Indifference to Instruction

Indifference to instruction — The women monopolize tire water — Patience tried — Situation of a Missionary’s wife — Character of our congregations — Cunning thieves — The bewitched pot — Consolations — Acquiring the language — Character of interpreters — Errors inevitable — Serious blunders — Divine support — Itinerating — Native views of the Missionary character — A generous offer — The Moravians in Greenland — Paul’s preaching at Athens — An example to Missionaries — A Hottentot woman — Her affliction and penitence.

We shall now return to our labours among the Bechuanas, which had already been carried on for about five years. The natives had by this time become perfectly callous and indifferent to all instruction, except it were followed by some temporal benefit in assisting them with the labour of our hands, which was not always in our power. The following, extract from a letter written at this time, depicts our real situation: — ‘‘ I often feel at a loss what to say relative to the kingdom of Christ at this station. A sameness marks the events of each returning day. No conversions, no inquiry after God, no objections raised to exercise our powers in defence. Indifference and stupidity form the wreath on every brow — ignorance, the grossest ignorance of Divine things, forms the basis of every action; it is only things earthly, sensual, and devilish, which stimulate to activity and mirth, while the great subject of the soul’s ’ redemption appears to them like an old and ragged garment, possessing neither loveliness nor worth. Oh, when shall the day-star arise on their hearts! We preach, we converse, we catechise, we pray, but without the least apparent success. Only satiate their mendicant spirits by perpetually giving, and we are all that is good, hut refuse to meet their demands, their praises are turned to ridicule and abuse.”

Our time was incessantly occupied in building, and labouring frequently for the meat that perisheth; but our exertions were often in vain, for while we sowed, the natives reaped. The site of the station was a light sandy soil, where no kind of vegetables would grow without constant irrigation. Our water ditch, which was some miles in length, had been led out of the Kuruman River, and passed in its course through the gardens of the natives. As irrigation was to them entirely unknown, fountains and streams had been suffered to run to waste, where crops even of native grain, (holcus sorghum,) which supports amazing drought, are seldom very abundant from the general scarcity of rain. The native women, seeing the fertilizing effect of the water in our gardens, thought very naturally that they had an equal right to their own, and took the liberty of cutting open our water ditch, and allowing it on some occasions to flood theirs. This mode of proceeding left us at times without a drop of water, even for culinary purposes. It was in vain that we pleaded, and remonstrated with the chiefs, the women were the masters in this matter. Mr. Hamilton and I were daily compelled to go alter-PATIENCE TRIED.

nately three miles with a spade, about three o’clock P.M., the hottest time of the day, and turn in the many outlets into native gardens, that we might have a little moisture to refresh our hurnt-up vegetables during the night, which we were obliged ta irrigate when we ought to have rested from the labours of the day. Many night watches were spent in this way: and after we had raised with great labour vegetables, so necessary to our constitutions, the natives would steal them by day as well as by night, and after a year’s toil and care we scarcely reaped anything to reward us for our labour. The women would watch our return from turning the streams into the water¬ course, and would immediately go and open the out¬ lets again, thus leaving us on a thirsty plain, many days without a drop of water, excepting that which was carried from a distant fountain, under a cloudless sky, when the thermometer at noon would frequently rise to 120° in the shade. When we complained of this, the women, who one would have thought would have been the first to appreciate the principles by which we were actuated, became exasperated, and going to the higher dam, where the water was led out of the river, with their picks completely destroyed it, allowing the stream to flow in its ancient bed. By this means the supply of water we formerly had was reduced to one-half, and that entirely at the mercy of those who loved us only when we could supply them with tobacco, repair their tools, or administer medicine to the afflicted. But all this, and much more, failed to soften their feelings towards us. Mrs. Moffat, from these circumstances, and the want of female assistance, has been compelled to send the heavier part of our linen a hundred miles to he washed.

