ixxx. : " Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : Thou hast cast out 
 the heathen, and planted it. . . . The boar out of the wood doth waste it," ei seq.
 
 1883] lerib£ in ruins 107 
 
 Mission will lose nothing by this forced delay. It has pleased 
 God to put our faith in the crucible of sorrow and disappoint- 
 ment. Now I understand it : after the noise and publicity of 
 Europe, we needed these humiliating reverses, we needed this 
 time of silence and solitude, to draw us near the Saviour, in 
 deeper communion with Himself. 
 
 The conference at Hermon in March did me good. It was 
 wholesome, after such a long separation, and such a crisis as 
 we have passed through, to see our colleagues again, whom we 
 love and respect, and to talk with them. We were counting on 
 the festival for the jubilee of the mission ^ : we had quite set 
 our hearts upon it. We would have liked to pass a few days 
 en faniille with our missionary colony once more, before our 
 departure for the interior. More especially did the occasion 
 seem to me a unique one for pleading the cause of the Zambesi 
 Mission before the assembled Churches, and proposing it to 
 their hearts and consciences as a monument worthy of their 
 raising to the glory of our God. And it was all the more 
 necessary because during these last years there has been a 
 cooling down of missionary zeal, a step backwards, due in great 
 part to political preoccupations. We were making plans. But 
 we were on a volcano : it erupted ; the civil war broke out ; 
 our unhappy district was once more given up to pillage and 
 destruction. And farewell to our happy prospects — farewell 
 to our harvest of blessings — farewell our jubilee ! You know 
 the rest : the last hamlets of the district destroyed ; Molapo's 
 town and its beautiful European houses, built and furnished 
 at great expense, reduced to ashes ; old men massacred, 
 children mutilated, women ignominiously stripped and mal- 
 treated before our eyes, on the very station where they 
 had sought refuge, in " the shadow of the house of God." 
 Alarms, panics, isolation, suspense, and perplexity augured 
 ill for the jubilee. It was impossible for me to absent 
 myself, and our longed-for festival seemed nothing but a 
 mirage. We could not attend it. 
 
 We were fortunate in having with us my future colleague, 
 M. Jeanmairet, a nice, earnest young fellow, and also a friend, 
 a young lawyer from Geneva, M. Gautier. We were expecting 
 
 ' 1833-1883.
 
 I08 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1883 
 
 the visit of Mr. and Mrs. Boegner ^ and their cousin, Mr. Gustave 
 Steinheil. God did not allow us to be disappointed, and we 
 thank Him that no alarm took place during our friends' stay 
 here. We took advantage of it to study certain questions once 
 more which affect the Zambesi Mission. The moment, indeed, 
 has come when our plans must take a definite shape, and we 
 must at last set to work. Jeanmairet and I are going to ride 
 round to visit the Churches by invitation of the Conference, 
 and take leave of them. Our programme is full. Our journey, 
 which will take six weeks, is to begin the day after to-morrow. 
 I confess I dread it a little, particularly now in the middle of 
 winter ; and it costs me much to go so far away from the 
 station and leave my wife alone with my niece. There is a 
 truce just now ; we cling to the hope that it is the presage of 
 happier times, and not the calm that precedes the storm. 
 
 Leribe, August iWi, 1883. 
 
 Our journey occupied six weeks. On the very eve of our 
 departure, people came at nightfall to tell me skirmi^es were 
 taking place at three or four places. Blood had already flowed ; 
 there was going to be more fighting — so much was certain. How 
 could I leave my wife and niece in such circumstances? After 
 reflection, I resolved to abide by my decision, whatever might 
 happen ; only I took precautions, and the magistrate promised 
 to let me know if the civil war should break out seriously again. 
 Well ! the armistice lasted the whole time we were away, and 
 they scarcely experienced one of those alarms which had been 
 so frequent before. And then, such splendid weather ! You 
 know our little missionary colony well enough to know up to 
 what point the duties of hospitality are understood here. I 
 fear we imposed that privilege rather too onerously upon our 
 brethren : I had a very bad conscience on the subject, for 
 certainly I should not have liked any one to take it out of my 
 horses the way we did with theirs ! But we could not help it ; 
 and I only hope that when it comes to their turn, they will 
 meet with friends as generous and obliging as they were to us. 
 
 Wc had few adventures. The good hand of the Lord was 
 
 ' The Director of the Maison des Missions in Paris and his wife, daughter 
 of the late M. de Pressens6, who were making a tour in Basuto-land at 
 this time.
 
 1883] A TOUR IN BASUTO-LAND IO9 
 
 upon US, and we were able to carry out every item of our 
 programme as arranged beforehand. We had experiences of 
 various kinds, both encouragements and discouragements. But, 
 on the whole, it was the encouragements that predominated. 
 It was then that we could appreciate the full extent of evil that 
 the war had worked among our Churches. What a difference 
 between the dead calm now, and the thrill of enthusiasm that 
 was electrifying them in 1876 and 1S77! How easy and 
 delightful everything was then ! — so it seems to me now, looking 
 back on it. I could have gone to the ends of the earth, borne 
 onwards by such fire. To-day, when sometimes the voice finds 
 no echo, how one feels the need of God's mighty hand to 
 gird one with strength for going forward ! We found on our 
 path here just the same objections over again that I was 
 combating in France, against outside missions. " How can we 
 make collections? How can people go to the Zambesi, when 
 there is still so much to do in Basuto-land ? " 
 
 Still, we had some good meetings ; and though we cannot 
 as yet say what the results will be, we brought back more than 
 good words, which cost nothing — tangible tokens of interest. 
 You can guess how impatient our Zambesians are, Seajika and 
 Karumba (who had been left at the Morija School all this 
 time since the first expedition). Poor boys ! after the service at 
 Morija, they came to my room and beset me with questions. 
 They would have liked to know the day of our departure, to 
 leave the school instantly to come and get ready, as if they 
 had any great preparations to make ! Karumba pretends to be 
 tired of his studies, and he seems to fancy if he can have a 
 rest, the moment for departure will come all the quicker. 
 
 Good news awaited me on my return. My wife handed me 
 an envelope : " In reply to our prayers." It contained nearly 
 jC lOOy of which ;^50 were from our friend Mr. Arthington. So 
 the waggon is provided for : now we are only waiting for the 
 team. Oh, if we only had more faith ! And yet it does not 
 need much, does it, to remove even mountains ? 
 
 Lerib^, October 24//^, 1883. 
 Our farewell meeting with the representatives of the Basuto 
 Churches is fixed for November 25th, and our final departure 
 for December 5th. We are already in the midst of our
 
 no ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1883 
 
 preparations, just as though we were going to take the train for 
 the Zambesi. It is not the express, and still less is it the 
 Flying Dutchman, that will carry us into those far-away regions, 
 but our bovine servants, who are the symbol oi patience. It is a 
 time of fatigue and anxiety, for one has to decide what must be 
 done with the things we leave behind, as well as what we take 
 with us, and to foresee the future wants not only of ourselves, 
 but of every member of the caravan. Every day we look to 
 God for the wisdom we so greatly need. The members of our 
 flock are no less sad than ourselves at the approaching parting, 
 but the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Weitzecker will console them. 
 We now have the four waggons we require, and are only 
 waiting for our last team. 
 
 The moment, then, has come to put our hands bravely to 
 the work. But it has also come to make a serious appeal 
 to all our friends, and all the Churches whose messengers we 
 are. When we were in France, the Zambesi Mission was popular. 
 You were heart and soul with us, urging us on. We believed 
 this, and counted on you. Now the moment for action has 
 come : before charging the enemy, we cast a backward glance ; 
 we are looking for the main army corps, those who follow and 
 support us. One would think it had receded from us ; and we 
 tremble at the thought. 
 
 Beloved brethren, wherever you may be, in France, England, 
 Scotland, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, or Holland, rich and 
 poor, we appeal to your affection for the cause of missions, to 
 your love for the Saviour, and we adjure you to uphold us, 
 pray for us, work, and give cheerfully. God will do the rest. 
 Adieu ! 
 
 Leribe, December igth, 1883. 
 Our friends the Weitzeckers have at last arrived. And 
 then, at the very moment we were thinking of inspanning 
 a new and totally unexpected difficulty arose. The small-pox 
 broke out in some parts of Basuto-land, a long, long way from 
 where we are. But, unluckily, it is in Basuto-land all the same ; 
 and so great is the panic, that the whole of this unhappy 
 country has been placed in quarantine. Three days earlier, no 
 one would have opposed our passage ; but the Weitzeckers had 
 not arrived then. I took certain steps with the authorities of
 
 1S84] MR. AND MRS. WEITZECKER III 
 
 the Orange Free State, and I am awaiting their reply. Our 
 whole caravan is ready, waggons loaded and all ; and yet we 
 have to ask ourselves if we can possibly get off by January ist! 
 
 Last Sunday, we had such a congregation that they could 
 not all find room in the church ; and I presented my successor 
 to the tribe. They gave him such a cordial welcome as leads 
 me to hope he may be spared many of the difficulties we 
 apprehended for him. Mr. and Mrs. Weitzecker will soon win 
 the love and confidence of our people. Next Sunday, we shall 
 have their installation, several baptisms, and our farewells. From 
 the political point of view, we hope for much, since we know 
 that England is going to take the country under her protection 
 again. Evidently God has views of mercy for this nation. 
 
 You know how many difficulties have arisen to hinder us, 
 one after the other : sometimes the darkness has seemed so 
 thick that we could only have groped our way, if we had not 
 heard the Master's voice going before us. That voice has 
 never failed us, and we have discerned it amid all the noise, 
 more or less sympathetic, more or less hostile, which has echoed 
 around our projects. As for the work we are undertaking, 
 I have it too much at heart to compromise it by lack of 
 precaution. Apart from that, the question of success lies with 
 God. If I should die before I even have the joy of seeing 
 the Gospel banner finally planted in these distant regions, and 
 without the comfort of seeing the Churches of my Fatherland 
 march resolutely to the conquest of Tropical Africa, what are 
 man's judgments to me ? I shall die with the conviction of 
 having done no more than my duty. Do not think what 
 I am saying is mere bravado. There is not a shade of that 
 in my mind. I am neither an enthusiast nor a lover of adven- 
 tures. The very prospect of such things would be enough 
 to discourage people of our age and tastes. I am a soldier ; my 
 marching orders are signed ; I obey and start : if I fall, others 
 will take my place. In any case, with Christ, the victory is 
 certain. 
 
 Bethlehem, January 6th, 1884. 
 
 Starting for the Zambesi ! Yes, at last we are off. It is 
 no longer a prospect, but a reality, since our departure on 
 January 2nd. Our preparations, our last farewells, with all
 
 112 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 their fatigues and emotions, are behind us. At fifty years of 
 age, we have once more taken up the pilgrim's staff, and our 
 faces are turned towards the regions beyond the Zambesi. 
 Already Leribe, our Bethel and our Ebenezer, the work of our 
 youth and our maturity, is a thing of the past. Already the 
 blue mountains of our second fatherland have vanished from 
 our eyes. And when our dear Mikea, Zakea, and Mareka, who 
 are accompanying us to Bethlehem, have taken leave of us, 
 the last cable will be snapped, and we shall be launched upon 
 the open sea. But Jesus is and will be there. Nothing will 
 remain but the pain — the wrench we do not speak about, but 
 which every one understands. Once more, He will count our 
 wanderings and guide us with His eye. 
 
 Our departure was the end of a long agony of several 
 months. Up till the last moment, our faith was on the rack, 
 and Satan was doing everything he could to hinder us. Scarcely 
 did we see one difficulty smoothed away than he raised up 
 others still more formidable and embarrassing. We had the 
 satisfaction of installing our friends the Weitzeckers, and of 
 passing a few days with them — busy days, of course, but happy 
 and blessed too. Their arrival swept away many fears and 
 prejudices. Our flock had been afraid of falling into the hands 
 of an inexperienced young man ; and, far from concealing their 
 discontent, they murmured loudly. From the moment they 
 had heard Mr. Weitzecker, and found him a full-grown man, 
 the opposition died away. We are starting without the slightest 
 misgivings. We have the warmest affection for our friends, 
 and the fullest confidence in the experience they have already 
 acquired. We joyfully bequeath them the fruit of our labours : 
 no one could more worthily enter into them. The material 
 labours necessary to a mission station are all finished. They 
 will have nothing to do but to maintain them. We are con- 
 fiding to their care a cherished flock, which, in spite of all the 
 disasters of the war, has never ceased to be affectionate and 
 interesting. 
 
 I envy my young colleague Jeanmairet going to the Zambesi 
 without having lived long years in Leribe. JVe have cleared 
 the ground ; we have sown, God only knows with what tears ! 
 Our friends are going to continue our work and reap. Oh, 
 may the sheaves that they bring to the Saviour's feet be rich
 
 AN APPEAL 113 
 
 and abundant ! And after the burden and heat of the day 
 those who sowed and those who have reaped shall rejoice 
 together. No one but the Master knows what it is to leave 
 Basuto-land, the mission and the missionary family, all so united — 
 those beloved brethren from whose views and feelings we may 
 sometimes differ without ceasing to love and admire each other. 
 As a member of such a body, one feels strong. My departure 
 will leave no empty place here ; but when I think of the isolation 
 that awaits us whither we are going, a shuddering depression 
 sometimes comes over me. God bless Lerib^ ! We will speak 
 no more of it. Forbid that we should seek to magnify the 
 little we have had the privilege of doing for Jesus ! Yet should 
 we offer Him what cost us nothing ? There must be no weak- 
 ness now the moment has come for action. The Lord Who 
 sends us has girded us with strength and crowned us with peace 
 and joy ; and He has promised, " Thy shoes shall be iron and 
 brass, and as thy days so shall thy strength be." May He 
 pardon me if this be the language of presumption ! We leave 
 it to others to discuss and find fault with our enterprise. We 
 ourselves have nothing to do but obey : it is our simple duty — 
 nothing more. And I trust my Master will render me always 
 invulnerable, whether to adulation or to the most hostile criticism. 
 We certainly need to fortify ourselves in God as we face that 
 vast unknown called the Barotsi Mission. An icy blast which 
 has blown since we left France has, alas ! destroyed in many 
 hearts the confidence and interest once bestowed on us. And 
 I fear it has dried up more than one source on which not only 
 our work but that of the whole mission was depending. It is 
 hard for soldiers who are storming the breach, and cannot 
 possibly draw back, to hear those who had urged them on 
 shouting, " Forward ! but it is highly improbable we shall be 
 a.ble to follow you." You Christians who daily pray, " Thy 
 kingdom come," will you forsake us ? Is it with this prospect 
 saddening and overwhelming our hearts that we must go forth 
 to struggle with all the difficulties bristling before us, and 
 contend with all the most formidable powers of paganism, with 
 sickness and with death? No, you cannot, you will not ; and 
 before we reach the Zambesi, you will once more give us proofs 
 of your co-operation, and those words which spring from the 
 heart to the heart, awake its courage, and sustain its faith.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Across the Transvaal to Shoshong — A Trying Journey — Difficulties at Pretoria 
 — Duties remitted — General Joubert in a New Role — Prospects of Scarcity 
 — The Staff of the Expedition — Bad Roads — Saul's Poort — Delay and 
 Losses at the Marico — Aaron's Arrival — Shoshong — Seleka — A Baptism 
 there — Return to Shoshong — Generosity of Khama and his People — 
 Messages from Barotsi-land — The Post — Starting again. 
 
 Pretoria, February ^th, 1884. 
 
 PRETORIA ! This is a stage to be noted. When you have 
 already been living gipsy fashion for a fortnight, when you 
 find yourself here and the Vaal at your back, you begin to 
 realise that the journey has begun in earnest, and that you have 
 really gone part of the way — and a bad part too. Indeed, the 
 Caledon kept us two days, with its banks and shoals, in spite 
 of the vigorous help of our people from Leribe ; then ravines, 
 sloughs, marshes, where our teams, though doubled and even 
 tripled, could not always drag our over-loaded waggons. I do 
 not know how many times we had to unload our baggage to 
 get out of a bad place, and carry it on. Distance might lend 
 some enchantment, some halo of romance, to these adverrtures ; 
 but we are quite biases, and we have no longer the same 
 elasticity as some years ago. 
 
 Our departure from Bethlehem was an agitating moment. 
 Some friends had agreed to meet at our camp ; and tears flowed 
 while we stood and sang our farewell hymn in Sesuto, and, 
 kneeling together, heard the Wesleyan pastor commend us to 
 the grace of God in an earnest prayer. The Dutch pastor, 
 Mr. Th^ron, had recommended us by letter to the Boers of his 
 district, and assuredly not in vain. At Heidelberg, where we 
 did not know a soul, we were surrounded on all sides with 
 interest and attentions. It was the Dutch pastor himself 
 (whose views are the antipodes of mine) that sent us a fine 
 
 114
 
 i884] GENERAL JOUBERT IN A NEW ROLE II5 
 
 fat sheep : traders, the butcher and the baker, poor people, 
 touched at hearing the object of our expedition, sent us milk 
 and fruits of every kind. It makes one feel very small and 
 unworthy to be the object of so many kindnesses. But we 
 believe it is the Lord making His face to shine upon us. 
 
 If we had trouble in getting into Pretoria, we certainly had 
 no less in getting out. I had asked the Government to exempt 
 us from the heavy duties levied on all kinds of merchandise. 
 After much trouble, and a correspondence which threatened to 
 compromise all our interests, I obtained an audience of the 
 Executive Council. Some hours after, an official despatch 
 announced to me that, in view of the essentially evangelical 
 character of our mission, and in order to facilitate it as much 
 as possible, we were exempted from all duties. We owe this 
 favour, in great part at least to, our indefatigable friend Mr. 
 Bosman. He even contrived to organise a missionary meeting. 
 The hall was full, and it was General Joubert, the Vice-president 
 of the Republic, who took the chair. He presented us to the 
 public of Pretoria in a speech full of fire, in which he took care 
 to emphasise his views on evangelical missionaries, and on those 
 who, while preaching the Gospel, also mingled in politics, and 
 made trouble between the blacks and whites. We ourselves 
 were classed among the former, and the wishes his Honour 
 expressed for the success of our enterprise, equally with the 
 news of the favour the Government had that day accorded to 
 us, were received with loud applause. On our arrival, we 
 had once more pitched our tents beside the prison, that same 
 prison where our first expedition was incarcerated nearly eight 
 years ago. Who could ever have prophesied the welcome they 
 gave us to-day ? God be praised ! 
 
 One difficulty overcome, another confronts us. The drought 
 is such that we do not know how we are going to travel to 
 Mangwato. And then they tell us there is a frightful famine 
 there. At such a time I remember having bought a sack of 
 flour for ;^5 \os., and maize and potatoes at £'^ the sack. 
 What a prospect for our expedition ! At the last moment we 
 had to do violence to our feelings and renounce the plan of 
 passing through our brother Gonin's station. It is such a dry 
 country that we should risk serious losses of cattle for want 
 of water and pasturage during days together. I have past
 
 Il6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 experience to go by ; so I hastened to make sure of some sacks 
 of flour the traders here were haggHng over, and to procure 
 three huge tuns for our water supply. These tuns have lock 
 taps, and I shall keep the keys in my own pocket, so that we 
 shall be sober and moderate ! 
 
 Our present expedition differs materially from the first. 
 Seven years ago, not only were we carried along on a wave of 
 enthusiasm which made everything easy, but all those who 
 accompanied us, with few exceptions, formed part of the mission 
 and shared my responsibility to some extent. To-day, the 
 enthusiasm has died down, in France as in Basuto-land : our 
 staff is almost entirely composed of men, devoted enough no 
 doubt, but whose services we have to pay for at a very high rate, 
 and who have no responsibility. Isaiah, an excellent young man 
 from Bethesda, and Levi, a worthy evangelist from Morija, are 
 the only ones who have given themselves to the mission. But 
 this latter is scarcely more than a passenger with his family, 
 since he is incapable of wielding a whip. But I hasten to say 
 it would have been difficult for us to choose a better stafif. 
 All our men, except one or two, profess to know and serve 
 God. We have characters of every shade. One is earnest, 
 almost melancholy, and taciturn ; another talkative, sparkling 
 with fun and high spirits. This man is gentle and submissive ; 
 that one energetic and full of resources. During these six 
 weeks of travelling, we have studied each other well, and the 
 conclusion I have arrived at for my part is that each one has 
 not only, as they say, the faults of his good qualities, but the good 
 qualities of his faults. It is not hard to recognise this, if one 
 but sets one's mind to it. We had, however, to get all these 
 diverse elements into working order — by no means an easy 
 thing at first. To speak only of a very prosaic matter which 
 plays so large a part in our lives — namely, food ; one person 
 cannot eat cold millet cakes ; another pretends that maize 
 upsets his stomach ; a third even asserts that wheaten flour 
 makes him quite ill ; pork does not suit one, nor curdled milk 
 another. What is to be done ? One cannot do violence to 
 these good people, nor yet give in to all their whims and fancies. 
 But now they have all got into step — myself included, I suppose ; 
 and if it were not for those expenses that haunt me like a 
 horrible nightmare, the task would be fairly easy.
 
 i«84] TRANSVAAL ROADS II7 
 
 We had the joy of meeting our friends the Creux here, on 
 their way to Switzerland. We took the Communion together 
 last night. To-day, we must bid each other farewell — a long 
 farewell. We should like to charge them with all sorts of 
 affectionate messages for a multitude of our friends in France 
 and Switzerland. 
 
 Pretoria, February wth. 
 I cannot write much to-day, as we are just off for Mangwato ! 
 Do not forget us. And above all, say to the " wise " : " Wait for 
 the end ! " I do not pretend to possess a monopoly of light and 
 wisdom, but say that " God hath spoken once ; yea, twice have 
 I heard His voice" (Ps. Ixii. 11, Fr. Ver.). 
 
 Mangwato (Shoshong), May 18///, 1884. 
 What I dreaded is just what has happened. The intermin- 
 able delays before our departure have brought us to the worst 
 of the bad season. Our very start from the capital seemed 
 ill-omened. We had scarcely left the last of its streets before a 
 pelting rain suddenly came on — it was a perfect waterspout, 
 inundating the country, and transforming the stream, which flowed 
 in front of us, into a raging torrent. It was only with the 
 greatest difficulty we could cross it, grumbling all the time at 
 the municipality of this city, if there be one, whilst sinking 
 knee-deep in the mud, doubling the teams and shouting to 
 the creatures till we were hoarse. Our friends, the Creux, 
 Constan^ons, and others — quite a little cavalcade — were with 
 us in their summer clothes. The rain did not look like leaving 
 off, so we hastily took leave of each other — they to get back 
 to their homes and change to dry things, we to continue our 
 journey. No supper, no fire for us ; no one even thought of it. 
 Our poor boys passed the night under the waggons, with their 
 trousers tucked up, trying to sleep, like herons, on their legs. 
 When we rose the next morning, the whole country was nothing 
 but one immense sheet of water. And thus the expedition 
 from Pretoria to Mangwato was inaugurated ! Oh, how we 
 should appreciate the benefits of a railway now ! When will it 
 extend so far ? Patience ! it is coming on. Major Machado, a 
 Portuguese officer whose acquaintance we had the pleasure of 
 making, has been working for months at a report for a proposed
 
 Il8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884. 
 
 line to put the Transvaal into direct communication with the 
 sea through Inhambane. That is not the Zambesi yet, but it 
 is a step towards it. Whilst waiting for the accomplishment 
 of this beautiful dream, we poor tramps slowly work our way 
 along, with heavy hearts, between the showers. Oh the roads ! 
 the marshes ! the mud-holes ! the bogs ! And to face all that 
 with heavily charged waggons ! Even if I had the leisure, I 
 should only weary you very needlessly were I to relate all our 
 adventures. Every time the oxen stuck in a bad place, we said, 
 " Now we are in for it ! " We looked at the sun, doubled, 
 tripled the team, and finally put our shoulders to the wheels. 
 If it would not budge, and the oxen turned refractory, the 
 men simply unloaded the waggon, carried the contents on their 
 backs to terra fir ma, and there reloaded again. At such times, 
 fatigue was forbidden ! The shortest road — though not quite 
 the best — crossed the River Apies, skirted the Mathlabase, and 
 crossed the Limpopo ; this we had decided to follow, but during 
 the night we went astray, and found, too late to turn back — 
 which, by the way, we never do — that after all we had taken the 
 road passing through Saul's Poort, M. Gonin's station. We 
 saw the hand of Providence in this, and had no reason to 
 regret our mistake. Our friends, the Gonins, received us with 
 open arms for the few days we could spend with them. Their 
 kindness touched us deeply ; their devotedness and self- 
 renunciation did us good to witness. 
 
 Outside Saul's Poort, the road — save the mark ! — had become 
 impassable : advance was out of the question. Scarcely were 
 we out of one slough, before we fell into another. One day, 
 thanks to our good Jonathan's vigorous arm and chest, my 
 waggon had safely covered a mile or more of a fearful morass ; 
 but Levi's, which followed ours, sank up to the understel. Four 
 teams, of sixteen oxen each, failed to stir it, the poor beasts 
 sinking up to their bellies, and being thus incapable of pulling. 
 We worked in vain till night fell, and finally had to abandon 
 the attempt. The next morning, after a few hours' heavy sleep, 
 the first thing wc did was to go together to the Throne of Grace ; 
 and we did so with confidence. " Send Thine angels to our 
 help," prayed one of our party. Wc were just arranging our 
 plans with renewed vigour, and full of courage, when some men 
 arrived on foot and on horseback, some with oxen, others with
 
 1884] THE MARICO RIVER I 19 
 
 waggons. They were the Christians of Saul's Poort, who, 
 hearing of our distress, were hastening to our help. They 
 were the angels of God for whom we asked. When have we 
 ever cried in vain to this Father of ours, so full of tenderness ? 
 The waggons were soon unloaded, and the bad place passed. 
 These kind friends of their own accord travelled with us for 
 a fortnight, cutting out a new track, in order to avoid the 
 marshes of the Limpopo as far as possible. They took us 
 right to the junction of the Marico (Malikoe) with the Limpopo, 
 and would have come even farther. Unfortunately, both rivers 
 were overflowing, and the ford at the Marico was more than 
 forty feet deep ! When should we be able to cross it ? Fearing 
 to become an additional burden to us in this uncertainty, our 
 friends found there was nothing to be done but establish us 
 there, and return to their homes. 
 
 When they had bade their last good-byes, their waggons had 
 disappeared into the woods, and the rumbling of their wheels 
 no longer reached our ears, a kind of horror came over me. 
 I saw the enormous impassable river before us ; the clouds 
 gathering over our heads, threatening more than once to over- 
 whelm us ; the marsh whose pestilential neighbourhood I dreaded, 
 yet could not escape. And famine stalked there ; that hideous 
 spectre showed its teeth at us. To crown our misfortunes, the 
 Bushmen stole our two goats. Good-bye to the drop of milk 
 we enjoyed so much ! Our horses, too, died one after the other, 
 and so suddenly that we could do nothing to save them.^ What 
 was to be done ? The most experienced had long been at their 
 wits' end. The loss of our two saddle horses was bad enough, 
 undoubtedly ; but to see our draught oxen die off like flies was 
 a much more serious matter. It was the change of pasture 
 which proved so fatal to them. The flocks of vultures, which 
 never left us day or night, fought over their carcases, and bands 
 of Masaroa disputed the fragments of putrifying flesh with our 
 horrible guests. As a finishing stroke, first Levi, then Isaiah, 
 had to struggle with dysentery ; Middleton, too, who could not 
 understand that the fever would dare to attack him — Jiiui, 
 so active and so necessary. And on the top of all that, every 
 
 ' Six horses were lost at the Marico, three belonging to members of the 
 expedition, and three which some Basuto chiefs were sending as a present to 
 Khama. Only one remained.
 
 120 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 one had to be put on rations. It was easy enough for ourselves, 
 but less so for our people, one or two of whom were rather 
 perverse. But when they saw my wife merrily kneading a 
 small loaf of bread with all the siftings and all the bran, this 
 loaf, baked in a brass pot, being the allowance of bread for 
 six persons during a whole week, they understood, and even 
 pushed the economising of our few remaining provisions to 
 a further extent than we would have dared to insist on. 
 
 In such a situation, everybody vied with each other to bring 
 the first news of the river in the morning. They went to look 
 as soon as dawn appeared, and twenty times more during the 
 day, to examine the pieces of wood stuck the previous day 
 at the margin of the water. One day, it was declared to have 
 sunk a great deal, and already we began to make plans for 
 fording it, but the next day it had risen again. A fortnight 
 passed thus, and we were obliged to devise something to pass 
 the time. Some looked after the cattle, others took their guns, 
 searched the woods, and frightened the game ; a third party got 
 some fishing tackle ready, and went to — watch the water flowing, 
 and look out for the crocodiles, which, however, kept out of 
 sight ! We also unpacked the splendid boat given us by the 
 African Society of Paris,^ and thus we could visit travellers 
 on the other side who were stopped like ourselves, exchange 
 provisions with them, and even procure a little milk for ourselves 
 from time to time. 
 
 At last the day of our deliverance came. A messenger 
 whom I had sent to Mangwato brought us some oxen from the 
 chief, and some waggons which the traders had sent to lighten 
 ours. You may guess how eagerly we seized our pickaxes and 
 spades to level the steep banks, and our hatchets to fill up the 
 mud-holes with trunks of trees and branches. The river was 
 still deep ; the oxen had to swim : the current was rapid too, 
 and washed into the waggons. Never mind ! we shut our eyes 
 to all danger, launched the waggons one after another, and 
 crossed without further mishap. We thanked God, and began 
 to breathe freely. On seeing the rotten roads, and the ruts 
 made by our predecessors, we understood Whose hand had 
 stopped us at Marico. If we took six weeks to cover a distance 
 
 ' The Messager de Paix, unfortunately wrecked later on.
 
 
 f5
 
 1884] KHAMA'S TOWN 121 
 
 which usually took from twelve to fourteen days, other people, 
 who were accustomed to the business, and had taken the most 
 direct route, did not arrive before us. As to our oxen, we 
 were thought lucky to have lost no more. Poor consolation, 
 is it not? But still that is all the consolation travellers 
 exchange ! 
 
 We travelled more rapidly now, and at the end of a fortnight 
 saluted the hills of Mangwato. One day, during our midday 
 halt, whilst breakfast was being cooked we were sitting in the 
 shade and practising an appropriate hymn, when we heard a 
 horse's trot behind us. I looked round ; it was Aaron coming 
 to meet us with Khama's son-in-law. We shook hands with 
 the warmth of old friends ; then we sat down and bombarded 
 each other with questions. The good man had left Seleka 
 eleven days before, and had come to meet us on foot. He told 
 us about the death of his daughter Caroline, a short time 
 before. This dear little girl, who was eight years old, and had 
 contributed not a little to the enlivenment of our party, had 
 been bitten by a snake one night in bed, and died after two 
 days of agony. She was every one's pet, and she seems to have 
 been a child who loved the Saviour. When her mother saw she 
 was dying, she said to her, " What would you say, if that snake 
 were a messenger from the Lord to call you to Him ? " " Oh, 
 mother ! " she answered, " I should say nothing, and only be 
 very glad : I do love Him so." 
 
 It was pleasant to meet such friends as Khama, Mr. Whiteley, 
 Mr. Musson, and others at Mangwato. Khama is always the 
 same, and he was overjoyed to see us again. He had his 
 " fatted calf" all ready — a great sheep of the African breed, with 
 a tail weighing from ten to fifteen pounds or more, the fat of 
 which is very much appreciated. He also provided for our 
 cattle, and sent us two large loads of firewood, immediately. 
 Every morning, he used to come to our camp with a smiling 
 face to ask after our health. On the day appointed for our 
 official salutations, we went in a body to the lekhothla, where 
 the chief was awaiting us, surrounded by his suite. He received 
 my little speech, sentence by sentence, with an emphatic " E Rre " 
 ("Yes, my father"). I delivered messages to him from a 
 number of European friends. Then came the climax — the 
 presentation of a fine musical box, playing six h)'mn tunes.
 
 122 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 made expressly for him at Geneva. It was handed to me, and 
 I uncovered it. Every head was craning forward, and every 
 eye was fixed on me and the mysterious object. I put my hand 
 in my pocket for the key : it was not there ! I searched — 
 searched everywhere, and searched again — all to no purpose : the 
 key was lost ! Tableau ! 
 
 A little coolness and presence of mind saved the situation, 
 and indeed the unlucky incident only had the effect of 
 sharpening curiosity, for the next morning the crowd and 
 excitement were greater than ever, when suddenly the melody 
 and charming accompaniments of that hymn " Safe in the arms 
 of Jesus " were heard ! Of course, after that, every one wanted 
 to hear the box sing ! 
 
 Four or five days after our arrival, M. Jeanmairet and I 
 left for Seleka. The chief gave us some oxen ; and one of his 
 brothers, his waggon. We made the journey, there and back, 
 by forced marches, so as not to spend a Sunday on the road, 
 and we were not away more than a fortnight. Our object 
 was either to relieve, or, preferably, to definitely suppress, the 
 station at Seleka. Asser had returned to Basuto-land with his 
 numerous family ; Andreas has received a call from our Swiss 
 brethren at Valdezia, and is only waiting till they send for 
 him. Being a near relative of certain Makololo chiefs, and 
 especially of a man who quite recently gravely compromised 
 the name of the tribe, and who died while heading some 
 Matabele hordes against the chief Moremi, he rightly feared 
 his presence among us might give offence to the Barotsi. As 
 for Aaron, he is coming with us. We arrived at Seleka on 
 Saturday, and were to leave on the Tuesday. But, in the 
 meantime, we could not sit with our hands folded. Our first 
 interview with the chief Kobe was characteristic. No one 
 but ourselves might enter his court. As a precautionary 
 measure, his son squatted down in front of the door, which 
 was tiny enough as it was ; and the entrance to the royal hut 
 having been carefully closed, we did not enjoy the privilege 
 of seeing his Highness's face. He was there, however, inside ; 
 for at every pause in my speech we heard a sulky grunt from 
 a hoarse voice, which, when I had finished, cleared itself suffi- 
 ciently to say, " Go away with the rain, and may the rain 
 follow you wherever you go ! May God deluge you with rain !
 
 i884] THE CONVERT OF SELEKA 12$ 
 
 Thank you ! " And that was all the regret he felt at seeing 
 the evangelists depart. 
 
 The next day, the whole village assembled for the morning 
 gathering — two hundred persons at the most, all told. M. Jean- 
 mairet baptised Aaron's infant and that of Andreas ; and I 
 baptised a boy about fourteen years old, Mosenene (a serpent 
 or adder), who took the name of Zacchajus. This was the only 
 actual fruit of the mission at Seleka. Three men have returned 
 to the world, and three others have emigrated to a German 
 station. We hesitated at first, on seeing Mosenene's youth ; 
 but when we had heard him confess his faith, and answer all 
 our questions intelligently, we were quite satisfied. It was 
 touching to see this young lad rise in the midst of the con- 
 gregation to make a public declaration of his profession, and 
 then kneel to receive the seal of baptism. The most absurd 
 reports had been circulated about this ceremony, and conse- 
 quently every one was eager to see with his own eyes what 
 would happen to Mosenene when we gave him children's flesh 
 to eat, and human brains to drink ! Since then, Kobe has 
 sent the boy to us here at Mangwato with two other men, so 
 that we may send him on to the school in Basuto-land. " He 
 will come back and teach us in a year," he said. 
 
 The afternoon service was less well attended, though it was 
 then that the evangelists were to make their farewells. Aaron 
 did so in the style of a true Boanerges ; Andreas with no less 
 authority, but more gentleness. One could quite feel these men 
 had taken up a position, and that they were regarded by the 
 natives much as the Basuto regarded us. Moreover, our 
 evangelists had passed through experiences which had been 
 wholesome to them, and had made them understand our own 
 situation. They have worked hard at Seleka ; and if there have 
 been few conversions, I was struck by the number of those who 
 knew how to read and write, and the spirited way they joined 
 in the singing. We had the painful impression that the natives 
 of Seleka were hardened, and that our taking away these 
 witnesses for the truth was a relief to them. Already they were 
 beginning to dispute the thatches of their huts, and to worry 
 them with begging. 
 
 It was at Seleka that we had to part from Filipi, a man 
 from this district who was converted at Berea, and above all
 
 124 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 from Jonathan, who is returning to Valdezia with his son and 
 another boy who accompanied him from Basuto-land. It costs 
 us much to bid good-bye to our dear Jonathan ; he is our son 
 in the faith, and I beHeve he feels towards us as much affection 
 as we have ever had for him. With him, too, the expedition 
 loses a part of its very soul, if not its right hand too. His 
 energetic, sometimes impetuous character brings him always to 
 the front. He wanted to accompany us here, and would not 
 accept more than half the wages the others demanded, either for 
 himself or for his two boys. Six men left us here, according 
 to our previous arrangement. Who will replace them ? Khama 
 assured me that I must not look to him, on account of the 
 rumours of war. This was another of those waves that break 
 against our faith, yet without shaking it too much. On our 
 return, Khama showed that he had not forgotten us. He is 
 lending us three men ; and to spare us too great an expenditure, 
 he is sending three messengers with us, who, besides the 
 message entrusted to them for the Barotsi king, are com- 
 missioned to help us on our way. 
 
 There was also news from the Zambesi. Two young men, 
 who had been there on a commercial enterprise, were returning 
 with their health shattered by fever, and they brought us quite 
 a budget of correspondence. Mr. Arnot, in a long letter 
 teeming with interest, gives us every detail about his work. 
 He is still at the capital, and has started a school, which has 
 already passed through all sorts of ups and downs. Robosi 
 himself writes to Khama ^ asking him for his alliance ; and as 
 a proof of friendship, for one of his daughters in marriage, and 
 a black dog ! He announces that the Jesuits have been to 
 him, but that they are not after his heart, nor yet after his 
 people's heart, and he has forbidden them to come into his 
 country. " The one we are looking for is M. Coillard," he adds. 
 " I am told he is on his way hither, and I ask you as a favour 
 to help him, so that he may come as quickly as possible." Do 
 not found too many hopes on the favourable disposition of 
 a heathen chief who knows nothing of the Gospel. Paul, in 
 obeying the Macedonian's call, found a prison in Macedonia. 
 But what did it matter, since that prison proved to be the door 
 of Europe ? 
 
 ^ Of course by Mr. Arnots hand.
 
 i884] FRIENDSHIP'S OFFERING 1 25 
 
 We wanted to wait for Mr. and Mrs. Hepburn's return from 
 England before presenting the Church at Shoshong with the 
 beautiful set of communion plate which the Comite des Dames 
 de Paris had procured for us. As our friends did not arrive, 
 however, we had to do it without them. The presentation took 
 place the day before yesterday — a very simple but very cordial 
 ceremony. The vote of thanks brought home to us the fact 
 that we are no longer in Basuto-land, the Greece of South 
 Africa, but it was none the less appreciated on that account. 
 Khama's speech consisted of two draught oxen which he sent 
 the next morning ! Another gave us a cow, and a third two 
 sheep. Friendship {setsualle, as we say in Sesuto) is a great 
 institution here. Numerous as we are, each one has his 
 viotsualle} or tsala"^ — his friend. This friendship entails all 
 sorts of duties and privileges, especially in the way of gifts. 
 Even though there is a famine at Mangwato, our " friends " do 
 not let us want for water-melons, sugar-cane, curdled milk, etc. 
 Naturally, my special friend is Khama. He had prepared a 
 fine jackal-skin kaross against my arrival, and a leopard skin 
 for my wife. We shall be rich when we leave Mangwato ! 
 
 I forgot to mention the post. The post ! How it makes 
 our hearts beat ! A friend of ours, knowing we were at Marico, 
 had taken the first opportunity of sending us a packet of letters. 
 The man to whom they were entrusted proved friendly to the 
 last degree ; he spent a whole evening with us, chatting on 
 every conceivable subject — except the post. On arriving at 
 Mangwato, four days after, we heard that this good man had 
 had our letters ! He had quite forgotten to hand them over. 
 We had our compensation though ; for besides the express 
 messenger he sent on a fortnight later, Mr. Dawson, when he 
 came to greet us, was followed by a man carrying on his head 
 a large basket full of newspapers and more correspondence. 
 You should have seen how we all pressed round it, and how all 
 eyes sparkled at the sight. The postal service is interrupted 
 now, because of the small-pox which is raging in the direction 
 of Zeerust. The two postmen, who are sent every three weeks, 
 take a fortnight to accomplish the journey, and it costs £1. In 
 order to defray the cost of the service, a tax of £t, los. is 
 imposed upon every European without distinction who makes 
 ' Sesuto word. - Sechuana word.
 
 126 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 a stay in the country, and it means therefore ;;^I4 for us. 
 But the Europeans of the district have held a consultation, and 
 unanimously decided to make us pay only half that sum. 
 
 We are now on the eve of starting again. We have been 
 obliged to deposit some of our baggage here, and consequently 
 there has been a great deal of work to do, in unpacking and 
 repacking, and much cause for lamentation over the damaged 
 and broken articles. But the waggons are reloaded at last, and 
 they have been covered with ox-hides, to protect them a little 
 from the spikes and branches that obstruct the path. Even 
 dead oxen are still good for something. 
 
 Kane, on the way to the Zambesi, May 25//?, 1884. 
 
 As we had to lighten our waggons, because of the deep sands 
 we have to plough through in the desert, we have been obliged 
 to unload, sort, repack, often to load, unload, and load again, 
 and make all sorts of combinations. We must inspect every 
 case, and weigh the importance of every article. Our clothes 
 and personal effects gave us little trouble. By this time, we 
 have learnt to strip ourselves by degrees of what we like to call 
 jtecessaries, and to content ourselves with very little. Our friend 
 Jeanmairet has left a good part of his own property to make 
 room for objects of more general utility. He has proposed it 
 so heartily, and done it with such a good grace, that it is really 
 quite a lesson for us all. 
 
 In spite of all this selection, we still have a great deal of 
 cargo which gives us anxiety. The purse of the Zambesi is 
 unfortunately very cumbersome. Oh those bales of stuff, those 
 cases of glass beads, that Parisian bazaar on a small scale ! 
 What would we not give to reduce it all to £ s. d. ! Then, 
 again, we are carrying the granary and the grocery of the 
 whole caravan, which are no trifle. Do you know how many 
 of us there are ? Twenty-nine, without counting the Masaroa 
 Khama has placed at our service, the number of whom is left 
 to our discretion. The family of Aaron has linked itself to us, 
 with all the indispensable adjuncts of an additional waggon, and 
 a team of cattle. But Aaron is not the man to sit enthroned on 
 the box in front, with a white sunshade and a pocket-hand- 
 kerchief to fan himself. He brings a valuable element of energy 
 into our midst, and has taken upon himself a great part of the
 
 LEAVING SHOSHONG 1 27 
 
 responsibility, so that he is a great relief to me. He has left 
 the care of conducting his own waggon to Ezekiel Pampanyane, 
 and has bravely taken charge of the cart. This is no trifle, for 
 it is drawn by two oxen, which support the pole, and by six asses, 
 which he has had to train. Nothing could be droller than this 
 team. The oxen, feeling themselves disgraced, shake their heads 
 and try to gore their new yoke-fellows : the donkeys do not 
 disturb themselves in the least ; they are placid to excess. You 
 may yoke them, you may push them, you may thrash them — 
 nothing ruffles them. They do not stop short at a bad place, 
 neither are they to be hurried on a good road. If you have 
 not learned patience, they will teach it you. Karumba, the 
 trumpeter of the caravan, has taken upon himself to help Aaron 
 conduct this equipage, at which everybody laughs. But Waddell, 
 Middleton, and even M. Jeanmairet, also lend a hand very 
 readily. 
 
 Our departure from Mangwato has been, like all departures, 
 profoundly sad. One does not separate from friends like 
 Khama without a pang. And yet I leaped for joy when we 
 descended the hills that hide Mangwato from our eyes, and 
 breathed the air of the Kalahari. The evening before, we took 
 the Lord's Supper at nine o'clock, in the room of our much- 
 respected friend Mr. Whiteley, who is at the head of one of the 
 first houses of business here. The elders, the chief Khama, and 
 a few Europeans joined with the members of the expedition. 
 Solemn moment, which none of those present will ever forget ! 
 Among this number was Zakea Mosenene, the lad we had 
 baptised at Seleka. He had arrived a few days previously. 
 After the departure of his evangelists, the chief Kobe, realising 
 then the consequences of our abandonment, sent Mosenene and 
 two men to us with the request that we would complete his 
 education and " make him grow," so as to make an evangelist 
 of him for himself. He will go to the Bible School at Morija, 
 when our Basuto return thither.^ 
 
 ' After four years spent at the public school of Morija, Zacchaeus 
 Mosenene returned to his own people, who, however, were no longer to be 
 found at the old place : they had emigrated to the Transvaal, and a new 
 Seleka had arisen on the banks of the Limpopo. Zacchaeus followed them, 
 and is still with them. He has remained a steadfast Christian, and his 
 letters show tliat as a schoolmaster and evangelist he is doing a good work. 
 He has indeed '' grown," and he has the true/eu sacre. — Author's Note.
 
 128 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 We could not be ready till the evening of the next day, 
 Wednesday, 21st. You might have seen us there in the 
 public place, our six waggons inspanned, surrounded by all 
 the European population of the neighbourhood, and a crowd of 
 Bamangwato. According to our daily custom, directly the 
 oxen were yoked, and before the signal was given to start, we 
 all stood with heads uncovered, and amidst profound silence 
 raised our hymn — the hymn that inaugurates every day's 
 march : 
 
 Ka linako tsotle (I need Thee every hour, 
 
 Morenaka! Most gracious Lord!) 
 
 Then, kneeling down, we commended each other to God, and 
 to the word of His grace ! Then came the handshakings, the 
 last farewells ; falling night hid the general commotion ; but 
 some electric current, I know not what, seized us irresistibly, and 
 made the most secret fibres of our hearts vibrate. 
 
 After having passed the last huts of the town, and bidden 
 farewell to the last of our friends, we passed on our way in 
 silence. The sky was starlit, the air fresh and bracing. One 
 heard not a sound but the groaning of the wheels, the crack of 
 the whip, and the conductor's " Trek " ; and no one felt in the 
 mood to talk. " Khama : what a noble man he is ! And 
 Kuate : what a friend ! " said one or other from time to time, 
 without comment. Yes, indeed ! Do you see those two 
 draught oxen ? They are Khama's salutation. That beautiful 
 black heifer ? Kuate's. Those three milch cows come from 
 Mr. Whiteley ; this sack of maize and this salt meat from 
 Mr. Beaumont, the butcher of Mangwato. Those eight hens come 
 from the yard of a young clerk ; and fowls are scarce here. 
 These goats, these broad-tailed sheep, are an expression of good 
 wishes from Mr. and Mrs. Clark and the principal members of 
 the Church. Here also are pumpkins, water-melons, curds, 
 millet, and I don't know what besides. 
 
 And these kind people have given us all this, telling us in 
 every tone that they will be so sorry, so sorry when we are 
 gone ! Each wanted to show us that we were loved for the 
 sake of the work we were going to do. " Since I have known 
 the Lord," one friend said to me, " no work interests me like 
 yours. It is a delightful privilege to help it on, and I hope
 
 1884] DREARY MANGWATO 1 29 
 
 with all my heart that the day will come for me to serve it 
 more effectively." He is a trader, who makes our mission a 
 constant subject of prayer ; but he is not the only one who has 
 shown us how much he sympathises with us in our serious 
 enterprise. This is worth something in a community where 
 travellers and missionaries are judged otherwise than in Europe. 
 Note, moreover, that Mangwato is one of the driest and most 
 arid of places. It is a bitter irony for a missionary to glorify 
 the enclosure before his house with the name of garden : it is 
 nothing but an area burnt up by the sun, in which only thistles 
 and one or two stunted mimosas will grow. Those who 
 have a passion for gardening try by unremitting care to rear 
 a syringa, an oleander, or a passion-flower ; a cabbage that never 
 comes to a head ; two or three bunches of salad which are hard 
 even in sprouting. Can you believe it? We have had vege- 
 tables at Shoshong ! Every one who could deprived himself so 
 as to send some to us. However, it is the rule here never 
 to sell these delicacies — -they are sent to friends ; and if by 
 good fortune any one brings potatoes, onions, or dried fruit to 
 Mangwato, they are bought for the whole community. 
 
 Unhappily, things are going badly ; times are hard. Trade, 
 which here is exhausted, will go to seek its fortune on the banks 
 of the Zambesi. Ostriches and elephants carry their plumes 
 and their ivory farther away. The terror inspired by the name 
 of Matabele keeps the Bamangwato always on the alert, and 
 forbids them to hunt. The traders declare openly that they 
 are only living on what they have saved, and each is trying to 
 wind up and quit the country. Khama, too, has plans of his own.^ 
 
 ^ Every one knows that Khama has since transported his capital with its 
 whole population to Palapye.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Shoshong to Leshoma — Kane — Cold— Khama's Envoys to Robosi — M. Coil- 
 lard's Fiftieth Birthday— Pata-matenga — The Jesuits' Mission — Their 
 Kindness — Difficulties of the Journey — Waddell — Aaron — Levi — 
 Leshoma — A Pilgrimage. 
 
 Kane, May 2^th, 1884. 
 
 KANE is the Beersheba of the desert : there are at least 
 seven wells. They are not springs, however ; and when 
 we passed here five years ago, we found only a little mud in 
 the holes, and I was forced to buy water from the Bushmen, 
 bartering tobacco for it.^ Now the wells are full. I had 
 intended going farther to spend Sunday ; but we had so much 
 trouble to get through the sand, even when doubling the teams, 
 that we did not arrive here till midday ; and then rain came on, 
 which has never stopped since. The thermometer, which a few 
 days ago stood at 95° Fahr., fell to 58°, and we were reduced 
 to curling ourselves up the best way we could in our damp 
 waggons. " There aren't any tropics ; I don't believe in them," 
 says somebody, muffling himself round in his cloak ; and nobody 
 contradicts him, but we all have a good laugh, which warms 
 us up. Such a great and sudden change of temperature is 
 exceedingly trying. One can never, in this country, lay aside 
 one's winter clothes. Among the comforts I enjoy is a pair 
 of sabots with wooden soles and leather uppers, which I brought 
 from France. I pity those who have none, and 1 cannot think 
 how I did without them for twenty-three years. 
 
 ' The Bushman's method of obtaining water is as follows : A man or 
 woman (usually the latter) holds in his or her mouth a long reed and a bent 
 of grass ; the other end of the reed is inserted in the mud-hole : the water is 
 sucked up and ejected ; it runs along the bent of grass into a gourd. The 
 Bushmen thus act as human syphons ; they keep gourds of this water by 
 them to sell to travellers. See Livingstones " Travels on the Zambesi." 
 
 130
 
 1884] PATA-MATENGA I3I 
 
 Just now, as I am writing, a messenger is arriving from 
 Khama. He has come eighteen or twenty miles through 
 pouring rain to bring us a Httle packet, and the salutations 
 of the chief He will return to-morrow with this letter. In 
 answer to a communication from Robosi, king of the Barotsi, 
 who asks, among other things, that Khama should help us on 
 our road, the latter sends Makoatsa and four men to accompany 
 us as far as to Robosi himself One takes charge of the led 
 cattle, another of the sheep, a third of the donkeys ; the fourth 
 looks after the beautiful horse Khama is sending to Robosi, 
 with a fine carbine ; and Makoatsa is to watch that they do their 
 work well and take care of us. "If you neglect your duty, 
 if you annoy the Chief's friend, lie will not lay his hand upon 
 you, because he is a man of God. But I am Makoatsa, and 
 I will make you eat some stick ; and when you return, it is 
 the Chief you will have to do with ! " This was his speech in 
 presenting these men to me, whom Khama gives us without 
 wages. Meantime, one of them who acted as guide during 
 the night nearly made us lose our way in the wood, which might 
 have led to serious accidents ; and to-day, he has allowed the 
 oxen to stray. 
 
 Every day we have to congratulate ourselves upon having 
 my wife and niece with us. The complications their presence 
 occasions are nothing in comparison with the benefit it brings 
 to us all. My wife has taken her place as mother and hospital 
 nurse among us ; and she is often our providence. 
 
 (F. C. to personal friends on his fiftieth birthday.) 
 
 Pata-matenga, y^c/y \']th, 1884. 
 
 I know that if any one thinks of me to-day, it will be you. 
 Well, dear friends, the wishes and prayers you offer for us are 
 placed in a safe bank — you may be sure of that. And we respond 
 to them by those electric lines which centre in the heart of the 
 eternal Father. The fiftieth year of my life is now accom- 
 plished. How much longer is left me to serve my Master here 
 below? I am quite ready, if He should wish me, to glorify His 
 name, either by life or by death. The desire of my heart, 
 subject to His Divine will, is nevertheless that He may still 
 grant me a few years in which to establish the work w^e are
 
 132 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 beginning. What joy it would be to me to see some Barotsi 
 converted, and the Gospel spread among other tribes, before my 
 departure for heaven. If you only knew the happiness I felt 
 when I arrived here ! We are not at the Zambesi yet, but we are 
 not far from it ; for early in the morning one can almost see from 
 here the clouds of spray rising from Musi oa Tunya. Another 
 four or five days' waggon journey, and we shall once more pitch 
 our tents at Leshoma. We shall then be only three or four 
 miles from the Zambesi, the course of which we have already 
 been following at a distance, and which we are now approaching 
 diagonally. 
 
 Pata-matenga, which five years ago we thought so fresh and 
 charming, has become dreary and desolate. Westbeech's estab- 
 lishment is still there, surrounded by a few native huts, and 
 supplemented by the Jesuits' buildings ; but the Mapane Wood 
 is half destroyed, the grass dried up, and partly burnt (for it is 
 winter) ; and as there have even been frosts, the palm trees too 
 are withered up. However, there is still one little corner on 
 which one's eyes may rest with pleasure ; it is the corn fields, 
 with their delicate green, belonging to Mr. Westbeech and the 
 Jesuit Fathers, and the latter's kitchen garden. To see a piece 
 of ground at Pata-matenga, well cultivated and tended, the 
 borders neatly marked out, and filled with straight rows of 
 cabbages, potatoes, peas, and lettuce, is a delightful sight to 
 those who have been travelling for nearly two months, through 
 sand, sloughs, and tracts of forest land or desert. 
 
 Mr. Westbeech, informed of our approach by the natives, 
 was awaiting our arrival. Till ten o'clock in the evening, he 
 stood at his door with lanterns to encourage us. As for us, we, 
 alas ! were stuck in a fearful bog, where our waggons had sunk 
 up to the axle-trees. After struggling, toiling, belabouring and 
 shouting at our oxen till midnight, we succeeded in bringing 
 them to a less muddy spot, where we had no choice but to 
 remain till daybreak. Mr. Westbeech came to meet us, and the 
 news he gave us from the Zambesi was encouraging. " All the 
 chiefs are in your favour," he said ; " but I confess, while I was 
 doing my best to persuade them to have patience, I had given up 
 all hope myself. It was impossible to understand your delays." 
 
 The Jesuits have established themselves very well here ; 
 they have a chapel, a simple but cosy little house, huts and
 
 1884] THE JESUITS' MISSION STATION I33 
 
 sheds for storehouses, a fine poultry yard, and a pretty garden : 
 it is a little village which would be prosperous as a mission 
 station if there were any evangelisation to be done here. But 
 what can they do where there is no population ? A few waggon- 
 drivers and servants may chance to travel by with their 
 employers, and these gentlemen catch them on the wing ; but 
 this does not amount to much, for they are few and far between. 
 What I do admire about the Jesuits is the completeness of 
 their staff. They have a gardener, cook, steward, carpenter, etc. 
 It is the " brothers " who are entrusted with the material things 
 of the establishment : the fathers will concern themselves with 
 the spiritual when occasion offers, M. Jeanmairet and I went 
 to see them one day. Their garden is a little oasis, beautifully 
 watered and tended, and there are all sorts of vegetables in 
 it, with which their owners are most generous. What they 
 complain of is that most of them will not set their seeds, so 
 that every year they have to renew the supply for fresh sowings. 
 One of the fathers had gone with a brother to see the Victoria 
 Falls ; but the Superior was there. Father Kroot, a Dutchman, 
 with two brothers, a Milanese, who is the gardener, and the 
 steward, an Englishman. These gentlemen were very courteous 
 to us, and presented me with two bags of native wheat to 
 provide for my people. This was indeed a very great boon, 
 for we had already come to an end of our provisions, and Mr. 
 Westbeech had nothing to spare for us either. They even 
 extended their kindness so far as to send me some vegetables, 
 a fine cabbage, a few leeks, and some lettuces ; and these, 
 unknown to themselves, provided us with a little treat for my 
 birthday. But as soon as they did learn this, Father Kroot 
 insisted on bringing out a bottle of Bordeaux, and making every 
 one clink glasses and drink my health. Their behaviour was 
 all the more noble since our presence here must be a thorn in 
 their side. I warmly appreciate it, and wish them well. I 
 feel more and more that principles and doctrines must be 
 contended for, but persons respected. However, I do not think 
 we have ever neglected this maxim in practice.-^ 
 
 ' Authors Note. — The staff of this mission had had a series oi disasters. 
 Out of seven members, one died by a fall from his horse, two were drowned, 
 two died of hunger and fatigue, another of consumption, the seventh died of 
 fever among the Batoka, and some believed he had been poisoned.
 
 134 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 Our intention is to push on to Leshoma, install my wife 
 there, and then leave for the Upper Zambesi. You can under- 
 stand that this three months' separation, which would be a slight 
 matter in Basuto-land, is a serious and solemn thing for both 
 of us. My wife will be left with no light burden. If you only 
 knew what it is to have to provide for a troop of natives like 
 ours ! From the moment the drivers lay down their whips, 
 not only is all work at an end, however little that work may 
 have been, but some one has even to cook their food and draw 
 their water for them, and it is not at all easy to content them. 
 I wanted to send them all back to Basuto-land or Mangwato. 
 But how was it to be done? My oxen are all worn out. 
 I tremble at the thought of all the expense and all the worries 
 of their continued sojourn with us ; but in spite of it all, I am 
 glad they should have come as far as the Zambesi, and I hope 
 they will not go away with a bad impression of it. I tell you 
 all this, that you may not imagine we made a triumphal pro- 
 gress across the desert, along a path strewn with flowers. There 
 were thorns, and sharp ones too, besides those in the bushes, 
 which mercilessly tore our garments and our waggon tilts. But 
 all that is over now, and we have to face the new difficulties 
 which await us. What we lack more than anything else is a 
 good gardener, for our diet is one of the first things to be 
 considered, and it is a very poor way of living to have nothing 
 but millet and rice, never seeing a potato or green vegetable. 
 We shall certainly try to do something in the way of gardening, 
 but it will necessarily be very little. We did not come for that 
 purpose. 
 
 Leshoma, August jth, 1884. 
 
 Leshoma ! This is our Bethel. We stopped here in our 
 wanderings six years ago. In the midst of struggles and dis- 
 tresses w hich God alone knows, new horizons opened before us, 
 lighted by a ray of hope. It is an important date in our career. 
 It is good to come back to Leshoma, and pause to adore the 
 ways of Jehovah, His goodness and His faithfulness. 
 
 The journey across the desert was long : our oxen were travel- 
 worn, our waggons heavy, own people weary and dispirited ; 
 and .so, in spite of all our determination, we travelled more 
 slowly than one usually does. Indeed, our first stage to Kane
 
 i884] THE MAKARI-KARI DESERT I35 
 
 was made with so much difficulty that I decided to send part of 
 our baggage back to Mangwato, and this necessitated fresh 
 sorting, and fresh reductions in our ideas of the "strictly 
 necessary." Our friend Mr. Whiteley hastened to come himself 
 with a waggon and team from Khama. During this time it 
 poured with rain, and throughout the desert we have scarcely 
 known what it was to suffer from thirst. 
 
 The sight of the Makari-kari Desert somewhat raised the 
 spirits of our fellow-travellers. They felt, as we did, that we 
 had made progress. And then, too, there is something new 
 and attractive in the wild panorama spread before our eyes 
 with its vleys ^ and sands, its immense plains sprinkled with 
 clumps of trees, and its silent, lifeless solitudes. Only at rare 
 intervals does an ostrich or a fleeing gazelle interrupt the 
 monotony of the picture. Even the lion has not deigned to 
 honour us with more than his nocturnal roarings : only hungry 
 hyaenas have seized our donkeys, and caused commotions. 
 
 The Masaroa," children of the desert, knowing that we had 
 people from Shoshong with us, hid themselves at our approach. 
 They scarcely dared to come and sell us a little honey. To 
 judge from what we saw, the Bamangwato treat them very 
 cavalierly. Doubtless without the knowledge of their chief, they 
 rob them of the little they possess, seize the booty of their chase, 
 the wild fruits and herbs, and even the large caterpillars and 
 chrysalides which these poor wretches look upon as dainties. 
 It is in these plains that certain rivers lose themselves : the 
 Nata, for example, which after a short course disappears under 
 the name of Sua. The soil of the Makari-kari is so soft our 
 waggons sank till we were almost in despair. Scarcely had 
 we emerged from these morasses, when we had to work our 
 way through those deep sands which will always be the 
 traveller's nightmare. It was pitiful to see our poor oxen, with 
 their galled necks, lolling out their tongues and sinking under 
 the yoke. It was bad enough when we ploughed our way 
 through the open country. But in these literally impenetrable 
 thorn thickets, where it was absolutely impossible for the driver 
 to use his long whip, the oxen had their revenge, and we only 
 triumphed at the cost of shouting ourselves hoarse. 
 
 ' Vleys: a Dutch word applied to the shallow lakes in the deserts. 
 ^ Name by which the Bushmen are known in the Zambesi basin.
 
 136 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 In these virgin forests, the road has not been traced by an 
 eno-ineer ! The first waggon threaded its way through as best 
 it could, making endless zigzags to avoid the large trees, and 
 all the others followed, ours last of all. Think of getting round 
 all these obstacles with our enormous teams ! Our poor Levi 
 knows what it is, by this time. He was obliged, though much 
 against the grain, to take his turn at the whip. Did we propose 
 to do a long stage of our journey by night, or early in the 
 morning, so surely did we hear the cry of alarm behind us, 
 almost before we were fairly off, " HiJiu ! hihu 1 Kolo'i e isueroe ! " 
 (" The waggon has stopped ! "). We had to retrace our steps, 
 hatchet in hand, asking ourselves how serious an accident 
 it was likely to be. Alas ! we would find a box of hats quite 
 crushed, or a case of haberdashery in pieces. We would pick up 
 the hats and reels of cotton, mend the torn bales, and start again. 
 
 Every one has his share of damages. A dead branch made 
 a hole in the tilt of M. Jeanmairet's waggon, and the boughs 
 swept out everything they could reach — books, a dressing-box, 
 a case of dental appliances, etc. But no one has been so badly 
 used as our friend Waddell. A portmanteau, a trunk, and tool-box 
 comprised all his belongings. The portmanteau and the trunk 
 disappeared one after the other. " At least my chest of tools 
 has escaped," said our young Scotsman with satisfaction. He 
 was proud of this mahogany chest, with its ingenious com- 
 partments, the first work of his apprenticeship. It received 
 many blows and fractures, but our carpenter always found some 
 way of repairing them. One day a new " Hi/m ! hiJiu ! " from 
 Levi made us run breathless to his waggon. The precious 
 chest was no longer ; its splinters lay scattered on the ground ! 
 This time the damage was irremediable. Poor Waddell ! He 
 used his hatchet with all his might to disengage the rest of 
 his tools from the trunk of a great tree. As for ourselves, we 
 could only look on, sorrowful and silent. Waddell's face was 
 flushed, the tears starting to his eyes ; yet he tried to smile 
 in spite of all. " Never mind, sir," he said ; "the chest is broken, 
 but the tools arc saved. Give me some boards and time enough, 
 and you'll see if I don't make something better." There is 
 grit in a man like that. It is easy enough to give him time ; 
 but where were the boards to come from ? They will have 
 to be made first, and no one knew that better than he did.
 
 i884] WADDELL, AARON, AND LEVI 1 37 
 
 In other ways, too, I must say our two artisans have 
 thoroughly entered into the spirit of the expedition. They 
 cheerfully accept our privations : they are always happy, always 
 ready to make themselves useful. It is seldom that Waddcll 
 does not find an opportunity of using the saw, the hatchet, or 
 the plane during the halt in the middle of the day. It is 
 a pleasure to see him at his work, for he loves it ; and if no 
 accident demands the dexterity of his vigorous arm, he goes 
 away, axe in hand, to explore the forest, and returns with 
 specimens of wood of every kind and colour. " There is 
 mahogany, sir, real mahogany," he exclaims, radiant with delight, 
 " and here is teak, and a kind of cedar, and another thing like 
 ebony. If God spares us, you'll see what good use we shall 
 make of all these treasures." And when we hear him smoothing 
 away all difficulties, felling trees and sawing planks (actually 
 planks !), we already see a cottage raised as if by magic, with 
 furniture all complete, which the dear fellow delights in 
 prophesying will make Mme. Coillard quite forget the mission- 
 house at Leribe ! One feels that Waddell has always been his 
 mother's boy ; he needs to be surrounded with much affection, 
 and to find a quick response to his own, which he gives back 
 unreservedly. 
 
 Our two evangelists Aaron and Levi form an admirable 
 complement to each other. Like all of us, they have their defects 
 and their good qualities. Aaron is active, energetic, and 
 animated, but also sensitive and quick-tempered. Levi is an 
 intelligent man of a very even disposition, sober in his speech 
 as in his habits. He is better educated than Aaron, and one 
 soon discovers that he is the son of a Christian (the first in 
 Basuto-land), and that he only knows heathenism by contact 
 or tradition. What he does, he does well ; but he has not much 
 enterprise. His little addresses do us real good, and I do not 
 think I can give you a better idea of his character than by 
 quoting part of a letter he wrote me before our departure : 
 
 " This is to tell thee," he says, " that thy letter reached me 
 safely. I received it with joy. Yes, my father ! one who 
 is charged with a mission like ours ought to be worthy of the 
 greatest confidence. If even the chiefs, who are only men, 
 find obedient and faithful messengers to send into the enemy's 
 country, who am I, that I should have misgivings when the
 
 138 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 King of kings sends me ? The chiefs send their messengers, 
 but they remain at home. My King does not remain behind. 
 He says, ' Follow thou Me ! ' Then He walks in front. Oh, 
 if only I could bring myself to roll all my burdens upon Him ! 
 If I but possessed the full confidence that He would guide me 
 and work by me — ^by one who was lost without hope, and only 
 became a man by His grace ! O man of God ! May the 
 journey, undertaken in His name alone, be blessed ! My wife 
 and I have consented to our Father's employing us in His work. 
 We are weak, but we hear Him say, ' My strength is made 
 perfect in your weakness.' We have no intelligence, but we 
 are told Jesus has been made our wisdom ; we are sinners, 
 but He has been made our righteousness. Who then has 
 brought us forth that we should thus be made complete ? I 
 praise the mercy of God, I praise His grace. Who has made 
 of me a messenger of salvation — of me, Molatlegi (lost) ! 
 Molatlegi — that was the name of my childhood ; it was the name 
 of all others that befitted me, for I was lost." 
 
 The wives of our evangelists contrast with one another 
 quite as strongly as do their husbands. Levi's wife is quite 
 young, and has little experience. Aaron's wife, Ma-Ruthi, has 
 grown up in our house, so our mutual affection is no new thing, 
 and the grace of God has already done its work in her heart. 
 She has the soul of a missionary. Every day during our 
 journey, she taught her children and Levi's to read and sing ; 
 and she never loses an opportunity of speaking about the 
 Saviour to the heathen that she meets. 
 
 Knowing us to be in the tropics, no doubt you think of us 
 as being half roasted. Make your minds quite easy on that 
 score. It is winter-time here. The thermometer, which by 
 day rarely rises to 6Z° Fahr., frequently falls to 40° Fahr., even 
 inside the waggon. Those only who know how chilly the 
 natives are can form any idea of the trouble we have had every 
 morning to stir up the caravan. Oh, my poor clock and the 
 bugle ! How they did hate them ! They did not know how 
 I, through my continual sleepless hours, weighed, so to speak, 
 every minute of my people's rest, and never sounded the horn 
 till the last moment. One of the benefits of Sunday was that 
 the clock and bugle were silent, and the poor fellows profited 
 by it to their hearts* content in the intervals of our services.
 
 i884] LESHOMA 1 39 
 
 It was on July 26th that we arrived at Leshoma, the same 
 date as six years ago. We had no intention of camping on 
 our previous site. Nevertheless, leaving the waggons behind, my 
 wife, my niece, and I made a loving pilgrimage thither. We 
 descended into the valley ; then turning to the left, we climbed 
 the well-known hill, and searched some time for our former 
 camping-ground. The clearing, the hut, the fence, all had 
 disappeared in the luxuriant growth of bushes ; the ashes that 
 covered the ground were all that remained. No — I am wrong. 
 There is a gigantic mahogany tree near ; and its trunk still 
 bears, clear as on the day it was cut into its fibres, this simple 
 epitaph : 
 
 KHOSANA 
 DIED 
 
 13— IX— 78. 
 
 That opens a large chapter in our souvenirs. 
 
 The deadly tse-tse fly, which formerly infested these woods, 
 has retired, following the buffalo in its flight before the hunter's 
 rifle. So we were able to camp farther on, only ten miles from 
 the Zambesi. The site where we have pitched our tents is 
 charming, and is certainly the least unhealthy we could have 
 chosen. It is a sandy hill, about ninety-eight feet above the 
 valley, and one thousand feet above sea-level. Delightfully 
 shaded, yet not overcrowded with trees, it stands on the edge 
 of a limitless virgin forest, a splendid park, of which no one 
 has disturbed our enjoyment — not even the lions. Before us, 
 to the west and on the right, following the valley, stretch wooded 
 hills, as far as the long blue line which limits the horizon. This 
 blue line, on which our eyes fasten instinctively, is Trans- 
 Zambesia, which is to be our field of labour, the second home 
 of our adoption. A stream, the Leshoma, flows through the 
 valley, loses itself, and reappears, forming beautiful limpid pools, 
 which promise us the inestimable luxury of baths at small cost. 
 
 One disadvantage of this place (and no doubt we shall 
 find others) is a fine black sand, which penetrates our garments, 
 enters the very pores of our skin, renders all our measures for 
 cleanliness terribly insufficient, and threatens us with an extra- 
 ordinary consumption of an article all the more precious here 
 because impossible to procure — soap. We must learn to make
 
 140 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 it ourselves ; and our poor housekeeper, on whom all the care 
 falls, has already armed herself with recipes. For neighbours, 
 we have at two hundred paces from here a trader named 
 Blockley, and across the valley some native hunters. The 
 establishment of the former and the huts of the latter fit into 
 the landscape very well. 
 
 Mile. Coillard has soon found the makings of a very 
 interesting school, among the children of the expedition, and 
 the Zambesi boys who work for us. She teaches morning 
 and evening with an energy all her own, and with as much 
 interest as at Leribe. 
 
 Who can say with what feelings of relief, joy, and gratitude 
 we at last outspanned our waggons and pitched our tents ? 
 Yes, the journey has been long, costly, and difficult ; and its 
 chief legacy is an utter lassitude, both moral and physical. 
 It seemed to us sometimes that the springs had been over- 
 strained, and the very sources of life dried up. But day after 
 day, and in every circumstance, God has given us the needed 
 measure of grace. All along the way we have found 
 sympathisers among both black and white, Boer as well as 
 English. Even where enmity and obstacles were predicted, 
 we have been heaped with benefits, and surrounded with interest. 
 We have had no bad illness, no serious accident, not even trying 
 adventures. We saw the famine spectre, and dreaded thirst, 
 but God provided for all our needs and filled the desert pools 
 for us. Our greatest difficulties have been the channels of the 
 most precious benedictions. At the Ebenezer which we raise 
 here to the name of Him Who has told all our wanderings, 
 the past inspires us with adoration, the present with perfect 
 confidence. Guided by His eye, led by His powerful hand, 
 one step at a time suffices.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Sesheke and Leshoma — Retrospects — A Heavy Washing Day— Arrival at the 
 Zambesi Ford — No Response — Return to Leshoma — Explanations — A 
 Matabele Scare — The Market at Leshoma — Mission Work — Messengers 
 
 to fetch Missionaries — Hospitality at Sesheke — Start for the Capital ■ 
 
 Revolution — New Delay — Ben's Troubles — Making Nets — Return to 
 Leshoma- — Zambesian Languages — A Boy for Sale — Departure of the 
 Basuto — Life at Leshoma — M. Coillard and Aaron to Sesheke and Back 
 — Akufuna chosen King — Sends to fetch Missionaries — Fever — Darkest 
 Africa — Lavishness of Traders — Journey to Sesheke — Studies in Philology 
 — A Direful Discovery — "The Chiefs in my Pocket." 
 
 Sesheke, Augtcst c)ih, 1884. 
 
 SESHEKE ! How can I write that name without emotion ! 
 Here my Master brought me six years ago, and showed 
 mc the new field of labour that we sought. Here He stopped 
 me — His own time was not yet come. Here our dear Eleazar 
 Marathane ended his career, and here he sleeps. All the 
 experiences of my first visit rush back upon me. Time has 
 softened all that was bitter and sorrowful in them : only the 
 blessings remain as sweet as ever. 
 
 I cannot refrain from glancing forward. Yet what use is it ? 
 The future is God's ; ours is the present. The present ! it is 
 dark. Our path bristles with difficulties ; I had foreseen them 
 indeed, but it was impossible to appreciate their gravity. But 
 never despair ! It was when the patriarch, a fugitive and alone, 
 rested his weary head on a stone that the Lord raised for him a 
 corner of the veil, and in a glorious vision gave him a glimpse 
 of the multitudes who should bear His name. " Be not afraid," 
 said the Lord to Paul in Corinth, " but speak, and hold not 
 thy peace, for I am with thee . . . for I have vncch people in 
 this city." 
 
 But let us return to Leshoma. Once we had pitched our 
 
 141
 
 142 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 camp, and sent our oxen to Gazuma, two days' journey off, to 
 graze and rest, we felt we must see the Zambesi : we were too 
 impatient to wait any longer. 
 
 We left my wife and niece to rid themselves as best they 
 could of a nightmare which had haunted them ever since leaving 
 Mangwato — the washing ! After twenty-five years' missionary 
 life, Mme. Coillard had still to go through this apprenticeship, 
 one which she dreaded, for so far she had never been reduced to 
 the necessity of doing it herself. And think what an accumula- 
 tion of linen during our journey ! The catechists' wives, out 
 of pity as much as affection, consented to lend a hand ; but 
 evidently it is not an aid on which we can count. So M. Jean- 
 mairet and I left our laundresses at the edge of a stream and 
 started, accompanied by some of our party, lightly equipped, 
 and somewhat lightly provisioned. 
 
 We followed the valley, which a recent prairie fire has covered 
 with a dreary pall. Two hours and a half of walking, and then, 
 just as we emerge from the brushwood, a wide ribbon winding 
 over the plain and threading its way through impenetrable 
 jungles appears before our eyes. It is the Zambesi. Arrived 
 at the official ford of Kazungula, we announced ourselves by 
 firing our guns, in accordance with the custom of the country. 
 No answer. We fired again and again with no more success. 
 We said to each other that with such a strong wind blowing the 
 river was too rough for the canoes to cross without danger ; and 
 satisfied with this explanation (quite gratuitous on our part), 
 we passed the rest of the day hunting birds, admiring the 
 majestic river, looking for hippopotami and crocodiles (which, 
 however, made themselves invisible), and watching the curious 
 antics of the king-fishers. Night fell, and we tightened our 
 waist-belts, for we had counted on better entertainment, and 
 protected ourselves as best we could under a rough shelter of 
 reeds, swarming with mice and vermin. The cold was so intense 
 (40" Fahr.) that all, with one or two exceptions, sought the 
 garment of the poor — tJie fire. There was no sleep for any of 
 us. Directly morning dawned, we began firing again ; but still 
 no answer. And yet not the slightest breeze to-day, not a ripple 
 on the water ; it is like a polished mirror. What does this 
 silence mean ? Tired of waiting, and by this time half starved, 
 we folded up our rugs and trudged back to Leshoma. Such
 
 THE ZAMBESI BANKS I43 
 
 has been our first visit to the Zambesi — a bucket of cold water 
 thrown on all our joyous anticipations. But later on, all was 
 explained. The ferryman, Singandu, not having received any 
 orders about us, had run to his chief He was returning with 
 positive commands to bring us over immediately, when the 
 rumour arrived that the Matabele were coming. Panic had 
 seized every one. 
 
 A few days later, messengers came from Sesheke. The 
 letters by which I had announced to the king our arrival first 
 at Shoshong, and then at Pata-matenga, had been stopped by 
 the " lords of Sesheke," and were waiting there for the " saluta- 
 tion," which should have accompanied them. And I thought 
 they were at the capital ! What a stunning blow ! I positively 
 refused to give any more presents till I had seen the king. 
 Since then, I have been told that the chiefs sent on my letters, 
 but by a slave on foot, as if it were a matter of small import- 
 ance. How will the king receive it ? When will his answer 
 come ? To fill up the time, we organised an excursion to the 
 falls of Musi oa Tunya ; but, at the last moment, I was 
 obliged to give it up, and let our friend Jeanmairet go with 
 Middleton and Waddell, accompanied by our Basuto and some 
 porters. 
 
 And we — we look northwards to the blue line beyond the 
 forests, till sight is lost in the depths of the immense perspective, 
 x-^nd as days go by, we wonder if the horizon is not growing 
 darker. Troops of Zambesians come to Leshoma, but they 
 bring no news ; they are slaves come to barter. They bring 
 millet, sorgho, ground nuts, beans, and sometimes a little wild 
 honey, all in calabashes of various sizes. Every calabash costs 
 so many strings of beads, or a setsiba, two long ells of calico, 
 which is exorbitant. And so it falls on my dear wife to bargain 
 with these noisy and sometimes impertinent gangs : she has 
 to answer quietly, buy with prudence, and explain gently in 
 order to send them away satisfied. It is hard drudgery ; and 
 Levi and Joel, who had at first willingly accepted the office of 
 helping " their mother," soon saw that, and backed out of it one 
 after the other, leaving her to manage alone. It is not simply 
 a question of providing for our evangelists and their families, 
 the drivers and native helpers, but also of getting together the 
 necessary provisions against the return journey of our men, who
 
 144 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 have come from Mangwato and Basuto-land, and of laying up 
 in store for the whole expedition against the rainy season. And 
 buying sixty sacks of corn in this way, to speak of nothing 
 else, represents a formidable expenditure of energy and patience 
 to any one not hardened to this petty haggling with beads and 
 bits of calico. But in spite of weariness and sadness at such 
 waste of time, the missionary's wife never complains. Even 
 while longing for a few days' respite she says to herself, " It 
 is for the Lord." Yes, and " for the Lord " she faces all her 
 other duties, and appears next morning at the market forced 
 upon her, strengthened in secret for the day. When the pur- 
 chases come to an end early, our proper work begins. We 
 make these Zambesians repeat a Bible text, and sing a verse 
 of a hymn, which we explain to them. They go away astonished, 
 and we follow them in thought beyond the blue line where we 
 would be. 
 
 One day (it was the afternoon of Sunday, August 9th), we 
 saw in the valley a long file of men winding their way towards 
 us. At their head, we soon recognised Karumba,^ who had 
 returned to visit his parents. He announced that the thirty 
 young men he brought had been sent by the chiefs of Sesheke 
 with canoes to fetch us. Here was a ray of light in our dark 
 sky ! My preparations were soon made, and I went off without 
 any misgivings. I leave you to guess how happy I was as I 
 crossed the Zambesi. The sun was just setting ; its flaming 
 disc was bathing itself in the ripples, and colouring them with 
 its fire ; while the wooded banks, tufted with palm trees, were 
 reflected as in a mirror. All was peace and harmony. 
 
 Next morning, when I rose, I found the charm broken. My 
 boatmen had struck, and were noisily refusing to move till they 
 had received setszlms to their liking. Without giving in, I 
 managed to calm them down, and had a most enjoyable journey 
 with them. We were not pressed for time, so they fished and 
 hunted birds in the jungles, and in the evening I taught them 
 to sing. At our last stage, I distributed setsibas of red calico. 
 After a bath, they dressed themselves up in them, each according 
 to his own fancy, and all alike grotesque. We were announced 
 by gunshots; and when our little procession arrived at the 
 
 ' One of the two Zambesians whom M. Coillard had brought back from 
 the first expedition.
 
 i884] A POOR RECEPTION I45 
 
 entrance, and went to the kkJiotJila, great and small turned out 
 to salute us with, " Luvicla Monere ! Shangwe ! Shangwe ! " 
 (" Hail, father ! we are your servants ")} 
 
 You will remember that Sesheke is the residence of twelve 
 or fifteen chiefs. In European language, they would be governors 
 or prefects. These are Barotsi, promoted to the government of 
 the numerous tributary peoples. They assume the names and 
 titles of their predecessors, and form a council, presided over 
 by the principal chief, the Morantsiane, The Morantsiane of 
 to-day is no longer the old man whom I knew and liked six 
 years ago, but his son, besotted with beer-drinking and hemp- 
 smoking. Even the village is no longer the same. It was 
 burnt down during the war of Nguana-wina ; and though it has 
 been rebuilt since, it looks dirty and dilapidated. I no longer 
 see those double huts, so spacious and airy — /or Jiuts, that is to 
 say — that I admired there. Otherwise it is still Sesheke, with 
 its dignitaries, the Rataii, the Mokhele, the Katukura, the 
 Nalishua, etc. Some of these titles are borne to-day by new 
 heads ; still, I find a number of old acquaintances among them ; 
 and, to judge by their demonstrative salutations, they are 
 pleased to see me. When the little official speeches were over 
 on both sides, we talked together for a long time. They related 
 all that had happened in their country since our journey through 
 it. I answered the questions they showered on me, and talked 
 to them of my travels and my mission. After all, it is pleasant 
 to come to Sesheke. 
 
 Then I was told my baggage had been taken to the hut 
 destined for me, so I bade my friends good-night, and went 
 Jiome to rest. But, at the door, Aaron and I started back in 
 disgust. The hut and court were no better than a kennel, and 
 so filthy that no one would even put out a hand to clean it. 
 I sat down on one of my bales outside, intending to pass the 
 night there. At last one of my canoe-men, touched with pity 
 fetched a poor little slave-girl, whom he pushed into the hut to 
 clean up the worst of the dirt, and the next day Aaron and Ben 
 finished it. Decidedly, our dear Zambesians are not hospitable. 
 We lay down hungry before this uninhabitable hovel. Next 
 morning, before rising, I was assailed by a crowd of noisy 
 vendors, and by the principal chiefs, who had held a council 
 ' Shangwe, literally " Sir," meaning "your humble servant." 
 
 10
 
 146 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 during the night, and now brought me the result. They 
 regretted having sent my letters by a slave, and to repair this 
 error one of them would start immediately for the capital. I 
 urged them to take me with them. But there is the law, which 
 bars our way like the great wall of China. No alternative — 
 we must have patience. 
 
 We have set to work to visit the people in their homes, 
 and have to submit as best we can to the assaults of these 
 insatiable beggars. They will certainly contrive to rob us of 
 everything we possess : they are absolutely shameless. M. Jean- 
 mairet, who has joined me, helps me to gather the people every 
 morning under the shade of a great tree near our dwelling. 
 VVe tell them Bible stories, speak to them of the Saviour, and 
 make them repeat a verse and the Lord's Prayer. We teach 
 them to read — that is, to repeat the alphabet. They look at us 
 with astonishment, and mimic exactly every movement they 
 see us make ; they beat time like us, speak in the same tone, 
 and repeat our every word. Some lie down, others sit ; they 
 take snuff, chatter, laugh, and salute each other by clapping 
 their hands. We tell them to be quiet and behave properly, 
 and continue our work as earnestly as before. What troubles 
 us most is the terrible rapacity of these people. How shall we 
 get to the Valley, robbed as we have been already ? 
 
 Meanwhile, a messenger came from the king. He was one 
 of the sub-chiefs, and brought a numerous retinue. Mr. Arnot 
 having gone to Benguella with Silva Porto ^ to seek medical 
 advice, no one had been able to read my letter. (This explains 
 why no measures were taken to conduct me to Lealuyi without 
 delay.) The message brought back by Mosala came to this : If 
 the Jesuits wrote the letter, the king gave them permission to 
 fetch their baggage (chiefly tools and merchandise), which they 
 had left in his country last year, but declared he would not give 
 them any help, neither canoes nor men ; they could come in 
 waggons. If the letter were from me, Mosala was charged to 
 bring us to the capital at once. But the joy this gave us, 
 though keen, was shortlived. The same day the rumour 
 spread that the Matabele had crossed the Zambesi, and there 
 was universal panic. The canoes which were to have brought 
 
 ' A well-known Portuguese trader. See Serpa Pinto's " How I Crossed 
 Africa," vol. ii., p. 66.
 
 i884] THE SLOUGH OF DESPOND I47 
 
 US to the king were sent laden with ivory to buy powder and 
 guns from Mr. Blockley ; the cattle were taught to swim for 
 safety, and all prepared to flee. In these circumstances, what 
 shall we do without canoes or rowers ? And to think that I 
 have charged myself with seven or eight cases of Mr. Arnot's, 
 to oblige him ! How shall we get back to Leshoma ? How 
 can we remain alone at Sesheke ? " My soul, wait thou only 
 upon God." 
 
 Sesheke, September ^h. 
 
 Still at Sesheke, the Slough of Despond. Through what 
 alternatives of hope and disappointment we have passed in a 
 few days ! At such times, the Saviour's presence is a precious 
 reality. Amid the chaos of our last adventures, it is difficult 
 for me to take up the thread of my narrative. Behind us, these 
 waves seem but small things, though they made my faith quiver 
 like a reed in a pool. 
 
 I was saying that the canoes sent to fetch us went back with 
 powder and guns. Jeanmairet and I were now only thinking of 
 leaving. Unhappily, the reports brought back by the scouts 
 only tend to show that the threatened Matabele war is more and 
 more imminent. The chiefs have been consulting auguries and 
 casting lots, inoculating themselves with a specific to render 
 themselves invulnerable, seeking out every sort of charm, and 
 passing the rest of their time in drinking and teaching their 
 cattle to swim. No one concerned himself about our journey. 
 In the absence of the Morantsiane, I gathered the old chiefs, 
 and told them we had decided to leave on foot. They approved, 
 and promised us porters. On his return, the Morantsiane was 
 alarmed at this news. It was a reflection on him. Through 
 the clouds of drink that obscured his brain, he came to offer to 
 " his friend " Jeanmairet a calabash of honey, and to me two 
 monkey skins. Then, growing bolder, he said, " Moruti, you 
 will not make this journey on foot, at your age, and in such 
 heat ? What would the king say ? To-morrow you shall have 
 my canoe." 
 
 We yielded, but several days passed, and we were still there, 
 waiting for the rowers who were " coming every moment." At 
 last they arrived. It was Saturday. Rataii and Tahalima 
 loaded our " dug-outs," prepared our seats with great care, and
 
 148 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 made our rowers take a trial trip, before they declared them- 
 selves satisfied. After a few words of farewell to the assembled 
 crowd, and a prayer on the bank with Aaron and Josefa, who 
 were going on foot under Mosala's guidance, Jeanmairet leapt 
 into his boat, I into mine, and we pushed off into the open 
 river. At this place, it flows round an islet, making a fine bay. 
 We had not been embarked five minutes, when our skiffs began 
 to fill with water to an alarming extent. The two men who 
 were baling could hardly keep them afloat. The danger became 
 more imminent every moment. It is not in my nature to turn 
 back, so I also began to bale ; and we succeeded, though not 
 without difficulty, in gaining the opposite bank. All my baggage 
 was wetted — absolutely soaked. Nothing vexed me more than 
 the loss of my medicines and three dozen photographic plates. 
 Rataii immediately sent a second canoe ; and having dried our 
 baggage, we pressed on to Tahalima's cattle farm, where we 
 passed a well-employed Sunday. Very early on Monday morn- 
 ing, while we were busily at work, mending our canoe with 
 papyrus and palm leaves, the lords of Sesheke sent me an 
 express messenger with an order to return thither immediately. 
 The messenger entreated me privately not to hesitate, telling 
 me that similar orders had been sent to Aaron and even to 
 Makoatsa, Khama's envoy. What could have happened ? 
 
 Rataii was commissioned to tell us. A revolution had 
 broken out in the Valley ; and the king, whom they wished to 
 assassinate, had fled. This was serious news. It seems the 
 chiefs had expected it : no doubt it was the reason of their 
 delays. But what could we do now? How could we make 
 such a long journey in a country where anarchy prevailed ? If 
 even in ordinary times there was so little security from pillage 
 and rapine, what would it be now with no recognised authority ?' 
 And then, to whom should we go ? Who were the leaders of 
 the revolution ? And so we had to follow the counsels of 
 prudence, and decide — to wait ! What a hard lesson that is ! 
 
 It is difficult for us to find out the real causes of the 
 revolution. This only is certain, that Robosi held the lives 
 of the Barotsi chiefs very cheaply. He murdered seven in one 
 day, at a banquet to which he had invited them. Lately, he 
 caused a respected chief and one of the late Sepopa's wives to 
 be put to death. Then he was taking measures to get rid of
 
 i884] BEN'S TROUBLES I49 
 
 most of the lords of Sesheke, when his schemes were discovered. 
 A plot was hatched, and Robosi only owed his safety to his 
 coolness and flight. 
 
 The lords of Sesheke could not contain their delight. 
 Every one killed oxen and made beer, and for several days 
 there was nothing but a series of orgies. After 10 a.m., it was 
 rare to find a man sober. We had to suffer for it in more ways 
 than one. Our man Ben had made friends with a chief named 
 Kanyanga. " Here are my two daughters," said this man to 
 him ; " they are your wives." Ben took this as a joke, but not 
 so their father. One day, Ben passed in front of Kanyanga's 
 wife without clicking his tongue, which is their way of saying 
 " Excuse me." Kanyanga was furious that a son-in-law should 
 thus fail in respect towards a mother-in-law. He rushed straight 
 to our hut, entered and seized my finest gun, vociferating threats 
 of fire and murder. And this was one of our best friends ! We 
 passed a night of misery. Quite recently, and in broad 
 daylight, this same Kanyanga had killed one of his wives 
 and her brother for as slight a cause. Poor Ben ! he stripped 
 himself to redeem my gun ; cloak (the cloak he was so proud 
 of !), rug, shirt, calico, everything was given up to satisfy the 
 rapacity of this man blinded with passion.^ You can understand 
 the serious consequences this incident might have had for us. 
 So I brought the matter before the council of the chiefs, and 
 the result of this public investigation was to clear Ben, and 
 consequently the mission, of all blame. In spite of this, not a 
 voice dared to raise itself in condemnation of Kanyanga's 
 conduct. 
 
 The Barotsi chiefs, always exposed to secret assassination, 
 are naturally suspicious and afraid of one another. The sword 
 
 ' Ben, a characteristic specimen of one kind of "mission Kaffir." A 
 Batoka slave, he owed his freedom to Khama, at whose capital he was 
 educated by the missionaries, and professed Christianity. He developed 
 unusual ability, and earns an excellent livelihood by acting as guide to 
 European travellers. At home, he is a most respectable member of society 
 and a pattern of domesticity. With his quondam employers he shows 
 himself full of skill and resources, invariably gay and good-tempered, 
 generous, affectionate, and even faithful, but quite free from inconvenient 
 scruples of any kind. The fact that natives of this stamp generally lay 
 themselves out for the service of travellers often leads the latter to think they 
 are the only existing " mission Kaffirs."
 
 150 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 of Damocles always hangs over their heads ; and when 
 ambassadors come from the capital, no one knows whether, 
 besides the ostensible message they bring, they may not have 
 a secret commission to murder some one. Moreover, when the 
 chiefs come to the lekJiothla, they are always accompanied by a 
 numerous retinue, armed, not with assegais, for these are not 
 allowed in the African forums, but with clubs. If they have 
 the slightest ground for such suspicions, they sleep outside, and 
 surround themselves with all kinds of precautions. This will 
 give you an idea of the land of cut-throats to which we are 
 bringing the Gospel of peace. 
 
 In this respect, our experiences at Sesheke have been hard. 
 In relating the incident about Ben, I skirted an abyss of 
 Zambesian paganism, of which the sight alone fills one with 
 horror. Our evangelists need a special measure of God's grace 
 to preserve them in the midst of the universal corruption which 
 flaunts here in broad daylight, and the shameless temptations 
 with which men and women assail strangers. I have studied 
 heathenism at close quarters in Basuto-land, as among the Zulu 
 and among other tribes, and horrible it was. But here it 
 surpasses all conception. A historian, speaking of George IV., 
 has said that if he had been stripped of all the waistcoats in 
 which he had a mania for muffling himself up, you might have 
 searched in vain for the vtan. I would not say the same of 
 the Zambesians ; I believe that under the pile of all that is 
 hideous and odious in paganism we shall find incji, and men 
 whom we can love. Besides, we are doing the work of Him 
 Who " came to seek and to save that which was lost," " not the 
 righteous, but sinners " : let us not forget that. 
 
 Leshoma, October i$tk, 1884. 
 To divert our minds from political matters, and turn the 
 interminable visits of my " unemployed " friends, the chiefs, to 
 useful account, I proposed to them that we should make a net. 
 This is the privileged work of the chiefs, and in no way beneath 
 the dignity of a king. They alone have the right to fish with 
 a net : the people must content themselves with weirs of reeds, 
 and other equally primitive contrivances. This gave me an 
 opportunity ever>' day of learning things myself, and of 
 evangelising. Our conversations were sometimes so deeply
 
 PROGRESS AT LESHOMA I51 
 
 interesting when we spoke of Nyambe (God) that all hands 
 stopped work, and all eyes were fixed upon us. 
 
 Unhappily, my friend Jeanmairet was out of sorts, and, 
 without being confined to his bed, gave me a great deal of 
 anxiety. I dosed him well with Dover's powder and quinine, 
 and the fever was checked. Our severe diet of sorgho and 
 black coffee was not of a nature to restore either appetite 
 or strength to my dear convalescent. So we profited by the 
 calming of the political atmosphere to return to the camp. 
 
 How beautiful Leshoma is, on returning from the burning 
 sands of Sesheke ! All is so fresh, so verdant here. It is 
 spring, and the woods are putting on their festival array of the 
 most varied and luxuriant tints. They only do it once a year, 
 so that we may never weary of admiring them. Leshoma is 
 a hive of bees. At dawn, the bell (for we have a bell) calls 
 every one to prayer ; then each goes to his work. No one is 
 idle. Aaron and Levi already occupy their own cottages ; those 
 of M. Jeanmairet and of our two artisans are nearly finished ; 
 our own two-roomed cottage, the exclusive work of Waddell 
 and Middleton, is also making great progress : so that besides 
 our tents (which the heat makes so unbearable that we must 
 put them by for other campings), quite a rustic hamlet is being 
 raised. These shelters of stakes and grass are a sanitary 
 measure ; and scanty as they are, they seem to us, after our 
 gipsy life of nine months, to be everything we can wish for 
 in the way of luxury and comfort in our present circumstances. 
 The whole will cost but little. Besides, we count on Leshoma's 
 being the headquarters and sanatorium of our mission for a 
 long time to come. 
 
 I have brought back deep impressions from Sesheke. The 
 more closely we see the work before us, the greater seem its 
 proportions. After my arrival, I set myself to study the 
 Serotsi tongue. But I soon discovered that this language is 
 only understood by a very limited number of people, principally 
 chiefs. It is the same with other dialects. Only the Setoka 
 appears to be of any importance, and recommends itself 
 necessarily to our study. The language of the country within 
 three hundred miles of the Victoria Falls in either direction 
 is Sesuto. All the tribes of serfs understand it : they speak 
 it rather as the peasants at home speak French : it makes us
 
 152 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 laugh sometimes. But they quite understand good classical 
 Sesuto. I knew this already, and yet it is always striking me 
 more and more forcibly. 
 
 There is one social question I have never yet fathomed ; 
 it is more complicated than I thought at first : it is the question 
 of slavery. According to Serpa Pinto, it is one of the fruits 
 of the commerce between the Portuguese and the Barotsi. I 
 do not know if this be the case. But one always experiences 
 a strange shudder on first seeing this horrible sore with one's 
 own eyes. At Sesheke, I was offered a child of eight or nine 
 years. They wanted in exchange a gun worth £6. I could have 
 had him for less. The other day again I received the following 
 note : 
 
 " Dear Mr. Coillard, — Here is a little boyjoffered for sale. 
 If you want him, you can have him, for I have enough of them. 
 His price is, a hat, a waistcoat, two or three handkerchiefs, and 
 some beads. If you would like to have him, tell me, and I will 
 send him to you. He is the same size as my little Jonas." 
 
 I had the boy brought. He was about twelve years old, 
 and had been torn from his parents and his home during one 
 of the raids made by the Barotsi on the Mashukulumboe. 
 His beautiful eyes and ivory teeth were thrown into relief by 
 his ebony face. His hair was thicker and less woolly than 
 that of the people here. His back was all scarred with the 
 blows he had received. The man who wanted to sell him 
 praised his good qualities : he was well built and robust ; he 
 was a good herd-boy, and he would certainly make an excellent 
 servant. 
 
 My wife could not turn her eyes away from the poor child. 
 Her heart was moved. The slave-trader perceived this, and 
 took advantage of it. He pushed the child roughly. " Tell 
 the lady you like her very much," he said. " Madam, I like 
 you very much, and I should so like to stay with you," said 
 the poor little slave, fixing his melancholy eyes upon her with 
 a supplicating look. We had to put an end to this pitiful 
 scene. A hat, a waistcoat, calico, and beads — the price of a 
 human being for whose ransom the Son of God shed His own 
 blood ! If wc had only consulted our feelings, we should not
 
 i884] A SLAVE FOR SALE 1 53 
 
 have hesitated ; but to open a new slave-market, that was 
 impossible. The slave-dealer, who had been sent by a chief of 
 Sesheke, was displeased, and went away at once, very angry 
 with the little Moshukulumboe. We followed him with our 
 eyes, poor child ! across the valley till he disappeared into 
 the woods with his cruel guardians. What would they do 
 with him ? 
 
 There was a great surprise for us on our return from 
 Sesheke — the post ! Yes, the post, which we had not received 
 for over five months. Even I, hardened old African as I am, 
 felt my heart beat quicker on opening a packet of some sixty 
 letters. No newspapers, for the obliging trader who acted as 
 our postman had left Mangwato on horseback to rejoin the 
 waggons, and had not been able to burden himself with a bag 
 full of gazettes and reviews. So we must postpone hearing 
 news of the external world, political, religious, and literary. 
 Besides, we must not complain, for our friends have supple- 
 mented them most carefully. No bad tidings have come to 
 sadden us, not even any bills to pay. If only I had sixty pens 
 at my disposal to tell all these friends at once the good they 
 have done us ! A letter from Europe is at a premium when 
 it reaches the Zambesi. We turn it this way and that, we 
 examine the stamps and read, then we put it carefully on one 
 side to read it again at our leisure. It is a tete-a-tcte that we 
 promise ourselves with such and such a friend. Unfortunately, 
 the post goes out again in a few days, so all our letters must be 
 written at once. Our friends must not be too exacting with 
 us : they must be good enough to take their share of this long 
 letter, in A'riting which so many names present themselves to 
 my pen. When shall we get the next post? And later on, 
 how many times in the year ? Once, or twice ? I do not know. 
 But write to us all the same, dear friends ; write to us all the 
 7iiore. You pray for us, you work with us, you have an affection 
 for us ; but we want you to tell us so. We place the Barotsi 
 Mission on your hearts. Remember, we are on the threshold 
 of the interior ; before us stretches a field which only your 
 resources and your zeal will limit. Meantime, we are happy 
 and united. Although we are at the Zambesi with our Master, 
 we are not martyrs yet !
 
 154 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 Octobei- loth. 
 
 Our Basuto left the day before yesterday, with the people 
 returning to Mangwato. The Zambesians, who are uncomfort- 
 able at home, and who have heard from some privileged persons 
 like Karumba and Seajika that the world does not precisely 
 end at the river, nor even at Pata-matenga, are devoured by 
 the desire to emerge from their shell, and see what happens 
 outside of it. We had to be very firm, almost harsh, to prevent 
 a legion of young men from joining their little caravan, in the 
 capacity of vampires. But I am afraid a good number have 
 taken short cuts, to reach the waggons farther on. The same 
 day, about fifty young men arrived, sent by the lords of Sesheke 
 to fetch us. A new king has been elected — Maina. An embassy 
 is on the way to Sesheke to send for the chiefs. A messenger 
 went in advance, so that they might prepare without delay to 
 go and render homage to the new sovereign. Hence the 
 canoes and this tribe of rowers that they send us. Unfor- 
 tunately, it is summer ; rainy ^weather has set in ; we have 
 constant storms, and pass rapidly through great alternations 
 of temperature. The beautiful winter season has passed. It 
 is not exactly an attractive programme to make this long 
 journey of two months under such variations of heat and rain, 
 in canoes which are always leaking, and we thought it would 
 be better not to expose M. Jeanmairet to such a trying journey, 
 and, humanly speaking, to certain fever. So I shall go alone 
 with Aaron, our evangelist. We hope to start to-morrow. 
 It is not fever I fear in this journey, nor the difficulties, 
 but the rapacity of these poor Zambesians, who consider it 
 nothing out of the way to deposit you upon an islet, till they 
 have extorted plenty of presents from you. We need to keep 
 close to the Saviour, and draw love and patience from Him, 
 
 Leshoma, December \st, 1884. 
 At the date of my last letter, I was sending away our 
 Bamangwato and Basuto drivers, and was starting again, rather 
 hurriedly, for Sesheke. From all appearances, I ought by this 
 time to have been at Lealuyi. This is just a specimen of the 
 hopes and disappointments of which we have perpetually been 
 the playthings since our arrival here. We must not yield to 
 the temptation of dwelling only on the dark side of things. We
 
 A HEDGE SCHOOL 1 55 
 
 have not been made to stay in the sylvan soHtudes of Leshoma 
 to take root here, though no doubt we thought we should have 
 been much better placed and much more useful beyond the river 
 in full active service, than reduced to the passive service of 
 simply sitting under our gourd to wait. 
 
 At Leshoma, the days follow each other without much 
 change. Only our constant activity makes them pass quickly, 
 and breaks their monotony. We have folded up our tents, and 
 in their place huts have been built, which, though simple, afford 
 us undreamt-of comfort. Our establishment, now three months 
 old, astonishes every one, and represents as many years of 
 labour in Basuto-land, where the building materials are lack- 
 ing. Middleton and Waddell have tried to make a saw-pit. 
 M. Jeanmairet has thrown off his coat, and begun his apprentice- 
 ship. Such a good example has inspired Aaron to follow it. 
 Unfortunately, our saw is too thin, and the wooden frame too 
 weak ; and poor Waddell has been racking his brains to try 
 and make planks a foot wide with a saw designed for quite 
 a different purpose. Perhaps one day we shall have a circular 
 saw turned by the waters of the Zambesi. What a dream ! 
 Alas ! the making of planks is a nightmare which has never 
 ceased to haunt my mind since we first spoke of the Mission to 
 the Zambesi. 
 
 My niece's school has been enriched by some Masaroa 
 children. But it is only with great difficulty that we have 
 brought them to it. " Just think," said the half-caste wife of 
 a hunter, " that little girl always wants to accompany me when 
 I go to hear the preaching ! What has a Mosaroa to do with 
 the things of God ? As if He troubled Himself about these 
 Bushmen ! " These poor children were perfectly delighted when 
 they were allowed to come to school ; but Mile. Coillard had 
 a great deal of trouble at first in making them sit down with the 
 others, and submit to the same discipline, easy as it was. The 
 first visit of all the Zambesians who come, slaves and chiefs, 
 is to " Missi's school." M. Jeanmairet, who works hard with 
 her at the evening class, is learning to cast his bread upon the 
 waters. Many young men only remain a month, and then 
 return home. They have learnt a few letters of the alphabet, 
 a hymn perhaps, and a verse of the Word of God, and they 
 go away, apparently to forget everything ; while our friend begins
 
 156 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 all over again with others, probably with the same result. It 
 is schooling for him too. 
 
 The post will always be an event at the Zambesi. The very 
 evening before I left, two messengers came from Pata-matenga, 
 bringing us a great packet of letters, which a trader had been 
 so obliging as to bring from Mangwato ; and what was more, 
 the good man added that he still had " a whole bag of news- 
 papers and a pile of letters for us, with which he had not been 
 able to load the porters." How tantalising ! But never mind ; 
 we shall enjoy what we have. Adieu, dinner ! Adieu, sleep ! 
 The silent hours of the night fly by while we listen to the news ! 
 
 Thus cheered up, Aaron and I started for Sesheke. The 
 crossing this time was as disagreeable as possible. I was so 
 tired, I could not keep awake : it rained, and the wind blew, 
 in the intervals of burning sunshine. The river was as beautiful 
 as ever, but " wrathful," and we did not cleave its troubled 
 waters with impunity ; they revenged themselves by breaking 
 over us. We spent the whole day huddled up with our feet 
 in the water ; and when, in the evening, we undid our rugs, 
 we found them, alas ! perfectly soaked. It is nothing short of 
 a miracle that we did not take fever. 
 
 At last we reached Sesheke. The village was silent and 
 deserted : there were no longer children playing noisily, no 
 more busy slaves, women building huts, and chiefs discussing 
 business in the kliotJila ^ or round pots of beer. Grass was 
 growing in all the courts. The Morantsiane was alone, with a 
 few other persons and some slaves. What had happened ? 
 
 A few minutes' conversation explained all. When the lords 
 of Sesheke sent us their canoes, they were awaiting messengers 
 from Lealuyi, whom they knew to be on the road, and expected 
 every moment ; they were hoping that on my arrival we could 
 all go together to the capital. Not only did the messengers 
 fail to arrive, but sinister rumours were spread on the subject 
 of their acts and deeds. It was whispered that these men 
 were secretly charged with a mission of murder ; the intended 
 victims even were pointed out ; it was known that on the way 
 they had put to death one of the chiefs of their own band. We 
 were assured that several important persons had shared the 
 
 ' Khothla and Ickhothla are nearly synonymous, meaning court of justice. 
 Khoihla refers rather to ihe place, Ickhothla to the court in session.
 
 l884] AARON'S ADVENTURE 1 57 
 
 same fate, and that even Makoatsa, Khama's ambassador, who 
 had been going to the capital on foot with his suite, had been 
 first robbed and then ruthlessly murdered. Terror had seized 
 on everybody ; and they had all, under one pretext or another, 
 taken their household goods and fled into the woods and fields, 
 thence to watch the course of events. 
 
 At our arrival, Rataii, Tahalima, and others ventured out to 
 see us, surrounding themselves with all kinds of precautions. 
 We held a council, and at the first glance were able to judge 
 of the situation. It was out of the question for any of the chiefs 
 to conduct us in person to the Valley ; all declared themselves 
 incapable of giving us the slightest protection, of which fact 
 we were even more strongly convinced than they. Besides, 
 although they put rowers and canoes at our service, our journey 
 under the existing circumstances was an impossibility. The 
 time had not yet come. And for Aaron and myself to remain 
 alone in the deserted village was likewise impossible. So we 
 had no alternative but to return to Leshoma. What I regret 
 is not our trouble, but the setsibas, measured by arm's length, 
 which we must distribute to the rowers. In spite of this, we 
 have brought back pleasant impressions from Sesheke. Every 
 time we see the chiefs, it seems to us that we have gained 
 more of their confidence. They are more communicative, more 
 thoughtful for our comfort, somewhat more hospitable, and, 
 above all, less grasping. 
 
 A little incident closed this journey of a week. When we 
 came to the rapids of Mambova and Mpalira, Aaron, who is not 
 very fond of travelling by canoe, wished to take a short cut on 
 foot, with his gun on his shoulder, accompanied by Karumba. 
 I descended the rapids in the canoe. When we came to the 
 meeting-place, I searched, but Aaron was not to be found. I 
 left a canoe for him, passed on, to wait for him at the Kazungula 
 ford, five miles farther on. Judge of my astonishment, an hour 
 later, to see the boat arrive without Aaron ! The canoe-men 
 assured me that they had searched, shouted, and waited for 
 him a long time in vain. I made them cross the river and go 
 back on foot to meet him. It was the middle of the day, 
 and suddenly one of those storms came on such as one only 
 sees in the tropics. The flashes of lightning blinded us, the 
 thunder rolled from hill to hill, and the rain beat down with
 
 158 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 extraordinary violence. The crystal surface of the river was 
 broken up ; the waves rose like those of the sea, swept up 
 and tormented by the wind, which drove them along, while the 
 great raindrops riddled them like shot. The spectacle was a 
 new and wonderful one for me. But my baggage ! I had 
 huddled myself up under a deceitful mackintosh, which absorbed 
 water like a sponge — I have never yet found one which would 
 resist the African climate. Suddenly I felt something fall on 
 my head. It was a mat, which a kind-hearted boy was depriving 
 himself of, to cover me. True, he had not much clothing to get 
 wet ! But all the same, this kind deed gave me a great deal of 
 pleasure. 
 
 Two o'clock ! Three o'clock ! Four ! Five ! It was still 
 raining ; the sun was going down ; it was equally impossible to 
 go to Leshoma or to build a shelter for the rapidly approaching 
 night. And Aaron, where was he ? In the dusk, we discovered 
 an abandoned shelter of branches. All at once, Aaron appeared 
 on the opposite bank ; and as soon as the wind went down, he 
 crossed and rejoined me. Poor fellow ! it seems that when he 
 reached the rendezvous he could not find us ; and no one having 
 seen us pass, he thought we must have been wrecked in the 
 rapids ; so the poor man returned with Karumba to Mambova, 
 following the banks, questioning the passers-by in vain, and 
 searching for the fragments of our canoes with an anxiety 
 better imagined than described. 
 
 Leshoma, December ()th, 18S4. 
 The moment we have so long waited for has at last arrived. 
 A new king, Akufuna, has been elected. He is a young man 
 who has grown up in exile, and has been obliged to act prudently 
 at first, and to initiate himself into the duties of his position. 
 As soon as he felt himself thoroughly settled, he thought of 
 us. He wishes to see us even before the lesser chiefs of the 
 country, hoping, he says, that we may be able to give him good 
 advice, to guide him in the exercise of the power confided to 
 him. Two bands of messengers have arrived at Sesheke, each 
 with more pressing messages than the last. The chiefs of 
 Sesheke have sent them on to us, without losing any time, and 
 three of them have come down by canoe to wait for us at the 
 ford of Kazungula. They have sent twenty young men to
 
 1884] STARTING FOR THE CAPITAL 1 59 
 
 carry our baggage. But the honour was too great ! I was 
 frightened at the thought of the setsibas, so I bade them a 
 friendly farewell ! I shall put our packages on the backs of 
 our donkeys : it will be humbler and more economical. We 
 do not wish to expose more men than we can help, so 
 M. Jeanmairet and Levi will remain at Leshoma. Aaron, and 
 Middleton at his own request, will go with me. We need not 
 assure our friends that we will be prudent and take every 
 precaution, so do not fear. 
 
 Oh, if you could only know what one feels on finding one- 
 self on the threshold of this Central Africa, where the least ray 
 of the Gospel has not penetrated ! If those friends who blame 
 our imprudence could see from afar what we see, and feel 
 what we feel, they would be the first to wonder that those 
 redeemed by Christ should be so backward in devotion, and 
 know so little of the spirit of self-sacrifice. They would be 
 ashamed of the hesitations that hinder us. These innumerable 
 tribes, of which the Barotsi is only the first on our way, are 
 sitting in the shadow of death : they perish as pagans amid 
 horrible and bloody superstitions, while we have the Light and 
 Life which we owe it to them to impart. We must remember 
 that it was not by interceding for the world in glory that Jesus 
 saved it. He gave Himself. Our prayers for the evangelisation 
 of the world are but a bitter irony so long as we only give of 
 our superfluity, and draw back before the sacrifice of ourselves ! 
 
 Leshoma, December loth, 1884. 
 The sun touches the horizon. A few hours ago, we were 
 all activity, finishing our packing and loading our donkeys — 
 rather a difficult task, as we have only two pack-saddles, and 
 our donkeys are so small that we can put but very little on 
 their backs. I have sent Middleton and Aaron on with our 
 baggage : they will camp at Kazungula, and communicate with 
 the chiefs who are to conduct us to Sesheke. This allows me 
 to remain here till the last moment. These last days have 
 been a time of visitation. Most of the members of the 
 expedition have had fever. During three days my dear wife 
 gave us much anxiety. I did not know what turn her illness 
 would take. And message after message kept coming for us 
 from the river, where the chiefs were waiting for us. Poor
 
 l60 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 people ! they could not understand that the illness of a woman 
 could interfere with my departure, when it was " the king, 
 the king himself" who was calling me. At last the chiefs, 
 Rataii, Tahalima, and others, came themselves to see us. It 
 vv^as an act of great courage, for they never venture on this 
 side of the river, where they always fear the Matabele, and 
 now Robosi, who, they say, is somewhere about the Quando 
 River. It was a civility for which we were much obliged to 
 them, and they showed a sympathy, too, which gave us pleasure. 
 So far from importuning us, they showed us the greatest 
 deference. " Do not think we have come to worry or 
 interfere with you. Our mother is ill, and it is she whom we 
 have come to visit. Take care of her, and when you are 
 ready to go, you will find people and canoes waiting for you 
 at the ford." Happily, my wife is better. 
 
 Are you not astonished to see how the enemy impedes 
 our every step, and contests every inch of the road ? He 
 is not yet at the end of his resources. The hindrances which 
 postponed our departure from Leribe have been renewed under 
 other forms at Pretoria and Mangwato. Now we have passed 
 four long months of waiting and hoping and disappointments at 
 Leshoma, and at the last moment illness came and caused 
 fresh delays, I suppose these are not the last trials which 
 will assail our faith before we are definitely settled among the 
 Barotsi. But to doubt would be unworthy. 
 
 It is a bad season, and God has permitted this journey 
 to be robbed of everything that could make it attractive ; no 
 doubt, in order that we might judge more calmly, both of men 
 and things. Our delays have already had this advantage, 
 that we have been able to make close acquaintance with the 
 chiefs of these parts. This can only be to the advantage of 
 our mission. They are so many fj'ietids for us. I should 
 astonish you if I confided one of my cares to you. I am 
 going to Lealuyi like a bird that every one tries to pluck, 
 in spite of the pecks and scratches they will certainly get. 
 In what sort of state shall I return ? God only knows ! That 
 is very much of the earth, earthy, is it not? But how can I 
 help it ? The traders, with the sole object of gaining a 
 monopoly of the ivory trade, have scattered their presents 
 lavishly. Now, in spite of so many ruinous sacrifices, the
 
 1884] MAHAHA 161 
 
 monopoly threatens to escape them, but the education they 
 have given the tribe is bearing bitter fruit. We cannot expect 
 the Barotsi to understand our mission and make a difference 
 between us and the traders. And as we absolutely cannot 
 imitate their extravagant liberality, we are looked on somewhat 
 disdainfully. To establish our position here, we have to destroy 
 an entire education which has already borne seed, and to 
 struggle against the trend of public opinion ; and it will be 
 hard work at first. 
 
 Sesheke, December ii,ik, 1884. 
 
 And so I have left my own people. My dear wife showed 
 herself equal to the circumstances. I should have left a week 
 sooner, only she fell ill. "To-morrow I shall be better," she 
 said, "and you can go. I will never be in your way, when 
 God opens the door and calls you." So there was a rainbow 
 over our separation, for He had answered our prayers. Dear 
 Jeanmairet accompanied me part of the way, and then, as Serpa 
 Pinto has jokingly represented me in Europe, I continued my 
 way alone with a Zambesian, " my stick in my hand." Aaron 
 had taken my gun. They were all ready for me ; but the wind 
 blew so hard that we had to wait till evening, and even then 
 we were not quite free from danger as we crouched down in 
 our pirogues. We passed the night with one of the two chiefs 
 who were to conduct us to Sesheke. I was struck by the 
 respectful and considerate manner of the other. Every time 
 I looked at him, I found his eyes fixed on me ; he listened to 
 all I had to say with remarkable interest. He was Mahaha, 
 a petty chief, whom my wife and I and the catechists had met 
 on an islet six years before.^ The good man had received us 
 with the greatest cordiality, and was so desirous to hear about 
 the things of God, that immediately after the customary saluta- 
 tion he demanded, " Sing to us about Jesus." And we sang 
 together the hymn we used then to sing at every stage : 
 
 A re bineleng Yesu, (Sing the praises of Jesus, 
 
 Hoba ke eena Moloki. He alone is our Saviour.) 
 
 The impressions of our visit and our singing have not passed 
 
 ' See page 56. Mahaha is not to be confounded with Mathaha, a rebel 
 chief afterwards killed. 
 
 II
 
 l62 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 away, it seems; and Mahaha, reminding me of every little 
 incident, added, with his face radiant and his eyes fixed on mine, 
 " Yesu has blessed us ! We have had plentiful rain and splendid 
 harvests. We have had maize so high, so big" (making a 
 significant gesture with the hand). " Such millet ! We have never 
 seen anything like it ! " Directly he had heard of our arrival 
 at Leshoma this year, he had made haste to send a boy to help 
 us in our labour of settling down, and during my absences 
 he had frequently sent my wife corn, honey, etc. So you may 
 judge of his delight in escorting us to Sesheke. Everything 
 at the Zambesi is not bad, thank God ! 
 
 At Mpalira, we meet Makoatsa, Khama's messenger, who 
 was said to have been murdered ; he was returning laden with 
 furs for his master. We also found there three petty chiefs, 
 sent by the king to fetch us — pleasant enough and full of 
 consideration for us : they won our hearts from the first. They 
 were going to Leshoma, where they knew I was detained by 
 my wife's illness : they wanted to have the satisfaction of seeing 
 us, and personally transmitting the messages they were charged 
 with. I decided to remain at Mpalira that day and the next, 
 which was Sunday, so as to converse at leisure with them, and 
 above all with Makoatsa, and to evangelise. We had no cause 
 to regret the delay, for we had large gatherings and interesting 
 conversations. 
 
 On our arrival here, the chiefs worked like horses to make 
 us comfortable. They gave us a new hut, roomy and clean ; 
 they have brought us provisions for the journey ; and morning 
 and evening they love to assemble in our courtyard and talk. 
 We profit by this to talk to them of the things of God, on 
 which subject they ask the strangest questions ; and to collect 
 information about ethnography, ethnology, etc. ; and to study 
 the Serotsi language. When I am tired of talking, I simply 
 begin to read or write : that is all. They are never tired of 
 watching my pen run over the paper ; and they ask what 
 mysterious medicine can initiate into this wonderful art. Aaron 
 also has begun to study Serotsi, and now it remains to be seen 
 which of us will make the most progress. See my pretension 
 in matching myself against these African philologists, who seem 
 to learn a language without thinking about it ! Their memories 
 arc like iron : everything is engraved ; nothing effaces itself. All
 
 ~^
 
 THE CHIEFS' PHOTOGRAPHS 163 
 
 the same, I do make some progress, to the great satisfaction of 
 my professor. Let me take advantage of it to pass a little 
 lesson on to you, very elementary, but very useful. The name 
 of the tribe is not Barotsi at all — that is the name the Makololo 
 have given it, corrupting the real one, which is : Aruyi, Moruyi, 
 Morotsi, pi. Aruyi \ Seruyi, the language; Boruyi, the kind; 
 Lealuyi, the country, and not Lua-lui, nor Lua-luyi, as I wrote 
 it at first. The confusion in African geography resulting from 
 the way in which travellers attempt to render the native names 
 in English, French, and Portuguese is such that I am determined 
 to render the native pronunciation as faithfully as possible. 
 Livingstone himself, whom I admire more than ever since I 
 have read his life, has fallen into more than one error ; but then 
 he acknowledges that he has no ear for music. So I shall write 
 Lealuyi, pronounced Le-a-/c/^-yi. 
 
 Since I began this letter, they have brought me three cases 
 and the packages I left under the care of that excellent man 
 the chief Tahalima. What was our horror to discover that 
 everything had been opened ! Some one had helped himself 
 liberally to beads, powder, calico, red and black woollen caps, 
 etc. The thief had amused himself by trying on my woollen 
 shirts and a white flannel suit, covered as he was with grease 
 and ochre, and, finding them no doubt too small for him, had 
 dragged them off as best he could, and put them back into the 
 chest, pell-mell, with lead, bottles of medicine, etc. The shirt 
 business only amused us, and we said laughing, " If the rascal 
 had only been obliging enough to leave us a bit of soap ! " But 
 the loss of our beads and stuff — our pocket-money for the journey 
 — puts us in a great difficulty. You see we made no mistake 
 in bringing the Gospel to the Zambesi ! 
 
 In one of my former journeys, I took the portraits of several 
 chiefs, and succeeded fairly well in printing them. Some young 
 men to whom I showed them in Leshoma have published it 
 abroad. And now, in all the villages we pass through, you should 
 see every one rush out and ask me to show them " the chiefs 
 that I have in my pocket." And you should see the excitement 
 of the women, and hear the noisy exclamations of the men. 
 " Eh, Rataii ! you can see his charms, and his fillet, and his 
 wrinkles ! What a nose ! Yo ! yo ! Yu, there's Masatoane. 
 Don't you see him, with his closed eye ? Just look at his torn
 
 l64 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1884 
 
 ear ! You see his earrings and his beads ? He is going to 
 speak ; now you'll see him wink his eye, and say in his squeaky 
 little voice, ' Ka Sehetoane ! Koenyania ! ' Oh ! lumela Masa- 
 toane ! " Here the interest seems at the highest pitch. What 
 will it be if I ever make copies and exhibit them with my magic 
 lantern ! 
 
 But a crowd is coming into the court. The chiefs are 
 bringing the young men who are to conduct us to Lealuyi. 
 So I must put up my traps and get ready in earnest ! 
 
 "^
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 First Journey to the Capital — A Prosperous Voyage — Camping on the Banks 
 — The Rapids of Death — Pirates and Brigands — Ngonye Falls — The 
 Barotsi Valley — A Royal Tomb — Nalolo and Queen Maibiba — Lealuyi 
 — An Official Reception — Inspecting a Site — A Night Adventure — Respect 
 of the Barotsi for the Basuto — Return to Sesheke — Death of Aaron's 
 Daughter — Leshoma once more — A Dark Prospect — Disasters with the 
 Post and the Draught Oxen — To our Collaborators. 
 
 Leshoma, March t,tk, 1885. 
 
 YOU read in our last letters of our departure for Lealuyi. 
 And now I hasten to announce our return, and to give 
 you some details of our journey. I confess we rather dreaded 
 it in the rainy season ; but as the events which delayed us were 
 quite beyond our control, the path of duty was clear, and 
 we had the right to count on God's blessing. We were not 
 disappointed. The journey was as happy and as prosperous 
 as possible. It lasted two months to the very day, instead of 
 three or even four, as was predicted. Aaron and I kept wonder- 
 fully well ; only Middleton was ill. At the very beginning, he 
 got his feet burnt by the sun in his boat ; and not only was he 
 helpless for a whole month, but his constitution received such 
 a shock that his state gave us much anxiety. On the return 
 journey, thank God ! he quickly recovered. 
 
 Under the escort of chiefs, who surrounded us with attentions, 
 and with an old man like Mokhele, one of those venerable 
 pagans that one loves to know, a voyage on the Zambesi could 
 not entirely lose its charm. The river itself is always beautiful 
 with the monsters that sport in its depths, the clouds of water- 
 fowl that animate its sandy shores, its verdant isles, its rapids 
 and cataracts, its banks, here bare and irregular, there bordered 
 with wooded hills. At every turn there is a new panorama. 
 There is nothing exactly picturesque ; the vegetation itself is 
 
 165
 
 l66 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 nothing remarkable, but it is there, reflected in the mirror of 
 the water and fringing the horizon. At certain places, I could 
 have believed myself on Lake Como or Maggiore. 
 
 But after all, it must be frankly confessed that the charm 
 of novelty soon passes off. Leaning against one's baggage, 
 huddled up on a damp mat, in the small space left by five or 
 six canoe-men, the traveller wearies of admiring, gets tired of 
 reading, struggles against sleepiness, and ends by giving way to 
 fatigue. It is no longer Basuto-land, where you bestride your 
 horse, and guide it as you will over hill and dale. At a certain 
 age, the apprenticeship to a Zambesian canoe is rough ; but 
 one gets accustomed to it. It is difficult not to be impatient 
 when the oars work listlessly, and the boatmen coolly give 
 themselves up to a deafening chatter, and no progress is made. 
 But when navigation becomes difficult and dangerous, then 
 interest revives, gossip is at an end, and there is not even an 
 answer to an inopportune question. Nothing is heard but the 
 cadence of the paddles frothing the water. They are on the 
 alert, for the Zambesi is easily irritated ; a whistle suffices to 
 rouse its anger, to call up the wind and the catspaws on the 
 water, and to capsize the canoes. 
 
 We generally start at break of day, when we have had 
 public prayer, and when every one is at his post. Except for 
 a few short halts on the bank, we only stop to encamp. At 
 two in the afternoon, they are already discussing a site ; then 
 we moor the boats, build shelters, and prepare the evening meal 
 and the food for the next day. I speak of the shelters ! These 
 are simply kennels of reeds and straw, where our young men 
 lie heaped together. If a hurricane comes on in the night, 
 they inevitably collapse. The Zambesians are accustomed to 
 it, and take it stoically. Some hide themselves under the masses 
 of wet grass ; others cover themselves with the mats they have 
 been lying on : one dozes in a crouching position, and marks 
 time — a wooden bowl on his head by way of a cap ; whilst 
 another, wrapped in the rags of a skin garment, snores beside 
 him. If their stomachs are not empty, they have only to 
 exchange glances on waking up, and all roar with laughter. 
 
 The Zambesi would be one of the greatest arteries of 
 commerce, if it were navigable. And it would be so, except for 
 the rapids. But those rapids ! We have passed no less than
 
 i885] THE RAPIDS OF DEATH 167 
 
 twenty-four between Ka-tima-Mollo and Seoma of Ngonye, 
 a distance of eighty miles (more than a hundred kilometres) 
 according to the pedometer. We admired the prudence 
 and solicitude of the chiefs no less than the dexterity of the 
 canoe-men, both when rowing painfully up the river, and 
 in descending it ; the canoe shoots like an arrow through the 
 foaming billows that dispute its passage among the obstructing 
 rocks. The attempt looks like sheer madness. Woe betide the 
 canoe which turns broadside on among these reefs in the midst of 
 the irresistible current ! One of these rapids bears the sinister 
 name of Loshu (Death), because of the numerous accidents 
 there. This was where the Jesuits going to the capital in 1881 
 lost one of their party. The unfortunate man, not under- 
 standing the language, and seeing the canoe-men jumping into 
 the water to right the boat, imagined that there was danger, 
 leapt from the canoe, and instantly disappeared in the boiling 
 whirlpool. They did not even succeed in finding his corpse. 
 The Rapids of Death! We passed a dreary night there, 
 camped in the rain on an islet, in the midst of a fermenting 
 jungle,^ and swarms of the most venomous mosquitoes, having to 
 listen, willy-nilly, to the descriptions of the misfortunes that 
 had given these parts their sinister celebrity. It made us 
 shudder. One could almost catch a glimpse of Charon and his 
 bark in the shadows of the darkness. After this, you will not 
 be astonished at our Zambesians' noisy delight, when they 
 found themselves safe and sound on the other side of these 
 dangerous places. They hastened to land on the first sandy 
 shore, seized each other by the two hands, and threw them- 
 selves into a passionate dance ; then pressing round us and their 
 chiefs, they all clapped hands on their bended knees, saying 
 to each other, " SJiangwe ! Shangwc ! " then rising, and draw- 
 ing up in line, as if in the presence of a divinity, real, but 
 invisible, they shouted with all the strength of their lungs, 
 " Yos/io ! Yo-sho ! " This is the salutation, the thanks- 
 giving, strictly reserved for the sovereign. To flatter us, 
 they added with beaming looks, "You see, Jesus has taken 
 care of us ! " 
 
 Above Sesheke and beyond Katonga, I was struck by the 
 
 ' Mr. Selous speaks of the sour smell rising from the wet and rotting 
 jungles in the Barotsi Valley.
 
 l68 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 beauty and fertility of this region, which I beHeve to be the 
 healthiest in the country. To judge by the quantity of ground 
 lying fallow, it was relatively very thinly populated. At 
 present it is nothing but a vast solitude. The chief Mokhele 
 assured me that it was the Barotsi, while travelling, and, above 
 all, their subordinates, who by their exactions and general 
 behaviour had driven away the population into the interior of 
 the country. We were soon able to convince ourselves of this. 
 No sooner was the solitary canoe of a Mosubia fisherman seen, 
 than there was a race, a regular pirates' race. " I'll have his 
 spear ! I'll have his fish ! I'll have his food ! " they cried, each 
 louder than the other, pouncing upon their victim. If we came 
 in sight of a Makalaka village, our young men, deaf to all 
 remonstrances, invaded it like a horde of brigands, seizing 
 everything they saw. They forced the unhappy people to take 
 the roofs off their own dwellings and bring them to their camp. 
 If the Makalaka offered them food, they placed it before these 
 petty tyrants, and kept at a distance, prostrated, and clapping 
 their hands. " Dogs of Makalaka ! " the boatmen would cry : 
 "how dare you insult us with this handful of maize, and 
 this wretched fruit ! Do you not know that we serve the 
 lords of Sesheke? If it were not for the Baruti" (missionaries), 
 " we would strangle you on the spot ! But wait a little ; we will 
 pay you out." And the unhappy creatures, trembling with fear, 
 would redouble their clappings and their " Shangwes." We had 
 more than once to interfere, to prevent their coming to blows. 
 What must it be when there is no moral sway exercised ! At 
 the sight of our canoes all the men in a village generally fled. 
 It was heart-rending ! 
 
 There is another thought that besets one in crossing these 
 regions, so vast, beautiful, and fertile, so rich, and yet without 
 inhabitants, except for a fevv^ Makalaka hamlets here and there. 
 One's thoughts involuntarily turn to a corner of our globe where 
 man, struggling for existence, scarcely even finds a place under 
 the sun. These African solitudes, and our great European cities, 
 those monstrous antheaps of human beings, where, side by side 
 with opulence, there is so much poverty and misery, tell me 
 do they really enter into His designs Who said, " Be fruitful, 
 and multiply, and replenish the earth " ? 
 
 On December 26th, we came to Seoma of Ngonye. We
 
 1^ 

 
 i885] NGONYE FALLS 169 
 
 had to wait four days before it was possible to collect the 
 Makalaka (whom famine had dispersed into the woods), to 
 transport our boats above the falls. I profited by the delay 
 to visit them. You will remember that Major Serpa Pinto gave 
 a poetic description of them, which, on the whole, is a fair one. 
 The cataract is formed by a wall of basalt, over which the river 
 rolls, and falls fifty feet, making many beautiful and widely 
 spreading cascades. These foaming waves, these sheets of silver, 
 are brought into relief by the black rocks on which they dash 
 themselves, and by the beautiful belt of vegetation in the back- 
 ground, which breaks between the azure of the river and the 
 sky. The dazzling light of the tropical sun flooding the picture 
 throws the contrast into strong relief. 
 
 We must not compare Ngonye with Musi oa Tunya. There 
 are no two Musi oa Tunyas in the world. There everything 
 takes colossal proportions ; the whole makes one dizzy, and 
 inspires one with terror. One would say it was the entrance to 
 the infernal regions. Still, the Ngonye Falls would be admired 
 in any country ; they form an enchanting picture. There is 
 a stunning roar, but none of those thunderbolts or cannonades 
 which make everything tremble under one's feet. Nevertheless, 
 the natives of these parts have as high an ideal of their divinity, 
 as their neighbours have of theirs at Musi oa Tunya, and never 
 dare to approach the abyss without an offering. I was rash 
 enough not to conform to the established custom. And whilst 
 scrambling from rock to rock, looking for a point of view to 
 photograph, I slipped, fell, and rolled to the edge of the torrent, 
 which would have swept me away like a straw if I had not 
 clung to a projecting rock in time. I escaped with a sprained 
 hand, but the accident made a great sensation. On my return, 
 I went to the opposite bank, to get another view of the cataracts. 
 On the way, one of my guides asked me confidentially if, this 
 time at least, I had not armed myself with an offering. I said 
 "No." He was horrified, and I had some difficulty in persuading 
 him to follow me. As soon as we were in sight of the falls, 
 he threw himself down on a rock, and, clapping his hands, began 
 a long incantation in a tone which testified sincerity no less 
 than sorrow. " O Nyambe,^ thou who inhabitest these abysses, 
 
 ^ The Supreme Being.
 
 I/O ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 appease thy wrath ! These white people are poor, and have 
 nothing to offer thee. If they had stuff and beads, we would 
 know it, and I would not hide it from thee. O Nyambe, be 
 not revengeful, do not swallow them up ; appease thy wrath, 
 Nyambe ! " 
 
 What a comfort it was for this good Mokalaka, when we 
 took our way home, safe and sound ! I am sure that he never 
 even noticed that I had taken the precaution to remove my 
 boots, so as to move about on the rocks, polished by the action 
 of the water ! 
 
 But we must hasten on. The first day of January, we were 
 going up the river, admiring the forests which bordered it, under 
 the impression that they would soon disappear. And sure 
 enough, to use the native expression, these beautiful forests 
 suddenly fled away to the right and left, as far as the hills, barely 
 discernible on the horizon. Before us stretches a plain, as far 
 as eye can see. It is a vast prairie, where the limpid Zambesi 
 winds, sending out an arm here and there, and, at the entrance 
 of the Valley, spreading out like a lake. The view is a strange 
 one, but not as dreary as I should have thought. The rich 
 carpet of verdure somewhat redeems the monotony of the 
 landscape. One could almost believe oneself in Holland, if it 
 were possible to see a steeple and a windmill in the midst of 
 a village of proverbial cleanliness.^ The annual floods have 
 already begun, and invaded the lower parts of the plain. At 
 this point we leave the river, and nothing is more curious than 
 to see our canoes gliding over the grass, and to hear our people 
 asking the passers-by which is the road to the capital. 
 
 But softly ! It is not thus, clandestinely, that we enter the 
 Barotsi Valley. One evening the chiefs came to see me, 
 surrounding their visit with all the official forms possible. 
 Addressing themselves to Aaron, who was at my side, they 
 counted on him, as a Mosuto, to explain to me the important 
 business which brought them. " There is in the neighbourhood 
 the tomb of Moana Mbinyi, one of the most ancient kings of 
 the country. No one passes without making a pilgrimage 
 there, with an offering of white beads, or calico of the same 
 colour. All travellers, even the white ones, submit to this 
 
 ' See Mr. Selous's book " Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa," 
 pp. 254-258, where he makes the same remark.
 
 i885] A king's tomb 171 
 
 national and sacred custom ; they count upon our doing so 
 too, and declare that, considering my age, they will accept a 
 compromise, and will go themselves to place my offering on the 
 tomb of Moana Mbinyi." My answer may be easily guessed. 
 The chiefs, seeing they had nothing to gain, predicted all sorts 
 of misfortunes, for which, they said, our obstinacy alone would 
 be responsible. Next morning, our whole party was gloomy 
 and silent, and they burst into invectives when we passed at a 
 distance before the old king's tomb. But in the evening, when 
 we camped, thanks to a great abundance of meat, green maize, 
 and curdled milk, that some hospitable chiefs had given us, 
 every one had forgotten the tomb of Moana Mbinyi, and all were 
 gay as usual. 
 
 Let me remark in passing, that the Valley is sprinkled with 
 these tombs of Barotsi kings. One can recognise them a long 
 way off by the magnificent clumps of trees which shade them. 
 Some chiefs, with a certain number of people, live there, and 
 keep them up with much care. The reigning king, alone, with 
 his Gambella, or prime minister, has the right to enter the sacred 
 enclosure, formed by beautiful strong reed mats. And in every 
 way, the king, dead for generations past, is treated with as much 
 deference as if still living and reigning. They present him 
 with libations of milk and honey, and offerings of beads and 
 white calico. They bid farewell to him before starting on a 
 journey, and on their return they come to salute him, and to 
 tell him the news. So here is a powerful lever for us to use in 
 preaching the resurrection of the dead and eternal life. It is 
 one of the numerous questions which it will be interesting to 
 study from a scientific as well as from a missionary point 
 of view. 
 
 On January 5th, we arrived at Nalolo, the second capital of the 
 kingdom, that of Khosi ea Mosali, the queen. This is an ancient 
 institution of the people of these parts, to which Sebetoane 
 gave quite a fresh impulse by placing his daughter, Ma- 
 Mochesana, in the position of queen of the Barotsi country.^ 
 I hope one day to have the opportunity of speaking at greater 
 leisure about the various attributes of this important personage. 
 At present it must suffice for me to introduce you to Maibiba. 
 
 ' See Livingstone's " Travels on the Zambesi."
 
 172 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 She is an amiable and gracious woman, who has passed her 
 first youth, and is both intelligent and talkative. Her dignity 
 is no burden to her ; she sits in the lekJiothla with a great 
 deal of grace, and transacts her business surrounded by her 
 councillors. None of them has the right of sitting in her 
 presence, not even her husband, who bears the title of Mokwe 
 Tunga (Son-in-law to the Nation), but yields precedence to the 
 principal councillors. Every one gives her the royal salutation, 
 standing at a distance, and shouting, " Tautona ! " — that is, 
 " Great Lion " ; properly speaking, the male lion. 
 
 Maibiba received us with the greatest affability. When she 
 had recovered from a slight embarrassment, very natural under 
 the circumstances, she asked all sorts of questions about the 
 country whence we came, and the object of our mission. She 
 pressed us to stay over the next day, to make her better 
 acquaintance, and to speak to her people of the Gospel of 
 peace which we brought. She listened to me with an intense 
 interest, mingled with surprise, when I spoke to her of God's 
 sovereignty, and of her own duties towards herself and towards 
 her nation. 
 
 " Ours is a land of blood," she remarked sadly ; " kings and 
 chiefs succeed each other here like shadows. They are never 
 allowed to grow old. If you come back in a few months, shall 
 we still be in power ? After all, one might envy the Makalaka " 
 (the serfs and slaves) ; " revolutions do not touch them. Ah ! " 
 she added, sighing, and addressing herself to her councillors, 
 " Robosi is no longer king, and he has lost all ; but if he has 
 been received by people like these" (pointing to me), " he may 
 think himself happy ; he has nothing to regret." 
 
 How can one refrain from a feeling of pity in the presence 
 of a person like Maibiba, over whose head — and to her own 
 knowledge — the sword of Damocles ever hangs ! All the 
 nation joins in praising her good qualities — her kindness, her 
 horror of blood, her intelligence in business, her princely 
 hospitality. We are the last to contradict this ; for, in spite of 
 the famine which desolates the Valley, we had abundance in the 
 camp, besides the ox, which is de rigueur. The queen had 
 the success of the mission so much at heart, that, unknown to 
 us, she immediately sent a confidential message to her brother 
 the king, proposing to come herself to him. Of all the chiefs.
 
 i885] LEALUYI 1 73 
 
 she is the only person who seriously enquired into the robbery 
 of our goods at Sesheke, and who has deplored it. All that is 
 said of this interesting princess, and all that I have observed 
 myself, has filled me with esteem for her. One would like to 
 see her invested with supreme power ; then there might be some 
 hope for this unhappy country, 
 
 I had a strong desire to take her portrait. But she did 
 not care particularly to be exhibited like the chiefs of Sesheke, 
 whose portraits, at first sight, startled her considerably. Also, 
 she was the only one who did not seem inclined to sit before 
 my mysterious camera. People came in crowds from all the 
 villages. Ten times a day, I had to recommence the exhibition 
 of the photographs, and hear the same remarks, and the same 
 bursts of laughter. Then I had to show the " sun," i.e. the 
 watch, that I had in my pocket ; then the portrait of my wife, 
 which I had in a locket. Fancy a man caring sufficiently about 
 his wife to travel with her portrait ! And then my mirror, 
 which the young women never forget ; for these black ladies, too, 
 have a little spice of vanity; they fancy themselves beautiful, 
 very beautiful even, and do not at all think that the white race 
 has a monopoly of the aesthetic ! One old woman, who could 
 not believe that my whole body was as white as my face, on 
 seeing my bare arm, cried out, in a tone of compassion which 
 quite touched me, " Is it possible ? He is like a new-born 
 child ! " ^ 
 
 One day's journey after leaving Nalolo, and the next we 
 arrived at Lealuyi. My first impression was such as one would 
 prefer to forget. Certainly war, and civil war above all, drives 
 men mad ; it turns them into wild beasts. Here, as in Paris, 
 it brought forth the Commune, and the Commune has left its 
 traces. Of all Robosi's beautiful native town, nothing is left but 
 two large huts in ruins ; all the rest has been totally destroyed, 
 and a thick jungle has overspread everything. The capital 
 to-day is nothing but miserable shelters, half buried in luxuriant 
 grass. One can scarcely discover the winding paths leading 
 from one quarter of the village to another. After Lewanika's ^ 
 flight, the chiefs looted his treasures, the people and slaves 
 joining in. The sole remains of his riches I was able to discover 
 
 ^ It is generally known that negro children are not born black. 
 ^ Robosi's other name.
 
 174 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 were an armchair (his throne !) and his footstool covered with 
 leopard skins. It seems that even the state barge, a master- 
 piece of industry according to the accounts given, was sunk, so 
 that nothing should remain of the expelled king. The property 
 of the Jesuits suffered the same fate. These gentlemen had 
 asked me to look after it, and to collect what remained, if it 
 were worth the trouble. I found nothing but some pieces of iron 
 of no value, and a medicine chest, of which the bottles had been 
 emptied for snuff-boxes : that was all. 
 
 The report of our coming had spread, and we found the 
 greater number of the most important chiefs waiting for us 
 at the capital. The day after our arrival there was a grand 
 official reception. The young king, draped with Portuguese 
 calico of a large pattern, sat in the public place. Behind him 
 were his servants, in front the musicians playing on the seriniba, 
 and on drums, making a deafening noise, while all the chiefs 
 with their suites were seated in a circle round him at a distance 
 of about two hundred yards. The spectacle partook both of 
 the serious and the comic, and recalled what I had seen at 
 Sesheke at the time of my first visit. Mathaha, the Gambella, 
 or chief minister, had put on a black suit and a white shirt ! 
 Others were dressed up in uniform, tunics of every kind : here, 
 one of a Kimberley policeman ; there, a dragoon, or a naval 
 officer; and a little farther on, the coat, long worn out, of a 
 high official of the Portuguese Government. We had leisure to 
 make our observations while the royal music was splitting our 
 heads. At a given moment, all the chiefs were commanded to 
 approach the king one after the other ; and when once the 
 council was complete, the scrinibas and drums became silent, 
 and the ceremony began. 
 
 The chiefs Mokhcle and Warubita introduced us, and gave 
 an account of their mission by describing our voyage minutely. 
 Then it was our turn to greet the king and his council, and 
 to explain the purpose of our mission and its character. All 
 the chiefs answered one after the other by speeches very inferior 
 to those we should have heard under similar circumstances in 
 Basuto-land, but in which we detected an undercurrent of great 
 satisfaction and sincerity. " You are welcome, servants of God," 
 said Mathaha, " you who bring us rain and slumber, peace and 
 abundance. It is in the name of the whole nation that we
 
 i885] YELLOW HEARTS 1 75 
 
 receive you. We have waited long years for you, and thought 
 you had forsaken us ; and it is with joy that we see your faces, 
 and hear you say that you are now come, not merely to visit 
 us, but to live among us, with your families. You will soon 
 discover that we have yellow hearts, and that our country is a 
 country of blood. The nation is weary ; it sighs for peace, it 
 languishes. Here it is ; we place it before you ; save it. You 
 see, the king is only a child : be his father ; uphold him with 
 your counsels. We do not ask for presents ; we do not seek 
 your goods, if you have any. What we ask for is your teaching ; 
 what we wish for, is peace ! " The others spoke in the same 
 strain. 
 
 The day after, another scene was enacted, but one which 
 nearly ended in a fiasco. The business in hand was that of 
 giving our presents to the king. The Barotsi chiefs insisted on 
 its being done according to the rules of etiquette. They formed 
 a long procession, which the old Mokhele headed with great 
 dignity, followed by Warubita, carrying the precious parcel. 
 But, unfortunately, the king was suffering from ophthalmia ; he 
 had left the Ickhothla, and retired into a hut — a royal hut, but 
 only a hut, after all. And it was there, crouching down, huddled 
 together, and half suffocated, that we accomplished this im- 
 portant ceremony. The privileged public filled the court, and 
 blocked up the doorway. I was vexed, for 1 had counted on 
 this occasion to give Akufuna, the young king, some advice, 
 publicly. While I unfolded the great " St. Cyr " military cloak, 
 which I had bought at the Belle Jardiniere, the Gambella, 
 perspiring profusely, tried to get his feet into a pair of boots 
 which he had coveted. The mantle astonished everybody ; 
 and the Gambella, throwing aside his boots, put it round the 
 shoulders of Akufuna, who strutted about before us for a 
 moment. 
 
 They listened to me in silence when, addressing myself to 
 the king, I endeavoured to show him that before God he was 
 only a servant, who had to render an account of his adminis- 
 tration ; that his subjects were God's creatures ; and that he, 
 Akufuna, king as he was, had no right to put any of them to 
 death, without preliminary trial. " It is well said ; that is the 
 counsel of a father," whispered the chiefs. But when I spoke 
 of theft, and the necessity of extirpating it, every one burst out
 
 iy6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 laughing. " What are you laughing at ? Did I say anything 
 funny ? " " Eh ! IMoruti ! you talk of punishing and putting 
 down theft, but every one steals here ! " And even while laugh- 
 ing, they were in earnest. Here is the proof. A few days later, 
 I had to be absent a whole day ; no one would undertake the 
 responsibility of my baggage, although I left two boys to look 
 after it. " Here," they repeated, " people steal by day as by 
 night ; nothing is safe." I was obliged to carry the packages 
 to a young man of Scottish origin who was passing through 
 Lealuyi. 
 
