FEB.] JOURNEY TO BETHELSDORP. 
4t3 
Hie, mere animal existence. When will this wilder- 
ness be transformed into a garden of the Lord ? It is 
an act of the highest philanthropy, and a most exalted 
display of the power of christian principles, for a 
missionary, from love to Jesus Christ and the souls of 
men, to leave European society and retire to this gloomy 
wilderness, merely to do good to its scattered and 
miserable inhabitants. The man who has been born 
here, and consequently is ignorant of the advantages 
of other lands, cannot know the wretchedness of his 
own circumstances. Our road being constantly up 
and down hill, greatly fatigued our oxen. At midnight 
we crossed Dunehox river, where we took in a supply 
of good water, the value of which in such a country, 
and at such a season is incalculable. 
25th. At one in the morning our road was up hill, 
and very bad, full of deep excavations made by the 
rain, which in the rainy season falls in torrents. Into 
one of these deep hollows the two right wheels of one 
of our waggons sunk, out of which the oxen could not 
drag it, without the assistance of fourteen from the 
other waggon. Before two, we came to Krombeck 
river, where we halted, having travelled upwards of 
twenty miles at a stretch. The place was suiTounded 
with low trees, and these were encircled by small hills* 
Having slept in the afternoon and former part of the^ 
night, I could not sleep now; I therefore rose, and 
walked outside by moonlight. About three o clock a 
brightness appeared in the east, and wlien the sun's 
light began to overcome that of the moon, many birds 