Our situation might be better conceived than described: not one believed our report among the thou¬ sands by whom we were surrounded. Native aid, especially to the wife of the missionary, though not to be dispensed with, was a source of anxiety, and an addition to our cares; for any individual might not only threaten, but carry a rash purpose into effect. For instance, Mrs. M., with a babe in her arms, begged, and that very humbly, of a woman, just to be kind enough to move out of a temporary kitchen, that she might shut it as usual before going into the place of worship. The woman, a plebeian, seized a piece of wood to hurl it at Mrs. M.’s head, who of course immediately escaped to the house of God, leaving her the undisputed occupant of the kitchen, any of the contents of which she would not hesitate to appropriate to her own use. It required no little fortitude and forbearance in the wife of the missionary, who had to keep at home, and attend to the cares and duties of a family, to have the house crowded with those who would seize a stone, and dare interference on her part. As many men and women as pleased might come into our hut, leaving us not room even to turn ourselves, and making every thing they touched the colour of their own greasy red attire; while some were talking, others would be sleeping, and some pilfering whatever they could lay their hands upon. This would keep the housewife a perfect prisoner in a suffocating atmosphere, almost intolerable; and when they departed they left ten times more than their number behind — company still more offensive. As it was not pleasant to take our meals amongst such filth, our dinner was often deferred for hours, hoping for their departure; but, after all, it had to be eaten when the natives were despatching their game at our feet.

Our attendance at public worship would vary from one to forty; and these very often manifesting the greatest indecorum. Some would be snoring; others laughing; some working; and others, who might even be styled the noblesse, would be employed in removing from their ornaments certain nameless insects, letting them run about the forms, while sitting by the missionary’s wife. Never having been accustomed to chairs or stools, some, by way of imitation, would sit with their feet on the benches, having their knees, according to their usual mode of sitting, drawn up to their chins. In this position one would fall asleep and tumble over, to the great merriment of his fellows. On some occasions an opportunity would be watched to rob, when the missionary was engaged in public service. The thief would just put his head within the door, discover who was in the pulpit, and, knowing he could not leave his rostrum before a certain time had elapsed, would go to his house and take what he could lay his hands upon. When Mr. Hamilton and I met in the evening, we almost always had some tale to tell about our losses, but never about our gains, except those of resignation and peace, the results of patience, and faith in the unchangeable purposes of Jehovah. ‘‘ I will be exalted among the heathen,” cheered our often baffled and drooping spirits.

Some nights, or rather mornings, we had to record thefts committed in the course of twentv-four hours in our houses, our smith-shop, our garden, and among our cattle in the field. These they have more than once driven into a bog or mire, at a late hour inform¬ ing us of the accident, as they termed it; and, as it was then too dark to render assistance, one or more would fall a prey to the hyenas or hungry natives. One night they entered our cattle-fold, killed one of our best draught oxen, and carried the whole away except one shoulder. We w’^ere compelled to use much meat, from the great scarcity of grain and vegetables: our sheep had to purchase at a distance; and very thankful might we be, if, out of twenty, we secured the largest half for ourselves. They would break, their legs, cut off their tails, and more frequently carry off the whole carcase. Tools, such as saws, axes, and adzes, were losses severely felt, as we could not at that time replace them, when there was no intercourse whatever with the Colony. Some of our tools and utensils which they stole, on finding the metal not what they expected, they wmuld bring back, beaten into all shapes, and offer them in exchange for some other article of value. Knives were always eagerly coveted; our metal spoons they melted: and when we were supplied wfith plated iron ones, which they found not so pliable, they supposed them bewitched. Very often, when employed working at a distance from the house, if there was no one in whom he could confide, the missionary wmuld be compelled to carry them all to the place where he went to seek a draught of water, well knowing that if they were left they would take wings before he could return.

The following ludicrous circumstance once happened, and was related to the writer by a native in graphic style. Two men had succeeded in stealing THE BEWITCHED POT.

an iron pot. Having just taken it from the fire, it was rather warm for handing conveniently over a fence, and by doing so, it fell on a stone and was cracked. “It is iron,” said they, and oif they went with their booty, resolving to make the best of it, that is, if it would not serve for cooking, they would transform it into knives and spears. After some time had elapsed, and the hue and cry about the missing pot had nearly died away, it was brought forth to a native smith, who had laid in a stock of charcoal for the occasion. The pot was farther broken to make it more convenient to lay hold of with the tongs, which are generally of the bark of a tree. The native Vulcan, unacquainted with cast-iron, having with his small bellows, one in each hand, produced a good heat, drew a piece from the fire. To his utter amazement it flew into pieces at the first stroke of his little hammer. Another and another piece was brought under the action of the fire, and then under the hammer, with no better success. Both the thief and the smith, gazing with eyes and mouth dilated on the fragments of iron scattered round the stone anvil, declared their belief that the pot was bewitched, and concluded pot-stealing to be a bad speculation.

