. . THE FODNTAIN KLOOF, OB MISSIONARY LIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA. PHILADELPHIA: PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. CONTENTS. CHAPTER L PAOl ITS DISCOVERT 7 CHAPTER II. BIVOUAC 17 CHAPTER HI. NEWS FROM THE NORTH 28 CHAPTER IV. A SEEDLING SETTLEMENT , 41 CHAPTER V. PHILIP OWEN'S PRINCIPLE .. 50 CHAPTER VI. LIKATLO'S FEAR 61 CHAPTER VII. A MIDSUMMER CHRISTMAS 71 CHAPTER VIH. IN THE KRAAL 84 3 2228937 4 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE IX. PAOB SOWING SEED 94 CHAPTER X. SPOOR 106 CHAPTER XL THE CAFFBE COUNCIL 117 CHAPTER XII. THE SILVER OP THE CLOUD 131 CHAPTER XIII. MIDNIGHT WATCH 141 CHAPTER XIV. KAMA'S FAITHFULNESS 154 CHAPTER XV. THE KARROO 163 CHAPTER XVI. CHAIN-LIGHTNING 176 CHAPTER XVII. FLIGHT AND DESERTION 185 CHAPTER XVIII. MR. VAN SMIT 199 CHAPTER XIX. THE BOER VROUWS 208 CHAPTER XX. ORAAFF REYNET.... .. 219 CONTENTS. 5 CHAPTEE XXI. MM "ONS ABME HEIDENEN" 229 CHAPTER XXII. ALSOA BAY 241 CHAPTER XXIII. BETHELSDORP 251 CHAPTER XXIV. STARS OP THE SOUTH 265 CHAPTER XXV. THE BUSHMAN 274 CHAPTER XXVI. THE CHRYSALIS 287 CHAPTER XXVII. IN THE THIRST-LAND 296 CHAPTER XXVIII. WITCHCRAFT 307 CHAPTER XXIX. A SALT-PAN 316 CHAPTER XXX. SABBATHS AHONG THE HEATHEN 32ut of evil bring greater 74 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. good. What if these partially-instructed natives bo dispersed among the surrounding tribes, carry- ing their knowledge of the first principles of the Christian religion wherever they go ? They will tell of the white man's great God who lives above the sky" " And we have a few, dear," put in his wife, " who, we trust, could speak from the heart about their Saviour Jesus. Do you recollect George Schmidt's old Hottentot woman ?" " Mrs. Mason is reminding me," said the mis- sionary, in answer to his guest's look of inquiry, " of a mission-station broken up under very unfa- vourable circumstances, which yet bore fruit to the honour of God after the labourer had been com- pelled to leave the work undone, as he thought. You have heard of George Schmidt, the Mora- vian ?" "Never." Such obscure persons were not in Mr. Enfield's list of celebrities. " He was the first who thought of coming to tell the Hottentots that the great God loved them and wanted them to be happy for ever ; and he was but a German peasant, utterly ignorant of any lan- guage except his own without money or influence. How was his purpose to be accomplished ? I do THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 75 not exactly remember the details," added Mr. Mason, " but I know that he reached the Cape, and got to the interior, where he settled at Bavian's Kloof, signifying the Baboon's Glen, as you know, sir. I have seen the place, and now it is called the Valley of Grace, or, in the Low Dutch, Gena- dendal, because the blessing of the Lord has indeed changed the wilderness into a fruitful field; and where George Schmidt gathered forty-seven of the most degraded of mankind to hear his gospel news, you may now count the baptized Hottentots by thousands, and behold a village of neat houses and streets instead of a filthy kraal." " I thought you said that the mission had been broken up and Schmidt compelled to leave." "So he was, but God has promised that his word never shall return to him void ; and the seed of eternal life preserved its vitality in a wonderful way, despite all outward disadvantages. It is some- thing more than a hundred years ago since he began his mission, about 1740: and the Dutch boers, who regarded the Hottentots as their natural-born slaves, hated him and his attempt to Christianize them, and threw every possible obstacle in his way. Again and again he was obliged to go to Cape ToAvn to defend himself from false accusations before the 76 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. governor; at last he was obliged to go to Amster- dam, and finally was refused permission ever to re- turn to Africa. He had left behind a few converts, who kept together for a while, meeting for worship under the fruit trees which he had planted ; and when, years after George Schmidt had passed to his reward in the heavens and it is remarkable that he died unexpectedly and without apparent disease while kneeling in prayer for Africa when successors came to take up the first labourer's work, they were cheered by finding an aged woman whom he had baptized, and who for fifty years, living without means of grace except the reading of a Dutch New Testament, had kept gospel faith alive in her heart. My wife alluded to this a while since but I am wearying you, Mr. En- field." " No. He seems to have been a fine, persevering fellow. I wonder that I never chanced to hear of him, but my reading has never lain much in the theological line. Now I think my friend Philip Owen would be just such another." " He has great self-devotion," said the mission- ary. " Our intercourse is very happy, and there is promise of wide usefulness in his character and attainments." THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 77 " He is giving up so much in England," ob- served Mr. Enfield. " My dear sir, is not a single soul of the meanest human creature, redeemed to Christ and made ca- pable of eternal joy instead of eternal pain, worth any sacrifice we can suffer ?" This argument of the vast value of the soul met Mr. Enfield everywhere and on all sides. He could not deny nor gainsay it. And these Eu- ropeans made it the mainspring of their lives. " Do you think the advent of the Lord Jesus would ever have taken place but for the transcend- ent worth of the human soul? And that is as God sees it not according to our fallible vision." "True; but, Mr. Mason, why don't half the Christian world go forth as missionaries if that is their conviction ? I cannot account for the luke- warmness about missions with such a tremendous belief in the background. Why, if I believed that there would be an earthquake in this valley to-morrow, would not I use superhuman exertion to have everybody out of it, well frightened out of it, before the fatal hour ?" " I have often wondered at the same," said Mr. Mason. " The cares of this world and the deceit- fulness of riches blind Christians at home and make 78 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. them forget their Lord's commission, ' Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.' " "And then the Lord Jesus himself was the first missionary," observed his wife, gently. "All the way from heaven to earth surely a greater descent than from England to the meanest savage." " I am very glad of my university distinctions,'' said Mr. Owen, taking his seat at the table. " J t is some trifle to give up for my Saviour the hope of further successes." " Yet you were an ambitious fellow once," said his old friend. " Well, I must rather envy you this new enthusiasm, and hope it will continue as powerful as now. But, Owen, isn't this an odd Christmas day? Can you realize it to be the snowy, sloppy day of holly and mistletoe in old England? I just can't conjure up a leafless tree before my imagination in the sight of such lux- uriance as I see yonder." He was standing by the open window, looking forth on the waving corn, the flowering mimosas and acacias, dispersed with the date-palm and ele- gant mshoma, as un-Christmas-like a landscape as could well be dreamed. " I am as ambitious as ever," said Owen, who THE FOUNTAIN .KLOOF. 