to China. I had
fondly hoped to have gained access to that then closed empire by means
of the healing art; but there being no prospect of an early peace with
the Chinese, and as another inviting field was opening out through the
labors of Mr. Moffat, I was induced to turn my thoughts to Africa; and
after a more extended course of theological training in England than
I had enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840, and, after a
voyage of three months, reached Cape Town. Spending but a short time
there, I started for the interior by going round to Algoa Bay, and soon
proceeded inland, and have spent the following sixteen years of my
life, namely, from 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary labors there
without cost to the inhabitants.

As to those literary qualifications which are acquired by habits of
writing, and which are so important to an author, my African life has
not only not been favorable to the growth of such accomplishments, but
quite the reverse; it has made composition irksome and laborious. I
think I would rather cross the African continent again than undertake to
write another book. It is far easier to travel than to write about it.
I intended on going to Africa to continue my studies; but as I could not
brook the idea of simply entering into other men's labors made ready to
my hands, I entailed on myself, in addition to teaching, manual labor
in building and other handicraft work, which made me generally as much
exhausted and unfit for study in the evenings as ever I had been when
a cotton-spinner. The want of time for self-improvement was the only
source of regret that I experienced during my African career. The
reader, remembering this, will make allowances for the mere gropings for
light of a student who has the vanity to think himself "not yet too old
to learn". More precise information on several subjects has necessarily
been omitted in a popular work like the present; but I hope to give such
details to the scientific reader through some other channel.

Chapter 1.

The Bakwain Country--Study of the Language--Native Ideas regarding
Comets--Mabotsa Station--A Lion Encounter--Virus of the Teeth of
Lions--Names of the Bechuana Tribes--Sechele--His Ancestors--Obtains
the Chieftainship--His Marriage and Government--The Kotla--First public
Religious Services--Sechele's Questions--He Learns to Read--Novel
mode for Converting his Tribe--Surprise at their Indifference--
Polygamy--Baptism of S