As soon as he had an opportunity of learning, he set himself to read with such close application that, from being comparatively thin, the effect of having been fond of the chase, he became quite corpulent from want of exercise.  Mr. Oswell gave him his first lesson in figures, and he acquired the alphabet on the first day of my residence at Chonuane.  He was by no means an ordinary specimen of the people, for I never went into the town but I was pressed to hear him read some chapters of the Bible.  Isaiah was a great favorite with him; and he was wont to use the same phrase nearly which the professor of Greek at Glasgow, Sir D. K. Sandford, once used respecting the Apostle Paul, when reading his speeches in the Acts:  “He was a fine fellow, that Paul!” “He was a fine man, that Isaiah; he knew how to speak.”  Sechele invariably offered me something to eat on every occasion of my visiting him.

Seeing me anxious that his people should believe the words of Christ, he once said, “Do you imagine these people will ever believe by your merely talking to them?  I can make them do nothing except by thrashing them; and if you like, I shall call my head men, and with our litupa (whips of rhinoceros hide) we will soon make them all believe together.”  The idea of using entreaty and persuasion to subjects to become Christians—­whose opinion on no other matter would he condescend to ask—­was especially surprising to him.  He considered that they ought only to be too happy to embrace Christianity at his command.  During the space of two years and a half he continued to profess to his people his full conviction of the truth of Christianity; and in all discussions on the subject he took that side, acting at the same time in an upright manner in all the relations of life.  He felt the difficulties of his situation long before I did, and often said, “Oh, I wish you had come to this country before I became entangled in the meshes of our customs!” In fact, he could not get rid of his superfluous wives, without appearing to be ungrateful to their parents, who had done so much for him in his adversity.

In the hope that others would be induced to join him in his attachment to Christianity, he asked me to begin family worship with him in his house.  I did so; and by-and-by was surprised to hear how well he conducted the prayer in his own simple and beautiful style, for he was quite a master of his own language.  At this time we were suffering from the effects of a drought, which will be described further on, and none except his family, whom he ordered to attend, came near his meeting.  “In former times,” said he, “when a chief was fond of hunting, all his people got dogs, and became fond of hunting too.  If he was fond of dancing or music, all showed a liking to these amusements too.  If the chief loved beer, they all rejoiced in strong drink.  But in this case it is different.  I love the Word of God, and not one of my brethren will join me.”  One reason why we had no volunteer hypocrites was the hunger from drought, which was associated in their minds with the presence of Christian instruction; and hypocrisy is not prone to profess a creed which seems to insure an empty stomach.