my waggon with Asser (one of the native missionaries), seeking a suitable place where we could pass the night, when two horsemen galloped up, and drawing bridle, brusquely asked for my papers, and seeing that I had not the papers that they desired, ordered us to turn round and go back to Pretoria.  One of these men was the Sheriff, who showed me a warrant for my arrest, and putting his hand on my shoulder, declared me to be his prisoner.  This, I may say in passing, made little impression on me.  We retraced our steps, always believing that when we had paid some duty exacted for our luggage and our goods, we should be allowed to go in peace.  Towards midnight they permitted us to unharness near a farm.  The next morning these gentlemen searched all through the waggon of the native evangelists, and put any objects which they suspected aside.  All this, with my waggon, must be sent back to Pretoria, there to be inspected by anyone who chose.

“That same day I arrived in Pretoria in a cart, seated between the Field Cornet and the Sheriff, who were much softened when they saw that I did not reply to them in the tone which they themselves adopted, and that I had not much the look of a smuggler.  The Secretary of the Executive Council exacted from me bail to the amount of L300 sterling, for which a German missionary from Berlin, Mr. Grueneberger, had the goodness to be my guarantor.  I made a deposition, saying who we were, whence we came, and where we were going, insisting that we had no merchandise in our waggon, only little objects of exchange by which we could procure food in countries where money has no value.  We had no intention of establishing ourselves within the limits of the Transvaal; we were going beyond the Limpopo, and consequently were simple travellers, and were not legally required to take any steps in regard to the Government, nor even to ask a passport.  All this was written down and addressed to the Executive Committee, who took the matter in hand.

“As they, however, accused us of being smugglers, and having somewhere a cannon, they proceeded to the examination of my waggon.  They opened everything, ran their hands in everywhere, into biscuit boxes, among clothes, among candles, etc., and found neither cannon nor petroleum.  The comedy of the smuggling ended, they took note of the contents of my boxes, and then attacked us from another side.  They decided to treat me as a missionary.  The Solicitor-General said to me that the Government did not care to have French missionaries going to the other side of the Limpopo.  I said, ‘these countries do not belong to the Transvaal;’ to which they replied, ’Do you know what our intentions are?  Have you not heard of the treaties which we have been able to make with the natives and with the Portuguese?’ There! that is the reply which they made to me.  They took good care not to inscribe it in the document in which they ordered us to leave the Transvaal immediately.  These are things which they do not care to write, lest they should awaken the just susceptibilities of other Governments, or arouse the indignation of all true Christians.  But there is the secret of the policy of the Transvaal in regard to us missionaries; they feared us, because they know our attachment to the natives, and our devotion to their interests.