like.' Those who are old enough to
remember the threatened invasion of our own island, may understand the
effect which the constant danger of a Boer invasion had on the minds of
the Bechuanas; but no others can conceive how worrying were the messages
and threats from the endless self-constituted authorities of the
Magaliesberg Boers, and when to all this harassing annoyance was added
the scarcity produced by the drought, we could not wonder at, though we
felt sorry for, their indisposition to receive instruction.

"I attempted to benefit the native tribes among the Boers of
Magaliesberg by placing native teachers at different points. 'You must
teach the blacks,' said Mr. Hendrick Potgeiter, the commandant in chief,
'that they are not equal to us.' Other Boers told me 'I might as well
teach the baboons on the rocks as the Africans,' but declined the test
which I proposed, namely, to examine whether they or my native
attendants could read best. Two of their clergymen came to baptize the
children of the Boers, so, supposing these good men would assist me in
overcoming the repugnance of their flock to the education of the blacks,
I called on them, but my visit ended in a _ruse_ practised by the
Boerish commandant, whereby I was led, by professions of the greatest
friendship, to retire to Kolobeng, while a letter passed me, by another
way, to the missionaries in the south, demanding my instant recall for
'lending a cannon to their enemies.'[14]

"These notices of the Boers are not intended to produce a sneer at their
ignorance, but to excite the compassion of their friends.

"They are perpetually talking about their laws; but practically theirs
is only the law of the strongest. The Bechuanas could never understand
the changes which took place in their commandants. 'Why, one can never
know who is the chief among these Boers. Like the Bushmen, they have no
king--they must be the Bushmen of the English.' The idea that any tribe
of men could be so senseless as not to have an hereditary chief was so
absurd to these people, that in order not to appear equally stupid, I
was obliged to tell them that we English were so anxious to preserve the
royal blood that we had made a young lady our chief. This seemed to them
a most convincing proof of our sound sense. We shall see farther on the
confidence my account of our Queen inspired. The Boers, encouraged by
the accession of Mr. Pretorius, determined at last to put a stop to
English t