Dr. Vanderkemp's Mission Commenced among the Hottentots

Dr. Vanderkemp’s mission commenced among the Hottentots — The Governor’s kindness — the station attacked — Trying circumstances — Escape to Fort Frederick — Bethelsdorp — Successes of Dr. V.’s efforts — His death and character — A remarkable incident — — Kat River mission — Kafir mission resumed — Affecting scene — Williams’s death — Brownlee finally resumes the mission — Effects of the Gospel,

In February, 1801, Dr. Vanderkemp and Mr. Read, with more than 100 Hottentots, left GraaiF Reinet. Their temporary residence was appointed at Botha’s farm, about seven miles west of Algoa Bay, where they continued with the Hottentots for nearly eight months, leading a life of uninterrupted anxiety, perplexity, and danger, the Doctor being for some time confined to his bed with rheumatism. Though liber¬ ally assisted with necessaries by government order from Fort Frederick, they were continually exposed to enemies of different descriptions, and, but for God’s protecting arm, must have been destroyed root and branch.

Their institution made them an object of hatred to many of the colonists, who described them as taking part with the plundering Hottentots and Kafirs; and representing their station as a refuge for robbers and murderers; while the truth was, that it was an asylum only for those who had separated themselves from such banditti. Notwithstanding this, a government order, to the great sorrow of the missionaries, prohibited the reception of any Hottentots into this asylum and those thus repelled, chose to maintain themselves in the woods, among brutes, rather than return to their own tribes. General Dundas, approving of the Doctor’s scheme, wished the whole party to remove for safety to the fortress, and, regarding the missionaries as dead men if they did not accept of his offer, proposed to them again, as a last resource for the preservation of their lives, to sail with him to the Cape of Good Hope, and defer the instruction of the Hottentots in that region till a more favourable season; but to this the Doctor would not consent.

To the honour of General Dundas, let it be again recorded, that, so fully was he convinced of the duty and importance of what was then considered utopian, that he ordered for the use of the station, from the Bay, (Fort Frederick,) 6000 pounds of rice, 6 casks of salt meat, 200 sheep, 59 labouring oxen, 11 milchcows, 96 horned cattle, 3 wagons, 1 fishing-net, 1 corn-mill, 2 corn-sieves, and a smith’s bellows, be¬ sides implements of agriculture. Scarcely had this generous action cheered their prospects, when, as they write, —

“A troop of plundering Hottentots attacked our place in the middle of the night, and having fired about fifty times with muskets, took away all our cattle. All our endeavours to persuade them to a friendly agreement were in vain; they did not give any answer but by firing. One of our most esteemed Hottentots approached them, and spoke in a friendly manner; but they cried, ‘Look, there comes a peace-maker; kill him, shoot him!’ u])on which he received a ball in his leg. We hoped they would have

been content with our cattle, but it seemed that their intention was to kill us. They made an assault on our dwellings, and, for that purpose made use of our cattle in the Kafrarian manner. Providence so ordered it, that brother Read had laid some newly-sawn planks in the passage, between our house and the next to it. The cattle which were drove before them were afraid of these, so that they would not go over them, and turned aside. The enemy now saw’ himself exposed, and our people being in the utmost danger, compelled by self-defence, fired without being able to take aim, on account of the darkness; but the hand of God directed a ball in such a way, that the chief of this troop was wounded in the thigh, by which the artery of the thigh was cut through; the violent effusion of blood put an end to his life in a few minutes; on this the whole troop fled, leaving behind them all the cattle except eighteen, which in the beginning of the assault had been driven away. No¬ body could guess the reason of this unexpected deliverance, for the Hottentots fired but twice. On the following morning the dead body was found, and recognised as that of Andries Stuurman, brother of Klaas Stuurman. On the subsequent night we were surrounded again by enemies, but finding that we had moved our cattle from the Kraal within the square, which was surrounded by our houses, and that we had barricadoed all the entrances to it, they left us unmolested. But two days after, having got some reinforcement from the Kafirs, they attacked us anew, in the middle of the day, as a part of our cattle was driven to the pasture. They stabbed one of our wood-cutters during the time of his being gone into the wood to pray; and now they drove away our cattle. All our people attacked them in the greatest confusion, and with fury, leaving the place, with their wives and children, entirely undefended. They put the assailants to flight, and brought the cattle back again, except eight oxen, who w’ere either killed or mortally wounded. We always had instructed our people that it was their duty rather to part with their earthly goods than to save them by killing another; and that it was not the duty of a Christian to kill any body but when the safety of his own life, or that of a third person, should render it absolutely necessary. But our Hottentots took another view of the subject, and looked upon themselves as competent to make use of their arms, as well to defend their goods as their lives; they also showed too plainly that they had obtained a certain degree of pleasure in fighting. We were not at all pleased with this, because our intention was to gain our enemies by a soft and amiable behaviour; and thus by no means to “rovoke them by a hostile opposition. Besides this, we foresaw that the enemy, re¬ inforcing himself more and more, at last would be able to lead on a superior power, sufficient to destroy us entirely.’”

