by an irruption of the Matebéle, the most cruel enemies the Bechuanas ever knew ; and this they thought might portend something as bad, or it might only foreshadow the death of some great chief. On the subject of comets I knew little more than they did themselves; but I had that confidence in a kind, over-ruling Providence, which makes such a difference between Christians and both the ancient and modern heathen.

Returning towards Kuruman, I selected the beautiful valley of Mabotsa as the site of a missionary station, and thither I removed in 1843. Here an occurrence took place, concerning which I have frequently been questioned in England, and which, but for the importunities of friends, I meant to have kept in store to tell my children when in my dotage. The Bakátla, of the village Mabotsa, were much troubled by lions, which leaped into the cattle-pens by night, and destroyed their cows. They even attacked the herds in open day. This was so unusual an occurrence that the people believed that they were bewitched—“ given,” as they said, " into the power of the lions by a neighbouring tribe." They went once to attack the animals; but, being rather a cowardly people, compared with the Bechuanas in general on such cccasions, they returned without killing any.

It is well known that if one of a troop of lions is killed the others take the hint, and leave that part of the country. So the next time the herds were attacked, I went with the people, in order to encourage them to rid themselves of the annoyance by destroying one of the marauders. We found the lions on a small hill about a quarter of a mile in length, which was covered with trees. A circle of men was formed round it, and they gradually closed up, ascending pretty near to each other. Being down below on the plain with a native schoolmaster, named Mebálwe, a most excellent man, I saw one of the lions sitting on a piece of rock within the now-closed circle of men. Mebálwe fired at him before I could, and the ball struck the rock on which the animal was sitting. He bit at the spot struck, as a dog does at a stick or stone thrown at him; then leaping away, broke through the opening circle, and escaped unhurt. The men were afraid to attack him, perhaps on account of their belief in witchcraft. When the circle was re-formed, we saw two other lions in it; but we were afraid to fire lest we should strike the men, and they allowed the beasts to burst through also. If the Bakátla had acted accord

ing to the custom of the country, they would have speared the lions in their attempt to get out. Seeing we could not get them to kill one of the lions, we bent our footsteps towards the village; in going round the end of the hill, however, I saw one of the beasts sitting on a piece of rock as before, but this time he had a little bush in front. Being about thirty yards off, I took a good aim at his body through the bush, and fired both barrels into it. The men then called out, "He is shot, he is shot!" Others cried, "He has been shot by another man too; let us go to him!" I did not see any one else shoot at him, but I saw the lion's tail erected in anger behind the bush, and turning to the people said, "Stop a little till I load again." When in the act of ramming down the bullets I heard a shout. Starting, and looking half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me. I was upon a little height; he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of the cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess, in which there was no sense of pain nor feeling of terror, though I was quite conscious of all that was happening. It was like what patients, partially under the influence of chloroform, describe, who see all the operation, but do not feel the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round at the beast. This peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed by the carnivora; and, if so, is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death. Turning round to relieve myself of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my head, I saw his eyes directed to Mebálwe, who was trying to shoot him at a distance of ten or fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one, missed fire in both barrels ; the lion immediately left me, and attacking Mebálwe, bit his thigh. Another man, whose life I had saved before, after he had been tossed by a buffalo, attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebálwe. He left Mebálwe and caught this man by the shoulder; but, at that moment, the bullets he had received took effect, and he fell down dead. The whole was the work of a few moments, and must have been his paroxysm of dying rage. In order to take out the charm from him, the Bakátla on the following day made a huge bonfire

over his carcass, which was declared to be that of the largest lion they had ever seen. Besides crunching the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth wounds on the upper part of my arm.

A wound from this animal's tooth resembles a gun-shot wound; it is generally followed by a great deal of sloughing and discharge, and pains are felt in the part periodically ever afterwards. I had on a tartan jacket on the occasion, and I believe that it wiped off all the virus from the teeth that pierced the flesh; for my two companions in this affray have both suffered from the peculiar pains, while I have escaped with only the inconvenience of a false joint in my limb. The man whose shoulder was wounded, showed me his wound actually burst forth afresh on the same month of the following year. This curious point deserves the attention of inquirers.

Travels in South Africa.

THE CHRISTIAN POLITICIAN.

MANCHESTER EXAMINER AND TIMES.

