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Page 35
The old chief was suffering with dropsy, but under Moffat's medical care
he recovered, and was soon able to walk about again. The advice which
had been given to him by his missionary friend during their previous
intercourse, had not been wholly lost, the officers who attended him, as
well as those of lower grades, stating that the rigour of his government
had since that time been greatly modified.
Moffat stayed with Moselekatse nearly three months. After much
persuasion, permission was given him to preach the Gospel to the
Matabele people, a privilege hitherto always denied. On the 24th of
September, 1854, these people received, for the first time, instruction
in the subjects of creation, providence, death, redemption, and
immortality.
It was Moffat's purpose to journey forward beyond the Matabele to the
Makololo tribe, to leave supplies at their town of Linyanti, so that
Livingstone might obtain them if he returned safely from St. Paul de
Loanda, on the west coast. Moselekatse would not accede to the idea of
him going alone, and finally the king himself determined to accompany
him. The Makololo and Matabele were, however, like many other of the
native tribes, hostile to each other. With the bags, boxes, &c., on the
heads of some of the men best acquainted with the country, the party set
out, but after travelling to the farthest outpost of the Marabele, the
king declared it was impossible for the waggons to proceed. At Moffat's
earnest request, he sent forward a party of his men with the supplies,
which in due course reached the Makololo, who placed them on an island,
built a roof over them, and there they were found in safety by
Livingstone when he returned some months afterwards from the west coast.
Towards the end of October, Moffat bade farewell to the Matabele king.
Moselekatse pressed him to prolong his stay, pleading that he had not
seen enough of him, and that he had not yet shown him sufficient
kindness. "Kindness!" replied Moffat, "you have overwhelmed me with
kindness, and I shall now return with a heart overflowing with thanks."
Leaving the monarch a supply of suitable medicines to keep his system in
tolerable order, and admonishing him to give up beer drinking, and to
receive any Christian teacher who might come as he had received him, the
missionary took his departure. The long return journey was accomplished
without any remarkable event, and in due course Moffat reached his home
again in safety.
By this journey his health was much improved, his intercourse and
friendship with the people of the interior were cemented and extended,
and he looked forward with hopeful assurance to the early advancement of
Christianity to those distant regions.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IX.
THE SECHWANA BIBLE.
The great task was at length accomplished; the work of nearly thirty
years brought to a close. The Word of God in the language of the
Bechwana people, in all its glorious completeness and power, was now in
their hands.
To Robert Moffat the labour had been of a herculean character. He had
spared himself no labour or drudgery which its prosecution involved. To
accomplish it he had left his home and lived a semi-savage life for
nearly three months, that he might perfect himself in the language.
Without any special training for the important undertaking, and under
the greatest disadvantages, he had not only acquired the language, but
reduced it to its elements, and then presented it in a synthetic and
grammatical form. Beyond that his earnest desire had been to render the
whole Bible into the native tongue.
As age increased, the importance of finishing the work became more and
more apparent, till even a minute spent in anything but purely
mission-work, or his translation duties, seemed as wasted time. Writing
when the end was near, he said: "When I take up a newspaper, it is only
to glance at it with a feeling like that of committing sacrilege. I have
sometimes been arrested with something interesting, and have read it
with ten or more strokes in the minute added to my pulse, from the
anxiety caused by the conviction that I am spending precious time apart
from its paramount object, while I feel perfectly composed over anything
which I am satisfied has a direct bearing on the true object of the
missionary."
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