the Boers. Still another paper on Lake 'Ngami was written for a
Missionary Journal contemplated, but never started, under the editorship
of the late Mr. Isaac Taylor; and he had one in his mind on the religion
of the Bechuanas, presenting a view which differed somewhat from that of
Mr. Moffat. Writing to Mr. Watt from Linyanti (3d October, 1853), on
printing one of his papers, he says:

"But the expense, my dear man. What a mess I am in, writing
papers which cannot pay their own way! Pauper papers, in
fact, which must go to the workhouse for support. Ugh! Has
the Caffre War paper shared the same fate? and the Language
paper too? Here I have two by me, which I will keep in their
native obscurity. One is on the South African Boers and
slavery, in which I show that their church is, and always has
been, the great bulwark of slavery, cattle-lifting, and
Caffre-marauding; and I correct the mistaken views of some
writers who describe the Boers as all that is good, and of
others who describe as all that is bad, by showing who are
the good and who are the bad. The other, which I rather
admire,--what father doesn't his own progeny?--is on the
missionary work, and designed to aid young men of piety to
form a more correct idea of it than is to be had from much of
the missionary biography of 'sacrifices.' I magnify the
enterprise, exult in the future, etc., etc. It was written in
coming across the desert, and if it never does aught else, it
imparted comfort and encouragement to myself[34].... I feel
almost inclined to send it.... If the Caffre War one is
rejected, then farewell to spouting in Reviews."

[Footnote 34: For extracts from the paper on "Missionary Sacrifices,"
see Appendix No. I. For part of the paper on the Boers, see _Catholic
Presbyterian_ December, 1879 (London, Nisbet and Co.).]

If he had met with more encouragement from editors he would have written
more. But the editorial cold shoulder was beyond even his power of
endurance. He laid aside his pen in a kind of disgust, and this
doubtless was one of the reasons that made him unwilling to resume it on
his return to England. Editors were wiser then; and the offer from one
London Magazine of L400 for four articles, and from _Good Words_ of
L1000 for a number of papers to be fixed afterward,--offers which,
however, were not accepted finally,--showed how the tide