Kuruman 14th July 1843

My Dear Brother in Christ

                                                I thank you for the good but little bit you
5appended to the excellent letter of your partner And I now take a
separate sheet in order to provoke you to do the same. I do not
remember to have seen you but if you studied at Glasgow we
must often have been near each other & very likely we have looked
on each others countenance in our attendance at the Academy
10lectures of Dr Wardlaw, 1836-7. But that is of little
importance compared to the community of feeling which I trust we
possess. Our hearts are drawn to the same centre of attraction
and they long to see the benefits of the great Redemption
realized by all the human family, & you make me glad
15by telling me of the progress of the good cause in Scotland
and I wish I could give you as encouraging news from Africa
Here however the chariot of the gospel goes on but slowly
We have other materials to work upon than you, the people with
whom you deal know immediately what you wish to be at
20But here the minds of the people are so earthly when we
become acquainted with their modes of thinking it almost makes
us believe we have not got humanity to deal with, our nature
cannot sink lower that it has done in the case of Bechuanas
their foolish hearts are darkened - their minds & conscience
25are defiled. As a nation they are the greatest cowards in
the world. Afraid to speak of death and yet if they can kill
without danger of being killed they glory in murder. In
some of the Interior tribes I have seen men with from 30 to
40 scars - the marks of incisions made after each murder
30had been committed. they did not seem sorry for it
but with an air of triumph have asked me to count
the scars as if they were highly meritorious in having so many 0002
the females are the tillers of the ground & have all the heavy burdens
assigned to them. A man is not ashamed to say he cannot carry a
weight but his wife can & he will go & tell her to do it - their ideas
of medicine are that all good is done & evil is prevented by witchcraft
5Hence they imagine that whatever way we use the medicine it will
have the same effect. If a child refuses to drink medicine they will
pour it on its head or drink it themselves. If their guns miss
fire they ask medicine to heal them & Sechele chief of the Bakwain
lately wanted me to give him some to make him run fast in
10hunting. He shewed me a piece of root which he used for
that very purpose. their music too is still in an state of
embryo. two notes are all they possess and I have heard them
droning away at them through the whole night. their language
too is as simple as possible & very easily learned. It is an
15original tongue & in this respect somewhat resembles the Hebrew
I know more than a dozen words in it which very nearly
resemble the Hebrew one of which I may mention as it has caused
me to believe the Septuagint rendering of Manna is the right one
Mang yo? What is it this? is just what the Bechuanas would
20say if placed in the same position as the Israelites when they
exclaimed מן הר What is it? But of course these instances in
which it resembles that language are only accidental - All our
theological terms have been recently coined & are not understood
by the natives generally. Some the manufacture a very
25clever missionary are curious enough and I could give you
some amusement by them were they not associated with
a great disadvantage to the speedy progress of our cause. I
shall give you a specimen of a word as good as could have
been adopted in order to shew you the difference existing between
30our work & yours. the word for soul is one used for
the breath, air or steam of a pot. the same I believe as in
other languages but should we proceed to speak of it as
the man without a number of explanations very likely our
address would be interrupted by shouts of laughter. "What does
35the man mean by talking about steam? can we eat it, is it 0003
food that ^ he tells us so much about it"? this is not a difficult term to
explain to them but some of the others are as unlike the idea we intend
to convey as is the sound of a waggon wheel, this Theological language
is a great hindrance. It requires a long course of training before they
5are brought to the state in which you can appeal to them on the
subject of religion with the assurance that they are not taking
up our words in an opposite sense from what we intend
We know that the spirit is always in the word and that if presented accord-
ing to His mind he will render it effectual But the earthly sense
10in which the natives have always used the words constitutes a great
barrier to our doing so. If that influence is necessary any
where and it is absolutely so everywhere how much more
so here, where the minds of men are so deplorably degraded, nothing
will peirce through this thick crust of ignorance which envelopes
15their souls but the power of the Almighty. Let us have your
prayers for the manifestation of that power But you
would require to be here to feel the utter hopelessness of our cause
without it.

I have occupied so much space with these details
20I have very little room for anything else But you may feel
interested in our modes of operation in itinerary. We have no
railways herethe weary lumbering Dutch waggon drawn by
oxon; a pack ox or our own lower extremities are the only
modes of conveyance. When we arrive at a village & wish to
25have a regular service we are obliged to ask the chief to collect
his people, the place of concourse is the enclosure for the
cattle, sitting down among them we begin by an address generally
on one subject to which we confine ourselves as long as they
seem attentive to what is said. If we speak on more than
30one subject they generally forget all we have said. And
after the address we have prayer, if they have been accustomed
to hear the gospel we sing but if not that is omitted, those
who wish to depart then go away and with those who
remain we get into conversation on the subject of the address
35and I believe more good is done by conversations than by
formal addresses. they seldom ever object to what we 0004
have told them But many of them are bitter opponents to the gospel
the old especially are our bitter enemies, they cannot bear the idea
of parting with their younger wives nor the impurities to which
they have long been accustomed, Of the old however there is
5as great a proportion converted as of the young, perhaps the proport
of the former is greater, it is certainly such as to strike one from
England with surprise. I believe in England the conversion of the old
who have long rejected the gospel is rare But here they have not
become gospel hardened & perhaps this may account for the fact
10of their frequent conversion -

I lately saw in the country of the Bamangwato a son of Conrad Buys
a runaway dutch boer who did immense mischief to the early
missionaries. His father is dead & all his children 7 in number are
either dead or in slavery to the other natives, the mother of the lad
15I saw was a native, he is in a wretched condition, speaks
the language & is dressed as a native. He has forgotten all
about God & Jesus, but remembers his father was accustomed
to read a book kneel down to pray yet has forgot every
word of dutch. His father was a most abandoned character
20But like the rest of the Dutch boers he had it seems a portion
of our genuine ^ Scotch church going formality I felt sad as I
looked on this poor relict, the seed of evil doers shall
never been renowned.

the church here is in rather a low state just now and
25has been so for many months. We have had no stirrings
among us since the commencement of the commotions in
the Interiorthe rumours of wars seemed to occupy the
minds of the natives to the exclusion of anything better. We
hope the arrival of the new bretheren with Mr Moffat may
30prove a season of revival, they are now in the Colony
But it is a long way off from this outlandish quarter
May you enjoy the presence of your Saviour & with Him
every Temporal & Spiritual blessing is the prayer of
yours affectionately D Livingston

Care of Revd. Dr Phillip
                                Cape Town
      Revd J. McRobert
                        Cambuslang
                                Glasgow