rulers our enemies, we will never oppose them with any other weapons than those with which Christ has provided us, namely, love and conscientious obedience; and hereby we despair not to conquer them.

Undisgusedly, Sir, I have presented to you some facts, and thereby expressed my true feelings, in regard to which, I conceive, you cannot be indifferent. If you pay any regard to my requests, and cause the Hottentots to have justice done them, then shall you, who have yourself declared that without justice it cannot go well with any people, bind that nation to the interests of government, and you shall enjoy the happiness to have no other enemies in this country than villains. God will bless you, and you may expect success in your government; but if, on the contrary, you can determine to acquiesce in the misdeeds, and the unreasonable requests of open offenders, to enjoy their short-lived acclamations, to oppress the guiltless to please them, and to enfeeble justice, then shall the cry to heaven of the oppressed-of the parents, children, and consorts torn asunder, bring, as a consequence, their deliverance, and therewith the frustration of your plans.

If the frankness with which I have expressed myself, and which flows from deeply reflecting on my duty, should displease you, I hope in future to use more reserve. I am not so inconsiderate as to desire to give you the trouble to answer all the points touched upon. It is sufficient for me to have submitted them to your consideration, praying God to give you the necessary wisdom and courageousness to take the most salutary measures to ward off the disorders which are at the door. I have the honour, with due respect, and very sincere regard, to subscribe myself,

Your obedient Servant, (Signed)

No. XVI.

J. T. VANDERkemp.

Letter from the Missionary Conference at Graaff-Reinet, to the Colonial Secretary.—(Vide vol. ii. p. 61.)

Graaff-Reinet, August 25th, 1814. Sir,-For several years the Directors of the London Missionary Society have been urgent that their respective missionaries in South Africa should have an annual conference with each other, (at least a missionary from each station,) to consider upon the best measures to promote the interests of those missions already established, and to propose and adopt others, under the approbation of government, for the advancement of religion in general in this part of the world.

The Rev. John Campbell, who was sent here in 1812, as deputy of the above society, proposed again, and brought to a resolution, the longed-for conference.

Graaff-Reinet was considered the most central place for the purpose, and the first week of August the best time of the year. Accordingly we met here last week, and commenced our business; and the Rev. Mr. Kicherer was so kind as to offer his personal attendance and his counsels,-a purpose for which his long residence in the colony, and the active share he has taken in the propagation of religion, render him so capable.

Among other things of importance brought forward, Mr. Anderson (from Griqua Town, formerly Klaarwater) laid before the conference two letters he had received from government, one dated January 3d, 1814, and one the 27th of May, containing a requisition of twenty men from his settlement, for the Cape regiment, and the consequences government had been pleased to determine upon, these men not being furnished.

The business appeared to us of the utmost importance on both sides. In the first place, it is the wish of the Missionary Society, that their missionaries should always endeavour to meet the wishes of that government under which they prosecute their labours, and from which they receive any protection or support, whenever this can be done consistently with their character as missionaries, and without endangering their work in general. The matter was then to examine, whether Mr. Anderson had acted according to the above principle, and the interest of the missionary cause, beyond the limits of the colony; and having done this, we could not say but that he had done every thing short of using compulsion, which we conceive to be all that can be expected from missionaries, especially those beyond the colony: more would endanger their success, yea, endanger their lives.

We hope His Excellency the Governor will not take it amiss, when we submit a few observations, in the way of pleading for the cause of Mr. Anderson, and the Missionary Society. His Excellency will please to observe, that the greater part of those people, from whom the men required must be taken, are descendants, by the mother-side, from Hottentots, who have always retreated from the Europeans, till they came to the Orange river, where they settled. When the missionaries came there, they were suspected as having been sent out by government to ensnare them, and a plan was formed to take away their lives, which Providence, however, frustrated, and they gained the confidence of a few individuals. Although the missionaries have been on the Orange River some years, yet the mission at Griqua Town, must be considered as still in an infant state, for the missionaries had not influence enough to prevail upon the people to settle themselves permanently, till of late, they having been long accustomed to a wandering life. To the grief of the missionaries, this propensity prevails too much still; and the above-mentioned prejudices are not yet nearly conquered, and any compulsive measures on the part of the missionaries could

but serve to do infinite injury both to their characters and

cause.