These successive attacks induced them very properly to take refuge, with their 300 people, in Fort Frederick. Here they remained for a time, continuing their religious services under circumstances more distressing to the minds of the missionaries than the horrors of savage fury from which they had escaped. They were associated with those who had the misfortune to be comparative strangers to the means of grace, and inured to a recklessness of feeling in regard to eternal realities, which a life of warfare has (we may presume since the days of Cain) produced on tribes once civilized and refined in taste and feeling. This exposed their people to seduction, drunkenness, and other vices.

After the arrival of General Janssen, the Colony having been ceded to the Dutch, a spot was granted on which to fix a permanent station; and on the 2nd of June, they took up their abode on Kooboo, which from that period they called Bethelsdorp. This situation, from its sterility and want of water, soon convinced them that it was most unsuitahle for a missionary farm; and the only wonder is, that it should have been permitted to continue, and even become, in many respects, a sinking fund, while both missionaries and people (a small number) were compelled to live a hungry, self-denying life. Five vears after its commencement, they wi’ite to the

Directors, that they had been without bread for a long time, and did not expect to procure any for three or four months; neither were there any vegetables, owing to the barrenness of the soil. This, of course, was a grievous impediment to their labours, and an effectual barrier to the very objects for which this station was selected; and it is a kind of madness to expend large sums and great toil on such a waste, except for the purpose of having a modern Tadmor in the wilderness. Yet, notwithstanding all these discouraging circumstances, many were the demonstrations of the Divine blessing on their labours. ‘‘The progress, also, of their scholars in learning to read and write, was astonishing to them, and above all, their facility in acquiring religious knowledge, knowing, as they did full well, the peculiar apathy, stupidity, and aversion to any exertion, mental or corporeal, which characterises the natives.” Dr. Vanderkemp having, with true Christian benevolence, pleaded the cause of the oppressed, — for there were oppressions, national and individual, which we must leave till that day when every one will receive according to the deeds done in the body; — the great struggle commenced which terminated, through the persevering exertions of the Rev. Dr. Philip, on July 17th, 1828, in the effectual emancipation of the Hottentots. All the contentions, heart-burnings, broken heads and broken hearts which marked the long struggle, will appear hereafter in the page of history — like the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, the colonization of America, or the savagism of our forefathers in their border wars — humbling, but instructive mementos to succeeding generations. Dr.

V.’s interference in the cause of suffering humanity, or rather his disclosure of some of the wron2:s of the Hottentots, led to his being summoned, with Mr. Read, to Cape Town, to appear before an extraordinary commission appointed by Lord Caledon. This was followed by most important results: for the Doctor having been fully borne out in his facts, his Excellency directed that commissioners should personally visit the several districts where enormities had been perpetrated, and that the guilty should be punished. This was among the last public services which Dr. Vanderkemp rendered to that peoj)le, who had now been the object of his solicitude for eleven years. He had long contemplated a mission to Madagascar, and though now far advanced in years, his soul burned with youthful ardour to enter on that perilous undertaking. It was in his heart, but the Great Head of the church had otherwise ordained it; for, after a few days’ illness, he closed his eyes on this world, Dec. 15th, 1811, after breathing out the Christian assurance, ‘‘ All is well.”

