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tical functions interfered very much with his religious duties." nearly cost him his life to discharge the former; and, in short, bitter experience leads him to dissuade other missionaries from troubling themselves with diplomatic questions. (Ibid. p. 207.)

It would have been better for them, had they taken his advice. It would have been still better, had these diplomatists eschewed war themselves. But we find them personally engaged in such. Africaner's reprisals upon the missionary station,-where Hans, his agent, was sheltered for an outrage committed upon his property by a colonial creditor of Hans, were avenged by people from another missionary station. The report might have been false,—as Mr. Moffat says it was, —that they were abetted by the missionaries, but appearances are certainly very much against the latter. (Ibid. p. 86.) When Africaner became Christian, in the Moffat sense of the word, that war was far from being determined by that event. Long after our author left the place, Africaner's brother, another Christian of the same kind, was actually shot dead by the people from the same hostile station, who had assailed him in his house. (Ibid. p. 114.) We have already seen the conditions on which Mr. Read's party obtained leave to settle at Lithako. How well they were complied with may be guessed, from the extraordinary language, in which Mr. Moffat, his successor, boasts of the experience he has acquired, in the public and private councils of the Bechuana nation, and on their fields of battle. (Ibid. p. 253.) Not that this prevented them from discharging their duties, in like manner, to the Griquas; for we find Mothibi, the Bechuana king, complaining of their being implicated in the hostile doings of those "professors," with whom they had constant intercourse, and, moreover, that the colonists supplied them with guns and ammunition, for his utter extirpation. (Ibid. p. 431.) It is certain, at any rate, that Mr. Moffat and his friends had some reason to know, that the Griqua enemies of their protectors had no intention to attack them; and this, we must say, does look very suspicious. (Ibid. p. 439.) The Batlapis suffered far less than other tribes, but this was "owing to their proximity to our station." Perhaps the Griquas dreaded to attack people, believed to be more directly under missionary influence. This consideration, however, restrained not the Batlapis from undertaking a most disgraceful and barbarous outrage against the Barolongs. On the contrary, when they perpetrated it, they returned to their old shelter at Mr. Moffat's station. This shelter was, however, no longer so effectual. They became worse and worse like the waves, whether they rolled forward or backward,

they carried, says Mr. Moffat, "devastation and misery along with - them." A report, of godly Kok and Waterboer having joined the marauders, caused many to abandon Mr. Moffat. One of these deserters had, till then, " by his Christian conduct, been a source of comfort as

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well as an assistance in the work." They were still wonderfully supported, however;" some of the poorer Bechuanas having learned waggon-driving and other useful things." (Ibid. pp. 444-7.) Mr. Moffat will have it that the report they heard was unfounded. be so: but will he say as much for the marauding expeditions of these saints, in the year 1839 ? Berend Berend, another Griqua chief, and an especial child of missions, figures to very little advantage in Mr. Moffat's pages. He, too, "joining hands with the wicked," at the head of Griquas, Corannas, and others-Christian and heathen, dissimilar in sentiments as in costume, and united only in their passion for plunder and blood, entered the territories of Moselekatse, destroying his herds, and murdering his unarmed subjects. But the monarch's vengeance was swift upon their traces. At the dawn of day, the robber-camp was stormed by his warriors, the plunder recaptured, and a heavy retribution wrought. Berend Berend himself was not present at the slaughter, and was therefore able to escape to Griquatown. With admirable forbearance, Moselekatse discriminated between those that were clearly guilty, and those whose guilt was not so clear. A large party of Mr. Moffat's people were hunting at the time in the centre of his country; but he spared them, because they came from Kuruman. And yet, Mr. Moffat, glosing over the atrocities of a "professor," declares that, "of Berend's sincerity no one could doubt," and attributes these iniquities to "an unaccountable delusion, that he was destined to sweep Moselekatse, and his gang of blood-guilty warriors from the fine pastures and glens of the Bakone country* .... which, he might well expect, would immortalise his name as a benefactor to mankind." (Ibid. pp. 556-7.) What makes this all the more ominous, is the fact, that Mr. Moffat has left it recorded how, when he bade the king farewell, he had "scarcely a hope" for the success of John Calvin's doctrines among the Matabilis, “until there should be a revolution in the government of a monarch, who demanded that homage which pertains to God alone." (Ibid. p. 556.) Had Berend Berend's commando succeeded in its enterprise, the desired opportunity would have offered itself, and our author might perhaps have returned to Mosega in a very different

*The italics are not Mr. Moffat's, but our own.

capacity, from that which he occupied there, at the period of his visit to King Moselekatse !

That this is the guiding principle of Mr. Moffat's estimate of Moselekatse's character is apparent enough. He complains of him, for being so popular in his own dominions, that he could find no one to abuse him. On the contrary, all perversely represented him, "as the best and noblest of beings, immaculate in his actions, the very perfection of all that was lovely, just, and good." What was worse,-the king himself behaved to Mr. Moffat in such a way as to cherish the delusion.. He evinced the profoundest and sincerest gratitude for any kindnesses, however contemptible in themselves, or in their instruments. His warriors, possessing minds,-fine, open, and noble, as their countenances, preferred death before the loss of his esteem, and refused to accept his mercy, unless accompanied with their restoration to his confidence and love. He "needed only to ask his warriors, Who among you will become a sacrifice for the safety of the state, and the country's good?' and his choicest men would have run upon the thick bosses of the enemy's buckler." Mr. Moffat considered them "most servile devotees" for their pains. His manner was affable, gentle, and polite; in consideration and kindness he abounded. Mr. Moffat speaks of the great attention he received from him, and of the absence of all annoyance during his stay. His disposition, he says, was not passionate; and yet he abuses this "Napoleon of the desert" for his want of " sympathy and compassion." (Ibid. pp. 536-54.) For our own part, we think the king himself very much to be pitied, for having met with so ungrateful a detractor in the disguise of a guest.