Mr. Hamilton, whose house was frequently left alone, fared worse than when there was any one to keep an eye on visitors. He has more than once returned from preaching, and found a stone left in the pot instead of the meat on which he had hoped to dine. Indeed there would be no end to describing all the losses, mortifications, and disappointments we daily met with in the course of our duty. We can never look back on those years of sorrow without lifting up our hearts to God in grateful adoration for the grace afforded, while we hung our harps upon the willows, and after years of labour felt as if it would never fall to our lot to sing the song of triumph in a strange land. Often have we met together to read the word of God, that never-fail¬ ing source of comfort, and, contented with being only the pioneers, have poured out our souls in prayer for the perishing heathen around. There were seasons when, by faith in the sure word of promise, we could look beyond ‘Ghe gloomy hills of darkness,” and rejoice in the full assurance of hope in the approaching latter-day glory. These were a few of our difficulties, while others, more perplexing still, arose from the conduct of individuals who had accompanied the missionaries as assistants. These, though selected from other stations as professors of religion, when they came to associate with the natives, exhibited much of that weakness which may be expected from people just emerging from the grossness of heathenism. When the needful discipline was exercised on some, others were offended, and thus caused much pain of mind, by an exhibition of improper tempers towards those whose only object was to save them from ruin. The Bechuanas could not fail to observe these inconsistencies, and thus they became stumbling-blocks to the heathen.

The acquisition of the language was an object of the first importance. This was to be done under circumstances the most unfavourable, as there was neither time nor place of retirement for study, and no inter])reter worthy the name. A few, and but

a few words were collected, and these very incorrect from the ignorance of the interpreter of the grammatical structure either of his own or the Dutch language, through which medium all our intercourse was carried on. It was something like groping in the dark, and many were the ludicrous blunders I made. The more waggish of those from whom I occasionally obtained sentences and forms of speech, would richly enjoy the fun, if they succeeded in lead¬ ing me into egregious mistakes and shameful blunders; but though I had to pay dear for my credulity, I learned something. After being compelled to attend to every species of manual, and frequently menial, labour for the whole day, working under a burning sun, standing on the saw-pit, labouring at the anvil, treading clay, or employed in cleaning a water ditch, it may be imagined that I was in no very fit condition for study, even when a quiet hour could be obtained in the evening for that purpose. And this was not all; an efficient interpreter could not be found in the country; and when every thing was ready for inquiry, the native mind, unaccustomed to analyze abstract terms, would after a few questions, be completely bewildered. I can fully enter into the feelings of Dr. Burchell, in the following extract from his travels, bearing directly on the subject: —

“Those whose minds have been expanded by a European education, cannot readily conceive the stwpidity, as they would call it, of savages, in every thing beyond the most simple ideas and the most uncompounded notions, either in moral or in physical know¬ ledge. But, the fact is, their life embraces so few incidents, their occupations, their thoughts, and their cares are confined to so few objects, that their ideas must necessarily be equally few, and equally confined. I have sometimes been obliged to allow Moclmnka to leave off the task when he had scarcely ‘given me a dozen of words; as it was evident that exertion of mind, or continued employment of the faculty of thinhing soon wore out his powers of reflection, and rendered him really incapable of paying any longer attention to the subject. On such occasions, he would betray by his listlessness and the vacancy of his countenance, that abstract questions of the plainest kind soon exhausted all mental strength, and reduced him to the state of a child whose reason was dormant. He would then complain that his head began to ache; and as it was useless to persist invitd Minerva, he always received immediately his dismissal for that day.”

The reducing of an oral language to writing being so important to the missionary, he ought to have every encouragement afforded him, and be supplied with the means necessary for the attainment of such an object. The Bechuanas, though they had never known the worth of time, could, like men in general, set a high value on service done to a stranger. They supposed that, as we were supported by resources, not drawn from the country, we had only to call for riches, and they would come; while at the same time we had the greatest difficulty in making both ends meet, which indeed we could not have accomplished without personal hard labour.

A missionary who commences giving direct instruction to the natives, though far from being competent in the language, is proceeding on safer ground than if he were employing an interpreter, who is not proficient in both languages, and who has not a tolerable understanding of the doctrines of the Gospel. Trust¬ ing to an ignorant and unqualified interpreter, is at¬ tended with consequences not only ludicrous, hut dangerous to the very objects which lie nearest the

