ceed to China. I had hoped to gain access to that then closed
empire by means of the healing art; but there being no prospect of an early peace, I was induced to turn my thoughts to
Africa; I embarked in 1840, and reached the Cape after a
voyage of three months. I shortly afterwards went to Algoa
Bay, and soon proceeded inland to the Kuruman mission station
in the Bechuana country. This station is about seven hundred
miles from Cape Town, and had been established, nearly thirty
years before, by Messrs. Hamilton and Mofiat. The mission-houses and church are built of stone. The gardens, irrigated
by a rivulet, are well stocked with fruit-trees and vines, and
yield European vegetables and grain readily. The pleasantness of the place is enhanced by the contrast it presents to the
surrounding scenery, and the fact that it owes all its beauty
to the manual labour of the missionaries. Externally it presents a picture of civilised comfort to the adjacent tribes; and
the printing-press, worked by the original founders of the
mission, and several younger men who have entered into their
labours, gradually diffuses the light of Christianity through the
neighbouring region. This oasis became doubly interesting
to me, from something like a practical exposition of the text,
Mark x. 29; for after nearly four years of African life as a bachelor, I screwed up courage to put a question beneath one of the
fruit-trees, the result of which was that in 1844 I became united
in marriage to Mr. Moffat's eldest daughter, Mary. Having been
born in the country, and being expert in household matters,
she was always the best spoke in the wheel at home ; and when
I took her with me on two occasions to Lake Ngami, and far
beyond, she endured more than some who have written large
books of travels. In process of time our solitude was cheered
by three boys and a girl, and I think it useful to mention
that we never had the least difficulty in teaching them to speak
English. We made it a rule never to talk to them, nor allow
them to talk to us, except in our own tongue. Indeed they
rarely attempted to use the native language, though they spoke
it perfectly. 'When they went on board ship they refused to
utter another word of it, and have now lost it entirely.
In consequence of droughts at our station further inward, we were mainly dependent for supplies of food on Kuruman, and were often indebted to the fruit-trees there and to Mrs.