Mr. Moffat alleges his wars. But, as Moselekatse deigned to explain to him, those wars were often undertaken more by his ardent warriors than by himself,—that he sanctioned them, in spite of his own judgment, but did not command them. (Ibid. p. 552.) Mr. Moffat saw

ruined towns on every side of him, which he of course attributed to Moselekatse himself. With some difficulty, the king made him understand that they were ruins of ancient date, and therefore that he was not responsible for them. So far from being the amateur of tyranny, which our author charged him with being, he could show the man thirteen happy villages in the Mosega Basin, six of which were inhabited by conquered Bahurutsi, "who appeared tolerably well-treated," even to the prejudiced eyes of Mr. Moffat. (Ibid. p. 583.) To his promised friendship with the whites of Kuruman, he has shown himself far more faithful than they have been. Two of the people, who

were with the American spies, had come from Kuruman; and therefore he sheltered them, and loaded them with kindness, even after the precipitate flight of their companions. (Ibid. p. 588.) Let Mr. Moffat compare such conduct with that of " Paul," the Coranna,-"to whom he had preached the Gospel," and who, although always "listening to his voice with pleasure," beset his house, and endeavoured to burn it to the ground. But why do we invite Mr. Moffat to this comparison of characters? He has done so: and, far from condemning the "professor" of the Gospel, he sees in this miscreant's refusal to meet him and confer upon the matter, a compliment to his own logical and rhetorical abilities, and "a fresh instance of the omnipotence of love !" (Ibid. p. 491.)

Let us, in passing, help Mr. Moffat to a more probable solution. A short time before, a Bushman had entered Griqua-town, "to spy the place," as the missionaries thought. He was put to the torture; or, as our author prefers to describe it," in order to make him tell the truth, received a severe castigation," and was "put in irons." To escape from this infliction, he did tell "a fine tale indeed,--that Jan Bloom, and other distinguished individuals had been killed; which he knew would diffuse unmingled pleasure." Unhappily, this afterwards proved to be "a perfect falsehood." (Ibid. p. 476.) Now, it is just possible, that "Professor Paul" might have heard of this before, he proceeded, a few days afterwards, to attack Mr. Moffat in his own house. If so, his reluctance to treat with him may have respected other whips than those of sarcasm,-other embarrassments than those of a dilemma ! We hope that Mr. Moffat will be more humane to future wayfarers, even though he should mistake them for spies. We hope it, for his own sake, if not for the sake of humanity. He may chance to meet with some of more dangerous natures than was that poor hungry bushman. Some " plebeian," like the shocking woman who assaulted Mrs. Moffat, in her own kitchen, may "seize a piece of wood," to hurl it at the aristocratic head of the missionary himself, should the latter approve himself so churlish and inhospitable. (Ibid. p. 287.) Even worse things might happen in such a case.

The savages, as we have seen, had a clear enough notion of the true character of Protestant missions. Faults, both of forethought and incident, were keenly scanned and noted. Nor were the features, that should characterise the missionary, truly of GOD, altogether hidden from even savage minds. They knew, at least, that while the signs of a superior civility to theirs accompanied these strangers, no sign of

divine authority was there. There was nothing to distinguish them from other men,-nothing that other men might not aspire to reach. Had they, indeed, been sent of GOD, would not that Almighty Being have invested them with some portions of His own supersensual attributes, as He had done in former times to former apostles, if the Book might be believed which they professed to preach? This He had not done; and the inference was a plausible one: either that book spoke falsely, or they were not its true interpreters. Thus reasoned these simple savages, nor were they far from the truth. A Griqua, who was with Mr. Moffat during one of those interminable and fruitless conferences, which he held with the Bauangketsi, endeavoured to imbue him with the same conviction. The king Makaba had hinted that he had heard enough, and that Mr. Moffat must cease from his discourse. Upon this, the Griqua, addressing him in Dutch, said: "If you would only exercise a little more faith, and cure that lame man, the whole of the thousands of the Bauangketsi would be believers." (Ibid. p. 406.) The words fell upon a deaf ear. Mr. Moffat could have checked his ardour by telling him, that he had no warrant to expect the gift of miracles, for himself or for his sect. He was an unauthorised apostle, -a self-sent missionary ;—and not to such as him was the promise vouchsafed. The question, therefore, was not as to his will, but as to his capacity. The cure of the lame man depended,—not on his being willing, but-upon his being able to effect it. But, if God please, that difficulty shall not be suffered to impede the Gospel,—in Africa or in any portion of the globe,--when rightful missionaries come forward and preach it.

The congregationalists have been in possession of that field for more than forty years. Other missionary societies have been helping them, some of which existed there before their arrival, and others have been established since. They have had all the assistance that man can give. Large sums have been subscribed at home; countenance and patronage have been extended to them by the colonial government; whole nations have "bowed their shoulders to carry, and become servants under tribute," in their zeal for the arts and the luxuries of European life. Mr. Moffat exults in the success, with which these appliances have been put in ure, for the purposes of his gospel. Whether it has been such as to justify exultation, our readers may convince themselves from the passages of his own work, to which we are about to refer them. We regret that we are not furnished with the information that is requisite, to enable us to weigh the credibility of those passages.