 That day we left early with the Gambella and Mokubesa, 
 to inspect the site offered to us for the station. Livingstone, 
 it seems, had cast his eyes on it, and later it had been offered to 
 the Jesuits. We found that water was at a great distance from 
 the hill, which complicates matters for building and for the 
 housekeeping, and that the hill itself was covered with planted 
 fields, a source of interminable strife with the natives. The 
 Gambella, offended because I did not share his admiration for the 
 scenery, killed an ox, which he divided, and then leapt into his 
 canoe, in order to reach the capital by daylight, if possible, for it 
 was already late, and left me. We soon lost sight of him in the 
 jungle, where we forced our path with difficulty. The sun set ; 
 no twilight here, no moonlight, no landmarks to guide our way. 
 We wandered for a long time in the darkness, without being able 
 to find the channel which we had followed ; we came to dry land 
 everywhere. At last, much against our will, we took the direction 
 of a fire ; it belonged to a fisherman. The isle was not a 
 hundred yards square, and the smell of putrid fish was unbear- 
 able ; but we had no choice ; so we stuck our oars into the 
 ground, to make a shelter. With one blow they went in a foot, 
 and the water spurted out ; clouds of mosquitoes whirled and 
 trumpeted round us, stabbing us pitilessly ; hunger gnawed our 
 stomachs ; and the handful of reeds the good fisherman gave 
 us scarcely sufficed to roast one or two cobs of maize. 
 
 What a night ! and with what joy we greeted the first rays 
 of dawn ! At last, at eight o'clock, we were at the capital, and 
 put an end to the anxieties of our new friends. We heard 
 that Mokubesa had fortunately arrived in the evening, astonished 
 at not seeing us. As for the Gambella, he had passed the 
 whole night with his crew completely at a loss, wandering in
 
 i885] SEFULA 1/7 
 
 their canoe, and it was only in the morning that the sound of 
 drums reaching his ear enabled him to take the right direction 
 and arrive a short time before us. 
 
 The chiefs designated another spot, and two of them took 
 us to it. Arrived at the village nearest the place in question, 
 we killed an ox, and, while it was being prepared, explored the 
 proposed site. We had to wade through pools and cross the 
 Sefula River three times, up to the waist in water, and then a 
 pouring rain came on, which soaked us through and through 
 in a moment. Don't talk of waterproofs ; I have never found 
 one that was any good. Our guides were muffled in long shirts 
 of Portuguese calico, which dragged at their heels, and clung 
 to their limbs; one of them had indulged in an umbrella of 
 the same material, half worn out, and with a frame of impossible 
 construction, letting the rain through like a sieve. But what 
 did it matter ? It was an umbrella, and our Morotsi was proud 
 of it, and would not let it go for a moment. 
 
 The next day the weather was perfect, and Aaron and I 
 were able to examine the place more at our leisure, and to 
 convince ourselves that, for an establishment like ours, it pre- 
 sented incalculable advantages. There still remains the question 
 of its salubrity, which only a stay at Sefula can decide. 
 
 In any case this will be our headquarters when we first 
 install ourselves at the Valley. It has been arranged, that in 
 the month of May, when the floods are over, and the country 
 dry enough for travelling, the chiefs will send canoes to trans- 
 port our baggage. We shall divide into two parties ; and while 
 one will go up the river, the other will make the journey by 
 land. It is no small enterprise ; but we shall have the whole 
 winter before us. One last request the chiefs made while 
 accompanying us to our canoes was that we should not leave 
 the Basuto behind ; they wish to have them at the Valley. 
 The respect and esteem that the Barotsi still have for their 
 old masters is something extraordinary. A chief would not 
 consider himself a chief, if he had not a Mokololo for his first 
 wife ; and when you visit him, he never fails to introduce her 
 to you. This explains how the Sesuto language has kept its 
 pre-eminence in the country. All the important chiefs wished 
 to have Basuto evangelists. One understands their motives, 
 but the fact is none the less significant, especially after the 
 
 12
 
 178 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 rumour which was spread, to the effect that the Barotsi were, 
 very suspicious of some Basuto coming to settle in their 
 country with a number of strangers. Aaron's presence in the 
 capital created quite a sensation ; the chiefs courted him, their 
 wives sent him food, and people came from far to see him. 
 This popularity has its dangers, but such is the fact ! If only 
 ■ the Churches of Basuto-land understood the mission that God 
 has prepared for them ! 
 
 On our return journey we had incessant rain, which delayed 
 us a good deal. We were impatient to reach Sesheke, for we 
 knew we should find tidings of Leshoma there ; and we were 
 not disappointed. We had scarcely reached land when a stupid 
 young fellow came towards us and said, without any other 
 preface, "Your little daughter Philoloka died a month ago." 
 Poor Aaron, petrified, fell back on his stool, unable to speak. 
 As soon as possible, he retired to our hut, and there burst into 
 tears, which somewhat relieved him, and we were able to pray 
 together. A letter from my dear wife confirmed the sad news ; 
 the Sesheke chiefs who had paid a visit to Leshoma gave us 
 a very sad picture of it. Every one there was ill, and we 
 wondered who would still be found alive. 
 
 We lost no time, and February nth found us once more 
 at Leshoma. . . . Such moments as those do not bear descrip- 
 tion. Only our friend Jeanmairet had come to meet us. At 
 the sound of our guns the others dragged themselves out of 
 their beds and their huts to receive us. Leshoma had become 
 a hospital ; we were horrified by the cadaverous faces we saw. 
 During my absence they had been cruelly used by the fever, 
 which had spared no one, my dear wife less than anybody. And 
 it was upon her that all the anxieties fell — the commissariat, 
 the charge of the workmen, the care of the cattle. " I thank 
 God," she said in her letter, "that my head has always been 
 clear, and that I have been able to come and go, and to give 
 advice and medicine to whoever needed them." We have one 
 or two desperate hypochondriacs amongst us, who were a great 
 source of trouble ; but my niece, always gay, busying herself 
 with the housekeeping and the school when she was well 
 enough, and M. Jeanmairet, struggling energetically against the 
 depression left by the fever, have done their best to provide 
 some distraction, and beguile this trying time.
 
 i885] REVIEWING THE FIELD 1 79 
 
 Soon after my arrival our patients recovered, and now, in 
 spite of ups and downs, the sanitary condition of the caravan 
 is satisfactory. Although the fever has continually attacked 
 us, at least it has been in a very mild form. 
 
 And now, shall I sum up my impressions in a few words ? 
 
 1. To tell the truth, the political condition of the country 
 does not inspire me with much confidence. Mathaha, the chief 
 of the revolution, is blinded by ambition. The king is a beard- 
 less boy, born and brought up in exile. He is a perfect stranger 
 among the tribes who have called him to govern them, and 
 does not yet speak the Serotsi language, nor the Sekololo. 
 To him power means pleasure, and he occupies himself very 
 little with business. Discontent is already making itself felt. 
 Some regret the expelled king ; others think of a new chief. 
 I am no pessimist, but I think I foresee another revolution. 
 But there is room for hope that it will not break out before we 
 are in the Valley, and that there will be no bloodshed. 
 
 2. The nearer one sees the Zambesians the blacker they 
 are, and it is impossible to make them more so. But we must 
 not be discouraged ; we must look the work which is before 
 us straight in the face, in all its prosaic reality. The work 
 which is done with such admirable devotion amongst the dregs 
 of society in our large cities shall be done here by us. May 
 we do it in the same spirit ! But what a task ! What clearings 
 to make ! How many things to demolish and uproot. But 
 how good it is to know that if we are bringing the Gospel in 
 earthen vessels, that Gospel is still the power of God. 
 
 3. Lastly, how vast the field is ! While I was pleading 
 in Europe for this mission, the Jesuits came into the country ; 
 and apart from any external influence, they managed to make 
 themselves unpopular, and to close the door. But though the 
 Barotsi have received us so heartily, it is not because they have 
 any true idea of the Gospel that we bring. They sigh after 
 something they have not, and which they do not even know. 
 They are feeling after the One Who alone can give peace and 
 save — " Jesus, the desire of all nations." 
 
 March 2-^th, 1885. 
 
 We and our catechists have some plans of evangelisation, 
 which are constantly being upset by slight attacks of fever in
 
 l80 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 one or the other ; and now that the chiefs are gone, we must 
 postpone them. I regret it on account of the evangelists. 
 
 Our friend Jeanmairet, who has changed the night school 
 into a day school, has tried to get them to take a share in his 
 work. But the natives have not quite the same notions of duty 
 as he, and do not find it at all interesting to make these 
 Zambesians, whose brains are still fallow, repeat A, B, C. You 
 must not be surprised at this, for our natives have not much 
 elasticity. When all goes well, they are cheerful enough ; but 
 they are soon discouraged. Evangelisation will be tiring and 
 laborious, because the population is so scattered. If only I 
 had a horse, one of my horses that died on the way ! There 
 are some here. But do you know the price ? From £^6 to ;!^8o ! 
 These are no horses for a missionary ! While admiring them, 
 one has to repeat the Tenth Commandment. It is not easy, 
 when one sees them grazing without doing anything, or mounted 
 by urchins, who tire them out to show that they can make 
 them gallop better than their masters, who are afraid of them, 
 can do. 
 
 Leshoma, April (^th, 1885. 
 
 Ten or fifteen days ago, we wrote till we nearly split our 
 heads and put out our eyes, in order to send a good budget to 
 Mangwato. I had hired a Griqua very cheaply, a hunter out 
 of work, who promised to come back in less than two months. 
 We rubbed our hands with joy, for in addition to the consola- 
 tion of having paid off our debts of correspondence, we had the 
 delightful prospect of receiving, before our departure for the 
 Valley, the post which had been accumulating at Mangwato 
 for months. A few days went by, and one morning, when I 
 woke, a shadow passed before my door. I rubbed my eyes to 
 see better ; but I had made no mistake — it was indeed Yantji, my 
 postman, who had returned, bringing back our letters. And 
 we thought he was already in the middle of the Kalahari 
 Desert ! What a blow ! A merchant, to whom I suppose 
 Yantji was in debt, forseeing that elephant-hunting, which had 
 been closed by the Barotsi revolution, would soon be reopened, 
 had stopped my man on his way, and sent back our letters. 
 The Fathers of the Jesuit Mission, who shared our disappoint-
 
 i885] THE POST l8l 
 
 ment, sent their condolences, and informed us that they were 
 sending a waggon to Tati or Mangwato at the end of May or 
 the beginning of June. Thank you ! At this rate, with African 
 delays, you will get our letters in October or November. 
 
 Meanwhile, the waggons we expected arrived, with a great 
 deal of news, a number of letters, and a bag quite full of 
 newspapers and publications. 
 
 The news is not cheerful. Our young Zambesians, who 
 returned radiant, informed us that of their fellow-countrymen 
 who, in spite of all we could do or say, obstinately persisted in 
 following Makoatsa on his return to Mangwato, five are dead of 
 hunger and thirst. Two of them had left our service. One of 
 them was called Molilima. One evening, throwing himself 
 down under a shelter in the desert, he said to his companion, 
 " This is the end ; I can go no farther ; I am dying. It is your 
 fault, for you tempted me away against my will." The others 
 rose up in the night and left the unhappy boy there, still 
 sleeping ! Can one imagine his awakening ! A few days later 
 it was his comrade's turn. 
 
 There were new disasters, too, among our draught oxen. 
 Our waggons would still have been at Mangwato, without any 
 possibility of moving, if our dear friends Musson and Whiteley 
 had not lent us oxen, to the detriment of their own commerce, 
 to bring them back to the Zambesi. This deed has touched 
 us all the more, since the presence of English troops in the 
 country has considerably raised the price of oxen, and that 
 Mr. Musson himself has just been robbed by some adventurers 
 from Stella-land. 
 
 The death of some of our bullocks makes fresh complications 
 for our journey to the Valley, and caused us grave anxiety. 
 Surely our heavenly Father would not permit such serious 
 embarrassments if He Himself had not provided. ^' JeJiovah 
 Jireh " — that is our motto. 
 
 And the bag of newspapers — with what pleasure we open it, 
 sort the different publications, and arrange them according to 
 their dates ! If you knew how we sigh after something new, 
 something fres/i to read ! Our library is so limited that we 
 wander intellectually, too, in the arid solitudes of the desert. 
 This is not the least of our privations. We hope those friends 
 will not be displeased who have too good an opinion of us, and
 
 1 82 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 think we are above such things ; but everything which keeps 
 us abreast of the times in Europe, as regards politics, literature, 
 or religion, has a lively interest for us. From a distance, your 
 world seems to us to be more agitated than ever ; it travails. 
 We are not impassive spectators, believe me. 
 
 I have just been reading the Report. What attracts my 
 attention above all is the list of donors, and of their gifts. 
 I analyse it, diary in hand. Do you blame me? I seek, one 
 after the other, all the localities I have visited — above all, those 
 where they beat the big drum to attract the public. They were 
 so proud to exhibit a Protestant traveller, a lion recently 
 returned from the Zambesi. How beautiful the French language 
 sounded, when, in a generous burst of enthusiasm, an orator 
 laid on the hearts of a sympathetic assembly the evangelisation 
 of Tropical Africa ! . . . Much was promised, and I have the 
 right to ask from the Report, " What has been done here ? 
 What has been done there ? " . . . Here a little, there nothing. 
 A missionary enterprise is not a balloon, filled with gas, launched 
 into the air before an admiring crowd, and left to take its chance. 
 No ; it is a work which demands energetic co-operation, both 
 personal and constant. I have felt this deeply during my 
 travels, and I know where our strength lies. Though Churches, 
 like those of Marseilles and Nantes, which assist us collectively, 
 are rare, there are men friends, and women friends, some rich, 
 and many poor, who have laid our work upon their hearts ; 
 orphanages, Sunday schools, dear children who wish to take their 
 share in our work. Every gift, however small it may be, every 
 message which tells us silently that they love the Zambesi 
 Mission and pray for it, is a powerful tie which unites us. With 
 all these beloved fellow-workers, great and small, French and 
 foreign, the burden of the day is less difficult to bear, and 
 success appears to us more certain. 
 
 April i-jth, 1885. 
 To-morrow I shall send back the oxen belonging to our 
 friends at Mangwato. (We have already lost two, and I fear 
 greater losses.) So this is an opportunity for sending letters, 
 and 1 must close this one. I can scarcely hold the pen, for I, 
 too, have just had a rather severe attack of fever. Since the 
 foregoing was written, I have been across the river with our two
 
 i88s] SICKNESS 1 83 
 
 catechists, intending to make an evangelising tour, lasting a 
 fortnight. But the state of my party at Leshoma made me so 
 anxious, that after having publicly blessed Karumba's marriage, 
 I left the evangelists, and came back. My wife was as ill as 
 ever ; you would hardly know her, she has grown so thin and 
 weak. She is no longer at an age when her constitution can 
 stand such frequent shocks.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Winter at Leshoma — Kamburu and Nguana-Ngombe — Soap-making — 
 Neighbourly Intercourse with the Jesuits — Fresh PoHtical Troubles and 
 Delays — A Bargain in Goats — British Protectorate of Khama's Country — 
 Engagement of Mile, Coillard to M. Jeanmairet — The Passage of the 
 Zambesi — Life at Kazungula — Death of Little Monyai — Arrival at Sesheke 
 — The Jesuits — Dr. Holub — Revolution and Civil War — Treachery and 
 Robbery — Perils of Waters and Perils of Wild Beasts — Marriage of Elise 
 Coillard and M. Jeanmairet — A Wedding Party under Difficulties — 
 Building the Station — A Reign of Terror — Middleton sent to Pretoria. 
 
 Leshoma, Jtme 2^th, 1885. 
 
 WE only hear distant echoes here, and often confused ones, 
 of what is happening on the other side of the Limpopo, 
 and even at our door. We have been staggered by the news 
 about Angra Pequena and Santa Lucia. Are we then to have 
 the Germans for neighbours ? And, who knows ? perhaps one 
 day for masters ? Commerce can only gain by a vigorous 
 competition. But the African tribes, what will be their destiny ? 
 There, as in the countries of the Bechuana and the Zulu, 
 England is reaping the fruit of her policy of expedients. She 
 has sown the wind ; she now reaps the whirlwind. It is to be 
 regretted, for, in spite of all her hesitations and all her blunders, 
 England has always shown herself the protectress of the 
 aboriginal races. 
 
 Disastrous news comes to us from Saul's Poort. On their 
 return journey to Basuto-land, our conductors, and the evangelist 
 Andreas and his family, have lost several oxen. A thunderbolt 
 killed seven. Andreas and Josefa were thrown down and 
 stunned. When they came to themselves, young Zakea 
 Mosenene,^ at the head of the team, was also on the ground, 
 and regaining his senses, he cried, " Lord Jesus, receive my 
 
 ' The convert of Seleka : see page 123. 
 184
 
 i885] CLIMATE OF LESHOMA 185 
 
 spirit " (!). No one was killed, thank God ! But these losses, 
 added to others, haunt our pillow with sadness and care. 
 
 We are now in the middle of winter. The thermometer, 
 in the morning down at 44° Fahr., rises in the middle of the 
 day to ^y" Fahr. The bright light and the great heats of 
 summer have passed away, and, with them, the fever, that im- 
 portunate guest of whom we have not been able to rid ourselves 
 for the last six months. When the wind comes from the north- 
 east, it comes impregnated with the miasmas around the Victoria 
 Falls. Then appetites flag, and headaches, shiverings, and all 
 those dismal symptoms with which we are now so familiar, 
 attack us, several at a time, or all at once. But the fever is 
 mild, and only lasts a short time, and then courage and energy 
 revive ; the future even brightens before us, as if there were to 
 be no more spring and autumn — that is to say, no more bad 
 seasons. Undoubtedly, at the Zambesi, one becomes a little bit 
 of a Trappist in spite of oneself. Everything repeats every 
 day the solemn warning, " Brother, remember that thou must 
 die." However good it may be for us to think of this, we share 
 the illusion with the rest of the world, and we believe that the 
 moment has not yet come, since we have not yet done our work. 
 
 When one asks a Mosuto if it is going to rain, he puts on 
 the air of a sage, looks at the clouds, considers the wind, and 
 replies invariably, with all the gravity of an oracle, "If the rain 
 likes to fall, it will fall ; if it does not like to fall, it will not fall." 
 And there you are, so much the wiser. I asked the traders 
 the other day if they considered this year had been good or bad 
 as regards the fever. " Well," they replied, " after rainy seasons, 
 as after dry seasons, we have had good years, and we have had 
 bad years also." With my eyes shut, I could have thought it 
 was the answer of some wiseacre in Basuto-land. My impression 
 is that we have had a good season. When, on our first journey 
 in 1877, we passed the best part of the year here, we lost 
 two men. To tell the truth, I have the conviction that if this 
 " deadly pestilence " has not approached our tents, it is because 
 they have been surrounded by the prayers of God's children. 
 
 Life at Leshoma is necessarily dreary and monotonous. 
 Waiting and the uncertainty about the future would make it 
 unbearable, if each one had not his regular occupation. Our 
 " park " has neither avenues nor paths. Under the stunted trees
 
 1 86 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885. 
 
 there is nothing but brushwood, haunted by serpents. One 
 hears but the raucous cry of the parrots, or the twittering 
 of a flight of birds, attacking occasionally some belated owl 
 surprised by the day. The population in the neighbourhood is 
 composed, as you know, only of a few families of half-breed 
 hunters, and that of the trader Blockley, together with the 
 Masaroa and Zambesians attached to their service. Bands of 
 Masubia, Matoka, Mananzoa, Mashapatane, come and go con- 
 stantly to seek work and sell their produce. It makes our 
 heart ache to see these poor things performing a journey of six 
 days or more (coming and going), to exchange one or two 
 calabashes of millet or earth-nuts for a piece of calico or a 
 few necklaces of beads. When our supply is complete, we have 
 to send them away, which they do not understand. We seize 
 these opportunities to let them hear something of the Gospel. 
 
 We have two young men in our service who are rather 
 more advanced. One of them, Kamburu, is our factotum, and 
 also our washerman. He rubs our linen remorselessly into holes, 
 or else brings it back much in the same state as he took it 
 away. He has never been to Paris, and knows nothing of 
 eau de javelle} He is the despair of our housekeeper. The 
 other is our scullion, wideawake and intelligent : he is Nguana- 
 Ngombe (the calf). Like Kamburu, he was lent for one 
 month, and now it is ten since they both came to us. 
 Nguana-Ngombe has developed a taste for cookery, which he 
 carries on in the open air. He fetches his fuel from the forest, 
 carries his water, and crushes his maize, which he boils every 
 day, all without a frown. When he is called, he comes hopping 
 on one foot, and one knows he is in a good humour : the con- 
 trary is exceptional. He has a clock in his head which never 
 goes wrong. At seven o'clock to the minute, every morning, 
 the coffee (mixed with roast maize) and the polenta are on 
 the table, and at five o'clock the dinner. I must not praise 
 him too much, otherwise he might give me the lie. That has 
 happened to me more than once. What gives us most pleasure 
 is that these two boys, under the care, first of my niece, and 
 then of M. Jeanmairet, will soon be able to read fluently, and 
 already they write quite nicely. 
 
 ' A solution of chloride of lime.
 
 i88s] FRIENDLY INTERCOURSE 1 8/ 
 
 Our life here is of course rather more primitive than in 
 Basuto-land. Making beer, vinegar, candles, etc., presents few 
 difficulties ; but one of our great troubles is soap. The bad 
 soap which a trader sometimes sells you as a favour costs \s. ?>d. 
 a pound, often more. This is serious for such an expedition 
 as ours. We have had therefore to procure the necessary 
 ingredients by degrees— ashes, lime, tallow ; and then Mme. 
 Coillard serves her apprenticeship. What a business to make 
 this mixture boil six or eight days, but also what a satisfaction 
 to take out of the pot (for we have no cauldron) these bars of 
 precious soap 1 Every one is interested and congratulates us on 
 our success. 
 
 Our aim is to make use as far as possible of the resources 
 of the country, both for food and the household requirements. 
 We could cultivate our own corn ; we might even grow our coffee, 
 and roughly manufacture our sugar, if we had hands and time. 
 I have the impression that, once installed, we shall not be too 
 heavy a burden for our contributors in Europe. The precarious 
 thing, the black spot, is the transport, the journey. Doubtless 
 we shall not have such losses in cattle every year, but it is 
 distressing that our disasters should pile themselves up like 
 this at the outset. We feel it keenly. 
 
 The Jesuits are definitely leaving the country. They have 
 completely renounced their project of a mission to the Barotsi : 
 they have already abandoned Tati, which the miners have once 
 more deserted, and they are going to retire for good from 
 Pata-matenga. These gentlemen have been very kind and 
 obliging to us. Our intercourse with them has been most agree- 
 able — I might almost say friendly. They let me know that they 
 could make over to us cheaply certain things we might need. 
 I took my cart, and started with Middleton : this journey took 
 us a week. Father Booms had had to conduct Father Kroot to 
 Tati, as the latter had fallen seriously ill. I found the brother 
 Saadeleer all alone. He is Flemish, a warm-hearted man, full 
 of energy, and a true Christian. With my cart I was quite 
 independent ; nevertheless, this good man rivalled Mr. Westbeech 
 in his attentions to us. You would have been very much 
 astonished to see me, a descendant of the Huguenots, holding 
 serious converse with this disciple of Loyola, on the experiences 
 of the Christian life, the evangelisation of the world, of Africa
 
 1 88 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 in particular, on the approaching Coming of our Saviour, on 
 true conversion, and on the most effective way of treating the 
 natives. 
 
 We could not agree on all these points, of course. For the 
 natives, these gentlemen do not recoil from " muscular Christi- 
 anity," even the bastinado occasionally. We repudiate that 
 system ; we believe rather in moral suasion, which we must 
 necessarily exercise if we walk with God. The traders, like the 
 Jesuits, think us too indulgent. It is said everywhere on the 
 other side of the river that we do not beat people, and it is 
 possible that the poor slaves, who believe in nothing but brutality, 
 take advantage of it. They certainly possess the secret of 
 provoking one. Still, it is a serious thing to take the law into 
 our own hands, and be judge, jury, and executioner all in one. 
 Father Booms has come back to Pata-matenga to help with 
 the move. At his invitation I am starting again to pay him a 
 visit and see what business I can do with him. Is it not extra- 
 ordinary that the Jesuits should retire, leaving us a clear field, 
 when for six years they have been alone in the country, and 
 threatened to shut the door to us ? 
 
 Since I wrote last to you, fresh troubles have arisen in the 
 Valley. A strong coalition has been formed against the young 
 king Akufuna, whom all despise, and tax with being a stranger, 
 a Mokalaka. The two parties have come to blows ; that of the 
 king has triumphed after a bloody battle. As usual under 
 such circumstances, massacres of chiefs have taken place, and 
 sinister rumours spread terror throughout the land. The 
 survivors have taken refuge on a large island with their followers. 
 Thus the river highway is no longer safe. It is even doubtful 
 if the canoes which were promised us, and which ought to 
 arrive this month, can be sent. We are still waiting. It is 
 rumoured that the lords of Sesheke, who have been to pay 
 homage to the new king, are returning — on foot of course. 
 However, we shall soon have news. We dread fresh delays. 
 The season is advancing, the only one in which we can travel 
 and build : to lose it is to expose ourselves to losing a whole 
 year. But we are thoroughly determined to cross the stream 
 at the very earliest opportunity. Messrs. Westbeech and 
 Blockley promise me their help. 
 
 If you should meet some friend who wants to do something
 
 i885] DEATH OF OXEN 1 89 
 
 special for us, it will be a good thing to know that what 
 we most need is some canoes to travel in and evangelise. A 
 good canoe costs (in barter goods) from £j to ;^8. We need 
 four to begin with. 
 
 Leshoma, /«/»/ wth, 1885. 
 
 We are still awaiting the return of the lords of Seshekc. 
 They left two months ago to render homage to the king Akufuna. 
 Perhaps — who knows ? — they may be already fighting for him. 
 As soon as they come back, we shall take over one or two 
 waggons, and make the journey by land. We shall take very 
 little luggage, for, in the present state of the country, there 
 is less security than ever. And, moreover, to clear a path 
 through the sands and the bush is no trifle, especially if, instead 
 of crossing the river at Kazungula, at the confluence of the 
 Linyanti (Chobe) and Zambesi, we are obliged to ascend and 
 traverse these two streams one after the other, taking our 
 waggons to pieces each time. But that is a small worry. What 
 is really almost turning our hair grey is the question of our 
 oxen. They are nearly all dead. For us, it is a very painful 
 consideration, because it is a question of finances. 
 
 However that may be, in some way or other we are going 
 to install ourselves in the Valley. Our friend Waddell, who 
 is now looking and feeling quite strong again, has courageously 
 set to work, sawing mahogany, and making little windows for 
 our future establishment at Sefula. Oh the luxury of a window 
 with glass panes ! Now we shall begin to appreciate it. During 
 six months of the year, the south-east wind blows towards the 
 Equator : that is the fever wind. Nothing can screen us from 
 it, neither the mats nor the blankets which we nail to the 
 openings of our cottage. With Middleton's help, we have sorted 
 our packages afresh. We are ready. 
 
 I have just come back from another journey to Pata-matenga. 
 The Jesuits showed us the most cordial hospitality. But that 
 did not prevent us from catching fever, just as on a former 
 occasion. Leshoma is decidedly the healthiest spot we could 
 have chosen. And who knows ? these delays which have kept 
 us all boiling over with impatience may have been purposely 
 designed to acclimatise us — if indeed it is possible to get 
 acclimatised at the Zambesi I was able to procure corn,
 
 IpO ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 sheep, and goats from the Jesuits, and some other things 
 which M. Jeanmairet and I required. What do you think 
 I paid for the goats? TJiree shillings! These gentlemen 
 made a very good bargain of it, and so did we. They are of 
 so degenerate a breed, such rickety, microscopic creatures, that 
 you could put a whole one into the pot to make so?ipc viaigre. 
 When, as now in winter, they are in bad condition, you can 
 literally see the light through their ribs, and their small amount 
 of flesh has a disgusting flavour. 
 
 The season has been extraordinarily dry : all the pools have 
 evaporated, and to cross the Kalahari Desert is almost an 
 impossibility. Mr. Westbeech tells us that more than two 
 months ago Khama became a British subject, and that the 
 frontiers of the British possessions now reach right up to the 
 Zambesi ! Now commerce and prosperity will revive together 
 with hunting, and the country will enjoy the security hitherto 
 disturbed by the Matabele. On the other hand, rumours as 
 to Lobengula's intentions towards the Mashukulumboe and the 
 Barotsi are far from reassuring. But we can rest calmly in 
 the knowledge that "the Lord reigneth," 
 
 I have some news to communicate which I am sure will 
 give you pleasure — namely, the engagement of my dear niece 
 to M. Jeanmairet. The date of the marriage will not be 
 settled until we get news from the Valley. This event will 
 enable us found two stations from the very first — one at Sesheke, 
 and the other at Sefula. But I tremble at the prospect of 
 losing our dear Elise. My beloved wife is, among us all, the 
 one most subject to fever ; she is no longer the robust person 
 you used to know. We have not a daughter of the house. 
 What shall we do in case of illness, and when I am obliged 
 to be absent? And the school — who will take charge of that? 
 
 Kazungula, Angjist i-i^rd, 1885. 
 Kazungula and the left bank of the Zambesi ! One step 
 farther in our long pilgrimage. We have crossed the river 
 and we are at last in the country which for more than six 
 years has been the object of our thoughts and the goal of our 
 aspirations. I leave you to guess how our hearts overflowed 
 with joy and gratitude. And will this country prove to be the
 
 i88s] A DEN OF LIONS 191 
 
 Land of Promise for us, or the den of lions ? Both, no doubt ; 
 but the God of Daniel was the God of the Patriarchs, and He 
 is also ours. We distress ourselves very little about the future ; 
 the present is enough for us. 
 
 If I remember rightly, there was a little cloud hovering 
 over my last letter. We were expecting canoes which did not 
 arrive, and were impatiently awaiting the return of the chiefs 
 of Sesheke. We would fain have kept the favourable weather 
 which was fleeting with the winter season. The sojourn at 
 Leshoma, which threatened to lengthen itself indefinitely, was 
 becoming more intolerable every day. Moreover, our prayer 
 meetings had acquired a character of extraordinary earnestness 
 and unity. The moment we heard the chiefs had returned, 
 we sent Middleton and Aaron at once to demand from the 
 Morantsiane help for crossing the river, and to study the route 
 we should have to clear. In spite of our ardent prayers, we 
 were expecting every kind of objection and hindrance. It is 
 always the history of the Church at Jerusalem, praying for 
 Peter's deliverance, and refusing to believe that he was already 
 there, knocking at the door. " O ye of little faith ! " The 
 Morantsiane replied that the chiefs would hold themselves at our 
 service as soon as ever we wished it. 
 
 At the same time, the chief expressed a wish that one of 
 us should stay at Sesheke. Our friend Jeanmairet was quite 
 marked out for this important post. In a solemn meeting, it was 
 proposed that Aaron should go to the Valley to found a branch 
 station, while Levi should stay at Mambova, Mokumba's place, 
 within easy distance of Sesheke. " Have pity on me," Levi 
 said : " I am not stout-hearted ; I am a coward. I am not afraid 
 of sickness which God sends, but I am afraid of living all alone 
 among those savages." We did not press him, wishing to give 
 him time to think over it. But after prayer, and before we 
 separated, Levi said to us, " I am ashamed of having spoken 
 as I did. It was want of faith in God. I am ready to go, 
 no matter where. I shall abide by your decision." It was a 
 beautiful triumph of faith in such a pessimist as our friend. 
 
 As for Aaron, he did not seem to have the slightest mis- 
 giving. He said to Levi, " My brother, God is almighty to protect 
 us. If we are just as ill again next season as we were last, I 
 shall say, ' We shall alvtays be ill, it is our lot, and we will
 
 192 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 accept it as from God.' And as for the Zambesians, even if 
 they are terrible savages, God will touch their hearts, and we 
 shall find among them pitying friends who will stand by us. 
 That was our experience at Seleka. God will not forsake us." 
 
 The question of Isaiah was more difficult to solve. We 
 have decided that for the present he should stay at Sesheke and 
 help M. Jeanmairet to install himself. Aaron will stay this 
 year at Mambova with Levi, and will rejoin us in the Valley 
 next year, if God will. 
 
 These arrangements made, and the sorting and packing of 
 our baggage finished, we were not yet at the end of our 
 difficulties. Our men fell ill — my niece had erysipelas. . . . They 
 got well ; and it was now the turn of the oxen to drive us 
 desperate. One of our teams has gone with our Basuto 
 conductors and Andreas the evangelist. Out of the four 
 others, only one is left — namely, the one which has just arrived 
 with our waggon, and which I bought at Mangwato; but the oxen 
 at Leshoma are dying of hunger, and those 'which have just been 
 travelling are nothing but skin and bone, and are so weak that 
 every morning we have to lift several of them to their legs 
 to make them graze. How could the poor creatures pull the 
 waggons, to say nothing of cargo ? Our perplexity is extreme. 
 
 One bright spot was the last Sunday we spent at Leshoma. 
 It was what in Basuto-land they call a festival, the baptism of 
 Levi's wife, and of Aaron's little daughter, born on our return 
 from the capital, and shortly after the death of Philoloka. The 
 dear child was baptised by the significant name of Matseliso 
 (consolation). A large number of Zambesians, about a hundred, 
 were present. How much did they understand of this ceremony 
 which we tried to explain to them, and what impressions did 
 they gather from it ? I cannot tell. For us, it was very solemn. 
 But still more solemn was the sacred feast, of which we once 
 more, and for the first time in public, partook together. 
 
 At last the day of departure arrived. It was Friday, 
 the 14th. We had already sent two small loads of luggage 
 to the ford of Kazungula. Now they pile up all that is left in 
 the family waggon, and in a transport van. Two yokes borrowed 
 from our two teams are going to draw the cart, which is trans- 
 formed into a perfect Noah's Ark ; puppies, cats, fowls, ducks, 
 pigs, all have a place there — a Babel which would have amused
 
 i88s] LEAVING LESHOMA 1 93 
 
 any one who had time to notice it. The sun has disappeared 
 from the horizon ; time presses, for the tsc-tse fly still haunts 
 the pathless woods we have to cross. The big waggons once 
 inspanned, we think of the cart. It will be a moment's affair. 
 Our Zambesians, who are afraid of the oxen, have hidden them- 
 selves, and it is not without difficulty that we bring them back 
 to their posts. But in vain we search : only three oxen are to 
 be found ; the fourth has taken it into his head to tumble down 
 our saw-pit. We break down the margin ; we raise the beast ; 
 they bite his tail, and pull him by the horns, — all to no purpose. 
 He will not lend himself to any of our efforts. We are 
 forced to give up the game, and to leave the cart for another 
 journey. 
 
 It is half-past eight when the conveyances start, and no 
 moonlight. "Ho! ho!" What has happened now? My 
 waggon has bumped against a post which supported my 
 rain-gauge, and this rascally post has smashed a foot-rest we 
 had arranged for my wife. After that, we roll hurriedly to the 
 foot of the slope. We are off. . . . Patience. Cries of alarm 
 are resounding behind us. Oxen and waggons, they shout, have 
 precipitated themselves into the hog-pen ! Poor Isaiah ! he is 
 by no means past-master of the art of conducting. At half-past 
 one in the morning, we were still only half-way. I should have 
 liked to perform the converse of Joshua's miracle, for we were 
 in the thick of the fly district. We had plenty of laughable 
 incidents in that short stage. But they did not prevent us 
 from arriving at the ford of Kazungula, worn out and chilled to 
 the bone, at 4 a.m. 
 
 That bit of the road really counts for something. Happily, 
 in a little while the tse-tse will have completely disappeared, 
 and it will be possible to do it by daylight. The road is open, 
 and it is good, thanks to our hatchets and spades. The 
 merchants have done everything they could to induce us to 
 take another. They feel that they run the risk of losing the 
 monopoly of commerce ; and one of them already speaks of 
 coming to establish himself here. Otherwise I must say that 
 they have shown themselves obliging. Mokumba, Rataii, and 
 other inferior chiefs arrived before long with a multitude of 
 people. Our first interview convinced me very shortly that 
 they intended to fleece us without mercy. We agreed to give 
 
 13
 
 194 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 all the work to seventy men for an equal number of setsibas} 
 But after two days of some hours' work, they claimed their pay. 
 There was a general strike, and we had no alternative but 
 to accept a compromise. Foreseeing the recurrence of similar 
 annoyances, we engaged a certain number of more tractable 
 men, who in their turn raised another levy, and from that time 
 everything went with order and spirit, so much so that we could 
 even enjoy the novelty and strangeness of the animated scenes 
 which shifted every moment. It was interesting to see the 
 canoes crossing one another, loaded with our trunks, transporting 
 our goats, making every ox swim, while his head was held up 
 out of the water by the horns ; but still more imposing was it to 
 see floating among the Zambesi canoes the tilts of our waggons 
 transformed into rafts by means of the understel, and towed 
 behind our boats. So far, the passage has taken place without 
 the slightest accident. But it lasted no less than eight days, 
 for the wind interfered ; and when the wind blows and the river 
 rages, no canoe dare venture into mid-stream. 
 
 It was on Friday last, the 21st, that we all crossed, except 
 the evangelists and their families. We were taking our evening 
 meal in a shelter, exposed to all the winds, when the chiefs 
 raised the mat which serves us for a door, and squatted down 
 among our bales of luggage. They brought us news, and not 
 good news. First of all, Rataii announced that one of his 
 villages was burnt, and, strange to say, it was the village and 
 the very hut where the luggage had been deposited that I 
 brought for Mr. Arnot. It is destroyed ; but that is the least 
 thing that troubles our friend Rataii, who demanded that I 
 should console him for his own losses by a large present. The 
 same thing happened to me, seven years ago, also at Sesheke. 
 Then the luggage was at any rate my own. Much more serious 
 is the news that Robosi's partisans have retreated, that those 
 of Akufuna have taken up arms, and that there is fighting in 
 the direction of the Ngonye Falls. An express messenger has 
 come to call the chiefs who were here, but with the order to 
 leave us a certain number of men under the authority of a 
 brave old fellow named Pelcpcle. We shall lose nothing by the 
 change. But the horizon is dark. They say to us, " Now you 
 are in the country, go and settle wherever you like." But 
 ' Two and a half yards of calico.
 
 1885] A VISIT TO MAHAHA 195 
 
 where? In the first place, we must get to Sesheke, and then we 
 shall see. In this den of lions, we enjoy as much, or as little, 
 security in one place as in another. When I complained to 
 Rataii about the behaviour of his people, "Ah, Moruti" 
 (missionary), he replied, " we viarena " (chiefs) " have power to 
 strangle and kill these slaves, but not enough to make them 
 obey us." 
 
 All this does not disturb us out of measure. We all bless 
 God that such news did not come to detain us at Leshoma, for 
 it would have been difficult for most of us to believe in the 
 sincerity of the Barotsi in their relations with us. God can keep 
 us in a den of thieves as well as in a desert. We believe that our 
 lives will be respected ; as to our goods, that is another question. 
 
 Tuesday evenitig, the i^th. 
 
 Last Sunday was the first Sunday we passed on Barotsi 
 soil. It was a most glorious day. The wund which had blown 
 all the preceding week had calmed down ; the sky was serene. 
 After the morning preaching, we all started in a boat and went 
 to visit our old friend Mahaha, whom you remember. He is 
 ill, and does not leave his courtyard. What a lovely trip it 
 was ! The great island that we skirted seemed to float upon 
 the waters, wearing like a diadem the palm trees with which it 
 was studded. A light mist veiled the whole panorama, giving 
 glimpses of distant prospects. The worthy Mahaha could not 
 contain his joy at receiving us in his own home ; at every turn 
 he saluted each one of us afresh. He wanted to know what I 
 thought of Akufuna ; and for his part, he made no secret of his 
 own opinion. " He is the stuff batlankas " (slaves) " are made 
 of," he repeated, " but kings — no ! " We understood each other 
 without any further explanation. The court is full of village 
 inhabitants, who are enchanted to see us again. 
 
 After a short service, suited to our audience, Mahaha cried, 
 " Shall it be said that our Mother came to see us, and found 
 nothing but hunger?" Immediately the women rose, and each 
 brought a little dish of sorgho, and placed it at my wife's 
 feet, clapping her hands. It was charming. Then all these 
 people escorted us to the bank ; and long after we had taken to 
 our oars again, their noisy remarks, their hand-clappings and 
 their ^^ Shangwes" still reached our ears. It was not the only
 
 196 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 pleasure of this happy day. The first thing in the morning we 
 had fetched Ma-Ruthi and the children of the two Basuto 
 families in a boat. It was a treat indeed for the children to 
 be on the Zambesi stream at last, and to cross it in our pretty 
 boat, the Lengosa la Kliotso} We enjoyed their delight, dear 
 little things ! When we brought them back, and deposited 
 them on the steep bank, " Oh, wasn't it nice ! " said Monyai ; " if 
 only we could do it again ! " Who could have dreamed that 
 this dear child was on the point of embarking for heaven and 
 eternity ? The next day he complained of internal pains. The 
 complaint advanced by giant strides, and the following morning 
 he breathed his last, in spite of our medicines and our nursing. 
 When we had done crossing the river, we had to retrace our 
 steps, and there on the right bank of the great stream, in the 
 shadow of a grove, to dig a grave and tenderly lay his mortal 
 remains there. He was nine years old, sparkling with intelli- 
 gence, and with his father's gentle disposition. But the frequent 
 enteric attacks from which he suffered had stamped a look of 
 precocious maturity upon his little face. Once more, the 
 opening of our work must needs be consecrated by suffering. 
 Dear Monyai ! it was touching to see him lying in his grave, 
 his only coffin a light cotton blanket. 
 
 He lay like a warrior taking his rest, 
 With his martial cloak around him. 
 
 Kazungula, August 2(^th, 1885. 
 
 Is it not splendid that the passage of the Zambesi has been 
 effected so easily after all, and without the smallest accident ? 
 It was a great mountain before us. God has made a plain of it. 
 Not one boat has been capsized ; not a piece of our waggons 
 is missing ; not a single boat has been lost or even injured ! 
 And we had some cases, chiefly of tools, which were very big 
 and heavy. We were not obliged to unpack them, and this was 
 a great point gained. It was pretty to see our waggon tilts 
 with their understels floating between two canoes. Three men 
 on each side were enough to keep them afloat while the others 
 rowed. By midday on Monday we had brought over two, 
 with all the pieces and the gear. In the evening our three 
 
 * Messenger of Peace — not the iron boat previously mentioned, page 120. 
 which had, unfortunately, been destroyed in transport, but an old worn-out one.
 
 i885] A MEMORABLE DATE 197 
 
 waggons were put together, and the cart as well. They were 
 ready to start. To-day they are loaded. But as we have not 
 enough oxen, and those we have are in terribly poor condition, 
 we are sending two small loads with M. Jeanmairet and Middle- 
 ton to Sesheke, and we shall remain here till the poor beasts 
 return to seek us. The evangelists are already with Mokumba 
 at Mambova, where we brought them. Now, you see, our 
 expedition is coming to an end. 
 
 So we shall no longer be all together. It may be that the 
 state of the country, or the no less serious state of our oxen, 
 will force us to prolong our stay at Sesheke, where M. Jean- 
 mairet is going to begin his work of installing us ; but I have 
 great hopes of at least reaching Sefula before the rainy season. 
 How we sigh for the moment when we may at last stop our 
 waggons ! We sometimes find our pilgrimage rather long. 
 
 If the expedition has succeeded, it is not because Satan has 
 let us alone. Often we thought that he would triumph, and 
 that the whole thing would burst like a bubble. God allowed 
 all that to purify and strengthen our faith. If the expedition 
 has succeeded, the mission also will succeed : we are sure of that. 
 It was an epoch in the history of the evangelisation of Africa, 
 the day when we, with our waggons and families, crossed the 
 Zambesi, — this barrier hitherto insurmountable to strangers ; 
 above all, to strangers who wished to settle north of the river. 
 Will great .sacrifices of men and money be demanded of 
 European Christians ? It is possible. But the Gospel will not 
 retreat. They may rob us, they may kill us, yet in a few 
 years the messengers of salvation will become a great army, 
 penetrating even to the heart of the Black Continent. 
 
 Say and repeat to our friends, that the strength and develop- 
 ment of our mission depend entirely upon their co-operation. 
 Do not let them wait till death weakens our little staff before 
 sending help. I pray God that our mission may not be one of 
 those rickety ones, always hovering between life and death, 
 only uttering sighs and groans of distress. The Christian world 
 has the right to expect more than a fire of straw in the Barotsi 
 Mission. We must not only maintain ourselves, but develop. 
 We must go on. This country is only the door of the interior. 
 The field before us has no limits. It is not only to people of 
 education and fortune in my own country that I appeal, but
 
 198 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 to those of any nation and any denomination. Christ must be 
 preached ; the Good News in2ist be published. Time presses. 
 Do not let the traders outstrip us ! Let us show that the 
 disciples of Christ also are capable of noble enterprises and great 
 sacrifices. Speaking of the regrets expressed by Queen Victoria 
 for the death of John Brown, whose devotion she praised, a 
 critic remarked, " Is there, can there be devotion in serving a 
 Queen ? " Ah, how can ive then speak of sacrifices and devotion, 
 when it is the King of kings Whom we have the signal honour 
 of serving ! The very angels envy us. 
 
 Sesheke, Upper Zambesi, Decetnber i2ih, 1885. 
 
 This letter, which will show you that we have advanced a 
 step in our pilgrimage towards the interior, must be confided 
 to the kind keeping of the Jesuit Fathers, who have just 
 definitely quitted these regions. What a disastrous mission 
 theirs has been ! Quite recently, we have heard of Father 
 Kroot's death, that warm-hearted man, with whom we had such 
 pleasant neighbourly intercourse. He had gone to Matabele-land 
 to die of an illness which had long been undermining his health. 
 As a matter of fact, the Jesuit Mission only existed in per- 
 spective. In 1879, Father Depelchin visited the Barotsi capital, 
 and had a reception which promised full success. The following 
 year, Father Burghergge went to begin the new mission, with 
 two " brothers," of whom one was drowned in the Loshu. 
 Unfortunately for them, neither he nor his companion under- 
 stood the language. They were reproached for their lack of 
 sociability, which was taken for suspicion and contempt ; and 
 the king — purposely it is affirmed — showed himself exacting and 
 rapacious. Then came misunderstandings, brought about by 
 the ill-will of certain chiefs, and the duplicity of the missionaries' 
 servants. In short, after a sojourn of several months at Lealuyi, 
 and without having been able to do anything towards settling 
 down, the Jesuits found themselves obliged to evacuate the 
 country. They retired to Pata-matenga ; and after five years' 
 isolation, they at last left this forlorn hope. If they have not 
 succeeded, they have at any rate left behind them the recollection 
 of a generous hospitality, which they exercised on every occasion 
 with the greatest cordiality, together with several tombs, as 
 pledges of their devotion.
 
 i885] A COUNTER-REVOLUTION I99 
 
 Before the Jesuits, the L.M.S. had, as you know, martyrs 
 among the Makololo at Linyanti in 1859,^ and had been obliged 
 to retire. And now our intrepid young brother, Mr. Arnot, in 
 his turn, has just definitely quitted the Barotsi country to visit 
 other tribes farther north. All these checks are not exactly 
 of good augury for ourselves. We do not pretend to more 
 devotion, nor to more wisdom, than our predecessors, neither 
 have we very great resources in men or money. This is true. 
 May God grant us so much the more the audacity of faith ! — for 
 we need it. 
 
 The Jesuits, who are leaving Pata-matenga, remind me of 
 Dr. Holub's expedition, which has just arrived. May the 
 sacrifices of the Church not be eclipsed by those of science ! 
 
 As for ourselves, we have now been at Sesheke for nearly 
 three months. If we had had draught oxen, Aaron and his 
 family would not have remained at Mambova, nor we here. 
 We should have been at the Valley long ago, working hard at 
 the foundation of our establishment, and the mission would 
 already have occupied four instead of two important posts. 
 God knows how we sigh for a more settled life and more 
 regular work. The gipsy life which we have led for two years 
 has a wonderfully withering effect on heart and soul. It is 
 difficult to accustom oneself to it. 
 
 You will recollect that several chiefs came to preside at 
 our passage of the river. The alarm which suddenly dispersed 
 them was not unfounded after all. A counter-revolution had 
 broken out in the Valley, and there had been fighting. Robosi, 
 who had taken refuge and established his headquarters on an 
 island of the Mashi, one of the tributaries of the Linyanti, 
 re-entered the capital, and seized the throne. Akufuna, 
 surprised, unpopular, and half deserted, fled with Mathaha, his 
 prime minister. Quite recently, having rallied his partisans, 
 he came and took his rival by surprise. The battle, which 
 lasted a whole day, with alternating successes, was a most 
 bloody one. Nearly all the chiefs of both parties perished : 
 Serumbo, Mathaha, etc. A troop of black traders, come from Bih6 
 or the coast — Mambari, as they call them — threw themselves 
 into the fray, and assured to Robosi a decisive victory. But 
 
 ' See Livingstone's "Travels."
 
 200 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 the slaughter, even for those accustomed to bloodshed, was 
 awful. And even after this, we fear we must expect new 
 massacres. It behoves royalty to be vindictive and bloodthirsty : 
 public opinion, paralysed by terror, does not protest. How 
 can one explain the fact that so many tribes, groaning under 
 the yoke of the Barotsi, do not profit by such circumstances 
 to regain their independence ? Certainly they give themselves 
 up to pillage and to acts of vengeance and cruelty, but that is 
 all. Nothing proves more clearly how degrading are the effects 
 of slavery. 
 
 The political disturbances have their counterpart at Sesheke. 
 From the first rumours of Lewanika's (Robosi's) return, the 
 chiefs divided into two camps ; and their tempers growing 
 heated by jealousies and personal grievances, a small civil war 
 became imminent. Either from fear or distrust of each other, 
 or from the necessity of ripening their plans of attack and 
 defence in secret, there was a general scattering of forces. 
 Some took refuge in their respective villages, or the woods, 
 whence they could, if necessary, retreat with more security, cross 
 the river, and leave the country. Others collected in the 
 islands, which they look on as natural fortresses. All com- 
 munication was interrupted, and then began a system of spying, 
 false rumours, brawls, and panics such as are only known in 
 Africa. Jeanmairet, who had preceded us to Sesheke, witnessed 
 all this confusion. He needed some courage to remain all alone 
 with Seajika in a deserted neighbourhood, with baggage that 
 invited robbeiy. For the rogues and vagabonds who always 
 abound here do not lack audacity in such times as these, you 
 may be sure. But God has watched over our friend, and over 
 his lonely little hut, with no protection round it. Our arrival 
 did not alter this state of things in any way. The chiefs showed 
 us much deference, sent regularly to enquire after us, and came 
 themselves with presents to welcome us. We also visited them 
 in their various camps, and they listened respectfully to our 
 counsels. But all our efforts towards a reconciliation proved 
 abortive. " Your intentions are good," they said ; " you are 
 servants of God, men of peace ; you have seen countries where 
 justice reigns. But you do not know us Barotsi yet. We are 
 men of blood ; we murder each other drinking, talking, and 
 ^ laughing together." Which, alas ! is only too true.
 
 i885] PERILS OF WILD BEASTS 201 
 
 Nevertheless, it is something, if, as they assure us, our 
 presence here prevents the two parties from coming to blows 
 and killing each other. The station is neutral ground, a city 
 of refuge. Both parties feel that, here, they would not dare 
 to kill anybody. When the chiefs of the two parties meet, 
 it is not to the village (a stone's throw from here) nor yet to 
 their own houses that they go ; they prefer to stop just here, 
 and make shelters if they have to pass the night. To see them 
 sitting together under the shade of a large tree, without arms — 
 except for a stick, which in their hands is a formidable weapon — 
 taking snuff, clapping their hands, scattering the usual "Shaiigives" 
 and every possible token of politeness, you would think them 
 the most inoffensive people and the most intimate friends. 
 But as soon as darkness succeeds to twilight, they take their 
 arms and flee, each distrusting the other. It is a sauve qui pent 
 on all sides. It is sad to see this great village of Sesheke 
 deserted and falling to ruins. In spite of the visits I have just 
 mentioned, we feel the isolation keenly. 
 
 One would think the very wild beasts knew we were 
 unprotected. Crocodiles swarm in the river-bend ; they attack 
 everything ; our pigs fell victims to them long ago, and our 
 dogs too— those beautiful Newfoundlands that every one admired 
 so, and that kept such good watch. So valiantly did they hold 
 the wild beasts at bay that their barking gave us no rest by 
 night ; now, the hyaenas prey savagely upon our goats. For us, 
 it is an irreparable loss. There are fresh alarms every night : 
 we fire, but kill nothing : and if it goes on, we shall be forced 
 to have recourse to strychnine. 
 
 And if it were only crocodiles, hyaenas, and leopards that 
 we had to combat ! But the thieves give us no respite. 
 Doubtless, they are not more numerous than usual ; but since 
 there has been no supreme authority recognised, their audacity 
 baffles description. In the daytime, they come to see us, ask 
 for snuff, talk, and are as friendly as possible ; and contrive 
 there, beneath your very eyes, to slip a knife, a hatchet, napkins, 
 or calico under their armpits.^ In the night, they force the 
 strongest locks, and the best padlocks. They respect nothing. 
 
 ' This feat would not be difficult to the large number who draped themselves 
 in a piece of stuff, passed under one arm and knotted on the other shoulder. 
 Socks hung out to dry were irresistible for the purpose of pockets.
 
 202 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 Did they not even take one of our tents to make setsibas ? 
 And to whom should we complain ? Who would do us justice ? 
 
 The other day our shepherd, a charming boy named Sakulala, 
 came all out of breath to tell us that a thief, and not the first 
 one by any means, had come in broad daylight, and within gun- 
 shot stolen one of our sheep, and taken to the woods. I sent four 
 or five young men after him, who worked for us ; and nothing 
 could have pleased them better. In the evening, they returned 
 in triumph, carrying the remains of the sheep, and leading the 
 prisoner by a halter round the neck. He was a sturdy young man, 
 but he had a wound in the head from a club, and his face was 
 covered with blood. Poor wretch ! there he was, kneeling before 
 us, silently enduring the invectives his excited countrymen were 
 raining upon his head. But for us, they would have beaten 
 him to death. " A thief is a dog ! Have no mercy on him ! " 
 Such honest fellows as they were themselves ! My wife, moved 
 with pity, took him aside, washed his face, and bound up his 
 wounds. The Zambesians could not get over their amazement. 
 
 The thief, having recovered from his fright, tried to work 
 upon my dear wife's feelings. " I am an honest man, my Mother. 
 I have even been in service with your friends the Hepburns" 
 (of the L.M.S.). " What happened to-day was an accident. It 
 was God who willed it." I put the rascal in a boat with the 
 remains of his booty, under the guard of his captors, and sent 
 him to his chief. The latter, furious, ordered him to be put 
 to death. I had foreseen this, and sent Seajika to intercede for 
 him. They were already strangling the unhappy man, when the 
 chief allowed himself to yield. " Go," he said to him ; " it is to 
 the Moruti you owe your life." He went, and threw himself 
 into the river, and dived several times.^ He had found grace 
 in the sight of the gods, as the crocodiles did not devour him. 
 Then he came and knelt before his master, clapping his hands, 
 and crying, " Shangwe ! SJiangwe ! " The chief responded by 
 clapping his hands too, and all was over. 
 
 The affair only cost me the sheep, the fragments of which 
 were given to the worthy Lekhoa, who had so bravely captured 
 the thief This Lekhoa was a good worker, and a respectful, 
 obedient young fellow, whom wc greatly liked. We had never 
 
 ' In accordance with the Barotsi custom, when a guilty man has been 
 spared the punishment of his crime.
 
 i88s] ELISE COILLARD'S WEDDING 203 
 
 had a better Zambesian in our service ; and when his month was 
 up, and he left us to go home, we very much regretted him. 
 But what was our astonishment to discover after his departure that 
 he had not gone empty-handed either. He had been tempted 
 by a pillow-case, some towels, and I know not what besides. 
 Let us close this chapter, and return to it no more. . . . 
 
 On our arrival here, on September 24th, after an adventurous 
 journey, it had been our intention to go on, and try to reach 
 the Valley before the rainy season. No one opposed it, and 
 there was no time to lose, for we had to make a road through 
 thick woods, infested with tse-tse, through deep sand, rivers, and 
 morasses, for a distance of three hundred miles. We shall only 
 take one waggon, for want of oxen ; and for the sixth time since 
 leaving Leribe, we shall leave our baggage behind, and only 
 take what is mdispensable. With grass and reeds, a shelter is 
 soon made. 
 
 • A great question upon our minds was the marriage of our 
 dear Elise. We decided to have it on November 4th, and 
 we gave it all the publicity possible. The chiefs of Sesheke, 
 delighted at the news, sent us beforehand some presents of food 
 for the occasion. We even hoped it might be a means of 
 reconciling the two parties. On the eve of the great day came 
 messengers from Robosi, who stopped at the station, and sent for 
 the chiefs on both sides. Everything promised us a beautiful 
 festival. I killed two oxen. We had decorated the woodwork 
 of the mission-house (which was in course of construction) with 
 foliage and French flags. The hour approached, when all at 
 once sinister rumours began to fly. The chiefs were not coming ; 
 they only spoke of fighting. Panic seized everybody, even the 
 king's envoys, and in a few seconds we were left alone. 
 
 We looked at each other in silence. What was to be 
 done? Our resolution was soon taken. I was just going to 
 ring the bell, hung for the occasion, when I saw clouds of 
 dust at the entrance to the woods. It was the Morantsiane 
 and his people. All those who had fled returned ; and the 
 ceremony took place before a grand assembly. Raw meat 
 was then distributed to the chiefs, which was quite in accordance 
 with the custom of the country ; and while their slaves huddled, 
 around flaming fires, were cooking or roasting it, chattering 
 nineteen to the dozen, and the chiefs were talking in the
 
 204 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1885 
 
 lekhot/ila, we had our wedding breakfast in the hut. The 
 customary speeches were not lacking. Aaron and Middleton 
 each had a good word for the occasion. We were quite a 
 family party. There was little excitement amongst us, but 
 we enjoyed an atmosphere of serenity and happiness, such as 
 doubtless the guests at Cana experienced. Games and races 
 filled up the afternoon pleasantly enough, and in the evening 
 we showed the magic lantern. Just as we thought all was 
 over, we found Middleton had prepared a surprise for us, in 
 the shape of fireworks — a Roman candle, one or two Bengal 
 fires, a little Catherine wheel ; and when, for a finale, he let 
 off a splendid rocket, there was a deafening explosion of 
 surprise and excitement. They had heard the old men tell 
 of Livingstone's exhibitions, and these legendary tales had 
 whetted their curiosity, so that the effect produced by the 
 evening's entertainment was quite indescribable. " Look, there 
 is God's gun ! " they cried, following the rocket in the air, 
 with its shower of many-coloured stars. In the midst of the 
 uproar, some of the chiefs came to me and said confidentially, 
 '' Moruti, you know everything : which will win, Lewanika or 
 Tatira (Akufuna) ? Surely you love your son, the Morantsiane, 
 too well to hide it from him. You can count on our discretion." ^ 
 Robosi, who thought we were still at Leshoma, sent orders 
 that we should be brought to Sesheke at once. We made 
 arrangements with the chiefs to continue our journey ; but, 
 unfortunately, the king's messengers had scarcely left us when 
 the situation became worse — nothing was to be heard but 
 alarms. Those who had ventured to till their fields fled again, 
 and all our people deserted us. From the Valley came con- 
 fused and contradictory tidings : the spring rains, which we 
 had greeted with such delight, became incessant deluges. In 
 ten days, I collected 975 in. of rain, and then my rain-gauge 
 had been twice upset by the oxen. Wc are assured that the 
 rivers are full, that the valleys are now morasses, and that no 
 chief would dare to leave his post under present circumstances. 
 Less than all that would have told us that, whether we would 
 or no, we were detained at Sesheke till next winter. 
 
 ' The wind-up of the day's pleasure was that the boys and young men 
 crowded up, and demanded payment for their exertions in playing games, 
 and it took half-an-liour's discussion to silence them.
 
 i885] BUILDING AT SESHEKE 205 
 
 Shall I tell you what feelings of grief and discouragement 
 came over us ? But we cannot give way to them for long : 
 the torrents of rain force us into action. Our tents, burnt by 
 the sun, and constantly drenched, no longer shelter us. And 
 when the sun shines, and the thermometer rises to 112" Fahn, 
 they are equally uninhabitable. So we viust build. They are 
 cutting posts, collecting grass and reeds, and in three weeks we 
 shall have a two-roomed cottage, which will be a little palace 
 for us when it is plastered and dry. This disappointment 
 enables us to give a good deal of help to our friend Jeanmairet. 
 We have only been here three months, and we have already 
 three buildings with kitchens and other adjuncts. All this is 
 only for the time, but the time may be years. Are you not 
 astonished to see how quickly we build ? I think we leave the 
 Paris masons far behind. VVe will not say anything about the 
 architecture. 
 
 With the blankets and stuffs bought in Europe, we have 
 been able to buy ten young bullocks, which we have broken in, 
 and some cows. In Basuto-land, nothing is more difficult than 
 to buy a cow or a nanny-goat ; they are the banks of the flocks. 
 Here it is quite the contrary. What is the use of keeping herds 
 for the future, when one may be killed from one day to another ? 
 It is much better to enjoy what one has, kill the oxen and sheep, 
 and sell the cows and ewes. A good thing for us ! With plenty 
 of milk, appetites and strength have returned. Our friend 
 Waddell has regained colour and flesh ; and except for some 
 slight indispositions, the health of your friends at the Zambesi 
 has never been better. A simple but regular diet is, I believe, 
 one of the best febrifuges, and we owe this to the presence of 
 our ladies. 
 
 Our political horizon is also clearing. Robosi's position is 
 stronger. New messengers have come from him to arrange 
 matters here, and to call the chiefs and ourselves to the capital. 
 So it is very probable that I may leave at the beginning of 
 January. And now, if you ask me what are our dominant 
 feelings, I will say that they are cheerfulness and gratitude. 
 Now that we have crossed the Zambesi, we are among the 
 Zambesian tribes ; we are at work, and so are our evangelists 
 at Mambova, near the confluence of the Zambesi and Liny^anti. 
 Aaron wrote us the other day that public prayer and the
 
 206 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 Sunday preaching have been well attended. They have even 
 tried to organise a day school, and have had encouragement. 
 
 Sesheke, January \st, 1886. 
 
 The other day, I wrote from Leshoma, whither I had gone 
 to repair our buildings, and send off our waggon to Pretoria. 
 I had an adventurous journey, and returned after ten days' 
 absence. To my joy, I found all my dear ones in good 
 health. Our political horizon has suddenly darkened again. 
 The repeated messages of the king assured us he had proclaimed 
 a general amnesty, and regretted the massacres which had taken 
 place. Several times he had sent gracious messages to the 
 Morantsiane, who had been compromised by his relationship 
 to Mathaha, the chief of the revolution ; he ordered him to 
 return to Sesheke, to till his fields and dwell there in peace. 
 Robosi's sister, KJiosi ea Mosali, the queen, had declared 
 herself willing to marry the Morantsiane, and to settle at 
 Sesheke, in order to consolidate the alliance of the two parties. 
 Peace was apparently re-established. People went from one 
 camp to another to visit ; the chiefs exchanged tobacco, ground 
 corn, and were actively preparing canoes and provisions for the 
 journey, as the moon was " darkening." All the chiefs were 
 going off together to pay homage to the king.^ There was 
 life and stir everywhere. The chief Rataii and the others had 
 left their island, and returned with their wives, children, and 
 cattle. The alarms had come to an end, and we began to 
 breathe freely. During my absence, a chief came from Robosi, 
 with a numerous retinue, and established himself at the station, 
 declaring that, as he was commissioned to escort me to the 
 capital, he would wait patiently for my return. Would you 
 believe that all this was only to hide a plot ? 
 
 Just before the new moon, in the nights of December 26th 
 and 27th, the chiefs of Robosi's party, who had assembled their 
 people in the woods, fell upon the Morantsiane's village, and 
 there gave themselves up to rob and murder to their hearts' 
 content. The Morantsiane fought his way through the chiefs 
 that surrounded him, and escaping the sight of the Barotsi chiefs, 
 succeeded in reaching the forest. But they have seized all 
 
 ' As soon as the new moon should appear.
 
 i886] A REIGN OF TERROR 20/ 
 
 the canoes on the river, and are vigilantly guarding all the 
 fords ; and on the tracks of the unfortunate chief they have set 
 troops of young men, who will hunt him down like a wild beast. 
 Will there be found no compassionate soul to save the life of 
 this unhappy fugitive, who has now neither hearth nor home ? 
 It seems that Mathaha committed atrocities which the pen 
 refuses to describe, not only on Robosi's partisans, but also on 
 his wives and children. Robosi has sworn to avenge himself, 
 and to spare neither position, age, nor sex in any member of 
 Mathaha's family.^ 
 
 Terror is at its height among the aristocracy of the country. 
 The slaves rejoice ; for them it is only a change of masters, 
 and they press after the " conquerors," as they call them, and 
 want to take their own share in murder and robbery. The 
 young men in our service — except Nguana-Ngombe and 
 Kamburu, have not been able to resist the general impulse, 
 and have left. The country is in a fearful confusion. We do 
 not know when these massacres will stop, nor what will come 
 out of this chaos. Living among such people, whose feet are 
 so swift to shed blood, one feels one's dependence upon God. 
 In these times, we pass through hard and humiliating experiences. 
 The chiefs are generally very pleasant to us, and many boast 
 of our friendship. But we are entirely at the mercy of their 
 slaves, who deceive, insult, and rob us, without any authority 
 bestirring itself to do justice and protect us. This is, perhaps, 
 the darkest point in our life on the Zambesi. But there it 
 stands, " He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High 
 shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." 
 
 The individual who came from the king to fetch us is the 
 same who was charged to deliver him from those he calls his 
 enemies. The rains have begun early this year, the river is 
 rising, the low parts of the country are already submerged, and 
 travelling by canoe is becoming more and more dangerous and 
 difficult. On the other hand, Middleton is on the way to 
 Pretoria - (this letter will catch him at Leshoma), and it is 
 doubtful if Aaron can accompany me this time. The same 
 prudential reasons as last year will again keep Jeanmairet here. 
 
 ' See later on, page 214. 
 
 - For supplies, business at Pata-matenga and Shoshong being at a standstill.
 
 208 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 So I must go alone with this Barotsi chief when he has 
 accomplished his bloody mission. God will protect me. May 
 He soften Robosi's heart ! All they say of him conveys the 
 impression that he is an intelligent man, generous on occasions, 
 but also a vindictive, suspicious tyrant, and alas ! thirsting for 
 •^^ blood. It is absolutely necessary for me to see him before we 
 all definitely leave this place for the Valley. In spite of all the 
 messages, full of amiability, which he has sent us since he has 
 returned to power, we clearly foresee that our position near him 
 will not be exactly a bed of roses. But do not be anxious on 
 our account.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Second Journey to the Capital — A Zambesian Charybdis — The Hunter's 
 Paradise — Boat lost in the Rapids — Vandalism — Nalolo and Queen 
 Mokwae — An Unexpected Meeting — King Lewanika — Lealuyi — Visit 
 of the Chief Moremi— The Barotsi Lekhothla — Conversation with the 
 King — Barotsi Legends — The Natamoyo — Sunday Service — Back to 
 Sesheke — Visit to Mambova — Murder and Cattle-lifting — An Appeal — 
 Middleton returns from Pretoria — Dr. Holub. 
 
 Sesheke, Upper Zambesi, April \<^th, 1886. 
 
 I HAVE just returned from a second journey to the capital. 
 Since the counter-revolution which brought him back to 
 power, Robosi (or Lewanika) has sent us message after message, 
 earnestly entreating us to visit him. We ourselves desired no 
 less earnestly to do so, not only in the interests of our mission, 
 but also because of the pillage and murder which are desolating 
 the country. Having no canoes ourselves, we were at the mercy 
 of the chiefs of Sesheke ; and they, demoralised by the execution 
 of the king's vengeance, kept vacillating and putting us ofif 
 from day to day. Weeks passed thus. I had patience till 
 February 26th, which, to tell the truth, I was not sorry to pass 
 in the family circle, as it was the twenty-fifth anniversary of our 
 marriage. But when once this day was over, I decided to start 
 on foot, with two or three donkeys, and quietly made my 
 preparations. The chiefs got wind of this, and were roused. 
 I soon obtained my crew and two canoes, one for me, and the 
 other for the petty chief who was to accompany me, and the 
 baggage belonging to his people. It does not take much to 
 crowd one of these troughs that they call boats. Each man has 
 his mat, his gourd, his bowl ; and when everything is piled into 
 the dug-out, it seems as though it vmst capsize. 
 
 Our dear Jeanmairet's place was clearly marked out ; he had 
 to remain at Sesheke. I did not care to hamper myself with 
 
 209 14
 
 2IO ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 Levi, who is not a good traveller ; and Aaron, in spite of his 
 o-reat desire to accompany me, could not. The chiefs did not 
 fail to make a great fuss, and protest their uneasiness at seeing 
 me start alone ; but I easily soothed their anxieties ! On review- 
 ing my crew, I was glad to see they had apparently made a 
 good choice. My ten Masubia ^ were mostly full-grown men ; 
 and my mentor, still a young fellow, was a neighbouring petty 
 chief, with whom we had had very pleasant intercourse. 
 
 A separation in this country always has something particu- 
 larly sad and solemn in it. But this time it was very far from 
 being what it had been the year before. Circumstances have 
 changed. We are in the country, and are all well. So we can 
 say good-bye with all the serenity that comes from obedience to 
 duty and utter confidence in God. 
 
 We left on March 6th. I was not mistaken in my Masubia. 
 They showed unflagging good-will, and made it a point of 
 honour to give me pleasure. Mokumoa-Kumoa, the chief, 
 set the example. As soon as we disembarked, he was always 
 the first to set up my little tent, construct the shelters, and 
 search for wood. I hunted waterfowl ; he supplied big game — 
 a zebra, or an antelope ; so we never lacked meat. In the 
 evening, at the camp, I taught them a hymn, and we talked of 
 the things of God. Our conversations were often very long and 
 deeply interesting. 
 
 At this season, when the waters are rising, the navigation 
 of the river is difficult, and particularly dangerous at the rapids. 
 So, faithful to the promise I had given at parting to my dear 
 wife and the chiefs of Sesheke, who seemed anxious for the 
 safety of my person, I conscientiously went on dry land at every 
 dangerous place. At the beginning, we had to lose some time 
 in hunting ; but when once our purpose in so doing was fulfilled, 
 I wished to push on, and my people were quite willing. One 
 •day, we arrived at Matom^'s little village, in the neighbourhood 
 of the rapids. In the twinkling of an eye, all my people 
 vanished ; and when at last Mokumoa-Kumoa and the boatmen 
 did reappear, it was to tell me, with long faces, that we must 
 spend the night there. It was only two o'clock. In vain I 
 protested : not one oarsman would take his place in the boat, 
 
 ' Nearly all tlie canoe-paddlers are drawn from the Masubia tribe, as they 
 are considered the most expert.
 
 i886] A ZAMBESIAN CHARYBDIS 211 
 
 and I had at last to give in. I could not understand this 
 singular strike ; but when we were once encamped, Mokumoa- 
 Kumoa came and sat beside me. " My Father," he said, " this 
 is Matome's village ; and with the best will in the world we 
 cannot pass beyond. Perhaps you don't know that a serpent 
 dwells in these parts, an enormous monster with several heads. 
 If any one is unlucky enough to pass close by its lair, it suddenly 
 makes the water boil in the most terrific fashion ; and then 
 swallows everything up — canoes, oars, baggage, and rowers. 
 Nothing escapes. As we don't know the monster's whereabouts, 
 Rataii and the lords of Sesheke ordered us to take Matome 
 to guide us. Unfortunately, Matome is away. What shall 
 we do?" 
 
 Next day, in default of Matome, two of his sons acted as 
 our guides. They sat in a tiny canoe, which the current carried 
 away like a cockle-shell, when we passed from one bank to 
 another. Near the junction of the River Lumbe, they slackened 
 their speed, then stopped, and showed us on the opposite shore 
 a great sand-bank, saying in low tones, " That is where he lies." 
 I wanted to ask a question. " Hush ! " they said; " you must not 
 speak of him while on the water." I asked later on if tJiey had 
 ever seen the monster. " Seen him ? No ! He is only known 
 to the king, and to the great ones of the realm. They possess 
 a medicine, but they keep it secret. If the hydra attacks one 
 of their canoes, the master at once offers it his belt.^ Then you 
 see the canoes shoot to the bank like an arrow." 
 
 Mr. Westbeech, who had preceded me up the Valley, told 
 me that his canoe one day ran into a bank of quicksand. 
 Every stroke of the oar made the water boil in an extraordinary 
 manner, but did not advance the pirogue. All his people were 
 paralysed with terror. Mr. Westbeech seized the paddle, and 
 succeeded, though not without difficulty, in floating the canoe 
 off ; and his rowers began to breathe again. And then, to hear 
 them relate the adventure ! 
 
 One can never tire of admiring the region of the rapids 
 which I described last year. One would think that the river, 
 wearied with its leaps and struggles among the rocks, was 
 gathering itself together for fresh combats while flowing limpidly 
 
 ^ The chiefs wear as charms belts made of an entire snake skin.
 
 212 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 between its verdant banks. The arborescent vegetation, though 
 not at all tropical in character, is nevertheless relieved here and 
 there by wild date palms, of which the natives are very fond. 
 This is the hunter's paradise, haunted by elephants, buffaloes, 
 and other big game. Often, at the sound of a low whistle, 
 we run our boats into the reeds, and stepping on land very 
 cautiously, we catch sight of troops of buffaloes or antelopes, 
 which gallop away at the slightest sound. I have also met with 
 more villages than last year ; which, however, is not to say 
 that the country is populated. 
 
 The news of my arrival had spread abroad, and the poor 
 Makalaka, instead of fleeing to hide, were happy to come and 
 speak to us. One day, we met three little canoes ; it was the 
 head of the village going to do homage to his new chiefs, and 
 the worthy man immediately turned back to prepare provisions 
 for our journey. We had to sleep at his village, which upset 
 all my plans. But I had no reason to regret it, for, besides the 
 reception he gave us, it was an opportunity for speaking of the 
 Gospel. The next day, another Makalaka chief was waiting for 
 me, at the entrance to his village, with a dish of pumpkin, and 
 pressed me to pass the day with him. I had to refuse. " In 
 that case, why did you not come to spend the night with 
 Matokomela ? " (his name). " Do you think that I don't know 
 how to receive strangers as well as he does ? " 
 
 We must beware of generalising from such facts, and giving 
 them an importance they do not possess. These poor people 
 have no idea of the Gospel, but they feel that those who preach 
 it are men of peace, and protectors of the unfortunate. 
 
 At Seoma, we met two large canoes and some men, whom 
 the king, in his impatience, had sent to fetch us. In the 
 night, one of my boats, which had remained below the falls, was 
 carried away by the current. At family worship, I asked God 
 to give it back to us. "It is no use for you to trouble God 
 about it," said my Masubia ; " the Zambesi does not play here- 
 abouts. The boats it carries away one never finds again." I 
 took one of the king's canoes, and we pursued our way. 
 
 In two days, we came to Senanga, the entrance of the Valley. 
 The inundation, though very late this year, was nevertheless so 
 high that wc left the river, and took a short cut to Nalolo, 
 across the plain. Wc soon found ourselves entangled in
 
 VANDALISM 2 1 3 
 
 masses of reeds and inextricable jungles, where we were buried 
 upright, and from which we only escaped with many scratches. 
 Where the grass and reeds were shorter, every stroke of the 
 paddle stirred up clouds of mosquitoes, flies, and insects of every 
 kind, which filled our eyes, ears, and nostrils. A veritable 
 plague of Egypt ! There were also fish leaping, water-tortoises 
 exploring their new domains, and from time to time a snake 
 swimming, which invariably tried to get into our boats. All 
 this caused some excitement among us, and broke the monotony 
 of the voyage. The sun was scorching. To keep on sitting, 
 that is to say crouching, in the canoe was to condemn oneself 
 to suffocation ; so I stood up, at the risk of a ducking. Not a 
 village, not a hamlet, to be seen ; before, behind, right, and left, 
 nothing but the plain, with its reeds and rushes, and the water, 
 which in some places rose above them, and reflected the sun as 
 in a mirror. Nothing could be more melancholy than this 
 journey. But from time to time we suddenly entered a pool as 
 if by surprise — a perfect garden made by God to bloom in these 
 solitudes, doubtless for the admiration of His angels. The 
 surface of such a sheet of water was invariably covered with 
 water-lilies, blue, pink, and white as snow. There were yellow 
 and even green ones. Some were large and double like roses, 
 others coquettishly displayed their petals like five little miniature 
 feathers of fairy-like delicacy on the green background of their 
 leaves. All scented the air with their perfume. My Masubia 
 had no appreciation for this picture which charmed me so. They 
 fell upon the aquatic plants, and tore off the stalks to mix 
 them with their tobacco, and the roots to regale themselves 
 with. Alas ! vandalism rages everywhere. 
 
 On March 20th we reached Nalolo. You remember this 
 is the second capital of the kingdom. From ancient times, 
 it has been the custom of Barotsi kings to collaborate with one 
 of their sisters in the government of the realm : sometimes 
 it is their mother. This queen has her court, her drums, her 
 serimbas, and surrounds herself with all the ceremonial in usage 
 at the king's own court. She sits in the lekJiotJila^ discusses 
 state affairs, judges lawsuits. She is saluted like the king with 
 " Tautona " ^ and " Yo-sho" the salutations reserved for royalty 
 
 1 Lion {not lioness).
 
 214 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 alone. People prostrate themselves before her, and nobody has 
 the right to sit in her presence, not even her husband, the 
 Mokzve Tunga (Son-in-law of the Nation), who is only a servant, 
 and can be dismissed at her pleasure. Perhaps it would be 
 going too far to say she was polyandrous ! 
 
 When her majesty is not sitting in the kkhothla, she retires 
 into a hut surrounded by two courts. There she grants private 
 audiences. Whichever way one looks, the eye falls on some 
 kind of charm. In the court, there are generally young slaves 
 attached to the queen's service, and occupied under her direction 
 in weaving fancy mats or working in beads. It was here that 
 Mokwae ^ received me. She was not a stranger to me. I had 
 seen her the year before, a prisoner at Mathaha's, where she 
 would have been reduced to the condition of a slave, if it had 
 not been for that good Mai'biba, who at that time was queen, 
 in spite of herself. I had managed then to have a little con- 
 versation with her, and it seems this had consoled her and 
 raised her courage. This time, I found her sitting on a mat, 
 under a thatched roof. As soon as she saw me, she began to 
 laugh ; she held out her hand, and made me sit opposite to her. 
 Still laughing, she looked fixedly at me for a few moments, 
 and at last, betraying the course of her thoughts, she cried out 
 in a tone that startled me, " Mathaha ! Mathaha ! We have 
 slain him and all his ! " 
 
 She introduced her children, who, by the way, never call her 
 mother, but Morena^ always sit behind her, and never on her 
 mat ; and then, while a charming little girl stood between my 
 knees, playing with my watch-chain, we soon found ourselves 
 engaged in a most captivating conversation. She related to me 
 all the vicissitudes of the revolution — her flight from Mathaha's 
 village, the devotion of her partisans, who, while the fortunes 
 of war were against them, brought her by forced marches to 
 Seoma, and thence for greater safety to the River Mashi, a 
 tributary of the Linyanti, where, later on, her brother joined 
 her. She continued her tale of thrilling interest, to the great 
 victory at Lealuyi, which confirmed Lewanika's power, and 
 concluded by exclaiming with loud peals of laughter, " We have 
 
 ' Pronounced Mo-kwy-ee, sometimes written Moquai. 
 
 ^ Morena means "chief" ; it is exactly equivalent to " lord." The queen's 
 dignity is indicated by her always being addressed with inasculine titles.
 
 THE queen's vengeance 21 5 
 
 Utterly destroyed Mathaha and his gang, and their bones are 
 bleaching in the sun. And the insolence of these sorcerers to 
 beg for mercy ! Mercy indeed ! We threw them out on the 
 veldt to the vultures. That was our mercy ! " These shouts 
 of laughter, these exulting tones, and the insatiable vengeance 
 they proclaimed, made me shudder. My eyes were riveted 
 on this woman : I listened as in a dream. I knew her of old. 
 Rather more than two years ago, her prime minister, named 
 Pakalita, offended her. One day, when she was giving the 
 people a feast oi yoalal she had Pakalita called to her private 
 house, talked to him for some time, gave him a pot, and left 
 him alone with a band of men who were to murder him. 
 But the slaves were intimidated by the presence of this 
 venerable old man, so universally respected. For a long time 
 Mokwae awaited the execution of her orders in the court, and 
 at last re-entered impatiently. " What ! " she cried ; " you are 
 given orders, and this is the way you carry them out ! Seize 
 him ! " Then, arming herself with an old Portuguese sabre, 
 she herself, with one stroke, cut the old man's head off. She 
 made them throw the corpse into a neighbouring court, and 
 then seated herself in the lekJiotJda as usual. Towards evening, 
 the public crier announced : " The queen informs you that 
 she has pulled a troublesome thorn out of her foot." It was 
 understood, and it made a great impression. This was one 
 of the causes of the revolution. Yet Mokwae has her partisans 
 and admirers. 
 
 She received us cordially, and in the evening she sent us 
 the ox of welcome — a fine, fat one. The next day, a large 
 assembly met at the lekJiothla to hear the preaching of the 
 Gospel. They were astonished, serious, and attentive. I felt 
 myself to be upheld and blessed, and both preached and sang 
 without fatigue. Afterwards, Mokwae invited me to her house. 
 In the court, what was my surprise to see her take off her 
 calico robe before three or four traders from Bih6 ! These 
 gentlemen were evidently tailors. One examined the sleeves ; 
 another pinched her about the shoulders ; a third fitted the 
 bodice. " I only hope," I said to myself, " that they won't 
 ask my advice." During this scene, I did not know which 
 
 1 Native beer.
 
 2l6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 way to look, and felt relieved when I found myself alone 
 with Mokwae. She invited me into her house, a spacious one, 
 and admirably clean. While some young girls waited on her, 
 I sat opposite on a roll of mats. She handed me a cracked 
 old accordion. " Now," she said, " play me something." I 
 willingly played a tune, then another, then a third. Memories 
 of childhood, sacred ones to me, thronged into my mind, and 
 melancholy stole over me. At last, I returned the instrument 
 to Mokwae. She seized it triumphantly, ran her fingers over 
 the keys with surprising agility, drawing from them a cacophony 
 which evidently enchanted her. Then, growing excited, she 
 began to sing. I passed half an hour listening in utter amaze- 
 ment to this strange serenade. Surprised at my calmness, 
 she ended by putting down the accordion, and saying with 
 much satisfaction, " You see I know how to play too." I 
 should think so, indeed ! She had quite eclipsed me. 
 
 She then asked permission to visit the islet where I had 
 camped. I took the precaution of sending some one to hide 
 the objects which might excite her greed. I gave her my 
 very best reception, and a cup of black coffee without sugar, 
 which she forced herself to swallow out of politeness ; and I 
 made her a present of a pretty striped blanket, which she received 
 with her usual brusquerie. But you should have seen her face 
 and her excitement when I showed her my photographs. At 
 the sight of Mathaha's, she started back in terror. " Sefano ! 
 Sefano ! " ^ she cried ; " the infamous wretch ! These people " 
 (meaning me) " are dreadful : they carry the living and the dead 
 in their pockets." Then taking fresh courage and smiling 
 cynically, she repeated, " But we have destroyed this Sefano." 
 
 What a contrast between her and her cousin Maibiba, whom 
 I introduced to you last year. Poor Maibiba ! After the fall 
 of Tatira (Akufuna), she took to flight ; but Lewanika, who 
 respects her very highly, was easily moved to clemency, and 
 sent to bring her back to the country. 
 
 On Monday, March 22nd, at daybreak, our canoes were 
 laded, and we started for Lealuyi. It was a beautiful morning, 
 with a fresh breeze and a radiant sun which revived every one's 
 spirits after the rains of the day before and the damp tent. 
 
 ' Mathaha's other name. Most of the Barotsi have several names.
 
 i886] KING LEWANIKA 21/ 
 
 Towards two o'clock in the afternoon, as we approached a 
 village, we noticed groups of men and canoes, and great 
 animation. It was the king, Lewanika,^ who had been making 
 a great pilgrimage to the tombs of his ancestors during the 
 last few days with a considerable retinue. We had been hearing 
 the drums all the morning. As we approached, a canoe shot 
 across the water, and was soon alongside of us. " Stop ! do 
 not go on ! The king wishes to know who you are." I was 
 astounded to see that the man who addressed me was none 
 other than Mokano. Now this Mokano, during one of my 
 absences from Leshoma, had so grossly misconducted himself 
 towards our ladies that I had had to bring him before the 
 lekhothla of the chiefs at Sesheke, and reprimand him sharply. 
 "Do you recognise me?" he asked, as he saluted me. " Oh yes, 
 Mokano ; go and tell the king that I am here." He returned 
 a moment later. " The king orders you to come to the village, 
 and pray to one of the gods of the nation. Take an offering 
 of white calico with you ; a very little will be enough." 
 
 " Go and tell the king that we do not pray to the dead, I have 
 come to teach him to pray to the only true God, the living God." 
 
 Mokano seemed to fly ; he soon returned. " The king 
 understands your reasons, and excuses you from praying at 
 the tomb. He only asks a yard of white calico, and he will 
 pray for you." 
 
 " Tell him," I replied, " that I wish to see him, and speak 
 to him myself" 
 
 My canoe-men could hardly contain their indignation any 
 longer ; they could not understand my obstinacy. Mokano went 
 off with a triumphant grin. I had not long to wait for 
 Lewanika's answer. " The king cannot see you ; you must 
 first give the little piece of calico he asks for ; he must have 
 it." So there I was, involved in a broil which Mokano did 
 not fail to foment, without the possibility of a personal interview 
 with Lewanika to explain my reasons. I gave the yard of 
 calico, and soon the noisy " Yo-sJios " which echoed through the 
 air told me what had been done with it. The Barotsi gods 
 
 > Hitherto called Robosi, or Loboshi, " the escaped one," because he was 
 born while his mother was fleeing from the Makololo. On his accession to 
 the throne after exile, he retained only the name of Lewanika. The Barotsi 
 make scarcely any distinction of sound between / and r.
 
 2l8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 are satisfied with very little, a rag of calico, a necklace of beads, 
 only they must be white — no other colour is tolerated in their 
 Elysium.^ 
 
 Soon a boat, covered with a tent of mats, glided alongside 
 of mine, and a man of about thirty-five glided out of it. He 
 was strong, well-built, and intelligent-looking, with prominent 
 eyes and pendulous lower lip. His whole clothing consisted of 
 the skins of small wild animals, attached in bundles round his 
 loins. He held out his hand, smiling: '' Lumela, Moruti oa 
 ka Ntate " (" I greet thee, my missionary, my father "). This 
 royal apparition took all my people by surprise. " Prostrate 
 yourselves," cried those in the canoes that now surrounded us, 
 " mo sJioaelele!' But no ! they were abashed, each kneeling at 
 his post, nervously clapping his hands. Only Mokumoa-Kumoa 
 in the bows of his canoe did it according to rule. Standing up, 
 he raised his hands and cried out for every one, " Tautona ! 
 Yo-sJio ! " then knelt down, and taking water in his hands, tossed 
 it over his arms and chest, rubbed his forehead at the bottom 
 of his boat, clapped his hands, and poured forth a stream of 
 laudatory epithets to Lewanika. This is what they call the 
 sJioalela. 
 
 The king did not seem to pay any attention to all these 
 demonstrations. He expressed the pleasure he had in meeting 
 me ; enquired after our health and my voyage ; offered to share 
 a roast goose with me ; and then, as he had to continue his 
 pilgrimage, he arranged to meet me at the capital. We then 
 formed a procession of boats. The king had fifteen, his wife's 
 was manned by nine rowers. All these men were decked out 
 with the skins of wild beasts and bright-coloured stuffs, floating 
 from their shoulders. At the end was the canoe carrying the 
 enormous drums and kettledrums, which the men beat furiously. 
 They are only sounded in war time, or on occasions like the 
 present. The noise is deafening, and can be heard to a great 
 distance. We followed the royal procession for some time, and 
 then, as it turned off to other tombs, we went on to Lealuyi, 
 where we arrived towards five o'clock. The arrival of the king 
 
 ' See Miss Kingsley's "Travels in West Africa" : "White cloth is anathema 
 to the missions, for it is used for Ju-ju offerings, and a rule has to be made 
 against its being given to the unconverted, or the missionary becomes an 
 accessory before the fact to pagan practices."
 
 i886] MOREMI'S VISIT 219 
 
 later on in the evening put the whole town in a flutter, but I 
 was too tired to come out of my hut. 
 
 The official reception took place in the morning of the next 
 day at the lekJiotJila. Mr. Westbeech was there. The king 
 made us place our chairs one on each side of his, while the 
 Gambella and his principal ministers knelt before him. This 
 ceremony was a very simple one. Lewanika listened patiently 
 to all I had to say on the aim of the mission, our delays, losses, 
 etc. In his turn, he expressed the joy he felt in seeing me 
 at la.st in his country after having so long expected me, his 
 displeasure at the delays to which we had uselessly been 
 subjected, and his indignation on the subject of the thefts. 
 He also spoke of his gratitude for the kindness we had shown 
 towards certain members of his family and some of his adherents 
 in his misfortunes. He introduced to me with visible satis- 
 faction those of the chiefs, and even of the servants, who had 
 accompanied him in his exile, and then, with an excitement 
 almost amounting to passion, related his flight and exile, 
 Libebe's ^ hospitality, his first meeting with those of his partisans 
 who had sought him out, his battles and his victories, his 
 unconquerable suspicions even of those on his own side, and 
 the hunger for vengeance which gnaws his heart. He also 
 described the visit of Moremi, chief of the Batawana of Lake 
 Ngami.^ Moremi is Lewanika's friend. For many years they 
 had exchanged ambassadors and presents till the revolution broke 
 out. Then later, when Moremi learnt that Lewanika wished to 
 re-enter his kingdom, he hastened to come in person and bring 
 him help. He arrived too late, however ; Lewanika had already 
 conquered his enemies. The visit of the son of Letsulathebe ^ 
 was therefore of a purely pacific character ; but that is not to 
 say he did not considerably alarm the Barotsi, coming as he did 
 at the head of a hundred well-armed cavaliers. One day he 
 played a little comedy which nearly ended in tragedy. A great 
 pitso was taking place. Moremi and his poeple were on one 
 
 1 The hereditary name of a tribal chief on the Linyanti or Chobe River. 
 
 2 For an interesting account of this chief, see Hepburn's " Twenty Years in 
 Khama's Country." See also former letter, page 53. The Batawana are a 
 Bechuana tribe. 
 
 ^ I.e. Moremi. African chiefs are often designated by the names of their 
 fathers.
 
 220 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 side, Lewanika and his Barotsi on the other. Moremi, using the 
 great freedom of speech possessed by the Bechuana in their 
 pztsos, began to taunt the Barotsi openly on their revolutionary 
 tendencies ; then, advancing towards Lewanika, he said to him, 
 " You are my brother and my friend ; those people will kill 
 you some day. Rise up, take your gun, and come with me." 
 Lewanika rose and took his gun. The Barotsi were touched, and 
 protested their attachment to their king. Moremi, improving 
 upon his original speech, made a fresh attempt to take Lewanika 
 away, and there was a new demonstration. The third time, the 
 Barotsi, wounded to the quick, seized their arms, and surrounded 
 the Batawana, heaping abuse upon them ; and blood would 
 certainly have been shed but for Lewanika's intervention. 
 
 Before passing on, let us say a word about the lekhothla, 
 which differs essentially from that of the Basuto and 
 Bechuana, as much in the ceremonial as in the way of treating 
 affairs. Liberty of discussion does not exist here, and in the 
 lekhothla, as everywhere else, the potentate of the Valley can also 
 say, " L'elat, dest moi" At seven in the morning and three 
 in the afternoon, the king, followed by the drums, the serimbas, 
 and sometimes by his ministers, goes in procession to the place 
 where he sits in the shade. He is generally clothed in a long 
 red cotton shirt, with large designs, coming down to his heels, 
 and the cap of striped cotton, so dear to the Barotsi. It seems 
 that etiquette demands he should frequently change his attire, 
 but his wardrobe is of the smallest ; and as he has no ivory, he 
 is in poverty. The few European garments he has been able 
 to procure, he has given to his ministers, and to the Mokwe 
 Tungas (the husbands of his sisters) ; and he owes to Moremi's 
 generosity the white serge suit, the white shirt, the shoes, and 
 the hat which he put on in my honour. As soon as the drums 
 make themselves heard, all the men run to the lekJiothla, and 
 sit down before the king at an interval which varies according 
 to their rank. Those who come from a distance perform all 
 the servile ceremonies of the shoalela, like our Mokumoa- 
 Kumoa ; then they come in single file, and, kneeling down, 
 place an offering at his majesty's feet — an otter skin, a shell 
 called niande} very highly esteemed, or a simple bead necklace. 
 
 ' Called by Livingstone omandc. He gives many interesting details of 
 superstitions connected with it in his " Travels."
 
 i886] A TALK WITH LEWANIKA 221 
 
 But an offering is absolutely necessary ; and while they 
 recommence the shoalela, one of the officers calls out, "Puma 
 noka " (" The king is satisfied "). And I thought of God's word 
 to Moses which we Christians are apt to forget, " None shall 
 appear before Me empty." The king himself seems quite 
 unconcerned about all this : he does not reply to any of the 
 salutations ; he gives his orders, sends his messengers, distributes 
 his work ; he listens to the cases submitted to him by his 
 ministers and issues decrees. If he cites some one to appear, 
 he simply pronounces his name, and immediately four, five, six 
 men rise and call the name in every direction. Those who hear 
 it repeat the name, till it is sounded all over the village. 
 
 Great animation reigns in the lekhotJda about the king's 
 person. In the intervals of the sittings, he retires to his own 
 home. On one side of the public place is a vast enclosure — of 
 course a circular one. This is his harem. The huts of his wives 
 are ranged round the inner wall, and separated by reed courts. 
 In the middle is a fine roomy hut surrounded by a court, which 
 is his private room. Nobody has the right to approach it, 
 except his ministers, and they may only enter with his express 
 permission. And there, almost every day, when he did not 
 come to me, I passed hours with him, teaching him the alphabet 
 and talking. Perhaps you would like to be present at one of 
 our conversations. Lewanika, pleased with his progress, was 
 laughing heartily, rolling on his mat. Then, becoming more 
 serious, he said : 
 
 " I had thought of coming to see you to-day. I have all 
 sorts of things to ask from you : candles, coffee, medicine for 
 the eyes, medicine for the head, and so on." 
 
 " It would be no use coming to me for them. I have only 
 brought necessaries ; and even if I wished to, I could not satisfy 
 your demands." 
 
 " But when you come with your waggon, then you will have 
 all your riches, will you not ? " 
 
 " I hope we shall have what we want for our own use, and 
 for barter." 
 
 " And if I want shirts, trousers, a hat, and shoes, you will 
 have to get them for me if I need them." 
 
 " Not necessarily ; I am not a trader. And besides, our 
 exchange goods only consist of beads and calico."
 
 222 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 " What ! you have not brought any clothes ? What will you 
 do when your own are worn out ? " 
 
 " I have what is necessary for my own use ; nothing more." 
 
 " Do you mean to say that, if I need clothes, you will give 
 me your own, as you do not sell them ? " 
 
 I told him he must get them from traders, like Mr. 
 Westbeech, as he sells them his ivory. 
 
 " But," he said, " who gives you these things ? " 
 
 " I buy them." 
 
 " What with ? " 
 
 " With money." (He then wished to see some money.) 
 
 " But where do you get this money ? " 
 
 I explained to him that the " believers " in my country gave 
 us part of their possessions to provide for our needs. He 
 uttered an exclamation of surprise, and remained silent for some 
 time ; then began again. 
 
 " Moruti, you are old ; give me counsel how I shall rule my 
 country, and strengthen my government." 
 
 " First put away your assegai, and let it sleep, and renounce 
 vengeance once for all. Set yourself to win the confidence of 
 your people, and inspire the smallest with a feeling of perfect 
 security. Punish theft ; and, above all, accept the Gospel for 
 yourself and for the nation." 
 
 " What are the riches of a country ? The riches of mine 
 is ivory. But ivory diminishes every year ; and when all the 
 elephants in the country are exterminated, what shall I do ? " 
 
 I thought of Colbert's great saying.^ But there is no 
 industry here from a commercial point of view. I pointed 
 out to him the fertility of his country, and that if the chiefs 
 would give themselves up to the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, 
 coffee, sugar-cane, etc., they would soon find that it would be 
 an inexhaustible source of riches for them. 
 
 He then questioned me about Lobengula. Had he mis- 
 sionaries ? Were there believers in his country ? Was he 
 himself a believer, like Khama ? Why was he not a Christian ? 
 Then, evidently alluding to the intentions of invasion with which 
 Khama is credited, and to his own raids on the Mashukulumboe, 
 he said : 
 
 ' " La France a deux mamelles : Tagriculture et I'industrie."
 
 i886] A PONTIFICAL RULER . , 223 
 
 " Is it true that Khama, who is a Christian, still makes war, 
 and invades other people's countries ? " 
 
 " I could not say, for Khama is only a man ; and then he 
 does not govern alone — the council of the tribe is there." 
 
 " But is it wrong to make war ? " 
 
 " Not to defend one's country." 
 
 " And if I found myself engaged in a warlike enterprise, 
 would you accompany me ? " 
 
 " No. Our mission is a mission of peace." 
 
 " At least you would lend me your guns, and give me 
 ammunition." 
 
 " No. That would still be taking part in it." 
 
 " What ! and you live in my country, and are my father ! 
 And if you had been here when Mathaha revolted against me, 
 what would you have done ? When you heard guns firing, 
 would you not have run to my defence ? And if I had sent 
 back for arms and ammunition, would you have refused me ? " 
 
 " Yes, but I should have prayed for you." 
 
 " Oh yes ! " he said, with shouts of laughter ; " and while that 
 was going on Mathaha would have killed me. That would 
 have been a fine way of helping ! And if I had fled to you, 
 what would you have done ? " 
 
 " I would have received you into my house ; I would have 
 given you food and clothes ; and I would have taken the place 
 of your servant, and would have made your fire myself" 
 
 "That is well. But if Mathaha's people had pursued me, 
 and said to you, ' Deliver Lewanika to us, that we may kill 
 him ' ? " 
 
 " Then I would have stood at the door, and said, " This 
 is a city of refuge. If you wish to violate it, you must kill 
 me first.' " 
 
 " That is splendid ! " 
 
 This outline of a conversation lasting several hours will give 
 you some idea of the man. He seems to have a great wish to 
 resemble Khama. Like all small African potentates, he has an 
 extraordinarily exaggerated idea of his own dignity. Man has 
 never appeared to me so utterly degraded as in his presence. 
 They attribute to him a magic power : he can render himself 
 invisible and invulnerable, and ensure success in hunting by 
 certain medicines known to himself. And I have heard him
 
 224 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 claim this singular power, in the open lekJiotJila. He is religious 
 in his own way — that is to say, extraordinarily superstitious. 
 Near his harem is a " grove," carefully screened round with 
 mats, where he offers prayers, sacrifices, and libations to the 
 manes of his ancestors, and to the sun. I have witnessed 
 strange customs and ceremonies at Lealuyi which I cannot 
 relate. I have been particularly struck with the feast of the 
 new vtooji. It is kept strictly as a day of rest, and celebrated 
 by peculiar dances and songs, in which all men without distinc- 
 tion of age or rank take part, while the women, at a distance^ 
 applaud them with shrill cries. Oxen are killed, cooked, and 
 eaten on the public place, and the silver disc is noisily greeted 
 as soon as its outline appears. Whence come these customs, 
 and many others, which remind us of the Levitical laws ? ^ These 
 are very interesting questions to study, but to do that would 
 require patience and prudence. 
 
 Where do the Barotsi come from ? They themselves say 
 from the east. They came up the Zambesi, conquered the 
 Bawewe tribe, which they found in this country, and mingled 
 with them. What I have told them of the Banyai leads them 
 to believe that they are the stock from which they have sprung. 
 And strange to say, they perfectly understand my little 
 vocabulary of Senya'i (the Banyai tongue) — in fact, it is the 
 same language as the Serotsi.- They relate that on their 
 arrival in this country, a god married Buya-Maviboa, and that 
 this woman gave birth to the Barotsi kings. Their tombs, and 
 those of the queens, are scattered over the country to the 
 number of about twenty-five. Many are shaded with woods^ 
 and kept up with great care ; all are sacred places, cities of 
 refuge^ which were even respected during the revolution. 
 Another no less important city of refuge is that of the queen, 
 at present Nalolo. I met there a chief of Sesheke, seriously 
 compromised, whom Mokwae kept till she obtained Lewanika's 
 pardon for him. At the capital itself, Gambella's hut for his 
 peers and the enclosure of the king's court are respected 
 refuges. But it is above all to the Natamoyo that they look 
 in case of danger. This Natamoyo is entrusted with the duty 
 
 ' Especially being " defiled by the dead " and by contact with blood. 
 ^ It must be borne in mind that the Barotsi have their own language^ 
 though they also speak the Sesuto, learned from the Makololo.
 
 i886] A SUNDAY SERVICE 225 
 
 of appeasing the king's anger, of restraining it, and of protecting 
 its probable victims. The enclosure of his house, always near 
 the lekJiothla, is sacred. Should any one be accused by the 
 king's order, and pursued by a crowd of his emissaries, if he 
 can put his foot inside the court of the Natamoyo, he is saved. 
 Moreover, when the king wishes to assure himself of a man's 
 death, he takes measures to prevent the Natamoyo from knowing 
 anything about it, so that the man may not escape. 
 
 Alas ! in spite of all these wise precautions, there are few 
 countries more stained with human blood. Sitting at the 
 lekhotJila, I passed in review these hundreds of men, without 
 recognising 07ie of those whose acquaintance I had made the 
 previous year. " We threw them out to the vultures : their 
 bones are bleaching in the sun." One scarcely ever sees a grey 
 head among the chiefs. They do not grow old here. They 
 have committed crimes upon women and little children which 
 only the language of Elisha to Hazael can describe (2 Kings viii. 
 12). The women who have escaped these hecatombs have been 
 shared as part of the booty, and have fallen into the power of 
 their husbands' murderers. But they seem to console themselves 
 easily, for some of them who have passed thus from hand to 
 hand are now at their fifth, sixth, or even tenth master. It 
 is heart-rending. Oh, dear friends ! if you only had an idea 
 of heathenism such as we see it here ! 
 
 After our conversations, Lewanika was anxious to hear the 
 public preaching of the Gospel. Following Khama's example, 
 upon the advice of a chief who had been to Mangwato, Lewanika, 
 on Friday evening, made the public crier proclaim that the next 
 day every one was to prepare, for the day after was the Lord's 
 Day, and no one could grind, nor go to the fields, nor travel, 
 nor work. On Sunday morning, he came to the lekhotJila 
 without his drums, and collected his people by calling them 
 publicly. There was a fine audience, serious and attentive. I 
 sang and preached, as at Nalolo ; and here, also, I felt myself 
 sustained and blessed. I have never in my life wished so much 
 for a good strong voice. There was, I assure you, something 
 electrifying and profoundly touching in speaking of God and 
 the Saviour to this mass of pagans. The paraphrased reading 
 of the Ten Commandments struck Lewanika, but I remarked 
 that he remained seated when every one else knelt in prayer. 
 
 15
 
 V 
 
 226 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 Whatever his motives may be, Lewanika has a great desire 
 to see us established in his kingdom. " How many are you ? " 
 he asked. " Two missionaries, and two helpers." " Is that all ? 
 But how can you teach my whole nation ? " He showed me 
 Mokwae's son, quite a young man, whom he destines for the 
 office of Morantsiane at Sesheke. " Very well," he said, " your 
 colleague must remain at Sesheke to instruct and direct this 
 young man. There must be another inoruti at Seoma, another 
 at Nalolo, another at Libonta. When will some iiwre come to 
 help you ? " I underline the question and pass it on to you, 
 dear friends, and to the Churches of Basuto-land. 
 
 He showed himself very kindly disposed as regards the 
 choice of a site, so much so that he wished to come with me 
 to visit the different places which he believed best adapted to 
 our establishment ; but he was hindered from so doing, and 
 the Gambella accompanied me instead. Besides Sefula, which 
 may one day be occupied by the Nalolo missionary, I was 
 favourably impressed by Kanyonyo, a place which last year we 
 found encumbered by corn and manioc. It is a little valley 
 close to Mongu, not far from the capital. The annual floods 
 never come there ; and the south-west wind, which blows during 
 the worst six months of the year, drives away the marshy 
 miasmas, although it is this same wind which, sweeping afterwards 
 over the swampy valleys, becomes impregnated with malaria. 
 Sefula enjoys the same conditions. And these are, I think, the 
 least unhealthy parts of the Valley that I know, relying on our 
 experience of Sesheke on the north and Leshoma on the south 
 of the river. Sesheke is as healthy as Leshoma is the reverse. 
 This year, while we all enjoyed excellent health here, all the 
 members of Dr. Holub's expedition were ill at Leshoma, and 
 one died there. 
 
 Lewanika, hearing of our losses in bullocks, sent an order 
 to the chiefs of Sesheke to give me seventeen. Will the order 
 be carried out punctually ? That remains to be seen. At 
 Mr. Westbcech's suggestion, he has sent gangs of men, so as to 
 save us the expense, to clear a road for the waggons through 
 the forests which we must traverse. He himself wished us to 
 start immediately, but we shall be obliged to wait till the waters 
 dry up, so it will be July before we are able to leave. 
 
 The return journey only took us eight days. In passing
 
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 BOAT RECOVERED 227 
 
 Seoma, I enquired after my boat, and learnt that it had been 
 found below the first rapids, among the reeds, where the current 
 had carried it. Judge of my people's astonishment ! They 
 all came to shake hands with me in congratulation. The 
 same ceremony was repeated at the port of Sesheke, where we 
 disembarked on April 17th. All our beloved ones were there, 
 well and radiant with delight, and the news I received of our 
 evangelists was also excellent. How good the Lord is ! 
 
 The cost of my journey may perhaps interest you. Here 
 are the details : 
 
 Ten cotton sheets at i2.f. 
 " Tips " in calico for the rowers 
 Calico and beads for presents and purchasing 
 food 
 
 The sheets were not a new purchase ; we had them before. 
 If among our European purchases there are some which have 
 not been as useful as we expected, our stuffs on the contrary 
 have been of the greatest possible service, and a great economy. 
 It is the purse which has supported the expedition till the 
 beginning of this year, which has paid for our buildings at 
 Leshoma, then at Sesheke, all our journeys and expenses of 
 communication, and the exchange of twelve draught oxen here. 
 
 Sesheke, Upper Zambesi, May \th, 1886. 
 
 It is to avoid confusion that I write to you from Sesheke. 
 In point of fact, it is some days since we left it, Jeanmairet 
 and myself We had a great desire to visit our evangelists at 
 Mambova, for they have had a monotonous and dif^cult life 
 since our departure for the Valley. Poor fellows ! what a sun- 
 beam for them ! Once at Mambova, we made a flying trip 
 to Leshoma with Aaron to visit our baggage, and took 
 advantage of a moment's respite to complete our mail. 
 
 You know that the counter-revolution which brought 
 Lewanika back to power was of the bloodiest. Unhappily, the 
 insatiable vengeance of the king pursued, and still pursues, to 
 the uttermost the rebels who sought salvation in flight, or who
 
 228 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 ran the risk of throwing themselves at his feet and imploring 
 pardon. He has sworn to exterminate the last scion of the 
 house of one Kuanosha. For months, his emissaries have been 
 overrunning the kingdom in every direction with secret missions: 
 then chiefs who are in the plot fall in the night upon such and 
 such a community, pillage and massacre to their hearts' content, 
 and return triumphant, with troops of horned beasts, of women 
 and children. They share the women among themselves, while 
 waiting for the king to dispose of this human booty. 
 
 As to the cattle, masters and slaves vie with each other 
 in stealing and squandering it. No one is astonished, and no 
 one would dare to raise his voice in disapproval. " Ke-leriimo !" 
 (" It is the spear " ; civil war). It seems that then anything is 
 allowed. I have said elsewhere that the pen refuses to give 
 details as to the atrocities committed at Sesheke itself on women 
 and little children. It is sickening. And do you imagine that 
 the savage behaviour of these men, who habitually bathe their 
 hands in the blood of their chiefs and of their brothers, is such 
 as to inspire us with terror ? Not at all. These are the most 
 polished people in the world, and I think they even outdo the 
 Parisians. A master always calls his slaves " Shatigwe" ^ even 
 the youngsters. A slave would never address another without 
 making use of the same expression, and calling him you, not thou. 
 
 No later than last week, at Sesheke, they murdered a petty 
 chief, who for months had been flattered and nursed into a 
 false security. He was fed, and ostensibly received into the 
 confidence of the lekJiotJila. Lewanika, fearing the matter 
 would come to our ears, had commanded that this man should 
 be carried away on a hunting expedition, and executed far 
 away from us. Rataii, with the other chiefs (some of them 
 his relations), did not approve of these precautions. " What 
 is killing a man ? " he cried. " The affair won't take long. 
 Besides, the missionaries know that ours is a country of blood." 
 The evening of the next day, on their return from a visit which 
 some of the chiefs paid us, with the unfortunate Makapane, 
 they gathered themselves at Rataii's, where they had organised 
 a feast of yoala. They drank, they chatted gaily ; then sud- 
 denly a man rose behind Makapane and struck him on the 
 
 ' " Sir," or rather " Sire."
 
 1886] MURDER OF MAKAPANE 229 
 
 temple with a club ; they next disembowelled him, and threw 
 him out for the vultures to feed on. Rataii felt he must come 
 and tell us about it ; but to prevent our giving the poor man 
 burial, he assured me that they had flung his corpse to the 
 crocodiles. Alas ! the vultures that hovered over the forest 
 gave him too visibly the lie. While I was trying to make 
 Rataii understand the enormity of this crime, and while I was 
 applying to him the Divine word, " He that killeth with the 
 sword shall perish by the sword," he clapped his hands before 
 me as heartily as though I had loaded him with praises. The 
 hypocrite ! 
 
 Amid this appalling outbreak of passions, we ourselves have 
 had, and still have, to suffer. By day, as by night, we are 
 exposed to the most barefaced thefts. They respect neither 
 our waggons, nor our folds, nor our houses. Without pro- 
 tection, without any defence as we are, it is truly a miracle 
 of God's goodness that we have not yet been completely 
 stripped. The slaves steal audaciously for their masters. The 
 chiefs themselves come shamefacedly each time to mumble a 
 few words of excuse or of sympathy. 
 
 It is hard to see our sheep and cattle stolen and killed in 
 broad daylight at a couple of hundred paces from the village, 
 and to recognise our own shirts and stuffs upon the greasy backs 
 of chiefs of the second and third degree. What can we do? 
 Pray that God may enable us by His grace to " take joyfully 
 the spoiling of our goods," and may deliver us from all feeling 
 of bitterness. That will one day come to an end ; and mean- 
 while our Master will never let us lack for necessaries. 
 
 One word more and I close. What do you think of 
 Lewanika's remarks about our small number ? This " when 
 will they come": is it not the cry from Macedonia? Is it 
 not something abnormal, and extraordinarily abnormal, that 
 revivals in France should produce so few missionary vocations ? 
 See what is happening in England ; this host of labourers who, 
 their own salvation once assured, invade the Lord's field in 
 China, in the great African Lakes, on the Congo, etc. The 
 experiences of the year which has just elapsed show us that 
 we must have each an evangelist with us. Levi will go and 
 join Jeanmairet, and Aaron will accompany us to the Valley. 
 Thus there will be two stations only in this immense country
 
 230 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 — two / As long as the Churches of Basuto-land do not freely 
 enter into our work, by sending us evangelists, and supporting 
 them themselves, we hesitate to call for such evangelists. The 
 position of Aaron and Levi, who have no connexion with 
 the Church of their own country, and who are exclusively 
 supported by Christians of another race, with whom they 
 have not the slightest communication, is most painful. They 
 feel it, and I should not be surprised if one day a deep 
 discouragement seized them. What gives us mir strength is 
 the bulk of the army of Christ which is behind us and upholds 
 us. This subject has acutely occupied us, and I believe that by 
 different lines of argument Jeanmairet and I have arrived at the 
 same conclusion — namely, that the native part of our mission 
 staff, if it is to continue to exist and develop itself, ought from 
 the financial point of view to be entirely the work of the Basuto 
 Churches. 
 
 A dear brother, whose affection for me personally has stood 
 the test of many years, wrote me lately with a frankness for 
 which I thank him : " You must not be surprised if you do not 
 find the enthusiasm you would like everywhere. People will 
 accord you a support based not on faitJi, but on success." But I 
 have never promised success. FOR US, OBEDIENCE AND FAITH : 
 SUCCESS LIES WITH GOD ALONE. I appeal to you, dear 
 unknown friends, to give a striking contradiction to these 
 words of our venerated friend — a contradiction that shall redound 
 to God's glory. 
 
 Sesheke, July 1st, 1886. 
 
 I confess that I am sometimes stupefied when I see the 
 aspect under which the Barotsi display human nature. Hitherto, 
 I have witnessed nothing like it. The Zambesians have nothing 
 in common with the Bechuana, but a basis of superstition, a 
 black skin, and a dialect of their language. 
 
 The farther I go, the more I believe that tribulations await 
 us. The martyrdom of Bishop Hannington in Uganda gives 
 one food for reflection. We feel more and more the need to 
 cling to God and His promises, come what may. If God be 
 for us, who can be against us? In such surroundings as these, 
 the presence of that glorified Saviour Who has sent us, and to 
 Whom all power is given, not only in heaven, but on earth
 
 RETURN OF MIDDLETON 23 1 
 
 (hence on the Zambesi too), is a glorious reaHty ; and we feel it. 
 Therefore have no uneasiness on our account. We follow the 
 Man of Sorrows. Should we follow Him afar off, and with 
 divided hearts ? But this Man of Sorrows, every knee must bow 
 to Him, every tongue must confess His name. I do understand 
 that the world calls those enthusiasts who follow the Saviour 
 with love. I do not understand how I could have followed Him 
 so long without enthusiasm. 
 
 We love to reckon up the blessings of God as David did. 
 They are far more abundant than we dared to hope. Can you 
 believe that, thanks to the Jesuits' corn, we have never yet 
 wanted for bread ? It is true that we are not so extravagant 
 with it at the Zambesi as in Paris. We also have milk, which 
 in a household like ours is an immense resource. And then, 
 above all, we enjoy good health. This is, no doubt, in answer 
 to the prayers of many friends. My dear wife is the least 
 robust of us ; and she, among us all, has the hardest and most 
 active life. 
 
 I have just been away for a fortnight. Our friend Middleton 
 had sent word to me of his arrival from Pretoria at the ford 
 of Kazungula, after five months' absence. He seemed no less 
 happy than I at our meeting. The wind blew so hard that 
 the canoes could not be navigated for a fortnight. But at last, 
 with a score of willing men, and an armful of setsibas, I managed 
 to get oxen, waggons, and baggage across without too much 
 fuss. Then I returned to Sesheke, leaving Middleton to watch 
 over the baggage, till the country should be dry enough for the 
 waggons to trek. Alas ! we wish we could keep the lovely 
 days that are speeding away. Why are we not already at the 
 Valley to begin our work, and shelter ourselves, before the 
 rains ? They are burning the grass over the surface of the 
 country more or less everywhere. Will they also burn the 
 stubble which we need as thatch for our buildings ? That is one 
 of our anxieties, and not the only one. 
 
 At Kazungula, I met Dr. Holub, who himself had just 
 crossed the Zambesi, and was waiting for porters, in order 
 to start towards the country of the Mashukulumboe. His 
 expedition had been severely tried. He had had great losses 
 of cattle, like ourselves, and had spent a great deal. Two of 
 his best men have died, one at Leshoma, the other at Pata-
 
 232 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 matenga ; a third had to return to Austria ; all the others have 
 been much tried by fever. The expedition is thus reduced to 
 three Europeans, Mrs. Holub, and the Doctor himself. They 
 have got rid of everything that was not absolutely necessary 
 to them : their regimen is severe, but all are full of spirits. I 
 learnt more than one lesson of courage and self-denial from 
 them. It is touching to see this young woman following her 
 husband on foot, through savage tribes and in a cruel climate, 
 in order to share his fatigues and dangers. I offered her one of 
 my donkeys. Ah, why has not the Gospel more of such intrepid 
 missionaries as those of geography ? Why do not the young 
 Christians of France awake ? They are asleep, and the heathen 
 are dying. In response to my expressions of sympathy, Mrs. 
 Holub coloured, and her feelings overcame her. The Doctor 
 said, " Yes, it will be hard and difficult ; but," he added with 
 a beaming face, " if -we succeed, and z/ we can return to Austria 
 — oh ! then our fortune is made ! " 
 
 Well, I thought to myself, I am better off. For us, there 
 is no if . In the service of Jesus, success is certain, whatever 
 men may think ; if only our obedience be implicit, for the 
 fulfilment of His will is success. And after the burden of the 
 day, when we arrive at the end of the journey in the Father's 
 home — oh, then ! . . .
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Third Journey to the Valley — Sesheke to Sefula by Land — The Vanguard 
 with Waggons — Nguana-Ngombe — The Morantsiane — Progress under 
 Difficulties — The Tse-tse Fly — Refractory Servants — Kalangu — An 
 Eclipse of the Sun — Dr. Holub's Disaster — Njoko — A Catastrophe — 
 The Lumbe River — A Vision — Depopulated Districts — Misfortunes never 
 come singly — A Rare Treat — The Motondo River — The Forest of Thirst 
 — The Ruyi River — A Conjuration — Sefula Springs — Hidden Riches of 
 Vegetation — Matsa — Sefula at Last. 
 
 Sesheke, Upper Zambesi, July icjth, 1886. 
 
 AT this date — who doubted it ? — we ought certainly to have 
 arrived at our final destination, Lealuyi, and there 
 vigorously pushed forward our temporary structures. And 
 alas ! here we still are, helpless prisoners at Sesheke. The 
 winter, the good, the only good season for health, for travelling, 
 and for work, is rapidly passing ; indeed, it is already gone. We 
 are sometimes tempted to stamp with impatience, like naughty 
 children. If these delays go on much longer, it will be a 
 question whether it is possible to make the journey, and install 
 ourselves at the Valley, before the rains which begin in 
 November. 
 
 Our friend Middleton was absent six months to renew our 
 supplies. At Mangwato, where, at the present time, commerce 
 is nearly ruined, he found nothing, not even a piece of calico, 
 the indispensable money of the Zambesi. He had to push on to 
 Pretoria. On his return, I hastened to meet him at Kazungula, 
 so as to bring over the baggage, oxen, and waggons, always a 
 great affair. Unhappily, the great plain of Kasaya was still 
 submerged and quite impracticable. Middleton, therefore, had 
 to wait six weeks at Kazungula. This delay causes us the 
 greatest embarrassment. My niece, Mme. Jeanmairet, who 
 hopes shortly to become a mother, was to have gone with 
 
 233
 
 234 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 US to the Valley. Her husband would have joined her there a 
 little later, which would have afforded him the opportunity of 
 making the acquaintance of the king and the principal chiefs 
 of the country. Now we must give up this plan and all its 
 advantages. But what can we do ? To prolong our stay here, 
 and thus retard for a whole year the foundation of our station 
 at Lealuyi, is absolutely out of the question. For us, now, one 
 year is worth ten. We only see one alternative, and we shudder 
 at it, but only for a moment. The duty is clear. I shall start 
 alone for the Valley with our two artisans to begin the work 
 of installation : the waggons will come back to fetch my wife, 
 who must also make the journey alone with Aaron and his 
 family. 
 
 Middleton having at last arrived, our preparations are quickly 
 finished, and our carriages loaded. On the four, we have put 
 scarcely the equivalent of two loads. We are dividing our oxen. 
 Last year, just after our journey from Kazungula to Sesheke, 
 we lost many of them from the tse-tse fly. The generous fore- 
 thought of kind friends has happily enabled us to renew our 
 teams to some extent. Now, by counting the old, the lean, 
 and those we have to lift to their legs, we have just the minimum 
 of oxen required. But it will not do for a single one to die by 
 the way. And now for the drivers ! My waggon has never 
 lacked for an arm, when it has had to roll in the King's service. 
 Here are two men of Mangwato, who will each take charge of 
 a waggon.^ The evangelist Aaron has offered himself to lead 
 mine ; Middleton, helped by Kamburu, will take the fourth ; and 
 Waddell, with Nguana-Ngombe, the cart, transformed once more 
 into a Noah's Ark. We did not arrive at this solution all at 
 once. Last year, our evangelists stood a little on their dignity ; 
 doubtless they feared the Zambesians would misunderstand 
 their position relatively to ourselves — a small weakness which 
 we understood and easily excused. Thus we are all the more 
 pleased at the right spirit which has led Aaron to offer us his 
 services, not only for my journey, but also for that of my dear wife. 
 
 We have still to find "leaders," boys who run before the 
 teams to guide them. But where shall we find these boys? 
 Sesheke and the villages of the chiefs are still abandoned and 
 
 ' Franz, frequently mentioned in subsequent letters, was one of these.
 
 i886] NGUANA-NGOMBfi 235 
 
 in ruins. Those of the Masubia round about are also at this 
 season completely deserted. Men, women, and children are 
 all dispersed in the woods and islands for hunting and fishing. 
 Do we by chance meet some one and speak to him of our 
 journey? ^' Borotsi ke ?taga ea lerinno} lemino le teng" ("The 
 Valley is a country of blood and murder"), he replies, with 
 agitated looks ; " we are afraid to go there." The terror which 
 the Barotsi inspire is such that even our shepherds wished 
 to leave us. The parents of Kamburu and Nguana-Ngombe 
 also hurried hither to stop them. But they remained faithful 
 to us, although their engagement had expired. 
 
 Kamburu is going to adventure himself with the conductor's 
 long whip. " How could he forsake his father in difficulty ? 
 He doesn't know the business, but he will do his best." One 
 cannot ask more. He is somewhat ambitious, is Kamburu. 
 What with the odds and ends of every sort of apparel in which 
 he rigs himself out on occasion, he is on the way to transform 
 himself into a niotJiambezi, a dignity assumed by the Hottentots 
 and half-breeds who follow the Europeans in these parts. One 
 day, his aspirations will lead him to Mangwato, to the Diamond 
 Fields, to Basuto-land — who knows ? — to seek a little work, 
 civilisation, liberty— and a great deal of money. 
 
 As to Nguana-Xgombe, he wishes to stay with us. Contrary 
 to our expectations, he was able to resist the importunities of 
 his elder brother, and above all those of his chief Mokumba's 
 wife, who sent messengers and left no stone unturned to get him 
 away from our house. " I shall wait for my master to come 
 back from Lealuyi ; / want to be educated," he replied respect- 
 fully, but also with characteristic firmness. And do not think 
 that reading, writing, and arithmetic are the only things that 
 enter into his programme. No. For him to be educated means 
 to acquaint himself thoroughly with every kind of work he sees 
 performed : to knead and bake the bread in a pan ; to make 
 candles, saw in a saw-pit, plane boards, sew, iron linen, wash 
 photographic plates, and what not besides? No false shame! 
 His great energy makes every kind of work easy to him. His 
 merry laugh and helping hand often give us a lift forward in 
 undertakings which by no means come within his province. 
 
 ' Lertmio, spear or assegai, equivalent to " murder.'
 
 236 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 This dear child eagerly listens to the preaching of the Gospel. 
 During my last journey to the capital, I sent him a little letter, 
 which he received while ill. " My mother," he said to my wife, 
 " I understand. I too would be a child of God. I would like to 
 be converted." Up to the present, he has not yet made the 
 decisive step. If he left us, it would probably be an irreparable 
 loss. We tremble above all at the thought of this boy, so gifted 
 as he is, and of such an open joyous nature, being dragged back 
 in spite of himself into the brutality and misery of serfdom. 
 But we must not interfere. Our business is to confide the 
 interests of this dear soul to the Saviour Who has given His 
 life to save him. 
 
 Sesheke, Angjist Wi. 
 
 The lords of Sesheke, so long announced and awaited, 
 at last arrived yesterday. The fugitive population took courage, 
 and assembled here for the occasion. One way and another, 
 a great deal of powder was exploded. They are bringing us 
 a perfect legion of new dignitaries, the new Nalishua, Liamine, 
 Mokoro, Lesuani, etc., all of Sesheke — young men of our 
 acquaintance, who, to put it mildly, make us tremble for the 
 future. Kabuku, the Morantsiane elect, is himself a boy of 
 eighteen or twenty. He is the son of Queen Mokwae. At 
 Lealuyi, Lewanika had confidentially pointed him out to me as 
 the viceroy destined for Sesheke. Poor boy ! he is lost among 
 such as Rataii, Tahalima, and Mokhele, whom the contrast 
 makes even older ; and he scarcely knows how to bear the weight 
 of so novel a dignity. He makes grimaces like a coquettish 
 girl ; he winks, twists his mouth, trifles with a rhinoceros horn 
 to occupy his hands, which he does not know what to do with ; 
 he drinks inpote (a honey beer said to be as strong as brandy), 
 and surrounds himself with the ceremonies observed at the court 
 of Lealuyi. He had not been half an hour on the station 
 before he exhibited the cloven hoof of a practised beggar. He 
 had all sorts of wants to satisfy. Above all, he coveted one of 
 our wooden chairs, and would not take " No " for an answer, even 
 after repeated refusals. He returned to the charge with such 
 importunity that I ended by giving in. And now this seat, 
 shining with grease and ochre, is borne before him, as the 
 symbol of his high office !
 
 i886] MOKUMBA AND HIS SLAVE 237 
 
 The old chiefs, our former friends, are as vile and cringing 
 before the young beardless prince as they were haughty. 
 They seem to us like high functionaries who are now disgraced 
 and degraded, but who cannot as yet be dispensed with. At 
 the time of their visit to the capital, the king would not kill a 
 single head of cattle for them ; he only gave them fish to eat. 
 Moreover, they are gloomy and uncommunicative. Lewanika 
 divided up the wives of all the chiefs who have fled or been 
 massacred ; but the children — those dear little children, some 
 of them so intelligent and loveable — have all been pitilessly put 
 to death, to the very last one. They bring us heart-rending 
 details of this horrible tragedy. 
 
 We talk business with them. The king is still sending 
 pressing messages, and the chiefs, who have received their 
 orders, promise us men without delay. For the moment, the 
 great preoccupation of their lordships is the site of the new 
 Sesheke. They have consulted the litaola (divining bones) — 
 " cast the dice," as we should say ; they have sacrificed oxen to 
 the manes of the ancient chiefs of Sesheke ; they have gone 
 at daybreak in procession, ceremoniously led by a woman, to 
 pray at the important tombs ; and then, on Sunday afternoon, 
 they have come in a body to pray to the God of the missionaries ! 
 So nothing is wanting to assure the prosperity of the new 
 capital of the province. What lessons these poor heathen teach 
 us, all the same, in their ignorance ! 
 
 Mokumba, too, has returned. He hastened to come and 
 see us. Nguana-Ngombe laid at his feet his own wages for two 
 years' service, and kneeling before him, clapping his hands, he 
 said in a supplicating tone, " My master, my time is up ; but 
 I would like to stay with the Bariiti " (missionaries) " and be 
 educated — my master." He was trembling with emotion, and 
 great drops of sweat ran down the transparent skin of his face. 
 It was a scene of extreme psychological interest. Mokumba 
 kept silence for some time ; then choosing for himself a fine 
 woollen blanket of flaming colours, and passing the rest to him, 
 " My child," he said at last, " I am Mokumba. I would not 
 be the one to take thee from thy father and mother. They 
 love thee, thou lovest them ; thou art happy ; stay with them. 
 Later on, thou wilt return to me." Our boy's face brightened 
 like lightning ; he gave thanks, and clapped his hands
 
 238 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 ecstatically. It seemed as though he already breathed the 
 first sweet air of liberty, and caught a glimpse of new horizons- 
 All his friends came to congratulate him. As for ourselves, 
 we blessed God. 
 
 Sesheke, August 14M. 
 
 The chiefs have kept their word, and they have astonished 
 us with their eagerness to oblige us. They have brought us a 
 troop of men and youths, and promise us a still larger number. 
 It is in their own interest, for the wages of a slave or serf 
 belong by right to his master, and each of these is to receive 
 a cotton blanket and some calico. By this reckoning, a bale 
 will not go far. Besides, we know our Zambesians well enough 
 to be certain that it is not the greatest number which does the 
 most and the best. Therefore we choose, and inscribe very 
 solemnly the names of those we require, and we dismiss the 
 others politely. That does not suit the chiefs ; they discuss 
 it excitedly, and testify their disappointment and displeasure 
 by half turning their backs to us, frowning and clicking their 
 tongues. But we take no notice of it ; we are used to whims 
 of this kind. 
 
 Augtist iSt/i. 
 
 It was the day before yesterday that our vans at length 
 set off, in the midst of a noisy assemblage of the whole 
 population now at Sesheke. They did not go far. They 
 stuck in the sand two miles from the station. The young 
 Morantsiane, perched on the cone of an ant-heap, and escorted 
 by some youngsters, pretended that it was he who checked 
 us in this way, to avenge the affront I had put upon him by 
 refusing him my pocket-knife. The next day, he sent me a 
 rather more polite message. He had consulted the litaola, and 
 the oracle had replied that Scpopa (a famous king who had 
 restored the Barotsi power after the fall of the Makololo) was 
 incensed against me because I had not yet rendered to him 
 the homage due. What he now requires is the offering of 
 an ox, a goat, a sheep, some calico, etc., and then " he will 
 give me the road." To the stupefaction of my Sesheke 
 friends, I simply unloaded part of the luggage, which I brought 
 back to the station ; and while the waggons, thus lightened, 
 continued their way without hindrance, I stayed to pass the
 
 COLLAPSE OF A WAGGON 239 
 
 day with my own people. The house was very empty without 
 Middleton and Waddell. What will it be when I am finally 
 gone away too ? This day went by on wings. Four o'clock 
 struck. We threw ourselves on our knees. And then — was 
 it a dream ? I found myself all alone, ambling slowly with a 
 heavy heart. My looks involuntarily turned back, and sought 
 yet to distinguish certain forms : the waving of a handker- 
 chief . . . But no ! it is weakness. Forward ! And striking 
 my spurs, I plunged resolutely into the wood. 
 
 My excellent nag speedily brought me to the waggons. 
 We travelled a great part of the night, and before dawn we 
 were already on the march again. But what was my dismay 
 on discovering this morning that, in spite of tolerably recent 
 repairs, the two right wheels of my waggon threatened to 
 collapse. The naves are completely rotten ; you can plunge a 
 knife-blade into them like cork ; the spokes work up and down 
 like pistons, one after another. To console me, they say and 
 repeat and shout in every key all round me, that it will assuredly 
 break up, and will never reach the Valley. I could have boxed 
 the ears of these prophets. Not only must my waggon take me 
 to the Valley, but it Dmst come back and bring my dear wife 
 there too. And then it will have deserved well of the mission 
 and of its friends. There are few missionary waggons which have 
 rolled as far — few which have given so much satisfaction to 
 their travellers. Ten years' service in a country without roads, 
 among woods and rocks and burningj'sands, without ever being 
 sheltered from the wind, the rain, and the rays of a tropical 
 sun, is much — very much. How shall we replace our good old 
 waggon, our Jiomc of so many years in the desert ? Meanwhile, 
 let us repair it as best we can. It is the work of some hours 
 to shorten the circumference of the wheels, to tighten the iron 
 tyres and the spokes with wedges of wood. With this lame 
 arrangement, we continue our way, often casting uneasy looks 
 at the unlucky wheels. 
 
 MosiKiLi, August 12nd. 
 
 Only fifty miles from Sesheke after a whole week of toil ! 
 But patience I Once we are fairly off, we shall travel better. We 
 made a sensation passing through the villages of Ratali, Katukura, 
 Kuenane, etc., for the poor people have never seen oxen under
 
 240 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 the yoke, nor houses on wheels. On the 20th, we reached 
 Loanja, of which we have heard so much. It is the granary 
 of the country. At certain seasons, the Loanja is a stream, 
 or rather a lake ; now it is an immense morass along its 
 whole course, averaging half a mile in width. Its valley is 
 extremely fertile. All the cereals of the country are cultivated 
 there. For the manioc and sweet potato, they make beds on 
 the borders of the swamp, and surround them with deep 
 trenches to drain them. It was not easy for us to avoid either 
 these deep ditches or the traps for big game which abound on 
 the skirts of the woods. Happily, these pits are not furnished 
 with pointed stakes, as those of the Banyai" are. What a rich 
 country this would be in the hands of European agriculturists ! 
 
 Having reached the confines of the tse-tse country, we ask 
 in the king's name for help and a guide from a petty chief, 
 who simply laughs at us. Of our pretended guides, not one 
 knows the way, nor has the power, with which we believed them 
 to be invested, to procure us the help we require. They are 
 nothing but a torment to us with the airs they give themselves. 
 Monibotale is quite an inferior village chief ; but when he talks 
 of himself, which happens not infrequently, he is a Ngiiana- 
 More7ia^ (a prince), a KJiosi e Kana-Kana., such a very great 
 personage ! Why did the chiefs of Sesheke insist so strongly 
 on our taking this route, rather than the one Lewanika was to 
 open on Sekhosi's side ? Our people see in this nothing but a 
 malicious and sordid ruse. 
 
 As we have to travel by night now, Middleton and Waddell, 
 with two natives, offered to go on in advance, to clear the road. 
 Thinking they were too few for so heavy a task, I was inspired 
 with the unlucky idea of starting too, with my hatchet over my 
 slioulder. Waddell had an attack of fever, and dragged along 
 painfully. We hacked vigorously away. Here and there we 
 lighted great fires to show the direction of the road. At ten 
 o'clock, we reached Mosikili, where we were to wait for the 
 waggons. My companions, tired out, curled themselves up 
 round the fire, for it was cold, and quickly dropped off to sleep. 
 
 Alone, I stood to keep watch, plunging my gaze into the 
 thick darkness, straining my ear at the least noise, until I 
 
 * Nguana-Morena = child of a chief, i.e. prince ; Nguana-Ngombe = child 
 of cattle, I.e. calf.
 
 i886] THE TSE-TSE FLY 24 1 
 
 fancied I could hear the bells of the oxen, and see confused 
 shadows looming up before me. At two o'clock in the morning, 
 I sent a couple of men to learn what had happened. They 
 came back at five, saying that Aaron, having missed our road, 
 had got his waggon stuck in the mud of the swamp. Having 
 at once made the oxen cross to an islet where they could graze 
 all day in safety, I returned to the waggons. Mine was indeed 
 there, almost lying on its side in the slime — an accident which 
 would have been impossible by daylight. The men were 
 gloomy and depressed. The exchange of some friendly words, 
 and a good meal which we hastily prepared, quickly brought 
 them round, and the poor fellows worked all day in the mud 
 with admirable spirit. The waggon having been raised out of 
 this fathomless quagmire with infinite difficulty by means of 
 levers, we paved the spongy ground with sunken stones and 
 branches of trees. Happily, we were able to do it all by 
 daylight. At eight o'clock in the evening, the oxen arrived. 
 I do not understand how these people can sort the different 
 teams, and then the oxen belonging to each yoke, on such a 
 dark night, for there was no moon. By ten o'clock, we were 
 out of the marsh, and by 2 a.m. at Mosikili. There, alas ! a 
 new stoppage. Mosikili is an island. To reach it, one must 
 cross an arm of the Loanja, about three hundred and fifty yards 
 wide, with water above one's knee. And of course our last 
 waggon must needs stick there. In vain we double the teams ; 
 in vain everybody, chilled to the bone, stands and shouts at the 
 full pitch of his lungs. The first streaks of dawn are already 
 lighting the horizon, and, willy-nilly, we must give up the job 
 until the next night, and save our oxen. 
 
 How capricious this murderous fly is ! Can it be believed 
 that swarms of it abound in the forests which skirt the Loanja, 
 while on the islands, about five hundred yards off, there is no 
 trace of them ? These islands are sure and well-known refuges, 
 where the Barotsi in travelling always pen their cattle. 
 
 I could not help smiling when I heard of a curious and 
 original theory. It would seem that people had been strangely 
 mistaken as to the nature of the Glossina morsitans. Its sting, 
 we are given to understand, is perfectly innocuous. The 
 disasters attributed to it are simply the effects of a malarial 
 climate. Thus the oxen are subject to marsh fever like their 
 
 16
 
 242 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 masters ! Well, what tons of quinine we should need to save 
 them ! And if, after all, it were true, what fatigues and 
 anxieties would be spared us ! It is a fact that very little is 
 as yet known of the tse-tse. It follows the buffaloes in their 
 migrations : so much is certain. My own opinion is that it 
 lays its eggs in their dung, and that it sucks their blood ; for, 
 according to the hunters, the moment they have knocked over 
 a large animal, its carcase is instantly covered with swarms 
 of tse-tse. 
 
 Augtist 22?id (? lyd). 
 
 How difficult is the education of our Zambesians ; above all, 
 of the Mathambezi ! ^ River people, passionately addicted to 
 fishing and canoeing, all other kinds of work they abominate, 
 and this kind especially. They are afraid of the oxen ; they 
 abhor the waggons and the night journeys. And here are two 
 successive nights that they have not slept. They are chilly, 
 and that makes them cross ; one can only stir them by scolding. 
 Provided they have food, fire, and sleep, nothing else matters 
 much to them. Whether we progress or not, whether the 
 cattle stray or the waggons stick, they care very little. A 
 scene took place this morning, during which all the bitterness 
 of the Mathambezi overflowed. The Zambesians struck very 
 decidedly : they rolled up their mats, and prepared to go 
 home. 
 
 " Be off ! " cried all the drivers at once. " Be off, quick ! 
 If it were not for the Moruti^ we would thrash you all like dogs. 
 Begone with you, foxes — run ! " 
 
 And if they Jiad gone ? . . . I called the recalcitrants, and 
 addressed some sharp reprimands to them, which they received 
 with a fawning air, repeating at every sentence, " Ntate, Ntate " 
 (" Father "), and then went back to their work. 
 
 Thus for the time the storm was calmed. But it did not 
 make the boys do their work with any better grace. The 
 stuck waggon kept us the greater part of the night, and we 
 are forced to stay here over Sunday. 
 
 Kalangu, Ajtgust i\th. 
 Kalangu is the name of a petty Matolela chief, extended 
 also to his village. This worthy old man, learning that we 
 ' Half-civilised people.
 
 i886] KALANGU'S 243 
 
 were at Mosikili, sent a band of young fellows to meet us and 
 guide us, for fear, he said, we should be surprised by daylight 
 in the midst of the tse-tse. We were travelling royally : it was 
 a treat. Suddenly the cry of alarm sounded from behind. We 
 ran with our lanterns. " The oxen won't go on," Kamburu 
 said piteously ; " we can't manage it." A moment's inspection, 
 and we discovered that several had got the traces under their 
 bodies, and were being dragged along by the rest of the team. 
 No wonder they would not go on ! This little incident did not 
 damp the spirits of the caravan. Our Matolela ran on ahead 
 with blazing firebrands ; they screamed, bellowed, and yelped 
 like a troop of jackals. Was it to frighten the wild beasts, or 
 to announce our arrival from afar? Our principal guide has 
 adopted the motto that you must never give a white man 
 exact information about the road. And he has so thoroughly 
 indoctrinated the others, that when we ask how far we are 
 from Kalangu's they invariably reply, " Oh, it is still far, far, very 
 far ! " " Well then, let us outspan, so that the oxen may rest 
 a little." " What ! outspan ? " cried my mentor, quite taken 
 aback ; " but we are just there ; it is here, close by." And he 
 was right. It was now 2 a.m. As usual, we crossed the oxen 
 to an island, and sought a little sleep. When I awoke, curiosity 
 had brought the whole population together : a grand oppor- 
 tunity for preaching the Gospel ; and it was not the only one, 
 for we had to pass two days at Kalangu's, while they were 
 clearing the road before us. Two pleasant days with such 
 sociable people ; but, alas ! two days of delay. 
 
 August 25//%, 1886. 
 
 Twelve hours under the yoke — from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. ! In 
 all my missionary life, I only remember a single circumstance 
 in which such a thing has befallen me, and that was when 
 the Matabele took us prisoners among the Banyai. Kalangu's 
 people conducted us with lively clamour for about ten miles, 
 and handed us over to the petty Matolela chief Moanza, who 
 was expecting us. He furnished us with men, and we continued 
 on our way. Now it is that our difficulties begin. The road 
 here has not been cleared at all, and we are obliged to make it 
 as we go along. We are bordering the forest on the left, and 
 the swamp on the right in the direction of N.N.W. Our new
 
 244 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 guides say it is cold ; they light fires, and take a nap, while we 
 are working, or while our chariots stick in the inevitable bogs. 
 Impossible to procure the slightest assistance. I consulted my 
 watch ; we looked at the stars with ever-growing anxiety. 
 " Make haste ; the daylight will overtake us." This was the 
 universal cry. In fact, the dawn appeared, and we were still at 
 some distance from an island that had been pointed out to us. 
 While our Zambesians were roasting themselves by the fire, we 
 hastily outspanned ; and Aaron, with another conductor, made 
 our exhausted oxen run towards the island in question. 
 
 We were close to a deep rivulet whose marshy banks filled 
 us with fear. After a necessarily frugal breakfast, we were 
 obliged to seek a ford, and pave it with wood and branches. In 
 spite of all our precautions, the following night we were not out 
 of it before one o'clock in the morning. So there was a whole 
 week of great exertions all consumed in crossing the tse-tse 
 regions. And we thought we should have done it in two nights ! 
 Thank God, however, here we are at its limits. But still we 
 have to inspan before dawn for safety, and travel all day under 
 a fiery sun and through burning sands to reach the water. 
 This journey utterly finishes both men and beasts : they can 
 march no longer, only drag themselves along. And with what 
 a cry of joy we salute an open glade that gives us a glimpse of 
 a sheet of water ! It is Matsa} 
 
 At the rivulet Siboya, August 2>oth. 
 
 Moanza's people give us infinite worry ; they will not do 
 anything. At night, " they are not going to travel, not they " ; 
 in the morning, it is too cold to wield the hatchet ; at midday, 
 it is too hot. I have tried in vain to get rid of these greedy 
 vampires ; they are on the look out for setsibas. However, they 
 succeeded in making us lose our way in the woods, on purpose, 
 far out of our course, near another belt of tse-tse. Heaven 
 knows where they would have brought us, if some chiefs of 
 Sesheke, who in their turn were going to pay homage to the 
 king, had not sent us some good guides. The forest was thick, 
 the sand deep, and our oxen exhausted ; it was Saturday, and 
 it was necessary at all costs to reach the water. We left two 
 
 ' Plural of Ictsa, pool — " pan " or " vley " in Cape language.
 
 i886] THE TOTAL ECLIPSE 245 
 
 waggons, and took all the oxen to pull the two others. We 
 courageously hacked our way through the thickets ; but it was 
 impossible to know the general direction we ought to follow, 
 and from east to west, and vice versd, we zigzagged round 
 all the points of the compass. 
 
 However, towards twilight, we came out by a charming 
 rivulet which flows north, and bears its waters to an affluent 
 of the Njoko. Our young men, tired out, struck, and refused 
 every kind of service. The next day was a miserable Sunday, 
 for we had to fetch the other vehicles left in a waterless desert. 
 A deep sadness possessed me. At four o'clock in the afternoon, 
 we enjoyed the imposing spectacle of a total eclipse of the sun. 
 It was splendid. Our boys, hidden in the woods, rushed up 
 quite thunderstruck. " Yo ! we are all dead men ! " The fowls 
 went to roost ; the dogs bayed ; the stars shone in the sky. 
 In the midst of my cares, I had quite forgotten the phenomenon, 
 for which I am angry with myself. We had a good meeting 
 afterwards. I also spoke seriously to my boys, and threatened 
 to complain to Lewanika about them. I felt that ^/la^ bolt 
 missed the mark. However this may be, they promised amend- 
 ment. The day closed better than it began. 
 
 Atigiist 2,^ St. 
 
 What a surprise ! The messenger I sent to Sesheke last 
 Friday has returned already. Three hundred miles in four days 
 and a half is not bad. It took us two weeks. I joyfully gave 
 him his setsiba, and retired to enjoy by myself the precious 
 missives he brought. Good news of my people, thank God ! 
 My dear wife, who had been ill for a week after my departure, 
 is better, and tries to carry on her little widowed household. 
 The Jeanmairets are going on as usual. The new Morantsiane 
 promises to be a thorn in their side, and, as my wife remarks, 
 they will need all the grace of God to know how to be both 
 firm and kind. 
 
 And what news of Dr. Holub's expedition ! Pillaged, com- 
 pletely pillaged, by the Mashukulumboe, not without bloody 
 reprisals ! It has returned to Kazungula in a deplorable 
 condition of sickness and destitution. No calico, no blankets, 
 to send them, for I had taken them all. They are our purse, 
 But our good Dorcas, with the help of our " children," succeeded
 
 246 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 in making up a good parcel of dresses, linen, soap, etc., to help 
 Dr. and Mrs. Holub. In this check, there are some details I 
 cannot well understand, but the sympathy of those who have 
 hearts will not be wanting. I can easily put myself in Dr. 
 Holub's place, for our Matolela and our Mangete are no better 
 than the Mashukulumboe, and they would treat us worse if 
 they dared. " Oh, how I think of God's mercy ! " writes my 
 wife ; " He does not leave us to ourselves — He guides us by His 
 counsel. And when darkness surrounds us, such darkness that 
 we really do not know whether to turn right or left. He says 
 to us, ' This is the way ; walk ye in it.' The contrast between 
 our expedition and the Holubs' is quite a sermon to me. I 
 think a great deal of what happened to us at Masonda's,^ and 
 I tell myself how easy it would have been for us, by the slightest 
 imprudence, to put ourselves into the same position as that 
 in which the Holubs now find themselves." It is perfectly 
 true. 
 
 River Seba, an affluent of the Njoko, Septatiber 2nd. 
 We have worked all these days, until the axe was ready 
 to drop from my hand. We are all as black as sweeps, and 
 can scarcely look at each other without laughing. Since we 
 left Sesheke, the country (woods and plains lately burnt) is 
 quite covered with ashes, which, being stirred up by the oxen, 
 envelop us in a thick cloud. We can only breathe when 
 here and there we find grass of last year spared by the general 
 conflagration. We do not get on. When shall we arrive ? 
 Will it be possible for my wife to make the journey this year ? 
 
 Njoko, Septejtibe?' yd. 
 We were making our way slowly and painfully through the 
 woods to reach a distant ford, when the chiefs from Sesheke, 
 of whom I have already spoken, and who acted for us as a 
 volunteer vanguard, sent us information that they had found 
 a passage close by — a very good ford, stony bottom, no 
 shoals, very little water, and above all no mud-holes. We went 
 to inspect it ; and although it was not precisely all that they 
 said, we believed it to be practicable. The river at this place 
 
 ' See chap. II.
 
