ains. The people began to suspect some connection between the
new religion and the drought. "We like you," they said, "but we wish you
would give up this everlasting preaching and praying. You see that we
never get any rain, while the tribes who never pray have an abundance."
Livingstone could not deny the fact, and he was sometimes disposed to
attribute it to the malevolence of the "Prince of the Power of the Air",
eager to frustrate the good work.

The people behaved wonderfully well, though the scarcity amounted almost
to famine. The women sold their ornaments to buy corn from the more
fortunate tribes around; the children scoured the country for edible
roots; the men betook themselves to hunting. They constructed great
traps, called 'hopos', consisting of two lines of hedges, a mile long,
far apart at the extremities, but converging like the sides of the
letter V, with a deep pit at the narrow end. Then forming a circuit for
miles around, they drove the game--buffaloes, zebras, gnus, antelopes,
and the like--into the mouth of the hopo, and along its narrowing lane,
until they plunged pell-mell in one confused, writhing, struggling mass
into the pit, where they were speared at leisure.

The precarious mode of life occasioned by the long drought interfered
sadly with the labors of the mission. Still worse was the conduct of
Boers who had pushed their way into the Bechuana country. Their theory
was very simple: "We are the people of God, and the heathen are given to
us for an inheritance." Of this inheritance they proceeded to make
the most. They compelled the natives to work for them without pay, in
consideration of the privilege of living in "their country". They made
regular forays, carrying off the women and children as slaves. They were
cowardly as well as brutal, compelling friendly tribes to accompany
them on their excursions, putting them in front as a shield, and coolly
firing over their heads, till the enemy fled in despair, leaving their
women, children, and cattle as a prey.

So long as fire-arms could be kept from the natives the Boers were sure
of having it all their own way. But traders came in the train of the
missionaries, and sold guns and powder to the Bechuanas. Sechele's
tribe procured no less than five muskets. The Boers were alarmed, and
determined to drive missionaries and traders from the country.

In course of time Mr. Livingstone became convinced that Bibles and
preaching were not all that