MORAVIAN MISSIONS. 
283 
Church, but from George Schmidt and his fol- 
lowers in the field. Indeed the state of wilful 
ignorance, in which the first Dutch settlers at 
the Cape tried to retain their Hottentot neigh- 
bours and slaves, is most lamentable to contem- 
plate. They appear to have regarded these 
miserable people as no better than beasts — as 
having no souls ; no capabilities for receiving 
religious instruction; no hopes nor fears for 
eternity. 
A few families, here and there, of the better 
disposed of the Boers, made the effort of teach- 
ing their slaves to sing psalms, and, it may be 
hoped, somewhat more ; but these, alas, appear 
only as the exceptions, not the rule itself. Ac- 
cording to the then existing law, so soon as 
any of these slaves were baptized, they at once 
obtained their freedom : and hence it was the 
policy of the early colonists to discourage all 
attempts for the conversion of their servants ; 
this being very plainly exemplified by the 
violent opposition which the Moravian Mission- 
aries met with from them, when at length their 
merciful efforts began, through God's blessing, 
to be crowned with success. 
At this period of the colonial history of the 
Cape, some of the very worst evils of slavery 
were there, alas ! as elsewhere, to be found. And 
not only were these poor slaves debarred wilfully 