 PASSAGE OF THE NJOKO 247 
 
 is eighty yards wide, with a very rapid current. We launched 
 my waggon, drawn by thirty-two oxen. It was eight o'clock 
 in the morning. We thought all would be finished by ten 
 o'clock, and that, after the ordinary midday halt, we should 
 start, and travel by forced marches, so as to pass Sunday at 
 the Lumbd Unhappily, as always happens in such cases, 
 hindrances arose : oxen unharnessed, yokes detached, yoke- 
 keys broken ; and then, at the moment of coming out of the 
 water, the hind wheels stuck so fast that one of the naves 
 disappeared in the mud. Before us a short but steep slope ; 
 the oxen refused to make any effort : cries, blows, altering the 
 angle of the traces — all was in vain. The waggon twice 
 dragged backwards into the middle of the river, now lurched 
 to the left against a sand-bank, while trying to avoid a quagmire 
 on the right. But we put chiefs and Matolela to the wheels ; 
 a few strokes of the spade, a long pull and a strong pull, and 
 we shall easily be out of it ! Yes ; only the oxen have turned 
 obstinate and pig-headed : they neither hear nor feel any longer. 
 Some pull backwards ; others, by a dexterous movement of 
 the neck, slip the yokes over their heads, and stare defiantly 
 at the execrable waggon. One detaches himself and escapes ; 
 another lies down, strangles himself out of pure contrariness, 
 foams, bellows, and stretches himself out for dead. " Bite his 
 tail ! " In vain they bite his tail ; he remains insensible. 
 Order being at last established, and each man at his post, before 
 unloading we make one last effort. Our Matolela find it is 
 less trouble to work with the tongue than with the shoulder ; 
 they make an appalling hullabaloo. The exasperated oxen 
 fling themselves to the right with such impetuosity that no one 
 can stop them. We see the left wheels rising ; the danger is 
 imminent ; the frantic people lose their heads completely. Some 
 throw themselves upon the wheels, others upon the oxen. And 
 in less time than it takes to tell you, the van had lost its 
 centre of gravity, and lay on its side, upset in the river. A 
 blank silence succeeded ; the natives, stupefied, nailed to the 
 spot, with their hands on their mouths, looked at one another, 
 and looked at me. Certainly it was not the time to lose one's 
 head. We outspanned the oxen, and rushed to the capsized 
 waggon. My heart is sore at the sight of this wreck, and at 
 the thought of my wife's journey. And the river current,
 
 248 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 churning up the sand amid the chaos of our baggage, laughs 
 aloud, as if to insult our misery. 
 
 To extricate our packing-cases, flung together pell-mell, to 
 fish out our bedding, our bales, our sacks of provisions, was a 
 laborious task, lasting some hours : Waddell and Middleton 
 imposed it on themselves. It was three in the afternoon. 
 Waddell looked as white as a sheet ; he staggered, and I 
 thought he was going to faint. I then remembered that we 
 had had nothing since the evening before. I ran and fetched 
 him some wine to give him a spurt. I would fain have fled 
 the sickening sight, when our baggage was out of the water. 
 Here is my case of scientific instruments turned upside-down, 
 the lid broken, the instruments scattered ; here is my bedding, 
 my change of garments, my linen, everything dripping with 
 water and full of sand. There are our provisions, coffee, tea, 
 lard, honey, with which our good housekeeper had taken special 
 care to provide us ; vermicelli, arrowroot, very carefully kept 
 for times of illness, — all that spilt, mixed up, trampled in the 
 mire. A sack of flour is drawn from the bottom of the river 
 which was to have lasted us for months ; then the salt-bag and 
 the sugar-bag. But the bags are empty, salt and sugar com- 
 pletely melted ! Then, again, my little travelling library, Bibles, 
 hymn-books, scientific works, books of medicine, literary works, 
 journals and reviews from the last post, stationery — all a mass 
 of muddy pulp. And to put the finishing touch, the whole of 
 them thrown on to a bank newly swept by fire, and covered 
 with thick layers of black ashes. 
 
 But let us leave the baggage, and think of the waggon. We 
 take the understel to pieces, bit by bit, which is easy. Next, 
 we have to extricate the tilt, which is less so. The important 
 thing is to carry it, to raise it at arm's length above the great 
 wheels, so as to put it back on the understel ; and that almost 
 surpassed our strength. The sand and water had doubled, 
 tripled its weight, and our Matolela left us almost alone to make 
 those efforts which threatened to break us in half By dint of 
 entreaties, scoldings, and patience, however, we at last accom- 
 plished it, and finally the tilt fell into its place, amid deafening 
 cheers. So there is my poor waggon once more erect. Good 
 old friend, our home on wheels during so many years in these 
 far-off and unknown countries, in the midst of such diverse
 
 A DISMAL EXHIBITION 249 
 
 adventures, what a crushed and melancholy look you wear, 
 with your sides forced in, porch in rags, windows ^ smashed, tilt 
 torn and muddy, box and brake all to pieces ! 
 
 It was now twilight. Everybody had dispersed over the 
 neighbouring hillock to bivouac. I was left quite alone, in the 
 midst of my wreckage. The one thing that shone out amid 
 the tumult of my thoughts was a lively sense of God's goodness. 
 Undoubtedly, I shall have to pay, and pay rather dearly, for 
 the services of the Sesheke chiefs. But these services were a 
 great help to us ; their behaviour gave us pleasure. What should 
 we have done without them, at the mercy of the Mangete 
 and Matolela? Above all, what should we have done, if such 
 an accident had befallen us in the swamps of Loanja, at night, 
 in the midst of the tse-tse country, my wife with us, far from 
 any village and any possible help ? The accident might have 
 been ten times, a hundred times worse, and quite irremediable. 
 At the camp, the Barotsi had made me a shelter against the 
 blowing wind with some branches and a little grass. Waddell 
 offered me his Scotch plaid, which I could not accept ; Middleton 
 procured me one or two cotton coverlets ; Kamburu had found 
 me some grass for my couch ; Aaron gave me his pillow ; and 
 Nguana-Ngombe, ill as he was, had furnished me with the 
 garment of the poor, a blazing fire. Thus cosseted by all 
 my people, and exhausted with fatigue, I lay down and slept 
 profoundly till morning. Then we had to begin our task over 
 again ; carry all our luggage in our arms to the plateau ; and, 
 in the midst of a curious and ever-increasing crowd, who have 
 no honesty to spare, nor discretion either, to empty the cases, 
 spread out dresses, clothing, linen, remnants, utter rags, the 
 •colours coming off on one another, articles of barter, provisions, 
 groceries — all damaged and already fermenting ! What an 
 exhibition ! It was then that I could take stock of our losses. 
 How priceless henceforth will everything be which reaches the 
 Valley safe and sound ! It was in the midst of this dismal 
 drying-ground that I preached the Gospel to an audience of 
 two hundred and fifty people. The men listened attentively, 
 but the chatter of the women knew no respite : their ears were 
 ■closed to the preaching. It was our frippery that absorbed their 
 looks and thoughts. It saddened me deeply. 
 
 ' Of four small panes — an unusual luxury in a waggon.
 
 250 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 At the Lumbe River, September nth. 
 
 The journey is most laborious. Our axes do not grow rusty, 
 but our arms grow weary. The sand is such, and our oxen 
 are so tired, that we scarcely make two miles an hour. Middle- 
 ton's team is reduced from fourteen to ten ; we are obliged 
 to leave his waggon behind to fetch it later on, and that doubles 
 our stages. At Lake Kambe, Waddell knocked down an antelope, 
 a khokong (gnu). I was proud of it for him, for it was his 
 first piece of big game, and pleased for ourselves because of 
 the meat. 
 
 Directing our course N.N.W. through a wood, we came out 
 on the dried-up lake of Isemvu, thence into the spongy valley 
 of a stream, tributary to the Lumbe. At its source, it is 
 nothing but a marsh ; two miles lower down are pools ; and 
 farther on, joining itself to another affluent of the Lumbe, it 
 forms impracticable swamps, stretching away out of sight. 
 Impossible to get near the Lumbe. At 9 p.m., we halted 
 at the edge of a forest, to pass Sunday there. " The Lumbe," 
 said our enlighten ers, " has only one known ford, and this ford 
 is deep : the water reaches to the neck." This was sad news 
 indeed. A visit that we paid it next day convinced us that 
 this report falls far short of the truth. To reach the river, we 
 must cross morasses, and skirt deep pools, treading a soft, 
 saturated soil. At first sight, it seems physically impossible. 
 Must we unload everything, take it all to pieces, carry luggage 
 and waggon in our arms, and transport the whole in canoes? 
 And how many days will that take us ? I dare not think of it. 
 
 On the Lumbe, right bank, Septembe?' 20th. 
 
 What a delicious day of rest we had here yesterday ! The 
 first since we set out. One must work all the week as we do 
 to know with what joy we greet the Lord's Day. After 
 breakfast and worship, each one seeks out a shady, quiet corner, 
 and sleeps — sleeps as though he had never slept before. I read, 
 write, meditate, and with one bound behold me travelling in 
 every part of the world. I am in Leribe, ... in Europe, . . . 
 in France. I see those happy meetings which from afar seem 
 to me like spiritual feasts. My sky darkens a little ; the 
 solitude around me grows vaster; I feel myself in a dry and 
 thirsty land where no water is. Satan is not far off. But
 
 l886] THE LUMBt RIVER 25 1 
 
 while I am letting my thoughts rove, a vision suddenly 
 illuminates them. Rising to a higher plane, I see no longer 
 merely the places known and loved, the Bethels of my 
 pilgrimages, but I review the countries of the whole world 
 where the preaching of the Good News resounds. I seem to 
 hear it mounting towards the sky, from populous cities and 
 deserts, from towns and hamlets, from continents and isles 
 lost in the sea, a universal symphony of praise, wherein the 
 diversities of human tongue are harmoniously blended. It 
 seems to me that the day is about to break, in which every 
 knee shall bow to Jesus, and every tongue confess that He is 
 Lord, to the glory of God the Father ! Then I take courage 
 and leap for joy. Around me, it is true, all is yet silence and 
 darkness. But what will it be when these tribes of the Zambesi 
 and the nations of the interior see the Great Light, and join 
 their voices to this mighty concert ? 
 
 From here, we can still see our camp of last week : we have, 
 however, made a great step forward, for then we were on the 
 left bank, and here we are on the right bank. The Lumbe is 
 a deep stream, and its banks cannot contain it. It spreads 
 into a denuded plain, several miles wide, where it divides into 
 an infinity of branches, separated by impassable swamps which 
 are characteristic of the rivers in the intertropical and equatorial 
 regions of this continent. It flows parallel to the Njoko from 
 north to south, and thirty leagues from here throws itself 
 into the Zambesi from the top of a basalt wall, where it forms 
 a series of cascades. I have tried to determine its geographical 
 position. For two days, we explored its course, some of us on 
 foot, and some on horseback, without finding any ford but the 
 one in front of us. However, discovering a less marshy place, 
 where the waggons could approach the river without too much 
 danger, we decided to pass our baggage over in canoes, and 
 afterwards risk our empty vehicles at the ford already mentioned. 
 Some petty chiefs, attracted by the bait of setsibas, soon ran 
 up with some men. " The river was almost empty," an old man 
 said to me ; " but since that terrible marvel of the other day, it 
 has filled up again." Unlucky eclipse ! what calamities are not 
 attributed to it? The canoes they brought were quite small : 
 a single person with an oarsman can kneel in one, if he keep 
 his balance very nicely. The idea occurred to me of coupling
 
 252 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 them two and two, and thus we transported all our baggage 
 without the least accident. The passage of the ford was much 
 more dangerous. But we had taken our measures. With the 
 help of the thick cords of the country, we succeeded, not without 
 trouble, in preventing the teams and waggons from being carried 
 away by the current. There you have the work of a whole 
 week. With a bridge, it would have taken a few minutes. Poor 
 Africa ! Happy civilised countries ! 
 
 Our provisions were at the lowest ebb, and there is a famine 
 in the country. Impossible to procure victuals before reaching 
 Ruyi.^ And how get there with exhausted oxen ? We took a 
 great resolution. We chose the best oxen, took two waggons, 
 and left the two others, which we shall fetch later on. We gave 
 Franz and Kamburu the remainder of our food, calico, and 
 beads, and bade them good-bye. We travel much better now. 
 We have made seven leagues to-day towards the north-east, 
 still following the valley, or rather the plain, of the Lumbe. It 
 is not less than five or six miles across, and is bordered on both 
 sides by woods, sending out sandy spurs which we could not 
 avoid. The soil is rich in minerals, and we find here and there 
 the remains of former smelting furnaces. We are not far from 
 the celebrated mines of Kachenje, whence the Matolela ^ of 
 the whole country extract iron for their own use, as well as 
 for their small commerce and the tribute they owe to the king. 
 It would seem that, formerly, mining operations were seriously 
 carried on in the Lumbe Valley, as in all the tributaries of the 
 Zambesi. Evidently a dense population once dwelt there, 
 judging by the fields lying fallow, and the raised beds surrounded 
 by trenches, now covered with grass, where the manioc and 
 sweet potato were cultivated. From a distance one would take 
 them for tombs. 
 
 What has become of this population ? A melancholy prob- 
 lem. When I travelled by canoe on the Zambesi, and wondeied 
 at the depopulation of so rich a country, my guide told me 
 that the inhabitants had retreated towards the interior for 
 greater security. And now the still more remote north is 
 pointed out to me as their whereabouts. At Sesheke, they told 
 
 ' Or Luyi. 
 
 ^ This tribe has almost the monopoly of iron-smelting and working, the 
 making of knives, assegais, etc.
 
 A GREAT MISFORTUNE 253 
 
 US that we should travel among numerous tribes — Machaba- 
 chaba. Where are they? Here and there a village, a hamlet 
 hidden in the woods — that is all. The conquest of the country 
 by the Makololo has begun this work of destruction which the 
 insatiable rapacity of the Barotsi still carries on. 
 
 In the hands of European colonists, this country would prove 
 inexhaustibly rich. Everything could be cultivated there, the 
 products of tropical as well as those of temperate climates. 
 The drawback is the question of markets — that is, ways of trans- 
 port. At any rate, even now there would be a work for 
 commercial philanthropists to do. From the missionary point 
 of view, if we were rich in men and means, there is room for 
 a missionary establishment in the environs of Njoko. Already 
 there are several villages there ; and one is justified in believing 
 that the scanty population would group itself round a station. 
 It would be a connecting link between Sesheke and Lcaluyi. 
 
 September 22}id. 
 
 Misfortunes never come singly. First it is a sheep that dies, 
 then a goat, then a calf. Good-bye to milk. Then it is an ox 
 that breaks its leg, and must be slaughtered. All that is 
 nothing. But here is my watch, my inseparable companion 
 night and day, my repeater, the memento of a friend now in 
 heaven, my only watch, which is broken and will not go. In 
 vain I look at it, coax it, wind it ; its pulse has ceased to beat, 
 and here I am without a watch. I had another indeed, but I 
 was constrained to give it away in recognition of services 
 rendered to us. I feel quite at sea. How can such a misfortune 
 have befallen me ? Could it have been at the Lumbe, in wielding 
 the hatchet through the woods ? 
 
 Another vexation. The guides given us by the chief 
 Moana-Moari have led us astray. Having reached a path that 
 they assured us was the right one, we left the Lumbe to plunge 
 into the forest. We worked without intermission all the after- 
 noon and the next morning to open the road. But the path 
 swerved from south-west to south. That was not our direction ; 
 I began to have my doubts. Close by a leafy shelter a fire was 
 still burning, and we found there the remains of a recent meal. 
 Evidently it was some travellers', who had just fled at our 
 approach. In a moment, xA.aron had mounted the horse. Oh
 
 2 54 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 that good horse, what services he has rendered us ! God bless 
 you, unknown friends who gave him to us. Aaron reached the 
 travellers, allayed their terrors, and learnt from them that the 
 path we were following led to the mines of Kachenje ; the road 
 to Ruyi ^ is farther on. Good : there is so much labour lost ! 
 We retrace our steps, and push twelve miles farther on. Some 
 travellers, who were bringing a troop of young girls for the 
 service of the king's house, reassured us. "It is the highway 
 to the capital ; there is no other." This highway is not two 
 feet wide. It is because the natives, however numerous they 
 be, never walk abreast, but always in single files, strictly 
 observing the rules of precedence. We set to work again, and 
 came out at the Isiki Pan. This is one of the numerous lakes 
 dotted about between the Lumbe and the Ruyi, very shallow 
 depressions of the soil, which partly dry up in spring, but which, 
 at floodtime, form immense sheets of water from the surplus 
 of the Zambesi. I succeeded in buying a little corn from the 
 travellers we met, and even salt. Salt ! Aaron, who scented 
 it out before I did, went off secretly, and bought a tiny little 
 calabash of it, which he presented to me. This salt is still quite 
 full of sand and earth : all the same, it is salt ; and when one has 
 been deprived of it for days, one could crunch it up like sugar. 
 
 At the River Motondo, September 2<^th. 
 Nambora ka nkoli! This was our nightmare ever since 
 Sesheke. Every one spoke of it with terror. Nambora ka 
 nkoli — that is, the forest " where one only drinks the water in 
 his gourd." It is all thickets, sand, and thirst. The Zambesians 
 have a terrible fear of thirst, and endure it very ill. The water 
 of their river is delicious, and they drink it for pleasure. To 
 be reduced to what is in one's gourd spells calamity. It took 
 two days to make a passage through this ill-famed forest. 
 Happily, Middleton, now that he no longer has his waggon, 
 can take my hatchet and help me. It is only thirty miles 
 across ; we entered it at two o'clock in the morning, and at 
 
 ' In a private letter, M. Coillard says : "The Zambesians make a remark- 
 able confusion of the /and the r. The natives do not seem to make mistakes, 
 but the shade of difference still escapes us. We hear Loboshi and Robosi, 
 used indifferently for king Levvanika's youthful name ; Rumbe and Lumbe 
 Ruyi and Liiyi. Euphony seems to give the preference to the sound of / in 
 Lealuyi." Major Serpa Pinto uniformly calls Robosi Lobossi.
 
 i886] THE RUYI RIVER 255 
 
 night we had left it behind us. " No more difficulties ; we 
 have passed Nambora ka itkoli." We came out upon an open 
 glade. It is neither a valley nor a plain. It is partly both — 
 an immense grassy track four miles wide, which appears on 
 the horizon north-north-east between little hills, and disappears 
 in the distance on the north-west between other blue hills — 
 a wide marsh, where the Motondo, without banks, spreads 
 out over a soil which it saturates like a sponge. Here and 
 there it forms deep pools, divides and subdivides into several 
 branches, which try to hollow out a channel each for itself. 
 On the banks of this immense swamp, a light crust forms, 
 elastic to the tread. Woe to the ox or the wheel that breaks 
 through it ! It will find a fathomless quagmire. Alas ! that 
 is just what befell us ; and though we had crossed our luggage 
 bit by bit in the cart, my empty waggon fell through, all four 
 wheels, as high as the floor ; and it was only after two days' 
 unspeakable labour that we got it out, almost by miracle. On 
 the principal arm of the Motondo, there is still to be seen 
 a confused mass of cleft stakes. These are the ruins of a bridg^e, 
 a rustic one indeed, which Lewanika in one of his expeditions 
 had made for his army to cross over. 
 
 At the Ruyi River, October \st. 
 After the Motondo, here is the Ruyi, separated from us 
 "by a wood eight miles broad. The Ruyi is an enlarged 
 edition of the Motondo — a marshy plain of similar appearance, 
 where the Ruyi meanders, spreads out, forms pools, ponds, 
 lagoons, and brooks. I rode on ahead, and directed my steps 
 towards an islet covered with huts, like straggling beads on 
 a rosary. At the sight of my extraordinary quadruped, some 
 big boys, who were herding cattle, broke off their games, 
 collected their cows, and fled with piercing cries. The men of 
 the village were more reasonable ; they came to meet me, and 
 led me across that labyrinth of ponds and watercourses which 
 they call the ford. The alluvial deposit having been carried 
 off by the rise of the waters, there is nothing left but a layer 
 of sand on a bed of clay. We should thus have passed without 
 any difficulty, if, at the principal stream, we had not fallen into 
 a quicksand. The chief, Kuangu-Mune, soon came to our help 
 with men and canoes. This venerable old man immediately
 
 256 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 threw himself into the water, and, without saluting us, broke 
 into voluble prayers and imprecations towards the gods, who 
 are hostile to us. He sprinkled his arms, his chest, his forehead ; 
 he spat on the oxen and spat on the waggon to exorcise them, 
 while everybody looked on reverentially. The ceremony 
 concluded, " You will come out of it now," he said, saluting 
 me good-humouredly ; " I have conjured them away." Indeed, 
 I gave him reason to think so, for, with the help of his canoes 
 and his people, I immediately unloaded the waggon. When 
 it had got free from the sand-bank, the night was advanced. 
 I discovered the next day that the water had penetrated our 
 cases, and caused us fresh losses ; and also that, favoured by 
 the darkness, Kuangu-Mune's people had robbed us. That 
 cast a cloud over our interview. He brought me food by way 
 of salutation, and I made him a present worthy of his own. 
 But I peremptorily refused the setsibas these people asked for 
 their services of the day before, until the thief should be found 
 and the things given back. We spent Sunday there to rest 
 man and beast, and with the guides furnished by Kuangu- 
 Mune we continued our tiring journey on Monday. 
 
 At the Springs of Sefula, October ()th. 
 
 This is a date that thrilled us with joy. One more stage, 
 they tell us, a long one, and we shall be there. It is like a 
 beautiful dream. They told us, " Ruyi is the last river, the 
 very last." But they did not tell us we had passed the last 
 bad places. But let us speak no more of them. The long 
 night journeys with waggons sinking in mire, or bumping 
 against thick trees ; the day marches under a fiery sun, where 
 the oxen bore the yoke so mournfully, and so painfully ploughed 
 the sands, while the drivers dragged themselves wearily along, 
 and guided their teams as if they had given up the last hope 
 of being obeyed ; the unreasoning murmurs, and the agonising 
 cares, — all these will now be over. Perhaps w^e shall have the 
 consolation of finding ourselves in conflict with difficulties of 
 another sort. 
 
 From Ruyi, bearing to the north-west, we pass Lake 
 Mokangu, a fine expanse of water, then Kataba, then the brook 
 of Moale, separated from one another by zones of forest, and 
 communicating with the Zambesi, whose overflow they receive.
 
 i886] THE SPRINGS OF SEFULA 257 
 
 The country itself presents the same aspect almost every- 
 where from Sesheke hitherto : plains, sands, denuded clearings, 
 and marshes — vast solitudes, so silent by day that it is hard to 
 believe they are inhabited, a melancholy panorama of extreme 
 monotony, in which it is difficult to find one's bearings. The 
 dunes which run along the Njoko, and keep it confined in its 
 bed, form the sole exception. With the intelligent Mangete 
 these interminable woods are not entirely without interest. 
 They readily acquaint you with the great variety of wild fruits 
 one finds there, the different kinds of honey, etc. They show 
 you the india-rubber tree, a magnificent tree of the fig family, 
 which the Barotsi are fond of planting on the tombs of their 
 kings, and many other species of which they do not know the 
 commercial value. You are especially struck by the grand 
 proportions of certain trees which are covered with a cork bark. 
 Not that this cork is good for anything ; but intelligent culture 
 might improve it. I do not speak of the gums, nor of the wild 
 cotton one finds everywhere, nor yet of the precious fibres 
 which European industry could not fail to turn to account. But 
 these Zambesian forests must not make you think of the 
 equatorial ones, still less of those in Europe or the New World. 
 No, our forests are what the English in Australia call bush — a 
 mass of trees and shrubs, torn about by the winds, stunted, and, 
 in general, prematurely old. Life there languishes and easily 
 flickers out. The sands of which we have to complain so much 
 cover up a very hard and impermeable layer. That explains 
 at once the astonishing fertility of this sandy veldt where 
 irrigation is impossible, and the paralysis of aborescent growth. 
 There are exceptions to this. By infiltration, all these de- 
 pressions of the soil, these natural reservoirs they call matsa, 
 communicate with one another, and give birth to numerous 
 watercourses, like the Seba, the Siboya, the Sefula, the 
 Kanyonyo, etc. Geology will one day reveal to us the mineral 
 riches of these countries, if any exist. 
 
 Sefula, October \6th to lyd. 
 
 From the Springs of Sefula, it took four days for a band of 
 twelve men to open a passage for us through the forest of 
 Kanyonyo. And then, what a disappointment to find that the 
 little valley and the neighbouring heights were all covered with 
 
 17
 
 258 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 springing fields, and that it was not possible for us to find 
 a place to settle in. Thence consultations and new delays. 
 Lewanika, annoyed with his people, sent word to us, " Establish 
 yourselves at Kanyonyo ; the valley is yours ; they know it. 
 Shut your eyes and ears ; graze your oxen among these fields ; 
 don't disturb yourselves on that account." And in five or six 
 weeks these starving people — for there is a famine — will be 
 beginning to eat their maize, their sweet potatoes, and their 
 pumpkins ! 
 
 Without further hesitation, I steered for the place we had 
 chosen two years ago. We arrived there on October nth, in 
 the evening, after a fatiguing and adventurous day. First, we 
 had to cross the little river, which loses itself in a marsh. 
 We spent the whole day beside it, unloading and reloading 
 the waggons, dragging them through the morasses, carrying 
 baggage on our backs across the bogs, waist-deep, among reeds 
 and rushes, whose young shoots wounded the feet of our poor 
 people. 
 
 Night fell. But a darkness deeper than that of night 
 oppressed my spirit. I was seized with an awful and over- 
 powering sense of helplessness, distress, and mental anguish. 
 As soon as possible, I retreated to my waggon. 
 
 The cries of a fowl soon reached me ; then of another, then 
 of a third. It was time to see to it. I took for granted that 
 our rabble of Matolela were indulging in one of their favourite 
 exploits — wringing chickens' necks. Waddell, always ready for 
 anything, bravely took his mat and his gun, and posted himself 
 behind the cart. Scarcely had he lain down than he detected 
 a stealthy rustling. He listened with all his ears ; stared into 
 the darkness ; and lo ! it was not a man, but a beast. He 
 fired ; every one rushed up, and we found he had killed a 
 leopard. What a reception, and what a prospect for us ! 
 
 And so, after taking two months to cover about a hundred 
 and fifty leagues, we have at last ceased wheeling. It seems 
 strange to us. Neither my wife nor I have any taste for waggon 
 journeys ; and that of course makes them so much the more 
 tedious and prosaic. The tossing, wandering missionary life 
 we have led has not been dictated by choice. VVe sigh for a 
 few years' halt in our pilgrimage, for a little corner which we 
 may yet be permitted to call our Iio)nc on earth, and above all
 
 i886] FAMINE 259 
 
 for some work other than piling up bricks and mortar, clearing 
 and planting for our successors. 
 
 Our camp stands upon a sandy slope, covered with a layer 
 of ashes and with thick brushwood recently burned, in the midst 
 of a wood they have mercilessly rifled, shadeless, and most for- 
 bidding in aspect. From an elevation of a hundred feet, the 
 sight falls upon the Sefula, whose jungles and thickets hide the 
 stream ; it follows the verdant undulations of the woods beyond, 
 and then wanders over the distant hills whose blue mingles 
 with the sky. That is the south. On the west, it passes through 
 a few dried stumps and mutilated trees, then over this vast bare 
 expanse they call the Valley. Barotsi-land is not Basuto-land ; 
 still less is Sefula Leribe. . . . We shall get used to it. Busy 
 people do not know what home-sickness is. But alas ! at Sefula 
 ■everything has to be created, and we are no longer young. Shall 
 we ever have a single fruit tree there ? — a house ? We shall have 
 plenty of time to think about them. The great question which 
 preoccupies and absorbs me for the moment is the possibility 
 which threatens my wife and myself of being separated for a 
 whole year. By what means can I fetch her, make her travel 
 in the midst of the rains, and bring her here before the floods 
 overtake us in the desert ? How can we shelter ourselves in 
 the rainy season ? We should need to fly, if we are to make the 
 journey to Sesheke in a month, go and come back again ; and 
 an ox waggon on such roads cannot fly. I dare not think of 
 the river with its rapids, its dangers, its canoes always half full 
 of water. 
 
 The famine is such that we cannot find workmen. Every 
 one betakes himself to the woods, or goes fishing to provide 
 for the needs of his own. We ourselves are only living, like 
 every one else, on dried fish, which we buy at high prices, and 
 on cassava. The country is burnt up, the season advanced, 
 and we have not yet been able to find thatch to put a roof over 
 our goods, or even our own heads. All is dark. But I know 
 Him Who has said, " Call upon Me in the day of trouble : I will 
 deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." He always keeps His 
 word. When the Christian is at the end of his resources, and 
 casts himself entirely upon God, help is not far off. " It is good 
 that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation 
 of the Lord."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 The Station of Sefula— Clearing the Ground— Lewanika's Palace— Industry of 
 the Barotsi- Departure to fetch Mme. Coillard — The Thief of Time — 
 An Ardent Sportsman— Justice at Sesheke — The Shadow of the Almighty 
 — The Source of Weakness — A Ten Years' Pilgrimage — An Anxious Part- 
 ing — Prosperous Journey to Sefula — Miseries of the Vassal Tribes — A 
 Natural Phenomenon — Rapid Progress of Mission Buildings — The King's 
 Tribute — A Visit from Lewanika. 
 
 Sefula, Barotsi Valley, November loth, 1886. 
 
 HERE I am then at Sefula, on the little sandy plateau I 
 spoke of, in the midst of a devastated wood, and under 
 a tiny tent, which is riddled like a sieve, and lets in wind 
 and rain by turns. I have planted it under a great mahogany 
 tree for the sake of shake. Round me all is activity. Here 
 are two boys tearing up clumps of bushes by the roots to 
 make room for our cottage ; there is another charring uprights 
 for our walls, that will preserve them from damp and from white 
 ants. In the midst of the group over there, some young men 
 are measuring, with noisy satisfaction, the setsibas they have 
 just received, for having built a hut ; here are some more in 
 single file bringing stakes and grass to make a second one. 
 It will cost me ten yards of calico, the same as the first : five 
 boys will have got all the materials together and finished it in 
 three days ! A hundred paces off, a fold is being built ; and 
 nearer at hand, in another direction, our friends Middlcton and 
 VVaddell arc sawing away with an energy it does one's heart 
 good to see. As for me, I come and go, direct and superintend, 
 lend a hand where it is most needed ; I buy reeds ; I bargain 
 for millet, pumpkins, and manioc, exchange some words with 
 my visitors, and resume my work. No more fish now, and the 
 rains have spoilt all our provisions. The kitchen, which day 
 after day repeats almost the same bill of fare, gives me little 
 trouble, thanks to Nguana-Ngombe, who understands better 
 
 260
 
 lewanika's palace 261 
 
 than I how to make cassava with water, and boil pilled mabele. 
 His watch never goes wrong, and our meals arc almost as 
 regular as if we had our good housekeeper. 
 
 Already our plateau looks rather less wild. We shall get 
 used to it. Little by little the horned stumps and the brush- 
 wood will disappear ; eucalyptus trees, already sown, and other 
 trees will take their place. And if ever we arc rich enough 
 to have a hydraulic pump, and bring water from the river to 
 our slope, you will see what a pretty kitchen garden we shall 
 have. Flowers we must seek for elsewhere, and fruits too. 
 
 Our relations with the king are most agreeable up to the 
 present. Two days after our arrival, he hastened to visit us, 
 accompanied by his headmen on horseback, and by numerous 
 attendants on foot. He seemed really pleased to see us, and 
 went away without having begged, and without his followers 
 having robbed us of a single thing. That is saying not a little. 
 After that, I spent Sunday with him, and had good audiences. 
 I noticed, however, with pain that the women, at the morning 
 service, hid themselves behind the wall of the lekhotJila, and 
 not one of them came to the afternoon service. Contrary to 
 the established custom, Lewanika wanted to receive me at 
 his own place, instead of letting me go to the Gambella's, 
 the prime minister's. I must be the first to make use of his 
 house. It is quite a recent construction, the work of Mambari 
 merchants,^ and he is not a little proud of it. The sentiment 
 is thoroughly shared by all his people. Some one of whom I 
 asked the road said to me, " Go straight on, and upon the 
 other side of these shrubs, even before you see the town, a great 
 house will rise up before you, and call you^ When Lewanika 
 beamingly introduced me to this palace, I said to him, joking, 
 that I was tempted to take possession of it for my wife. He 
 responded laughing, with all the courtliness of a high-born 
 gentleman, " That is but natural : the house is yours, my father." 
 It is composed of three apartments, sixteen or seventeen feet 
 square, daubed and plastered by the hand, with ceilings of 
 rushes, so well made and so strong that one could use them for 
 granaries. One of the rooms has a pavilioned ceiling. The 
 whole building is constructed of stakes and reeds, without a single 
 nail: for where in the country could you find a nail ? There are 
 ' The half-civilised negroes of the Portuguese coast.
 
 262 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 instead forks which dovetail ingeniously into one another, and 
 are held in place by withes of bark. The walls are fourteen feet 
 high, with a little verandah, which gives the buildings a some- 
 what imposing appearance. None of the Mambari understand 
 thatching, so the Barotsi had to do it in their own fashion — that 
 is, the reverse of ours. 
 
 Lewanika would gladly overwhelm us with apprentices, 
 grown-up men, whom he would like to see learning in a couple 
 of months or so to accomplish every possible handicraft of 
 the whites. We have had to check so much zeal, for " famine 
 is the mayor of our commune." The king himself tries all the 
 tools he sees. He was making a ladder when I was there ; 
 but he is so rough, he broke an auger of mine. Of course 1 
 did not scold him, but neither did I thank him. 
 
 It was last Monday that I finally succeeded in sending off 
 the waggons to Sesheke to fetch my wife. I am going to 
 follow by canoe to save time. It was not our original plan. 
 I was to stay here to prosecute our work of installation, while 
 my dear wife made the journey all alone. It was at her 
 suggestion that I submitted to this arrangement. But the 
 journey proved far more difficult and laborious than we then 
 supposed, and the season is so far advanced that it is absolutely 
 necessary to sacrifice something and make a desperate effort. 
 
 The king came to see the waggons start, and give his 
 instructions to three petty chiefs and their people who are 
 charged to conduct us, to show us the fords, and above all to 
 call together the Mangete and Matolela to clear the road 
 through the woods. He brought me a fine young ox, which 
 was at once put under the yoke to break it in, and another 
 which he killed. He had much to say, and spent the night 
 with us. We especially discussed the question of his capital', 
 and the next day we rode together to explore the surrounding 
 parts of the Valley. He chose a place, three or four miles from 
 here, where he will install himself in January during the floods ; 
 and if it answers to his requirements, he will then settle 
 permanently there ; and this is almost certain. 
 
 Sesheke, December loth, 1886. 
 
 Behold a grand leap of three hundred miles (400 kilometres) 
 from Scfula to Sesheke ! But it took me some time to accomplish
 
 AN ELEPHANT HUNT 263 
 
 it. After having sent off my waggons, built my hut and my 
 " kraal," made my arrangements, and put the work in hand, I 
 began to think of my voyage. " Nothing easier than to have 
 canoes," said Lewanika : " you want two ; I will give you four." 
 But the days passed quickly, and — no canoes. To every message 
 I received the same answer, " To-morrow," and next day it 
 was still " To-morrow," but no canoes. I was on thorns. If I 
 had had two horses, I should have set out and rejoined the 
 waggons. But what could I do with only one? At last, on 
 November i6th, in the evening, arrived Luchanana, one of 
 the king's favourites, who has charge of my person, and of the 
 expedition. The 17th, at daybreak, Middleton harnessed the 
 cart, and brought me to the ford — ten miles at least across 
 pools and deep puddles. What was not our dismay to find only 
 one canoe ! The second we were to find on the way ; the third 
 would follow us later ; and the fourth — mine — was left behind, 
 and we must go and fetch it, fifteen or sixteen miles from here. 
 
 So there I was, on a little sandy islet, roasting in the sun, 
 every day repeating the A B C of patience — a hard lesson 
 for such a scholar as myself. My voyage is very queerly 
 organised. If it be thus that our friend Lewanika directs 
 the affairs of the realm, I do not wonder there are revolutions. 
 The boat having arrived — a royal barge, thirteen yards long, 
 but so old and leaky that we could hardly keep it afloat — we 
 started. In passing, I paid an interesting visit to the queen. 
 
 Now we really are on the way. But no ! My mentor is a 
 passionate devotee of hunting ; and although he has promised 
 me to make forced stages to redeem the lost time (which never 
 is redeemed), he slips unperceived from the boat, and disappears 
 for the whole day : he hunts to his heart's content, and then 
 goes on a pilgrimage to some tomb to pray for rain, and for 
 the prosperity of our voyage. He receives my reprimands 
 respectfully, but his passion for hunting prevails over his 
 promises. How should he resist the temptation of pursuing a 
 troop of buffaloes ! And how can I look sourly at him, when 
 he returns to camp triumphantly with two or three fine ante- 
 lopes? One evening, a troop of elephants came to drink, quite 
 close to our bivouac. Instantly, all fires were put out ; every 
 one was on the alert. " Bang ! bang ! bang ! " A plaintive 
 cry made us think the shots had told. The animal, evidently
 
 264 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1886 
 
 left alone, was about to bathe. Once more, firing — more groans. 
 Next day the pools of blood declared we had not been mistaken. 
 The spoor was followed, and an hour later the creature lay on 
 the ground, riddled with balls, and pierced with assegais. Good- 
 bye to our journey, for we must cut up the monstrous pachyderm 
 — a big affair. Moreover, besides hunting, my rowers never 
 pass a village of Makalaka without requisitions, by which we 
 lose an immensity of time. They do not understand that I am 
 in a hurry. " If we don't arrive this month, we shall arrive the 
 month after : patience, we are getting along comfortably." 
 
 At the Falls of Ngonye, we had to leave my barge, which 
 threatened every moment to founder, and transport the others 
 down the cataract. From the first moment they perceived us, 
 the Makalaka dispersed and hid in the woods ; and it is 
 incredible what threats, what abuse, our people must resort to, 
 in order to bring them together and force them to perform their 
 corvee. And that causes fresh delays. One part of the company 
 goes on foot ; the other must wait for it ; and the stages are 
 short. And then the river is at its lowest ; the navigation of the 
 rapids is perilous and fatiguing. We do not get on. And I so 
 wanted to arrive on November 28th for a little family festival. 
 Spurred on by the thought that every day's delay threatened to 
 render our waggon journey quite impossible, I sent an express 
 to my wife — two boys with a little canoe. They promised me 
 to be at Sesheke in three days. Eight days later, we found 
 them in a village at one day's distance. A hippopotamus had 
 upset the canoe, and broken it to pieces ; the boys bad barely 
 escaped with their lives ; and my letter with the leather case 
 lay at the bottom of the river. And during this time, the 
 waggons having arrived at Sesheke, my dear wife and all our 
 small world conceived such alarm, that they sent people to 
 enquire after me as far as Sekosi, and were preparing to take 
 other steps. 
 
 I found my wife a perfect skeleton, but otherwise in good 
 health, as well as all the other members of our little colony. 
 No fever this season : we bless God for it. During my absence, 
 the thieves, whom nobody punishes, became bolder ; they even 
 entered by night the hut where Aaron's wife and children were 
 sleeping, and stole some clothes, all they could lay their hands 
 upon. On my return, we brought the affair before the lekJiothla.
 
 RETURN TO SESHEKE 265 
 
 The chiefs laughed at our complaints, and spoke of a fine 
 which we could demand — we ourselves ! But as we insisted that 
 the culprits should be punished, they promised to send and 
 search for them, and the matter rests there. 
 
 You will rejoice, will you not, to learn that Lewanika 
 proposes to settle close to Sefula ? We can, I think, have a 
 fine school as soon as we have a house. But who will take 
 charge of that school ? Aaron is better gifted for evangelisation 
 than for teaching. We have no longer my niece with us ; and 
 my dear wife, who is no longer strong, has the whole charge of 
 a great household on her hands. As for myself, I must be a 
 little free to direct the works and visit the villages. We must 
 still lift our eyes beyond the Everlasting Hills, whence cometh 
 our help. 
 
 Our hearts sink at the thought that we are going to leave 
 the Jeanmairets alone with the Levi family. What troubles us 
 so much is the difficulty of communications. I hope, however, 
 that we shall be able to exchange letters every two months. 
 But in two months how many things might happen ! We 
 ought to be two families on each station to begin with. It is 
 a measure dictated by prudence and safety ; and the needs of 
 the country oblige us ' to have a station at Sesheke as well as 
 at the Valley. Our circumstances are not exactly brilliant, 
 and I dare not say anything as yet of the prospect before us. 
 We are without human protection in this land of murder and 
 rapine. It is in God alone that we must place all our confi- 
 dence. He never leaves us. Oh, how many times we too can 
 say, " He strengthened me with strength in my soul," and when 
 we are assailed by swarms of doubts, " The Lord will perfect 
 that which concerneth me " ! As to the heathen themselves, we 
 cannot be disappointed, for we know beforehand they have 
 never had the Gospel. 
 
 Who has such a good reason as the missionary for believing 
 in the communion of saints and the power of prayer ? The 
 angel of the Lord encampcth round about them that fear Him, 
 and delivereth them ; and in the midst of such an army, we 
 have more — we have the prayers of saints, which form a mighty 
 wall round the servant of God, and descend on him in a dew 
 of blessings. What a privileged position ! Ah, if we only had 
 faith like a grain of mustard seed — real, daring faith — faith which
 
 266 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 believes in miracles ! In theory, it is certainly there ; but in 
 practice, in the details of life, where is it ? I am always under- 
 standing better how odious in the Lord's sight is the sin — I will 
 not say of infidelity, but of lack of faith ! He has made us such 
 glorious promises ; He has never broken His word. How then 
 dare we doubt? Do you know a painful impression I have 
 brought away from Europe ? It is that scepticism, like a subtle 
 poison, has injected itself into all the veins of the Church. 
 Strong convictions are rare. People float about in uncertainty, 
 and pity those who still have profound and decided convictions, 
 as though they were behind the times. Thence springs the 
 weakness of the pulpit. I feel urged to repeat to young men 
 the words of the Apostle, " Let the word of Christ dwell in you 
 ricJilyT 
 
 S>ET\:i.A., JaJitmry 15^/2, 1887. 
 
 Sefula is not precisely an El Dorado ; neither is it the end of 
 our difficulties — far from it ! But Sefula is the terminus of a 
 three years' journey, and of a wandering life of ten years. It 
 was in 1877, indeed, that we left our peaceful home in Leribe, 
 for the unknown country of the Banyai. We little thought 
 that this journey, which was only to last some months, would 
 end at the Zambesi, at the sacrifice for us of a much-loved work, 
 and at the foundation of a new mission. Since then, we have 
 never laid down the pilgrim's staff. If we had foreseen all 
 that lay before us, courage would probably have failed us. But 
 God in His great goodness has led us step by step. It was by 
 degrees, and, so to speak, insensibly, that we arrived at the 
 angle of the road where our missionary life took a new direction. 
 God thus condescends to the weakness of His children. He 
 spares them, while He is carrying on their education ; He hovers 
 above their path, and makes it easy for them ; and they, borne 
 up by the Everlasting Arms, " going from strength to strength," 
 arc quite astounded, when they look back, to perceive the progress 
 made and the results obtained. 
 
 It is not without emotion that I inscribe this date, which 
 opens a new era in the history of our mission. It will figure 
 there for a long while in the future, I am certain of it, as our 
 Jehovah-Jireh, and as an international monument of faith and 
 unity. It is also our Ebenezer ; in setting it up, wc can truly
 
 l887] MME. COILLARD'S JOURNEY 267 
 
 say, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us " ; and we gaze into the 
 future without anxiety, with serene confidence. 
 
 Let us, now, beware of a spasmodic zeal, subject to the 
 caprices of fashion and vanity. For you who give and pray, 
 as much as for us who are at the breach, the work confided 
 to us is pre-eminently a work of patience, of perseverance, and 
 of faith. Let us be ready to do it in the midst of the most 
 serious dangers, the most acute disappointments, and the most 
 costly sacrifices. Let nothing turn us back. The disasters of 
 Dr. Holub's expedition, the martyrdom of Bishop Hannington, 
 that of a Wesleyan missionary and his wife on the west coast, 
 the massacre of Count Porro, and of M. and Mmc. Barral, 
 and other like facts, clearly tell that not with impunity can 
 science, civilisation, and Christianity attack the Black Continent, 
 one of the principal fortresses of Satan. Let us lay aside all 
 timidity and mere human modesty ; let us be bold and audacious. 
 Adolphe Monod has said, " Let us pray as though we could 
 do nothing ; let us work as though we could do everythiiig ! " 
 The work is ever increasing before our eyes, in extent as well 
 as in difficulties. We feel more than ever our weakness and 
 our insufficiency. But the immutable promises of God are there 
 in all their reality, and without other limits than our faith and 
 the power of the eternal God. The conversion of the most 
 degraded and brutalised souls, and the transformation of nations 
 by the preaching of the foolishness of the Cross, are no longer 
 miracles which the most sceptical can call in doubt ; they are 
 accomplished facts, which history has many times set forth 
 since the beginning of our century, without going further back. 
 Therefore let us expect great things. " If tho?i zvilt believe, thou 
 shalt see the glory of God." 
 
 You will perhaps remember that it was on August i6th that 
 I left Sesheke to make the first journey to the Valley by 
 waggon. My dear wife and I had never been separated for so 
 long a time and in such serious circumstances, and this widow- 
 hood was a hard trial. We have suffered terribly from the 
 endless obstacles cast in our way, which almost made all our 
 plans miscarry. If any one had told me beforehand that we 
 should only leave Sesheke finally on December 15th to go to 
 the Valley, I should probably have shared the pessimism of 
 all those who declared the impossibility of such a journey at
 
 268 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 that season ; for last year, at the same date, my waggon had 
 not been able to cross the inundated plains of the Kasaya and 
 the Nguesi to go to Mambova. They called my undertaking 
 madness, and said aloud what I apprehended secretly — namely, 
 that the floods would overtake us on the way, that we should 
 not be able either to advance or retreat, and should be held 
 in the swamps till winter. 
 
 Our departure from Sesheke was most dismal — a dark night 
 and pelting rain. For some days, the rise of the Zambesi waters 
 increased our uneasiness. I will say nothing of the parting 
 from our dear niece and her husband, with the prospect of a 
 hundred and fifty leagues' distance dividing us, and of a reunion 
 which climate and circumstances will render difficult, if not 
 impossible. Sesheke, as the capital of an immense province, 
 and as the door of the country, is a post which only yields in 
 importance to Lealuyi itself. It is simply absurd that there 
 are only two of us to occupy it. We wait impatiently for the 
 reinforcements we have desired of God and of yourselves. May 
 God watch over Sesheke and His servants ! 
 
 In spite of the most sinister predictions, we made a rapid 
 and prosperous journey. It rained a great deal — it was the 
 season for that — but it was generally either in the night, or on 
 Sunday, or during our halts, and it did not make us lose a 
 single stage. The rivers overflowed and gave us trouble : we 
 expected that. At each we had to Have our luggage brought 
 over in canoes, and once even to take our waggons to pieces, 
 as at Kazungula ; but everywhere the Mangete and Matolela 
 showed good-will and eagerness to help us. They greeted us 
 joyfully as old acquaintances. Not only were they satisfied with 
 very small remuneration, but they stole nothing from us, which 
 is saying a good deal. 
 
 We ought to put a boat on each of these streams. Taking 
 advantage of some special donations given us for the purpose, 
 I have ordered several ; but boats are difficult to find as long 
 as the king and the chiefs of the nation arc not provided. 
 Besides a dozen men, Lewanika had sent three petty Matolela 
 chiefs " to take care of my wife, and bring her in safety to the 
 Valley." They belonged to the clan of the Mayela-fatse, the 
 earth-eaters, so-called because they eat on the floor instead 
 of using the usual dishes. The king Scpopa, whose personal
 
 s
 
 i8S7] MME. COILLARD'S ARRIVAL 269 
 
 attendants they were, used to feed them by throwing on the 
 ground the remains of the royal dishes, or rather bowls. They 
 contrived to win their master's confidence to such a point that 
 he established them in the midst of the Makuengoa tribe, which 
 he was not sure of. These little dignitaries, proud of their 
 mission, held their heads high, talked big, and forced the 
 Mangete to give them abundance of food and to carry their 
 packages. Poor Mangete ! how sorry we feel for them ! Kalangu, 
 who is one of their principal chiefs, and a very worthy man, 
 confided his troubles to me, and implored me to use my influence 
 over the king — for he thinks I have influence — to ameliorate 
 their lot. The chiefs of Sesheke had just had a grand hunt, 
 lasting ten days, in this neighbourhood : " they had passed like 
 a cloud of locusts, leaving nothing behind them." " We do not 
 complain," he said ; " they are our masters." Next came one of 
 the principal officers of the king's household, a sekomboa, who, 
 displeased by the quantity of the victuals Kalangu had hastened 
 to send him, seized those who had brought them (Kalangu's own 
 son among the number), and throttled them in the Barotsi fashion. 
 On January loth, in the morning, we entered the rich and 
 beautiful valley where the Sefula takes its rise. You should 
 have seen the sensation produced by our appearance ! People, 
 great and small, ran breathlessly from all parts, women 
 especially. They came in front of us, and blocked our way, 
 the better to see the white lady, a natural phenomenon, which 
 had never before been witnessed in the country ; and then 
 there was a storm of hand-clapping, a perfect bombardment 
 of " Shangwe ! KJiosi ! lumela ma rona ! " (" Your servants, 
 master ! We greet you, our mother ! "). It was in the midst of 
 a noisy crowd, which swelled at every step, that we arrived at 
 the station. Since then, fresh troops succeed each other at 
 every hour of every day. Some people bring little presents of 
 welcome, the products of their fields, and all bring cordial 
 salutations. On the whole, our impressions are favourable in 
 studying the faces (which study us too). We seek involuntarily 
 among these people the " brothers and sisters " who are pro- 
 mised us, and whom the grace of God will reveal to us one day. 
 We seek also to discover among them resemblances to those 
 we have left, but always bear on our hearts, and we m.entally 
 place names that are dear to us upon their heads. W^e shall
 
 270 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 love these Barotsi, not only as human beings for whom Christ 
 died, but as sociable fellow-creatures. We could even hope 
 before long to win their confidence and affection, were it not 
 for the rule of tyranny and mutual suspicion under which they 
 live. 
 
 Our dear friends Middleton and Waddell were in good 
 health. Their life had been hard during my absence, and 
 it was not astonishing that they had had several attacks of 
 fever, though light ones. It was with ill-concealed emotion 
 that they bade my wife welcome to Sefula. They had lost all 
 hope of her arriving before the winter. In spite of incessant 
 rains and great difficulties, they had succeeded in putting a 
 thatched roof over a cabin of two rooms, made with stakes 
 and reeds. We have now to daub it, to make a mud floor, and 
 to let it dry, which will take weeks. Meanwhile, the waggon 
 is our sleeping apartment ; we take our meals in a grass hut, 
 open to all the winds, and infested in the evening with 
 mosquitoes and every sort of insect pest, making all work and 
 even reading impossible. The forest where we are building, 
 which I had left quite black, charred with the fire, has become 
 a thicket of brushwood, which is still growing vigorously. One 
 can hardly distinguish the roof of the cottage at fifty paces, in 
 the midst of this undergrowth. It was stifling. I wondered that 
 our helpers could live there during two months. These thick 
 bushes, where a little black snake abounds (said to be very 
 dangerous), are at the same time haunted by the hyaena and 
 the panther. They have made frequent incursions into the 
 camp by night ; and we had to organise a regular hunt after 
 them. You ought to have seen the delight of Nguana-Ngombe, 
 and of my other boys, when they related to me how they had 
 killed two of these monsters at a few paces from our doors. 
 
 Alas ! in a neighbouring village, a young slave, who was 
 dying of hunger, had stolen a few stalks of maize in the night. 
 She was roasting them by the fires of our sleeping shepherds, 
 and devouring them noiselessly, when all at once a hysena 
 sprang upon her, and carried her off into the woods. The next 
 day, nothing was found of her but some fragments of flesh 
 and scattered bones. Consequently, we must fortify ourselves 
 with good palisades, and clear away the brushwood — a consider- 
 able work. Will you believe that it costs mc a pang to uproot
 
 i887] THE king's TRIBUTE 27 1 
 
 even one of these trees ? — for in Basuto-land I planted trees during 
 twenty years, hoping to bury myself in them as in a forest. 
 
 No more famine now ; there is abundance of food since 
 harvest. Our young men can always be nibbling some stalks 
 of green maize, which people passing by give them. We can 
 provide ourselves chiefly with field purslane, pumpkins, young 
 gourds, etc. Only it runs away with calico. A piece is no 
 sooner begun than we tremble to see it finished. Whatever one 
 may think, the system of barter is not economical. The cost 
 of transport is considerable. Our small change is pocket- 
 handkerchiefs, and above all setsibas. One can scarcely buy 
 anything or obtain the smallest service without the setsiba. 
 It is an obligatory present with what I may call the bourgeoisie 
 of the country : the aristocracy is naturally more exacting. 
 You can understand that we consume a considerable quantity 
 of calico, and that, in spite of our calculations, we often run 
 short. The age of money, which Lewanika invokes vvath all his 
 vows, though without understanding it, has not yet dawned for us. 
 
 Just now, one sees in every direction long strings of people 
 laden with burdens. As in the time of Solomon, it is the king's 
 tribute : honey, pelts, wild fruits, fishing tackle, mats, etc. — the 
 produce of the fields, of the chase, and of industry. The queen 
 has her tribute like the king. The whole, brought to the 
 lekhotJda with great ceremony, is divided among the chiefs of 
 the nation.^ This gives Lewanika plenty of occupation and 
 preoccupation, for he has to deal tactfully with jealousies and 
 rivalries, as well as with the rapacity of those persons who 
 make and unmake kings, according to their own caprices. 
 
 Saturday^ January 22nd. 
 On Thursday morning, the drum and the serimba announced 
 from afar the arrival of the king. Such was the panic, that 
 the people who had come to work, to sell, or to visit had almost 
 all disappeared in the twinkling of an eye. Notwithstanding 
 this, soon afterwards there was a crowd, and one which renewed 
 itself every instant, to do homage to the sovereign. The 
 coming and going, the bivouacs, the fires, the animated con- 
 versations, the games full of originality — and the royal music 
 
 ' The king's own portion is carried at night to his estabhshment : nobody 
 but the confidential officer in charge must see it.
 
 272 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 which by day makes one dizzy, and at night ruthlessly drives 
 away sleep along with the evil spirits — all that confusion, uproar, 
 and mob, while they do not lack interest, did not spare us 
 fatigues of more kinds than one. And now that the royal party 
 has gone back towards the capital, it is a comfort to find 
 ourselves peacefully alone. 
 
 Lewanika came to pay a visit of ceremony to Mme. Coil- 
 lard, and he thought no doubt that it was the correct thing 
 to surround himself with court ceremonial. Poor man ! he is 
 not free from cares, and he needs a friend to whom he can 
 freely confide them, and on whom he can lean. He is suspicious 
 of everybody, even of those who have brought him to power, 
 and unfortunately he does not conceal it. Thus he has con- 
 firmed the vague apprehensions which haunted us — namely, that 
 there exists among the chiefs a party hostile to strangers, which 
 sees our presence in the country with an evil eye. May we 
 have the wisdom which comes from above, so that, whether at 
 Sesheke or Sefula, we may know how to conquer and to 
 maintain our position, and even to gain influence ! 
 
 Gloomy and careworn in private, Lewanika in public is 
 chatty and gay. He had brought with him not only his detest- 
 able band of music, but also his clowns. One of them, dressed 
 in a hysena skin, imitated so perfectly the cries, the laughter, 
 and the gait of this wild beast, that the very dogs were taken 
 in, and rushed out at him.^ Plays of this kind are very popular 
 here, and the actors are always sure of their fees ; moreover, 
 they never give up their role, even though it should knock them 
 up for days afterwards. The Zambesians do not know how 
 to speak in public, nor to treat business with the decorum 
 of the Basuto : they like jocularity ; no one is safe from the 
 keen shafts of their mockery and ridicule. One can scarcely 
 imagine that people of so playful a nature can be so cruel. 
 Alas ! we cannot take even a few steps without striking our 
 feet against a broken skull, or some burnt human bones. 
 
 ' It seems that some tribes, who beheve in the transmigration of souls, 
 decide during their lifetime what animal form they will adopt after death. 
 The medicine-man undertakes tliat their wishes shall be carried out, and on 
 every possible occasion, especially new moons, funerals, and public festivals, 
 X\iey practise in their future character of lion, crocodile, jackal, etc.
 
 i887] A LETTER 273 
 
 Lewanika showed us the remains of the fuel which, quite 
 recently, ten paces from here, had been used to burn the sorcerers. 
 Yes, " the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations 
 of cruelty " (Ps. Ixxiv. 20). 
 
 A Letter to the Committee of the Society des 
 Missions Evangeliques de Paris. 
 
 Sefula, Upper Zambesi, June \st, 1887. 
 
 Gentlemen and honoured Brethren,— The missionary 
 expedition which you did me the honour of confiding to me 
 has now fulfilled its purpose. After the vicissitudes known 
 to you, it has crossed the Zambesi, and installed some of its 
 members at Sesheke, while the others have at last attained its 
 final destination, the Barotsi Valley, three years after leaving 
 Basuto-land. It is to God, first of all, that Mme. Coillard 
 and myself give thanks, for having caused an enterprise to 
 prosper which we had at heart, but which we knew bristled 
 with difficulties, and for which we felt ourselves little qualified. 
 But we feel urged to express our very sincere gratitude to you 
 also, gentlemen, to our revered president, and our dear director. 
 We know that, besides your confidence, you have given us your 
 affection. You have borne us up in your prayers ; you have 
 watched over us ; and in the midst of our difficulties and our 
 isolation, your words have ever been able to reach us, to 
 reanimate our courage and strengthen our faith. You have 
 worked side by side with us when the stream was pushing you 
 in another direction. Moreover, while we look up to you as 
 the representatives of our Churches and our directors, we may 
 also recognise in each of you a friend and colleague. 
 
 You will surely have seen the hand of God which has led 
 us so marvellously during our long pilgrimages, and you 
 will have seen His holy will writ large in the success He has 
 granted us. 
 
 Therefore it is without the slightest hesitation, and with the 
 greatest confidence, that I point out the Zambesian countries 
 as a new field of work for the French-speaking Churches, and 
 lay their interests on your hearts. Do adopt this new work, 
 
 18
 
 274 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 with the increase of responsibility, but also of blessings which 
 it may bring you. 
 
 You have already anticipated me by sending us reinforce- 
 ments. Blessed be they in the name of the Lord ! I will take 
 my place among these young labourers, pars inter pares. I do 
 not ignore the fact that there are many problems to resolve, 
 many difficulties to conquer, many sacrifices to be made and 
 dangers to be faced ; but such a noble task is not beyond you, 
 since God confides it to you. Therefore accept this work of 
 the Barotsi Valley unreservedly, and watch tenderly over it, as 
 over a newborn babe. And may it be an immense blessing to 
 the tribes of Central Africa, and to the Christians themselves 
 who support it ! Such is the ardent prayer of yours truly in 
 the Lord, 
 
 F. COILLARD.
 
 PART III 
 
 A T S E F U LA 
 1887— 1892 
 
 BATTLE SONG OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 
 
 Fear not, O little flock, the foe 
 Who madly seeks your overthrow; 
 
 Dread not his rage and power; 
 What though your courage sometimes faints. 
 His seeming triumph o'er God's saints 
 
 Lasts but a little hour. 
 
 As true as God's own word is true, 
 Nor earth nor hell with all their crew 
 
 Against us shall prevail. 
 A jest and byword are they grown : 
 God is with us ; we are His own ; 
 
 Our victory cannot fail. 
 
 C. WiNKWORTH — From the German 
 
 275
 
 AT SEFULA 
 
 January 1887 to October 1892 
 
 CHRONICLE 
 
 Jan. 12th, 1887 . 
 March 4th 
 Aug. 20th 
 
 Feb. 23rd, 1888 . 
 Oct 
 
 Dec. ist ... 
 June 1889 . 
 
 Aug 
 
 Sept 
 
 Oct. 31st 
 
 April (end) 1890... 
 
 May 25th 
 June 27th 
 
 June 
 
 July 
 
 Oct. 8th, 1891 
 
 .March 1 891— June 1892 
 
 Oct. 28th, 1891 
 
 Sept. 5th, 1892. 
 
 Oct. 28th 1892 
 
 Arrival of M. and Mme. Coillard at Sefula. 
 
 School established at Sefula. 
 
 Arrival of M. and Mme. Louis Jalla from the Waldensian 
 
 Valleys, and of Dr. Dardier and M. Goy from Switzerland 
 
 — First Missionary Conference (at Kazungula). 
 Death of Dr. Dardier. 
 King Lewanika proposes to place Barotsi-land under British 
 
 protection — Proposal negatived by chiefs. 
 Departure of catechists Aaron and Levi. 
 Mr. Ware obtains from Lewanika a large concession for a British 
 
 mining company. 
 Second Missionary Conference (at Sesheke). 
 Arrival of M. Adolphe Jalla at Sefula from the Waldensian 
 
 Valleys. 
 Establishment of a station at Kazungula under M. and Mme. 
 
 Louis Jalla. 
 .\rrival of Mr. Lochner, the agent of the B. S. A. Co., to treat 
 
 with Lewanika. 
 Baptism of Nguana-Ngomb6 (Andreas). 
 Lewanika signs a treaty with the B. S. A. Co., granting mining 
 
 concessions in return for protection over the whole of 
 
 Barotsi-land. 
 Departure of the Jeanmairets. 
 Arrival of Mile. Kiener from Switzerland— M. and Mme. Goy 
 
 placed in charge of Sesheke. 
 Arrival of catechist Paulus Kanedi. 
 M. A. jalla's journey to Europe. 
 Death of Mme. Coillard. 
 Return of M. A. Jalla with Mme. Jalla. 
 M. Coillard removes his headquarters to Lealuyi. 
 
 276
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Beginnings of the Work at Sefula — A Council at Lealuyi — The Barotsi's View 
 of Missions — The Execution of a Sorcerer — The Marriage Question — 
 Poison V. Bloodshed — The House built — School established — Difficulties 
 of Discipline — Trial by Ordeal — " Thou shalt not kill " — The Missionary's 
 Daily Life — Industrial Skill of the Barotsi — Their Character — Arrival of 
 Reinforcements — Plots and Counterplots — MM. Dardier and Goy — An 
 Equestrian Adventure — A Tragedy. 
 
 Sefula, February isf, 1887. 
 
 WE have been three weeks at Sefula. It is a pause, but 
 no repose. My dear wife is utterly worn out with 
 fatigue. It cost us a good deal to set off on wheels again 
 so soon to visit Lealuyi, the capital, nineteen miles from here. 
 But we had promised to do it ; so on Monday, very early, 
 we started. Kamburu was our official conductor. Nguana- 
 Ngombe, in short breeches, with my old felt hat on his head 
 paddled along through the puddles, and frightened the birds 
 with the report of his gun ; he was aspiring to be a hunter. 
 From the hamlets lining the Valley, the people came running, 
 as much to see the house on wheels as to greet us. Troops 
 of men, returning from the capital, kept crossing the path of 
 other parties, who were betaking themselves thither, laden with 
 bundles and baskets of cornstuffs for their masters. The 
 waggon was empty ; the plain, and the pools of water studding 
 it, presented no difficulties whatever ; the weather was superb ; 
 so we could enjoy this little journey as a holiday. The king 
 was expecting our visit ; but we were none the less obliged to 
 send Narumango to announce us, conformably with etiquette. 
 Long before he had come back, a turbulent crowd had rushed 
 to meet us, flung itself upon the waggon at the risk of being 
 crushed, taken it by storm, and, in spite of us, invaded it on 
 all sides. It was thus escorted, and harassed by this ever- 
 growing mob, that we drew up on the public square. Here we 
 
 277
 
 2/8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 must needs wait for his Majesty. It was not pleasant ; the sun 
 was scorching. 
 
 Here comes my messenger at last, with a sekoinboa from 
 the king : one of his chamberlains we should say. " The king 
 is still seeking a house for you, and begs you to wait." Before 
 long, another message : " I am commanded to conduct you to 
 your lodging, a few steps from here." It is a dilapidated hovel, 
 almost unapproachable for filth. When will these Barotsi, these 
 lords who are so exacting when we receive them, understand 
 the rudiments of hospitality ? I feel provoked : but what is the 
 use ? The best thing to do is to take a spade, and with my boys 
 set to work and clear it up. Thereupon arrives the king, accom- 
 panied by his councillor, to wish us welcome. " What ! " said he, 
 with some embarrassment, "they have put you in a wretched 
 place." " That's all right," I said to myself ; " the lesson has not 
 been thrown away." A little later, I was obliged to yield to his 
 importunities : our waggon was dragged, almost carried, by all 
 the men of the village, chiefs and serfs, close up to a grand royal 
 hut, surrounded by a wide courtyard, and situated in the shade 
 of a thicket. 
 
 This little grove is a sacred place, carefully surrounded 
 with mats. It is composed of inotJiata, indiarubber trees, 
 euphorbias, bananas,^ some climbing plants, etc. ; an infinite 
 number of gazelles' horns are to be found there, filled with 
 mysterious specifics and charms of every sort ; a cord, stretched 
 like our telegraph wires, seems to be for the purpose of 
 showing out evil spirits and spells into the open veldt. It is 
 Lewanika's sanctuary ; it is thither that he repairs regularly, to 
 hold communion with the gods. 
 
 Poor Lewanika ! in his pillow thorns are thicker than 
 feathers. His projected expedition against the Mashukulumboe 
 
 • In the Barotsi Valley, the bananas were planted only for " medicine." 
 They had been introduced by a sorcerer from the West Coast, and the king 
 alone had the right to plant them and sit under them. One day, M. Coillard 
 asked the king for some of the fruit of the banana in whose shade he was 
 sitting. " What do you want it for ? " asked Lewanika. " To eat, of course.' 
 "Why, is it good to eat?" M. Coillard recommended him to try; the 
 immediate result being that bananas were classed, with honey and some other 
 natural products, among the dainties only royalty might enjoy. There are no 
 other fruit trees in the Barotsi Valley.
 
 i887] BONTSU BOO 2/9 
 
 meets with opposition, and opposition irritates him. He was 
 greatly agitated ; he paced up and down, and ended by staying 
 at the waggon till a very late hour. From time to time, he 
 would address to me some commonplace in Sesuto ; next, with 
 surprising volubility, pour forth torrents of Serotsi ; then, all at 
 once, burst out with something in Sesuto again, with great peals 
 of laughter, which were greeted by incessant hand-clappings 
 from his favourite servitors, kneeling before him. " Well, 
 Moruti," he exclaimed, turning towards me, " it's all up with 
 my expedition ; you disapprove of it, and my people won't 
 have it. . . . Ah ! " he added bitterly, clicking his tongue and 
 sighing deeply, " everything is difficult with these people. If 
 I speak of a field to be tilled, ba nyanda — they grumble ; of 
 a house to be built — ba nyanda ; of a hunting expedition 
 — ba nyanda. Ba nyanda tsotle. Ba nyanda ka metla. Ba 
 nyanda kaofela, bontsu boo ! ^ They always grumble, they all 
 grumble, they grumble at everything ! That black rabble ! " 
 I felt really sorry for him. 
 
 Next morning, from seven o'clock on, the drums, serinibas, 
 and an uproar of salutations announced that the king was 
 sitting in the forum — the lekhothla ; so there we betook ourselves. 
 A pitso had been called together in our honour ; it was crowded. 
 At the request of Lewanika, I opened the proceedings with a 
 speech, in which I was at pains to set forth the character of 
 our mission, and the benefits of the Gospel to a nation. I 
 expected the king would speak in his turn. What was our 
 stupefaction to see the Gambella (the prime minister) rise next, 
 and begin thus : " Barotsi, you see the Baruti before you ; 
 you have heard them. If you do not wish for them, fear not 
 to say so, and they will return to their own home. Speak 
 freely ; now is your opportunity. Do not say that the king 
 imposes on you a thing you dislike. Speak ! " 
 
 The silence only lasted a few minutes ; but these minutes 
 seemed hours to me. Could it be that we had fallen into a 
 trap ? Why should our very acceptance be called in question ? 
 And how if they were going to declare publicly that they would 
 none of us ? 
 
 ' Bontsu boo = " that black thing " : a term of contempt used by the Barotsi 
 in speaking of the populace — the canaille. "Those blackamoors" would 
 perhaps be the nearest equivalent.
 
 280 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 Happily, we had not to wait long. The first orator was 
 indignant, that there should be any doubt of the friendly 
 disposition of the tribe. " Gambella," said he, "your insinuations 
 are an insult to us and to the king. When did he ever bestow 
 anything bad upon us ? If he sent for a Moruti, was it not 
 because he knew it was a good thing ? Do we not hear it said 
 that all the black nations have their missionaries, to teach the 
 young, and those who govern, the wisdom of the white men ? 
 And would you wish us Barotsi to stay in a dark hole ? You 
 cannot think it. Rather let us thank Robosi for having brought 
 us light. Na ke ithumetse Morena " (" As for me, I approve the 
 king's deed "). 
 
 The keynote had been struck ; several spoke in similar 
 terms ; and we were beginning to breathe more freely, when 
 a little bit of a man, pitted with small-pox, cried, " What ! you 
 speak like this, Barotsi ; what cowards and liars you are ! No, 
 you do not like these foreigners, you do not like to see them 
 in your country ; you fear them ; but you have not courage to 
 tell the king so to his face. Well then, I will speak myself 
 These foreigners bring the curse with them. Is it not they who 
 made the sun to rot ? " (the total eclipse) — " and who distress 
 us with drought ? Cease your lies and flatteries ; speak out, 
 and declare you will have nothing to do with these whites ; 
 and without hesitation, send them back whence they came." 
 
 " No," replied another, " we will not drive away the mis- 
 sionaries ; they bring the Le7igoalo " (Scriptures, a corruption 
 of the classical Sesuto Lingolo, literally writings or instruction), 
 " and wisdom, peace, and prosperity. I understand myself that 
 we shall have a mine of stuffs and of waggons : but how shall 
 we draw them, since we have no oxen, and the Moruti dis- 
 approves of our expedition against the Mashukulumboe ? " 
 
 " That's just it," interrupted a new orator : " learning is a 
 thing that is only fit for women and children " {ntho ea malapd) ; 
 " cattle is the business of men and of the lekJiotJila. So let us 
 leave Litia " (Lewanika's heir) " and the boys of his age with 
 the Moruti ; and as for ourselves, let us go and get cattle ; 
 our families are starving." 
 
 " You understand nothing about it," spoke Liomba, a wise 
 man, who has seen the world, during a stay he made at 
 Mangwato. " Our expedition against the Mashukulumboe has
 
 i887] BAROTSI ORATORY 28 1 
 
 nothing to do with the question of the missionaries. The 
 Baruti are the fathers of the nation. I saw that well enough 
 at Mangwato. Every day in the lekJiothla the great chief 
 Khama was stitching furs. ' It is for my missionary and 
 friend,' he told us, ' M. Coillard, who has gone to the Zambesi.' 
 Khama is a Christian, and so are all his people. (You don't 
 believe that, do you ?) They are all dressed European fashion ; 
 they all have breech-loading guns and rifled cannon. They 
 don't marry there in the same way as here. But just wait. 
 When our son Litia takes a wife, it shall be a great national 
 festival. We will bring them to the Moruti, both arrayed in 
 magnificent garments ; and the Moruti will have all sorts of 
 good things promised them, and will give them fatherly 
 counsels. Then many oxen will be slaughtered, and every one 
 will rejoice. Let us greet the Baruti not as foreigners, but as 
 Barotsi and as benefactors. Let us help them, let us give them 
 our children, but let us begin by listening ourselves to their 
 teaching. It is to us, chiefs, that all our tribes look." 
 
 I replied to this speech by a closing address. In conclusion, 
 I related certain incidents of the journey, which raised a laugh 
 at the expense of the rain-makers, and of those who made us 
 responsible for the drought and the eclipse of the sun. They 
 laughed, it is true ; but we do not disguise the situation to 
 ourselves. An element of latent opposition has come to light, 
 with which we may one day find ourselves in conflict. But 
 to foresee the struggle and prepare for it is not to be dis- 
 couraged. 
 
 I have tried to give the complexion of this///j-<? as faithfully 
 as possible. It is interesting and instructive from more than 
 one point of view. In three hours, twenty orators had spoken : 
 that will tell you that they are brief at the Zambesi. The 
 forum of the Basuto does not exist here ; the Zambesians, who 
 crawl before their tyrants, have neither public life nor political 
 initiative. The parliamentary notions which, among the 
 Basuto, form, or rather have formed, orators and personalities 
 are unknown here. We are not among those who think a 
 more liberal government would satisfy this nation, which is 
 not prepared for such progress. What it wants is a strong and 
 benevolent government of such a kind that the Gospel can 
 develop the people and prepare them for a better life. And
 
 282 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 the existing government, despotic but feeble, is scarcely worthy 
 of the name. 
 
 The four or five days which we passed at the capital were 
 well filled. As Mokwae, the queen, and several chiefs from 
 outside had come for the occasion, the town overflowed with 
 people. But how keep order when hundreds of famished 
 slaves are there, and have nothing to eat but what they can 
 pick up ? This is how it was done. Every evening, as dark- 
 ness fell, the public crier was to be heard, " Ho ! ho ! Barotsi 
 with yellow hearts " {i.e. full of covetousness) ; " hearken ! You 
 have yellow hearts ; but know that any one who approaches the 
 Baruti's waggon at night will be fired upon. And if any one 
 should steal the smallest thing, I will put him to death. I have 
 sworn it. So be warned, O yellow-hearted Barotsi ! " But 
 make your minds quite easy ; no one was fired upon, and no 
 one was put to death, in spite of one or two alarms, which threw 
 the whole village into the greatest possible excitement. 
 
 Febriiafy xoth, 1887. 
 Never before have we felt as in these last days that we are in 
 the midst of the kingdom of the Prince of Darkness. Lewanika 
 has a child of nine years old, born epileptic. They believe him 
 to be bewitched. He had several attacks while we were there. 
 Also among the chiefs, during the last few months, there were 
 several inexplicable deaths. The very morning of our departure 
 from Lealuyi, the sudden death of a chamberlain was announced, 
 who the evening before, in perfect health, had acted as our 
 cicerone round the village and the king's harem. They kept 
 the news secret till after our departure. Then there was an 
 outcry of witchcraft ; they designated aloud another sekomboa, 
 Moeya-nyana, a pleasant, intelligent fellow, still young and much 
 beloved by the king. There was a tumultuous assemblage at 
 the lekhotJila ; a pot was set on the fire, and one of the slaves 
 of the accused, by proxy, plunged his hands into the boiling 
 water. The effects did not take long to declare themselves. 
 Therefore Mocya-nyana must be a sorcerer. Who could close 
 his eyes to the evidence ? Who could continue to doubt it 
 after this "judgment of God," which our forefathers practised 
 in the same way during the Middle Ages? Immediately those 
 present seized the poor wretch, bound him strongly with cords.
 
 '887] EXECUTION OF MOEYA-NYANA 283 
 
 •extorted pretended confessions from him by means of all sorts 
 of indignities, and led him to execution. He passed the night 
 bound to a post. The next morning — a fine Sunday — the 
 scaffold, a rough rack four feet high, was quickly set up ; the 
 fire lighted ; the moati — a violent poison — prepared and adminis- 
 tered ; and the unfortunate chief soon struggled with death 
 in the midst of the insults and curses of the excited crowd. 
 The king had forbidden them to burn his favourite attendant. 
 So they dragged him away, and threw him into an adjacent 
 pool. During the night, the victim thus executed came to 
 himself In vain Lewanika endeavoured to save his life. Those 
 who were to take him back to his own people at Sesheke 
 murdered him close by here, in the most revolting manner.^ 
 Alas ! it is not an isolated case. One's heart bleeds at the mere 
 hearing of such horrors. They assume an appalling reality 
 when they are committed, so to speak, under one's own eyes, 
 and when one has personally known the victims. 
 
 February z%th. 
 
 Our Sundays are growing interesting. Our neighbours 
 begin to count the days of the week, and to remember the 
 Lord's Day, " the tsipi" i.e. the bell (although we have no bell), 
 or else " the day one dies." ^ Yesterday we had one hundred 
 and fifty auditors. The great attraction is our little harmonium. 
 But how difficult it is in the open air to hold these restless 
 spirits captive ! It may be the wind, or the sun, or the rain. 
 It may be a bird flying past, a fowl cackling, or dogs barking 
 and fighting. They greet each other, too ; they chat, laugh, take 
 snuff, come and go. One must gently repress these liberties, 
 and maintain order ; but it is scarcely inspiring. It would be 
 enough to sweep the whole sermon out of one's head, supposing 
 one had written it. However, it sometimes happens that these 
 poor people do listen. Yesterday I was telling the story of 
 the Deluge ; they understood me ; their attention was riveted. 
 And when, after having spoken of that deluge of fire predicted 
 by St. Peter, I appealed to my audience, and cried, " Whither 
 
 ' The Barotsi always cut open the body of a murdered man to let 
 the spirit out, fearing, if it be left in, that it may haunt and injure the 
 murderers. 
 
 * In allusion to the solemn attitude taken in prayer.
 
 284 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 will you flee then from the wrath of God ? " " To thee, O Moruti, 
 our father," replied several voices at once. " And why should 
 we flee ? " asked an old man seriously ; " we are not sorcerers." ^ 
 Oh, how long we have to wait to see one soul open to the 
 beams of grace ! Nguana-Ngombe sometimes gives us hope. 
 I have several times surprised the dear boy hidden in the 
 bushes and praying aloud. Wifl not God, Whom he is thus 
 groping after, hear him ? 
 
 As for Kamburu, he seems under a spell. Did he not an- 
 nounce to me last night that he was married ! " Married ! Since 
 when? To whom? Impossible!" " Oh yes, I am married," 
 replied my boy, with his pleasant smile and his face all lighted 
 up. " And that's how they do things with you ? " " Yes, my 
 father." In his journey from Sesheke here, he met a young 
 woman who was by no means at her first husband ; she pleased 
 him ; he found a matron for her in the neighbourhood, sent for 
 her, and — the marriage was concluded. It is simple enough. 
 
 In Basuto-land, and among other African tribes before the 
 introduction of Christianity, " marriage by cattle " was a blessing. 
 It was a barrier against corruption, and a civil contract." Here, 
 no such thing. A wife leaves her husband for another, a 
 husband sends his wife away with the greatest ease in the 
 world, and nobody is astonished. Should a man take a fancy 
 to some one else's wife, he has an interview with her, brings her 
 home, and all is said and done. If it is a chief, the matter is 
 even easier. In many cases, it is the women themselves who 
 take the initiative. A very remarkable fact, which I can only 
 indicate here, is that the Barotsi in general have small families. 
 It is true, though, that the mortality among children is very 
 great. 
 
 March 28/A — April 2nd. 
 
 The disquieting political news which comes to us from 
 Sesheke has lately procured us a visit from Lewanika. His 
 person was neglected ; he was gruff and uncommunicative. 
 Discontent is breaking out here and there. He has not yet 
 been able to organise his great annual hunt : those who can, 
 
 ' It is only sorcerers who are put to death by fire. 
 
 ^ In cattle marriages, the bridegroom has to buy his wife from her father 
 with cattle, and also to give back cattle to her relatives if he repudiates her.
 
 i887] POISON V. BLOODSHED 285 
 
 evade his orders on the pretext of famine. His messengers 
 make murderous descents on the villages : every one flees at 
 their approach. What a people ! 
 
 Here is a messenger from the king ! Surely it bodes some 
 good news, for he comes quite beaming ; he is laughing with 
 pleasure. Since the affair of Moeya-nyana, which Lcwanika has 
 taken the trouble to tell me in all its details, I am rather 
 suspicious about the laughter of the Barotsi. Kambinda per- 
 ceives this, and, like a good actor, puts on a serious air. " The 
 king," he said, " is not indifferent to your counsels. You have 
 rebuked him for governing with an assegaif under his cloak " 
 (killing people clandestinely) ; " you have told him that God 
 hates the shedding of blood. Well, he makes known to you 
 to-day that he has cast the hidden assegai" far from him, and 
 will shed no more blood. The other day seven children were 
 discovered in the woods and captured : among them was a wife 
 of Mokabesa, one of the chiefs of the revolution. Lewanika had 
 them brought into the full council, and served them with a pot 
 of beer, poisoned in their sight. ' You are of an accursed race,' 
 he said to them ; ' your fathers have killed the kings who loaded 
 them with favours ; they have massacred my own children. My 
 day of vengeance has come. I will not break your skulls ; I will 
 not pierce you with the spear ; but you shall all drink this beer, 
 poisoned with moati. And if your god can save you, that is 
 his affair.' They drank, or rather were forced to swallow, the 
 fatal drink ; they were put into a canoe, and abandoned upon 
 a desert island, to die there." 
 
 Since our arrival here, my dear wife has been extremely weak. 
 The waggon journey tried her very much. We have long lodged 
 in our old van, which no longer ensures us against either wind 
 or rain. Our reed hut is finished, well plastered within and 
 without ; it does not dry easily ; but though they are infested 
 with white ants, our two little rooms are a perfect palace for 
 us. We are surprised at the number of things we possess to 
 make it comfortable and cosy, and we are filled with gratitude 
 towards our heavenly Father. Mokwae, the queen, first of all, and 
 then Katoka, her sister, have come to spend some days with us. 
 More than once, we had to show them round our two rooms 
 with all their suite. They were quite astounded, as were we, 
 once upon a time, in the palace of Versailles. What astonished
 
 286 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 them most was our casement windows, our glass, and our chairs. 
 Pausing in ecstasies before each separate object, Mokwae 
 asked, " Have you given anything like this to my brother 
 the king ? " She strutted about, or sat proudly enthroned on 
 her mat in a large-patterned print dress, given her by my wife. 
 They appreciated our little presents, behaved discreetly on the 
 whole, and left a favourable impression upon us. 
 
 May 4t/i. 
 
 The great event of this month is the school. We would 
 have wished to begin it on arriving here. But, first of all, we 
 had to make ourselves at least a temporary abode. Even now, 
 the school is carried on in the open air, in the midst of the 
 constructions which are absorbing us ; but, at all events, it z's 
 carried on, and that regularly every day. Already, it numbers 
 twenty scholars on the books. It was on March 4th, in the 
 presence of the queen, that we opened it. Lewanika has sent 
 us two of his sons and five of his nephews : other chiefs have 
 followed his example. A hut has been erected for Litia, not 
 without difficulty : the others have made themselves shelters, 
 the whole surrounded with a palisade. It is perhaps the embryo 
 of our future Normal School. You would not believe what an 
 interest we take in this school, and with what joy Aaron 
 especially, and my wife and I alternately, devote a part of our 
 time to it every day. Our two most advanced pupils will soon 
 be able to read ; they all have some notions of Bible history 
 and of geography. But they are villainous singers. Each of 
 our little people has come with a number of slaves, more or 
 less ; some of these attend school, and place themselves behind 
 their masters. But we have not yet arrived at making them 
 understand that the teaching is for them too. 
 
 What is much more serious, is the question of how to feed 
 all these mouths. The young chiefs, by dint of threats, at 
 first obtained abundance. But the source became exhausted ; 
 Litia's people spied upon the passers-by to rob them, or else 
 pounced upon those who ventured to bring us their produce. We 
 were often forced to intervene. The terror which the presence 
 of these princes inspires is such, that our little Sunday audience 
 has broken up : we have had to experience a dearth of food ; 
 and it has been almost impossible for us to procure workmen.
 
 i887] AN UNLUCKY HUNT 287 
 
 Our dear pupils did not spare us. By way of thanking us 
 for the provisions we gave them to the fullest extent of our 
 power, they set to work to eat up our sheep ; but they did 
 it delicately, like artful pickpockets. To obviate all these 
 rascalities, we ought to have a boarding school, where all the 
 pupils would be on the same footing and constantly under 
 the master's supervision. That too will come. Meanwhile, 
 let us not despise small beginnings, but give thanks to God. 
 
 May 2^th. 
 
 A fortnight ago, the king came back from his hunting 
 expedition — an unlucky hunt, if ever there was one. In vain 
 had his emissaries scoured the villages, and by their own 
 peculiar methods carried off recruits and sowed terrors broad- 
 cast. The hunt was unpopular — I know not why. And then 
 the floods this year are of the smallest ; only the lowest parts 
 of the Valley are submerged. It is a calamity from more 
 than one point of view ; and from that of the chase more 
 particularly. The antelopes run all over the veldt, so they 
 cannot be penned up on an island by hundreds of canoes, 
 as is usually done, and slaughtered easily. And as the Barotsi 
 count on this great annual hunt of a month or two to lay 
 in their store of skins, one can understand their dismay this 
 year. Hunger brought them back to their own hearths. Some 
 were nothing but living skeletons. Within the memory of 
 man, no such thing had been seen. How explain it, unless 
 by sorcery ? Certain incidents of the chase, moreover, had put 
 the king and the principal chiefs in ill-humour. The day 
 after his return, he found the floor of his house all sprinkled 
 with blood. This time there could be no doubt his own person 
 was aimed at. But who was the author of these misdeeds ? 
 Lewanika went no more to the lekhothla, and saw no one. 
 
 Terror seized on every one, and spread everywhere like a 
 tidal wave. The recalcitrants who had not taken part in the 
 hunt hid their corn and their little property by night, and 
 escaped into the woods. The Gambella, the other ministers, 
 and all the chiefs of the capital did not feel themselves safe 
 from suspicions. Every one made it a point of honour to wash 
 his hands of it by submitting to the ordeal of boiling water. 
 So, on a given day, they set on the fire in the lekhothla as many
 
 288 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 pots as there were chiefs, and their slaves, always as proxies, 
 plunged their hands into it by turns. The thing which so far 
 I find inexplicable is that nobody was scalded. The women 
 of the harem then had their turn, and next it was that of the 
 female cooks and scullions. 
 
 Directly this news reached us, I took a canoe and went 
 to the capital. It was Friday, the 20th. The king seemed 
 pleased to see me — his heart was full ; he passed a great part 
 of the night in my hut, talking. I spent the whole of the next 
 day in private interviews with his principal councillors, and 
 in the evening they were all assembled at my place with their 
 master. But that did not suffice. The next day, Sunday, 
 at the two meetings, I preached on the sixth commandment : 
 " Thou shalt not kill." I leave you to imagine how they 
 opened their eyes, when they heard me enunciate and develop 
 this truth, here so new and strange, that man is the creature, 
 the exclusive property of God, that kings and governors are 
 only the shepherds of the people, and servants who will have 
 to render an account of their stewardship. However much I 
 shrank from the task, I had to denounce the atrocity of a 
 superstition which so lightly sacrificed so many human lives, 
 and the intrigues which have produced these last events. I felt 
 the full importance of the occasion, and the grandeur of the 
 ministry committed to me. Oh, how tremblingly I had gone 
 to Lealuyi ! — how I besought my Master for fidelity, for 
 strength, and the power of a burning love ! They understood 
 my address quite as well as the purpose of my visit. The 
 people, astonished, said, " Ah yes, indeed ! " The king hung 
 his head, and said to the Gambella, " The words of the Moruti 
 have sunk into my heart." The councillors came to me in 
 private, to beg me to repeat them to him ; and he himself in 
 his turn asked me to say them all again to his ministers. They 
 made me all sorts of fine promises ; no more ordeals by 
 boiling water, no more poison, no more burning at the stake. 
 
 On the Monday morning, a man planted in the midst of the 
 assembled lekhotJila two pieces of reed with tufts of poultry 
 feathers at the top. The fowls they were plucked from had gone 
 through the preparatory ordeal of the moati, and had succumbed 
 to it. These people (their owners) were sent back, and told that 
 they were disturbing the public peace and the security of their
 
 i887] THE DAILY ROUND 289 
 
 villages. I do not know whether I succeeded in saving the 
 life of one old woman, one of the cooks, who found herself 
 scalded. But let us not deceive ourselves : it is not at the 
 first blast of the ram's horn that one can overthrow or even 
 shake the walls of superstition. It is one of Satan's chief strong- 
 holds. But we shall redouble the blows, we shall dig mines, and 
 happy shall we be if we succeed in making a breach ! 
 
 You see what an atmosphere we live in. Our sky would 
 indeed be leaden, without the light of God's face ; our isolation 
 would be unbearable, without the communion of the Saviour — 
 and I would add, the communion of saints. 
 
 Sefula, November 1887. 
 
 A chance for the post is the opening of our prison doors. 
 Our benumbed thoughts spread their wings and flutter out. 
 They fly into the open air, towards the countries of light, and 
 move in the great world of the living. But the pen is duller 
 and more dilatory. It has to reckon with all sorts of circum- 
 stances, which hamper its movements and chill its ardour. 
 Oh, how we should fling it down, if we only had a telephone 
 at our service ! Our isolation, without the faintest glimmer of 
 social enjoyment, is a severe trial. We are stifled in this 
 atmosphere of corruption, and we run a terrible risk of growing 
 rusty and settling into a groove. No intellectual or moral 
 movements sustain or uplift us ; all our surroundings drag us 
 down ; and alas ! when we are in the dust, even then we are 
 still far above the level of the darkness and foulness encircling us. 
 
 The material occupations and the cares which crush and 
 absorb us are a heavy cross, which we often carry with an ill 
 grace. The missionary, whose position, unfortunately, renders 
 him conspicuous, and whom your affection puts upon a pedestal, 
 does not live at that level at all ; it is only statues that stay 
 there. His is not the contemplative life of the monk, nor that 
 of a lover of adventures, full of dazzling heroism. No ! It is 
 humdrum to a degree that would amaze you. It is a tissue 
 of humble duties and little details, which fritter away his time, 
 patience, and strength. In the evening, a sense of sadness 
 often seizes him, when he makes up the account of his occupa- 
 tions, and has nothing to show for it but disappointments and 
 fatigue. Even in his sleep, he is often haunted by the prospect 
 
 19
 
 290 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 of the Struggles awaiting him next day. Is that, I ask myself, 
 the ideal life of an apostle ? When Paul stitched at his tents, 
 was he sometimes beset by the cares which torment the most 
 ordinary of human beings ? 
 
 It is now just a year since I arrived here, accompanied by 
 our friends Waddell and Middleton. My wife had remained 
 at Sesheke. We pitched our tents in the midst of some 
 clumps of brushwood and mutilated stumps, on this sand-hill, 
 covered with a thick layer of ashes. This year must have seen 
 at least twenty moons ! 
 
 We began our work of installation in the midst of the most 
 unfavourable circumstances. Satan was not the only one to 
 make sport of us. But our God, ever good and faithful, has 
 succoured us according to our needs. That formidable journey 
 of my wife's, which was thought to be madness, proved quick 
 and easy. Her health, shaken by the rough life we had led 
 for three years, has gradually been restored. We have again 
 had losses of cattle, which have seriously complicated our 
 difficulties, and hampered our work ; but we have all enjoyed 
 excellent health, and the attacks of fever have been as rare 
 as they were mild. We still have to walk in thick sand : the 
 brushwood, the stumps of decapitated trees, our jungles and 
 our marshes, are still there — the haunts of serpents, hyaenas, 
 and leopards. The place will never be picturesque : our 
 immense bare plain, the bed of a dried-up lake, with its miry 
 swamps, will never be a Swiss canton, nor even a Basuto-land. 
 We must just make the best of it. But Sefula may become 
 habitable, and one may live happily there. 
 
 While drainage works are being actively carried on in the 
 dale, we have begun to clear away the thickets, and already 
 on the plateau, where formerly sorcerers were burnt alive, four 
 little European buildings are rising, which are the great wonder 
 of the country. They are very modest, just temporary cabins 
 of stakes and reeds, which the termites are already eating out. 
 But they have little windows, light and air. You would not 
 believe the interest we have taken in setting them up, plastering 
 them, and making the most of what we have to furnish them 
 cosily. Is it not an emblem of life, which we know to be so 
 short, and which we strive to make so fair? 
 
 Our material labours are only just begun ; the greatest
 
 i887] THE SCHOOL 291 
 
 are still before us, and we contemplate them with a kind of 
 stupefaction. Still, we must have more stable constructions 
 than those which shelter us now. There are no stones that 
 I know of within a radius of a hundred miles, and in order 
 to build we shall be forced to make bricks. Middlcton has 
 made an attempt in the Valley, which has succeeded tolerably 
 well. But he, to our great regret, is leaving us to return to 
 Europe ; and unless we find some mechanical means of prose- 
 cuting this work, the difficulties it presents are such that I 
 should feel unequal to undertaking them. I should be unjust 
 if I did not render public testimony to the devotion of Waddell 
 and Middleton. 
 
 So much for material things. Now, what shall I say of the 
 mission work itself? We are still at the day of small beginnings. 
 We are clearing the ground. It is a very uninteresting period, 
 for we have nothing as yet to show for it but our clods and 
 the sweat of our brow. But we must clear the ground at all 
 costs, if we would one day sow, and later on reap the harvest. 
 For the present, the great thing is, not to lose courage ; above 
 all, not to lose faith in the work. 
 
 Let us first of all visit the school, which is carried on 
 yonder under the scanty shade of a hollow tree. It has gone 
 on regularly since the beginning of April. From thirty-five, 
 the number of scholars has declined to twenty. The slaves 
 (already rather big) of our young chiefs have gradually wearied 
 of this passive service, so uninteresting for them, and of a 
 discipline which, however light, is irksome to these children 
 of nature. With one or two exceptions, of which we carefully 
 keep count, we have found it impossible to make voluntary 
 recruits among the surrounding villages. The school is still 
 considered exclusively that of the young princes ; and those 
 who attend it are, or by the mere fact become, their serfs and 
 their slaves. That is enough to frighten the parents, and the 
 children themselves. With time, this will alter ; but for the 
 moment it is unfortunate. 
 
 Our young men's establishment leaves much to be desired 
 in every respect. Its morality is not exemplary ; hunger is 
 its habitual guest, for these princes live at the charges of a 
 public which loves them not, and this is the source of great 
 disorder, which we are not in a position to ameliorate. They
 
 292 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 have nearly finished up our little flock of sheep and goats, 
 and we do not know which way to turn for a little meat. 
 Lately, during my absence, they stole my two aneroid barometers, 
 probably to make snuff-boxes of them. Poor children ! they 
 little thought what mischief they were doing me. We have 
 even had for a time to forbid them access to the workshop, 
 whence nails, screws, and tools were disappearing with alarming 
 rapidity. 
 
 And yet, if you but knew with what cares and prayers we 
 surround this school ! People would not believe in Europe, 
 no, not even in Basuto-land, the amount of patience and perse- 
 verance needed to teach this class of young men, who believe 
 that everything is permitted to them, and who turn everything 
 into ridicule. In spite of all our occupations, my wife and I 
 devote a certain time every day to helping Aaron in his irksome 
 task. Happily, he is gifted with a strong will and plenty of 
 energy. But he is not equal to the task. Five of his pupils 
 already read fluently, and some others are making progress. 
 What we need here, and what would do enormous good, is an 
 industrial school. The Barotsi are industrious in their own way. 
 They do wicker-work, and manipulate wood and iron with 
 much taste and skill. The king pesters me to take apprentices. 
 First of all, it was a dozen grown-up men ; then " his sons " (i.e. 
 the boys of the royal family, including his nephews), whom he 
 imagined he had thoroughly equipped with tools, when he had 
 got them a plane ; then others again, who, he expected, would 
 in a few months become as expert as Mr. Waddell himself. He 
 does not understand how reasons of economy (for all these 
 mouths must be fed) and the press of work together oblige 
 me to refuse these amateur apprentices, and he never misses a 
 chance of reproaching me with it. I was forced in the end to 
 yield and take two intelligent men, although they are a burden 
 and a hindrance to us. 
 
 We tell ourselves that this too is a work. I cannot blind 
 myself : I see ever more clearly the immense services that 
 industry and commerce, in upright and Christian hands, could 
 render to the evangelisation of this country. The civilising 
 side is perhaps the one that our poverty has led us to neglect 
 too much. It is a subject which deserves the attention of 
 Christian philanthropists.
 
 i887] ROMANCE VERSUS REALITY 293 
 
 Our Sunday audiences are subject to all sorts of fluctuations. 
 Wc had succeeded up to a certain point in restoring the con- 
 fidence of the people who came to sell their produce. One day, 
 the king pays us a visit, finds his children have grown thin, 
 assembles the chiefs of the neighbouring villages to rebuke 
 them, and there is all our work of several months crumbled 
 away at a touch. While our little chiefs profited by one of my 
 long absences to give themselves a free hand, their guardians 
 and followers lay in wait for the people who came to sell their 
 produce or to be present at the preaching of the Gospel. They 
 ruthlessly despoiled the former, and brutally forced the latter 
 to perform the hardest and most servile labour. The work is 
 not easy, you see ; more briers than down in our nest. Perhaps, 
 in this dark picture, I have not sufficiently allowed for circum- 
 stances. How can we attract a regular audience, and see a 
 school prosper, when we have not even a roof to shelter us ? 
 Day after day, teaching and preaching go on outside, in wind, 
 sun, and rain, and in the midst of a multitude of distractions, 
 each more alluring than the other. 
 
 I do not know in what language to express my thoughts, 
 to make our friends understand that the savages — ours, that 
 is — are not in the least the sweet, simple, affectionate, confiding 
 creatures they are represented to be in Europe ; that they have 
 not the slightest desire to hear, and still less to receive, the Gospel. 
 Here, as with us, the carnal mind is enmity against God ; but 
 here — and do not lose sight of the fact — this enmity often 
 expresses itself in the grossest and most humiliating guise. 
 Do not misunderstand us. Even the most intelligent chiefs 
 have very vague and very false notions about us and about 
 our mission ; and if they call us into their country, it is generally 
 for political objects and from personal interests. For us, whatever 
 may be the key God uses to open the door, it is our duty to 
 step in, even though it were the door of a prison. We cannot 
 expect to be received with enthusiasm or triumph ; all that 
 we ask, or have a right to ask, is toleration. Missionaries 
 are often reproached with colouring their pictures too highly. 
 Would you like me to add deeper shadows to mine? It is 
 never without a pang at my heart that I dip my brush in dark 
 colours, to acquaint you with those we have come to evangelise. 
 If I did not owe it to you to tell the truth I would rather cover
 
 294 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 them with the cloak of charity. We only give you glimpses. 
 Now they are gloomy and sad. What would you say to the 
 reality, such as it is, alas ! with which, moreover, we have to live 
 in continual contact? 
 
 I have told you already that I made a journey to Kazungula 
 to meet our friends the J alias and MM. Dardier and Goy. 
 These long and repeated absences, without any communica- 
 tions, are painful trials among so many others which assail 
 us here. We do not get used to them. During my journeys, 
 Mme. Coillard, already weighed down by her own duties, has 
 further to charge herself with a part of mine, and to assume 
 all the responsibility. It is not an easy task with Zambesians. 
 At Sesheke, the sinister rumours of a new revolution are flying 
 about the country. In certain places, they were talking to each 
 other confidentially about a plot, which they asserted the Gam- 
 bella himself was concocting, and which was to break out imme- 
 diately. The sudden alteration in the behaviour of my oarsmen, 
 their insubordination, the rapacity and arrogance of Mokumba 
 and his men, and other equally disquieting symptoms, gave 
 additional substance to all these rumours. It was even asserted 
 that at the Valley, since our departure, the insurgents had twice 
 surrounded the capital, but that, finding themselves numerically 
 too weak, they had quietly dispersed. Would the revolution 
 break out during my absence, and the country be thrown once 
 more into anarchy ? What would my wife do ? How could I 
 rejoin her with this band of " brigands," as they called them, 
 being, as I now found myself, absolutely at their mercy ? But 
 one is calm when one really confides oneself to God : " I will 
 both lay me down in peace, and sleep," said the Psalmist : " for 
 Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." 
 
 My return journey was accomplished without misadventure, 
 notwithstanding ; and I was bringing reinforcements. My 
 travelling companions, MM. Dardier and Goy, seemed so happy, 
 and enjoyed themselves so much, I felt quite young again. 
 At less than two days from Sefula, they fell ill. I thought 
 at first it was simply an attack of fever. As a matter of 
 fact, in Dr. Dardier's case, it was a sunstroke, slight enough 
 in itself, but it proved an exciting cause for other disorders. 
 My wife, being warned in time, sent the cart for the last stage. 
 It was the saddest part of the journey. The children of the
 
 i887] AN EQUESTRIAN ADVENTURE 295 
 
 school, led by Aaron, came to meet us, singing hymns. I 
 alighted to shake hands with our dear pupils. This simple 
 reception in the Barotsi country moved me ; but our patients 
 scarcely noticed it. M. Goy soon got over this first tribute 
 paid to the unhealthiness of the climate, and recovered his 
 energy and spirit. Not so Dr. Dardier. After a serious illness, 
 he seemed to be fully convalescent, when certain symptoms 
 arose and alarmed him. Now he is leaving us, and returning 
 to Sesheke, partly for a family event which the J alias are 
 expecting, but more especially on account of his health. Will 
 he ever come back to Sefula ? Our sorrow and disappointment 
 are great, and they are in proportion to the immense joy which 
 the arrival of this reinforcement had afforded us, and the hopes 
 we had conceived. 
 
 The question of evangelisation is one difficult to resolve 
 satisfactorily. What method can we invent? It is evident 
 that that of Basuto-land will not do here. There, you spring to 
 the saddle, and gallop whither you will ; you visit one, two, or 
 three villages, according to the time at disposal ; or else organise 
 a campaign lasting two or three days. It is magnificent. Here, 
 it is different. The villages, scattered over the undulations of 
 the plain or in the midst of the cultivated marshes, are all 
 difficult of access. You can neither reach them in canoes, 
 because there is not enough water, nor on foot, because of the 
 peat-bogs, unless you relieve yourself of all your clothes, which is 
 not always practicable. I generally ride along the edge of the 
 plain. I call the chiefs of the hamlets and the people whom 
 I know, and many run up eagerly. But it is not always a house- 
 to-house visit, and I do not reach everybody I should like to. 
 
 The other day, I wanted for the fifth time to attempt a 
 visit to Namboata's village, which we see three miles from 
 here. I had made arrangements, and had procured a man 
 from among my friends to come with his sons and act as a 
 guide. Everything went well for three-quarters of the way. 
 Then I found myself involved in a miry swamp, crossed by 
 a sort of canal. At the edge of the deep artificial rivulet, the 
 horse, which was every moment sinking deeper, obstinately 
 refused to go on. He grew restive ; threw himself first to one 
 side, then to the other ; kicked furiously, — all to no purpose. I 
 stuck to the saddle. All at once, he plunged, dropped his head
 
 296 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1887 
 
 between his fore-legs, and began bucking so violently, that 
 before long I was rolling in the mud, while my mount had 
 bolted across the morasses, and was galloping over the veldt, 
 my two guides after him. In vain I approached him quite 
 gently, my hat in my hand, just as when he is being fed in 
 the evening. The ruse did not succeed this time ; and the 
 horse was off like a shot, far away over the plain. So I must 
 needs paddle humbly through the pools, and reach home a 
 pitiable object. 
 
 There is a comic element in this little adventure, which is 
 not the only one of its kind ; but it leads up to another which 
 I must tell you about — alas ! a very different one. A week ago, 
 one of our little boys was leading my horse to water, and turning 
 it out to browse (it is a stallion, which always tries to bolt in 
 the direction of the capital). He was playing with the tether, 
 when suddenly the animal took fright and galloped off with 
 the child after him. M. Goy's workmen were instantly pursuing 
 him, shouting to the boy at the top of their voices to let go 
 the bridle. The horse, kicking furiously, disappeared into the 
 woods at full gallop. When, a few seconds later, it was found, 
 quivering and covered with foam, in the open, the child was still 
 there — but alas ! nothing but a lifeless and mutilated corpse. 
 It was found that, in playing with the tether, he had made 
 a running knot, and passed his arm through it, when the horse, 
 suddenly frightened, had galloped away. We are in great 
 sorrow. Dear little boy ! poor Samochese ! He might have 
 been twelve years old. During the two months he had been 
 with us, he had won everybody's affection. He was so active, 
 so careful, so loveable. We had built such hopes upon him. 
 Now his sudden and awful death has destroyed them all. It 
 is the first burial which has taken place at Sefula : it was on 
 Sunday morning, the 13th of this month. Forgive me for 
 dwelling at such length on this bereavement, which we shall 
 long remember. To us, it seems very great ; and when we 
 think of his father, above all of his mother, we do not know 
 how to be comforted.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Barotsi on the War-path — A Cattle Raid in Prospect — "To the Mashuku- 
 lumboe!" — A Full-dress Parade — On the March — The Prophetess- 
 Break-up of the School — Thieves — Fate of the Rebel Mathaha and of 
 the loyal Tahalima — "The Commune" — False Reports. 
 
 Sefula, January 2$th, 1888. 
 
 A TIME of revolution among the Barotsi means anarchy 
 in its fullest development. It is the hour for personal 
 revenges. Every one pillages and massacres without running 
 the risk of ever being called to justice. " Ke-lerunio ! " ( " It is 
 the spear " — civil war). That justifies every passion, every dis- 
 order, every crime, and every atrocity. 
 
 Can one form the least idea of what this country becomes, 
 whose inhabitants, even in time of peace, are so swift to shed 
 blood ? One might truly say, that it was over these tribes of 
 the Zambesi that the prophet Hosea was lamenting, when he 
 said, " There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and 
 killing, and stealing, and committing adultery ; they break 
 out, and blood toucheth blood." ^ I have already had occasion 
 to speak of this ; forgive me for recurring to it ; but, be it 
 remembered, we shall never tell everything ; our confidences 
 will always — yes, always, alas ! — come short of the reality. 
 
 One detail. The Barotsi are not at all a pastoral people. 
 Formerly, when they could " lift " an ox from the Mashuku- 
 lumboe, they made a public feast of it, roasted it on the embers, 
 flesh and hide together, as they still do with the zebra ; it 
 was exquisite, the singed hair flavouring the dishes. The 
 Makololo initiated them a little into the pastoral life, but 
 without imparting to them anything of their veneration for 
 the bovine race. Except in very unusual circumstances, such 
 as a marriage, a purification for burial, or a sacrifice to the 
 
 ' Hosea iv. 2 (R.V.). 
 297
 
 298 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 ancestors, it is rare for a Mosuto to allow himself the luxury 
 of killing an ox. A calf — a cow, never ! It would be sacrilege. 
 Here all are immolated, without distinction and without special 
 reason — bulls and heifers, oxen and calves. They kill and 
 eat, like greedy children beginning with the best. When the 
 herd has vanished, each man looks at his neighbour and raises 
 the cry, " To the Mashukulumboe ! " 
 
 During the recent troubles, the bovine race has been almost 
 literally exterminated in the country. I could never have 
 believed it, if I had not had the proofs before my eyes. It 
 was — I am speaking more particularly of the Valley — a 
 universal butchery. Every one tried to outdo the other in 
 slaughter. There were no more masters. No one's property 
 was respected, not even that appropriated by the chiefs who 
 held power. And we experienced something of it ourselves. 
 To this unbridled prodigality, a famine succeeded ; it was only 
 to be expected. Then, as always, the cry arose, " To the 
 Mashukulumboe ! " 
 
 Lewanika wanted to yield to these clamours, thinking it a 
 good opportunity for winning popularity. But famine raged 
 through the kingdom, the political horizon was not clear, and 
 he was obliged regretfully to yield to the counsels of the wise 
 men, and give up the expedition. It was only deferred. Since 
 then, it has become tJie topic of conversation, the dream of the 
 populace. 
 
 Now the favourable season has arrived ; the rains are falling, 
 the streams are overflowing, the pools and ponds have become 
 lakes, and soon the Valley will be submerged. That will last 
 till June. The south-east wind will then begin to blow, the 
 waters will abate, and the earth will dry. Until that moment, 
 the Barotsi believe that their country is sufficiently protected 
 by the waters against an invasion, and that they have time to 
 go and make their contemplated raid. Lewanika, who at first 
 communicated his plans to me, now shows himself more reserved, 
 since he knows my opinion. It is the public talk, that he keeps 
 us informed of all that is going forward. 
 
 On a certain day, all the chiefs of the country were assembled 
 together at Lealuyi. The queen, Mokwac, whose advice has 
 great weight in questions of this kind, also attended there, after 
 keeping every one a long time waiting.
 
 A RAID IN PROSPECT 299 
 
 Some days afterwards, we went thither also, at the entreaty 
 of the king. It was M. Goy's first visit to the capital, and he 
 will not soon forget it. The journey was full of adventures, 
 Soaked through from the beginning, and that to the skin, we 
 were obliged alternately to go through showers, through burn- 
 ing sun, and cold squalls of wind which were driving up 
 the clouds. Night overtook us. We wandered long in these 
 interminable sheets of water, without the smallest landmark, 
 losing our way a dozen times, finding it only to lose it again. 
 Utterly sick of it at last, we abandoned the canoe as soon as 
 we could moor it in the reeds, set to work resolutely to paddle 
 through mud and water again for more than half an hour, and 
 we arrived at ten o'clock barefoot, en calecon — begging your 
 pardon — famished and exhausted. 
 
 The town was overflowing with people. Here and there 
 were bivouacs, where they still talked ; the rush fires — for fuel 
 is scarce in the Valley — occasionally shot out a flame that 
 rendered darkness visible, and, dying out, left it thicker than 
 ever. The enclosure of the kuandu — the king's private house 
 in the midst of his harem — was packed full. Our arrival caused 
 surprise, for no one here journeys at such unseasonable hours. 
 Lewanika hurried up, laughing with pleasure, and we soon had 
 one of his houses at our disposal, mats, a fire which made us 
 shiver only to look at it, and to warm our empty stomachs 
 a cup of some liquid. They told us, I believe, that it was 
 coffee. Upon that, we could sustain conversation up to a late 
 hour. Our royal friend, quite full of his expedition, felt the 
 need of justifying it in our eyes. " They ill-treated Dr. Holub, 
 who had just come from me ; it is my duty to chastise them. 
 Besides, they are not human beings ; they are quite naked. 
 And then ..." he added hesitatingly, " and then . . . we have 
 no more cattle, and we absolutely must have some. But you 
 may be sure it is our very last expedition. On our return, we 
 will give ourselves up entirely to your teaching ; and we will 
 all become believers, all Christians . . . all!' Undoubtedly, 
 he put the accent in the right place ; and if we are not con- 
 vinced, he at least was con.soled. 
 
 Next day, great animation reigned throughout the village. 
 On all sides, the slaves and women were coming and going, 
 jostling with busy messengers ; they were actively preparing
 
 300 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 food for the road. Everywhere one heard the cadence of the 
 pestles, like the flails of many threshing-floors. The chiefs 
 themselves held their little councils of war in twos and threes 
 apart ; while the court fools raved deliriously, made music with 
 the gourds, shrieked and bellowed, no one taking the slightest 
 notice of them. Fresh detachments of armed men kept coming 
 up every moment. In the evening, there was a grand military 
 demonstration — let us not call it a review. The warriors, under 
 their respective chiefs, massed themselves on the public square ; 
 they were draped in flaming colours, decked out in ostrich 
 feathers, in rags and fripperies of European clothing, in leopard 
 skins, in every kind of wild beast's hide, great or small, which 
 could give a man the semblance of an animal and a sufficiently 
 ferocious aspect. 
 
 Little detachments would feign an attack upon an imaginary 
 enemy, perform some evolutions which drew frantic applause 
 from the spectators, and retire to their places ; then the whole 
 black mass chanted lugubriously a wild war-song. Some of 
 the commandants next came forward, and angrily harangued 
 the king ; then advancing at the double, they fell on their 
 knees, and planted gun and shield before the ministers, still 
 declaiming with bitter words, and demanding that " this timid 
 king, who does not know his own mind, should at last let loose 
 his infuriated dogs." 
 
 What astonished me was the number of firearms possessed 
 by these people. They had them of every calibre. To be 
 sure, they are not of the most modern pattern ; the majority 
 are flint-locks.^ Never mind, they a.re^uns ! And to a Morotsi 
 the name alone is magic. No doubt the assegai is still the 
 national weapon — and a formidable weapon, too ; but the shields 
 of hide — copied from those of the Matabele, which the Makololo 
 themselves had adopted — are few in number and ill-kept. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, all that is purely national is dying out. 
 This is to be regretted, for it is not always a sign of progress. 
 
 As we are here to make observations, let us cast a glance 
 upon the Sunday-morning audience which the public crier 
 assembles. The king, with his band of music and his 
 " monstrous regiment " of likomboa (officers and favourites 
 
 ' The Portuguese have two factories of flint-lock guns in South Africa.
 
 A FULL-DRESS PARADE 3OI 
 
 attached to his personal service, who possess great influence), 
 has made his entrance. Every one kneels and acclaims him. 
 This is more than the usual greeting : it is because yesterday 
 his Majesty did not appear at the khotJila, and he is supposed 
 to be angry ; and " the king's wrath," saith Solomon, " is as 
 messengers of death." Little by little, the public place fills, 
 and produces on me the effect of a kaleidoscope. I do not see, 
 as I did at Sesheke ten years ago, the cast-off clothes of soldiers, 
 of police constables, of naval officers and high functionaries, with 
 faded braids and broideries, which the uttermost waves of 
 commerce had tossed hither like foam. No. But the spectacle, 
 though different, is not less curious. The many-coloured 
 cotton cap so dear to the Barotsi is a rarity. Men of import- 
 ance supply its place by wrapping the head in a handkerchief, 
 which does not keep its freshness very long ; and to that they 
 add, if possible, a felt hat, seldom very correct in shape. 
 
 In exchange for ivory, Lewanika had bought up the whole 
 stock of merchandise brought him just now by Mr. Westbeech 
 on the one hand, and on the other by the caravan of a 
 Portuguese merchant from Bihe. Everybody, in varying 
 degrees, had a share in the royal largesse ; and were it but a 
 remnant of an elbow's length, he must stick it on somehow. 
 So one sees nothing but new setsibas and tinsels of every 
 colour. Well, they may pass muster, and so may the hats and 
 the shirts and the motley blankets. But what of the garments 
 of European cut ? Just look at this old man, whose withered 
 limbs bob about like matches in the folds of a vesture made 
 for a Hercules ; while the Hercules has succeeded — I don't 
 know how — in hauling on a pair of breeches which are splitting. 
 Here, a stout individual is rigged out in a waistcoat only, and 
 nothing else ; there is another of similar proportions in a sailor's 
 jumper — a real strait-jacket for him. No matter, he must raise 
 his arms over his head to salute the king, and return thanks for 
 his gift. Whichever way you look, the absurdities are enough 
 to make you laugh till the tears run down your cheeks. 
 
 Suddenly, every gaze is directed towards a procession which 
 advances with dignity. It is the queen, Mokwae, who comes 
 with her suite of young maidens, with the princesses, the 
 daughters of Sepopa, and the wives of Lewanika. All are clad 
 in robes of calico print, all pieces of the same brightly coloured
 
 302 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 stuff, floating over their shoulders, and large handkerchiefs on 
 their heads, streaming behind like veils ; and, with all that, a 
 profusion of beadwork and jewellery from some Parisian bazaar. 
 They gravely take up their place behind us on their mats ; and 
 after the whole assembly has clapped hands, the service com- 
 mences. I speak from the text, " And this is the condemnation, 
 that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather 
 than light, because their deeds were evil." 
 
 The next day we wanted to start early, but Lewanika desired 
 that we should be present at the great National Council. We 
 yielded. We took our places with him in the spacious hut of 
 the lekhothla, a sort of shed open on all sides. The chiefs were 
 packed there together like herrings, while the crowd pressed 
 round outside and listened eagerly. The session lasted from 
 8 a.m. till one in the afternoon. It was a succession of little 
 speeches, going off like rockets. Decidedly, the Barotsi are not 
 Basuto ; they do not understand public speaking, and Lewanika 
 is no better than the others. Counsels were divided. The great 
 chiefs had consulted the bones, the oracle had condemned the 
 expedition, and they were hesitating. Lewanika had known 
 of this for two days, and he was furious. Now, they would be 
 setting forth every possible objection ; then, to pacify the king, 
 they would be vaunting his wisdom and the prowess of the 
 Barotsi, and conjuring him to start without delay. Others, 
 but very few, had the courage of their opinions, and frankly 
 disapproved, especially the Natamoyo and the Gambella. The 
 great majority loudly demanded the expedition, especially the 
 likoinhoa, the favourite minions of the king, who are always in 
 rivalry with the ministers : it was they who spoke loudest of all. 
 
 The occasion was a unique one for speaking some home 
 truths to these people, and I did so. I saw, after the king's 
 closing speech, that the expedition had died a natural death. 
 We rejoiced over it with M. Goy, and it consoled us for 
 reaching home late at night, churning up the water and tramp- 
 ling through the mud. But the likomboa were excited ; and 
 backed by the great mass of the warriors present, they waited 
 till our departure, convoked another council, and won the game. 
 A messenger came, two days later, to announce that the expe- 
 dition was definitely decided upon, and that the king was getting 
 ready for the campaign.
 
 THE PROPHETESS 303 
 
 February \6th. 
 
 Decidedly, the expedition is on its way. Up till the last 
 moment, I had counted on I know not what eventuality to 
 put a stop to it. But no ! In vain had the king been told 
 of the famine which is ravaging the Makalaka, on whom he 
 counts for provisioning his army : all to no purpose. They beat 
 the big war drums all night. The warriors, who had returned 
 home to prepare their commissariat for the road, began to 
 assemble. The king performed his devotions. Offerings of 
 calico, of beadwork, water, milk, or honey, were sent to each of 
 the royal tombs in the country, and at the same time a sheaf 
 of spears, which remained lying there for forty-eight hours, 
 to give these dignitaries of the other world time to bless 
 them. 
 
 On the 8th, Lewanika left his capital by canoe, camped at 
 Mongu, completed his religious ceremonies at the tomb of 
 Katonga, and on Monday he came and encamped on the other 
 side of the stream of Sefula with six or seven hundred men. 
 As he had notified us in time, we all went to the foot of the 
 slope to see his army march past. The dreary sound of the 
 drum, and that of the bells which are used for bugles, soon 
 announced its approach. First, we perceived through the trees 
 a file of young men, carrying as standards the famous con- 
 secrated assegais, and shining with ochre. At their head, 
 solemnly marched an aged man, and a young girl, of whom I 
 will speak presently. Behind them, came the king, the Gambella, 
 a troop of people curiously got up, and the inoifo (the royal 
 guard) ; then the camp-followers, a mob of men of all ages, 
 carrying mats, gourds, clothes, etc., marching in disorder, and 
 pouring in from every side through the brushwood. 
 
 The young girl of whom I have spoken is not the sutler 
 of the regiment : she is the Prophetess. Chosen by the divining 
 bones, she is the interpreter of the gods. Nothing can be 
 done without her. She carries the horn containing the war 
 " medicines " and charms. She is always ahead of the vanguard, 
 and no one is permitted to pass before her, even when a halt 
 is called. If she gets tired or falls ill, the young men have 
 to carry her. On arriving before the enemy, it is she who must 
 fire the first shot ; and all the time the battle lasts, she may 
 neither sleep nor sit, eat nor drink. When a halt is called,
 
 304 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 she lays down her horn ; the young men of her bodyguard strike 
 the sacred spears into the ground. " Tu ka yoye, bakuetu" she 
 cries ; and her followers cry, " Tu ka yoye^ And the whole 
 army, at a respectable distance, acclaims them with the whole 
 force of its lungs, " Tu ka yoye ! Tu ka yoye!" ("Fellow-country- 
 men, may we live long ! May our countrymen live ! "). She 
 takes up the cry once more, "• Ba kafeV and her followers and 
 the troops roar, " Ba ka fe ! Ba ka fe I " (" May our enemies 
 perish ! "). It is the war-cry which the echoes of the wood 
 repeat twenty times a day for whole months together. On their 
 return, as a reward for her services, the young prophetess will 
 become one of the maori, or wives of the king. Now she is 
 his concubine. Her title is the sebimbi, and she carries the 
 likurunie (the medicine horn). 
 
 When the halt had been called, according to the rules I have 
 described, Lewanika and the great chiefs came to salute us. 
 While we were talking, a commotion, which seemed to be 
 upsetting the whole camp, attracted my attention. It was Litia 
 himself, the king's son, with all the boys and all the young men 
 going out to war for the first time, who were now running at 
 full speed, plunging into the marsh and plucking rushes, which 
 they came and laid at the king's feet, then retiring and returning 
 to the charge without taking breath, crying out " Kaviarie ! " 
 (literally, " a young girl ") ; that is to say, " You think we are 
 girls unfit for war ; well ! you shall see that we are men, and 
 despise fatigue." It seems this little comedy is repeated at 
 every halt. 
 
 The sebimbi gave the signal for departure, entered the 
 water, and sprinkled herself. The whole army acclaimed her 
 loudly, rose, and followed her example. We had it encamped 
 at the distance of a gunshot from us during two days. What 
 a rabble ! And to think that it will roll on like a snowball. 
 Since then, bands pass incessantly, and go to swell this over- 
 flowing torrent. I suppose that when the contingents of 
 Motulo, Nalolo, Mboela, and the province of Sesheke are 
 assembled at Machile, Lewanika will find himself at the head 
 of from ten to twelve thousand men at least. Can you imagine 
 what this multitude of famished men means — for they have no 
 commissariat — thieves, pillagers, brigands by habit, unbridled 
 and uncontrolled ? For their subsistence, they arc going to
 
 i888] LEWANIKA'S CONSCIENCE 305 
 
 make a descent on their poor Makalaka ; and already, in their 
 own country, " terror goes before them, destruction accompanies 
 them, and desolation follows them." What will it be for the 
 unfortunate Mashukulumboe ? It is not only their cattle they 
 are after, but also their women and children, who will be reduced 
 to the most abject slavery. As for the men, their business 
 is soon despatched, and they are thrown out for the beasts 
 of the field to devour. It is said that the Mashukulumboe, 
 when exasperated, give no more quarter than the Barotsi 
 themselves, and that they keep the skulls of those who fall into 
 their hands to drink beer out of. 
 
 Our school is broken up. All our pupils are gone after 
 the quarry — alas ! to complete their dreadful apprenticeship to 
 brigandage. It seemed to us that their education had been 
 already pretty thorough, for, after having eaten our sheep, killed 
 our asses, and stolen my aneroid barometers, they contrived to 
 bribe one of our little girls and to appropriate our best table 
 napkins, without counting a thousand and one other exploits of 
 which these light-fingered gentry boast themselves. And yet, 
 we regret them. We think sadly of the months they have 
 passed here, and the little influence we have gained over them. 
 We are under no illusions about the zeal they promise to bring 
 to their work when they come back to school. We also know 
 the value of Lewanika's fine promises. Poor Lewanika ! Aaron, 
 too, has spoken to him with the virile firmness of a Micaiah. 
 He knows very well he is doing wrong. During our last inter- 
 view, he wriggled about on his chair, and ended by saying, 
 " Don't you see, my Moruti, I am not my own master ? I am 
 driven to it — I am driven to it ! But if you love me, keep 
 silence ; do not go and spoil my good name in the world by 
 writing that Lewanika has gone to make a raid on the Mashu- 
 kulumboe ; and when I return, you will see." 
 
 Ah ! but the thought of this return makes us tremble. Who 
 can foretell the moral — or rather let us say the immoral — con- 
 sequences of these five or six months of national licentiousness, 
 the letting loose of passions among all these savage tribes, and 
 that terrible frenzy which takes possession of man from the 
 moment he embrues his hands in his brother's blood, and 
 transforms him into a wild beast, a hysena that laughs as it tears 
 its prey ? 
 
 20
 
 306 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 March i^th — 22nd. 
 
 Lewanika, while draining the country for his expedition, has 
 by no means taken all the thieves with him. Lately, on a dark 
 night, some of these vagabonds paid us the honour of a visit ; 
 they made a breach in our kraal (stockade), and took out an 
 ox of their own selection, which they killed and dismembered 
 at leisure. Out of courtesy, they left us the skeleton, but it had 
 been picked as clean as if a cloud of vultures had been included 
 in the party. The king heard of it, and in his indignation sent 
 and authorised me to seize the knaves, and have them soundly 
 taken to task — by whom I don't know ! All very well, only he 
 forgot that these gentlemen are not in the habit of leaving any 
 address. 
 
 The queen, Mokwae, one or two of the king's principal wives, 
 and other princesses, have come from Nalolo and from Lealuyi 
 to make a little stay here, accompanied by the old Narubutu. 
 It was kind of them, for they thought, in the king's absence, we 
 should be dull, and not know what to do with ourselves. They 
 consoled me for the theft of my ox by saying, " Just like the 
 Barotsi ; the Barotsi are made that way ; you don't know them 
 yet." A charming prospect for our future connexion, is it not ? 
 
 Since he has been on the march, Lewanika has kept us 
 regularly informed of his movements ; his messengers cross one 
 another. It is quite a new amusement for him to send us little 
 notes, to tell us that his horse is lame, that he has forgotten to 
 ask me for such and such a medicine, that his army has passed 
 such a river, etc. ; for now he has a secretary of state — nay, two. 
 They are our poor prodigals Karumba and Seajika, whom he 
 has promoted to this new dignity. He has them about him 
 to teach him to read, to pray to the missionaries' God in case 
 of necessity, to scribble messages, to keep him informed of the 
 price of merchandise in the countries they have visited in their 
 journeys, to tell him the value of the coins he has a fancy for 
 getting hold of, and to assist him in his commercial transactions. 
 The king makes rapid progress. Already he knows the whole 
 alphabet, which he considers a great triumph ; he always carries 
 in his pocket, carefully wrapped up, the two A B C's I have 
 given him. He also knows that a sheep sells for twenty-five 
 shillings at Mangwato, a head of cattle for £10, while trade 
 goods are going for almost nothing. I do not yet know what
 
 THE LOYAL TAHALIMA 307 
 
 sort of character our two young renegades are giving of the 
 Gospel and of us. We stand pretty well at court ; they them- 
 selves cannot altogether do without us. The time has not yet 
 come to run us down openly. It would be bad policy. The 
 king loads them with favours. Seajika has already received the 
 present of a wife. Karumba is going to have one of his own. 
 On the return from the expedition, they will have cattle, slaves, 
 villages, at last ! . . . Now they are fairly launched. May God 
 have pity on them ! 
 
 The last messengers from the king bring us sad news of 
 Sesheke. You will have had it from a better source. Here in 
 a few words is what we have learnt. You remember Sekabenga, 
 who occupied the post of Morantsiane at the time of our arrival in 
 the country, and who had fled since the Restoration. Threatened 
 with the same fate as the unfortunate Tatira (or Akufuna), the 
 creature of the revolutionary chief Mathaha, he had made 
 common cause with him, and ended by finding an asylum with 
 Sagitema, a petty chief of the independent Batoka, on the confines 
 of the Mashukulumboe country. There, his party was increased 
 by all the malcontents who fled from the despotism of Kabuku, 
 his successor. Even in exile, these people, hunted down like 
 wild beasts, had a semblance of a court. Tatira was king ; he 
 had his drums and his little ceremonial. He soon found a rival 
 in Karorongoe, a quite insignificant young man, but one of 
 royal blood likewise, who had joined the revolutionary party. 
 Karorongoe hatched a plot, murdered Tatira, sold his old mother 
 to some Makupakupe in exchange for ammunition, and from 
 that time was recognised as king without opposition. All was 
 settled. Nevertheless, it is the Morantsiane who is the soul of 
 the party. In spite of his fall and his disgrace, he is more 
 popular than ever. Not only have the Batoka lodged him, 
 hid him, and saved his life, but they favoured his plans of 
 revenge. Duly warned by secret intelligence when Lcwanika 
 started on his campaign, the Morantsiane and Karorongoe 
 made their appearance at Sesheke suddenly and in broad 
 daylight. At first, they were taken for warriors, passing through 
 on their way to join Lewanika's army. The old Tahalima came 
 out to salute them, followed by one of his sons and an attendant. 
 At the sight of the Morantsiane, he stood quite dumbfounded. 
 ^' On your knees ! Clap hands ! Acclaim the king," they
 
 308 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 shouted to him. " It is our turn to-day." " I only acclaim 
 Lewanika," replied the chief, with his ordinary dignity. " Where 
 is he ? " Upon that, insults, assegais, and clubs rained down 
 upon him and his followers, and in a moment their mutilated 
 corpses writhed in the last struggles of a horrible death. 
 
 Lewanika, hearing this news, retraced his steps, and directed 
 them to Sesheke. But they say the Morantsiane has already 
 crossed the river. In that case, what will Lewanika do ? Will 
 he renounce his expedition ? — or will he leave the country to the 
 mercy of this desperate band ? . . . The great province of Sesheke 
 is bound by a mere thread to the kingdom of the Barotsi. 
 The latter, considerably reduced by their wars and their con- 
 tinual massacres, are hated by the Batoka, and reviled by all 
 the tribes whom they oppress. Lewanika's lax policy of laissev- 
 aller, and the ineptitude of his nephew Kabuku, whom he has 
 promoted to one of the most important and difficult posts, 
 have irritated all minds. It only needs the man of the hour 
 to bring about an irremediable rupture. Lewanika knows all 
 that. An energetic measure might yet save the situation ; but 
 it demands a firmness, a determination, which he does not 
 possess. The greybeards who ought to form the council of his 
 nation have all been killed off, with one or two exceptions. 
 Their places are occupied by young men, for whom governing 
 means brigandage carried on wholesale and for private ends. 
 No tie binds them together ; they all bear grudges against 
 each other. The king himself distrusts his chiefs, as the chiefs 
 distrust the king. But God, who has sent His Gospel of peace 
 and love to this barbarous people, certainly has purposes of 
 mercy towards them. We judge of things from the human 
 point of view, finite and subject to all sorts of influences. God 
 reigns ; He watches over the interests of a nation with no less 
 solicitude than over the development of a plant. Out of chaos 
 He will bring order ; out of darkness, light. Post tenebras lux. 
 
 Sefula, April 2:^th, 1888. 
 You have no idea how people invent things in this wretched 
 country. The story got abroad that they had completely 
 pillaged us and burnt our houses, and that we had taken refuge 
 in a neighbouring hamlet, bereft of all resources, and even of 
 clothing. Lewanika hastened to send me an express, requesting
 
 A PROSPECT OF PILLAGE 3O9 
 
 me to proceed to his camp with my wife, and saying that on 
 his return he would reinstate us at Sefula ! It is vexatious 
 that, at a time when the atmosphere is so charged with electricity, 
 the idea should have been circulated that we co2ild be pillaged 
 and burned. That does not tend to inspire us with much 
 sense of security. If ever we are pillaged and maltreated, it 
 will be by slaves, to the profit of their chiefs, as usual. But we 
 are not uneasy on that point ; we have other cares : the greatest 
 of all is the loss of our oxen. How bring our provisions from 
 Sesheke ? And yet, we must have them. We are short of 
 everything. And these losses, and these difficulties, will they 
 discourage our friends ? But God will grant to each of us 
 not merely to hold on, but to go frovi strength TO STRENGTH. 
 If the life here is a struggle every day, it is also a daily lesson 
 of unreserved confidence in God. 
 
 We are passing through one of those periods — should I 
 call it a crisis ? — when faith is a combat at every instant, and 
 when very often courage is no more than a smoking flax. 
 Material labours, with their incessant fatigues and their 
 gnawing cares, crush us down. Nevertheless, we must install 
 ourselves, however precariously. We feel that life is passing 
 without our having the satisfaction of doing much. But do 
 not think that I am pitying myself or complaining. A French 
 general once told his aide-de-camp that the politeness of a 
 soldier was obedience. And I myself hold that, in all circum- 
 stances, our duty towards our Master is fidelity. The witness, 
 too, of a good conscience is a great thing, and I understand 
 better and better why St. Paul returns to it so often in his 
 letters to Timothy.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 The Return of the Army — Its Reception at the Capital — Distribution of Loot 
 — " She " — Death of Dr. Dardier and the Jallas' Baby — Reflections and 
 Hardships — The Basuto Evangelists — The Spirit of Missions — The 
 King's Diplomatic Illness — Divining Bones — Blossoms in the Desert — 
 Nguana-Ngombe's Confession of Faith — Visit of Mr. Selous — "Lost 
 Whites." 
 
 Sefula, August Z)th, 1888. 
 
 WHILE we were having school in the courtyard, our 
 friend Waddeil ran up breathless, and cried to us from 
 the end of the house, " The post ! " The post ! Is it true ? 
 With one bound, I am on the verandah, where three strapping 
 fellows from Sesheke are setting down their bags, the first 
 mail which has reached us since September 1887. The oldest 
 dates are of one year, the most recent of only four months. 
 Sefula is not the ends of the earth, after all ! 
 
 The king has at last returned. His expedition against the 
 Mashukulumboe has lasted five months — five weary months — 
 while here, as in the time of the Judges, " there was no king, 
 and each man did what was right in his own eyes." The 
 thieves had a fine time of it ; the women found it difficult 
 to make their slaves obey them. They themselves, at such 
 times, are not at liberty to leave their villages to visit parents 
 or friends. They dare not even cut their hair. They plait 
 and curl it — all to no purpose ; it is a swarming forest, 
 uncomfortable even for themselves ; and in order to carry on 
 effective warfare, they introduce unlucky beetles, which they 
 keep captive there, and which die miserably. 
 
 The arrival of the expedition was ill-timed, for the moon 
 was waning ; and woe betide the man who, returning from a 
 journey or from hunting, dare return to his own hearth when 
 " the moon is going out " ! The king therefore camped in the 
 fields until the new moon, and then made his entry into the 
 
 310
 
 THE RETURN OF THE ARMY 3II 
 
 capital. The whole population of both sexes had come together 
 there for this occasion, and I leave you to imagine how noisy 
 the reception was. I saw something of it. It is true that, in 
 spite of his importunities, I abstained from going to see him 
 in his camp, when he passed quite close to us ; but later on 
 I went to spend a few days with him at Lealuyi. Mokwae 
 arrived there soon after ; and not at all incognito, I assure you. 
 It was a Sunday, and we had already had a service — that is to 
 say, a preaching. Happily, it was over, for the whole village 
 was soon in a ferment. 
 
 All the women of the capital have gone to meet the queen, 
 and have swelled her procession ; while the men, each with his 
 peers and under his chief, are m.assed in different groups on 
 the public square. And of course the drums and serivibas, so 
 beloved by the Barotsi, must all be there, tintinnabulating as 
 usual. What would these good people say to our European 
 hurdygurdies, big drums, and kettledrums ? 
 
 The procession slowly advances, and arrives ; Mokwae lead- 
 ing it, garbed in gaily coloured print : she herself performs 
 recitatives, to which the troops of women escorting her respond 
 in chorus. It is the praises of the king that they are singing ; 
 and I must say that these chants, mournful though they be, 
 like all the songs of our poor Africans, are not devoid of 
 harmony. The men acclaim her, one group after another, 
 prostrating themselves, and clapping their hands. And this 
 noise goes on for an hour, — without any confusion, however ; all 
 is perfectly decorous. The women will resume their performance 
 at sunset ; and Mokwae, always the leader {coryphee), will sing 
 with them all night. Meanwhile, at an order from the king, 
 she retires to the spacious court of her own home. The 
 chants have ceased ; and the court now rises in due form. 
 Lewanika invites me to accompany him to his levee. I 
 quickly shake hands with his Majesty, and sit down close 
 to the mat where he is enthroned. Lewanika kneels down ; 
 Mokwae does the same : they kiss each other on the lips, 
 take both each other's hands, and keep spitting upon one 
 another ; while the women of Mokwae's suite, well greased with 
 ochre and loaded with beads, ranged against the courtyard 
 wall, repeat in cadence, " Yo-sho ! Yo-sho!" in a minor key, 
 which thrills throufrh one. Then come the children and near
 
 312 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 relatives, who enjoy the privilege of being spat upon by royalty ; 
 then the dignitaries, those highly placed personages who have 
 a right to the privilege of kissing the king's and queen's hand, 
 when they visit them ; then the middle class, who keep them- 
 selves at a distance, and the common people outside the court, 
 clapping hands with the greatest solemnity. 
 
 But the sun is sinking : the ceremonies are cut short, and at 
 my request the public crier convokes an assembly which is 
 double that of the morning. I preach on Gal. vi. 7 : " God is 
 not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
 reap." While I interceded with God on behalf of this blood- 
 thirsty nation, it was my duty publicly to denounce an expedi- 
 tion which Lewanika himself calls an act of brigandage, and I 
 did so. There shall be no mistake about the position we have 
 taken up. Lewanika, full of consideration for his missionaries, 
 had sent to our friends at Sesheke ten head of cattle he had 
 just plundered, of which two were delicately offered to Mine. 
 Jeanmairet, " our daughter " ; and I know that there was also 
 a little herd kept back for us. But M. Jeanmairet, in a fine 
 dignified letter, while thanking him warmly, set forth the 
 reasons why neither himself nor M. Jalla nor Levi could as 
 Christians accept such a present. Did Lewanika expect this 
 refusal ? He contented himself with replying, " I understand : 
 but what do the Barotsi possess that they have not obtained 
 by pillage and robbery ? " 
 
 The number of cattle captured is enormous. We are 
 assured that more died on the way than arrived here. It seems 
 that the Mashukulumboe, at the approach of their enemies, 
 drove their cattle into the haunts of the tse-tse. The king 
 has reserved considerable flocks (as much for himself as for 
 Mokwae and the principal members of his family), which he 
 has scattered through the country. They declare, however, that 
 it will take another month to distribute the rest. 
 
 What makes one's heart ache is the young women and 
 children who form part of this booty. They conceal the 
 number from me ; they even declare that the king had given 
 orders only to attack the cattle. But the truth will out. Of 
 men, not one has been carried off. Walking through the village, 
 I noticed here and there bundles of spears, most of them bent 
 back — an indubitable sign that they had shed human blood.
 
 i888] THE CHIEFESS NASHINTU 313 
 
 Consequently, they had to be purified. The Gambella and others 
 of my acquaintance ostentatiously showed me their sheaves of 
 weapons — none of them bent. " They are pure," said they : 
 " we remembered your injunctions." My friend Mahaha even 
 sent me a similar message from Sesheke. Whatever these asser- 
 tions may be worth, it is already something to hear a Zambesian 
 boast of having denied himself the pleasure of disembowelling 
 a poor Mashukulumboe. The king himself is not so far on ; 
 for, seeing me come in, he said, trying to giggle, " Don't begin 
 to scold me, if they tell you I killed a man with my own hand." 
 Alas ! it would seem he had killed more than one. Where- 
 ever the Mashukulumboe made any show of resistance, he 
 it was who directed the attack ; then, accompanied by some 
 cavaliers, set off in pursuit of these poor creatures, terrified 
 by the firearms, and by that nameless monster — a quadruped 
 surmounted by a human form. Oh, what a terrible awaken- 
 ing is in store for that man, when the Spirit of God illuminates 
 his conscience and touches his heart ! In this raid, Lewanika 
 has, however, shown some magnanimity. Not only has he 
 restored their liberty to several women captives of a certain 
 age, but also their cattle, wives, and children to those who had 
 courage to perform an act of submission. 
 
 They did not dare to attack a chief ess named Nashintu, 
 whom the Makololo had once made prisoner, but afterwards 
 liberated. On that occasion, they contented themselves with 
 keeping her only son, who has since become one of Lewanika's 
 principal workmen — and ours too, when occasion requires. This 
 Samoinda, like all the Mashukulumboe slaves, has distinguished 
 himself by his cruelty towards his compatriots. Nashintu, 
 like Mochache,^ exercises power by means of her medicines 
 and her charms. She has Pandora's box : she dispenses 
 drought and hail, calamities and epidemics, at will ; and, shut 
 up in an urn, she keeps the terrible scourge of small-pox. 
 Finally, she possesses what many ladies of the great world 
 would envy — the secret of perpetual youth. 
 
 You will be surprised to learn that, in this expedition, 
 
 Lewanika has scrupulously observed the Lord's Day ! He 
 
 kept about his person our two poor renegades Seajika and 
 
 Karumba, to teach him to read. (Did I tell you he had sent for 
 
 ^ See Part I., page jj.
 
 314 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 them from Mambova last year ?) He made them his Baruti 
 (missionaries), just as he appoints his sculHons. Their duties are 
 to pray, sing hymns, zx\A preacJi ! And to make them the more 
 worthy of their office, he deprives them of intoxicating drinks. 
 This still goes on at Lealuyi. Thus these two unfortunate 
 young men find themselves in the most equivocal position. 
 They have not the moral courage to confess that they are 
 not qualified to preach truths which they belie by their return 
 to paganism, and by an immoral life known to all the com- 
 munity, while their consciences accuse them no less than our 
 presence. One need really be an African to play and sustain 
 such an impossible role. The king, astonished at my astonish- 
 ment, asked me, " What were we to do on Sunday, which we 
 wished to observe, when you were not there ? These boys know 
 more about it than we do, and I rebuke them and send them 
 away when they have drunk too much. Can they preach 
 wrong things to us ? " 
 
 The case requires prudence, simple as it may seem. We 
 are too far from the capital for me to go there regularly and 
 often. If we had established ourselves nearer — at Kanyonyo,. 
 which was not possible — the difficulty would have been just 
 the same. It is in the actual village of the capital that we 
 ought to be, — an absolute impossibility from the sanitary point 
 of view, and no less impossible from the practical and economical 
 standpoint ; for the Barotsi do not live all the year in the 
 Valley ; they go and settle upon the heights around at the 
 time of the floods. And then they readily change their place 
 of residence. What would solve this difficulty and many 
 others would be to have a band of devoted evangelists. But 
 these evangelists we have not got. As to Karumba and Seajika, 
 one of two things must happen : either they or Lewanika 
 will get disgusted, and the movement will collapse of its own 
 accord ; or else the movement will develop, and they will feel 
 their weakness, they will repent and return to their God. But 
 how much greater would have been our confidence and joy, if 
 their repentance and return had been the starting-point and 
 motive of their activity ! Let us not despair. God makes use 
 of singular in.struments sometimes, and it will not be the first 
 time that the Gospel has converted the very people who preached 
 it in their own fashion, without knowing it experimentally.
 
 DEATH OF DR. DARDIER 315 
 
 I speak of a band of evangelists whom we need ; and alas ! 
 we have to record a loss among those we had. Our young 
 doctor, M. Dardier, is dead. Poor young fellow ! he did so 
 enjoy his first canoe voyage. I can see him now, during a halt, 
 jumping into one of our launches, and triumphantly reaching 
 the open water, in spite of protestations from our crew, who, 
 in their heart of hearts, enjoyed this exuberance of youth. One 
 day, close to Nalolo, as I told you, while we were taking our 
 frugal repast on the bank, he suddenly cried out, " How hot 
 the sun is ! " — putting his hand to the nape of his neck. He 
 got back into the boat, and a sunshade was given him — too 
 late ! He was already suffering from the effects of a sun- 
 stroke. We did all we could for him, but he went from bad 
 to worse. Alarming symptoms soon revealed an affection of 
 the heart. He conceived a repugnance to Sefula, and could 
 think of nothing but a prompt departure. But nothing is 
 prompt in this country. He reached Sesheke, where also every 
 care was bestowed on him. After a transient improvement, he 
 grew worse again, and hastened to leave Sesheke. He had 
 already crossed the Zambesi at Kazungula, where I had met him 
 on his arrival from Europe a few months before, and was the 
 guest of Mr. VVestbeech, when death overtook him. Thus was 
 cut short at the outset this career, on which we had founded so 
 many hopes. The loss to his family is shared by the friends 
 of missions : it is our loss too. It will probably, but wrongly, 
 be a black mark for the Zambesi climate, which was beginning 
 to reinstate itself in public opinion. Will it put an extinguisher 
 on any newly kindled vocations for medical mission work.^ 
 
 ' Dr. Dardier, of Geneva, was the only medical missionary the Barotsi 
 Mission has ever possessed, and the first European to lay down his life in its 
 service. Hitherto the only victims had been its native helpers : three adults 
 and three children. Now it was to be the turn of the white people : Dr. 
 Dardier a few months after his arrival, four little children in succession, 
 Mme. Coillard in 1891, and M. Goy in 1896. The last named came out in 
 1887, originally with the intention of devoting himself to agriculture and other 
 industrial work in the interests of the mission ; but as soon as he knew the 
 language, he began to evangelise ; and after his marriage with Mile. Keck in 
 1890, he took charge of the Sesheke station, vacated by the Jeanmairets- 
 During this year (1897), two more victims have been claimed — Theodore, a 
 Basuto evangelist, and the only child of M. and Mme. A. Jalla: thus bringing 
 the total number up to fifteen.
 
 3l6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 This dark cloud is not the only one that has shadowed our sky. 
 M. and Mme. Louis Jalla will have told you that it has pleased 
 God to consecrate their ministry through affliction, by taking 
 back the child He had given them. Mr. Middleton has finally 
 left us. Levi, the evangelist, too, can stand it no longer. It 
 is now a long time since he wrote to me, " For seven months 
 past, my wife has not left her room, scarcely even her bed." 
 The poor man is nothing but a sick-nurse. He wishes to go 
 back to his country for good, and we must from this year take 
 measures with that object. Aaron is still one of us ; but his 
 departure is only a question of time, and time shortly to expire. 
 He too finds life hard at the Zambesi. 
 
 And for whom is it not hard ? The school of renunciation 
 puts us under a discipline against which our old nature is 
 always ready to rebel. One could accept willingly, even joy- 
 fully, for oneself, the privations which it goes hard with one 
 to endure for one's own. To pass months without a drop of 
 milk for the household, without a morsel of meat ; and to depend 
 entirely upon a rapidly disappearing web of calico for the 
 obtaining of a stringy fowl, which, but for its toughness, one 
 could eat, feathers and all, at one mouthful ; fish that will not 
 keep, and that one soon sickens of; and the vegetables of the 
 country, millet or insipid manioc, — all this is not cheerful, it must 
 be confessed, especially where there are children. The little flock 
 1 brought has melted away, cows and all, without our having 
 profited by it the least bit in the world. At Sefula, we are 
 all on the same rations ; and we generally share whatever 
 we can buy to vary our diet. But our friend Aaron has to 
 struggle against other trials peculiar to himself He has a 
 daughter of fourteen, to whom he is ambitious of giving 
 an education which even Basuto-land could not afford her. 
 And lo and behold ! the royal family has taken into its head that 
 she shall be the wife of Litia, the heir-apparent. The Barotsi 
 will never acknowledge themselves beaten, and in this matter 
 they exhibit an exasperating persistence. Aaron, whose respect 
 for them is no greater than it need be, is going to send his 
 daughter to Mangwato, and has signified his intention of soon 
 returning to his country. 
 
