•124 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION E. 



a six)t on the Kat River about a mik and a half above the pre- 

 sent town of Fort Beaufort, and some 15 miles from where 

 Gaika was then living. 



Shortly after the death of Mr. Williams, which occurred 

 two years later, Gaika renewed his request for a resident 

 missionary, and the Rev. John Brownlee was sent by Lord 

 Charles Somerset, who was 



impressed with the expediency of having some discreet person living in 

 Kaffirland, who might act as official mtermediary between the Govern- 

 ment and the Kaffir tribes, as well as of promoting Christianity and 

 •civilisation among them. * 



Mr. Brownlee was paid by the Government at the rate of 1,000 

 rixdollars }:»er annum, who also provided him with a waj^gon 

 and oxen, and the initial expenses incidental to his establish- 

 ment. 



Since those days much water has flowed under the bridge, 

 From these beginnings there has sprung the great volume of 

 spiritual and educational achievement that has so profoundly 

 influenced the native development ; for the influence of missions 

 underlies much, if not all, of the vast changes which have taken 

 place so notably in the Transkei, and if, in making the appoint- 

 ment. Lord Charles Somerset definitely acknowledged that Mr. 

 Brownlee's first duty was the propagation of religious instruction 

 among the heathen, it was not very long before the Government 

 began to support the schools, which came tO' be established and 

 carried on by the various missionaries who found their way into 

 Kafiirland. Thus in 1857 Sir George Grey gave substantial 

 grants to certain oi the educational institutions, definitely 

 regarding such as being in the nature of an insurance against 

 future Kaffir wars. 



It is, of course, impossible to more than indicate here the 

 lines along which the influence of missions would be most felt. 

 That such agents as missionaries would have very great influence 

 over the chief, and so over the people, was admitted more than 

 a century ago. by the appointments already referred to, and the 

 arrangements then made undoubtedly gave the natives confidence 

 in the white man. It is no slight tribute that after a hundred 

 years of vicissitude the missionary body retains a unique influence. 

 B'Ut we need not be at all surprised if, in the course of the 

 transition, some evidences of reaction against the missionaries 

 came to l)e manifested. In the nature of the case, if the 

 missionaries do their work well and faithfullv some such reaction 

 would be almost inevitable ; the absence of it a sign of their 

 impotence ! 



Again and again in past days the missionary has been the 

 buffer between the Government and the natives, speaking out 

 boldly at times against injustices, or restraining extremists by 

 wise counsels, befriending one and another in trouble, either with 

 the storekeei:)er or some petty official. Dr. C. T. Loram. in 



* G. E. Cory. o(>. cif., 1. 374. 



