nefit our own country, we shall
thereby more effectually and permanently benefit the heathen. Seven
years were spent at Kolobeng in instructing my friends there; but the
country being incapable of raising materials for exportation, when the
Boers made their murderous attack and scattered the tribe for a season,
none sympathized except a few Christian friends. Had the people of
Kolobeng been in the habit of raising the raw materials of English
commerce, the outrage would have been felt in England; or, what is more
likely to have been the case, the people would have raised themselves
in the scale by barter, and have become, like the Basutos of Moshesh
and people of Kuruman, possessed of fire-arms, and the Boers would
never have made the attack at all. We ought to encourage the Africans
to cultivate for our markets, as the most effectual means, next to the
Gospel, of their elevation.

It is in the hope of working out this idea that I propose the formation
of stations on the Zambesi beyond the Portuguese territory, but having
communication through them with the coast. A chain of stations admitting
of easy and speedy intercourse, such as might be formed along the flank
of the eastern ridge, would be in a favorable position for carrying out
the objects in view. The London Missionary Society has resolved to have
a station among the Makololo on the north bank, and another on the
south among the Matebele. The Church--Wesleyan, Baptist, and that most
energetic body, the Free Church--could each find desirable locations
among the Batoka and adjacent tribes. The country is so extensive there
is no fear of clashing. All classes of Christians find that sectarian
rancor soon dies out when they are working together among and for the
real heathen. Only let the healthy locality be searched for and fixed
upon, and then there will be free scope to work in the same cause
in various directions, without that loss of men which the system of
missions on the unhealthy coasts entails. While respectfully submitting
the plan to these influential societies, I can positively state that,
when fairly in the interior, there is perfect security for life and
property among a people who will at least listen and reason.

Eight of my men begged to be allowed to come as far as Kilimane, and,
thinking that they would there see the ocean, I consented to their
coming, though the food was so scarce in consequence of a dearth that
they were compelled to suffer som