His Excellency will likewise please to observe, that this Mission is the only one beyond the borders, to the north of the colony, that it is surrounded by Bushmen, Corannas, Bechuanas, and Namaquas, with whom the people of Griqua Town have a close connection. These other tribes have, till very lately, shewn themselves very unfriendly to Christianity, insomuch, that the missionaries have to attribute the safety of their lives to the few confidential people with them; and the proposed plan might, as we conceive, render their situation most dangerous, and at once occasion a stagnation to their extensive usefulness, and darken all their prospects.

The connexion between the Becuhanas and Griquas, the people of Mr. Anderson, will appear from the following circumstance. A report had been spread, that some of Mr. Anderson's people had been ill-treated in the colony in 1812, and on Mr. Campbell's arrival at Lattakoo, this was one of the first things that was inquired after, adding, that strangers travelling through their country, had ever been treated by them with the utmost kindness.

His Excellency, will, therefore, easily conceive the critical situation of those two solitary missionaries, and what might be the fatal consequences of any compulsory measures on their side; and even a passive compliance would make them to be suspected by the other tribes; but this they would venture, and have already acted more than in a passive way. His Excellency will likewise be pleased to observe, that their situation is by no means safe, with respect to Caffers, who find their way continually through or round the colony, and who commit sometimes the greatest cruelties on the Corannas and Bechuanas, in which they have been joined by many Bushmen; and had it not been for the few armed men with Mr. Anderson, they probably would have fallen a sacrifice to these savages, as they more than once attacked them; they have, therefore, constantly to be upon their watch. We hope, that these arguments will have some weight with his Excellency, and prevail in the behalf of that distant mission.

We will allow, that Mr. Anderson has received some favours from government; his people have passed, generally unmolested, backwards and forwards to Cape Town to traffic; and if government does not conceive the attention paid to the different commissions sent by government to that part of the world, (with the last of which, Doctor Cowan's party, two of their very best men sacrificed their lives) as an equivalent for these favours, we would submit to His Excellency the propriety of levying a contribution, in which the missionaries and the most enlightened people with them would take a share; and we are confident that the Missionary Society would not be backward to subscribe their share, for any favour bestowed by government on their missionaries, rather than that the lives of their missionaries should be endangered.

VOL. II.

2 G

Mr. Anderson expects to be in Cape Town in few weeks, when he will be able to give His Excellency any further information required upon the subject. Praying that every blessing may attend His Excellency's person and government, and confiding in his support towards the spreading of Christianity in this benighted country, We have the honour to be, &c. &c.

C. Bird, Esq.

Deputy Colonial Secretary.

(Signed)

No. XVII.

J. READ.

J. KICHERER.
J. G. ULBRICHT.
W. ANDERSON.
E. SMITH.

W. F. CORNer.

Letter to the Author from the Rev. John Campbell, (inclosing part of the MS. of these volumes.)

My dear Sir, I believe the inclosed papers give a very just view of the oppressions of the Hottentots-that they are not treated like men and women, but like brutes. In regard to the little that I said, (compared to what I could have said) upon that subject in my first journal, you remember the feelings of the colonists, when we were travelling to and from Bethelsdorp in 1819. I think the case of the Hottentots is such, that any apprehension of hostility on this account, should you return to Africa, should not deter you from making public the whole case, without reserve. I had instances of the cruelty of the colonists, in their punishment of both male and female Hottentots in their service, that would have shocked the feelings of civilized people in such a country as this. But at the time I published, there was no known intention of making a new code of laws for the Cape, wherefore, I thought it prudent, for the sake of our missions, not to publish all I knew. But now the case is different. Let the truth, therefore, be told. There is now a kindly feeling among all ranks in England, towards the oppressed of the coloured tribes. Persevere: missions are designed to relieve the oppressed. I am just leaving town for a fortnight, and I was afraid lest papers so important as the inclosed, should be out of their proper place wherefore, I wish you to have them.

I am yours, &c.
(Signed)

Kingsland, Thursday. (1817.)

J. CAMPBELL.

THE END.

London: W. CLOWES, Stamford-street.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

View of Bethelsdorp to front title, Vol. I.

Map to front title, Vol. II.

Plan of Theopolis to front page 401, Vol. II.

ERRATA.

Vol I. p. 65, at bottom, for "Missionary Register," read "Missionary Transactions." Do. p. 111, at bottom, instead of reference printed, read "Missionary Transac

tions, Vol. iii. p. 150."