ment, but intelligent and lively in converfation, zealous in the
caufe o f their million, but free from bigotry or enthufiafm.
Every thing about the place partook o f that neatnefs and fim-
plicity which were the ftrongeft features in the outline o f their
charader. The church they had conftruded was a plain neat
building ; their mill for grinding corn was fuperior to any in the
colony; their garden was in high order, and produced abundance
o f vegetables for the ufe o f the table. Almoft every thing that
had been done was by the labor of their own hands. Agreeably
to the rules o f the fociety, of which they were members, each
had learned fome ufeful profeflion. One was well fkilled in
every branch o f fmith’s work, thefecond was a ihoemaker, and
the third a taylor.
Thefe miflionaries have fucceeded in bringing together into
one fociety, more than fix hundred Hottentots, and their
numbers are daily encreafing. Thefe live in fmall huts difperfed
over the valley, to each o f which was a patch o f ground for
railing vegetables. Thofe who had firft joined the fociety had
the choiceft fituations at the upper end of the valley, near the
church, and their houfes and gardens were very neat and
comfortable; numbers of the poor in England not fo good, and
few better. Thofe Hottentots who chofe to learn their refped-
ive trades, were paid for their labor as foon as they could earn
wages. Some hired themfelves out by the week, month, or
year, to the neighbouring peafantry; others made mats and
brooms for fale: fome bred poultry, and others found means to
fubfift by their cattle, flieep, and horfes. Many of the women
and children of foldiers, belonging to the Hottentot corps, relide
at
at Bavian’s kloof, where they are much more likely to acquire
induftrious habits than by remaining in the camp.
On Sundays they all regularly attend the performance of
divine fervice, and it is aftonilhing how ambitious they are to
appear at church neat and clean. O f . the three hundred, or
thereabouts, that compofed the congregation, about: half were,
drefled in coarfe printed cottons, and the other half in the ancient
iheep-ikin drefles ; and it appeared, on enquiry, that the former
were the firft who had been brought within the pale o f the
church s a proof that their circumftances at lead had fuffered
nothing from their change of life. Perfuafion and example had
convinced them, that cleanlinefs in their perfons, not only added
much to the comforts o f life, but was one o f the greateft prefer-
vatives of health ; and that the little trifle of money they had to
fpare, was much better applied in procuring decent covering for
the body, than in the purchafe of fpirits and tobacco, articles fo
far from being neceifaries, that they might juftly be confidered as
the moft pernicious evils.
The deportment of the Hottentot congregation, during divine
fervice, was truly devout. The difcourfe delivered by one o f f
the fathers was ihort, but replete with good fenfe, pathetic, and
well fuited to:the ocCafion: tears flowed abundantly from the
eyes of thofe to whom it was particularly addrefled. The
females fung in a ftile that was plaintive and affefiting; and their
voices were in general fweet and harmonious. Not more than
fifty had been admitted as members of the Chriftian faith, by the
ceremony of baptifm. There appeared to be no violent zeal on
z z the