96 
BETHELSDORP. 
[1813. 
this, several short remarks were made by the brethren, 
after which I mentioned a few things which I thought 
might interest them. We then celebrated the Lord's 
supper together, as is their custom every first day of 
the week. When the wine began to be distributed, 
they sung an hymn, after which the church separated. 
This ordinance was short, yet very animating. 
In the evening they met for worship, when Mr. 
Corner, a black, from the West Indies, led the ser- 
vice. Though sent out by the Missionary Society but 
litde more than a year ago, he has made such progress 
in the Dutch language, that he can already exhort in 
it. He is a carpenter by trade, has two or three 
apprentices, and is a useful member of the com- 
munity. 
21st. I had heard much against Bethelsdorp since 
my arrival in Africa, and I must confess it has a most 
miserable appearance as a village. The houses are 
mean in the extreme, and apparently very irregularly 
placed ; they say, however, that the huts were arranged 
according to a plan, which I believed after it was 
pointed out to me, but in consequence of some having 
fallen down, and their owners having built elsewhere, 
others having gradually decayed in consequence of the 
people leaving them to go into the service of the 
farmers, and others of the inhabitants being called to 
public service, the original plan has been compleatly 
deranged, and now it appears as irregularly built aa 
either the city of Norwich or town of Manchester* 
