we could desire. No one but a weary, worn-out African traveller can enter into the feelings of one in our situation. We had been wearying ourselves in search of aid; we were disappointed; we had gone far out of our course had passed through the haunts of the lion, hyena, and a species of rhinoceros, more to be dreaded than either-had traversed, at a season unusually dry, a forest and underwood where in general we could hardly see 100 yards beyond the spot on which we stood. AN ALARMING INCIDENT. "During the evening an event took place which might have been attended with very serious consequences. The oxen were being collected in order to fasten them to trees close to the waggon; the sun had just set. I had been writing down some observations, and stepped out of the waggon to assist, as my custom was on such occasions. I had not proceeded many steps in front of the oxen when they, having smelt the lion, rushed forward, and, before I had time to be aware of the danger, galloped over me, knocking me down to the ground with great violence. My head, striking the hard ground, stunned me so much that I was unable to rise. While three of my people were in pursuit to turn the terrified oxen, one came to my assistance, and enabled me to stagger to the waggon, where I reclined, with the feeling of one who had lost half his senses. As soon as I could use my legs, I descended to the water and bathed my head, till I felt that I was myself again, or nearly so. Having got the cattle secured, and commended ourselves to the care of our Heavenly Father, we retired to bed. I obtained some rest, but, being in the haunt of the howling hyena, as well as that of the lion, a sound repose was out of the question. Next morning we were all ready to cross the broad sandy bed of the Shashe, and proceed on our journey. All the effects I felt were a stiff neck and the back of my head rather sore. We proceeded in the direction I had pointed out by compass, through an untrodden country, for human footsteps there were none. Gladly would I have reclined on my waggon couch, but necessity compelled me to shoulder the axe, to cut out a road for the waggon. After getting warm and perspiring plen tifully, which, under a hot sun and among trees, soon follows the least exercise, we succeeded, after eight hours' travel, in reaching the Ramokhoabane river, where we found the small foot-print of a human being in the sand, and abundance of the rhinoceros, lion, hyena, tiger, gnu, quaggas, red-buck, &c. We cut down thorn trees, and made a cattle-fold strong enough to secure us a night's undisturbed repose; for if oxen are frightened so as to break through the thorny fence, they set off with the speed of racehorses, and no one can tell when they will be overtaken in some cases never. After a rather inharmonious night's serenade, we arose, thankful for our safety, and proceeded on our course. FIRST MEETING WITH THE MATABELE. "The next day, diverging towards the right direction, through ravines and tortuous turnings of the reedy rivers, we came in sight of the long-looked for hills. After proceeding a considerable distance we sighted a man carrying a gun, who stared at us with more wonder than we did at him. One of our number, who happened to be in advance with loose oxen and three sheep, the remains of fifteen brought from Kuruman, prevented him making clean heels by calling out, that it was the waggon of Moshéte. After mutual and cheerful congratulations, he conducted us to the residence of Mahuku, where I met with the first officer of the Matabele on my former journey. There was no small stir among the people, as I drew near and passed through the villages, stuck up in corners and defiles of a multitude of hills, many of which had a most fantastic appearance. All ages rushed to my waggon, and all exhibited unusual tokens of joy. This, I afterwards learned, arose from the people knowing the anxiety Moselekatse had recently manifested to see me, and the means he was then about to employ to secomplish that purpose. This information was to me most encouraging, and enough to make me forget past troubles. I had from the commencement of my journey committed my ways to Him in whose service I was engaged, and I had the fullest assurance that all would work together for good. Monyama, the Matabelian officer who congratulated me on my former visit, happened to be at this very post, and was foremost in enthusiastic expressions of joy at my unexpected appearance among them. After the din of heathen congratulations had subsided, he, with a few Machaha (warriors), took me aside from what we should call vulgar ears, to express to me the joy Moselekatse would feel on hearing of my arrival, and to bear from me my wishes as to the time I intended to proceed to head-quarters, yet ten days distant, with an ox waggon. RESTING IN THE DESERT. "As we, man and beast, were very much fatigued, I resolved to remain three days including the Sabbath. I had intended to rest, and I got it, so far as bodily labour went, but the many visitors allowed very