River Convention, the British High Commissioner was instructed not to go beyond "friendly remonstrances" with the Boers over the matter. The British did not want to risk their relationship with the Boers by appearing to side with Sechele. Moreover, British interests lay in consolidating their own position in the area, rather than protecting the African inhabitants from the Boers. Sechele set out for England with the intention of seeking the protection of Queen Victoria, but his resources ran out by the time he reached Cape Town. Mission Sechele had a profound knowledge of the Bible and a commitment to spreading Christianity. He began with his own people, teaching them to read and introducing them to the Bible. He also travelled many hundreds of miles to evangelise other African peoples. When Moffat led a group of missionaries into Matabeleland in 1859, he discovered that Sechele had preceded him and that the local Ndebele people held Christian prayers. Moffat's mission had little success as an outbreak of lung disease among the missionaries' oxen resulted in fear of the white missionaries. Officially, there were no converts among the Ndebele until the 1880s. After the departure of Livingstone, Sechele returned to some of his local customs, including rainmaking and polygamy. Missionaries complained that he used his great knowledge of the scriptures to defend his own actions. Neil Parsons, of the University of Botswana, stated that Sechele "did more to propagate Christianity in nineteenth-century southern Africa than virtually any single European missionary". Under his leadership, his region became a refuge to other people fleeing persecution, and the numbers that he ruled exceeded 30,000 at the time of his death in 1892. Notes Further reading 1810s births 1892 deaths Botswana chiefs Botswana Christians Converts to Christianity