 Levi and Aaron arc men with whom, as with ourselves, 
 there is no need of a microscope to discover the flaws. But
 
 BAROTSI EXCLUSIVENESS 317 
 
 they both possess, each in his own way, qualities which make 
 them valuable helpers, and we shall find it difficult to get better 
 ones. I confess that for me it is a severe trial. Shall we ever 
 have any other Basuto evangelists ? I have said, " If Africa 
 is ever to be evangelised, it must be by her own children." 
 I counted on the Christian Basuto. As evangelists, I have 
 always recognised in them special aptitudes which we Europeans 
 do not possess. Their social and intellectual level brings them 
 nearer than ourselves to the people we are evangelising. Were 
 we mistaken then ? No. The Spirit of God is working among 
 the Churches of Basuto-land, and we know that there, as in 
 France and everywhere else, the spirit of life is the missionary 
 spirit. If distress has been great in that dear little country, 
 it is not endemic there. The day will come, perhaps it is not 
 far off, when the Basuto Christians will feel they owe a debt to 
 these tribes of the Zambesi, who speak their tongue, after having 
 borne their yoke — a debt which no one can discharge for them. 
 
 Meamuhile, who is to do the work ? 
 
 We have a perhaps unique opportunity of taking "possession 
 of the land." All the chiefs, with few exceptions, seem well 
 disposed ; the king shows a great desire to have instruction 
 for himself, and for the tribes he governs — or, to speak more 
 accurately, for the Barotsi tribe itself. How long will this good 
 disposition last, if they are not converted ? I have before me 
 a list of twenty posts of evangelisation which we ought to 
 occupy as soon as possible. The Barotsi would reserve to 
 themselves the monopoly of education as well as every other 
 monopoly, and that is why a day school open to all classes 
 will encounter great difficulties for a long time to come. But 
 if we had the staff and the means, and could open an establish- 
 ment for boys, and one for girls, we should at once have such 
 a number of pupils that we should have to limit them. All 
 would submit to a discipline which that attending circumcision 
 would enable them to understand. I do not pretend that it 
 would be the easiest work in the world, but it is feasible. To 
 undertake it, we should need a specially selected and experienced 
 staff — men and women who would give themselves unreservedly 
 to it, with all the physical strength they enjoy, all the talents 
 they possess, all the force of their fullest love. 
 
 For the moment, the king's sons and nephews are coming
 
 3l8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 back, and I have reason to believe a pretty good number of the 
 sons of the principal chiefs also. For some time, moreover, 
 the king has been pressing us to receive Mond6, the eldest 
 daughter of Mokwae. She will not come alone. But these 
 establishments, with a crowd of slaves of both sexes over whom 
 we have not the slightest control, are unspeakable dens of 
 licentiousness. And how, I ask you, can we carry on the school 
 and the evangelisation, and at the same time face the multi- 
 farious duties that make incessant claims upon our time and 
 attention ? It is a serious thing to send out appeals, above all 
 when it is a question of coming to these climates. The Saviour 
 has shown us the surest way : " Pray the Lord of the harvest 
 to send forth labourers into His harvest." 
 
 I do not share the fears of certain friends who think that 
 the Zambesi may well be set aside for the French Congo. 
 That may be a wholesome warning for our supporters. For us^ 
 the work is the same, wherever it may be carried on. There 
 will be emulation, not rivalry, between us. At the Congo — as in 
 Tahiti, Senegal, and soon in Kabyle — -we have the explosion of 
 Christian Protestant patriotism, so long suppressed and trodden 
 down by the ruling authorities. It is time for us to vindicate 
 among ourselves, in our own colonies, the right to serve our 
 country, and to contest with Roman Catholicism the monopoly 
 of patriotism and self-devotion, which she wrongly claims for 
 herself. Rome is not France, any more than it is the 
 Gospel. 
 
 But in the Zambesi Mission, as in the Basuto Mission, whose 
 daughter it is, we have the manifestation of the essentially 
 catholic, universal character of heartfelt Christianity. Like the 
 Good Samaritan, without any human calculations. Christians, 
 of no matter what country or denomination, unite their sacrifices 
 and their love to redeem the most brutal and degraded savages 
 who form part of the human family. Above all the prejudices, 
 interests, and flags of their respective nations, together they set 
 up the Cross, and spread its banner. And we, children of the 
 Huguenots, Protestants and Frenchmen to our heart's core, we 
 who have initiated this great work of elevation, in a country 
 where no European power protects us, say, shall we be putting 
 France to shame ? Shall we be denying our country, or — will 
 she indeed deny us ?
 
 A DIPLOMATIC ILLNESS 319 
 
 Sefula, August i^ih, 1888. 
 
 For some weeks, the king has been ill. He has left the 
 kuandu (his private apartment), and has secluded himself in a tent 
 of mats which they have raised for him in the remotest corner 
 of a back yard. Apart from his favourite attendants, no one 
 has access to him, not even his ministers, the GambcUa, nor 
 even Mokwae, his sister, so afraid are these poor people of what 
 they call " bad feet." To arrive at the court he is occupying, 
 one must cross three others, where night and day are found 
 silent groups of slaves. The principal chiefs, who are at the 
 capital, pass the night in the first, and in the second his 
 likomboa, the most important members of the staff of the royal 
 household. The third is reserved for his intimates. Men pass 
 through the lekJiothla like shadows, without stopping ; the chiefs 
 sit there for a few moments out of duty, but no justice is 
 administered, no business is transacted, no one speaks above 
 a whisper. The evening fires are no longer lighted, the drums 
 are silent (those beloved drums, how surprised they must be to 
 rest !). No one dares go and work in the fields, though the 
 season urgently demands it ; every one is melancholy and sus- 
 picious ; fear has seized upon everybody. It was thus I found 
 Lealuyi last week, when, alarmed at the turn things were taking, 
 I betook myself thither in all haste. 
 
 Might it not be that this illness was only a pretext for attain- 
 ing a political end — namely, to have an ostensibly good reason 
 for getting rid of suspected persons ? My apprehensions, alas 1 
 seem to be only too well founded. It is neuralgia that the king 
 has, affecting half his face. He only gives orders in a whisper 
 to the people crouching round his door ; but when once we were 
 alone together, he could chatter, laugh, and in short let himself 
 go as he always does. I asked him how ic was that the divining 
 bones chose precisely his own favourites to have free access to 
 his presence. " Pooh ! " he said sharply, " the divining bones 
 say what I wish." Evidently they do, and it is by no means 
 reassuring. 
 
 While I was there, I was able to induce him and his ministers, 
 the Gambella and the Natamoyo, to make some overtures to 
 each other. Were they sincere ? We shall soon find out. The 
 old councillor, Narubutu, whose portrait I have sent you, is laid 
 up at the same time as Lewanika, and with the same sort of
 
 320 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 malady. I administered my sedatives with so much assurance 
 that my patients confessed to a real improvement. I could not, 
 however, persuade Lewanika to leave his tent, and sit in the 
 courtyard, which is well sheltered, carpeted, and shaded with 
 mats. It is whispered that a plot against Lewanika in favour 
 of the Morantsiane has been discovered, and that the principal 
 chiefs of the Valley, the Gambella at their head, are gravely 
 compromised. I should not dare to deny it ; but I shudder 
 at the thought of new massacres, I think Lewanika will not 
 forget the conversations we have had during the four days I 
 have passed with him. Oh, if only I could inspire him with 
 a horror of bloodshed ! What I cannot do, the grace of God 
 will do. There are great contradictions in this man. He is 
 despotic, vindictive, and as cruel as possible ; yet, with all that, 
 he has good sense, tact, generosity, and amiability. I could 
 easily draw two portraits of him, which would have nothing in 
 common. There is more than one Lewanika in the world. 
 
 I said some time ago that there were neither flowers nor 
 fruits at Sefula. Last year, on my return from Kazungula, I 
 found that all my eucalyptus trees had perished ; and this year, 
 if we still have a score struggling on, it is only thanks to diligent 
 watering. A single seed of sweet pea, which had somehow found 
 its way here, was carefully planted and barricaded with thorns, 
 in front of the bedroom window. It grew ; it sent forth a 
 flower — only one ; but how lovely it was, and how delicious it 
 smelt ! One morning, some Zambesi chickens — a dwarfish race, 
 and hence all the more destructive — managed to slip under the 
 thorns, and — pecked the flower to pieces and tore up the roots. 
 Such a poor struggling little waif as it was, you would not 
 believe the delight we had in it, nor our grief when we saw it 
 withered and dead. 
 
 This makes me hesitate to speak to you about another 
 flower, beautiful in a different way. But why should you not 
 enjoy it with us, and help us to water it? If it should wither 
 (which God forbid), you will lament it with us, and your 
 sympathy will be a comfort.^ 
 
 On November 14th, 1887, I began my class of catechumens — 
 
 ' Unhappily, the sweet-pea's history proved only too perfect a parable of 
 Nguana-Ngomb6's.
 
 A CONFESSION OF FAITH 32 1 
 
 of enquirers, as the English more justly call them. This class 
 was, and still is, composed of only two members — Ruthi, the 
 daughter of our evangelist Aaron, and Nguana-Ngombe. It 
 is about the latter, whom you know already, that I desire to 
 speak. For more than a year past, we have had reason to 
 believe he was converted. He has always given us great satis- 
 faction ; during the years (now nearly four) that he has been 
 in our house ; but that was not enough for us. To-day, he is 
 more than a good servant to us : he is a son. I believe I have 
 told you how often we have found this dear boy praying in 
 the thickets of the woods, and how one evening he came shyly 
 to ask in so many words, "What must I do to be saved?" It 
 is a long time now, since he professed to have found the 
 Saviour. I wish you could see him, talking, in his somewhat 
 laconic manner, with the people who come to offer us their 
 produce, or calling together our children and work-people in 
 the evening. It is a pleasure to take him for an evangelising 
 journey. He is beside himself with joy ; he must needs stop 
 the passers-by, and shout to those working in the swamps 
 whom we cannot reach, and emphasise what I say, or repeat 
 it in the dialect of the country, in that genial way of his that 
 makes people listen to him. Everybody knows Nguana- 
 Ngombe, and every one likes him. 
 
 A fortnight ago last Sunday, we had a good audience of from 
 one hundred and forty to one hundred fifty people. I spoke 
 upon the Unknown God — Acts xvii. 23. When I had finished, 
 Nguana-Ngombe, under the influence of deep emotion, rose 
 and asked leave to speak. I took down his address, and I think 
 it will interest you. It touched us deeply. 
 
 " My fathers and mothers," he said, " you will be astonished 
 to see me stand up to speak in an assembly like this. It 
 is because I feel driven to tell you that I long sought the 
 Unknown God, of Whom the Moruti has just been speaking. I 
 have found Him ; He has revealed Himself to my soul ; I am 
 a believer. You look at me in astonishment. You all know 
 me. I am Nguana-Ngombe, a inoshimanc " (here, a slave). " My 
 father is a Mosubia, my mother a Motoka. I am the inoshi- 
 mane of the Baruti. Yes, but I am more than that — I am a 
 believer. I was lost : God has saved me. 
 
 " I was not always what I am now. Alas, no ! Four years 
 
 21
 
 322 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 ago, I was a mere child " (he is now fifteen or sixteen). " I went 
 to Leshoma to ask the Moruti to take me into his service for 
 a month. It was a setsiba that I wanted. The month gone 
 by, I asked him to keep me for a gun. He consented. But 
 I did not like the things of God. When the hour for prayer 
 came round, 1 put my kettle on the fire, and ran off into the 
 woods. Those who knew me then, know that I was passionate, 
 and that I could not endure either insults or contradiction. 
 At Sesheke, I felt less dislike to the things of God, but I 
 understood them no better. The wish of my heart was to be 
 educated — that was all. When we arrived here, the Moruti 
 returned to Sesheke, to fetch our Mother, and left me with 
 Waddell and Middleton, and we did not know if he would come 
 back. Middleton gave us our food very regularly ; but there 
 were no more prayers, no more hymns, no more sermons. 
 These whites worked all the week ; on Sunday they rested, 
 and no doubt read the Word of God together. For us, the 
 bashtmane, the Lord's Day was like any other day : we ate, we 
 slept. I did the cooking, and that was all. One day, my heart 
 was full of anger. I found our stock of insults too small ; and 
 I demanded of Middleton to teach me the biggest English 
 oaths and the most withering curses. He told me he had long 
 forgotten them. 
 
 " One Sunday, I asked him why he did not make us read. 
 He did it that day, but not after. I think he was tired. My 
 heart was very sad, and I mourned to myself, ' If only I had 
 profited by the teaching of my Father and Mother ! And how 
 if they never come back ? ' With these tormenting thoughts, 
 I wandered aimlessly in the woods. The idea suddenly came 
 to me, ' Suppose I tried to pray alone ! The Moruti says God 
 always hears.' I threw myself on my knees there, under those 
 bushes, and cried, ' O Thou, the great God Whom I know not, 
 have pity upon me ! ' One Sunday, it was raining, so that I 
 could not go into the woods, and I proposed to Kamburu and 
 the other young men to sing some hymns. ' Very well,' 
 replied Kamburu, ' but first we are going to sing boyanga ' " (a 
 heathen song^ " ' and to dance.' So indeed they did, and I went 
 away. They were displeased with me, made fun of me, and 
 called me all sorts of names : it drove me to pray all the more. 
 1 was in a great agony. The counsels of Aaron and of my
 
 1 888] MR. SELOUS 323 
 
 Father " (the missionary) " helped me, and at last I found the 
 pardon of my sins. 
 
 " Are you going to say, ' Look at Nguana-Ngombe ; he wants 
 to be a white man ' ? How can I become a white man, when I 
 was born black ? God is not the God of the whites only : all 
 white men are not believers ; we have seen some already who 
 were bad like ourselves. The Moruti says it is the same thing 
 in Basuto-land ; there are Christian Basuto, like Aaron, but 
 there are others who have remained heathen. It is the Christian 
 Basuto who bring us the Gospel which they have themselves 
 received from the Christians of France. 
 
 " I hear people scoffing, and saying, ' Has the missionary 
 been up into heaven, that he pretends to know God ? ' No, 
 he has never been to heaven, he has never seen God, and, 
 moreover, he has never said he has done so. But God has 
 revealed Himself by His Son and by His Word. I shall never 
 tell you that I have seen God, but I will tell you what I know 
 of His Word, and how He has saved me. No, the Moruti has 
 never been up to heaven. But he is going there ; and I, his 
 7noshzinane, am going too. I am the first, and I should be 
 very much afraid, if I were not a believer. Shall I be the only 
 one to follow him ? You, my fathers and mothers, and you my 
 tliaka " (equals in age), " will you not come with us ? Question 
 me as much as you like, as often as you like ; do not be afraid. 
 What I wanted to say to you is, that I have found the Unknown 
 God, the great God, and that I am a believer." 
 
 This simple story, which under my pen and in translation 
 loses so much of its warmth and colour, was heard with the 
 deepest attention. The men clacked their tongues ; the women 
 remained motionless, with gaping mouths : we ourselves, taken 
 by surprise, were deeply moved, and blessed God. 
 
 Sefula, September 1888. 
 
 One Sunday morning, to everybody's great surprise, a gentle- 
 man on horseback arrived. It was an Englishman, Mr. Selous, 
 French by descent and education, and a well-known hunter. 
 For fifteen years and more, he has been going after elephants, 
 lions, and big game in the solitudes of the Linyanti, the 
 Mashona, and the regions of the Southern Zambesi. In 1877, 
 he crossed the river, and thence went northwards. We met
 
 324 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 at Mangvvato the following year, and became acquainted. Mr. 
 Selous arrived at Pata-matenga in the month of May, with 
 two waggons of merchandise ; but, alarmed by the reports 
 current in the country of an imminent revolution, he abandoned 
 his hunting, and, with a troop of porters and guides, crossed 
 the river above the cataracts of Musi oa Tunya, and went north, 
 across the Batoka country. He hoped to work round the 
 Mashukulumboe country where Dr. Holub almost perished, and 
 to cross the Kafone. But it happened that his guides brought 
 him straight to a Mashukulumboe village. It must be said 
 that, in that particular place, the connexion of the two tribes 
 is so close it is difficult to distinguish them. The same nudity 
 exists, the same customs, the same language. They seemed 
 to receive him favourably. Mr. Selous killed two or three 
 antelopes, and the Mashukulumboe performed some dances in 
 his honour. But in the night that followed, the illusion was 
 dispelled in a most unexpected manner for the travellers, by a 
 volley of bullets full in their faces, and a hail of assega'i's falling 
 on their camp. Amid the confusion that followed, and under cover 
 of the darkness, Mr. Selous succeeded in escaping quite alone. 
 
 The same night, driven by thirst, he ventured into a small 
 village, sat down by the dying embers of a fire, and felt himself 
 dosing off, when in a neighbouring court he heard some one 
 loading a gun. At the same moment, a handful of thatch, 
 thrown on the brazier by a new-comer, kindled a flame, and 
 lit up the form of a man, a few paces distant, who was taking 
 aim at him. Instinctively, Mr. Selous put out his hand to 
 seize his carbine. But the carbine was no longer there ; it had 
 been taken away without his noticing it ! With one bound, he 
 was in the tall grass, and escaped indeed, but quite alone, 
 without arms, and stripped of everything. Fifteen days later, 
 three of his men rejoined him, and he learnt then that twelve 
 of his porters had been killed, and the rest scattered. 
 
 There is a sort of free-masonry among travellers. Moreover, 
 kindness to a man who came to us in such circumstances was 
 only our duty. While listening to him, as he related his adven- 
 tures to us, I felt singularly drawn to him. He is a noble 
 character.^ 
 
 ' See Mr. Sclous's book "Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa" 
 for an account of this visit.
 
 ik^
 
 LOST WHITES 325 
 
 It is a serious thing that the Batoka and Mashukulumboe 
 have got to the point of not fearing to pillage and massacre 
 the Europeans who have penetrated into their country. The 
 adventures of Dr. Holub and Mr. Selous arc by no means 
 isolated cases. We hear of Portuguese traders, of the son of 
 a missionary we know, and of his partner, a young Englishman, 
 whom they have also massacred within the last few years. 
 For the moment, that country is closed to science and com- 
 merce, but I have faith that it is the Gospel which will open it 
 before long. 
 
 The Barotsi in full council {pttso) requested me to attend 
 before them, and asked with interested curiosity if the Europeans 
 who travel in these regions could be stripped and killed with 
 impunity — were they " lost whites," " adventurers whom 
 nobody cared for, even in their own country " ? The Barotsi 
 themselves are only one step removed from thinking so, to 
 judge by the way they have treated some English gentlemen. 
 These had come from England for the pleasure of a few weeks' 
 hunting on the Zambesi ; and they had made very valuable 
 presents to the chiefs of Sesheke and to the king. That did 
 not prevent their being pillaged, tormented, and harassed in 
 such a way that they left the country without hunting, carrying 
 away nothing but the bitterness of disappointment and disgust. 
 The king, who had been ill-informed and deceived, fearing 
 perhaps that he might make himself unpopular, did nothing, 
 said nothing even to condemn the evil-doers. 
 
 Our friends the Jallas and Jeanmairets at Sesheke will 
 themselves have told you the life of vexations and struggles 
 they have been leading, since the village was rebuilt on the 
 station itself. They can scarcely call their houses their own. 
 We, who know something about it, understand all the 
 difficulties of their position, and it makes me very sad. May 
 God give His servants and handmaids the needful courage 
 and strength, to hold their ground and finally triumph over 
 everything !
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 A Visit to Lealuyi — Famine at the Capital — A Memorable Pitso — The King, 
 proposes to place the Country under British Protection — A Storm — 
 Liomba the Scapegoat — Mme. Coillard and the Barotsi Women — The 
 King's Daughters as Mission Pupils — Difficulties of Evangelisation — 
 Departure of Aaron, Levi, and M. Goy — Alone at Sefula — Mad Dogs. 
 
 Sefula, Barotsi Valley, October 1888. 
 
 IT is always with pleasure that I pay a visit to Lealuyi. 
 There I find myself in contact with chiefs coming from 
 all parts of the country, and I often meet also representatives 
 of foreign tribes. I hope to do a little good there, and I always 
 learn something. My one regret is that we are so far away, 
 for each visit necessitates an absence of some days, and a 
 considerable upset in the routine of station life. Still, this 
 distance has its advantages too, and that consoles us. Since 
 we cannot get nearer to the capital, we still hope the 
 capital will one day come nearer to us. Lewanika had promised 
 it ; he had even chosen a situation and built a stable. The 
 stable was never used — it has fallen into ruins ; and since the 
 Mashukulumboe expedition, the plan seems to have been 
 abandoned — I do not know why. Other plans are in the air, 
 and it is as yet impossible for me to predict what form they 
 will take. 
 
 At the beginning of the month, I had passed two Sundays 
 at Lealuyi — ten days well spent. Lewanika had convoked a 
 grand /z/j-f? ; but the chiefs delayed so much in coming together, 
 that I went away, back to my sick wife. The couriers were 
 soon after me, bringing their messages scrawled on sheets of 
 paper carried at the end of a reed ; for in our poor Seajika 
 the king has found a secretary of state —not very deeply versed 
 in the art of caligraphy, it is true, but of whom he is never- 
 theless very proud. He uses and abuses this functionary like
 
 i888] FAMINE AT THE CAPITAL 32/ 
 
 a child. " Every one has assembled," said Lewanika ; " hasten ; 
 business is urgent, and the people arc dying of hunger ! " 
 
 People are dying of hunger ! At the capital ? Does it 
 astonish you ? It does not me, for I have never seen plenty 
 there. In all South Africa, I only know one spot more sad and 
 desolate — that is Morokoeng. Lealuyi is the residence of the 
 king. His ministers live there usually, and the chiefs occa- 
 sionally come to stay for a time ; but they all have their own 
 villages at greater or lesser distances. In flood-time, it is an 
 islet, where the masters feel so closely penned up, that in the 
 end they leave it to a few slaves, and take refuge on the wooded 
 dunes bordering the Valley, It is the time for grand hunts 
 and masquerades : — the Barotsi are passionately fond of mas- 
 querades. It is also a happy time for the slaves. The canoes 
 dart over the submerged plain : their service is easy. One 
 rejoices to see the huts having a bath, and the filth dis- 
 appearing : one only wishes this beneficent cleansing could be 
 more complete. When the dry season returns, the village is 
 repeopled. Then the slaves have a hard life. There are no 
 fields in the neighbourhood ; all the food, like all the fuel, 
 comes from a distance, and is carried on men's backs. The 
 water — and such water ! — is drawn two or three miles away. 
 Only a few miserable cows are kept there for the little children 
 of the aristocrats. The slaves, who swarm there, tighten their 
 belts in vain ; they do not always succeed in cheating hunger ; 
 and if they do not steal, they take to flight. If they are caught 
 — and alas ! they always are caught, even if it is not for twenty 
 years — they are no better fed ; they are simply strangled or 
 flogged more liberally. Here, foreigner or traveller provides 
 each for his own needs. Outside the village, he gathers reeds 
 and armfuls of rotten grass, and makes a hovel for himself and 
 his followers, and he vegetates there the best way he can, 
 without anybody troubling about him, unless it be some of 
 his relatives, if he has any. 
 
 If he is a person of some importance, the king gives him an 
 ox, which is devoured in a couple of days, and then he fasts again 
 in earnest ! If not, a pitcher of beer sometimes, a basket of 
 millet, a bundle of manioc roots, or even a hoe, a mat, or some 
 other trifle, and the duties of hospitality are fulfilled once for all. 
 To see the bowing and cringing that follow, the exaggerated
 
 328 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 tokens of thanks, you would imagine there had been an 
 unexampled display of generosity, if you did not know all 
 about it. 
 
 And how false the world is with all its politeness and its 
 adulations ! If we try to apply this kind of hospitality to 
 our own guests, we soon see we have quite a different race 
 to deal with ! How often I should like just for a moment to 
 get inside one of these Zambesian skins, and see ourselves with 
 their eyes, and judge of ourselves by their intelligence ! Evi- 
 dently here, a white man is not a being like another. With 
 him, one may dare anything — one may permit oneself to be 
 an exacting, imperious, even impertinent guest. And if he 
 wants to barter for a setsiba, the Zambesian slave, following 
 his master's example, sorts his fish, his sweet potatoes, or his 
 weevilly millet, and brings the refuse. He laughs and says 
 to himself, " That is good enough for the whites." He sifts his 
 flour, keeps the best for himself, and unblushingly brings you 
 the bran, pounded a second time. " That too is good enough 
 for the whites." And it is the same with everything. For 
 us, it is a chronic moral suffering. We say to ourselves> 
 " They will change when they become Christians." We implore 
 God to make love abound in our hearts. 
 
 What a digression about the capital, whither we are going ! 
 Let us hasten our preparations, and above all guard against 
 hunger ! This time, I determined to take my wife to Lealuyi. 
 For a long while, she had desired it so much, that I think 
 God must have put it into her heart. Perhaps too the change 
 would do her good, I thought. Only, could it be done? 
 The waggon was there, right enough ; but the oxen and drivers 
 were at Sesheke. No matter. Nguana-Ngomb6, the man of 
 all work, left the kitchen and took the whip ; Aaron lent a hand 
 heartily ; we formed a miniature team of calves and heifers, 
 and — set off. Our young cattle lay down, grew restive, struggled 
 as though they would break the whole turn-out to pieces, 
 bellowing with despair and foaming with rage under the yokes. 
 In order to break them in for this little jaunt of six hours, 
 we have been toiling and moiling for eight days under a 
 burning sky in the sands of our dunes and the quagmires 
 of our marshes. What scenes ! I still laugh to think of them. 
 No matter ; we did not give up ; we reached our goal — and that
 
 A MEMORABLE PITSO 329 
 
 is the great thing. Our arrival at Lealuyi was a real triumph. 
 For the moment, we preferred to forget about our return. 
 
 The next morning, I left my wife comfortably established in 
 one/ of the king's fine huts with the queen, Mokwae of Nalolo, 
 her' sister Katoka, and several princesses of the harem, as a 
 sev'ing society in permanent session, and I betook myself to 
 the pitso. 
 
 Although I have already spoken to you of a pitso among 
 the Barotsi, I think this one merits a special description. 
 
 The king took his seat in the midst of a bewildering tin- 
 tinnabulation of tom-toms and serinibas, the ministers crouching 
 at his right, the chamberlains (if I may be pardoned for calling 
 such small things by such big names) at his left. Troops of 
 men, chiefs with their followers, were crowding from all sides into 
 the public square. There was an incessant roar of acclamations 
 like thunder, and, while the newest arrivals were prolonging it, 
 the others were prostrating themselves, and taking their places 
 among the groups already forming round the sovereign. 
 
 The drums ceased ; silence fell. The Gambella (the prime 
 minister), the upper part of his body unclothed, advanced into the 
 space left vacant, saluted the king, and then made a speech. It 
 was the " speech from the throne," as we should say. This speech 
 was heard and received in such silence as seemed stupefaction. 
 What do you think it was about ? What indeed ? You could 
 never guess. Nothing less than the protectorate of " Satory "— 
 Queen Victoria of England ! In his exile, Lewanika had heard *^ 
 it talked about ; he imagined that there he would find the 
 panacea of all his ills. We had often talked it over together. 
 I had tried to set his ideas right, and above all to inculcate 
 wider and more disinterested views. I had resisted his entreaties, 
 and many times refused to write to the authorities on the 
 subject ; and my reasons will be understood. I had counselled 
 him to address himself first to the chief Khama, to take his 
 ministers and favourite likoinboa into his confidence, and then 
 to treat of the matter in a council of the great chiefs of the 
 nation. But Lewanika has the tendencies of an autocrat ; he 
 is a personification of the Divine Right. He was not sure 
 of these great chiefs either, and he resolved simply to have 
 recourse to a surprise. He counted on our credit and my 
 goodwill, and thought he would be recommending his project
 
 330 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [i88S 
 
 by identifying it with the mission. It is what the detractors 
 of missionary work do from another motive ; they take pleasure 
 in showing us up as political agents. 
 
 The Gambella spoke to the following effect : " Barotsi, we are 
 threatened by enemies from without and from within. I have 
 sought missionaries for you, so that you should not be behind 
 other nations. Did you welcome them ? Are you grateful for 
 them ? The chief Khama has missionaries, but he also has 
 inasole " (soldiers). " They go together. So if you like to have 
 the missionaries, ask Satory to send us her soldiers. The MoruW 
 (missionary) " will do it for us. To hesitate means to reject the 
 missionaries themselves. Would you like the missionaries to 
 leave us now ? Speak ; have no fear ; the Moriiti is here ; he is 
 listening to you, and so am I." 
 
 Astounded like every one else, I was curious to see how 
 these poor people would take the thing up, and I held my 
 tongue. At length, a courageous orator broke the silence, which 
 had become decidedly embarrassing, " Lewanika, since we must 
 speak, see here : we are thy dogs. If those be thy words, we 
 have nothing to say — nothing. The Baniti are a blessing from 
 thyself We have received them. They were foreigners ; 
 to-day they are Barotsi. We know them ; they are good people ; 
 they have not yellow hearts — not they ; they covet no man's 
 goods ; they pay for the services, we render them ; we all wear 
 their stuffs. They instruct our children, and give medicines 
 to our sick ; they are the fathers of the nation. We ought 
 to listen to their advice ; and if we absolutely must receive the 
 soldiers — well, let us receive them." 
 
 " But what are these inasole of whom the king speaks ? " 
 burst out a second orator. " Are they missionaries too ? What 
 will they come to teach us ? The missionaries bring us the 
 Lengoalo " (that is, tJie teaching, properly tvriting which com- 
 prehends everything else). " Is not their teaching enough ? 
 Or have we refused to submit to it ? No, we have welcomed 
 them ; we love them : they pray for us ; they give us sleep and 
 rain. I ask, what arc these inasole ? " 
 
 The ball once set rolling, it was one series of speeches, 
 echoing and outdoing one another. Apart from a very 
 legitimate uneasiness on the subject of the inasole — this thing 
 hitherto unknown, and now heard of for the first time — there
 
 SOLDIERS VERSUS MISSIONARIES 331 
 
 was nothing equivocal in the general confidence testified towards 
 us. And they were all eyes and all ears when I explained that, 
 as servants of God, we had absolutely nothing to do either with 
 the inasole or the British Government or any other government 
 whatsoever. I dwelt on this, and I took care they thoroughly 
 understood it. I added that, being perfectly disinterested in 
 the question, as I am a Frenchman, I was ready to help them 
 with my advice, and second them in the steps they took. I 
 closed by explaining what a protectorate is, the liabilities it 
 involves, etc. 
 
 Lewanika was stamping with impatience beside me. The 
 speeches which followed showed I had made myself understood. 
 " If you will have the inasole" they said to Lewanika, " let them 
 come, but not while we are here. We serve you because you 
 are king and sovereign ; but if you become the motlanka " 
 (the servant of rulers), " the subject of a master and a foreigner, 
 that is a humiliation the Barotsi will never accept. We have 
 welcomed the Bariiti ; they have our confidence and our affection. 
 Let us be docile and receive their teaching, and see what they 
 will make of this nation ; it is worn out with bloody feuds. 
 What we need is teachers " {Baruti), " and we have got them." 
 
 The chiefs demanded leave to shout and salute all at once, 
 according to their usual custom for closing a great question, 
 and thus to give a public manifestation of the nation's confidence 
 in its missionaries. Lewanika was displeased, and withdrew. 
 
 At my suggestion, in the evening he assembled all the 
 principal headmen at the kasJiandi^ to discuss the question more 
 freely. But discussion was no longer possible. The chiefs 
 had laid their heads together and taken their stand. The king 
 was on his mettle. Both sides were hurling provocations at 
 each other, even while trying to keep up the traditional decorum. 
 We were stifling in this electric atmosphere, and expected 
 every moment to see the storm burst. 
 
 " The missionaries — yes, them we understand ; those are the 
 men for us ; we will give our children to them; but we will 
 not have foreigners to rule over us." " Why not ask me what 
 I want them for, myself?" retorted Lewanika. Then turning 
 to me, and pointing at them with his finger,- he added bitterly, ^ 
 
 ' The king's private office. * A deadly insult to a Morotsi.
 
 332 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 " It is to protect myself against those Barotsi. You do not 
 know them ; they are plotting against my life." 
 
 Thereupon, his liko7nboa launched boldly into abuse. " Now 
 compel that base generation to confess its falsehoods and 
 its plots ! We know them all, and knew them long ago. 
 To-morrow we will put you upon your trial ; we will force 
 you to unmask you schemes ; we shall see how you will come 
 out of it." Their vocabulary of insults is astoundingly rich, 
 and there are some to suit everybody. I interposed with a 
 few words of conciliation, and they listened to me. I thought 
 the storm had subsided, but I was mistaken. 
 
 Early next day, the public square was full to overflowing 
 when the king appeared. Seoli, one of the ministers, who owes 
 his great influence as much to his own force of character as 
 to his position, opened the pitso of the day with a violent 
 harangue. He is, as every one knows, one of the most deeply 
 compromised ; and he took good care not to protest his inno- 
 cence, but he boldly defied his enemies to prove his guilt. 
 It was another minister, a member of his family, whom he 
 denounced. Liomba, a man of weak character, protested, 
 explained, and defended himself " He had only warned Seoli, 
 his relative, of the rumours current about him, and to put him 
 on his guard." " Well now, it is for you to prove those rumours. 
 Prove them ! " they cried out on all sides. Already one felt 
 that Liomba was to be a scapegoat, and that the failure of 
 his cause was a foregone conclusion. Those most involved 
 were the very ones to cry out the loudest against " this rabble 
 who invent calumnies and spread them abroad, thereby com- 
 promising the king's safety, the life of his faithful servants, and 
 the public peace." Liomba's adherents did indeed take his part 
 at first ; but they let themselves be intimidated, and ended 
 by holding their tongues and hanging their heads. Then a 
 perfect tempest broke loose. The popular excitement rose like 
 the tide lashed on by a hurricane. He was forced to leave 
 his place in the shade, and, stripped of his garments and bare- 
 headed, to crouch down in the midst of the pitso, quite alone, 
 amid the hooting of the crowd, on the burning sand, in a 
 temperature of 104" F. in the shade. 
 
 This scene lasted from seven in the morning till four in the 
 afternoon. I followed it with intense interest. Petty chiefs.
 
 A SCAPEGOAT 333 
 
 parading their zeal, and thinking themselves free to do anything 
 to a defenceless man, overwhelmed him with abuse, pointed the 
 finger at him, and threatened him with their whips. " Bind 
 him with cords, and let us have done with this sorcerer," cried 
 one, whom I knew to be a thorough rascal. The Natamoyo (the 
 Minister of Mercy, protector of accused persons) was sitting 
 there, impassive and sanctimonious ; the time had not come for 
 him to intervene. The king, in answer to a remark of mine, 
 observed severely, " Let them alone ; they are bringing all his 
 slanders to light." The man was lost. 
 
 I rose and advanced towards him. " Barotsi," I said, " a 
 servant of God is a Natamoyo. You shall not kill that man — 
 you may kill me first. You have insulted him enough. What is 
 his crime ? Say ! Is he the author of your plots, or the inventor 
 of the reports that have filled the country, and reach us by letters 
 and messengers from Sesheke, from Pata-matenga, from Lake 
 Ngami, from Libebe's, and from everywhere else ? " . , . 
 
 They listened in silence ; little by little, the effervescence died 
 down. The Gambella and the Natamoyo spoke with modera- 
 tion. The cause was won. The king, by way of satisfaction 
 to the turbulent assembly, imposed upon Liomba the fine of 
 an ox, which he paid. While waiting for the beast to arrive, 
 Liomba took refuge with the Natamoyo, and for three days never 
 left his court night or day. At last, the fine was paid, the king 
 accepted it, and gave it to the lekJiothla. Liomba submitted 
 to the ceremony of the slioalela ; and scarcely had the king 
 pronounced his punienoko ^ than the relatives and friends of the 
 poor man, his slaves, and even those who had abused him when 
 they thought him lost, crowded round him to kiss his hands. 
 We had already saved this man's life twice in the time of Tatira. 
 
 While all this was passing in the lekJiotJila, and agitating 
 the whole town, my wife, in spite of her great weakness of 
 body, had her own days well filled. She tried to pay two or 
 three visits to sick people ; above all, they came to her. The 
 women and young girls besieged the hut, or filled the court, 
 from morning till night ; and, whether they would or no, these 
 importunate visitors must needs be dismissed, if one would have 
 a little respite. The majority of women came with materials 
 
 ' Pumenoko — " I am content." The royal ackuowledgment ol a salute.
 
 334 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 to have dresses cut out for them and learn to sew ; the others 
 looked on and listened to the chatter, which was by no means 
 idle. Others again were on the watch for a favourable moment 
 to have a private conversation. They had confidences to make, 
 and advice to ask from the missionary's wife — a mother on 
 whose discretion they could depend. One gave a long ex- 
 planation of her illness, another of her sorrows ; a third was 
 enquiring about the things of God. 
 
 Those women who did not dare to penetrate into the harem 
 enclosure where we were lodging, exchanged messages. " I 
 should so like to hear you sing ! " said one of them. Happy 
 thought ! My wife sent the three girls to her to sing hymns. 
 From one court they were invited into another, then into yet 
 another, and everywhere people crowded to hear them. 
 
 On Sunday, at evening service, as the shadows were lengthen- 
 ing, we were singing, " I have found, I have found the way " 
 (" Ke bone, ke bone tsela "). A silvery voice rose above all the 
 others, and seemed to be hovering between earth and sky — a 
 voice of charming sweetness. Every one instinctively turned 
 towards my wife with questioning looks. It was not she. 
 We discovered it was Sebane, one of our pupils, who was 
 singing ; and a smile of satisfaction went round the assembly. 
 No one will soon forget that silver clarion ringing through 
 the mass of cracked voices. Since then, we always associate 
 that beautiful hymn with Sebane's voice. This dear child, who 
 is scarcely more than twelve or thirteen, is, of all our three girls, 
 the one who at first seemed most unpromising. She has become 
 serious, active, lovable, and truthful. May that hymn soon 
 become the real expression of her own feelings ! These three 
 children are only slaves ; but they are no longer what they 
 were a month ago. They are properly dressed ; they can sew 
 and read and perform all sorts of little household tasks ; they 
 have, in short, acquired a little air of civilisation, which raises 
 them to such a point, that the queen, Mokwae, when they came 
 to salute her, quite forgot herself, and gave them her hand. 
 
 Wc could have returned to Sefula with a number of young 
 girls, if we had wished, and had been able to do so. But how 
 could we resi.st the entreaties of the king, who besought us at 
 least to receive his own daughter, Mpololoa, a nice child of ten 
 or eleven ? We ended by consenting, on condition that she
 
 TROUBLESOME CHARGES 335 
 
 should come quite alone, without slaves, and should be entirely 
 left to our discretion. Instead of one, tJiree came, and with a 
 suite of slaves suitable to their rank. " What ! " the princess 
 Katoka had exclaimed, " let our children go to Sefula without 
 slaves ? Never ! " In vain we sent them back ; some persistently 
 remain, " lying low" at Litia's, and appearing now and then. 
 We had to make an exception in favour of two little slaves of 
 the same age as the king's children, who share their amusements 
 and come to school ; and one other exception for Sanana's 
 nurse, who has never left her. You see we already have the 
 nucleus of a girls' school ; and in the same way we have all 
 the elements of a boys' school ; in fact, we are overrun. We 
 have neither the strength, nor the resources, nor the staff 
 necessary for so great a work, the urgency of which imposes 
 itself upon us more and more.^ 
 
 For the moment, without speaking of the labourers required 
 by our works, we have our hands full with the boys and all the 
 little girls who live under our roof. We have to dress, feed, 
 occupy, and instruct all these little people, and maintain dis- 
 cipline among them, slight though the latter may be — all of 
 which in itself would be a heavy task for a person in good 
 health. 
 
 But the work imposed on us is so important, that it would 
 be culpable to let slip the opportunity for doing it. Mpololoa, 
 who, as I said, is scarcely eleven, is already betrothed to a 
 man who might almost be her grandfather, and who bears 
 the title of Mokwe Tunga." She is a pleasant child, but with 
 her inferiors she puts on all the haughty airs of a great 
 personage. The youngest of our new pupils is only seven — 
 a little rogue, if ever there was one. When Mme. Coillard 
 gave her a piece of stuff for the first time to learn sewing, 
 Sanana looked at her and said, " My mother, for whom is 
 
 ' The training of these young people was no easy matter, since the 
 sanctity of their persons was such that it was not permitted literally to 
 lay a finger on them. One day, while some building was going on at the 
 station, a serf, running round the corner with a bundle of thatch in his arms, 
 met the king's little daughter, who was running in the contrary direction, 
 and by accident the tip of a reed brushed her eye. In an hour's time, 
 before M. Coillard had even heard of the occurrence, the man was dead, 
 executed by the child's attendants. 
 
 ^ Son-in-law of the Nation, equivalent to Prince Consort.
 
 336 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 this garment ? Sanana does not sew for anybody else ; she 
 only sews for herself." You see there is not only an education 
 needed, but a whole education to undo. 
 
 November 1888. 
 
 Our school began again on October ist with forty -eight 
 scholars on the books. It is a numerical gain on last year. 
 Thank God, it is not the only one. The boys who gave us so 
 much trouble, and sometimes so much sorrow, have come back 
 to us in a much better frame of mind and with an ardent 
 desire to learn. When they saw the school-house — still only a 
 temporary one — which we are building, they were much dis- 
 appointed to learn that it was not for the purpose of receiving 
 them as boarders. They had been counting on that — I do not 
 know why. 
 
 " We will submit to any discipline ; you can do anything you 
 like with us," said Litia ; " and the king will feed us." 
 
 The king indeed enters thoroughly into these views. He 
 is very energetic himself, and wishes all these young men to 
 learn to work ; he finds it difficult to understand that our friend 
 Waddell has anything else to do but teach them joinery. He 
 has procured them planes and saws ; he spares nothing for 
 them. He speaks of sending them "to the whites" ; where, he 
 does not know. Lewanika himself is learning to read and write 
 most zealously, and makes astonishing progress. He in his 
 turn has set to work to teach his wives and servants, so that 
 there is quite a little movement at the capital. 
 
 What is lacking is an evangelist endowed with a strong head 
 and a sound heart, who should reside there. Aaron and I make 
 frequent visits there. But now that he is leaving, and that I 
 have lost my horse, what shall I do ? 
 
 The work here is certainly encouraging as it presents itself 
 at this moment. The preaching is generally listened to atten- 
 tively — attentively, that is all. It would not do to fancy that 
 our Zambcsians have as yet any true thirst after the things of 
 God. Alas ! it often happens that, when we are beginning to 
 hope, the smallest incident reveals to us that our wishes have 
 given false wings to our desires ; and such revelations are full 
 of bitterness. The preaching itself is often a hard task. During 
 our open-air services, we are exposed to all sorts of rude
 
 LEFT ALONE 337 
 
 interruptions, which provoke uncontrollable laughter. If the 
 king sneezes, there is a thunder of hand-clapping. Or strangers 
 come, and cannot understand this strange agglomeration of 
 people who sing without dancing, and who are listening to the 
 white man standing and speechifying ; they can only venture 
 awkwardly and timidly to offer the usual salutation. That too 
 makes every one laugh. Perhaps it is a lunatic who sits in front 
 of me, and imitates my voice and my gestures ; or the king's 
 idiot child, to whom everything is permitted, who runs about, 
 questioning everybody and hitting people right and left. All 
 that went on during my last preaching at Lealuyi. And 
 when, preserving my self-control, I thought I had suppressed 
 the effervescence, lo and behold ! a chameleon, dropped from 
 I know not where, but sent by the devil, convulsed half my 
 audience with terror, and half with mirth! Our poor Barotsi 
 have a keen sense of the ridiculous ; they make fun of every- 
 body and everything. Often it is with a terrible inward conflict 
 that I prepare myself to meet such an audience. Oh, why 
 have we not a Philip here, a Stephen, an apostle full of the 
 power of the Holy Ghost ! 
 
 December \\th, 1888. 
 
 So here we are quite alone. Our friends left us a fortnight 
 ago for Basuto-land — M. Goy to be married there, and Aaron 
 to take his children. There is always something sorrowful 
 in separations, and our circumstances added to the solemnity 
 of the moment in which we commended each other to the 
 grace of God. We had quietly made the preparations for the 
 journey, and in seeing Aaron demolish and pack up his effects ; 
 we had suffered all the melancholy feelings awakened by the 
 break-up of a household. We had brought his school children 
 to sing a farewell hymn, and receive the blessing of the master 
 who was leaving them. Poor Aaron ! he did not make a long 
 speech. " My children— I leave you with my Father and 
 Mother : they are no longer young ; make the task easy for 
 them." His heart was too full to bless aloud the school he 
 loved so well. We had also taken our farewell Communion. 
 And yet, up to the last moment, I cherished the vague hope 
 of seeing something extraordinary happen to keep our helpers 
 back. Illusion ! The spider thread snapped ; nothing extra- 
 
 22
 
 338 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 ordinary happened. On Saturday, December ist, we finally 
 bade each other farewell, perhaps only to meet in heaven. Our 
 friends had already accomplished their first stage, and our 
 appalling solitude was a reality. That, for the time being, is the 
 hardest of our trials, and the most difficult to accept submis- 
 sively. Aaron says he will come back. Will he indeed ? And 
 Levi — will he ? Does their departure really mean the rupture 
 of the bond which still attached us to Basuto-land ? For my 
 part, I say NO, and I say it unhesitatingly. 
 
 In Levi and Aaron, we are losing two earnest Christians 
 and choice evangelists. What with his wife being always 
 ill, and with the unfavourable inclinations of the people at 
 Sesheke, which made it impossible to have a regular school 
 there, Levi may practically have been of little use ; but it 
 cannot be denied that he was a moral force for us — and that 
 is something. As for Aaron, it is ten years since he left his 
 country. On our return from Banyai-land, he remained with 
 Asser and Andreas at Seleka, where he worked with rare 
 devotion, supplying the needs of his family by his own industry, 
 when the Basuto War deprived them of all help. He ac- 
 companied us to the Zambesi, where he worked hard. 
 Converted at too advanced an age to enter a school, he has 
 educated himself by his own efforts. He knows very little, 
 but he possesses the precious gift of imparting to others the 
 little he knows. He had acquired a great influence in the 
 country ; he leaves many regrets behind him, but he also 
 leaves the beautiful picture of a native Christian family as a 
 souvenir. Our evangelists quit us with an affection we heartily 
 reciprocate. They will not be lost to us : in Basuto-land, they 
 "will make the Zambesi known and the mission beloved. 
 
 Sefula, December i^th, 1888. 
 
 Here we are all alone ; and while writing these words, I do 
 indeed feel that solitude is stretching immensely — indefinitely — 
 far in every direction. If we were in want of immediate help, 
 whence could it come ? Happily, we have long since learnt 
 that " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in 
 trouble " (Fr. Ver. : un asile fort ais^ a trouver). 
 
 I confess that, before the departure of our friends, the 
 prospect of remaining quite alone frightened me not a little.
 
 i«88] A HEDGE-SCHOOL 339 
 
 Above all, I dreaded the school, with its implacable regularity. 
 God had compassion on us. He has made the arduous task 
 a source of enjoyment. The school could not very well lose 
 anything in our hands, although I recognise in Aaron certain 
 special aptitudes I do not myself possess. The number of 
 scholars has increased, and continues to increase every week. 
 We have now sixty-five pupils, who all, with few exceptions, 
 live on the premises. The king has even permitted a few of 
 his young servants to come to Sefula to attend school. An 
 excellent and enthusiastic spirit prevails among our young men. 
 You would not think they were the same brigands of last year. 
 They are respectful, and full of attentions toward us. Instead 
 of devouring our sheep (it is true we have no more sheep to be 
 devoured), they go on Saturdays (which are always holidays) 
 to hunt for us, and dispute with one another the privilege of 
 rendering us small services. When they knock down an ox, 
 or their slaves return from fishing, a portion is always reserved 
 for the " Father and Mother." It would not do to attach too 
 much importance to all that. I only draw attention to these 
 good inclinations, to show you that God, in answer to our 
 prayers, remembers that our courage is a climbing plant, which 
 cannot sustain itself, and needs props ; and those props He has 
 given us. 
 
 The three hours (we are going to give four) which we pass 
 every day with these children are happy ones, and we always 
 feel sorry when the moment comes to dismiss them. We 
 always fancy we could have made better use of the time. It is 
 a hard task, all the same, to teach sixty-five children with three 
 blackboards (one of them a box-lid covered with wax-cloth), 
 four books, and six slates. And all that in the open air, amid 
 every kind of distraction. One has to make shift, and multiply 
 oneself The system of monitors suits us admirably. Some- 
 times comical incidents occur to infringe discipline, as when 
 people come to sell their produce, and, emerging from the wood, 
 are astonished at falling into the midst of these bana ba Marena 
 (children of the chiefs), who were always robbing them last 
 year. You would then see them set down their baskets, and 
 begin to clap hands ; whereupon our young princes tell them 
 that " at school there are no princes," and that they must not 
 salute them.
 
 340 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 Sometimes, too, there are serious occurrences. The Barotsi 
 brought back a great number of dogs with them from the 
 Mashukulumboe ; and all these dogs have been attacked with 
 hydrophobia. They are running all about the country, attack- 
 ing men and beasts. Already many cattle and several persons 
 have in their turn died of rabies. One day, when T was talking 
 to the king, standing in his court amid a crowd of men crouch- 
 ing round, one of these mad dogs came and bit my leg. 
 Happily, I had on thick canvas trousers, and he only pinched 
 me. Before he could return to the charge, they had already 
 clubbed him to death. Here on the station, we have killed 
 at least twenty of them. You can understand the agitation 
 which the appearance of one of these dogs creates among our 
 classes. 
 
 To return to the school. I fear we shall soon be quite 
 overcrowded. The king, irritated by Mokwae's intrigues to give 
 Aaron's daughter to his son Litia for a wife, has seen to the 
 matter himself, and has chosen their future consorts for him 
 and his nephew : little girls whom we now have to put into 
 shape and polish up. Our house will soon be crammed. These 
 good people cannot understand that a missionary's wife can 
 be crushed beneath so much work and so many cares. They 
 beg us importunately, " Receive our children ; they have a 
 multitude of slaves who will work for them, and we will supply 
 their food." That is to say, one day's abundance for five days' 
 famine. I hesitate very much about beginning an establish- 
 ment for the young princesses like that of Litia and his 
 companions. 
 
 I was owing Lealuyi my monthly or bi-monthly visit 
 (according as you reckon by theory or practice). The king 
 gave me no peace with his importunities. But who would 
 take my place here while I was preaching over there ? After 
 much hesitation, my dear wife summoned all her courage, and 
 rather than send our little audience empty away, she bravely 
 performed the services and explained the Word of God. And 
 I know that all those who listened were very much interested. 
 Henceforth, when I absent myself, I shall know that Sefula 
 will lose nothing, as long as my wife is not laid up. 
 
 Nguana-Ngombe also took his little part in the second 
 service, and said some excellent things. He spoke on, " Take
 
 NGUANA-NGOMBfi'S SERMON 34I 
 
 no thought for what ye shall eat." " When I took service with 
 the missionary," he said, " a gun was the object of all my 
 desires. I often asked myself when my time would be up, 
 and I should possess it. When 1 had got it, I thought myself 
 the happiest man in the world. A gun ! Afy gun ! It was 
 never out of my thoughts. I used to get up in the night to 
 make sure I really possessed it. I was always admiring it. 
 But now that I know the Lord Jesus, it is He who has taken 
 possession of all my thoughts and all my love, and I almost 
 forget that I have a gun. It is there, hung up at the head of 
 my bed, for days and days together, without my ever looking 
 at it. When I hear some one talking about a gun, I say to 
 myself, ' To be sure, I have a gun myself, so I have ! ' When 
 I began to care for instruction, I longed for a shirt. Now I 
 like to have clothes, but they come to me without my having 
 to worry about them." He is a dear boy. I should like to 
 make a good evangelist of him. 
 
 The king, too, is well disposed ; but that is all. And yet his 
 thirst for the things of God is very remarkable. When Aaron 
 and M. Goy went to pay their farewell visit to him, they were 
 to come back, and spend the last Sunday with us, and we were 
 to have the Communion. Unfortunately, the rain kept them, 
 and delayed them till Saturday evening at Lealuyi. The king 
 counted on their staying for Sunday ; our friends did not feel 
 free to do so, and came back. It was a mistake, for which I 
 am in great part responsible, and which I have bitterly regretted. 
 Lewanika himself could not understand it at all. He sent me 
 a letter written by Seajika, in which he poured out his sorrow. 
 " What ! two missionaries leave us on a Saturday evening, when 
 we were rejoicing so much in having them for Sunday. I 
 don't understand you ! " 
 
 This goodwill on the king's part makes many things easy, 
 although we must not count too much upon it. The chiefs 
 — those that live round us — make it a point of honour to 
 be on good terms with us. Those who made us suffer most 
 last year are the greatest help for our work. If only it were 
 the same at Sesheke !
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A Serious Talk with Lewanika — Queen Mokwae — Ex-queen Maibiba— At 
 Death's Door — Improvement in the School — Sickness and Mortality — 
 Hostility at Nalolo — Break-up of the School — The Mokvve Tunga and 
 his Troubles — Nalolo to Lealuyi — The Nalikuanda — A Prodigal's Return 
 — Losses of Cattle — A Mining Concession. 
 
 Sefula, December \()th, 1888. 
 
 A VIS IT of some days at Lealuyi with my oldest pupils. 
 The king was affable and chatty as usual. If the Barotsi 
 were not such flatterers and so false, I should think he was 
 not far from the Kingdom of Heaven. We were speaking one 
 evening of our life at Leshoma, and of the countless difficulties 
 which the chiefs of Sesheke created for me. " There is nothing 
 surprising in that," remarked Lewanika. " When you came the 
 first time, ten years ago, the Barotsi, suspecting your intentions, 
 hastily consulted the bones and administered the moati " (a viru- 
 lent poison) "to a number of fowls. Some died; others did not: 
 hence the ambiguous messages which reached you. They dared 
 not frankly forbid you to enter the country, and yet they were 
 afraid to receive you ; and they tried by every kind of device 
 to block up your path and discourage you. The cloak you then 
 sent me I never saw, any more than your subsequent presents. 
 They were declared to be bewitched, and were stopped on the 
 way. What surprises me is that you had the courage to come 
 back, and that you are here." 
 
 I was speaking on the subject of my first journey to the 
 Valley, and my visit to Tatira. Lewanika interrupted me, and 
 asked in a tone which demanded a reply, " Tell me now, what 
 did they say about me ? What was I being accused of? I could 
 get nothing but evasive answers out of the Barotsi who remained 
 here. I know you will tell me the truth." 
 
 342
 
 lewanika's cruelty 343 
 
 I looked steadily at him. " Do you really not know what 
 they accused you of?" 
 
 " No, and I wish to know." 
 
 " Well, they accused you of killing people without cause and 
 without pity." 
 
 " Is that really true ? " His countenance grew dark. " How 
 many people did they say I had put to death ? " 
 
 " A great many. They especially related how you had starved 
 one of your brothers to death in an enclosure made on purpose 
 close to the village ; and how, in a single day, you had had 
 seven Barotsi chiefs killed while they were drinking the beer 
 that you had given them in order to deceive them." 
 
 After a few moments' silence : " It is all true," he said, " but 
 the fault lay with Mathaha himself and his party." 
 
 He then told me how his unfortunate young brother, at 
 Mathaha's secret instigation, intrigued to get possession of the 
 power, and how Mathaha and his partisans accused Livingstone's 
 old servant Mashawana, and other chiefs, of plotting against the 
 king, and gave themselves no rest till they could get sentence 
 of death passed upon them.^ 
 
 Poor Lewanika ! I pitied him deeply ; for even though we 
 talked a long while and of many things, his brow was still 
 clouded, and from time to time he let slip expressions which 
 betrayed the agitation of his thoughts. At last, getting the 
 mastery over himself, and affecting a tone of gaiety, he said, 
 " I must speak to you of two absences I have in view. I am 
 first going to Ruena to snare antelopes. My second absence " 
 (with a questioning look at me) " is a pilgrimage to the tomb 
 of Katuramoa. The guardian of this village has dreamt that 
 Katuramoa — a former king — has called me, and demands the 
 sacrifice of an ox." 
 
 " What ! you to go and pray to the dead ! The worthy man 
 might just as well have asked you for an ox without dreaming, 
 and without obliging you to bring it to him yourself! And 
 then, you know now that praying to the dead is offending God." 
 
 ' Lewanika had his brother swathed round and round in an entire web of 
 doth, so that he was quite helpless, then loaded with beads and other royal 
 ornaments (" that he might go to his fathers," the king said, " in a manner 
 worthy of his rank"), and placed under a tree which still shades the Ickhothla. 
 A high palisade was then built all round him, and he was left to starve.
 
 344 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1888 
 
 " You are right. But when I am a believer, I shall not go 
 and pray to the dead any more, and you will see if I don't 
 keep my word. Meanwhile, I must yield to the Barotsi ; they 
 don't understand your teaching, you know." 
 
 " And when will you become a believer, Lewanika ? " 
 
 " When I quite know how to read, and when I am better 
 instructed in the things of God." 
 
 " Why should you wait, tell me ? Has not your conscience 
 often told you that you have done evil, and much evil ? " 
 
 He grew pensive and hung his head. " Ah ! " he sighed, " it 
 is a terrible thing to be a king. When I was only a private 
 person, they said I was an exemplary young man. I delighted 
 in hunting ; and when I was not hunting, I was carving wood. 
 As a child, I once thrashed an urchin of my own age ; later 
 on, I sent away Litia's mother, my first wife, because of her 
 immoral conduct. And that was all. They ruined me when 
 V they made a king of me. I have become a corrupt and blood- 
 stained man ! " 
 
 He paused. After one of those silences which are more 
 eloquent than torrents of words, we fell upon our knees, and 
 I prayed for him. 
 
 I had scarcely returned to Sefula before Mokwae came to 
 spend ten days with us — as usual with a numerous suite. If 
 only she could travel more simply ! Her young girls are so 
 arrogant ! They think themselves at liberty to do anything. 
 Mokwae tried to make herself agreeable : I think she followed 
 the sewing lessons at school with interest. One day, the rain 
 surprised us, and we had to seek shelter in our " tabernacle," 
 which is now half roofed in. To maintain order, I conducted 
 my pupils in procession ; Mokwae placed herself at the tail, 
 and behind her, first her husband, then her councillors, and then 
 her servants. We managed to keep our countenances all the 
 same. One evening, they came to call me in a great hurry. 
 " The queen has eaten fish, and she is choking ! " A good 
 mouthful of bread-crumbs which I made her swallow soon pro- 
 duced the desired effect. Unfortunately, two of her men were 
 attacked with ophthalmia, which is raging here ; and a third 
 had an attack of fever. That sufficed to frighten the queen and 
 fill her with apprehension. So, the next day at dawn, she had 
 packed up her baggage, and hurriedly took leave of us.
 
 1889] THE EX-QUEEN MAIBIBA 345 
 
 I once interested our European friends in MaTbiba, who had 
 been made queen during the time of the usurper Tatira, and 
 who pleased me so much on my first visit to the Valley.* I had 
 often enquired after her, and Mokwae always answered with 
 ill-humour. The king, however, assured me that she was still 
 alive, that she had fled to Lekhoa Khoa, where Tatira came 
 from, and that he would send for her. 
 
 He kept his word. Imagine my astonishment the other 
 day at Lealuyi, when I recognised her among a gang of women 
 who were kneading mud to plaster the fine hut Lewanika has 
 had built for us. Our eyes met, and her pleasant smile betrayed 
 her at once. " What ! is it you, Maibiba ? " " Yes," she replied ; 
 " I saw you before, but you did not recognise me, and I did 
 not dare to come and speak to you." Although Mokwae's eye 
 was upon her, she found an opportunity of coming to tell me 
 her adventures. 
 
 The king had been kind to her. When he sent for her, 
 he allowed her to choose a new husband. " Leave me in the 
 shade," she had begged of him, " far away from the borena " (the 
 governing class in all its ranks) ; " I have always dreaded it." 
 She chose for herself a Mo-Mbunda, who is not even the chief 
 of a village ; and she says she is happy, poor creature ! She 
 is still just the same, frank and amiable, and she is treated 
 with respect. 
 
 February \st, 1889. 
 
 Propping myself heavily on a stick, wrapped in my dressing- 
 gown, my head swimming, painfully dragging one leg after the 
 other, I feel I am coming back from the confines of another 
 world. A glance tells me as much, on entering my study. 
 
 In the middle of our New Year's festival, I felt the first 
 symptoms of what I thought to be nothing but an attack of 
 fever. Three days after, I was betwixt life and death. Who 
 does not know how wholesome it is to be thus taken out of 
 the scenes of active life, where it is so difficult to retire into 
 oneself, and to be suddenly transported into the isolation 
 of sickness, even to the threshold of eternity ? But who can 
 enter into the anguish of that woman left alone to bear a load 
 already too heavy for two — alone to follow and battle with the 
 
 ' See Part II. p. 171.
 
 346 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 rapid progress of the disease, and threatened with the prospect 
 of finding herself yet more alone in the midst of these savage 
 tribes, and so far from any help ? 
 
 But God is good. I was not indispensable to His work ; and 
 yet He still desired to make use of me. He is gently leading 
 me back to life. Every one is doing his best not to interfere 
 with my convalescence. Our scholars have left off their games ^ 
 our boys and girls are making themselves as scarce as if they 
 were mice. 
 
 Nguana-Ngombe, meanwhile, took the command of our 
 work-people. He kneaded the bread, churned the butter, and 
 washed the linen overnight. At daybreak,- he distributed the 
 food to everybody, conducted prayers, served our breakfast^ 
 and, without even taking time to eat, went off, his spade on 
 his shoulder, at the head of his troop. And in the evening, the 
 good boy fed all our staff, and prepared and served the dinner 
 as though he had not left the kitchen. I really do not know 
 what he is made of And all the time, he is growing taller and 
 taller as fast as he can. 
 
 Febrtiary \2ih. 
 
 Sefula has become a hospital. My strength is only coming 
 back slowly, and now my wife is ill in her turn. For a long 
 time, she has been ailing, and now she is confined to bed. 
 Our friend Waddell, who was so well before, is also out of 
 health. In spite of my great weakness, you see I have to be 
 sick-nurse in my turn, and doctor too. This evening, Nguana- 
 Ngombe had lit a candle and served dinner as usual — a dinner 
 such as we do not often have : for Litia had sent us some 
 beef ; and Sepopa, the result of his hunting. We had to cook 
 it all, for nothing keeps here. But when I, a poor convalescent, 
 sat down to table all alone, this profusion seemed to me like 
 irony, and my courage failed me. 
 
 February i^th. 
 Began school again some little time ago. It is a great 
 responsibility to have so many boys on one's hands. Forced 
 idleness always engenders a bad spirit. I was afraid, too, that 
 my boys would begin to be discouraged, and to disperse. I 
 first got them together for half an hour, and set the most 
 advanced to teach the others. Directly the news spread, all
 
 i889] litia's influence 347 
 
 the absentees came back, and our list rose to eighty-five. Is it 
 not singular that this remarkable development of the school 
 should coincide with all our illnesses, and with the departure of 
 Aaron, who is now making a wayside call of six or eight months 
 at Sesheke, where they did not need him at all ? 
 
 My wife, too, is now able to drag herself as far as the tree 
 which shades our school, and takes her share of teaching. 
 Oh that school ! how it has taken hold of our hearts, and 
 what a place it occupies in our thoughts and prayers ! 
 
 The construction of our temporary chapel advances. I 
 had the idea of setting our pupils to carry sand and collect 
 cow dung, to level the floor and plaster the walls. That 
 occupies them for an hour every two or three days. But you 
 should have seen with what zeal they set to work, Litia and 
 all the young chiefs at their head. When they have finished 
 their small task, they form themselves into a procession, and 
 file past the door, singing in two parts — 
 
 Borotsi, fatsi la boutata rona ; (Borotsi, land of our fathers ; 
 
 Gar' a ina fatse, Ic lethle ke lona ! Of all lands, it is the fairest.) 
 
 Certainly, one need be born a Morotsi to sing that as they do ! 
 For the moment, there is no more popular ditty in Lealuyi. 
 At this moment, a house is being built for Monde, the eldest 
 daughter of Mokwae : she has reached a marriageable age, 
 so they are going to bestow a husband upon her ; and then 
 she will begin her education. Likokoane, one of the king's 
 nephews, is just married, and his wife, a gentle young girl, 
 attends school with him. However, this can only be temporary, 
 for Likokoane's village is at Kanyonyo. All our pupils, great 
 and small, who are born Barotsi, have their own villages. 
 Otherwise, I should say that ours, that of the mission station, 
 is growing in importance. It is now an agglomeration of huts, 
 built round and round. In the middle are the houses of " the 
 king's children." Litia, by his father's orders, surrounds him- 
 self with an etiquette which forbids familiarity, and safeguards 
 his authority among this mob of boys and slaves. But, in 
 school, it is now admitted that there shall be no distinctions ; 
 masters and slaves mingle in the classes, and teach each other. 
 That is a decided step forward. The principle is so well 
 understood^ that the king's daughters, who live in our house,
 
 348 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 have learnt not only to do without their maids, but even to do 
 household work, just like the little slave girls they found here 
 with us. 
 
 I have recommenced my Saturday excursions through the 
 hamlets dotted about in the marshes surrounding the Valley. 
 We have scarcely any audience unless I go and get it together 
 in this way. The question of family life here is a fathomless 
 qnagmire. If I ask a Morotsi to send his children to school, 
 he sometimes replies that the school is not for the serfs 
 {batlankd) ; most frequently, he pleads as an excuse that he 
 has no children — he has had one or two, but Nyanibc (God) 
 caused them to die. It is perfectly true that our Zambesians 
 have very small families, and that — in a certain class at any 
 rate — the prospect of paternity is looked upon as such a mis- 
 fortune that divorce frequently follows. But it is also true 
 that these poor people hide their children, as the Basuto do 
 their cattle, and one can understand why. 
 
 First days of March. 
 
 Monde arrived at our place as a royal bride, her arms 
 loaded with ivory bracelets, her head and neck covered with 
 beads. Her retinue was worthy of her rank. Nevertheless, 
 she quickly caught up with the rest of the school. Of her 
 own accord, she discarded some of her ornaments, and put 
 herself on a level with the others, contenting herself with a 
 mat instead of pillowing herself on a slave ; and she was 
 already triumphing over ABC, when some clandestine love 
 passages with a cousin whom she would have liked to marry 
 irritated the king, and he sent for her immediately. Poor 
 child ! they have given her a young man she does not like 
 for a husband. They have threatened her with duckings — an 
 old wives' cure for such cases, which is said to be very 
 efficacious. But it is all of no use. Monde has a will of her 
 own. The king asks for my advice. I tell him he should 
 have done that sooner. Such cases arc not uncommon in 
 this country ; but as marriages are dissolved as easily as they 
 are made, it does not matter much. There are no unhappy 
 couples here ; if people do not get on together, the husband 
 seeks another wife, and the wife another husband, and all 
 is said and done.
 
 1889] DISEASE AND DEATH 349 
 
 Death is never idle at the Zambesi, and generally ac- 
 complishes his work with appalling rapidity. There is poor 
 Mr. VVestbeech ; he has just succumbed, while travelling, at 
 the Jesuits' place in Marico. How many blanks during these 
 ten years, even during these five years, in this small world 
 of the Zambesi ! All the Europeans I have known, and 
 almost all the half-breeds (who are also personages here), 
 have passed away : Westbeech, Blockley, Dr. Bradshaw, 
 Afrika, — that is a long list already. Mamochesane, too, 
 whom I saw when I first went to the Valley, the daughter of 
 the powerful Sebetoane, died last year, in a condition not far 
 removed from abject misery and neglect.^ 
 
 I spoke to you about the mad dogs which have been the 
 scourge of the country since the Mashukulumboe expedition. 
 After the dogs, it was the turn of the cattle ; and with them 
 the disease is always fatal. But more serious is the fact that 
 a corresponding disease is now raging among the human beings. 
 With some, it is a passing insanity ; with others, it takes the 
 form of madness, such that they have to be garrotted. Several 
 have succumbed to it. Just at this time it is Seoli, one of the 
 most influential councillors. The same day, his first wife died 
 also ; and two days later, another of his wives. A cry of 
 witchcraft would have been raised for much less, and public 
 opinion had already identified the sorcerer ; it could only be 
 the unfortunate Liomba," with whom Seoli had had a crow to 
 pluck, and they loudly demanded his trial and death. The 
 king, in order, I believe, to shield him from his enemies, sent 
 him with Karumba to sell ivory at Kazungula. Liomba was 
 afraid of falling into a trap, and confided his terrors to me, 
 as if I could help him ! Still, I hope that the era of clandestine 
 murders has passed away, and that the Gospel has brought 
 peace and security into this unhappy country. 
 
 April z^th. 
 
 We are passing through a crisis. The number of our pupils 
 had exceeded a hundred. The prevailing disposition was excel- 
 lent : everybody exhibited interest and enthusiasm, an entirely 
 
 ^ See Livingstone's "Travels on the Zambesi." 
 ' See pages 332, 333.
 
 350 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA '1889 
 
 new spirit of submission to discipline, and of respect towards 
 us. Our task had become easy ; it was a real pleasure. Then, 
 first we had a perfect epidemic of ulcers among our boys — 
 those African ulcers, which resist all ordinary remedies, eat 
 away the flesh in an appalling way, and often cause death. 
 They were the despair of Livingstone, and they are the 
 terror of the Barotsi. Strange to say, all the boys and 
 girls living in our house have escaped it, but we have lost a 
 score of other pupils, who have returned to their parents to 
 be treated. 
 
 But here is something much more serious. Nalolo, which 
 has never been favourable to us, is now opposing us openly. 
 Mokwae is ill ; indeed, very ill, they tell us. What do the 
 diviners say ? — the bones and the gods ? I do not know ; but 
 evidently it is nothing good about us. Mokwae has sent for her 
 children ; and all her people, one after another, have done the 
 same. And these children from Nalolo were the flower of our 
 school ! More than thirty have departed already, without even 
 bidding us good-bye. They were watched for as they came out 
 of school : people even came at night, hurried them into canoe.s, 
 and fled with them. Poor Barotsi, they have not much moral 
 courage. These proceedings, which have taken us by surprise, 
 trouble us very much. How long will the others stay with us ? 
 Yet it does not do to show our grief too openly ; we must 
 keep that to ourselves. Discouraged as our hearts are, may 
 God give us grace still to carry on this ruined school with 
 •energy and spirit ! 
 
 Here is another letter from the king, the third, I believe, 
 and little calculated to reassure us. The porters, being charged 
 at the same time with verbal messages, enable us to read 
 between the lines. " O my missionary," writes Lewanika, " the 
 Barotsi say I am going mad. They scoff at Seajika and his 
 teaching. They ask what good the Book has done them. Never 
 have we had so many calamities as since your arrival : never 
 have so many men died ! " . . . I do not yet know the cause 
 of this hostile spirit, but it is very real. Sepopa and Likokoane 
 confessed to me that, during their last visit to Nalolo, Mokwae 
 forbade them to sing hymns in her village. Litia has con- 
 fidentially informed me that one party loudly demands our 
 expulsion, and that twice already it has been discussed in the
 
 i889] A ROYAL INVALID 3 5 I 
 
 kashandi. Hence the king's doleful letters. And poor 
 Levvanika, whom we know to be so weak, will he stand up 
 for us ? 
 
 April loth, 1889. 
 
 The breaking-up of our school still goes on. Rather than 
 let it melt away altogether, we are giving three weeks' holiday, 
 and I am taking advantage of it to go and visit Nalolo and 
 Lealuyi. I must get some light on the situation. It is Munda 
 (flood-time) ; the plain is partly inundated. The moment she 
 heard of my intentions, Mokwae sent me one of her canoes. 
 My eldest pupils, Litia the first among them, have insisted on 
 paddling me, and do it with delight. They are not very expert, 
 and my dug-out rolls and fills with water in such a fashion as 
 to make one a little nervous. Never mind. 
 
 We arrived. I was not kept long waiting. Mokwae sent 
 for me with Litia. They conducted me through I know not 
 how many courts until we reached her hut of mats. At each 
 passage, a servant was waiting for us, to pour water over our 
 feet, and spread burning embers before us. Thus we had 
 to pass through fire and through water — the flames must touch 
 our feet ; and after this ceremony of exorcism, we were fit to 
 appear before Mokwae. She was enthroned upon a mat, with 
 all the dignity of an invalid of her rank, surrounded with 
 favourite servants and courtiers. All their faces were stony. 
 The Mokwe Tunga (the Prince Consort) spoke little and very 
 shortly. I questioned my patient, heard to the end the graphic 
 description of her illness, and, satisfied with my diagnosis, I 
 took leave. In the evening, I returned, administered pills, and 
 myself prepared a cup of cocoa, which her Majesty found very 
 much to her liking. She had a good night, and the next day 
 she was overflowing with admiration for my pills, of which 
 she wanted a supply, and a good supply too. 
 
 The ice was broken ; faces had brightened up, and tongues 
 were loosened. Mokwae protested that she had only sent for 
 her children in order to see them before she died, for she 
 believed herself to be dying, and she assured me they should 
 return to Sefula as soon as I did. From other sources, I learnt 
 that one of the grievances against me was that I made the 
 Barotsi children do the work of slaves.^ And then my 
 ^ E.g. collecting sand, etc., for the chapel floor (see page 347).
 
 352 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 evangelising tours offended the chiefs : they, who can only 
 make themselves obeyed by force, cannot understand that 
 people assemble at my simple invitation. Another grievance — 
 to wit, my teaching. Just listen to this ! We sing — 
 
 Molimo mong a Icfatse. (God the Master of the world.) 
 
 World and country are the same word. Then does the country 
 no longer belong to the Barotsi ? I have predicted all sorts 
 of calamities, it seems ; they are expecting a deluge of fire from 
 the north, which will sweep over the whole country. I have 
 promised that, if the Barotsi accept the Gospel, they will live 
 eternally. Well, they have accepted it, and they die more 
 than ever. Monare is dead, Seoli is dead, and many other 
 persons, and so on. And you cannot think how seriously they 
 put forth this nonsense, and a great deal more that would make 
 you smile. 
 
 My boys and I occupy the principal hut in the establishment 
 of the Mokwe Tunga, the so-called husband of the queen — a 
 hut infested with tavipanes. The bites of these frightful vermin, 
 which swarm on the ground and rain from the roof, forbid 
 us to dream of sleeping. You sigh for the dawn, while 
 writhing and tearing yourself mercilessly to pieces. When 
 you have endured several sleepless nights of such torture, it 
 is enough to make you really ill ; you are fortunate if the 
 aggravated bites do not degenerate into bad abscesses. The 
 travelling and carnivorous ants and the microscopic fleas are 
 terrible. But the tampanh I Don't let us talk about them. 
 
 Masiho, the Mokwe Tunga, has escaped for a few minutes 
 from Mokwae's presence to visit me. He wanted to confide 
 his troubles to me, for he too had some of his own. His first 
 wife, an excellent person, with whom he had never any fault 
 to find, had had a quarrel with Mokwae. The two women 
 were jealous of each other, and execrated each other cordially. 
 Mokwae made use of her authority to wreak her hatred on 
 her predecessor : happily, the king interfered in time. The 
 unfortunate Makabana escaped with her life, but she was torn 
 from her husband and sent into a different part of the country, 
 where the king gave her to another man for a wife. " How 
 sad ! " I exclaimed, when Masiho had finished his story. He
 
 THE queen's gratitude 35 3 
 
 began to laugh. " That's how things are done here." — " Now 
 it's over and done with," he added. 
 
 I was anxious to assemble the village people to speak to 
 them of the Gospel. The chiefs did not dare to oppose this, 
 but they did not help me either. I seated myself in the public 
 square, surrounded by my pupils, and we began to sing hymns. 
 The men stopped at a distance, and the women grouped them- 
 selves round the entrances of their courts, but no one joined 
 us ; and when we knelt down, it was in the midst of great roars 
 of laughter. At sunset, I hit upon another plan. I went to the 
 lekJwtJila, and began to exhibit my photographs. There was 
 very soon a crowd. People were pushing and scrambling, 
 tumbling over each other, and even throwing down the reed 
 partition, in order to see better. And you should have heard 
 their sharp comments and explosions of enthusiasm at the sight 
 of Lewanika and Mokwae ! In the twilight, the photographs 
 were put away, and I spoke to them about the Saviour. 
 
 April \^th. 
 
 Quitted Nalolo for Lealuyi. I have left my royal patient on 
 the road to recovery. Her gratitude has reached such a climax 
 that at the moment of my departure she offered me a calabash 
 of honey. Once, under similar circumstances, she sent my wife 
 a mat, gnawed through by white ants, and me a cake of mouldy 
 tobacco ! Tobacco to me ! Poor dear woman ! We laughed 
 over it a long while. 
 
 What a journey, through the jungles of rushes and of thorny 
 bushes, that scratch and slap your face and cover you with clouds 
 of insects — spiders, flies, and caterpillars ! The sun was blazing. 
 We arrived at Lealuyi the same day ; but, as often happens, 
 I was so exhausted that I could scarcely speak. A cup of tea 
 set me up a little. Although we quite understood each other^ 
 Lewanika and I had a long explanation. I reproached him with 
 having set a trap for me in confiding his children to me. He 
 had requested me to discipline them and to make them work 
 as though they were my own children, although he knew how 
 touchy the Barotsi were in all that concerned their dignity. 
 
 " It is true," he said, " but I counted on their goodwill towards 
 you. Since then, there has been a great reaction. Even my 
 
 23
 
 3 54 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 wives and retainers, ^\■ho were learning to read and sing, have 
 grown tired of it ; and, like everybody else, they are mocking 
 me, and saying I am going mad. I am quite alone ; I have no 
 one but Seajika. I am unhappy and discouraged." 
 
 The king was on the point of starting on a pilgrimage to 
 consecrate the new royal barge Nalikuanda to the national 
 gods ; but he put off his voyage on account of my visit. This 
 construction of the new Nalikuanda is a grand event. They 
 have been working at it a long time. The work is generally 
 surrounded with great mystery ; no one but the workmen may 
 penetrate into the timber-yard, which they take the precaution 
 of surrounding with a palisade of reeds. One fine day, when 
 the plain is inundated, she is suddenly seen to glide from the 
 enclosure as if by magic, and to float upon the waters. 
 Lewanika is very proud of the one he has just built, and made 
 a point of doing me the honours. After we had minutely 
 inspected her, a crowd of men, decorated with caps and 
 scarves of every shade, lions' manes, etc., seized her, and to the 
 sound of drums, bells, and harmonicas she made her trial 
 trip. This monster barge, bristling with paddles and escorted 
 by canoes, formed a striking picture, as it moved majestically 
 through the freshening green of the plain. Excitement mounted 
 to its highest pitch ; every group, that curiosity had drawn to 
 the bank, was shouting, singing, and clapping hands. All were 
 anxious I should share this enthusiastic admiration. 
 
 " Well, Moruti, and what do you say to Nalikuanda ? You 
 see what clever fellows the Barotsi are, eh ? Oh ! the 
 
 Barotsi " And a significant click of the tongue gives 
 
 me to understand that they have no fellow in the universe. 
 Dear good people ! they really believe I never beheld such a 
 masterpiece of craftsmanship. 
 
 Given their circumstances, it really is a work that does the 
 Barotsi credit. The barge is sixty feet long, nine broad in the 
 middle, and three deep. It is made out of a number of little 
 canoes, the pieces of which are joined, and bound together by 
 strong ligatures, ropes |or wads of soft bark like touchwood, 
 covered over with fibres artistically plaited. These variegated 
 bands, crossing one another in every direction, form a real 
 adornment. In the middle is a false bottom, surmounted by a 
 spacious pavilion of mats, and covered over with blue-and-vvhite
 
 :i889] NALIKUANDA 3 5 5 
 
 Stuff, which from a distance looks like the tilt of a waggon 
 — not very poetical. 
 
 Besides the king and his principal councillors, Nalikuanda 
 bears his band of musicians with the big drums, his kitchen, 
 his scullions, and forty or fifty rowers, all exclusively Barotsi, 
 and chiefs. It is absolutely forbidden for any woman to set 
 foot in her. Nalikuanda must always arrive at her destined 
 port on the same day as she starts. It is a great honour to 
 take part in manning her ; but it is very hard work. It often 
 happens that chiefs who are little used to exert themselves 
 have the skin of their hands taken off. Woe to him who 
 betrays his weariness ! An oar is passed between his legs, 
 and he is tossed over into the water, whence a canoe fishes 
 him out. It is a great disgrace. 
 
 The Sunday spent at Lealuyi was interesting. After the 
 morning preaching, Seajika asked leave to speak. He related 
 at great length the circumstances which led him to Basuto-land, 
 ten years ago, and his conversion ; then his return to the 
 Zambesi, and simultaneously to paganism. " I have fallen into 
 every kind of excess," he said, " and you know it. I had 
 become quite one of you again ; but know to-day that I for- 
 sake you and return to my God." This return, which we were 
 prepared for, while it causes us great joy, does not as yet 
 inspire us with unlimited confidence. I took advantage of the 
 occasion to address a few serious words to this poor prodigal. 
 But if God receives him in grace, it is not we who would wish 
 to play the part of the elder son in the parable. 
 
 May 22nd. 
 
 My excursion to the two capitals has not been in vain. Our 
 school is mounting up again. Nearly all our pupils have 
 returned ; the only absences are on account of health : so in this 
 respect we are encouraged. 
 
 But here is Kamburu just come back from Sesheke with 
 the overwhelming news that all the oxen that I had sent last 
 year, the king's and mine, are dead. Consequently, no waggon, 
 no baggage, no provisions ! All that, after all, is little in itself 
 It is the actual future of the mission that causes us anxiety. 
 It is impossible long to go on running the risk of similar
 
 3 56 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 losses. This new blow has crushed us. Is that the answer 
 to our prayers ? Ah, what poor creatures we are ! We were 
 quite ready to make the sacrifice of our lives, but I confess we 
 were not prepared to suffer so great a loss of cattle, representing 
 the sacrifices of so many of God's children, the shillings of the 
 rich and the pence of the poor. We could not pass through 
 these deep waters, if the arms of the Almighty did not bear 
 us up. " True faith is an active grace, and she always has both 
 hands full of work." 
 
 June iZth. 
 
 Repeated visits to the capital, from which I have once more 
 returned. A Mr. Ware, representing a mining company, has 
 come to solicit a concession from Lewanika for exploiting gold, 
 which is supposed to abound in certain parts of the country. 
 The thing was so novel, that the king and his councillors, taken 
 at a disadvantage, found themselves greatly embarrassed. They 
 feared a trap, and yet at the same time were fascinated by the 
 considerable presents of Martini-Henry rifles, of ammunition, 
 blankets, and garments, which Mr. Ware by no means forgot 
 to bring with him. There was nothing for it but to assemble 
 all the big-wigs of the nation, which took time ; and then to 
 confer, which occupied no less. 
 
 A national assembly was convened, a pitso, to which the 
 Gambella proposed the question in the sombre, laconic fashion of 
 the Barotsi, just as if he were throwing a bone to a dog. To this 
 succeeded a volley of short speeches, all pointless and con- 
 tradictory. It pained me to see the venal chiefs, already won 
 over themselves, allowing the poor people to ramble on in the 
 dark. I took upon myself to explain to the best of my ability 
 the real bearings of the question at issue, but I doubt whether 
 the chiefs around me liked it. No matter. The speeches took 
 a more reasonable form, and through the mazes of African logic 
 they nearly all arrived at the same conclusion. " We have 
 missionaries to teach us ; and now that Westbeech is dead, 
 what we need is a trader who will bring us clothes, buy our 
 ivory, and go back home ! Who arc these white men ? Whence 
 come they ? Who sends them ? Who has told them that there 
 is this red mineral in our country ? Chiefs, are you very sure 
 that their gifts are honourable, and that you are not selling
 
 i889] MR. ware's CONCESSION 35 7 
 
 your country in accepting them ? " And the chiefs around 
 me laughed. 
 
 It was merely a farce, repeated next day. I had an attack 
 of fever. However, I was able to take part in the grand 
 council of the chiefs, where the business was treated somewhat 
 more seriously. The concession granted, the next thing was 
 to settle the terms. Suffice it to say, that the concession is for 
 twenty years, and that it includes the whole of the Batoka 
 country (a tribe tributary to the Barotsi), to the east of the little 
 river Machile and of the Zambesi, as far as Mashukulumboe- 
 land. It is immense, and Mr. Ware has reason to congratulate 
 himself on so great a success. However, I think the interests 
 of Lewanika and the nation have not been sacrificed. It is 
 probable that other mining companies (there were more than 
 eighty last year to exploit South Africa) will try to obtain some 
 fragments of the country, for the region of the Rapids as far 
 as the Ngonye Falls will certainly prove an irresistible bait. 
 A commercial company is also endeavouring, by sufficiently 
 seductive offers, to obtain a monopoly of the commerce. It 
 proposed to place little steamers on the Zambesi, to canalise 
 the Rapids, or to make a little railway there, and to establish 
 bi-monthly communications with Mangwato. Just think of 
 that ! Lewanika had the good sense to refuse what it was 
 beyond his power to concede. But he invited this company 
 to establish settlements in his kingdom, promising his support 
 and protection to them as to all honest merchants. 
 
 So there are the first waves of the invading ocean of 
 European immigration crossing the Zambesi. Where will they 
 stop? What will be their result for the nation itself, and for 
 the tribes of Central Africa ? 
 
 sy
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 A Journey from Sefula to Sesheke — Nalolo and Queen Mokwae — A Hard 
 Soil — How to reach the Zambesi Women — Seoma — An Anniversary — 
 Entertainments at the Bivouac — Sesheke — Kazungula — A Conference — 
 The Return — Unpacking Cases — A Letter from Levvanika. 
 
 July i^th, 1889. 
 
 THE necessity for a journey to Sesheke becoming urgent, 
 we braced ourselves up to the decision. The king lent me 
 his aid with a good grace, collected my paddlers, whom he 
 placed under the orders of a chief and a sub-chief ; and when 
 all was ready, he came to Sefula to present me with my little 
 fleet and to say good-bye. He spent Sunday with us, and put 
 on for the occasion the blue serge uniform with gold fringes 
 which Mr. Ware had given him. When he entered the church, 
 every one instinctively turned round, unable to restrain a flutter 
 of admiration. They even made an attempt at clapping hands ; 
 but I instantly stopped it, reminding them that in this place 
 God only is great. Otherwise this was the only demonstration ; 
 and it gave me great pleasure to see my dear Zambesians 
 reserve their customary noisy salutations till the end of the 
 service. In the house of God, the king takes the rank of a 
 motlanka (a servant). This is progress. 
 
 I left Sefula at 2 p.m. My poor wife, under the verandah, 
 surrounded by her little girls, followed me with her eyes till 
 the trees came in between us ; and then went in, sad at 
 heart as one may imagine, to begin her three dreary months 
 of widowhood, while I moved slowly away, anxious and 
 preoccupied. Mr. Ware, the representative of the mining 
 company, was returning with me, and also a hunter, Harry Wall. 
 Nguana-Ngombe and Seajika accompanied me to the entrance 
 of the village of Letsuele, where the canoes and canoe-men 
 
 358
 
 KAiBA 3 59 
 
 were awaiting us. They hastened to receive me, on their 
 knees clapping their hands, which made my boys laugh. Litia, 
 too, soon arrived with his own boats and his suite ; and the 
 next morning, at eleven o'clock, we reached Nalolo. 
 
 We were on the shore, and were just about to begin the 
 excellent breakfast with which our good housekeeper had 
 provided us, when the queen, Mokwae, appeared, followed by 
 her inseparable Mokwe Tunga. Our men at once put them- 
 selves in position to give her a thundering salute. Would not 
 one say they were the most faithful subjects in the world ? 
 I was taken by surprise, for we had intended presenting our 
 homage to her after having satisfied our appetites. 
 
 Her Majesty, attired in a print gown and a shawl, with 
 a handkerchief hanging from her neck, squats down on a mat, 
 near the one we are using for a table. She looks at our 
 food ; but one glance is sufficient. " What is the Moruti 
 eating ? A bird ? " The Mokwe Tunga echoes her words. 
 "The queen asks what the Moruti is eating? Is it a 
 bird ? " " No, my lord, it is a fowl." And the echo repeats, 
 " It is a fowl." " What a pity ! " says Mokwae sulkily ; " the 
 queen does not eat fowl." I offer her, out of politeness, a cup 
 of the black coffee, without sugar, which we ourselves are 
 drinking. " Very well ; give it." And the poor woman, also 
 out of politeness, drinks it, though not without many efforts 
 and much grimacing. 
 
 Her son Kaiba was to accompany us ; and although he 
 had known of my departure for three weeks, he was not 
 ready ; it would have been vulgar to be waiting for me, and 
 he required three days at least to prepare. I said I 
 would give him till the next morning. Mokwae smiled 
 incredulously. I smiled too, and we changed the subject. We 
 then went to inspect the new canoes which were being taken 
 to the king. They had already passed the port of Nalolo 
 without giving notice to the queen. Angry at this affront, 
 she made them come back. She spoke loudly ; and the men, 
 led by a chief of haughty disposition, seemed petrified. They 
 crawled before this woman ; they swept the dust with their 
 foreheads, and received her reproaches humbly, clapping their 
 hands. She took possession of the two best pirogues, accepted 
 as a fine the baskets of their provisions which the culprits
 
 360 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 hastened to offer her, and then dismissed them. To justify 
 her conduct, which, as I knew, was not in the least arbitrary, 
 she explained to me the custom of the country. When the 
 queen's tributes pass Lealuyi, they must first be presented to 
 the king, who takes what he wants ; and the same thing takes 
 place when the king's tributes pass Nalolo — Mokwae has the 
 first choice. " But," she added sharply, " everything is altered 
 nowadays, and these black creatures give themselves airs, and 
 wish to set us at naught." While speaking, we arrived at the 
 village, where we stayed some time. The queen gave us a 
 quantity of curdled milk, and two oxen were killed, which my 
 people spent almost the whole night cutting up and grilling. 
 
 In the evening, we returned to take leave of her, and I 
 perceived that she was doing her best to get all she could out 
 of my companion, Mr. Ware ; but as my presence evidently 
 made her uncomfortable, I returned alone to the camp. It 
 seems that she was wanting an endless number of presents. 
 She had a long list in her head, but she feared my disapproval. 
 What she wanted above all was a blue velvet dress with gold 
 fringes, so as to be like her brother ; she had quite set her 
 heart upon it. 
 
 The evening was beautiful ; the full moon flooded the sky 
 with its silver light, and was mirrored in the waters. Not a 
 ripple was on the river, not a breath of wind, not a sound, not 
 the lightest murmur in the plain. Everywhere reigned a pro- 
 found peace which charmed the soul. I wished I could have 
 prolonged this little canoe journey of half an hour. My 
 thoughts reflected the melancholy of this beautiful moonlight ; 
 I thought of the work, and I thought of Mokwae. I carried 
 away from my last visit, as I always do, a painful impression. 
 However amiable and chatty she may be, there is something, 
 I know not what, which forms a barrier between us ; I have 
 not yet gained her confidence. With her, I feel keenly the 
 need of that wisdom that winneth souls. And I may say that 
 the evangelisation of Zambesian women is the most arduous 
 part of our work. We do not know how to reach them ; they 
 do not take an interest in anything, and one cannot make them 
 do so. It is heartrending. We are digging a very hard rock, 
 and it is the sad experience of my wife too, in spite of the gifts 
 God has bestowed upon her.
 
 (2 
 
 \ias:!&Bim^z^
 
 1889] MAKALAKA PORTERS 36 1 
 
 The next morning, Mokwae's son Kaiba, who is about 
 thirteen years old, joined me with his suite, without making 
 me wait too long. He has three canoes, and Litia two, which 
 represent thirty men. We then travelled rapidly. On Saturday 
 morning we passed Itufa, and were hindered by the chief of 
 the place, who kept us waiting while he came with great 
 ceremony to present Litia with provisions for the way, which 
 the latter, out of deference, offered to me in his turn. 
 
 The same day we passed the tomb of Moana Mbinyi 
 without taking any notice of it — a thing never done with 
 impunity, according to the Zambesians. My boatmen did not 
 dare to run the boats ashore, but they imposed silence on 
 themselves, and bowed down as they passed, striking their 
 thighs, as though in the presence of this great personage. In 
 the evening, we went to camp over Sunday at Senanga, at 
 the entrance of the Valley, where we had abundance of shade 
 and fuel. 
 
 Seoma, July \Wi, 1889. 
 
 We arrived here on Tuesday, the i6th, at nine in the morning, 
 with no other incident than that of a successful hunt, which 
 delighted every one. We are encamped here near the water 
 under a gigantic fig tree. The shade and coolness are delicious. 
 But we had a terrible invasion of caterpillars — quite an Egyptian 
 plague ! 
 
 We found here a messenger from the king, who had out- 
 run us, and was waiting for us. According to his orders, he 
 had collected the men of the village and the neighbouring 
 hamlets, and was watching to see they did not disperse — no 
 idle precaution. The Makalaka of Seoma, close to the Falls 
 of Ngonye and the neighbourhood (which is under the rule 
 of three Barotsi chiefs), are obliged to transport all travellers' 
 canoes up and down the river. It is a forced labour which 
 they generally only perform when driven to it by threats and 
 ill-treatment. As soon as they see a pirogue in the distance, 
 they disperse secretly into the woods, and there the Barotsi 
 have to search for days together, and collect them with the 
 terrible African whip in their hands. I pity these poor people 
 very much. I long with all my heart to found a missionary' 
 station at Seoma. You will understand how repugnant it was
 
 362 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 to me to receive a service from them rendered so unwillingly. 
 But I could not help it. I had once thought of distributing 
 calico among them ; but the king said to me, with justice, that 
 this would be a precedent which they would certainly make 
 use of to torment travellers. He promised to do so himself, 
 to express his satisfaction, and this would not have the same 
 bad result. What they are in want of is a vehicle to facilitate 
 their labour. 
 
 On our arrival, when they came to salute us, I announced 
 that our whole party, sixty-five or sixty-six men, would help to 
 transport the canoes. The poor people were so astonished,, 
 that the next day at dawn they arrived like one man to begin 
 their work. By the evening, ten of our canoes were already 
 below the falls, and to-day the seven others have followed them, 
 as well as our tents and luggage ; and here we are at Mamongo. 
 Only two days ! and we expected a delay of two weeks. 
 
 On the 17th, my birthday, what would I not have given 
 for my wife to know I was at Seoma ! While our boats were 
 being transported, I went with my lads to pass the day at the 
 Ngonye Falls, and let them romp about among the rocks, bathe, 
 sing, and amuse themselves like true schoolboys on a holiday. 
 My gun furnished us with guinea-fowls, which we put into the 
 pot ; some jam, a piece of stale bread, and the necessary cup of 
 coffee, composed a picnic menu which left us nothing more to 
 wish for. In the evening, I had a numerously attended meeting 
 in the village. So much for external affairs. Inwardly, I was 
 filled with gratitude and serene joy. In a few more years, the 
 sixtieth will be here. One of my good friends had a theory, 
 that at sixty years a missionary's work was done, that he was 
 a worn-out tool. I kick against this doctrine ; / shall not sub- 
 scribe to it. I believe in youthful old age. I do not ask God 
 for a long life — my times are in His hand ; but I do ask the 
 privilege of dying at my post, in harness, and of seeing the 
 Zambesi Mission consolidated and prosperous. 
 
 MOLEMOA, July l()th. 
 
 We left Mamongo at eight this morning. Good humour 
 and high spirits were maintained. The chiefs of my band are 
 full of consideration and forethought. It is they who set up
 
 i889] NATIVE AMUSEMENTS 363 
 
 and pull down my tent, load my canoe, and preside at our daily 
 installation. Litia, like a devoted son, puts his hand to every- 
 thing ; no one but himself touches my bed. It is a privileged 
 task which he himself has chosen. However, in other respects 
 I do not sit with my arms folded. I have to see that every- 
 thing is properly done. 
 
 What giants these Zambesians are ! I really must measure 
 the feet of that good Moshowa, who is in the front of my 
 canoe ; no shoemaker has ever fitted feet like them ! In the 
 evening, while I am writing these lines, and the roaring fires 
 are making the pots boil, our camp does not lack animation. 
 The more serious love to relate episodes of national history, 
 in which they take care to make the most of their own exploits. 
 Others form a circle round a buffoon, who, with a gourd in his 
 hand, is executing a new dance, full of astounding contortions. 
 Later on, a voice is heard : " Ako " (" Guess "). Some one 
 responds, "■ Amba" ("Speak"). Then comes an enigma, which 
 must be included in a single sentence. Here is a specimen : 
 " Mine is something found on the edge of a wood." " A bird ? " 
 " No ; it is found on the edge of a thick forest." " A road ? " 
 And so on. After several wrong answers, the speaker says, 
 " Ke shuile " (" I am dead," /.f. I give it up). " You are dead ? 
 Well then, it is the ear." Not very witty, is it? But it is 
 surprising how excited they get over this kind of fencing. It 
 sometimes happens that a man cannot sleep. Then he takes 
 his kangonibio (a little instrument of music five or six inches 
 long, with metal tongues, stretched on a board over a calabash, 
 to make it more sonorous), and there he sits, playing all night 
 uninterruptedly, and singing those profoundly plaintive melodies 
 peculiar to these black children of Africa. No one complains 
 of it ; he is supposed to be in communication with the gods. 
 It is quite an accepted thing. 
 
 We have passed the Kale Rapids. One of the boats was 
 wrecked, but we were able to save it. We bought two canoes 
 from Matome. He promised them to me a long time ago ; but 
 although he had the king's authority, and had surrounded him- 
 self with every possible precaution, he thought it necessary to 
 hide them on an island in the middle of the rapids ; and when 
 he saw me with the young princes and Barotsi chiefs, it was not 
 without great hesitation that he brought them. They are not
 
 364 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 particularly good ones, but they will be comfortable. " Quand 
 on n'a pas ce qu'on aime, il faut aimer ce qu'on a ! " 
 
 Sat7irday, July 7.0th, 
 
 An unlucky day ! Litia went off in the morning with 
 several men to hunt, and I told him to meet me at the confluence 
 of the Njoko, where we expected to arrive early. It was so 
 cold, that at half-past eight the men could no longer hold their 
 paddles. However, we pushed on, and soon came to the 
 Bomboe Rapids. The passage there was more difficult than 
 dangerous ; but my men were afraid of it, and cast their eyes 
 on another shute, far from the bank, where the current was 
 deeper, but also stronger. A large canoe ventured, but they 
 made a false manoeuvre, and it was carried away like a straw, 
 and caught among the rocks. Every one saw the danger, 
 and every one thought himself wiser than his neighbour ; they 
 began shouting orders and counter-orders ; and then, in the 
 twinkling of an eye, I saw those terrible white breakers dash 
 furiously over the pirogue and swamp it. Those within reach 
 threw themselves on the floating baggage, and saved what they 
 could. But what did the baggage matter ? It was the canoe 
 I wanted ! 
 
 Can you believe that, while this accident was absorbing 
 my attention, most of the other canoes had passed on, and all 
 the men, squatting on the rocks below, were watching us and 
 making fun of us? I had to bring all the weight of my 
 authority to bear on them before I could collect ten men to 
 help. I myself had found my way to the site of the disaster, 
 and directed the operations. I wanted to disengage the canoe, 
 and float it again ; but when we tried to lift it, the two sides, 
 already stove in, remained in our hands ! The wreck was 
 complete. It recalled my sad adventures at Njoko. As for 
 my Zambesians, they, of course, began to quarrel. They pointed 
 at each other, shouted at the top of their voices, and I saw 
 they would soon come to blows in the middle of the rapids. 
 I managed, not without difficulty, to quiet them. An hour 
 later, the current of our canoe life had begun to flow again, like 
 the rapids over our wreck. They talked, took snuff, and 
 laughed ; and if they still spoke of our misfortune, it was to 
 lavish condolences on each other. '^ Shangwe, ke noka,sJiangwey
 
 i889] WRECKS IN THE RAPIDS 365 
 
 " Ah, my brother, it was the river ; the canoe was old and 
 rotten." SJiangwes rained on every side, and those most to 
 blame were the most flattered. I felt indignant. It is an 
 axiom here, that, at all costs, you must conciliate the one 
 whom you fear, or whom you have offended ; otherwise, beware 
 of reprisals — the spear of the next revolution, or the sorcerer's 
 stake ! 
 
 Ngamboe, July iind. 
 
 Yesterday was a delicious Sunday, spent on a beautiful islet. 
 Every morning we make it a rule to unite at sunrise for prayer ; 
 then the tent is taken down, and the canoes loaded. In the 
 evening, when the preparations for the camp are ended, they 
 gather round my fire to sing hymns, repeat a portion of the 
 Word of God, and pray. But our Zambesians have an invincible 
 aversion to prayer, and are never in want of an excuse for 
 getting out of it. On Sunday, there is no possible excuse, so 
 every one is there. I felt very happy in explaining to them 
 the good news of Salvation. A conversation the evening before, 
 on the religious notions of the Barotsi, so captivating that it 
 was prolonged to a late hour, had prepared us on both sides. 
 
 Jtdy 2yrd. 
 
 Yesterday, Kaiba's ^ canoe nearly came to grief. Going down 
 a rapid, it turned broadside to the current. In an instant, the 
 white breakers leapt into it and filled it with water. A little 
 fellow of his own age, who never leaves Kaiba, and was then 
 sitting quietly at his feet, had the presence of mind to leap into 
 the water, lift up the young prince, and deposit him on a rock 
 level with the water. The men within reach flew to the rescue, 
 floated the pirogue again, and fished up the greasy karosses^ 
 which were none the worse for this little washing. To-day, 
 there was a similar accident at the Lochu Rapids. It makes 
 me rather nervous, not for my own life, but for those of the 
 boys confided to my care. 
 
 Litia, who had received a fine Martini from his father, killed 
 two beautiful antelopes. It was the first large game he had 
 brought down, and the dear boy was almost beside himself 
 
 ' Kaiba, Queen Mckvvae's eldest son, a young chief, pupil in the school. 
 See page 359. 
 - Fur mantles.
 
 366 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 with delight. Compliments — my own amongst them — showered 
 upon him like hail. A little later, Mr. Wall shot a buffalo. 
 What a treat ! Everybody crowded round the beast ; fires 
 were lit ; and while some cut it up, others grilled strips of meat, 
 which were taken from the fire before they were even scorched. 
 We were obliged to bivouac. And even while I write the 
 fires are crackling ; the meat is being baked and roasted ; they 
 are singing, chattering, and teasing one another. Good-bye 
 to sleep ! 
 
 Sesheke, July 2i,th. 
 
 Fifteen days' journey from Sefula, including halts and 
 Sundays : that is not bad. Sixty-one hours' travelling in all. 
 Now we have arrived. My people have washed themselves, 
 fired their guns several times, and arranged the order of the 
 canoes ; for they also aim at effect, and make the waves moan 
 under the strokes of their paddles, keeping time to the 
 monotonous chant of the rowers. 
 
 At first glance, the impression is a painful one. We enter 
 the bay of Sesheke by a side channel ; the station lies in a 
 bend of the bank. But is that really the beautiful bay we used 
 to admire so much ? It is now nothing but a lagoon, rapidly 
 filling with sand. Already grass and reeds have invaded it ; 
 and when the waters are at their lowest, I think the little creek 
 by which we enter will be completely choked up. The buildings 
 too, which were never very imposing, have grown old. One 
 would think they were crumbling away. Nevertheless, here 
 is a pretty little cottage, with its reed-fenced court : it is the 
 Jallas'. And behind rises the woodwork of the Jeanmairets' 
 new house, telling of life and progress. 
 
 Shall I speak of our joy and emotion in seeing these dear 
 faces once more, after two years' separation ? No ; we will 
 only say that, after the first greetings were over, we had to 
 visit the graves where the darling children arc laid.' It gives 
 me great pleasure to see the Jallas again, full as they are of 
 energy and spirit. A grain of optimism and enthusiasm is 
 a happy disposition in surroundings where everything conspires 
 to depress and crush you. There is so little poetry in a 
 
 ' Two at this date — one of the Jeanmairets', and one of the Jallas' ; later 
 on, two more of the Jallas'.
 
 <, 

 
 i889] A BEER FEAST 367 
 
 missionary's life, that there is a risk of its turning to nothing 
 but the saddest prose, if one once begins to give way. Already, 
 I feel a warm affection for the Jallas ; and they arc a real 
 acquisition to the mission. 
 
 Kazungula, August y^d. 
 
 Four days ago, I joined my nephew Jeanmairet, who had 
 preceded me here. The waggons have come, bringing our 
 baggage and provisions, and M. Jeanmairet has already begun 
 to send off some cases by canoe. One really must have faith 
 that angels escort these frail vessels, and watch over the 
 precious chests, so dangerous is the navigation of the river. I 
 cannot think of my return voyage over the rapids without 
 trembling. My canoes are larger than those of Sesheke, but, 
 even so, they are only hollow trunks of trees. And then, on 
 the way here, all my people were very good-humoured, having 
 the irresistible promise of a piece of calico, and we resolved 
 to employ them by preference. This bitterly offended the 
 people of Mambova and Sesheke, who thought their rights 
 were assailed, and they put difficulties in our way. 
 
 The south-west wind has sprung up, and is blowing violently. 
 We shiver under our cloaks and rugs. The air is darkened 
 by clouds of dust, which penetrate everything. Our tents are 
 blown about, and threaten every moment to be carried away. 
 The river is as rough as the sea, the waves swelling and dashing 
 against one another, white with foam. All communication with 
 the left bank is impossible, and it is there that the chiefs of 
 Sesheke are established, leaving us alone on the right bank, 
 from the invincible terror they have of the Matabele. And the 
 Matabele are fifty miles from here ! 
 
 Yesterday, there was a grand beer feast on the Mpalira 
 island. Every one went thither early in the morning, following 
 the chiefs of Sesheke. But once there, they remained for the 
 night, which was not at all in the programme. " The wind 
 was so strong that no one would have dared to venture in 
 a canoe ! " What would not these poor fellows do for the sake 
 of squatting round a pot of beer ! 
 
 August \Wi. 
 The wind has been blowing a great deal, but the Zambesians 
 are quite good-humoured. They themselves watched for calm
 
 $68 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 moments, and loaded the canoes early in the morning, or 
 even in the evening by moonlight ! Till now, everything has 
 been done quietly, without accident. My nephew has left me,, 
 so that Mr. Jalla may come to join me. A question which 
 urgently occupies our minds is the foundation of a large 
 station here at Kazungula. It is the door of the country, 
 and it is to M. Jalla that we would wish to confide this post. 
 If Lewanika falls in with our wishes, and establishes a village 
 here, to guard the official passage of the river, this station would 
 be one of the finest and most important in the country. 
 
 September 2nd. 
 Our return to Sesheke has not been without peril, above 
 all for our brother Jalla, whose canoe was too small to resist 
 the force of the wind and waves. Since then, we have not 
 wanted for occupation : we have had to dry the baggage and 
 put it in order, load waggons drawn by untrained bullocks, 
 and send off our canoes, which will deposit the baggage at 
 Seoma, and return here. My time is naturally divided between 
 the Jeanmairets and the Jallas, and in the evening we have 
 earnest conferences. One day in particular, our conversation 
 turned upon conversion and the missionary vocation, and we 
 all spoke freely about our own experiences in these respects. 
 Of course, these were different with each one. God does not 
 lead all His children by the same road. I began to speak 
 of the opposition I had met with, and of my own dear mother ;. 
 but it was too much for me. 
 
 Seoma, September 22nd. 
 
 My stay at Seoma is already a thing of the past. We 
 separated from our friends as those who may never meet again. 
 But we feel strong, for we feel ourselves united. We understand 
 and love each other. It is the greatest blessing we can desire, 
 and it brings other blessings with it. 
 
 The crossing of the rapids was laborious, as I expected. 
 Some of the canoes were sunk, chests and bales had to be 
 fished up, opened, and the contents dried. But through God's 
 goodness, we had no wrecks, as in coming down. We had some 
 cases of sickness ; but it is always so on the Zambesi, and 
 wc do not complain of it. Here is news from Sefula at last.
 
 i889] CASES FROM EUROPE 369 
 
 My poor wife is always ill, and can bear the strain no longer. 
 Counting all the men who work with Nguana-Ngombe at the 
 canal, Mr. Waddell's workmen, our boys and girls, and the 
 Scajika establishment which has just been joined to ours, she 
 has fifty-three mouths to feed every day. The task is crushing. 
 A letter from Lewanika brings his answer about placing 
 M. Jalla at Kazungula. I expected some sulkiness on his 
 part, instead of which he fully enters into our plans, and 
 henceforward gives orders for the immediate foundation of the 
 village we advised him to build. It is the granting of our 
 prayers and the seal of God on our decision. 
 
 Nalolo, Septembc?- i^th. 
 
 We have arrived here by forced stages, which our people 
 performed with a good will, in spite of the wind and waves, 
 which hindered us very much. One of my cares was the food 
 of every day, which I had to barter for in every village. Our 
 arrival at Nalolo was the signal for a great commotion, on 
 account of Kaiba's return. The poor child, muffled up in a 
 man's long shirt, made his entry at the head of a lengthy 
 procession, in the midst of a deafening tumult. The excited 
 women ran about, leaping and dancing, kissed his hands, and 
 made impossible contortions, uttering shrill cries. The men, 
 drawn up on the public place, noisily performed the royal 
 salute, sJioalela. Our rowers caught the infection, and they 
 too began to sJioaelele. After keeping them waiting for some 
 time, Mokwae came out with her drums and harmonicas, and 
 sat down on her mat, while her son knelt before her to receive 
 the maternal spitting. Then we emptied the newsbag, and the 
 ceremonies were at an end. 
 
 Early next morning, we disembarked at Letsuele, where 
 our dear Nguana-Ngomb6 was waiting for me with my horse, 
 and soon afterwards I reached my home, from which I had 
 been absent nearly three months. My poor wife had been so 
 ill that she hardly expected to see me again. I found her very 
 thin, and utterly prostrated. 
 
 My canoe-men returned immediately to Seoma, to fetch 
 what they had deposited there, and ten days later all the 
 baggage had arrived. At last ! What a comfort and satisfaction. 
 These cases came from almost everywhere, from London, Paris, 
 
 24
 
 370 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 the Cape, and Basuto-land, and had accumulated at Mangwato. 
 Some are filled with provisions ordered three or four years 
 back ; others have been packed at Leribe and in Europe five 
 or seven years ago. We had given up expecting them. And 
 now to unpack them ! It is the delight of sailors, and also 
 that of missionaries in foreign countries, one of the keenest they 
 can have. But no pleasure here is without alloy, and heart- 
 breaks are often a discipline for the child of God, all the 
 more necessary as they are harder to endure. Here is a case 
 we have been expecting for two years. We cannot open it 
 without a flutter. But what a spectacle ! The rain and the 
 termites have got into it, and it gives out a choking smell. It 
 is a mere heap of red earth turned into mud. In turning it 
 over, we find in it rags of stuff, deplorable samples of dresses 
 and garments which exist no longer, reels of cotton, haber- 
 dashery, seeds in every stage of decomposition ; books too, 
 whose leaves, gnawed into illegibility, do not even offer a clue 
 to the names of the friends who have sent them. 
 
 Here is another. This is stationery, which has been no 
 better treated, and now beggars all description. A third and 
 fourth are provisions. The jams have fermented and run : 
 this disgusting black mass, these tin boxes rusted into holes, 
 out of which flows a kind of evil-smelling ink, — these are rice, 
 macaroni, vermicelli ; luxuries for times of convalescence. Here 
 
 are others again But no ! we must throw all that on to the 
 
 dust-heap — these fermented fruits and these rotten biscuits, 
 all those nameless vexations of which the transport alone has 
 cost us so much anxiety, so much trouble, and, above all, so 
 much money. Let us forget them, if possible. They were not 
 necessaries, since our kind Father withholds them from us. 
 
 Let us stop at leisure before these well-made cases, carefully 
 soldered, which have only joyful surprises for us. Here, indeed, 
 are clothes, as fresh as if they came direct from the Bon Marche 
 or the Belle Jardiniere — all sorts of provisions in perfect con- 
 dition. Here are photographic materials, precious gifts from 
 some sewing circles, and numerous souvenirs of personal friends, 
 overwhelming us with gratitude. 
 
 In the midst of our unpacking, a messenger has come from 
 Franz, the conductor, to announce that my waggon has broken 
 down at the Lumbe, half-way from Sesheke. One of the wheels
 
 1889] A LETTER FROM LEWANIKA 37 1 
 
 is completely and irremediably broken. And there is no spare 
 wheel ! All our waggons are in a pitiable condition. The two 
 I bought at Natal on my return from Europe — and this is one 
 of them — are completely done for. The climate dries and 
 warps them, and the sand and the rain do the rest. It is heart- 
 rending. We ought to have light iron carts, such as they make 
 in England. In this case, the only alternative is to send our 
 friend VVaddell to do it up as best he can and bring it 
 back here. 
 
 The question of our transports, above all from Sesheke to 
 Sefula, will always be a mountain of difficulty ; the roads are 
 very bad, the oxen die, the waggons get broken. But it must 
 be clearly understood that the water-way will for a long time 
 be only a last resort, as it is both unsafe and very expensive. 
 I leave you to think how small a cargo can be put on one 
 canoe, the length of which, on an average, is from twenty-five 
 to thirty feet, by one and a half, never more than two feet at 
 its greatest width, containing four or five men, or even six, 
 encumbered with each one's personal baggage and food for a 
 long journey. I had the king's canoes — his own, which he lends 
 to nobody ; but one cannot always count on them. This diffi- 
 culty will be smoothed away like all the others — 1 feel sure of it. 
 
 Before I close, would you like to read a little letter of 
 welcome which Lewanika wrote on my return ? 
 
 " I salute thee," he says — " I salute thee with a joyful heart, 
 since I hear thou hast returned, and in good health. Here, as 
 usual, there are many sick, but I am pretty well. I am glad 
 thy baggage has arrived without an accident ; I was afraid it 
 might get wet. Thy boatmen have come themselves to salute 
 me and shoaelele. They had all put on their white cotton 
 clothes, the calico setsibas, and the red handkerchiefs thou hadst 
 given them. Every one exclaimed, on seeing them, ' One can 
 easily see they have been travelling with the Moruti ! ' But I 
 knew how much had been given them, and remarked that they 
 had hidden part. I ordered them to bring it all to the lekhot/da, 
 threatening to confiscate the whole if they disobeyed me. I 
 would have every one to see that thou payest well those that 
 serve thee. They obeyed me, and I rebuked them. The 
 Barotsi are liars. 
 
 " As to public business, there is no lack of it here. There
 
 372 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 are three questions which occupy me above all : they are, 
 sorcerers, beer, and adulterers. The Barotsi of olden times, our 
 forefathers, did not turn sorcerers, they respected the wives of 
 others, and did not know beer. We owe all that to the 
 Makololo. I have summoned a pitso. If the Barotsi will not 
 hear reason, it is as much as to say that I am no longer their 
 king, and that I am no longer anything. In that case, there 
 will be trouble, for I am determined to act. Will the Barotsi 
 kill me or drive me out of the country ? Thou wilt soon know. 
 Perhaps thy God to Whom thou prayest will hear. Whatever 
 may happen, I am not afraid of a revolution. But if I live, 
 and if I am king of the country, I must extirpate witch-finding 
 (by boiling water, poison, and fire), adultery, theft, and 
 drunkenness. 
 
 " Likokoane ^ troubles me ; he wishes to take a second wife. 
 I oppose it. Sepopa, too, is always after Monde, his sister" 
 {i.e. cousin). " He will not forsake this wicked way. It is Sasa 
 who encourages him to do wrong." 
 
 ' See page 347.
 
 ^^»^m^: 
 
 ^::^'
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 Still alone at Sefula — The School — Nyondo the Moshukulumboe— Litia, 
 the Heir-apparent — A Sale of Books — Lewanika's Efforts to put down 
 Crime — The Canal begun — New Year's School Feast — Royal Visitors — 
 A Picnic — First Concession to the British South African Company — 
 "The evil that you hinder" — Prohibition of Slave-dealing and Intoxicants 
 — M. Adolphe Jalla — Nguana-Ngombe's Baptism — A Visit from the 
 British South African Company's Agent — Native Intrigues and Sus- 
 picions — History of the Negotiations — The Treaty signed — Terms of the 
 Concession — Delimitation of the Barotsi Frontier — Khama's Embassy^ 
 The European Mail — The Station on fire. 
 
 Sefula, December 2^th, 1889. 
 
 YOU know we have been alone at Sefula for more than 
 a year. The school absorbs most of my time. When 
 I am not in the school, I visit the neighbouring villages ; and 
 besides these two most important branches of the work, a mass 
 of small duties fritter away my time. In an isolation like ours, 
 it is certainly a great blessing to be very busy ; but it is distress- 
 ing to feel that one is not equal to the task, that one does 
 little, and nothing well. The time flies, one does not know 
 how. Our spirits are often weighed down when we balance 
 our accounts of the day's work, and yet we are both so tired 
 that we long for bedtime. Is it the climate or laziness ? I often 
 try to forestall things by getting up early ; but that is the sole 
 hour I can call my own, and it is quickly past. 
 
 My dear wife cannot help me in the school as she did 
 six months ago ; she is so often ill. The cares of our household 
 tend always to increase rather than to diminish. Thus, we 
 have this year two more daughters of the king's under our 
 roof. Of course, these nine girls give a great deal of work 
 and care to the mistress of the house. Here are already the 
 materials for a boarding school. It needs a lady to give her 
 whole time to it. Besides the girls, we have boys, as you know. 
 
 373
 
 374 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 I am not speaking of our cowherds and servants, but of boys 
 who are with us to be taught. Among them was a Mombunda 
 whom we are very fond of; but the Mambunda are terribly 
 savage and independent ; they cannot bear to see one of 
 themselves transformed, as they believe, into a white man. 
 His parents have found a wife for him — a child — and they 
 have succeeded in making the boy leave us. We have another, 
 whom we consider as an answer to our prayers. He is a 
 Moshukulumboe, who may be about fifteen or sixteen years old. 
 As scullion to the king, he often accompanied his master on 
 his visits to Sefula. When I went to Lealuyi, he never failed 
 at the meetings. I cannot say that the dear boy has religious 
 needs — they will come, I hope ; but he has such a strong 
 desire to learn, that he asked the king to be allowed to come 
 to us. How can one close the door to him ? He learns so 
 zealously that he will soon read fluently. We pray much 
 for this young man. Who knows if God may have chosen him 
 to carry the Gospel to his native country and his savage 
 countrymen.^ Since I wrote to you last, several bands of 
 Mashukulumboe have come to make their submission and to 
 render homage to the king of the Barotsi. Lewanika generally 
 sends them to Sefula, which gives us an opportunity of showing 
 them some kindness. This is a tribe that interests us deeply, 
 and among whom we hope to see the Gospel penetrate one 
 way or other. 
 
 We have another, and no less interesting, young man in 
 our house. He may be about sixteen or seventeen years old. 
 It is Litia himself, the son of Lewanika.^ He is hungering 
 for instruction, and he has plenty of brains. For a long 
 time, he has entreated us to receive him as a member of our 
 large family. His father, who refuses him nothing, joins in 
 his entreaties. You must know the natives to understand 
 the reason of our refusal. We are afraid of this young man's 
 retinue, and of his authority in the house beside our own. His 
 persistence has won us over at last. 
 
 " I will be another Nguana-Ngombe for you," he said to mc ; 
 " I will do all you tell me ; I will not be a Nguana-Morena " (a 
 
 ' This boy, Nyondo, eventually became a satisfactory convert, and is now 
 preparing to be a catechist. 
 
 ' Litia, though a pupil, had hitherto had his own separate establishment.
 
 i889] A SALE OF BIBLES 375 
 
 prince), " but a inoshimane " (a serf), " if only you will receive me. 
 Why have you taken Nyondo " (the Moshukulumboe referred to) 
 ^' and not me ? And yet I asked long before he did." The poor 
 boy, who is unhappy in his village, spent his whole days with us, 
 taking part in all the manual work possible, interesting himself 
 in everything like a child of the house ; nothing was beneath 
 him. His happiness, when he left me, was to read with Nguana- 
 Ngombe, and to share his food. Why not give way ? With 
 all this, Litia is not very communicative, and for a long time 
 we have been lost in conjectures as to the real reasons that 
 attract him to us. We believe at times that he has religious 
 needs, which he does not quite understand himself. His father 
 wants to send him to Mangwato to see a little of the world. 
 My own desire is to send him to Morija. 
 
 After having told you about Litia, it is natural that I should 
 speak a word about our school. I reopened it on my return 
 from Sesheke.'but we have not yet succeeded in reassembling the 
 hundred odd pupils that we had six months ago. Our present 
 number is only seventy. In some respects, this diminution 
 has its advantages. The spirit prevailing among our children 
 is excellent. One very hopeful feature is their passion for read- 
 ing. A holiday to them is a day of privation, and generally 
 they besiege my door and encumber my verandah to obtain 
 the loan of the school books, of which I may say in passing 
 we are obliged to take great care. 
 
 Among our luggage, I brought from Sesheke a little box of 
 books — two Bibles only, of which one was publicly presented 
 to the king, and the other reserved for our first convert ; but 
 from the moment they knew that the New Testament and the 
 hymns were for sale our pupils were jubilant. One brought 
 his ox, another went to demand a calf of his father, and for 
 each we made a little packet of books and garments to the 
 value of his animal. You should have seen one charming little 
 boy coming joyfully to tell me that his heifer had come ; and soon 
 afterwards, sure enough, a pretty creature of two years old was 
 gambolling in our court. The whole school was present ; and 
 when I brought the books, with a shirt and some pieces of stuff, 
 there was a general exclamation of surprise. The little fellow 
 came up, his eyes sparkling with delight ; and he no sooner had 
 the books in his hand than he jumped and skipped like his own
 
 3/6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1889 
 
 heifer, and ran into the village, followed by all his companions. 
 You must not exaggerate my thought, and see already an 
 awakening among the children. No ; but the germ may be 
 there. For us it is a marvellous thing that these heathen 
 children, who hardly know how to read, should desire to possess 
 the Word of God. It is no less marvellous that their heathen 
 parents should furnish them with the means of procuring it — 
 they who know nothing of the Gospal. Then, again, they take 
 quite a peculiar interest in our daily worship, and our meetings 
 on Sunday. Each follows the reading in his book ; each uses 
 his own hymn-book. There is something real now in what we 
 do, and these dear children take a personal interest in it. Last 
 Sunday, we counted nineteen New Testaments and as many 
 hymn-books at the serv^ice; and this movement continues. It will 
 continue, probably, till all who know how to read are provided.^ 
 Our intercourse with Lewanika is most agreeable. He has 
 not yet had that awakening of conscience which we ask for 
 him ; but God has inclined his heart towards the Gospel. If 
 we consented, and if we could, we should have all his children 
 under our care. Not content to speak by example, he would 
 push the Barotsi (not the serfs as yet ; he is not so far on) into 
 the right path. For that reason, he sought counsel from my 
 wife during my absence. He wished, he said, to build a great 
 prison. It should be composed, not of cells, but of three large 
 wards ; one should be for adulterers, one for drunkards, and 
 the third should be for those who accuse others of sorcery 
 (witch-finders). He has also convoked a pitso, the result of 
 which he has communicated to me in an amusing letter. I had 
 advised him to restrict his action with regard to the beer, so 
 as not to compromise his authority.^ It was decided that 
 sorcerers were no longer to be burnt, nor to have moati adminis- 
 tered, but that a special village should be established — and it 
 is already founded — where the king will send to live all those 
 accused of sorcery, whoever they may be, or to whatever part 
 
 ' Eighteen calves were thus bought, and now form a team which has, 
 happily, escaped the rinderpest (1897), and has been used to bring Mme. Goy 
 (now a widow) out of the country. 
 
 ^ Lewanika of his own accord had decided to forbid the manufacture, 
 sale, and drinking of beer throughout his kingdom. M. Coillard advised him 
 to confine this edict at first to his own capital, where alone he could enforce it.
 
 SOWING WHEAT 377 
 
 of the kingdom they may belong. How do you like the idea 
 of a community of sorcerers ? Generally, those accused of 
 witchcraft are cantankerous fellows. The new village is not 
 far from here. As to the adulterers, what a herculean reform ! 
 He has begun by acting with rigour against a young man of 
 royal blood. At once, there is great indignation among the 
 Barotsi. A serf laid by the heels may pass, but a Morotsi of 
 pure blood, a connexion even of the king, what can Lewanika 
 be thinking of? Katoka, his sister, publicly went and loosed 
 the young man. The king, very indignant, had him bound 
 again ; but the opposition and murmurs passed beyond his 
 powers of resistance ; and when Queen Mokwae sent messengers 
 to deliver this Morotsi, Lewanika let her have her way. 
 
 You may remember that last year he had built his capital 
 for the Mmida (inundation) quite near here. Unfortunately, 
 the rise of the water was so slight that he could not leave 
 Lealuyi. This year promises better, and they are rebuilding the 
 village. When these lines reach you, Lewanika will be still in 
 our neighbourhood. I ask earnestly for the prayers of our 
 friends that this season may be blessed, and that the evan- 
 gelising may bear fruit. We do not cease to ask God for the 
 conversion of Lewanika. 
 
 We have undertaken a formidable piece of work — i.e. a 
 canal, which is to put us into communication with the stream, 
 and by this means we shall make the evangelisation of the 
 Valley easier. Into this work Nguana-Ngombe has put all 
 the energy, the perseverance, and the strength of will with 
 which God has gifted him. It is admirable to see him leading 
 a band of workmen, and commanding their respect in the way 
 he does. The canal is two-thirds done ; we hope that the 
 work will be finished next year. If only we were not so 
 short of spades ! We have also had to recommence the drainage 
 works begun by M. Goy. For the third time, we have tried 
 to sow European wheat. The first year, we did not reap as 
 much as we had sown ; first the dampness of the swamp, and 
 then the sun, made our harvest fail. The second year, we 
 reaped as much as we had sown, but not more. This year, we 
 have succeeded a little better, and the harvest is double what 
 we have sown. We have gathered a sack and a half of wheat. 
 Next year, if God preserves us, our ground will be better
 
 378 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 prepared, and we shall have a little more experience. The 
 garden — alas ! no one has any time to think of it ; and even 
 though Litia gives me a hand's turn now and then at need, 
 we have no vegetables. 
 
 Sefula, Jamiary 6th, 1890. 
 
 The great event of our little world is our New Year's school 
 feast. This feast has been much talked of around us ; but I 
 had little energy, and my wife was ill. I feared a fiasco ; but 
 it is wonderful how a sense of duty masters you and spurs you 
 on. It even forces you sometimes to forget yourself, which 
 is a great blessing. The king announced his intention of 
 coming with a crowd of people. He wrote jocularly to me 
 the day before : " I am a great king, and I shall come with 
 four of my princesses " (his wives), " with some grandees, and 
 a numerous retinue. And I wonder how you will manage to 
 receive all these people in proper style ! " 
 
 Indeed, it was no small matter to be invaded by people so 
 entirely destitute of discretion. The king graciously sent me 
 an ox ; I returned the compliment by offering him one of 
 mine. I killed two others ; and then, with a liberal distribution 
 of millet, manioc flour, and curdled milk, we succeeded in 
 meeting the exigencies of hospitality. 
 
 On New Year's Day, after a short service, we had a public 
 examination, composed chiefly of reading, singing, and recitations. 
 Lewanika, book in hand, followed the reading with great 
 interest, correcting here, encouraging there ; for the examinations, 
 insignificant as they were, made even the Zambesi children 
 nervous. Then came a general distribution of stuff, books, 
 copy-books, and toys ; then games, played with great interest, 
 inspired by our friend Waddell. He even tried to teach them 
 cricket ! A sumptuous feast, and, in the evening, a magic-lantern 
 exhibition, closed by firing a salute, wound up this happy day. 
 Everything went off quietly and easily. After the distribution 
 of presents, Lewanika, who is less of an orator than anything 
 else, harangued the crowd, which pressed round our verandah, 
 and, above all, reproved by name those chiefs who had not yet 
 sent their children to school. 
 
 The queen, Mokwae, only arrived the day after — also in 
 great style, for she too is a great queen — and the feast was
 
 iSgo] A NEW YEARS FEAST 379 
 
 prolonged in her honour. We even had a second exhibition 
 of the magic lantern, one of the best I have ever given. It 
 was the first time I was able to interest my people in serious 
 things ; and it was delightful, instead of the stolid demeanour 
 of former times, to hear our children shouting, one above 
 the other, " Oh ! there is Abraham, offering up Isaac ! You 
 can see the cords, the knife, the angel, the ram ! . . . Look ! 
 it is Joseph ; he is dreaming. . . . They are selling him. . . . He 
 is in prison. . . . And this great lord, it is still Joseph." . . . 
 The evening has done me good ; it has been an encouragement. 
 
 On the Sunday, our church was filled ; the audience was 
 so packed that we estimated it at nearly five hundred persons. 
 It was the first time I went up into my new pulpit. I have 
 never occupied a more comfortable one, even in Europe. 
 Mokwae, together with many others, was much astonished that 
 I did not at least share it with " the king, my brother and my 
 friend." The king himself was troubled with other thoughts. 
 He could not allow women to enter this house together with 
 men. " Impossible," he said ; " they will sit outside, round 
 the windows, with Mokwae and my wives, and we men will 
 fill the church." "No! no!" I said; "the house of God 
 is for all, and the women will occupy the side reserved for 
 them, as they always do." He argued, and clicked his tongue, 
 but soon saw he had nothing to gain. I had often discussed 
 the matter at his house without result, but here I was on 
 my own ground. 
 
 The spectacle presented by the congregation was of a 
 nature to impress the most stolid. Mokwae, some of her 
 sisters, the wives of the chief, and our fifteen or seventeen young 
 girls, all arrayed in dresses of the most brilliant colours, formed 
 an interesting group around Mme. Coillard ; while a good 
 number of women, who could not or dared not yet dress in 
 European style, had bound their heads with the handkerchiefs 
 of which the men still claim the exclusive use.^ The king 
 seemed struck by it. When we entered, his old courtiers gave 
 
 ^ It is a singular fact, that in South Africa, according to M. Coillard's 
 experience both in Basuto-land and Barotsi-land, the first indication on any 
 heathen woman's part of a dawning inclination towards Christianity is that 
 she begins to " cover her head " — not necessarily in church, but at home and 
 out of doors.
 
 380 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 the signal, and the whole assembly began to clap hands. I 
 quickly mounted the steps of the pulpit, and imposed silence, 
 reminding them that this was the house of God, where one 
 recognised none but Him, and that once outside they could 
 do honour to their king as much as they liked. I then 
 made all the men uncover their heads. The cotton caps and 
 handkerchiefs disappeared in the twinkling of an eye, and I had 
 a serious and attentive audience. 
 
 We enjoyed Lewanika's visit, as we always do ; he himself 
 seemed so pleased with it, that he begged me to allow him 
 to make use of Aaron's dwelling till he could have another 
 place built at Sefula. Mokwae remained some days longer, 
 " to see her dear Mother," in reality to make her cut out and 
 sew dresses. My poor wife, so ill and weak as she is ! Mokwae 
 was well aware that she had only dragged herself out of bed 
 to see her. But what right have we white people to be ill ? 
 
 Sefula, February 26th, 1890. 
 
 My wife and I are happily together this time to celebrate 
 the twenty-ninth anniversary of our marriage ; and in order 
 to enjoy more of each other's society, we have given the school 
 a holiday— so we are holding festival. Unhappily, my poor 
 wife is ill, and has spent the whole day on her bed ; she is 
 only well there. But duty, the great drill sergeant, is pitiless, 
 and urges us on as harshly as a corporal making his men 
 march. But these efforts daily repeated cost us daily more. 
 In spite of that, would you believe we have had a picnic, 
 about two hundred paces from the house, under a fine tree, in 
 whose shadow we said we should like to repose till the Resurrec- 
 tion morn ? A little forest path leads to it. We are quite 
 close to the house, and yet in the middle of the woods. My 
 wife had had a mat carried out there, when a heavy shower 
 came on. We let it pass, and had our tea all the same with 
 M. Jalla and Waddell. In the evening, two of us out of 
 four had fever. That is the Zambesi ! We sometimes wish we 
 could live instead of vegetating. 
 
 April 2>ih, 1890. 
 
 The metamorphosis has really begun. Before long, our 
 Zambesian solitudes may very well become a new centre of 
 life and civilisation. Why not ? We are already dreaming of
 
 1890] TEMPERANCE REGULATIONS 38 1 
 
 telegraphs, railroads, regular and frequent postal services, and 
 transport without the nightmare of losing oxen ; and the dream 
 is beginning to come true already. Only think, at the beginning 
 of the month, we received the almanacs that do not generally 
 come before the end of October ! It is because the country is 
 opening up. And it will open up more and more, whether we 
 wish it or not. Last year a concession was made to a mining 
 company. This year it is another and a very powerful 
 company, which, by a charter from the British Government, has 
 received full power to acquire, conquer, and govern all the 
 vast country stretching north of Khama's domains, from the 
 Portuguese possessions on the east to the Portuguese possessions 
 on the west, without limits. It has already assimilated all 
 existing companies. It is a formidable tool in the hands of the 
 English Government ; and its representatives, who have come 
 to treat with Lewanika, do not conceal the fact that their aim 
 is above all a political one. In this great European struggle 
 for Central Africa, England is taking energetic measures to 
 assure herself the lion's share. Should we blame her ? Ought 
 we to be glad or sorry for it ? Who can read the future ? 
 The great thing is to remember that, amid the surging of the 
 nations, God reigns. 
 
 When we cast a look around us, we shudder with horror, 
 so thick is the darkness, so fearful the corruption. A very dear 
 friend has written to me : " Success is not only the good that 
 you do, but also the evil that you hinder." The evil that we 
 hinder we shall probably never know in its entirety. But we 
 are permitted sometimes to know something of it. I have 
 spoken of the village of sorcerers which the king has founded 
 in our neighbourhood. Now, it is worth remarking, that since 
 the atrocious murder of Mocya-nyana, one of the king's 
 favourites, w^hich I related to you three years ago, no one that I 
 know of has been put to death for sorcery. The king is justly 
 very proud of it. Having himself given up intoxicating drink, 
 he wished to constrain all the chiefs to do the same. For a 
 long time now, no beer has been drunk in the lekJiotJUa, and 
 Lewanika has formally forbidden its being made in the capital. 
 They have grumbled a great deal, but submitted. I think the 
 Barotsi take their revenge when they go to their own villages. 
 
 Another reform which has made progress is that of the
 
 382 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 slave-trade. The king himself is very kind to his slaves. 
 This year, a caravan of black merchants came from Bih6. The 
 king learnt that, contrary to his express prohibition, these 
 Mambari were secretly laying in a stock of " black ivory." 
 When they were on the point of leaving, Lewanika freed all 
 the slaves, and fined the Mambari heavily, or, rather, confis- 
 cated a part of their ivory. 
 
 M. Adolphe Jalla has been our guest for two months, and 
 is a great help to me in the school. Unhappily, this dear friend 
 is only a temporary aid ; for, in accordance with our decisions, 
 he is going to found his own station at Kanyonyo, and we have 
 no other reinforcement in view. Since the beginning of the 
 year, our school has passed through all sorts of turns and 
 fluctuations of fortune. For some time, it has been increasing, 
 and we have now seventy pupils, of which the greater number 
 desire nothing so much as to advance. My wife is incapable 
 of helping me. I myself have not enjoyed my usual good 
 health since the beginning of the year. Whatever may happen, we 
 will occupy the post and defend the fort till you send us help. 
 
 Our Sunday audiences keep up well, and gain, I think, in 
 earnestness and attention. But though we look, we do not see 
 as yet the " little cloud, no bigger than a man's hand," appear. 
 Do you, dear friends, continue to pray for us. At the beginning 
 of last month, we had a special week of prayer at Kazungula, 
 Sesheke, and Sefula simultaneously. We have felt the need 
 of closing up our ranks and of mutually sustaining each other, 
 and certainly God has blessed and fortified us. But we are 
 waiting for a shower to break up our clods and make our 
 dusty furrows green, A brother wrote to me lately : " If God 
 would grant me the joy of seeing a single conversion here, it 
 would be like a new baptism to me." I can well believe it. 
 
 Sefula. 
 Whit Sunday, May 25th, was a day of days for Sefula. It 
 was the baptismal day of Nguana-Ngombc. The festival had 
 been talked about for days. I had duly informed Lewanika 
 beforehand, and Mokwae also, who happened to be in Lealuyi. 
 Both promised to be with us on the occasion. Lewanika, who 
 has no notion of the secretaryship being a sinecure, nor of 
 Seajika's pen rusting, sent me letters, asking for details and
 
 1890] nguana-ngombe's baptism 383 
 
 explanations of the ceremony. I believe that in his heart he 
 did not much care to be present at the baptism of a Motoka — 
 a serf Circumstances came to his help : there were political 
 disturbances, and then an army corps was coming back from 
 an expedition to Lekhoa-khoa ; they were dying of hunger ; 
 they must be disbanded ; but, first of all, exorcised and purified, 
 which only the king can do. So, " to his great regret," he could 
 not be present. We felt all the more keenly the absence of 
 Karumba and Seajika, who servilely followed the king to these 
 heathen ceremonies. 
 
 The same day, a woman died near us, who had a great 
 many relatives in the neighbourhood. Consequently, nobody 
 could come, not even our usual auditors ; so that the congre- 
 gation that day was smaller than usual. But the Lord was 
 with us, and it was a happy and blessed festival. In my 
 preaching, I made a special appeal to the young men of our 
 school and household. Nguana-Ngombe spoke under the influ- 
 ence of an ill-controlled emotion. He particularly addressed 
 himself to his thaka (young men of his own age), after having 
 once again told the tale of his conversion, and made a touching 
 profession of faith. He ended by saying : " And you, my friends, 
 why are you not converted ? You say that it is not fit for you 
 to outrun your masters, that you wish to enjoy your youth and 
 take several wives. You are afraid too, for the things of God 
 are still an unknown abyss to you. And so you make a njoko of 
 me " (a monkey). " You say, ' Wait ; let us see first where Nguana- 
 Ngombe will fall — on a carpet of green grass, or among thorns.' 
 That is what the baboons do. When they are hunting, and 
 find a promising place, they throw one of their young ones 
 into it, to see if there are no wasps or snares. If the monkey 
 child is bitten or stung or attacked, if any misfortune happens 
 to it, they leave it to its fate, and take to their heels. If, on 
 the contrary, it finds peace and abundance, they swoop down, 
 chase it, and seize its booty. I do not know how far 1 can 
 answer for the future, but what I can say is this : ' I was a 
 sinner, a great sinner, and Jesus has saved me, I am His.' " ^ 
 
 ' Author's Note. — We asked Nguana-Ngombe for some explanations of this 
 novel feature of natural history. He told us that he had been brought up in the 
 woods, and that his parents had often made him observe this fact ; moreover, 
 that it is so generally known among those that inhabit the forests that it has 
 passed into a proverb : " They have made a njoko of that man."
 
 384 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 M. Adolphe J alia, in an address delivered in very correct 
 Sesuto, welcomed him into the Church as a brother — an expres- 
 sion which sounded strangely in the ears of our Zambesians. He 
 spoke from his heart, and was himself much moved. I then put, 
 in a somewhat modified form, the questions which are used in 
 Basuto-land. Nguana-Ngombe, standing up before the assembly, 
 answered in a firm, distinct voice ; then kneeling down, he 
 received, with the name of Andreas, the seal of baptism. 
 
 At the second service, M. Adolphe J alia also made an im- 
 pressive appeal. In the afternoon, towards the evening, we had 
 the Lord's Supper in the church for the first time. It was a 
 public testimony which I thought necessary, but which cost us 
 a great deal. Nevertheless, it was a solemn and blessed moment. 
 I had taken the precaution of emptying the front seats ; and in 
 spite of our apprehensions, everything passed off in perfect order 
 and complete silence. Oh, if you only knew what a cruel trial 
 mockery is, and how difficult it is to face it ! And the Zam- 
 besians are past-masters in this art. Mme. Gonin, the widow 
 of one of my former fellow-students and friends, a pastor in 
 Brighton, has just sent me the beautiful communion service 
 which he used in his church, as a souvenir. To me personally, 
 this circumstance added one more element of interest and 
 emotion. As I said, Nguana-Ngombe took the name of 
 Andreas (Andrew). He liked it, because, he said, " he was the 
 first who followed Jesus." Of all our young men, Litia seemed 
 the most impressed. " How happy you are," he said to his 
 friend, coming out of the church — " how happy you are ! " " And 
 why should you not be so too ? " asked Andreas. 
 
 While we were thus holding festival in the church, we were 
 passing through times of great political agitation and anxiety. 
 You have heard of the formation of the great South African 
 Company. It has received from the British Government a 
 charter, which will give it powers similar to that of the great 
 East India Company. It has already extended its protectorate 
 over the Matabele country. It has also sent an expedition to 
 treat with Lewanika, which was going on to Msidi (Mosili) 
 (where our brother Arnot is working), thence to reach Lake 
 Nyassa and the mouth of the Zambesi. This expedition, for 
 some reason or other, broke up when it reached the Zambesi, 
 and only its chief, Mr. Lochncr, with a servant, came to the
 
 1890] THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANY 385 
 
 Valley, ill, and short of everything in the way of provisions. 
 To offer him hospitality at Sefula was a manifest duty. 
 
 Mr. Lochner is, I believe, an officer of the Mounted Police, 
 probably better adapted for camp life than for diplomacy. 
 His arrival in the country was the signal, or the occasion, 
 for inconceivable conspiracies and intrigues. Evilly disposed 
 persons sent about a report in the Sesheke province that 
 the missionaries — and that was aimed directly at me — had 
 already induced Lewanika to sell a part of his country, 
 and that they were preparing to sell the rest. This spread 
 like a prairie fire. Suspicion is the weak point of the native 
 character ; and these suspicions were stirred up to such a 
 point, being fanned by the general discontent, especially that 
 of the chiefs, that we were led to expect anything, even a 
 revolution ; even to being maltreated ourselves and expelled 
 from the country. The chiefs of Sesheke took a very high tone. 
 Secret messengers — for nothing here is done openly — followed 
 each other to Lealuyi without ceasing ; everything pointed to 
 a violent opposition. Poor Lewanika seemed at times to be 
 perfectly distracted amid all these intrigues. Mr. Lochner 
 himself, ill-advised from the beginning, thought it would be 
 good policy to scatter presents lavishly. The Barotsi accepted 
 them all greedily, laughed in their sleeves, and mocked him 
 behind his back, saying, " Poor innocent ! he fancies we don't 
 see through him ; he is trying to cut a road through our 
 jungle." 
 
 The king himself, excited and embittered, did not show 
 himself in the best light, and more than once his negotiations 
 with Mr. Lochner narrowly missed breaking off short in an 
 angry broil. I in my turn had to speak out, and threaten the 
 king to wash my hands of his affairs if he did not treat them 
 with more dignity and uprightness. He offered the repre- 
 sentative of the Company fourteen oxen for slaughter as a 
 gift of welcome, and at the same time politely declined the 
 rather considerable presents the latter pressed upon him, while 
 business was still being transacted. This was wise on his 
 part. At the same time, he came to Sefula, with Mokwae 
 and a good number of his principal chiefs, to spend several 
 days, at Mr. Lochner's invitation, under the pretext of being 
 present at a feast which the latter, as a loyal Briton, wished 
 
 25
 
 386 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 to give in honour of the Queen's birthday. The 24th of May 
 was past ; we were at the beginning of June. No matter ; 
 Mr. Lochner killed three or four oxen ; and in the evening, 
 after my little magic-lantern exhibition, given in honour of 
 this visit of the authorities of the country, he treated us to a 
 display of fireworks. At the first rocket, there was a general 
 commotion, and 1 began to fear a scuffle and accidents. But 
 order was quickly restored ; and every rocket, every Roman 
 candle, every Bengal fire, each more wonderful than the other, 
 was greeted with suppressed exclamations of admiration and 
 bewilderment. 
 
 You can understand that the real aim of the king's visit 
 was a more serious one. Both he and his councillors wanted 
 thoroughly to understand the burning question of the day, 
 before the meeting of the Grand National Assembly which was 
 about to be convoked. This I desired no less than they, 
 and had therefore made a translation in writing of all the 
 documents. 
 
 On June 20th, the country being submerged, the king's 
 canoes came to fetch M. A. Jalla and me. Mr. Lochner, at 
 my suggestion, preceded us by several days. It was important 
 to avoid anything which in the eyes of the natives might 
 identify us with his mission. The pitso or National Assembly, 
 and the Council of the Chiefs, lasted five days — and five days 
 well filled. M. Jalla and I were careful to bring out clearly 
 the definite and perpetual character of the concession, which 
 is equivalent to the complete abandonment of the country 
 under certain conditions. In the National Assembly, as in 
 the Chiefs' Council, I applied myself to a thorough definition 
 of the difference between the concession of last year, which 
 has passed into the hands of the Company, and the one now 
 occupying our attention. Sharply and with all the authority 
 I could command, I rebuked the Sesheke chiefs who were 
 present, the king himself and his councillors, for lending an 
 ear to the first-comer, when the affairs of the nation are in 
 question. I had the right to do so. When I protested my 
 nationality, and my disinterestedness in these transactions, they 
 responded on all sides, " Yes, yes ! we know you are not 
 English ; you are French ; you are our Mornti, our father, and 
 you watch over our interests." I exhorted them neither to
 
 1890] TREATY WITH LEWANIKA 387 
 
 accept nor reject blindly the proposals made to them, but to 
 ask Mr. Lochner and me all the questions which preoccupied 
 them ; and they did so. Some were good and intelligent ones ; 
 others ridiculous. But it was evident that general opinion 
 was in favour of the Company's protectorate. If there is 
 one man who perfectly understands the situation, it is certainly 
 Lewanika himself, and it is on him and on his council that all 
 the responsibility of these important transactions rests. 
 
 The treaty having been translated and explained, I do not 
 know how many times, it was signed publicly in sight of the 
 whole pitso on Friday, June 27th. It conceded the mining 
 rights of the whole country to the Company exclusively, 
 reserving over the whole Batoka territory 4 per cent, annually of 
 the total output of the mines in favour of Lewanika and his 
 successors. The country, which was opened to all the Com- 
 pany's employes, and to traders, was nevertheless to be closed 
 to emigrants. The Company, extending its protectorate over 
 it, engages to defend it from outside attacks ; it respects the 
 rights of the king and chiefs over their subjects, and does 
 not interfere between them. It recognises the king's exclusive 
 right to hunt large game and elephants, and assures to him, 
 and to his successors in perpetuity, an annuity of £2,000, 
 besides the dividend above mentioned. The signing of this 
 treaty was a curious spectacle. All, under some title or another, 
 wished to subscribe their marks to it. Those who were sent 
 away went off grumbling ; others, squatting in front of the 
 little table, would not move till the pen had been put into their 
 hands. I believe the good people imagined that they would 
 thus secure their quota of inali — that is, money ! 
 
