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SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
from the knowledge of that truth which makes 
wise the simple, and makes glad the humble of 
heart; but their very heathen notions of the 
Divine Being, shadowy and indistinct though 
these were, were even yet further darkened by 
their intercourse with these faithless professors 
of Christianity. 
To illustrate this, we have but to quote the 
words of a Hottentot woman. " Before we 
came to the land of the Christians, we knew 
that there was a God. We called him Sita, which 
means the "God and Father above." If we were 
in distress, we always called upon him. Only 
those Hottentots, who have been born and bred 
among the Christians, know little or nothing 
of Him." 
Whatever be the amount of veracity that is 
to be attached to such statements as this, it 
nevertheless shews that the contact of heathen- 
ism with civilization, wherever they came to- 
gether without the healing balm of Christianity 
and religion, was invariably to degrade further 
the savage, as well as to demoralize the pro- 
fessing Christian. 
Neglected as were these native tribes, how- 
ever, by the Dutch, they became the objects of 
the most prayerful solicitation with George 
Schmidt and his pious followers; whilst God 
crowned their self-denying labours with success. 
