In the immediate neighborhood of Kuruman
the chiefs hated the gospel, because it deprived them of their
supernumerary wives. In the region farther north, this feeling had not
yet established itself; on the contrary, there was an impression
favorable to Europeans, and a desire for their alliance. These Bechuana
tribes had suffered much from the marauding invasions of their
neighbors; and recently, the most terrible marauder of the country,
Mosilikatse, after being driven westward by the Dutch Boers, had taken
up his abode on the banks of a central lake, and resumed his raids,
which were keeping the whole country in alarm. The more peaceful tribes
had heard of the value of the white man, and of the weapons by which a
mere handful of whites had repulsed hordes of marauders. They were
therefore disposed to welcome the stranger, although this state of
feeling could not be relied on as sure to continue, for Griqua hunters
and individuals from tribes hostile to the gospel were moving northward,
and not only circulating rumors unfavorable to missionaries, but by
their wicked lives introducing diseases previously unknown.
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