79 had risen to stand by him, " but my ambition is for heaven and not for earth." Then in a louder tone he added, "Yes, the difference of the day puzzled me much last year my first Christmas in the country : it does not seem so strange now." " I was away in Namaqua-land hunting lions last summer a year ago. The day never occurred to me till it was past, actually." Now breakfast was in general a very simple aifair with the mission family. No delicacies to tempt appetite had room in this primitive settle- ment. Porridge of boiled corn eaten with milk was the staple of whatever meal was not beef. Little luxuries which we should be puzzled to do without tea, coffee, sugar, butter were systemati- cally unknown. " What a trifling deprivation !" cries somebody who fares sumptuously every day, and has at least two courses to his dinner. We invite you to reject the trifles aforesaid for a month, and opine you will occasionally cast a lingering glance after them. For the English guest Mrs. Mason had made a special effort to provide at least the semblance of an English breakfast. On the preceding morning she had furnished coffee, by courtesy so styled, for its original was naught but roasted barley powder 80 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. sweetened with honey. Mr. Enfield applauded the idea and its execution, nevertheless he brought in from the wagon sundry packets at eventide. " Mrs. Mason, perhaps you wouldn't mind taking these things off my hands; I am going to the colony, as you know, and thence to England, and to carry them any farther would be just bringing coals to Newcastle. These tins have preserved meats and soups a few, left from my desert stock, and there are just two or three custard and pudding cases, and a little tea and such things which I hope may not prove dead." She found coffee and sugar and pepper packets after he had rapidly retreated, not waiting for her thanks : how valuable all were only a housekeeper hundreds of miles from a shop can tell. So her Christmas-day fare was furnished forth much better than she expected; quite like the home tables round which dear ones would assemble on this morning and evening and waft a happy wish to- ward South Africa. In the half-finished little chapel a congregation assembled; prominent among whom was the chief Likatlo, newly greased and stained with ochre of a dull red, which gave him the hue of a bronze figure cooling from fire-heat. Likewise was his THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 81 head done up in a collection of tiny hard rolls of his woolly black hair, which studded it over like the tops of ten-penny nails. Metal beads gleamed round his throat and brass rings on his right arm ; his kaross seemed new and had the usual chieftain's trimming of spotted skin, which is a distinction as much valued among the Caifres as the star of an order with us. It can only be worn by the blue- blooded that is, by the descendant of undoubted chiefs for generations. In fact, Likatlo had assumed full dress, and looked very well pleased with himself so well pleased that Mr. Mason feared he would not at- tend to the address owing to self-gratulation ; but as the missionary went on to give the gospel narrative of the birth of Jesus and the wicked king who destroyed the children of Bethlehem, Likatlo's eyes, at first wandering in quest of admiration, be- came riveted on the preacher. And now did Mr. Enfield, listening listlessly to the oft-told tale, behold a wondrous, an incredible thing. Close beside Likatlo sat upon the ground an aged Caffre, whose curly hair was plentifully streaked with white. Once a tall and powerful man, his shoulders were now bent and his thin frame wrapped closely in an old kaross, instead of 82 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. permitting the latter to float loose, as with younger men : no beads nor other Caffre fopperies glistened about him. He was a thorough contrast to the dandy Likatlo, and might have been the meanest of the tribe, but for his position so close to the chief, and a certain air of dignity apparent even in his crouching form. And as the preaching proceeded, Mr. Enfield, glancing over the dusky audience, was startled to perceive rolling from the deeply-sunk eyes of this aged man real tears ! Ay, over the furrowed brown face glided the glittering drops, falling on his ox- skin cloak with a rebound. What, a Caffre feel so deeply ! A Caffre be moved to weeping by the message of a white man's sermon ! It was a phe- nomenon altogether new to the English observer. He looked out for symptoms of make-believe. But what an earnest countenance, what absorbed attention! Here was no attempt at imposition. Sincerity was stamped upon it all. Then what was the preacher saying? Philip Owen was now the speaker, and his knowledge of the language being small his words were few and the utterance slow. But he talked of their sinful- ness they, the congregation present and of the everlasting love of God, who had sent his Son to THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 83 deliver them from that sinful ness and its awful consequences. Very simply was it conveyed, but each phrase was weighted with its speaker's earn- estness, which causes such words to become as nails in a sure place when fastened by " the Master of assemblies." CHAPTER VIII. IN THE KRAAL. 'HE aged Caffre's face was buried in his cloak on his knees when Mr. Mason touched his shoulder. " Hintsa need not weep/' he said, "Hintsa may rejoice." The old man stretched out his hand and silently rose to his feet ; he seemed not to wish to trust himself with words, but slowly left the chapel last of all. " "What strangely deep emotion !" Mr. Enfield could not help observing. "Not strange, if we consider its object his undy- ing soul," said Mr. Owen, who stood beside him. " Hintsa is half-brother of the chief's father, and has for some little time past been under conviction of sin very strongly, by the grace of God, but he cannot yet see his Saviour. I suppose he is now gone into the bush to pray ; he generally does so after service." " I suppose he must have rather a troublesome conscience after a life spent in Caffre practices," 84 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 85 remarked Mr. Enfield. " They never seem to think at all of morality ; indeed scarcely to know the dif- ference between right and wrong." " After all, the amount of