Thus ended the memorable life of Dr. Vanderkemp. Avoiding the extravagances of momentary feeling, which declares that His equal is not to be found upon earth, and that he was little behind the chiefest apostles of our Lord,” we nevertheless cheerfully concede to him this meed of praise. Few men would have encountered the storms which he braved, and, perhaps fewer still have been more conspicuously distinguished by success in their efforts to emancipate the Flottentots from temporal and spiritual thraldom. Divine Providence, from time to time, in a remark¬ able manner, raises up men aday)ted to certain situa-VANDERKEMP’S CHARACTER.

tions, apart from which, they would have been like the flower which “wastes its sweetness in the desert air.” Such were Luther, Wickliffe, Knox, and a host of others; and though those who well knew and loved Vanderkemp, would charge us with blind partiality, if we placed him on an equality with those distinguished reformers; yet no less can be said of his labours than that they were those of an extraordinary man: and, considering the time and state of affairs in the Colony in which he lived, and the native character of the tribes among whom he laboured, the grace of God made him the honoured instrument of doing wonders. Dr. Vanderkemp was the friend and advocate of civil liberty. The condition of the slaves pressed heavily upon his mind, and the sufferings of those who had embraced the Gospel, made large demands on his almost unbounded generosity; so that he expended nearly £1000 of his personal property in unbinding the heavy burdens, and setting the captives free. It is probable that his extreme sympathy with this enslaved people induced him, with more feeling than judgment, to choose a wife from amongst them. Being a most unsuitable companion for such a person, her subsequent conduct cast a gloom over the remnant of his days of suffering and toil; and as I have heard it remarked by one who knew him well, undoubtedly accelerated his death. It was from his lips that the Kafirs (a nation of atheists) first heard the Gospel, the theme of Divine love; and if we cast our eyes over the history of missions, and the successes of the “Martyr of Erromanga,” we see at once the value of a pioneer of almost any description, and more especially of such a pioneer as Dr.

Vanderkemp. He was the first public defender of the rights of the Hottentot. Although his expansive sympathy betrays not unfrequently in his writings what may be deemed instability of purpose, it is obviously attributable to a benevolent desire to grasp the whole of the race, while his eyes, wandering around the tempestuous horizon, sought a haven in which to shelter them from the storm. He counted not his own life dear to himself; for when advised for his own safety to leave the Hottentots for a season, his reply was, “If I knew that I should save my own life by leaving them, I should not fear to offer that life for the least child amongst them.” In this, though wanting in prudence, he displayed a magnanimity of soul which, in other circumstances, would have called forth the applause of a nation.

But it may be said, that this is a partial view of the character of this great man; and it is only just to admit that the Doctor was eccentric; and many, very many of his personal hardships were self-inflicted. Though his mission to the Kafirs was a bold, and, in Africa, an unprecedented undertaking, he was always within the reach of civilized men; and except when Gaika detained him a short time in the country, he had always an asylum open to receive him. His trials in this respect were very different from those of the founders of the Namacqua and Griqua Missions, who were hundreds of miles beyond the abodes of civilized society, and the protecting arm of civil ])owcr. In a colonial village, where there were many who admired and were ready to serve him, the Doctor would go out to the water to wash his own linen; and frecpiently at home and abroad, he would

dispense with hat, shirt, and shoes, while the patron and advocate of civilization. These were anomalies and shades of character, which of course added no¬ thing to his usefulness, while his ultra notions on the subject of predestination left a leaven in some of the African churches, which it required the labour of many years to remove. It is also but justice to add, that Dr. Vanderkemp was not without sympathy; there were many noble-minded colonists who took a deep interest in his sufferings and labours; who felt strong compassion for the spiritual destitution of the Hottentot race, and the slave population; and who were liberal in supporting the cause. Stimulated by the example of Vanderkemp and Kicherer, they laboured to promote the kingdom of Christ among the aborigines. These were noble minds, who wept over the country’s wrongs; and it is scarcely possible to conceive the Doctor’s feelings when on his journey to Graaff Reinet, beyond the Gamka River, he came to the house of Mr. de Beer, who, on hearing the object of the party, received them with uncommon joy;” and calling his family and slaves together, fell upon his knees, and uttered this remarkable prayer: — “O Lord, thou hast afflicted me with inexpressible grief, in taking my child from me, whom I buried this day; but now thou rejoicest my soul with joy greater than all my grief, in showing me that thou hast heard my prayers for the conversion of the Kafirs, and giving me to see this moment the fulfilment of thy promises.” He then addressed himself to them, and sang several psalms and hymns, relative to the calling of the heathen.

