| Summary: |
Acknowledges receipt of letter from directors; expresses doubt regarding the appointment of a District Committee; relates news that Sebegwe [Sebegoe, chief of the baNgwaketse], had been attacked by the combined forces of Mahura [chief of the baTlhaping at Taung, 1825-1869] and Sehutsane, and that several converts had been with Sebegwe at the time of the attack; tribal warfare and attacks by Matibele causing delay to planned journey planned; itineracy to adjacent tribes; routine business of the mission station, including printing press [established at Kuruman in 1831 for the printing of religious works, chiefly in the vernacular], medical work and erecting a small chapel with Mr Edwards [Rogers Edwards]; welcomes encouragement from directors to go forward into the Interior; departure on 21 February [1843]; meeting with Sebegwe [at Tlhasokwane], and discussion about the recent attacks and the meaning of the comet [the 'great comet' of 1843]; preaching to Sebegwe's people; visit to the Bakhatla [baKgatla] and references to manufacture of iron in the region; acknowledgement that the desire of local chiefs for a missionary is driven by "a desire for the protection & temporal benefit which missionaries are everywhere expected to bring" rather than by any love for Christian doctrines; visit to village of Sechele [chief of baKwena, 1831?-1892] and medical assistance provided; details Sechele's objections to the gospel and questions asked; encounters with escaped fugitives from raids by Mosilikatze [Mzilikazi] and the effect of their accounts upon members of Livingstone's waggon; visit to villages of the Bakalihari [baKgalagadi]; encounter with a son of Conrad Buys [Coenraad de Buys, 1761-1825?] residing with the Bamangwato [baNgwato]; compound fracture to finger; encounters with people of "the race of Makalaka" and their news of Mosilikatze; states his belief in the need for more statistical information regarding the size of the Bechuana population before any other missionaries are sent to the region, and goes on to provide estimates based on his own observations - 30,000 as the highest possible estimate of Bechuana within the sphere of the Society's operations; emphasises the large number of missionaries present in the [Cape] Colony; compares the need for missionaries in Southern Africa to other fields such as China.
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