Letter to the London Missionary Society
Please turn your mobile device to landscape or widen your browser window for optimal viewing of this archival document.
Before I conclude allow me to express the
unfeigned pleasure Mrs. M. & I felt when we
read of your arrangements for our son
John. The pecuniary assistance afforded
by some friends is most seasonable
& we pray that they may never have
occasion to view it as money misapplied
We hope Mr Lukes af whose work
we are not unacquainted ^ with will find him
a suitable candidate for the missionary
work. We at present can only judge
from Mr Bruce's testimony & his own
correspondence which develops a cons
considerable knowledge of his
own heart & shows that he is
engaged in a spirital conflict
Mrs Moffat unites in kindest regards
to the Directors Yours ever affectionately
Robert Moffat
〜
P.S. I am thankful for the information you
give regarding the sum sent to me by Mr Alexdander
of America.
〜
It has just occured to me that the following
literal translation of Secheles last letter to
me respecting the attack of the Boers might
interest you.
"Limaoe (name of the place from which he wrote)
"My friend, of my hearts love & of all the
confidence of my heart. I am Sechele. I am
0002
"undone by the Boers who have attacked
me, tho' I had no guilt with them. They
required that I should be in their kindgom,
but I refused. They demanded that I
should prevent the white people, the
Griquas, & the Batlapees from passing me
(towards the North.) I replied. All these
are my friends & therefore I can prevent
no one (of them.) They said I must go
& speak with them, & I replied, I do not
understand your language, but I said,
If you bring Mr Edwards to be interpreter
(between us) then I shall speak with
you. They came on Saturday &
prepared to fight on the Sabbath, but
I besought them that they should
not fight on the Sabbath, and they
assented. They began on monday at
morning twilight & fired with all their
might & burned the town with fire, and
scattered us. They killed sixty of my
people & captured women children [ ] & men,
and the mother # of Balerileng they also
took prisoner, and they took all the cattle
& all the goods of the Bakwenas. And
the house of Livingston they plundered, taking
all his goods. The number of their wagons
was Eighty five & a cannon, and after they
had stolen my wagon & that of MaCabe
then the number of the wagons (including
the cannon) was Eighty eight. All the goods
# The mother of one of his daughters who is here R M.
0003
4 "sheets
"belonging to the hunters (viz the English Gentlemen Webb,
Green, MaCabe &.&.c) were all burnt with
the town. They have also scattered
Sentuhe's people (the Bangwaketse) and Mo-
sielele's (the Bakhatla & they have determined
to destroy the whole country. And
of the Boers were killed twenty eight.
Yes, my beloved friend, & now my
wife goes to see the children, and Kobus
Hae will convery her to you.
"I forgot to mention that I said
to the Bakwenas, Let us flee to the
south country, but they replied,
The kingdoms of that south country
have not a bit of peace. I shall
therefore wait & see where they
will settle.
Salutations to all the teachers and
my children
I am Sechele
son of Mochoasele "
Item Details
Author(s) & contributor(s): Sechele I; Robert Moffat 1
Date(s): [c.1852-53]
Place(s) of creation: [Southern Africa]
Form & transmission history: Original letter, as translated, written down, and introduced by a British missionary.
Object description: White three-page/one-sheet letter, with one hand in dark brown ink, with deletion line on all pages.
Repository: University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies (London, United Kingdom)
Shelfmark / Identifier: CWM/LMS/South Africa/Incoming Correspondence/Box 27/File 1/Jacket B
Digital edition & date: One More Voice, 2020
Critical editing & encoding: Justin D. Livingstone, Mary Borgo Ton, Adrian S. Wisnicki
Cite this digital edition (MLA): Sechele I; Robert Moffat 1. “Letter to the London Missionary Society” ([c.1852-53]). Justin D. Livingstone, Mary Borgo Ton, Adrian S. Wisnicki, eds. One More Voice, site launch edition, 2020, https://onemorevoice.org/html/transcriptions/liv_020019_TEI.html.
Rights: Critically-edited text copyright One More Voice. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Accessibility: One More Voice digital facsimiles approximate the textual, structural, and material features of original documents. However, because such features may reduce accessibility, each facsimile allows users to toggle such features on and off as needed.
Production note: The editors produced this edition through a rigorous process that involved transcribing and encoding the text directly from images of the original document using the One More Voice coding guidelines (PDF). Users, however, are encouraged to consult the original document if possible.