376 IMPROVEMENTS, &c. 
A large building was erecting, for an exchange, in 
Cape Town, and the theatre was falling into decay. 
A few houses only had been added to the towns of 
Stellenbosh, Paarl, and Tulbach. 
In no part of the colony did I observe a greater 
alteration or improvement than at the Hottentot town of 
Hooge Kraal, now called Pacaltsdorp, which stands at 
the distance of three miles from George Town. 
Dikkop, their captain, (as mentioned in my former 
Journal, with about sixty of his people,) paid me a 
visit on my arrival at George Town, on the road to 
Bethelsdorp, in March, 1813, when he requested a Mis- 
sionary to be sent to him and to his people. Upon 
visiting his kraal I found only a few miserable hots, nei- 
ther gardens nor corn-fields, and the lands remaining in an 
uncultivated state. Not one person could read, and 
nearly the whole population were dressed in dirty , tattered 
sheep-skins, and their bodies filthy in the extreme. They 
knew nothing about God, the Saviour, the Bible, or any 
thing valuable. 
Soon after this visit, Mr. Pacalt, a pious, disinterested, 
and active Missionary from the London Society, com- 
menced a mission to this people, and continued with 
them till his death, which happened only a few months 
before my return to that country. 
On revisiting this kraal in 1819, in company with 
Dr. Philip, I found the settlement surrounded by a wall, 
six feet in height, five feet thick at the bottom, and 
tapering to the top, the whole length being 6,767 feet, 
luclosures for securing their cattle in the night-time 
were surrounded by walls of the same construction, and 
measured 938 feet. Their gardens were defended by walls 
of a similar kind, measuring 3,396 feet. The whole 
quantity of this kind of fence measuring 11,101 feet. 
Their gardens contained peach, apricot, and fig trees, 
potatoes, pumkins, water-melons, cabbages, beans, pease, 
Indian corn, &c. Almost the whole of the men and 
