288 
ABSURD DOCTRINE RESPECTING DANCING. 26, 27 June, 
that such things are an abomination to God, and that a fiddle is 
Satan's own instrument ! 
I should not readily have believed that any person of sane mind 
could have held such opinions, or have thus deliberately misled the 
poor ignorant Hottentot, if I had not myself heard from the pulpit 
at Klaarwater, a similar denunciation of the vengeance of the Deity, 
upon all who delighted in dancing, which was pronounced to be a 
work of darkness ! If such fanaticism and folly is to be called 
preaching the Gospel, I much fear that the savages will have reason 
for thinking, in compassion to our ignorance, that it will be their duty 
to send missionaries among us, to lead us out of our darkness. 
I preached, however, the contrary doctrine, that music and danc- 
ing possessed, in themselves, nothing of a sinful nature ; and that, 
so far from wishing to see the people serious or hear them groaning, 
it was always much more pleasing to me, when they spent their 
evenings in this manner and in harmless mirth and conversation, 
than when they lay in dull inanimate idleness ; a state which I be- 
lieved to be, both disgraceful to themselves, and displeasing to their 
Creator. Happy indeed, would it have been for the whole party, had 
they always followed this doctrine, and had they conducted them- 
selves under a conviction of the truth of my last assertion. 
I had now waited six days at this place, in expectation 
that Cupido Kok would send the bullet-mould and fetch his gun ; 
but more than sufficient time having already elapsed, my men, who 
seemed to know more of his intentions than I did, were clearly of 
opinion that we should hear nothing further from him, and that it 
would be fruitless to remain here longer. Seeing myself thus, for 
the whole of my journey, deprived of the proper use of my best 
gun, by an ungrateful Hottentot whom I had formerly shown myself 
desirous of obliging, and whom I had treated in a manner which 
proved my good-will towards him, I could not but feel irritated, in 
whatever light I viewed his conduct. But, as no remedy was now 
to be had, I resolved to consider this privation as one of the in- 
evitable accidents of my journey. 
