time before, had been divided into two, one part under Bubi, already
referred to, and the other under Sechele, son of the murdered chief,
also already introduced. Both of these chiefs had shown much regard for
Livingstone, and on the death of Bubi, Sechele and his people indicated
a strong wish that a missionary should reside among them. On leaving
Mabotsa, Livingstone transferred his services to this tribe. The name of
the pew station was Chonuane; it was situated some forty miles from
Mabotsa, and in 1846 it became the centre of Livingstone's operations
among the Bakwains and their chief Sechele.
Livingstone had been disappointed with the result of his work among the
Bakhatlas. No doubt much good had been done; he had prevented several
wars; but where were the conversions[24]? On leaving he found that he
had made more impressions on them than he had supposed. They were most
unwilling to lose him, offered to do anything in their power for his
comfort, and even when his oxen were "inspanned" and he was on the point
of moving, they offered to build a new house without expense to him in
some other place, if only he would not leave them. In a financial point
of view, the removal to Chonuane was a serious undertaking. He had to
apply to the Directors at home for a building-grant--only thirty pounds,
but there were not wanting objectors even to that small sum. It was only
in self-vindication that he was constrained to tell of the hardships
which his family had borne;--
[Footnote 24: When some of Livingstone's "new light" friends heard that
there were so few conversions, they seem to have thought that he was too
much of an old Calvinist, and wrote to him to preach that the remedy was
as extensive as the disease--Christ loved _you_, and gave himself for
_you_. "You may think me heretical," replied he, "but we don't need to
make the extent of the atonement the main topic of our preaching. We
preach to men who don't know but they are beasts, who have no idea of
God as a personal agent, or of sin as evil, otherwise than as an offense
against each other, which may or may not be punished by the party
offended.... Their consciences are seared, and moral perceptions
blunted. Their memories retain scarcely anything we teach them, and so
low have they sunk that the plainest text in the whole Bible cannot be
understood by them."]
"We endured for a long while, using a wretched infusion of
native corn for coffee, but when o
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