same stool, before the peaceful throne of the Redeemer; thus the Gospel makes

"Lions, and beasts of savage name,
Put on the nature of the Lamb."

We parted, with some hope that we might see him again; but no-it was the last farewell; for scarcely two years had elapsed when he was called to enter into the joy of his Lord. This he had anticipated, with the full assurance of hope, believing that, "when his earthly house should be dissolved, he would have a building of God."-The closing scene of his life is faithfully delineated by the Rev. J. Archbell, Wesleyan missionary, in a letter to Dr. Philip, dated March 14th,

1823

"When he found his end approaching, he called all the people together, after the example of Joshua, and gave them directions as to their future conduct. 'We are not,' said he, what we were, savages, but men professing to be taught according to the Gospel. Let us then do accordingly. Live peaceably with all men, if possible: and if impossible, consult those who are placed over you, before you engage in any thing. Remain together, as you have done since I knew you. Then, when the Directors think fit to send you a missionary, you may be ready to receive him. Behave to any teacher you may have sent as one sent of God, as I have great hope that God will bless you in this respect when I am gone to heaven. I feel that I love God, and that he has done much for me, of which I am totally unworthy,

"My former life is stained with blood; but Jesus Christ has pardoned me, and I am going to heaven. Oh! beware of falling into the same evils into which I have led you frequently; but seek God, and he will be found of you to direct you.'

"Africaner was a man of sound judgment, and of undaunted courage; and although he himself was one of the first and the severest persecutors of the Christian cause, he would, had he lived, have spilled his blood, if necessary, for his missionary."

Many had been the refreshing hours we had spent together, sitting or walking, tracing the operations of the word and Spirit on his mind, which seemed to have been first excited under the ministry of Christian Albrecht. Subsequent to that period, his thoughts were frequently occupied while looking around him, and surveying the "handy-works" of God, and asking the question, "Are these the productions of some great Being?-how is it that his name and character have been lost among the Namaquas, and the knowledge of Him confined to so few ?-has that knowledge only lately come to the world?-how is it that he does not address mankind in oral language?" His mind had received an impetus, not from the light of nature, bright as her page ap

pears to one even partially illumined by the voice of revela tion, but from what he had heard from the missionary. The torch of Divine truth, which had but just begun to irradiate with its yet feeble rays his intellectual powers, had been by his own violence removed far beyond his reach, and he was thus left to grope like one in the dark; but dark as his soul was, he could not retire from the ruins of Warm Bath with

out a pang. In trying to grasp the often indistinct rays of

light, which would occasionally flit across his partially awakened understanding, he became the more bewildered, especially when he thought of the spirit of the Gospel message, "Good-will to man." He often wondered whether the book he saw some of the farmers use said any thing on the subject; and then he would conclude, that if they worshipped any such being, he must be one of a very different character from that God of love to whom the missionaries directed the attention of the Namaquas.

It was at a period when Africaner's judgment appeared to be wavering, and when he was about to dismiss for ever from his thoughts the graver subjects of revelation, death, and immortality, that he had rather a remarkable dream, which gave his mind a bias it never afterward forsook. Although I admit, with many others, that dreams may be of three classes, human, satanic, and divine,—those of the lat ter class being very rare,—I have ever found it necessary to discourage, rather than to countenance, a regard to them among the heathen, on whose minds light has just begun to break, and who, under their first impressions, are very prone to give a superstitious interpretation to dreams, some of which are of too monstrous a character to be permitted an asylum in the mind. These generally obtain currency among the ignorant, and such as feel more pleasure in hawking about their nocturnal reveries, than spending their time in learning to read the law and the testimony; and the delusion does not stop here; they hear of visions, and think that they may come in for a share of them, and thus bring back the ancient dispensation, adding to dreams unearthly sights.

I have heard of some who had seen an angel behind a bush; of others who had beheld the Saviour, and could tell his form; of some who have heard a voice from heaven; of others who have gone as far as Jerusalem, like Mahomet, though not on an ass, and ascended to the third heaven, and returned the same night. When these things have found place, the missionary finds it necessary gently to introduce

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other matters into their channels of reflection, and impart a genuine currency in the place of that base coin, which, alas, is sometimes vended in more enlightened countries than Africa. But Africaner was a man who never dealt in such commodities. In the development of his Christian experience, his motto was, "Thus saith the Lord." The following I heard him relate only once, and it seemed then to have been revived in his mind by looking at a mountain opposite to which we sat, and along the steep sides of which ran a narrow path to the top.

He supposed, in his dream, that he was at the base of a steep and rugged mountain, over which he must pass by a path, leading along an almost perpendicular precipice to the summit. On the left of the path, the fearful declivity presented one furnace of fire and smoke, mingled with lightning. As he looked round to flee from a sight which made ais whole frame tremble, one appeared out of those murky vegions, whose voice, like thunder, said that there was no escape but by the narrow path. He attempted to ascend thereby, but felt the reflected heat from the precipice (to which he was obliged to cling) more intense than that from the burning pit beneath. When ready to sink with mental and physical agony, he cast his eyes upwards beyond the burning gulf, and saw a person stand on a green mount, on which the sun appeared to shine with peculiar brilliancy. This individual drew near to the ridge of the precipice, and beckoned him to advance. Shielding the side of his face with his hands, he ascended, through heat and smoke, such as he would have thought no human frame could endure. He at last reached the long desired spot, which became increasingly bright, and when about to address the stranger, he awoke.

