196 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



Throughout all this country game was very scarce. 

 Since crossing the Vaal, with the exception of feather- 

 ed game, I had shot only one springbok and one stein- 

 bok. 



On the following day we reached Kuruman, or New 

 Ijitakoo, a lovely green spot in the wilderness, strongly 

 contrasting with the sterile and inhospitable regions by 

 which it is surrounded. I was here kindly welcomed 

 and hospitably entertained by Mr. Moffat and Mr. 

 Hamilton, both missionaries of the London Society, 

 and also by Mr. Hume, an old trader, long resident at 

 Kuruman. The gardens at Kuruman are extensive and 

 extremely fertile. Besides corn and vegetables, they 

 contained a great variety of fruits, among which were 

 vines, peach-trees, nectarines, apple, orange, and lemon 

 trees, all of which in their seasons bear a profusion of 

 the most delicious fruit. These gardens are irrigated 

 with the most liberal supply of water from a powerful 

 fountain which gushes forth, at once forming a little 

 river, from a subterraneous cave, which has several low 

 parrow mouths, but within is lofty and extensive. 

 This cave is stated by the natives to extend to a very 

 great distance under ground. The natives about Ku- 

 ruman and the surrounding districts generally embrace 

 the Christian religion. Mr. Moffat kindly showed me 

 through his printing establishment, church, and school- 

 rooms, which were lofty and well built, and altogether 

 on a scale which would not have disgraced one of the 

 towns of the more enlightened colony. It was Mr. 

 Moffat who reduced the Bechuana language to writing 

 and printing, since which he has printed thousands of 

 Sichuana Testaments, as also tracts and hymns, which 

 are now eagerly purchased by the converted natives. 

 Mr. Moffat is a person admirably calculated to excel 



