CHAPTER X. 
THE MISSION FIELDS OF SOUTH AFEICA REVIEWED IN A COM- 
PARATIVE LIGHT, AS TO THEIR PAST HISTORY, PRESENT 
CONDITIONS AND EXTENT ; TOGETHER WITH THE APPARENT 
PROBABILITIES FOR FUTURE AND ULTIMATE SUCCESS. 
The first preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
in Southern Africa, amongst the Hottentot 
tribes, was George Schmidt, a member of the 
United Brethren fMoraviansJ at Herrnhuth, 
who landed at the Cape July 9th, a.d. 1737. 
This was about eighty years subsequent to the 
foundation of the Dutch Colony there. 
During the whole period of the Portuguese 
settlements, no effort at Missionary work was 
attempted ; and thus it would seem that their 
occupation of this vast territorial possession 
not having ever been fructified by any attempt 
being made by them to ameliorate the natives, 
the stewardship was, under Divine Providence, 
taken from them, and handed to the Dutch. 
The history of their Missionary labour is 
little better or more cheering than is that of 
their Portuguese predecessors. Several efforts 
indeed were made to evangelize the Hottentots, 
but these sprang, not from the Dutch rulers or 
