178 JOURNAL OF A 
easily explained than some others ; but what with their barrenness 
and their regularity, they are unpleasant objects to the eye of a 
lover of the picturesque. 
In the evening, Mrs. Barkhuis proposed that Brother Schmitt 
should deliver a discourse to the family, the Hottentots and slaves 
in her service being admitted. This w^as done; about thirty per- 
sons were present, and we hope that the Lord, who has promised, 
that Mis " word shall not return void, but accomplish the thing 
"whereunto it is sent," will have caused some of the seed sown, to 
have fallen into ground prepared by His Spirit to receive it, 
so as to bring forth fruit. The Hottentots and slaves were parti- 
cularly attentive, and expressed afterwards their thanks to Brothei 
Schmitt, and their earnest Avish, that, in this neighbourhood, a 
settlement might be formed, where they might hear the Avord of 
God. From our own Plottentots they heard much of Gnadenthal, 
and of the benefits enjoyed by their countrymen living in our set- 
tlements, and, no doubt, profited by the unadorned and simple ac- 
count given them of the way of salvation by faith in Jesus. 
28tli. Being now in high favour with the old lady, she invited us 
to an early breakfast, after which we set out, passing over rough 
roads, into the narrow^er part of the Lange Kloof, properly so 
called, being a vale of perhaps a hundred miles in length, enclosed 
by mountains of different heights. On entering upon it, we felt 
not a little disappcinted. We were no longer amused with a mag- 
nificent show of peaks, table-mountains, or round tops in succession, 
but saw along ridge of comparatively low hills, divided, as above de- 
scribed, by narrow, parallel kloofs, without wood or water, skirling 
a dull, uncultivated vale. On one of the hills we descried a com- 
pany of baboons. They first seemed to wait our approach, but soon 
retreated in haste towards the summit. In vain we looked fijr the 
rich country and pleasant farms described by some travellers, and 
after passing some mean-looking houses, halted on the waste. 
In the afternoon, we arrived at a farm called JVelgelegen, where 
we were received with civility, and got a fresh relay of oxen. The 
