en accustomed to keep in their huts for him,
and sent them to their parents with an intimation that he had no fault
to find with them, but that in parting with them he wished to follow
the will of God. On the day on which he and his children were baptized,
great numbers came to see the ceremony. Some thought, from a stupid
calumny circulated by enemies to Christianity in the south, that the
converts would be made to drink an infusion of "dead men's brains",
and were astonished to find that water only was used at baptism. Seeing
several of the old men actually in tears during the service, I asked
them afterward the cause of their weeping; they were crying to see their
father, as the Scotch remark over a case of suicide, "SO FAR LEFT TO
HIMSELF". They seemed to think that I had thrown the glamour over him,
and that he had become mine. Here commenced an opposition which we had
not previously experienced. All the friends of the divorced wives became
the opponents of our religion. The attendance at school and church
diminished to very few besides the chief's own family. They all treated
us still with respectful kindness, but to Sechele himself they said
things which, as he often remarked, had they ventured on in former
times, would have cost them their lives. It was trying, after all we had
done, to see our labors so little appreciated; but we had sown the good
seed, and have no doubt but it will yet spring up, though we may not
live to see the fruits.

Leaving this sketch of the chief, I proceed to give an equally rapid one
of our dealing with his people, the Bakena, or Bakwains. A small piece
of land, sufficient for a garden, was purchased when we first went to
live with them, though that was scarcely necessary in a country where
the idea of buying land was quite new. It was expected that a request
for a suitable spot would have been made, and that we should have
proceeded to occupy it as any other member of the tribe would. But we
explained to them that we wished to avoid any cause of future dispute
when land had become more valuable; or when a foolish chief began to
reign, and we had erected large or expensive buildings, he might wish
to claim the whole. These reasons were considered satisfactory. About 5
Pounds worth of goods were given for a piece of land, and an arrangement
was come to that a similar piece should be allotted to any other
missionary, at any other place to which the tribe might remove. The
particulars o