which no man comprehends. He was led to look upon the book of nature; and he would regard the heavenly orbs with an inquiring look, cast his eye on the earth beneath his tread, and regarding both as displays of creative power and infinite intelligence, would inquire about endless space and infinite duratio. I have often been amused, when sitting with him and others, who wished to hear his questions answered, and descriptions given of the majesty, extent, and number of the works of God; he would at last rub h's hands on his head, exclaiming, "I have heard enough; I feel as if my head was too small, and as if it would swell with these great subjects." 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 neighboring tribes, would now make any sacrifice to prevent any thing like a collision between 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 of all the battles I have fought, and all the cattle I took, but shame and remorse!" At an early period of my labors among that people, I was deeply affected by the sympathy He was the only individual of influence on the he, as well as others of his family, manifested station who had two wives, and fearing the influ- towards me in a season of affliction. The extreme ence of example, I have occasionally made a deli- heat of the weather, in the house which I have decate reference to the subject, and, by degrees, could scribed, and living entirely on meat and milk, to make more direct remarks on that point, which was which I was unaccustomed, brought on a severe one of the barriers to his happiness; but he re- attack of bilious fever, which, in the course of two mained firm, admitting, at the same time, that a days, induced delirium. Opening my eyes in the man with two wives was not to be envied; adding, first few lucid moments, I saw my attendant and "He is often in an uproar, and when they quarrel, Africaner sitting before my couch, gazing on me he does not know whose part to take." He said with eyes full of sympathy and tenderness. Seehe often resolved when there was a great disturbing a small parcel, containing a few medicines, I ance to pay one off. Before seasons like these to which I am referring, Titus, who was a grief to his brother, and a terror to most of the inhabitants on the station, as well as a fearful example of ungodliness, had bccome greatly subdued in spirit. This poor man's trials and perplexities with his brace of wives are amusing enough; but in the character of his brother, the once fierce heathen, there is a mild dignity, a noble simplicity, which illustrates the influence of the pure faith of the Gospel better than a hundred homilies. Of him we have this testimony: 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 seemned to "lean to virtue's side." One day, when seated together, I happened, in absence of mind, to be gazing steadfastly 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 sword through the country, and I could not think how eyes like yours could smile at human wo." 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 sheep-skins soon made them as dirty as ever. The next thing was to get them to wash their mantles, &c. At an early period I 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 mi k, 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 requested him to hand it to me, and taking from it Da 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. vid, though rather of a retiring disposition, was amiable, active, and firm; while Jacobus was warm, affectionate, and zealous for the interest 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. After Moffat had labored for a consider able time among the Bechuanas, and had made several distant excursions on objects connected with his mission, he induced Africaner to accompany him on a visit to the Cape, though the expedition was not without danger to the chief, who for his former marauding upon the settlers was still an outlaw with 1000 rix-dollars offered for his head. He said, when the journey was proposed, that he thought Mr. Moffat had loved him better than to give him up to the government to be hanged. The affair was for three days publicly discussed; and when it was concluded, nearly the whole inhabitants of Africaner's villageall his subjects, or clansmen-accompanied them to the banks of the Orange River, and parted from them with tears. At Warm Bath, the place referred to in the subjoined extract, there was a mission-station, from whence religion and civilization had emanated to the wilds; and on the journey, it is the state of feeling respecting Africaner and myself, and likewise displayed the power of Divine grace under peculiar circumstances... I gave him in a few words my views of Africaner's present character, saying, "Ile is now a truly good man." To which he replied, "I can believe almost any thing you say, but that I cannot credit; there are seven wonders in the world: that would be the eighth." I appealed to the displays of Divine grace in a Paul, a Manasseh, and referred to his own experience. He replied these were another description of men, but that Africaner was one of the accursed sons of Ham, enumerating some of the atrocities of which he had been guilty. By