No. III. 
ACCOUNT OF STEPHANAS, AN IMPOSTOR. 
HE was an European, and, as to religion, very probably a 
Roman Catholic. The ship in which he sailed from Europe 
was stranded near the Cape ; where, after getting on shore, 
he remained for some time in very distressing circumstances, 
which, he afterwards said, urged him on to the commission 
of forgery; for which crime he was arrested, and committed 
to prison. On the very first day of his imprisonment, he 
began to devise means for effecting his escape. He cut a 
large hole in the door of the prison, by means of which he 
regained his liberty, and fled to the Roggefeld, a district in 
the interior of the colony, where he remained quietly for some 
time, working as a mason ; but hearing that search was 
making for him, he fled higher up the country to a Mission- 
ary settlement then at Zak river, where he offered his ser- 
vices as a mason to Mr. Kicherer, who superintended the 
Mission. They were very acceptable at that time ; being 
about to erect a place of worship, and knowing nothing of 
his character, they readily took him into their employ. 
Only a short time after the building was begun, in- 
formation from Cape-town, through the newspaper, reached 
the settlement, that a person accused of forgery had escaped 
from prison; and from the description given of his person, 
Stephanas appeared to be the man. Having, by some 
means, learned that such information had been received, 
or perhaps discovering by their conduct that he was sus- 
pected, he hastily decamped, and fled across the Bushman's 
country beyond the Great River, carrying wiih him a bible, 
which he had stolen from the Missionaries. 
On arriving among the Griquaas, he gave himself out to 
be a Missionary, sent from Zak river to instruct them. He 
endeavoured to make them believe that he had been brought 
across the Bushman country in a miraculous manner, having 
neither gun, nor sword, nor spear ; which indeed appeared 
to them very marvellous, and made on them a strong im- 
pression in his favour. They all listened to his instructions 
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