 The treaty having been duly signed and witnessed, Mr. 
 Lochner rose, and, in a neatly turned little speech, offered to the 
 king the presents he had had arranged on the public place — 
 guns, Martini rifles, muskets, a splendid saddle, bales of blankets, 
 etc. The Gambella presented them to the nation, crouching, 
 with the upper part of his body bared, and the assembly 
 applauded with much clapping of hands. Then, in the name 
 of the king, he offered Mr. Lochner, for the directors of the 
 Company (the Dukes of Fife and Abercorn), the two most 
 beautiful tusks I had yet seen. Each weighed nearly a hundred- 
 weight ; and when held up by two men, they formed an arch
 
 V 
 
 388 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 more than six feet high.^ This little ceremony was very- 
 striking, and it dignified the conclusion of these important 
 assemblies. The Barotsi themselves, Narubutu, the Gambella, 
 and all the chiefs at their head, assembled before the king, and 
 gave themselves up joyfully to shouts of sJioalela. 
 
 This was the end. At present, I must abstain from com- 
 ments. We have our fears ; we also have our hopes. For my 
 part, I have no doubt that for the nation this will prove the one 
 plank of safety. It was not in the power of these tribes, only 
 bound together by the chains of an abject and a disgraceful 
 '' servitude, to oppose a permanent barrier to the invading floods 
 of emigrants and gold-seekers. To-day, they knock at the door 
 and ask for a treaty ; to-morrow, they would have broken it 
 down and invaded the country as masters. The Barotsi are 
 incapable of governing, and, left to themselves, they would 
 before long have annihilated each other. Treacherous plots 
 against Lewanika, which we thought extinguished, still smoul- 
 dered under the ashes. To realise this, one had only to see 
 the attitude of Makoatsa, Khama's ambassador, the same one 
 who brought us hither, and to hear his message, a real menace. 
 
 " Barotsi," he said, " I have tasted a delicious food, and I 
 have shared it with you ! What have you done with it ? I have 
 sent you messengers like Makoatsa. How have you received 
 them ? To-day, I hear sinister rumours ; you speak again of 
 revolution. Take care ! Lewanika is my friend ; and if you 
 dare to make attempts against his life or power, I am Khama ! 
 You will see me with your eyes and hear me." " 
 
 An interesting document, of which I possess a copy, is the 
 delimitation of the frontiers of the kingdom. Fortunately, there 
 
 ' They now flank the chimney-piece of the Company's Committee Room 
 in St. Swithin's Lane, E.C. ; but the king persists in protesting that it was for 
 the Queen, through her son-in-law {J..e. the Duke of Fife), that he gave the 
 tusks. — Author's Note. 
 
 ^ Khama's message related to the Chartered Company as well as to the 
 missionary, both of whom he had introduced to Lewanika by the same mes- 
 senger, Makoatsa, his accredited and acknowledged ambassador to Lealuyi. 
 Lewanika desired British protection for a double reason — to guard himself 
 against internal revolutions, and against infractions of his territory from with- 
 out. Knowing that Lewanika had applied to be taken under the protectorate 
 of the Queen, Khama, in response to his request for advice, had sent this 
 well-known messenger, through whom (by letter and by verbal message) he
 
 iSgo] BOUNDARIES OF BAROTSI-LAND 389 
 
 were chiefs at all the extremities of the country, which gives 
 it great value. In a general way, the boundary, taking for its 
 point of departure the confluence of the Kafue with the Zambesi, 
 extends up the river to the junction of the Chobe (Linyanti or 
 Ouando). On the west, it extends up this river, the Linyanti, 
 as far as the twentieth degree east longitude of Greenwich ; on 
 the north, it follows the watershed of the Congo and Zambesi 
 to the Kafue, whose course it follows on the east (across 
 the country of the Mashukulumboe) to its junction with the 
 Zambesi : a gross superficial area of two hundred thousand square 
 miles. From twenty to twenty-five principal tribes are scattered 
 through this vast territory ; but you must not conclude from 
 this that the country is populated, or that the numerous tribes 
 form a homogeneous nation — that would be a great mistake. 
 It must be borne in mind, nevertheless, that all these tribes 
 acknowledge the authority of Lewanika, and regularly pay 
 tribute to him. Although he does not interfere in their internal 
 administration, his representatives (his Residents) exercise a 
 general supervision. 
 
 In the midst of all these preoccupations, the post from 
 Europe has arrived. It announces numerous deaths. M. Jousse's 
 was a heavy blow to us. For more than thirty years, he had 
 been a faithful friend to me. It was he who initiated me into 
 the practical details of missionary life, and to him is due the 
 foundation of the Leribe station.^ A Frenchman by birth, he 
 remained pre-eminently French in the midst of foreign influ 
 ences, which tend more or less to alter the character ; and 
 this was another tie to bind us. He was at once a man of 
 heart and a man of action. And when he had reason to reverse 
 
 strongly recommended Mr. Lochner and his mission. So also did the Adminis- 
 trator of Bechuana-land, Sir Sidney Sheppard, and the High Commissioner 
 himself, giving Lewanika to understand that what the Chartered Company had 
 to offer was what Lewanika really wanted. 
 
 Naturally, therefore, Lewanika treated with the Company as truly repre- 
 senting the British Government, whose protectorate he craved. Hence his 
 anger and utter dismay when he awoke to the real fact, although it had been 
 fully explained to him before, that the Chartered Company is not the British 
 Government itself. — Auihor's Note. 
 
 • M. Th6ophile Jousse, well known in South Africa as a distinguished 
 member of the S.M.E.P. in Basuto-land. He had retired from the foreign 
 field, and died in France in the midst of active labours on behalf of missions.
 
 390 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 a too severe or premature judgment, he was the first to 
 acknowledge it, with admirable candour. His attitude on the 
 subject of the Barotsi Mission was a striking example of this. 
 He disapproved of it, and even fought against it. " Though 
 I am no prophet," I wrote to him once, " to-day you fight 
 against this mission, brother Jousse ; one day, you yourself 
 will be pleading its cause." And only a little while ago, he 
 wrote to me about it : " My ' History of the Barotsi Mission ' 
 is just going through the press ; it is my last effort and my 
 last labour, after which I shall await my Master's call. He will 
 not delay." Now he has entered into rest. 
 
 With this post, we again received the saddest news from 
 Sesheke. I therefore hastened my departure. In the midst 
 of my preparations, we had an alarm, of which I must say a 
 few words. 
 
 M. Adolphe J alia had to return to Lealuyi after the pitso 
 for important business. The next day, he came back late to 
 Sefula. It was 1 1 p.m. when we all separated. Towards mid- 
 night, light taps on the walls of our bedroom (closed by 
 a simple curtain), and the soft voice of our little Samocheta, 
 snatched us from the depths of our first sleep. " My father, the 
 roof of the kitchen is on fire ! " With one bound, I was at the 
 spot, and my wife closely followed me. Andreas (Nguana- 
 Ngombe) was on the roof with some others, pouring buckets 
 of water on the flames. In an instant, all our girls and boys, 
 directed by my dear wife and M. Jalla, were vying with each 
 other in goodwill ; some ran to the river, others searched all 
 over the house for the last drop of water, while Litia and the 
 other boys passed the buckets. Andreas struggled bravely 
 on the roof, in spite of the intolerable heat. The tocsin was 
 sounded, according to the custom of the country, and the forest 
 resounded with cries of alarm. Some of the school children, 
 attracted by curiosity, came running to see the dreadful sight, 
 wrapped up in rugs and skins, for the cold was intense ; but 
 when they were sent for water, they fled to the village. The 
 elder ones, with one or two exceptions, remained in bed, " over- 
 come," they said next day, " by cold and sleepiness." As the 
 smoke still increased, I ordered Andreas to tear the thatch off 
 the roof Then I went inside to see what I could do with a 
 hand-pump. At this moment, Andreas made a hole. A bright
 
 iSgo] A HOUSE ON FIRE 39 1 
 
 flame leaped out of the thatch and ascended to the roof ridge. 
 " It is all up," I said to Adolphe Jalla ; " the house and out- 
 buildings will all be burnt down ; let us save what we can." 
 I sought my wife to warn her. Going into the dining-room, I 
 cast my eyes on our harmonium, for we shall yet live to sing. 
 My selection could only be limited, and my mind was quickly 
 made up. My wife, self-possessed, as in all great emergencies, 
 calmly set to work. Andreas, Litia, and the other boys did not 
 quit their post ; and it is their courage and coolness which in 
 God's hands have saved us. By 3.30 a.m., we had completely 
 mastered the fire. Is it not wonderful? In Basuto-land, we 
 had galvanised iron over our heads. Here we have thatch — and 
 thatch, too, dried by months of tropical sunshine without, and 
 within by the constant fire of the kitchen. With our walls of 
 stakes and reeds, on this sandy hill, far from water and help, 
 what could have saved us, without a special intervention of 
 Providence ? The cause was a fire in the chimney, which the 
 sparks communicated to the roof. The intervention of Provi- 
 dence was this. At a particular moment — ten minutes after- 
 wards would have been too late — one of our girls went out into 
 the court, saw the flame, and uttered a cry of alarm, which 
 roused Andreas. The remarkable thing is, that the girl, Aaron's 
 former servant, was sleeping here for the first time. She had 
 long been begging us to receive her. We could not do so ; but 
 at last my wife took pity on her ; often allowed her to share 
 the work and food of our girls ; and at last, conquered by her 
 entreaties, we took her in for good. It was her first night ; she 
 could not sleep — for joy no doubt — or else an angel woke her, 
 so that she might save our property and lives. We shudder at 
 the thought that we might have been without clothes, food, roof, 
 or resources of any kind in so inhospitable a country. It is no 
 use thinking of iron roofs here. But we have something better. 
 " Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 
 The Lord is thy keeper" (Ps. cxxi. 4, 5).
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 A Journey to Sesheke — Losses of Cattle and Waggons— M. Jeanmairet's 
 Illness and Departure for Basuto-land — Arrival of Mile. Kiener — 
 Difficulty of Obtaining Canoes — Kazungula — Death of the Jallas' Second 
 Child — Litia's Courage and Progress — The Absence of the Marriage 
 Tie among the Barotsi — Infanticide — The Tyranny of Custom — A City 
 of Refuge — Progress— An Ox to sell — Return to Sefula — Difficulties of 
 Transport — Litia's Departure for Morija. 
 
 Senanga, at the entrance of the Valley, 
 July i2)ih, 1890. 
 
 SITTING doubled up on my bedding, in the prow of my 
 canoe, I shall try, as I have already done more than once, 
 to make use of the long monotonous hours for my correspond- 
 ence. Last year, I promised myself that, once home again, 
 it would need the strongest reasons and the most unusual 
 circumstances to tear me away. And yet, here I am again on 
 the way, and my absence from Sefula will last two or three 
 months. For the mission has come to a deadlock, and I can 
 truly say I have rarely had so many dilemmas to face at once. 
 
 Must I sadden you again, by telling you of the insurmount- 
 able — yes, up to the present msiiruioiintablc — difficulties which 
 meet our land transport from Sesheke to Sefula ? It is a 
 wound in the flanks of our mission, and I do not know how 
 and when it will be healed. I am getting quite hopeless about 
 it. At the beginning of March, I had sent Franz and Kamburu 
 to Sesheke with two waggons and two extra teams of native 
 cattle, eighteen oxen in each, which I had procured by barter. 
 One was destined for Sesheke, and the other for Kazungula ; 
 they were to be kept there, and used for the transport service. 
 Unfortunately, M. Jeanmairet, who had been planning for 
 some time to come and see us with his family, and needed 
 Franz's services as a driver, thought to hasten his return to 
 
 392
 
 1890] DEPARTURE OF JEANMAIRETS 393 
 
 Sesheke by handing over to him both the teams mentioned 
 above.^ Alas ! at Loanja, at the entrance of the tse-tse 
 haunted woods, only three days from Sesheke, our old transport 
 waggon completely broke down. Franz had to ply to and fro 
 between the place of the accident and the Njoko, carrying the 
 packages of the two waggons in small loads. These packages 
 were objects of barter, school and mission-station furniture. 
 At the last trip, on the banks of this Njoko of infamous 
 memory, the second waggon broke down in its turn. To 
 complete the misfortunes, the oxen began dying off ; and Franz, 
 who, though much improved, has no more enterprise than 
 he need have, waited there, on the banks of the Njoko, two 
 hundred miles from Sefula, for the help which, without either 
 waggons or oxen ourselves, it was not in our power to send him. 
 Meanwhile, besides the storms and political complications 
 which rendered my presence at my post indispensable, the news 
 which one express after another brought me about M. Jean- 
 mairet's health became more and more alarming. I immediately 
 sent to Franz, telling him to leave his loads on the veldt, and 
 hasten with part of those bullocks still remaining, to bring 
 help to the Jeanmairets. I wrote at the same time to my 
 niece, trying to dissuade her from her project of travelling to 
 Cape Colony alone, in winter-time, with her little child and her 
 sick husband, and to come instead to Sefula. We thought that 
 a change of air, even at the Zambesi, complete rest, and assiduous 
 care, might, with God's blessing, make my nephew better. Un- 
 fortunately, my letter crossed an express, telling us that, as 
 M. Jeanmairet's state was becoming more serious, and an 
 English hunter had placed his waggon and oxen at my niece's 
 service to leave the country immediately, she begged me earnestly 
 to send Franz to her, the only driver we have in the mission. 
 She thought he had returned long since to Sefula. Then it seemed 
 to us imperative that I should go myself to Sesheke, judge de visu 
 
 ^ This requires a word of explanation. Franz was returning to Sefula 
 with supplies. M. Jeanmairet thought he would travel faster, and come back 
 to fetch the Jeanmairet family, if he had double teams, and consequently gare 
 him the oxen (in addition to his own) which were intended to be kept at 
 Sesheke, for transport between that place and Kazungula. The results were 
 disastrous. The Jeanmairets were alone at Sesheke, the L. Jallas being at 
 Kazungula.
 
 394 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 of the situation, and bring back Mile. Kiener/ whose departure 
 from Europe we have heard of only at the same time as her 
 arrival at the Zambesi. Mr. Waddell, with my cart, guided by 
 Karumba, will go to set up our old waggons again, if possible, 
 and then pass on to meet me at Sesheke, while I go down the 
 river by canoe. In default of oxen, some large calves will be 
 broken in on the way, as the cart is light. 
 
 The king has again behaved in a manner worthy of himself. 
 We had just left him. Nevertheless, he insisted on coming to 
 spend some days at Sefula, Jio laeletsana — a great institution 
 among the Barotsi, at which, spitting in each other's faces, they 
 make their farewell speeches and say good-bye. Christians 
 " commend each other to God and to the Word of His grace." 
 Lewanika is not yet so far on. But this consideration on his 
 part and these tokens of friendship are none the less precious. 
 He, as you know, has a monopoly of the large canoes ; and 
 whatever I may do, I cannot procure them myself He, poor 
 man ! cannot satisfy every one's demands. He must have boats, 
 and not a few, for the service of his harem ; he must also have 
 some for hunting, particularly for fishing ; and he must have 
 others for public use, and for eventualities ; so that he himself 
 often runs short of them. Lately, a trader has demanded 
 twenty ; Mr. Lochner took away twelve or thirteen. So it is 
 not surprising that I could only get three from him. But he 
 had reserved his own for me. It is forty-three feet long, twenty- 
 eight inches at its greatest width, and twelve inches in depth. 
 It is very difficult nowadays to find tree-trunks big enough to 
 make canoes this size. So I shall travel in state ; and Litia, too, 
 will accompany us, as indeed is necessary.'-^ 
 
 Kazungula, August \st, 1890. 
 My stay at Sesheke has been a most melancholy one. The 
 Jeanmairets were no longer there, and everything showed it. 
 Not a soul to bid us welcome ; not a dog, not even a fowl, to 
 give the station a little life. On the shore were the fragments 
 of my old boat ; a little farther on, reed partitions thrown down, 
 
 ' A young Swiss lady who was coming out to help Mme. Coillard, and 
 is still a valued member of the mission staff. 
 
 ^ Litia, the king's eldest son, was going to Basuto-land to school.
 
 1890] ARRIVAL OF MLLE. KIENER 395 
 
 palisades pulled up, torn photographs, papers everywhere, broken 
 pottery, and I know not what else, all bearing witness that 
 something like death had passed there/ I waited a long time 
 before Franz, who had the key, came to open for me the door 
 of this beautiful new house, which had cost my dear nephew 
 so much trouble. And once inside these rooms, empty as they 
 were, or littered with household goods hastily thrown together, 
 I felt such deep melancholy seize me, that I shut the door, 
 and went to encamp two or three hundred yards away. I still 
 hoped to reach M. and Mme. Jeanmairet at Kazungula ; one 
 of my old friends, whom I met returning thence (wishing no 
 doubt to give me pleasure, and probably to receive a setsiba 
 for his trouble), swore to me by all his gods that he had left 
 them there, installed in their tent. His description was so vivid 
 I felt almost tempted to believe it. The next morning, we 
 arrived at Kazungula, only to learn that my nephew and his 
 family had left eight days before, and were already too far for 
 me to think of reaching them on foot, and giving them a farewell 
 kiss. Where will they go ? God will guide them ; yet it needs 
 a great effort to silence our own fears and anxieties. Will they 
 return ? When ? God knows. Meanwhile, we suffer terrible 
 distress on their account. 
 
 One compensation for my bitter disappointment is the 
 arrival of Mile. Kiener. In reading the Journal des Missions, 
 which I found here, and in speaking to her, I have been very 
 much struck by the wonderful ways in which, unknown to us, 
 God has brought her to the Zambesi. She will certainly be 
 a precious help to us. 
 
 An old friend, who is neither a Frenchman nor a Presbyterian 
 like me, writes to us that God has abundantly blessed him 
 in his business, and that he has made his fortune. " This is 
 a talent," he says, " which God has confided to me, and all 
 my desire is to make use of it." He wishes to maintain 
 two evangelists under my care. M. Mabille just had two who 
 were disposed to come.^ What is most astonishing in all this 
 is, that our friend, a lawyer by profession, has always been 
 
 ■ M. Jeanmairet's state had suddenly become so alarming, that, to save 
 his life, the family had been obliged to leave in their friend's waggon, without 
 time for preparation or information to the others. 
 
 ^ At the Morija Training School in Basuto-land.
 
 396 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 a zealous evangelist himself, though without the title. His 
 prosperity has not diminished his zeal for the evangelisation, 
 not only of the whites, but of the blacks, in the great centres 
 of the diamond fields and gold mines. Oh the power of the 
 love of Jesus ! It laughs at the barriers which often separate 
 the children of God. 
 
 At Kazungula, I was very glad to see our dear friends the 
 Louis Jallas again — dear friends in reality ! The Sunday, the 
 first we have spent together, was a sweet and blessed one. 
 At our little private service in the afternoon, we consecrated 
 their baby to God by baptism. On my arrival, I had thought 
 the child very pale, and not at all well. Still, the parents were 
 not seriously uneasy about her. The next day, about three 
 in the afternoon, they called me in great haste, and I arrived 
 in time to see the little one's life pass out of this poor world 
 as her spirit went up to heaven. It was a sorrowful privilege 
 to have to prepare the last cradle for the little body. The 
 funeral took place the next day in the presence of two or 
 three Europeans, and of fifty or sixty Zambesians. I spoke 
 alternately in three languages. 
 
 The calmness and resignation of our poor friends are beautiful 
 to see. But it is impossible to count all our little graves without 
 saying the Zambesi climate is a cruel one. 
 
 As to things at Sefuia, my last letter, I think, left you under 
 the best impressions. Seeing our dear pupils so eager to buy 
 books, you might have thought them quite near the kingdom 
 of God, and imagined that we had nothing but success in 
 our school. Far from it. Our pupils are still terribly wild ; 
 they cannot bear restraint for long. Most of them have their 
 own slaves and villages. At home, they are masters. And 
 it frequently happens that, on the slightest pretext or none 
 at all, they go off horotsi as they say (that is, to the Valley\ 
 to enjoy the liberty of fishing and boating, and the servile 
 adulations of their subordinates. When they return inosito 
 (i.e. to the woods, where we live), others go away ; and farewell 
 to progress. 
 
 One day, Mokwae's son, KaYba, was not at morning prayers. 
 Before we knew of it, messengers had run in the night to 
 Nalolo to tell the queen that her son was unwell. They 
 returned with the order to bring him immediately to her.
 
 iSgo] LITIA THE HEIR-APPARENT 397 
 
 The next day, Mokwae called Litia in great haste. " Ka'iba 
 is ill," she said to him, "and the divining bones say that you 
 must go and sacrifice at the tombs of our ancestors." " Morena," 
 replied Litia calmly, " I am no longer in that darkness, and 
 I have forsaken those ways. I no longer pray to the dead." 
 Mokwae made many remonstrances, and argued a long time ; 
 but finding she gained nothing, she said, " Very well, you 
 need not go in person. Some one will pray in your place, only 
 you must take a handful of grass impregnated with ' medicine,* 
 and sprinkle the offerings." " But, Morena," replied Litia 
 respectfully, though firmly, " I cannot even do that, for it would 
 be the same as if I went myself on a pilgrimage to the tombs." 
 Mokwae had to yield the point ; but, deeply offended, she for- 
 bade him to sing hymns in the village. 
 
 None of our pupils share Litia's scruples. And when I 
 tell you that this is not the first time the dear boy has taken 
 up such a sturdy attitude towards his father and Mokwae, 
 you would expect, as we do, to see him soon declare himself 
 for the Lord. In fact, I do not know what keeps him back, 
 for we believe that the grace of God is certainly working in 
 his heart. He has long since given up a number of heathen 
 customs, and he has thrown away his heathen ornaments and 
 charms. He has a pronounced taste for everything connected 
 with civilisation. As his father can refuse him nothing, he 
 is always dressed like a European, although clothes are difficult 
 to procure in a country like this, without shops. He is clean 
 in his person, intelligent, eager for instruction, and clever at 
 using ordinary tools. He has built himself a little cottage — 
 of course, under Mr. Waddell's direction — roofed it himself, 
 and furnished it with a bed, seats, tables, and shelves, all rather 
 primitive, but of his own making. This little room is always 
 a model of order and cleanliness at whatever hour one may 
 visit it. One valuable quality for the position he may one 
 day occupy is a strength of will not at all common in a 
 young man. It sometimes degenerates into obstinacy. He 
 exercises great power over those around him ; and while growing 
 daily in popularity, he permits nobody to be familiar. Though 
 now moral, truthful, and honest, he has not always been so ; 
 and when his conscience awakens, he will make us many 
 confessions. But at present it is still asleep. Is it to be
 
 398 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 wondered at that, with these inclinations, and being almost the 
 same age as Nguana-Ngombe (eighteen years), he has formed 
 an intimate friendship with him ? They would have shared 
 the same room, and taken all their meals together, if we had 
 not imposed some restrictions out of prudence. I have said 
 thus much about this young fellow, in order that his name may 
 have a special place in your prayers. 
 
 Our young girls, at present ten in number, are very far 
 from giving us as much pleasure. They are growing up ; and 
 growing up unconverted, they are the more difficult to manage. 
 The king's eldest daughter, always surrounded by slaves and 
 flattered by everybody, thus preserves a little prestige which 
 often contradicts our authority. The lack of straightforwardness, 
 of truthfulness, and of common honesty in these children calls for 
 much vigilance and great firmness ; and with Mme. Coillard's 
 bad health, the task is overwhelming. 
 
 But God is good. We have to repeat it at every step. The 
 arrival of M. Adolphe Jalla at Sefula is indeed a new proof 
 of it. We very much appreciate the valuable acquisition which 
 the mission has made in this young brother. The Waldensian 
 Church has already large interests in the Barotsi Mission, and 
 she has cause to rejoice in it. These are powerful ties, added 
 to those which previously united us to her. M. Adolphe Jalla 
 has come to us already possessed of a good vocabulary of 
 Sesuto, and has never yet needed an interpreter. Without 
 losing any time, and also, I think, without consulting his own 
 tastes, he has buckled on his harness, and set to work with me 
 to teach ABC (which is not exactly an attractive occupation) 
 and the elements of arithmetic and geography — a task as 
 ungrateful here as it was interesting in Basuto-land. You see, 
 ours is a locksmith's trade ; and if we succeed in putting the 
 key of knowledge into the hands of the generation confided 
 to us, we shall not have laboured in vain. 
 
 The more we learn to know our Barotsi, the more difficult 
 seems our task. I am not now speaking of the school, which 
 after all is not the most important branch of it. I have already 
 spoken to you about their marriage, this union of nothing but 
 caprice, which ill-temper may break to-morrow. Is this really 
 the ideal which theorists of both sexes, who consider themselves 
 the great lights of the nineteenth century and the great
 
 1890] DEGRADING CUSTOMS 399 
 
 champions of humanity, dare to propose to our old ultra-civilised 
 and ultra-Christianised Europe ? What progress ! 
 
 When man's highest instincts are blunted, he ceases to be 
 a man, and becomes a brute of the worst kind. Infanticide 
 sufficiently proves it. The cases of it here are fearfully common. 
 The life of a little being, elsewhere cherished, is not of much 
 value — a trifling excuse is sufficient to sacrifice it. It cries, 
 worries its mother, annoys its father, is perhaps an obstacle 
 to a new marriage. It need not matter ! Its mother or grand- 
 mother stuffs its mouth with ashes, digs her nails into its throat, 
 and at night the poor little corpse is thrown out on to the 
 dunghill, where the wild beasts, always prowling about, under- 
 take its burial. The details are too disgusting to be described. 
 And what is most heartrending — for in Europe equally horrible 
 crimes are committed — is that all this is done publicly with 
 everybody's knowledge. Public opinion does not in the least 
 deter from these revolting atrocities. They are accepted, and 
 no one has anything to say against them. This crime must be 
 laid at the door of slavery, so brutalising and degrading is it, 
 petrifying the heart, and making of a man a mere chattel. 
 
 But nothing is more tyrannical than the customs. At their 
 least violation, everybody is up in arms. Each one believes 
 himself to be their accredited guardian. Certain Levitical laws 
 pertaining to woman and to her duties, from whatever source 
 they may be derived, are strictly observed among the Barotsi. 
 There are also others established by custom. For instance, 
 a child must never be born in its father's house. The husband 
 makes a sort of kennel for his wife in the fields, and there she 
 must stop till she is strong enough to crawl back to the 
 village with her infant. In case of an abortion, a woman is 
 also left in the fields under a miserable shelter, where she lives 
 in complete isolation, eating the meagre fare brought to her 
 every day. She is thus sequestrated till the new moon. For 
 the same reason, her husband is confined to the court of his 
 house ; all communication with his neighbours is forbidden, 
 and all visits to his cattle-fold or fields. They fear he may 
 exercise some evil influence over men, cattle, and things. 
 Consequently, the whole community watches to see that the 
 custom is rigorously observed. At the new moon, he and his 
 wife will be made to pass through certain purificatiqns, and
 
 400 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 only after having cleansed themselves in the river will they 
 return to their ordinary course of life. Karumba found him- 
 self in this predicament lately, and he and his friend Seajika 
 conformed punctiliously to the rule of the country. During a 
 whole month, Karumba remained a prisoner in his own house, 
 without his friend, who passed his door twenty times a day, 
 daring even to greet him. 
 
 Nevertheless, ideas of humanity, justice, and goodness are 
 making their way. I have already told you of Lewanika's 
 efforts to crush sorcery and the crimes it engenders. His 
 sincerity was lately put to a severe test. While he was away 
 hunting, one of his most faithful servants, busied with the near 
 return of his master, thought of the thousand and one details 
 which escaped the others. His companions, jealous of the 
 favour he enjoyed, had sworn his destruction. An opportunity 
 was found. What was the meaning of this preoccupied manner, 
 these comings and goings, where no one else dared even to 
 enter? They carried their accusations to old Narubutu, the 
 preserver of ancient customs. After the fatal administration of 
 poison to fowls, the old man declared himself to be perfectly 
 convinced. " Hasten, my children," he said, " and execute 
 justice on this sorcerer before the king's return," — a re- 
 commendation very welcome to such people. Monare, the 
 accused servant, was warned in time to flee, and took refuge 
 with us. He related his story, we received him, thoroughly 
 determined to save him. 
 
 It was not long before messenger after messenger came, 
 ordering me to deliver up their victim. "I shall no more do it," 
 I said, " than I shall deliver you up when your turn comes, if 
 you seek refuge with me. We also are Natamoyos, ministers of 
 mercy." I .do not know how far my argument prevailed, but 
 at least they respected my authority sufficiently not to lay 
 their hands upon Monare, who stood beside me, explaining 
 his conduct. Days passed, and the king returned from his 
 hunting. More messages and commands ; more refusals. " You 
 asked me one day," I said to the king, " what I should have 
 done, if you had taken refuge with me, and if Mathaha had 
 ordered me to deliver you up. You know my answer. Monare's 
 case is the same." 
 
 At the end of eight days of parleying and protestations from
 
 1890] ABOLISHING THE SLAVE-TRADE 4OI 
 
 the king, who swore that he would answer for Monare's life, 
 I sent him under Litia's guard, with injunctions to let him 
 escape again at the least sign of danger. But the king kept 
 his word. He confronted Monare publicly with his accusers, 
 unfolding and exposing without any difficulty the jealousy of 
 those who had once more failed to deprive him of one of his 
 best servants. He rebuked them sharply, publicly congratu- 
 lating himself upon the fact that in the missionaries he had 
 humane men who backed him up ; then addressing himself to 
 Monare, he said, "You will go to your village, back to your 
 children ; and I will see which of this rabble will do your work 
 and take your place." And so ended this incident. 
 
 There is the same progress with regard to slavery. Recently 
 a man led an ox to his chief. " I want a man," he said. " Will 
 you get me one ? Here is the price." " Why, where do you 
 come from," answered the chief, " that you think you can still 
 buy slaves under Lewanika ? " 
 
 You will remember that already last year some Mambari 
 (black traders from Benguella and Bihe) had bought a certain 
 number of slaves in exchange for powder, beads, and stuff. 
 Just when they seemed to be going, Lewanika had them 
 stopped, took away their slaves, and confiscated part of their 
 ivory. He even thought he had gone too far, and asked my 
 opinion. You can easily guess it. It is a fact to be noted, 
 now that British influence is going to penetrate the country. 
 
 Our poor Lewanika ! Why does he stop when he is on 
 such a good road ? One day, when he was with us, while we 
 were singing hymns, each choosing one in turn, I asked him to 
 choose one also. " One ! " he said, " but all are full of Jesus. 
 Let us have Motsualle oa Morena " (" The Lord's Friend "). This 
 is the Sesuto title of the hymn beginning " Litaba tse Iiu inielang" 
 a translation of " What a Friend we have in Jesus ! " 
 
 Sometimes people make rather a curious application of 
 religious ideas. You can be present, if it interests you, at the 
 purchase of an ox. A little time ago, a man brought one from 
 a distance to sell me. The price, already fixed by custom, was 
 soon decided, and the bargain was about to be concluded. 
 "But," remarked one of our men incidentally, "your ox limps." 
 " Yes, indeed it does," said the vendor ; " to tell the truth, it has 
 limped ever since our expedition against the Mashukulumboe 
 
 26
 
 402 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 It got better for a time, and then it began to limp again." 
 " Really ? " I said in my turn. " Yes, really." " But, my friend, 
 I cannot buy a lame ox." 
 
 The poor man saw that he had given himself away. How- 
 ever, not the least disconcerted, he replied, " But my ox is 
 not lame — look ! " " But have you not just said before us all 
 that it has been lame ever since your return from the Mashuku- 
 lumboe country ? " " I ? Never ! You are mistaken. My ox 
 has never been lame." The animal was seized, and it was 
 proved to have a dislocated shoulder. No matter ; my man 
 stuck to his story in the face of everybody — his ox had never 
 been lame ! The poor fellow stayed three days to convince 
 me that it did not limp now. 
 
 This instance of audacity in lying is by no means an isolated 
 case. It would be laughable, if it were not so profoundly sad. 
 " Servant of God," said this individual, appealing to my feelings, 
 " do not break the bargain. Jesus would never do that ; He 
 would accept my ox. Jesus is good ; He would not send me 
 away empty. Servant of Jesus, be like your Master. Jesus 
 is kind." 
 
 Well, we must not refuse sound lessons, even from cheats 
 and flatterers ! 
 
 Sefula, October ■^oth, 1890. 
 
 I returned home on September i8th, after an absence of 
 two months and eight days. Though it was an unspeakable 
 joy to return to my own fireside, yet, alas ! causes of sorrow 
 were not lacking either. My journey, which was less well 
 organised than last year, was less successful also in the matter 
 of transporting our luggage and supplies. The canoes which 
 had transported Mr. Lochner, the Chartered Company's agent, 
 to Kazungula were to be passed on to my service for returning. 
 But all these canoes were of small capacity and overladen with 
 paddlers ; so that, while running into greater expense than last 
 year, I was able to accomplish much less. 
 
 Our conveyances are falling into an alarming state of decay. 
 Besides my old family waggon, which no longer exists, we had 
 two transport waggons, which were quite new. They have 
 been seven years at work, and now they are both in ruins. 
 And yet Mr. Waddell, with his wonderful skill, has often repaired
 
 iSgo] COSTLY DISAPPOINTMENTS 403 
 
 them, and set them up again. Poor man ! he thought he had 
 mended the one which had collapsed at Loanja, so that it could 
 go one last journey, at least as far as Sefula. But at the very 
 first motion, even before stirring from its place, the wheels 
 fell to pieces. The naves were completely rotten ; they were 
 mere touchwood. 
 
 Besides this, there is also the matter of the oxen. I told 
 you I had sent to Sesheke two teams of eighteen oxen each, 
 for the service between Sesheke and Kazungula, and vice versa, 
 and that nearly all these oxen have perished. This new 
 disaster eclipses all the former ones, and involves me personally 
 more deeply than any one else. So there is one route which we 
 must perforce consider closed for a long while to come. There 
 remains the river way. It is a last resort, which does not 
 by any means solve the difficulty, because, as I explained 
 to you, we are entirely dependent upon the king and his 
 caprices for canoes ; and as he himself confesses, it is in every 
 way to his interest to serve the traders first of all, who bring 
 him merchandise and ammunition. And as waggons only 
 arrive at the Zambesi during one season of the year, we shall 
 always find this a great embarrassment. I say nothing of the 
 expenses, of which you yourselves can judge by the accounts. 
 But I cannot keep silent about the dangers of the navigation. 
 Four of our canoes this year were capsized in the rapids. The 
 canoes were saved, even the cases were fished out, some of 
 them fifteen days after the accident. You cannot form any 
 idea of our losses. Thus, a big bale of coloured materials — 
 our small cash for daily use — which my canoe-men had " put 
 in the sun to dry " ( ! ) (without unpacking it, of course), I 
 found three weeks later, when I was able to open it, in such 
 a state of fermentation and decomposition as can be more easily 
 imagined than described. The same with cotton blankets and 
 pieces of calico. The same, alas ! with nearly all our cases. 
 Out of fifteen which reached us, some of which we had been 
 expecting for two or three years, not three were intact. All 
 the others, either opened at the custom-house or badly 
 soldered, contained heart-breaks over which we must draw a 
 veil, out of regard for our friends. And yet it must be grasped 
 thoroughly that the transport is very heavy. From the Cape 
 to Kazungula, it costs no less than ^3 5^-. per cwt. And
 
 404 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1890 
 
 to that must be added the costs of freight, custom-house, and 
 bonding-house, of duties, and of agents (which last are no trifle), 
 and then the cost of canoeing from Kazungula to the Valley. 
 
 One case did reach us safely. As it was too large for the 
 canoes, I had it sent after us. It was one we had been 
 expecting from friends in Holland for three years or more ; 
 it took eight men to carry it, and the transport alone cost us 
 ;^I5. We opened it: nothing but blotting-paper and blank 
 cheque-books down to the very bottom ! They had sent us 
 by mistake a case of stationery intended for a Dutch bank in 
 the Transvaal.^ 
 
 M. Adolphe Jalla is starting for Kazungula. He has shown 
 himself a most valuable helper, and has taken such an interest 
 in the school that I ask myself if he would not perhaps be 
 in his right place at Sefula, to occupy himself specially with 
 the teaching. We must have a boarding school for the youths, 
 and in our thoughts it will one day give birth to an Evangelists' 
 College, for that is after all our principal object. 
 
 We have decided to send Litia to Morija. He will start 
 with M. Jalla, accompanied by four other boys, all among our 
 best scholars. Lewanika has already given me ^50 towards 
 his journey and maintenance. His own ambition for him is, 
 that Litia should go to England and see civilised life. The 
 immediate consequence of Litia's departure for Basuto-land 
 is the disbanding of our school. We expected something 
 of this, but the crisis seems more serious than we thought. 
 This departure also creates difficulties for the future which 
 we did expect, and which we can only avoid by founding an 
 establishment for young men without delay. 
 
 Our political horizon is of the darkest, and I know not 
 
 ' M. Coillard wrote to the bank whom it concerned to tell them of this 
 mistake, and some months later received a letter of polite regret, requesting 
 him to burn all the cheque-books in the presence of witnesses, after noting 
 their numbers in a duly attested declaration that they had been destroyed ; 
 and this was done. The blotting-paper he might keep, and it was the only 
 compensation ever received for the _;^I5 transport expenses. Similarly, a 
 chest of the commonest and worst-made boots and shoes found its way 
 to Sefula, having been redirected thither in error by some agent : scarcely 
 two pairs fitted anybody on the station. As for Mme. Jeanmairet's 
 wedding trousseau, which did not arrive till two or three years after her 
 marriage, it was all utterly destroyed in the river.
 
 iSgo] IN DISGRACE 405 
 
 what next year may be preparing for us. We are accused 
 of having deceived the king and sold his country, so that we are 
 quite in disgrace. I feel I have written you the saddest of all 
 my letters ; I am sorry for it, but I cannot help it.^ 
 
 ' In July 1890, M. Goy, who had hitherto been at Sefula, returned from 
 a visit to Basuto-land with his newly married wife, and was put in charge 
 of the Sesheke station, vacated by the Jeanmairets. About the same time, 
 Mr. Buckenham, of the Primitive Methodist Mission, brought a little band of 
 pioneers to Barotsi-land, hoping for permission to establish a work among the 
 vassal tribe of Mashukulumboe. They could not have arrived at a more unpro- 
 pitious moment for their own success. The Barotsi, angered by their king's 
 treaty with the B. S. A. Chartered Company, instantly identified the English 
 missionaries with the foreigners, whose policy they dreaded (without under- 
 standing it), and treated them with every indignity. The French missionaries, 
 hoping to shield them, took their part, thereby incurring the same hostility ; 
 and hence arose serious complications, related in the next chapter.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 Dark Days — Political Calumnies — The Floods — Narubutu and the Con- 
 servatives — Temporary Capital at Sana — A Royal Water-party — Easter 
 Sunday — A Visit to the King and Queen — Revival of Thieving in the 
 School — A Sad Story — A Visit from the Jallas — Levity of the Zambesians 
 — A Hunting Expedition — Death of the Only Horse — A Clever Thief 
 and his Punishment — " Alexander the Coppersmith " — The Primitive 
 Methodist Mission — " The Terror of the King." 
 
 Sefula, April 1891. 
 
 AMONG the lukewarm friends of missions, I have sometimes 
 heard the remark that missionaries' letters are generally 
 sunshiny pictures without shadows ; which, to say the least 
 of it, would be very inartistic — very little in harmony with 
 nature. Though I protest against this assertion, which is only 
 based upon ignorance, or else upon a generalisation of isolated 
 facts, yet it is a tendency I can very well understand, if it 
 be not exaggerated. Just as we like to share all our hopes 
 and joys with our friends, just so far do we shrink from 
 saddening them with gloomy tales of anxieties, disappointments, 
 and difficulties, incessantly renewed. But after all, our true 
 friends, those who are associated heart and soul with our labours, 
 need to know everything, to read between the lines, and thus 
 be initiated into the web of our life — do they not ? For them, 
 as for ourselves, the evangelisation of the heathen world, in 
 the place where it is carried on, is certainly not a tissue of 
 strange customs and adventures as thrilling as a romance ; 
 it is a desperate struggle with the Prince of Darkness, and 
 with everything that his rage can stir up in the shape of 
 obstacles, vexations, opposition, and hatred, whether by circum- 
 stances or by the hand of man. It is a serious task. Oh, it 
 should mean a life of consecration and faith ! 
 
 Already you can guess — can you not ? — that we have passed 
 
 406
 
 1891] POLITICAL CALUMNIES 407 
 
 through some particularly trying times. Well, yes ! When 
 the clouds pile themselves up, black and heavy with tempest, 
 it is idle to tell yourself that the sun is always shining radiantly 
 beyond, in the depth of the skies. You would like to see it ; 
 and when the mist thickens round you, and sends an icy shiver 
 into your very heart, would you not prefer to close your lips, 
 bury yourself in the folds of your mantle, and pursue your way 
 in silence until the sky clears again ? But no ; I must overcome 
 that and speak. 
 
 To begin with, we have run the risk (and, for all I know, 
 may yet be running it) of embroiling all our relationships with 
 this man for whom I have conceived so great an affection, but 
 who, alas ! as king is so deplorably incapable. He is a weather- 
 cock, changing with every wind, soft wax that receives every 
 impression, hopelessly at the mercy of the most contrary influ- 
 ences. Poor Lewanika ! You know the concession he made 
 to the B. S. A. Chartered Company. Well, intriguing men, 
 some of them Europeans, animated by motives which I need 
 not qualify, left no stone unturned to excite the king's sus- 
 picious nature, and stir up his anger ; they have represented 
 his transactions with the Company in the falsest light, accusing 
 us ourselves of having designedly deceived him, and of having 
 sold our services and our influence to the Company — we, who 
 have not even received a single penny for all the provisions we 
 had to procure for its agent and his followers for their return 
 journey when they left. As for our hospitality during the 
 two months he was our guest, of course there could be no 
 question of payment for that. These calumnies and others 
 no less absurd have completely upset the king. In the old 
 days — six or seven years ago — they would have compromised 
 everything : our property, our lives, our mission. 
 
 Thus we have been scratched in the thorny field of politics, 
 which is certainly not ours.. We have fallen into a hornets' 
 nest. We do not yet know the final turn affairs may take. 
 What we do know is, that " the Lord reigneth," and that He 
 can just as easily turn the malice of the wicked as the mistakes 
 of men, all events and all circumstances, to the accomplishment 
 of His eternal designs. 
 
 The season this year has been exceptionally rainy — a 
 dismal season for us in one sense. Everything is impregnated
 
 408 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 with that warm moisture which is only known in the tropics. 
 Our foot-gear, our books, even those we use daily, are all covered 
 with mildew. As to the eatables, we won't speak of them. 
 At no season will anything keep at the Zambesi, except in 
 hermetically sealed canisters. And when necessity obliges one 
 to open any of these canisters, if the contents are not to be lost, 
 they must be finished up at once. Meat, which with us is so 
 scarce and difficult to procure, will only keep two days ; on the 
 third it is already tainted, and disgusts one. 
 
 For two successive years now, Lewanika has chosen a site 
 for his temporary capital, but for lack of water the canoes could 
 not land there. This is the third time. Will it be the same ? 
 No one can understand it. The divining bones were earnestly 
 consulted, and the oracle was heard. The gods, above all the 
 formidable Katuramoa, were wroth at Lewanika's unheard-of 
 innovation. What was he going after in the neighbourhood of 
 these white men, when " the traditions of antiquity had devoted 
 quite another part of the country to the king's residence " ? 
 
 Thus were the gods made to speak by the conservative 
 party, and it is influential : old Narubutu worthily represents 
 it. Lewanika, who wanted to keep the thing secret, was 
 surprised and mortified when I spoke to him about it. He 
 had decided not to put himself in the wrong with the manes 
 of his ancestors, but to conform to tradition : consequently, 
 he was quietly making his preparations. But after a serious 
 conversation I had with him in January, he let himself be 
 shaken. He held a council ; and, strange to say, the chiefs 
 also yielded, and they resolved to make a last attempt this 
 year, and install the temporary capital at Sana, in our neighbour- 
 hood. The work was vigorously pushed on, and two miles 
 from us, as the crow flies, a village is now rising from an islet, 
 an exact reproduction of Lealuyi, only on a more modest 
 scale. The plan is the same, and so are the arrangements of 
 the king's private establishment, his harem, his kitchens, his 
 various offices, the khothla, and the various quarters of the town ; 
 there is the same labyrinth of concentric alleys and narrow 
 passages. So there is an old desire accomplished, after ardent 
 prayers which God has deigned to grant. Yes, but how about 
 the flood? It is late ; the prognosticators are already swearing 
 that there will not be one. In vain messengers have been
 
 1891] A WATER-PARTY 409 
 
 sent, one after another, to the upper country — no use ! 
 Decidedly, we are not popular in the spirit-world, and 
 Katuramoa has a grudge against us ! 
 
 But lo and behold ! one fine day a note from the king 
 announces, as great and good tidings, that the flood, which has 
 come a little suddenly, is already sufficient to bear the mon- 
 strous royal barge, and that at last he is coming to Sana. 
 Soon afterwards, a canoe arrives with a pleasant message to 
 go and meet him at Sebembi. 
 
 Life at the Zambesi is monotonous — no recreation, or very 
 little ; so this was too good an occasion not to unbend a little. 
 We were soon in canoes — Mme. Coillard, Mile. Kiener, Mr. 
 Waddell, Andreas, the girls, the boys, all our pupils big and 
 little ; and for the first time we had the joy of gliding on the 
 waters of our canal. We were the first at the rendezvous. 
 We could hear the low rumbling of the war-drums, but it was 
 distant. And to keep ourselves from looking at the sun, which 
 was going down, and the clouds, which were mounting up, 
 the ladies visited the huts, and we talked to the men grouped 
 about the public square ; then we all sang hymns together. 
 That is our bell in the villages, but a very cracked bell, I can 
 assure you. Then we spoke of the Lord Jesus to these poor 
 creatures. During this time, the drums had drawn nearer. 
 In a moment, we were on our feet, grouped upon the edge 
 of the water, and gazing into the immensity of the submerged 
 plain. " There they are ! there they are ! " and many voices 
 took up the cry. In truth, a black mass was appearing on 
 the horizon, growing visibly greater and broader, breaking up 
 and taking on the appearance of a forest floating on a lake. 
 The women, congregated on one side, uttered their customary 
 piercing cries, while among the groups of men and youths 
 remarks full of curiosity flew about like sparks, " What ! two 
 Nalikuandas? Just look ! When was the second one born ? " 
 And it was true. 
 
 The Barotsi had as usual patched up and restored the great 
 official barge, but Lewanika took it into his head to do some- 
 thing better. Shutting himself up with some selected workmen 
 in an enclosure forbidden to the public, he set to work. The 
 bottom and sides of canoes, taken to pieces, furnished him 
 with planks. Then dovetailing them together, and adjusting
 
 410 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 them very skilfully, he caulked them with the caoutchouc 
 of the country, made a double bottom, put up a pavilion 
 decorated with red-and-white stuff, and amid the wondering 
 gaze of his people he launched his own Nalikuanda. You can 
 guess how they admired it. I should not be surprised if some 
 poet had already sung it. Being longer and narrower than 
 the official barge, it is also much lighter, and does Lewanika 
 credit. After tacking about for a long time in the open, the 
 two wonders of our Barotsi navy arrived, escorted by the canoes 
 of the princesses (distinguished by their tents of matting), by 
 those of the councillors, chiefs, and favourite attendants of the 
 king, and by a multitude of slaves — altogether several hundreds 
 of canoes, bristling with paddlers, and spread over the plain 
 like an immense army of ants on the war-path. It was a novel 
 and interesting sight to us. 
 
 But the sun had reached the horizon. We exchanged a 
 hand-clasp and a few words with Lewanika, who was surprised 
 and quite delighted to see the ladies ; we went a little bit of 
 the way together ; and then, while he was betaking himself to 
 his new quarters, we returned by our canal. As we approached 
 the station, the current became stronger and the water shallower ; 
 we advanced but slowly. The clouds, which had gathered black 
 and dark, burst over us ; it was a waterspout. All who could, 
 escaped on foot. We remained alone with our little crew. 
 Wrapped up in mackintoshes as stiff as cardboard, which had 
 split to rags before ever being used, we endured this deluge 
 with the best grace we could, while our men pulled and pushed 
 the canoe very good-temperedly. In spite of this adventure, we 
 did not regret the day, once we were safe at home. 
 
 A problem which propounds itself and causes me great 
 embarrassment is that of reconciling the demands of teaching 
 with the urgent need for evangelisation. We cannot perform 
 the one duty conscientiously except at the expense of the 
 other. It pains me to think that our sphere of activity is so 
 limited, when we have the whole nation before us as our 
 undisputed field. The shortest walk in these torrid climes in 
 the sands and the swamps exhausts me, and makes me dread 
 the exertion. Besides, these walks cannot radiate very far : so 
 how can the distant villages be reached ? The temporary 
 removal of the capital to our neighbourhood, with the great
 
 iSgi] THE CAPITAL AT SANA 4II 
 
 movement it necessarily creates, imposes on me new duties, 
 which must not be neglected, for it offers us precious and unique 
 opportunities, which we must turn to account. This was the 
 lesson read me by the king the other day with a touch of 
 ill-humour : " I shall take good care not to make the people 
 go to Sefula. It is for all of you to reach them. I am tired of 
 telling them to send their children to the school, and they are 
 angry with me about it. I have brought thee the heart of the 
 nation. Now the business is thine, not mine." 
 
 Is it not strange that just at this moment, when the work 
 demands new efforts and we would need to multiply ourselves, I 
 find myself alone to meet it ? And to crown these complications, 
 I have just lost my horse, that faithful servant I owed to the 
 generosity of a friend, whom I have often blessed without 
 knowing him. So I have nothing left but my legs, which are 
 not very young. But " no man goeth to war at his own 
 charges." We have the right to count upon the Master Who 
 has sent us. 
 
 Allow me to invite you to spend Easter Sunday with us, 
 and you will get some idea of how far our experiences can be 
 called encouraging. It was the first Sunday Lewanika spent 
 at his new capital. We were counting on him and on a great 
 influx : perhaps it would even be impossible for us to have 
 the service in the church. The sky was grey, but there was 
 no rain — a fairly good sign. At dawn, in accordance with our 
 usual habits, the bell announced the Day of Rest. At half-past 
 nine and at ten o'clock, it once more rang to assemble our 
 audience. Except for our pupils, not a soul responded. Some 
 men and two or three women came in late. But the Lord was 
 with us, and the service was remarkably serious and interesting. 
 Then I put on my thick boots, and we all set off for the 
 capital, excepting of course the ladies. The king, friendly and 
 chatty as he always is, pleaded a slight indisposition, and I 
 found it impossible to persuade him to come to the service. 
 I imagined that he had perhaps to go through certain puri- 
 fications before he could show himself in the khothla of his 
 new village. I put the question directly to him, and he 
 laughed. 
 
 At his request, I pointed him out the portion of Scripture I 
 was going to read and explain, and betook myself to the public
 
 412 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 square. The handbell had gone the round of the village, and 
 had ceased ringing ; the public crier was heard no more, and 
 still I had only a handful of men before me. Of course there 
 were no women, since the king's were not there, and the latter 
 would not have dared to appear without his orders. On every 
 side work was going on ; they were building, dressing hides, 
 and repairing canoes. No one troubled about the meeting. We 
 had recourse to our last bell ; we set to work to sing, and sang 
 a long time. Some men sauntered slowly up, one by one : I 
 counted them ; and when I began to preach, I may have had an 
 audience of sixty. I reached home late, weary and discouraged. 
 But, in the evening, we had a blessed meditation together, and 
 took the Communion. For us, it was indeed the repast which 
 the Risen Saviour Himself prepared for the sad and worn-out 
 disciples who had " toiled all night and taken nothing." 
 
 Since then, we have been in a waggon with our ladies to 
 spend a day at the capital. This brought us in return a 
 succession of visits — long visits, lasting three-quarters of the 
 day. First of all, there were the king's wives ; then those of 
 the Gambella and the other chiefs. The king himself is entirely 
 taken up with antelope hunting ; but his messengers do not 
 let the grass grow on the path between Sana and Sefula. We 
 deeply feel our responsibility during the three months that lie 
 before us. For three years, this has been the subject of earnest 
 prayers. Many of our friends, too, have united with us in 
 asking the Lord for Lewanika's conversion : we are looking for 
 it ; we expect it. As he said to me himself the day before 
 yesterday, he knows the truth, he loves the things of God, but 
 Satan and the world are contesting him with us. It is difficult 
 for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 
 
 The school ! It suffered a violent shock from Litia's depar- 
 ture for Basuto-land. This dear boy exerted a much greater 
 influence than I imagined. All those slaves who attended it 
 with him have now forsaken it. Our young men's village, 
 having now no recognised authority which can be exercised 
 out of school hours, has become once more what it was 
 formerly — a den of brigands. It is not so much the pupils 
 themselves as their slaves. There has been a tremendous 
 revival of thieving — a perfect eruption, I had taken a great 
 deal of trouble to sow a field ; we have had no crop — maize,
 
 i89i] A SAD STORY 413 
 
 pumpkins, beans, sugarcanes, everything has been stolen, even 
 a fence I had undertaken, of which the last post will soon 
 have disappeared. My minimum and maximum thermometers 
 have gone the way of my two aneroids, and are of no use to 
 the thieves. 
 
 Even at school, there is always a leaven of insubordination. 
 The scholars know we have no authority over them, and that, 
 however ill they behave, no one, either the king or their 
 parents, will have a rebuke for them. Moreover, discipline is 
 a delicate and difficult matter. But, on the whole, our school 
 is always the one bright spot in the work of Sefula. Our 
 pupils are making progress, and the task of teaching them 
 has been a serious one. Oh, if the Spirit of God would but 
 work among them, and bring about true conversions, what a 
 change there would be ! Until the time of blessing, may God 
 continue to give us grace and patience ! We are ready for 
 anything rather than to have no school, — ready, if needs be, 
 to sow nothing more in our field, so often plundered ; not to 
 complain, if we are robbed. . . . We must suffer in silence, until 
 better days. They will dawn at the Zambesi as in Basuto- 
 land, and then our trials and vexations will be a subject of 
 astonishment to our successors, and an irrefutable proof of the 
 influence of the Gospel. 
 
 My pictures to-day are not lacking in shadows, alas ! And 
 yet another must be added, the darkest, the blackest of 
 all. I do it with shame and sorrow ; but do it I must, if 
 I would be truthful, and give you even a glimpse into the 
 nature of some of our difficulties. You will remember that, 
 besides Lewanika's daughters, we had three other girls, on 
 whom we had centred much affection and many hopes. Illu- 
 sive and deceptive dreams ! Of these three, two had to be 
 summarily turned out of our house. They used to get over 
 the enclosure of the court at night, and, in accordance with 
 the morals of the country, gave themselves up to the disorder 
 of the village, and, evading our vigilance, made appoint- 
 ments with their accomplices in the woods in broad daylight. 
 You can guess the rest. It is quickly told ; but what is 
 not told, and cannot be, is the suffering, the moral torture, 
 we have passed through, especially my poor wife. It was 
 during my last' journey to Sesheke that she began to make
 
 414 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 these overwhelming discoveries. Her distress, her bitter tears, 
 added to the great weakness of her condition, almost killed her. 
 We had often shuddered at the contact with the appalling 
 corruption that reigns around us and poisons our atmosphere, 
 but we did not as yet completely realise that we were living 
 in the midst of Sodom. The notion of sin does not as yet 
 exist. Young and old glory in their shame ; there is no sense 
 of it. Should a young girl fall, she is no way disgraced ; public 
 opinion fastens no stigma upon her ; and her masters, if she 
 has any, have a slave the more. Forgive me for putting things 
 so crudely. But it is well you should know that, when we 
 speak in veiled words of corruption, it is an abyss that we are 
 hiding out of deference to you and out of modesty. These 
 are not commonplaces, a conventional way of speaking ? No 
 indeed, dear friends. They are appalling realities, which 
 haunt us, so that the hours of darkness bring nothing but 
 sleeplessness or nightmares. To work here without losing 
 courage, and to keep alive the smoking flax of faith, one must 
 believe, and believe firmly, that the Gospel of Christ is truly 
 the power of God unto salvation upon all that believe. Whoever 
 doubts it would lose his way, coming to the Zambesi, unless 
 God had mercy on him and unsealed his eyes. 
 
 Our poor, poor children ! So much for the result of three 
 years' toil ! We would fain believe that the tears of our poor 
 Nyama were to some extent sincere ; and that though she had 
 to leave our house in disgrace, the good seed so lovingly sown 
 in her heart will some day spring up, and that she will one 
 day become a steady, sober woman and an earnest Christian. 
 The other, Namusi, pained us even more by her hardness, her 
 insolence and duplicity, than by her fall. On her return to 
 Lealuyi, the king wished to make an example. He put her 
 in prison, took away all her European clothes (her wardrobe 
 was well garnished, and she was very proud of it, poor girl ! ), 
 and distributed them to the first-comers. Imagine the effect 
 upon us the other day, when we went with the ladies to the 
 capital, at seeing grown-up young men dressed up in the 
 unfortunate girl's nightdresses, and in setsibas made out of her 
 skirts. In the bitterness of my grief, I would myself have 
 cleared the house of the last of our girls. But my wife was 
 of another mind — one more in harmony with that of the
 
 1891] THE JALLAS' VISIT 415 
 
 Friend of sinners. She received three fresh little girls from 
 Lewanika ; and — we are going to begin again. 
 
 It was in the midst of this terrible trouble that Mile. Kiener 
 came to us like an angel sent by God. The shock was 
 terrible to her, and her vocation had to stand a severe test at 
 the beginning. A real daughter for us in the house, a tender 
 and devoted friend for my wife, an active and capable help in 
 the school, she has already been a great blessing ; and in our 
 hearts, as in our lives, she is making a larger place for herself 
 every day. 
 
 It was in these circumstances, too, that our friend Adolphe 
 Jalla left us for his long journey to the south, whither 
 he is going to meet his fiancee ; and the tempest had far 
 from subsided when our dear friends from Kazungula arrived, 
 M, and Mme. Louis Jalla. Our heavenly Father had pre- 
 pared this balm for our sore hearts. This was the very 
 first visit from friends that we have received at Sefula. To 
 say that we enjoyed their visits sounds commonplace, and yet 
 it is true. They were indeed a blessing to us. We could 
 talk and pray together. M. Jalla was no idle visitor. As 
 a member of the Barotsi missionary family, he fully entered into 
 the work at Sefula, equally with his dear wife. He preached, 
 he taught and directed the school, as he would have done at 
 home, while a slight illness confined me to the house. I will 
 not enter into details. Their passage here has left a wake 
 of brightness, like the ships which in the tropics furrow the 
 phosphorescent waves. I am glad the people know them, and 
 I am sure they like them.^ What a comfort it would be to 
 know that the great village of Mambova had at last been 
 
 1 M. L. Jalla writes of this visit : " On December i8th, we arrived at Sefula. 
 The station had a festival air. We could scarcely recognise Mile. Kiener, 
 the fever had so transformed her already. What beautiful trees there are at 
 Sefula ! We counted more than twenty in the inner court alone. The 
 station is quite a little world, where it seems to me the feeling of solitude, so 
 frequent with us, ought to be entirely unknown. We spent a whole month 
 of rest and intimate enjoyment at Sefula, installed in the pretty little house 
 Litia had once occupied. Sometimes we went out all together to make a 
 little tour in the wide garden of Sefula, admiring the immense avenue of 
 bananas planted by M. Coillard. Everything here is on a large scale, 
 except perhaps the crops. One traces everywhere the skilful hand of 
 Mr. Waddell. I specially admired the chapel, which is a masterpiece, given
 
 41 6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 transferred to Kazungula ! We are counting on it. Lewanika 
 has been sending one order after another for two years ; but 
 he has not the power of making himself obeyed. And yet it 
 is a position of indisputable importance for the nation, seeing 
 it is the gate of the country. Besides this, great changes will 
 take place in this part of the country, if, as I believe, the 
 queen, Mokwae, finally selects Sesheke for her residence. 
 
 I am sorry to close this letter without being able to point 
 to the slightest symptom of an awakening of conscience around 
 us. We are still breaking up the ground. And what a business! 
 We may plough and we may sow, but the seed remains buried 
 under the clods, and choked among the briers of a frightful 
 paganism. It would be enough to make us lose courage, if 
 we did not know that it is precisely under the ground in secret 
 and in silence that the seed sprouts. 
 
 What strikes us and distresses us in our dear Zambesians 
 is their incredible levity. They laugh and scoff at everything 
 and everybody. They have none of that decorum, that grave 
 and respectful politeness, which constitutes the charm of social 
 intercourse among the Bechuana in general and the Basuto 
 in particular. I consider those young people fortunate who 
 come out directly from Europe to the Barotsi, without having 
 made acquaintance with other tribes. They are spared many 
 bitter disappointments. 
 
 The Basuto, like the Athenians, are all, and always, on the 
 scent of anything new. " Taba ke life ? " (" What is the news ? ") 
 is the invariable salutation of two strangers meeting one another. 
 Here people flee and hide from one another, if they can ; the 
 stronger insults and robs the weaker. You may come from 
 the ends of the earth : what does it matter to them what is said 
 
 the conditions of the country. It is almost always filled. I was happy 
 to employ a good part of my time at the school. Mile. Kiencr is fighting her 
 first battles there, and I was sometimes surprised to see those great boys, 
 naturally so turbulent, obeying her words, uttered as they were in a quiet yet 
 firm little voice. After Mr. Waddell, Nguana-Ngombe is M. Coillard's 
 right hand. What an invaluable boy! and at the same time so unselfish. 
 Above all, it is thanks to him that it has been possible to achieve the great 
 work of a canal joining the Sefula River to the Zambesi, and permitting 
 canoes to come within five minutes of the station. But what is specially 
 encouraging with Andreas is his earnestness, his faithfulness to the Lord, 
 in spite of the many snares laid for him on every side."
 
 iSgi] "LE ROI S'aMUSE" 417 
 
 and done over there ? Lewanika is, as far as I know, the only 
 one — without exception — who puts such questions to you. Here, 
 to live is literally to amuse oneself. All is frivolity ; there is 
 nothing serious in life — nothing. You enquire after somebody's 
 health. People laugh in your face ; they look at one another, 
 and ask what you mean. You should go more directly to the 
 point, and ask if this somebody is amusing himself, and they 
 will instantly and emphatically answer you, " O nts'a bapala 
 hantle " (" Yes, he is amusing himself thoroughly "). Should 
 you meet some one from the capital, and ask what is the news, 
 unless the king be laid up, the invariable reply is, " Le roi 
 s'amuse " ; " Morena oa bapala merdpa e ntse e tela " (" The king 
 is amusing himself, and the drums are still beating "). 
 
 Unhappily, the duties and responsibilities of life share this 
 evil influence. The Zambesians have few sources of joy, and 
 the trials which elsewhere stir the depths of the soul, here do 
 scarcely more than brush over the surface of empty hearts. 
 Theft, lying, murder, atrocities and corruptions under their most 
 revolting forms, do not seem to astonish anybody. People are 
 amusing themselves — that is their way of doing it. A father, 
 whose daughter, placed in a missionary's house, is already 
 destined for a young chief's harem, recommended our brother 
 not to look after her too much, but to shut his eyes a little to 
 the girl's relationships with the boys of the establishment. He 
 said, in language which cannot be translated into plain English, 
 " Let them amuse themselves." At our age, there is something 
 absurd in being gravely greeted with, " Salang ! le bapale 
 Jiantle ! " (" Rest in peace and amuse yourself well "). But some- 
 times the absurdity wrings tears from one's eyes, as when one 
 day a man came from Sesheke, bringing us the news of little 
 Marguerite's death, my niece's child. " And how did you leave 
 M. and Mme. Jeanmairet ? " enquired my wife. " Oh, very well ; 
 they were amusing themselves." " What ! amusing themselves, 
 when their child had just died?" Whereupon the man burst 
 into a loud peal of laughter. 
 
 There is something profoundly sad in this, because I think 
 it is the key to the Barotsi character. For them, nothing is 
 serious. Everything degenerates into amusement or disgust : 
 moreover, they are not capable of intellectual effort, and can- 
 not bear the least restraint. One can easily understand the 
 
 27 
 
 ^
 
 41 8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 very slight hold the things of God have upon these frivolous 
 natures. 
 
 " Son of Man, can these dry bones live ? " " Lord, Thou 
 
 knowest" 
 
 Sefula, April i^th, 1891. 
 
 I am at leisure to-day ; for it has pleased all our pupils, 
 without exception, to give us three or four weeks' holiday, in 
 order to go with the king to Ruena to hunt antelopes ; and 
 naturally the king could not refuse. It is a monster hunt ; the 
 people betake themselves thither in battalions, and they have 
 a grande battue. The antelopes, encircled on all sides, take 
 refuge on an islet, the canoes draw together, the circle closes, 
 grows smaller, and to the first spear flung by the king a general 
 slaughter ensues. Every one goes frantic. They roast meat to 
 repletion ; they have the chance of picking up a skin or two 
 for the winter. How can one blame our young Zambesians for 
 throwing off the constraint and monotony of school, and giving 
 themselves up to the delights of this savage life ? 
 
 I followed them in a canoe ten or twelve days later, in 
 order to spend the Sunday with them and preach the Gospel. 
 Meanwhile, I continue to visit the capital, although I do not 
 find much encouragement there for my meetings. The king is 
 always friendly, and so are the people. But the women are 
 quite horrified when I press them to come. " What ! we to go 
 on the public square, without being able to hide ourselves from 
 the men's eyes, as we can at Lealuyi ! Surely the Moruti is not 
 serious?" And, in fact, they do not come, not one of them. 
 So the work has to be done from house to house. 
 
 I was much touched, in reading last year's Report, to see 
 there a sum of 225 f. {£<^ anonymously given at Neuchatel 
 ^'for M. Coillard's horse." Now, how could this person know 
 that in 1891 1 should be in want of a horse? Is it not really 
 remarkable ? I have indeed lost my horse, that good old 
 servant who knew me so well, and without whom I never 
 went any excursion. Everybody else knew him too. From 
 as far off as they could see his white coat, they would shout, 
 " The missionary ! " And everybody ran up, men and women 
 too. " Ah ! it is the Lord's Day to-morrow, is it not ? We 
 will come?" And the boys would make the excursion with 
 me, merrily and noisily. It all reminded mc of my life in
 
 1891] A CLEVER THIEF 419 
 
 Basuto-land, — a somewhat faint reflection of it, to be sure ; but 
 still it brought back pleasant memories. Now it is my old legs 
 which must carry me, a little less briskly, a little more painfully, 
 and perhaps a little less far, through our sands and morasses. 
 If the work is to be done on a more modest scale, still it will 
 be done all the same. And until I get some new legs, God will 
 give strength and courage. 
 
 I was speaking the other day of the new outbreak of thieving. 
 I had laid down my pen, and the ink was scarcely dry, when a 
 thief, braving the rain, made a journey of four or five leagues, 
 in order to enrich himself after the fashion of the housebreaking 
 fraternity. He had certainly taken his observations and timed 
 his visit admirably, to judge by the care with which he had 
 made his selection, whether in my study or my dark photo- 
 graphic chamber, of which he even carried off the serge portiere. 
 Only — he had forgotten that at the end of the rainy season 
 running would leave traces on the sand. At daybreak, as soon 
 as I had given the alarm, all our boys were on the scent. The 
 thief made light of that. Had he not a little magic horn, which 
 he shook as he went along the road, firmly believing that those 
 who pursued him would either drop down in sleep or be struck 
 blind ? Towards midday, he had halted in the shade, among 
 the woods, in order to admire his booty, and enjoy an entirely 
 new sensation, that of combing and brushing his hair — for he 
 was in possession of a dressing-case. Suddenly, he heard a 
 rustling in the brushwood ; he perceived a troop of armed 
 youths, and with one desperate bound sought safety in flight. 
 All in vain ; they seized him, throttled him, and brought him to 
 the station. The next day, I sent him to the king. 
 
 The unfortunate creature was so unlucky as to be a Mongeti, 
 and not to have a Morotsi for his master. The occasion was 
 too tempting to parade their virtue. After having left him all 
 day tied up in the full sun, the chiefs condemned him to be bound 
 hand and foot, with two big blocks of wood attached to his legs, 
 and to be thrown into the river. The king had prudently 
 retired. When he learnt the sentence, he thrice sent to ask 
 the great chiefs if they were serious. " Serious ? Most certainly ! 
 We must make an example ; it is quite time." " Very well," 
 said the king, " but let us at least wait for the missionary's 
 opinion. Meanwhile, throttle the rascal for me." They under-
 
 420 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 Stood. Two stakes were driven into the ground, as far apart 
 as possible ; they stretched out his arms and legs, and bound 
 them to these stakes. His head and abdomen were tightly- 
 fastened to two crosspieces — a regular crucifixion ; and there 
 the poor unfortunate was left in the most terrible situation^ 
 devoured all night long by mosquitoes, the whole day by flies 
 and thirst, and scorched by a burning sun — a spectacle which 
 attracted and amused a curious crowd. 
 
 I need not tell you my indignation, and the nature of the 
 messages upon messages I sent the king. I was about to betake 
 myself to the village, when I received the assurance that the 
 poor wretch had been loosed. Indiscreet tongues have assured 
 me that, in spite of the king's orders, he was left thus crucified 
 for a day and two nights — thirty-six hours — while his cries and 
 groans excited the general mirth. 
 
 What made me so indignant was that, a short time ago, the 
 slave of a Barotsi chief had committed a much greater rob- 
 bery, under greatly aggravated circumstances. Though he was 
 caught red-handed and conducted straight to the lekhothla, the 
 great chiefs had not even a reprimand for him. " He is the 
 child of a Morotsi," they said : " his fault is ours ; we will pay 
 his fine." And this individual strutted about, unashamed, after 
 as before. I did not want their fine ; but the kind people spared 
 me the embarrassment of either accepting or declining it. 
 Don't talk to me of Blind Justice at the Zambesi. wShe has 
 uncommonly good eyesight. 
 
 During my last visit to the king, the latter returned to his 
 favourite theme — an industrial school. He is so engrossed with 
 the idea of having boys whom we have polished up a little, that 
 he bribes mine away one after another — in a manner, moreover, 
 which does him little honour. 
 
 Sefula, June i6ih, 1891. 
 We are in the midst of a tempest : other letters will have 
 told you this already. We have never before been in such a 
 gale, so furious and persistent. It is still the affairs of the South 
 African Company that are upsetting people's minds. Without 
 being a St. Paul, I too have my " Alexander the coppersmith," 
 who has done and still " does me much evil." I needed this bitter 
 sorrow and painful humiliation, and I pray daily that I may be
 
 iSgi] "ALEXANDER THE COPPERSMITH" 42 I 
 
 filled with the same spirit as David, who in the day of his 
 adversity endured Shimei's insults, and replied to those who 
 would have avenged him, " The Lord hath said unto him, 
 Curse David." ^ 
 
 The last incidents that have arisen confirm me more and 
 more in the conviction that the treaty made last year with the 
 Company has been the lifebuoy as much for the nation as for 
 Lewanika himself. But to-day we are quite alone in our 
 opinion. Our adversaries, who have posed as the champions 
 and saviours of the nation, have represented things very 
 differently. Insinuations, calumnies, and the false light thrown 
 on facts have found a fertile soil in the radically suspicious, 
 excitable, and vindictive nature of our poor Barotsi, and have 
 quickly borne their fruits of distrust, threats, and insults. The 
 excitement of the Sesheke chiefs is at its height ; and the king 
 himself, rightly or wrongly, says that it is partly to this that 
 we must attribute the ill-treatment Mr. Baldwin (the Methodist 
 missionary) has suffered, and that M. Goy has, in part at least, 
 so nobly shared. Serious dangers are threatening us. Should 
 a pitso take place on Mokwae's return with the chiefs of Sesheke, 
 or should a rumour spread that the Company wishes to avail 
 itself of the treaty to enter the country forcibly, what will 
 become of us — of me ? 
 
 The king himself understands me, and is incapable of doing 
 us the least harm ; but he is still more incapable of protecting 
 us. He is trembling for himself: hence his persistence in 
 thro^ving on me alone all the responsibility. If the vengeance 
 of the Barotsi demands a victim, he will deliver one up much 
 sooner than expose himself. Alas ! he has just given us a sad 
 proof of this. 
 
 The Methodist missionaries have been a year in the country, 
 and, poor things ! have had all sorts of troubles ; besides which, 
 they have not yet been able to learn the language, and this 
 impairs their popularity. On the feeblest of pretexts, one of 
 them has been shamefully and cruelly ill-treated, at Queen 
 Mokwae's, near Sesheke. This has naturally been bruited all 
 through the country.^ It was from Lewanika himself that I 
 
 ' See 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11. 
 
 » The story of these troubles was briefly as follows :— The queen, 
 Mokwae, had gone on a hunting expedition, leaving her " palace " under the 
 
 ^
 
 42 2 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 first heard of it : then came the letters of our brethren Louis 
 Jalla and Goy, full of an earnestness and elevation that would 
 have pleased you. I read them to the king. It was given 
 to me also to be faithful, both in private and in my Sunday 
 
 guardianship of one of her attendants. One of the English missionaries 
 entered the court to speak to the warder, not knowing it was contrary to 
 etiquette to do so in the queen's absence ; and the next evening, while 
 taking a moonlight stroll with one of his colleagues, he brought the latter into 
 the palace court, to show him how it was built ; and, to illustrate his explana- 
 tions, he traced some lines on the sand with his foot. Instantly, the warder 
 accused them both of sorcery against the queen, who, directly she heard of 
 it, sent for both the missionaries. Only one of them, Mr. Baldwin, was able 
 to attend, the other being ill with fever. M. Goy went with him to act as 
 interpreter and advocate. Their reception augured ill. The queen refused 
 to see them. They found chiefs and men all assembled on the public place. 
 Mr. Baldwin was denied the usual courtesy granted to the missionaries of 
 sitting on his camp-stool, but was forced like an accused and already con- 
 demned man to squat bare-headed on the burning sand and under a broiling 
 sun. M. Goy, indignant, protested, but in vain, and then shared the humiliation 
 of his brother. The mock proceedings had hardly begun when a chief 
 suddenly threw himself upon Mr. Baldwin, crying out, "Seize him !" About 
 five hundred men instantly surrounded them, crying, " Strangle him ! Throw 
 him into the water ! " M. Goy, thinking to save him, flung his arms round 
 him ; but the people were so infuriated, that, after a hand-to-hand struggle, 
 in which both the missionaries were cruelly ill-used, they succeeded in 
 tearing them apart. The chiefs of Sesheke held M. Goy fast, abusing him as 
 a "thief" and "arch-sorcerer," for espousing Mr. Baldwin's cause. Mean- 
 while, Mr. Baldwin was far more severely handled by the queen's followers, 
 who tortured him by twisting his arms and legs, and sent him back to his 
 defender, unrecognisably disfigured with blood and dust. In this state, he 
 was again forced to sit on the burning sand in the sun for an hour. At 
 last Mokwae said, " I consent to pardon him, but he must pay a fine " ; 
 to which Mr. Baldwin agreed, in order to save his life. All night long, 
 M. Goy heard them repeating ferociously around him, "Yes, we will kill 
 that white man ; he wanted to bewitch our queen, and get possession of 
 the country." Next day, Mokwae offered M. Goy canoes to return to the 
 station, but he was obliged to insist that Mr. Baldwin should be in the 
 same boat as himself, for fear she might have given orders to have him 
 abandoned on an islet or thrown into the river. 
 
 It was not till after two or three years of probation and sufferings such 
 as the foregoing, that, through M. Coillard's persistent endeavours on their 
 behalf, the Primitive Methodists were allowed to settle in Mashukulumboe- 
 land. Mr. Baldwin is now in charge of the station. Mr. Buckenham, the 
 leader of the band, died in 1896, after a long and painful illness, brought 
 on by the climate and the hardships and privations they had gone through. 
 M. Goy, their champion, died about the same time, and from similar causes.
 
 iSgi] THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS 423 
 
 preaching, at the lekJiothla (2 Cor. v. 20 : " We are ambassadors 
 for Christ "), and to denounce the conduct of Mokwae and the 
 chiefs of Sesheke as a grave offence against God, Whose servants 
 we are. The king certainly shared my feelings. He was very 
 much displeased by the affair, and he cast all the odium of 
 it upon the Sesheke chiefs. Mokwae, according to him, was 
 nothing but a tool in their hands. He wanted to send them 
 a severe reprimand, but was grieved that he had nobody 
 courageous enough to convey his message to them. It was in 
 vain that together we went over the principal personages of 
 the Valley. The Seshekians are formidable, and everybody 
 dreads them. Lewanika, while opposing our Methodist 
 brethren's going to the Mashukulumboe, or, as I earnestly 
 begged them, to the Batoka, left them free to stop in the 
 country or to go. Scarcely had I reached home, when his mood 
 changed. His messengers came one on the top of the other, 
 all contradictory, and each one more bitter than the last. He 
 had requested me, by letter, to write to the English missionaries 
 in the sense above indicated, and then sent the letter back 
 to me full of indignation, telling me by the hand of Seajika 
 himself, that he had never asked me to write, that it was all 
 the lies and inventions of that liar Seajika, and that, as it was 
 I who had introduced these gentlemen, he owed it to me to 
 tell me the message he had already sent them. And this 
 message is a very hard one for the Methodists. 
 
 The conclusion is, that the king refunds the fine Mokwae 
 had made them pay, but orders them to quit his country 
 immediately. 
 
 My impression is that he is afraid of the Sesheke chiefs, and 
 that he has not the courage to take the part of the Methodist 
 missionaries. He sacrifices them to get out of his difficulty, 
 which is not very reassuring for us. But do not fear. God is 
 watching over us ; He reigns. For some time, a spirit of murmur- 
 ing and discontent has increasingly prevailed, and bodes no good. 
 Lewanika is not ignorant of it, but that does not prevent him 
 from irritating instead of conciliating his people. At his last 
 hunt, there were two strikes among the thousands of men who 
 followed him. They had already accompanied him, much 
 against the grain ; and in spite of the very cold nights, he went 
 so far as to forbid them the camp, even though they had not
 
 424 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 their blankets. This was because he had had some misunder- 
 standing with the great chiefs. Just now, all our district is again 
 agitated. Panic has seized everybody, and the villages are 
 deserted. It is the Lefunga — the Terror of the king. Mes- 
 sengers swoop down on all the villages, carrying off the children, 
 boys and girls, the prisoners of a certain age being knocked 
 down with blows. Later on, it was the turn of the women, to 
 be taken forcibly for disposal according to the king's caprice. 
 At the lekhothla, the men were throttled wholesale.^ And all 
 because a few workmen took some of the materials of the 
 temporary capital, which the king has now left in order to return 
 to Lealuyi. It is whispered that these men are accused of 
 aiming at the king's life, in order to put some one in his place. 
 One piece of news Mokwae has sent the king by express 
 messenger is, that the Matabele have crossed the river below 
 Kazungula. Mokwae has taken flight, and is returning to the 
 Valley. 
 
 What complications in this unhappy country ! I do not 
 believe this last news until it has been confirmed. They have 
 cried "Wolf" so long. But one fine day, when people have 
 ceased to believe in him, the wolf may very well make his 
 appearance. 
 
 Just now, there is an alarming recrudescence of paganism ; 
 it is boldly lifting its head again. One would say we had lost 
 ground. Lewanika himself is not always very pleasant, either 
 with his subjects or even with us. And we need much prudence 
 and charity, if we are to maintain our mutual good relations. 
 
 I told you that the king had sent orders to our Methodist 
 brethren to leave the country, and that all my efforts in their 
 favour had failed. Since then, he has yielded to my 
 importunities, and has given them permission to stay, " in order 
 to learn the language and customs of the people here." I bless 
 God for it. I knew that, with their losses of cattle, our friends 
 could not leave ; and I feared that, if they remained in the face 
 of the king's orders, they would be subjected to all sorts of 
 annoyances. The king declares that he will not allow them to 
 
 ' The torture of throttling, very frequently employed by the Barotsi, 
 is generally practised in such a way as to cause, not death, but simply a 
 prolonged fainting fit. Then the victim is brought back to his senses by 
 blows.
 
 iSgr] GARDEN THIEVES 425 
 
 go and found a mission either among the Mashukulumboe or 
 the Batoka. I can only hope that, when minds have calmed 
 down a little, and we can discuss matters reasonably, he will end 
 by yielding. 
 
 Sefula, Jtdy iWi, 1891. 
 
 It needs to be known that the soldier of Christ does not 
 gather the laurels of his crown of life in a delightful garden, 
 where he can tread the primrose paths in velvet slippers. 
 
 We have already learnt much of the art of war since we 
 came to the Zambesi, but it has been learnt as one learns every- 
 thing in practical life, at the expense of a personal experience 
 which is often hard and humiliating. And then, when we begin 
 to grow into good soldiers, our career will be run, we must pile 
 arms and yield our place to others. Our regrets cannot be at 
 having to lay down our arms, but at not having had all that 
 experience which would have made us good soldiers at the 
 beginning of the combat. It is a poor thing to be a conscript 
 all one's life. 
 
 What makes me speak like this is, that, with all our expe- 
 rience in Basuto-land, I fear that as yet we have not perfectly 
 understood our Zambesians. One would say we were laying 
 the foundations of our edifice in shifting sands. Our efforts have 
 had no result these six years that wc have been in the country. 
 When we think we have laboriously raised a few stones, some 
 incident (apparently insignificant) occurs, and the whole thing 
 collapses. 
 
 This is what is happening with our school. Since Litia's 
 departure, there has been a stampede among our pupils. We 
 have brought them back one by one, thanks to perseverance ; 
 and out of the debris of our beautiful school of last year, we 
 have once more made something respectable. Mile. Kiener is 
 entirely one with us in this work, which we constantly bear in 
 our hearts and prayers. But lately, our pupils go off, they dis- 
 perse and complain of hunger. We often give them flour and 
 fish w^hich we buy ourselves. But I think it is just an excuse. 
 
 Stealing has come into fashion again, just as it was three 
 or four years ago. This year, I had to give up cultivating any- 
 thing, because they robbed us of everything, and we could save 
 nothing. They do not even respect the fences that enclose our
 
 426 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 cattle, and yet there is no lack of fuel at our very doors. The 
 other evening, two poor young slave-girls were caught pulling 
 up the remainder of our sweet potatoes. What could be done 
 to them ? They said they were hungry. We detained them 
 two days, and fed them well ; then we sent them away with 
 a little exhortation to themselves and to their young master, a 
 youthful prince among our pupils. I don't think we shall be 
 forgiven for having caught these thieves in the act. Thence 
 dates the upset of our school, but they take good care not to 
 tell us the reason. Am I not right in speaking of shifting 
 sands ? Still, deeper down than the sand we shall find a solid 
 stratum, and we are seeking that. We may have to begin again, 
 but we will succeed. If ever any one comes to help us who can 
 give himself up to the teaching entirely, we shall increase the 
 number of boys who live with us, and who are, among all our 
 pupils, those who give us most satisfaction. What we need, 
 until we can have converted fathers and mothers, is to have 
 pupils in our own house, completely severed from the system of 
 slavery prevailing in the country. Meanwhile, I ask myself 
 whether the Lord has not wished thus to direct my attention 
 more especially towards the work of evangelisation.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 The Death of Mme. Coillard — Her Last Visit to the Capital — Litia's Con- 
 fession of Faith — ^Her Last Ilhiess — " Do be in earnest, do ! " — The 
 Burial-place — Sympathy of the Barotsi — The Firstfruits of the Harvest — 
 A Little Slave-boy — Nyondo — Queen Victoria confirms the Agreement of 
 the Chartered Company — A Deficit. 
 
 ^^ He hath done all things well." — Mark vii. 37. 
 (Moravian text for October 28th, 1891.) 
 
 Sefula, October 2,1st, 1891. 
 
 I AM still quite stunned by the blow which has just struck me. 
 My wife, my beloved wife, is no more ! She left me for 
 heaven on October 28th, at ten o'clock in the morning ; and 
 the day before yesterday, in the afternoon, we accompanied her 
 mortal remains and laid them in the tomb. She was only ill in 
 bed for nine days ; but those days, so rich in hallowed memories^ 
 are worth a lifetime. It was more than a Pisgah ; it was the 
 glory of Mount Tabor ; for she had a presentiment of her 
 approaching departure which almost amounted to a revelation ; 
 and except for short, momentary intervals, she had the full 
 possession of her faculties. 
 
 Her bad health had long become chronic ; but when she had 
 got through the hot season, especially the months of September 
 and October, and reached mid-November, when the rains begin, 
 she generally felt herself revive. This year, the season was 
 particularly depressing. In vain we slept with doors and 
 windows open ; we stifled within our cottage, where at night all 
 the heat of the day seemed to concentrate, and sleep brought no 
 refreshment. We sighed for the rain. Two evenings before 
 her death, the sky for the second time became overcast ; and 
 when in the middle of the night I replied to her pressing 
 questions that there was a shower, I had to place her for a 
 
 427
 
 42 8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 moment dose to the window, so that she might hear " that 
 delicious rain " falling. At the hour at which I am writing, it 
 is pouring ; it has been falling since yesterday, and promises to 
 fall all day. The soil is no longer red hot ; the air is fresh, and 
 one can breathe : but she is in the grave ! 
 
 When, at the beginning of the month, we gave holidays to 
 the school, she entreated me to take her in the light waggon to 
 Lealuyi with Mile. Kiener. I could have wished to put off this 
 visit ; she seemed to me too poorly for it. But she was so much in 
 earnest about it that we started. She did all she could to forget 
 herself and make the journey pleasant : she was so happy to be 
 able to go ! . . . She felt that she had a mission to accomplish, 
 and that the present only was hers, not the future, even the nearest. 
 She was too weak to visit people in their homes ; but the women, 
 the chiefs' wives especially, soon besieged her in her hut, and 
 she gave herself entirely up to them. The first days were well 
 employed in cutting out and sewing dresses, all the time talking 
 in friendly fashion about the things of God. She was happy. 
 We all were : we thought God would bless our visit. 
 
 The Sunday morning, accompanied by one of our girls, she 
 had a long distance to walk through the fields. Thereupon, a 
 horrible bird of prey came up — not at all the ordinary secretary- 
 bird, but something of the vulture kind — which is kept in the 
 village because it kills and eats serpents. This creature, excited 
 no doubt by my wife's umbrella or the colour of her dress, 
 pursued and attacked her so furiously that the men and women 
 who ran up at her cries of distress had great difficulty in 
 rescuing her. They had scarcely left her when the serpent-eater 
 returned to the charge, even more fiercely than before. Some 
 passers-by came up, rescued her once more, and she returned 
 to the village in a fainting condition. As she had no wounds 
 on her person, we thought she would escape with her fright 
 and the loss of her umbrella. She recovered sufficiently to be 
 present at both services. The evening one, which moved us 
 all deeply, filled her with unspeakable joy. Our dear Litia, 
 in a simple and touching speech, made a public profession of 
 his conversion ; and while he was speaking, Mokamba, a young 
 man of the royal family, was also weeping, and then broke 
 into sobs ! " A Morotsi weeping ! . . . and weeping about his 
 sins ! I thought a Morotsi had no tears to shed. Why, it is
 
 iSgi] LAST DAYS 429 
 
 a sight I would have travelled three hundred miles to see ; 
 and yet," she said, " we have only had to come from Sefula." 
 She repeated that it was the most beautiful meeting she had 
 been present at on the Zambesi ! I bless God for the ray of 
 His glory with which He lit up the evening of her life. 
 
 On the Monday, she was laid up, and was no better on the 
 Tuesday. " Take me back to Sefula," she said ; " it is there 
 that I would die : do not let me die here." The Wednesday, 
 as she seemed a little better, we took advantage of it to return 
 home. She bore the journey better than we expected, and 
 alighted by herself from the cart. Entering the house, she 
 turned to Mile. Kiener, whom she dearly loved, and whom, 
 contrary to her usual habit, she addressed as " thee." " Here I 
 am ; safely arrived at last, darling," she said ; " I did not com- 
 plain, it is true, but I suffered very much. Now let me get to 
 my bed." She never left her room again but once. The next 
 day, hearing me play on the harmonium and sing while the 
 dinner was being served, she got up noiselessly, and in her 
 dressing-gown dragged herself to the dining-room. " Let 
 me play for you, dear," she said, gently, " and spare your 
 precious voice as long as I can. Let us sing ' The Golden 
 Gate.' " She played and I sang. A peculiar earnestness and 
 solemnity invested the whole scene. Little did I think that it 
 was our very last hymn together on earth, and that my beloved 
 fellow-pilgrim was so very near " the Golden Gate." Indeed, 
 sJie had sighted it. When the last notes had died away, we 
 could not speak. She quietly left the harmonium, and went 
 back to her bed, no more to rise. And shortly after she had 
 left me behind and gone . . . through " tJie Golden Gate." The 
 fever made terrible progress, in spite of my efforts and our 
 prayers. But I was blinded ; I still hoped : I thought I had 
 seen her more ill. 
 
 She had no such illusion ; she said so to me, with an accent 
 of tenderness, which it wrings my heart to remember. " My 
 beloved," she said, after looking at me long and fixedly, tears 
 filling her eyes, " you will soon have no Christina. . . . You 
 will be alone — quite alone. . . . But God is good, and His 
 mercy endureth for ever." 
 
 She had one day of great anguish. Her whole life passed 
 before her. She wept as she poured out her heart, " I am
 
 430 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 wretched ! — oh, so wretched ! — an unprofitable servant ; the least, 
 the most unworthy, of the Lord's servants ! Oh for zeal, for 
 zeal ! Do be in earnest, do ! " ^ she exclaimed. 
 
 In the momentary wanderings of her thoughts, she passed 
 anew through all the trials and distresses that have made this 
 year exceptionally hard. That was very painful for me, but 
 thank God it did not last. Jesus was there. With the breath 
 of His love, He dissipated these dark clouds, and flooded 
 her soul with serenity and peace. " Oh ! He is good — yes, 
 He is good" she often repeated, " and His mercy endureth for 
 ever." And she spoke of the things above, as one who is 
 already on the threshold of heaven, and for whom faith is 
 gradually changing into sight. 
 
 She was very sensitive to physical suffering, and this aspect 
 of death had often troubled her. We talked of it very freely, 
 and often prayed together about it. On the eve of her death, 
 she said to me, " Dying is not as difficult as we thought, and 
 as I feared ; it is not painful ; and then it is such a short passage, 
 when ^underneath are the everlasting Arms.''" This beautiful 
 passage (Deut. xxxiii. 27), so wonderfully sweet in her mother- 
 tongue, had often upheld us in our distresses. And that other, 
 too, in Ps. Ixxiii. 23, 24, which she loved to repeat, and which like 
 a river of living water had refreshed her whole career : " Never- 
 theless, I am continually with Thee ; Thou hast holden me by 
 my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and 
 afterward receive me to glory." 
 
 Before returning for the last time to her bed, which had just 
 been made, she asked me to draw aside the curtain of the 
 open window. Gazing into the immensity of the sky, through 
 the foliage which the wind was lightly shaking, she remained 
 a moment in mute contemplation ; then she cried out with 
 a delight we shall never forget, " Oh, que dest beau, que dest 
 done beau ! Oh, how very beautiful! " Had she then a vision 
 of the glory she was so soon to enter into ? She reached her 
 bed with difficulty, "/^ suis enfin arrivee" she said, laying her 
 head upon the pillow. 
 
 These were her last words. She had spent all these nights 
 without sleep. I myself was exhausted and much depressed by 
 a severe cold. But I felt so comforted, when at length I saw 
 
 1 These last words in italics were uttered in English, her mother-tongue.
 
 1891] THE LAST SLEEP 43 I 
 
 her close her eyelids, and sink peacefully to sleep, that I could 
 not leave her. I was full of hope. Alas ! this sleep ended by 
 making me anxious. Towards the morning, a change took 
 place which alarmed me. I could no longer deceive myself: 
 it was indeed the sleep of death. In my anguish, I would have 
 had one more last word, one last look of farewell. But no, I 
 had not that comfort. Mile. Kiener entered, then Waddcll, then 
 Andreas — a little group of desolate mourners ; we wept in silence, 
 we cried to God, we watched. The Lord was there. Soon the 
 breathing became more feeble and irregular, and then ceased 
 altogether. God in His mercy had spared her the sufferings 
 of a long and painful death-agony. 
 
 How sweet to her must be the eternal rest of the saints ! 
 How weary she was — she who had always been so strong, so 
 active, and so full of energy ! You will not be astonished that 
 the question of a voyage for her health had once presented itself 
 to my mind, and that I spoke to her seriously of it. Travel 
 for her health ! Far from her to condemn those who do it, 
 but to travel for herself seemed to her selfishness and lack of 
 confidence in God. " No, life is too short, and the work is too 
 great ; let us be faithful to our post until the end. The Master 
 knozvs that I need health, and He can, if He will, give it me here, 
 without my going elsewhere to seek it." And we spoke no more 
 of it. When we were married, rather more than thirty years 
 ago, she spoke these words to me : " I have come to Africa 
 to do the work of God with you, whatever it may be and 
 wJierever it may be ; and remember this — Wherever God 7nay 
 call you, you shall never fijid me crossing your patJi of duty!' It 
 was more than a beautiful saying ; it was the principle of her 
 whole life. If she had one passion, it was for the intimate and 
 sedentary life of the domestic hearth. She had always sighed 
 for a house which should be her home. And for more than 
 fifteen years we lived together, building and rebuilding ruins, 
 living in temporary structures and in the midst of wars, travelling 
 far away in the deserts or living in exile. Then there was a 
 lull in our tempestuous life : we returned to Leribe ; we built the 
 church, our Ebenezer ; there was life around us. Those were 
 bright days. The house too was built— I thought it was our 
 nest ; and for her sake I did my best to line it softly. Two years 
 had not gone by before we started for Banyai-land. " We have
 
 432 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 weighed anchor," she said ; " we are sailing into the Unknown ; 
 but God knows where we shall land." 
 
 Who would then have said it was to be at the Zambesi ? 
 The Zambesi was to her the post of duty ; it became the post of 
 suffering. There she suffered morally even more than physically. 
 Never, during the thirty years of our life together, had we had 
 such bitter disappointments, nor such painful and burning trials. 
 Our work needed to be consecrated by sufferings. But God 
 has not forgotten us. Our friends in Europe, known and 
 unknown, have surrounded us with their sympathy and prayers. 
 Andreas, Mr. Waddell, and Mile. Kiener, each in their place and 
 in the full measure of their strength, have shown towards us, 
 towards her especially, an affection and devotion which have 
 been a blessing to us, and which our adorable Master will 
 remember, since He has said, " I was sick, and ye visited Me." 
 
 November lith (?). 
 
 Her mortal remains rest under the shade of that great forest 
 tree where we used to have picnics, and where we liked to go 
 sometimes, when she was able, to sit, talk, read, or meditate. I 
 had had a space cleared all round, and a little path made leading 
 to it. " What a delicious spot ! — how calm ! how restful ! Let 
 me rest here when I die, will you not ? " she said to me one day. 
 And it is there that she reposes. 
 
 God upheld me for that terrible burial-day that I so dreaded. 
 I was able to see to all the details of the funeral ceremony, 
 thanks to the affectionate help of Waddell, Andreas, and Mile. 
 Kiener, each in their own department. I was able to read, 
 pray, exhort, and even sing beside that grave which was taking 
 from me the most precious thing I had on earth. 
 
 Yes, I was able to sing the song of triumph and hope, " Jesus 
 is risen from the dead," the thirty-fourth in our Sesuto collection. 
 My appeals were listened to with gloomy attention. I must 
 have seemed very strange to these poor people. We were all 
 in our best clothes ; the children of the house had scarves of 
 white calico, in sign of mourning ; the coffin, covered with white, 
 had been decorated with a cross and wreaths of foliage by the 
 affectionate hands of Mile. Kiener ; and we sang ! 
 
 Lewanika had sent the principal chiefs of the nation who 
 were about him just then ; Litia and some of our other young
 
 1891] THE FUNERAL 433 
 
 men were there, and so were those women of the neighbourhood 
 who had sufficient courage to conquer their fears and prejudices. 
 Lewanika, being too unwell to come himself, sent me an ox. 
 " Those were his tears." It seems that it is the habit to send 
 some present, when one cannot go oneself to the burial of a 
 member of one's own family. I did not accept it till I had fully 
 assured myself it was nothing but a pure and simple expression 
 of sympathy. Mokwae, too, sent her principal personages ; and 
 others keep coming one after another ! Poor people ! they 
 cannot give what they have not got themselves. I was much 
 touched yesterday to see a poor man, unknown to me, come 
 to present me with a pair of fowls, together with a little 
 speech of real sympathy ! I shall not lose sight of this good 
 Matondo. 
 
 It is already fifteen days, fifteen long days, that I have been 
 alone — days that have seemed like months. She has entered 
 into that repose she so longed for ; she gazes on the King of 
 glory in His beauty, that Jesus whom she loved and served. 
 I would not, even if I could, call her back to this life of 
 sufferings and of sin. But when I had followed her to the 
 threshold of eternity, when I had seen her already radiant with 
 the glory of heaven, when the portals of the City of God closed 
 upon her, and I found myself alone, quite alone in darkness and 
 in tears, my heart was broken. 
 
 She lived, she laboured and suffered, as few missionaries' 
 wives have done. The Lord took her, and He did it tenderly. 
 For more than thirty years — mingling her life with mine — she 
 was, after my Saviour and God, everything to me. She was 
 at the centre of all my projects, bearing her heavy share of 
 labours and fatigues through evil report and good report with 
 unparalleled devotion. In her, I lose a \xMQ.wife in all the force 
 of the term — one whom I had received as " a favour from the 
 Lord." I could always count on her judgment and the wisdom 
 of her counsels. If God had clearly called me to the ends of 
 the earth, she would joyfully have followed me thither, without 
 consulting [either her tastes or her ease. It was a terrible blow 
 to her to leave Leribe, the work of our youth. But she made 
 the sacrifice without a murmur, telling me that she should no 
 longer have a Jionie down here, and that she would be hence- 
 forward a stranger and a pilgrim on the earth. 
 
 28
 
 434 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 These dark days have had their rainbow too, and I have 
 cause to bless in the midst of my tears. I, who travel so 
 much, was at home. It was such a delight for her. My birth- 
 day, the 17th of July, had so often found us separated, that 
 this year it was a pleasure to see her so happy. When I 
 think that at the moment of her departure I might have been 
 travelling, that Mile. Kiener might not have been with us, 
 my heart overflows with gratitude towards God. Mile. Kiener 
 has been a real daughter to us. My wife, among ourselves, 
 took pleasure in calling her " Dieu-donnee " ; she loved her 
 tenderly. There was a strong current of sympathy between 
 them. During the whole of this year that our dear sister has 
 spent at Sefula, a year exceptionally full of trials and sufferings, 
 she has been a joy and blessing to us. Again, we have that 
 faithful Waddell, so affectionate and devoted, and our dear 
 Andreas. That is all our little world ; it is soon reckoned up ; 
 but it was complete. 
 
 And then she had the joy of seeing the firstfruits of the 
 harvest. What will these firstfruits yield ? I know not. But 
 at any rate, for the moment, there they are. Besides Andreas, 
 four of our young men profess to have found Jesus. Could she 
 have desired a finer sunset ? 
 
 The year had been a hard one. Never, during our thirty 
 years together, had we passed through so many sufferings and 
 distresses. She often said, " What a year ! I wonder how it 
 will all end." Everything seemed against us — everything ! A 
 bad spirit of hostility, aroused by a man who once possessed all 
 my confidence and affection — my " Alexander the coppersmith " 
 — everywhere prevailed, possessed the king, and upset our school. 
 We were losing ground : we felt it. Litia, whom we rejoiced 
 (with some trembling, it is true) to see going to Basuto-land,^ 
 almost from the first had misunderstandings with our friend 
 Jalla ; and after having made the journey difficult for him, left 
 him at Mangwato, and came back to the country alone with 
 his companions. We dreaded the effect of this rash act ; and 
 we had good cause to ; for when the news came, our pupils left 
 us in a body the next day : as for the king, he no longer deigned 
 to reply to my messages. We went on just the same with the 
 children of the house, and the few pupils we could recruit in 
 the neighbouring villages. At the end of a fortnight's sulking,
 
 iSgi] • THE FIRST-FRUITS 435 
 
 our pupils came back, somewhat crestfallen to find that we 
 could have a school without them/ 
 
 But all the same, the spirit was not good. We were tired 
 of the struggle. Well, the last week before the holidays, a 
 little boy, one of the slaves of the queen's son, who followed 
 his young master to school, declared himself for the Saviour. 
 When he came into my room to speak to me, I could not 
 believe my ears. " Moruti, I come with great news : / Iiave 
 found Jesus ! " He had been serious and exercised in his 
 soul for a year ; he had even worked with his hands, in order 
 to procure books which others received from their masters 
 or bought with young bullocks. When I had heard him, and 
 he had prayed with me, I ran to my wife and said, " Think, 
 darling, what news ! Mpututu has just been speaking to me ; 
 he says he has found Jesus ! " I leave, you to imagine the joy 
 there was in our little family circle. Poor Mpututu ! I do 
 not know why we were so surprised at his conversion. Alas ! 
 it is that, while praying earnestly, we have after all very little 
 faith, and we say -very naturally to " Rhoda," when beside 
 herself with joy she announces the granting of our prayers, 
 " Thou art mad ! " We are not much better than the Christians 
 at Jerusalem — if only we were as good ! This poor boy, who 
 toiled for two months to procure himself the books which no 
 one would have thought of giving him, had not even some bits 
 of skin or a mat to sleep on. I knew nothing of this. It was 
 winter : he accompanied Mr. Waddell far into the forest to cut 
 wood for carpentering. The weather was cold ; and all night he 
 was heard shivering and crying, " Mawe ! mawe ! " — the Barotsi 
 cry of suffering. Mr. Waddell did everything he could for this 
 slave, whom they treat worse than a dog. But this recollection 
 touches and confounds me. Why did he not rather work for 
 a blanket ? One does not grow accustomed to suffering. 
 Mpututu does not sleep under cover ; he is one of those who 
 sleep outside at his young master's door. Will this really be 
 our Onesimus ? 
 
 ' This behaviour on Litia's part, unfortunate as it seemed at the time, 
 turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. During his stay 
 at Mangwato, Litia fell entirely under Khama's Christian influence, conceived 
 a boyish devotion to him, and returned home determined to be henceforth a 
 Christian, and, when he should be a chief, to govern like Khama.
 
 436 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 As for Litia, whose return, as I have said, troubled and 
 disturbed us, we had long been expecting him to come to 
 the Saviour's feet. From the first interview I had with him, all 
 our fears vanished. " My father," he said, beaming with joy, 
 " I am no longer the Litia of former days : I am converted ; 
 I have found Jesus!" I do not know up to what point 
 he has the sense of sin, and I cannot tell whether, in the 
 position he occupies, he will be a consistent Christian. For 
 that, the work of God's grace in his heart will need to be real 
 and deep. But, to judge by the conversations I have had 
 with him, and by his prayers, I cannot help believing in the 
 sincerity of his conversion. You know that a long time ago 
 we believed that the grace of God had begun its work in him. 
 But it seems that it was the prayers and exhortations of a 
 young man at Mangwato that caused the scales to fall from 
 his eyes. And at the last service at which my wife was present 
 on earth, when the sun was touching the horizon, the dear, 
 dear boy, standing in the midst of the assembled people in the 
 public square, made a simple but touching confession of faith. 
 During this time, his travelling companion wept and sobbed- 
 We were all moved. " Oh that Thou wouldest rend the 
 heavens ! " my dear wife often repeated in earnest prayer 
 during her illness. Well, that is what she saw and heard — the 
 first drops of the showers that we expect, the first notes of 
 the song of victory before leaving the field of battle. 
 
 I was just finishing this letter, when some one knocked 
 at my door. It was Nyondo, an interesting Mashukulumboe 
 boy, a slave of the king's. I have already mentioned him 
 to you. He had conceived such a desire to learn to read 
 that Lewanika allowed him to come to us. He is indeed 
 the best of all our scholars in every respect, and before 
 long he will excel all those who have been at school before 
 him. His conduct, in the house as at school, is almost irre- 
 proachable. He is serious, obedient, above all truthful, which 
 is so unusual here, and respectful. We often asked ourselves 
 what kept him back, and we prayed much for him. We had 
 seen him at my appeals with his head in his hands, trying 
 to hide his tears. All in vain : he says his conscience was so 
 ploughed up, that often he went at night, more than once in 
 the same night, to Andreas, to ask from him the help of his
 
 iSgi] THE TREATY RATIFIED 43/ 
 
 exhortations and prayers. " I do not sleep," he said to me ; 
 " I watch and weep all night : my heart is sick ; I cannot even 
 eat I have told my comrades I am ill. What can I do ? " I 
 spoke and prayed with him. Bless the Lord, O my soul ! 
 
 Shortly after the death of Mme. Coillard, I received one after 
 another, after nine or ten months passed without news, two 
 voluminous mails, bringing, amid many tokens of sympathy, the 
 news of the definite establishment of the British Protectorate 
 over the Barotsi country, and the recognition by Queen Victoria 
 of the contract entered into between Lewanika and the B. S. A. 
 Chartered Company. This news reduced to nothing the 
 calumnies representing this contract as simply delivering up 
 the country to the exploitation of a commercial society, without 
 any of the advantages which result to a native tribe from the 
 superior control exercised by a civilised government. While 
 making known this news to Lewanika, the Governor of the Cape, 
 Sir H. Loch, announced to him that the Queen had named as 
 her representative to him the explorer Mr. Johnston,^ and that 
 the latter would come to the Valley as soon as he could. 
 
 This was all that was needed to dissipate our political clouds. 
 Lewanika says he rejoices in it. Already he had received 
 serious remonstrances from Khama, sent by Litia, on the 
 subject of his change of front. These despatches arrive at an 
 opportune moment, for a great pitso of the chiefs of the country 
 is being assembled. 
 
 This is not to say we are entering upon the golden age. 
 The golden age only exists in the past of old men, and in the 
 imagination of poets. There will ever be some evil, much evil, 
 side by side with a little good. But if this little good be the 
 salvation of these tribes by the establishment of a firm and 
 equitable government, it is much, it is everything. For more 
 than three months, all the people of the Valley and its neigh- 
 bourhood have been working unremittingly at canals, feeding 
 themselves as best they can. As usual, the king's emissaries are 
 scouring the villages, maltreating some, seizing the cattle of 
 others. The poor people are driven to extremity. All that 
 is to avenge an insult sustained by a messenger of Queen 
 
 I Now Sir Harry Johnston. However, he went to Nyassa-land instead ; 
 and it is only this year (1897) that an Imperial representative, Mr- Coryndon, 
 has been appointed to Lealuyi.
 
 438 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 Mokwae's, while she was at Sesheke. And the affair is not 
 over. Everybody suffers and groans : the people find it hard 
 to suppress their murmurs and discontent. It is said (and I 
 believe it) that but for us a revolution would have broken out. 
 
 But why must it be now that we receive the distressing news 
 of a terrible deficit, which will paralyse us just at the moment, 
 perhaps the only one, when we still have so many open doors, 
 and when we must give a new impulse to our mission ? 
 
 So Faith will ever be a conflict. At times, I feel it is very 
 weak, very timid, my poor little faith ! Pray for us that it 
 may not be " according to our faith," but " according to the 
 riches of His s^race,"
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 De Profundis — A Visit to Lealuyi — The Yellow Heart of the Barotsi — Painful 
 Defections — Dr. Johnston — Arrival of Paulus — The Methodist Mission— • 
 A Thunderstorm — Plan for a Station at the Capital — An Appeal. 
 
 Lealuyi, November lyd, 1891. 
 
 I HAVE come to the capital to spend Sunday. I ought to 
 have come here sooner, but I could not ; and last Thursday, 
 on the eve of my departure, I was still so unwell that I feared 
 for a little while that I should have to break my word a second 
 time. What a poor nature is ours to be at the service of so great 
 a cause and so unfaltering a Master ! Why did God not choose 
 angels and archangels for this most sublime of ministries ? 
 Through what an abyss of condescension does the Almighty 
 cast His eyes upon the most unworthy of His creatures, to 
 associate them with the greatest of His works — the work of 
 Redemption ! Ah ! it is because it needs one who has himself 
 been lost, without hope, and then saved, to speak to others of 
 the Saviour ! One must oneself have heard that sweet word, 
 " Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee," if one 
 would beseech his fellow-creatures to be reconciled to God. 
 
 It is a month to the very day since we were here with 
 her, in this same dwelling. The temporary arrangements we 
 had made are still there intact — even to the little enclosure 
 of mats in the corridor where I slept. It was thither that she 
 would slip away twenty times a day, and then come back 
 smilingly to take her place again among those chattering, 
 giggling women who overran the house. Poor things ! how little 
 they guessed her weak, suffering state, when she applied herself 
 thus to cutting out and putting together their dresses ! I can 
 still hear her conversation, full of sweetness, the fresh and 
 impressive exhortations that she addressed to them while telling 
 
 439
 
 440 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1891 
 
 them the parable of the Prodigal Son. Poor creatures ! they 
 pretended to know nothing about the Holy Scriptures, absolutely 
 nothing but the scandalous history of Ham, which they never 
 tired of commenting on, and out of which they got great 
 amusement. I live again through those days of ineffaceable 
 memory. Everything speaks to me of her, everything reminds 
 me of her, even to that horrible serpent-eater, which, perched 
 on the top of a house, has been watching me since daybreak, 
 to pursue and attack me like her. Horrible brute ! it is tenacious 
 of life ; the blows of my walking-stick made it retreat, but still 
 they did not vanquish it. 
 
 Lewanika, who is absorbed in the construction of a new 
 Nalikuanda, hastened to pay me a visit of condolence. He 
 was really sad, and I felt grateful to him for saying so little. 
 I had a message for him. Afterwards there was his mother, 
 whose age and position give her especial claims on my affection ; 
 then his sister, the Princess Katoka, an empty-headed creature, 
 but kind-hearted enough at bottom ; then his wives, who came 
 in groups, chattering, giggling, and teasing one another — mere 
 will-o'-the-wisps — they got on my nerves. Squatting down on 
 their mats, they sat and worried me to their hearts' content — 
 one wanted thread, another begged for soap, a third wanted 
 a handkerchief and what not. They looked fixedly at me, no 
 doubt thinking me more silent than usual, and became serious 
 in their turn. " See, my sisters, how sad he is ! " And then they 
 all mourned with me. I then reminded them of her last visit, 
 her last exhortations. I spoke to them of her last days. I told 
 them with what determination and what joy she had sacrified 
 her life for the Barotsi, by giving it unreservedly to her Master. . . . 
 Then there was an explosion, a lugubrious chorus of lamentations. 
 
 These women gone, others came. Then it was the turn of 
 the chiefs, the great attendants of the king, of my acquaintances 
 and my friends of every degree. God strengthened me. I felt 
 it was one of those unique opportunities that He gives us in 
 a lifetime to " adorn the Gospel " and glorify Him. Weary of 
 this funeral levde, exhausted by the journey and the stress of 
 feeling, I nevertheless went to visit the king's principal wife, 
 Ma-Moramboa, perhaps the only person here in whom my wife 
 had any confidence. She was a friend for her, and they often 
 exchanged presents. She was secluded in a hut by a custom
 
 1892] MA-MORAMBOA 44 1 
 
 which recalls one of the Levitical laws ; and being unable to 
 come to me, she had sent message upon message, asking me 
 to visit her, which is quite permissible. I found her seated on 
 her mat, surrounded by her companions, and robed in beautiful 
 material, the last present she had received from her. The 
 intention was good. I sat down upon a mat before her ; but 
 I felt at once that I had gone to the wrong place to get any- 
 real comfort for myself. I let her talk of anything and every- 
 thing, cross-examine me as she pleased, and ply me with 
 those indiscreet questions which the Barotsi alone possess the 
 secret and the audacity of asking. She managed wonderfully, 
 just like a heartless woman. I only answered her by mono- 
 syllables or by silence. My gravity seemed to puzzle and 
 amuse her. She evidently did not believe in the sincerity of 
 a man who suffers. To her, it was merely a matter of con- 
 ventionality. And when I attempted to speak seriously to her, 
 she began to wink and make signs to her companions, and 
 ended by bursting out laughing. She made many apologies 
 to me ; but I had received a wound in the tenderest part of 
 my being, and I went to seek comfort in a solitary walk and 
 communion with my God. It was twilight ; darkness fell ; 
 everything within and without toned down into harmony, and 
 calm succeeded storm. 
 
 Sefula, January 2)Oth, 1892. 
 
 These three months have been like lead. I thought this 
 January would never end. The days, with their occupations, 
 go by indeed ; but the nights ! 
 
 Since the departure of my dear wife, my trials and chagrins 
 have only gone on accumulating. These are the dregs of the 
 bitter cup of affliction. I should resist it, if I did not receive 
 it from my Father's own hands. Everything has been against 
 me : men, circumstances, friendship, reason — yes, everything, 
 faith excepted. At a distance, it is impossible for you to realise 
 how thorny are all the details of my present life. It is possible, 
 too, that to me in my isolation, without anything to take my 
 thoughts off them, they assume exaggerated proportions. Some 
 of my troubles date back to a long day ; others arise from 
 sources whence I could never have expected them. The crisis 
 is lasting a long while ; the future is dark and threatening,
 
 442 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 But she, who suffered so much in the evening of her life, she 
 at least is in port, she is safe, in peace and in the glory — already 
 she enjoys the saints' everlasting rest. 
 
 Let me to-day open an entirely new chapter of our difificulties. 
 It will not be useless, in spite of the somewhat humdrum and 
 personal character they may have in your eyes. 
 
 You know what the Barotsi call the yellow heart. It is 
 that incurable disease the contact with which made us suffer 
 so acutely. I knew very well that they coveted everything, 
 from the shoes on your feet to the hat on your head ; that they 
 could, without the slightest remorse, cut a man's throat for the 
 sake of seizing his coat ; that they are past-masters in the arts 
 of ruse and dissimulation. But I still had something to learn. 
 
 Ever since he had seen my waggon, Lewanika ardently 
 wished to possess one too. I procured one for him at the 
 cost of infinite worries and personal losses. Anybody else would 
 have felt he owed me a fraction of gratitude. Not he ! He 
 was seized with yellowness of heart ; and in order to provide 
 a conductor for this waggon, which, but for me, he would never 
 have possessed, he simply carried off Kamburu from my service. 
 It was playing me a very cruel trick, after Franz's departure 
 for Mangwato. He knew I had no one else who could wield 
 the whip, that I found myself in the greatest embarrassment ; 
 indeed, my material works were paralysed by the blow. No 
 matter. This was not the first of our servants whom he has 
 taken from us ; he has several others, who in various capacities 
 have been trained and polished in my service. 
 
 A few days after the departure of my dear wife, Litia too 
 had tJie yellozv Jieart. I did not think him capable of the astute 
 machinations by which he took from me, for his personal 
 service, a charming boy wc had had more than two years in 
 our house. He knew him to be active, obedient, diligent, and 
 extremely anxious to learn. He also knew that I had a great 
 affection for him, and that, alas ! I was already founding hopes 
 upon him for the development of the work. But Litia is 
 Lewanika's own son ; nothing else matters — everything must 
 give way to his rights and caprices. 
 
 Now it is again Lewanika's turn to have tJie yellow Jieart. 
 And it is my Andreas he is carrying off. He has long 
 known the value of this boy. And as he has an absolute
 
 1892] ANDREAS BEGUILED 443 
 
 monopoly of everything good in the country, he could not 
 resign himself to seeing him in the service of the missionary 
 instead of in his own. Consequently, he set Seajika and his 
 associates on his track, for he would never have had the courage 
 to snatch him openly from me by an act of authority, although 
 I could more easily have pardoned that. Andreas used to hide 
 nothing from me ; for long he resisted every temptation and every 
 intrigue. But Lewanika and his agent would never believe 
 themselves beaten. Either bribed or intimidated, Andreas gave 
 way little by little to the king's prestige ; the flattery and friend- 
 ship of Litia did the rest. Poor boy ! We could not understand 
 why he had lost his spirit, nor why his reserve had become 
 quite embarrassing. He too was serving an apprenticeship to 
 the art of dissimulation. Certain slight incidents did indeed 
 cause us some uneasiness now and then ; and it certainly 
 happened occasionally that we felt the force of an under-current. 
 But we sought the cause elsewhere, and a long way from its 
 true source. Besides, our relationships with the king had so far 
 improved, our confidence in Andreas was so great, that I did 
 not guess the blow he was secretly preparing for me. Every one 
 around me knew, it seems, and wondered under their breath 
 at the king's knavery and heartlessness ; but they took good 
 care not to whisper a word of it to me. 
 
 Then Litia's marriage took place with the girl whom we 
 had brought up.^ We spared no pains to make it a brilliant 
 and happy festival. And brilliant and happy it was, as much 
 as heart could wish, thank God ! and I am sure it will long 
 be talked about. But it left a sting in my heart. Will it be 
 believed, that not only did the queen, abruptly and without 
 warning me, carry off our young cattle-herd one evening, a 
 trusted servant, who had been placed in my service by the king's 
 consent (a proceeding which suddenly threw me into great 
 perplexity), but Lewanika himself profited by his visit to have 
 a private talk with Andreas, and finally make sure of his prey. 
 
 Eight days later, while he was overwhelming me with 
 attentions at Lealuyi, whither I had gone to spend some days, 
 he sent to Andreas (but still secretly, for nothing is done openly 
 
 ^ Komoio, daughter of a headman. Dr. Johnston, who was present on the 
 occasion, gives a vivid description of it in his book " Romance and Reality 
 in Central Africa."
 
 444 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 here) the order to hold himself ready, and two days after my 
 return to Sefula a canoe came to fetch him. This thunderbolt 
 stunned us all. Andreas, much ashamed, declared himself that 
 he had no reason for leaving me. He did not even avail 
 himself of the sole pretext of which he might at a pinch 
 have made use — my refusal, which I had reasons for making 
 peremptory, to give him Litia's room. No ; but leave he 
 must, notwithstanding. And all we could say simply broke 
 against that rock. By the next morning, his packages were 
 done up, and before midday he had really and finally left us. 
 
 Every one around us is astonished ; for even though they long 
 knew of the king's intrigues, and are used to his ways of acting 
 towards his own subjects, they still thought up to the last 
 moment that he would hesitate before depriving me of a boy 
 who was looked upon as if he had been my own child. For 
 me it is a bereavement, and one difficult to bow to, because 
 of the duplicity of which I have been the victim. Farewell 
 now to the dream of making a good evangelist of our first 
 convert ! Alas ! he is going to make a rapid ascent of the 
 social ladder. The king, who honours him with his confidence, 
 immediately gave him an independent establishment, a house 
 and slaves, and full liberty to provide himself out of his 
 private kitchen, whenever he does not feed him at his own 
 hands.^ Cattle and a village are in the near future ; and, 
 above all, the thing by which he had long but hitherto in vain 
 tempted him, a wife. Who will this wife be ? A mere slave, 
 or a girl of royal blood ? We shall soon know. He will 
 neglect nothing to rivet the chain, that is certain. 
 
 To understand my sorrow, you must know what Andreas 
 had been for seven years in our house to my wife and me. I 
 may be reproached with having made too much of him. The 
 reproach would be just, if he had not shown himself worthy of 
 all our confidence and all our affection.'-^ Although to-day he 
 is caught in the toils, he is still my son in the faith, whom my 
 love and prayers will pursue in all his wanderings until he 
 returns to the paths of truth. 
 
 ' I.e. by handing him what is left in the royal dishes, after the king's own 
 meals — a privilege reserved for the most favoured attendants. 
 
 ^ See former letters and also M. Louis Jalla's remarks about Andreas, 
 page 416.
 
 1892] DR. JOHNSTON'S VISIT 445 
 
 But I do not hide the fact that this history of Andreas 
 has an aspect which makes me anxious. What will be the 
 type of our Christians in a country where a blind and tyrannous 
 autocracy absorbs everything, and where physical and moral 
 slavery kills all individuality? But I do not despair. The 
 Gospel of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit have already 
 in all ages worked as great miracles and brought about equally 
 great transformations in the world. 
 
 One ray of sunshine has, by God's grace, shone in the midst 
 of all these clouds — the visit of Dr. Johnston of Jamaica. It 
 will probably not be news to you that for fifteen years he 
 has carried on an admirable work among the blacks there. 
 The idea came into his mind of bringing these children of 
 emancipated slaves to do something for the evangelisation of 
 their fathers' country. If they are not equal to founding and 
 maintaining a mission themselves, they can at least furnish 
 helpers to those which already exist, and be a comfort to 
 European missionaries in their manual and evangelical labours, 
 whatever nation or denomination they may belong to. The 
 idea was greeted with enthusiasm, and Dr. Johnston set out 
 with six of his best men. Being very well known in Canada, 
 England, and Scotland, he has found no lack of sympathy 
 among Christians, and the religious papers have brought to 
 our notice his great meetings in Exeter Hall and elsewhere. 
 It was by Benguella that he penetrated into the Dark Con- 
 tinent. At Bihe, he left four of his companions with the 
 American brothers. Certain considerations led the Doctor to 
 change his itinerary ; and instead of directing his way to Msiri's 
 capital (Msidi or Mosili), he decided to pass by the Barotsi. 
 He proposes to follow the course of the Zambesi, and remount 
 the Shire. 
 
 Dr. Johnston passed six weeks between Lealuyi and Sefula, 
 but most of the time we were together, either here or at the 
 capital. He is a clever and passionate photographer ; conse- 
 quently, we did a good deal of photography together. His 
 visit was a time of enjoyment and refreshment to us all, 
 especially to me. We had a great deal of talk, but few 
 discussions. I acted several times as interpreter for him and his 
 companions, both here and at Lealuyi. With himself, I was 
 struck by that freshness and power which point to an earnest
 
 446 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 Study of the Word of God, and a burning zeal for the salvation 
 of souls : I was not less struck by the seriousness and elevation 
 displayed in the addresses of his two companions. What a 
 difference from our Christians in South Africa ! At the risk 
 of terrifying you and seeming heterodox, I believe that slavery 
 has had a great deal to do with it. The Gospel is for all, but 
 especially for the poor and wretched. One feels, in contact 
 with these former slaves of Jamaica, that for them the Gospel 
 is a power and life which has taken possession of their hearts 
 and their whole being. Our friend — let us say our friends — left 
 us on January 17th. 
 
 You know already that we have an evangelist come from 
 Massitissi — Paulus Kanedi. He has been here six weeks. Alas ! 
 he too is a widower, and always ill. In these circumstances, 
 and taking into account the manners of the country, it is out 
 of the question to assign him an isolated post. For the moment, 
 therefore, his place is with me, and he forms part of my family. 
 He knows little, and hence he is almost useless for the school. 
 But as a man and as a Christian, I learn more and more every 
 day to love and esteem him. In all the business of Andreas, 
 he behaved towards us, as towards Lewanika himself, with a 
 faithfulness and firmness that surprised me. His prayers 
 always do me good. I feared at first he would be a burden 
 to me : I am beginning to hope better things. The worst of it 
 is, that he is alone. What will he do later on ? I cannot tell. 
 Meanwhile, with the work of founding the new station of 
 Lealuyi on my hands, I shall have the opportunity of making 
 use of him, and learning what stuff he is made of 
 
 Sefula, February loth, 1892. 
 Andreas has come to spend a whole week with us, which 
 has given me the opportunity of having some serious talks with 
 him. These talks have not resulted in bringing him back to 
 my house — I no longer counted on that— but they have con- 
 firmed me in the conviction that he too, poor boy ! has been 
 the unconscious victim of plots, woven and carried out with 
 as much skill as determination. His lack of vigilance is no 
 less blameworthy than his want of frankness, once he found 
 himself caught in the net. He arrived like a prodigal son. A 
 few moments later, he went and installed himself in his room
 
 1892] AN ATHEISTIC PROPAGANDA 447 
 
 and soon found himself quite naturally at Jiovie. He made a 
 general inspection of the out-buildings, cast a glance over the 
 kitchen, and presided as in old days over the general distribution 
 of food. Next day, he employed himself with the buying of 
 our flour, maize, etc., which he does much better than I. His 
 modesty, his eagerness in making himself useful, all reminded 
 me of his best days. He went away again this afternoon, with 
 the intention of returning in a fortnight for two weeks — if 
 Lewanika, that is, will allow him. For, unhappily, he is no 
 longer free, and now God alone can break his bonds and restore 
 him to liberty. The object of his visit was, in the first place, 
 to see me, because he had heard of my sleeplessness, but it 
 was also to obtain from me the authorisation to do the work 
 of an evangelist at Lealuyi. There can be no question of 
 giving him an official status. But his good mood reassures us 
 a little and gives us pleasure. 
 
 February 27th, 1892. 
 
 I have just come back from Lealuyi, where I have made 
 a longer stay than usual. Mr. Buckenham, of the Primitive 
 Methodist Expedition, had preceded me, in order to give 
 Lewanika the satisfaction of a private interview. But our 
 friend, not knowing a word of Sesuto, and only finding a rather 
 unsympathetic interpreter there, resolved to await my arrival 
 before leaving the capital. You know there is a man there, a 
 European, who was once one of ours, one in whom I had reposed 
 great confidence. Unhappily, he was only wearing a mask, and 
 he wore it admirably. When he cast it off— after having left us 
 apparently on the best of terms — he took up the position of 
 an inveterate adversary towards the mission in general and 
 towards me in particular, both as regards politics and religion. 
 He declared himself an infidel and an atheist, and set to work 
 to preach his propaganda with a zeal worthy of a better cause. 
 The king has already been a long while under his influence. 
 It is natural enough that this man should have used every 
 artifice, so as, if possible, to cause all my plans of installation at 
 Lealuyi to miscarry. These few words of explanation were 
 necessary, in order to make you understand what follows. 
 
 Lewanika received me coldly, and, contrary to his habits, 
 kept himself aloof The next day, Mr. Buckenham begged
 
 448 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 for a fresh interview, which took place at my house ; the king 
 shuffled, put all sorts of trifling questions to our brother, and 
 only replied to his by monosyllables. Finally, gathering up all 
 his courage, he said, " You shall not go, either to the Mashuku- 
 lumboe or to the Batoka, nor to any tributary clan ; but you 
 may come and fix yourselves at Lealuyi and Nalolo. That is 
 my last word." Our brother explained to him the reasons which 
 opposed such an arrangement, seeing that there were already 
 missionaries, and that I myself was making preparations to fix 
 myself at Lealuyi, that others were expected to occupy Nalolo 
 and other important places, and that, moreover, it was the rule, 
 for the sake of harmony among the Churches, not to encroach 
 upon a field of work which another had already occupied. " I 
 won't have that sort of monopoly," ^ replied the king. " Besides, 
 the French missionaries have given me all they have to give, 
 and that is nothing. What have I to do with their Gospel 
 and their God ? Had we not gods before their arrival ? Have 
 they seen their God of Whom they talk so much ? What do 
 we want with all that rubbish heap of fables that you call the 
 Bible ? Are they any better than ours ? What does your 
 school do for us ? For you, it is the trade you live by ; for 
 us, it is a purposeless and unprofitable folly. What / want is 
 missionaries of all kinds, working side by side here, at Lealuyi 
 and Nalolo, especially missionaries who build big workshops 
 and teach us all the trades of the white men. What can / do 
 with Christians who only know how to read and write and pray 
 to the God of the white men ? What / want is carpenters, 
 blacksmiths, armourers, masons, and so on. That's what / want, 
 industrial missionaries ; that is what all the chiefs want : we 
 laugh at all the rest." Lewanika had laid aside all reserve, and 
 thought himself very valiant. So it was no longer only the cause 
 of our Methodist brethren that was at stake, but ours also ; and 
 he knew I had come to make definite arrangements for my 
 installation at Lealuyi ! I answered him calmly ; but as he had 
 made up his mind beforehand, my arguments seemed to produce 
 very little impression. He left us abruptly, and appeared no more. 
 
 ' As a missionary has pointed out, the native chiefs quickly learn the lesson 
 that competition cheapens everytliing, and encourage missionaries of different 
 hostile denominations to settle near them, hoping thereby to obtain salvation 
 ■on easier terms.
 
 1892] A THUNDERSTORM 449 
 
 The Sunday morning, next day, I sent him a message for 
 the service, to which, if I understood it rightly, he replied 
 ironically. Without letting this discourage me, I rang the bell, 
 and we went with our young men to the lekhothla. Not a soul ! 
 We began to sing, and some men came up one by one, so that 
 when I began to preach I had about fifty auditors. I introduced 
 the evangelist Paulus to them, who spoke warmly and modestly ; 
 then Mr. Buckenham delivered an address full of point and good 
 sense. I was pleased to see the Gambella present, with his 
 wives and some of the principal chiefs. It was a good service, 
 and we felt God's presence there. The men stayed long after 
 us at the lekhothla, to talk with Andreas and our other young 
 men about the great question of the day. The afternoon service 
 was more numerously attended, and not less helpful. Lewanika 
 did not leave his house all day. 
 
 What was not my astonishment in the evening to see one 
 of his attendants, who brought me a message from him : " The 
 king enquires after your health, and asks if he can come and 
 dine with you." 
 
 " Tell him I am not well, but that there is nothing much 
 the matter with me ; and as to the dinner, I have only a cup 
 of tea and a bit of dry bread. If Lewanika wishes to share 
 them with me, he is welcome, as he always is." 
 
 Soon after, a succession of noisy hand-clappings from the 
 king's house to my own announced the procession of servants, 
 carrying the food and the royal dishes. He himself did not 
 keep us long waiting ; he arrived quite beaming, all honey, 
 making laudable efforts to enliven the conversation. The meal 
 finished, the dishes were handed to Paulus and Andreas, which 
 is not at all customary, and from them the remains passed to 
 our other boys. The king shouted to them from within the 
 house, "It is not I who am feeding you ; it is your father the 
 Moruti ; it is his own food, you understand." The table was 
 scarcely cleared when a tremendous clap of thunder resounded, 
 which almost threw us to the ground. This first clap was 
 followed by a second one, then by a torrent of rain. I was 
 telling Lewanika some features of Nero's history, when suddenly 
 the reed door opened, and a mass of people pressed in. Litia, 
 the Gambella, and the principal chiefs at their head, unceremoni- 
 ously made an irruption into our midst, obliging us to retire to 
 
 29
 
 450 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 the back of the hut, and filling the house, the wide concentric 
 corridor, the external verandah, and I believe the courtyard 
 itself, all packed like herrings. " Ah ! ah ! " cried the king, 
 " there they are — there are our people ; I knew it — there they 
 are ! " My astonishment evidently amused him. I understood 
 absolutely nothing of all this. Silence having been obtained 
 once more, he explained to me that this was one of the Barotsi 
 customs. When there is a storm, and it thunders, all the men 
 related to him, and all the chiefs who are at the capital, run 
 to him, into the very room, wherever he may be, so as to die 
 with him, if the lightning should kill him. This evening, they 
 knew he was with me. 
 
 This brought back to me a recollection of my childhood. 
 How many times in the middle of the night have I not seen 
 our neighbours. Catholic and Protestant, rushing in to my 
 mother ? " Mon petitl' my mother would say, " read us a psalm 
 and a prayer ! " Then, when the storm had passed over, each 
 one would thank my dear mother and "/^ petit" and return 
 home with the sense of a great deliverance. This recollection 
 inspired me. We sang hymn after hymn, Lewanika and our 
 other Jiabitues choosing ; then came the reading of two or 
 three verses, a few short words, a prayer, which was heard in 
 profoundest silence ; and this singular audience, which had fled 
 the day, and which God brought me at night, dispersed quite 
 astonished, with clacking of tongues. 
 
 Lewanika himself having made advances to me, our relations 
 resumed their ordinary course. We had all our meals together,. 
 and we spent long hours in each other's company. However, 
 it was in vain I pleaded the cause of our Methodist brethren and 
 the Mashukulumboe Mission ; he would not hear of it. So they 
 have no other alternative but to settle down beside us, and 
 enter into competition with us — which they will never do — or 
 else to cross Lewanika's frontiers, and seek a field of labour 
 beyond. I strongly advise this, and I think they would not 
 be losing their time if they went to explore the region which 
 extends north of the Zambesi between the Kafue and Zumbo. 
 If I were at the head of this expedition, and knew Lewanika 
 as I do know him, I could not resign myself to give up the 
 project of a mission to the Mashukulumboe. Lewanika will end 
 by yielding. But that is not a sufficient basis for others to
 
 1892] A PITSO 451 
 
 build upon it, especially after so many reverses. It is difficult 
 to make others share one's own faith, especially those who are 
 supporting you and expecting success. Mr. Buckenham con- 
 sequently left me to my own affairs at Lealuyi, and returned 
 thence to Sefula. 
 
 In our subsequent interviews, Lewanika quite recognised 
 that, in the scene to which I allude, he had insulted me, and 
 he excused himself as best he could. He said he was harassed 
 with anxieties, which was natural enough ; he protested his old 
 and warm friendship for me, and assured me that my trtasfer 
 to the capital was in no way questioned by him, but that the 
 chiefs were animated by quite other feelings. They had heard 
 so much of missionaries who, instead of preaching the Gospel, 
 taught all sorts of trades, that they said openly those were the 
 missionaries they wanted here. " You shall hear them yourself," 
 he added ; " I will call them all to the pitso to-morrow to discuss 
 these affairs." 
 
 He kept his word, and the pitso took place. I greatly 
 feared it was a preconcerted affair ; and I was not reassured — 
 far from it. Beforehand I assembled my young men, and we 
 made it a subject of earnest prayer. The pitso lasted two 
 hours. It was, as usual, a running fire of little speeches, of 
 which I took careful notes. I expected keen opposition ; but, 
 to my great surprise, all without exception spoke of me and 
 my plans in the most favourable and sympathetic terms. 
 " Gambella, you bring us good tidings, when you tell us that 
 the Moruti, our father, will at last come to live near us. We 
 have long desired it. It is difficult for us to send our children 
 to Sefula — it is too far — and they often want for food. Here 
 we can send them to school regularly, and go ourselves to the 
 preaching on Sundays. His life is dreary out in the woods : 
 he is a Morotsi, he loves the plain " {borotsi\ " and he seeks the 
 society of other Barotsi. If we did not love him, should we 
 have built him a house here, one of the finest in the town ? Let 
 him come : this is his home. We shall rejoice in it and say, 
 Thank yoii!' " We have seen strange things," cried a great 
 chief: "foreigners closeted with our king, overrunning our 
 malapa " (courts), " taking our wives and children into their con- 
 fidence. We heard them speaking of mines, of trades, and of 
 presents, without our being told what it was all about. And
 
 452 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 we asked ourselves, ' Whither are we drifting ? Are we at the 
 mercy of foreigners ? ' To-day our father comes amongst us ; 
 all these plots will end. He is a Morotsi, and his home is 
 here." This was the gist of all the speeches, Lewanika had 
 not dared to be present. In his absence, Litia spoke last, repre- 
 senting a new element in the nation. He spoke well and to 
 the point, and even with an authority and boldness which 
 astonished me. He reproached the Barotsi with their want 
 of sincerity, and even with their servility. He dared to say 
 to them, " You come to worship when the king comes ; but 
 when he does not come, why do you keep away ? Is it to him 
 you pray ? \s Jie your god ? " 
 
 Lewanika, being officially informed of the result of this pitso, 
 expressed his great satisfaction thereat, and seemed to rejoice 
 in it. He promised me canoes for the transport of the materials 
 which we are preparing at Sefula, and undertook, if I needed 
 it, to procure workmen for me, and wood for the constructions, 
 at wages to be settled between us. 
 
 And now, dear friends, we are in the presence of grave 
 questions, and questions which are difficult for us to solve. The 
 Jeanmairets' growing conviction is that they will not come back 
 to Barotsi-land. There is Sefula, too, which my departure will 
 leave vacant, and which must at all costs be filled up without 
 delay. We ourselves have but one lifetime ; we cannot give more. 
 It is for you in Europe to act promptly and energetically, if you 
 would save the mission. Remember we are no longer living 
 in the old days, when everything went at the slow and measured 
 pace of the oxen. We live in times of upheaval, of sudden 
 transformations, and of crisis. Oh, let us rise to our responsi- 
 bilities wkile the helm is yet in our hands !
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 Rays of Comfort — Disappearance of " Alexander the Coppersmith " — Degrad- 
 ing Superstition — The Primitive Methodists — Sympathy — A Reminiscence 
 of Mme. Coillard — The Joy of Pentecost — " Enquirers " — Ten men 
 wanted. 
 
 Sefula, April 2^h, 1892. 
 
 I HAVE been deeply touched by all the expressions of 
 sympathy I have received in such large numbers. Let 
 these dear friends know that they have done me much real 
 good. I feel myself less alone in this solitude, to which I cannot 
 get used. And then, you know, a fresh crop of griefs and trials 
 has come upon me, which has filled up the measure of my bitter- 
 ness. Sometimes it seemed that I could bear no more of these 
 sufferings and distresses : and yet the cup was not full ; it must 
 needs run over. But Jesus does not forget His own : " In all 
 their affliction He is afflicted." He remembers His promise, 
 and His presence becomes so much the more precious a reality 
 when darkne-ss thickens and sorrow deepens. 
 
 Our life here is pursuing its usual tenor. Mile. Kiener 
 and Mr. Waddell surround me with care and affection. But 
 you can understand the great, great place is always empty. 
 The number of boys living with us has increased, and a spirit 
 prevails among them which makes us hope for some real con- 
 versions. Our audiences, too, are increasing. Two or three 
 women are, I believe, very near the kingdom of God. But I 
 only speak of it tremblingly, so great and bitter have our 
 disappointments been already. In a few days, we shall celebrate 
 the marriage of our girl Sebane with Franz, our conductor, who 
 has returned from Mangwato. What a joy it would have been 
 for my wife, after the tears she shed over the others ! 
 
 It has lately pleased God to strengthen our faith by answering 
 
 453
 
 454 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 our prayers in a very remarkable way. A visit I had to make 
 to the capital was particularly weighing on me. I expected fresh 
 battles with the king, and sometimes I confess I feel tired of 
 the struggle. We had asked God in special prayer meetings 
 to restore to us the king's confidence and affection, smooth 
 over all the continually recurring difficulties of my establish- 
 ment at Lealuyi, and to " deliver us from these unreasonable 
 and wicked men " (2 Thess. iii. 2) who hinder His work so 
 seriously. Well, without my knowing it, the most inveterate 
 enemy of our mission had quarrelled with the king ; he 
 reproached him with his ingratitude, and with the neglect and 
 privation in which he had for some time left him. Especially 
 he could not forgive him for despising and refusing to follow 
 his advice and drive us out of the country — that is, M. L. Jalla 
 and me, whom he represented as men who had sold them- 
 selves to the gold-seekers, on account of the part I took in 
 the transactions between Lewanika and the B. S. A. Chartered 
 Company, and also because of the fact that M. Jalla had 
 wished to accompany Dr. Johnston across the Batoka country. 
 Lewanika, weary of all these calumnies, ended by thinking that, 
 after all, we who kept silent might very likely be his best 
 friends ; and he made advances to his missionary, whom he 
 ound just the same as before. The trader was so incensed, 
 that one day while I was there he left Lealuyi after the stormiest 
 of scenes, having with great difficulty obtained a canoe from the 
 king to descend the river and clear out of the country. 
 
 Lewanika presented me with a canoe, which he had promised 
 me for two years ; he changed it three times for me, so as to 
 be sure of giving me something which should really please me. 
 Yesterday, telling me that illness prevented his coming to visit 
 me at Sefula, he let me know that the little hillock which we 
 had chosen to construct our future station upon was now com- 
 pletely submerged. But he proposes another larger one for me, 
 two or three feet higher, which has been used as a cemetery for 
 the petty chiefs of Lealuyi. These are the floating straws we 
 catch at. What can wc do ? We are dwarfs in faith, and little 
 suffices to encourage us from the moment we can see God's 
 hand in it. Moreover, it is only lately that the king, of his own 
 accord, has sent back his sons and daughters to school. All 
 the big ones have followed Andreas and Litia, and have left.
 
 1892] CRUEL SUPERSTITION 45 5 
 
 That is an advantage. However, the number of pupils, which 
 tends to augment, already stands at forty. 
 
 At my last visit to Lealuyi, I found the whole village upset 
 on account of one man and woman. According to the Barotsi 
 custom, the woman, in consequence of an abortion, should have 
 been secluded outside the village in a wretched little hut, while 
 her husband should have been confined to his courtyard without 
 seeing anybody, without even daring to go and see his own cattle 
 or visit his field until the appearance of a new moon, for fear 
 he should spread the scourge of which he had himself been the 
 victim. As it was in the first quarter of the new moon, the 
 woman and her husband did not take kindly to the idea of 
 such a lengthy quarantine, and they concealed the occurrence. 
 Twenty-four hours had not elapsed before the report went round. 
 And this man was one of the principal officers of the king's 
 establishment, a sekomboa — a man of some forty-five or fifty 
 years of age, a favourite with his master, and universally 
 respected. But it availed him nothing. His peers, the other 
 likomboa, fell upon him, carried him off, tightly bound, to the 
 river, tore out his hair with their formidable nails ; then seizing 
 him, they throttled him under water until he was nearly dead, 
 beat him with rods to bring him back to his senses, and left him 
 on the bank in torrents of rain. It was not difficult to show 
 Lewanika the cruelty of such proceedings, and the next day the 
 poor unfortunate returned home under cover of the night. I 
 went to see him, but I could scarcely persuade him to come out 
 of his hut into the court, he felt so deeply humiliated. The 
 paganism of the Barotsi is coarse and cruel. It tramples on all 
 rank, all dignity, all respect ; nothing awes it. 
 
 We have the mission party of the Primitive Methodists here, 
 and we enjoy their neighbourhood. We see each other every 
 day, either at our meetings for prayer and edification, or at our 
 singing evenings. The king has flatly refused to let them 
 establish themselves either with the Mashukulumboc or with 
 the Batoka, or elsewhere in his country. But the influences to 
 which he was then subject have had their day ; and if our friends 
 have faith in their vocation, and have patience, I still think God 
 will open to them the door of Mashukulumboe-land. 
 
 My saw-milli is in full activity. Mr. Waddell is preparing 
 materials for the construction of our tabernacle at Lealuyi. It
 
 456 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 will be a copy of the one here, but a little larger. And as soon as 
 the waters have subsided — the flood is a whole month late this 
 year — we shall begin the transport of all this material, and build. 
 But it is easier said than done. We are in extreme perplexity. 
 Under actual circumstances, there is no one but M. Louis Jalla 
 who can take my place here. When I leave Sefula, the greater 
 part of the school will follow me to Lealuyi ? Who will 
 conduct that school at Lealuyi ? Paulus, a widower like me, 
 will certainly second me as far as he can. He is an earnest 
 Christian and a zealous evangelist, but nothing at all as a 
 schoolmaster. And as for myself, I no longer feel equal to the 
 sole charge of so heavy a task. I have no longer the spirit and 
 spring necessary for that ; and if I am to do the work of a good 
 evangelist at the capital, I shall not have the time either. And 
 the other posts, who will occupy them ? The Jeanmairets have 
 finally announced that they are no longer with us. And over all 
 that — the pall of a deficit. May God help us ! And you, too, 
 dear friends, help us while it is yet time. Do not wait till it is 
 too late. 
 
 I must stop, but not without telling you again how touched 
 I have been by the prompt way in which friends have supplied 
 me with a new mount. It is not a mere luxury, I assure you. 
 My worthy friend Khama has sent me word that he is making 
 it his business to look out a good one for me, though good 
 horses, salted ones (that is, those whom the horse sickness has 
 already inoculated) are rare and dear. But He Who has furnished 
 the means to buy one will also find us the beast. 
 
 (To Mme. Boegner, at the Maison des Missions, Paris.) 
 
 May I2th, 1892. 
 
 In spite of the effort it costs me to write, I must thank you 
 for your kind and affectionate lines. We lived more at the 
 Maison des Missions than you might think. . . . And when I 
 say we, it is of her I speak. We were only o?ie in everything. 
 You judge rightly of our union, when you say it was one of the 
 most perfect it can be given to enjoy on earth. Oh, how I 
 look back on those thirty years of pilgrimage with her ! . . . No 
 one will ever know what she was to the work of God, and 
 what she was to me as a missionary. You know her tastes.
 
 1892] CROSSING THE CALEDON 457 
 
 She loved society, and she loved her home. She enjoyed her 
 visit to Europe immensely. Like the bee, she took her honey 
 from every flower. In her extraordinary memory, nothing 
 was forgotten, nothing was obliterated. And friends with whom 
 we had made but a very short stay would be very much 
 astonished to learn what a large place they occupied in her 
 remembrances. She was my index. And the home life ! Not 
 any more than I, indeed far less than I, had she roving tastes. 
 But when the call of God made itself clearly heard, immediately, 
 without hesitation, without consulting with flesh and blood, she 
 sacrificed everything, left everything, even her dear Leribe, and 
 did it cheerfully. 
 
 In the midst of all the storms which raged during the last 
 two years of her life, she always said, with feeling, that God had 
 given her a great blessing and a great joy. The great blessing 
 was Mile. Kiener, the great joy was my presence at home. I did 
 not make a long absence last year. I was at home for the first 
 time for several years on my birthday. And what a festival 
 she prepared ! She felt it was the last time she would be with 
 me for that occasion. It reminds me of one of the first anni- 
 versaries of our wedding at Leribe. We had had to be separated 
 for some weeks previously — she to go to Harrysmith in a waggon, 
 to fetch wood for building purposes, and myself to ride round 
 among the Churches on a special mission. But we had appointed 
 to meet each other at Leribe on February 26th. All the rivers 
 were swelled. In spite of many difficulties and adventures, I 
 was faithful to the tryst. She would have been there too. But 
 the Caledon was in full flood. The waggon was there on the 
 banks, and the clouds continually gathering. I took a great 
 resolve. The chief Molapo chose six or eight persons, well known 
 to be good swimmers ; and with a troop of young men, under 
 the direction of Nathanael Makotoko, I went to the Caledon. 
 The parleying did not take long. She put on a woollen dress, 
 descended to the overflowing river, and calmly yielded herself 
 to two vigorous Zulus, who held her up under the armpits. 
 Zulus were swimming before and behind her, all the young men 
 of the village, up and down the river, in the most perfect order, 
 and the whole procession struggled in deepest silence against 
 the rapid current. One could only see her shoulders above the 
 stream. To say what I went through during this crossing would
 
 458 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 be impossible. I thought of Christiana crossing the Jordan. . . . 
 Once arrived at the bank, I received her : all our men and our 
 people disappeared. She put on her riding habit, and a few 
 seconds later the joyous and noisy cavalcade arrived at our 
 little hut, seven feet square, and built of turfs. 
 
