Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/105

 Moffat natives. But the missionaries worked on, mainly encouraged by the sanguine temper of Mary Moffat. In 1829 the desired awakening came. The services were crowded, the schools flourished, and gradually and with much caution some of the natives were admitted to baptism, and a permanent church and a schoolhouse were erected by the natives without cost to the society. Moffat at length enjoyed sufficient leisure to translate into Sechwana the Gospel of St. Luke and a selection of other scriptures. The same year Mosilikatse, chief of the Matabele, sent messengers to inquire into the manners and teaching of the white men at Kuruman. Moffat showed them every attention, and when difficulties arose as to their return through a country occupied by tribes who both feared and hated Mosilikatse, he escorted them home to the banks of the Oori, a long journey through a country which, although it had once contained a dense population, had been so ravaged that it had become the home of wild beasts and venomous reptiles. Moffat stayed eight days with Mosilikatse, by whom he was received with many tokens of friendship; he returned to Kuruman after an absence of two months.

In June 1830 the Moft'ats visited Grahamstown to put their elder children to school, and, leaving his wife to follow by sea, Moffat hurried to Cape Town, riding some four hundred miles in nine days, to start the printing of such parts of the New Testament as had been translated. At Cape Town he could find no printing office able to undertake the work. But the government put at their disposal their own printing office, although unable to supply workmen, and Moffat and another missionary, Mr. Edwards, with such guidance as the man in charge could give them, performed the work themselves. The exertion, however, brought on an illness, and Moffat had to be carried on board ship on his return journey to Algoa Bay. He and his wife reached Kuruman at the end of June 1831, taking with them a printing press.

Early in 1835 a scientific expedition, headed by Dr. Andrew Smith, arrived from Cape Colony, and Moffat accompanied them in May to Mosilikatse's headquarters, to open a way for mission work among the chiefs people, and to obtain timber to roof in the church at Kuruman. In 1836 Moffat, after seeing his wife across the Vaal river on her way to pay a visit in Cape Town, made a detour on his return to Kuruman to visit Mothibi, the old chief of the Batlaping. His journey was well timed, and he was cheered by the interest taken in his teaching. Some American missionaries arrived, who were sent to Mosilikatse, and a volume of 443 pages of translation of scripture lessons into Sechwana was completed before his wife's return in July.

In 1837 the emigration of Dutch farmers disaffected to British rule commenced, and a party of them came into collision with Mosilikatse and the Matabele. The American mission station was destroyed, and a great booty in cattle swept away. Mosilikatse and his people disappeared the following year into the unknown region south of the Zambesi, and missionary work was greatly retarded. Towards the end of 1838 Moffat went to Cape Town with his family, taking with him the complete translation of the New Testament into the Sechwana language, and, sailing for England, arrived in London in June 1839. While the translation was in the press, Moffat commenced a translation of the Psalms, and stayed in England to complete it. It was printed and bound up with the New Testament. He also revised the scripture lessons, of which an edition of six thousand was printed, and wrote 'Labours and Scenes in South Africa,' which was published in the spring of 1842, and met with a very favourable reception. In addition to his literary labours, Moffat was much engaged in preaching and lecturing all over the country on behalf of the London Missionary Society. In 1840 Moffat met David Livingstone in London, and was the means of securing his services for the Bakwana mission. On 30 Jan. 1843, after valedictory services, addresses, and presentations, the Moffats sailed again for South Africa. While waiting at Bethelsdorp in April for their heavy baggage, Moffat made a journey on horseback to Kaffraria, and visited all the eastern stations of the Missionary Society. The Moffats and their party were met by Livingstone at the Vaal river, and reached Kuruman in December.

The mission staff having been increased, the younger missionaries were sent some two or three hundred miles further inland, to various tribes of the Bakwanas. Livingstone, who went to Mabotsa, returned to Kuruman after an accident, was nursed by the Moffats, and married their eldest daughter Mary in 1844. The Livingstones then went to Chonwane, and to this and the other distant stations Kuruman was a centre of administration from which supplies and assistance were drawn. For several years subsequent to 1845 Moffat was hard at work translating into Sechwana the book of Isaiah, other parts of the Old Testament, and the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' which were published in the colony. He of the Bakwana tribes. In May 1854, accompanied by two young Englishmen—