Examination of Hottentot Piqnls. 239 



twenty-two pupils were already at work in the service of 

 the community, fourteen had been rejected as unsuitable, 

 and fourteen were still in the institute. They entered at 

 from ten to fifteen years of age, remained within its walls 

 six years for instruction, when they were clothed and main- 

 tained, and thereafter, without further obligations to the society 

 which had educated them, were dispatched into the most 

 remote districts of the colony as teachers and apostles of 

 Christianity. The examination of the pupils of the seminary 

 took place at the Library Hall, which boasts a portrait of a 

 highly meritorious brother, the venerable C. J. Latrobe, who, 

 in the year 1815-16, visited South Africa as a missionary, and, 

 two years later published, in London, his very remarkable 

 book of travels. The examination commenced with a per- 

 formance on the piano by a Mestizo lad of about sixteen, son 

 of a Mulatto father by a Hottentot mother. This youth dis- 

 played a decided talent for music, coupled with truly admirable 

 execution ; and besides the piano, played the organ, the violin, 

 and the violoncello. Next, a variety of questions in geography 

 and history were put to the pupils present. These consisted 

 chiefly of easy intelligible questions, principally relating to 

 England. Those examined were surprisingly well acquainted 

 with the history of Liverpool, London, Manchester, Dublin, &c., 

 and could enumerate many particulars about the Thames and 

 Westminster Abbey. What proved most disagreeable, was the 

 singular custom that prevailed, of all the pupils answering at 

 once, each hoping, by out-clamouring his fellow, to prove his 