missionary’s heart. The natives will smile, and make allowances for the blundering speeches of the mission¬ ary; and though some may convey the very opposite meaning to that which he intends, they know from his general character what it should be, and ascribe the blunder to his ignorance of the language. They are not so charitable towards his interpreter, whose interest it is to make them believe that he is master of a language of which they know nothing, and consequently they take for granted, that all is correct which comes through his lips. I have been very much troubled in my mind on hearing that the most erroneous renderings have been given to what I had said. Since acquiring the language, I have had opportunities of discovering this with my own ears, by hearing sentences translated, which at one moment were calculated to excite no more than a smile, while othersVould produce intense agony of mind from their bordering on blasphemy, and which the interpreter gave as the word of God. The interpreter who can¬ not himself read, and who understands very partially what he is translating, if he is not a very humble one, will, as I have often heard, introduce a cart-wheel, or an ox-tail into some passage of simple sublimity of Holy Writ, just because some word in the sentence had a similar sound. Thus for the passage, The salvation of the soul is a great and important subject;”

The salvation of the soul is a very great sack,’’ must sound strange, indeed. Oh, it is an untold blessing for one in such circumstances to have an humble and devout interpreter, who feels the very words glow as they pass through his lips. I have felt in Namaqua-land, with such an one, as if a holy unction from above were resting both on myself and interpreter. Alas! for us among the Bechuanas, ours was not of this description; he had accompanied Mr. Campbell to Kurrechane, brought home a concubine with him, and ay)ostatizing, became an enemy to the mission.

This was one of the trials to which allusion has been made, and was a severe blow; while the heathen laughed at our puny efforts to reform the nation. They had boasted that our Jesus and Jehovah, of whom we liked to talk so frequently, should never get one convert to bow the knee to their sway; and now these boasts were reiterated with epithets of contumely and scorn. Sometimes a cheering ray would pierce through the thick gloom which hung over our prospects, in the form of a kind word or action on the part of a chief or person of influence, though that was generally either the precursor of a favour to be asked, or a return for one granted. We needed the graces of faith and patience, and but for almighty support, we must have fainted and fallen in the struggle. It was then that the prayers of the churches at home were answered, though not in the way human minds anticipated. It was then that the Divine promises were perused with renewed feelings of ardour and consolation; and it was then that we were taught experimentally, that it was not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” It did indeed produce a melancholy feeling, when we looked around us, on so many immortal beings, not one of whom loved us, none sympathized, none considered the day of their merciful visitation; but with their lives, as with their lips, were saying to the Almighty, “Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.”

With such interpreters and aids as we could obtain, we ceased not to lift up our voices to proclaim the Gospel jubilee. The commission of Him who tasted death for every man, dwelt on our tongues; and though the declaration of Omnipotence, “My word shall not return unto me void,” assured us that our labours were not in vain, still we felt it an arduous employ. Every means was resorted to, and every season improved, to arrest the attention of the native mind, and every thing hopeful, even in the countenance of an individual, was eagerly treasured up in our hearts; but to our grief, we found every indication like the morning cloud and the early dew. We itinerated by turn every Sabbath, to the neighbour¬ ing villages; and very frequently after four and five miles’ walk, could not get an individual to listen to the message of Divine mercy. Without the influence of the chief men of the hamlet, it was scarcely possible at any time to collect a few individuals together; and if this was accomplished, they thought they were entitled to a reward for the exercise of their authority in promoting the object of our wishes; and not unfrequently, when they commanded, or, rather, pre¬ tended to command the attendance of their people, they laughed at the mandate, which they well knew was only that of the lips. Finding that a little bit of tobacco had some influence in increasing oar congregations at these out-places, as well as for the purpose of obtaining a draught of water, we would take a small portion of our little stock; but when we happened to forget it, we were frequently told to go back first, and bring the tobacco. We were wont to start very early, having to go on foot, in order to return to the station before the sun got so hot as to cause walking on the sand, especially in thin shoes, to he attended with considerable pain. I have known the chief of a village defer the collecting of his people together till the sun had become very hot, knowing our extreme reluctance to return without having had an opportunity of saying something to them about their eternal interests; and when they found this delay compelled the missionary, in his course home¬ ward over a sandy plain, to step from one tuft of grass to another, and stop frequently under the shadow of a hush till his glowing feet should cool, it afforded them no little satisfaction and enjoyment.

Many of them thought us a strange race of beings; while some would insinuate that we had some other object in view, of a very different character, than to make them believe in fables: and what was, if possible, still more consolatory, they would tell us that we had come to their country to get a living. Some brighter minds, however, inferred from what they saw, that all our resources being foreign, and some of them employed to administer to the wants of the natives, besides the taxes levied by thieves, that these surmises were not exactly the whole of the truth, but that we must be runaways from our native land, preferring a suffering life in their country to returning to our own, to be punished for some crime of which we had been guilty. “What is the reason you do not return to your own land?” asked a chief, when I begged him to endeavour to recover my knife, which had been stolen from my jacket that I had laid down while preaching. “If your land were a good one, or if you were not afraid of returning, you would not he so content to live as you do, while people devour you,” said an¬ other.

