1812. 
MORAL AND RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS. 
429 
such as it may be supposed that of a tnissionary would be, I think 
I should have found it not impossible to have gained over their 
minds an ascendancy, which, with a little management, might have 
been rendered useful in disposing them for the reception and adop- 
tion of the purer principles of religion. It is by making the un- 
tutored savage see and feel the advantage of a virtuous life, that he 
can be taught to submit to its rules. Where this is not done, the 
missionary will labour all his life, to no purpose but to cheat himself. 
Having communicated to my visitors as much as they could be 
supposed able to remember, or capable of understanding without 
confusing one idea with another, I concluded by an assurance that 
they might rely on the truth of the facts which had been stated. 
Mollemmi replied, that it was very good that I had informed him of 
these things ; that he was glad to hear them ; and that, as he much 
wished to know more, he would often come to me when I was alone 
and had time to talk to him. It was no inconsiderable proof of the 
effect which my conversation had on him, that he never once begged 
for any thing. It would give me always, I said, great pleasure to 
tell him or any one else, all which I might know on this subject ; 
and whenever he felt disposed to listen again, he would find me 
ready at any time to instruct him ; as I felt sincerely desirous of 
doing him and his countrymen as much good as might lay in my 
power. He replied, that he would always listen with the greatest 
attention ; that he would never forget what I had already told him, 
but would tell it also to the people, that they might know these 
things as well as himself. 
The conversation having gradually changed to other subjects, it 
fell at last upon my flag ; and his remark proved that he was not 
altogether wanting in the faculty of observation ; he noticed that it 
was of the same kind as that which he had seen with the party who 
visited them in 1801, but different from that of 1805. In this he 
was quite correct ; for the former was sent by the English govern- 
ment, and the latter, by the Dutch. This naturally led to an ex- 
planation that these were two different nations, and that they came to 
the Cape from different countries and spoke different languages : facts 