WE cannot allow such an event as the death of Mr. Joseph Sturge to pass away from the public mind, without paying our tribute of sorrow and admiration to the memory of one of the best and noblest-hearted Englishmen of the present age. The motives which actuated him during a long career of unwearied benevolence were of a kind which few, perhaps, could adequately appreciate. The feelings of most men whose lot is cast among the world's thickest turmoil, are apt to get hard and dissonant, and happy indeed may we count him who is able to keep the cords of sympathy within his bosom untangled and unjarred. Whether by temperament, by education, or by strenuous self-discipline, Mr. Sturge succeeded in this rare task. While he took the keenest interest in the events which were passing around him, while no instance of human suffering could be too obscure or too remote to catch his eager eye, and, while, at the call of duty, he never shrank from any degree of publicity which the occasion fairly required, his private life was passed in the tranquil atmosphere of piety, out of which he came single-minded and lion-hearted as an apostle, to do his allotted work. He brought into public life the sentiments and habits of a recluse. He nourished his soul on those fair

pastures which lie far above the common haunts of men, at the base of the everlasting hills. Those mystic tendencies which, in other men or in another age, would have run to seed in useless meditation, quickened by his love of human kind, and matured by his practical instincts, yielded in his case the richest and most seasonable fruit. Quiet and contemplative as an ascetic, he was also ardent and chivalrous as a crusader. A profound sense of religious obligation made him calm, strong, and fearless. The approval of his conscience raised him immeasurably above the world's ridicule. He cared not one jot for the loudest hurricane of fool's laughter. Sceptics and foplings might deride what they were so utterly so incompetent to comprehend; he heeded not their antics. Striving always to be true to God and to himself, he found in a sense of duty, fulfilled according to the utmost limits of his capacity, the only reward he ever courted; and from the secret shrine where the saint presented his life-long homage, the man and the citizen went forth to do service for the world.

For the admirers of moral prowess, we need not claim on behalf of Mr. Sturge a high place among the great men of the age which is just closing. The history of that period would be incomplete without his name. There is scarcely any important movement for promoting the welfare of his fellow-countrymen, or of mankind, which has been prosecuted during the last forty years, in which he has not taken a prominent part. He battled for the emancipation of the slaves in the British colonies. When apprenticeship was substituted for slavery, he was the first to expose the insidious nature of that arrangement. At his own cost he undertook a journey to the West Indies for the purpose of investigating the facts of the case; and the disclosures he made on his return were the principal means of putting an end to the scandalous compact, by which the slaveholder got twenty millions of money, and yet kept possession of his human chattels. Unlike some philanthropists, his zeal on behalf of distant objects did not blind him to the necessities of his own countrymen. He had no ambition to take rank as a political agitator; but, when the working classes were in danger of being led astray by unwise counsels, he stepped forward at once as the advocate of their political rights, and the denouncer of the folly and wickedness of attempting to win those rights by physical force. On one occasion, when the Birmingham Bull Ring was filled with excited crowds,

and the troops were ready to fire upon them, his calm and friendly counsels prevented a collision. When the famine raged in Ireland, no man in the three kingdoms exerted himself more assiduously in rendering relief. It is well known that his strongest sympathies were engaged on behalf of the " peace movement." He belonged to a denomination of Christians who, without descending to perplexing subtleties, are content to denounce all war as opposed to the spirit of the Gospel, and who, instead of waiting for the realization of their objects till mankind in general shall have attained to a stage of ideal perfection, have the inexplicable audacity to go straight to the point at once. It is easy to reduce the abstract peace doctrine to a seeming absurdity, and to charge this absurdity upon those who hold it. Practically they differ from their critics only in adhering more tenaciously to the simple precepts of the Gospel, to the pure dictates of humanity; and, by pursuing this course, they have rendered incalculable service to the best interests of the world. People do not always know their benefactors. There were many wise men in the days of George Fox; but the intuitions of the devout dreamer have done quite as much as the statecraft of his contemporaries, to leaven permanently the mind and heart of England. Mr. Sturge was one of the noblest of the race of heroes who have descended from the loins of their founder. His philanthropy was a sentiment, the offshoot of a beneficent creed, which lived in action. When the war was raging in Denmark, he went straight to the field of battle on the errand of the peacemaker; and, when a bloodier conflict was on the eve of commencing, while statesmen were busy with their notes and protocols, he, along with others, repaired to St. Petersburgh, had an interview with the Emperor Nicholas, and strove to win the autocrat to pacific counsels. They failedhow and to what extent it were very bootless now to enquireand were of course laughed at by those who measure greatness by success, and whose notions of international negociation are inseparable from diplomatic lace and livery.

Thus living, thus humbly and zealously working for the welfare of mankind, the good man has reached the goal, and now rests from his labours. The fiery chariot has caught him up at last, and we know not upon whom his mantle has descended. Happy in his death as he had been useful in his life, he was spared the dreary and painful interval which is usually interposed between