again and again addressed him in soft and affectionate language, on his best interests, till he at last entered the house of God, and became at once a steady and unwavering friend, and many times did he minister to my wants in that hungry land. He too would not unfrequently sit nearly a whole night with the chief and myself, in comparative silence. He thought his doing so would be pleasing to me, but he would never make a profession. He was wont to say his head had become too hard with sin, adding, “I hear what you say, and I think I sometimes understand, but my heart will not feel." He was the only individual of influence on the station who had two wives, and fearing the influence of example, I have occasionally made a delicate reference to the subject, and, by degrees, could make more direct remarks on that point, which was one of the barriers to his happiness; but he remained firm, admitting, at the same time, that a man with two wives was not to be envied; adding, "He is often in an uproar, and when they quarrel, he does not know whose part to take." He said he often resolved when there was a great disturbance, he would pay one off. One morning I had thought the anticipated day had come. He approached my door, leading an ox, upon which one of his wives was seated. "What is the matter?" I inquired. Giving me a shake of his hand, and laughing, he replied, "Just the old thing over again. Mynheer must not laugh too much at me, for I am now in for it." The two wives had quarrelled at the outpost, and the one in a rage had thrown a dry rotten stick at the other, which had entered the palm of her hand, and left a piece about an inch long, and the thickness of a finger. The hand had swollen to nearly four times its usual size. "Why," I asked, "did you not bring her sooner?" "She was afraid to see you, and would not come, till I assured her that you were a maak mensche" (a tame man.) Having made an incision, and extracted the piece of wood, she was melted into tears with gratitude, while I earnestly exhorted her to a better course of life.

But to return to the character of Africaner; during the whole period I lived there, I do not remember having occasion to be grieved with him, or to complain of any part of his conduct; his very faults seemed to "lean to virtue's side." One day, when seated together, I happened, in absence of mind, to be gazing stedfastly on him. It arrested his attention, and he modestly inquired the cause. I replied, "I was trying to picture to myself your carrying fire and

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sword through the country, and I could not think how eyes like yours could smile at human woe." He answered not, but shed a flood of tears! He zealously seconded my efforts to improve the people in cleanliness and industry; and it would have made any one smile to have seen Christian Africaner and myself superintending the school children, now about 120, washing themselves at the fountain. It was, however, found that their greasy, filthy carosses of sheepskins soon made them as dirty as ever. The next thing was to get them to wash their mantles, &c. This was no easy matter, from their being made chiefly of skins, not tanned, and sewed together with thread made of the sinews of animals. It required a great deal of coaxing argument, and perseverance, to induce them to undertake this Herculean task; but this, too, was also accomplished, to their great comfort, for they willingly admitted that they formerly harboured so much company, that they could not sleep soundly. It may be emphatically said of Africaner, that "he wept with those that wept," for wherever he heard of a case of distress, thither his sympathies were directed; and notwithstanding all his spoils of former years, he had little to spare, but he was ever on the alert to stretch out a helping hand to the widow and fatherless. At an early period I also became an object of his charity, for, finding out that I sometimes sat down to a scanty meal, he presented me with two cows, which, though in that country giving little milk, often saved me many a hungry night, to which I was exposed. He was a man of peace; and though I could not expound to him that the "sword of the magistrate" implied, that he was calmly to sit at home, and see Bushmen or marauders carry off his cattle, and slay his servants; yet so fully did he understand and appreciate the principles of the gospel of peace, that nothing could grieve him more than to hear of individuals, or villages, contending with one another. He who was formerly like a firebrand, spreading discord,. enmity, and war among the neighbouring tribes, would now make any sacrifice to prevent any thing like a collision be tween two contending parties; and when he might have raised his arm, and dared them to lift a spear, or draw a bow, he would stand in the attitude of a suppliant, and entreat them to be reconciled to each other; and, pointing to his past life, ask, "What have I now of all the battles I have fought, and all the cattle I took, but shame and remorse ?" At an early period of my labours among that people, I was deeply affected by the sympathy he, as well

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as others of his family, manifested towards me in a season of affliction. The extreme heat of the weather, in the house which I have described, and living entirely on meat and milk, to which I was unaccustomed, brought on a severe attack of bilious fever, which, in the course of two days, induced delirium. Opening my eyes in the first few lucid moments, I saw my attendant and Africaner sitting before my couch, gazing on me with eyes full of sympathy and tenderness. Seeing a small parcel, containing a few medicines, I requested him to hand it to me, and taking from it a vial of calomel, I threw some of it into my mouth, for scales or weights I had none. He then asked me, the big tear standing in his eye, if I died, how they were to bury me. "Just in the same way as you bury your own people," was my reply; and I added, that he need be under no apprehensions if I were called away, for I should leave a written testimony of his kindness to me. This evidently gave him some comfort, but his joy was full, when he saw me speedily restored, and at my post, from which I had been absent only a few days.