Arriving at Pella, (the place as before stated, this time, we were standing with Africaner at our to which some of the people from Warm Bath had feet, on whose countenance sat a smile, weil knowretired when the latter was destroyed by Afri- ing the prejudices of some of the farmers. The caner,) we had a feast fit for heaven-born souls, farmer closed the conversation by saying, with and subjects to which the seraphim above might much earnestness, "Well, if what you assert be have tuned their golden lyres. Men met who true respecting that man, I have only one wish, had not seen each other since they had joined in and that is, to see him before I die; and when mutual combat for each other's wo; met-war-you return, as sure as the sun is over our heads, I rior with warrior, bearing in their hands the olive branch, secure under the panoply of peace and love. said We spent some pleasant days while the subject of getting Africaner safely through the territories of the farmers to the Cape, was the theme of much conversation. To some the step seemed somewhat hazardous. Africaner and I had fully discussed the point before leaving the station; and I was confident of success. Though a chief, there was no need of laying aside any thing like royalty, with a view to travel in disguise Of two substantial shirts left, I gave him one; he had a pair of leather trowsers, a duffel jacket, much the worse for wear, and an old hat, neither white nor black, and my own garb was scarcely more refined. As a farther precaution, it was agreed, that for once I should be the chief, and he should assume the appearance of a servant, when it was desirable, and pass for one of my attendants. Ludicrous as the picture may appear, the subject was a grave one, and the season solemn and important; often did I lift up my heart to Him in whose hands are the hearts of all men, that his presence might go with us might here be remarked, once for all, that the Dutch farmers, notwithstanding all that has been said against them by some travellers, are, as a people, exceedingly hospitable and kind to strangers. Exceptions there are, but these are few, and perhaps more rare than in any country under the sun. Some of these worthy people on the borders of the colony, congratulated me on returning alive, having often heard, as they said, that I had been long since murdered by Africaner. Much wonder was expressed at my narrow escape from such a monster of cruelty, the report having been spread that Mr. Ebner had but just escaped with the skin of his teeth. While some would scarcely credit my identity; my testimony as to the entire reformation of Africaner's character, and his conversion, was discarded as the effusion of a frenzied brain. It sometimes afforded no little entertainment to Africaner and the Namaquas, to hear a farmer denounce this supposed irreclaimable savage. There were only a few, however, who were skeptical on this subject. At one farm, a novel scene exhibited will go with you to see him, though he killed my The Governor at the Cape was Lord Charles Somerset, who was somewhat surprised to learn that the lion of the wilder ness had been led in to him like a lamb. About this time, Dr. Philip and John Campbell had arrived from England to examine the state of the African missions. It was Mr. Campbell's second visit to Africa, and it appeared To be one of the happiest moments of Mr. Campbell's life to hold converse with the man, at whose very name, on his first visit to Namaqua-land, he had trembled, but on whot, in answer to many prayers, he now looked as a brother beloved. Often while interpreting for Mr. C., in his inqui ries, I have been deeply affected with the overflow of soul experienced by toth, while rehearsing the scenes of bygone days. Africaner's appearance in Cape Town excited considerable attention, as his name and exploits had been familiar to many of its inhabitants for more than twenty years. Many were str the unexpected mildness and gentle demeanor, and others with his piety and accurate curred to the Hindoo, the Mussulman, and knowledge of the Scriptures. His New Testa- the gentle savage of many other regions! ment was an interesting object of attention, it was Mr. Moffat gives a very interesting acso completely thumbed and worn by use. His answers to a number of questions put to him by the count of the rise and progress of the Griqua friends in Cape Town, and at a public meeting at mission, in which he was personally conthe Paarl, exhibited his diligence as a student in cerned; and a retrospective view of other the doctrines of the Gospel, especially when it is inroads on heathendom, which will be peremembered that Africaner never saw a Catechism rused with pleasure, were it only from the in his life, but obtained all his knowledge on theo-enterprise and bold adventures of the daring logical subjects from a careful perusal of the Scrip- pioneers, and the light incidentally thrown tures, and the verbal instractions of the missionary. upon the moral and physical condition of Might it not be inquired whether the ab- the barbarous tribes that they visited. His sence of catechisms and theological works, relation of his own conflicts and long fruit*** and