SOUTHERN AFRICA. 377 
appeared, and in constant anxiety and doubtful suspense 
whether they might not be entangled and finally stopped by 
mountains, deep chasms, or thickets, they came to a village of 
Kora Hottentots, situated in a deep defile of the mountains ; 
and a little farther on, to a second horde of Bastaards and Bos- 
jesmans, under a chief of the former description whose name was 
Kok. This man was a kind of volunteer missionary who, to the 
great astonishment of our travellers, delivered a very able dis- 
course to his people in their presence, from a text out of the gos- 
pel of St. John, on the subject of regeneration, which was pre- 
ceded and followed by an extemporary prayer and by singing 
of hymns. The missionary Edwards and his wife and a boor 
of the name of Kruger had joined the party on the right 
bank of the Orange river ; and a little beyond the kraal of 
Kok was the Aakaap or Rietfonfeyji, the then residence of 
Mr. Kicherer. On their arrival at this place on the 8th, 
being Sunday, they found this zealous teacher of the gospel 
eno:a2;ed in the duties of his office. His church was a tern- 
porary building of poles, wattled with twigs, plaistered over 
with clay and cow dung both within and without, and covered 
with a thatch of reeds. A smaller hut of the same construc- 
tion served for a school, and a third for his habitation. A 
number of other huts of an inferior kind, shaped like bee- 
hives and consisting chiefl}' of grass matting, were scattered ' 
over the plain ; but on the strangers approaching towards 
them, their inhabitants, men, women and children all fled 
and hid themselves in the bushes. Mr. Kicherer received the 
travellers with great kindness and affability. He was assisted 
in the labours of his mission by two other missionai'ies of the 
names of Anderson and Cramer, all of them sent out by the 
3 c 
