acher by hiding under the forms or covering their
heads with their karosses as a remedy against their
convictions. And when they find that won't do, they rush out
of the church and run with all their might, crying as if the
hand of death were behind them. One would think, when they
got away, there they would remain; but no, there they are in
their places at the very next meeting. It is not to be
wondered at that they should exhibit agitations of body when
the mind is affected, as they are quite unaccustomed to
restrain their feelings. But that the hardened beings should
be moved mentally at all is wonderful indeed. If you saw them
in their savage state you would feel the force of this
more.... _N.B._--I have got for Professor Owen specimens of
the incubated ostrich in abundance, and am waiting for an
opportunity to transmit the box to the college. I tried to
keep for you some of the fine birds of the interior, but the
weather was so horribly hot they were putrid in a few hours.

When he returned to Kuruman in June, 1842, he found that no instructions
had as yet come from the Directors as to his permanent quarters. He was
preparing for another journey when news arrived that contrary to his
advice, Sebehwe had left the desert where he was encamped, had been
treacherously attacked by the chief Mahura, and that many of his people,
including women and children, had been savagely murdered. What
aggravated the case was that several native Christians from Kuruman had
been at the time with Sebehwe, and that these were accused of having
acted treacherously by him. But now no native would expose himself to
the expected rage of Sebehwe, so that for want of attendants Livingstone
could not go to him. He was obliged to remain for some months about
Kuruman, itinerating to the neighboring tribes, and taking part in the
routine work of the station: that is to say preaching, printing,
building a chapel at an out-station, prescribing for the sick, and many
things else that would have been intolerable, he said, to a man of
"clerical dignity."

He was able to give his father a very encouraging report of the mission
work (July 13, 1842): "The work of God goes on here notwithstanding all
our infirmities. Souls are gathered in continually, and sometimes from
among those you would never have expected to see turning to the Lord.
Twenty-four were added to the Church