Missionary Travels and Researches in South AfricaLivingstone, David
Religion
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Livingstone, David
Missions -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
* The Dutch clergy, too, are not wanting in worldly wisdom. A
fountain is bought, and the lands which it can irrigate
parceled out and let to villagers. As they increase in
numbers, the rents rise and the church becomes rich. With 200
Pounds per annum in addition from government, the salary
amounts to 400 or 500 Pounds a year. The clergymen then preach
abstinence from politics as a Christian duty. It is quite
clear that, with 400 Pounds a year, but little else except
pure spirituality is required.
English traders sold those articles which the Boers most dread, namely,
arms and ammunition; and when the number of guns amounted to five, so
much alarm was excited among our neighbors that an expedition of several
hundred Boers was seriously planned to deprive the Bakwains of their
guns. Knowing that the latter would rather have fled to the Kalahari
Desert than deliver up their weapons and become slaves, I proceeded to
the commandant, Mr. Gert Krieger, and, representing the evils of any
such expedition, prevailed upon him to defer it; but that point being
granted, the Boer wished to gain another, which was that I should act as
a spy over the Bakwains.
I explained the impossibility of my complying with his wish, even though
my principles as an Englishman had not stood in the way, by referring to
an instance in which Sechele had gone with his whole force to punish
an under-chief without my knowledge. This man, whose name was Kake,
rebelled, and was led on in his rebellion by his father-in-law, who
had been regicide in the case of Sechele's father. Several of those who
remained faithful to that chief were maltreated by Kake while passing
to the Desert in search of skins. We had just come to live with the
Bakwains when this happened, and Sechele consulted me. I advised mild
measures, but the messengers he sent to Kake were taunted with the
words, "He only pretends to wish to follow the advice of the teacher:
Sechele is a coward; let him come and fight if he dare." The next
time the offense was repeated, Sechele told me he was going to hunt
elephants; and as I knew the system of espionage which prevails among
all the tribes, I never made inquiries that would convey the opinion
that I distrusted them. I gave credit to his statement. He asked
the loan of a black-metal pot to cook with, as theirs of pottery are
brittle. I gave it and a handful of salt, and desired him to send back
two tit-bits, the proboscis and fore-foot of the elephant. He set off,
and I heard nothing more until we saw the Bakwains carrying home their
wounded, and heard some of the women uttering the loud wail of sorrow
for the dead, and others pealing forth the clear scream of victory. It
was then clear that Sechele had attacked and driven away the rebel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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