the careful study of the Scriptures, less endeavors have yet deeper interest. without gloss or commentary, might have His actual experiences bring great doubt been the main cause of Africaner's growth upon the theories of a natural conscience, in true knowledge, as in true grace; and a moral sense, and the idea of a "vicarious that many things esteemed helps, as often offering" or atonement said to be diffused prove impediments? The conduct of Afri- over the whole globe, and also of man being caner to his dying hour was edifying and a religious creature. The existence of a consistent. His latter years were spent in Supreme Being, and the immortality of the conducting the public offices of religion at soul of man, had never, even in a shadow the station, and in teaching in the schools. or tradition, been heard of among these In his dying exhortation to the people, people: whom he had called together to hear his last words, when he had given them direcA chief, after listening attentively to me while tions for their future conduct in temporal clamation of amazement, that a man whom he ache stood leaning on his spear, would utter an exaffairs, he bade them remember that they counted wise, should vend such fables for truths. were no longer savages, but men professing Calling about thirty of his men, who stood near to be taught by the Gospel, and that it was him, to approach. he addressed them, pointing to accordingly their duty to walk by its pre-me, "There is Ra-Mary, (Father of Mary,) who cepts. In summing up the character of Africaner, who from a fierce predatory warrior, the chief of a savage tribe, had by the power of the Gospel been converted into the Alfred of his subjects, Mr. Moffat remarks: 66 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 Hin 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?" In trying to grasp the often indistinet rays of light, which would occasionally fit 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. How often must the same doubt have oc tells me, that the heavens were made, the earth also, by a beginner, whom he calls Morimo. Have you ever heard any thing to be compared with this? He says that the sun rises and sets by the power of Morimo; as also that Morimo causes winter to follow summer, the winds to blow, the rain to fall, the grass to grow, and the trees to bud;" and casting his arm above and around him, added, " God works in every thing you see or hear! Did ever you hear such words?" Seeing them ready to burst into laughter, he said, "Wait, I shall tell you more; Ra-Mary tells me that we have spirits in us, which will never die; and that our bodies, though dead and buried, will rise and live again. Open your ears to-day; did you ever hear litlamane (fables) like these ?" This was followed by a burst of deafening laughter; and on its partially subsiding, the chief man begged me to say no more on such trifles, lest the people should think me mad! . One day, while describing the day of judgment, several or my hearers expressed great concern at the idea of all their cattle being destroyed, together with their ornaments. They never for one moment allow their thoughts to dwell on death, which is according to their views nothing less than annihilation. Their supreme happiness consists in having abundance of meat. Asking a man who was more grave and thoughtful than his companions what was the finest sight he could desire, he instantly replied, "A great fire covered with pots full of meat;" adding, "how ugly the fire looks without a pot!" The grander phenomena of nature had man. no power to awaken or fix their attention. [own statements, that a Great Being made The following is a true picture of these wandering children of the wilderness, of man in his natural state: village in which he dwelt, once remarked after A wily rain-maker, who was the oracle of the hearing me enlarge on the subject of the creation, "If you verily believe that that Being cre"They looked on the sun," as Mr. Campbell ated all men, then, according to reason, you very graphically said, "with the eye of an ox." must also believe, that in making white people To tell them, the gravest of them, that there was he has improved on his work; he tried his hand a Creator, the governor of the heavens and earth, on Bushmen first, and he did not like them, beof the fall of man, or the redemption of the world, cause they were so ugly, and their language like the resurrection of the dead, and immortality be that of the frogs. He then tried his hand on the yond the grave, was to tell them what appeared to Hottentots, but these did not please him either. be more fabulous, extravagant, and ludicrous than He then exercised his power and skill and made their own vain stories about lions, hyenas, and the Bechuanas, which was a great improvement; jackals. To tell them that these were articles of and at last he made the white people: thereour faith, would extort an interjection of superla- fore," exulting with an air of triumph at the distive surprise, as if they were too preposterous for covery, "the white people are so much wiser the most foolish to believe. What they than we are, in making walking-houses (wagons), heard was all