sin is not the great ob- stacle or the great matter," said the young minister. " The degraded Caffre has not his heart more natu- rally averse to God than the amiable and civilized European, dear Enfield." " I cannot see that," was the reply. " Now, I suppose Hintsa has a few murders on his soul and innumerable thefts cattle-stealing, for instance, their crying sin." " God knows them all," said Mr. Owen, solemnly. "And if he is abundantly willing to pardon, shall we set limits to his goodness ? ' Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.' But I do not know that poor Hiutsa has been so bad as you say, yet bad enough to be lost for ever he knows himself." "And have you any real cases of conversion here? men or women of whom you can say, I believe them to be Christians in your highest ac- ceptation of the word ?" asked the stranger. " We have two candidates for baptism besides this Hintsa: a young man who is to-day at a cattle-post some miles off, and an aged woman ; his 86 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. mother, who is too infirm to attend worship. But, 'f you like, we will visit her, now that Mason has gone to the school." Mr. Enfield acquiesced ; he was getting rather interested in this mission work the investigation into its reality whiled away time while to his friend Owen that work had become woven with his very life. Truly a great change separated be- tween them since the old college days ! From the half-finished chapel they walked toward the chief's kraal or gathering of huts. Principal among these was the cattle-fold, an enclosure of wattle-work made of branches of trees interlaced with posts fixed in the ground and high enough for shelter. Opposite the entrance to this circular pen was situate a hut larger than its neighbours and more carefully finished ; the vacant space between it and the fold seemed hard with concourse of feet ; it was the forum of the village, the place for public assemblies. "Ah! there is our most serious difficulty," ob- served Mr. Owen, pointing out the large hut. " Likatlo's head wife dwells yonder, and round her are the huts of the inferior wives. Polygamy is the custom which of all others comes be! ween the Caffre and Christianity." THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 87 " Consequently would be the best test of his sin- cerity," said the stranger. " I would have no doubt of a man's thoroughness who agreed to give it up. But I agree with you in thinking it a tre- mendous obstacle even to the commonest civiliza- tion." " If something could be done to prevent the buy- ing of wives, there might be hope of its dying out. But Mason tells me that the Caffre woman con- siders that no marriage which has not been cemented by the giving of oxen to her relatives. Nothing but a spreading of education and Christian know- ledge seems likely to remove the curse from the coming generations ; and as for this we must only gather a few here and there who will have strength given them to break the chain." " Some young men among my followers are looked upon quite as outcasts, Gilbert tells me, be- cause they have not yet been able to buy a wife. It is a destructive system altogether. Is your young convert married?" " Yes, but only to one wife. Were he rich, I suppose he would have more ere now, when his conscience sees the evil of it and rejoices that he has been delivered from the snare. Here is his hut he lives with his mother and his wife's hut, as 88 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. usual, is near by. For you know, of course, that every married woman rears her own dwelling and lives in it independently of her husband." "A polygamic arrangement," remarked Mr. Enfield, "meant to obviate bickerings, I pre- sume." "Will you enter?" He replied by stooping to the very low doorway, which was about three feet high and twenty inches wide. But he had not so far to stoop as Mr. Owen, who towered almost to the whole altitude of the hut itself. At its loftiest point the roof was about six and a half feet from the ground, and sprang from a wattled wall only four feet high. Layers of long grass bristled from it on all sides, matted into the interstices of the boughs, which were the circular framework of the whole. The Englishmen saw nothing whatever for a minute or two after entrance. Mr. Enfield nearly ran his head against a blackened post, which con- stituted one of the upright supports of the roof, and had the prudence after that narrow escape to stand still until his vision returned. The transi- tion from the blaze of an African midsummer noon- tide to the darkness of a close, windowless interior almost painful. THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 89 " Well, mother/' said Mr. Owen, who first re- covered sight, "we hope you are better to-day." While preliminary words passed, the other gen- tleman was looking about him and making out objects. Three posts loomed forth gradually, in virtue of their own sooty blackness, distinct. The fire in the centre very low now and giving off a scarcely perceptible smoke had painted them as shining as if japanned, for there was no chimney. At one side of the circular chamber, which was perhaps fifteen feet in diameter, lay a milk-sack full of the thickening fluid and some grass baskets for holding the same. In a minute or two the old woman had hobbled over to these from the mat where she had been lying, and, pouring some of the sour milk into two of the baskets, presented them to her visitors. It was a testimony of the kindliest hospitality, and could not be refused. " And what will ' the master of the milk-sack' say for its mouth being opened?" asked Mr. Owen, with a smile. For it is the man of the house's pre- rogative to manage the provision department, to make additions to the stock and tell when it is sour enough for use. " He will say nothing, but be glad it was for the missionary," she answered, glal cing toward his 90 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. shield and assagais, which hung up over his sleep- ing mat at the other side. " Nay, he will be glad ; he would give it all to you." " Mother, has your soul been bright to-day ? on this reputed day of the birth of our Lord Jesus ?" " Yes, yes, my heart is sweet ; I am glad to think concerning him ; all day long have I been meditating about him," she said, eagerly, and with a visible brightening of the poor old black face. "And why do you think about him with such pleasure?" asked the missionary. " Because he loved me loved me and died for me," she answered, with some surprise. "How could I help loving Jesus ? You know he is my Saviour, massa." There was a great reality here. A very intense feeling throbbed in the old worn heart and lighted up the deorepid face into moral beauty. Mr. En- field could not have a doubt of the truth of this profession. Poor Caffre woman ! she had grasped the great central fact of man's universe Christ's substitution for the sinner, and applied it to her own self with a simple faith to which the wise and learned cannot always attain. She seemed not to have a doubt or a fear, but like a child to cling to the hand of her unseen THE FOLNTAIN KLOOF. 