318 JOURNAL OF A 
Brother Schmitt went with me to tlie hill near the ravine, where, 
having fixed upon a large block of granite, he marked the square 
hole to be cut into it, to contain the box. The Hottentot mason 
set about it very dexterously. 
At home, I was busily employed both with correspondence, 
and other affairs relating to the Mission. Towards evening it 
began to rain hard, and the wind rose considerably. Daring the 
night the gale increased. 
27th. The new wall of the dwelling-house, now rebuilding, was 
so much injured, that great part of the new work must be taken 
down. Mr. Melville returned to us. 
In the evening, Carl Stompje, came express from Gnadenthal, 
by the short road over the Fransche Hoek, in two days and a 
half, and brought the news of the decease of Father Schwinn, on 
the 25th, early. Though, when I left Gnadenthal, he seemed to 
be fast declining, under a complication of disorders, yet we did 
not so soon expect his final release, and felt deeply affected on 
reading the letters received from our brethren, containing a cir- 
cumstantial account of his last illness and departure, and of the 
great sensation, produced among the Hottentot congregation by 
this event. 
When in 1792, leave was granted by the Dutch Government, 
to renew the Mission, he, with his two colleagues, Marsveld and 
Kuehnel, arrived at the Cape in November of the same year. On 
the 24th of December, they fixed upon the spot, where the first 
founder of the Mission, the late George Schmidt, had resided in 
1737- The deceased visited Germany in 1799? but returned to 
his station in 1800. 
He was a man of a remarkably cheerful and active mind, and 
possessed great courage and firmness. His public ministry was 
distinguished by many bold and convincing testimonies of his 
faith, which he delivered with peculiar energy, speaking from the 
abundance of his heart, with demonstration of the Spirit, and con- 
viction to the hearts of his hearers. The Christian Hottentots 