Our itinerating journeys to the Batlaros, who lived at Patane, about twenty miles to the westward, were of a more agreeable nature, if a comparison may be drawn. The thing was more novel to that people, and a congregation might be convened, though their wild¬ ness and ignorance may in some measure be conceived of by the following extract from one of my journals: — ‘‘ Arrived at Tlogo’s village. Tlogo the chief, and a number of people, having congregated at the wagon, I embraced the opportunity of speaking to them a little about the things of God. I had scarcely begun, when the greater part of them took to their keels. At the conclusion, something was said in reference to what had taken place, when one who could speak a few words of the Dutch language broke out in the following harangue: ‘ The Bechuanas are very hard-headed, and will not hear, though God has given them so many things. He has given them oxen, goats, and women,’ — ranking the latter among the inferior animals.”

The missionary requires incessant patience and perseverance, for often when he has, by many kind speeches and a present to the chief, collected an audience, he finds his first words are only a signal for instant dismissal. I have found some chiefs, who, entirely ignorant of the motives of the missionary, have professed great anxiety to have one, and would bring a young daughter into the presence of Mrs. Mofikt, assuring me that he would give her to be my wife, were I to take up my abode with him. This, no doubt, was very generous; and he, poor man, in his ignorance, must have thought me not only saucy but silly, not to embrace so fascinating an ofier. These visits, although without any apparent success. were not lost either upon the natives or ourselves; for, while, they gradually familiarized our character and objects to the people, they taught us lessons very important in preparing us for trials greater than these.

In imparting instruction, we were obliged to keep to first principles. Among such a people it was necessarv to assert who God was, as well as what he had done for a sinful world. It is recorded of the Moravian missionaries in Greenland, that they had been in the habit of directing the attention of their hearers to the existence and attributes of God, the fall of man, and the demands of the Divine law; hoping thus, by degrees, to prepare the minds of the heathen for the more mysterious and sublime truths of the Gospel. As, however, this plan had been tried for five years with no success, they now resolved, in the first instance, simply to preach Christ crucified to the benighted Greenlanders; and not only were their own souls set at peculiar liberty in speaking, but the power of the Holy Ghost evidently accompanied the word spoken to the hearts and consciences of the hearers; so that they trembled at their danger as sinners, and rejoiced with joy unspeakable in the appointment and exhibition of Christ as a Saviour from the wrath to come. This fact has been reiterated; and, by the deductions drawn from it, many, we believe, have been led to suppose that the subsequent labours of other missionaries, for sixteen years, in the South Sea Islands, without fruit, must have arisen from their not “thus directing their principal attention to the only subject which was likely to be permanently profitable to the heathen.” This, however, we conceive to be a very erroneous conclusion; for if we examine the

journals and experience of those who laboured a much longer period than the Greenland missionaries with no better success, we shall find that the burden of their report was, ‘‘ God so loved the world,” etc. If these missionaries, whom we can never cease to ad¬ mire, and whose extraordinary love to the Saviour influenced them to brave the tempests of an arctic sky, had confined their preaching exclusively to the attributes of God, which, as ministers of the New Testament, we can scarcely think they did, we should not wonder at their little success. It ought also to be recollected, that by their first efforts to enlighten the minds of the natives respecting the character of the Divine Being, they were preparing the way for dilating more fully on the theme of man’s redemption.

