Kaffir Promise and Capability. 437 



and cares for the white mail. But He has nothing to do with 

 the black men. The black man has no protector of that 

 kind/' When the missionary has just succeeded in getting so 

 far with him as to lodge skin deep the idea that he has been 

 mistaken in this, and that the Great Spirit of the white man 

 does care for him, and that he is a " man and brother," it 

 can hardly be matter of surprise if he begins to think rather 

 better of himself than he did before, and if his natural 

 deference and modesty gives place to self-assurance and per- 

 sonal conceit. There is no doubt that the phase is but a tran- 

 sitional one, and that a prolonged experience of the conditions 

 and working of civilized and Christian life will assuredly 

 bring its own remedy for the evil. Still the tendency is well 

 worthy of note, because it points to one obvious precaution 

 which missionaries may easily make a part of their programme 

 when they prepare themselves to deal with the raw material of 

 barbarism. 



It is also deserving of remark that the missionary stations 

 in Natal, which are so placed as to afford an industrial career 

 for the natives resident at them, are those which are mani- 

 festing the surest signs of vitality and success. Wherever 

 townships, or fairly prosperous settlements of white people 

 have grown up in the close neighbourhood, so that there is 

 transport work to be performed by waggons and oxen, and a 

 ready market for such articles as the Kaffir can make, or such 

 produce as the Kaffir can rear, or where there is a sugar-mill 

 at hand to manufacture such cane as he may be able to grow, 

 there the native Christian communities thrive and enlarge 

 quickly. Upon the whole the most successful missionary 

 station in Natal is that of the Umvoti. This station was 

 established by Mr. Aldin Grout, one of the fathers of the 

 American Mission, in the year 1844. A few years since the 

 Colonial Government erected steam machinery for the manu- 

 facture of sugar at this station, with a view to encourage the 

 growth of the cane among the natives. One half the sugar 

 manufactured is taken by the Government to cover the cost of 

 manufacture, and the other half belongs to the native planters. 

 At this station there are now sixty-seven square European 

 houses inhabited by native sugar-planters, who for the most 

 part employ their own native waggon- drivers as hired ser- 

 vants. Many of these men are estimated to have property 

 belonging to them at the present time of the value of not less 

 than £800 a-piece. Mr. Grant believes that two of them are 

 worth £2000 each. These planters have built a large brick 

 church, capable of accommodating a congregation of 500 indivi- 

 duals, at their own cost, and they contribute £75 yearly for the 

 maintenance of a school for the education of their children. 



