62 JOURNAL OF A 
houses was not kept ia good order, and Brother Bonatz adding, 
that I was De IJeer, of whom he had told them, that he would come 
from Europe to see them, and expected to find cleanhness and order 
estabUshed throughout the whole village, they fell to work, and in 
half an hour removed all the rubbish and ashes lying about their 
houses, promising, that I should never see such disorder again. 
We next went into the great garden, in the centre of which stands 
the celebrated pear-tree, planted by the late venerable missionary, 
George Schmidt, in 1738. Having in fifty-two years, during the 
suspension of the mission, grown to a vast size, it served the Bre- 
thren, in 1792, both for a church and school, the people and their 
children sitting under the shade of its wide-spreading branches. 
Some symptoms of decay at its top, had made pruning necessary, 
which has lessened its size, but it is now quite alive and sound. The 
burial-ground lies west of the garden, a double row of oaks shel- 
tering it towards the north. It is divided into four equal compart- 
ments, at present comprehending about three hundred graves of 
Hottentots, in regular rows, e-ach distinguished by a piece of wood, 
marked with a number, referring to the church-books, as at Groc- 
nekloof. 
From hence we walked into the glen, called Bavians-Kloof^ 
from its having formerly been the resort of a great number of ba- 
boons. But since the inhabitants of the valley have multiplied, 
these creatures have retired to more desolate parts of the moun- 
tains, and but seldom make their appearance, except when peaches 
and other garden-fruits are getting ripe. A lively brook, called the 
Bavians-Revier, issues from the glen, and, flowing through the vil- 
lage, falls into the river Sonderend, not far from the ford. 
In the evening, about four hundred Hottentots attended the ser- 
vice at the church, and after a suitable address by Brother Bonatz, 
joined in a hymn of praise to God, for having brought us safe to this 
place. When we delivered the salutations sent by the congrega- 
tions of theBrethren in Germany and England, to the converts from 
among the Hottentots, with best wishes for an increase of every 