91 Lord. " And why do you want to be baptized ?" asked Mr. Owen. " Because Jesus told me to be baptized. I want to show all the tribe that I belong to Jesus," she answered readily. " He went down into the river and was baptized. I want to do what he did. Read me some of his words, massa ; tell me about him. My heart is white as milk when I remember him." Mr. Owen translated a few verses for her as well as he could, uttering them in a clear, loud tone, for she was deaf among her other infirmities. Even to tears she listened. " And I did not know this in my youth," she cried. " Oh that I had heard these good words in my youth !" The looker-on had seen Philip Owen in English drawing-rooms and social gatherings, where he was admired for his graceful bearing and his clever conversation, and the contrast struck him. Never- theless, he could not say, with all his prejudices, that he had ever seen his friend more worthily occupied in those brilliant days of old, when feted and caressed, the favourite of all who knew him, than now when bending forward in the uncertain light to catch the lines of his Testament and re- 92 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. peating the divine words to the aged believer in this Caffre kraal. " I have seen, but I don't understand," he said, when they left the hut. " I cannot account for her love of a Being concerning whom she never heard till within the last few months, and who must be to her an abstraction, a mere history." "Shall I tell you why you don't understand, Enfield ? Because God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world ; because" he hesitated an instant before he added the startling text "the preaching of the cross is to them that perish fool- ishness." There was a dead silence of some minutes' dura- tion. Mr. Owen raised his heart in prayer to his God that the arrow might be sped home in his friend's soul. He had been every day wishing to press the subject upon him personally, for he did not regard his commission as missionary as con- fining his labours to the heathen only. He thought that as the servant of Christ it was his duty to seek the salvation of all men, specially of Xiis own kin by either blood or affection. But the opportunity was not to be now. What- ever feeling had stirred in Mr. Enfield, his words when he spoke referred to an indifferent matter. THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 93 "I think I could point out the stranger's hut among all those. From being nobody's business in particular, it is as badly managed as public mat- ters generally are." He was correct in his selection, and laughed about it, but the hilarious mood did not last. And when going to his wagon at the close of that midsummer Christmas day, Mr. Owen was surprised by a strong grasp of his hand and the whispered words, "Philip, pray for ine." CHAPTER IX. SOWING SEED. HE doings of the white men were a per- petual source of curiosity in the kraal, and wherever practicable their movements were attended by a crowd of observers. The building of the chapel, though only what is colo- nially called "a wattle-and-daub" erection, was as interesting to the Caffres as any public exhibition of mechanical ability could be to us. The right angles of the walls, instead of their own immemo- rial beehive roundness, were so wonderful ! No chief in all Caffraria had any palace so extensive or so grand as this house. Likatlo himself fre- quently looked on with exemplary gravity, squat- ted on the ground amid a semi-circle of his staring subjects, who seemed never weary of contemplating the triumphs of hammer and nails. And Mr. Mason, perched on the wall-plate, was as often preaching to them as hammering. From the most trifling incidents he drew instruction for 94 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 95 the gazers, either in secular or spiritual matters. They were not backward in questions and replies, for Caffre wits are acute enough. " But why," asks one, often the spokesman, who came this morning with what he imagined to be an unanswerable inquiry " Why does not your great white man's God change my heart at once, and make me be good, without sending a teacher to tell me all that is in your Holy Book ? If he changed my heart, he is powerful. I could say nothing." His companion Caffres look at one another as if they thought, " Now he has made the missionary dumb." " That is not God's way of doing things," an- swers Mr. Mason. " Look round you : does the corn come down from heaven in rain poured from the skies ? No ; yet God is strong enough to do it if he pleased. Do the rivers run milk ? No ; yet God could as easily give milk as water in the mountain torrents. Do your huts grow up like the trees ? No ; your women have to cut the boughs and twine the grass in them, but God could have made every bush a hut if he chose. And your women have to dig the ground, and plant the seed, and drive away the birds, before the corn grows up ; then they must reap it and thresh it out 96 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. with sticks before they get the grain. God could spare all this trouble if he chose, but he wants people to have work. In the same way, though he could change your heart in a moment, he chooses to work by means. I, the teacher, am like the person who sows the seed and your heart is the soil. God sends his rain on the young corn ; so will he send his Spirit down on your heart if you only let the seed of his truth be planted. Believe in his Word, which I have given you, then you will repent of your sins and pray to God, and he will save you. But he saves nobody against his will." A slight murmur, signifying approbation, ran through the ranks of the listeners. They evidently thought the answer thoroughly satisfactory. The questioner covered his mouth with his hand, as if cogitating what to say further. Mr. Mason went on with his work. " When I see the white man's God, I will believe him," said another. " They point to the sky and tell us he is there ; I look up and I see nothing ! Neither in the noonday nor when the stars are up can I see him ; therefore I will wait." "Look!" exclaimed Mr. Mason, pointing to a tall acacia near, whose bright green crest of foliage THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 97 was agitated by an early breeze. " Do you see the wind ? do you see what is stirring yonder tree ? No ; nor can you feel it here, in shelter. Yet that Caffre would be counted foolish who said there was no wind." "But we see what it does," observed Likatlo, who had not before spoken. "We look at the leaves moving, and we know." " I was going over the Karroo Plains once, and I came