f the sale sounded strangely in the ears of the tribe, but
were nevertheless readily agreed to.

In our relations with this people we were simply strangers exercising
no authority or control whatever. Our influence depended entirely on
persuasion; and having taught them by kind conversation as well as by
public instruction, I expected them to do what their own sense of right
and wrong dictated. We never wished them to do right merely because it
would be pleasing to us, nor thought ourselves to blame when they did
wrong, although we were quite aware of the absurd idea to that effect.
We saw that our teaching did good to the general mind of the people by
bringing new and better motives into play. Five instances are positively
known to me in which, by our influence on public opinion, war was
prevented; and where, in individual cases, we failed, the people did
no worse than they did before we came into the country. In general they
were slow, like all the African people hereafter to be described, in
coming to a decision on religious subjects; but in questions affecting
their worldly affairs they were keenly alive to their own interests.
They might be called stupid in matters which had not come within the
sphere of their observation, but in other things they showed more
intelligence than is to be met with in our own uneducated peasantry.
They are remarkably accurate in their knowledge of cattle, sheep, and
goats, knowing exactly the kind of pasturage suited to each; and
they select with great judgment the varieties of soil best suited to
different kinds of grain. They are also familiar with the habits of wild
animals, and in general are well up in the maxims which embody their
ideas of political wisdom.

The place where we first settled with the Bakwains is called Chonuane,
and it happened to be visited, during the first year of our residence
there, by one of those droughts which occur from time to time in even
the most favored districts of Africa.

The belief in the gift or power of RAIN-MAKING is one of the most
deeply-rooted articles of faith in this country. The chief Sechele was
himself a noted rain-doctor, and believed in it implicitly. He has often
assured me that he found it more difficult to give up his faith in that
than in any thing else which Christianity required him to abjure. I
pointed out to him that the only feasible way of watering the gardens
was to select some good, never-failing river, make a canal, and