Going home to England it could hardly be called, his home was with his
loved Bechwanas, with those for whom he had toiled and prayed so long.
The ashes of his son Robert, and of his devoted daughter Mary reposed
beneath the sands of Africa; his early and later manhood had been spent
beneath its scorching sun. The house he was to leave had been the
birthplace of most of his children, and his home for more than forty
years. Yes, it was hard to leave; and the expectation had become very
real to him that his body and that of his faithful partner would be laid
side by side in that little burial-ground in the bushy dell, marked by a
few trees, at Kuruman. But the final determination had been arrived at,
and with slow and hesitating steps, as though waiting for something,
even then, to prevent their departure, preparations were made for
leaving the station for ever.

Of the general aspect of affairs at the Kuruman during these last two
years we have a graphic description from the pen of the Rev. John
Moffat, who in a letter to the Directors dated 12th October, 1868, wrote
as follows:--

"The public services on the station are a prayer-meeting at sunrise on
Sunday; preaching in Sechwana, morning, afternoon, and evening, with the
Sunday school twice, and a juvenile afternoon service. The early
prayer-meeting is left entirely to the natives, the three preaching
services entirely to the missionaries, and the Sunday school, with the
juvenile service, to my sister. There is also a Wednesday evening
service, a monthly missionary prayer meeting, a church meeting, and a
prayer meeting on Thursday afternoon. This last is in the hands of the
natives. No native takes any part in the preaching on the station,
except in extreme cases, when it is regarded as a makeshift. My father
and I share the preaching between us. Occasionally, say once in three