deeds spread quickly among the Bakwains, and
letters were repeatedly sent by the Boers to Sechele, ordering him to
come and surrender himself as their vassal, and stop English traders
from proceeding into the country with fire-arms for sale. But the
discovery of Lake Ngami, hereafter to be described, made the traders
come in five-fold greater numbers, and Sechele replied, "I was made an
independent chief and placed here by God, and not by you. I was never
conquered by Mosilikatze, as those tribes whom you rule over; and the
English are my friends. I get every thing I wish from them. I can not
hinder them from going where they 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 Boerish invasion had on the
minds of the Bakwains; 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.

The myth of the black pot assumed serious proportions. I attempted to
benefit the 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' practiced 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 other missionaries in
the south, demanding my instant recall "for lending a cannon to their
enemies." The colonial government was also gravely informed that the
story was true, and I came to be looked upon as a most suspicious
character in consequence.

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 abo