SOUTHERN AFRICA. 377 
forts, and very frequently even of the necessaries, of life ; 
with a weak constitution, he braved the vicissitudes of an un- 
steady climate in scanty clothing, in temporary huts and 
hovels that were neither proof against wind nor water, and 
oftimes in the open air ; on deserts wild and naked as those 
of Arabia ; he learned their language ; instructed them in 
the benevolent doctrines of Christianity; and endeavoured, 
with enthusiastic zeal, to assuage their miserable lot in this 
life, by assuring them that there was " Another and a better 
" world in a word, he became so much attached to this most 
indigent and deplorable race of human beings, who possess 
nothing they can call their own, but live from day to day on 
the precarious spoils of the chace, and commonly on the 
spontaneous products of a barren soil, that it was not without 
difficulty, and great distress to his feelings, he mustered re- 
solution to tear himself from his little flock : lingering under 
a disease that threatened to terminate in a consumption, he 
could not be prevailed upon to desert them, when urged 
by his friends to accept of a vacant living of one of the 
colonial churches, which was offered to him by the go- 
vernment. 
When one reflects for a moment on the toils and hardships, 
the dangers and the difficulties, that these religious enthusiasts 
voluntarily undergo, without any prospect of reward, or even 
reputation, in this world, it is impossible to withhold admira- 
tion at a conduct so seemingly disinterested, and whose mo- 
tives appear to be under an influence so different from that 
by which most human actions are governed. AVhatever de- 
gree of merit may be due to this class of missionaries, the 
VOL. I. 3 c 
