AWFUL RETRIBUTION.

33

searches in Kafir-land," cannot be read without deep interest:

"The Mission stations in Kaffraria literally constitute folds, surrounded by evil spirits, as well as by beasts of prey; and all that rally round our standard are like so many sheep gathered together out of the wilderness. Within the last few days several have been added to our number; amongst whom one whose case is worthy of particular notice. She is an aged Hottentot, who was baptised by the late Mr. Vanderkemp, about thirty years ago. During the short time spent by that devoted Missionary amongst the Kafir tribes, he taught her, and two or three other females, a knowledge of letters. This she afterwards improved by assiduous application, so that she was at length enabled to read the sacred Scriptures, a copy of which, presented by her venerable tutor, she still retains to this very day. Although, from that time to this she had never enjoyed the privilege of sitting under a Christian ministry, it would, nevertheless, appear that she ever retained a sense of religion, and a very strong attachment to her Bible. On hearing of the establishment of Butterworth, she anxiously strove to get her heathenish husband (Lochenberg) into the mind for removing to the Mission village, that she might once more hear the Gospel, and get her poor children instructed. But to this he would never consent, well knowing that his deeds were of such a character as would not bear the light. The measure of his iniquity, however, being full, the hand of violence was permitted to remove him out of the way some months ago; and the shocking circumstances connected with his death, constitute a striking comment upon that passage of holy writ, 'Consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver."

"He was one of the Dutch farmers who fled from the colony, about the time when Mr. Vanderkemp was endeavouring to commence his Mission. Professing great regard for the latter on account of his ministerial character, these fugitives flocked around him, moved when he moved, and encamped where he ençainped. They had not been with him long, however, before his faithfulness aroused determined enmity, and they secretly strove to injure him in every possible way. Although some of them had taken native wives, and all been obliged to take refuge in the territories of the natives, their deep-rooted prejudices against the latter still continued, insomuch that Mr. Vanderkemp's preaching to them rendered him contemptible in their eyes. "Whenever they saw him,' said old Saartje, 'go into the bush for prayer or meditation, one or other of the Christi mensche (Christians) immediately ran into his tent to steal. His chests were frequently broken open, and his money taken away, until at last he had scarcely dublejees (pence) sufficient to carry him back to the colony.'

"It does not appear that any one of this party died a natural death. 'Faber,' said my informant, who was well acquainted with all the circumstances, 'was afterwards hung in the colony as a rebel. Buys wandered about amongst the tribes, murdering and plundering, until he himself was murdered. Botha was killed by the Kafirs, at the instigation of his companion. The hut in which Bezuidenhoud slept was one night fired by the natives, and he was burnt to death. The Irishman, (a deserter connected with the band,) together with one of his children, was also burnt to ashes, while asleep, by one of the native women with whom he had lived;' and, as already intimated, Lochenberg himself, 'whom vengeance suffered not to live,' was literally cut to pieces by the Amak wabi, about the middle of 1829."

34

KAFIR MISSION ABANDONED.

At the close of the year 1800, Dr. Vanderkemp, owing to a combination of circumstances, left Kafir-land, for Graaff Reinet, principally to meet the two brethren, Vanderlingen and Read, and remained a considerable time there, during a rebellion among the farmers. He visited Kafir-land again, but, from the unsettled state of the frontier, was compelled to relinquish the mission, and return to Graaff Reinet, where he laboured among the Hottentots. General Dundas offered means of forming a station in the colony, "to endeavour," as the governor expressed it, "to ameliorate the spiritual and temporal condition of that unhappy people, whom, upon every principle of humanity and justice, government is bound to protect."

CHAPTER III.

IN February, 1801, Dr. Vanderkemp and Mr. Read, with more than 100 Hottentots, left Graaff 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 liberally 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

KINDNESS OF GENERAL DUNDAS.

35

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 milch-cows, 56 horned-cattle, 3 wagons, 1 fishing-net, 1 corn-mill, 2 corn-sieves, and a smith's-bellows, besides 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!' upon 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 they 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. Nobody 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 as sailants to flight, and brought the cattle back again, except eight oxen,

36

ESCAPE TO FORT FREDERICK.

who were 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 provoke them by a hostile opposition. Besides this, we foresaw that the enemy, reinforcing 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 unsuitable 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 years after its commencement, they write 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 vege tables, 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 de

DEATH OF DR. VANDERKEMP.

37

monstrations 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, whieh 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 wrongs 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 people, 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 extravagancies 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