Dr. Vanderkemp’s death was a stroke severely felt; but He who had called him from his labours, continued to bless the seed sown, under the fostering care of Mr. Read and others. Bethelsdorp, under many difficulties and disadvantages, grew and multiplied. New churches were planted at Pacaltsdorp, Theopolis, and other places, through the instrumentality of the Rev. J. Campbell, in his first visit to Africa, who on that occasion was the means of giving a new impulse to the spirit of missions there, as well as among the churches at home.

The Kat River mission was commenced at the suggestion of the Hon., now Sir A. Stockenstrom, and was, so far as the plan went, a measure which will reflect lasting honour on the memory of that enlightened and liberal individual.* To the beautiful and fertile Kafir vales, the principal of the Hottentots from Bethelsdorp, Theopolis, and other places, flocked. This was a seasonable movement, as those stations were no longer, after the emancipation of that people, asylums to those who were active and willing to earn a competence elsewhere. The results of the mission at Philiptown, and its branches, the members of which had been culled from those in the Colony, have been such as to prove that the plan was well laid, and carried into efficient operation. The last

* The author does not wish it to he understood that he approves of the policy which deprived the Kafirs of that rich and fertile portion of their territories, and gave it to the Hottentots. Bannister, in his “Humane Policy,” makes the following very judicious re¬ mark on the subject: — “To obtain land for any portion of that oppressed race, is so good an act, that it would be ungracious to look harshly at the mode of doing it, if our character for justice to others were not involved in the particular way chosen.”

year’s report of Kat River station exhibits 500 members in the churchy and 912 children and adults in the schools; while their subscriptions to the support of the mission are liberal, — though, I am aware, far from being equal to the entire expenses, as many of the friends of missions have been led to expect, and which was anticipated at Bethelsdorp many years ago.

The colonial stations, though deprived of the most influential and intelligent of their inhabitants, continue to struggle and prosper. Bethelsdorp still maintains comparative respectability, under the de¬ voted but noiseless labours of Mr. Kitchingman. We have now within the limits of the Colony sixteen stations, and about thirty Missionaries. How would the venerable Vanderkemp gaze, were he to rise, and behold the harvest which has been gathered in from the people whose ignorance and degradation called forth all the sympathies and energies of his enlightened mind!

“The troubles of departed years,

Bring joys unknown before,

And soul-refreshing are the tears
O’er wounds that bleed no more.”*

But to return to Kafir-land, where the veteran sowed in tears, hut where Missionaries of different societies now reap in joy. It was not before the year 1816, in the month of July, that a successful effort was made by Mr. Joseph Williams. At that time, with his wife and child, he took up his abode at the Kat River. Short as Dr. Vanderkemp’s labours among

* James Montgomery. the Kafirs Yere, he left a savour of the Gospel behind him, which prepared the way for others, after many long years had rolled by, during which many of the Doctor’s acquaintances had been taught, by fearful lessons, not, alas! to admire the nation of whites, but rather to increase their suspicions and alarms. But Jank anna’s (Vanderkemp’s) name still diffused a fragrance among the yet untamed and unsubdued Kafirs. Intercourse with the missionary station at Bethelsdorp kept up this delightful feeling; and Messrs. Read and Williams, in their previous reconnoitring journey, were hailed as the sons of Jankanna.