In addition to Christian Africaner, his brothers, David and Jacobus, both believers, and zealous assistants in the work of the mission, especially in the school, were a great comfort to me. David, though rather of a retiring disposition, was amiable, active, and firm; while Jacobus was warm, affectionate, and zealous for the interests of souls. His very countenance was wont to cheer my spirits, which, notwithstanding all I had to encourage, would sometimes droop. Long after I left that people, he was shot, while defending the place against an unexpected attack made on it by the people of Warm Bath. This intelligence deeply affected me, for I knew that he and David, with a select few, continued in accordance with the dying charge of their elder brother, to keep the lamp of God alive; while Jonker, the son and successor of the departed chief, turned to those courses from which he had been warned by the last accents which fell from his father's lips, though he had been a promising youth, without having made any profession of faith in the Gospel. The following fact will serve to illustrate the character of Kobus, as he was usually called. The drought was excessive; the people were distressed at the idea of being compelled to leave the station in search of grass. Special prayer-meetings were held to implore the blessing of rain. Prayer was soon answered, and the heavens, which had been as brass, were covered with clouds, the thunders

rolled, and rain fell like a torrent. The display of Divine condescension produced a powerful effect on the minds of the people, and many were the eyes that wept tears of gratitude. I went out of my hut, where I had been nearly blinded by the vivid glare of the lightning, and witnessed Kobus comforting his wife, who was not a believer, while she seemed terror-struck at the tremendous peals which even yet were rending the heavens, and making the very earth to tremble beneath. He asked her how she could be afraid of a God so kind, and who could send down the rain of his grace, with equal abundance, on dry and parched souls; and, falling on his knees, he adored God for the blessings of salvation. At this time, another interesting event greatly encouraged me. The subject was a venerable mother, a member of the church, and one of the fruits of Mr. Anderson's labours, when on the Orange River. Entering her hut, and asking her how she felt, looking upwards with an expression of sweet composure, I am looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus," was her reply. Observing me addressing her unbelieving daughters, who were weeping around her bed, she remarked, "Yes, I have called them, that they may see a Christian die :" and a few hours after, she was called to the bosom of her God.

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CHAPTER IX.

THE state of the people, and the impossibility of the spot on which we lived becoming a permanent missionary station, -for, instead of its being a Jerusalem, as Mr. Ebner called it, it might, from its general character, be compared to the mountains of Gilboa, on which neitheir rain nor dew was to fall, gave rise to much inquiry respecting a locality more suitable. It was accordingly resolved to take a journey to the north, and examine a country on the borders of Damaraland, where it was reported fountains of water abounded; but I had only one wagon, and that was a cripple. We had neither carpenters nor smiths on the station, and I was unacquainted with these trades myself. The Orange River

was impassable; and even had it been fordable, the wagon was incapable of being conveyed to Pella, where it might be repaired. After ruminating for a day or two on what I had seen in smiths' shops in Cape Town, I resolved on making a trial, and got a native bellows, made of goat's skin, to the neck end of which was attached the horn of an elk, and at the other end two parallel sticks were fastened, which were opened by the hand in drawing it back, and closed when pressed forward, but making a puffing like something brokenwinded. The iron was only red-hot, after a good perspiration, when I found I must give it up as a bad job; observing to the chief, if I must accompany him, it must be on the back of an ox. Reflecting again on the importance of hav ing a wagon for the purpose of carrying food, when game happened to be killed, (for our sole dependence was on the success of hunting,) and Africaner evidently not liking, on my account, to go without a wagon, I set my brains again to work, to try and improve on the bellows; for it was wind I wanted. Though I had never welded a bit of iron in my life, there was nothing like "Try." I engaged the chief to have two goats killed, the largest on the station, and their skins prepared, entire, in the native way, till they were as soft as cloth. These skins now resembled bags, the open ends of which I nailed to the edge of a circular piece of board, in which was a valve; one end of the machine was connected with the fire, and had a weight on it to force out the wind, when the other end was drawn out to supply more air. This apparatus was no sooner completed, than it was put to the test, and the result answered satisfactorily, in a steady current of air; and soon I had all the people around me, to witness my operations with the new-fangled bellows. Here I sat, receiving their praises, but heartily wishing their departure, lest they should laugh at my burning the first bit of iron ĺ took in my hands to weld. A blue granite stone was my anvil; a clumsy pair of tongs, indicative of Vulcan's first efforts; and a hammer never intended for the work of a forge. My first essay was with some trepidation, for I did not like so many lookers-on. Success, however, crowned my efforts, to the no small delight of the spectators. Having finished what was necessary for the wagon, I was encouraged to attempt the repair of some gun-locks, which were as essential for the comfort and success of the journey as the wagon. In doing this, I began with one which I thought I could not spoil, should I not succeed; and accomplishing that, I was able to put the others in order. But in doing this, I had, for