to a little river ; I found a hut two huts a kraal. But there was nobody in them. Not a man nor a woman was near. I did not think the huts grew. How would you think they came into that place ?" asked the missionary of the chief. " Caffres were there first," was the answer, slowly given, as if he were afraid of compromising him- self, and were considering the consequences of the admission. " Caffres built the kraal." " What ! though I could not see any Caffres ?" " Yes ; they had built it." Likatlo spoke more reluctantly ; he began to see the tendency of the Argument. " And I look up and down about this world, and I see the trees and the rivers, the mountains and the sky, making one big fine house for men to live 98 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. in, and do not all these things tell me that the great God's work is here? Did you or your fathers make that bright fire in the heavens which gives us light and heat all day? or the moon and stars which shine through the dark?" All were silent. " Therefore, if he never had sent a holy Book, I should know that he is in heaven and that he is good and kind," added the missionary. " But he touc-hes my heart and I love him. I know him by the change he works in me as well as by his world outside." Mr. Mason paused. It was so hard to explain to those untutored savages the meaning of a regen- erated heart! Indeed, their language was ill fitted to be the vehicle of such explanation. The words that could be used in speaking of spiritual feeling were very few, and drawn chiefly from metaphors connected with sensible objects. And such was the foul state of the heathen mind that ideas of purity and holiness had not only lost all attraction, but were almost incapable of being understood. The sensualism of the people had infected their speech, and polluted what might seem commonplace words to an inexperienced European. It required thought and judgment on the preacher's part to make him- THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 99 self clearly understood without using any objec- tionable expression, or any that could convey an evil idea. And here it may be observed, once for all, that in presence of the social abominations of heathenism this missionary had more than once found occasion to bless his God for many chapters in the Bible which appear superfluous to our civilized and Chris- tianized society. How did he admire the divine wisdom which had thus adapted Scripture to the most degraded of men ! And not only so, but to the dullest intellects by its abundance of narrative and strikingly simple story its vivid colouring and sharply-drawn characters, easily apprehended and remembered. All was well so long as the mis- sionary had narrative or illustration, but when he came to speak of abstract spiritual truth, he felt that he worked on sand. So he said no more of the experimental evidence of Christianity. " I find it a most effective way of preaching to have my ears open and my tongue ready while I work," he said to Mr. Enfield afterward. " The natives crown round me and are ripe for discussion, and their remarks lay open the state of their minds, and enable me to suit my words to what I think will tell most strongly. In fact, it was to draw on 100 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. such conversation mainly that I went to work at the chapel to-day." " I heard Likatlo ask you whether you did not know that Makorno and his tribe would destroy it all." "Yes, and I said that would be as the Lord pleased. I must never forget that from my conduct these heathen judge of my faith, Mr. Enfield ; and I am beginning to think that even if the insurgents approach, my post of duty is to remain here, trust- ing in the Lord to defend me." " I have a very great mind to take my horse and ride to that chain of hills yonder to see what I shall see. The continued absence of my messen- gers is puzzling; I know them to be perfectly trustworthy; and the only way in which I can ac- count for their delay is, that they have had to ride so many days' journey to get near the enemy, or perhaps they seek any trace of him in vain." " I hope so," said the missionary. " It would remove a great weight from my mind, and that of my dear wife, were the report proved groundless. I have been trying to shift off the care of the un- known morrow, remembering who it is that careth for us, but the attempt has not been altogether successful." THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 101 " It would be supernatural if it were/' remarked Mr. Enfield. "And it ought to be supernatural, dear sir; all grace and strength from God are above nature." Presently, Mr. Enfield had formed his purpose and went to look for Mr. Owen to tell him of it. At school, in the kraal, was Mr. Owen sitting on a mat on the ground, surrounded by a number of children of all sizes and ages. Some of the out- siders were playing among themselves regardless of the teaching going on ; one set had got some damp clay, from which they were moulding imita- tions of oxen, about as good as the paper men and women cut by the scissors of English children. With a stick on a layer of sand before him, Mr. Owen was drawing letters, which his pupils shouted out rather deafeningly as soon as made. " This for want of primers/' said he, looking up with a smile. " I am training readers, in anticipa- tion of the time when the Caffres shall have a cheap and easily-understood Bible." "If they would not make such a noise," said Mr. Enfield, " I dare say you would enjoy your position more." " Oh, that's a necessary part of the learning. I wish you heard the adult classes that Mason and 102 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. his wife teach. They think that the louder they shout the sooner their memories will retain the lesson. And really it's a pity to restrain their ardour, especially because it will probably be evan- escent, and we had better instruct them while they are inclined to learn." " Well, I have heard of ragged-schools never before have I seen a nude school." He stood for a few minutes looking at the scholars and the master, who was now patiently endeavouring to convey to them the meaning of letters united into syllables or small words. But this was by no means so pleasing an exercise as the using of their lungs with reference to the alphabet. Attention visibly flagged, and some of the most ardent sh outers withdrew to the ranks of the play- ers, until the teacher quickened all parties by com- mencing to tell a story. When they had learned to " make the paper speak," they should read such for themselves. It was of Moses in the cradle of bulrushes, and excited the liveliest attention. Why did not the crocodile or the sea-cow overset the cradle and the child ? Lions might come down to the sedge and devour him, the pupils thought. But then the eye of the great God was upon him, watching him from the sky, and