On asking him what was his interpretation of the dream, he replied, that it haunted his mind for a long time, like a poisonous thorn in the flesh, and he could bear to reflect on it only when, as he said, with great simplicity, "I thought" the path was the narrow road leading from destruction to safety, from hell to heaven; the stranger I supposed to be that Saviour of whom I had heard, and long were my thoughts occupied in trying to discover when and how I was to pass along the burning path;" adding, with tears in his eyes, "Thank God I have passed."

It may not be improper, before concluding the subject of the mission to Africaner, to notice the cause why a missionary was not sent according to promise. That I did not for

132

MISSION RELINQUISHED.

get to urge it, may be seen from the following extract from one of my letters to the Directors :—

"But whilst they afford cause for gratitude, it is to be recollected, that their situation calls for sympathy and help at your hands. You have had the honour of sending them the glad tidings of the Gospel, which have been blessed in a singular manner to many who were formerly buried in degradation and guilt. I have there seen the lion become a lamb, the captive set at liberty, and the mourner comforted; yea, more, I have seen men, once the dupes of ignorance and vice, sweetly falling asleep in Jesus; others exulting, as they departed out of life, and saying, 'It is finished for guilty me.' Sometimes my solitary moments are interrupted with their doleful complaints. You have snatched us from heathen darkness; discovered to us the enemies of our never-dying souls; pointed us to the Lamb of God, and withdrawn the curtain of the eternal world. We see the crown that awaits the faithful, but why have you left us to finish the warfare alone? The battle is great, and our strength is small, and we are ready to perish for lack of knowledge.' Such is the situation of that interesting people, and surely such a situation demands sympathy and help."

This appeal was not forgotten; but the expectation that the people would remove, according to their original intention, to another part of the country, caused some delay on the part of the Directors. Mr. Schmelen, also, who had laboured so successfully in Great Namaqua-land, and whose enterprise planted a station at Bethany, two hundred miles beyond the Orange River, had been compelled to retire towards the colony, and abandon the Great Namaqua mission for a season, owing to the unsettled state of the country, and a civil war on the station. At the same time, Africaner's people separated, one part going towards the Fish River, where Jonker, alas, carried on the character of a freebooter, taking the cattle of the Damaras, while another part remained behind, on the old station, and kept up the worship of God.

At that period the mania for war extended from the Zoolus near Port Natal on the east, to Angra Pequena Bay on the west. Commencing with the Zoolus, Matabele, and Mantatees, the demon of war seemed to fly from people to people, and the numerous tribes of the Bechuana and Basuto appeared for a while devoted to destruction. Griquas, Corannas, and Namaquas, though last not least, from their contiguity to the Colony, possessing superior means of carrying on the bloody game, continued with few exceptions, to scatter devastation, distress, and woe, until the vengeance of Heaven fell both on them and their ill-gotten spoils. These were days of trial, and scarcely a missionary station escaped unscathed north of the Orange River.

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133

As soon as these troubles began to subside in Namaqualand, our Wesleyan brethren nobly extended their efforts to that country. Their labours have been crowned with suc cess, and I have watched their onward progress with as much interest as if I had been one of their number. The field being thus ably occupied, it was unnecessary for the London Missionary Society to send others, while the character of the country already described, with its scanty population, and the cry for missionaries to carry on the work in more important fields, influenced the Directors to leave that section of the missionary world to our Wesleyan brethren.

While preparing the preceding pages, I received from Mr. J. Backhouse a tract entitled, "Effects of the Gospel on the Africaner Family," the perusal of which has afforded me the most grateful pleasure. Messrs. Backhouse and Walker, two valuable members of the Society of Friends, have recently visited the Missionary stations in the South Seas, as well as those in South Africa. The results of their observation, as reported by them, are very satisfactory. In reference to the people of Namaqua-land, Mr. B. writes in a letter addressed to myself:-"I have no doubt but thou wilt be interested in learning, that the Wesleyans are reaping an encouraging harvest in Great Namaqua-land, from the seed sown in former days by the London Missionary Society, in which thou hadst a part."

On the resumption of the Warm Bath station, (now Nes bit Bath) and Africaner's Krall as an out-station, and the pleasing fruits which have followed the labours of Mr. Cook and others, the conversion of Titus Africaner, and the consequent peace and harmony among the people, once engag ed in warlike strife, the writer of the tract makes the follow ing judicious remarks. "In tracing the history of the Africaner family in the preceding pages, the reader will probably have been struck with the evidence it affords of the efficacy of the Gospel, notwithstanding it may have been imperfectly received, as well as the importance of attending to the counsel, In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that; or whether they both shall be alike good.'"

From Mr. Cook's communications, it appears that there is a prospect of further openings in the interior, and even the Damara country may, ere long, become the field of missionary labour. It must be acknowledged, however, that difficulties almost insuperable present themselves in the way of