CHAP. VIII. 
AN AFRICAN CONGREGATION. 
197 
kindly, and the next morning I attended public worship in 
the chapel, a good substantial building. About 500 persons 
were present, all persons of colour, and many of them Hot¬ 
tentots. All were clothed in European dresses, the women 
wearing either a loose cotton bonnet, or a handkerchief on 
their heads. This was the first African congregation I had 
seen, and I was struck with the light colour, and peculiarly 
angular and Tartar-like physiognomy of the Hottentots. 
The deportment of the people was attentive and serious, and 
I was much pleased with the fine voices of many of the singers. 
Their performance was, perhaps, not always scientifically 
correct, and sometimes the singing was too high; but the 
tones of some of the voices, their softness, as well as their 
compass, were such as are rarely surpassed in ordinary con¬ 
gregations. 
On the last day of January we left Zurbraak, and spent the 
following Sunday at the village of Greorge and the adjacent 
institution of Pecaltsdorp. Here, as well as at the last 
station, we had very full conferences with the missionaries 
and the people respecting the important objects of my visit. 
On the 6th of February we ascended the celebrated 
Montague Pass, over the blue mountains. It was in the 
neighbourhood of Greorge that I first saw the beautiful 
Tritoma uvaria , now designated Veltheimia or Kniphofia, 
rearing its slender upright stalk surmounted by a large cluster 
of pendant trumpet-shaped flowers, with yellow centre and 
scarlet ends. By the sides of the pass I also observed a 
number of graceful ferns, especially one mass of the very 
elegantly-growing Gleichenia polyjoodioides, of which I ga¬ 
thered a specimen. This plant spread up the side of the pass 
for three or four yards from the road, entirely covering the 
face of the rock. Amongst the bulbs was one bearing a dark 
blue flower, which I dug up and placed in the waggon. 
There were also great numbers of scarlet amaranthine plants 