 Now she has crossed the Great Jordan. I accompanied her 
 to the shore : I could go no farther. The palace of glory has 
 opened its doors to her, and I had a glimpse of the splendour 
 that shone out. But they have closed again. Soon they will 
 reopen, and I shall rejoin her. No more separations then — 
 no more bereavement. " He will wipe away all tears from our 
 eyes." 
 
 Sefula, J^tne ^ol/t, 1892. 
 
 All your letters are here before me. They come from 
 almost everywhere, echoing a universal sympathy. During ten 
 days, every evening after supper and family worship, you might 
 have seen me in my study, alone with you, and up to a late hour, 
 drinking deep of the overflowing cup of your consolations. 
 Which of us would dare to doubt the communion of saints and 
 the real unity of the Body of Christ ? I would not have been 
 without one of your letters, for each has its own drop to sweeten 
 the bitterness of my cup. Each, too, brings its own jewel, which 
 I in turn lay at the feet of my blessed Master, as a tribute 
 worthy of Himself alone. 
 
 You have understood that I am a poor suffering human 
 being, who may be depressed and discouraged. On the field 
 of battle, in the midst of the conflict, surely it is not unworthy 
 of a soldier to give a thought and a tear to that comrade who 
 falls at his side ! Jesus wept. But the warrior must not falter ; 
 the fight must not relax. 
 
 You appreciated her whom I mourn. She was not demon- 
 strative ; she had a horror of everything that approached the 
 theatrical and aimed at effect. But once she had opened her 
 heart and given her confidence, it was for ever. " You are a 
 rich man," wrote one friend. Rich ? — when, in losing her, I have 
 lost my all ? And yet it is true. "He became poor, that I through 
 His poverty might become rich " — even in this world. In Jesus, 
 I have found everything. With His kingdom, He has given 
 mc everything. Because He has taken it to adorn His palaces.
 
 1892] ENQUIRERS 459 
 
 He has not therefore bereft me for ever of the treasure that came 
 to me from Him. No ! But her departure has revealed in the 
 hearts of God's children, in almost every country of Europe, 
 an inexhaustible mine of prayer, faith, love, sacrifices, and 
 blessings, which are an inestimable security for our dear Barotsi 
 Mission. " It is impossible," writes a friend, " that you should 
 not have your part in the joy of Easter. Here below. Tabor 
 cannot last for ever. But Jesus has said, ' Ye shall rejoice, 
 and your joy no man taketh from you.' The joy of Pentecost 
 has always lasted. Has not the Lord been faithful ? " Yes 
 indeed : the joy of Easter and the joy of Pentecost. Let us 
 not live absorbed in the past, nor yet bemoaning ourselves 
 in the present ; but let us rather work while it is day, in view 
 of eternity. David said, and he had excellent reasons for 
 saying, " It is good for me to have been afflicted." There are 
 blessings which we can only receive through that channel ; there 
 are great lessons we can learn only in the school of the Man 
 of Sorrows. 
 
 I am told that our bereavement has been blessed to some 
 souls in Europe. I believe it has been so even here. She 
 often repeated, " II a compte mes allees et mes venues — my 
 wanderings " ^ ; and I would add, " Her tears are in His book," 
 and her prayers. The little movement which rejoiced her last 
 looks on earth has not, it is true, produced all that we expected 
 from it. Still, there is a small number of persons who seek the 
 Lord, and some who even profess to have found Him. I have 
 gathered up those who inspire me with most confidence into 
 a class of enquirers, as the English would say — not yet a class 
 of catechumens — and to these I give special instruction. At 
 the outside, they number ten or eleven, counting Litia and his 
 wife. Besides some young men who live with us as pupils or 
 as workmen, there are among them three women from a neigh- 
 bouring village, for whom we have prayed for more than two 
 years. They are a joy to us. Besides our private prayer meet- 
 ings, where we do indeed feel that our Methodist brethren are a 
 strength to us, we have had to begin a meeting of this kind 
 on Wednesday mornings. Very few come to it each time 
 outside our little group of regular attendants ; but it is a means 
 of drawing intimately together, and a great interest to us. 
 
 > Ps. Ivi. 8.
 
 460 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 But we wish to accomplish a real work : on the One 
 Foundation we would not build wood and straw, but silver, 
 gold, and, if possible, precious stones. And these conversions, 
 while encouraging me, because I cannot entirely fail to recognise 
 the action of the Holy Spirit therein, do not give me full satis- 
 faction. The leaves of repentance are certainly there, so the 
 tree must have life ; but I would like to find more fruit. The 
 notion of sin is feeble among our Zambesians. I should like 
 to see sinners stricken down like Paul on the road to Damascus, 
 and agonised souls who cannot contain the cry, " What must I 
 do to be saved ? " It seems to me that these poor heathen 
 must necessarily pass by Sinai before coming to Calvary. God 
 forbid that I should " limit the Almighty " ! He can open the 
 heart of Lydia as well as strike down the Philippian gaoler. 
 Such examples are not rare in Europe, especially among those 
 who have grown up in a Christian atmosphere. But I am 
 speaking of poor pagans who have been sitting in the darkness 
 of superstition and in the mire of sin. I have a dread of those 
 professions in which the joy of salvation shines at the same 
 moment as the sorrow of repentance — of those Israelites who 
 have certainly fled from Egypt, and even passed the Red Sea, 
 but who die in the desert, without reaching the Promised Land — 
 of those believers who have never known what the Holy Spirit is. 
 And the number of them is great, elsewhere besides in Africa. 
 The example of my dear Andreas prevents me from rejoicing 
 without fear. While preserving his profession, he has not 
 prospered spiritually since he left us, and the world is beguiling 
 him. I ask you most earnestly to join your prayers with ours 
 that the Lord may bring him victoriously through the crisis, 
 which will decide his whole life, and deliver him from the terrible 
 snares set for him. There is indeed a question of giving him 
 to the king's eldest daughter as an official husband. 
 
 Finally, you know that for two years especially we have 
 had dark days and times of great difficulty. These burdens 
 you cannot share, nor help us to carry them, except by sympathy 
 and prayer ; and that you have done. We have felt it. The 
 situation has considerably improved in every respect : passions 
 have cooled down ; the king is undeceived, he has recognised 
 his best friends, and has drawn towards us again. Little by 
 little our relationships are returning to their former footing ; it
 
 1892] AN APPEAL 461 
 
 is again the era oi" Nlate ea rategang" ("Beloved father)," as 
 we say here, because it is the term Lewanika uses in the notes 
 he addresses to me, when he is in a good humour. With the 
 chiefs of the Valley, we always have excellent relations ; for 
 the king, in all these affairs, has a party of his own. It is 
 with the chiefs of Sesheke more especially that we have lost 
 ground. For a moment, we believed that our dear mission was 
 within an ace of ruin. God has mercifully saved us and 
 delivered us, in answer to your prayers and ours. 
 
 But workers are lacking. Shall we content ourselves with 
 the glory of seizing and occupying a field which others envy us, 
 and which we have neither the strength nor the faith to culti- 
 vate ? No, no ; I am insulting the zeal that upholds us, and 
 which is about to attack the regions of the French Congo. I 
 appeal to France, to Switzerland, to Italy ; I appeal also to that 
 very interesting Church of Belgium, because it is said to be a 
 missionary Church. Beloved brethren, send us reinforcements ! 
 Christian young men, come to our help ! Fathers, mothers, 
 who pray every day, " Thy kingdom come," place, oh ! place 
 your Isaacs on His altar, consecrate your Samuels to Him. 
 Give us ten choice men — ten men chosen and called by God — ten 
 men whose faith does not rest upon the shifting sand of modern 
 criticism, but upon the Rock of Ages— /es?is, delivered for our 
 offences, and raised again for our justification. It is a real 
 warfare — let us be under no illusions as to that ; but its object 
 is glorious, and the victory is certain. Rather die than desert 
 the post, one of the outposts of the conquering army of the 
 King of kings. We are mounting to assault the fortress ; 
 we shall hold out at the breach ; there we shall plant the 
 standard of the Cross. A handful of soldiers — ten men of 
 Stephen's type — and the day is ours ! 
 
 With men, funds are needed. The men will come, since 
 one is already announced. Thank God ! help is at hand. The 
 funds ! One voice cries to me from beyond the sea, " You 
 have burdens enough which we cannot bear with you ; leave 
 that one to us — it is ours." That is a good word. It is more 
 than a word. Already you are bringing your coppers, your 
 silver, and your gold. You have understood, " The Lord hath 
 need of it." 
 Ps. ciii. I.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 Distresses and Deliverances — In a Canoe to Lealuyi — Good Reception — 
 Military Ceremonies — A Camp Meeting — Sunday at the Capital — A 
 Slave Market — How long ? 
 
 Sefula, May 26th — 30//?, 1892. 
 
 ANOTHER storm ! . . . How do the storms arise on the 
 Zambesi ? They are so frequent, so unexpected, and so 
 threatening ! . . . Scarcely has one passed over our heads than 
 another has already arisen and is muttering on the horizon. 
 What an atmosphere this is, where one's nerves never have 
 time to relax ! Oh that we too could possess in great measure 
 that wisdom that cometh from above, that we might " walk in 
 wisdom toward them that are without " ! And yet, it seemed 
 to us that the wind had swept away the clouds, and that for 
 the first time for a long while our sky had once more become 
 blue and clear. Indeed, in the middle of April, I had returned 
 from Lealuyi, recognising with gratitude the answer {remarkable 
 for us) of our ardent and special prayers. Almost without 
 expecting it, we were delivered from these " unreasonable and 
 wicked men " (2 Thess. iii. 2), who had so seriously hindered 
 the free course of the Word of the Lord. The king had 
 approached us again, and he had smoothed over all the diffi- 
 culties which he had previously opposed to our installation at 
 the capital. Three times, he had changed the canoe he had 
 presented to me, and each time for a better one. He even 
 furnished me with canoes to fetch our supplies from Kazungula, 
 and this " out of friendship," and of course without there being 
 any question of payment. So all was going on for the best, 
 as in the best of all worlds. 
 
 Unfortunately, our brother Buckenham, the chief of the 
 Primitive Methodist Expedition, had to go to Kazungula on 
 
 462
 
 1892] ANOTHER STORM 463 
 
 his own affairs, and thought the occasion of my going too good 
 to be missed. On my advice, he asked Lewanika for a canoe ; 
 and as I foresaw a refusal, I warned the latter that in the last 
 resort Mr. Buckenham could go down in my own canoe, if 
 it were not possible for him to procure one. The king replied 
 evasively, and Mr. Buckenham left with my people. As soon 
 as he heard this, Lewanika could not contain himself with rage. 
 We had done him out of a good sum of money, on which he 
 was already counting. " What right had the Moruti to hire 
 people out to this stranger? Are they not his" {i.e. the king's) 
 " own slaves ? " And then he raised the great question, " What 
 will their wages be ? " For Lewanika desires nothing but money ; V 
 he dreams only of that. In vain I assured him that my 
 canoe, like those he had lent me, was going to fetch our 
 supplies, and was under the orders of the petty chief whom 
 he had himself placed at the head of this expedition ; that Mr. 
 Buckenham had only taken advantage of this opportunity — as, 
 moreover, I had told him beforehand he would do. Nothing 
 was of any use. Bitter little notes and unpleasant echoes 
 brought to my ears the insults the poor man was raining on 
 my head, surrounded by his likomboa^ flatterers and courtiers 
 of the vilest sort. I even sent the evangelist Paulus to spend 
 some days with him, so as better to explain this voyage of our 
 Methodist brother in my boat. 
 
 I thought for a moment that he had succeeded. What was 
 not our astonishment to learn a few days later that Lewanika 
 had secretly sent a young man who attends school, and who 
 is the guardian of his daughters here, an order to strangle all 
 the workmen who are working here for me, all without exception ! 
 This young man, whom, moreover, I believe to be not far from 
 the kingdom of heaven, dared not do it ; he contented himself, 
 out of respect for me, with snatching his piece of calico from 
 the first workman I paid. This was the signal for all sorts 
 of vexations. The petty chiefs who attend our school, the boys 
 and young men in their suites, rubbed their hands gleefully. 
 Then they began once more, as in former days, to strip the 
 passers-by, and to lay violent hands on the produce brought 
 us for sale. There was a new panic. All our workmen — and we 
 had a good many, for we are preparing all the materials here 
 for our new station at Lealuyi — all our workmen, I say, with
 
 464 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 the exception of two, who exhibited really admirable courage, 
 fled by night, and for three weeks no one dared to bring us 
 anything whatever to sell. If some one ventured to come and 
 see us, he hid first in the bushes, watched his opportunity when 
 no one could see him, and only spoke in whispers. 
 
 Although ill, and scarcely able to stand on my legs, I 
 started for Lealuyi, where, according to my custom, I stayed 
 several days. Was the king touched by my weak and emaciated 
 condition? Probably, for he exerted himself to surround me 
 with attentions and amiability. In my long conversations with 
 him, I made it a duty to remind him of the great lessons of 
 the revolution which had driven him away into exile. I had 
 no difficulty in convincing him that this clique of likomboa 
 did not respect him any the more because he plagued the 
 servants of God without cause, strangers in his country and 
 utterly at his mercy. He wished to raise the wages of the 
 workmen to an absurd extent, and impose on us terms which 
 were far too onerous and humiliating. I held out ; and he ended 
 by giving in. He even pretended to be indignant, because 
 people had exceeded his orders to annoy us. He sent for the 
 young man whom he had made his policeman and spy. 
 
 " The Moruti" said he, " has conquered me. I was vexed, 
 and scolded him. Now, it is done with. Let the young men 
 who wish to do so work as usual, and see to it that nobody 
 annoys the people any more who come to him to sell their millet." 
 
 Here we have a manifest answer to our prayers, and we bless 
 God for it. 
 
 These are details which may seem very slight to you, but 
 life, even the greatest life, is made up of them. And when 
 detail is added to detail, when one petition after another is 
 granted, then the Christian who observes and forgets not finds 
 he is indeed " compassed about with songs of deliverance " 
 (Ps. xxxii. 7). We have just had a fresh illustration of this. 
 Nevertheless, the people's confidence is not yet restored ; we are 
 without workmen, and famine is threatening us. 
 
 The work does not stand still, notwithstanding, thanks to 
 the staff of our establishment. But the day before yesterday, 
 we had measured out our last portion of flour. At our family 
 worship, it was not a " vain repetition " to recite aloud together, 
 " Give us this day our daily bread." All day, I was on the
 
 1892] SCARCITY OF THATCH 465 
 
 watch to see from what direction the help would come. 
 Nothing ! We were astonished, and in the evening we said so 
 to the Lord. " O men of little faith ! " That very evening, 
 while we were on our knees, a messenger from the king arrived 
 at the village. He brought us two wild geese ready cooked,, 
 and a great package of dried hippopotamus flesh, from the king, 
 " my friend and brother." How could we help thinking of the 
 prophet's ravens, and being penetrated by the sense of God's 
 faithfulness ? The same messenger brought me also from 
 another of my " friends " a hundred and twenty tiny little 
 potatoes — just a hundred and twenty — which had been offered 
 me a few weeks before for the modest sum of £2 lo.f. in kind ! 
 
 The next morning, two men lurking in a byway asked: 
 me in a whisper if they could bring the flour and corn which 
 they had to sell, and which they had hidden in the bushes. 
 " Unquestionably," I answered aloud, before everybody present, 
 " and at once ; you have nothing to fear." Consequently, the 
 market is about to reopen. The Lord carries on His children's 
 education by His own methods ; but how often we have to come 
 back to the A B C of faith and unreserved confidence ! 
 
 One anxiety — for anxieties here are an ill-weed, the nettle 
 of life — was the thatch, the long grass I needed to cover the 
 church, the cottage, and the huts of the new station. It was 
 said that Lewanika and his son Litia, who are also building, had 
 gathered all the little that has grown this year. The fact is, 
 I suppose, that they were afraid of the king. Then I announced 
 that I would begin to buy on a certain day. Before the day 
 appointed, I refused what they began to bring me from hither 
 and thither. But on that day, from dawn, there was an un- 
 accustomed stir on the station : men, women, and even children 
 came in long files from every direction with their trusses, like 
 red ants on the march. And every day, except Saturday, which 
 I had reserved for myself, it was the same thing ; so that in two 
 weeks I had what I needed — more than two thousand trusses ! 
 To the great discontent of my Zambesians, I then had to close 
 the market. 
 
 I hope that this building and the others of the new station 
 will cost the mission nothing, and will not turn aside a centime 
 of its funds. I reckon to devote to it the remainder of a sum 
 
 which a revered friend in England (Mrs. H ) had specially 
 
 30
 
 466 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 given for the construction of a dwelling-house. We are in the 
 midst of full preparations. I no longer need a house : a little 
 cottage like this will suffice for me. The eternal " mansions " are 
 not far off. 
 
 July \st — 9//^. 
 
 I am getting really better, thank God, and I feel myself less 
 of a burden to my friends and myself The yearly inundation 
 is over ; the plain is drying up : the low-lying parts, however, are 
 still impracticable pools and quagmires. So, to go to Lealuyi, 
 I have to make up my mind to descend my canal, and follow 
 the interminable windings of the river, which triple or quadruple 
 the distance. The journey is one of deadly monotony ! For 
 want of rowers, I had taken my small boat ; but it was so loaded 
 with my four boys, myself, and my few packages, that at the 
 slightest movement it took in water and threatened to sink. 
 I sat shivering with my feet in the water and my clothes soaked, 
 for the cold was intense. It was my poor boys I pitied. It 
 is true that they were not, like me, condemned to almost absolute 
 inaction. They could give themselves exercise with their 
 paddles, but the water that streamed from their oars was 
 sprinkled over their bodies by the icy wind. At every shower 
 bath, one heard an ill-suppressed " Mawe !^' while the others 
 would try to joke a little to keep up their spirits. 
 
 The sun had disappeared on the horizon, and we were still 
 a long way from the capital. The moon, in its first quarter, 
 shed a misty light, that only made the cold more piercing and 
 our situation more doleful. It seemed to me we ought long 
 before to have found the entrance of Lewanika's canal which 
 leads to Lealuyi. Could we have missed it ? No landmark 
 either between these banks, which rise like two walls, nor, when 
 they sink, in this immense plain, dreary and silent. And with 
 these interminable and inextricable zigzags, it is impossible to 
 find one's bearings. Now we were looking towards the crescent 
 moon, now we were turning our backs and retracing our steps, 
 only to face about once more until a neighbouring promontory 
 sent us off in a new direction. I began to be uneasy, and my 
 boys too. Supposing we had already passed the canal ? . . . 
 The moon had long set, and we were still rowing on. ... At 
 last, here is the canal ! . . . No mistake about it this time.
 
 1892] A MIDNIGHT VOYAGE 467 
 
 The canoes have made a way through the reeds that choke it 
 up. We venture in. No sign of a village — not a living soul 
 to give us a word of information. At long intervals, a tiny 
 intermittent fire indicated a solitary bivouac, but only at an 
 unknown distance. All talk is hushed, and in this lonely silence 
 nothing is heard but the monotonous cadence of the oars, and 
 the hoarse plaintive cry and flapping wings of an occasional 
 water-fowl who flies off alarmed at our approach. 
 
 Suddenly, a flaring torch lights up the night ; dark forms loom 
 forth like silhouettes on a screen. Then a voice, " Holla ! who 
 are you ? Are you the Monitil " " Yes, the Morutil' joyfully 
 answers one of my boys. A few more vigorous strokes bring 
 us to a troop of young men, who glide their canoes alongside 
 of ours. They are excited and very talkative. According to 
 the etiquette of the royal service, which does not permit one 
 attendant to carry two things at a time, however small, they 
 come to me bringing, one a cup, another a pot of milk, a third 
 is furnished with a kettle, while the man following him bears 
 a chafing-dish full of live coals. All is forgotten now ; faces 
 brighten up ; tongues are unloosed. 
 
 While my boys spring to the shore, and brood over a fire of 
 reeds, there am I with my feet on the generous chafing-dish, 
 swallowing a strong decoction of something they tell me is tea. 
 All I know is that it is something hot. We won't say Lewanika 
 has nothing good in him after this. 
 
 He had learnt I was benighted ; and fearing I should lose 
 my way and spend the night without shelter, he had sent these 
 young men with two canoes to look for me, and had had the 
 delicate thought of sending me a kettle of tea with the precious 
 chafing-dish. Soon afterwards, we were in port. Ten minutes' 
 walk on dry ground, and I reached my court, where — a luxury 
 indeed here — a bright fire was burning. After having shaken 
 hands warmly with the king, who was waiting for mc, and 
 exchanged a few friendly words with him, we bade each other 
 good-night. I drew the mat over my door, and went to seek 
 in my damp blankets a little warmth and sleep. It was near 
 midnight. 
 
 I should not like to say that my visit was inopportune. No. 
 But I had more occasion to observe than to evangelise directly. 
 The queen, Mokwae, of Nalolo, was still there on a visit. She
 
 468 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892^ 
 
 is my neighbour, for our courts touch one another. The very 
 next morning, she did me the honour of coming to share my 
 breakfast, attended by her sort of husband, who scarcely quits 
 her more than her shadow. She should have started the same 
 day for Nalolo. " But," she said flatteringly, " now that otir 
 father has arrived, there can be no question of that. I shall not 
 start till Monday." I was much obliged to her for this, on 
 account of Sunday. 
 
 I also learn that an army corps of about three thousand men 
 has just arrived ; but, according to the custom of the country, 
 it is still camped at a distance in the plain. Lewanika had sent 
 it in April to " chastise " the Balubale, who by their incessant 
 attacks on their neighbours were compromising the public safety. 
 
 The return of this expeditionary army is quite an event. 
 In order to receive it, the king has had a pavilion of mats erected 
 outside the town. About ten o'clock, the drums announced that 
 it was near. A black mass that one could descry in the distance 
 then began to move, slowly advanced, and halted some way off, 
 to do homage to the sovereign by going through all the phases 
 of the usual royal salutation. Then this compact mass broke up 
 and formed different detachments, who made it their business 
 to represent the war they had just been engaged in, which 
 had covered them with glory ! Here — less, though, than in 
 Basuto-land — each one sings his own exploits. The sight is 
 certainly picturesque. Each is bedizened in his own fashion ; 
 plumes of every sort abound — leopard skins and pieces of stuff, 
 which have been carefully preserved for the occasion. And 
 these gaudy, variegated colours, with their agitated movements, 
 their infinite combinations through whimsical evolutions and 
 contortions, dances and feigned attacks, produce the effect of a 
 gigantic kaleidoscope. Thus passes the greater part of the day. 
 
 Then the chiefs in a body, whom the messengers brought 
 up by short stages with much clapping of hands, approach and 
 await like statues the order to make their report. These are 
 admirably laconic. Their microscopic speeches, which according 
 to etiquette, had to pass through several mouths before reach- 
 ing the royal ear, did not last a quarter of an hour. And yet 
 these braves told us everything : their various mishaps ; the 
 fright of the Balubale, who at their approach fled into the 
 woods ; the death of twenty-six or twenty-eight Barotsi chiefs
 
 1892] TRIUMPHANT WARRIORS 469 
 
 of all grades (they take no count of the slaves) ; the rich booty 
 they are carrying or leading away — a unique herd of cattle, 
 arms, a number of women and children, and then, and above all, 
 alas ! the small-pox, which has already claimed numerous victims, 
 and is still raging in the camp. . . . Lewanika was equally 
 sparing of words to express his approbation ; but he gave what 
 they valued far more than speeches and praises — he gave them 
 fifteen oxen to kill. Soon night came ; the camp-fires sparkled 
 out like a little town illuminated, and the uproar all night long 
 told us that Mr. Gaster, so powerful on the Zambesi (and 
 elsewhere) was satisfied. 
 
 That happened on Saturday. What sort of Sunday should 
 we have ? The day promised to be fine. To be sure, the wind 
 was blowing a little, and I feared that Lewanika, on the pretext 
 of neuralgia in the face, from which he suffers, would absent 
 himself from the service. I paid him an early call, and found 
 him most favourably inclined. He had already given orders 
 to have a shelter prepared for him. I was walking about, 
 meditating, until the hour of meeting, when, to my consternation, 
 I saw a party of warriors, who have their home here, advancing 
 and entering the town. They halted long, massed on the 
 public place. It was the signal for a general excitement, which 
 rose and attained its maximum when, after kneeling and 
 clapping their hands, they dispersed each to his own house. 
 The women, who were grouped in the alley-ways, jostled against 
 the men in every direction, uttering piercing yells that made 
 one long to stop one's ears. They went and besieged the court 
 of each important personage in turn — and every Barotsi per- 
 sonage is important — and gratified him with a serenade ; while 
 the latter, enthroned upon a mat or a stool, received the con- 
 gratulations, the hand-kissings, and the delicate spittings of his 
 near relatives. These sharp cries, these sing-song salutations, 
 these minor chants, all this excited coming and going, this noise 
 and racket, ended by getting on our nerves, and making us 
 feel melancholy. 
 
 As to the meeting, no question of that. Wait ? We might 
 wait in vain. Even when calm had been somewhat restored, 
 and the king ordered his drums to be beaten, we only had a 
 miniature audience. Their minds were otherwise engaged. And 
 then, what must Lewanika do but take possession of the shed
 
 470 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 in the lekJiothla where his wives the princesses generally sit 
 to screen themselves from the vulgar eye. Consequently, 
 Mokwae could not show herself, although she had put on her 
 fine robe of crimson velvet for the occasion, nor could any of the 
 princesses, nor yet any other women. It was a disappointment 
 for me. The congregation of the evening would be better : it is 
 generally the case. 
 
 Between the two meetings, I betook myself to the camp. 
 But to whom should I address myself to call the men together, 
 since all the chiefs were at the village ? God would direct me. 
 I went straight before me. Behold, the men sprang up to meet 
 me, seized my hands, and saluted me as an old friend ! It 
 was a cross-fire of salutations. " Lwuela, Moruti! Luinela, 
 Ntate oa Rona ! " ("How do you do, teacher? How do you 
 do, father ? "). You have guessed that these are my neighbours 
 from Sefula. This was a capital method of bell-ringing ; it 
 succeeded brilliantly. 
 
 While we were exchanging the bulk of the news, an 
 assembly had already collected. Then I started a hymn, which 
 powerful voices rang out to the far distance. This was my 
 second and loudest bell. People ran from the extreme limits 
 of the camp, and I had the joy of preaching to a numerous 
 and attentive audience. When I had finished, they still kept 
 on arriving : the crowd had doubled. So we had a second 
 singing and a second sermon ; then the Lord's Prayer, repeated 
 on their knees by hundreds of men, closed this interesting 
 meeting. 1 noticed that the prisoners of war, the Balubale 
 women and children, had grouped themselves near me. Prob- 
 ably, they had never seen a white face before. I addressed some 
 words to these poor creatures through an interpreter, which 
 they received with many hand-clappings ; then I took my leave 
 in the midst of the thanks and salutations of all these people. 
 
 Thence, let us go in another direction to visit fifty Mashu- 
 kulumboe. This was an embassy that Nashintu, the chicfess 
 of whom I have already spoken to you,^ had sent to Lewanika. 
 Samoinda, the son of this influential woman, had in his youth 
 been carried off by the Makololo. To-day, he is a man in 
 the prime of life, and possesses a certain social position among 
 
 ' See page 313.
 
 1892] A SLAVE MARKET 47 1 
 
 the Barotsi. Lewanika had the happy idea of sending him to 
 visit his mother, who is still living, and who had never seen 
 him again. Nashintu recognised her son, and, touched by this 
 delicate attention, sent him back with this embassy and a 
 present of cattle for the king. So I had a conversation, the 
 nature of which will be easily understood, with these Mashu- 
 kulumboe, who interest me so much. Poor people ! " We had 
 indeed heard of the Moruti" (I am known only by this name) ; 
 " but now our eyes have seen him." Shall I ever have the joy, 
 before leaving this world, of seeing the Gospel penetrate to 
 them ? We work, we pray, always hoping it will please the 
 Lord to open this door for our Methodist brethren. Oh ! if 
 we were but stronger ! — if we were but richer ! — if . . . 
 
 At Lewanika's entreaty, I decided to prolong my stay at 
 Lcaluyi to the end of the week. He said, truly, that he had 
 not time to see me during the day. He made up for it by 
 coming after sunset, to share his dinner and pass the evening 
 with me. It was a return to old times — those times of which 
 the memory is so sweet to me. During four consecutive days, 
 from morning till evening, he was entirely absorbed by the 
 division of the booty — the unfortunate prisoners, henceforth 
 reduced to slavery. I had the curiosity to see how he pro- 
 ceeded with it. I took care not to go, as usual, and sit down 
 beside him. I even avoided sitting down at all, so that they 
 should not misunderstand my presence. It was nothing more 
 nor less than a sharing of human cattle, which it made one's 
 heart ache to witness. I had never yet been so close to a 
 slave-market. 
 
 Picture to yourselves thousands of Barotsi crouching in a 
 circle before the king and the principal chiefs of the country. 
 In the midst, heaped up close together, are hundreds of these 
 unfortunate prisoners. Not a single man among them ; no 
 young men. And for a good reason. A man is nev-er made 
 prisoner ; he is killed and disembowelled. There are not even 
 any old women. What could they do with them ? These are 
 young women, the greater number with little children on their 
 backs ; or they are young girls, and a multitude of children 
 of all ages from one to twelve, and of both sexes. See one 
 band after another, six or seven at a time, who are made to 
 rise and approach, and who are subjected to a minute inspection.
 
 472 ON THE THRESHOLD QF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 while thousands of eyes are fixed upon them with unabashed 
 cupidity. The women, emaciated, frightened, and to our eyes 
 revoltingly filthy, generally hang down their heads. According 
 to their national custom, they are in a state of nudity, which 
 provokes the mirth and the obscene remarks of the multitude. 
 There is a great consultation under the pavilion ; then a chief 
 advances towards the poor wretches to execute the king's good 
 pleasure. The unweaned babe, fortunate little creature, is left 
 for some time at least at its mother's breast. But all the 
 others who can walk already are so many domestic animals, 
 which are distributed right and left. Poor children ! no more 
 mother or father for them ! But they will get used to it ; and 
 one day they too, like these men of to-day, will find their 
 pleasure and their glory in making orphans. 
 
 Here is a little child scarcely three years old, who is being 
 snatched from a young woman's arms. He shrieks and kicks 
 about, wrenches himself free, and runs into the midst of the 
 crowd, quite lost, and crying for his mother, who has already 
 been carried off. This unrehearsed effect is a capital joke for 
 everybody. " Knock him down ! " they shouted laughingly to 
 his master. He understood his own interests better than that 
 and soon got the better of the refractory little creature. And 
 now it is the turn of another young mother. " Take that baby 
 away ! " (apparently her firstborn). But she, heedless of her 
 situation, seizes it and clutches it convulsively in her arms. 
 Fire darts from her eyes, and from her lips a torrent of words, 
 highly mirth-provoking to all around me. One could see that 
 she was ready to perish rather than part with her own flesh 
 and blood. They were already proceeding to violence, when 
 Lewanika let himself be moved, and ordered them to leave 
 her child to her. Fortunate warrior ; he is a lucky fellow ! 
 Two domestic animals instead of one ! I could stand it no 
 longer : I fled from these sickening scenes, which succeeded 
 one another during several days. O my God ! how long ? 
 
 Keep the frame for a few days, and change the picture. 
 The distribution of slaves is concluded. Behold a phalanx 
 of more than two hundred and fifty men advancing. The circle 
 opens ; it enters silently, and deploys. Each man carries a 
 broken bow, with a quiver full of arrows, a bundle of spears, 
 or else a gun, which he carries reversed. These warriors are
 
 1892] THE SMALL-POX 473 
 
 those who have distinguished themselves, and the arms they 
 carry are those of the enemies they have killed or disembowelled. 
 Each has killed his man ; some have killed several. And all 
 of them are not there. Some are ill ; some are gone home ; 
 •others, finally, are dead in their turn. In this choice company, 
 there are several young men from my school. One or two hang 
 their heads on seeing me. While praises are being dealt out 
 to these braves, I yield myself to all sorts of reflections, I make 
 a calculation, and find they must have captured more than six 
 hundred women and children, without counting those who have 
 died of small-pox or of ill-treatment, and that they have killed 
 more than three hundred and fifty men, without counting the 
 wounded and those who crawled away into the woods to die 
 of their wounds. Must we carry this calculation further into 
 the moral domain ? NoJ War is horrible ; it is the great engine 
 •of the great murderer of the human race ; and he does his best 
 to bring it to perfection in every country. Enough ! We who 
 are always vaunting our light and our civilisation, shall we be 
 the first to cast a stone at these poor Barotsi ? 
 
 Sefula, September 26ih, 1892. 
 
 I hope that, in the course of next month, I shall at last be 
 able to begin the preliminaries of my installation at Lealuyi. 
 But workmen are scarce, owing to the small-pox, which is still 
 raging. I have succeeded very well in obtaining vaccine from 
 cows. Hundreds of people have been vaccinated ; and even 
 though nearly all have had the small-pox, it has taken a 
 very mild form, and only one to my knowledge has died. 
 But the difficulties we have to battle with ! The king wished 
 the vaccine to be used exclusively for himself, his sons, his 
 children, and his nephews ; later on, he consented to have it 
 for his village as well. As for the natives, either they had no 
 confidence in their own people, or else, once vaccinated, they 
 did not come back again. So long as they were vaccinated 
 themselves, what did it matter about the rest of the nation ? 
 In order to get the lymph, therefore, I was obliged to renew 
 my experiments, inoculate cows, and, with the virus thus 
 obtained, vaccinate the people. One cannot always be successful 
 
 All the boys and nearly all the girls in the house have been 
 ill, and it was interesting to see the close connexion between
 
 474 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 the good vaccine and the small-pox. Just now^ we have a poor 
 girl covered with pustules. I have vaccinated her three or four 
 times unsuccessfully. The poor child is unrecognisable. This 
 is the eleventh day — the crisis. On seeing her body, and 
 especially her arms, covered with these frightful spots, she has 
 done nothing but sob all the morning. She thinks she is going 
 to die, and is afraid of being buried in the " Christian fashion." ^ 
 Poor little thing! 
 
 Everything around us is in a sad state : whole villages are 
 entirely deserted ; the fields are left fallow, and we are expecting 
 a frightful famine. 
 
 M. L. Jalla is starting on his return journey to-morrow. 
 His visit, like the arrival of M. and Mme. Adolphe Jalla, has 
 done me good. 
 
 How long can I remain at Lealuyi ? I am anxious not to 
 tie myself down to it. I will make as much of the responsibility 
 as possible rest upon Jacob, the evangelist whom the Jallas 
 have just brought with them — so that I shall be able to with- 
 draw without being missed. It is not that I wish to retire or 
 leave the mission. No ! Wherever I am, or whatever I may be 
 doing, the Barotsi Mission has my heart. I shall die in its 
 service, if the Lord grant my prayer. But I am not good for 
 much, and it may well be that the Master will soon lay me aside. 
 
 ■ The Barotsi always bury in a sitting posture, facing eastwards, " with 
 their eyes towards the first ray of morning." Tliey beheve that if they are 
 buried "Christian fashion" {i.e. flat on their backs), they will rise again as 
 serpents.
 
 ^ . f-.
 
 PART IV 
 
 L E A LU Y I 
 1892 — 1896 
 
 MARTIN LUTHER'S HYMN. 
 
 Through our own force we nothing can, 
 
 Straight were we lost for ever ; 
 But for us fights the proper Man, 
 By God sent to dehver. 
 Ask ye who this may be ? 
 Christ Jesus named is He, 
 Of Sabaoth the Lord, 
 Sole God to be adored : 
 Tis He must win the battle. 
 
 From *'■ Lyra Gerwanica.' 
 
 475
 
 LEALUYI 
 
 October 28th, 1892, to January 1896 
 
 CHRONICLE 
 
 Oct, 28th, 1892 Station established at Lealuyi. 
 
 July 9th, 1893 .. ... Church opened at Kazungula. 
 
 March nth, 1894 ... Church opened at Lealuyi. 
 
 June 24th, 1894 ... Arrival of M. and Mme. B^guin from Switzerland, and of the 
 
 evangelists John and Willy from Basuto-land — Mile. Kiener 
 
 leaves Sefula for Kazungula. 
 July 1894 Third Conference (at Kazungula) — Beginning of the first 
 
 general awakening on the different stations. 
 
 Oct. 14th, 1894 Station established at Nalolo under M. and Mme. B6guin. 
 
 Oct. 1894 Litia established as Prefect of Sefula with his wife. 
 
 Nov. 1894... ... M.and Mme. Adolphejalla leave Sefula and settle at Lealuyi — 
 
 Foundation of a school for native evangelists — Mr. Waddell 
 
 leaves for Europe on account of his health. 
 May 6th — June 15th, 1895 M. Coillard's voyage of Evangelisation to the Balubale and 
 
 Balunda, on the Upper Zambesi, from Lealuyi to Kakenge. 
 July 26th, 1895 Arrival of M. and Mme. Boiteu.x from Switzerland, and M. 
 
 Davit from the Waldensian Valleys, and of the evangelists 
 
 Aaron Ndjelepa and Theodore from Basuto-land. 
 Sept. 189s ... ... Fourth Conference (Lealuyi). 
 
 Oct. 30th, 1895 M. Coillard leaves Lealuyi ill. 
 
 Dec. 18th, 1895 M. Coillard and the Louis Jallas (on furlough) leave Kazungula. 
 
 Feb. 15th, 1896... ... Arrival at Bulawayo. 
 
 June 18th, 1896 Arrival of M. Coillard in Paris. 
 
 476
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 Lealuyi at last — A Double Anniversary — The Fourth Station founded — 
 
 The Small-pox — The Kingdom of Darkness — The Plagues of Egypt 
 
 — The Fighting-ants — Lewanika's Vacillations — The Stations boycotted 
 — The Blockade raised — Warriors decorated. 
 
 Lealuyi, October 31J/, 1892. 
 
 SO here I am at last, at Lealuyi — that hornets' nest, so 
 dreadful and so dreaded. I know very well that I shall 
 not be alone here. You will be with me in your thoughts and 
 in your prayers. And Jesus Himself will be here too, as 
 He has always been with His servants, in the lions' den, in the 
 fiery furnace, in the darkness of a stormy night, in the prison — 
 everywhere. He has promised it, and we know by experience 
 what His promises are. It needs nothing less than this assur- 
 ance to enable me to face all that awaits me, which I already 
 foresee with some misgivings. But God " has given us, on behalf 
 of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His 
 sake." St. Paul said, before going to Jerusalem, where the last 
 persecutions awaited him, " But none of these things move me, 
 neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish 
 my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of 
 the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." 
 
 The foundation of this new station is the realisation of many 
 wishes. May it be a real taking possession ! May this new 
 lighthouse cast its rays far into the heart of this thick darkness ! 
 And, above all, may the Master Whom I serve. He Who is our 
 wisdom, and in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom, give 
 me the wisdovi which this post, difficult above all others, requires, 
 and the zeal which knows how to redeem the time ! 
 
 It was the evening of October 27th that I left Sefula. The 
 next day was a double anniversary — that of the Adolphe Jallas 
 
 477
 
 478 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 marriage, and of the day on which she who has left me entered 
 into everlasting glory. Joy is not incompatible with grief. 
 Never did the Lord speak more of joy than in His last con- 
 versations with His disciples, on the eve of His death. A 
 Christian's sorrow is never without its rainbow, and my sorrow 
 also had one. The sun shines, but it is in a sky full of clouds 
 and rain. And whilst rejoicing heartily with my young friends, 
 I would not — I felt I must not — let my presence cast a shadow 
 on their festival. Moreover, I had need to be alone with God. 
 And I departed. 
 
 On the 28th then, the very day, at the very hour even, on 
 which the previous year I had closed the eyes of my beloved 
 wife, I arrived alone, outspanned my waggon, and pitched my 
 tent on this isolated and barren hillock, at the entrance to the 
 capital. The mound, which is some six or eight feet above the 
 level of the plain, and measures one hundred and seventy-five 
 yards by sixty-five or seventy, is the sorcerers' hillock, the 
 Calvary of paganism, and is locally called Loatile. It is there 
 that sorcerers are executed, being first poisoned, and then burnt 
 alive,-' No one has ever yet lived here ; no one passes by 
 it. The brushwood and thorn bushes which cover it are the 
 haunt of stinging flies and every imaginable venomous insect, 
 of mice, serpents, and other reptiles from the surrounding plain, 
 especially at the time of the floods ; it is infested by innumerable 
 armies of fighting ants ; and, finally, it is the citadel of the 
 termites, who have, in fact, constructed it, and whose voracity 
 surpasses anything I have yet seen. Under these thorns and 
 briers, among creeping and crawling beasts, lie broken bows and 
 assegaf shafts, the decaying fragments of wooden stools and bowls, 
 calcined human bones, bleached by the sun, discoloured by the 
 damp. All round and everywhere stretches the plain — that 
 barren, melancholy plain so dear to the Barotsi. The eye loses 
 itself in the vast expanse. The horizon is bordered on the left 
 by a pale blue line, and on the right by a similar though more 
 accentuated one. These are the thinly wooded sandhills which 
 
 ' It must be borne in mind that the Barotsi, in calling people sorcerers, 
 do not mean the same as we do. A sorcerer is a person who secretly 
 compasses the death or misfortune of another. The magicians, or priests of 
 the occult art, whom wc should call sorcerers, are Ma-Mbunda, witch-finders, 
 detectives or secret police, and are of course regarded as public benefactors.
 
 1892] THE JALLAS AT SEFULA 479 
 
 once formed the banks of a vast lake. Near me in front is the 
 big village, the capital of an immense but sparsely populated 
 country. This capital presents nothing very imposing — a con- 
 fused mass of round huts with pointed roofs like beehives, from 
 which in the evening there arises a dull murmur, the stir of 
 human life, and the roll of drums, which frighten the evil spirits 
 away all night long while the king slumbers. 
 
 From the midst of these huts arises the thatched roof of 
 the king's house, a veritable palace in the eyes of these poor 
 people. This house dominates everything. It is the centre 
 of the harem, as the harem is of the town, and the town of the 
 kingdom. And the royalty reigning in this palace of wattle 
 and thatch is the centre of all. Everything exists for it, every- 
 things hangs on it, everything is absorbed by it. It is an 
 autocracy which permits no one any liberty. It is the mis- 
 fortune of the country ; one of the most formidable obstacles 
 which civilisation — by which I mean progress and Christianity — 
 has to encounter. This town is my Jericho, this power is my 
 Goliath, inasmuch as it personifies paganism and its sovereign 
 pontiff. Ah ! had I but the faith of Joshua and David ! 
 
 The last days spent at Sefula were necessarily painful, very 
 busy, and very tiring. Ever since their arrival, the Adolphe 
 Jallas have surrounded me with an affection that goes to my 
 heart. There was nothing new in that, as regards my young 
 brother. I know him of old ; but he has enriched us by bring- 
 ing us a helpmeet like himself, of very loveable character, and 
 of an eminently practical turn of mind. She has adapted 
 herself to the Zambesian mode of living without any apparent 
 effort, and with a cheerfulness which charms us. We must 
 form an industrial and educational centre for our mission, and 
 I still think that Sefula is the right place, and M. Adolphe 
 Jalla the right man for it. These kind friends wanted to take 
 upon themselves all the trouble of preparing my residence 
 here, whilst I was to remain taking my ease at Sefula ! I am 
 grateful to them for it ; but when one gives oneself, it must 
 not be by halves. I am prepared for anything, except to 
 impose knowingly upon the goodwill or unselfishness of my 
 friends. 
 
 We have now worked at Sefula during six years. You can 
 understand that it is impossible for me to look back on the
 
 48 O ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 past without deep emotion, and still deeper gratitude. God 
 is love — yes, He is love. And He is the Lord God of hosts, 
 the God of battles. Not only has the Angel of the Lord 
 encamped round about us to protect us, not only has He often 
 " compassed us about with songs of deliverance," but He has 
 fought for us. He is my strength and my song, and He will 
 be so until the moment when He Himself shall finally beat 
 down Satan under our feet. 
 
 Do you ask what are the results of these six years of labour ? 
 Where are our sheaves ? Alas ! I could speak of our toil, our 
 illusions and disillusions, of our best-founded hopes and our 
 most bitter and poignant disappointments. Even that is some- 
 thing. We have cleared the ground, ploughed, sown, watered. 
 That was the task which the Master had set us : perhaps we 
 were not fit for anything else. It is for others to reap the 
 harvest. And we shall rejoice together. 
 
 One of the great hindrances to the work at Sefula is the 
 instability of the population around. Like all their congeners, 
 they are naturally of a roving nature ; but in addition to this, 
 their state of serfdom frequently imposes tasks upon them, 
 which force them to leave their homes for days and even weeks 
 together. Hence the irregularity of our congregations and the 
 lack of progress. But at any rate our young colleagues will 
 find Sefula one of the most interesting corners of our field ; 
 and with their resilient youth, and the irresistible power of a love 
 for souls, they will certainly make it flourish, 
 
 I am leaving Mile. Kiener at Sefula, as also my friend 
 Waddell for a time. Now, completely severed from all this 
 tender, watchful, and loving care, my loneliness grows even 
 drearier, and my life harder. But One still remains : He is 
 enough for me. " In His presence is fulness of joy, and at 
 His right hand are pleasures for evermore." 
 
 My arrival here has not made any great sensation, for I am 
 not a stranger ; then, too, the site of the station is on the 
 hither side of the village coming from Sefula. The king had 
 been sulking with us for several days, because neither M. Jalla 
 nor Mr. Baldwin would buy an ox, which he sent to me to sell, 
 sX/tis price. Nevertheless, he showed himself affable, and seemed 
 pleased to see me arrive — so pleased, indeed, that he could 
 not believe it was an accomplished fact, and more than once
 
 1892] FIRST SERVICE AT LOATILE 48 1 
 
 during the conversation asked me, laughing, when I was going 
 back to Sefula. I announced that from the first Sunday- 
 all services would be held on the site of the new station. 
 It was like a flash of lightning to Lewanika ; he perceived, 
 perhaps for the first time, that something was to take place 
 close to his person, and yet independent of him ; that the 
 immediate control of our congregation, our school, our services, 
 our hours, our acts and movements in short, would, in part at 
 any rate, escape him. He thereupon exhausted all his arguments 
 to induce me to change this resolve, and continue to hold all 
 the services at the lekhotJila. It was in vain. We have groaned 
 too much under that iron yoke to submit any longer ; and cost 
 what it might, I was determined to free our work, and to open 
 the way to our meetings for all, women and slaves, v/ho would 
 not dare to appear in the lekhotJila. 
 
 On Sunday, therefore, October 30th, after eight o'clock, I 
 sent Nyondo^ to a little mound near the village, where he rang 
 a handbell for twenty minutes. About fifty men had already 
 assembled one by one at our camp ; and we asked ourselves 
 if these, perhaps, might not be our whole congregation. Soon 
 we saw the road sprinkled with little groups coming towards 
 us ; then another larger group — Litia and his suite ; then another 
 still larger, a black mass, which moved slowly. The beating 
 of drums and wailing of the serivibas told us from afar that 
 it was the king. He took us by surprise, and for ten minutes 
 everything round us was in a commotion. It was a splendid 
 audience of men and young fellows, the best that I have had 
 here for a long time, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 persons ; but not a single woman, unless we count our two 
 converts from Sefula, Ma-Moendarubi and Ma-Moendabai", who 
 are working here. For a long time past, I have not been able 
 to have a single woman at our services. The king's wives excuse 
 themselves on the ground that the lack of shelter exposes them 
 to the eyes of the public, which is not permissible, and the others 
 that they would never dare to go and sit in the lekhothla, where 
 the princesses themselves fear to go, and that they are only dogSy 
 and cannot show themselves before the king. As to the slaves, 
 they do not yet comprehend that the Gospel is for them ; it 
 is forbidden fruit, which they think is only for their masters. 
 ' A Mashukulumboe boy previously mentioned. 
 
 31
 
 482 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 I revolved all this in my mind, and reflected on the trans- 
 formation which the Gospel might produce in a few years 
 amongst this people, while I was trying to make clear to their 
 understanding these words of St. Paul to the Romans : " / am 
 not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God 
 unto salvation, to every one that believeth" But the clouds 
 were gathering up, and for the first time this year the rain 
 began to fall. I had to cut my address short. In the twinkling 
 of an eye, our two tents, which were already full enough, were 
 stormed and carried by the court party, who packed themselves 
 into them like herrings. The common people did not stir. 
 Those who had any kind of skin on their shoulders, or any 
 cotton garment, even if in rags, held it over their heads, for 
 the benefit of themselves and of their neighbours, and all who 
 were enjoying such improvised shelter imagined themselves to 
 be under cover. In the presence of the king, they did not 
 betray the least discontent or impatience. Lewanika and his 
 suite took possession of my own tent. He said triumphantly, 
 " Did I not tell you, Moruti ? I have some wisdom too." 
 *' Yes, only you forget that the public place " {lekhothla) " has 
 no shelter either. We will build one." 
 
 This contretemps troubled me. I asked God to direct me 
 as to what I could do to save the situation. As soon as the 
 rain stopped, and my audience were preparing to go away, I 
 sat down outside in the midst of them, and with all the spirit 
 I could muster began to teach them that beautiful Sesuto hymn 
 by M. Casalis — 
 
 They who know not Jesus 
 In their sins are dead ; 
 
 and when I had got them well interested, and was sure of their 
 attention, I took up the subject which the rain had interrupted 
 without any further formality, but as familiarly as possible. 
 They listened to me ; every eye was fixed on me ; and I could 
 thus speak for a long time. Oh, may I myself ever believe 
 more deeply that the Gospel of Christ, the good news of 
 salvation, is indeed the power of God Himself, and not mine\ 
 Why do I not see it with my own eyes among the Barotsi, as 
 it has been seen in the South Sea islands, in Corea, among the
 
 1892] THE SMALL-POX 483 
 
 Telegus, and elsewhere ? " Behold, I am the Lord, the God of 
 all flesh : is there anything too hard for Me ? " 
 
 The king then took leave, to the sound of his drums ; and 
 his retinue swept away all our congregation — not a soul would 
 have dared to remain behind. Do you understand that the 
 hostility of this man can hinder our work and do us harm ? 
 But he will be converted, truly, radically ! Very well, my 
 friends ; then do you join with us in making his conversion the 
 subject of earnest and persevering prayers. " If thou wouldest 
 believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God." At 4 p.m., 
 in spite of the threatening weather and our apprehensions, we 
 again had a congregation of from sixty to seventy men. The 
 king was not there, but the Gambella and some of the principal 
 chiefs came. The evangelist Paulus gave us an address on 
 the same subject as that of the morning, full of force and 
 originality, which riveted their attention, and did me good 
 too. Then Litia, like his father in the morning, took every one 
 away in his suite, and we remained alone with our boys. 
 
 We talked over our impressions with our friend Paulus. 
 He is decidedly optimistic, and augurs well from the day. 
 Then, Lewanika is evidently determined to be agreeable. He 
 noticed that I had left my cows at Sefula, and sent a message 
 telling me to send to his chief herdsman every day for a pot of 
 milk — a rare thing here. The Gambella also sends me some, as 
 well as one of my friends, who is under obligations to me, so that 
 Paulus and I live in plenty. This morning, it was a large joint 
 of hippopotamus which one of the king's cooks brought me, 
 and which I hastened to send on to Sefula. That and other 
 gracious little attentions of the same kind — visits and conversa- 
 tions — are trifles, it is true, but they show which way the wind 
 blows, and serve to raise one's courage. What is most evident 
 is that we have a work before us — an immense work, difficult in 
 the highest degree ; and to accomplish it, we must not be content 
 with our old methods. Oh for a more complete self-surrender ! 
 
 The small-pox continues to make terrible havoc. Mild 
 cases are now rare. It rages everywhere in its most virulent 
 form, and cuts down many victims in a few days. Even those 
 who have been vaccinated do not all escape. It must be said 
 that the heat is unusual. Every day the king announces some 
 fresh deaths. (To-day is the 4th of November.)
 
 484 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 The unfortunate Ma-Mbunda (witch-doctors), who, in their 
 inveterate opposition to vaccination, had been making a very- 
 good thing out of their medicines and charms, are dying off like 
 flies. All our staff at Sefula, with one or two exceptions, have 
 escaped. One of my boys had the disease so badly that for three 
 days we despaired of his life. Now he is rapidly recovering, but 
 alas ! we fear he has lost his sight. Poor Sachono I blind at 
 seventeen years of age, and for life ! Another, Seonyi, is 
 seriously ill in his turn, although he has been vaccinated. It 
 is a trial to us in the middle of all our work, for he had taken 
 a fancy to wielding the driver's whip, and for want of a better 
 we were satisfied with him. Thus it is quite a hospital that 
 I have left at Sefula. Mr. Baldwin, of the Primitive Methodist 
 Mission, has already passed through this trial ; but, thank God, 
 he had it, like myself, in a mild form.^ 
 
 Lealuyi, November i%ih, 1892. 
 
 My little hillock, a mountain in our mimic Holland, bears 
 the name of Loatile. I am not surprised that our Zambesi 
 people are afraid of it. We have a good share of some of the 
 Egyptian plagues here. The brushwood which covered it, and 
 still partly does so, like a thick rough head of hair, was the haunt 
 of innumerable swarms of every kind of insect, and of legions 
 of reptiles — a perfect paradise for collectors. I am not one, 
 and for the time being would gladly resign the place to some 
 enthusiast in that line. The lizards are bad enough ; but the 
 snakes ! I counted no less than five species of these ophidians, 
 for which I have anything but a weakness. I find nothing to 
 admire in a serpent, its markings no more than its subtlety. 
 The inamba, viper, cobra, and all their tribe are bedfellows 
 not at all to my taste, and I feel I have done a good action 
 when I bruise the head of one of these reptiles which symbolise 
 Satan. Neither have I any greater tenderness for the infinity 
 of centipedes, and beetles of every kind, which creep out of the 
 ground, and crawl everywhere ; nor for the swarms of mosquitoes, 
 flies, and nameless insects, which sting or bite mercilessly, and 
 the sight of which alone is enough to makes one's flesh creep. 
 
 Some of these insects sleep during the day ; the light and 
 
 ' Besides M. Coillard and Mr. Baldwin, Mme. Louis Jalla and her little 
 boy Waldo had small-pox during this epidemic, but mildly.
 
 1892] WARRIOR-ANTS 485 
 
 heat drive me from the tent, which becomes unbearable ; and 
 whether I will or no, I breathe the open air, the burning air of 
 our latitudes, but still the ope7t air. But in the evening my 
 canvas shelter becomes both an antheap and a beehive stirred 
 up. I am no longer master in my own house. It is impossible 
 to keep a candle alight. One must surround the eating of one's 
 supper with as much precaution as if one had stolen it, then 
 blow out the candle, and choose between the alternatives of 
 going to bed or philosophising in one's chair, or else of sitting 
 down at the bivouac fire with the boys — all excellent things 
 in their way, if they were not a necessity. On a beautiful 
 moonlight night, or even when the darkness of a starless sky 
 inclines you to meditation, you would like to stroll up and 
 down the camp, absorbed in thought ; but that is impossible. 
 
 But there is another little enemy, far more formidable than 
 those I have just mentioned, the presence of which gives me 
 much trouble. It is the fighting-ant, the terror of man and 
 beast, of which every one relates the most incredible stories, 
 travellers, hunters, and all. Our little hillock, like all the mounds 
 which are scattered over the plain, is nothing but an anthill, 
 which these indomitable warriors dispute with their rightful 
 owners, the termites, making it at once their fortress and their 
 refuge. The first scouts have scarcely made their appearance 
 when the body of the army has already invaded the place. Dis- 
 tance is nothing to them ; they go far afield for their prey. 
 Their sense of smell or sight (for scientists dispute about the two 
 senses) is keener than that of vultures. One sees them setting 
 out in innumerable battalions, in serried well-disciplined ranks, 
 winding about like an immense living ribbon of black watered 
 silk, two or three inches across. Where do they come from ? 
 Whither are they going? Nothing stops them. Some object 
 perhaps blocks their way : if it be anything inanimate, they skirt 
 it and pass on ; if it be alive, they vie with each other in 
 attacking it, they swarm over it in heaps, while the armies 
 continue their way, silently and busily. Should it be a ditch 
 or brook, they at once form into a compact mass at the edge. 
 Is it an assembly to discuss the matter ? Probably, for soon 
 the mass stirs, sways, passes over the ditch or stream, and pursues 
 the course of its incessant and mysterious march. A multitude 
 of these soldiers have sacrificed themselves or been sacrificed
 
 486 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 for the public benefit, and these legions, whose only science is 
 to conquer or die, have passed over the corpses of their victims. 
 Woe betide the man who steps on this black ribbon ! 
 Before he has even perceived it, hundreds of these angry 
 warriors cover him from head to foot, and dig their pincers 
 furiously into his flesh. It is enough to drive one mad. Large 
 deer, and even the most formidable carnivora, can do nothing 
 against these tiny enemies. They low, bellow, or roar, and run 
 away. As to the lord of creation, who destroys and exterminates 
 the most savage of cetaceans and mammals both on sea and land, 
 he is quite as helpless before this insect. Alas for his dignity ! he 
 is compelled instantly to strip off all his clothes, and rub himself 
 down the best way he can, perhaps even to singe himself. At 
 night, the acme of torture is reached. I do not like to dwell on 
 the thought of a missionary or his wife ill with fever in a room 
 and in a bed which these ants have invaded. Can one picture 
 to oneself the agony of a man coated with grease, bound hand 
 and foot, and thrown as a prey to these implacable, flesh-eating 
 insects? Nero, and later on the Inquisitors, were ignorant of 
 it. Our Barotsi bear the palm in this particular ; such a refined 
 torture could not escape them. 
 
 The neighbourhood of the capital is an anthill of another 
 kind — a hornets' nest, as I told you. Will it ever become a bed 
 of roses ? It certainly is not one now. Lewanika is a man 
 for whom I feel a real affection, in spite of all his faults and 
 caprices ; and he knows it. As head of the nation, however 
 incapable one may think him of reigning, he has the right to 
 respect and consideration. " Honour to whom honour is due." 
 It is Scripture : " Fear God ; honour the king." But he has 
 whims. He is cunning, arbitrary, and thoroughly selfish. He 
 yhas a sense of justice, noble ambitions, moments of generosity, 
 And fine ideas ; but all are paralysed by a distressing weakness 
 of character, which makes him the tool of the first-comer. 
 Thus, when he commits unjustifiable public actions, when he 
 allows his subordinates to perpetrate those crying iniquities in 
 his name which revolt even the Barotsi, when he meddles with 
 things not within his province, and demands from us not only 
 what is outside of ours, but what is, moreover, incompatible with 
 our ministry and our principles, my duty is, first of all, to be 
 faithful. So it is not astonishing that I should be above all a
 
 1892J AUTOCRACY 487 
 
 Micaiah ^ to this autocrat, who is incessantly befooled by the 
 servile adulations surrounding him. For this reason, there will 
 always be ebbs and flows in his relationships with me, answering 
 to the caprices of his personal attendants. They were at low 
 tide when I arrived, and I felt it in more ways than one. I see 
 too much and at too close quarters. 
 
 Famine is endemic at the capital. Three little caravans of 
 Bih6ans, which arrived one on the top of the other, absorbed 
 all the available provisions at exorbitant prices, and the 
 exactions of which these traders were the victims are becoming 
 the rule. And then, though we are in Africa, how far removed we 
 are from liberty ! Not one man would dare to sell one of those 
 bundles of rushes which he had cut, not one of those women, 
 much as they long for white beads, would dare to do a day's 
 work for me, without express permission from the king. We 
 might starve to death at the gates of this large village without 
 any one knowing it ; for not only is the market closed until the 
 king chooses to open it, but no one would venture to visit us 
 as long as his Majesty did not do so publicly. Everything must 
 proceed from or towards him. That is what prevented my 
 vaccination from becoming popular, that is what stifles all 
 innovation and all individuality, and is one of the most for- 
 midable obstacles to our Sunday congregations. At Sefula, 
 we had more elbow room. At Sesheke and Kazungula, our 
 brethren's liberty is in proportion to their distance from the 
 capital. The Gospel will remedy all that, and will work great 
 transformations. The other day, Lewanika was struck by that 
 sublime prophecy of Isaiah's, which our Saviour applied to 
 Himself, and which I had chosen as the subject for meditation : 
 " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me ; because the Lord 
 hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek " 
 (Fr. Ver., the poor). 
 
 I have just had a week's visit from all the Sefula friends — 
 M. and Mmc. Adolphe Jalla, Mile. Kiener, our friend Waddell, 
 who is still working at the saw-mill,^ and our little girls, — quite 
 a festivity for me. It was so kind of them to bring their 
 
 ' I Kings .xxii. 
 
 * A sawmill sent out by some friends in Glasgow, worked by oxen. 
 Waddell was getting the planks and beams ready at Sefula to build the new 
 station at Lealuyi.
 
 488 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 overflow of life and spirits to the hermit's cell at Loatile ! 
 They shared my eminently rustic life — one prolonged picnic. 
 They had to put up with all kinds of misadventures which it 
 was not in my power to spare them : rain while the cooking 
 was being done in the open air ; the sun and the heat — that 
 unbearable and unavoidable heat which the white canvas of the 
 tents reflects ; the invasions of insects, nocturnal attacks of the 
 fighting ants, which drive every one from their tents and beds, — 
 misfortunes which, alas ! were crowned by the loss of Mme. 
 Jalla's horse. This animal was not a mere luxury for her. I 
 had lent her husband the horse he had brought me, as he had 
 unfortunately lost his own, so that she could accompany him on 
 his Saturday journeys. Poor creature ! it began to cough in the 
 evening, and we gave it some medicine, but the next morning 
 it sank down on the edge of the road to Sefula and died. 
 
 I cannot tell you the good this visit did me. It is delightful 
 only to look at happy young people full of activity and energy, 
 and it makes me feel quite young again myself. Everything 
 was transformed as .soon as they arrived. No one was idle 
 except myself, and they would not allow me to work. La 
 marechale and la colonel^ in Salvationist phraseology, looked 
 after everything. Mile. Kiener saw to the housekeeping, as in 
 old days, and privately gave my boys — what, alas ! they have 
 the greatest want of — lessons in order and cleanliness. For my 
 part, I feel how much I need the grace of God to keep me sweet- 
 tempered and patient while serving this new apprenticeship. 
 
 Mr. Waddell, like the good friend he is, set to work at once 
 on the erection of a very rudimentary shelter, which is needed 
 until we can build our church. He had prepared the modest 
 roof at Sefula, and Mile. Kiener had sewn the canvas for it, 
 so that the work was soon finished. But that canvas ! Just see 
 how God provides for our needs. I had ordered some a good 
 while ago for another purpose. The trader long forgot to send 
 it ; and when he did, to make up for his neglect perhaps, he 
 doubled the quantity. It was no use remonstrating — the canvas 
 was there ; and as it turned out, we should not have had our 
 shelter but for his mistake. When completed, this tent will 
 measure thirty-three feet by twenty-one. Quite close to it, 
 suspended from two strong posts firmly set up, hangs the bell, 
 which was to begin its work next day. That day — Saturday —
 
 1892] THE THUTO 489 
 
 we paid a pleasant visit to the king, hunted up the people 
 in the village, had a specially earnest prayer meeting in the 
 evening, and all was ready. On Sunday morning, the sky 
 looked grey, but there was no rain. We were still at breakfast, 
 and had not yet begun to ring the bell, when the beating of 
 drums announced the king. 
 
 There he was, approaching with a large suite, a mass of men, 
 but of course not a single woman. It was not an easy thing 
 to seat all these people. The king is the only deity they 
 recognise ; once he is settled, his atrocious band of musicians 
 installs itself in front of him, the common herd fill up the space, 
 not only around his Majesty, but also round the principal chiefs, 
 each according to his rank. But I am master here ; and, in 
 spite of a little hesitation, contemptuous smiles, and clicking 
 of tongues, my authority was recognised, and they submitted. 
 Order once established, and the rows formed, the service began, 
 and our brother Jalla made an urgent appeal, taking for his 
 text the words of Philip to Nathanael : " Come a7id see." Then, 
 after we had had a few moments' conversation with Lewanika, 
 the whole congregation departed in procession, to the sound 
 of drums and seriinbas. 
 
 Unfortunately, both M. and Mme. Jalla had bad attacks of 
 fever. To be ill here, in a baking hot tent, is not very cheerful ; 
 so our friends were obliged to cut their visit short and return to 
 Sefula. But since then, messengers constantly pass between 
 here and there. Who knows if we may not one day have 
 a telephone. Why not ? Africa is the home of surprises and 
 amazing transformations. 
 
 November 21st, 1892. 
 
 To-day, our audience was smaller, in spite of our visits to 
 the huts, and all the promises they made us. The people do 
 not dare to come yet, even those men who are not chiefs, nor 
 yet the king's personal attendants. The Gospel — the Thnto, as 
 they say — belongs exclusively to the king : forbidden fruit for 
 the people. The king himself came without his insufferable 
 band of music. He made a demonstration of another sort. 
 As he has five or six horses, he put them all in requisition for 
 himself and his young men. Ten minutes' walk is too much 
 for the heavy dignity he carries, and he took care to tell me
 
 490 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 SO. I no longer dispute the question with him. I have asked 
 him several times, if the ten minutes is too much for him, to 
 show me some other site, no matter ivhere, that the station can 
 occupy ; and as he confirms what we all know, that there is no 
 other, and that it is here and here alone that we can build, we 
 do so. The preaching was followed by an informal meeting, 
 in which our friend Paulus catechised the congregation with 
 surprising authority. To set a good example, the king replied 
 with much spirit and intelligence. We sang a great deal ; but 
 it may be said in passing that I have not yet succeeded in 
 making our hymns popular. The Zambesians sing like crows, 
 and it is difficult enough to get them to do even that. 
 
 Lewanika remarked that there was no hymn like his 
 favourite " Litaba tse gu iinelang." ^ " But," said Paulus 
 respectfully to him, " I do not understand why the king likes 
 this hymn so much, since he does not know Jesus ? " 
 
 Lewanika, somewhat embarrassed by so direct a question, 
 replied, " You mean to say that I do not believe. It is true. 
 But all the same, it is good to know that there is somebody 
 on whom one can unburden all that perplexes and saddens 
 one. To be the friend of the King^' {iMotsualie oa Morefia) — 
 "that is no small thing." 
 
 At nightfall, I received the post. Among others was quite 
 a packet of old letters, dated from the first months of 1891, 
 some of which were discovered by a friend in some forgotten 
 corner of the post-office at Palapye,^ whilst others returned 
 from a long journey to Fort Salisbury, and a still longer 
 quarantine there. Who knows how many other letters and 
 papers may not have strayed in the same way, and been 
 definitely lost, besides those eaten by the white ants ? You see 
 that our postal service still leaves something to be desired. 
 But don't grow discouraged about writing, dear friends. Re- 
 member that your letters are one of the greatest blessings we 
 have in this country, where, always called upon to give out, 
 
 ' Known in Sesuto by the title of " Motsualle oa Morena " (" The Lord's 
 friend"); a translation of — 
 
 " What a friend we have in Jesus, 
 All our cares and griefs to bear ! " 
 See page 401. 
 
 - Properly spelt and pronounced Palapchwe.
 
 1892] CORRESPONDENCE 49 1 
 
 without ever receiving anything, we soon become empty and 
 exhaust ourselves. Your correspondence takes the place of all 
 the intellectual and religious life from which we are cut off. If 
 you only knew how delightful the moments arc which you thus 
 spend with us ! We forget our little miseries, and even the 
 great ones appear less hard. Our loneliness and our gloom are 
 lightened, when we hear that the sun is shining with you ! In 
 speaking thus, I think more of my dear young colleagues than 
 of myself They have their careers before them ; and believe 
 me, it is an arduous and unthankful task. Thus they need to 
 be powerfully upheld by every possible means ; and corre- 
 spondence, remember, is one of the most powerful of these. 
 
 November 2,0th. 
 
 The work advances but slowly. The clearing away of the 
 larger bushes is finished. We are now demolishing and trying 
 to dig out and level our anthills. We have destroyed a great 
 quantity of nests and queens. The anthills are formed of a 
 labyrinth of chimneys into which a man's body could enter, and 
 of innumerable passages which communicate with each other 
 and lead to the nests. These sponge-like nests are made of 
 such soft substance that they fall to powder at a touch. As for 
 the queen, it is nothing but a bag of living matter, a grub with 
 an ant's head, without legs or means of locomotion. We have 
 also waged desperate war against the fighting ants, destroying 
 their fortresses with fire and boiling water. Perhaps this will 
 procure us a temporary respite ; but doubtless the floods will be 
 the signal for fresh invasions. 
 
 I do not know why I can never speak of this ant plague 
 without thinking of Lewanika and his followers. They have so 
 thoroughly succeeded in poisoning Lewanika's mind that he 
 cannot yet believe in the disinterestedness and purity of our 
 motives. He suspects everything, even our kindnesses and 
 attentions to him. Thus he is always on the defensive, and he 
 is as jealous of his power as if he thought me seriously capable 
 of usurping it. And then, my absolute refusal to take orders 
 from him, like his purveyor or trader, does not fail to irritate 
 him at times. He cannot understand that there can be a man 
 near him who dares refuse to barter with him his own clothes, 
 his personal provisions, building materials, or anything which
 
 492 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 excites the desire of his Majesty or Mokwae or Litia. I force 
 myself, with God's help, to maintain my relations with Lewanika 
 on a higher level, without complaining or losing my temper. 
 
 One morning, I had gone to sit beside him in the lekJiotJUa. 
 After a few minutes, what was my astonishment to hear the 
 principal chiefs make the following proclamation : " Listen, O 
 Barotsi ! It is the king's word. The Moruti has come to dwell 
 among us. The king rejoices greatly, and so do we. It is 
 not that he is going to found another village, but he has much 
 work to do. Here then is a fountain of beads and stuffs. 
 Work for him, men and women, young men and maidens. He 
 has garments and ornaments for you. To-day we open the 
 gate to you. Go ! " 
 
 Before I could return, there was already a good quantity 
 of reeds and millet awaiting me. Thank God, the blockade is 
 raised !
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 The Interdict withdrawn — A Cotip d'Etat — Warriors decorated — Building 
 Operations — Lewanika's Skill in Handicrafts — Christmas at Sefula — A 
 Hurricane — Mashukulumboe-Iand opened to the Gospel — Painful Defec- 
 tions — Litia and Andreas — Mackay of Uganda — " Quit you Hke men." 
 
 The first days of December 1892. 
 
 WE are no longer isolated. What a change already since 
 Levvanika withdrew the interdict he had laid on us, in 
 order to show his authority ! People visit us, and, above all, 
 they bring us reeds. Food is scarce and very dear. Of course, 
 I had great difficulty in fixing the price of reeds. They knew 
 I needed them ; therefore (the principle is the same everywhere) 
 advantage must be taken of their neighbour's necessity. For 
 example, here is a big-wig of the country, one Mokuamboyo, 
 one of the principal chiefs, who comes strutting along in a 
 voluminous shirt reaching to his ankles. He is followed by 
 half-a-dozen slaves, each carrying a handful of these precious 
 reeds. He wants four yards of cloth ; and rather than break 
 off the transaction I give him half — that is to say, ten times the 
 right value. This transaction takes me a good part of the 
 morning. A very few such clients would fritter away the whole 
 of my time, and tax my patience to its utmost limits. Some- 
 times it happens that, after an interminable palaver, the poor 
 people go away grumbling and threatening to close the market. 
 I have now given up this business to the catechists, and with 
 advantage. They have more tact and patience ; they can sit 
 down and talk and make the acquaintance of the men ; and, 
 far from closing, the sale gets more lively, and we shall soon 
 have all we want, if it goes on like that. 
 
 Every day the sun is like fire. In the afternoon, the sky 
 gets well covered with clouds, but generally a wind springs up 
 
 493
 
 494 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 which sweeps them away, and covers us with dust. Nothing 
 escapes this dust, especially in a tent. A nice seasoning for the 
 evening meal ! I was saying this to myself one day, when a 
 message came from the king, which disturbed me not a little. 
 " Know," said he, " that the Ma-Mbunda, the initiated, the 
 Masters of the Secret Art, have been consulting the divining 
 bones. This morning, the principal chiefs, with the Gambella at 
 their head, came to tell me the result. Well, it is I myself 
 whom the bones have seized upon and denounced. They accuse 
 me of having brought the curse of small-pox on the nation, and 
 of preventing the rain from falling. So, if I am cruel, do not be 
 surprised." 
 
 The first thing in the morning, I went to the king, accom- 
 panied by Paulus and Jacob.^ I found him in the lekJiotlila, and 
 sat down beside him. He was nominating new chiefs to replace 
 those that the small-pox had carried off — and they were many ! 
 On ordinary occasions, it would have been an interesting 
 ceremony. But Lewanika was anxious and irritable. He had 
 fits of absent-mindedness, and cast furtive looks around him. 
 As soon as he could, he rose and asked me to accompany him. 
 
 But in the large rectangular shed of the lekJiotJila, an unusually 
 loud clamour was going on all the time. " They are still at it," 
 said the king to me as we parted. I wanted to see what was 
 going on there, and forced my way through the dense crowd 
 which surrounded the hut. Inside, six or seven old Ma- 
 Mbunda, squatting on some skins, were convulsively shaking 
 baskets filled with every imaginable object — bits of human 
 skeletons, bones of strange animals, spines and scales of fish, 
 rare shells, curious seeds, the hair of wild beasts, indescrib- 
 able charms, and so on, ad infinituin. These wizards were 
 absorbed in the study of each combination, muttering cabalistic 
 formulas ; whilst their acolytes, ranged in a circle round them, 
 made a frightful clatter with their rattles (formed of gourds and 
 the fruit of the baobab tree), wooden harmonicas, bells, and 
 tom-toms. The people, packed like herrings, looked on with 
 craning necks, staring eyes, and mouths agape. And all this by 
 the express orders of the headmen in full lekliotJila^ under the 
 very eyes of the king, whom they thus publicly accuse of the 
 
 ' Both catechists newly arrived from Basuto-land.
 
 1892] A COUP d'etat 495 
 
 nation's misfortunes ! I was watching this weird scene, absorbed 
 in gloomy reflections, when a messenger came to call me. 
 
 Lewanika, intensely agitated, was issuing orders to one of 
 his favourites. Shortly afterwards, a great tumult of confused 
 voices made itself heard on the public place. The king's 
 messenger had assembled the crowd, given his message, and 
 finished by crying, " Seize them ! " Hundreds of voices replied, 
 each louder than the other, " Seize them ! Seize them ! " 
 
 Every one threw themselves on the wretched Ma-Mbunda, and 
 fought for the pleasure of throttling them. They had already 
 been seized, one by the legs, another by the arms, others by the 
 neck, when a second messenger arrived, who ordered the release 
 of the miserable men, and warned them to have more respect 
 for the Throne in future. The excitement calmed down ; the 
 Ma-Mbunda had already profited by the moment's confusion 
 to escape. In former days, and that not so very long ago, they 
 would have been put to death relentlessly. Lewanika lost 
 no time in asserting his authority, and it is well ; but I asked 
 myself anxiously whether he had really put an end to the 
 danger which threatened him, and about which he certainly 
 was not mistaken. God grant it ! 
 
 December ^th, 1892. 
 
 Lewanika has sent word to me to be present at the grand 
 ceremony of decorating, as we should say, the warriors who 
 distinguished themselves in the last campaign against the 
 Balubale — that is to say, those who had, no matter how, killed 
 one or more of their enemies.^ There were several hundreds, 
 and amongst them I noticed some quite young boys, who were 
 not among the least proud. They were arranged in rows, their 
 faces painted with white clay — one, two, or more circles round 
 their eyes, according to the number of their respective victims, 
 giving them a wild and horrible appearance. In front of the 
 king and his councillors were little piles of cloth of every hue, 
 to which each helped himself in turn, according to the number 
 of his marks. He immediately tied the stuff round his neck, 
 letting it float behind, which gave a little colour to the ceremony, 
 otherwise very dull. There was not the smallest attempt at 
 
 ' This had not been a marauding raid, Hke that against the Mashukuhimboe, 
 but a legitimate expedition to put down a rebeUion.
 
 496 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1892 
 
 applause or any other demonstration. To shed blood is such 
 an every-day thing here ! What a contrast to certain Basuto 
 pitsos that I have seen ! Nevertheless, the poor Barotsi display 
 these bits of calico and printed cotton with the same pride that 
 our soldiers bear a metal cross and red ribbon. 
 
 The building of our huts advances slowly. The walls consist 
 of a circle of sixteen stakes in all, driven in, and the interstices 
 filled with reeds. A roof of rough wicker-work the shape of 
 an inverted funnel, a few bundles of fine grass which cover it 
 more or less incompletely, three coats of mud and cow-dung, 
 and the house is complete. Only, it is some time before it is 
 dry and habitable. Coming from the tent, the hut will be like 
 a palace for solidity, shelter, and coolness. Still, it is nothing 
 compared with those which were built four months since for 
 the royal harem. They are worth seeing, and Lewanika and 
 the Barotsi are very proud of them. Made in the same manner 
 as the huts, with all the proportions kept, I confess that there 
 is something fine and imposing about them. I doubt if one 
 could find anything to approach them among the tribes of the 
 South. It is the same old plan as that which the Makololo 
 copied from the Bechuana, but greatly elaborated and improved 
 upon — two concentric walls, covered with a single immense 
 roof. Everything is admirably finished off, from a native point 
 of view at least. 
 
 These Barotsi astonish me : they are certainly the most 
 industrial of any blacks I have known. They do everything 
 necessary with only a few implements, and those of the most 
 primitive kind. The smiths form a clan apart. Not only do 
 they make all the arms for the country, the hoes, nose-picks,' 
 etc., but give them a model, and they will make nails of the 
 desired size, hatchets, spades, etc. They will not be of steel, 
 but a good imitation of it. There are also armourers — a very 
 small number, I must say. True, they cannot make the barrel 
 of a gun, but they can fashion the butt-end and mount it for 
 you with as much finish as a European. Those who work in 
 wood and basket-work are more numerous. 
 
 Lewanika likes work. Under the shadow of a thick grove, 
 
 ' The Barotsi substitute for a pocket-handkerchief a curved steel instru- 
 ment, something between a palette-knife and a small spoon, very supple and 
 prettily engraved.
 
 1892] lewanika's workshop 497 
 
 which serves him as a sanctuary for his heathen rites, he has 
 had a workshop built, into which none but handicraftsmen may 
 enter. You will find him there in his leisure hours, working 
 with his own hands, with about ten workmen under his orders. 
 What does he do there ? Or, rather, what does he not do ? 
 Sometimes it is a little fancy canoe, or the portable framework 
 of an immense tent which is to serve for his annual hunts, an 
 ingenious camp-bed or a vehicle of his own invention to transport 
 the white men's canoes to the Ngonye Falls and bring him 
 back plenty of money ! Sometimes it is a musical instrument, 
 a harmonica, which he is making ; or else it is a flat surface 
 on which he enjoys carving some wild animal, fish, or birds ; or 
 else it is an ivory bracelet or hairpin which he chisels very 
 delicately. 
 
 Every year, he invents a new model for his royal barge. 
 Last year's Nalikuanda was a monstrous thing, a hundred and 
 twenty feet long, in which he tried to carry out the vague ideas 
 he had gleaned here and there of the way in which white 
 people build their boats. It was not a success. It gives one 
 a feeling of regret to see so much labour thrown away in the 
 service of such noble ambitions. The gondola which he made 
 for his sister, the queen, is less pretentious ; it is built according 
 to the traditions of the country, and is in its way a little 
 masterpiece. Poor Lewanika ! He is in advance of his times ; 
 he leaves his people far behind him. He is incessantly teasing 
 me to establish my saw-mill here. He spends half his time 
 in it ; he would like it to work for himself alone in the 
 first place. What is the use of a saw-mill at Sefula, or of 
 a forge and such a beautiful stock of tools ! It is not Morhieng 
 (the king's residence) ! How happy he would be if he had 
 a Mackay near him ! You can understand that he turns out 
 good workmen, but unfortunately they and all their talents 
 arc for his own exclusive use. 
 
 For us white people, whom they do not as yet rank very high 
 in the social scale, they work badly and unconscientiously : it 
 is not obligatory. For themselves, they do not work at all : not 
 only is it not a necessity, but it is a wish they are forbidden to 
 indulge in. Let me give you an example in passing. A clever 
 workman, trained under Mr. W^addell, a good honest fellow (he 
 certainly made a big hole in a herd of goats we once had, but
 
 498 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1893 
 
 Still honest according to the notions of the country), had con- 
 ceived the idea of constructing a little hut like ours for himself. 
 The stakes had already been driven in and the framework 
 of the roof made, European fashion ; but when he wanted to 
 put it up, the Barotsi, who had spied on him, fell upon him, 
 pulled up the stakes, destroyed the framework, and only 
 granted him the privilege of bowing down and rendering royal 
 homage, because they had saved his life and spared his throat. 
 How can one hope for progress under such a system ? But 
 you may be sure the system will die out, and the people will 
 find scope for the development of their industrial talents. 
 
 January 2.nd, 1893. 
 
 My huts, of which I have six, have given me much trouble. 
 I get on pretty well with the men, but it is beyond me to 
 make the women work for a whole day — and, unluckily, I 
 think they know it. All the same, I must employ them, for 
 plastering is exclusively their work. Happily, the wife of 
 Jacob, the evangelist, is there, and I give up this department 
 to her. She is a woman herself, a native, and made of good 
 stuff, and she manages wonderfully. Thus you see I have 
 valuable helpers in the Basuto catechists. Paulus is only 
 lent to me. His place is at Sefula. If affection were the 
 only consideration in the placing of the workers, he would 
 always remain with me. I like his uprightness ; I admire his 
 courage and faithfulness ; and I feel myself attracted by his 
 inner life— a rare thing in a native, but this is what gives him his 
 power. I have said that school-teaching is not his strong point, 
 but as an evangelist I have never found his equal. He is an 
 original and magnetic preacher — a priceless gift to Barotsi-land 
 from the Church of Massitissi. Jacob and his wife are both from 
 Morija, and arc valuable helpers and friends ; they call them- 
 selves our " children." They are calm, undemonstrative people, 
 but clean, tidy, always pleasant, and always ready to do a service 
 without being officious. 
 
 The most serious of my difficulties is — cow-dung, our mortar 
 here as in Basuto-land. I have no cattle on the place, and the 
 few which the natives keep are not enough to supply the hundreds 
 of households in which the floors and walls have to be renewed^ 
 or in which work has simply to be found for the slaves. The
 
 i893] THE NEW YEAR 499 
 
 superstition of these poor people forbids women, at any rate at 
 certain times, to enter the cow-sheds : only men have that 
 prerogative. Moreover, the precious article must be collected 
 before the cattle come out of the enclosure to go to pasture, or 
 else it will bring ill-luck. This results in my being obliged to 
 buy the good graces of the two men who have charge of the 
 cow-herds. But every one courts their favour, and, in spite of 
 • my liberality, I am often not the first to be considered. Then 
 there are also several bits of machinery which have to be greased — 
 several little holes which let the beads drop through and the 
 calico melt away ! That is why these wretched huts, which are 
 so easily erected, keep us waiting such a time before they are 
 habitable. 
 
 Then, whilst the wind and sun arc doing their share of the 
 work, it is my turn to take my flight. There is only one place 
 where I can go — only one which attracts me like a magnet. 
 It is there that I spend Christmas and New Year's Day. Sefula 
 is my Bethel. We took the Communion together. Two places 
 were empty : one resplendent with the glory of life, like the 
 Lord's empty tomb ; the other, alas ! dark and sad, like that of 
 the disciple who betrayed our Saviour. 
 
 We closed one year and inaugurated another by one of those 
 meetings for edification and prayer which true brotherly com- 
 munion and the presence of God make so sweet. Our Methodist 
 brethren were with us — a few more glowing coals in our little 
 fire. We know what 1892 was like: what will 1893 be? God 
 knows. 
 
 Lewanika seemed impatient for my return, and sent messages 
 to enquire after my health and the cause of my delay. And 
 as soon as I arrived, he hastened to come and sec me. Poor 
 man ! he wanted to ask advice from some one ; for he too has 
 his anxieties. 
 
 During my absence, rain had fallen, and the gales had been 
 raging with such violence that my camp was unrecognisable. 
 In ten days, the grass and even the brushwood had reasserted 
 their rights, as if in revenge ; and when we penetrated to the 
 tents, the smell of mouldiness choked us. The whole place 
 was a mass of mud, alive with frogs and millipedes. A hurricane 
 had upset everything and broken my crockery. That good 
 fellow Paulus had pushed his scrupulous fidelity to the point
 
 500 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1893- 
 
 of even keeping the fragments of my cups and plates ! It was 
 too much of a good thing. I fled from the ruins, and installed 
 myself in one of my huts, which is scarcely any better. The 
 termites, centipedes, seuruyi, warrior-ants, had taken possession 
 of everything before my arrival ; but it was the frogs more 
 especially who had made it their rendezvous. They were every- 
 where — on the ground, on the walls, in the roof. They fall 
 on one's head in bed, into the dishes on the table ; they are 
 not afraid of a bath in a cup of coffee, and have the impudence 
 to croak in my face from the edge of my inkstand, now whilst 
 I am writing. This is a prelude to the nocturnal concert which 
 awaits me. It is quite regal. Lewanika has drums, and I have 
 frogs : both are noises ; and one gets equally used to either. 
 
 January lyd, 1893., 
 
 The rains have come at last — those rains which have set the 
 world of deities and diviners to work. It rains every day, and 
 between the showers the heat is suffocating. One would think 
 that the sun takes its revenge for the rain by drawing up the 
 moisture with a fierceness calculated to burst one's lungs. We 
 live in a vapour bath, and, as a result, colds and fevers are very 
 prevalent. I am not very strong, but still I am up and about. 
 I splash about through the mud, for there is mud everywhere. 
 We found it difficult to reconcile ourselves to the sand at Sefula 
 which slips about under one's feet, but we had forgotten what 
 mud is. Give us sand when it rains, and clay when it is fine ! 
 I have tried to combine the two. Every day, on payment of 
 glass beads, women and girls bring me sand from the plain to 
 fill up the depressions in our little hill. It is a work of patience, 
 but it will transform the place, and my successors will profit by 
 it. The young men are digging a deep ditch, and arc making 
 a mound, which will be a protection against honest thieves.^ It 
 will make a rectangle of the place, two hundred and twenty 
 yards by about a hundred and sixty-five. An entrance is to be 
 made for the public and for vehicles ; and a broad causeway 
 describing a large bend, crossing the canal by means of a modest 
 wooden bridge, will unite us to the capital, and will enable us 
 to come and go dryshod even in the flood time. All this 
 work, together with our buildings, is not done in a day. But it 
 
 ' I.e. thieves who shrink from daring much.
 
 1893] VISITORS AT LOATILE 5OI 
 
 has been begun ; and if God preserves my health and strength, 
 all these plans ought to be realised this year. With taste and 
 energy, a young missionary coming later on will be able to 
 make a habitable place — an oasis in the midst of this desolate 
 plain — out of this Golgotha of paganism. 
 
 In spite of all our difficulties, we have been able little by 
 little to obtain all our building materials, thatching, reeds, etc., 
 and to bring over all the grass, timber, stakes, and planks that 
 we had got together at Sefula. To-day, the hollows in the plain 
 are full of water, the roads are covered, and transport is becoming 
 impossible ; but they are bringing us the last load Soon we 
 shall be hemmed in and imprisoned in our islet, and every one 
 will leave the capital for the high land which borders the plain. 
 We shall not ; but if our health holds out we shall devote our- 
 selves to our building, and get on with the works. We shall 
 also be free to make evangelising journeys and visits by canoe. 
 
 During this time, my hermit's cell has been greatly honoured. 
 First, I am no longer alone. My friend Waddell has finished 
 the preparatory work which kept him at Sefula, and has rejoined 
 me. How proud I was to install him in one of my huts, when 
 he only expected a tent ! For the dear man, though he under- 
 goes the miseries of gipsy life very willingly, does not do it with 
 impunity, and he works hard. He is simple in his faith, but 
 firm as a rock ; and displays admirable fidelity towards every 
 one, especially Lewanika. Without him, I should never have 
 been able to undertake the establishment of this new station. 
 Our friends ought to know this. In the mission field, artisans 
 have often proved a deception and a cross. Our friend is one 
 of the rare examples who glorify God by being an honour to 
 their work. 
 
 He arrived with our Methodist brethren, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Buckenham and Mr. Baldwin, who came to spend the first week 
 of January with me. Their special object was to see the king, 
 and form definite plans for the establishment of their mission 
 among the Mashukulumboe. I had obtained his consent some 
 time ago to the foundation of this new work, in spite of the 
 opposition I had had to suffer on my own account. However 
 vacillating he may be, Lewanika has not broken the promise he 
 gave me ; on the contrary, he has confirmed it. Only, he does 
 not wish our brothers to <zo till the winter. He is sending there
 
 502 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 himself to found a large Barotsi village ; and besides, the mission- 
 aries are white ; and for those who understand the suspicious mind 
 of these races, these are both very strong reasons, among others, 
 for recommending patience and prudence. He has, moreover, 
 resolved to prepare the roads, he says ; to make every enquiry 
 on the route ; and even to send for some Mashukulumboe, who 
 will themselves conduct the missionaries to their country. 
 
 In announcing this piece of news to you, I am thrilled with 
 gratitude and joy. What good and great news it will be for 
 all true friends of Africa, and especially for those English 
 Christians who for three years have associated themselves with 
 all the trials of this enterprise i For us, it means the planting 
 of a new outpost for the Grand Army. We feel ourselves 
 reinforced. Another effort, and we shall join hands with our 
 brethren at Garenganze, and then with those on the Congo ! 
 I have only been able to offer my friends a very meagre 
 hospitality. I fill very badly the place in the household of the 
 one who has departed. And then it rained, and my guests 
 were in the mud. We were invaded by the fighting-ants, who 
 more than once forced one or other of us to flee from his bed, 
 and huddle himself (or herself) on the table till daylight. But 
 in spite of all, Mrs. Buckenham, who suffers in one leg, told 
 me she was rested. And then we were able to gather together 
 every day, and join in prayer. 
 
 After them, came our party — the Zambesi family, the 
 A. Jallas and Mile. Kiener. Another delightful ten days of rest 
 and enjoyment. The ladies undertook the household work, and 
 our brother Jalla the preaching. Their stay had its inevitable 
 accompaniment of torrents of rain and invasions of ants ; but 
 they were able to return to Sefula without having been ill, and 
 before the plain was submerged. It was beautiful to see the 
 women from the village coming to visit these ladies. The 
 hermit's cell was quite sunny and animated, and the good these 
 dear, kind friends have done us still remains. 
 
 January 2Z^ih. 
 
 In my last letter, I confided to you the anxieties which our 
 converts had already given. That state of things, alas ! has 
 grown much worse since then. Lewanika has never been more 
 pleasant than since he ceased to boycott the station. He comes
 
 l893] SAD RELAPSES 503 
 
 pretty often to spend an afternoon with me, and complains that 
 I do not visit him oftener. Sometimes, if I am passing through 
 the place, he leaves the lekhotJUa and invites me in to see 
 him ; and he treated our visitors from Sefula with the greatest 
 deference and cordiality. But, all the same, I fear that, in spite 
 of all these professions of friendship, he secretly has a hostile 
 feeling towards us. He is a full-blooded Morotsi ! I notice 
 that all the members of his household keep their distance, 
 and generally here the courtiers flatter those whom their 
 master honours with his favour. Few of our former pupils 
 attend the meetings. Seajika is still, alas ! what he always 
 has been — a chameleon. Mokamba (the one who wept publicly) 
 has received a wife, and has been promoted : on becoming one 
 of the great chiefs of the country, he discovered that his 
 profession no longer held good, and was incompatible with the 
 heathen practices which he has not the courage to resist. Litia 
 has openly returned to heathenism and taken a second wife. 
 As for Andreas, my poor boy, he has decidedly made shipwreck. 
 Thanks to a journey which he has just made to Mangwato, 
 and to Lewanika's weakness, the prospect of becoming the 
 king's first son-in-law has for the moment escaped him. He 
 has taken a wife in the heathen fashion and without telling 
 us, and has not come near us since. He enjoys the king's 
 favour : it is his misfortune. Of those who still remain to us, 
 I dare not say anything : we expect other defections. Has the 
 wind then, which blew last year, raised nothing but chaff? We 
 can but cling tremblingly to the hope of keeping two or three 
 grains of wheat. 
 
 " All that is very sad," said Lewanika the other day, assuming 
 a confidential and sympathetic manner. " We shall be looked 
 upon as children, as idiots and objects of contempt, in the 
 eyes of the nations. I am certainly to blame in the matter, 
 since it was I who gave wives to these young men. But who 
 can command them to become true believers, or forbid them 
 to forsake their faith ? But," he added, shaking my hand warmly, 
 " do not give way to sorrow, my father ; they will return ! 
 They are your children. And others will come who will be 
 the sort of believers you seek." Even he, poor man, has made 
 many steps backward. He knows the truth ; he has even a 
 leaning towards the things of God, which evidently attract him.
 
 504 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1893 
 
 But the venom of scepticism ^ poisons his better inclinations, 
 and, as he himself says, the chains he is bound by render him 
 helpless. He bought dresses for all his wives, mantles and 
 fashionable hats for the principal ones, in view of Sunday. The 
 poor women dressed themselves up to show me them, but to 
 come to the service to-day would be an unheard-of infraction 
 of its dignity on the part of the royal harem. 
 
 I am not more valiant than I need be. There are hours, known 
 to God, when in the melancholy silence which surrounds me 
 I review these nine years of ministry on the Zambesi. I see 
 those labours, I still feel those burning tears, and a horrible 
 oppression seizes on my heart. " Have I laboured in vain ? 
 Have I spent my strength for nought, and in vain ? " If my 
 confidences grieve you, remember that the reality is cruel ; it 
 defies us shamelessly, pursues us, fixes itself on us like a 
 vampire — nothing makes us forget it, not even sleep. Ah ! 
 I understand the sufferings of St. Paul, which he compares 
 to those of childbirth. 
 
 But shall we question the mission which God has entrusted 
 to us ? Shall we doubt that the Gospel is still the power of God 
 — for the Barotsi as well as for all the nations of the earth? 
 Away with such a thought ! In spite of all our disasters, I 
 have the profound conviction that we have already forced the 
 wedge of the Gospel into the social system of this nation. It 
 is for others to drive it home with redoubled blows, and this 
 mighty paganism, solid and formidable as it appears, will break 
 up, as it has done at all times and in all countries. There is 
 already more than one breach which tells us so. So do not 
 lose courage. The prodigal son may go far and fall very low ; 
 but his return to his Father's house is still possible. These 
 experiences, hard and humiliating as they are, are not peculiar 
 to us. Our adorable Master has passed through them ; St. Paul 
 knew them, like all the soldiers of the Cross whom God has 
 sent out as pioneers in all centuries. Only, when we admire 
 a tree laden with ripe, juicy fruit, wc forget how many flowers 
 have perished. 
 
 I have read Mackay's life, that splendid hero of Uganda. 
 
 ' Injected by "Alexander the coppersmith," who diligently persuaded 
 Lewanika that the Bible was merely a collection of legends, like those of the 
 Barotsi themselves.
 
 i893] "QUIT YOU LIKE MEN" 505 
 
 The book itself is not satisfactory ; it only intensifies one's desire 
 to know personally the man "whose praise is in all the Churches." 
 But there are pages and passages in his letters which I should 
 like to underline and copy for our friends. In describing 
 Uganda and Mtesa, he unconsciously paints the Barotsi people, 
 and draws Lewanika's portrait with a master-hand : the same 
 duplicity, the same degradation, the same inexpressible corrup- 
 tion, the same tyranny and cowardice, the same contradictory 
 mixture of good and evil, the same contempt of human life, 
 and I would add and emphasise the words, the same insecurity 
 of property and person. Barotsi-land is Uganda on a smaller 
 scale. Our experiences pale beside those of its heroes. We have 
 not yet been judged worthy of a martyr's crown. Nevertheless, 
 we have suffered. The very existence of the mission hung only 
 by a thread. But this thread was in God's hand. So, courage ! 
 The most humiliating reverses often precede the most glorious 
 successes. The battle may appear beyond our strength, but let 
 us beware of laying down our arms. The victory is none the 
 less certain for being delayed. Do we not know the voice which 
 rules the tumult of battle, and cries to us, " Be of good courage ! 
 Lo, I have overcome the world ! " 
 
 " Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the 
 feeble knees." " Quit you like men." If the ground gives way 
 like quicksands beneath our feet, let us cling to the immutable 
 promises of God, and the Lord Himself will show us His glory, 
 even in this stronghold of Satan,
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 Clearances at Loatile — Forced Sales — A Royal Bargainer — A New Boycott — 
 The League of Prayer — A Final Victory — Women attending Church at 
 last — Opening of the School — Course of Instruction — The Church — The 
 Causeway — Mokwae's Magic Sovereign — Emulation — Mr. Waddell's 
 Devotion — Lay-helpers. 
 
 February 28//?, 1893. 
 
 I AM again far from well, though not exactly ill. Difficulties 
 and confusions are constantly recurring, and I confess that 
 I feel my courage almost exhausted. The struggle frightens me. 
 
 My establishment, which is reduced to the strictest simplicity, 
 is not going on well. In all sorts of details, I am at the mercy 
 of three boys, of whose continued service I am not at all sure, 
 and to whom everything must be taught — the elements of 
 cooking, order, cleanliness, and everything else. Formerly, I 
 used not to feel such thorns, for then they bore roses as 
 well. Now, only the briers remain, on which I am caught a 
 hundred times a day, especially when I am ill. Never mind ; I 
 shall hold out as long as I can : but till when ? If only I could 
 finish the establishment of this station, and then — see the glory 
 of God in this miserable country where Satan reigns ! 
 
 To tell you the truth, I had not thought it possible for me 
 to grow seriously interested in anything on this earth again, 
 except in the preaching of the Gospel ; and to my great astonish- 
 ment, 1 find myself absorbed by work which leaves me little 
 leisure, even when I am well. My little hill has already under- 
 gone such a transformation that the Methodist brethren did 
 not recognise it the last time they came to see me. There are. 
 no longer any bogs or brushwood ; the whole building site even 
 is cleared and covered with sand. The foundations are far from 
 being finished, but we are vigorously digging away at them 
 
 506
 
 i893] FORCED SALES 507 
 
 Every morning at daybreak, troops of women, girls, and even 
 boys, jump into the water like ducks (for the plain is already 
 submerged, and our Loatile has become an island), and come with 
 hoes and wooden dishes to apply for work in return for a few 
 strings of beads. We take forty, fifty, even as many as eighty, 
 and send back the others. But they go away grumbling, and 
 return the next day, nothing daunted. We take advantage of 
 this crowd to have a short service with them ; they attend 
 willingly, for it gives them a few moments' rest. But on Simday 
 the water is too deep and cold for them to come to the services ! 
 
 Mr. Waddell is putting the last touches to my thatched 
 cottage. The care which this kind friend puts into this work 
 troubles me ; it seems to me almost a profanation. But I shall 
 go, and the house will remain for some one else. It will be the 
 first dwelling-place in Africa that I shall have occupied alone. 
 Happily, it will not be for long. The last chapter ought to be 
 the shortest. 
 
 As for the king, he is still a weathercock. Our relations 
 with each other have again become very nearly what they were 
 in our best days — except, I must add, as regards the confidence 
 I used to have in him. The character of the Zambesians is like 
 the cataracts of Musi oa Tunya : one cannot sound them, nor 
 yet even see the bottom. Lewanika often visits me, and seems 
 interested in all that goes on here. He knows how to put on 
 an appearance of great friendliness, which deceives strangers, 
 who only see him in his official garb, all smiles. I have had 
 to battle for several years, in order to uphold and protect the 
 character of the Gospel ministry, which Lewanika persists in 
 putting on a level with that of such traders as the floods of 
 immigration cast up in this country like scum. He thinks us 
 obliged to furnish him with everything he needs or covets, and 
 that at Jiis own exorbitant prices. Thus he insists we should 
 exchange our own provisions and barter-goods, valued at the 
 current prices of Kimberley, minus damages and cost of trans- 
 port, for canoes which he reckons at £s or £\o in gold, and 
 bullocks at £12 or ^^15, whether we want them or not ; and 
 would force us to sell him a sack of coffee for £1 which cost us 
 ;^I5 and more. Woe betide the one who allows himself to be 
 drawn in ! He has eaten his Majesty ; he has abused his 
 confidence and by means of insults the king ends by forcing
 
 508 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1893 
 
 his hand. And woe betide the man who will not buy ! Insults 
 are rained upon us all then ; especially on me, as I am the 
 oldest and the nearest to him. " What good are you all ? 
 What benefits do you bring us?" he exclaims in his fits of 
 anger. " What do I want with a Gospel which gives neither 
 guns, nor powder, nor coffee, nor tea, nor sugar, nor work- 
 men to work for me, nor any of the advantages I hoped 
 for ? " And the consequence is the boycott which he im- 
 mediately establishes round us, after having disparaged us in 
 his little circle of courtiers. They threaten to strangle any 
 who serve us, or dare to sell us a dish of millet or a pot 
 of flour. 
 
 I had just written these words, when I saw an express 
 messenger arriving from Sefula. He brought bad news. The 
 thefts which have been committed for some time since upon 
 the A. Jallas have been repeated so often and so impudently, 
 and have assumed such proportions, that they suggest an 
 organised pillage. All negotiations with the missionaries are 
 forbidden by order of the king. " All day long," says M. Jalla, 
 " the station is overrun by people, who are not content with pre- 
 venting all buying and selling, but seem to cherish evil designs 
 against ourselves as well." And poor Mme. Jalla adds naively, 
 " It is no good for me to say that we are in God's hands : that 
 does not prevent me from feeling frightened." The other day, 
 some poor men, who had come from a long way off with their 
 little merchandise, and had not yet heard the king's orders, had 
 scarcely put their baskets down before the mission-house, when 
 a band of men fell upon them, seized their flour, and drove 
 them away with insults and threats. With our Methodist 
 brethren close by, things are going on still worse. Their serving- 
 boys, egged on in a very transparent manner by the king's 
 emissaries, picked a quarrel with them for no reason whatever, 
 and demanded immediate payment. Mr. Buckenham refused. 
 Upon this a great uproar arose, and one of these young men, 
 armed with a thick stick, sprang at Mr. Buckenham, and dealt 
 him such a violent blow on the head that the wound bled 
 profu-sely, whilst another took the skin off his hands. " And 
 when I left," added the messenger, " the excitement was at the 
 highest pitch." 
 
 I had believed myself to be outside all these questions of
 
 1893] A BOYCOTT 509 
 
 bargaining. I flattered myself I had at any rate won that 
 battle. Not at all. The hostility has been growing for some 
 time : one would need to be blind not to see it. Lewanika's 
 very demonstrations of friendship warn us that it is so. Last 
 Sunday, in spite of the fine weather, he did not come to the 
 service. I had scarcely rung my bell, when he rang his. He 
 was going to the lekhothla with his drums and all his band of 
 music. No one, therefore, dared come to the service, except 
 those who were already there — the big chiefs, who looked as 
 if they were sitting on thorns. The next morning, I sent Paulus 
 and his colleague Jacob to him, to ask why, even if he could 
 not or would not come to the preaching, he should have done 
 a thing he never does — go and preside at the lekhothla with his 
 drums, and thus prevent the people from coming. For it is 
 compulsory for all the men to run to the lekJiothla as soon as 
 they hear his Majesty's drums. He replied in no measured 
 terms that he had done it on purpose, because Mr. Buckenham 
 had just refused to buy at his own price the oxen which he had 
 sent to him. " What is the use of missionaries who will not 
 trade with me ? What have I to do with such people ? Tell 
 them that / will starve thevi — him " {i.e. myself) " as well as the 
 others." And he had already taken his measures and sent his 
 orders. 
 
 I was in consternation ; for, having kept clear of these trans- 
 actions with Mr. Buckenham, I only had a vague knowledge of 
 the questions at issue. I answered nothing. 
 
 To-day, when he knew everything I have been relating, he 
 sent me one of his confidential servants. " I have been waiting 
 since yesterday," said he, " when I sent you my words. Why 
 have you nothing to reply ? Answer me." " Tell him that I 
 have nothing to reply ! " Then I withdrew, in order to rest. I 
 am expecting him to come himself to-morrow or the day after. 
 And if he does not succeed in entangling me in a dispute — from 
 which may God preserve me ! — he will treat the matter lightly, 
 after the manner of the Barotsi : " Oh, I was only grumbling I 
 You white people always take offence when any one snaps out 
 at you. I have snapped out ; it is done with ! " 
 
 Lewanika is a great baby — and a spoilt bab>' too. But he is 
 also a mischievous one — a child who plays with fire. He is not 
 the only one to bite ; he lets loose all his dogs, and sets them on
 
 5IO ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1893 
 
 US. Once released, it is vain for him to try and hold them back ; 
 they bite too, and that without mercy. Everything seems to 
 predict that we still have a hard time before us. 
 
 Lewanika has judged me charitably ; and he has done me 
 much honour in identifying me with my friends at Sefula, 
 and with our Methodist brethren. He has made me share the 
 disgrace and the pricks he has inflicted on them. It is because 
 he thinks we are so entirely one, and he is right. Therefore, 
 we are strong. Together we will combat on our knees. Perhaps 
 he himself will soon see " they that be with us are stronger than 
 that they that be with them." Ah ! but when I see the clouds 
 have so long been gathering around us, I cannot keep from 
 crying to the Sentinel Who watches. Who neither slumbers nor 
 sleeps, " O Watchman, what of the night ? " A voice replies 
 through the darkness, " The day cometh." O my God ! may 
 it be without the return of night ! 
 
 My correspondence, which I only look upon as a more or 
 less instantaneous photograph of what goes on here, is with me 
 a subject of much solicitude before God. But I often reproach 
 myself with taking you too much into my confidence. It is all 
 very well when it is a question of our encouragements and joy ; 
 but this is nothing but sorrows and mortifications — mortifications 
 unparalleled in South Africa. Yet such is our life. Why 
 should our friends refuse to share it because it is hard ? Is it 
 not rather the moment, now or never, to rally our ranks, to 
 conquer or die ? And though Satan may seem to triumph now, 
 to mock at us and baffle us, I have confidence in that league of 
 j>rayer with which our European friends encircle us, much more 
 than in the little we do here. I tell myself over and over again 
 that if we believe we shall see the glory of God. 
 
 March \st, 1893. 
 The news from Sefula is no better. Lewanika has renewed 
 his order and threats in order to stop provisions on all sides for 
 our friends and myself (for they do all my marketing, as I can 
 procure nothing), and to have every one maltreated who dares 
 infringe this law. Thus famine stares us in the face, and my 
 friends are already taking precautionary measures by sending 
 away all superfluous mouths. Shall I also be obliged to send 
 away my workmen and stop my works ? It is not the first
 
 1893] A RECONCILIATION 5 I I 
 
 time that Lewanika has tried this barbarous method. But God 
 will not allow His servants to die of hunger. There is always 
 water in the fountains of Jehovah, and ravens will never be 
 lacking to feed us. 
 
 Our Sefula friends pay every attention to their elder brother. 
 It is from them that I receive supplies of butter, curds, eggs, 
 etc. ; it is there that they knead my bread, do my washing, and 
 smooth the ruggedness of my life, as far as is possible at six- 
 teen or seventeen miles' distance. Messengers, too, often run 
 between Sefula and Loatile, and never without bringing some 
 kind message or affectionate word. We almost live a common 
 life. Every one is so good to me, and I bless the Lord for it. 
 
 October- i^th, 1893. 
 
 We had some very stormy interviews with Lewanika. That 
 of March loth, at which our Methodist friends Mr. Buckenham 
 and Mr. Baldwin were present, was the most terrible : it was 
 also the last. He ended by understanding that our refusal 
 to trade at his bidding and on his terms was a matter neither 
 of obstinacy nor ill-will on our part, but of principle. Soon 
 afterwards, he recognised that he was wrong, and gave in. 
 Since then, our relations have become more and more agreeable. 
 I visit him of course, but he often likes to come and spend part 
 of the day with me to have " a quiet chat," which is not possible 
 at his place.^ But his heart is not touched ; his conscience 
 is not awakened. 
 
 Still, I had not yet succeeded in getting the women to hear 
 the preaching of the Gospel, and this greatly distressed me. 
 As soon as the princesses cease coming, no other woman would 
 dare to do so. We enlarged our tent for their benefit ; I set 
 myself to visit them ; and in order that they should not shelter 
 themselves behind the king, I pleaded with them before him, 
 to such good purpose that they ended by yielding. One day, 
 I saw them coming, got up in the most extraordinary costumes ; 
 but their courage failed them at the sight of the king and 
 congregation, and they fled to the catechists' courtyard. They 
 came another day, but hid themselves behind the reed partition 
 
 ' One day, as he was reluctantly taking leave, Lewanika looked round the 
 missionary's room and said, " This is my home ; 1 have no other. I have 
 twenty-one wives, but no home ! "
 
 512 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1893 
 
 of our " tabernacle." Another time the evangelist and Mr. 
 Waddell succeeded in making them sit half facing the assembly 
 at some distance off. The following Sunday they arrived late 
 as usual, whilst we were singing, and the slaves unrolled their 
 mats in the same spot with a great deal of noise and ostentation. 
 I left my place — or descended from the pulpit, if you prefer 
 to put it that way — went up to them, took the mats, and spread 
 them out near me on my left. The poor ladies looked at each 
 with stupefaction, then at me entreatingly, while the king roared 
 with laughter, and the petrified congregation stopped singing 
 and preserved a stolid silence, with staring eyes and gaping 
 mouths. I remained unmoved, and without another word 
 signed to them to sit down. At last they did so, and the 
 service continued. The victory was won. Since then, those 
 who come always sit there, and I have no more attentive 
 listeners. 
 
 Each of these ladies and each child of royal blood must 
 have a mat with a good margin all round. But patience ! The 
 days of mats too are numbered ; they will disappear in their 
 turn, and princes and princesses will learn to sit down like 
 every one else in God's house. 
 
 Besides the women, I should have liked to reach the children. 
 But how ? One day, taking advantage of the king's favourable 
 mood, I spoke to him of the great wish I had to start a school. 
 " Very well," he said ; " fix a day." " To-morrow." " Good ; it 
 shall be to-morrow." 
 
 The next day, a Monday, turned out a wretched winter day. 
 I looked sadly at the sheet of water and the marsh between us 
 and the village, and I asked myself if I had not been a little 
 rash. All the same, I rang the bell, and soon troops of children, 
 big boys and girls, ran from the village, and some in canoes, 
 others wading through the water and splashing through the 
 mud, arrived breathless, and planted themselves in front of us. 
 " A'^ rona!" (Here we are!") they cried, as if they had been 
 awaiting the signal for a long time. A man, who was more 
 sedate, presented them to us in the king's name. They were 
 mostly his servants and children, with their numerous followers. 
 I took down more than seventy names, and a few days later 
 the number had exceeded a hundred and seventy ! I expected a 
 great diminution when the novelty should have worn off, and
 
 t893] LEALUYI CHURCH 5 i 3 
 
 a diminution there was ; but till just lately we have had an 
 average of from a hundred and ten to a hundred and twelve pupils. 
 From necessity as much as from principle, I left the responsibility 
 -of this school to our good Jacob and his excellent wife. My 
 dear brother Adolphe Jalla lent me the services of the evangelist 
 Paulus Kanedi, who has developed gifts for teaching which I 
 did not know he possessed ; and with myself assisting as far as 
 possible, the school has become full of life and interest, in spite 
 of many still unfavourable circumstances. 
 
 The basis of instruction is necessarily Bible history, reading, 
 writing, and a little arithmetic. But I attach great importance 
 to singing, and in my eyes it is second only to the Bible. 
 Experience has shown me more than once that the simplest 
 Tiymns, saturated with the Gospel, are like certain kinds of seed 
 in this country, to which God has given wings. When they are 
 ripe the pods burst, and they are carried about by the wind, 
 no one knows whither. Some, the greater number probably, 
 are lost ; but who knows ? — one, a single one, may fall in some 
 favourable spot, unknown, and there germinate, become a great 
 tree, and bear seed in its turn — seed with wings ! Thus, even 
 though the Barotsi sing like crows, and are very little in earnest 
 about it, we sing, and sing a great deal. 
 
 I have also been led to take up evangelisation in the homes — 
 a very difficult work, but all the more interesting on that account ; 
 and the good that can be done in this way has greatly impressed 
 me. Unfortunately, my efforts have been limited by our 
 numerous material labours, of which I must say a few words. 
 Waddell prepared a little cottage with a single room for me. 
 That done, we concentrated our efforts on the building of the 
 church, of which the framework and part of the materials had 
 been prepared at Sefula. It is sixty feet long by thirty-three 
 broad, lighted by thirteen windows. The roof is supported by 
 eight strong pillars, and a porch with two doors completes it. 
 The walls, made of enormous logs of a certain hard wood which 
 resists the ants' mandibles, rest on sockets of the same wood ; 
 the interstices are filled in with reeds, and the whole is white- 
 washed and plastered, which gives it an appearance of solidity. 
 We have taken every precaution possible to secure its lasting. 
 The whole piece of ground which it occupies was dug out first 
 .to a depth of two or three feet, and then filled with fine sand 
 
 33
 
 514 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1893- 
 
 brought from the plain ; each piece of wood which the ground 
 covers has been carefully tarred. This building, which ought 
 to be furnished with benches, will be the marvel of the country, 
 be it said to the honour of our friend Waddell, who has put all 
 his heart and strength into the work. May it soon be too 
 small ! And above all, may we have the joy of being able to say 
 of many of our dear Barotsi one day, " This and that man was- 
 born in her " ! ' 
 
 Another piece of work, much greater than I had at first 
 supposed, is the causeway, which, forming half of an elongated^ 
 ellipse, will allow us to communicate with the town dryshod in 
 bad weather. Strange ! women and children can even in winter 
 splash through mud and water for the sake of selling a little 
 flour or getting a few beads, and the men do not hesitate to do 
 the same thing in order to com^e and lounge about — a thing I do 
 not encourage ; but on Sunday it is cold, they are afraid of 
 the water, they have no canoes, and how can they come to the 
 preaching? And it is just to do away with all such pretexts, 
 that I have begun my causeway. 
 
 Our Barotsi, though they have plenty of bad qualities, are 
 clever with their hands and industrious. When they saw us 
 building at Sefula with the materials of the country, they said 
 that they could do as well themselves ; and, in fact, Lewanika has 
 now a larger and finer house than that at Sefula. The queen's 
 envy was excited, and her house in its turn is larger and finer 
 than her brother's. And then Litia and Katoka must each have 
 one, and Mpololoa is going to have her own built. Of course, 
 they applied to me for all the nails and ironwork. What should 
 Mokwae do one day but send me by some of her highest 
 dignitaries a gold sovereign ! How it ever came into her 
 possession I don't know. She thought the sight of this piece of 
 gold would have a magic effect on me, and induce me to give 
 her in exchange not only all the nails necessary for her building, 
 but also locks, door, windows, even furniture into the bargain, 
 not forgetting the looking-glass ! Lewanika was more reason- 
 able. He knew I had no more nails. I gave him one as a 
 pattern, and since then his blacksmiths have made them for 
 him in all sizes, and the same with spades. 
 
 It is the same thing with the canal. When they saw me 
 ' Ps. l.xxxvii. 5.
 
 l893] THE CAUSEWAY 5 I $ 
 
 making mine with a handful of workmen, they said to themselves, 
 " We can do something better." And they did. Thanks to 
 the thousands of hands which they can command, not only does 
 the canal at the present time put the capital in communication 
 with the river, but it is continued through the hills and woods 
 to the lakes and a little river, which will make it a perpetual 
 watercourse, while at the same time it drains the marshes, and 
 has changed them into fertile fields. Even to-day, at the height 
 of the dry season, it is flowing, and the canoes pass proudly up 
 and down it. 
 
 And it is the same thing with my causeway. Stirred up by 
 emulation, Lewanika wished to share the work with me. He 
 will bring his part of it as far as the canal, to which mine leads 
 from the station, and we shall there construct a little foot-bridge. 
 You should see the enthusiasm with which these young men, 
 from a hundred to a hundred and fifty, divided into shifts, work 
 all the afternoon, digging, carrying turfs in their hands, and 
 working to the time of their wild songs. I make a very poor 
 show with my handful of hired men, one or two pickaxes, and 
 six or seven spades, notched and broken. What would I not 
 give to have some spades ! They will come — but when I have 
 no longer any use for them. Never mind ! the work advances 
 little by little, and I buoy myself up with the hope that it will 
 be done before the floods. No one who has not seen it can 
 have any idea of the work accomplished, and we .should never 
 have been able to undertake it without the saw-bench given by 
 our Scottish friends. 
 
 Besides the preparatory work done at Sefula, in the forest, 
 and at the saw-bench during a whole year, without counting 
 the thatch and the reeds which I was able to buy on the station 
 itself, without counting either the hundreds of women and 
 children who for months at a time have done a good share 
 of the work, we have during this time employed more than 
 two hundred and fifty workmen, each for a month, costing on 
 an average from lOi". to 13^-. per month, including food and wages. 
 
 The sum of ^300, which a friend in London (Mrs. H ) 
 
 had specially devoted to the construction of a dwelling-house, 
 had already been partly used for the purchase of materials and 
 fittings — nails, screws, paint, window-panes, etc. The rest will 
 defray the cost of the church. Other gifts, and my personal
 
 5l6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1893 
 
 provision of cloth, will cover all expenses, including Mr. 
 Waddell's wages. This is a great satisfaction to me. 
 
 Mr. Waddell is going to Scotland. He has well earned 
 this rest. Devoted as he was personally to my dear wife and 
 myself, it is for the mission that he has toiled and exhausted 
 his strength.^ Mr. Waddell is not an ordinary workman. When 
 I think of his capacities as a cabinet-maker, of the wages which 
 he was earning, of all the efforts which were made to secure 
 his services, I say that this man, in giving himself as he did 
 to our mission, which was still only a project, has given us 
 a splendid example of self-sacrifice. Far be it from me to 
 sound his praises ! The work of his hands does that — a colossal 
 work (let me use the word ; it is not too strong), an incessant 
 labour for nearly ten years. We have had missionary helpers 
 of that stamp, such as Gosselin and Maeder, but they are rare. 
 It is because it needs a more than ordinary measure of grace 
 cheerfully to occupy this humble place in the mission field, and 
 to glorify God in it. It is a living illustration of that beautiful 
 word, " Mind not high things ! " 
 
 So now you know our present situation. There is nothing 
 brilliant to record, alas ! — no conversions, and no return as yet 
 of the wanderers I am still sorrowing over. But the sky has 
 cleared, at any rate for a time. 
 
 One word more in closing. You know of my illness, and 
 all the affectionate care with which my friends at Sefula have 
 surrounded me. I will say with Daniel, " And I fainted and 
 was sick certain days : afterwards I rose up and did the King's 
 business." Nevertheless, the thought has firmly possessed me 
 that tJie time is short. I suffer in thinking of the little that I 
 do, the little that we have done, and the much that still remains. 
 When I review the missionary field, and hear from all sides the 
 joyful songs of the reapers, I ask myself sadly why we, after nine 
 years' labour, have still to be painfully ploughing and sowing 
 our seed with tears ! I do not speak of Japan, nor Corea, nor 
 the South Seas, nor of Telegu, where Christians are baptised by 
 thousands. I pass over no less interesting corners of the field, 
 and halt at the Congo, where the climate has made so many 
 
 ' Sad to say, since his return to Scotland, Mr. Waddell's health has 
 completely given way, and it is doubtful if he will ever be able to return 
 to Africa, much as he himself desires it.
 
 i893] THE CONGO-BALOLO MISSION 517 
 
 victims, and where the Gospel has saved so many souls ! There 
 are missionaries who have only been four years among the 
 Balolo, and already there are some Balolo Christians. Explain 
 me this phenomenon ! The facts are there. Arc we not preach- 
 ing the same Gospel ? Are we not dealing with the same race? 
 We are longing to travel throughout the country, to publish 
 the good news of salvation everywhere. But we are nailed 
 to our respective stations : impossible to move. I grieve over 
 our small numbers. What are they among so many ?
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 The Mail lost — The Primitive Methodist Missionaries — Absence of Skilled 
 or Unskilled Labour — Procuring Thatch — Construction of the Causeway 
 — The Bridge — Termites again — An Important Question of Fashion in 
 Beads — The Rainy Season — The Water-supply — The Abyssinian Well 
 — A Terrible Disappointment — The Matabele Invasion — Faint-hearted 
 Patriots. 
 
 May (? 2«^) 1894. 
 
 IT was 9 p.m. on Saturday evening. We had just left our 
 little prayer meeting, when a messenger was announced to 
 me from Sefula. " Ah ! that is good ; the post at last ! " 
 I opened the packet, which was not large. Nothing from 
 Europe ! I tore open the envelopes from Kazungula, Sesheke, 
 and Sefula. My breath was taken away ! The whole of 
 our March budget sunk in the Mambova Rapids, and lost for 
 ever ! The Adolphe Jallas' correspondence, Mile. Kiener's 
 and mine, my business letters and cheques, a banknote for 
 £\o^ my long letter to you, my friends — the whole lost, hope- 
 lessly lost ! What consternation ! Why does God allow these 
 misfortunes to happen to a correspondence which is the object 
 of so much solicitude and prayer on both sides ? 
 
 It often happens that our letters from Europe make excursions 
 to Mashona-land, and even to Mozambique and Quilimane ! 
 And then, after lying forgotten and mildewed in some corner, 
 and after having been sent from pillar to post all over the 
 continent, they reach us, like flotsam, with torn envelopes and 
 addresses covered with obliterated stamps— fortunate if they 
 arrive at all. But their precious messages have lost nothing of 
 their freshness or perfume. 
 
 Our friends the Primitive Methodists have experienced the 
 same vicissitudes of correspondence as ourselves. Our poor 
 friends have had far greater difficulties than we. They left us 
 
 5«8
 
 1894] THE LABOUR PROBLEM 519 
 
 at the end of June (1893), and only reached the Mashukulumboe 
 country at the end of December. While I admire our brother 
 Buckenham for his energy, perseverance, and manual skill, which 
 altogether have been the salvation of his expedition, and our 
 young brother Baldwin for his gentleness, his deep and intel- 
 ligent piety, and his modesty, I must say Mrs. Buckenham's 
 patience edifies me profoundly. The title of hero must not be 
 lightly bestowed ; all are not heroes who appear so. There 
 are heroes in the shade who suffer and struggle in silence. 
 We know nothing about them, but God does ; and I think 
 our sister is one of them.' I am in full sympathy with our 
 brothers in their great enterprise. As you know, I was one 
 with them from the beginning in heart and prayers, and I 
 follow them with all the affection of which I am capable. The 
 Master's work is everywhere ours ; the battle waged with the 
 common foe is His, whatever may be the colours of the flag 
 under which our brethren are fighting. 
 
 Let us return to the point where my last report left off. 
 
 What so greatly complicates missionary life, on the Zambesi 
 more than anywhere else, is the manual labour. Not only are 
 ■we without the help of artisans — with the exception of Waddell 
 — but it is impossible for us to obtain, as elsewhere, the aid of 
 workmen, trained or untrained, or even of European vagabonds. 
 There are none in the country. It is vain to aim at simplicity, 
 and to be content with little ; in a country like this, where every- 
 thing has to be created, this labour forces itself upon one, and 
 forms one of the important factors of civilised education for 
 the people committed to us. For myself, I have had one of the 
 rarest blessings which a missionary can enjoy in Mr. Waddell's 
 help. But I cannot bear to see my young colleagues, for want 
 of help, using up the best years of their life, to the detriment 
 of evangelisation, in rough work which they have never before 
 attempted, under a weakening and deadly climate. Among 
 our mission workers, no name is engraved with deeper affection 
 and esteem than that of Gosselin, a simple mason, in the 
 early days of the Basuto Mission. But his mantle has not 
 fallen on any earnest young artisan or technical expert in 
 
 ' Mrs. Buckenham returned to England in 1896, having lost her health, her 
 husband, and her only child in Africa.
 
 S20 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 France. Yet Mackay of Uganda is an example well calculated 
 to stimulate self-devotion, and I am jealous for my country. 
 
 We count here by season and years as you in Europe do 
 by weeks and months. All outdoor work has to be finished 
 in a given time — that is, during the dry season. The rainy 
 season, followed by the flood, makes it almost impossible for 
 several months. So we are obliged to make the very most of 
 the last days of the dry weather. And I had set my heart 
 on building the mission-house at Lealuyi. One day I accidentally 
 made the sad discovery that nearly all the thatching I had 
 secured at Sefula and laid by, was rotten. It was rather late : 
 the plain was on fire ; and, in our jungles, nothing stops these 
 fearful conflagrations, and nothing escapes them. Lewanika, 
 in order to help me, hastened to find out whether the Moruti 
 was in want of grass. They soon brought me some from 
 different places ; but these people, born traders and hagglers, 
 never fail to take advantage of one's distress. If I remember 
 rightly, the practice is not peculiar to Barotsi-land ! A bundle, 
 or rather a large handful, for a setsiba, two and a half yards of 
 cloth ! It was Hobson's choice : take it or leave it. I left it, 
 without hesitation. Our Barotsi need lessons in commercial 
 morality. So I mounted Grisette, and went to Sefula. I 
 announced my prices, which varied according to circumstances. 
 There was a general emulation, and all set to work vying with 
 each other. 
 
 Here and there, on the outskirts of the forest, along the 
 ditches, they gathered, handful by handful, blade by blade, the 
 precious grass which, as if by a miracle, had escaped the flames. 
 In three weeks, the supply was complete. Of course, I could 
 not remain away from Lealuyi all that time, and Mme. A. Jalla 
 very kindly charged herself with all the worry and vexation 
 of the negotiation. This .service, which is pleasant only when 
 performed for others, is certainly not the sole one for which I 
 am under obligations to her. We had such a scarcity of pro- 
 visions that our friends at Sefula were forced to reduce their 
 staff. I myself could not do this without completely stopping 
 all the building. When my provisions were exhausted, Mme. 
 Jalla was once more my providence. Many a time I had been 
 asking myself what I should give to my troop of workmen 
 in the evening, when a little manioc flour arrived just in time
 
 i894] THE FOOT-BRIDGE 521 
 
 from Sefula. And these friends sent me everything, keeping 
 nothing in reserve for themselves. They Hved from hand to 
 mouth ; after the morning meal, they trusted to God for the 
 evening one. Well, be it said to the glory of our heavenly 
 Father, neither they nor I, nor of course our people, ever lacked 
 a single meal. 
 
 Do you remember the projected causeway which was to join 
 the station to the village ? We were to share the work with 
 the king. He, like a true African, never in a hurry, took the 
 matter very calmly. "If it is not finished this year, it will be 
 done next." That is not my principle. I was determined to 
 have done with it this year. But with my seven or eight 
 notched, broken, and mended spades, the work did not advance 
 quickly. Happily, my little band of workmen made up for this 
 by a fit of somewhat rare willingness ; so much so, that we were 
 able to bring the work to a close well before the heavy rains. 
 
 The king, also, took the matter seriously in hand. Under 
 the guidance of one of his principal servants, Mokanoa, an 
 intelligent and active man, he set all his young men to work. 
 Vou should see them, as soon as dawn breaks, running at the 
 sound of Mokanoa's bell, and, without other tools than a few 
 roughly made wooden spades with which to break up the clods, 
 and their own arms to carry them, come and go in parties, 
 singing. It is just like an ants' nest. Do you notice that 
 sudden commotion interrupting the work ? Do you hear that 
 uproar, that confused sound of voices, that deafening applause ? 
 One of the number has arrived too late, and the young men 
 are amusing themselves by throttling him on the spot. It is 
 an every-day diversion. The one who is throttled to-day will 
 be on the qui-vive to revenge himself upon one of his friends 
 who in his turn may be too late to-morrow. It is thus that 
 the causeway on the side of the village rises and advances. 
 They claim to work better than we do ; and I do not dispute 
 that at all. 
 
 The causeway finished on cither side of the canal, we require 
 abridge. Abridge? Let us be more modest — a little foot-bridge 
 {passerelk). Waddell, with his assistants, worked at it for a 
 fortnight. To look at it, you would never believe that ; it looks 
 so simple. Four enormous posts of a very hard wood, which 
 they were certain would not rot. were firmly driven in on the
 
 522 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 two banks of the canal (fifteen feet broad at that place), and 
 joined by a well-made scaffolding with strong bolts. These 
 support a planking raised like a look-out, ten feet above the 
 level of the plain. It is four feet wide, with a balustrade and 
 parapets, simplified as much as possible ; four steps on either 
 side ; and there you have our bridge. You should have seen 
 the interest with which great and small, chiefs and slaves, 
 assembled every day to examine the details, and ascertain the 
 progress made. For the Barotsi themselves construct bridges 
 too. What do they not do ? I have seen the remains of some 
 on the Motondo : a few forked stakes stuck in at intervals over 
 the breadth of a swamp or river, some poles thrown across 
 them without a nail or even a rope, and that is a Barotsi bridge. 
 And over this queer erection, which totters at the slightest touch, 
 a whole troop — a whole army even — will creep in Indian file, 
 and, clinging like monkeys, will crawl, clamber, and reach the 
 other side. I don't answer for accidents. Nevertheless, they 
 admit that ours is better — indeed, monumental. Without wishing 
 to boast, we share their opinion to some extent, and think it 
 looks very well in the landscape. 
 
 But the old wiseacres of the nation had to be reckoned with ; 
 they could not bestow their praises unstinted. They swore 
 that the Barotsi would never dare to venture over it. The very 
 thought of it hurt the soles of their feet, and made them feel 
 giddy ! All the same, some valiant spirits came forward to risk 
 the attempt. One solemnly seized the rail with both hands, 
 and mounted step after step very cautiously ; while another, for 
 better security, climbed up on all fours. But once aloft, how 
 marvellous to see the canoes pass to and fro unhindered beneath 
 their feet, while the eye lost itself in the illimitable expanse 
 around ! Their delight tempted others. However, the big-wigs 
 of the country still pretended to prefer crossing by canoe rather 
 than compromise their dignity, until they should have a chance 
 of trying it one day on the sly. As for the boys, they are 
 the same all the world over. They made fun of this timidity 
 swarmed all over the bridge before it was finished, and soon, 
 I fear, they will be using it as a diving-board. But the 
 education of the public was soon accomplished, and the bridge 
 became the fashion ; so much so that the king took fright, and, 
 if I had not intervened just in time, he would have forbidden
 
 a894] TERMITES 523 
 
 the slaves to use it — indeed, he had already done so. When 
 he found I would not allow that, he would never cross the bridge 
 again. He pretended it made him giddy, and likewise his 
 chief wife ! 
 
 The animation which reigned there from morning till night 
 formed an agreeable contrast to the vast plain, barren, silent, 
 and dead. It was a reflection ; and though doubtless a very pale 
 one, still a pleasant reflection of the tide of European life. How 
 many times have I not stood before my door, my eyes following 
 those little bands of people wending over the causeway, and 
 climbing the bridge, in order to hear the Gospel ; and the happy 
 noisy troops of children, jumping and romping along the road 
 on their way to school ! If it were not for that causeway and 
 bridge, how many should we have, now that the plain is 
 submerged ? 
 
 Goaded on by the flood, which gained ground every day, and 
 rose, rose, rose, imperceptibly, I began the preparatory works 
 necessary for the construction of the dwelling-house, at the same 
 time actively pushing on that of the church, into which also 
 Waddell threw all his heart and soul, as he does into everything 
 he touches. We had to excavate the site to a depth of three 
 feet, and fill it in with fine sand — not, indeed, to stop the depreda- 
 tions of the ants, but to hinder them to some extent. For what 
 is there that can really stop these invincible destroyers ? During 
 one single night, they gnawed up a pair of shoes. One's clothes, 
 portraits, and texts hanging on the walls, precious books on the 
 shelves of the modest library, all suffer the same fate. Cases of 
 provisions too ! Omit the smallest precaution, and when you go 
 to open them the chances are that you will find nothing but a little 
 damp earth, a whole colony of ants, and some pellicules of wood, 
 as light as feathers, instead of the strong boards of which the 
 cases were made. Thieves can do nothing here ; but these 
 formidable insects always work secretly and get the better of 
 you. There is no precaution which we have not taken to protect 
 our temporary buildings. We char the stakes ; we use tar when 
 we have any ; and on an anthill like this, which is entirely their 
 work, we raise our buildings upon a strong foundation of sand, 
 several feet in depth, which the ants have more difficulty in 
 getting through than earth. It is a great labour, but we have no 
 other means less expensive and more efficacious at hand.
 
 524 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1^94 
 
 The work is done by women, whom we pay by the day with 
 white beads, the current money of the country. With a string 
 or two of these beads at the most, one can get everything — a 
 pickaxe, a skin, or a fish ; it pays a doctor or storyteller, or pro- 
 pitiates the gods.^ As long as I had any, I had a crowd of female 
 workers ; but my supply ran out. I offered blue ones, which even 
 I certainly thought pretty, though I detest that kind of thing. 
 My Barotsi ladies turned up their noses and scoffed at the idea. 
 Besides their colour, which is not fashionable, they are accursed, 
 and are only known by the sinister name of sa ku fa marena (" the 
 death of the kings "). They assert that the great Sepopa had 
 on a necklet of them when his subjects revolted and attacked 
 him, and that in his flight he went to die of his wounds on 
 the bank of the river. How can one reason with such people ? 
 They would not take my sa ku fa marena at a gift. Meanwhile, 
 the flood was steadily rising. Can you picture my dilemma? 
 A caravan of Mambari from Bihe arrived in the nick of time. 
 With much difficulty, and as a great favour, I was able to obtain 
 two pounds of these precious beads for the sum oi £,i\ As 
 soon as they were sold to me, the women hastened up. I spoke 
 conciliatingly to them. I showed them my little store, which 
 did not fill a plate, and declared to them that that was all, and. 
 that in consequence I should be obliged to give them half white 
 and half blue. Marvellous to relate, they trusted me, and began 
 working energetically. When the white were finished, I offered 
 them the blue rather timidly. " The blue ones are also beads,"^ 
 they replied, to my great astonishment. And so the work could 
 go on. In the eyes of God, nothing that concerns His children 
 is insignificant. 
 
 Unfortunately, wc were in the midst of the rainy season ;, 
 the flood was every day diminishing the circle round my ant- 
 
 ' The native doctors are not all impostors ; some of them possess a real 
 though empirical acquaintance with indigenous specifics, and even some 
 surgical skill. M. Goy, who was suffering from a tumour in the knee, 
 allowed one of these medicine-men to operate upon him in the presence of 
 M. and Mme. L. Jaila. The man set to work with little wooden knives, and, 
 almost before they could look round, had excised it with remarkable neatness 
 and dexterity. Thereupon he jumped up, and spat in all their faces — a neces- 
 sary part of the operation, it appeared, to ensure healing of the wound. 
 However, the missionaries, as a rule, never seek native medical attendance,, 
 because it is indissolubly mixed up with pagan practices.
 
 »894] WANT OF WATER 525 
 
 hill, and the now excavated site of the house became a pond. 
 Lewanika was moved at the sight, and of his own accord stopped 
 the similar work which he had begun for himself, so as to let 
 the women and girls all come and work for me. Every day 
 I had an average of one hundred. I divided them into parties, 
 putting my own workmen at the head of each. All these 
 parties went, returned, and crossed each other, beating with 
 reeds on their wooden bowls to the cadence of their songs. 
 But the water still rose, and rose quickly. It spurted up at 
 every spadeful, and we disputed the sand and earth with it inch 
 by inch. At last, one fine morning it had flowed in and 
 covered everything, and our anthill was nothing but a little 
 island, I was forced to dismiss my crowd of workers. They 
 were sorry, and so was I ; but not only had I completed the 
 foundations of my house, I had even made an ample pro- 
 vision of earth to daub and plaster it. In a photograph I took 
 you can distinguish the heaps, which hide all but the roofs of 
 my huts. 
 
 One of our great difficulties here at Lealuyi, and a very 
 serious one, is the entire absence of drinkable water. When 
 the plain is dried up, the depressions and holes in the ground 
 form pools and ponds, which for a longer or shorter time resist 
 the action of our fiery sun. The thick muddy water, greenish 
 and stagnant, is alive with frogs, which croak all night, and 
 at certain stages of their existence invade us everywhere — a 
 veritable Egyptian plague ; and infinite numbers of animalculse 
 multiply therein, only too visible to the naked eye without the 
 help of a microscope. There also men, women, and children 
 repair to bathe, quite promiscuously and unashamed. Many 
 a time I have seen them washing their patients covered with 
 small-pox before my very eyes. And it is there, incredible as 
 it may seem, that the slaves draw water for themselves and 
 for their masters. You are horrified at all this ; you try to 
 argue and point out to them one of the causes of the horrible 
 diseases which prevail here, but are unknown in the South. 
 They listen to you with a stupid and scoffing air ; and, pitcher 
 on head and body dripping from their ablutions, the)- run off 
 to tell the story in the village, and laugh at your absurdity. 
 
 We are rather more particular. The water for the king and 
 ourselves is obtained from a lake of fresh water. But the said
 
 526 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894: 
 
 lake is a long way from here : it takes nearly two hours for 
 a good walker, which every Zambesian is, to fetch two pails, 
 and even then they arrive half empty. And our water-carriers 
 are boys who only take service with us for a few weeks 
 at a time. Who can be certain that they take the trouble 
 to go so far at all, instead of getting the water at the 
 first pool they come to ? Alas ! the nauseous smell of the 
 coffee, the subsequent sickness and colic, leave little room for 
 doubt about it. You scold him well one day, and the boy 
 makes fun of it, finishes his time, and leaves you ; his successor 
 does the same ; and you have to begin again, until, for the sake 
 of peace, you end by keeping silent. My establishment is 
 necessarily reduced to the most modest scale, and my own 
 inconvenience has only a relative importance. But if a family 
 were established here, who can say what enormous diflficulties 
 would be created by the needs of the best-regulated household ! 
 
 These considerations more than sufficed for me, and I deter- 
 mined to procure one of those tube wells so well known in 
 England and the Colonies, since they proved so serviceable in 
 the Abyssinian Expedition. A gift from some generous friends 
 made the purchase possible. Like the saw-mill and the brick- 
 making machine, it reached here without the loss of even a 
 screw^ — a surprising fact, I assure you. Our friend Waddell could 
 not contain himself for joy on seeing it. " Two hours," said 
 he, " and I shall have set it going ! " I gave him two days. 
 As a matter of fact, we have both worked at it unremittingly 
 from morning till night for two weeks ! One pipe cracked, and 
 another broke under the repeated blows of the hammer ; it was 
 necessary to saw, and in several places to screw, the portions 
 together again. In the end, after all these hopes and fears 
 and great e'xertions, we have not succeeded ! I am neither a 
 practical geologist nor a mechanic, and in my ignorance I 
 foolishly supposed that I should find abundance of pure water 
 at a depth of fifteen or twenty feet. The most superficial 
 examination should have made mc foresee a different result. 
 For it is just at this depth that a bed of dense clay is generall}' 
 found, and unless it can be got through it is impossible to find 
 water. You can guess with what a beating heart I sounded 
 my pipes as they were sunk, and finally saw the last one go 
 down. I sounded again. Five feet of sand ! Such a business
 
 i894] THE ABYSSINIAN WELL 527 
 
 as it was to pump that sand out ! By dint of perseverance 
 we succeeded at last, and you will enter into our delight at 
 finding we had five feet of water in the tube. It was short- 
 lived, though ; for this water once drawn (and it was only half 
 a bucketful), the well remained dry till the next day. It was 
 impossible to go deeper — I had no more pipes. The inundation 
 has brought no change ; the water has not risen an inch. If 
 only wc could dig a well, a real well, like Mr. Paton of Tanna, 
 in the South Sea Islands ! If ! But for ifs, what might not 
 be done ? However, I do not admit that my well is a complete 
 fiasco. With additional tubes, I still hope that one day pure 
 fresh water may spring up. 
 
 From the month of July till the end of December we lived 
 under constant alarms. At first vague and always contradictory 
 rumours came to us from the South, from which the indubitable 
 fact stood out that the Matabele had invaded the Batoka 
 country. Eye-witnesses related — and it proved but too true — 
 that they had plundered the fields, burnt the villages, mutilated 
 and massacred the men, impaled the women, hung up little 
 children by the feet and roasted them, satiated their thirst 
 for carnage, and committed nameless atrocities, which the 
 pen refuses to describe. They added that, seized with terror, 
 all the people from the South, the chiefs foremost, had fled 
 to the woods and islets — the fortresses of this country ; that 
 the Matabele had sacked Kazungula and Sesheke, and were 
 advancing by forced marches on the capital. What had become 
 of our colleagues in the midst of this upheaval ? No one 
 told me a word. I succeeded with great difficulty in obtaining 
 a messenger from the king ; but he had hardly arrived at 
 Sesheke when he threw away our letters, and I have not seen 
 him since. 
 
 It was one Saturday night that the king, having just left 
 me, received the news, and hastened to tell me. The war- 
 drums began to beat, and the men to utter cries and fearful 
 howls. What a night! The next day, all who could took 
 flight. The chiefs conferred, and decided to go out and meet 
 the enemy. All the week, the king was besieged for powder, 
 and certainly his supply was not inexhaustible. Assegais were 
 furbished up, shields were made, and iron bullets cast ; while 
 men came running from all sides in small bands, chanting their
 
 528 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 valour on the public square, and performing mock combats. 
 At the last moment, the chiefs — doughty warriors ! — thought 
 better of it, and discovered that it would be wiser to retire to 
 the islets. " And then ! let the Matabele come ; they will see 
 that we are Barotsi ! " A stormy council was held. The king, 
 angered, declared he would take the field himself. The chiefs 
 gave way, and went to camp at Mongu, five or six miles from 
 here. However, at the end of a few days, not being able to 
 get together a sufficient number of soldiers, they returned to 
 their homes. Lewanika, once more angry, managed by dint 
 of threats to reassemble a good number of men, and, without 
 listening to the protestations of his councillors, began operations 
 in his own way. 
 
 His plan was to defend the fords of the Njoko, Lumbe, 
 and Ruyi by strategic works, redoubts with loopholes, of which 
 he made me a copy in miniature on the banks of the canal on 
 his return. Where did he get this idea from ? I do not know.^ 
 To execute it, he divided his army into three corps. The works 
 finished, the want of food and the absence of fresh rumours, 
 made him return home. We did not long enjoy this relative 
 quietness. 
 
 Khama sent word to Lewanika that war was imminent 
 between the Whites and the Matabele, and advised him to guard 
 the fords of the Zambesi. There could be no doubt as to the 
 
 ' Colonel Baden-Powell, in his "Matabele Campaign" (Methuen li 
 pp. 480-482 makes some observations which may help to explain this, when we 
 remember that all the Barotsi traditions point to the tribe having come from 
 Mashona-land : "Near Fort Haynes (Mashona-land), one hundred and five 
 miles from Fort Salisbury, were said to be some ancient ruins ; so we rode 
 over to see them. They were the remains of an old kraal, strongly fortified 
 with a circular stone wall, a wide ditch, and a triple row of trees, which are 
 now very big. It was certainly an ancient ruin, but not of the class of the 
 Zimbabye ruins, near Victoria. . . . Taberer, Chief Native Commissioner, 
 attributes the fortified kraals to the Vorosi people, who inhabited the country 
 before the Mashona, and have now disappeared northwards. They are a far 
 cleverer race than most South African natives. The rock drawings in 
 Mashona-land, generally attributed to Bushmen, he says are by them, and 
 are superior to the usual Bushmen's drawings." 
 
 The Rev. A. Merensky, writing in 1871, says: "A guide of the Banyai 
 tribe told us much about this mysterious spot (Zimbabye) . . . and that a 
 populous black tribe had formerly dwelt there, but about fifty years before 
 had gone northward."
 
 1894] RETURN OF THE ARMY 529 
 
 issue of this war, and they knew that Lobengula's intention was 
 to invade the Barotsi country. Great then was the danger, and 
 no one could ignore it any longer. Again the war-drums began 
 to roar, and again panic seized everybody. The men held a 
 mockery of a pitso, in which each tried to outdo the other in 
 vaunting his own prowess ; they wasted a great deal of powder, 
 intoxicated themselves with noise, and bedizened themselves 
 with feathers and wild-beast skins, which they really believed 
 invested them with the courage and ferocity, as well as with the 
 appearance, of their original owners. The excitement having 
 worked itself off, they again took the field. Lewanika was to 
 stay behind ; but as his son Litia left with all the great chiefs, 
 one was justified in believing it to be serious this time. More- 
 over, all the gods of the country had been consulted, all had 
 given their assent, and the assegais that had been laid on their 
 tombs were carried solemnly at the head of the army as a 
 symbol of their favour. I refused to be present at their last 
 parade, but the chiefs all came to salute me before starting. 
 I recommended them above all to refrain from pillage ; for, 
 in the absence of a commissariat, it is by brigandage that such 
 an army subsists. 
 
 War despatches are unknown here. Custom dictates that 
 an expedition once on its way sends no direct message to 
 the king until it has reached its destination, and accomplished 
 its mission. He knows nothing of its movements except what 
 rumours and passers-by bring him. We thought it far away in 
 the country of the Batoka, when a messenger came mysteriously 
 to announce its return. 
 
 And, in fact, the next day we saw the long Indian file deploy- 
 ing and winding silently over the plain till it re-entered the 
 town. What had happened ? You might go on guessing for 
 ever. This was the secret. They had seen all sorts of bad 
 omens — that is to say, extraordinary and inexplicable things ; 
 here they found a dead rabbit, there a land tortoise, farther on a 
 serpent — no more was needed. Those braves who could not con- 
 trive to flee in the night were simultaneously taken ill, it would 
 seem, and the whole army began to melt away. The chiefs alone, 
 upheld I believe by Litia, were trying to resist the contagion 
 of cowardice, when one night a tempest broke ; lightning struck 
 
 34
 
 530 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 a shelter under which were about forty men, who all " died " ! 
 Thirty-eight returned to life, but two remained " dead." ^ This 
 time, it was all up ; there could no longer be any doubt ; and 
 all the chiefs with one accord raised the camp to return to 
 their homes — this time for good. So much the worse for their 
 country, if it is in danger ! And the saddest part of it is, that 
 there was not one voice raised in disapproval — quite the contrary. 
 Lewanika was the sole exception : and was he in earnest ? And 
 if the Matabele had actually invaded the country, what would 
 have become of this people and of us ? But God reigns ! He 
 is full of compassion. In spite of all the depravity of our poor, 
 benighted, yet beloved Barotsi, for them the hour of judgment 
 has not yet struck. It is still the time of grace ; and we praise 
 Him for it.'^ 
 
 ' The Barotsi use the word "dead" for almost any condition of helpless- 
 ness or inaction — as, for instance, the attitude of prayer. Lewanika, who 
 takes a lively interest in European politics, and when the mail comes in 
 always asks how the Franco-Russian alliance is progressing, remarked to 
 M. Coillard one day, " I think the French are very like the Barotsi ; they 
 are very fond of killing their king " — by which he merely meant " overthrowing 
 their government." 
 
