CHAPTER XV.
RESIDENCE AND TRANSACTIONS AT KLAARWATER; WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF
THE SETTLEMENT AND ITS INHABITANTS.
O c to b e r 1st. This morning, as soon as I had risen, I received a
visit from Mr. Jansz, the missionary, who had been residing at
Klaarwater, and had conducted the spiritual affairs of that station,
during the long absence of his two brethren. He was a native
of Holland, and had been several years in Africa, in the service of
the Dissenting Missionary Society of London. The evident cordiality
with which he gave me a welcome to the settlement, and the
unreserved friendliness of his manners towards those around him,
were, I considered, indications of a genuine goodness of heart, which
is certainly one of the most valuable qualifications of him whose object
is to gain the esteem and good-will of savages.
I accompanied the three missionaries round the village, to take
a cursory view of the different parts of i t ; the huts of the Hottentots
; their own dwellings; the house for religious meetings and
school instruction *; their storehouse, and their garden. When I
* The above engraving is a view of the Church. The furthest building is the
dwelling-house of one of the missionaries; and the intermediate hut is a storehouse.
considered that this little community, and the spot on which I
stood, were nearly eight hundred miles deep in the interior of
Africa, I could not but look upon, every object of their labors with
double interest; and received, at that moment, a pleasure, unalloyed
by the knowledge of a single untoward circumstance. The Hottentots
peeped out of their huts to have a look at me; and I fancied
they appeared glad at having one more white man amongst them.
I paid a visit to my fellow-travellers, JMrs. Anderson and
Mrs. Kramer, to whom I was under obligation for much friendly
attention during our journey; and found them in their cottages,
busily employed in arranging and disposing of the stores they had'
brought from the Cape. They were assisted in their domestic work
by Hottentot women, very cleanly dressed in clothes of European
fashion and materials.
We also visited Captain Dam, as he is called, the Hottentot
chief of Klaarwater, who holds a sort of authority over one-half of
this tribe (of Mixed Hottentots); while Captain Berends is, in like
manner, the regulator and commander of the other half. His name
was Adam Kok: he appeared to be under the middle age, with a
countenance indicative of a quiet disposition. My visit to him required
no explanations, as the missionaries had already made him acquainted
with every thing respecting me. His hut, which was dose
behind the missionary’s, was not better than those of other Hottentots
; but was made of mats, in the usual hemispherical form. *
From the moment when 1 decided on making Klaarwater in my
Beyond these is shown a part of thé ridge, which is represented at the head of
Ghapter XX. These same buildings are seen in Plate 8 ; but are there viewed on the
other-side.
* The vignette at the head of Chapter XX. is a representation of Captain Dam’s hut,
and of his waggon, of which mention is made in the following chapter. Behind them
are seen some of the trees of the missionary’s garden, enclosed by a hedge of dry bushes.
The trunk of a tree is fixed up near the hut, for the purpose of preparing (or, as they call
it, breyen) leathern reims, and for hanging game and various other tilings upon. Such an
apparatus is called by diem, and by the colonists, who also make use of it, a Brey-paal.
On the ridge in the distance may be seen, just above the Brey-paal, a part of the
road leading to Ongeluk’s Fontein.