146 
TRAVELS IN 
IlELIGI02Sr. 
Calvinism or the Reformed Church, as it has usually been 
called, is the established religion of the colony. Other sects- 
were tolerated, but they were neither countenanced, nor paid^ 
nor preferred by the Dutch. The Germans, who are equally 
numerous with the Dutch, and mostlj^ Lutherans, had great 
difficulty in obtaining permission to build a church, in which, 
however, they at length succeeded ; but they were neither 
suffered to erect a steeple nor to hang a bell. A Methodist 
chapel has also lately been built ; and the Moravians have a 
church in the country ; but the Malay Mahomedans, not be- 
ing able to obtain permission to build a mosque, perform their 
public service in the stone quarries at the head of the town. 
Other sects have not yet found themselves sufficiently nume- 
rous or opulent to form a community. 
The body of the clergy are in no part of the world more 
suitably provided for, or more generally respected, than in this 
country ; a consequence which may be attributed to their 
being supported entirely by Government, and not by any tax 
or tythe laid upon the public. Their situation, it is true, 
leads not to affluence, but it places them beyond the appre- 
hension of want or pecuniary embarrassments ; and it secures 
to their widows a subsistence for life. The salaries and the 
emoluments, which all of them enjoy, both in the town and 
the country districts, are nearly on an equality. By their 
rank, which is next to that of the President of the Court of 
Justice in town, and of the Landrost in the country, they are 