 ^ As to this Matabele raid, M. L. Jalla wrote from Kazungula: "I 
 decided [in September 1893] to make acquaintance with the Batoka, and see 
 with my own eyes the havoc wrought by the enemy. I found the chief 
 Siakasippa camped under a shelter of branches at half-an-hour's distance 
 from his village (which had been burnt), and surrounded by about fifty men 
 and women who had escaped from the massacre. I only saw two old men 
 and two or three children : all the rest had perished miserably at the hand 
 of the Matabele. The chief did all he could to welcome me, and even forced 
 me to accept a lamb, though all his cattle had been carried off except eight 
 sheep. To crown his misfortunes, the small-pox was raging among them. 
 Siakasippa is a fine-looking man, a true warrior — very unlike our poor Barotsi. 
 The Matabele were going to raid the Mashukulumboe ; but during Siakasippa's 
 absence to visit Lewanika on business, a petty chief, who had a grudge 
 against him, secretly told the Matabele they would find much more cattle 
 among the Batoka. An impi detached itself from the main band, reached 
 the Batoka by forced marches, and taking their victims quite by surprise, 
 surrounded them before they suspected anything. The people fled into the 
 woods, but the Matabele stationed themselves on every path, even making 
 new ones to be certain of letting no one escape. Then one morning they 
 swooped down from all parts — more than fifty directions at once — upon these 
 l)oor creatures, and made an appalling slaughter, over which they spent the 
 whole day ; they also took an enormous number of prisoners, whom they 
 throttled immediately. Then they camped for the night on the banks of the
 
 1894] A MATABELE MASSACRE 53 I 
 
 Nguesi. There took place another horrible butchery. All the prisoners were 
 murdered without exception, and the details given by some eye-witnesses 
 who were left for dead, but revived by the fresh night air, make one shudder. 
 Some men were hung by the feet to trees, and left thus with assegais in the 
 body ; others bound to a tree trunk and burnt by slow fires, to judge by their 
 shrivelled and blackened hands. Numbers of little children were strung by 
 the feet to a long perch, under which the enemy lighted fires, the better to 
 enjoy the cries of these little victims. And so on. I wished to go there. 
 When we reached [the spot] the camp was just as the enemy had left it. 
 On all sides bones were lying about, scattered by the hyaenas or vultures, 
 who had been enjoying the carcasses for the last month. Judging by the 
 remains lying among the skeletons, the majority of the prisoners had been 
 women, especially young girls."
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 Fall of the Matabele Kingdom — Levity of the Barotsi — A Royal Weathercock 
 — House-to-House Visitations — Prisoners — A Sad Story — Queen 
 Mokwae's Visit — A Lesson in Good Manners — // faut souffrir pour' eir'e 
 belle — Dedication of the Church — A Festival — Lewanika's Oratory — The 
 King as a School Inspector — A School Treat — Drastic Discipline — The 
 Chief Sinde— The Great Y\ooA—Mati7idis~Y\\^\. of the Natives— Their 
 Return — The Goliath of Paganism. 
 
 May — June 1894. 
 
 IN my last letter I spoke to you of the Matabele, and the 
 alarms and panics they were causing us. Our brother Louis 
 Jalla will have told you what can be told of the atrocities 
 perpetrated on the Batoka, the traces of which he has seen him- 
 self with his own eyes. Alas ! they have long been the scourge 
 of the nations, and not without reason has their name alone 
 been the terror of these parts. What a mystery is this long- 
 suffering of the Lord ! But these human tigers had filled up the 
 cup of their iniquity, and it overflowed : the innocent blood of 
 women and little children cried to God — ^judgment has come 
 at last ! As a nation, the Matabele have ceased to exist.^ 
 
 For ourselves — I mean for the Barotsi — the end of the 
 Matabele means peace and security, in so far as external affairs 
 
 ' Six months later, M. L. Jalla paid a second visit to the Batoka, and 
 heard full details of Lobengula's death, from the consequences of a wound 
 received in the engagement with Major Wilson's force at the Shangani River. 
 
 " The ball having lodged in the large intestine, a native doctor tried in vain 
 to extract it. Led by Ndosa, a younger brother (the same who had conducted 
 the expedition to the Batoka last July), Lobengula sought a last refuge in the 
 Kodje Mountain, a little distance from Sinamane's Mountain, on the right bank. 
 There he died. His body, after being exhibited during several days to the 
 gaze of his little band of followers, was placed in a lions' den, seated on the 
 royal throne, with two guns on either side. He was covered up with blankets 
 and numerous things belonging to him ; then a great cairn of stones and 
 
 532
 
 1894] INCORRIGIBLE LEVITY 533 
 
 are concerned. Probably Lewanika will now be able to carry 
 out the plans he had formed for establishing villages on the river- 
 bank as far as its confluence with the Kafue. Several chiefs 
 have already been designated for these various posts ; only, 
 as we have already seen, the Barotsi have no more courage and 
 patriotism than need be. This much is certain, and it will 
 directly affect our beloved mission, that Litia, the king's son, 
 is soon to be installed at Kazungula itself, as chief of the whole 
 province of Kazungula. Once invested with such great power, 
 what will this young man become ? Will he be a helper to our 
 brother Louis J alia, or a thorn in his side ? I have some hope 
 that he will return to the Lord, and then all will be well. He 
 could not be under better influences than at Kazungula. 
 
 You will naturally ask what became of the mission in the 
 midst of all this confusion and material work. Ah ! how I should 
 like to be able to rejoice your hearts by telling you we are no 
 longer clearing the ground ! But we shall long have to go on 
 doing that among the Barotsi. Still, there is no reason to be 
 discouraged. The longer and more laborious the time of sowing, 
 the richer will be the harvest. " Let us not be weary in well- 
 doing ; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." 
 
 Our services, which have been fairly well attended, have often 
 been of a solemn character. What troubles me, and would 
 make me despair if it were not for the power of God's grace, 
 is the incorrigible levity of our Barotsi. When we believe that 
 a serious and deep impression has been made, and we watch it 
 full of hope, we find, alas ! that it has " passed away like morning 
 dew." Nothing is more heart-rending than the contrast between 
 the audience which I thought captivated by the preaching of 
 God's Word, and the noisy mocking laughter of the groups 
 which form after the service. One would not believe they 
 
 rocks was erected over him, and the cavern surrounded by a strong paUsade 
 of tree trunks. While this was being made, the Hons came back to their lair, 
 and killed two Matabele chiefs — to the sur\-ivors an evident sign of the chief's 
 satisfaction, since he had thus himself chosen his attendants for the other 
 world. A number of bullocks were then slaughtered in honour of the dead, 
 and the flesh which could not be eaten on the spot was left to the vultures 
 and hyaenas. Thus perished this bloodthirsty chief, the Attila of South Africa. 
 Let who will bewail the disappearance of this power. We, the nearest / 
 neighbours of the Matabele, can only thank God for having at last put a stop 
 to their massacres."
 
 534 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 were the same individuals. And do not think that I speak of 
 the young people only, who in all countries are accused of 
 fickleness ; but it is the men and women whose position and 
 age ought to have sobered them. It is Satan's turn then ; he 
 takes away the good seed and sows tares. I have tried to 
 start a sort of Sunday school at that hour (after the service, 
 I mean), but without much success. 
 
 As for Lewanika, he is always changing. His mind is 
 convinced, but he lacks the courage to break away from customs 
 which he condemns. He likes the things of God, and he never 
 misses a single service unless he is unwell. Certain addresses 
 and certain hymns have by his own confession moved him almost 
 to tears. He has even been on the verge of sending away all 
 his wives — " sweeping out his harem," as he says ; but he thus 
 ran counter to a social and political institution, and roused the 
 opposition of all the chiefs ; so he recoiled from it. He does 
 not hesitate to deplore his wrong-doing towards us ; he recognises 
 it, and respects all who have the courage to tell him the truth. 
 But for all that, he has not yet got conviction of sin. He admits 
 his crimes and faults, but he explains them away and palliates 
 them ; he has not yet learned to tremble before God. And 
 then, I must add, he always has before him the spectre of the 
 revolution of 1884, which drove him into exile. " How is he to 
 be converted by himself 7 If only he could count on a single one 
 of his chiefs, a single one of his household officers, a single 
 one of his wives ! " The man is unhappy ; he wins one's heart, 
 and makes one pity him. You should have seen with what 
 eagerness, I ought to say with what joy, he did his best to 
 popularise the evening services which I held in his court at the 
 beginning of the flood-time. His wives, and their servants, the 
 village women ; his own servants and slaves, and even other men 
 who are not free to enter the precincts as they please, were all 
 there : the court was almost always full. And in the middle, 
 sitting by my lantern on the royal mat, which the common herd 
 are not allowed to approach, he urged all the young men who 
 could sing to squat down on it beside him — his own children 
 and slaves like Nyondo, without distinction. These meetings 
 were ostensibly for hymn-singing ; but there was always a 
 message as well — all the more direct, because it was so familiar. 
 And with all that, he has those backslidings, those contradictions,
 
 i894] CONVICTS 535 
 
 those relapses even, which I understand, but which grieve me. 
 Poor Lewanika ! How difficult it is for a rich man to enter into 
 the kingdom of God ! 
 
 Evangelisation from house to house has often encouraged 
 me, I have been able to convince myself that the preaching of 
 the Gospel is sometimes understood where I had least expected 
 it. But it also initiates me into much of the darkness and 
 moral misery. 
 
 Here is a young woman, who hastily picks up a piece of 
 charcoal as I pass, breaks it in half, and begs me to hit her with 
 it. Poor thing ! seeing my pale face, which she does not admire, 
 and my white suit, " she is afraid of bringing a monster like 
 me into the world." 
 
 Here is another young woman, lying on a mat in her court- 
 yard. She is ill. In a corner, quite close to her, I notice on 
 a heap of sand from the river, where two young plants of maize 
 are growing, a little altar of reeds. There every morning at 
 sunrise, she offers to Nyambe, the Supreme God, an oblation 
 in the shape of a dish of water, hoping thus to obtain his favour 
 and secure her recovery. How is it possible not to be moved in 
 the presence of these gropings in the dark ? ^ 
 
 Here is the prison, or rather here are the prisoners, who are 
 also toiling at earth-works. There are not many of them — five 
 or six in all, and even that is too many. Their gaoler, " the man 
 with the sack and rope," has to ration them as best he can : that 
 is to say, to starve them. And to prevent their running away, 
 he boasts that he ties them every night to a post and gags them. 
 Each of these wretched creatures has his own history. The men 
 
 ' As to these altars, M. L. Jalla writes as follows (September 1889) : 
 " One Sunday at 8 a.m., I found Mahaha" (a worthy chief at Sesheke, several 
 times mentioned by M. Coillard) "in the midst of about fifty of his people, 
 especially women. ' We have come together to pray.' ' Really. To pray 
 to whom ? ' ' Why, to Molimo.' ' But where is your god whom you pray 
 to?' 'There he is,' replied Mahaha, showing me a fine 7noztcngula tree, in 
 front of wl*ch they had made a little shed with grass and stakes. Beside it, 
 they had built a little altar with some pieces of wood, and on it, as an offering 
 from the chief, a skin cloak, and a wooden dish full of water : this latter is 
 the indispensable offering when they are asking for rain. ' Who told you 
 that this tree was Molimo ? ' ' Why,' he answered, surprised, ' Molimo has 
 told us all from all time that he descended into this tree, and that we must 
 pray to him there.' "
 
 536 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 are all incorrigible thieves, and have only got what they deserve. 
 Among the women, there is one who interests me. She is young, 
 bright, and intelligent. She has told me her story. A man of 
 remarkably gentle character, one whom I like very much, had 
 married her. One day, the king's sister, Katoka, who had just 
 got rid of I know not what number on the list of her husbands, 
 cast her eyes on this man, and took him. He had to forsake 
 his young wife : quite an easy matter here. Unfortunately, a 
 little later on, a mouse was found in the princess's house — a 
 dead mouse ! There was a great commotion, and the cry of 
 witchcraft was raised. The bones did not fail to designate the 
 young woman, and she was made a convict. A few years ago, 
 she would have been burnt alive. Ah, my friends, paganism is 
 an odious and a cruel thing ! 
 
 I must say a word about the queen, Mokwae, who has just 
 visited us. She had been expected for a long time, and her 
 arrival was a great event in our little world, and, as usual, the 
 occasion for great demonstrations. Her tricoloured sunshade, 
 her startling European costumes, and those of the king's wives, 
 formed a striking contrast to the grease and yellow ochre of 
 the crowd of other women. In this I suppose one must recog- 
 nise the progress of civilisation, and it is for that reason I 
 mention it.^ 
 
 She made a stay of six weeks, and the king showed her 
 the greatest deference. Although she did not sit in the 
 kkothla, as at Nalolo, all the matters treated of there were 
 submitted to her as her right. She also busied herself about 
 
 • The Barotsi are passionately fond of clothes, and despise such tribes as 
 the Mashukulumboe, who wear none. The wearing of them was not intro- 
 duced by the missionaries, nor is it in any way a question of Christianity 
 V. Paganism. When Major Serpa Pinto passed through Lealuyi before 
 M. Coillard's first visit, he found the chiefs all decked out in faded Portuguese 
 uniforms, one of which he identified by means of a note in the pocket as 
 having once belonged to a friend of his own, a high Government official. 
 The favourite costume of the Barotsi consists of a pair of trousers ; a shirt, 
 worn outside it, rather long ; and a waistcoat, but no coat. But if they cannot 
 have all three, the waistcoat is the object of their desires, because, they say — 
 alas for the Rational Dress Association !— it pulls them together and supports 
 the figure ! Nevertheless, with all their industrial talent, they seen to have 
 but a very elementary idea of spinning or weaving. All their clothes are 
 bought. They have a rooted idea that woven fabrics are produced by water- 
 sprites in the sand at the bottom of the sea or of deep rivers.
 
 i894] A MISSIONARY FOR NALOLO 537 
 
 certain troubles in her brother's harem. Not that she made 
 matters any better herself ; for Mokwae, who is not more 
 considerate than need be, often wounds people to the quick, 
 especially when it is a question of other women. She considers 
 herself, as the katoka, charged with the education of the king's 
 wives. And all this is mingled with a certain kindliness, which 
 makes her remarkably maternal with the children of royal blood. 
 I have seen her assemble the women and girls of the harem, 
 covered as they are with the most fantastic ornaments, and, 
 in spite of her inconvenient stoutness, stand the whole day 
 under a burning sun, teaching them songs and dances of olden 
 times, which are now forgotten, and are of doubtful taste, to say 
 the least. 
 
 Her Majesty had fallen out with me, and not altogether without 
 reason. She is persuaded that it is in my power to give her a 
 missionary, and that if she has not got one, it is from ill-will 
 and obstinacy on my part. More than once already the rein- 
 forcement has failed at the last moment, just when we thought 
 we had got it.^ But how should she know that ? Her principal 
 chiefs share her ill-humour, and sometimes give proofs of it 
 to me in a manner not altogether agreeable. I was therefore 
 obliged solemnly to renew the promise that this year she should 
 not be disappointed, and that a missionary should certainly go 
 and establish himself at Nalolo. After our past experiences, it 
 was certainly compromising myself very much ; but the mission 
 itself will be compromised, and that much more gravely, if 
 we cannot occupy Nalolo next year. In the meantime, I am 
 re-established in her good graces and those of her people, and they 
 do not fail to remind me of my engagement every time we meet 
 to discuss the site of the station, and to excel themselves in fine 
 promises. You understand, do you not, dear friends ? Do not 
 imagine that it is the cry of the Macedonian, or think that the 
 inhabitants of Nalolo, especially their chiefs, are yearning for 
 the Gospel. No ; it is only a question of dignity. Lewanika has 
 his missionary, a European missionary; and why not Mokwae? 
 In their estimation, a white missionary is a good milch cow ! 
 However that may be, Nalolo is the second capital of the 
 
 ' MM. VoUet and Edgar Kruger, who had both started for the Barotsi 
 Valley, had to give it up, and stay in Basuto-land.
 
 538 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 kingdom. Thus it is a post of great importance, which must 
 be occupied without further delay. 
 
 Mokwae has a high conception of her dignity. You know 
 she is almost as much morena (supreme chief) as Lewanika 
 himself She has her court like him, and the same dignitaries ; 
 she surrounds herself with the same ceremonial ; she receives 
 the same honours, and she knows how to exact them, if need be. 
 Thus it is natural enough that she should insist on being upon 
 the same footing with regard to the missionaries, and even on 
 occupying the same place at their table whenever she pleases, 
 without further ceremony. Unfortunately, she is far from 
 having her brother's good manners, his habits of scrupulous 
 personal cleanliness, and above all his great discretion. I 
 therefore permitted myself one day to give her a lesson on the 
 subject, and some paternal advice, which she happily took in 
 good part, and she has since then endeavoured to follow it. 
 Mokwae has one good quality — she never sulks.^ 
 
 Whilst our friends from Sefula were here, we invited her 
 to come and spend a day with us. She was delighted with the 
 idea : she made a grand toilette for the occasion, and arrived 
 when the sun was blazing. At her desire, I conducted her to 
 the church, which she had not yet seen — a marvel of architecture 
 
 1 The lesson was this : Mokwae had come to the station one morning at 
 S a.m. to call on Mme. A. Jalla, who also happened to be there on a visit. 
 She stopped on till tea-time with her dirty retinue (Lewanika takes his 
 daily bath as regularly as an Englishman, but his example is not followed by 
 his relatives), and she would not take the broadest hints. When tea was 
 ready, the missionaries sent her out a cup, and afterwards went inside and 
 sat down without inviting her. Mokwae, furious, passed her cup to an 
 attendant, and went away, which was, in fact, what they all wanted her to do. 
 Some days after, M. Coillard invited her to tea, and told her everybody was 
 ■morena in his own house, and that it was inappropriate to her own dignity 
 to beg for invitations. 
 
 Lewanika understands good manners thoroughly, though when he is in a 
 bad temper he does not always practise them. His intercourse with Europeans, 
 too, has tended to improve him in this respect, for in the main he has been 
 very fortunate in his experience of them. One of his earliest visitors, who 
 did not come up to the chiefs standard, would have been very much aston- 
 ished to hear his remarks about him. "Has Satory" (Queen Victoria) "not 
 got any nice men about her person ? " "Certainly; she has plenty." "Then 
 I hope, when she sends tnc one, he will be a gentleman. That one was not 
 even a man ; he was a wild beast."
 
 1894] PRIDE MUST BEAR A PINCH 539 
 
 for the country, and a very good piece of carpentering even for 
 Europe. I did my best to explain to her all the secrets known 
 to me about the sawing and joinery. We stood talking for 
 a long time ; and from the interest she exhibited, I supposed 
 she was taking mental notes for her future constructions. 
 Thence, I took her round my little garden, where, to her great 
 joy, I made her a present of a box of young eucalyptus plants. 
 After that, it was the turn of my huts, my mysterious studio with 
 the red panes, and my bedroom, to which Lewanika alone has 
 access. Like a true lady, she politely thanked me, and told me 
 that everything had interested her — " immensely," I suppose. 
 Then the poor woman, whom I thought looked tired, dropped 
 into a chair on the verandah, and with a characteristic grimace 
 abruptly tore her shoes off her feet, and flung them on the 
 ground. 
 
 " My father," she said, " give me some medicine for my feet ; 
 they are hurting me dreadfully ! " 
 
 Poor creature ! if she had not got boots on — real boots ! New 
 ones too, and so small for her that I cannot understand by what 
 exercise of ingenuity she could ever have squeezed her feet into 
 them. And I had kept her standing about for more than an 
 hour ! What martyrdom for the poor woman ! 
 
 " Medicine for the feet ! Come, Mokwae, put these boots 
 aside ; they are much too small for you." 
 
 " Then my father will give me his shoes ? " 
 
 I smiled. 
 
 " Mine would not fit you either, Mokwae." 
 
 " Ah," she remarked, casting her eyes on our friend Waddell's, 
 " there are some that will do." 
 
 " I have no others, Morena, nor has the Moricti either," 
 replied Waddell, in alarm. 
 
 " And you wish the Morena Mokwae to go barefoot ? " 
 
 Indeed, there was nothing else for her to do, for there is no 
 shoemaker as yet either at Lealuyi [or Nalolo. We were highly 
 amused by this little incident. My friends even went so far as 
 to accuse me of a little spark of malice, but of course I don't 
 admit that ! 
 
 On the whole, Mokwae's visit gave us pleasure. I saw her 
 often, both at her house and mine. Except when she was 
 unwell, she did not miss a single one of our services either. At
 
 540 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 her place, too, I had good meetings : her large court was always 
 full. Mokwae is intelligent and open to good influences — also, 
 alas ! to bad ones, as we well know. I was astonished to see 
 how she understood the preachings, and how much she was 
 interested in the school. Hence I rejoice very sincerely to think 
 that she will at last have a missionary with her this year. It 
 is quite time for it. But, in order to occupy Nalolo, we shall 
 be obliged to abandon our dear Sefula, and leave it in the hands 
 of a native evangelist. We have no one else to place there. 
 And when somebody comes to Sefula, I fear he will find hardly 
 anything but ruins ! 
 
 In spite of the length of my letter, I must let you witness the 
 dedication of our church. It was a festival which had filled our 
 thoughts and prayers for many weeks beforehand. Well, it was 
 heralded by a great disappointment. We had been counting on 
 our dear friends from Kazungula and Sesheke ; we had made 
 splendid plans, for it is not often that the Zambesi family is 
 seen complete. The people rejoiced with us, the king especially ; 
 and already our pupils were enthusiastically practising some 
 little songs of welcome, when the news arrived, like a slap in the 
 face, that the whooping-cough had unexpectedly caused all our 
 dreams to melt away ! Our friends could not come. Africa, 
 always capricious, is the land of disappointments. 
 
 What was the use now of hurrying till we were breathless ? 
 I postponed the festival, and it took place in March instead of 
 at Christmas. All the household from Sefula arrived ten days 
 beforehand — in canoes of course, for the plain is inundated. 
 What a transformation for the hermitage of Loatile ! What 
 exuberance of life and activity everywhere ! and what a magnet 
 for my parishioners at Lealuyi ! While brother Adolphe, as we 
 call him among ourselves, is ready to help me with eye and hand 
 in everything, the ladies immediately took up all the cares of 
 the household. They also took my poor boys in hand, who 
 certainly do their best, such as that is ; they reminded them of 
 their lessons — quite forgotten, alas ! — in order and cleanliness, 
 and tried to extend their culinary accomplishments a little. 
 That will not go far. All the same, I am grateful to them, and 
 so are my boys ; for, left to themselves, the latter have done 
 a great deal, according to Serotsi standards, when they have 
 merely shown their goodwill. One cannot ask more.
 
 1894] DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH 54I 
 
 The days were well filled with the occupations that had 
 accumulated. But there was room also for the heart, if only 
 in the evenings on my little verandah : a space for confidential 
 chats and singing of our French hymns — echoes from our 
 own land with their moving associations, lifting our hearts 
 towards our heavenly country, our Father's house, where God 
 Himself shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. 
 
 The services of Sunday, March 3rd, were of a very solemn 
 character. It was the last time that we assembled under the 
 tent. That good old tent, now all in rags, has its own story. 
 It was together with these same friends that we put it up, under 
 great difficulties. It has sheltered us for sixteen months from 
 rain and sun. To me, its very threshold is sacred. M. A. Jalla 
 preached on the miraculous draught of fishes. I, in the second 
 service, would have liked to draw up the net. Can you wonder 
 that, in scanning the many familiar faces of this fine congregation, 
 the ten years of this Barotsi Mission passed before my mind ? 
 In spirit I travelled to Leshoma, then to Sesheke, thence to 
 Sefula. I halted at Lealuyi. I thought of my preachings, of 
 my shattered hopes, of those conflicts known to God alone ; 
 and my heart filled with sadness, I repeated with the Apostles, 
 " Toiled all the night . . . and taken nothing." This night has 
 indeed been long and dark and stormy ; the work has been 
 hard and unremitting. Nevertheless — notJiing ! Should we lose 
 heart ? should we doubt the power of the Gospel which we 
 preach ? the grace of God which has yet triumphed over the 
 hardness and depravity of my own heart ? Nay, Lord — at Thy 
 ivord I will once more " let down the net." 
 
 The nth of March arrived. The humble edifice which we 
 were about to consecrate to God's service is the exact copy of 
 that at Sefula, only larger and better built. The saw-bench given 
 by our Glasgow friends has made a work easy for us which 
 without its help would have been impossible. It is not com- 
 pletely finished ; there are no windows and no doors — calico will 
 supply the place of the former, and reeds of the latter. There 
 are only a few benches and a platform with a little table instead 
 of a pulpit. Above the platform, against the wall, stand out the 
 words, " Glory to God ! — Khanya e be go Moliiiio ! " echoing the 
 sentiment that fills our hearts, " Hallelujah ! " 
 
 The day opened favourably, although the sky was cloudy.
 
 542 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 Though it was the rainy season, it did not rain that day ; and 
 we thanked God for that. As early as half-past eight, a little 
 group made itself visible outside the village, and quickly climbed 
 the bridge. Another appeared ; then a third, the princesses, 
 dressed in brilliant colours ; and, finally, the mass of the people, 
 " the black populace," bontsu bo as they say here, just as though 
 the aristocracy were white.. Soon the station was filled by 
 a noisy, chattering crowd. Lewanika, contrary to his usual 
 custom, arrived the last. 
 
 Without losing any time, Adolphe J alia and I prepared the 
 groups, and gave them minute directions how to enter, so as to 
 avoid too great a confusion. The bell rang, and everybody, in 
 the prescribed order, assembled once more on the site of our tent, 
 which had disappeared. After singing came prayers, and an 
 address, in which, after alluding to the appeals of the preceding 
 Sunday, I renewed the many injunctions regarding order and 
 respect. 
 
 Lewanika also made an attempt at a little speech. The poor 
 man is anything but an orator, monarch though he be ; and he 
 made a mess of it altogether. He began by calling to account 
 the great chief of Katuramoa, who, being tipsy, proceeded to 
 unfold a long discourse, which he perhaps understood himself, but 
 which we had to cut short. He then turned to the Gambella, 
 as representative of the chiefs, and asked him why he prevented 
 his people from coming to church. The Gambella, who, by this 
 time, ought to have grown hardened to this sort of compliment, 
 took or pretended to take it as a personal affront ; and not 
 deserving it, he respectfully but firmly read his royal master 
 a lecture. The king, nonplussed by these two unexpected 
 rejoinders, made some general remarks, recommending the 
 people to go and hear the preaching of the Gospel and to send 
 their children to school. Then summing up : " What other white 
 man," he cried warmly, " has ever taken the trouble, like this 
 one, to put up a building, not for his own exclusive use, but for 
 ours ? Do you not see that there is something within the breast 
 of these men — these missionaries? What advantage do they 
 reap by wearying themselves thus for us ? Say ! And you, 
 Barotsi, who despise their instruction, and refuse to send your 
 children to school, are you so very wise and intelligent? Perish
 
 1894] DEDICATION SERVICES 543 
 
 our customs and superstitions ! They keep us chained in dark- 
 ness, and carry us on to ruin ! I see it ! Yes, I see it ! " 
 
 We struck up a hymn, and entered, myself at the head of 
 the so-called procession, in order to preside at the installation 
 of our uncivilised congregation, while Waddell acted policeman 
 at the door, and our brother Jalla outside. Good-bye to our 
 precautions and directions ! The chiefs and queens had hardly 
 entered before there was an indescribable scrimmage at the 
 entrance. I had foreseen this. Happily, our singing drowned 
 the uproar ; and when quietness had been restored, the sight of 
 the audience congregated in this vast building had something 
 very striking in it. We began by singing a national orison, 
 composed for the occasion. Then after a prayer of dedication, 
 I endeavoured in a short address to make our Barotsi clearly 
 understand the character of this building, which was consecrated 
 to God's service ; and the basis of our teaching — the Word oj 
 God, true and eternal, a very different thing from the puerile 
 legends of paganism. Adolphe Jalla in his turn gave us a 
 fervent address from i Cor. ii. 2. I say us, for we took to 
 ourselves a good share of this " sincere milk," ^ meant for people 
 who are still nothing but babes in knowledge. 
 
 To know notJiing but J esus Christ — that was just the keynote 
 needed ; and it is, above all else, the keynote of the whole 
 missionary life. I will not speak of our hymns, which you do not 
 know. One day, we shall all sing the New Song together, the 
 Song of the Lamb, in the language of heaven : something far, far 
 beyond even that chorus of thirty thousand children, and I know 
 not how many thousand of adults, which I heard once in the 
 Crystal Palace Gardens, and which has ever remained one of the 
 most glorious souvenirs I have carried away from Europe. I need 
 not tell you with what emotion I took part in the singing of the 
 hymn (No. 214) which I had written for the dedication of the 
 church at Leribe. The comparison and contrast between these 
 two ceremonies, twenty-three years apart, were too painful for me. 
 
 We came away from this service with pleasant impressions. 
 It had lasted two hours, but attention and seriousness had been 
 maintained to the end. That is much for heathen, and above 
 all much for Barotsi. 
 
 ' I Pet. ii. 2.
 
 544 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 In the afternoon, after the great heat, during which all nature 
 seems to sleep here, the road was again fringed with knots of 
 men and women ; and when the bell rang at four o'clock, the 
 church was filled, though less crowded than in the morning. 
 I spoke on "living stones " (i Pet. ii.). As the Lord's labourers, 
 we also seek these living stones among our dear Zambesians. 
 Our ambition is to be able to offer some to the Master, that 
 He may be able to find a place for them in the building of His 
 spiritual edifice. While others can cut, carve, and polish, we 
 are still occupied in clearing the quarry. But however rough 
 the work may be, it is necessary, and we still have hope. 
 
 The sun was setting when we came out of the church, and it 
 was as much as we could do, under the last glimmer of twilight, 
 to distinguish the long ribbon of living beings disappearing 
 into the village. 
 
 In the evening, we, tiny band as we were, assembled once 
 more in the now empty church, to receive a message from the 
 Lord Himself (Zech. ii. 5),^ and commemorate His death 
 together. All was calm and silent, without as within. Jesus 
 was there, and spoke to our souls. After this day, so happy, 
 yet so laborious, we felt that He invited us also, like His 
 wearied disciples, to follow Him " apart," and renew our strength 
 in theantimacy of His Communion. Blessed moments ! " It is 
 good to be here." 
 
 The next day was the examination and school treat. Ever 
 since midnight, it had been pouring with rain, and the water 
 was rising quickly. If that continued, the causeway would also 
 be covered in two days' time. In spite of the rain, the children 
 ran over ; they had no garments to get wet, and they did not 
 want to be cheated out of their treat — quite right, too. Happily, 
 the rain stopped towards noon, and the sun shone. At the 
 sound of the bell, every one was there : not all the same people 
 as the previous day, of course ; but the full number of pupils, 
 and the king, the queen, and all the aristocracy. One very dark 
 cloud was the fact that our friend Jacob, the head of the school, 
 was ill — indeed, very ill — but his wife took his place with a 
 self-possession we all admired. Norea is a thoroughly nice 
 woman. Our little ones sang us a song, composed for the 
 
 ' " For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and 
 will be the glory in the midst of her."
 
 1894] DRASTIC DISCIPLINE 545 
 
 occasion, in which they claimed to be our children, and asked 
 us to be " lenient towards them, and not ask them puzzling 
 questions ! " Dear children, they have fairly won our hearts ; it is 
 a delight to us to see them running, jumping, and making merry ; 
 so we tried rather to hurry over the examinations. But that 
 did not suit the king at all, nor Litia either, both of whom have 
 passed through this ordeal ; and they would not let us off 
 without our also questioning the big girls, and the young men 
 with sprouting beards, who stumble at the first line of the 
 alphabet. They were the attendants of the king's children ; 
 and they think, if they put in an appearance at school, that is all 
 that is necessary. 
 
 The examination over, we had to listen to the chiefs, who, 
 assuming a threatening tone, as usual on public occasions, 
 censured the people who were not there. The king himself 
 was more sensible : he gave each his due — thanked the 
 missionaries, taxed the men with lying, and put his own 
 wives in the same boat. "It is you who are the hindrance 
 to the school, and entice the children away. But as for me," 
 he added, " understand, that if a child does not attend school, 
 do not say he is mine. I will not own him." 
 
 At last, we went out, to the relief and delight of the children ! 
 You should have seen them sitting in groups, impatient to 
 begin. The king had had an ox killed for their sole benefit. 
 VVe added to that coffee, sugar, and maize cakes. Nyondo, 
 standing up, said grace ; then all fell to, as hard as they could, 
 and everything was soon polished off ! But the dessert was still 
 to come ! Mokanoa, the king's attendant, arrived, the upper 
 part of his body bared ^ : he knelt down ; they formed a circle 
 round him, and clapped hands. Then they listened in dead 
 silence. " The king says : ' With him, as with the Baruti, the 
 school is a serious matter. Know then, all ye his children and 
 slaves, that whichever of you plays truant without cause will be 
 throttled, Serotsi fashion" (" applause," i.e. hand-clapping), " and 
 whichever attends school and makes no progress will also be 
 throttled, Serotsi fashion. Remember, he tells you this once 
 for all. So beware ! " They clapped hands again, and then 
 
 ' Indicating a message from the king — a very solemn and ceremonious 
 occasion.
 
 546 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 dispersed, but not for long. They had seen the preparations 
 for the magic lantern. The show succeeded wonderfully well. 
 There were even chiefs of the Balunda present. When finally 
 Waddell let off one or two rockets as a sign of dismissal, they 
 were almost seized with panic. They will not soon forget this day. 
 
 Among the auditors from a distance who were present at 
 the dedication, the most distinguished was Sinde, an important 
 chief of the Balunda tribe, who has fled before the Portuguese, 
 and put himself under the protection of Lewanika, whose 
 suzerainty he recognises. Being an intelligent man, he was so 
 struck with what he saw and heard that he instantly begged 
 to have a missionary placed with him ; he even went so far as 
 to confide his sons to Lewanika, so that they should attend the 
 school ; but these boys, terrified at the prospect of being left 
 alone among the Barotsi, who do not enjoy a good reputation, 
 took flight. Judging by the information I have received, and 
 by the ceremonial with which Sinde is surrounded, he must be 
 a powerful chief : he alone, of all I have seen here, made his 
 entry into the capital almost as Lewanika's equal, with drums, 
 serimbas, and a numerous procession ; his musicians played 
 every day before Lewanika, and a place of honour was reserved 
 for him at the lekhothla. So there is an important field opening 
 before us ; and it is by no means the only one. 
 
 Our friends had returned to Sefula. The inundation was 
 rising all the time, and we were beginning to ask ourselves how 
 many more days we should be able to remain on our island. 
 The king knew of my intentions. He declared that he would 
 not leave either ; and that if he were forced to it, he would 
 only do it in the last extremity. He knew that it was quite 
 out of the question for me to accompany him to his village 
 of refuge. 
 
 In spite of Jacob's illness, I reopened the school immediately, 
 with one hundred and eighty pupils. There was chaff, and a 
 great deal of it, in this heap. Still, we are confronted with an 
 enormous task, for which our forces are far from sufficient. 
 Litia and Mokamba, as I think I have already told you, are also 
 making up to us again ; and at their request, I had begun a 
 special class for them. It is not that I believe they have any 
 serious desire to learn, and still less, alas ! to return to the 
 Lord ; but I should like, if I could, to remove all the stumbling-
 
 i894] UNUSUAL FLOODS 547 
 
 stones out of the road to salvation, as they used to do for the 
 cities of refuge.^ The services of the two Sundays following the 
 dedication were particularly solemn. 
 
 Unfortunately, the flood was still rising ; the causeway had 
 completely disappeared, and a large part of the village was 
 inundated. And this was only the beginning. From Kabombo 
 and the northern region, it was announced that there had not 
 been such a flood within the memory of man. Islands which 
 generally keep their heads far above water were completely 
 submerged. Fields were devastated, and trees even on the 
 borders of the woods were uprooted and carried away. Every 
 year the Barotsi complain that the inundation is too slight, and 
 regret bitterly the good old times, when they could organise 
 their annual national hunt — that is, the wholesale slaughter of 
 large antelopes, which they hemmed in upon the islets of the 
 submerged plain. This year, they were fully compensated, and 
 now they grumble that the flood is too great. It is curious to 
 see the roofs emerging from the waters, canoes drifting before 
 the wind in the midst of the village, and a herd of cattle gravely 
 sitting in the lekhotJda ! I wonder if Lewanika's tame gnu 
 presides at this strange parliament. Poor creatures ! they have 
 had enough of the inundation ; and so have the people too, in 
 spite of its charms and benefits. These Barotsi are quite 
 amphibious ; they are only happy in the water and in the mud. 
 They live in it, and sleep in it, even when they might avoid 
 it. A few handfuls of grass for a carpet, a few branches for a 
 mattress, and there they are, perfectly set up. Tastes differ 
 like the sense of beauty ; each one has a right to his own. One 
 day, when I brought Lewanika into my little garden to show 
 him some young eucalyptus trees of which I am very proud, he 
 stopped before the church, and looking over the vast watery 
 plain, he exclaimed after a long silence, " How beautiful ! Not 
 a tree ! not one ! " What would he say to-day ? 
 
 As for me, I feel depressed by this panorama, smitten as it 
 is with sterility and death. Ten years ago, when I visited the 
 capital after the revolution, and Mathaha led me to the hill 
 Mongou, which Livingstone had chosen as the site of the station 
 
 ^ Deut. xix. 3 : " Thou shall prepare a way . . . that every slayer may 
 flee thither."
 
 548 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 he was never to found, I deeply offended my guide by telling 
 him that I did not at all share his enthusiasm for this inundated 
 plain. I wanted to return there the other day, while making an 
 evangelising tour by canoe/ What a desolation ! But I forgot 
 that while sitting under a solitary tree, and preaching Jesus to 
 a few poor natives I met there. Formerly, there was nothing 
 more melancholy than the sandy plain of Kimberley, burnt up 
 by the sun. To-day, diamonds are found there ! 
 
 From thence, passing Kanyonyo, I wanted to visit the 
 great village of Mokoko. What was my astonishment to find 
 myself paddling in a large and deep canal ! Lewanika had 
 spoken of it certainly, but as if it were a thing of small 
 importance. And yet, when it is finished — and it is almost 
 finished now — it will drain all the valley-side of Mangoko, the 
 temporary capital, as far as Sefula, more than twelve and a half 
 miles, and will bring its waters to our canal. And what is best 
 of all, is the immense quantity of arable land thus reclaimed by 
 drainage. So there is our canal number three ! Don't tell me 
 nothing can be done with such industrious and imitative people ! 
 At the entrance to a pool, we wished to turn the canoe ; and 
 in order to take their place behind, three of my boys leapt out 
 on to a little island. A cry of distress was heard, and they 
 sank up to the neck ; a moment more and they would have 
 disappeared. We were too near for the danger to be serious. 
 But it was curious to see the islet rise again to the surface of 
 the water. It was an example of those terrible matindis, as 
 they are called here ; rafts of grass so strongly interlaced that 
 you can walk on them ; but it must always be very cautiously ; 
 for if there is a tear in the tissue, and you make a false step, it 
 is all up with you, just as if you fell through a hole in the ice on 
 a pond. Ah, if these niatindis could speak, what lamentable 
 stories of secret drownings they could tell us ! 
 
 In consequence of these said inatindis, the journey became 
 more laborious. My white sunshade misled the people, who 
 took me for the king ; and as soon as they saw us, the women 
 began to utter piercing cries, the men to put themselves in 
 position to give the royal salute, and all to rush towards us in 
 troops. I sent Nyondo to undeceive them. What discomfiture 
 
 ' See page 176.
 
 i894] A FLIGHT 549 
 
 for the poor creatures ! Some ran off to the village ; others 
 threw themselves flat on the grass. One old man, rallying, 
 cried out, " It is the Moruti, Ntate oa Rona " (" our father ") ; and 
 when I reached the village, I already had round me an audience 
 of about a hundred persons, big and little, whose number was 
 soon augmented by other little bands. I tried to teach them a 
 simple hymn, and to engrave on their memory a verse which 
 the Spirit of God may engrave on their hearts, and spoke to 
 them familiarly of the Lord Jesus, who came to seek and to 
 save that which was lost. This was a day employed as I wish 
 they all were. 
 
 The Barotsi, who complain every year that the inundation 
 is too slight, grumbled now that it was too great ! 
 
 It was on the evening of Easter Sunday that Lewanika told 
 me he had to go away the next day, in spite of the people's 
 wish. The water had invaded the market-place, and come up 
 to his own door. Accordingly, next day, he arrived before 
 breakfast in a great hurry, to take leave of me. All those who 
 could had already left. They did not even wait to set the 
 Nalikuanda afloat, the back of which had been broken in coming 
 out of the ship-building yard. They even forgot the drums. 
 It was a flight ! I accompanied him some little way by canoe. 
 My anthill, which was a little higher than that of the capital, 
 still held its head above water, but it grew smaller every day. 
 The flood had invaded the workmen's huts, and the foot of 
 some of our buildings ; the garden was sinking and disappearing 
 perceptibly, and of my " study " beside the church scarcely 
 enough remained for the regulation prisoner's walk. Were the 
 water to rise only a foot higher, we should be obliged to do like 
 everybody else, though reluctantly, for I had cut out plenty of 
 work for myself, and it was easier for me to go about evangelis- 
 ing by canoe from here than from Sefula. Meanwhile, we had 
 a bad time of it with the rats and snakes which had taken refuge 
 on our hillock, as well as with the infuriated ants, both black 
 and red, which never left it. And how melancholy it was to 
 look at the watery plain, which extended on all sides as far as 
 eye could reach ! Not a sound ! not a soul ! not a sign of life ! 
 
 Nyondo tried to keep on school for about ten boys who 
 remained in the village, and did very well. Helped by Jacob, 
 we shared the Sunday duties. I generally went to Mangoko, the
 
 550 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 king's temporary village — a journey of three hours each way, 
 which the wind made somewhat disagreeable and dangerous, 
 for it often happens that a gust of wind upsets the canoes and 
 wrecks them like nutshells. But in spite of the sun and wind, it 
 is a great compensation to preach the Gospel to this audience 
 of men and women, who are generally so serious and attentive. 
 
 At Lealuyi, in the deserted village, we could always assemble 
 from one hundred to one hundred and fifty slaves of both sexes, 
 who came together eagerly enough when we went there (though 
 they could not all come to us for want of canoes), and who were 
 very much astonished, poor things ! that we should trouble 
 ourselves about them, so firmily rooted in their minds is the 
 notion that the Gospel is only for their masters. Happily, the 
 inundation, which at its full height very nearly reached my 
 house, but respected it, went down rapidly ; and by the time I 
 returned from Sefula, where I had only been to spend Whitsun- 
 tide, the king announced to me the good news of his approaching 
 return. Last Saturday, the 19th, I accepted with pleasure an 
 invitation to go and meet him, and spent part of the day with 
 him in the Nalihianda (now repaired), of which they are so 
 proud. It was a day of rejoicing for everybody. 
 
 I am pretty well accustomed to the noise and racket of 
 grand occasions. But the sight of these crowds of men and 
 women throwing the water over their heads and bodies, uttering 
 wild cries as salutations to the king, has a strange effect upon 
 me. If I had not known the cause, I should have taken it 
 all as an emblem of sadness and mourning ; so true is it, alas ! 
 that even the joys of our poor Africans are sad. 
 
 The school is about to be reopened, and the work will resume 
 its regular course. What a pity it is that we shall have to give 
 it up in a fortnight to go to Kazungula, and leave Jacob and 
 his wife all alone ! Please God, we shall be there for Litia's 
 installation.^ The " lords of Sesheke," who are coming to 
 escort him, are daily expected. The canoes which will conduct 
 our young princes Litia and Kaiba will bring the supplies 
 we are all looking forward to. It is the happy solution of a 
 difficulty ; it simplifies the question of canoes for the king, and 
 
 ' As chief of the new village, removed from Mambova to the official ford 
 of Kazungula.
 
 i894] "BA BAPALA" 55 1 
 
 half compensates us for the food of eighty or a hundred men 
 during more than two months. 
 
 But the great changes and dilemmas of the situation never 
 cease to occupy our minds. We have to fight against a Goliath 
 which defies us at our very hearths — namely, the appalling 
 corruption, which seems to be at once the scourge and sceptre 
 of this country. It cannot possibly be told, still less can it 
 be exaggerated. Social institutions ; the absence in matrimonial 
 affairs of any contract, even the most elementary ; polygamy ; 
 above all, slavery, that perennial source of so many ills, — all help 
 to promote it, and to kill conscience. Public opinion is silent, 
 and never denounces the atrocities that are committed in broad 
 daylight. I knew plenty about it, alas ! and thought I had 
 nothing more to learn on the subject, but more frequent and 
 more intimate contact with the capital revealed undreamt-of 
 abysses. There is no such thing as youth in this country ; 
 childhood itself is scarcely known. One unhappy word excuses 
 everything. " Ba bapala !" say the grown-up people, even their 
 own parents. " They are amusing themselves." Who should 
 reprove them ? All have played with sin, all have avmsed 
 themselves in their time, do it still, and glory in it ; they are 
 only following in the footsteps of their parents, as their own 
 children are now treading in theirs. As the king himself said 
 with some sense of shame, " We have grown up wallowing in 
 the mire : how should we save our children from it ? " Our 
 experiences here have been hard and humiliating : the neigh- 
 bourhood of the capital is pestiferous, and now I understand all 
 the mortifications we tasted in our beautiful school at Sefula, 
 and the apparent non-success of the Gospel-preaching. But 
 that is not to say we should be discouraged. If the evil 
 is great, we are bringing the sovereign remedy. And if 
 a " sanctified " people could arise in the midst of so corrupt a 
 city as Corinth, we may believe that here too, in the dregs of 
 Zambesian paganism, God will glorify Himself Ah ! if we 
 could but have an awakenine !
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 Arrival of M. and Mme. Beguin — Conference at Kazungula — Hopeful 
 Prospects — Journey from the Capital to Kazungula — Projected Journey 
 to Basuto-land — An Appeal for Medical Missionaries — Sixtieth Birthday 
 — The Victoria Falls — The Plain on Fire — Sefula forsaken — An Awaken- 
 ing of Consciences at last — Levvanika and his Converted Wife — 
 Hindrances in starting for Basuto-land — Inauguration of the Station at 
 Nalolo — The Waggon breaks down — Renunciation of the Journey — A 
 Work of God — Litia's Prefecture at Kazungula — His Repentance. 
 
 Kazungula, July i^th, 1894. 
 
 BEHOLD one of our beautiful Zambesian dreams realised: 
 the meeting at Kazungula of all the European members 
 of the Zambesi missionary family ! It is a rare thing for us to 
 see the perfect success of plans formed a long time beforelmnd 
 with all our hearts set on them. We had fixed our eyes on 
 this meeting as one does on an express train which one 
 sees appearing in the distance. One has scarce caught sight 
 of it, before it whistles, passes, and vanishes. Our meeting has 
 already come to an end — already our party is broken up ; 
 our friends the Goys left yesterday, and to-morrow it will 
 be the turn of ourselves from the Valley. We can sit down 
 together for a moment to talk, but only in the midst of packing 
 provisions, loading canoes, and all the anxieties of departure. 
 
 Strangers and pilgrims, shall we ever find ourselves all 
 together again ? 
 
 It is hardly possible ! But something will remain — the sunny 
 memory of these delightful days. In these distant regions, where 
 moral and spiritual solitude surrounds our steps, the present is 
 so monotonous and prosaic, that we cannot help living much in 
 the past, and dwelling on those Elims where we have rested and 
 been blessed. 
 
 It was with a sinking heart that I left Lealuyi ; and I was 
 
 552
 
 =0 
 
 •ft.
 
 i894] JOURNEY TO SESHEKE 553 
 
 not the only one. I made my farewells with the presentiment 
 that my ministry was accomplished. Never before had my 
 audiences been so numerous and regular, nor so attentive ; 
 never yet had the interest in the things of God appeared so 
 great. For a long time our voices had been lost in the desert 
 with no echo, but already we seemed to see the dry bones move, 
 and we only awaited the breath of the Spirit of God to revive 
 them. And why leave now? What shall I find on my return. 
 The people, too, were sad. Formerly, it was very different. 
 " What shall we do without you ? " said Lewanika. " We will 
 take care that they come to church, but " 
 
 It was at the bad season. The inundation had abated too 
 much for the canoes, and not enough for travelling on foot ; 
 so that communications were difficult. It was not without 
 trouble that the king managed to collect the fifty good canoes 
 we needed. But he worked with a will. And on the day of my 
 departure, he was there from seven in the morning, seeing to 
 the loading of the canoes, distributing and organising each crew. 
 He accompanied me part of the way, to assure himself that 
 all was well. And then, with a hearty shake of the hand, he 
 turned his canoe, to re-enter the town, while we plunged into 
 the long grass and reeds to continue our route. Poor Lewanika ! 
 Three days running he despatched a courier to get news of us 
 and wish us a good journey. 
 
 Mokwae, too, received us amicably. She counted it an 
 honour to show us over her neat establishment — her house, her 
 outbuildings, and her young trees ; but, happily, my shoes were 
 neither too tight nor too new, as hers were at Lealuyi ! She 
 loaded us with provisions for our journey, and would have 
 detained us at least a day, in order to offer us the tangible 
 " expression of her high esteem " — namely, the customary ox. 
 We were too much pressed for time : it will graze till our 
 return. 
 
 Our voyage was a ten days' picnic, without shadows and 
 almost without adventures, though wc certainly shivered with 
 cold in our tents (only three degrees above freezing-point in the 
 morning) ; and there was some excitement in passing the rapids, 
 where accidents are so frequent. On July 7th, the firing of 
 guns announced our arrival at Sesheke, and brought to the 
 bank our friends the Goys, and all who remained of the
 
 554 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 population, since the chiefs had gone to the Valley. How 
 Sesheke has changed ! One can scarcely recognise it now. 
 To begin with, the bay, that beautiful bay, is filled with sand 
 and detritus, and is now nothing but a marsh covered with 
 grass and reeds. Everything that we built there has disappeared. 
 But the Sesheke of to-day, with its mission-house built by 
 Jeanmairet, its church, its magnificent bell, its outhouses, its reed 
 palings, its clusters of passion-flowers, its well-kept paths, creates 
 a pleasant impression, and shows what a man of taste can make 
 of an arid desert. The attitude of the people also has greatly 
 changed. It is now one of respect, and perhaps even of affection 
 and confidence. If there had been other Christians at Sesheke 
 besides M. Keek's daughters, I could have believed I was 
 inhaling a breeze from the Maloutis.^ 
 
 And at Kazungula, one day's journey from Sesheke, what a 
 warm reception awaited us ! Flags floated above the trees, and 
 a motto of welcome displayed itself in front of the house. Our 
 friends were there on the bank, awaiting us. I hardly know 
 how we disembarked at the gap in the reeds, wading and 
 leaping upon the canoes which served as a bridge for crossing 
 a pool of water. Scarcely had we exchanged greetings when a 
 circle was formed, and a hymn of welcome arose, very well sung 
 in parts by the girls and boys. Everywhere, all was neat as 
 a new pin. The station was keeping holiday. One glance at 
 the little garden, which gives an air of civilisation to this wild 
 spot, and at these buildings constructed without any external 
 aid, proclaims that our friends the J alias are hard workers. 
 They have toiled indeed. Ten years ago, we crossed the river 
 with our waggons for the first time, and camped a couple of 
 paces from here, near a shadeless tree, and under a poor shelter 
 of straw, open to all the winds. Ten years ! How much has 
 happened since then ! 
 
 If union makes strength, it also makes joy; and if, while 
 extending itself, our family circle is not weakened, we shall 
 perpetually renew the experience that one can be happy even 
 at the Zambesi, and that we are neither exiles nor martyrs. A 
 real spirit of mutual love and esteem, and the determination to 
 
 ' The Drakenburg Mountains. Mme. Goy and her sister are the daughters 
 of a Basuto-land missionary, M. Keck.
 
 i894] AN AWAKENING 555 
 
 place the interests of the work far above all personal considera- 
 tions, have characterised our meetings and discussions. The 
 presence of the Lord made itself felt in our prayer-meetings^ 
 and in the Gospel-preachings we had every evening. One in 
 particular was on the plaintive cry of the prophet, " Who hath 
 believed our report?" and nothing could be more touching 
 than to see twenty young girls rise spontaneously, and declare 
 themselves for the Lord. Most of them belonged to Kazungula 
 itself, and some others to Sesheke and the Valley : many of 
 them had already felt the need of making an open profession 
 of having found the Saviour. Others, even among our boatmen, 
 are under serious impressions. We do not know what the 
 result of this movement will be. We even tremble, recollecting 
 our past griefs. But even if the wind that is now blowing raises 
 much chaff, will there not be a single grain of good corn ? 
 
 You know that when I left the Valley I had proposed 
 making an evangelising tour in the Batoka and Mashukulumboe 
 countries. M. Louis Jalla had offered to accompany me. But 
 in the course of our discussions, it became evident that it would 
 be desirable for one of us to go to Palapye,^ and thence on to 
 Kimberley ; partly to prepare for bringing forward the rein- 
 forcements the Committee promise us for next year, and partly 
 on account of the post, the agents, and other matters which 
 we cannot arrange by letter. As none of my colleagues could 
 leave their families or stations for so long a time, I put myself 
 at their disposal. From Kimberley to Basuto-land by rail, it is 
 only a step. So it was decided that I should go so far, and 
 knit up the family ties which unite us to our brethren in 
 Basuto-land, and to plead the cause of the Barotsi Mission 
 among the Churches. To me, it is another fatherland : we lived 
 and laboured there for twenty-six years. The bare thought of 
 returning thither in my present circumstances, and after all the 
 changes which have taken place there, made me tremble. But 
 I am convinced of the expediency of this voyage, so I must 
 not hesitate. Hence, I am renouncing my journey to the 
 Mashukulumboe, and am returning to the Valley, to set my 
 house in order, and take leave of Lewanika and my dear 
 Barotsi, before starting. 
 
 ' Pronounced Palapchwe.
 
 556 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 On July 17th, my colleagues and their wives wished to 
 celebrate my sixtieth birthday. They assembled in a neigh- 
 bouring room at 4.30 a.m. and sang to me, " Out, je benirai 
 Dieu tout le temps de ma vie'' Yes, praise : that must indeed 
 be our theme. They thought to awaken me with these sweet 
 tones ; and I was deeply touched. I found it difficult to believe 
 I was really sixty years old. Our brother Jousse said that, 
 after sixty years, a missionary is no longer good for anything. 
 Yet I still feel young in heart. But, all the same, there is some 
 truth in this assertion, and I too am travelling little by little 
 towards the waste-paper basket. 
 
 I hope you will not lose sight of the appeal we are making 
 for two medical missionaries. How is it, that among the young 
 Christian men who have chosen this profession, not a single one 
 has yet offered himself for the Zambesi? Is it because the. 
 climate is so unhealthy ? is it because we are so often ill, that 
 not a single doctor has yet heard the call of God ? Remember, 
 too, that we must have some one for Sefula, a special man who 
 understands machinery and can direct the labour. Waddell 
 must leave to consult a doctor and to see his mother. For 
 more than six months the poor man has been a martyr to 
 rheumatism. He will go down the river with me, and we shall 
 (D.V.) start as soon as he has finished the necessary repairs to 
 the cart. 
 
 August 6th, 1894. 
 
 While our friends Beguin and Adolphe Jalla were directing 
 their steps to Sesheke on the way to the Valley, I had to await 
 Litia's arrival as chief of Kazungula, in order to have his 
 canoes for the return journey. Meanwhile, M. Louis Jalla and 
 I left — he, my kind-hearted brother, with the sole object of 
 bearing me company— to visit the Victoria Falls. I had not 
 seen them for sixteen years. It was a delightful little ten days' 
 trip, without hindrances or serious adventures. It is true that, 
 being badly shod, and a little less lively than my sturdy 
 travelling companion, I returned helpless in both feet, part of 
 the way dragging myself along, the other part carried in a chair 
 on the vigorous shoulders of four Zambesians. But this incident 
 can have no serious consequences, and only the bright memories 
 of our excursion will remain. One gains a great deal in making
 
 i894] thp: plain on fire 557 
 
 more intimate acquaintance with such a friend as Louis Jalla, 
 in whom a loveable nature and inexhaustible patience are united 
 with indomitable energy. 
 
 And what shall I say of this sublime and terrifying spectacle ? 
 this maddened river plunging into dark, unfathomable gulfs ? 
 If man, poor worm ! feels crushed byjthe majesty of his Creator's 
 infinite power, the Christian is moved by the inward witness of 
 the Spirit to remember that this Creator is his Father, and that 
 this infinite Power is at the service of His mighty and no less 
 infinite Love. He erects himself from the dust as a citizen of 
 the Kingdom of God, a prince of heaven, with a crown of joy 
 upon his head. What should he fear ? what can man do to 
 him ? His Father is the Almighty, and loves him with illimitable 
 love. " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? . . . I am 
 persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princi- 
 palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 
 to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus 
 our Lord." 
 
 Sefula, October ^th, 1894. 
 
 Here we are, still in the midst of this cruel season of 
 burning winds, where, under a scorching sun and upon a 
 scorching soil, everything is languishing for the first drops of 
 rain. The plain is on fire. Night after night, the gigantic 
 illuminations transport the imagination into other worlds — 
 entrancing, grandiose, phantasmagoric ! Something thrills you 
 in the darting flames and terrible crackling. You feel your 
 impotence in the face of this element, which like a serpent 
 entwines and swallows up all before it, whose advance none can 
 arrest. What a vivid illustration of those words of the prophet, 
 " For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven ; and 
 all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble : 
 and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord 
 of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." 
 
 The wind dies down ; we are in a furnace. Masses of thick 
 black smoke, reflecting a livid light from the flames that devour 
 the jungles, roll over the earth and heap themselves one above 
 the other. You suffocate beneath them ; respiration is agony. 
 
 By day, the winds sweep pitilessly over the immensity of
 
 558 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 the plain, overhung by a gloomy pall, flecked and fringed with 
 pale clouds of smoke. They give themselves free career ! Far 
 and near, from every point of the compass and towards the 
 horizon, nothing but tornadoes. These cyclones arise one 
 knows not where ; they mount up, and whirl round and round, 
 piling up black formidable columns in colossal and fantastic 
 shapes, which, ever mounting and whirling, scatter themselves 
 into the air, race one another furiously, and then, as if to escape 
 the caprice of the game, vanish, only to resume their vagabond 
 course elsewhere. And woe to him who crosses their path ! 
 Nothing can shelter him from this wind of the plain. It pursues 
 him everywhere, scourges his face relentlessly, and follows on 
 his heels into his very house, where it seems to spit powder 
 upon everything. Like an impish child on the watch for a 
 chance of mischief, it sweeps up cinders, sand, and gravel, and 
 scatters them, only to sweep up and scatter them again. We 
 count the days of this terrible month. It must be one of those 
 ill-omened moons, which the Barotsi never celebrate with 
 festivals. At the appearance of a few flakes of cloud, hope 
 revives. Alas ! a gust of wind — a clap of thunder — and they 
 melt away. Nothing remains but the fiery sun, and the 
 insatiable fury of the gale. 
 
 The date of my letter is not an error ; I am at Sefula. I am 
 writing to you in this old room, riddled by white ants, but to 
 me a Bethel full of sacred memories. My dear Sefula ! It 
 has changed very much. The buildings are beginning to look 
 dreary and dilapidated. As for the forest, the natives everywhere 
 destroy the trees ; we have the greatest trouble to make them 
 respect any, and they leave nothing but brushwood. Mile. 
 Kiener is no longer there,^ nor Mr. Waddell either. The work- 
 shop is closed ; so is the forge : the saw-mill is mute and 
 melancholy. The Adolphe Jallas in their turn are leaving it 
 to go to Lealuyi, and the Beguins to Nalolo, and only the 
 evangelist Paulus Kanedi and his wife will remain in a corner 
 of the court : dear people they are, who make little stir, and 
 love a quiet retreat. One's heart swells in thinking of days 
 gone by, and especially of all we should have liked to do at 
 Sefula. We found there nothing but impracticable marshes 
 
 ' Her residence had been transferred to Kazungula.
 
 i894] RUINED SEFULA 559 
 
 and jungles, the haunts of panthers and hyaenas. We wanted 
 to make it a centre of industry and education, a fruitful source 
 of elevation, progress, and prosperity for the country. And here 
 is Sefula without a missionary, and almost abandoned ! ^ 
 
 And yet, why should not Sefula have its day, and fulHl its 
 beneficent mission ? Why should we not have, besides a school 
 of evangelists, an industrial school, which should sap the founda- 
 tions of slavery ? For we have materials enough and to spare 
 for a beginning. Our dear Barotsi, of whom I have had so 
 much evil to say, have their good side too — their industry, in v^ 
 which they leave far behind every other South African tribe 
 I have known. At this moment, they are building a European 
 house like ours at Lealuyi — of course, for Queen Mokwae — 
 and another much larger, which is to serve as a khothla, or 
 court of justice ; and all this will be done with native products 
 and industry — all, including the nails and the metal of which 
 they are made. Canals are in fashion : Lewanika is making 
 them, and Mokwae also, in four or five parts of the Valley 
 at once. 
 
 Now that I am leaving for Basuto-land, I could, if I would, take 
 with me a whole legion of young men, all vying with one another 
 to be respectful and pleasant. The ambition of .some is to go 
 and work with the Basuto, and return each with a gun on his 
 shoulder ; of others, to join the Bible school of our blessed 
 Mabille, whose renown has reached even here. It is useless 
 to argue, and try to show them the insufficiency of our resources ; 
 they are deaf to all reason ; and to cut short their importunities, 
 one must just harden oneself, and say, not " I cannot take you " 
 —they do not believe that — but " I will not." But we must 
 confess that it is hard for the dear boys, when they profess so 
 
 ' Sefula had originally been selected as a mission station because it was 
 the only healthy spot available near the capital. As long as it was the head- 
 quarters of the mission (especially on its industrial side), it acted as a magnet 
 to the semi-nomadic population. But when M. Coillard left for Lealuyi, 
 and Waddell's health obliged him to go to England, the people dropped off 
 or moved away. M. Coillard's projected journey to Basuto-land, and after- 
 wards his long illness, made it imperative for him to have a colleague at 
 Lealuyi, and the staff was so limited that there was no choice but for the 
 A. Jallas to move to the capital. Mr. Mercier started nearly two years ago to 
 establish an industrial school at Sefula, but the disturbed state of South 
 Africa made it impossible for him to get there till July 1S97.
 
 560 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 great a desire to learn, and become evangelist-scJioolinasters 
 (for we pile up the functions in Barotsi-land). Mind, I would 
 not venture to guarantee the purity and disinterestedness of 
 each one's motives. But still, we cannot be indifferent to it, 
 any more than to the needs of the work. 
 
 You know how we appreciate the evangelists who come to 
 us from Basuto-land ; for the most part these men are among 
 the very elect. But the distances, the difficulties of travelling, 
 and the expense will always and perforce limit their number. 
 It would be no more advantageous to send our Zambesians to 
 Basuto-land, than it would be wise and economical to send 
 our Basuto to France to make French pastors and missionaries 
 of them. Their pretensions and requirements would threaten 
 to be in inverse proportion to their good sense and efficiency. 
 M. Louis J alia has three of his pupils at Morija, and I have 
 consented to take one of mine there. But I do it against 
 the grain, and simply because I cannot help it. It is a great 
 risk. In speaking thus, it must not be imagined that I throw 
 a shadow of discredit on a school which of all the Basuto schools 
 commands my fullest and deepest sympathy. Oh no ! Only 
 what we need, and what is imperative, is ojir own Bible school, 
 here at the Zambesi, and ivlthoitt delay. We must from the 
 beginning inculcate a missionary spirit in our Christians, an 
 aggressive activity, the need of giving what they themselves 
 have received. 
 
 In these days, much is said in the religious world about 
 what they call self-supporting missions. For my own part, I 
 should prefer a self-propagating otie. It would be more genuine ; 
 it would be unassailable, because it is the very essence of 
 Christianity, and the sap of the spiritual life in each disciple 
 of the Saviour. 
 
 I came to Sefula to despatch Kamburu with my Cape cart, 
 which I shall rejoin at Kazungula, proceeding thither by canoe. 
 But I have been here four days, and no Kamburu has appeared. 
 I came also to perform the marriage ceremony for Seonyi 
 and Nosiku, who have both grown up with us. The girls had 
 remained with Mme. A. Jalla when I left Lealuyi ; both profess 
 to be converted, and certainly a transformation has been worked 
 in them, which we can only attribute to the grace of God. 
 
 The rest you will have heard already : in each of our
 
 i894] A REMARKABLE AUDIENCE. 56 1 
 
 stations a movement has taken place of which we would only 
 speak with the greatest reserve, though we cannot be absolutely 
 silent on the subject. It first manifested itself at Kazungula 
 among the children living in the mission-house, and was greatly 
 accentuated during our stay there at the time of the conference. 
 But it was at Sefula that it took the greatest proportions. 
 In a few weeks, the number of those who publicly declared 
 their wish to serve God rose above sixty. Quite a third of the 
 number are school-children, M. Jalla tells me ; others are men 
 and women, who have nothing as yet to recommend them to 
 our confidence beyond this public profession, which, after all, 
 among these poor volatile Zambesians, compromises them very 
 little. But there are others whose faces are very familiar to us. 
 
 At Lealuyi, I was struck, on my return from Kazungula, 
 by the audience ; our church, big as it is, overflows. On the 
 first Sunday after my arrival, it was as full as on the day of 
 the dedication ; the benches, the aisles, even the steps of the 
 platform which serves as our pulpit, all were filled, not an inch 
 to spare. Even then, more than fifty people, who could find 
 no room inside, pressed around the doors to listen ; and this, 
 in spite of the fact that public works and local causes have 
 for the moment dispersed the floating population, always con- 
 siderable at Lealuyi. And I must say there is something 
 solemnly joyful in the attention and seriousness of this splendid 
 audience in the midst of such heathen surroundings. Here, 
 also, we have had spontaneous professions, some of which have 
 moved our hearts ; but I do not encourage them. 
 
 If we were not working among people with whose desperateh- 
 frivolous character we are well acquainted, and if we had not 
 had, or had at least been able to forget, the hard and humiliating 
 lessons of the past, perhaps our joy would be less mingled, 
 and our hopes more vivid. We hardly know what to think in 
 the presence of such a new movement. We wonder anxiously 
 if it be really the beginning of an awakening of consciences, 
 the first drops of those showers for which we have prayed and 
 waited for so long. God knows our ardent and sincere desire 
 is not to make a brilliant show in the eyes of men, building 
 wood and stubble on the Rock of Ages (those materials 
 abound everywhere), but to build thereon precious stones, gold, 
 and even silver, however little, so long as it is sound metal. 
 
 36
 
 562 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 To speak candidly, I am not without apprehensions. I fear 
 lest this movement, which seems so widespread, may yet be 
 without depth. I fear that the king's favourable inclinations, 
 which are known to every one, and the spirit of imitation and 
 excitement, may have a good deal to do with it. This pessimistic 
 view is probably peculiar to myself, and is perhaps not shared 
 by my brethren, and I am sometimes vexed with myself for 
 it. How often does it happen that our souls agonise in suppli- 
 cations ; and yet when these are granted, we are so astonished 
 that we cannot believe it. We are always saying, " Rhoda, thou 
 art mad." Yet we believe. " Lord, help Thou our unbelief." 
 
 Lealuyi, October \st. 
 
 Yesterday was the day of farewells, one of those days one 
 prefers to leave behind. M. and Mme. Adolphe Jalla came for 
 the occasion, as they were to replace me. Jacob Moshabesha 
 also bade good-bye. He will go to second M. Beguin at 
 Nalolo, where their installation is to take place next Sunday. 
 Each of us four spoke, and there is no need to add that this 
 service had that character of solemnity which makes one realise 
 the presence of God. It was the same in the afternoon meeting, 
 which prolonged itself till dusk. All seemed to leave regretfully. 
 
 It was a sight to draw tears from the angels of heaven to 
 see, amongst others, children — yes, children ! — rise up to confess 
 their thefts and unveil their immorality. We were probably the 
 only persons present to be astonished at it, and to feel shame 
 covering our countenances. Who can fathom the abyss of 
 corruption in which they all grovel, since even these children, 
 little ones scarcely twelve years of age, are already familiar 
 with vice ? One trembles only to think of it. Nevertheless, 
 to judge by their serious air, one must believe in the sincerity 
 of these testimonies. Pressing appeals, driven home by 
 hymns, also of appeal, sung as solos and choruses by us four 
 only, missionaries and evangelists, held the assembly spell- 
 bound. In the midst of a great silence, Lewanika suddenly 
 apostrophised one of his wives, who occupied a seat in another 
 part of the church, a charming young woman, gentle and timid 
 as a dove. 
 
 " Nolianga," he cried, " why are you silent ? You who
 
 i894] NOLIANGA'S CONVERSION. 563 
 
 love the things of God so much, and whose conscience has 
 so long been exercised, why do you remain silent ? Say, why 
 do you not declare yourself for Jesus? What do you fear? 
 Of whom are you afraid ? I hinder no one from becoming 
 converted and serving God. Speak therefore ! " 
 
 During a profound silence, in which everybody seemed to 
 hold their breath, their eyes fixed on her, one heard nothing 
 but stifled sobs. Nolianga did not speak, any more than she 
 who watered the Saviour's feet with her tears, and wiped them 
 with the hairs of her head. 
 
 But the incident is of great moment in the eyes of the public, 
 and it is the topic of all conversations. No one is mistaken 
 as to the significance and purpose of the king's words ; but they 
 wonder why he does not go further, and take the decisive step. 
 In the harem, they had been already pointing at poor Nolianga. 
 Her rivals were treating her as an ambitious hypocrite. " She 
 is only pretending to be converted," they said, " so as to please 
 the king, and become his sole wife when he declares himself 
 a Christian." What will it be now ? 
 
 This Nolianga, who is still young, good-looking, and amiable, 
 is a daughter of the famous king Sepopa, and is, therefore, a 
 second cousin of Lewanika's. She has long been attracted to 
 the Gospel. Being a great friend of Norea, Jacob's excellent 
 wife, she has taken advantage of the latter's friendship to study 
 the things of God, and also to learn to read. The work of 
 grace has operated visibly in this beautiful soul. Some time 
 ago — without our knowledge, mark .^— she confessed to the king 
 that she could no longer resist the call of God. In becoming 
 a Christian, she knew she must leave his seraglio. But she 
 entreated him not to dispose of her at his pleasure, and give 
 her to anybody as a wife, according to the custom , but to 
 leave her entirely free to marry or not, and to build her house 
 where she wished. Lewanika granted her petition. In fact, 
 I think the dear man is very pleased at it. It is what he has 
 long been wishing and expecting. He wished to leave to God 
 the task of dispersing his wives, whom he has not the courage 
 to send away. And then, if only some of his likomboa (household 
 officers) and principal chiefs were converted first, how easy 
 it would be for him to follow them, instead of his having to 
 tread all alone — he who is never alone — the narrow path that
 
 564 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 leads to life. Tell me, do you not pity him ? Let those friends 
 who make his conversion a subject of prayer on no account 
 grow weary.^ 
 
 Sefula, October i6th. 
 
 The 14th having been fixed for M. Beguin's installation at 
 Nalolo, I was forced to hasten the completion of my preparations 
 for the journey, as I was not returning to Lealuyi. The evening 
 before my departure, Thursday, the nth, the church filled without 
 even a stroke of the bell, and I was able once more to address 
 a few serious words to my dear people. I confess it was a 
 relief to me when this meeting was over. The Adolphe Jallas 
 returned to Sefula the following day early, while the king 
 remained with me the whole morning, and wished to accompany 
 me alone part of the way on foot, to rejoin my canoes. 
 
 A singular concurrence of circumstances forced me to modify 
 my plans a good deal, in order not to abandon them altogether. 
 I was not able to send my Cape cart from Sefula : some of 
 the boys had given me the slip ; Kamburu himself had not 
 turned up, and he informed me at the last moment that he 
 had fallen ill at the village where he had been stopping. 
 Again ; another man failed me — my good Semonja, a second 
 Nathanael (though a less intelligent one than he of Leribe), 
 who usually accompanies me on my journeys, and was to have 
 done so on this. It was the more curious, as he had a great 
 desire to make the journey with me, and had entreated me not 
 to leave him behind. As he is a man of remarkably serious 
 character, and an important chief — one, too, who professed to 
 have given himself to the Lord — I had consented, thinking 
 that a visit to Khama and to the Churches of Basuto-land might 
 do him good, and strengthen him in the faith. The jealousy 
 of the other chiefs, it seems, made him draw back, added to 
 the importunities of his wife (who is a woman of high rank, 
 a daughter of Scpopa ; and she knows it !) ; so I did not insist. 
 It was in vain for Lewanika to try other plans for me ; they 
 
 ' Nolianga still remains true to her profession, and is quite unmolested. 
 But in leaving the king's harem, she had to abandon her royal rank, and work 
 for her living — practically the servant of those women whose equal, if not 
 superior, she had hitherto been.
 
 i894] MR. BfiGUIN'S INSTALLATION. 565 
 
 did not succeed — at least, not in sufificiently good time. So 
 I renounced the water-way, which I had only chosen to diminish 
 the fatigue of the long journey, and to gain a little time. 
 
 The canoes only brought me to Nalolo. I arrived there the 
 Saturday morning, a few hours before my friends Adolphe 
 Jalla and E. Beguin from Sefula. The village was almost 
 deserted. But soon after my arrival, the war-drums, the inaoina, 
 the noisy salutations, and general excitement announced the 
 queen. She was returning from a visit of inspection to a canal, 
 which she also has had dug, to unite the temporary capital 
 she will occupy during the inundations with the river. Mokwae 
 won't be behind anybody else ; and they say at Nalolo that 
 her canal, like her house, will be the largest and finest in the 
 country. 
 
 The next day, we had our service in the lekhotJUa. It 
 was not so well attended as I had expected. To be sure, 
 the women were hidden behind a partition of reeds, and we, 
 placed under a shed, could not even see all the men, who were 
 crouching down anywhere in the shade. There was no lack 
 of speeches : in the space of an hour and a half, we had no 
 less than nine or ten, with a few hymns in between. I say 
 nothing about our own addresses, of which the aim was to 
 present the servants of Jesus Christ as ambassadors to the 
 people of Nalolo, so that no one should be mistaken as to their 
 character or their mission. The address of the Gambella 
 from Lealuyi, who represented the king and spoke in his name, 
 was marked by sound sense. Those of the queen, of her 
 husband, and of the principal chiefs, while expressing their joy 
 in at last possessing the missionary they had so long been 
 begging for, betrayed some natural apprehensions on the thorny 
 subject of slavery. In the afternoon, I once more addressed 
 to these people the appeals and warnings suggested by the 
 prospect of my departure. 
 
 I afterwards learnt that the Gambella had strongly, but 
 secretly^ recommended the queen and her councillors to exercise 
 a strict surveillance as much over M. Beguin's workmen as 
 over his purchases of food. Poor Barotsi, they cannot conceal 
 their weakness ! But all the same, our friends the Beguins 
 have a fine work before them, and a great one. Our brother 
 young, full of enthusiasm and energy : it is pleasant to see.
 
 566 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 and it fills us with hope for the future, not only of the station he 
 is founding, but also for our beloved Barotsi Mission. 
 
 He has already built two rather primitive little huts, by way 
 of taking possession. Apart from the fact that the country 
 is in nowise beautiful, the situation of the station is second 
 only to that of Kazungula. It will be raised on a little mound, 
 commanding the river at the place where it makes a fine bend, 
 constituting the port of this second capital of the kingdom. On 
 all sides, the view extending over the vast plain which we call 
 the Valley is limited only by the horizon. A solitary palm tree, 
 at some little distance, serves as the sole landmark. But wait 
 a little, and the church will arise like a blessed beacon in the 
 land of darkness, and " the wilderness shall blossom like a rose." 
 
 Sefula, October 10th. 
 
 Incredible as it may seem, after my having left Sefula on 
 the day appointed, the nth, here I am back again! In fact, 
 our last meeting had taken place, we had bidden each other 
 farewell, at the signal of departure the waggon had moved 
 away, and little by little the station was lost to sight among 
 the trees. Scarcely half an hour later, a cracking sound roused 
 me from my thoughts, and the waggon stopped. A spoke 
 in one of the large wheels had broken, and we found that it 
 was quite rotten. The paint had concealed it all from me. 
 What should I have done if such an accident had happened a 
 few days later in the marshes of the Motondo ? Happily, we were 
 still close to the station. We brought back my poor mutilated 
 cart, not without difficulty ; for in the clearing where we were, 
 my boys, so-called leaders, managed to run it up against a 
 tree and to break the pole. 
 
 While M. Adolphe Jalla had gone in haste to Lealuyi to 
 receive the provisions brought by the canoes, M. Beguin, who 
 is very clever with his hands and full of goodwill, threw off 
 his coat, and set to work to mend it. He did so, as quickly 
 and as well as any man not in the trade could have done 
 under the circumstances. A piece of wood was stuck into the 
 place of the broken spoke, and another, green and roughly 
 squared, in that of the pole. The waggon, thus patched up, 
 grosso modo^ could now proceed ; but how far ? A more thorough 
 examination proved that it was in a far worse condition than
 
 i894] JOURNEY INTERRUPTED. 567 
 
 I had at first imagined. I have neither the taste nor the 
 talent for vvheehvright's work, and among the Zambesian boys 
 I had with me not one knows how to handle a tool. It would 
 have been folly — tempting God — to try to undertake such a 
 journey at all risks, with a worm-eaten, rotten, dislocated waggon. 
 After two days of struggles and reflections, I had to recognise 
 the finger of God in all these hindrances, and to renounce my 
 expedition. Much as it had cost me to consent to a journey 
 to Basuto-land, and to maintain my resolution after the news 
 of the departure of my best friend,^ it cost me no less now 
 to give it up. It was such a sudden and complete upsetting 
 of all my thoughts and plans, that if there had been the slightest 
 possibility of going on I should not have hesitated to do so. 
 
 For an old traveller like myself, the fault — and an inexcusable, 
 unpardonable one — was that of not having satisfied myself as 
 to the condition of my cart. As I have said, the paint, that 
 cloak of misery — and there are many such in this poor world — 
 and the fact that I had carefully preserved these wheels under 
 cover, had deceived me. Our climate, the wind, the sun, and 
 the sand deteriorate everything : it is heart-breaking. A friend, 
 moved to pity at the thought of our losses and difficulties, had 
 indeed counselled me to get iron wheels ; but the wheels alone 
 are not enough, and then they would have to be constructed 
 with a view to our sands. Others have advised camels ! Where 
 should we procure them ? 
 
 With a little common sense and foresight at the right 
 time, how much work, how much fatigue and trouble, I should 
 have saved myself. Nevertheless, I cannot help thinking there 
 must be a purpose in it, both for the people and for myself. 
 God forbid that I should hesitate when He sends me, or run 
 when He holds me back ! A soldier does not dispute the orders 
 of his chief, however strange and contradictory they may appear. 
 So I shall calmly return to Lealuyi, and put myself into harness 
 again. Adolphe Jalla would have been overwhelmed by the 
 work and the manual labour both at once, and Willie Mokalapa - 
 by the increasing school, which numbers already more than 
 one hundred and ninety-five pupils ! " How glad I am," wrote 
 dear Adolphe, " of the decision you have made to remain, and 
 
 ' M. Mabille, who had just died, May 20th, 1894. See Introduction. 
 * A Basuto catechist newly arrived.
 
 568 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 not to venture into the desert with this miserable waggon ! 
 For, in view of the present spiritual awakening, it is important, 
 to say the least, that you should not be absent, and I firmly 
 believe that God has stopped you to bring you back here." 
 
 This awakening I have already spoken about. It continues. 
 I had just retraced my steps with my invalided carriage, when 
 letters reached me from Kazungula. What refreshing news ! 
 Our brother Louis Jalla tells me that, among others, one of 
 my former boys, Likulela, whom Litia had taken away from 
 our house,^ has also publicly declared himself for the Saviour ; 
 and he has given them satisfaction and pleasure during several 
 months, just as he did to us. 
 
 And then Litia himself wrote to me, expressing his repent- 
 ance, and his ardent desire to return to his God. I guessed 
 the rest when I received from our evangelist Willie Mokalapa 
 the following note : — 
 
 " According to the desire and at the request of the king, 
 I am letting you know, my father, that Litia has written to 
 him, humbling himself for his wanderings, and informing him 
 of his return to God. He asks the king's authority for sending 
 away his second wife, and exhorts him to hesitate no longer, 
 but to give himself to Jesus, and accept him as his Saviour. 
 He quotes John iii. 16, and adds, underlining the words, that 
 tie that believes is not condemned. The king has answered : ' I 
 am very glad to hear that you are taking your place again 
 among the children of God. But I rejoice with trembling. 
 Is your profession to-day any more sincere than that of yester- 
 day ? What proof have I ? Be a man to-day, be true, and do 
 not again deceive God, the missionaries, and the nation. Yes, 
 send away Mokena. You have been a stumbling-block to every 
 one. I myself felt ashamed and sorry when the missionaries 
 spoke of you as a renegade. My councillors, believing me to 
 be on the point of becoming converted, said, " How can you 
 think of it ! Here is your son, who has been brought up 
 by the missionaries, and taught by them — he had even believed 
 these things, and now he denies them ! Is it not a proof that 
 there is nothing good or true in them ? " Perhaps one day 
 I too shall enter into them.' " 
 
 ' See page 442.
 
 1 894] LITIA'S installation. 569 
 
 However pessimistic my views of the present movement 
 may be, it is undeniable that it is sufficiently pronounced to 
 turn the thoughts of the people towards the things of God. 
 " Now, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of 
 God." So why should we not dare to expect great things ? 
 What is there impossible to our God ? Is His arm shortened, 
 that He cannot save ? Has His ear grown heavy, that He 
 should not hear ? ^ 
 
 ' With regard to Litia's return, M. L. Jalla wrote : " He arrived [at 
 Kazungula to be installed as official chief], and was received with immense 
 enthusiasm, especially as this year his father had given him the right to the 
 royal salutation, the sJioalela. With Litia, a new era seemed to be beginning. 
 A few days after his arrival, he banished the native beer from the village, 
 and officially declared that he had renounced the invocation of his ancestors 
 and consultation of sorcerers ; and he urged all his subordinates to attend 
 the services and send their children to school, saying the missionaries had 
 come not only for the chiefs, but for everybody, men and women alike. All 
 that of his own accord. . . . Instead of inaugurating his village by a heathen 
 ceremony, he requested me to consecrate its founding by prayer to God, Of 
 course, I acceded ; and on the day of the ceremony, Litia publicly repeated 
 all these declarations. Having united with us one Monday evening for the 
 meeting of converts, he made us a frank and humble declaration of breaking 
 with the world and giving himself to God. ' Henceforth,' said he to these 
 young men and women (the converts), ' I am one of you. I look on you as my 
 brothers, for I too desire to be a child of God, and ask of Him the strength 
 to be faithful to Him this time.' 
 
 "The next Sunday (October 7th, 1894), Litia rose once more before a 
 numerous audience, and said to the crowd, ' Henceforth, do not look on 
 me as one of you any more, for I have broken with the bonds of Satan ia 
 order to become a child of God. If I have sent away my second wife, 
 it was not because I did not love her, nor yet because there was anything 
 between us. I did it solely to obey God, and serve Him. Make haste and 
 be converted to Him, now that He gives you the chance, and removes all 
 hindrances. You shall not say any more that it is your masters that hinder 
 you.' " 
 
 Africa has been the grave of so many Christian professions, both native 
 and European, that one dares not build too much upon Litia's present promise. 
 But since the foregoing events, his conduct has been exemplary, both as a 
 chief and as a convert. As to the marriage question, the crux of African 
 chiefs, he is not only a monogamist, but he (alone among his countrymen) 
 accords to his wife the position in which Christian marriage places her : every 
 day she and their child sit down to table together, European fashion. This 
 may seem a trifling matter in our eyes, but nothing could proclaim more 
 loudly to his people that he had forsaken a heathen harem for a Christian 
 home.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 A Parish Visitation — The King's Mother — Two Staunch Conservatives — The 
 Resurrection — Wina and the Question of Polygamy — Hugging their 
 Chains — A Royal Baby — A Little Prisoner — Photography under Diffi- 
 culties — ^Nyondo's Wedding — Christian v. Heathen Marriage — Paulus's 
 Zeal outruns Discretion — Before Governors and Kings — The Christians 
 acquitted — Sickness — The Water Supply — The Bible School begun — 
 The New Year. 
 
 Lealuyi, November i\th, 1894. 
 
 WORK on the great canal of the capital is at an end, at 
 least for this year : the canal, dry only the other day, 
 is now flowing on a level with its banks, and canoes go to 
 and fro, drifting and crossing one another incessantly. The 
 Barotsi are proud of it, and so are we. The capital is over- 
 flowing with people who are returning home — the Makoma, 
 Mayeye, and others. It is a good opportunity for evangelisation, 
 so I take my book and stick, and start. 
 
 My first visit is to the king's old mother, Inonge. She is 
 ill ; she gives me a lengthy diagnosis of her case. Her heart, it 
 seems, is no longer in its place ; it is suspended above her lungs ; 
 
 it throbs and throbs, comes up into her throat, and then 1 
 
 spare you the rest. 
 
 I touch on the things of God. She hates them. Poor old 
 woman ! she is eminently conservative. She has never once set 
 foot inside the church. SJie in church, indeed ! 
 
 " All my children, grandchildren, sons-in-law, and daughters- 
 in-law are there," she says. " How could I see myself with them ? 
 It could not be. And then, I have no legs." 
 
 This is a hyperbole which does not prevent her from going 
 about, and even travelling. But I seized the opportunity to 
 tell her the story of the man sick of the palsy, which surprised 
 her very much. She laughed heartily at the idea of being 
 
 570
 
 i894] NARUBUTU. 571 
 
 brought to the church by four of her men. For anything else, 
 it would only be quite natural. To turn the conversation, 
 which had become slightly embarrassing to her, she began to 
 beg. Upon this, I rose and left. She kept back my boy to 
 pour out her full heart to him. I am such a miser, it seems ; 
 " formerly, yes, formerly, I knew she was the mother of my 
 brother (the king), and I did not forget her. Now I give her 
 nothing, not even a woollen blanket." 
 
 Stage by stage, house by house, at last I reach the dwelling 
 of Narubutu, another conservative, like old Inonge, also old 
 and blind : he retains all his faculties, and possesses them in 
 a marked degree. No one has had so great an influence as 
 he, as much in public affairs as over Lewanika himself. I 
 always enjoy a talk with him ; we are great friends. This time^ 
 it is he who begins upon me. 
 
 " I am dying of dulness," he says ; " I have no one to talk 
 to. You have told me to pray to God, your God ; but if this 
 God of yours were true and good as you say. He would have 
 cured me long ago. And you, have you any affection for 
 me ? I don't believe you have, although you tell me so. If 
 you had, you would have persuaded God to restore my sight 
 long ago, since you are His servant, and stand well with Him." 
 
 " You are old, Narubutu." 
 
 " What do you say, Moruti ? Blind because I am old ? 
 My brother is older than I am, and he is not blind. Why 
 should /be?" 
 
 " God permits such things that we may seek Him. He does 
 to us what wise parents do to their children ; it is His rod, 
 and He only uses it to make us good. Ah, my friend, if you 
 too were to change, everything within you would be light, peace, 
 and joy." 
 
 " Light? Nonsense ! Do you mean to say that I should see 
 God? Who has seen Him. Have you?" 
 
 " Tell me, Narubutu, have you a soul ? " 
 
 " Of course I have one : who doubts it ? " 
 
 " But have you seen it ? " 
 
 " Of course not : can anybody see his soul ? I only know 
 I have one. But," continued the old man, as if to elude my 
 conclusion, and as if a new idea had come into his head, " where 
 does one go to when one is dead ? We Barotsi say that the
 
 572 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 soul goes to the gods {ineliind) somewhere, but I do not know 
 where." 
 
 I read him several passages of the Word of God on this 
 subject. John v. 28, 29/ struck him, and he interrupted me 
 with, — 
 
 " What ! you say that the dead, the dead, will rise again, 
 and see God ? Rubbish ! Lies ! " 
 
 He burst into a loud fit of laughter. By this time, the courts 
 of his harem were full of men, who laughed too, and applauded 
 by clapping their hands. 
 
 " Don't laugh so much, my friends ; this is not nonsense. 
 It is a certain truth that the dead will rise again : all those will 
 rise who die, whether hunting, travelling, on the river, or in 
 the deserts, — those whom you have burnt as sorcerers, those you 
 have killed ; children, old people, slaves, masters — all ! " 
 
 Fresh bursts of laughter, but short-lived ones. 
 
 " You say," said old Narubutu, " that all will live again, even 
 sorcerers, and my children, my grandchildren, myself! It is not 
 possible ; it is not true. What is dead, is dead, and does not 
 live again." 
 
 " Really ! You are evidently not aware that the thing has 
 already happened. A Man was put to death ; His hands and 
 feet were nailed to two pieces of wood crossed. He was so com- 
 pletely dead, that, when they pierced His side, congealed blood 
 came out — blood and water. He was put into a tomb ; but on 
 the third day. He came out alive. It is an incontestable fact. 
 This Man was God's own Son, the same Who spoke the words 
 which have so surprised you." And then I read Rev. vii. 9 : — 
 
 " I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all 
 nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and 
 before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." 
 
 " What do you say to that ? " 
 
 " I say," said the old man pensively, " that if it is true, it 
 is very astounding." 
 
 Then leaving him to his reflections, I took up my scat, and 
 went to sit in the great court, filled with people who had come 
 
 ' "The hour is coming in the wliicli all that are in the graves shall hear His 
 voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection 
 of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
 
 i894] WINA. 575 
 
 to greet Narubutu before returninc, home. Their faces lighted 
 up. I had first to renew acquaintance (for I have a bad memory 
 for names, alas ! and they know it) with each chief of a little 
 village, — here one to whom I gave some medicine I know not 
 when ; there another who had met me I know not where. And 
 then, when I resumed the subject of the Resurrection of the dead 
 and of the Last Judgment, you should have seen all the craning 
 necks, fixed eyes, motionless heads. If only I could visit them 
 at home ! 
 
 Soon afterwards I found myself at Wina's. He is z.sekomboa, 
 an important personal servant of the king — a true Zacchseus 
 among these gigantic Barotsi. He is remarkably gentle and 
 amiable, and comes regularly to the services, always dressed 
 up in a soldier's tunic, of what origin I know not. His eyes, 
 rather dull, like those of most of our blacks, nevertheless denote 
 much intelligence. His court, too, was full of strangers. His 
 wife is there, a pleasant young woman, caressing a baby. I 
 caress it too, which sets every one at their ease and smiling. 
 So there I am one of them at once. 
 
 Wina began by asking me questions about conversion, and the 
 most intelligent among his visitors did the same. I encouraged 
 this, and answered every one and everything. The conv^ersation 
 became very animated ; everybody was interested. 
 
 At last, before getting up, " Tell me, Wina, my friend," I 
 said, " tell me why you are not converted — you who know the 
 truth so well?" 
 
 " But I am going to be converted. Certainly we shall 
 become Christians in time. Do you not see how Lewanika is 
 opening the way for us ? Only wait a little ; have patience. 
 We are coming." 
 
 " Don't talk to me about others ; speak about yourself. You 
 are going to be converted : you are coming — but wJien ? Have 
 you fixed the day ? Tell me. Why not to-day — now ? " 
 
 He hung his head. 
 
 " Because 1 am afraid," he said ; " the law of God is hard, 
 difficult." 
 
 I made him read Matt. xi. 28-30, word by word : " My yoke 
 is easy." 
 
 " I understand," he said, with a long sigh. " But — but, you 
 see
 
 574 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 " Now, my friend, tell me frankly what your difficulty is." 
 
 " My difficulty is that of all the Barotsi ; it is the women. 
 How is it possible for a Moruti to live with only one wife, and 
 be satisfied and happy ? " 
 
 " Ah, yes ! the women," repeated all the men, who filled the 
 court. 
 
 His wife added, " Neither do we want a Gospel which 
 forbids several women to belong to one man, to help each other, 
 and keep each other company." 
 
 I looked very straight at her. 
 
 " Are you speaking the truth, woman ? Then what is 
 that malady which consumes you all, what you call lefoufa 
 (harem jealousy) ? " 
 
 They all clapped their hands. " That is well said ! " 
 
 " Oh," said the poor woman, with some confusion, " I was not 
 speaking seriously. I just wanted to see what you would say." 
 
 " Ah ! very possibly. But / am quite serious." Then turn- 
 ing to Wina, I said to him, " I quite understand you, my 
 friend ; of course, it must cost you a great deal to give up your 
 wives and all your carnal pleasures. But suppose you are 
 eating dry bread " (a great privation for the blacks, and a hard 
 necessity), " and I am eating mine with honey " (which the 
 Barotsi chiefs consider a great delicacy, and try to keep for 
 their own exclusive use), " tell me, would you not envy me ? 
 And if you saw me sharing these delights with other friends, 
 and left you on one side, what would you say ? If, on the 
 contrary, I were to say, ' Wina, leave your dry bread, and come 
 and share my honey ' ? " 
 
 " Oh, I should clap my hands ! " (laughter). 
 
 " Well, that is just what I am doing. You are still gnawing 
 the stale, old bread of polygamy and all your old customs. I 
 have found in the things of God a honey which is my daily 
 delight. I invite you, I press you, to come and eat out of the 
 same dish with me. You hesitate, and laugh disdainfully, and 
 say to me, ' I cannot forsake the dry, old crust that I am 
 gnawing.' If you would only taste my honey, how you would 
 laugh with joy ! You would say, ' How stupid I was to stick 
 so obstinately to that dry, stale bread, like a poor slave, when I 
 could be eating honey to my heart's content, like a great lord!'" 
 
 The lesson was understood, and I left them all to repeat it
 
 1894] A LITTLE PRISONER. 575 
 
 and comment on it at their leisure. Ah, how I wish I could 
 pass it on to all those who are hesitating between the deceitful 
 joys of the world and the service of the Lord Jesus ! 
 
 December jth. 
 
 Litia, when he left for Kazungula, had asked me to send 
 him the photograph of his child, whom Lewanika is keeping 
 here to bring up. He is now a little fellow of two. But, would 
 you believe it? no one has yet .seen his face beyond the circle 
 of his near relatives and the slaves attached to his service. 
 Nobody is supposed to know his name, nor yet whether he is 
 a boy or a girl. For two years, none but those in his service 
 have entered the court where he is growing up ; and if he himself 
 has been obliged to go out, it is only wrapped up in furs to 
 the point of suffocation. If he has to travel in a canoe, he 
 is carried thither, hidden in this way. And then, once he is 
 deposited in his tent of mats, they are careful to close it at both 
 ends. This is the lot of all children of the blood royal. At 
 length, one day it happens that the little captive, carried away 
 by impatience, upsets the reed door, and darts jubilantly out into 
 the open air, followed by his stupefied slaves ! Then there is 
 nothing for it but to present him to the king in the evening, 
 and to grant him that liberty which makes the happiness of 
 the poor. You understand ; it is the evil eye that they fear, 
 although the poor little prisoner is covered with amulets. There 
 is probably another reason — namely, the mystery which generally 
 imposes on the vulgar. The Barotsi kings pretend to a divine 
 origin ; and, to put it mildly, they certainly like to remind the 
 people of it. 
 
 So this is the dear little visitor brought me with Lewanika's 
 express authority by Maondo, one of the king's wives, an 
 intelligent and amiable person, who has charge of him. Poor 
 little fellow ! she showed him to me, a big bundle very carefully 
 wrapped up, carried on the back of a slave. " Would I not, at 
 the king's request, consent to take the little prince's likeness ? " 
 " Certainly — but I cannot take it, hidden as he is in that bundle. 
 She must unpack him." 
 
 Great was her trouble — long and earnestly she pleaded. 
 Making one concession after another, she would have consented 
 to unpack him (I had enjoyed the privilege of seeing him a long
 
 576 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 time ago, so apparently / have not the evil eye), but it must be 
 in my room, with the windows carefully closed ; she would even 
 have consented to my doing it in the court, on condition that I 
 ordered all our boys and girls and all our workmen to hide. 
 It was no use arguing — all my eloquence was so much waste of 
 breath ; she would not yield, nor I either ; and, astounded at 
 my obstinacy, she returned home sadly with her great bundle, 
 without having unpacked it.^ 
 
 This incident, apparently insignificant, would alone suffice to 
 show how the Barotsi cling to their customs, while themselves 
 recognising that they are unreasonable and bad. For a long 
 while yet, these will be hidden shoals to our poor Barotsi 
 Christians. 
 
 December i()th. 
 
 We have had our festivals, and an extra one thrown in, 
 nothing less than Nyondo's marriage. Do you know who 
 Nyondo is? He was a poor Moshukulumboe, a slave of the 
 king, who obtained leave to come to us, so as to attend the 
 school. He has been converted, and is a real joy to us. His 
 gravity is imperturbable ; if he laughs, it is only by accident, 
 especially in presence of his superiors ; he is very reserved, a 
 man of few words, but truthful and honest — it was not always so. 
 In my house, he has almost taken the place of Nguana-Ngombe. 
 The good qualities he has developed since becoming a Christian 
 have won for him the king's esteem ; and, I need not say, my 
 own affection. He is not very intelligent, but he has a heart, and 
 I discovered it when I least expected it. His greatest desire is 
 to become an evangelist-schoolmaster. The king is aware of 
 this, and gives him full liberty. 
 
 He engaged himself to a young girl whom he had obtained 
 from the king (although the latter much appreciated her services) 
 and had placed with Mme. A. J alia, where she developed in 
 every way, and was eventually converted. 
 
 This was the marriage which took place on December 21st, 
 the first to be celebrated in Lealuyi. We expected to see a 
 crowd. But no ! The church was not full, the benches only 
 
 ' Eventually, but not till weeks later, she consented to unroll the royal 
 infant, and he was photographed in the mission-court before children and 
 slaves.
 
 i894] BOANERGES 577 
 
 moderately occupied. The king was there with some of his 
 Mkomboa ; but none of the great chiefs, except Scmonja, who is 
 a Christian. The ceremony was none the less very impressive. 
 In my address, I necessarily made a point of bringing out the 
 Divine institution of Christian marriage, in contrast with the 
 sores and rottenness of polygamy ; and the position of a Christian 
 wife with that of heathen women. 
 
 I wondered whether they had really understood me. Under- 
 stand ? They understood so well, that my whole discourse was 
 carried from door to door and commented on, till the whole 
 village was in a ferment. The men were furious ; the women 
 wondered " what they had done to make God angry." 
 
 December ij\st. 
 
 That was Friday. We were celebrating Christmas on Sunday. 
 The execution of our well-prepared hymns and choruses was as 
 good as we dared to hope from the materials we had to work 
 with. The evangelists were there, — Paulus Kanedi, from Sefula ; 
 Jacob Moshabesha, from Nalolo ; and our Willie : so it was a 
 good opportunity for Gospel-preaching. Adolphe Jalla opened 
 the service with a splendid address : " The Subject of Joy " 
 \i.e. the Birth of Christ]. The others followed. But Paulus, our 
 Boanerges, launched thunderbolts : he spoke like one inspired, 
 addressing all classes of his audience by turns — the queens, 
 the slaves, the chiefs, the king, each one had his account to 
 settle. Oh why were these powerful, these most solemn appeals 
 accompanied by an unfortunate gesture — tJie most unfortunate 
 imaginable ? Paulus pointed with his finger at his hearers ! 
 That was bad enough for the general public ; but when he 
 addressed himself directly to the king, there was almost an 
 explosion. We ourselves knew nothing of this ; we never even 
 suspected it. But when we were outside, it burst all bounds ; 
 every group was expressing itself without reserve. Anywhere, 
 the forefinger of an orator shaken in a person's face is in doubtful 
 taste ; but here, and among all black people, it is the gravest 
 insult that a man can offer to another ! Only, our worthy Paulus 
 thought that everything was permitted to a preacher, even this 
 unfortunate gesture, without its giving offence. He made a 
 mistake. In the afternoon, none of the likoniboa and none of 
 the chiefs were at the second service, not even the king.
 
 578 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 This was a bad sign. The very next day, two men came, 
 in the name of the chiefs, to summon the evangelists and 
 some of our boys to the lekJLotlUa. Being too unwell to drag 
 myself thither,^ I was compelled to ask M. Adolphe J all a to go, 
 hoping that his presence would act as a restraint on the Barotsi, 
 and insisted that the king should himself preside over the court. 
 From 10 a.m. till 5 p.m., we were the prey of terrible anxieties. 
 I was, above all, concerned about my boys, and could only 
 confide them to the Lord, Whom they were called upon to 
 confess. For themselves, they had neither shame nor fear. 
 They were at once put in the place of the accused — that is to 
 say, of the condemned ; they also knew, that in all probability 
 they would not leave the place without being cruelly garotted, 
 and — who knows what more beside ? 
 
 M. Adolphe Jalla will tell you of the courage and grace God 
 gave to our young men ; the outrageous insults which the excited 
 chiefs rained upon their heads, and upon those of the evangelists. 
 He will tell you of the terrible moment of suspense which 
 elapsed between the defence our brothers made for themselves 
 and the king's speech, and the astonishment of hearing him 
 frankly and without the least ambiguity take the part of our 
 boys, our evangelists, and ourselves, and partially unveil the 
 intrigues of the chiefs, who clung to futile pretexts, in order to 
 vent the hatred with which the Gospel inspires them. God 
 be praised ! It is a deliverance ; I scarcely dare to say a 
 victory. For these old limbs of paganism will not allow 
 themselves to be beaten, and will be sure to hatch other plots. 
 But the final issue is not doubtful, and that gives us courage 
 and joy. It will strengthen our young Christians.^ 
 
 What has saddened us in this affair is the conduct of my 
 friend Semonja, the influential chief who generally accompanies 
 me on my journeys. He is converted, and is both amiable and 
 earnest ; but he was afraid to take our part. He came to-day 
 
 ' M. Coillard was seriously ill at this time. 
 
 ^ Paulus frankly apologised for his unintentional discourtesy, and pro- 
 tested the respect he felt and had always shown for the king. "But," he 
 concluded, "that will not prevent me from speaking the truth and warning 
 you about your sins." 
 
 It was after this speech that Lewanika astonislied every one by taking the 
 evangelists' part.
 
 1894] BEFORE GOVERNORS AND KINGS 579 
 
 (the 31st) to humble himself for his behaviour. But such 
 cowardice makes one anxious. 
 
 The Adolphe J alias left on Saturday for Nalolo. So I was 
 alone with the evangelist, to whom I gave the whole of the first part 
 of the service, reserving the preaching for myself. At the door, 
 I was warned that the chiefs had driven away all the young 
 men from the bench in front of them. Coming in, followed by 
 Lewanika, I made them sit down in the place I had indicated, 
 and in a short speech I quietly explained to them that the 
 House of God is not their lekhothla, where every one has his 
 assigned place. At home, a chief is everything : at court, he is 
 only a servant. In the same way, when we come to church, we 
 leave all our dignities and grandeurs at the door : here, God 
 alone is Master, He alone is great. Then I preached on 
 Luke xix. 14 : " We will not have this man to reign over us." 
 In the afternoon, the Gambella sent me as a present two beautiful 
 paddles. Why ? There was no message. 
 
 I think I have discovered the clue to all this excitement. 
 They fear that the king will become a Christian ; and that when 
 he has dispersed his whole harem, he will abolish polygamy, and 
 force his chiefs and every one else to content themselves each 
 with one wife.^ 
 
 I have had a bad attack of haematuria ; for more than a 
 fortnight, I have only been able to drag myself about ; but I am 
 better, though not very grand yet. I do not want to complain ; 
 but it is only right you should know that I am not good for 
 much. My heart is still young — I feel it ; but the old tent is 
 wearing out. 
 
 I hope to reopen my Bible school the day after to-morrow, 
 after the Christmas holidays. A Bible school on the Zambesi \ 
 This title is pretentious. I have only four pupils, whom I 
 clothe and feed, and who manage my domestic work, such as it 
 is. They are my children, as well as my pupils. They are 
 housed in two huts, one with a big hole and a little hole, which 
 serve as door and window ; it is the schoolroom ; four posts 
 stuck in the ground and a couple of boards form the table. 
 
 ^ And so it was. Old Narubutu and the Gambella went one night secretly 
 to see the king, expostulated with him, and, getting angry, declared that they 
 would not have a Christian for king. Lewanika foresaw a revolution, and 
 forthwith drew back from conversion. — Author's Note.
 
 580 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1894 
 
 The Other hut is the dormitory, which they keep fairly clean. 
 The number of these pupils might be doubled or tripled ; but, for 
 the time being, I keep to these four. The scarcity of food is one 
 reason ; another is that the character of our young Zambesians 
 requires to be tested, and their vocation no less. 
 
 Moreover, it is only a trial — a little beginning here. My 
 inclinations certainly do not lead me to shut myself up for 
 three or four hours with a class : far from it. I should like to 
 have wings, in order to travel about the country and publish 
 the Gospel— the Good News. I chafe at our being thus penned 
 up at home. We see many crowds of strangers here, and we 
 do our best to send them away with at any rate some spark of 
 truth. But preaching to them here is not reaching them at 
 home. I have been forced by circumstances thus to busy 
 myself with these young men, whom, as you know, I was reluc- 
 tant to send to Basuto-land. It is certainly not that I have 
 anything against the Bible school at Morija, for you know how 
 I love it. But we must not make Basuto of our Zambesians. 
 We need a Bible school Jiere. 
 
 You will be sorry to hear that my predictions about Sefula 
 have been only too fully realised. The winds which precede 
 the rainy season have been extraordinarily violent this year, 
 and they have broken a large tree, which has fallen on the saw- 
 mill, seriously damaging the roof and almost bringing the walls 
 down. It is very sad to think of all that splendid machinery 
 left there to get ruined, when a man of Waddell's stamp could 
 save so much of it, and be such a help to us. 
 
 Our church here is not finished. Will it ever be ? We have 
 fifteen large holes in the walls instead of windows and doors. 
 The windows we have covered with calico, which had to be 
 renewed more than once, though we certainly have none to 
 spare. But no calico, however strong, could withstand these 
 gales ; it is torn to shreds like paper ; indeed, the whole building 
 is a perfect Cave of the Winds. You can have no conception 
 of their violence ; I trembled for the church itself. So all 
 those windows you see in the photograph, and several others, I 
 had perforce to fill in with reeds. I only left just enough open 
 for us to have light inside to see by. 
 
 According to our latest news, Waddell was still at Kazungula, 
 eating his heart out. How I do regret that he did not return
 
 i894] NEW year's DAY 581 
 
 with me ! He would have been able to repair the waggon a 
 little, and by this time we should both of us have been well 
 on our way southwards. For myself, a medical examination 
 is almost as necessary as for him.^ But how travel without 
 a vehicle ? 
 
 I think one of the principal causes of our illnesses here 
 is the water we are obliged to use. The first rains sweep, or 
 rather wash, down the country, and thus the lake from which 
 we draw our water becomes the common sewer. Bad at all 
 times, it does not keep twelve hours then, and acquires a smell 
 and taste which make one feel sick. It is impossible to swallow 
 the morning cup of coffee. I have two filters, but they don't 
 work well, either of them. 
 
 While scribbling all this, here I find myself using my pen 
 for the first time on January ist, 1895. My good wishes for the 
 New Year will reach you late, but I send them all the same. 
 Ah, those good wishes, how easy they are to utter, and how 
 every one will be offering them in all parts to-day ! And after 
 a few days, who will think of them ? That is not the case 
 with us. Members of the same missionary family, knowing 
 and loving one another, sharing the anxieties, responsibilities, 
 and joys of the same work, we do not need the New Year to 
 remind us of each other, do we ? Only, the year is gone, and 
 the new one which comes to us with all its store of blessings 
 and trials, unknown and unthought of, sets on our mutual 
 intercessions a seal of special solemnity. What should we ask ? 
 Do we know ? Let us simply lay our friends, our beloved 
 ones, together with the work of our hearts and lives, at the 
 Lord's feet ; and let us say in faith : " Lord, they are Thine 
 — bless them ! Yes, bless them ! ' O satisfy us early [Fr. Ver. 
 each morning] with Thy mercy ; that v/e may rejoice and be 
 glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein 
 TJiou hast afflicted us. . . Let Thy work appear nnto Thy servants^ 
 and Thy glory unto their children. And let the beajity of the 
 Lord our God be upon us ; . . . yea, the work of our hands estab- 
 lish Thou it:" 
 
 ' The Committee had already urged M. Coillard some time before to 
 return to Europe on furlough ; but he declined, feeling that the staff was too 
 small, and that his young colleagues would be overwhelmed with the work. 
 Since then, reinforcements had come out.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 The Drought — Medical Missions — M. and Mme. Beguin at Nalolo — A 
 Visit to Sefula — Locusts — The Return of a Prodigal (Mokamba) — A 
 Bible-woman — A Real Awakening — Average Rainfall — Royal Pretensions. 
 
 Sefula, April isf, 1895. 
 
 IF I fall into the conventionalities of those idle people in 
 civilised life who can only talk about the weather, so much 
 the worse for my correspondents ; but it is a fact that the past 
 season has been an extraordinary one. The rains, which begin 
 regularly towards November 20th, were two months late ; and, 
 instead of the heavy downpours which flood everything, we 
 have had suffocating heat, a fiery sun, and burning winds which 
 swept the clouds away as soon as they formed on the horizon. 
 At the end of February, by which date the plain has usually 
 been under water for eight weeks, one could easily cross it 
 on foot. Our Barotsi were miserable ; they had not seen such 
 a thing for twenty years, and they had already given this 
 phenomenal year the name of " walk on foot," " walk dry-shod " 
 (oA'a enda banje). For, to them, no inundation means no hunt- 
 ing, no furs for the winter, no change of residence, and that 
 does not suit their roving disposition. But there is another 
 side to it, which affects us all — namely, illnesses, such as influenza, 
 ague, and above all fevers, which rage as much among the 
 natives as among the Europeans, and spare few. 
 
 Consultations without appointment, and the dispensing of 
 medicines, are by no means recreations. The Moruti's post 
 is no sinecure at such a time. Not a day passes without our 
 regretting the absence of a professional doctor amongst us. 
 
 Is our urgent appeal from Kazungula really to remain with- 
 out an echo? Has no man of that profession yet felt himself 
 called of God to this vocation, the grandest that exists ? To go 
 from village to village, doing good, healing the sick, and preach- 
 
 582
 
 i895] MEDICAL MISSIONS 583 
 
 ing the Gospel of the Kingdom of God after the example of 
 Jesus Himself, and walking in His footsteps ! Is there upon 
 earth, I wonder, a calling more worthy of a young Christian's 
 holy ambition ? 
 
 Oh, if I could but grow young again, how ardently I would 
 apply myself to the study of medicine ! And, thus furnished 
 with the fullest possible equipment, medical and theological, 
 with what joy I would go forth to relieve the physical and 
 moral miseries of these poor heathen ! They do not under- 
 stand how it is that the messengers of Jesus "who healed all 
 manner of disease " cannot cure those of the body as well as 
 those of the soul. A cure is in their eyes a proof of our 
 apostleship. And can we blame them ? 
 
 Every member of the mission party has had fever, and here 
 is Mile. Louise Keck, who, in despair of ever acclimatising 
 herself, is returning South. And we had hailed her arrival with 
 such joy and hope ! 
 
 Above all, our poor friends the Beguins have suffered. The 
 reports we heard about them startled us, and I went to Nalolo 
 to see them a few weeks ago. They were then comparatively 
 better, and thus my visit resolved itself into a mere friendly call. 
 I found them in a wretched hut, dark and stuffy, quite blocked 
 up with their boxes. They had reserved a little corner, which 
 they used as a bedroom, and another still smaller one, which 
 they called their dining-hall, though you have almost to eat 
 off your thumb for want of space ; there is even a third, which 
 they dignify by the name of drawing-room, on the strength of 
 two chairs which are crowded into it. I felt quite grieved for 
 them, for this young lady especially, so recently severed from 
 the comforts of civilised life.' But the activity of our young 
 brother, from whom energy seems to issue at every pore ; the 
 courage and unflagging .spirits of his young wife, in this rude 
 
 1 Mme, Beguin (the only daughter of a professor at the University 
 of Lausanne) had left a luxurious home less than two years before. Though 
 she was a mere girl, and had occupied herself with nothing but music and 
 painting since leaving school, she accommodated herself to the uncivilised 
 life without the slightest difficulty or discontent. Speaking generally, the 
 testimony of the Zambesi missionaries is that the most highly cultivated 
 adapt themselves the most quickly and easily to the new conditions, and the 
 women better than the men. As regards health, that of the former has been 
 incomparably better than that of the latter.
 
 584 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [189S 
 
 apprenticeship, through which we all have to pass ; the smiles of 
 their flourishing baby, — all combined to form a happy contrast, 
 and did me real good. Soon these dear young friends will install 
 themselves in the large temporary house which M. Beguin has 
 already reared. It will be a palace to them. 
 
 Their work is still in those difficult first stages, when 
 missionaries and natives are seeking to know and educate each 
 other. Mokwae and her councillors never lose sight of their 
 dignity ; and they are nowise modest in their pretensions. 
 They take it very ill, when one seeks to bind them down to 
 anything like a rule, even for the Sunday services. Neverthe- 
 less, little by little our friends are establishing their position. 
 Here, too, a little " tabernacle " has been erected, which can 
 shelter half the audience. The services are well attended ; and 
 the school, under the devoted care of Jacob and his wife Norea,. 
 is flourishing splendidly. Here, too, they speak of earnest 
 souls who will declare themselves some day. One can scarcely 
 believe that this station has been founded so recently, and we 
 praise God for it. 
 
 But I am forgetting — it was about Sefula that I wanted to 
 speak. For some time, I had been thinking of paying a visit 
 there — a visit I dreaded as much as I desired it. Circumstances 
 made it an imperative duty to do so. Besides the work, which 
 is developing admirably, and requires our superintendence, our 
 evangelist Paulus and his wife are always ill, especially the 
 latter. The dear man wrote very gloomily ; and he had reason 
 to. He was thinking about his death, and was asking his 
 friends what his young widow would do. Both are terribly 
 emaciated, though the serenity of their inner life is reflected on 
 their wan faces. 
 
 I therefore left Lcaluyi last Tuesday with my five boys — my 
 whole household. From the flooded plain, we entered our own 
 canal, full to the brim. Alas ! about three-quarters of a mile 
 from the station, we found it so blocked with sand and tangled 
 grass — those invincible matindi — that the stream overflows on 
 every side, forming pools and marshes into which one sinks 
 up to the knees. It is a work to be done all over again ; but 
 it would have cost very little to keep it up, if there had been 
 a missionary at Sefula. My boys, who knew I was not well, 
 seized a little canoe they found there, and cheerfully carried
 
 i895] LOCUSTS 585 
 
 it from pool to pool, determined I should make the journey 
 dry-shod ; and at last landed mc on terra firina. I did the rest 
 of the road on foot. 
 
 We forced our way through clouds of locusts, the scourge 
 of the country. We have them at Lealuyi, but nothing to 
 compare with what we find hereabouts. They have hatched 
 themselves, and grown up here on the borders of the plain, 
 and in the brushwood. Their wings are too weak for them 
 to fly high and far, for they have only just cast their skin ; 
 you raise swarms of them at every step you take, while passing 
 over masses which remain piled up on the ground. They have 
 devoured the fields of maize, manioc, and sorgho — they spare 
 absolutely nothing. The people are making desperate efforts 
 to dispute with them anything edible that remains. When 
 they fly, the shrill and incessant cries of men and women, 
 accompanied by violent gestures, make them rise, and the wind 
 carries them off ; but when they are in the first stage, that 
 of a wingless cricket, they go straight on, and nothing stops 
 them : they cross water by swimming, and we are told that 
 their serried battalions even extinguish the grass fires, by 
 which the fields are surrounded. Every one is fearing famine, 
 and already provisions are scarce and dear. Yet we are told 
 this is only the beginning. But a very curious thing is the 
 mortality among the locusts. They are found everywhere in 
 great numbers on the ground, heaped together, clinging to 
 shrubs and blades of grass ; you think they are alive — you look 
 closely at them, and they are all dried up. And, from what 
 I hear, it is the same in the provinces of Sesheke and Kazungula. 
 Some unknown tiyaka (witch-doctor) will not lose the oppor- 
 tunity of claiming it as the result of his " medicines " and 
 cabalistic incantations. Intelligent men say that they are 
 poisoned by eating certain noxious plants. It is possible ; but 
 we believe that God has heard the prayers of His children, 
 and has had compassion on this people. 
 
 In spite of the desolate aspect of the station, and the 
 recollections which every corner and every object call up, one 
 breathes here an atmosphere of calm which is unknown at the 
 capital. It is good to be here again under the shade, to 
 meditate in the solemn silences of these woods. And there, at 
 a stone's throw, under that ancient tree, how near one feels to
 
 586 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 heaven ! Involuntarily my thoughts go out to those many 
 friends who are also in bereavement. Sursuni corda. It is 
 not at the place of parting that we should halt ; no, nor yet 
 at that turn of the road where we bade those supreme 
 farewells that wrung our hearts and darkened our lives. Our 
 beloved ones are no longer there. It is to the place and the 
 hour of reunion that our hopes and desires look on — to the 
 Father's house, where our beloved ones have gone before us, 
 where Jesus awaits us, whither each footstep bears us on, and 
 where God Himself will wipe away all tears from our eyes. 
 God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Let us seek 
 Him not among the dead, but amid that cloud of witnesses 
 who compass us about. 
 
 But, among the ruins of Sefula, I would like to gather you 
 one or two flowers at least. 
 
 The movement of which you have heard already, and which 
 arose simultaneously in all our stations, though perhaps in a less 
 degree than at Kazungula, where it began, was very marked at 
 Sefula. The number of those who have made a profession is 
 already over eighty. No doubt all that is not pure gold, but 
 some of it certainly is. The numerous meetings we have had 
 during the last eight or ten days have thoroughly convinced 
 me of it. Besides my own young men, who took an active 
 part in it, two Christians from Lealuyi had followed me. One 
 was Semonja, or Sebeho — the Barotsi always have several 
 names — a man in the prime of life, who is under the king's 
 orders always to accompany me on my journeys. He says 
 himself that a long while ago, under the influence of the Gospel 
 teaching, he sent away two of his three wives, before having 
 made the least profession. I knew nothing of it, and indeed 
 thought he had only been married once. But besides his 
 remarkable evenness of temper, his considerateness, and his 
 thoughtful and respectful conduct, there was an indefinable 
 something about him which won my heart, and imparted to my 
 journeys a charm of which I have never spoken. And when 
 his heart was touched by grace, I felt more joy than surprise. 
 There has been no stumbling in his case. On one occasion,^ he 
 troubled us by his lack of courage, but he repented of that. 
 
 ' See page 578.
 
 i895] MOKAMBA'S ADDRESS 587 
 
 The other is Mokamba, the same young man who wept over 
 his sins, during the last meeting my dear wife attended, and 
 impressed her so deeply. Since then, he had wandered from 
 the right way. Having become a great chief, young as he was 
 he took several wives to maintain his dignity, and later on 
 he became the king's son-in-law, instead of our poor Nguana- 
 Ngombe. But his conscience gave him no rest, and during a 
 long journey he made, it awoke irresistibly. On his return, he 
 found his first wife converted, and then he hesitated no longer. 
 He had already sent away his inferior wives ; he dismissed one 
 last one to whom he had clung, and declared himself frankly 
 for the Saviour whom he had forsaken. He unites unusual 
 gentleness with great force of character. The presence of these 
 two Christian chiefs has made a deep impression here. 
 
 Yesterday, apart from the prayer meeting with which it 
 began and ended, was divided between two great meetings, 
 each lasting about three hours. The first was a general meeting. 
 The heathen, in spite of the locusts, against whom the poor 
 things were desperately defending their fields, came hurrying 
 in from every side. The church was full. After I had intro- 
 duced the subject of Lot fleeing from Sodom, I left my young 
 men and these two Christian chiefs to speak. A tone of great 
 respect and seriousness characterised the addresses of my boys, 
 and they enforced attention. 
 
 Semonja, a typical Morotsi, spoke with conviction, calmness, 
 and authority. I was surprised to see how he captivated 
 the audience by his address — a long one for a Morotsi. But 
 Mokamba did not merely captivate them ; he carried them 
 along with him. " They ask me," he said, " why I have 
 abandoned these viekJioa ea lefcela " (these vain customs) 
 " we have learnt from our fathers. It is because Christ has 
 delivered us from them at the cost of His Blood. They ask 
 me why, four years ago, I wept and sobbed in that great 
 assembly at the lekJiotJila. Why ? Ah ! it was because the 
 destruction of Sodom was not a mere threat to me. My own 
 house was on fire. And when I awoke from my sleep of death, 
 it was not by the door that I flung myself out. No, I forced 
 a hole through the wall, I know not how, at the risk of being 
 scratched by the broken reeds. But once I was outside, prostrate 
 on the earth, and stripped of everything, realising the danger I
 
 588 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 had been in, I began to tremble, to weep with joy and emotion. 
 I was saved. You tell me that I shall return to the world. Yes, 
 if I forsake Jesus. But do you know, at one time the current 
 had already carried me away ? I should have been swept into 
 the abyss, and have perished" (an allusion to the Musi oaTunya, 
 the Victoria Falls). "Jesus came with His canoe ; He seized me 
 and placed me on the bank. And shall I throw myself into 
 the waves again ? God forbid ! " Urgent appeals followed, 
 something quite new to me at the Zambesi. 
 
 The second meeting was still more characteristic. It was 
 exclusively a meeting for professing Christians, who, as at 
 Lealuyi, are divided into three classes, according to their age, 
 their degree of knowledge, and the satisfaction they give us. 
 All were not present, yet there were nearly seventy, amongst 
 whom were ten children, a few young girls and youths, men 
 and women, former workmen, our old acquaintances, who were 
 once so hardened and insensible. 
 
 After a few words of introduction, I allowed any one to 
 speak who chose. Men and women availed themselves of the 
 permission, and with surprising liberty. 
 
 One woman, a true Bible-woman, for she knows how to 
 read, related her evangelising tours. 
 
 " Come, come," said some heathen to her, " what you are 
 telling us is all nonsense. You who say you believe, have you 
 ever seen the God that the white men speak of ? You pray : 
 does your bread fall out of the sky ? " 
 
 " No one has ever seen God," she replied, " but He has made 
 Himself known to us by His Son Jesus. And is it not really 
 from the sky that we get our bread ? Whence comes the dew ? 
 Whence the rain that makes our corn grow ? And where, I 
 ask you, shines the sun which makes it ripen ? " Then, fixing 
 her eyes on Mokamba, she addressed herself to him, and asked 
 for an account of his return to the world. " Your fall made 
 us the laughing-stock of the heathen. How arc we to know 
 that you are sincere now ? " 
 
 " My mother," answered Mokamba humbly, " I thank you 
 for the question you have put to me. Ah ! I know that it is 
 not by anything I may say to-day that you will be convinced : 
 it can only be by life in the future. It is only by its fruits that 
 the tree is known. That is all I can say. But God is my
 
 '895] A BIBLE-WOMAN 589 
 
 witness that I am true. Here is the sad story of my return 
 to the world : it will be a lesson to everybody. When you saw 
 me weeping in the midst of the lek/iothla, I was sincere. The 
 sword of the Word of God had pierced through me ; and after- 
 wards, I had found peace. It was a joy to me to go with Litia 
 to the meetings at Sefula. But when I was promoted to the 
 dignity of Liomba " (the third chief of the country), " I allowed 
 myself little by little to grow absorbed in business. I soon 
 found it irksome to go to Sefula every week : it was too far. I 
 let myself go. Our father said to me indeed, ' Mokamba, take 
 care ; you are backsliding.' I tried to reassure him, and to 
 make a fresh effort, but I ended by getting quite tired of the 
 whole thing. And when our father came to install himself at 
 Lealuyi, I had fallen, and I had nothing but the skin of a 
 Christian. He said to me, ' Mokamba, go on reading the Bible 
 every day, just the same.' That is what saved me. Every day 
 I read my Bible. But I could not read it long without its 
 condemning me. And then I shut it sorrowfully. The 
 preachings, too, condemned me, and I dared not look the 
 servant of God in the face. I was unhappy. But in the midst 
 of my wanderings, I prayed constantly. God had pity on me, 
 and now I am happy. Let my history be a warning to you, 
 believers." 
 
 Many fine things were said in this meeting, where everybody 
 spoke freely : the principal theme being Lofs wife. A poor 
 woman told us that she came from the farthest part of the 
 Valley of Sefula. On the way, she found people working in 
 their fields. She accosted them, and invited them to come and 
 hear the Word of God. They answered contemptuously, "It 
 is no longer the Baricti, it seems, who come to remind us of 
 the Lord's Day ; it is these chits of women. Be off ! Go and 
 pretend to be a believer, if you imagine the missionaries will 
 give you beads and stuff." 
 
 " Oh, my masters," answered the poor thing, " I am only a 
 slave : I am nothing, but I feel the need of learning the things 
 of God. Oh no ! it is not stuffs I am seeking. What should 
 I do with them ? I have never worn anything but this apron 
 of skin. But I am a great sinner, and what I am seeking is 
 the pardon of my sins." 
 
 The sun set : whether we would or no, we were obliged to
 
 590 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 close this beautiful meeting, in which my faith was strengthened 
 and my soul was blessed. 
 
 I have already written about this awakening. Perhaps you 
 thought me too wise and prudent. I dreaded excitement ; I 
 was afraid that this movement, favoured by the friendly dis- 
 position of the king and chiefs, would be superficial, and that 
 our European friends, anxious, like ourselves, to see God's work 
 prospering at last, might give it proportions which here it does 
 not possess. I repeat, that what we wish above all is to build 
 upon the One Foundation gold, silver, and precious stones, not 
 wood, hay, and stubble. It would have been a sin to deny 
 the work of God's Holy Spirit in thus beginning to awaken 
 consciences. At Kazungula, and even at Sesheke, where the 
 circumstances are very different from ours, I believe the move- 
 ment has more reality than here, according to the accounts of 
 our brother Louis Jalla ; and my estimates apply chiefly to 
 what passes under my own eyes. In any case, the Lord has 
 visited us. It is in the consciences that work is being silently 
 accomplished — we feel it ; one day, it will burst forth. The 
 Lord will still do great things. 
 
 Here is one very encouraging fact for us. You remember 
 our beautiful school at Sefula in former days, which has been 
 scattered throughout the country, even as far as Kazungula. 
 How many times I have thought of the time and strength 
 we sacrificed to it ! Well, at the present moment, nearly forty 
 of our former pupils have to my knowledge made a profession 
 of faith, and all, with few exceptions, know how to read. Our 
 teachings, all those books which were bought with such enthu- 
 siasm, and then remained as if buried in the earth — nothing has 
 been lost. " He that observeth the wind shall not sow : and 
 he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." 
 
 ■\Lealuyi, April 2^th, 1895. 
 
 In Africa, everything is surprise and caprice ; one day a 
 famine, the next abundance, even superabundance. Drought 
 distresses us ; and then again, it never rains but it pours. The 
 post is the toy of the same caprice. More than once, we have 
 been nine long months without receiving a single letter. We 
 are only at the end of April, and we have already had four
 
 l89S] ANNUAL RAINFALL 59I 
 
 posts from Europe, dated from the first fortnight in January. 
 Will it last ? 
 
 Besides the vagaries of the post, there are those of the 
 weather. The rains — those rains so ardently desired — have at 
 last fallen, at long intervals, and in thunderstorms, modifying 
 our burning atmosphere, but very slightly. On the whole, 
 this season, which people were already anathematising, has 
 reached the minimum of rainy seasons. Perhaps a comparative 
 table of these would interest you. Here it is : — 
 
 
 
 Inches. 
 
 1885-86 ... 
 
 ... Nov. 25 to March 4 
 
 ... 28-46. 
 
 1886-87 ... 
 
 Travelling. 
 
 
 1887-88 ... 
 
 ... Nov. 21 to March 7 
 
 ... 35r2. 
 
 1888-89 ... 
 
 ... Nov. 14 to May 12 
 
 ... 28-58. 
 
 1889-90 
 
 . . . Nov. 7 to May 7 
 
 ... 36-92. 
 
 1890-91 
 
 . . . Nov. 20 to April 5 
 
 ... 42-95- 
 
 1891-92 
 
 ... Oct. 16 to April 24 
 
 ■•• 33-35- 
 
 1892-93 
 
 
 
 1893-94 ... 
 
 . . . Nov. 20 to April 6 
 
 ... 35-98. 
 
 1894-95 ... 
 
 ... Nov. 24 to April 29 
 
 ... 28-88. 
 
 This gives for the above years an average of 3378 inches. 
 The annual flood does not depend solely upon the rainfall we 
 have here, but also upon that of the Upper Zambesi basin. 
 We have had an inundation, tardy and slight, but still we have 
 had one. 
 
 Lewanika has had two great hunting expeditions, and is 
 preparing a third. Unfortunately, he reserved for himself 
 exclusively the pleasure of piercing with his own hand the 
 antelopes which crowds of men, in tiny canoes, or up to their 
 chests in water, had chased and then surrounded on the anthill 
 where the king awaited them. Alas ! alas ! the pretensions 
 of royalty multiply in an alarming manner ; ceremonials are 
 becoming more and more complicated, and if it goes on much 
 longer, there will soon be no place under the sun for subjects 
 and slaves. The progress in civilisation is entirely for the 
 king and his family — nothing for the people. Lately, they were 
 three days discussing at the lekhotJila the question of stools 
 and certain ornaments of ivory and beads which the people 
 had taken the liberty of making since the death of Sepopa, 
 sixteen or seventeen years ago. Lewanika confiscated and 
 forbade them, as being the exclusive appanage of the royal
 
 592 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1^95 
 
 family. This is certainly not the path of humility and con- 
 version. It is not even that of good policy. And I thought 
 it my duty, in a tete-a-tete with my poor friend, to show him 
 the danger and folly of such blindness. He pleaded that in 
 ancient times it was the distinctive and exclusive privilege of 
 kings : why should it disappear to-day ? I asked him if he 
 himself were a king of ancient times, he who dressed like a 
 European, built himself a European house, drank coffee, tea, etc 
 
 " These old customs are miserable ruins which the poor 
 have taken possession of, as they have of certain old palaces 
 in Europe. Why dispute them when you have better things ? " 
 Did I convince him ? He said so, but I have not yet perceived 
 it. This is a mournful page. I pity Lewanika very much ; 
 they make a deity of him, and that by his own choice. How, 
 in the midst of such servile adulation, can he still believe 
 himself an ordinary mortal, and feel himself a poor sinner 
 before God ? 
 
 Lewanika treated us gentlemen to the honour of a beautiful 
 excursion in Nalikuatida. He took us from the other side 
 of the Valley to Thapa, where Mpololo lived, the last chief 
 of the Makololo, not far from Kama, where the celebrated 
 Sepopa at first established his residence. We were surprised 
 at the congeries of villages. It is, like Sefula, a centre of 
 population, and the king assures us that it is the same all 
 round the Valley. We ought to found some stations with 
 numerous outposts. But — where are the men ?
 
 ^*- 
 
 %^<-#s 
 
 w = 
 s '= 
 
 < ~ 
 
 5^
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 A Missionary Exploration — Liomba (Mokamba's) Escort — Katuramoa — The 
 Oracle — A Sturdy Protest — Libonda^Memories of Livingstone — A 
 Little Missionary — Lepakae — The King's Messengers — Hornless Cattle 
 — The Mamboe Tribe — A " Son of Thunder " — The King's Canal — 
 Confluence of the Kabombo— Bread upon the Waters — Customs of the 
 Balunda and Balubale — Siyonda — The Chief Sinde — His Hospitality — 
 A Halt at Mosoandunga's — The Rapids of Sapuma — Short Commons — An 
 Inhospitable Neighbourhood — Kakenge's — A Rude Reception — Famine 
 — A Trial of Faith — A Wonderful Deliverance — Tragi-comedy — Con- 
 version of Boatmen — Return to Lealuyi. 
 
 Jjine 1895. 
 
 I HAD long cherished a desire to visit Katuramoa and 
 Libonda, Alone at a station, caught in the toils of daily 
 duty, always taken up with the most pressing one, I had so far 
 found it impossible to carry out this wish. But now that the 
 Adolphe Jallas are here, I am a little less tied. The rains are 
 over ; winter will not be here for some time ; the plain, though 
 drying up, will still bear canoes : so this seems a favourable 
 moment. Once at Libonda, why should I not go on to 
 " regions beyond " ? I communicated my project to Lewanika, 
 who scolded me in friendly fashion for not having done it before ; 
 but this did not prevent his doing all he possibly could to 
 facilitate my journey. He insisted, first of all, on my taking 
 three canoes instead of two ; and I must acknowledge that, for 
 all my belongings, our provisions, my boys' little bundles, and 
 their mats, there was not one too many. Mine having been 
 destroyed by the breaking down of a bank, the king procured 
 me another for my personal use. But this canoe deceived us 
 by its fine proportions. Badly shaped, badly ballasted, it would 
 only move lying over on its side, so that the paddlers had great 
 difficulty in preserving their equilibrium, and I, feeling the force 
 of every wave, rocked to sleep in the full blaze of the sun, several 
 
 593 38
 
 594 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 times narrowly missed rolling overboard. The rowers were only 
 found with difficulty, as is always the case at this season. 
 
 Liomba (Mokamba) and my good Semonja contended for 
 the charge of my little expedition. Liomba prevailed, and 
 obtained the king's permission without difficulty. But I soon 
 saw that this little expedition would become a rolling snowball. 
 Liomba, being the king's son-in-law, must have at least two 
 canoes ; his friend Tali-ira (the lion roars), who never leaves him, 
 has his own too ; then two of our scholars of the blood royal 
 were burning to accompany me, and the king can never refuse 
 them anything. Then, at Lewanika's order, Liomba will take 
 up three guides on the way, each of course with his dug-out and 
 his little retinue. So that, instead of two or three canoes, here 
 is a flotilla of ten, and forty men ! It almost alarms me : it is 
 not at all what I want. I shall not have to pay all these people, 
 it is true ; but I shall have to feed them. It is a comfort to me 
 that among them we have a little band of ten who profess to 
 be converted. They can all read and sing — two elements which, 
 with God's help, I hope to turn to account. 
 
 Lewanika had profited by our delays to send messengers to 
 certain chiefs of the Balunda and Balubale, to announce my visit. 
 He came himself to preside at our parting with the Jallas ; and 
 after committing each other to God, we left. It was at midday 
 on May 6th. Lewanika soon perceived the defects of my canoe ; 
 and before we had gone a mile, he asked me to return and 
 change it ; but once gone, I was gone. 
 
 The plain at this season is a floating prairie, enamelled with 
 flowers ; resetted water-lilies, with their delicate tints of blue, 
 pink, and white ; and a kind of convolvulus, which proudly erects 
 her great magenta trumpets, only dipping them reluctantly as 
 our canoes go by. But it is also diversified by tall grass and 
 reeds, through which we have to force our way. If we catch 
 sight of a canoe in the distance, we hail it eagerly. Here and 
 there are villages, or rather hamlets, thinly scattered, and almost 
 lost in the expanse. We do not pass one of them by : we take 
 time to have a little talk with the people, who are glad to 
 see us ; and to sing a hymn to them. 
 
 The first evening we reached Katuramoa. It is a wretched 
 straggling village, the huts congregated on two parallel slopes 
 of sand separated by a marsh which is drying up. But, as
 
 J895] shrine of KATURAMOA 595 
 
 you know, it is one of the sacred spots of the country, 
 and one of the principal shrines to which the Barotsi make 
 pilgrimages. The very soil must be trodden with veneration, 
 and strangers there may not speak above their breath. 
 
 Katuramoa was formerly the capital of Mboho, the first 
 king of the Barotsi ; but being situated on the river-bank, it 
 was ruined and carried away by the stream. It disappeared 
 long ago. He himself is not buried on the spot where his 
 tomb is shown. The legend relates that the real grave, the 
 site of which is no longer known, was found one day open 
 and empty. The divining bones certified, without any contra- 
 diction, that Mboho, when in the other world, took it into his 
 head to move elsewhere ; they indicated the spot he had chosen 
 and since then, it is thither that people resort to consult the 
 manes, close to a village which has inherited the name of the 
 ancient capital. 
 
 Mboho enjoys great authority in the country. He presides 
 at all the national councils, and at the foundation of each new 
 capital. Nothing is done without him. It is to him that the 
 Nalikuanda owes its first visit every year. Hence, when, this 
 year, Lewanika, instead of conforming to the established usage, 
 invited the missionaries to make an excursion with him in the 
 royal boat in a different direction,^ it was in his mind and 
 in the eyes of the people a significant sign of the times, an 
 indication that the old national customs were falling one by 
 one into desuetude, to give rights of citizenship to Christianity. 
 
 Had it been necessary, I could have convinced myself of 
 this by questioning the guardians of this tomb : " You profess 
 to interpret the oracles issuing from the tomb. Explain to me 
 how you hear them." 
 
 "We hear nothing," they said, with apparent frankness; "but 
 it is our duty to make the national traditions and customs 
 respected, and submit to the desires of the national chief" 
 
 Liomba (Mokamba) went a great deal further in a speech 
 he addressed to them. With a boldness that astonished me, 
 he said, " And you think I am still going to pray at Mboho's 
 tomb? Why did you not run after me, the Liomba, to 
 seize me the moment I set my foot on the ground ? It was 
 
 ' See end of last chapter.
 
 596 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 because, to us, to the one who addresses you, these customs 
 are, as you very well know, the ruins of an old deserted 
 village, and nothing more. What ! you of the common 
 people throw your dead into the fields, you hide your graves, 
 and say that to approach them is to attract the greatest of 
 misfortunes ; and then, your kings, who are men like any 
 others, you bury in the middle of a village ! Of those who 
 prayed to other gods, you make gods in their turn, whether 
 they have been good or bad ! Well, know henceforth that 
 these were men like any others, like you, like me. They are 
 dead ; their bodies are decayed, eaten by worms, like those of 
 their slaves ; but their souls are gone to their Creator and their 
 Judge." 
 
 It was at a meeting in the evening that he spoke like this — 
 one to which our hymns had attracted a hundred and fifty or 
 a hundred and sixty persons. 
 
 The next day, after a journey of three hours across country y 
 we arrived at Libonda. This village has its traditions like 
 Katuramoa ; for it was founded by the daughter of Mboho, 
 Boanjikana, who bore the title of queen, Khosi ea Mosali. 
 
 The king is expected in these parts for one of his great 
 hunts. As soon as our canoes and my white umbrella were 
 seen in the distance, the villagers thought it was he, and at 
 once began to shout the royal salutation with all the force of 
 their lungs, while our men screamed themselves hoarse in their 
 efforts to undeceive them. So we had to submit to this desecra- 
 tion of royal honours, and had a good laugh afterwards at the 
 expense of these poor people and their mystification. However, 
 they could not help laughing just as much themselves. Katoka, 
 the king's sister, is chieftainess of Libonda. She does not live 
 there, and only goes there very seldom ; nevertheless, she has 
 an establishment there worthy of herself, and well kept up. 
 When we had installed ourselves in her vast court, we visited 
 the village from house to house, as at Katuramoa. We arrived 
 thus at the house of a venerable man, nearly blind, who talked 
 to us about the good old times. He had known Livingstone, and 
 pointed out the spot where he had camped, which still retains 
 his name. When we spoke to him of the Saviour, he listened 
 attentively, grew pensive, and then said, " It is just what Nyaka* 
 
 ' The Doctor.
 
 i89S] A LITTLE MISSIONARY 597 
 
 said to the Makololo ; but the chiefs would not hear of it. 
 And now, where are they ? " 
 
 Most of the men were out and away, performing various 
 forced labours. This did not prevent our having a fine meeting 
 in the evening, chiefly of women and children. I remarked 
 with astonishment the spirit with which they sang the very 
 hymn I had intended teaching them, " Bonang, sona, fihile " 
 (adapted from the English " The great Physician now is here "). 
 " But you know it already ! Who taught it to you ? " 
 " It was Bangueta," cried several voices at once ; " and we 
 know others too." 
 
 This Bangueta is a child of about thirteen, whose father had 
 brought him to school at Lealuyi. He was one of the first 
 to declare himself for the Lord, but not one of those who 
 inspired us with most confidence. During the holidays, he 
 fell ill at his parents' house ; he obstinately refused to let them 
 pray to the gods or practise heathen rites for his recovery. 
 " Send for the missionary's medicine, pray to the God Who is 
 the only living and true one, and I shall get well." And, as 
 a matter of fact, he did recover. I had the details from his 
 father. This dear child has succeeded in teaching some hymns 
 to the women and young people of Libonda, and this was one 
 of them. How heartily the refrain was taken up ! — 
 
 Sweetest Name on mortal tongue, 
 Sweetest carol ever sung : 
 Jesus ! blessed Jesus ! 
 
 How sweet it will be to sing that Name above in the home 
 of holiness and glory, when we shall see His glorified Person, 
 and understand the length and breadth and depth and height — 
 yes, all the immensity of His love ! 
 
 Several of my young men spoke earnestly, but with tact. 
 The next day at six o'clock, all hastened together again to 
 hear us singing, in spite of the cold. Libonda is surrounded by 
 villages ; it is a centre almost made for our sixth station — when 
 we get the man. 
 
 On Wednesday, May 9th, we set out for Lepakae. The 
 journey was a laborious one, the canoes having to force their 
 way through tall grass. We passed several little villages, each 
 of which has its story ; for this is the cradle of the nation.
 
 600 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [i895 
 
 landscape. But, alas ! the locusts have not respected them ; 
 they have so shorn their heads, that, at a distance, one would 
 take them for so many cabbages stuck on the tops of long 
 poles. Not very poetical, certainly ; but — there they are ! 
 The arborescent vegetation which begins to show itself here, 
 and which, for the Barotsi, marks the limit of their plain, is 
 absolutely devoid of any tropical character. The plain does 
 not terminate so abruptly as at Senanga, its southern extremity, 
 where the river flows confined, or rather framed, between wooded 
 hills. Still, it is not long before we perceive, on the right and 
 left, low hills running parallel to the river, and converging at 
 the Rapids of Sapuma ; but they do not narrow in the bed — its 
 width is not diminished. We still find some Barotsi villages on 
 the banks ; but these are the last. We are entering the district 
 peopled by the Mamboe. 
 
 This tribe, which speaks a dialect of the same tongue as the 
 Barotsi, is a link between these latter and the Balunda and 
 Balubale, who live still farther away. Their villages are 
 scattered along the river, generally hidden in the woods at a 
 little distance. The Mamboe say that they emigrated to this 
 country at the same time as the Barotsi ; they come from the 
 north-east, from the banks of the Kafue, in the neighbourhood 
 of the Mankoya and the Mashukulumboe, where the greater 
 part of the tribe is still to be found. 
 
 They are intrepid hippopotamus hunters, and have a passion 
 for this adventurous life. Their little canoes, two or three yards 
 long, and just wide enough to squat in, are to them almost what 
 the horse is for the Arab of the desert. You should hear their 
 wonderful tales in the evening in camp, when all the young 
 men, eyes fixed and mouths gaping, are hanging on their lips. 
 
 We went to spend our first Sunday in one of their villages 
 at Noyo's. We met some travelling Barotsi there, and people 
 also came from the neighbourhood, so that we had a good 
 congregation. I made our young men speak ; and one of them, 
 a Moshukulumboe, who promises to become a " son of thunder," 
 closed with these words, uttered in passionate accents : " I tremble 
 for you ; you are lost, lost, as I myself was. Be converted to 
 God, or you will perish hopelessly. I fear for you, my brothers 
 and my sisters in bondage, for Satan deceives you in making 
 you believe that the good news of salvation is only for our
 
 i89S] PREACHING TO THE MAMBOE 6oi 
 
 masters. I tremble for you too, my lords — I who am, as you 
 say, nothing but a dog of a slave, a nothmg. As for you, you 
 puff yourselves up, you imagine that you will enter Heaven 
 because you are great. Know then that slaves — yes, your slaves 
 — have already outstripped you ; and if you do not take care, 
 you will find the door shut. Oh ! let me beseech you ; make 
 yourselves little, quite little, before God ; throw yourselves on the 
 ground, in the dust ! You will say contemptuously, ' Why does 
 this viosJiimane [slave boy] speak to us like this — to us, his 
 masters ? Has he lost his head ? ' Oh, my lords ! it is that I 
 was lost, and Jesus has saved me ! " 
 
 I spent the afternoon at the village — a collection of miserable 
 grass huts which have never been plastered, without floors of 
 trodden earth, without courtyards, lost in the midst of brush- 
 wood and filth. The women and children fled at my approach. 
 It grieved me to the heart. I sat down in the middle of a 
 group of men. 
 
 " Do you know that the king has made a great canal which 
 crosses the whole plain, from Nangoko to the river?" 
 
 " Yes, we were there, at it." 
 
 " Really ! And what to do ? You were no doubt watching 
 and admiring the king, who was digging out his canal all by 
 himself, and who will one day be one of your gods ! " 
 
 They laughed. " The king had summoned the whole nation. 
 Thousands of men worked at it for months and months. It 
 was the same the following year, and yet it is not finished. We 
 have not reached the two lakes which are to supply it, and it 
 dries up during part of the year." 
 
 " Well, look at this great river. Do you know whither it 
 goes ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Have you ever seen it dry ? " 
 
 " Never." 
 
 " Well, it is the work of God, the true God, Whom we preach. 
 No one helped Him. He spoke, and the river began to flow ; 
 and it will go on flowing until God Himself says, ' It is 
 enough ! ' " 
 
 This gave rise to questions and comments. The time flew 
 rapidly by. 
 