he put into the THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 103 heart of the mighty chief's daughter to pity the babe and save him. More lessons of God's care and kindness and all-seeing were inculcated, the natural consequence of the incidents told. Now was the alphabet class closed till next morning, and Mr. Owen rose- up; his place was instantly taken by some of the elder boys, who began eagerly to trace letters in the sand in imitation, shouting at every success. " Those are hopeful fellows," he said, when Mr. Enfield remarked on them. " But, I say, Owen, is it not a waste of valuable material ?" "What?" " That a man with a university degree, and with such a distinguished career as you have had, should be teaching Caffre children their letters?" " No," he answered. " I have been led here, and my duty is to take any work that comes to hand, no matter how humble. There is no one else to do this, Enfield ; and don't you recollect George Herbert's quaint and weighty verse? ' A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine : Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, Makes that and th' action fine.' 104 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. "And, besides," he added, "if we judge of work by its results, teaching these poor children to read may lead to their salvation, 'for the entrance of God's word giveth light and understanding to the simple.' Thus these morning hours of mine may be sowing seed for eternity." Believe me, dear friend, it is happiest to take the duty which lies nearest to one, not inquiring whether we are fit for something loftier, but knowing that if we are faith- ful over a few things we shall be made rulers over many things in the joy of our Lord." " You have a happy life, after all, Owen." The face that turned upon him was beaming. " Happy, I mean not in circumstances, for those I deem unworthy of you, but in your power of concentration in your enthusiasm, if you will per- mit me to use the word." "Well, dear friend, whenever Jesus Christ re- veals himself to you, which I earnestly pray may be a time not far distant, you will then know how bright and noble, beyond imagination happier, is the life of a saved soul." Never had Mr. Enfield thought so much on religious subjects as for the last few days. He saw before his eyes an acting out of the loftiest Christian principle in every occurrence; he saw THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 105 lives shaped by their faith, instead of the faith being a mere mental supplement to the convenient and comfortable life. These people had given up something for their religion ; for this he honoured them. " If everybody who professed Christianity lived as you do here, Owen, the world would be changed long ago," was his remark, after a minute's pause. " I fear I am too much in the old groove to get out of it. But here comes Gilbert with the horses au revoir." CHAPTER X. SPOOR. R. ENFIELD rode a long way from the clusters of beehive huts without speaking. Hintsa's kraal was on one ridge of the table- land Likatlo's kraal on another; the mis- sion houses between, a worthy focus of life. A beaten track lay among these habitations, but out- side them was a roadless, pathless country, like the wild parts of a park in Britain. Bush was scat- tered over the plain, the advanced guard thrown out in detached pickets of the great jungle which filled hollows of the hills yonder. Cattle fed about in the vicinity of the kraals, and farther away were herded by Caffre boys, who amused themselves, after the manner of boyhood in all climates, run- ning, leaping, wrestling and neglecting their busi- ness meanwhile, as playfully and as perfectly as any European children. Likewise, with the same love of staring at strange matters, squatting mo- tionless when the ridors passed on those mysterious 106 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 107 horses animals as wonderful to this secluded tribe as the zebra and quagga are to us. Getting among rising grounds, the station was blocked out of sight for the present. Down shone the cloudless sun in monotonous splendour on the richly-clothed earth. Not the slenderest line of vapour marked that stainless, pale blue overhead. One tired of the unwearying blaze one thought with affection of the April variety of English skies. The horses gave symptoms of fatigue after a couple of hours. " Look out for water," said Mr. Enfield to Gil- bert ; " we must saddle off till the great heats are past. Cheer up, Mynheer, old fellow!" And at the pat on the neck, that sagacious animal pricked up his ears and shook his head approvingly at the idea of speedy drink. " Perhaps there's some about those reeds yonder, sir," said Gilbert, who had for a little time back been thinking of water himself. "If not, we must only look out for a shady kloof." No, nothing but hard-baked mud about the reeds, impossible to extract fluid from or even dampness to cool the horses' hoofs. They turned their heads toward the nearest cleft in the hills, hoping for a spring among the rocks and trees. A 108 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. brake of tamarisks stretched forth as a fringe from the heavier woods, unpromising of water, for sand is their pet soil. Gilbert dismounted and pushed through toward the densest shade; his master rode along the edge of the cover for an easier opening. Presently, a whistle from Gilbert announced that he had found what they sought. And Mynheer appeared to scent the welcome water, such were the expressive motions of his expressive ears and nos- trils. Mr. Enfield let him find his own way to the centre of attraction, among tamarisks and camel- thorn and turpentine bushes, till the thicket was cleared and larger trees stood wider apart on the outskirts of the forest. " See here, sir !" While the horses splashed and smeared themselves into coolness within the great reeds in the shallow pool, Gilbert's eye was sud- denly caught by a dimly-defined footprint on the muddy margin. A wide, heavy mark, as of a cen- tral solid cushion, with little cushions set round on half the outer edge exactly such a print as strikes terror into the barn-mouse, when he puts his sharp nose from his hole in hope that the day has been too damp for puss to venture from the farmer's kitchen fire. " Lions !" ejaculated the sportsman, his eye THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 109 brightening; "but not recent I'm afraid not re- cent, Gilbert." He turned eagerly to the bushes, looking for freshly-broken twigs as signs of the animal's passage. " Try to trace the spoor, Gilbert. But I suspect it's some days old." " Glad of it, sir," observed his attendant, bluntly, " for we've only a few charges of powder apiece. The spoor is quite lost among the elephant grass off here." And he returned from his momentary search. Mr. Enfield did not leave the footprints so lightly ; he stooped