AFRICANER AT GAPE TOWN. 29 



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 this time we were standing with Africaner at our feet, 

 on whose countenance sat a smile, well knowing the prejudices of some of the 

 farmers. The farmer closed the conversation by saying, with much earnest- 

 ness, ' Well, if what you assert be true respecting that man, I have only one 

 wish, and that is, to see him before I die ; and when you return, as sure as 

 the sun is over our heads, I will go with you to see him, though he killed my 

 own uncle.' I was not before aware of this fact, and now felt some hesitation 

 whether to discover to him the object of his wonder ; but knowing the sin- 

 cerity of the farmer, and the goodness of his disposition, I said, ' This, then, 

 is Africaner ! ' He started back, looking intensely at the man, as if he had 

 just dropped from the .clouds. 'Are you Africaner?' he exclaimed. He arose, 

 doffed his old hat, and making a polite bow, answered, ' I am.' The farmer 

 seemed thunderstruck ; but when, by a few questions, he had assured himself 

 of the fact, that the former bugbear of the border stood before him, now meek 

 and lamb-like in his whole deportment, he lifted up his eyes, and exclaimed, 

 ' O God, what a miracle of thy power ! what cannot thy grace accomplish ! ' 

 The kind farmer, and his no less hospitable wife, now abundantly supplied 

 our wants ; but we hastened our departure, lest the intelligence might get abroad 

 that Africaner was with me, and bring unpleasant visitors. 



" On arriving at Cape Town, I waited on his Excellency the Governor, 

 Lord Charles Somerset, who appeared to receive with considerable scepticism, 

 my testimony that I had brought the far-famed Africaner on a visit to his 

 Excellency. The following day was appointed for an interview, when the 

 chief was received by Lord Charles with great affability and kindness ; and 

 he expressed his pleasure at seeing thus before him, one who had formerly 

 been the scourge of the country, and the terror of the border colonists. His 

 Excellency was evidently much struck with this result of missionary enter- 

 prise, the benefit of which he had sometimes doubted. I remembered when I 

 first arrived at Cape Town, the reply to my memorial for permission to pro- 

 ceed to my destination in Great Namaqua-land, was, that his Excellency had 

 cogent reasons for not complying with my request, and I was obliged to re- 

 main eight months in the colony : this time was not, however, lost, for it was 

 turned to advantage by learning the Dutch language, and attending to other 

 preliminaries for a missionary campaign. Whatever he might think of his 

 former views, his Excellency was now convinced that a most important 

 point had been gained ; and, as a testimony of his good feeling, he presented 

 Africaner with an excellent waggon, value eighty pounds sterling. 



" A short time previous to my visit to the Cape, a deputation from the 