 The next stage brings us to Njonjoro's, who, with another
 
 602 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 little Momboe chief, was to serve as our guide and interpreter. 
 Before arriving there, we saw the confluence with the Zambesi 
 of the Loeti, a little river which comes from the west, winding 
 about a great deal (so they tell me) ; then, a little farther on, 
 that of the Kabombo, on the left bank. This is the principal 
 tributary of the Zambesi, formed by two currents of water, 
 which rise in the environs of the late Sekufele's capital. They 
 flow first from north to south, then unite in one wide and deep 
 stream, the Kabombo, which flows directly west, to rejoin the 
 great river. All this I learnt from information which seems to 
 me trustworthy. The panorama has something grand about it, 
 but it is too vast to be photographed. 
 
 Our people pointed out two little canoes which were rapidly 
 approaching the Kabombo, and disappearing under the trees 
 which fringed the shore. " They are running away, the rascals ! " 
 they cried, and instantly gave chase to them, though with no 
 unfriendly intentions. Not long ago, the people fled everywhere, 
 and the villages were deserted at the first glimpse of a Morotsi, 
 and not without reason. It is no longer the case, even in these 
 secluded spots. We found the rowers, with a dozen other fisher- 
 men, peacefully squatting in the wood, drying and roasting some 
 fish. On seeing us, their faces lit up. " Lunula, Moruti ! Lumela, 
 Moruti!^^ There was quite a chorus of " Lumela, Moruti!" for 
 each wanted to make his own greeting heard. " When you told us, 
 that Sunday coming out of the House of Prayer, that you would 
 come and visit us, we doubted it ourselves. And yet you have 
 come ! Lumela, Moruti ! " They eagerly ofl"ered us their broiled 
 fish. Formerly, my people would have seized it for themselves. 
 We spoke to them of the Lord, we sang a hymn to them, and 
 parted from them like old friends. Everywhere we find men 
 who have heard the Gospel at Lealuyi. I feel more and more 
 anxious to see how far the echoes of our preaching have gone. 
 We frequently see strangers at the church, and I often ask 
 myself how much of the Gospel they carry away. I make it 
 my duty always to address some friendly word to them on 
 coming out. We also visit them as regularly as possible. What 
 darkness ! Never mind ; the bread cast upon the waters will 
 return to us when we least expect it. Only let us be faithful : 
 the promise is positive and sure. 
 
 The country is now thickly wooded but little or not at
 
 i89S] BALUNDA AND BALUBALE • 603 
 
 all broken. The majesty of the river becomes unbearably 
 monotonous. It is a lifeless landscape. The wild animals, 
 where they exist, flee before you have seen them, except for 
 here and there a hippopotamus disporting itself, or a crocodile 
 asleep on the sand : elsewhere, perhaps, a king-fisher rising 
 the flutter of whose wings somewhat recalls our own skylarks. 
 After ten o'clock in the morning, all is silent ; everything sleeps. 
 It is the silence of death. Here, however, is the chirp of a bird 
 I have never heard before. It has only two notes, remarkably 
 pure and powerful : sol do ! sol do ! But they suffice it to praise 
 its Creator. 
 
 The country is inhabited by the Balubale on the right 
 bank of the Zambesi, and by the Balunda on the left. To 
 judge by the troops of men and women, who run up everywhere 
 along the banks to see the Moruti — a great curiosity in these 
 parts ! — these regions ought to be fairly thickly populated. 
 But the villages are hidden at some distance in the woods, 
 and the river-banks are deserted. The Balubale and Balunda, 
 according to themselves, have a common origin, and the sources 
 of the Zambesi are their cradle. They have similar customs, 
 although they speak different dialects. Their mode of building 
 is the same ; the hut, which is only quite a small square, six 
 feet each way, has nothing by way of wall but short stakes, 
 scarcely three feet high, driven into the ground, filled in with 
 grass or lined with a mat, and supporting a round, pointed 
 roof.^ No plastering ; no floors of trodden earth ; no enclosure 
 of reeds, which gives the most humble dwelling some degree of 
 privacy. Even in these dens, the poor people still find means 
 to light a fire, and keep themselves warm during the night. 
 Here, as among the Banyai, this is the blanket of the rich as 
 well as of the poor. 
 
 The men, in order to cover their nakedness, wrap themselves 
 carelessly in some deer-skin, which they allow to trail between 
 their legs ; while, as for the women, they, poor creatures, have 
 scarcely the traditional fig-leaf. Both, but especially the men, 
 
 ' Among the African natives of the South, the huts are always round ; a 
 right angle or straight line are things they scarcely comprehend. This is 
 natural enough, for everything they see is round — the sk)', the sun, the moon, 
 the horizon and so on. The square shape increasingly prevails, as one goes 
 farther north.
 
 604 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 expend all their vanity on their head-dress. Each gives free 
 scope to his or her imagination and fancy : one carries a fringed 
 mane, which he has constantly to shake back in order to let 
 his face appear ; another adorns himself with a chignon ; a 
 third with a multitude of little plaits. One has his hair all 
 shaggy, as if in imitation of a forest ; whilst another wears his 
 covered with great lumps, which remind one of ant-hills. They all 
 cover these marvellous coiffures with a superabundance of grease, 
 mixed with ochre or other colouring matter. I can under- 
 stand their pride in them ; it takes several days' hard work to 
 complete them. They are inordinately fond of mpote — a very 
 intoxicating beer made from honey. And, to secure this precious 
 honey, they make hives of bark, which they place in the trees. 
 
 Human life has little value with them ; they barter their 
 slaves as elsewhere they do domestic animals. I am assured 
 that it is a common thing for a boy, a girl, or a baby to be 
 stolen. They throttle it, cover its head with a gourd, and go 
 and sell it in a distant village for cloth, beads, or some such 
 trifle. These are the most superstitious people I have ever 
 seen. Everywhere the eye meets " medicines," charms, and 
 amulets, on the confines of the village, in the market-place, and 
 in the huts, as well as on their persons. On every hand one 
 finds little altars made of reeds, and here and there a miniature 
 thatched roof, which shelters some object sacred in their eyes. 
 Nothing is done without consulting the bones. It is thus that 
 these poor creatures, suspicious of everything and everybody, 
 pass their existence in the bondage of fear. 
 
 With them, the power which was formerly concentrated in 
 the hands of a single chief, tends to become ever more and more 
 diffused. A curious thing about it is, that it is not transmitted 
 from father to son in direct descent, but through the son of 
 the reigning chief's sister. Finally, these Balubale and Balunda 
 are now in great measure tributary to the Barotsi. 
 
 Our object was first to visit Sindt^ the great chief of the 
 Balunda, whose actual place of residence is about forty-four 
 miles from the confluence of the Kabombo.^ He had fled from 
 a territory claimed by the Portuguese to Lewanika's country, 
 and under his protection to shelter himself from Portuguese 
 slave-hunters — blacks and mulattoes. 
 
 See page 546.
 
 i89S] SINDE 605 
 
 The news of our visit, which had been first announced 
 by Lewanika's messengers, had been noised abroad. A small 
 Barotsi chief placed here — a prefect, as we should say in 
 Europe — one Siyonda, stopped us as we passed. " Do not go 
 on," he said ; " farther on you will find famine. Stay here 
 for a day, so that we can give you some provisions." Froni 
 the evening on, the neighbouring villagers brought us abund- 
 ance of them ; and the next morning, the chief Kapele, Sinde's 
 brother, was seen, arriving at the head of a long Indian file : 
 it was manioc, sorgho, maize, pumpkins, and our provisions 
 for the journey. Our canoes were filled till they were ready 
 to sink. We passed some hours talking with these worthy 
 people, and explaining the good news of salvation to them ; 
 and then bade each other an revoir till our return. We did 
 not then foresee under what circumstances that return journey 
 would be made. 
 
 We arrived at Sinde's on the 17th. A marsh separated 
 us from his village. The same day, he paid us a visit of 
 welcome, and brought us an immense calabash of nipote. 
 His face fell when I thanked him, but refused it ; and all my 
 people did the same, some because they were Christians, others 
 simply in submission to the king, who has forbidden it. Sinde 
 possessed a herd of barely twenty head of cattle, which he had 
 received from Lewanika. No matter ! hospitality before all 
 things. He sent us tivOy one for myself, the other for Liomba 
 (Mokamba). We accepted one, and sent back the other. " The 
 Moruti is my father," said Liomba ; " we will eat together ; a 
 single animal will be plenty for both of us." Sinde insisted, 
 not understanding the delicacy of this refusal. We insisted 
 too. The chief then sent a little boy, a slave, as a present to 
 Liomba. " You will not have my ox ; at any rate accept this 
 slave." " Thank you," replied Liomba, " I have enough men to 
 serve me. We believers have learnt that we ought not to treat 
 the creatures of God as beasts of burden. Restore this child 
 to his mother ; and if you are determined I should accept 
 something from you, a piece of cloth will suffice, and I shall 
 be grateful." Sinde immediately sent him the printed calico 
 which he himself was wearing. It was certainly a little soiled — 
 it had done its duty ; but one could not take it amiss, for it was 
 the pledge of a warm and generous heart.
 
 ■6o6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 The morass did not prevent me from going with all my 
 people to spend Sunday at the capital of the Balunda. This 
 capital does not amount to much ! On the edge of the forest 
 is a large square enclosure, made of grass tastefully interwoven, 
 which contains the chief's harem : outside are about fifteen huts, 
 scattered about ; and that is all. But if there were a missionary 
 residing with him in a suitable place, this would be altered. 
 
 We sat down under the shade of a tree, the only one in 
 the village, and a very stunted one. They hastily constructed 
 a shelter of mats in front of us for the chief: the village 
 women and the men from the neighbourhood, whom he had 
 assembled, grouped themselves round us, and I began. I ex- 
 plained the Commandments, laying special stress upon some of 
 them. Sinde could not restrain himself from making remarks, 
 some of which were quaint enough. He asserted his rights of 
 life and death over his subjects, and protested against what 
 I said of slavery. He became serious, however, and listened 
 with deference to the testimony of Liomba (Mokamba) and of 
 Taii-ira, forcible as it was, and full of good sense. 
 
 On the 2 1 St, we moored our canoes as near as possible 
 to the village belonging to Mosoandunga, a chief of the 
 Balubale, and Nyakametsi, an intelligent chieftainess of the 
 same tribe. Mosoandunga is the principal chief against whom 
 the Barotsi waged that disastrous war four years ago/ He had 
 made his submission since then ; and in accordance with the 
 orders of Lewanika, his suzerain, he had recently come to 
 establish himself where he now is. I walked eight hours to 
 visit him at his own home (there and back, of course). I had 
 made up my mind to do so, and I think it gratified him. He 
 did not make me dance attendance on him for more than the 
 half-hour necessary to preserve his dignity. To pass the time, 
 I was amusing myself by counting his huts, of which there 
 were in all half a dozen, with their smoky roofs showing above 
 the brushwood, when I heard the deafening noise of a large 
 drum, carried by two men. It was Mosoandunga, who was 
 advancing towards us, escorted by a troop of young men. He 
 is pretty stout ; and as he sat down, his folding-chair collapsed 
 under him. We kept our countenances all the same. When 
 
 ^ See page 468.
 
 i89S] SAPUMA 607 
 
 once the ice was broken by the salutations, we conversed for 
 some time ; and then he collected the people, whom he had had 
 summoned from the neighbouring villages, and whom curiosity- 
 had attracted in great numbers, and we spoke to them of God 
 and of the Lord Jesus. When I told them to kneel down for 
 the prayer, there was a certain amount of hesitation among 
 the women, who were seized with fear. " Never mind," cried 
 Mosoandunga, " we shall only die for a minute ; we know very 
 well what it is ; we have seen how they do at Lealuyi." It 
 was dark when we regained our camp. 
 
 During the morning of the next day, wild cries, and a noise 
 of little bells, accompanied with the sound of the drum, resounded 
 through the woods, and announced from afar the chief Mosoan- 
 dunga. He soon appeared, carried in a hammock at a swinging 
 trot. He came to return our visit, arrange with us to send an 
 express messenger to the great chief Kakenge, to warn him of 
 our arrival, and to send a letter by him for the Brethren,^ who 
 are with his mother, Nyakatoro, with a message for her. The 
 chief's own brother took charge of this important mission, and 
 promised to perform the journey in three days, while we should 
 occupy at least eight. 
 
 Our measures thus taken, we went to spend our second 
 Sunday at Sapuma. Sapuma ! Should one give it the name of 
 Rapids or Fall} There, as at Seoma (Ngonye), and on a for- 
 midable scale at Musi oa Tunya, an upheaval has blocked the 
 bed of the river with a strong dam of igneous rocks. But, in the 
 middle, for a distance of about forty-five feet, the concentrated 
 force of the river has undermined and broken through the dam, 
 and it is through this breach that it rushes in a furious torrent. 
 Fifteen miles higher up, there is a repetition of Sapuma, but 
 on a smaller scale — another barrier of rocks, through which 
 also the river has made a breach in two or three places : this 
 is Yorose. Between these two barriers is an uninterrupted 
 rapid, where navigation is of the most difficult and dangerous 
 kind. In themselves, the walls of rock give a character of 
 grandeur to Sapuma ; but the coast, the river scenery, in short 
 the setting of the landscape, is insignificant. 
 
 VVe spent a blessed Sunday at Sapuma — one of those days 
 
 ^ Dr. Fisher and Mr. Cyril Bird, of the Garenganze Mission, known as 
 Mr, Arnot's.
 
 6o8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895, 
 
 which count in Hfe, and which will also count in eternity. Our 
 meetings were such as one leaves reluctantly. " It is good to be 
 here ! " The Lord was there amongst us ; we felt it. Towards 
 evening, the bands of Balubale, who had heard us spoken of, 
 came out of various parts of the forests, and thus gave us an 
 opportunity of preaching Jesus to them. 
 
 We were reduced to short commons. The people promised 
 to bring us some food for sale early next morning. We waited 
 for them till midday, whilst carrying our canoes above Sapuma. 
 They came at last, but only with a few handfuls of cereals,, 
 which we bought at famine prices. 
 
 We hoped for better things from the chief Senyama, whose 
 place we reached at 2.30 p.m. ; and simply in order to give 
 them time to prepare their goods, we yielded to their impor- 
 tunity, and encamped for the night. I profited by this halt to 
 make a little excursion with Liomba and my boys. The chief 
 lives on the banks of the Kabako, one of the tributaries on the 
 right of the Zambesi. To judge by the broad and deep junction, 
 like that of the Kabombo, one would think it was a large river. 
 Wishing to see a cataract, which we were told was close by, we 
 set out in canoes. It was a curious excursion, which certainly 
 did not lack charm or novelty. We had not gone a mile and 
 a quarter before the river-bed had considerably narrowed. 
 Soon, it became nothing more than a labyrinth of pools, bogs, 
 and streamlets, covered by an impenetrable thicket of mangrove. 
 The paddles were useless. We could only advance by means 
 of grasping the branches and roots which barred our passage, 
 stooping or lying down in the canoe, as occasion arose, to save 
 our heads ; lucky when we did not miss the main stream. A 
 little higher up, the channel deepened, and the stream emerged 
 from the tangle ; but, soon finding it obstructed again, we 
 moored the boat, and made the rest of the journey on foot. 
 
 The villages were numerous, and we lost ourselves in the 
 fields of manioc. The men and women who saw us took to- 
 flight ; but as they were soon reassured, our escort rolled on 
 like a snowball ; and when we arrived at the cataract, we had 
 quite a hundred people following us. Unfortunately, the sun 
 had reached the horizon, and we were obliged to hurry. 
 
 The stream coming from the west, flows over a rocky bed, 
 which slopes suddenly. There is a boiling torrent there, which
 
 l89S] SHORT COMMONS 609 
 
 leaps noisily over the rocks obstructing its passage ; then, at the 
 edge of a gigantic horseshoe wall, it rushes in a pretty cascade, 
 thirty feet high, into a vast and deep basin, where it again 
 grows tranquil. The country is slightly accidcnted. The lines 
 of the wooded hills, breaking in the far distance, seem to open 
 up glimpses into infinity. Needless to add that it was night 
 before we got back. 
 
 The next day, all that I could buy was half a bag of sorghs, 
 and that took up all my time till midday. I will not mention 
 what it cost me in beads, calico, and, above all, patience ! 
 
 We were thus obliged to push on to the Lumbala, another 
 tributary on the right bank. We had been told that it was 
 a thickly populated centre, and that was true. We arrived 
 there on May 29th. I sent to the nearest villages. The people 
 there were all either drunk or drinking, so there was nothing 
 to be had ; and our poor men were still forced to be on rations. 
 It was a very astonishing thing ; for, ever since we left Sapuma, 
 we had been escorted by troops of men and women, flocking 
 together to see the Moruti. We stopped from time to time to 
 tell them the Good News which we have come to preach. 
 They listened, their eyes fixed, necks craned, and mouths gaping. 
 Here, there was a chief preparing his liyunibu — that is to say, 
 " the food of hospitality " ; there, a tardy chieftainess, who kept 
 us waiting for nearly an hour, promising us abundance ! They 
 both arrived with empty hands ; there was no longer any 
 question of food even. It was only a ruse, a wicked device, 
 because they knew that we were famishing. They wanted to 
 see the great curiosity of the day, this double phenomenon, a 
 Moruti who was also a white man. A monster they had never 
 yet seen — two persons in one. Should we repay them with 
 ill-temper ? Poor people ! they themselves are in want. The 
 black clouds of locusts, which have not left us since we quitted 
 Katuramoa, tell us enough. No. It is better, while their great 
 ivory eyes are fixed upon my person, to speak to them of 
 God, of His justice and His love. 
 
 Happily, a right spirit prevails among our people. The 
 prospect of soon arriving at Kakenge's revives their courage. 
 " He is a great chief : at his place we are sure to be well 
 received : we shall forget all about our hunger." Alas ! how 
 little they thought what awaited us ! 
 
 39
 
 6lO ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 We made forced stages : we passed over to the right bank 
 of the Ruena — a little river which curves round from the west. 
 It was somewhere about here that, once upon a time, stood 
 the capital of Kakenge, the great chief of the Balubale/ 
 To-day, the inheritor of this name has removed ; but not far 
 away, for hamlets are scattered or sometimes thickly grouped 
 on the bank ; one sees foot-passengers crossing one another's 
 path, miniature canoes ascending or descending the current ; 
 all is life and movement. Everything tells us we are 
 near it. 
 
 We did, in fact, arrive on May 30th, in the middle of the 
 day, and in suffocating heat. We had been told, " A long 
 way off you will see a great, grand house, very high ; there is 
 not such another in the country. It is the Kakenge's capital." 
 Sure enough, we did see on the top of the hill a pointed roof 
 of thatch, dominating the little huts which scarcely rose above 
 the surrounding brushwood. It was certainly there. 
 
 We anchored the canoes in the midst of a curious crowd, 
 especially of children. After having announced ourselves, we 
 waited long for the chiefs answer. That did not disturb us ; 
 we know that kind. At last it came, and it was brought b}- 
 some middle-aged men. " They know the right way of doing- 
 things at Kakenge's," thought I. 
 
 But without even saluting us, disregarding the most ele- 
 mentary courtesy, these men, in Kakenge's name, and in rough, 
 haughty tones, delivered us the order to cross the river and 
 camp on the opposite shore. What a blow ! For the shade and 
 the fuel-wood, it might have been better for us ; but it cost me 
 much to put the river between ourselves and the people we 
 had come to visit, and that was what I replied. Liomba him- 
 self, and our Barotsi, took the thing as an insult. Kakenge 
 is a vassal whom Lewanika has just invested with his authority. 
 There was bitterness in our first interview, and it left us under 
 a painful impression. 
 
 Half an hour afterwards, the same messengers returned, this 
 time with a mob of young men all armed with guns ! " The 
 chief Kakenge says that, since you wish it, you may stop and 
 
 ' Many of the African chiefs have territorial names, which each adopts as 
 he succeeds to the sovereignty. The title is attached to the dignity, not to 
 the family, and the dignity is elective.
 
 i895] A REBUFF 6ll 
 
 camp here." — " All right ; but what sort of way is this to receive 
 us ? — with gnns ! " After a somewhat heated altercation, which 
 happily I was able to moderate, we obtained the concession 
 that all the guns, which were increasing with every fresh 
 arrival, should be returned to the village. 
 
 This first danger warded off, it was impossible for me to 
 accept the situation, strained as it already was, and so entirely 
 without cause. So I sent one of these men to tell the chief 
 I earnestly requested to see him, and that without delay. He 
 replied that the dignity of a great chief like himself did not 
 permit him to receive a stranger thus ; that he would see, and 
 would send me word in some days if he saw fit. This was 
 crude enough ; and during this time bands of armed men 
 kept coming up from various directions. Night fell ; the drums 
 began to beat ; they fired one gunshot after another ; they 
 shouted and yelled ; it was an appalling hubbub ; the dances 
 had begun, and dances of a character we could not mistake. 
 No one slept that night. However, we were not attacked. 
 
 The next morning, I once more sent the same message to 
 Kakenge, emphasising the fact that it was of all importance I 
 should see him. He replied that he, on his part, wanted to 
 know what I meant by coming into his country with a band 
 of Barotsi without his permission, and without even warning 
 him ; that, before seeing his face, he required Liomba, as much 
 as myself, to pay him the inosapo — that is, the homage, or 
 rather the tax, he exacts from black Portuguese traders who 
 enter his country. 
 
 I referred to the messengers I had sent him, to the letter 
 I had asked him to forward with my message to his mother 
 Nyakatoro. I to)d him I was not a merchant, nor even a 
 traveller, but a Moruti, and that I had only come into his 
 country to teach the things of God. I added that I would 
 not refuse to make him a present when I should see what 
 manner of reception he accorded me, but that I would never 
 consent to pay him the inosapo of the Mambari, so he could 
 look on that as settled once for all. Thus the whole morning 
 passed in parleying. Kakenge ended by appearing to yield ; and 
 without making any further attempt to exact the famous i/iosapo, 
 he bade us to the lekhotJila. He was there, throned on a stool, 
 draped in a thick blanket of coloured wool, under the shade of
 
 6l2 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 an enormous blue cotton umbrella, held by a slave. The place 
 was full of men, decked out in their war-paint, and surrounded 
 by bundles of guns. The circle opened before us, only to close 
 again behind, and they made us sit down in the blazing sun, 
 opposite to, but at a distance from, the chief. I saluted him, 
 and so did my people ; he responded only to me, and we 
 studied each other for some minutes. 
 
 I tried to explain clearly the object of my voyage, insisting 
 on the fact of the messengers I had sent him. Unfortunately, 
 my Mamboe interpreters were paralysed with fright, and my 
 words had to pass by six mouths — six new editions — before 
 they reached him. Kakenge was not in a mood to listen to 
 my explanations, which he treated as lies. He roughly inter- 
 rupted me, and himself broke into a passionate speech which 
 no one could interpret to me. " What does he say ? " I asked 
 of Liomba. " Oh, he is full of anger ; he is insulting and 
 threatening us." His face and gestures, as well as the anything 
 but soothing attitude of his people, said it sufficiently ; and I 
 took full cognisance of it. 
 
 He kept us there more than an hour, roasting in the sun ; 
 and when he had worked off his effervescence, he suddenly rose, 
 and disappeared hastily into the court of his harem. Thus 
 ended this interview on which I had so counted. 
 
 My people, who for the most part understood the language, 
 were terrified. All were gloomy and silent ; each vv'as entirely 
 wrapped up in his own thoughts. Sinister rumours, moreover, 
 were flying from mouth to mouth. Two of my men had 
 contracted blood-brotherhood with some Balubale ^ ; and these 
 new brothers, faithful to inviolable obligations, had confided to 
 them that Kakenge, out of pure hatred for the Barotsi, had 
 sworn our perdition ; and that if we escaped his hands, he had 
 given orders up the river to have us arrested and massacred. 
 There is a certain chief up that way, named Kalipa, whom 
 Lewanika had deposed in favour of the present Kakenge, and 
 he had undertaken the affair. Liomba was the only one who 
 kept calm. As for Taii-ira, he tried to console his friends in 
 
 ' This ceremony consists in extracting blood from each other's arm, and 
 mixing it up with some porridge, which both parties eat together out of the 
 same dish. Henceforth they are one, and have no more secrets between 
 them. Such an alliance is never known to be broken. — Authors Note,
 
 1895] AT KAKENGE's 613 
 
 misfortune by repeating philosophically that " after all one can 
 only die once." Others, I learnt later on, had secretly laded 
 their canoes, and planned to fly in the night. I had caught 
 several others loading their guns. Moreover, seeing the youths 
 of the village — the men did not show themselves — coming 
 and going in our encampment, sitting on our mats, touching 
 everything, and behaving impudently, my dread was that our 
 young men would yield to these provocations, and thus fire 
 the magazine. All this time we had had no food. 
 
 Our evening meeting was what it could only be in these 
 circumstances. Not one was absent. I exhorted my poor 
 people to put their trust in God. I told them of our adventures 
 with Masonda among the Banyai, and set forth the wonderful 
 deliverance the Lord had granted us. " Well, my friends," I 
 said, " mark my words ; it will be just the same here. God says 
 in His Word that the heart of the king is in His hand, and that 
 as the rivers of water, so He turneth it.^ I have always proved 
 that true in my experience, even when we came into your own 
 country, where we met with more difficulties than you imagine. 
 The heart of Kakenge is as much in the hand of God as that 
 of Lewanika and that of Masonda. To-morrow, you will see, 
 Kakenge will not only send us food, but he will also give us 
 words of peace, and not a hair of our heads will fall to the 
 ground." 
 
 My words may seem audacious and rash ; they were the 
 words of absolute conviction. These men heard them with 
 astonishment. After that, no one thought of running away. 
 No one slept, of course ; all were crying to God, and the heathen 
 more than the others. As for myself, I was calm and confident, 
 because I felt that the glory of my God was at stake. The 
 morning broke ; we had not been attacked. But where was 
 the promised deliverance? 
 
 I sent to Kakenge to say I was going to see him, myself 
 alone. " Wait," he answered me ; " I cannot talk with a hungry 
 man." 
 
 Was this the first gleam of our granted prayer? Not to 
 my people, at any rate — quite the contrary. The whole morn- 
 ing passed thus — waiting. Nothing! The afternoon wore on. 
 
 Prov. xxi. I. See page 28.
 
 6l4 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 Nothing! At last, towards three o'clock, a procession which 
 I saw coming out of the village advanced slowly towards us. 
 It was the promised food from Kakoige ! Baskets of manioc, 
 millet, sweet-potatoes, fowls, and what not ! Every one 
 assembled. 
 
 " Moruti" said an old man, " here are the liyumbu of 
 Kakenge. Now make him a present, worthy of himself and 
 yourself. The other day, you gave him stuff — it was blood- 
 stained " {i.e. red) ; " and he passed it on to his slaves : you 
 added white, and he offered it to the gods ; beads too, and he 
 distributed them to his wives. He himself has had nothing 
 from you as yet : you have beautiful things ; give ! " 
 
 These were delicate matters, and took a long time to adjust. 
 It was not easy for me to please them, for the good reason that 
 I had not provided myself for such an eventuality. At last. 
 I put my hand on a piece of stuff which caught the eyes of 
 my Balubale ; and not to embroil matters anew, I said to my 
 people, " Come, I will carry it myself to Kakenge ; let us go 
 and thank him for his food." Finding I was determined, the 
 baffled messengers of the chief reluctantly placed themselves at 
 the head of the file. 
 
 Seeing us break into the lekhotJda without further ceremony, 
 Kakenge fled into his court. I sent him the stuff, and said to 
 my people, " Now for the royal salutation." Taken aback, they 
 instantly stood in position, and their mighty " Yo-sho " and hand- 
 clappings produced such an effect, that, while the messenger sent 
 to thank me for the stuff was still speaking, Kakenge himself, in 
 despite of his dignity, hurried up, took his stool, and came and 
 planted himself right in front of me. His face was beaming. 
 " Now," he said, " I believe in your good intentions. Forget my 
 ill-temper in these past days. I had sent orders up the river 
 to have you arrested ; I am going to countermand them, and 
 announce you to Nyakatoro. My own people shall conduct 
 you. Only," he added, " do not take the Balubale for women." 
 
 Suddenly, he threw himself backwards, stiffened himself, 
 kicked about, tore himself with his nails, and made frightful 
 contortions, rolled his eyes, ground his teeth, and uttered horrible 
 cries. Then, calming himself with equal suddenness, he rose, and 
 darted into his court. We remained stupefied ! I had thought 
 at first that the man had a fit, and I wanted to fetch some
 
 (^
 
 i895] FAREWELL TO KAKENGE 615 
 
 water ; but all his people had risen, and were uttering savage 
 cries to applaud him. Then I realised that Kakenge was 
 vaunting his courage by imitating a ferocious beast struggling 
 with his prey and devouring it. If I had only had my camera ! 
 
 This last tragi-comic scene would somewhat have tarnished 
 the bright impressions of my companions, if Kakenge had not 
 hastened to send us a friendly messenger with a little food, 
 inviting us to go the next day and "sing at his place." That 
 would be Whit Sunday. God had glorified Himself. I felt 
 moved that evening, when I saw my people round their fires 
 cooking their food. Some were talking, commenting with 
 animation on the occurrences ; the youngest ones were repro- 
 ducing the savage scene they had just witnessed ; others were 
 thoughtful and said nothing. 
 
 Prudence made me renounce pursuing my voyage as far 
 as Nyakatoro's, and that will be understood without further 
 explanation. 
 
 The next day, the Day of Pentecost (Whit Sunday), we went 
 to the lekJiotJila, no longer in disgrace this time. The guns 
 had disappeared ; Kakenge and his men grouped themselves 
 around us ; our singing attracted the women and children of 
 the village ; and there, too, we published the good tidings of 
 salvation. Liomba greatly astonished Kakenge when he told 
 him that he was himself a believer — he, the king's son-in-law, 
 Liomba {i.e. second minister of state). He doubtless thought 
 — and he is not alone in that — the Gospel was for the poor 
 and little ones of the earth ; and not for the great ones, whom 
 God would honour in a special way, or who, perhaps, would 
 honour God by entering His heaven. 
 
 I surprised him in my turn by announcing my decision to 
 turn back. " They will say it is Kakenge who turned you 
 back," he said. But seeing I was quite decided, and that 
 none of his promises could shake me, he absolutely would not 
 have us take leave of him till the next morning. " But we 
 want to start early ! " " No matter, they will wake me ! " 
 And sure enough, very early on Monday, while the tent was 
 being struck and the canoes laded, we ran to his place, and 
 found him waiting for us. I was even able to take a bad 
 photograph of him, in spite of his objections. He gave us 
 another basket of flour. " Come back next year," he said to
 
 6l6 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 me ; " you will find no more obstacles on your road, and you 
 shall take two of my children to teach. I would give them 
 to you to-day, but the road to Lealuyi is still untrodden." 
 I was quite of his mind. Once in our boats, I leave you 
 to guess if our boatmen rowed or not ! The dark spot was — 
 famine. 
 
 As we descended, we learnt that a chief named Kenya, in 
 the hope that we should call at his place, had in fact intercepted 
 our messengers, and even the letter he w^as to have sent on to 
 Kakenge. His village was too far from the river, and we had put 
 off our visit to him till the return voyage. Out of spite, he would 
 send nothing on. That partly explains the attitude of Kakenge, 
 and exonerates him in my eyes. I confess that, when he said 
 he had received nothing from us, I did not believe him. How- 
 ever that may be, I think the foregoing incident contributed 
 not a little to kill inter-tribal animosities and confirm peace. One 
 thing is very certain, and that is that, if I could make this same 
 voyage again later on, even with a band of Barotsi, we should 
 not have the same dangers to risk a second time. 
 
 The unlucky Kenya, learning of our adventures, was beside 
 himself, and raced after us. We could not wait for him ; famine 
 was driving us on, and that prevented us from taking his child 
 (from Mosongo's), to bring him to school, as had been agreed 
 upon. While condemning him, we did all we could, by means 
 of his brother Mosoandunga, to calm and reassure him. 
 
 On our return, our worthy friend Sinde received us with 
 the same hearty warmth as when we went. Unfortunately, 
 a violent ophthalmia, which confined him to his house, pre- 
 vented our seeing him. From the same cause his own son 
 and two of his nephews could not start with us either to come 
 to school. 
 
 From the beginning of the voyage, I had felt a keen anxiety 
 about our boatmen : their conversion was the subject of my 
 prayers ; individual exhortations and pressing appeals had been 
 often addressed to them. Especially had our morning and 
 evening worship always been solemn, and became still more 
 so after our adventures with Kakenge. 
 
 One evening (it was at Sinde's, on June 9th), we were 
 camping in a bushy wood, feebly lighted up by the pale rays 
 of the moon. You might have seen me with all my people
 
 1895] CONVERSION OF BOATMEN 617 
 
 squatting round the central fire of our bivouac. A feeling of 
 deep solemnity had taken hold of us. I had once again 
 addressed serious words to these men, who for six weeks had 
 shared my life in this adventurous voyage. I had ceased 
 speaking, and silence had followed my words. At last a 
 boy burst forth. 
 
 " I am Mosesanyane of Lepakae," he said in a quivering 
 voice. " Last year, I worked at our father the Moruli's ; 
 when my time was up, I ran away with an arrow in my 
 heart. I said to myself, ' Pooh I that will pass off ; it is 
 only a stray shaft ' ; and I thought my wound was healed. 
 But at Sapuma a new arrow pierced through me. When I 
 thought of the great day, when even the kings, the great ones, 
 and the rich, would call upon the rocks and mountains to fall 
 upon them, I asked myself how I, poor and little as I am, 
 could possibly escape. Since then, I have never ceased to call 
 upon the Lord Jesus to have pity upon me. I believe He 
 has heard me, and I am His." 
 
 Another, a grown man, declared that it was our adventures 
 with Kakenge that had opened his eyes, and decided him. 
 " When our father asserted that the heart of even Kakenge 
 was in the hand of God, I said to myself, ' We shall see : is the 
 Moruti a seer? ' That seemed to us just as strange as the word 
 of Jesus to His disciples, ' He sleeps, and I go to awake him out 
 of sleep ' ; and yet the man was certainly dead. Well, yes ! God 
 has worked a miracle. When we were expecting to be massacred, 
 He changed Kakenge's heart towards us. God hears prayers : 
 that is true indeed. After having been driven by terror to 
 prayer, I have begun to pray for the pardon of my sins." 
 
 A third (a terrible character this one, and well known ; the 
 last person from whom we should have expected such language) 
 said, " When in Sapuma I saw my brother-in-bondage, Molonda, 
 declare himself for the Lord, it had such an effect upon me 
 that I fled into the forest, and there I wept and cried like a 
 child. ' Matengenya is very bad,' I said to myself : ' it is true ; 
 he is an adulterer, a thief, a liar ; everybody despises him.' Is 
 he therefore too bad for Jesus to save him ? No. He came to 
 seek and to save the lost. They told me so. I laughed at it ; 
 now I believe it." 
 
 Then there was another ; then yet another, — ten altogether ;,
 
 6l8 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 eleven, counting one of our Mamboe guides, a man whose 
 hair is turning grey. This mighty hunter of hippopotami, 
 astonished us at first by the eagerness with which he listened 
 to what we were saying about the Lord Jesus, and the fire with 
 which he transmitted to others what he had grasped. " It 
 cannot be," we thought, " that he is nothing but a speaking- 
 trumpet, giving out all and keeping nothing. What a powerful 
 evangelist the grace of God might make of him in these dark 
 regions ! " He, too, declared himself for the Lord. In the 
 night, the current carried off his canoe ; he left us to seek it, 
 and we saw no more of him. But if he holds on, we shall 
 often see him at Lealuyi, in spite of the distance.^ 
 
 Finally, there was a twelfth. Yes, indeed ! a dear, interesting 
 young man for whom we had intensely wrestled in prayer. He 
 was there beside me, trembling in every limb and ill-controlling 
 his emotion, his head hidden in his hands. I waited for him, 
 but he said nothing. After the meeting, he sent word to me 
 that he " could hold out no longer," and that he must declare 
 himself to-morrow. He did not do so ; courage failed him : 
 the next day it was still to-morrow. He has not yet done it, 
 alas ! and to-day, for him, it is still to-morrow. 
 
 It was on Saturday, June 1 5th, that we joyfully re-entered 
 Lealuyi, happy to find ourselves once more with the dear 
 Adolphes ; and once more to see Lewanika, our young men, 
 and everybody else ; and filled with gratitude to God, Whose 
 good hand had visibly been upon us during the whole of this 
 six weeks' voyage. 
 
 The next day, at morning service, the church was full. 
 Mokwae of Nalolo was on a visit. Those who profess to have 
 found the Lord Jesus during the voyage rose, and once again 
 individually declared they desired to follow and serve Him. 
 But of these ten, two were not there ; they had turned back, 
 and one, I fear, for ever. May the others persevere ! 
 
 " Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they 
 shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord " (Ps. cvii. 43). 
 
 June 1S95. 
 
 ' By river 373 miles.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 Serious Illness— A Journey South — Levvanika's Farewell — Death of Seonyi — 
 MM. Gibbons, Reid, and Bertrand — A Retrospect — A Grave in the 
 Wilderness — Bulavvayo — A Contrast — A Forecast — The Matabele 
 Rising — The Rinderpest — Mafeking — Kimberley — Cape Colony — The 
 Dutch Mission — The Drummo7id Castle — Farewell to Africa. 
 
 Kazungula, December I2th, 1895. 
 
 I MUST send you a few lines, or you will be thinking me 
 much worse than I am. But I am ill : I have told you 
 of it. I have long been fighting against it, but the complaint 
 increases, and imposes on me the duty of leaving the country, 
 so as not to be a burden to my friends. 
 
 When I started on my journey towards the Sources of the 
 Zambesi, I was even then suffering very much, but I did not 
 wish to confess, even to myself, the gravity of my condition, and 
 hoped that the rest and change of air would bring about an 
 improvement. But no ! On my return, the trouble got worse, 
 to such a point that the question of a journey to Europe forcibly 
 imposed itself It had long haunted me ; but I always regarded 
 it unwillingly, and with a feeling akin to terror. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that we held our Conference 
 at Lealuyi in September. I greatly rejoiced at being able to 
 accommodate all my colleagues at my table. Not only did they 
 all attend with their wives (except M. and Mme. Boiteux, who 
 had but recently arrived, and remained at Kazungula), but we 
 also enjoyed the rare privilege of a visitor's society — Captain 
 Alfred Bertrand, of Geneva (so well known in Switzerland for 
 his travels round the world), who brought us a breath from his 
 own mountains, and a spark of that ardent life which glows in 
 his own city. Rarely have I ever seen a Christian visitor take 
 such an interest as he did in our work. He so initiated himself 
 into every detail of station life — the schools, the kkhothla, public 
 
 619
 
 620 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 worship, house-to-house visiting — that we came to consider him 
 absolutely as one of ourselves, and he took part in our discussions 
 and our home life, just as he felt inclined. And when, on his 
 departure, I asked him not to forget either our Barotsi or our 
 work, I felt that this man had given us a part of himself. 
 Others will speak of his achievements : of himself we can never 
 say too much. 
 
 But I was scarcely ever able to appear at meals with my 
 friends — at those love-feasts, so long looked forward to ; and it 
 was only nailed to my bed that I was able to preside over our 
 sessions and take part in our deliberations. Moreover, my 
 colleagues themselves insisted that I should start for Europe, 
 as soon as ever it was possible. Hence, I could no longer 
 hesitate, and arranged to leave as soon as possible with the 
 Louis Jallas, who were returning home on furlough. 
 
 I earnestly wished to visit the village at least for one last 
 time : this desire of my heart was not granted — a disappoint- 
 ment so much the more bitter as I could not receive visitors 
 except very rarely. I had the sad satisfaction of an interview 
 with Andreas, my poor prodigal son. He will return, I am 
 confident, and his confessions strengthen this confidence ; but 
 for the moment he is still feeding the swine and envying their 
 husks. The king, who came to see me pretty often, said to 
 me one day, " Ah ! if I am not converted yet, it is not your 
 fault. You have given yourself no rest, but you did not give 
 me any either." And later on, as we were about to cross the 
 river, he sent to let me know that he had dismissed two of his 
 wives, giving me to understand that this was to be the prelude 
 to dispersing his whole harem. He was just " flying a kite," 
 I suppose, to sec which way the wind blew — what sort of 
 sensation a radical measure would produce among the chiefs 
 and the nation generally. In my reply, I conjured him not 
 to bargain with God any longer, but to give himself frankly 
 and fully. Pray for him ! 
 
 On October 30th, three years after my arrival, almost to the 
 day, I left Lealuyi, the anthill of Loatilc, which has grown so 
 dear to me, and, borne on a litter, I started, quite alone, for 
 Sefula. The Adolphe Jallas, who wished to accompany me 
 part of the way, were to leave the day after, and wait for 
 me at Nalolo. The journey was a dreary and painful one.
 
 i895] - LEAVING LEALUYI 621 
 
 It was for the first time in my life that I found myself slung 
 like this on a mattress, which the porters jolted at every 
 step. And then the litter broke and had to be mended 
 several times ; night fell, and with it a violent thunderstorm ; 
 the waggon, which had gone on ahead of us, had stuck in the 
 sand some way off. It was midnight when we reached the 
 station : there were no lights in the windows — no one was 
 expecting us — and who was there to expect us, I should like 
 to know ? What a desolation ! Let us not speak of it. I 
 threw myself on my bed, and writhed in agony till morning. 
 I spent two days at Sefula. Apart from my own purely 
 personal experiences, the farewell meetings, very interesting 
 and numerously attended, were a ray of sunshine for me. 
 
 On the Saturday morning, I set out again in my litter for 
 Nalolo. But before my doleful procession started, an express 
 messenger reached me from Adolphe. His body was streaming 
 with perspiration ; his eyes were haggard, his voice hoarse, his 
 lips trembled. I opened the note he held out. What stunning 
 news ! My boy Seonyi had just shot himself dead ! Wishing 
 to shoot some ducks for me, he pulled his gun out of the 
 baggage pile by the muzzle, and of course, according to the 
 incorrigible custom of all the South African natives, it was 
 loaded and cocked. A jerk fired it off, and the unhappy 
 lad received the whole charge in the temple. What a cloud 
 over the beginning of this journey, which everything had already 
 conspired to make so sad ! 
 
 The dear Adolphe Jallas first, and then the Goys and Louis 
 Jallas, lavished every care upon me that affection could prompt. 
 Still, to be ill, alone and without enlightened medical treatment 
 in a country like this, is very painful. God is merciful to His 
 children, and He was to me ; for, besides the friends I have 
 named. He let me discover among my boys, not merely an 
 affection I was already well aware of, but also a devotion I 
 had never imagined could exist, but which has never faltered. 
 Semonji especially proved himself an admirable nurse, foreseeing 
 or guessing my wants, devising all sorts of means to tempt my 
 appetite and cheer my sick-room, and doing it all eagerly, 
 cheerfully, yet noiselessly. He never left me, night or day. 
 What should I ever have done without him ? What should 
 I ever have done if he had wearied of my service ? He implored
 
 622 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1895 
 
 me not to leave him behind me ; and if I go to Europe, he shall 
 go too. I know it is a great risk, but I seem to see God's hand 
 in it so clearly that I have no fears. As to my poor Nyondo, 
 he is married, so there can be no question of taking him. And 
 besides, we are counting upon him for evangelisation. Poor 
 boy ! every time my departure was talked about, he laid his 
 head on his knees, and burst into tears.^ 
 
 I have been three weeks at Kazungula, waiting for the 
 waggon which was bringing my baggage from the Valley. Here,^ 
 I met Captain Gibbons, a member of an interesting expedition 
 about which I must say a word or two. It was composed of 
 Mr. Reid from London, Captain Alfred Bertrand of Geneva, and 
 himself, an officer of the British army. This was Mr. Reid's 
 third or fourth journey in our Zambesi regions. We had met 
 him in 1885, at the moment when our expedition had just 
 crossed the river. He was then hunting hippopotami. A 
 typical English gentleman, full of good humour and good spirits, 
 it was an immense pleasure to have him at our modest table 
 and under our straw roof. Singular to say, he was accompanied 
 by some Batoka boys who had been in our service, and during 
 the meal he called us to admire the melodies they were singing 
 in their camp, which we had ourselves taught them at Leshoma 
 years before. He of course had no idea where they had learnt 
 them. So the seed was not quite lost after all. 
 
 It was at the capital that we met him again with Captain 
 Bertrand, of whom I have already spoken. Since then, they had 
 been exploring the course of the Machile, a little tributary of 
 the Zambesi, and accomplished work which they will doubtless 
 bring before the public and the Geographical Societies of London 
 and Paris. I did not see them again at Kazungula ; they had 
 already started for Europe. Captain Gibbons had remained. 
 He had set himself the task, for which no one could be better 
 
 ' Semonji, one of the school-pupils, must not be confounded with Semonja, 
 an important chief, already mentioned several times. Semonji, after Mme. 
 Coillard's death, was one of the first to show that the Gospel had really 
 touched his heart; and when M. Coillard's illness became serious and chronic, 
 this boy, aged about sixteen, constituted himself his nurse, and accompanied 
 him to Europe. He was placed at Dr. Grattan Guinness's Training College 
 ( Harley House, Bow), where he is now being trained for an evangelist-school- 
 master — a career which his character and conduct fully justify his friends 
 in clioosing for him.
 
 1896] KAZUNGULA 623 
 
 qualified, of mapping out the whole course of the Zambesi. 
 Accustomed to camp life and military discipline, he made but 
 little — too little perhaps — of the comforts of civilised life. 
 Unfortunately, he was ill, and so was I. If he could not come 
 to meals, I dragged myself as far as his tent, and exchanged 
 good-morning with him. I felt very sorry for him, for the 
 weather was rainy, and his tent was in the mud. If he were 
 better, we would converse, as far as I was able, upon the history 
 and customs of the country, and criticise together the beautiful 
 charts he had already begun. What would I not have given to 
 be in better health, and better able to take advantage of this 
 few days' intercourse ! He has great plans and noble ambitions ; 
 he is capable of enduring much and accomplishing much, if 
 God grant him health ; and that is what I desire for him. 
 
 My waggon has arrived at last, and in a few days we shall 
 cross the river. What a difference between the passage to-day 
 and that of 1884 ! Then, not a soul in that immense region knew 
 even the Name of the Lord, not one prayed to Him. Divided 
 into two bands during the transport of our goods, we used to 
 answer each other from one bank to the other, at the evening 
 bivouac, by singing " Tlong ho Yesii " (" Come to Jesus "), and 
 our voices lost themselves in the desert without an echo. 
 
 To-day, let us acknowledge it to His glory, " the Lord hath 
 done great things." This very station of Kazungula, with its 
 great village, where everything is so prosperous, testifies to 
 that. We reckon five flourishing stations, and on each of 
 them a greater or lesser number of Zambesians who profess 
 to have found the Lord. To-day, they are praying here and 
 singing the praises of God. 
 
 BULAWAYO, January 1896. 
 
 Our journey to Kazungula had been exceptionally easy ; but 
 once we had left it, our track was nothing but one frightful 
 quagmire, where our oxen sank to their bellies, often without 
 foothold to give them the slightest purchase on the waggons ; 
 and the latter were continually collapsing, all four wheels at 
 once. Twenty-one days after leaving Kazungula, a distance of 
 only three days' march had been accomplished. So, suffering 
 exhaustion, eating little and sleeping less, I often wondered if
 
 ■624 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1896 
 
 I should live to the end of this journey, so extraordinarily 
 adventurous and laborious as it was. 
 
 But who can weary of repeating that the Lord is good and 
 faithful? How His presence lightens our darkness ! It is then 
 that He teaches us " songs in the night," so that even the slime- 
 pits and solitudes of the desert are changed into so many Bethels. 
 
 Between Pata-matenga and Bulawayo, the journey was much 
 less difficult. When we quitted the Palapye road, we left 
 the deep sands behind, and travelled over firm ground. The 
 country is wooded, with clearings here and there. But it is 
 always the bush, whose thorny thickets obstruct the path, and 
 wage war upon our waggon-tilts. There is nothing, absolutely 
 nothing, in the arborescence to remind us that we are in the 
 tropics. 
 
 From Pata-matenga (a heap of hovels, turned into a farm) 
 as far as Bulawayo, a distance of about three hundred miles, we 
 did not meet a living soul, except for a few Masaroa (Bushmen), 
 who wander in these woods. What is the future of this country ? 
 Will it ever be inhabited, colonised ? 
 
 At present, the deathlike silence, unbroken save by the 
 -creaking of our waggons and the crack of our whips, brooding 
 over these immensities of space, seems to breathe an indefinable 
 spell. One feels a mere atom, impotent and lost. 
 
 One day, as we were going along through a little green valley 
 between low wooded hills, we all halted as if involuntarily before 
 an isolated tree, at the foot of which a thorn hedge encircled a 
 tomb. On the trunk, some friendly hand had removed a square 
 of bark, and roughly traced this epitaph : — 
 
 STUART 
 
 5 JAN. 1895 
 
 He was, it seems, a captain in the English army, full of 
 •energy and love of adventure, who, after having been quartered 
 at Natal, was going back to his native land. But before leaving 
 Africa, he wanted to see the Victoria Falls. He set ofif quite 
 alone, with one or two native porters, and reached his goal. 
 On the way back, he was attacked by fever. Tortured with 
 thirst and forsaken by his boys, he lay down under this tree and 
 died there. A passer-by, or some one who had heard of his fate.
 
 1896] THE LOST LEGION 625 
 
 came and buried him. And do not think that is an isolated 
 case. Far from it. Many sad stories are told about English 
 officers, young men of good family, all full of life and impetuosity, 
 dreaming of nothing but adventures in this land of liberty, but 
 utterly devoid of prudence : they start off hunting, quite alone, 
 lose themselves in the woods, and end by dying of thirst. There 
 they sleep, their names and resting-places alike unknown, until 
 the Resurrection Day. 
 
 As the deer breaks — as the steer breaks — from the herd where they graze, 
 
 In the faith of little children we went on our ways. 
 
 Then the wood failed — then the food failed — then the last water dried — 
 
 In the faith of little children we lay down and died. 
 
 On the sand-drift — on the veldt-side — in the fern-scrub we lay, 
 
 That our sons might follow after, by the bones on the way. 
 
 It was on the 15th [February 1896] that we at last reached 
 Bulawayo.^ I cannot describe the attentions and kindnesses 
 with which I was surrounded. The authorities of the town 
 came to visit me, and arranged with the doctor to urge my 
 staying two or three months at the hospital as their guest, 
 until the latter thought me well enough to continue my painful 
 journey. Every one, to the Sisters of Mercy who have the 
 direction of the hospital, lavished care upon me with a devotion 
 which touched me deeply, and did me real good. And among 
 the little number of personal friends I found there, was young 
 Howard Moffat, who seemed as though he could not do 
 enough for me. He spared neither his time nor his trouble nor 
 his money to provide comforts for his father's friend, and the 
 disciple, not to say the admirer, of his grandfather, Dr. Moffat 
 of venerable memory. 
 
 This was the spot, you remember, where, eighteen years ago, 
 Lobengula held us prisoners. What changes since then ! Here 
 is a town laid out on an immense scale, which promises to 
 become another Johannesburg. You would be astonished at 
 the price of land, and that of provisions generally. And the 
 life one leads there, little as you would believe it, is as agitated, 
 
 ' The proper phonetic spelling of Bulawayo and Matabele is Bolawayo 
 and Matcbelc. They have been left unchanged in the te.xt, so as not to 
 confuse the English reader. 
 
 40
 
 626 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1896 
 
 as busy, as in London. There is no time to see or talk quietly 
 with anybody. It is an incessant whirl. The site of the town 
 covers a vast flat space, surrounded by lightly wooded rising 
 ground, and already sprinkled with villas. What will Bulawayo 
 be in twenty years ? 
 
 * * * * * * ' 
 
 But before we left, dark clouds were mounting on the horizon, 
 sullen rumblings of thunder were heard, and soon a violent storm 
 burst. It was that second Matabele war which during so many 
 months held England in suspense. 
 
 The Chartered Company's Government, sure of having finally 
 crushed the Matabele as a nation, and of having for ever destroyed 
 their military power and prestige, had irritated them^ by con- 
 fiscating their remaining cattle to pay the expenses of the war. 
 (For alas ! we know too well that it is the vanquished who have 
 to pay the cost of their own disasters and humiliation !) And 
 among the African natives, to take away the cattle of one's 
 enemies is always a provocation, and a declaration of war in 
 itself Then came the adventurous undertaking of Dr. Jameson, 
 followed by his check and captivity, which was sounded far and 
 wide among them. No more was needed to turn the heads of 
 these exasperated savages. They held secret palavers to hatch 
 rebellion. But rumours of them reached the Europeans ; they 
 were even discussed when I was in Bulawayo ; the authorities 
 themselves were not in ignorance ; only, no one believed it was 
 serious. We all know the rest ; it is contemporary history. 
 
 The country, too, like all those in these intertropical latitudes, 
 had been visited by several scourges, from which it was still 
 suffering. A few years ago, it was the small-pox which had 
 decimated the population. Now, it was the locusts, who disputed 
 with the inhabitants the scanty harvest which had survived the 
 great drought. 
 
 But a far more general plague than the small-pox, and a much 
 more terrible one than the locusts, suddenly made its appearance, 
 and dogged our steps. This was the rinderpest. 
 
 No one who has not lived in Africa can form the least idea 
 of this awful calamity. It mowed down the whole bovine race 
 in its passage. Hundreds of carcasses lay here and there, on 
 the roadside, or piled up in the fields. In vain did the natives 
 gorge themselves, careless of the consequences. In vain did
 
 1896] THE RINDERPEST 627 
 
 legions of vultures and beasts of prey gather to devour them. 
 They could not overtake the quantity, and the carrion lay there, 
 putrefying everywhere. More than nine hundred waggons, 
 loaded with merchandise, without teams or drivers, stood 
 abandoned along the Bulawayo road. In a few weeks — a few 
 months, let us say — I am assured that eight hundred thousand 
 head of cattle — some say nine hundred thousand — perished in 
 Khama's tribe alone. 
 
 Never within the memory of man had such a thing been 
 seen. The Government grasped the situation from the beginning. 
 But in spite of all the sanitary cordons, and the severest pre- 
 ventive measures, the scourge pursued its course relentlessly. 
 After sweeping over the Zambesi countries and those of the 
 Matabele and Bechuana, the Transvaal and the Orange Free 
 State, it has penetrated into Basuto-land and Cape Colony, and 
 still goes on, spreading consternation and ruin. 
 
 Wars, drought, famine, pestilence, locusts, cattle-plague ! 
 Why so many calamities in succession ? W^hy ? Ah ! without 
 prying into the secret designs of Providence, may we not ask 
 ourselves if by these solemn warnings the Almighty is recalling 
 Himself to a generation that is forgetting Him? Let us draw 
 nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to us. Let us cleanse our 
 hands and purify our hearts. Let us humble ourselves in the 
 sight of God, and He shall lift us up. He will bring good out 
 of evil and light out of darkness. 
 
 Even from the economic point of view, the dark cloud will 
 have its silver lining. The black race, and the great majority of 
 farmers, all those whose chief wealth consisted in horned cattle, 
 are ruined. May we not reasonably believe that honest and 
 honoured work, agriculture and industry, will receive a fresh 
 impulse, and will thus open up new sources of wealth ? Rail- 
 ways are now a necessity. Already the one which starts from 
 Cape Town is rapidly advancing towards the interior. By the 
 end of 1897 it will have reached Bulawayo, w^hile that of Beira 
 will come as far as Salisbury. And then ? 
 
 As for the Louis Jallas and myself, we can only bless God 
 and adore His ways. A fortnight's delay on our journey, and 
 we should have found ourselves, even before reaching Bulawayo, 
 in the midst of the rinderpest, and in the midst of the war — 
 stopped short, no matter where, finding it impossible to move
 
 628 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1896 
 
 and at the mercy of these terrible Matabele, for whom brigandage 
 and massacre are pleasure trips. 
 
 " The good hand of our God was upon us." Everywhere along 
 our way, we found friends, who overwhelmed us with kindness. 
 There was the noble chief Khama, whose friendship (now of 
 twenty years' standing) has always been so precious to me, 
 and whom I found totally unchanged and unspoilt by his visit to 
 England. How delighted he was to tell me about all the wonders 
 he had seen and the kindness he had received ! But next to his 
 audience of the Queen, his most vivid and agreeable recollection 
 was of the evening he spent at Mr. Chamberlain's house, 
 witnessing conjuring tricks. 
 
 Then, too, there were the Rev. and Mrs. Willoughby (L.M.S.) 
 and Mr. and Mrs. Williams, and also the magistrate of 
 Gaberones, Mr. Surmon, an old Basuto-land acquaintance, who 
 in this time of difficulty and distress, and for him of heavy 
 work, placed his carriage and mule team at my service for 
 several days, in order to convey me to Mafeking, then the 
 terminus of the railway.^ Neither can I forget the kindness 
 I received from Mr. and Mrs. Speight. 
 
 My young Zambesians opened their eyes indeed, when they 
 entered a real railway carriage for the first time. And when 
 the train moved off, they gasped with astonishment. " But, 
 my father, they haven't even inspanned the oxen yet ! " It was 
 a night journey, and lasted till morning ; but the boys never 
 closed an eye. 
 
 At Kimberley, I was soon installed at the hospital, on the 
 
 • At Palapyethe travellers disposed of their teams and conveyances. M. L. 
 Jalla hired two waggons for the rest of the jovirney, and taking M. Coillard's 
 baggage, followed the main transport road. A few miles north of Mafeking, 
 however, the travellers were stopped at the quarantine station, and their 
 ox-teams shot down on the road, for fear of the rinderpest. Their waggons, 
 of course, had to remain /« situ, along with hundreds of others ; and the 
 contents, embracing all M. Coillard's property, were put in charge of a trader 
 at one of the wayside " stores," but during the Matabele war the cases went 
 astray. Through the energy and kindness of Mr. Whiteley, the merchant 
 whose name has so often been mentioned in these pages, three have been 
 recovered ; but the rest, it is to be feared, have been hopelessly lost, with their 
 contents : photographic negatives, journals, notes of native history, traditions, 
 and customs, philological studies, specimens of native art and industry — in 
 a word, the accumulations of forty 3'ears' labour among various South African 
 tribes.
 
 ^896] CAPE COLONY 629 
 
 same terms as at Bulawayo, thanks to and under the care of 
 Dr. Mackenzie. He is the son of the venerable missionary of 
 that name, whom I had long known. A serious operation and 
 kind nursing set me on my feet again. It was performed so 
 skilfully as to astonish one of our most famous specialists in 
 Paris, and laid me under a debt of profound gratitude to 
 Dr. Mackenzie. 
 
 I must mention one of my hospital souvenirs. One day, 
 the matron entered my room, bringing me a potato on a plate and 
 a rose in her hand. Yes, a rose ! the only one in her garden ; a 
 potato ! the most common — not to say vulgar — of vegetables : 
 two things I had not seen for twelve years ! How good that 
 potato was ; and, still more, how lovely was that rose, and how 
 sweet it smelt ! One needs to have been shut up oneself for 
 weeks together, between the four white walls of a hospital ward, 
 to enter into it. And when I saw the bouquet sent me every 
 day by a lady I scarcely knew, this message of affection went 
 straight to my heart. Now I can appreciate the " Flower 
 Mission " for the hospitals, which I always admired. God bless 
 the Flower Mission ! 
 
 Being too weak to bear the fatigue of a visit to Basuto-land, 
 I had to give it up, to my great regret. Thirty-seven hours 
 by rail brought me to the Cape. At Wellington, I was present 
 at what is called the " South African Keswick," and spent, in the 
 home of Mr. Andrew Murray, and that of his brother-in-law, 
 the venerable Dutch pastor Mr. Neethling, at Stellenbosch, some 
 of those days one can never forget. There I met Mr. Dudley 
 Kidd, of the South Africa General Mission, and my venerable 
 friend Mr. R. C. Morgan, of the CJiristian. It was Mr. Neethling 
 who started among his colleagues, the pastors of the Dutch 
 Church, a subscription of ;^i a piece to procure a carriage for 
 me, and they responded so cordially that he was able to remit 
 the sum of ;^ii5 to me for this purpose. 
 
 A souvenir and a contrast ! Forty years ago, I landed at 
 the Cape. The Synod of the South African Dutch Church was 
 in session there at the time. What prejudices then against 
 the natives, against missions and missionaries ! And yet even 
 then, one saw the first gleams of a new dawn. In this Synod 
 there was one small group of men who possessed the sacred fire, 
 and who were urgincc the Church in the direction of missions
 
 630 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1896 
 
 Mr. Andrew Murray was one. From the different congregations, 
 they had obtained money, but not men. Dr. Robertson, pastor 
 of Swellendam, was sent to Scotland. To his powerful appeals, 
 two young men responded, — a Scotchman, Mr. MacKidd, who 
 died shortly after ; and a young Swiss, M. Gonin, who was 
 completing his studies in Edinburgh at the time. They were 
 accepted ; and a third joined them in Africa — a young Boer, 
 Mr. Hofmeyr, full of zeal and devotion as they were. They 
 founded their first mission to the north of the Transvaal. Later 
 on, a second was planted among those very Banya'i whose 
 needs we had made known ; and, finally, a third, side by 
 side and in perfect harmony with that of the Free Church of 
 Scotland, at Lake Nyassa. 
 
 The Murray family, which is in South Africa what that of 
 the Monods is in France, has already given five or six of its 
 members to these different missions. One of them I must 
 mention, Willie Neethling, whose bright career, already richly 
 blessed, was so soon to be interrupted by his tragic death. 
 He was the son of Mr. Neethling, of Stellenbosch, whose wife 
 is the Rev. Andrew Murray's sister. I had met him near 
 Mafeking. He was then newly ordained, and on his way to 
 occupy his first mission station, at Mochuli (Linchwe's place), 
 accompanied by his sister ; and was, like myself, stopped by the 
 rinderpest. He, full of ardent life— myself, apparently, upon a 
 dying-bed. In the following February [1897], during a furious 
 hurricane, part of the roof of his church had fallen upon him, and 
 he only survived a few hours. 
 
 We who are left behind stand painfully perplexed at seeing 
 these young lives, so full of promise, cut short at the beginning. 
 Do we question God's wisdom ? Not so did he. " God makes 
 no mistakes," he kept repeating with his dying breath. " He 
 is good — so good. Never doubt His love." 
 
 His mother wrote to me, " I received the news on Saturday. 
 The next day was the first anniversary of his ordination. 
 I was going to church, not for that ceremony, but to celebrate 
 his coronation ; for well I know his Lord will crown him with 
 eternal joy." 
 
 We feel humbled and stimulated by the spectacle of this 
 ardent youth, so absolutely, so joyfully surrendered ; and of this 
 mother, whose serene faith, shining through her tears, counts it
 
 1896] THE " DRUMMOND CASTLE " 6^ I 
 
 an honour to give a beloved son to his Saviour, to the heathen, 
 and to death. Be it far from us, the faithless whisper of a 
 Judas, " To what purpose is this waste ? " Nothing is lost which 
 is offered to God, and which God accepts — not even the perfume 
 of this short but beautiful life, poured out to Him. 
 
 To us, all this is a sign of the breaking down of former 
 prejudices : we are looking forward to a time of blessing for the 
 South African Dutch Church, the sister of our own, and through 
 it to the dawn of a new day for heathen Africa. 
 
 Feeling now so much better — indeed, quite well — a terrible 
 temptation seized me to go back to the Zambesi. But how? 
 The rinderpest and the Matabele war together made it impos- 
 sible ! So I embarked. 
 
 At that season, all the steamboats plying between London 
 and the Cape are always full, the places having been retained for 
 months beforehand. My friends hastened to secure a place for 
 me on an intermediate steamer, the Warwick Castle. But when 
 Mr. Cartwright discovered that I should have to occupy a 
 second-class cabin with five other passengers, he did every- 
 thing he could to persuade me to wait a week longer and 
 start in the Dnmimond Castle, and even went to the office to 
 change my place ; but every berth on the Drmnmond Castle 
 was taken. 
 
 As it turned out, I had a cabin all to myself; there were 
 but few passengers, and among them there were a good many 
 Afrikander Christians from the Paarl, with whom we had daily 
 worship and happy intercourse. The weather was superb, the 
 sea calm, and the voyage as enjoyable as heart could wish. 
 
 But we had only been a few days on shore, when we heard 
 the appalling news of the wreck of the Dniviviond Castle 
 at midnight off the coast of Ushant. Only three lives were 
 saved ! 
 
 Sympathy can scarcely find expression in the presence of 
 so awful a calamity and so many tears. May these sorrowing- 
 ones find in Jesus — Himself the Man of Sorrows — the rest and 
 comfort of their hearts ! 
 
 As for myself, how should I not pause to consider and tr>- 
 to comprehend the voice of my God ! After a career of fort>- 
 years, so chequered, and so full of adventures, dangers, and trials, 
 but also of deliverances and blessings, brought back so recentl}'
 
 632 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1896 
 
 from the brink of the grave, escaped from the ravages of the 
 rinderpest and the massacres of the Matabele, rescued as it were 
 from shipwreck, and given back as by a miracle to the health 
 which I no longer even hoped for, I ask myself if it be not that 
 my Master still has something for me to do, whether in Europe 
 or in Africa.
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 AFRICA has had her vaHant missionary pioneers, English 
 and American, German and French — men whose names 
 Ave, their successors, can only pronounce with profound venera- 
 tion. " There were giants in those days." One of them, 
 M. Arbousset, when he first set foot on African soil, beheld the 
 mighty ramparts of Table Mountain towering above him. To 
 his eyes it symbolised the power of that paganism he had come 
 to attack in the name of his God ; and he exclaimed, " Who 
 art thou, O great mountain ? before Zerubbabel thou shalt 
 become a plain" ^ 
 
 And as, leaving this land of the negro, where I have so long 
 laboured and suffered, I contemplated that same formidable 
 pile, melting in the distance and sinking from my sight, I 
 seemed to hear the voice of my God above the tumult of 
 my thoughts and recollections, recalling His promise, " The 
 mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but My 
 kindness shall not depart from thee." 
 
 Yes, the promise has been made good, " All the promises of 
 God in Him are Yea, and in Him Amen."" 
 
 Pioneer work necessarily bristles with difficulties. Never 
 yet has the Gospel made a triumphal entry into any country 
 with flying colours and by a royal road. By the door and the 
 dungeon of a prison it entered our old Europe ; by the manger 
 of Bethlehem, by the agony of Gethsemane, by the shame of 
 Calvary and the death of the Cross, it was manifested to the 
 world. The Lord Himself, in sending out His disciples, did not 
 promise them anything else. " Behold, I send you forth as 
 
 1 See Zech. iv. 6, 7, R.V., " This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel '" 
 <= the scattered in Babylon), and the parallel passage in Jer. 11. 24-26. 
 - 2 Cor. i. 20. 
 
 633
 
 634 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1897 
 
 lambs among wolves." " They shall deliver you up to be 
 afflicted . . . and persecuted." " Ye shall be hated of all 
 men." " Ye shall be beaten, and ye shall be brought before 
 governors and kings, for My sake." " The disciple is not above 
 his Master." " In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be 
 of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." 
 
 Such have been our own experiences. Difficulties have 
 often risen before us, many and menacing : all, one by one, 
 never all at once, have been smoothed away and overcome. 
 Often they have sprung up where we least expected them^. 
 But to find ourselves first borne forward on a wave of popular 
 sympathy, and then misunderstood and forsaken at the very 
 moment for action by those whom we esteemed and on whose 
 co-operation we were relying, has not been the least among 
 them. 
 
 Moreover — will it be believed ? — the eclectic character of our 
 mission has not opened to us the doors of as many hearts as one 
 would have supposed, and it has closed many, both at home 
 and abroad. In foreign countries, in England especially, where 
 works of every kind have so greatly multiplied, it is increasingly 
 difficult to obtain a hearing. On the one hand, we are regarded 
 as respectable beggars ; on the other, as wandering children, 
 supported, loved even, but not quite approved of. Among 
 certain circles in France to-day, as then, it is precisely the purely 
 evangelistic nature of our work with which we are reproached. 
 " What national interests," people ask, " have we in Basuto- 
 land, in Barotsi-land especially? Why do you not speak to 
 us about our own colonies — about Mare, Tahiti, the French 
 Congo, and Senegal ? " To-day, it is Madagascar which, like a 
 burning house, absorbs the attention of our religious public. 
 I well understand it. How could it be otherwise, when one 
 sees such a great and noble work, one with such a glorious 
 past, threatened by the intrigues of men whom France has 
 expelled from her own borders, and for whom the end justifies 
 the means ? But people go further, and with regard to Basuto- 
 land some even have not hesitated to pronounce the words 
 abmidon, exchange. As if one would so lightly abandon pros- 
 perous gold or diamond mines for the sake of exploiting others 
 whose rightful owners have been expropriated by the caprice 
 of politics ! — as if one could barter Churches like chattels ; souls
 
 i897] CONCLUSION 635 
 
 brought forth in such travail, reared at the cost of so many- 
 sacrifices, families which are bidden by the sacred bonds of 
 spiritual kinship to cling to us, as we to them ! And yet we, 
 wc who are still bearing the bitter loss of 1871, are asked to 
 create in the realm of missions a parallel to that mournful 
 anomaly Alsace-Lorraine ! 
 
 Ought we not rather to believe that God never confronts us 
 with an absolute hnpossibility, and that with new duties and new 
 responsibilities He opens up to us new treasures of His grace ? 
 The greater the share He gives us in His work, the greater is 
 the honour for us. On our fathers, He bestowed the privilege 
 of confessing Him upon the scaffold and the rack. For us, 
 their children, it is no less a privilege from Himself to glorify 
 Him by sacrifices of men and money in the mission field. 
 Madagascar will yet prove the Ecole Militaire of our Huguenot 
 Churches. 
 
 But let us hasten to add that in many, many quarters 
 storehouses of prayer and faith have been thrown open to us. 
 And if the Lord should ask us, as He once asked His disciples, 
 " Lacked ye anything ? " we could but answer gratefully, 
 "Nothing, Lord." 
 
 The Barotsi kingdom lies between latitudes i2"3o'' and 18° 
 south ; 20 and 27"30' longitude east of Greenwich. It embraces 
 the whole basin of the Upper Zambesi west of and including 
 the Kafue River. It stretches from the outskirts of the Kalahari 
 Desert on the south, to the watershed between the Congo and 
 Zambesi systems on the north. Thus it is not a mere province, 
 but an empire, as the old Portuguese themselves called it — one 
 of those native empires now very rare, which have still contrived 
 to maintain their independence. Lewanika is no petty chieftain, 
 but a potentate who possesses the right of life and death over 
 thousands of subjects, and whose authority is recognised by 
 more than twenty-five tribes. Besides being very intelligent, 
 with ideas of justice which are somewhat uncommon among his 
 congeners, he is nobly ambitious of seeing education, industry, 
 and civilisation, as far as he understands them, develop among 
 his people. Like most of the South African chiefs, he too has 
 been influenced by the prestige of " Satory " — of Queen Victoria. 
 Having emancipated himself from many of the customs, super-
 
 636 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1897 
 
 stitions, and prejudices of hig surroundings, he of his own initiative, 
 and not without much opposition, applied for the protectorate 
 of Her Britannic Majesty and of her Government. But harassed 
 as he was, and is, by the civil wars which have devastated his 
 country, and by the encroachments of the Congo Free State, 
 the Portuguese, and the Germans, and also by the sanguinary 
 raids of the Matabele, it was the direct Protectorate of the 
 Imperial Government that he desired. In response to his 
 overtures, the Administrator of Bechuana-land, and Her Majesty's 
 High Commissioner at the Cape, both recommended him to 
 accept the advances of the British South Africa Chartered 
 Company. Believing then that he had found in the latter the 
 direct representatives of the Queen and her Government, he 
 confided to them at once his own interests and those of his 
 people, by making a treaty with them, and conceding mining 
 rights. He did it in good faith. 
 
 It is earnestly to be hoped that the authorities will prove 
 scrupulously faithful to the pledges made in their name, the 
 more so as they represent strength, civilisation, and Christianity ; 
 and will show that for them it is not a mere matter of getting 
 all possible profit out of a country, but of elevating and pro- 
 tecting a people. 
 
 It must, however, be confessed that the contempt with which 
 Lewanika considers himself (and not without some reason) to have 
 been treated up till now, the promises that have been made to 
 him and never kept, the grave errors committed which have 
 more than once compromised the peace of the country, have 
 already sown a deep distrust in the minds of a race which is 
 at once conscious of its weakness and of the danger threatening 
 it — a distrust which should be dispelled at all costs and without 
 delay. 
 
 The future of the country must of necessity depend entirely 
 upon the selection of the administrative staff. May the Imperial 
 Government exercise a wise choice, and may the magistrates 
 show themselves worthy of the Power they represent, and win 
 the confidence of this interesting people in these critical times ! 
 
 The line of mission stations at the present moment slants 
 westward from latitude 15' south beyond latitude 14', and may 
 extend itself indefinitely to the north and the east. The 
 climatic conditions arc such that we might say as the spies
 
 I. ^^
 
 i897] CONCLUSION 6^7 
 
 said about Canaan : " It is a land that eateth up the in- 
 habitants thereof." It is a true White Man's Grave. What 
 we, following Livingstone's nomenclature, very improperly call 
 tJie Valley, is nothing but the bed of a dried-up lake, about 
 twenty-five miles wide : its length is ill-defined, but it certainly 
 extends more than one hundred and fifty miles. It is a 
 denuded plain, traversed by the river, scattered over with 
 anthills and a few clumps of trees which overshadow the 
 tombs of the ancient kings. Submerged for about three 
 months every year, it becomes a lake again ; sudden squalls 
 of wind render its navigation dangerous for the native canoes. 
 The anthills and groves stand out like tiny islets, which 
 become the refuge of rodents and reptiles of all sorts. 
 
 The rainy season generally begins at the end of November, 
 and lasts until March or April. The annual rainfall is about 
 thirty-four inches. The rainiest months are December and 
 January ; the hottest are October and November, which imme- 
 diately precede the rainy season. The thermometer often rises 
 to 113° F. (45° C.) — rarely, but occasionally, higher ; and falls to 
 46° F. (8° C), sometimes to 37*05 F. (3'' C), rarely lower. The 
 difference of day and night temperature varies in different 
 localities, from 18' to 27^ or even 45° F. (I0^ 15°, or 25" C), 
 taking maxima and minima. The altitude is 3,300 feet, and, 
 except for the Batoka country and the region of the rapids, 
 is mostly flat and sandy. The line of low hills which runs 
 parallel to the river, and the dunes which surround the 
 Valley, are covered with forest, or rather scrub, which in no way 
 reminds one of the luxuriant vegetation found elsewhere in the 
 same latitudes, but which nevertheless is very rich in timber-wood, 
 as well as in various secretions. Doubtless industry will turn 
 them to account some day. 
 
 It also abounds in honey and in wild fruits/ which are a real 
 godsend to our Zambesians in time of famine, while the river 
 itself is an inexhaustible resource, on account of the fish which 
 swarm in its waters. Fish, indeed, is one of the most important 
 elements in the food of the Zambesians. They go wild over it. 
 Never yet have I seen them disgusted with any fragment of 
 it they could snatch from a bird of prey, no matter how stale, 
 
 1 In a former note, it was stated that there is no fruit in Barotsi-land 
 — c.z. no cultivated fruits.
 
 638 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1897 
 
 to use no stronger word. Their fishing tackle is extremely 
 various. They make bow-nets (nasses), and large nets of every 
 size, and weirs of reeds, which are private and hereditary 
 property. What they do not eat, they dry ; and I have not 
 the slightest doubt that it is to the abuse of this diet that 
 they owe many of their hideous and fearful diseases. 
 
 It is no part of my purpose, and space would fail me, to speak 
 of the wild animals of these regions. Mr. Selous has already 
 done so, with his unapproached knowledge of the subject. 
 Livingstone, when he reached the banks of the great river for 
 the first time, was struck with astonishment at the incredible 
 quantity of big game. Scarcely twenty-five years later, although 
 it had already diminished considerably, I felt the same astonish- 
 ment on the same spot. But this hunter's paradise threatens 
 soon to disappear ! Among these innumerable flocks, the 
 rinderpest — if one may believe the elephant hunters — has already 
 made terrible havoc, and has thus propagated itself. But it is 
 the native hunters themselves, who, totally destitute of conscience 
 in this respect, are hastening the extermination of certain species. 
 It is high time that strict and intelligent laws should protect 
 what survives ; and one cannot too highly applaud the project 
 Captain Gibbons is promoting — namely, to convert the neighbour- 
 hood of the Victoria Falls into an immense park for the African 
 fauna. 
 
 It is not uninteresting to know that the tse-tse fly is ever 
 tending to recede from the parts it formerly haunted, following 
 the buffalo in its migrations. Beasts and birds of prey, lions, 
 leopards, hya?nas, crocodiles, etc., are, unfortunately, still as 
 common as ever. 
 
 To return to the climate after this digression, for which I 
 ask pardon. What I have said of the country sufficiently 
 explains how malarial fevers are endemic there. The natives 
 themselves are subject to them. Europeans vegetate rather than 
 live ; they get used to it without acclimatising themselves 
 thoroughly. In this connexion, the statistics of the mission 
 have an eloquence of their own. From 1884 to the present 
 day, the staff has numbered 43 persons, 24 Europeans and 
 19 Basuto. 6 have died in the country (3 Europeans and 
 3 Basuto), and 10 have had to leave, all but one or two on 
 account of health. Add to these 12 children (6 those of
 
 i897] CONCLUSION 639 
 
 Europeans, and 6 of Basuto catcchists) and 4 men (all Basuto) 
 belonging to the first expedition, and the number amounts to 22. 
 
 Quite recently M. Goy's death took place at Sesheke, closely 
 followed by that of Mr. Buckcnham, of the Primitive Methodist 
 Mission — two strong and valiant men. To us, the survivors, 
 these last losses have been a great shock. More than ever we 
 feel that the time is short. And, alas ! we have not a single 
 medical man. Young Dr. Dardier, of Geneva, scarcely lived 
 six months : no one has taken his place, and up to the present 
 our appeals have fallen unheeded. 
 
 And now, if we make up the account of these twelve years, 
 what have we to show for it ? 
 
 We cannot take a census of the work of the Holy Spirit. 
 The arithmetic, like the geography, of the kingdom of heaven 
 is not that of this world. If we count every stroke of the axe 
 in the field we are clearing so laboriously, it seems to us that 
 the work makes no progress, and we are tempted to cry with the 
 prophet, " C est pour le vide et le ncant que fai iraiuiillc." ^ And 
 it is the task still before us which is so overwhelming. 
 
 However, if, after these twelve years of labour, we cast a 
 backward glance, there has been a certain progress, which we 
 must take note of, to the glory of God. 
 
 Unquestionably, a great change is already operating in the 
 country, which will become more marked as time goes on : 
 the interdiction of spirituous drinks, of the slave-trade, and of 
 the barbarous practice of " smelling out sorcerers " ; increasing 
 securit}^ of property ; and respect for human life, — tokens of 
 civilisation, of a real need felt by the Barotsi themselves for 
 developing their industrial tastes and talents : there, in various 
 domains, are victories which the Gospel has won over paganism. 
 " And it is not only the good we may have done," as a friend 
 wrote to me ; " it is the evil — and who could fathom it ? — that the 
 presence of the Gospel has hindered." 
 
 In spite of the departures and defections, which have so often 
 distressed us, we have, at the present moment, eight European 
 missionaries (including myself), seven ladies, six native evan- 
 gelists and their wives, all devoted to our dear mission, all 
 united in the intimate bonds of a family. 
 
 But what especially fills me with joy and gratitude towards 
 ^ Isa. xlix. 4,
 
 640. ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1897 
 
 the Lord is tJiat school of evangelists which we have confided 
 to our dear brother Adolphe Jalla, with ten pupils. My poor 
 Seonyi was the eleventh, and Semonji would have been the 
 twelfth : all young men of the country, and the fruit of our 
 schools. 
 
 And then there are M. and Mme. Mercier, who are about to 
 restore the ruins of Sefula, and there open at last our industrial 
 school. Are not these the first streaks of light which herald 
 the dawn of that day when God's glory will shine through this 
 land? 
 
 These five stations, scattered along the river, over a course 
 of more than three hundred miles, form each a centre of 
 education and evangelisation. Although the awakening of two 
 years ago has by no means produced all we hoped for, and 
 although we cannot even yet " bring our sheaves with rejoicing,"^ 
 yet we can at least show a few ears, the first-fruits of the future 
 harvest. With our industrial school, which, by honouring honest 
 work, will break the bands of slavery, and with our young school 
 of evangelists, with the co-operation of our friends and the 
 blessing of God, we look for great things. 
 
 Our annual budget stands actually at from ^2,000 to iJ"2,8oo ; 
 and if up to the present time our resources have responded to 
 our needs, we can without misgivings still count upon God and 
 upon our supporters, even though our expenses necessarily ga 
 on multiplying. 
 
 I cannot refrain from cherishing the hope that my departure 
 from the Zambesi is not final. God can renew my youth,^ 
 and permit me to return one day to this great field of work. 
 And when the harvest has come, those who sowed and those 
 who reap shall rejoice together. 
 
 But still we are only On the Threshold of Central Africa. 
 Each of these pages reminds you of it ! Gaze if you can into 
 the thick darkness of the country itself, and of the regions 
 beyond. What are our five stations? What is that of the 
 Primitive Methodists among the Mashukulumboe, or that of our 
 friends the Brethren on the banks of Lake Bangweolo, where 
 Livingstone fell ? Just enough to enable us to feel and show 
 the darkness which surrounds us ! Sometimes we feel like 
 sentinels lost in these advance posts. 
 
 For myself, after living there and returning, I am haunted
 
 iS97] CONCLUSION 64I 
 
 as by an awful nightmare. Have you never, my dear reader, 
 been struck by the strange curse which from time immemorial 
 has hung over Africa ? What is its origin ? It is a mystery. 
 I see it everywhere : on her coasts, without bays or inlets, 
 swampy and pestilential ; in her rivers, rendered useless for navi- 
 gation by their sandbanks, their rapids, and their cataracts ; 
 in her limitless deserts ; in her forests, with their impenetrable 
 thorn thickets ; and in her barbarous inhabitants, crushed by 
 slavery and superstition. Her very soil is cursed,^ 
 
 Plagues, incessantly renewed, devastate her richest regions. 
 Her own children, in their huts of straw and reeds, only live like 
 birds of passage ; they are not at home. Their very festivals 
 inspire you with melancholy ; their songs are dirges whose minor 
 tones draw tears from your eyes. They are far from thinking 
 that we Europeans possess the monopoly of beauty, and yet it 
 is from our own white colour that they borrow the symbol of 
 happiness and joy : " their hearts are white." But when they 
 suffer and are sad, "their, hearts are black" ; yes, black as their 
 skin. And thus it is that all through their lives, from their 
 birth-kennel to the vulture-haunted Aceldama where their bones 
 decay, they personify, they bear the very stain of misery and 
 suffering. 
 
 Is not this malediction engraved in characters of blood and 
 fire upon her whole history ? Even before knowing Africa, 
 Europe robbed her of her children, and sold them over-seas 
 like cattle in the market. Then, when explorers had brought 
 to light the riches of the country, these Christian nations 
 rushed upon the spoil, divided the continent up between them, 
 and, unknown to the legitimate owners of the soil, disputed for 
 the fragments of this unhappy Africa. 
 
 And yet what claims she has upon our interest ! Even the 
 Psalmist in his vision beheld " Ethiopia stretching out her hands 
 towards Jehovah." She has her part in the promise of salvation 
 and blessing to all nations : her tribes, too, will have their place 
 
 ' It is worthy of remark that the natives themselves recognise this. 
 Lewanika one day asked M. Coillard who were the descendants of the three 
 sons of Noah. M. Coillard replied that it was generally believed the 
 descendants of Japheth had peopled Europe. "And of Shem?" "Asia."' 
 " You need not tell me that Ham was the father of Africa. I knew it long 
 ago." "Why so, Lewanika? '" " Ah, my father — the curse ! " 
 
 41
 
 642 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1897 
 
 in the glorious multitude out of every people, and tongue, and 
 kindred, and nation, whom the Apostle saw before the Throne 
 of God and the Lamb. 
 
 Will not Africa, too, have her day ? When will it dawn ? 
 What will it be ? Amid the confusion of European greed and 
 injustice, what is to become of these black races? We feel 
 the dignity of manhood outraged, and our Christian sentiment 
 revolts, when we hear people callously speculating on their 
 extinction, like that of the North American Indians. Their 
 extinction ! Yes, perhaps, if these Christiajt nations, unmindful 
 of their pledges, trample down the rights of the weak with 
 impunity, and flood them with their eau-de-niort. 
 
 But there is an unconquerable vitality in the black race 
 which gives us hope. In Natal, within twenty years, the Zulu 
 have doubled their number ; in thirty years the Basuto have 
 quintupled themselves, and have overflowed into the Orange 
 Free State and Cape Colony. In this race, we find skill, intelli- 
 gence, the sense of duty, fidelity, love of work, desire for pro- 
 gress : in a word, the essential qualities of mind and heart — and 
 examples of such are by no means rare — which make men, 
 which inspire great movements and noble deeds. Ah! if they 
 could only look forward to the centuries of Christian education 
 which have made us what we pride ourselves on being, who can 
 say what might not be their future ? 
 
 In presence of the immigration, a tide which nothing can 
 stem, and which will soon invade the very heart of this ill-fated 
 continent ; in presence of the mines that are being opened 
 up, and of these European towns now springing forth in the 
 solitudes as if by magic, these railways advancing always 
 farther and farther inland : in the midst of this upheaval, which 
 announces the birth of a new world — upon us, Christians, this 
 noble task devolves, the work of rescue. If we cannot save 
 nations, at least let us save men, let us save souls ! Far be 
 it from us to shirk our responsibility, and repeat Cain's hard 
 speech : " Am I my brother's keeper ? " The good old time 
 has gone by when everything in Africa moved at the measured 
 pace of oxen. To-day the age of steam and electricity has 
 invaded us. The time is short ; let us redeem it. It is high 
 time for the Church to bestir herself; we have played at 
 missions long enough. What we need is to cast aside the mask
 
 i897] CONCLUSION 643 
 
 of all mere religiosity, all that is simply form and tradition, and 
 to live at the height of our profession. Long enough we have 
 patronised the work of God, and have interested ourselves in 
 it as amateurs : what we need to-day is to make it our work, 
 to feel each of us his or her personal responsibility, to spend and 
 be spent for it — not what we possess or can spare, but our very 
 selves. Those who pray upon the mountain must feel their 
 oneness with those who fight in the plain ; and the victory will 
 be certain. 
 
 When we see missionary festivals so run after — when we 
 hear these stirring hymns, these sublime and moving protesta- 
 tions of our compassion for the perishing heathen, and of our 
 entire devotion to Him Whom we acknowledge as Kitig — should 
 we not expect to see a whole crusade on the march for the 
 conquest of the world, singing, " Onward, Christian soldiers " ? 
 One might suppose that all we have and all we hope for had 
 been laid on the altar, waiting for nothing but the fire from 
 heaven. 
 
 And in reality what have we done ? What have we given ? 
 What have we sacrificed ? Where does this spirit of renuncia- 
 tion show itself in the details of daily life ? What discipline are 
 we willing to submit to? What ease, what luxuries, have we 
 denied ourselves? 
 
 Have we not indeed often grudged to God's service even 
 what we could spare ? And, alas ! even this half-hearted zeal 
 soon evaporates. The fit of spasmodic devotion once over, we 
 take back from God what we had professed to give Him ; we 
 return to the idols of our hearts — refuse His claims, and leave 
 the heathen to perish without compunction. 
 
 One could understand this in those who have only tasted 
 the stagnant waters of merely traditional piety. But how 
 explain it in those who really have " with joy drawn water 
 out of the wells of salvation " ? How can they help echoing 
 the invitation, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
 the waters " ? 
 
 " He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him," said 
 the Saviour, " shall never thirst, but it shall be in him a well of 
 water springing up unto everlasting life." 
 
 They have drunk of this spring ; they know the " unsearch- 
 able riches of Christ " ; they are persuaded that " all things are
 
 644 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1897 
 
 theirs, even the deep things of God." I speak to those to whom 
 these expressions signify realities. They feel and acknowledge 
 that they have entered upon a great inheritance. Yes ; but 
 these " springing wells " flow, alas ! like some of the watercourses 
 in our African deserts — only to lose themselves in the barren 
 sands of their own lives. They only live for themselves, and, 
 while knowing the love of Him Who gave Himself for us, are 
 altogether indisposed to pay in their own person, and give their 
 own lives for their brethren. 
 
 But besides the misery of the heathen, and the desire to 
 impart blessings we have ourselves received, we have a third 
 incentive — the greatest of all : the Second Advent of our 
 Lord. 
 
 In our day, is not the painful scene of the Praetorium 
 renewed ? We see Jesus coming forth, wearing the crown of 
 thorns and the purple robe ; and while the people press round, 
 some to mock at His kingly crown, and to tear in pieces, if 
 they could, the seamless robe of His Godhead, others are ready 
 even to crucify Him — the Son of God. 
 
 To this scene succeeds another. The crucified Christ, 
 triumphing over death as He had triumphed ov^er sin and 
 the world, is set down at the right hand of God, alive for 
 evermore. But He has promised to return, and we are expect- 
 ing Him. Yes, "all power is given to Him in heaven and 
 upon earth, and a Name that is above every name " ; " every 
 knee must bow to Him, and every tongue confess that He is 
 Lord." 
 
 He vmst reign ! The times are rapidly fulfilling themselves. 
 " Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will 
 not tarry." It is His own last word : " Surely I come quickly"; 
 and our hearts respond in ardent prayer, " Even so, come. Lord 
 Jesus." 
 
 But we cannot rest in idle contemplation, and content 
 ourselves with hastening His return by the barren ardour of 
 our longings. He desires, He deigns to associate us with His 
 work of redemption — we whom He loves and has redeemed. 
 It is His will that we, and not the angels of heaven, should 
 publish the Good News to all nations, and that we should be 
 His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. And it is 
 His will, moreover, that we should do it in the spirit that
 
 i897] CONCLUSION 645 
 
 animated Himself. " Who, for the Joy that was set before Him 
 endured the Cross, despising the shame." 
 
 And if it be a privilege to work with Him, by Him and for 
 Him, and a privilege to believe in Him, is it not one still greater 
 if He counts us worthy to suffer for His sake ? Truediscipleship 
 brings its own reward, a present and actual one ; — let us say 
 it most reverently — intimate acquaintance with the personal 
 and living Saviour. St. Paul desired to know nothing but Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified. " Yea, doubtless 1 count all things but 
 loss for the excellency of the knozvledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." 
 To know Him — is not that enough to kindle within us that 
 holy passion which sets Him above everything and at the centre 
 of everything, so that we can say with the Apostle, " The love 
 of Christ constraineth us," and to sum it up in one word, " To 
 live is Christ " ? 
 
 Are any who have heard the call of God hesitating, dreading 
 to obey it ? Do you remember Abraham, " the father of all 
 them that believe " ? The Lord said to him, " Get thee out of 
 thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, 
 unto a land that I will show thee . . . and I will bless thee . . . 
 and thou shalt be a blessing." " He obeyed, and went out, not 
 knowing whither he went " ; and his only inheritance was a 
 grave for his wife. Ah! but there was a promise too: "Fear not; 
 / am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." And was 
 it not fulfilled ? Will any who have followed, however remotely, 
 in his footsteps deny that it has been made good to them ? No 
 indeed ! It was God Himself who uttered it, and He keeps 
 His word. 
 
 The climate of Africa is dry — the spiritual atmosphere still 
 more so. It is one in which m.ere sentiment and enthusiasm 
 rapidly evaporate. After these forty years, nothing but realities, 
 proved realities, can remain ; and this is one of them. It is the 
 same Almighty God whose unchanging faithfulness upholds us 
 now. 
 
 " And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the 
 heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, 
 saying, ' In thee shall all nations be blessed.' So then they 
 which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." ^ 
 * # » * * 
 
 Gal. iii. 8, 9.
 
 646 ON THE THRESHOLD OF CENTRAL AFRICA [1897 
 
 To the beggar who knocks at our door, we give a mite out 
 of pity, or to appease our consciences : from the Sovereign we 
 humbly ask the favour of being permitted to offer him a gift 
 worthy of himself. Let us not treat as a beggar One Who is 
 the Prince of the kings of the earth. May we rather crave the 
 honour of offering Him our wealth, our strength, our talents, our 
 future, yes, our whole life — like an alabaster box full of precious 
 ointment, that we would break at His feet ! He alone is 
 worthy of it. 
 
 And after serving Him gladly on earth, we shall serve Him 
 still in glory ; and with overflowing hearts we shall sing amid 
 the great multitude that no man can number around the Throne, 
 " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and 
 riches, and wisdom., and strength, and honour, and glory, and 
 blessing."
 
 The following verses appeared tn The Christian of Febniary 2$th, 1892, and ate 
 here reproduced by the kind permission of the Editor. 
 
 ON THE DEATH OF MADAME COILLARD, 
 ZAMBESIA, SOUTH AFRICA. 
 
 " There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious ; 
 and she brake the box, and poured it on His head . . . and anointed the feet of Jesus 
 . . . and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment." — Mark xiv. 3 ; John xii. 3. 
 
 Far in the land where Afric's sun is burning 
 
 She lies at rest, 
 The clay to earth, the soul to God returning. 
 Vain are our tears, and vain our hearts' sad yearning ; 
 
 He knoweth best. 
 
 Long years of toil, endurance, high endeavour. 
 
 Lost souls to save ; 
 Long years of weeping, hoping, praying ever — 
 Till Death's cold clasp her strongest tie should sever — 
 
 And then the grave. 
 
 No marble slab, her lofty virtues telling, 
 
 Marks her release ; 
 But one, whose heart with anguish deep is swelling, 
 Prepares with loving hands her humble dwelling, 
 
 And all is peace. 
 
 They laid her near the tree, whose branches weeping 
 
 Shadow the mound ; 
 And there, in faith, though eyes be dimmed with weeping. 
 Her life's work done, they leave her calmly sleeping, 
 
 In holy ground. 
 
 And o'er the tomb, in fondest recollection. 
 
 They sing and pray ; 
 And to the heathen preach Christ's resurrection. 
 How she will be restored to their affection 
 
 At His bright day. 
 
 Oh, lonelj^ missionary, comfort taking 
 
 Beneath the rod ! 
 The heathen shall be Christ's ! The day is breaking ; 
 A little while, and then the glad awaking. 
 
 At Home, with God. 
 
 M. A. P. 
 
 647
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 The limits of this work do not permit me to make more than one or 
 two remarks on the Sesuto or rather se-Suto tongue, one of the Bantu 
 group, as it is called. 
 
 This language, in its different dialects, is spoken by the whole vast 
 Bechuana family, which occupies the interior of South Africa from the 
 Orange River northwards. The Zulu family lies parallel to it on the 
 East coast, and the Namaqua, Korana, and Ovambo on the West. 
 Thus it is spoken throughout the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, 
 and Bechuana-land itself On the Upper Zambesi it is the lingua 
 franca of most of the twenty-five tribes which compose the Barotsi 
 Empire, having been imposed upon them by the Basuto themselves, 
 who, under the name of Makololo, led by the valiant chief Sebetoane, 
 subjugated them in a former generation. And although the Makololo 
 have been completely exterminated, their language has survived them. 
 
 It is now generally known among English readers that these 
 languages are inflected by means of prefixes : e.g. — 
 
 mo-Suto, sing., a Basuto native. 
 
 ba-Suto, pi., more than one Basuto native. 
 
 bo-Siito, the Basuto kind. 
 
 se-Suto, ,, language. 
 
 le-Suto, „ country. 
 
 It is worth remarking that, among autocratic tribes, where men 
 are considered the property of the chief, the plural is formed in ma : 
 e.g. ma-Tabele, ma-Tolela, ma-Subia, ma-Mbunda. But }no is invariably 
 the singular prefix. It would be well if English writers could agree to 
 adopt the same method as the French, which is strictly grammatical, 
 and write mo-Rotsi, ba-Rotsi, se-Rotsi, etc., treating the prefix simply 
 as an article, which it is. In the following vocabulary, I am doing this. 
 The se-Suto already possesses a considerable elementary literature. 
 The New Testament, and a collection of hymns, one of the richest 
 known to me in South African missions, have both passed through 
 several editions, and the Old Testament is in its third, besides a good 
 
 649
 
 650 GLOSSARY 
 
 number of educational religious works. The output of these is very 
 considerable and always increasing. The central depot is at Morija. 
 
 Lastly, there is a monthly magazine, edited in se-Suto, Leseli Nyana 
 la le-Suto (Little Light of Lesuto), which was started by M. Mabille 
 twenty-seven or twenty-eight years ago, and which is widely read 
 wherever the language is spoken. 
 
 ba, noun prefix, indicating plural. 
 
 ba-ketu or ba-kwein, compatriots. 
 
 bana-ba-marena, children of the royal family, 
 
 ba-mti (pi.), teachers, hence missionaries. 
 
 ba-shimaiie (pi.), slaves (of lower degree than ba-ilatika). 
 
 ba-tlaiika (pi.), inferiors, servants, serfs. 
 
 Ba nyaiida, = " I don't want to," " I would rather not " (allied to ho nyanda, 
 to have secret forebodings, to murmur secretly). 
 
 bapala {ho bapald), to amuse oneself, to play. 
 
 bo, noun prefix, indicating either (i) the kind, or (2) an extension of mean- 
 ing, whereby a singular substantive is formed into a collective 
 one: e.g. Bo-Arone means " Aaron and the people with him." 
 
 bontsti boo, " that black thing," i.e. the common people, the proletariat. 
 
 bo-rena, the chiefs, the governing bodj'. 
 
 bo-Rotsi, the Valley or low country. 
 
 E, e, " Yes." 
 
 fafse, (i) country, (2) world. 
 
 Gambelia, title borne by the Prime Minister. 
 
 kaviarie, a young girl. 
 
 ka ?netla, all the time, always. 
 
 kamoso, "And to-morrow " = " Thank you": a very characteristic ex- 
 pression, contracted from " Ka moso le ka' ma 7naobane," and 
 implying " I am delighted with what you have given ; evidently 
 you are rich ; please continue your favours." 
 
 kandelela, a greeting (kneeling and clapping of hands). 
 
 ka-ngombio, a small musical instrument on the principle of the piano. 
 A dozen tongues of metal (more or less) are arranged on a 
 board five or six inches long ; it is placed over a gourd to make 
 it sonorous, and played with the thumbs. 
 
 kaofela, all, everything. 
 
 kashaftdi, the king's private office near the kuandu. 
 
 Ke khotse, " I am satisfied " {i.e. with food). 
 
 khosi, chief, one of the nobility (less than morena). 
 
 khothla, same as Ickhothla. 
 
 Ke lernmo, " It is the spear " (z.f. civil war). 
 
 Kc ieiig, " It is well." 
 
 koloi, waggon. 
 
 kuandu, the king's private dwelling in the midst of his harem.
 
 ' ( 
 
 X
 
 V 
 
 GLOSSARY 65 F 
 
 lekhothta, public place or forum where the king dispenses justice; 
 
 forbidden to women except during a case in which they are 
 
 implicated. 
 
 Lcneolo (Sesuto) ) , ^ . . / n., tt , r. • ,.-,,. 
 
 Z.«^^«MSechuana) ^^> ^""''"S. (2) the Holy Scriptures, a) all mstruct.on. 
 
 lefoicfa, harem jealousy. 
 
 li-komboa (plural 01 se-komboa), the king's personal attendants, the 
 officers of his household, who form a court party always in 
 rivalry with the heads of the government departments (se-Rotsi). 
 
 Liomba, Second Minister of State. 
 
 litaola, divining bones, auguries. 
 
 liyumbu, food of hospitality ; a ceremonious gift in kind to a guest. 
 
 lochtc (Sechuana), death. 
 
 Lumela/=" Good day": the universal greeting, meaning " Believe me" 
 (your friend, etc.). 
 
 ma, noun prefix, forming plural. 
 
 ma, mother or matron. 
 
 mabele, native corn, sorgho seed. 
 
 ma-chaba-chaba, numerous tribes. / 
 
 ma-lapa (pi.), courts fenced with reeds. 
 
 mail, money. 
 
 ma-Luti, chain ol mountains. 
 
 m,a-Mbari, half-civilised negroes of Portuguese colonies. 
 
 ma-Mbtmda, a powerful tribe which claims as a speciality a great 
 knowledge of medicines and divining, and possesses the mono- 
 poly of the ordeal poison, the moati. They are not slaves, but 
 subjects to the Barotsi kings. Hence the mistake of travellers, 
 who believed them to be a ruling tribe on a level with their 
 rulers, the Barotsi, and have erroneously spoken of " the Marotsi- 
 Mambunda Empire." 
 
 mande, a valuable shell used as an amulet. 
 
 maori, title borne by the king's wives X§e-Rotsi). . 
 
 Ma rona, " Our mother." 
 
 ma-sole, soldiers (from English). 
 
 ma-tindi, floating islands and bridges ot strong matted rushes (se-Rotsi). 
 
 matsa, desert pools (Dutch vleys). 
 
 Mawe ! a cry of suffering or astonishment (se-Rotsi). 
 
 mo, noun prefix, indicating singular. 
 
 moati, a violent poison, used for trial by ordeal (se-Rotsi). 
 
 mo'ifo, a picked regiment of braves. 
 
 molatlehi, lost (in foregoing text wrongly spelt jnoatUgi). 
 
 mo-Limo (plural me-lhno), God : this title is applied by the natives to 
 tribal deities, e.g. their own deceased kings. 
 
 m,o-Lokit Redeemer. 
 
 monere, father : a title of respect given by the Basuto to missionaries 
 (from the Dutch mynheer). 
 
 mo-Nydi, a ba-Nyai native.
 
 6S2 GLOSSARY 
 
 mo-rena (pi. vta-rena), supreme chief or king (in Scripture = Lord). 
 
 mo-rmeng, the king's residence, the capital. 
 
 mo-Rotsi, a ba-Rotsi native. 
 
 nio-ruti, a teacher : title given to missionaries by the Barotsi. 
 
 mo-sali, a woman. 
 
 mosapo, formal present exacted by chiefs from traders. 
 
 mo-shinia7ie, a slave. 
 
 mo-sito, a forest. 
 
 mo-thlaiika, a serf (in contrast with the aristocracy). 
 
 mothata, india-rubber tree, 
 
 mo-ts7iallc, a friend. 
 
 mpote, intoxicating honey-beer or mead. 
 
 Mnnda, the flood. 
 
 Nalikuanda, title of the king's state barge. 
 
 Natamoyo, the Minister of Mercy, protector of accused persons, whose 
 privilege it is to control the punishments inflicted by the chiefs, 
 and even the king. He can liberate any one at his discretion 
 and without trial. To flee to his house or touch his person is 
 enough to save one. He is chosen by the king, but must always 
 belong to the royal family. 
 
 njoko, monkey, baboon (se-Rotsi). 
 
 nkoli, gourd. 
 
 Ntate, father, " The one who loves me " : a term of affection. 
 
 Ntate oa roiia, " Our father." 
 
 nlho, a thing. 
 
 nyaka, doctor, medicine-man. 
 
 Nyambe, the Supreme God, symbolised by the Sun, and worshipped on 
 certain occasions by all. Nyambe conveys a more exalted and 
 definite idea of the Deity than Molimo, to which dignity the 
 Basuto and Barotsi raise their ancestors. The deceased kings 
 are nielimo, tribal gods, and still rule the nation, but do not 
 bear the title of Nyambe^ which is reserved for the supreme, 
 mysterious, unknown God (se-Rotsi). 
 
 Pnmenoko, " I am satisfied " (/.<?. content, pleased), 
 
 Salatig ! " Rest in peace ! " 
 
 se, prefix, indicating the language. 
 
 se-l'omboa, see li-komboa. 
 
 sekukuncme, medicine horn (se-Rotsi), 
 
 se-Nyai, language of the ba-Nyai. 
 
 serimba, drum or tom-tom, a sort of harmonica, formed by a series of 
 
 wooden notes placed over gourds (se-Rotsi). 
 se-Rotsi, language of the ba-Rotsi. 
 se-tlaping, (i) tongue, (2) lie. 
 sctsiba, a piece of cloth or calico two and a half yards long (the usual 
 
 garment, and practically current coin). 
 Shangwe, Sir, Master — an expression of courtesy (se-Rotsi). 
 Shoalela, the royal salute (se-Rotsi).
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 653 
 
 Taba ke hfc? "What is the news ? " 
 
 laii-ira, "The liou roars." 
 
 Tail-tona, male lion. 
 
 thaka, equals-in-age. 
 
 Thuto, the Gospel. 
 
 tlobolo ca Molimo, God's guns, i.e. sky rockets. 
 
 tsipi, (i) bell, (2) Sunday service. 
 
 Kings of Barot.si-land. 
 
 Sebetoane, migrated from Basuto-land. 
 
 Sekcletti, his son, died of leprosy ) „ , 
 
 , I , , f Co-rulers. 
 
 MafHOchesane, his daughter ) 
 
 Seleka, son of Sekeletu. 
 
 Mpololo, cousin of Sekeletu, deposed and killed iwith all his 
 
 adherents. 
 
 Makololo 
 kings. 
 
 I 
 
 Litta 
 
 Buya-Moamboa 
 
 Moramboa 
 I 
 
 Sepopa 
 
 Robosi Nguana- Wtna 
 
 (Levvanika) (deposed and banished) 
 
 I 
 
 Liiia 
 
 (heir-apparent). 
 
 Mboho 
 
 I 
 Sepopa 
 
 Barotsi 
 
 \, kings 
 
 (incomplete 
 table).
 
 INDEX 
 
 N.B. — Roman numerals denote " Inhoihtc/ion. 
 
 Aaron Mayoro, Basuto catechist, 3, 
 5, 12, 25, 30, 32, 52, 78, 121-123, 126, 
 127, 137, 138, 145, 148, 151, 154-162, 
 165, 170, 177, 178, 191, 192, 199, 204, 
 205, 207, 210, 227, 229, 234, 241, 249, 
 253, 254, 264, 265, 286, 292, 295, 305, 
 316, 321-323. 328, 336-341, 347. 380. 
 
 391- 
 Akufuna or Tatira, sometime king of 
 Barotsi-land, 158, 175, 188, 189, 194, 
 
 195. 199. 307. 333. 342, 345- 
 
 Andreas: Basuto catechist, 3, 12, 30, 
 52, 79, 122, 123, 184, 192. 
 
 Nguana-Ngombe or Andreas, 186, 
 
 207, 234, 235, 237, 249, 260, 270, 277, 
 284, 321, 328, 340, 346, 358, 369, 374, 
 375. 377 ; baptism, 382-384, 390, 391, 
 398, 409, 431. 432, 434, 436; carried 
 off, 442-446, 449, 454, 460 ; apostasy, 
 503. 576, 587, 620. 
 
 Angra Pequena, 184. 
 
 Arbousset, M., pioneer missionary, 
 xxiii, xxiv, 50, 94, 633. 
 
 Arnot, Mr., missionary, 124, 146, 147, 
 
 194, 199- 384- 
 Arthington, Mr., 109. 
 Asser, Basuto catechist, xxv, xxvi, 3, 
 
 5, 12, 17, 23, 30, 31, 52, 57, 64, 66, 
 
 68, 78, 122, 338. 
 Azael, Basuto catechist, 3, 5, 12, 30, 
 
 52, 57, 78, 91- 
 
 Baines, T., explorer, 21, 30, 37. 
 Baldwin, Mr., Methodist missionary, 
 421, 480, 484, 501, 511, 519. 
 
 Balubale tribe, 468, 495, 594, 600, 603, 
 606, 608, 610, 612, 61J. 
 
 Balunda tribe, 546, 594, 600, 603, 604, 
 606. 
 
 Bamangwato tribe, 43, 47, 51, 7^, 128, 
 129, 135, 154. 
 
 Banyai Expedition : First Expedition 
 organised under leadership of M. 
 Dieterlen, Departure and arrest of, 
 xxii, xxiv-xxvi, xxviii-xxx, 14, 81, 115. 
 
 Second Expedition organised 
 
 under leadership of F. Coillard, de- 
 parture, journey, adventures, and 
 results of, xxx, 3-83, 338, 431, 613, 
 630. 
 
 Bapeli, a Transvaal tribe, xxiii, 10, 12. 
 
 Barotsi Expedition : Journey, and final 
 settlement of expedition at Sefula, 
 99-274. 
 
 Mission founded at Lealuyi, 477- 
 
 620 ; Sefula, xxii, xxviii, xxxiv, 3, 
 
 79. 277-474- 
 
 Valley visited by Banyai Expe- 
 dition, 53-72, 82. 
 
 Basuto characteristics, 185, 298. 
 
 disarmament war, 91, 99, 103, 
 
 106, 338. 
 
 Mission, xxii-xxvi, xxviii, 3, 17, 
 
 43. 50, 318, 559- 
 
 wars with Boers, xxiii. 
 
 I Batawana tribe, 219, 220. 
 I Batlapi, a Transvaal tribe, 49. 
 j Batoka tribe, 307, 308, 324, 325, 357, 
 I 387, 423, 425. 454, 455. 527. 529. 555. 
 622, 637. 
 655
 
 6s6 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bechuana, 53, 627. 
 
 Beguin, M. E., missionary, 556, 558, 
 
 562, 564-566, 583, 584. 
 Bell, Major, magistrate, 84. 
 Ben, servant, 145, 149, 150. 
 Benguella, 71, 146, 401, 445. 
 Berea mission station, 85, 123. 
 Berlin Society of Missions, xxiii, xxv, 
 
 17, 78. 
 Berthoud, M., Swiss missionary, xxv, 
 
 14, 16, 17, 77, 79, 80. 
 Bertrand, Captain A., 619, 622. 
 Bihe, 71, 215, 301, 382, 401, 445, 487, 
 
 524. 
 Bisseux, M., 102. 
 Blaamvberg, 75, 76. 
 Blockley, Mr., trader, 140, 147, 186, 
 
 188, 349. 
 Boegner, Mr. and Mrs., 108, 456. 
 Boers, xxiii, xxix, 3, 9, 15, 17, 45, 80, 
 
 81, 100. 
 Bohoa Mountain, 21-23. 
 Boiteux, M. and Mme., missionaries, 
 
 619. 
 Bombe or Banyai. See Banyai. 
 Bomboe Rapids, 364. 
 Bosman, Mr. and Mrs., Dutch pastor 
 
 at Pretoria, 15, 81, 115. 
 British protectorate, of Basuto-land, 
 xxiv; of Khama's country, 190; of 
 Transvaal, 3, 7, 13, 81 ; proposed by 
 Lewanika, 329. 
 British South Africa Company, 384- 
 
 389, 407, 437. 
 Bubye River, 21. 
 Buchanan, Rev. Mr., 78, 86. 
 Buckenham, Mr., Primitive Methodist 
 missionary, 447, 449, 451, 462, 463, 
 501, 508, 509, 511, 519, 639. 
 Bulavvayo, 31, 624-627, 629. 
 Burgers, President, 7. 
 Bushman, volunteer in Banyai Expe- 
 dition, 3, 5, 45, 70. 
 
 Caledon River, 114, 457. 
 
 Calvert, Mr. and Mrs., 85. 
 
 Casalis, M., Basuto missionary, 10, 94. 
 
 Chibi, Banyai chief, 32. 
 
 Chob6 or Linyanti River. See Lin- 
 yanti. 
 
 Clark, Mr. and Mrs,, 128. 
 
 Cochet, Mile. Louise, 105. 
 
 Coillard, Mme., xxx, 3, 6, 7, 21, 25. 
 27-29, 33, 34, 37, 47, 57, 62, 63, 67, 
 69, 71, 77, 79- 83, 108, 131, 137, 139, 
 140, 142-144, 152, X59, 161, 173, 178, 
 183, 187, 190, 195, 202, 233, 234, 236, 
 239, 245-247, 258, 261, 262, 264, 268, 
 272, 273, 277, 285, 286, 294, 322, 329, 
 333. 335, 345-347, 358, 360, 369, 373, 
 376, 378-380, 382, 391, 398, 409, 413, 
 
 414, 427-434, 437, 439-442, 456-459, 
 478, 502, 516, 587. 
 
 Mile. Elise, niece of M. Franfois 
 
 Coillard, 3, 12, 25, 27, 57, 69, 77, 80, 
 108, 131, 139, 142, 155, 178, 186, 190, 
 192, 203, 233, 265, 268 ; M. Jeanmairet 
 husband of. See also Jeanmairet. 
 
 Congo River, 389, 502, 516. 
 
 Creux, M., Swiss missionary, xxv, 14, 
 16, 17, 78-80, 117. 
 
 Dardier, M., 294, 295, 315. 
 
 Deka on River Deka, 70. 
 
 Depelchin, Father, Jesuit missionary, 
 
 198. 
 Dieterlen, M., xxviii-xxx, 3, 10, 13, 14, 
 
 8), 115. 
 Dormoy, M., Basuto missionary, 84, 93. 
 Durban, 8, 103. 
 
 Eclipse ol sun, 245, 251. 
 
 Eleazar Marathane, volunteer in Ban- 
 yai' Expedition, 3, 5, 12, 52, 57, 64, 
 66-69, 70, 71, 91, 141. 
 
 Elia Mapike, Basuto convert, 94. 
 
 Eliakim, Basuto catechist, xxv, 17. 
 
 Famine, 119, 125, 259, 464, 487, 510, 
 
 585. 
 Fire at Sefula, 390 ; prairie, 142, 246, 
 
 557- 
 Flood, annual, 177, 212, 262, 298, 351, 
 
 409, 547-550- 
 Fono, driver in Banyai Expedition, 3, 
 
 69-71, 104.
 
 INDEX 
 
 657 
 
 Franz, member of Barotsi Expedition, 
 
 253. 370, 392. 393. 395. 442, 453- 
 Frere, Sir Bartle, 80. 
 
 Gambella or Chief Minister, 57, 171, 
 174-176, 219, 224, 226, 261, 279, 280, 
 287, 294, 302, 303, 313, 319, 320, 329, 
 
 33O' 333. 356, 387, 388. 412, 449. 451. 
 
 483, 494, 542, 56s, 579. 
 Gibbons, Captain, 622, 638. 
 Goedgedacht, Dutch mission station, 
 
 XXV, 16, 18. 
 Gonin, M. and Mme., 115, 118, 384,630. 
 Goy, M., missionary, 294-296, 299, 302, 
 
 337. 341. 377, 421, 422, 552, 553, 621, 
 
 639- 
 Griineberger, Mr. and Mrs., German 
 missionaries at Pretoria, x.xix, 14. 
 
 Hannington, Bishop, 230, 267. 
 Harrysmith in Orange Free State, 9, 
 
 12, 457. 
 Helmore, Mr. and Mrs., 52. 
 Hepburn, Rev. and Mrs., missionaries 
 
 at Shoshong. 5, 47, 49. 5 1. 52, 73. 74. 
 
 78, 81, 125, 202. 
 Hofmeyr, Mr., Dutch missionary, xxv, 
 
 16, 18, 20, 30, 76, 630. 
 Holub, Dr., 199, 226, 231, 245, 267, 
 
 299, 324, 325- 
 Huguenot Institute, 86, 102, 103. 
 Huguenots, 76, 187, 318. 
 Hunting, 62, 142, 250, 258, 287, 323, 
 
 343. 365. 366, 591. 598, 600, 638. 
 
 Inonge, mother of Levvanika, 570, 571. 
 Inyati mission station, 7, 30, 43. 
 Isaiah, volunteer in Barotsi Expedition, 
 116, 119, 192, 193. 
 
 Jacob Moshabesha, evangelist in the 
 Barotsi Mission, 474, 494, 498, 509, 
 513, 544, 546, 549. 55O' 562, 577, 584- 
 
 Jalla (Waldensian missionaries) : 
 Adolphe, M. and Mme., 382, 384, 
 386, 390, 398, 404, 415, 477, 479, 
 480, 487, 502, 508, 513, 518, 520, 
 540-543, 554, 556, 558, 560-562, 
 
 564-567, 576-579, 593, 594, 618, 620, 
 621, 640. 
 
 Louis, M. and Mme., 294, 295, 
 
 312, 316, 325, 366-369, 380, 396, 
 415, 422, 434, 454, 456, 474, 488, 
 
 489, 532. 533. 554, 555-557. 560, 
 561, 568, 590, 620, 621, 627. 
 
 Jeanmairet, M., missionary in Barotsi 
 Expedition, 107, 108, 112, 122, 123, 
 126, 133, 136, 142, 143, 146-148, 151, 
 154- 155. 159. 161, 178, 180, 186, 
 190-192, 197, 200, 205, 207, 209, 
 227, 229, 230, 245, 265, 268, 312, 
 325. 366-368, 392-394, 417, 452, 456, 
 554- 
 
 Jesuit Mission, 124, 133, 146, 187, 188, 
 190, 198. 
 
 Joel, son of Molapo, 106, 143. 
 
 Johnston, Dr., 445, 454. 
 
 Sir H., 437. 
 
 Jonathan, Basuto convert, 106, 118, 124. 
 
 Molapo, Basuto chief, 106. 
 
 Jons, M. Coillard's servant, 62. 
 
 Josefa, member of Barotsi Expedition, 
 148, 184. 
 
 Joubert, General, 115. 
 
 Jousse, M., missionary, 10, 12, 389, 556. 
 
 Kabako River and Cataract, 608. 
 Kabombo River, 547, 602, 604, 608. 
 Kabuku, Morantsiane of Shesheke, 226, 
 
 236, 307, 308. 
 Kachenje Mines, 252, 254. 
 Kafu6 River, 389, 450, 533, 600, 635. 
 Kaiba, son of Mokwae, 359, 361, 365, 
 
 369, 396. 550. 
 Kakenge, chief, 607, 609-617. 
 Kalahari Desert. 81, 127, 180, 190. 
 Kalangu, Matolela chief, 242, 243, 269. 
 Kalipa, chief, 612. 
 Kalley, Dr., of Madeira, 87. 
 Kamburu, a servant, 186, 207, 234, 235, 
 
 243, 249, 252, 277, 284, 322, 355, 392, 
 
 442, 560, 564. 
 Kan6, desert wells, 130, 134. 
 Kanyanga, chief at Sesheke, 149. 
 Kanyonyo, site proposed for mission 
 
 station, 314, 347, 382, 548. 
 42
 
 658 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Kapakae, village in Barotsi-land, 598, 
 
 599- 
 Karumba, a Barotsi boy, 70, 109, 127 
 
 144, 154, 157, 158, 183,306, 307, 313^ 
 
 314, 349, 383, 394, 400. 
 Katoka, sister of Queen Mokvvae, 285 
 
 329- 335, 377, 440, 514- 536, 596. 
 
 Katuramoa, shrine of a deceased king, 
 343- 408, 409, 542-596, 609. 
 
 Kazungula Ford, a mission station, 
 157-159, 189, 190, 192, 193, 231, 233, 
 234, 245, 268, 294, 315, 320, 349, 368, 
 369, 382, 392, 395, 396, 402-404, 415, 
 416, 424, 462, 487, 518, 527, 533, 540, 
 550, 552, 554-556, 561, 566, 568,575. 
 580, 582, 585, 586, 590, 619,622,623. 
 
 Keck, M., missionary, 554; Mile. 
 Louise, 583. 
 
 Kenya, chief, 616. 
 
 Khama, chief of Bamangvvato tribe : 
 Banyai Expedition received by, 4, 47- 
 
 52, 54, 55, 61, 73- 
 
 Barotsi Expedition welcomed by, 
 
 Khama's kindness to, 121, 124-129, 
 131, 132, 148, 157, 162,388,456,628. 
 
 Government and Christianity of, 
 
 47, 190, 222, 223, 225, 281, 329, 330, 
 381, 388, 437, 528, 564. 627, 628. 
 
 Khosana, volunteer in BanyaT Expe- 
 dition, 3, 5, 63, 69, 70, 139. 
 
 Kiener, Mile., member ot Barotsi 
 mission staff, 394, 395, 409, 415, 425, 
 428, 429, 431, 432, 434, 453, 457, 480, 
 487, 488, 502, 518, 558. 
 
 Kimberley, 85, 174, 507, 548, 555, 628. 
 
 Kobe, chief at Seleka, 122, 123, 127. 
 
 Konkoe, evangelist of Bechuana Mis- 
 sion, 53. 
 
 Kuruman mission station, 49. 
 
 Langalabalele, Zulu chief, 38-40. 
 
 Lealuyi, capital of Barotsi-land, 5, 146, 
 154, 156, 160, 164, 165, 173, 176, 198, 
 214, 216, 218, 224, 233-236, 253, 268, 
 277, 282, 298, 306, 311, 314, 319, 326- 
 329- 337, 340-342, 345, 35 1' 353, 355, 
 360, 374, 377, 382, 385, 390, 408, 414, 
 418, 424, 428, 443, 445-448, 451, 454- 
 
 456, 462, 463, 466,471, 473, 474, 477, 
 520, 525, 539, 541, 550-552, 558-561, 
 564, 566, 567, 576, 584-586, 588, 589, 
 597, 599, 602, 607, 616, 618-620. 
 
 Lekhoa Khoa on Kabombo River, 345, 
 383- 
 
 Lepakae in Barotsi-land, 597, 617. 
 
 Leribe mission station, xxx, xxxi, 3, 6, 
 9-12, 15, 63, 68-70, 80, 83, 84, 94, 
 102, 105, 112, 113, 137, 140, 160, 203, 
 259, 266, 370, 389,431, 433,457, 543- 
 564. 
 
 Leshoma, 54, 57, 62, 63, 67-70, 132, 
 
 134, 139, 141-143, 147, 151, 155. 157- 
 160, 162, 163, 178, 183, 185, 189, 191, 
 192, 195, 204, 206, 207, 226, 227, 231, 
 322, 342, 541, 622. 
 
 Letsuele on Zambesi, 358, 369. 
 
 Levi, evangelist in Barotsi Expedition, 
 116, 118, 119,136, 137, 143, 151, 159, 
 191, 192, 210, 229,265, 312, 316, 338. 
 
 Levvanika or Robosi, king of Barotsi- 
 land, 5, 57, 64, 67, 82, 124, 131, 148, 
 149, 160, 172, 173, 194, 199, 200, 203- 
 209, 214, 216-228, 236, 337, 240, 245, 
 255, 258, 261-265, 268, 271, 272, 278- 
 280, 282-286, 298, 299, 301-308, 311- 
 314, 319, 320, 326, 329-331, 336, 341, 
 342, 344, 345, 350, 351, 353, 354, 356, 
 357- 368-371, 374, 376-378, 380-382, 
 384-389, 394, 400, 401, 404, 407-417, 
 
 421, 423, 424, 432, 433- 436, 437- 440- 
 443. 446-452, 454, 463, 465-472, 482, 
 483, 486-489,491-503, 505, 507,509, 
 510, 514, 515, 525, 528-530, 533-539, 
 542, 546, 547, 549, 553, 555, 559, 562- 
 
 564- 571, 573. 575, 591-595- 598, 604- 
 
 606, 610-613, 618, 635, 636. 
 Libonda on Zambesi, 226, 593, 596, 597. 
 Likokoane, Levvanika's nephew, 347, 
 
 372. 
 Limpopo River, xxix, 3, 6, 20, 72, 74, 
 
 118, 119, 184. 
 Linyanti or Chob6 or Quando River, 
 
 57, 63, 71, 160, 189, 199, 205, 214, 
 
 323- 389- 
 Liomba or Mokamba, 280, 332, 333, 349. 
 See also Mokamba.
 
 INDEX 
 
 659 
 
 Lions, 20, 21, 62, 638. 
 
 Liponkoe, evangelist of Bechuana Mis- 
 sion, 53. 
 
 Litia, son of Lewanika, 280, 286, 335, 
 336, 340, 344, 346, 347. 350. 351. 359. 
 361, 363-365. 374, 375. 378, 384, 390, 
 391- 394, 397, 401, 404, 412, 425, 428, 
 432, 434, 436, 442-444. 449. 452, 454. 
 459. 481, 483. 492. 503- 514. 529. 533, 
 545, 546, 550, 556, 568. 575, 589- 
 
 Livingstone, Dr., 51, 57,60, 62, 65, 163, 
 176, 204, 343, 350, 547, 596, 637, 638, 
 640. 
 
 Loanja, morass, 240, 241, 249, 393, 403. 
 
 Loatil6, sorcerers' hillock, 478, 484, 
 507, 511, 540, 620. 
 
 Lobengula, chief of Matabele, 4, 29, 
 31-46, 51, 78, 190, 222, 529, 532, 625. 
 
 Loch, Sir H., 437. 
 
 Lochner, Mr., agent of British South 
 Africa Company, 384-387, 394, 402. 
 
 Locusts, 585, 626. 
 
 London Missionary Society, xxii, 35- 
 
 37, 47, 74- 
 London, visit to, 88. 
 Loshu Rapids, 167, 198, 365. 
 Lovedale in Cape Colony, 86. 
 Lualaba River, 71. 
 Lumbala, tributary of Zambesi, 609. 
 Lumbe River, 211, 247, 250-254, 370, 
 
 528. 
 Lundi River, 24. 
 
 Mabille, M., xxiv-xxviii, xxxii-xxxiv, 
 
 10, 12, 91, 395, 559. 
 Machado, Major, Portuguese officer, 
 
 117. 
 Machile, tributary of Zambesi, 304, 
 
 357, 622. 
 Mackenzie, Mr. and Mrs., Bechuana 
 
 missionaries, L.M.S., 49, 50. 
 
 Dr. (son of above), 629. 
 
 MacKidd, Mr., missionary, 18, 630. 
 Mad dogs, 340, 349. 
 Mahaha, chief, 161, 195, 313. 
 Maibiba, sometime queen ot Barotsi- 
 
 land, 171, 172, 214, 216, 345. 
 Mama, king, 154. 
 
 Makalaka tribe, 21, 36, 46, 60, 168-170, 
 
 172, 188, 212, 264, 303, 305, 361. 
 Makapane, chief, murdered, 228. 
 Makari-kari Desert, 135. 
 Makoatsa, Khama's envoy, 131, 148, 
 
 157, 162, 181, 388. 
 Makololo tribe, xxix, 51, 54, 59, 61, 66, 
 
 122, 163, 177, 199, 253, 297, 3CJ0, 313, 
 
 372, 470, 496, 592. 597, 598. 
 Makotoko, Nathanael. See Nathanael. 
 Makupakupe tribe, 307. 
 Malan, Major, xxvi-xxviii, xxxii, xxxiii, 
 
 64, 90. 
 Malebogo, chief, 75. 
 Maliankomb6, chief of BanyaV, 22, 24, 
 
 29. 
 Maloutis or Drakenburg Mountains, 
 
 554- 
 Mambari tribe, 261, 262, 382, 401, 524, 
 
 611. 
 Mamboe tribe, 600, 602, 612, 618. 
 Mambova Rapids, 157, 158, 191, 192, 
 
 197, 199, 205, 227, 268, 314, 367,415, 
 
 518. 
 Ma-Mbunda, witch-doctors, 484, 494, 
 
 495; tribe, 374. 
 Ma-Mochesana, daughter of Sebetoane, 
 
 171, 349- 
 
 Ma-Moramboa, chief wife of Lewanika, 
 440. 
 
 Mananzoa tribe, 186. 
 
 Mangete tribe, 246, 249, 257, 262, 268, 
 269. 
 
 Mangoko in Barotsi-land, 548, 549. 
 
 Mangwato, 7, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53, 65, 115. 
 117, 120, 121, 123, 125, 127-129, 134, 
 135, 142, 144, 153. 154, 156, 160, 180- 
 182, 192, 225, 233-235, 280, 281, 306, 
 316, 324, 357, 370, 375, 434, 436, 442. 
 
 453. 503- 
 Maondo, wife of Lewanika, 575. 
 Mapena chief, 75. 
 Marico or Malikoe River, 72, 119, 120, 
 
 125, 349- 
 
 Ma-Ruthi, wife of Aaron Mayoro, 13S, 
 
 196. 
 Masaroa or Bushman tribe, 53, 1 19, 
 
 126, 135, 155, 186, 624.
 
 66o 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Masatoane, chief at Sesheke, 163. 
 
 Mashapatane tribe, 54, 186. 
 
 Mashawana, Livingstone's servant, 343. 
 
 Mashi River, 199, 214. 
 
 Mashona tribes, 323, 518. 
 
 Mashukulumboe tribe, 152, 153, 190, 
 222, 231, 245, 246, 278, 280, 297, 298, 
 305. 307, 310. 312, 313, 324- 325, 340, 
 349. 357. 374. 375. 389. 4or, 425. 436, 
 448, 450, 455, 470, 501, 502, 519, 555, 
 600, 640. 
 
 Masiho, Queen Mokwae's husband, 352. 
 
 Masonda, chief, 4, 24-29, 32, 56, 246, 
 
 613. 
 Massitissi, Basuto mission station, 446, 
 
 498. 
 Masubia tribe, 54, 57, r86, 210, 212, 
 
 213, 235, 321. 
 Matabele, 29, 32, 36-38, 44, 48-51, 56, 
 
 122, 129, 143, 146, 147, 160, 190, 
 
 198, 243, 300, -367, 384, 424, 527, 
 
 528, 530, 532, 626-628, 631, 632, 636. 
 Mathaha or Sefano, rebel chief, 174, 
 
 179, 199, 206, 207, 214-216, 223, 307, 
 
 343. 400, 547- 
 Mathipa, chief of Makalaka, 21. 
 Matolela tribe, 242, 243, 246-249, 252, 
 
 258, 262, 268. 
 Matome, chief, 210, 211, 363. 
 Mboho, first king of Barotsi-land, 595, 
 
 596, 599- 
 
 Mercier, M. and Mme., 640. 
 
 Middleton, Mr., member of Barotsi Ex- 
 pedition, 119, 127, 143, 151, 155, 159, 
 165, 187, 189, 191, 197, 204, 207, 
 231, 233, 234, 239, 240, 248-250, 254, 
 260, 263, 270, 290, 291, 316, 322. 
 
 Moana Mbinyi, shrine of deceased 
 king, 170, 171. 
 
 Moanza, Matolela chief, 243, 244. 
 
 Mochache, high priestess, ']'], 313. 
 
 Moeya-nyana, sorcerer, 282, 285. 
 
 Moffat, 44, 49, 625. 
 
 Mokamba or Liomba, Second Minister 
 of State, 428, 503, 546, 587-589, 594, 
 595, 605, 606, 608, 610-612, 615. 
 
 Mokanao, Levvanika's attendant, 521, 
 545- 
 
 Mokena, wife of Litia, 568. 
 
 Mokhele, chief, 165, 168, 174, 175, 236. 
 
 Mokuamboyo, chief, 493. 
 
 Mokumba, chief, 57, 58, 191, 193, 197, 
 
 235. 237, 294. 
 Mokumoa-Kumoa, chief, 210, 211, 218, 
 
 220. 
 Mokwae, queen of Nalola, 214-216, 
 
 224, 226, 236, 282, 285, 298, 301, 306, 
 
 311, 312, 318, 319, 329, 334, 340, 344, 
 
 345. 347. 350-353. 359-361. 369. 377- 
 380, 382, 385, 396, 397, 416, 421, 423, 
 
 424 433. 438, 467. 492, 514, 536-538, 
 540, 533. 559. 565. 584. 618. 
 Mokwe Tunga, queen's consort, 335, 
 
 351. 352, 359- 
 Molapo, chief of Basuto-land, xxx, II, 
 
 38, 39, 84, 92-94, 457. 
 Monar6, Lewanika's servant, 400, 401. 
 Monde, daughter of Mokwae, 318, 347, 
 
 348, 372. 
 Morantsiane, official title of the chief 
 
 of Sesheke, 58, 62, 64, 145, 147, 156, 
 
 191, 203, 204, 206, 226, 236, 238, 245, 
 
 307, 308, 320. 
 Moremi, chief at Lake Ngami, 49, 53, 
 
 122, 219, 220. 
 Morija, Evangelistic Training School 
 
 at, xxnii, xxxiii, 9, 10, 12, 109, 116, 
 
 127. 375- 404. 498. 560, 580. 
 Mosala, chief, 146, 148. 
 Moselikatse, father of Lobengula, 39, 
 
 59- 
 Mosen6ne or Zacchaeus or Zakea. 
 
 See Zakea. 
 Moshesh, Basuto chief, xxii, 84, 92. 
 Mosikili, island, 240, 241, 243. 
 Mosoandunga, chief of Balubale tribe, 
 
 606, 607, 616. 
 Motondo River, 255, 522, 566. 
 Mozila, chief, 36, 40, 43, 51. 
 Mpalira, island, 57, 58, 66, 157, 162, 367. 
 Mpololo, chief of Makololo, 59, 592. 
 Mpololoa, princess, 334, 335. 
 Msidi or Mosili, 384, 445. 
 Murray, Mr. Andrew, 102, 629, 630. 
 Musi oa Tunya. See Victoria Falls. 
 Musson, Mr., merchant, 121, 181.
 
 INDEX 
 
 66 1 
 
 Naliele on Zambesi, 58, 62. 
 
 Nalikuanda, royal barge, 354, 409, 410, 
 440, 497, 549. 550, 592, 595- 
 
 Nalolo, second capital of Barotsi-land, 
 171, 173, 212, 224-226,304, 306, 315, 
 329- 350. 351. 353, 359- 360, 369, 396, 
 448, 467, 468, 536, 537, 539, 540, 558, 
 562, 564, 565, 577, 579. 583, 618, 620, 
 621. 
 
 Narubutu, Levvanika's councillor, 319, 
 388, 400, 408, 571-573. 599- 
 
 Nashintu, chiefess, 313, 470, 471. 
 
 Nata River, 135. 
 
 Natamoyo, Minister of Mercy, 214, 302, 
 
 319. 333, 400. 
 Nathanael Makotoka, 12, 84, 105, 457, 
 
 564. 
 Neethling, Mr., Dutch pastor, 629, 630. 
 Ngami, Lake, 37, 48, 49, 51, 53, 59, 81, 
 
 219. 333- 
 Ngonye Falls, 167-169, 194, 264, 357, 
 
 361, 362, 497, 607. 
 Nguana-Ngombe or Andreas. See 
 
 Andreas. 
 Nguana-Wina, nephew of Sepopa, 57, 
 
 82, 145. 
 Nguanetsi River, 22, 23. 
 Njoko River, 245, 251, 253, 364, 393, 
 
 528. 
 Njonjoro, chief, 601. 
 Nolianja, wife of Lewanika, 562, 563. 
 Norea, wife of Jacob the evangelist, 
 
 544, 563. 584- 
 Nyakametsi, chieftainess of the Balu- 
 
 bale, 606. 
 Nyakatoro, mother of Kakenge, 607, 
 
 611, 614, 615. 
 Nyambe, the Supreme God, 535. 
 Nyamonto, 23. 
 Nyanikoe, 29, 36, 41, 60. 
 Nyassa, Lake, 384, 630. 
 Nyondo, Mashukuluraboe slave and 
 
 convert, 374, 375- 436. 481, 534- 545, 
 
 548, 549, 576, 622. 
 
 Orange Free State, xxiii, xxiv. 
 
 Pakalita, Mokwae's Prime Minister, 
 murder of, 215. 
 
 Palapye, Khama's capital, 490, 555, 624. 
 Pata-matenga, 132, 143, 154, 156, 187- 
 
 189, 198, 199, 231, 324, 333, 624. 
 Paulus Kanedi, evangelist, 446, 449, 
 
 456, 483, 490, 494, 498, 499, 509, 513, 
 
 558, 577, 584. 
 Philoloka, daughter of Aaron Mayoro, 
 
 178, 192. 
 Pietermaritzburg in Natal, 8, 103, 104. 
 Portuguese influence, 100, 381, 382, 
 
 546, 604, 611. 
 Potchefstroom in Transvaal, 75, 81. 
 Pretoria, xxix, 3, 13, 72, 79-81, 114, 115, 
 
 160, 206, 207, 231, 233. 
 British proclamation at, 13. 
 
 QUANDO. See Linyanti River. 
 Queen Victoria, 198, 329, 386, 427, 
 628, 635, 636. 
 
 RataU, chief, 146-148, 157, 160, 163, 
 193-195, 206, 211, 228, 229, 236, 239. 
 
 Reid, Mr., 622. 
 
 Religious customs of Barotsi, 169, 170, 
 171, 202, 211, 21S, 224, 237, 272, 
 278, 282, 303, 343, 399, 455, 474, 
 
 535. 595, 598- 
 
 Rhenish Mission, 103. 
 
 Rinderpest, 627, 631. 
 
 Robosi or Lewanika, king of Barotsi- 
 land. See Lewanika. 
 
 Ruena River, 343, 418, 610. 
 
 Ruyi River, 254-256, 528. 
 
 Sabi River, 36, 43. 
 
 Salisbury, Fort ; or Walta, 45, 490, 
 
 627. 
 Salis-Fanson, Baron de, Belgian Consul 
 
 at Pretoria, 14. 
 Samoi'nda, son of Nashintu, 313, 470. 
 Sana, temporary capital, 408, 409, 412. 
 Sapuma Rapids, 600, 607-609. 
 Saul's Poort mission station, 118, 119, 
 
 184. 
 Schwellnus, Mr., German missionary, 
 
 16. 
 Seajika, 70, 109, 154, 200, 202, 306, 
 
 307, 313, 314, 326, 341, 350. 354,
 
 662 
 
 INDEX 
 
 355. 35S, 369, 382, 383, 400, 423, 
 
 443. 503- 
 
 Sebane, girl pupil, 334 ; married to 
 Franz, 453. 
 
 Sebetoane, chief of Makololo, xxix, 
 59, 66, 171, 349. 
 
 Sechuana dialect, 49. 
 
 Se^le, Isaiah, xxiii. 
 
 Sefula in Barotsi-land, 177, 189, 190, 
 197, 226, 257, 259, 260, 262, 266, 269, 
 272, 277, 290, 294-296, 303, 309, 310, 
 315, 316, 320, 334, 335, 339, 340, 344, 
 346, 351. 358, 366, 368, 371, 373, 374. 
 380, 382, 385, 392-396. 398. 403. 404. 
 411-415, 429, 434, 444, 445, 451, 454, 
 
 456, 470, 477. 479-484, 487-489, 499- 
 503, 508, 510, 511, 513-516,518, 520, 
 521, 538, 540. 541- 546, 548, 549' 551, 
 558-561, 564-566, 577, 580, 584, 586, 
 589, 590, 592, 620, 621, 640. 
 
 Sekeletu, chief of Makololo, 59, 66. 
 
 Sekhosi, a Zambesi chief, 240, 264. 
 
 Sekololo language, 179. 
 
 Seleka, villageof, 5, 74,78-80, 121-123, 
 127, 192. 
 
 Selous, Mr., 323-325, 638. 
 
 Semonja or Sebeho, chief, 564, 577, 
 578, 586, 587, 594. 
 
 Semonji, convert, 621, 622, 640. 
 
 Senanga in Barotsi-land, 212, 361, 600. 
 
 Seoli, Minister of State, 332, 349, 352. 
 
 Seoma on Zambesi, 167, 168, 212, 214, 
 226, 227, 361, 362, 368, 369. 
 
 Seonyi, native convert, 560, 621, 640. 
 
 Sepopo, king of Barotsi-land, 48, 56, 
 238, 268, 301, 346, 350, 372, 524, 563, 
 
 591, 592, 599- 
 Serotsi language, 151, 162, 179, 279, 
 
 540, 545- 
 
 Serpa Pinto, Major, Portuguese ex- 
 plorer, 71, 152, 161, 169. 
 
 Sesheke mission station, 5, 57, 58, 
 60-62, 64, 66, 68, 69, 71, 141-154, 
 156-159, 161, 162, 167, 168, 173, 174, 
 178, 188-195, 197, 199-204, 206, 209- 
 211, 224, 226-228, 231, 233, 234, 236, 
 238-240, 244-246, 249, 252, 253, 257, 
 259, 262, 264, 267-269, 272, 273, 283, 
 
 284, 290, 294, 301, 304, 307-313, 315, 
 322, 325, 328, 333, 338, 341, 342, 347, 
 355- 358, 366-368, 370, 371, 375, 382, 
 385, 386, 390, 392-394, 403, 413, 416, 
 417, 421, 423, 438, 461, 487, 518, 527, 
 540, 541, 550, 553, 554-556, 585, 590, 
 639- 
 
 Sesuto language, 16, 33, 41, 49, 51, 54- 
 56, 59, 62, 65, 114, 125, 151, 152, 279, 
 384, 398, 401, 432, 447, 482. 
 
 Setoka language, 151. 
 
 Shepstone, Sir Theophilus, 7, 13, 14. 
 
 Shiloh, mission station at, 43. 
 
 Shoshong, 5, 41, 43, 47, 71, 73-76, 78-81, 
 125, 129, 135, 143. 
 
 Silva Porto, Portuguese trader, 146. 
 
 Sinde, chief of Balunda tribe, 546, 604, 
 605, 616. 
 
 Slavery, 65, 152, 200, 207, 228, 305, 327, 
 382, 397, 401, 435, 446, 550, 639; 
 slave-market, 471. 
 
 Small-pox, 473, 483, 484. 
 
 Stech, Mr., missionary, 76. 
 
 Stellenbosch, South African School of 
 Theology at, 15, 86, 103. 
 
 Stewart, Dr., 86. 
 
 Sykes, Mr., missionary to Matabele, 
 35-38, 44. 
 
 Tahalima, chief, 147, 148, 157, 160, 
 163, 236, 307. 
 
 Tati gold field, 45, 71, 181, 187. 
 
 Tatira. See Akufuna. 
 
 Taii-ira, Liomba's friend, 594, 606, 612. 
 
 Termites, 290, 491, 500, 523, 558. 
 
 Thaba Bossiou, Basuto mission station, 
 xxiii, XXX. 
 
 ThateU, chief, in Blaauwberg, 75, 76. 
 
 Theron, Mr., Dutch pastor at Beth- 
 lehem, 114. 
 
 Thomas, Mr., missionary to Matabele, 
 44. 
 
 Transvaal, 3, 17, 100. 
 
 Trek-menschen, 81. 
 
 Trial by ordeal, 282, 288, 342, 372, 376, 
 400, 639. 
 
 Tse-tse fly, 54, 139, 193, 240-242, 244, 
 249' 312, 393, 638.
 
 INDEX 
 
 663 
 
 Uganda, 504, 505. 
 
 Valdezia, Swiss mission station, 5, 
 16, 70-73, 77-79. 122, 124. 
 
 Victoria or Musi oa Tunya Falls, 54, 
 55,60, 132, 133, 143, 151, 169, 185, 
 324, 507, 556, 588, 607, 624, 638. 
 
 Victoria. See Queen Victoria. 
 
 Waddell, Mr., member of Barotsi 
 Expedition, 127, 136, 143, 151, 155, 
 189, 205, 234, 239, 240, 248-250, 258, 
 260, 270, 290-292, 310, 322, 336, 346, 
 369. 371, 378, 380, 394, 397, 402, 
 409, 431. 432, 434. 435. 453. 455. 
 480, 497, 501, 507, 512, 514, 516, 
 519, 521, 523, 526, 539, 543, 546, 
 558, 580. 
 
 Wall, Harry, hunter, 358, 366. 
 
 Walta. See Fort Salisbury. 
 
 War with Makololo, 66 ; with Mashu- 
 kulumboe, 297-305, 310; with Balu- 
 bale, 468-473, 495 ; with Matabele, 
 
 527-531- 
 Ware, Mr., 356-358, 360. 
 Warren, Sir Charles, 85. 
 Warrior-ants, 485, 491, 502, 549. 
 Warubita, chief, 174, 175. 
 Weitzecker, Mr. and Mrs., iio-ii2. 
 Wellington, 102, 629. 
 Westbeech, Mr., trader, 132, 133, 187, 
 
 188, 190, 21 1, 219, 222, 226, 301, 315, 
 
 349. 356. 
 White ants. See Termites. 
 Whiteley, Mr., 121, 127, 128, 135, 181. 
 Witchcraft, 33, 282, 284, 372, 376, 478, 
 
 494. 524. 
 
 Zakea Mosenene, evangelist, II2, 
 
 123, 127, 184. 
 
 Zambesi, 48, 51, 53-59, 65, 68, 71, 73, 
 80-83, 86, 90, 93, 106, 108-113, n8, 
 
 124, 126, 129, 132, 134, 139, 140, 142- 
 146, 153-156, 162, 163, 165-167, 170, 
 179-181, 185, 186, 189, 190, 192-197, 
 202, 203, 205, 207, 212, 224, 230, 231, 
 233, 234, 238, 242, 251, 252, 254, 256, 
 266, 268, 272, 281, 294, 297, 313, 315- 
 318, 320, 323, 325,328, 336, 338, 348, 
 349. 355. 357, 358, 360-368, 378, 380, 
 384, 389, 395, 396, 403, 408, 409. 414, 
 416-418, 420, 425, 429, 432, 445, 450, 
 460, 462, 465, 469, 479, 484, 490, 504, 
 507, 519, 526, 528, 540, 544. 551. 552, 
 554. 556, 560, 561, 567, 579, 580, 587, 
 591, 602, 603, 608, 619, 622, 623, 627, 
 628, 631, 635, 640. 
 
 Zeerust, 125. 
 Zimbabye, xxv, 46. 
 Zoutpansberg Mountains, 16, 75. 
 Zulu, xxiv, 23, 40, 104, 150. 
 
 Printed by Hazdl, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Ayltsbury.
 
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 " Professor Ramsay brings not only his great experience as a traveller and archaeologist, 
 but the resources of an ingenious mind, and a lively style. The book is, like everything 
 Professor Ramsay does, extraordinarilj' alive. It shows everywhere personal learning, 
 personal impression ; it has the sharp touch of the traveller and the eye-witness."— 7"i>«es. 
 
 Fifth Edition. With Maps and Illustrations. Svo, cloth, I2s. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 BEFORE A.D. 170. 
 
 By W. M. Ramsay, M.A.. D.C.L., Professor of Humanity in the 
 University of Aberdeen. 
 
 " This volume is the most important contribution to the study of early Church History 
 which has been published in this country since the great work of Bishop Lightfoot on the 
 Apostolic Fathers. It is, too, unless our memory fails us, without a rival in any foreign 
 country." — Guardian. 
 
 With Si.x Maps, Specially prepared. Eighth Thousand. Svo, cloth, 15s. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE 
 HOLY LAND. 
 
 By George Adam Smith, D.D., Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis, 
 Free Church College, Glasgow. 
 
 " Professor Smith is well equipped at all points for this work. He is abreast of the latest 
 findings of Scripture exegesis, and of geographical survey, and of archaeological exploration ; 
 and he has himself travelled widely over Palestine. The value of the work is incalculably 
 increased by the series of geographical maps, the first of the kind representing the whole 
 lift and lie of the land by gradations of colour." — Sculstttan. 
 
 London : HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27. Paternoster Row.
 
 
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