right, provided they got a bit of to- teaching the oxen to draw them over hill and bacco, or some little equivalent for their time-a dale, and instructing them also to plough the thing of no value to them-which they spent in gardens instead of making their wives do it, like hearing one talk. Some would even make a trade the Bechuanas." His discovery received the of telling the missionary that they prayed, by which applause of the people, while the poor missionmeans God directed them to their lost cattle, at aary's arguments, drawn from the source of Difew yards' distance, after having been in search of vine truth, were thrown into the shade. them several days; and that in the same way he had brought game within reach of their spears. Replies to questions as to what they thought of the Word of God, were very cheap; and if they sup. posed that by such means they had obtained favor and respect, their success would be the subject of merriment in their own circles. Some individuals, to my knowledge, who had carried on this deception in the early period of the mission, many years afterwards boasted how expert they had been in thus gulling the missionary. In a country where extreme drought is the greatest natural calamity to be dreaded, the rain-maker is an important personage; and one who, if clever and cunning, turns his knavery to excellent account. The arts of the rain-maker among these African tribes are very similar to those described by Catlin, as employed by the rain-makers among the Indians on the Upper Missouri. Though the Bechuanas, like the Hottentots, have now adopted many of the customs of civilized life, and made considerable progress in the useful arts, they, in the early period of Mr. Moffat's labors, despised and ridiculed European customs, and gave a decided preference to their own: Although they had received much instruction, they appeared never for one moment to have reflected upon it, nor did they retain traces of it in their memories, which are generally very tenacious. Accordingly, most of those who at an early period made professions to please, died as they had lived, in profound ignorance. Munameets, though an early friend of the mission, the travelling companion of Mr. Campbell, and one They could not account for our putting our of the most sensible and intelligent men of the nation, than whom no one at the station had enjoy-legs, feet, and arms into bags, and using buttons for the ed equal privileges, made the following remark bodies, instead of suspending them as ornaments of fastening bandages round our purpose to the writer, in his usual affectionate way, not from the neck or hair of the head. Washing long before his death-"Ra-Mary, your customs the body, instead of lubricating it with grease may be good enough for you, but I never see and red ochre, was a disgusting custom, and that they fill the stomach," putting his hand on cleanliness about our food, house, and bedding, his own; "I would like to live with you, because you are kind, and could give me medicine when contributed to their amusement in no small de I am sick. Though I am the uncle of Mothibi, 1 gree. A native, who was engaged roasting a am the dog of the chief, and must gather up the piece of fat zebra flesh for me on the coals, was crumbs (gorge at festivals). I am one of the told that he had better turn it with a stick, or fork, instead of his hands, which he invariaelders of the people, and though I am still a bly rubbed on his dirty body for the sake of the youth (seventy years!) my thoughts and per-precious fat. This suggestion made him and ceptions are neither so swift nor acute as they were. Perhaps you may be able to make the children remember your mekhua (customs)." They could not see that there was any thing in our customs more agreeable to flesh and blood than in their own, but would, at the same time, admit that we were a wiser and a superior race of beings to themselves. For this superiority some of their wise heads would try to account: but this they could only do on the ground of our his companions laugh extravagantly, and they were wont to repeat it as an interesting joke wherever they came. Mr. Moffat gives a long and minute account of their national usages, ending thus: These ceremonies were prodigious barriers to the gospel. Polygamy was another obstacle, and the Bechuanas, jealous of any diminution in their self-indulgence, by being deprived of the services | gets to lash in the most furious language those who of their wives, looked with an extremely suspicious have exposed his faults, and who, as he would exeye on any innovation on this ancient custom. press it, have walked over his body, placing While going to war, hunting, watching the cat- their feet upon his neck. This is all taken in good tle, milking the cows, and preparing their furs part, and the exhausted chieftain is heartily cheerand skins for mantles, was the work of the men, ed when the meeting dissolves. These assemthe women had by far the heavier task of agricul- blies keep up a tolerable equilibrium of power beture, building the houses, fencing, bringing fire-tween the chiefs and their king: but they are only wood, and heavier than all, nature's