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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us from heathen darkness; discovered to us the enemies of our never-dying souls; pointed us to the Lamb of God, and withdrawn the curtain of the eternal world.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.

THE WESLEYANS RESUME THE MISSION.

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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 success, 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 Nesbit 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 engaged in warlike strife, the writer of the tract makes the following 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

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DIFFICULTIES INEVITABLE.

carrying on missions in the back parts of Namaqua-land, and the country of the Damaras, from local circumstances; and, until there is a change of seasons, the Namaqua missions will continue to struggle as they have done, even though planted and supported on the most liberal principles. Expensive they must be to make them efficient, and the agents employed will have to lead a self-denying life, as long as their resources for themselves, as well as means of civilizing the people, have to be brought overland from Cape Town. Even were boring for water introduced, unless there be more rain in the country, the people must ever lead a wandering life; an obstacle to missionary success complained of by all. A considerable time must elapse before the missionary can reach the understanding directly by his own voice, from the extreme difficulty of acquiring their clicking language; and although the Dutch is gradually supplanting it, much time will be necessary for the latter to become general.

Mr. Schmelen translated the four Gospels into the Namaqua language, which were printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society. This, from the character of the language, must have been a work of much labour. Whether the Wesleyan brethren intend to carry on their work through the medium of the Namaqua or the Dutch language, I have not been able to ascertain. It would be no great loss if the Hottentot language were annihilated; though from the scattered state of the population, it is not probable that this will soon be the case. But the zeal by which our Wesleyan brethren are distinguished, supported by an extensive native agency, may overcome all these difficulties, which would be greatly diminished were it possible to fix a missionary station on the sandy and sterile shores of Angra Pequena, and Walvisch Bays.

These places have been visited by Schmelen, Archbell, and Sir J. Alexander; but from all accounts the whole extent of the coast presents little to encourage such a plan. The banks of some of the rivers, in which water seldom flows, may be traced in their winding courses by acacias, the timber of which is of the poorest description. Ebony trees are also thinly scattered in the neighbourhood of the Orange river, but neither there nor in the open country is any thing like timber to be found, which would authorize commercial speculations, as a late traveller into that country recom

*It is reported that Mr. Schmelen went to those places, but the author cannot vouch that he reached the latter. Mr. Archbell visited it by sea.

MISSION TO THE GRIQUAS.

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mended. Independently of the Orange river not being navigable, and the want of suitable bays on the coast, the impossibility of the country being benefitted from those quarters, will be evident. I feel persuaded that the period has arrived, when we must abandon the idea of long, expensive, tiresome, and in some instances dangerous journeys, either from the promontory of the Cape, or, from Algoa Bay, to remote distances in the interior. It is now quite time to look to the eastern and western coasts of the continent, and form a chain of stations, from either, or both, towards the centre; and establish Missionary Colonies on lakes, or at the sources of those rivers which fall into the ocean. The want of navigable rivers, and the dry and often desert countries to be passed in Southern Africa in order to reach our isolated stations, present grievous barriers to the work of civilization, and in some parts we have got nearly to that point, at which resources from the south will be beyond the reach of the ability, either of the missionary or his people.

CHAPTER XIII.

It is an agreeable and profitable exercise, to take a retrospective view of those events, whatever their character, which have led to important results; and surely, to the mind of the missionary, it must be delightful to look back along the channel, tracing through all its windings the little rill of the water of life, until it is observed oozing from beneath a mountain peak. Like an African river, it now swells, and then dwindles, is now rapid, then slowly spreads its refreshing waters over a large surface of desert waste,- —now disappears, and then rises in another part of its course, in which it resumes a steady flow-affording, at all seasons, permanent fertility, to the advantage of those who assemble on its banks, or come within the range of its influence.

The mind of the writer has been led to these reflections by a minute survey of the rise and progress of the Griqua mission, which, although embracing more variety in the national character of its objects than perhaps any other in Africa, exhibits much sameness; but, nevertheless, its his

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ITS ORIGIN AND CHARACTER.

tory, extending to more than forty years, presents us with some remarkable displays of Divine power in causing missionary enterprise to triumph over no common difficulties. Its fluctuations have been very numerous, but this is not surprising, when it is remembered that it was commenced at the Zak River, on the borders of the colony, in the year 1799, being one of the two branches of the Missionary Society's first efforts in South Africa. It was in the beginning ostensibly a mission to the Bushmen, but it had not been long founded before it included within its operation both Hottentots and Bastards. Two years had not elapsed when its efforts were chiefly devoted to the Corannas, Namaquas, and Bastards on the Orange river, the missionaries having resorted thither on the invitation of Berend Berend. From these again a select party, though a mixed multitude, finally terminated a migratory life, by settling down at Griqua Town in 1804, with Messrs. Anderson and Kramer.

Sometimes one missionary might be heard addressing the few who understood Dutch; another, a congregation of Corannas; and a third, a party of Bushmen, through interpreters. They were distinct tribes, having different languages, customs, and grades of honour, from that of the descendant of the colonial farmer, to the very lowest state of degradation in the Bushmen. Their government, if they had any at all, was of a mingled character, comprising the patriarchal, despotic, monarchical, aristocratic, and democratic, each party having its claims, either of birth, power, number, or hereditary right; exhibiting all the phases of a tropical thunder cloud, which rolls in wild and black confusion, till it bursts forth, scattering terror and death.

It is not the intention of the writer to be a chronicler of the events connected with the progress of this mission, or even to attempt an abridgment of the voluminous details which have been long published. His object is briefly to glance at its more prominent features and changes, and to trace the dealings of Divine providence and grace in sustaining those devoted missionaries, who, taking their lives in their hands, and sallying forth far beyond the abodes of civilization, persevered, amid the rage and cupidity of a reckless rabble, in the self-denying duties of their holy calling, until they were crowned with triumphant success.

This station required all the energies of the missionary, as may be observed from the brief sketch already given of the character of the people, and their isolated condition in a lawless country. Their circumstances, afflictions, and pros