CHAPTER VIII. "Shall Britain to remotest parts And not engage with eager heart "Even in lands like India and China, which are so far civilized, and where there are great philosophical systems of religion, what awful perplexity and bewilderment about life and its issues there are! And how amongst the women of these great lands there is a suffering that makes the very brain reel. And if that be so in countries like China and India, what is one to say of a country like Africa desolated in savagery? It is easy to read of it, but unless we have imagination, we miss what lies behind the words . . . Apart from the spiritual aspect of the missionary enterprise, it is far and away the greatest philanthropic enterprise on the face of the earth to-day.”—G. H. C. Macgregor, M.A. IT T was on the 31st of May, 1878, that Isaac Sharp and his companion started on their hazardous journey. On the following day he writes: "A sort of panic prevails at Motito as at Kuruman-an undefined apprehension of an unknown something. There appears to be a lawless band abroad, and the vicinity of Motito is a favourite resort for the secretion of stolen cattle. At one o'clock we unyoked our oxen. They betray a strong propensity to rovingstray away in preference to grazing quietly and have to be closely watched. The road is heavy with sand; our mules would have quailed under the burden and we are glad to have oxen instead, but it does seem strange that two cavalcades should be moving in opposite directionsthe missionary and his family fleeing from the place at INTENSE ISOLATION." 95 which we expect to lodge and spend to-morrow. Starlit winter nights when the wind blows freely are chill for our -open air evening meal." The following day was Sunday and although the pastor was away the natives met as usual, and about ninety people were present. Isaac Sharp says that "the whole effect and the impression it conveyed was wonderfully in contrast with the heathen of a bygone day and the neighbouring heathen still." He writes in reference to the next day: "We travelled on until between 8 and 9 p.m. The stars were bright and the young moon beautiful. We watch its nightly increase with interest. It is so great a help to have moonlight for our tent erections. After supper we sat round our camp fire. The fifth chapter of Matthew was chosen; prayer followed-heartfelt and deep for a blessing on each and all. It was soul-sustaining to realise that the eternal God was near to us and we to Him in this vast wilderness. "Day by day we journey on; water is scarce. We pass along without seeing a single traveller. It feels like a severance from the rest of the world in a vast and intense isolation. In the forenoon we came to the dry bed of a river, where by digging in the sand the water collected, and our cattle drank and were refreshed. We continued our travel after a short outspan, for the most part over heavy sand, but now and then over stones and slopes, in imminent peril of an upset. About 8 p.m. we encamped for the night after a lovely day, in which overhead was a dome of blue not deep but cloudless." Again he writes of this strange journey: "We reached Molope by moonlight; seeing some of the women heavily at work, the inquiry was put : 'What are the men doing?' "Nothing, nothing,' emphatically spoken, was the suggestive reply. "From Molope there are two roads, and our driver chose the one to the east, and took us three days out of our way, and we were greatly astonished to find ourselves within seventeen miles of Zeerust in the Transvaal. It gave us, however, the unexpected opportunity of visiting the Lutheran station of Linoxana, where we were kindly and hospitably entertained, and where the way was most pleasantly made for a religious sitting with the mission family, including two young missionaries recently arrived. At Manuana we outspanned for the night, about three miles from the place where Livingstone had the encounter with the lion which crushed the bone of his arm. 'We have had some hard travel from the heavy lurches of the wagon over huge stones, through the drifts, and along the water-worn furrows. The strain on the nerves. was great and difficult to endure with equanimity—an upset first on one side, then on the other, seeming imminent for hours at a stretch. The ride among the mountains was nevertheless very fine, and at night the moon, now nearly full, was brilliant. By its silver light I read two verses. in a New Testament, which opened at 2 Corinthians ii. 14, 15, which with the following verses felt comforting." At last, on the 15th of June, the weary travellers reached Kanye in the gloaming, and were cordially welcomed by Mr. Good, the resident missionary, and his wife. Their two little boys had lately been drowned whilst bathing, and it is easy to imagine how comforting to their sorely stricken hearts would be the sympathy and prayers of Isaac Sharp. Mr. and Mrs. Good loved to remember that their boys and an older lad who shared their fate had all three on the night before the accident sung hymns till they fell asleep. Isaac Sharp, as we have seen, had known in comparatively early life what keen bereavement is; and his sympathy and power to comfort others were, we may well believe, not lessened, but rather enlarged, because it might. be said of him in Lowell's words, "Nor hath thy knowledge of adversity ST. ANDREW OF CRETE. 97 On the Sunday spent here he gladly availed himself of an opportunity to address some 200 natives who had recently emerged from heathenism, and who were closely packed in a shanty of their own erection. He writes: "The voice of warning and entreaty was heard in their midst, as well as a word of loving encouragement to those who love the Lord and follow Him. As in Esquimaux land, so here, the services are usually short, the native mind being scarcely able to endure continuous thought for any lengthened period. Met again at 3.30 p.m. The evening was spent socially at James Good's, with a season of religious exercise in Scripture reading and prayer." In a Bible Class held on another day, he noticed that Mr. Good's teaching abounded in figures, illustrations which are 66 very telling on the native mind and mode of thought, and which they evidently enjoy." He, himself, spoke to them from the text: "I know my sheep, and am known of mine," expressing his desire that, knowing the Saviour, the Good Shepherd, they might live near to Him. The Chief of this district had forbidden the sale of brandy, and had lately seized several casks which were found in a merchant's possession, and he seemed puzzled with the thought, "Why does not the Queen of England do the same?" Whilst Isaac Sharp was at Kanye, he found, whilst looking at an album, the following lines, which he copied in his diary: St. Andrew of Crete: A.D. 600. "Well I know thy trouble, O my servant true; Thou art very weary— I was weary too : But that toil shall make thee, And the end of sorrow Shall be near My throne." On the 21st of June, the shortest day, the travellers left Kanye, Mr. Good and his little boy going about three miles with them, on their way to Koloberg. Isaac Sharp writes: "The granite rocks of Koloberg, and the stalwart six-foot men who came round our wagon there, live photographed in memory, blended with the remembrance of the labours of Livingstone and others in that place at an early day, and of the Christian care of those who still live and labour in that interesting spot." On the next day the travellers reached the Mission Station of Moleopole, near the town of the well-known chief, Sechele, and had a warm welcome from Mr. J. S. Moffat (the son of Dr. Moffat) and his wife. On Sunday morning Isaac Sharp was interested in meeting Sechele's son on his way to conduct a morning service. War had lately seemed imminent, and it was believed that the chief would hardly have been able to hold back his people from the shedding of blood but for the calming influence of thirty Christian natives. Of Sechele he says: "He invited us to his house, and we were shown into his drawing-room, druggeted with a velvet pile pattern, over which, in the centre, was suspended a large glass chandelier. A sofa of modern shape and a few chairs, etc., betokened his position in life. Sechele is about six feet high, swarthy but intelligent looking, with a decided air of authority about him. He was dressed in European costume. He wore a hat, gold watch and appendages, and two rings, one on each hand. He is of portly build and ponderous movement, and about sixty-five years old. He asked our names, and repeated Langley Kitching's so as to get the right sound. His wife entered and sat down. She was also dressed in European clothes. "He inquired why I had come to South Africa, and it did not appear quite easy to make him comprehend." Isaac Sharp then told him of an old man in the Shetland Isles who had said to him, "Do you believe in the |