Most auspicious was the commencement of this mission, while the energy and devotedness of Williams, with the party he took with him from Bethels¬ dorp, were soon likely, under the Divine blessing, to make the wilderness and solitary place rejoice. Temporary houses were raised, ground was cleared for cultivation, a water-course and dam were in preparation, while the Kafirs assembled for daily instruction; and the beautiful vale which had often echoed to the din of savage war, was likely soon to become a peaceful Zion, to which the Kafir tribes would repair to hold their solemn feasts. Little more than two years had run their round, when Williams was numbered with the dead. His beloved partner, (now Mrs. Robson,) a woman of no common fortitude, was his sole attendant in the lonely vale, and saw in her expiring husband the bright prospects they had of permanent success among the Kafirs, and into which she had entered with all her energies of mind and body, blasted for a season. About to be left with two fatherless babes, her cir-Williams’s death.

cumstances were such as even her own pen would fail to describe; but the widow’s God was there. Take, for example, the following extract from her journal. After being enabled to resign her dearest earthly friend, she asked one of the Kafirs if he had “No wish to see his teacher before the Lord took him to himself? Yes,’ was his reply, ‘but I do not like to ask you, because I think it will make your heart sore.’ He then approached, and sat down by the bedside. I asked him if he prayed? ‘Yes,’ he said. And what do you pray for? ‘ I pray the

Lord, as he had brought us a teacher over the great sea water, and hath thus long spared him to tell us His word, that He would be pleased to raise him up again to tell us more of that Great AYord.’ I asked. Do you pray for me? ‘ Yes; I pray that

if the Lord should take away your husband from you, he would support and protect you and your little ones in the midst of this wild and barbarous people.’”

Cheerless and lonely must have been the first days of her widowhood. She instructed her semicivilized attendants to prepare the wood, and make a coffin; and, with a weeping hand, followed the desire of her eyes to the silent dust, there to slumber till the morning of the resurrection, when He who cut short his work in righteousness, will show that Williams, in his short career, finished the work given him to do. I saw no monument to mark his tomb; hut he has left an imperishable one, in having been the means of lighting up the torch of Divine truth, which, notwithstanding the political war, strife, and bloodshed which followed between the Kafirs and the Colonists, was not extinguished, but served to lighten the path of those who followed in his wake. To this every missionary has borne ample testimony; and his labours were blessed to an extent far beyond his most sanguine expectations. So much had this good man gained on the confidence of the Kafirs, that Gaika himself, during the season of political discord, had more confidence in the rectitude of the missionary than in any one of the local authorities, or even in the governor himself.

Thus again was the candle removed from Kafir-land, and the policy of that age refused, at that time, to allow another missionary to proceed to water the seed sown by Mr. Williams. Mr. Brownlee was ultimately appointed as missionary in the service of government, and commenced a mission at the Chumie in 1820.* He was followed and supported by the Glasgow missionaries, and last, though not least, the Weslevan missionaries entered the field; and now

* jNIr. Brownlee soon attached himself again to the London missionary Society, and, continning at his post, has had the honour and ha2:)piness to witness the increase of missionary labours in Kafir-land, where he toiled hard, and suffered much, long before any others were permitted to enter that country at all. One of our Wesleyan brethren, fully competent to judge, now in this country, remarks, that “his labours have been indefatigable, though unostentatious; and to place this wmrfhy man in his proper position, it is not indeed necessary to imitate the unhallowed practice of some, who to accomplish a purpose, or to gratify party spirit, invidiously and fulsomely cry up one missionary at the expense of his brethren, whose labours, though noiseless, have been far more abundant.” The London Missionary Society has now five stations in Kafir-land, including one for the Bushmen in the Tarnbookie country; the twm Glasgow Societies, six; and the Wesleyan Society, twelve.

they present a band of labourers whose endeavours, if they continue to receive the Divine blessing, bid fair to subdue that people to the sceptre of Jesus, prevent the rapine and bloodshed which characterised by-gone years and the late destructive war, and save a nation from ruin. Already the warrior has exchanged the hoarse war song for the anthems of peace and love, while the printing press is called into operation to transfer into their own language the oracles of God. Let us hail the triumphs of the cross, by whomsoever it may be borne, as all have one undivided object, the glory of God in the salvation of man.

“Yes, for a season Satan shall prevail,

And hold as if secure his dark domain;

The prayers of righteous men may seem to fail,

And Heaven’s glad tidings be proclaimed in vain.

But wait in faith; ere long shall spring again The seed that seemed to perish in the ground;

And, fertilized by Zion’s latter rain,

The long-parched land shall laugh, with harvests crown’d,

And through those silent wastes Jehovah’s praise resound.”