362 
ACCOUNT OF STEPHANUS. 
Oct. 
They had always professed, among themselves, the Christian 
religion ; and at one time were the dupes of a religious impostor, 
named Stephanus. 
This Stephanus was a native of Courland, and had been clerk to a 
merchant in Cape Town : but having been detected in forging the 
colonial paper money, he contrived to escape from justice, and fled 
unpursued to the missionaries established at Sack River : where, 
under another name, he offered them his services ; and, being natu- 
rally clever and ingenious, he was found extremely useful as an 
artificer; nor was he, as they assured me, to be considered as an 
uneducated man. 
At last, a letter was received from the Fiscal, describing his 
person, and requiring the missionaries to detain him if he should 
happen to make his appearance at their station. The man had, 
while at Sack River, conducted himself so correctly, that he was not 
suspected to be the person described, till, having heard of the 
contents of the letter, and becoming visibly uneasy and melancholy, 
he eloped from the settlement. He had with him no kind of arms 
for his defence against the savages, and but a small stock of pro- 
visions ; yet he succeeded in the hazardous attempt of making his 
way, alone and unguided, to the Gariep, and joined this Hottentot 
community at a place called Kok's Kraal, where they at that time 
were stationed. 
He had with him a bible, given him at the Zak River ; and, with 
this in his hand, he set up as missionary, and gained an ascendancy 
over the minds of the kraal, such as, the missionaries have confessed, 
they have never been able to gain. He persuaded them to attend to 
agriculture, and also to erect a church.* This he built in a superior 
style ; and, conducting the religious service with much imposing 
formality and ceremony, made his hearers at length believe that he 
was expressly sent to them from heaven. He preached such doc- 
* The situation of this church is placed on the map agreeably to the distance and 
bearing given me by the Klaarwater Hottentots, who are in the habit of travelling every 
year from Klaarwater to Namaqualand. 
