462 RIGHT AND WRONG. — EXPOUNDING THE SCRIPTURES. 17, 18 Nov. 
of age, and of not an unpleasing countenance. Nothing, I must 
confess, was discoverable in the behaviour of either him, his father, 
brother or companions, which could be thought to corroborate the 
tale we had heard ; and I felt a strong suspicion that our Klaar- 
water interpreter had acted a treacherous part towards them in the 
version he gave us of their story. 
But if it was, in fact, such as we were told, I would, were it 
not repugnant to reason and our belief in the existence of such 
knowledge in every individual of the human race, say; Here are men 
who know not right from wrong. Without fearing to be classed 
with the approvers of those self-deluded enthusiasts, who believe 
their own unfitness for the task to be compensated by a special and 
supernatural assistance from the Deity ; who go forth under the pre- 
sumptuous idea of being selected by Divine will to be the instrument 
of converting the heathen nations to Christianity, and who too fre- 
quently exaggerate the little they accomplish ; without being an 
approver of their system and principles, I cannot but emphatically 
say ; How worthy of the talents of a great and good man, would be 
the task of teaching savages such as these, to acknowledge a Deity, 
and guide themselves by the unchanging, eternal laws of right and 
wrong ! 
This being Sunday, Mr. Jansz caused all the Hottentots to 
assemble under the trees, and the customary divine service, consist- 
ing of singing psalms, and expounding a part of the Scriptures, was 
performed. That part of Ezekiel *, containing the prophecy of the 
valley of dry bones, was selected for explanation ; and was inter- 
preted to signify the future conversion of all heathens to Christianity. 
The Bushmen, whose deplorable ignorance we had just witnessed, 
and who were, perhaps, the occasion of that passage being selected, 
were present at the service, which, however, being in the Dutch 
language, was, of course, not understood by them ; and if it had 
been, I should doubt that they would be the better for it. 
* Chap, xxxvii. ver. 1 — 10. 