over the clearest, examined it by eye and touch, to discover the size and other particulars of the lordly beast who had left his mark. "And you know, Gilbert, that this lion will probably commit no end of ravages on the herds of the station ; it really seems our duty to hunt him out and make an end of him, now we have so unexpectedly come on his track." Mr. Enfield looked to his ammunition as he spoke and found it limited. "Here! I do declare that I've brought bullets for my other rifle, and they're too large for this. What a stupid mistake ! Which have you, Gil- bert?" But neither would his bullets suit the bore. 110 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. So, with some grumbling, Mr. Enfield was con- strained to permit the unconscious lion to live a little longer, and Gilbert to saddle the horses afresh. Even he, the accomplished lion-hunter, received something of a shock a few minutes subsequently. Choosing a new way through the cover, and rather forcing Mynheer to a course he manifestly disap- proved, but which seemed to his master the short- est, Mynheer suddenly gave a great start backward and stood still under the tightened curb, trembling all over. Right in front, and only a few yards away under a bush, lay a huge, tawny lion, stretch- ing himself and blinking, as you have seen your cat do when suddenly awakened. He sat up on his haunches when he saw the man. The great, reddish eyes were trying to make out this novelty, sleepily blinking in the sunlight, which was not pleasant to the long, narrow pupils. The huge jaws opened in a slumberous yawn, re- vealing a cavern of hot crimson, with jagged spikes of teeth fencing it. Mr. Enfield's affrighted horse was backing all this time, his mane rigid with terror, but it was needless alarm. Before the rifle could be brought round, Sir Leo rose to all-fours and slouched away through the underwood, slink- ing with his tail in a depressed curve, and looking THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. Ill furtively back to see that nobody was following him. Imprudent as it would have been, Mr. En- field could not resist the desire to send a shot after him, at the risk of bringing him back wide awake and raging. "He's off, sir he's off!" cried Gilbert, from without, leaping over the bushes as if they were chickweed. "I'm glad 'twas in day and not in dark we met him, anyhow; very differently he would behave ;" and he stimulated the beast's flight by a shout or two. "Nearly as large as the one we killed on the Zak river, the black one," said Mr. Enfield, in ill- humour. "Such a splendid opportunity! It is really too bad ;" and his grumblings continued for a couple of miles, according to the prerogative of Englishmen. The next " saddling-off " was on the brow of a height whence the distant mission settlement was visible, beyond smaller uplands. " Isn't it like a bit of Europe set down on black Africa, sir?" asks Gilbert, while they rest under the edge of a mimosa grove on the slope, and their horses panted and browsed in the shadow. "Ay, you must have enjoyed staying there," said his master, as if the idea had just struck him. 112 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. " I suppose you'll be for turning missionary your- self next;" to which he received the unexpected response, " Well, sir, I've been thinking of something like it." " How ?" Mr. Enfield turned lazily on his el- bow to look at his servant, who looked straight out before him, with his strong, rough hand knotted together over his knee. " I've been thinking, sir, that I'd settle myself at some station suppose here, if so be the Caffres don't come and sweep away the whole concern ; and I'd help these gentlemen, who aren't so handy with tools as they might be, in their buildings and palings, and try and give the blacks decent notions of houses, too. For, you see, sir, a man isn't likely to get much good from preaching while he lives like an animal." " Very true." But Mr. Enfield, in his superior wisdom and nobler aims of life, was internally amused at the carpenter's proposal. "You aspire to be a sort of handicraft missionary, then ?" " I don't know what would be its name, sir," and the steady, honest eyes looked round at him for a moment; "it's only a thought of my own, and sure maybe 'tis a foolish one, but I think I THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 113 could do some good. And I'd have plenty of op- portunities of saying a word to the poor misguided creatures about religion. Ah, sir, I tell you they're the materials of a fine nation if they were taught and civilized. But how can a man be anything but a savage who never sees any one wearing clothes and lives in a hut that he creeps into on all-fours like the burrow of a beast ? And it's such a fine country, sir, able to grow almost anything ; but they don't cultivate it, and die like the animals in the forest, knowing nothing about God or the future world nothing at all !" The simple earnestness of the man rather quenched the kindling amusement of his master. " Has Mr. Owen been talking to you ?" he asked, after a pause. " He came to the watch-fire last night, sir, and spoke to me about about my own soul, sir ; and I hope his talking did me good,- for I feel happier since. But sure it seems like presumption for a poor worm of my sort to believe that I am saved," he added, in a lower tone. Mr. Enfield turned his head to gaze at the land- scape and said nothing. " He's a real good gentleman, sir." "Gilbert," asked his master, "what put these 114 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. notions about teaching the heathen into your head first? They are so unlike what a man iu your place usually feels." " I think it was feeling the worth of my own soul, sir," said the carpenter, humhly, " and know- ing what an awful thing 'twould be to be lost for ever. That made me think of the value of other people's souls, and of these poor blacks." " You may put on the saddles," said the gentle- man, after some minutes. And they dipped on the other side of the low hill with the sun gradually declining behind them. Other tablelands opened out in long succession ; wide, uninhabited tracts, where Nature's own planting and growing had long gone on undisturbed by the hoe or the axe, and Nature's own herds of deer, gemsbok or springbok, roam about in perpetuity, possessors of the land. Rather different sort of work from riding upon English roads through scrub and sand occasion- ally, over flinty tracts and then acres of sward. But the hardy Cape horses were up to their work and would probably have been puzzled by a smooth, thoroughfare. "Natural ground for wars," reflected the fore- most of the riders ; " what bloody raids to depopu- THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 115 late the country thus ! Well, certainly, if mission- aries prevailed more abundantly, there would be less of that wholesale murdering. But