little time for the mind to repose; but it was impossible to feel cross while so many were manifesting the pleasure they felt at seeing me once more. When I left Kuruman, close application to study had so debilitated me that mole-hills were mountains. During the journey, notwithstanding all my exposure to damp, draughts, and physical labour, I felt a return of my wonted strength. Here, however, for two days I was poorly, but, with the dawn of Sabbath morning, I felt as usual, and it was with no little pleasure that I was able to address a large company on the great concerns of man's salvation. Nearly all these dwellers of the rock understand the Sechuana language; so that I felt quite at home during the Sabbath, as well as evening services. But oh how dark and ignorant they are! To tell them of a God is like telling them of a nonentity, or something which vulgar minds are not capable of understanding. There were, however, among them those who had heard me before, and had now some knowledge of eternal realities-a strange and bewildering subject to the uninstructed native mind. MISSIONARY INFLUENCE SUCCESSFULLY EXERTED IN THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY, "In the course of the evening I was thankful to God to hear the following information, which had been picked up by Hans, and which he heard from the Matabele and Bamanguato before my arrival. It is not Moselekatse alone, but the Matabele in general, that long for another visit from me. They say that every visit has been of service to them, especially the last; that the Matabele had themselves heard what I had taught, and that my teaching had made Moselekatse more lenient and forgiving, and influenced him greatly to modify some of his severe measures; and that he had raised many of his subjects to become Mantoto (men) i. e., allowing them to wear a ring on their heads, and marry; that altogether his kindly deeds had produced general pleasure, and that their only wish was, that I might not relax in my counsels, that he may become better still. On this account, the public are as anxious, as such a deeply degraded and awfully wicked people can well be, for my safety and success, convinced as they seem to be that the object of my visits is not the interest of one individual, but of all. This is something in the cause of humanity, which, let us hope, will lead to results of infinite importance to the enslaved Matabele, whose only God is Moselekatse. Besides, who is there who will not rejoice to see the iron, and often the ensanguined sceptre, gradually being transformed into the shepherd's crook? Let us thank God and take courage. His arm is not short, nor His ear become heavy. Everything which has reference to long established national customs among such savages, requires to be touched with the greatest delicacy, lest an attempted cure be worse than the disease itself. I tried again and again, on my last journey, to impress the despot's mind with the importance of abolishing the stern law under which so many groaned, and the carrying out which had swept off to the eternal world many who might yet have been valuable subjects and supporters of his interests. His well-known attachment to me, and the magnitude of the object aimed at, dispelled all fear while giving free expression on points which, if they had been but only whispered in his ear by his greatest favourite, would have consigned him, and probably his family also, to be impaled or hung up by their necks to the branch of a tree. Of course, it required extreme caution to attempt to influence him to abrogate a law which had been stereotyped in the nation from time immemorial; but a sense of duty urged me, and my last request, when his heart seemed tender at bidding me fare well, was that he might allow his Machaha and Lintompi to marry. ARRIVAL AT MOSELEKATSE'S RESIDENCE. "On the 14th September, Monday, we started early from Makhabi or Mahuku's place, and proceeded along the same road I went on the former journey. I selected the best of my wearied and meagre draught oxen, and left the remainder to rest and get strong till we should return. We went along briskly, with plenty of attendants, with whom we might easily have dispensed, especially at meal times, as our larder was but poorly supplied, from the scantiness of game, which was not very agreeable to those who considered meat and beer as the very top of the best of eatables. We passed by some villages of the Makalaha, aborigines of the country, but now subject to Moselekatse. I was surprised to find so many of them speak the Sechuana language, their own differing considerably. They were extremely sociable and kind, and I daresay thought me so too. They live in constant fear of the Matabele depriving them of their children, to keep up and increase the number of Moselekatse's warriors. They had not seen me before, having lived at a distance at the time of my last visit; but my name was familiar to them from that time. weel oxen, we reached the residence of his Majesty, two days' journey farther to the north