The course pursued by the apostles among the Jews, who were acquainted with the nature and operations of the true God, was to proclaim the reign of the Messiah, and even to baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus only; but Paul, whose all-absorbing theme was Christ, and Him crucified, determined, while stand¬ ing on Mars’ Hill, among the literati of Athens, to dis¬ course first on the character and attributes of the true God, of whom they were ignorant. His sermon, or rather the exordium, is entirely restricted to the establishment of this most important point. This was his mode of convincing both Stoics and Epicureans of the fallacy of their tenets; and by thus introducing the character and government of what was to them an “Unknown God,” he prepared them for the attraction of the Cross, which was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. This inimitable discourse was addressed to idolaters, and admirably calculated to overthrow the notions of his opponents; for while the Epicureans acknowledged no gods, except in name, they absolutely denied that they exercised any government over the world or its inhabitants; and while the Stoics did not deny the existence of the gods, they held that all human affairs were governed by fate. The Acts of the Apostles has very properly been designated a ‘‘ Missionary Book and he who takes the first propagators of Christianity as his models, cannot err. The missionary having this guide, and relying on the direction and promises of the Great Head of the Church, will find it necessary to adapt his discourses to the circumstances of the people among whom he labours. In Greenland he will, in the first instance, endeavour to undermine the influence of the Angekoks; in Western Africa, that of the Greegrees; and, in Southern Africa, the assumed power of Rain-makers; by declaring that ‘’God made the world and all things therein, and giveth to all life, breath, and all things.” This should be done more especially among a people who have no idolatry whatever; while the exhibition of Him who is the desire of nations ought on no occasion to he with¬ held.

The question may be raised. What would Paul have done among the Plindoos, the Esquimaux, or the atheistical nations of the interior of Africa? We pre¬ sume that he who found it necessary, yea, of incalculable importance to become all things to all men, would leave the mode of argument requisite to convince the Jew, and preach to them as he did to the people of Lystra, that they should turn from their vanities unto the living God, who made heaven and

earth and seas, and all things that are therein; and turn the attention from soothsayers, sorcerers, charms and amulets, to that divine and gracious Being who gives rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, fdling our hearts with food and gladness. All this the missionary finds it necessary to do, to clear away a mass of rubbish which paralyzes the mental powers of the natives; while he knows full well, that if he wishes to save souls, he must preach Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, without which all his efforts to save souls must be like the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.

We found it necessary to make every subject as striking and interesting as possible to gain attention, for our greatest complaint was indifference, a cold assent being the most we could obtain from even the most intelligent of them. We held one service in Dutch on the Sabbath evenings, for the edification of our own souls as well as those of two or three Hottentots and their families. This was the only service in which we felt any thing like real enjoyment, the others affording only that which arose from the sense of discharging a daty.

About this time a circumstance occurred which operated as a balm to some of our sorrows. AVe had been exceedingly tried by the conduct of Fransinna, a Hottentot woman, from Bethelsdorp. She had taken offence at our having sent away a young Hottentot in our service, on account of immoral conduct, which disgraced the mission in the eyes of the Bechuanas. She took this opportunity of instigating the king and his people against us, by insinuating that we had ascribed it to Mothibi, who, of course.

was hurt at being charged with that which was our own act. While her unchristian and violent spirit was threatening the overthrow of the mission, she was suddenly seized with a remarkable distemper, which prostrated her in a short time on a bed of sickness. She was visited and faithfully dealt with. Her conduct in endeavouring to frustrate our efforts among the Bechuanas, was set before her in its true colours. She was soon thoroughly convinced of the guilt of such hostility, and of the reasonableness of the step on our part which had excited her displeasure. She frankly confessed her crimes, was cut to the heart for the injury she had done to the cause, and earnestly implored forgiveness, when she was directed afresh to the fountain opened for sin. She remained several months in severe affliction, and about a month before her death, one of her legs from the knee was consigned to the dust, the rest of her limbs meanwhile gradually decaying; but while worms were literally destroying her body, she knew in whom she had believed. From the commencement of her affliction, the Lord had made her to feel that he had a controversy with her, and thrice happy was it for her that she heard the rod and Him who had appointed it. She acknowledged that for some time previous she had wandered from God, and had done things to the grief of our souls and the injury of the cause; she also said that she had used her endeavours to ])ersuade her husband and the other Hottentots to abandon the station and return home, and that in the midst of her fiery opposition to us the Lord laid his hand upon her. She had thus been brought to a sense of her danger, and to have recourse to the

precious blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin. She made a full, free, and public confession of all her iniquity; and a short time before her death, remembering again the injury she had attempted to do, by endeavouring to persuade the men to abandon the mission, she called them together to her bedside, and, as her dying request, entreated them not to leave the missionaries, however accumulated their privations might be, adding, that it was at their peril if they deserted them. During the whole of her illness not a murmur escaped her lips. Resting on the righteousness of Christ, she gloried in his cross. A lively gratitude to God, who had redeemed her, beamed forth in her whole demeanour, and when we were called to witness her last struggle with the king of terrors, we beheld with feelings no tongue can utter, the calmness and serenity of her mind in the lively anticipation of immortal glory, and saw her breathe her last. Thus, as with captive Israel of old, “our God did lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage,”