charge, the convened when differences between tribes have to rearing of a family. The greater part of the year be adjusted, when a predatory expedition is to be they are constantly employed; and during the sea- undertaken, or when the removal of a tribe is conson of picking and sowing their gardens, their task templated; though occasionally matters of less is galling, living on coarse, scanty fare, and fre- moment are introduced. quently having a babe fastened to their backs, while thus cultivating the ground. The men, for obvious reasons, found it convenient to have a number of such vassals, rather than only one; while the women would be perfectly amazed at one's ignorance, were she to be told that she would be much happier in a single state, or widowhood, than being the mere concubine and drudge of a haughty husband, who spent the great er part of his life in lounging in the shade, while she was compelled, for his comfort as well as her own, to labor under the rays of an almost vertical sun, in a hot and withering climate. . Any custom which might be construed into some vague idea of the necessity of an atoning sacrifice and of a future state, is by Mr. Moffat assigned to the cunning of the sorcerers or rain-makers, who order an ox to be sacrificed for the benefit of their own stomachs, though the ostensible purpose is the public weal, or to avert national calamity, or cure disease. One will try to coax the sickness out of a chieftain by setting him astride of an ox, with his feet While standing near the wife of one of the and legs tied, and then smothering the animal by grandees, who, with some female companions, was holding its nose in a large bowl of water. A feast building a house, and making preparations to follows, and the ox is devoured, sickness and all. scramble by means of a branch on to the roof, I re- A sorcerer will pretend he cannot find out the marked that they ought to get their husbands to do guilty person, or where the malady of another lies, that part of the work. This set them all into a till he has got him to kill an ox, on which he ma roar of laughter. Mahuto, the queen, and several noeuvres, by cutting out certain parts. Another of the men drawing near to ascertain the cause of doctor will require a goat, which he kills over the the merriment, the wives repeated my strange, and, sick person, allowing the blood to run down the to them, ludicrous proposal, when another peal of body; another will require the fat of the kidney mirth ensued. Mahuto, who was a sensible and of a fresh slaughtered goat, saying, that any old shrewd woman, stated that the plan, though hope-fat will not do; and thus he comes in for his chop. less, was a good one, as she often thought our custom was much better than theirs. It was reasonable that woman should attend to household affairs, and the lighter parts of labor; while inan, who wont to boast of his superior strength, should employ his energy in more laborious occupations; adding, she wished I would give their husbands medicine to make them do the work. This remark was made rather in a way of joke. These slaughterings are prescribed according to the wealth of the individual, so that a stout ox night be a cure for a slight cold in a chieftain, while a kid would be a remedy for a fever among the poor, among whom there was no chance of obtaining any thing greater. The above ceremonics might with little difficulty be construed into sacrifices, if we felt anxious to increase the number of traditionary remains. Is it, however, to be si-choicest viand is broiled or boiled meat, and to wondered at, among a pastoral people, whose whom fat of any kind is like the richest cordials, that they should solemnize every event or circumstance with beef? The government of the Bechuanas is milar to that found everywhere in the same state of society,-patriarchal, but monarchical, mild in its character, and essentially popular. The head chief, or king, is restrained by the petty chiefs; and in the public assemblies or parliaments an eloquent speaker will often attack the chief, and turn the weight of opinion against him: A treaty or covenant between parties is always ratified by the slaughter of one or more animals, and a consequent feast. In brief, Mr. Moffat's reasoning goes far to demolish many plausible theories of the innate perception of a Supreme Being, and an innate sense of rectitude in the human mind, and of the universal idea of the necessity of a vicarious atonement. I have heard him inveighed against for making women his senators and his wife prime minister, while the audience were requested to look at his body, and see if he were not getting too corpulent; Years rolled on, and the benighted, or a sure indication that his mind was little exercised rather the embruted people, remained in in anxieties about the welfare of his people. He generally opens the business of the day with a apparently the same state of apathy and short speech, reserving his eloquence and wisdom ignorance as at the first. As long as they to the close of the meeting, when he analyzes the were gratified with presents they remained speeches that have been delivered, and never for-good-humored; but when the streams of |