east of his former residence. On my entering his residence, he stretched out his hand and gave me a hearty welcome, accompanied with many expressions of the great joy he felt on seeing me once more. I found that, from the time I last saw him, he had continued to enjoy good health, and the use of his limbs, till about two months ago, when his ankles and knees became gradually weak, till he could no longer walk, and was obliged to be removed by some of his wives, who are always in attendance. While sitting in his arm-chair, he looks as if he ailed nothing; and I believe he has not suffered anything in his general health. The following day being Sabbath, I held Divine Service in the morning, with my people, while a number of the Matabele who understood the Sechuana language, attended. I spent some time with his Majesty in his own premises, as he is no longer able to appear in a public fold I tried to improve the season to the best of purposes; but his mind vacillates so much, that it is difficult to get him to listen with attention, while there are constant interruptions from reporters arriving from different parts of his kingdom. I was, how. ever, gratified to find that his mind was comparatively prepared for plans which, I informed him, I intended shortly to lay before him." OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES BETWEEN THE BOERS of THE ORANGE FREE STATE, AND THE BASUTOS. In regard to this lamentable contest, we can at present only give the facts so far as they have transpired, without offering any decided opinion as to the origin of the quarrel, although the relative position of the parties seems to render it unlikely that the Basutos would afford just ground of offence to their powerful and ambitious neighbour. In the meantime, while deeply deploring the sacrifice of human life, and the anxiety and suffering to which our friends of the French Mission have been exposed, we would cherish the sanguine hope that, through the timely mediation of Sir George Grey, the excellent Governor of the Cape Colony, peace may be speedily restored. The following particulars are extracted from the "South African Commercial Advertiser and Cape Town Mail" of the 21st May ult. :— By the last mail steamer, the Dane,' information was forwarded of the outbreak of serious hostilities beyond the colony, between the Boers of the Orange Free State, the relinquished Sovereignty' of Sir Harry Smith, and the Basutos, under the Chief Moshesh. Although not, as yet, endangering the colony, which continues to maintain a strict neutrality, the fierce and desperate struggle between these two parties has naturally occasioned much disquiet and anxiety on the part of large classes of the colonial inhabitants, many of whom are related in various ways to the Free State Boers. Two Basuto towns, with the French Mission Stations, Beerseba and Morija, have been destroyed. The Missionaries, Messrs. Roland, Arbousset, and Mader, lost the whole of their property, and barely escaped with their lives. The Boer army advanced some distance into the Basuto country, and several battles seem to have taken place, with what result exactly we have no distinct informa tion. The Basutos, though greatly outnumbering the Boers, seem to have generally given way, and fallen back towards the great natural fortress, Thaba Bosigo, where Moshesh commands in person. In the meantime, parties of Basutos, getting into the rear of the Commando, entered that portion of the Free State near the border, and burnt a number of farm houses, sweeping off large quantities of cattle, and destroying much valuable property. The families of the absent Boers, fled in great distress towards the colony. On intelligence of these events reaching the Commando, it seems that some of the farmers were for returning, while others determined to continue the war, and the last accounts represent the leaders as disunited among themselves. At the urgent request of the President of the Free State, Mr. Boshoff, Sir George Grey has, with the assent of the Colonial Parliament, undertaken to act as a friendly mediator between the parties, the Parliament having, how. ever, distinctly expressed its determination not on any account to allow the colony to be involved in the war." PROFESSOR SEDGWICK ON MISSIONS. To Dr. Livingstone's "Cambridge Lectures," edited by the Rev. William Monk, is prefixed a prefatory letter by Professor Sedgwick, containing some valuable remarks on Dr. L.'s labours and discoveries in Central South Africa. In the course of his remarks, the venerable Professor takes occasion to vindicate the cause of Missions from the injurious and malignant attacks of its enemies. Happily, the beneficent effects of the spread of the Gospel in heathen lands, are now so well ascertained as to render such attacks comparatively harmless; but it is, nevertheless, very satisfactory to have the warm and decisive testimony of this distinguished Christian philosopher, to the value of the labours of the devoted men who have gone to the ends of the earth to instruct and