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CHAPTER VI.

Visit to Makaba.

Shortly after his return, and pending the final arrangements for the removal of the missionary station, it was considered advisable that Robert Moffat should pay his long promised visit to Makaba, the chief of the Bangwaketsi.  He left on the 1st of July, 1824, and was accompanied by a large party of Griquas, who were going into that region to hunt elephants.

Skirting the edge of the Kalahari desert for some time they afterwards deviated from their course through want of water, and visited Pitsana, where a great concourse of natives had gathered, consisting of the different sections of the Barolong tribe, who had been driven from their country the previous year during the invasion of the Mantatees.  Thence they proceeded onward till they reached Kwakwe, the residence of Makaba and his people, and the metropolis of the Bangwaketsi.  Here the missionary was most favourably received by the king, who remarked, with a laugh, “That he wondered they should trust themselves, unarmed, in the town of such a villain as he was reported to be.”

He entertained Moffat and his party royally, declaring, “My friends, I am perfectly happy; my heart is whiter than milk, because you have visited me.  To-day I am a great man.  You are wise and bold to come and see with your own eyes, and laugh at the testimony of my enemies.”

Moffat tried on several occasions to converse with the chief and his people on Divine things, but apparently with little success.  At length on the Sabbath he resolved to pay Makaba a formal visit, so as to obtain a hearing for the subject.  He found the monarch seated among a large number of his principal men, all engaged either preparing skins, cutting them, sewing mantles, or telling news.

[Illustration:  Natives sewing.]

Sitting down beside him, and amidst his nobles and counsellors, Moffat stated that his object was to tell him news.  The missionary spoke of God, of the Saviour, but his words fell upon deaf ears.  One of the men sitting near, however, seemed struck with the character of the Redeemer, and especially with His miracles.  On hearing that He had raised the dead, the man said, “What an excellent doctor He must have been to raise the dead.”  This led to a description of His power, and how that power would be exercised at the last day in the Resurrection.  The ear of the monarch caught the sound of a resurrection from the dead, “What,” he exclaimed in astonishment, “What are these words about? the dead, the dead arise!”

“Yes, all the dead shall arise.”

“Will my father arise?”

“Yes, your father will arise.”

“Will all the slain in battle arise?”

“Yes.”

“And will all that have been killed and devoured by lions, tigers, hyenas, and crocodiles again revive?”