evangelize the multitudes of our race, sunk in moral debasement and helpless ignorance. "I remember well," observes Professor Sedgwick, "the mockery and ribaldryseasoned with pungent wit, and spiced with words which, if they helped to raise a laugh, served also to raise a blush on the modest cheek-by which a party of humble Missionaries, who went out to the islands of the Pacific in the early years of this century, were held up to open scorn in some of the most popular works of that period. These Missionaries were not learned men; and some of them may have imperfectly known their own strength, and ill counted the cost of what they undertook. But they were earnest men, and not to be put down by the wit and mockery of those who had done, and were willing to do, nothing for the civi lization and instruction of the licentious in: habitants of those beautiful islands. The Missionaries persevered against scorn and ill-bodings; and before many years were over, their labours were blessed; and they christianized the islands to which they first shaped their course; and their goodly victory was, under God, followed by one of the most rapid advances in civilization, of which we can find an account in the moral records of the present century. If some of the fruits of this holy triumph have fallen short of expectation, and have not been allowed to ripen, that misfortune was not the fault either of the Missionaries or the natives, but was the fault of stronger men who, without a plea of law or justice, invaded and beat down the inhabitants by force of arms, and drove away their Christian teachers. Wisdom is approved of her children; and from this good band of Christian labourersonce so much mocked and scorned by writers of great power and skill-have arisen works we may with truth call philosophical; which have advanced the cause of physical science; cast a good light upon the history of a very interesting section of the human family; and added a goodly chapter to the religious literature of the present day. "Just in the same manner, and, I am sorry to say, unchristian spirit, some of the most popular writers of this time-men who have delighted us by their public works of fiction, and done some service to the cause of humanity and justice, national taste, social freedom, and brotherly love-have thought fit to blight their laurels by frequent and hasty scoffings at honest acts of public zeal for the instruction of the poor natives of heathendom. They write as if every man must be a brain-heated fanatic, who stands up on a public platform to plead for his fellow-creatures in distant lands; and as if every woman who goes to listen to him and desires to help him, must needs be a simple dreamer, a slattern, a sorry housewife, and a bad mother. Such gross caricatures, if they prove nothing else, are a proof of vulgar taste, and may help to do some mischief; but they partly carry with them their own antidote, for they are nauseously false and ridiculously untrue to nature. Who ever doubted that there are, and ever will be, great follies even among good men? There will be found at all times men who talk of goodness, and make a show of it, without loving it for its own sake. Such men are the chaff which the blast of ridicule might, perhaps, winnow from the corn. But our Bible tells us not to be in too great a hurry to divide the good part of the crop from the bad-rather to leave the separation to an unerring hand; and as for ourselves, it tells us to hope all things, and to live in charity with our neighbour. A man who pleads honestly (and wisely too) for a cause in which his heart is warm, but for which his hearers have no sympathy, may perchance appear to them to be acting and talking like a fool, while he is speaking the very words of truth and wisdom. Let us keep down our mockery, and try gravely and honestly to look society in the face; and we shall most certainly see, that among men and women of every grade— from the highest to the lowest-who have felt true love for their fellow-creatures both at home and in heathendom, and have proved it by efforts for their instruction in the lessons of the Gospel, are to be found some of the best patriots, some of the most highminded men and best clergymen, and many of the best daily fire-side models of social duty and domestic love. The preceding remarks do not apply to the Church of England only, but to every other Christian church, whatsoever may be its name, of which the members believe in the promises of the Gospel as the ground of their hopes, and take its commands as the rule of their life. While such men are doing the good work of Christian love among the heathen, we pray, with all our hearts, that God may speed them well, without stopping to inquire into the Covenants they may have signed, the synodal confessions they may have published, or the outward forms of polity they may have chosen. A man may surely join in such a prayer without forfeit. ing one iota of his loyalty, or abating one particle of his active duties, to his own church and country." |