these plains ought to be filled with white farmers ; such plenty lying dormant here and the purlieus of European cities thronged with creatures who scarcely know what it is to have enough to eat ! There would be some chance for civilizing the natives, too, if inter- spersed with white population. Gilbert !" breaking off suddenly the thread of his ruminations, " I see a smoke to the northeast. Very trivial, indeed hardly visible but perhaps it is worth using the glass to make it out ;" and he unstrapped his tele- scope from the saddle. Gilbert peered in the direction indicated from under his broad palm-leaf hat. The slightest streak of vapour ascended slowly near where the hills parted in a broad entrance to more distant plains. Against the clearness of the air it was visible, and the source might as well be on the other side of the uplands as on this, for all that the naked eye could trace in the blue distance. He withdrew his eyes downward to the sandy patch over which they were travelling. "I think we've come upon the spoor of our oxen, sir," he was remarking. 116 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. " Our news is found," said Mr. Enfield, lower- ing his telescope after a steady long look. " Those are the watch-fires of the Caffre army. Home now, without loss of time ;" and he turned Myn- heer's head round. Gilbert verified the fact by a minute's gaze. " Why, sir ! they've horses !" " So much the worse. I cannot imagine what has become of Sackaboni and the other : I hardly think they would play us false : they must have been taken prisoners." " It will kill the horses to go back to-night, sir." CHAPTER XI. THE CAFFRE COUNCIL. ? ^ILBERT'S misgivings about the horses were well founded. Willing and spirited as Myn- heer was, and though muscle can draw upon spirit to a great extent, his powers had a limit. The white men were also obliged to take rather circuitous ways in many instances to avoid too long an open tract, which might betray them to the enemy's sharp vision. "It's of no use, old fellow," said his master; " there can be no saddling off now ; more precious lives than yours are at stake ;" and the poor horse, under the cheery voice and hand, urged his strength to the utmost for a while. He had a few minutes' respite on the last height whence the Caffre watch- fire could be seen, where Mr. Enfield dismounted and looked again through his glass. It was with satisfaction he found that in all probability their course had not been noticed ; but very different were his feelings on perceiving how vastly the numbers nr 118 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. of the armed insurgents \ad increased, the main mass having apparently come up to the advanced files, and several other smokes were arising about the same spot. " They'll spend the night there," remarked Gil- bert. " What a flesh-eating they will have !" " If they had only their own feet or their pack- oxen to rely on, I would not be in such haste to the station," said his master. " But they have got horsemen, who could swoop down on us in a few hours if so minded, and Mrs. Mason and her child must escape by the slow means of my wagon. If that fellow Likatlo could be relied on to make some defence " " No, sir, he couldn't be ; isn't he of the same colour with these chaps that are coming ? Besides, the ministers wouldn't like it, if he was ever so ready to fight for them." " I've been thinking," observed Mr. Enfield, as he munched a biscuit, their sole refreshment for nine hours past of hard riding "I've been think- ing, James, if we could not get to one of Likatlo's cattle-posts by striking eastward along this ridge, and send one of his Caffres thence on ox-back to warn the settlement ? I am on thorns till we have THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 119 the lady and child fairly under weigh some miles off in the wagon." They turned the matter over in their well-trav- elled minds, but finally concluded that it would not do. For these cattle-posts, or out-pasturages be- longing to the kraals, are variable as quicksands, moving from place to place according as the grass is eaten down. It was only a chance their striking on one, and might entail considerable loss of time. "So here goes again, poor old Mynheer." Opposite the glories of the setting sun rose the fair, round moon, with a faded edge where she was beginning to melt from sight into decline. " Pleasant that it's one of the safe nights, sir," said Gilbert, walking beside his jaded steed over some rough ground on the slope. " Our friend the lion hates moonshine nearly as bad as daylight." " "Tis all very well in that aspect," returned his master, "but suppose those fellows at the watch- fires should find it a good marching night. They would be on the settlement in the morning." Poor Mynheer was not the better for that reflec- tion during some miles farther. And whereas he had settled in his equine head that at dark, in any case, he would be saddled off and tethered near a protecting fire with juicy herbage in reach, he was 120 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. sorely surprised to find that night drew on, and shadows fell abundant over the earth, and the trees changed from green to blackish foliage, and plenty of good halting-places were passed by. Still the exacting knees of his rider pressed Mynheer's sad- dle, and the exacting spur touched his flank occa- sionally, and Mynheer would have turned rebellious through sheer weariness of strained sinews, except that he was somewhat nervous after the fright of noon, and really knew not behind what bush his tawny foe with a taste for horseflesh might lurk. Nevertheless, he was compelled to subside into a weary walk at last beside his master, and started violently when his master's bugle by and by rang in his ears, which monition was not intended for him, but for the settlement which they were ap- proaching, and for Mr. Enfield's own followers in particular. A tremendous barking of Caffre curs ensued, and the kraals were all astir presently. The news was exciting. Hither and thither ran the natives with brands from the watchfires, rous- ing those sleepers who as yet kept their huts, screaming out that Makomo and his warriors were near. The silent place was in a few minutes echo ing with the incessant chattering which is a Caffre's delight; several new fires were kindled, and a THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 121 squatting population sat round. The dogs added to the uproar, notwithstanding the numerous kicks and cuffs they received, and the cattle lowed from their folds, perhaps fearing that an attack by lions was in contemplation, and wishing to prove them- selves alive to the danger. Javelins and shields were looked out and exhibited by the fires, and war-cloaks were assumed. " Will Makomo take our cattle ?" was the great question. In defence of these their tribal wealth, their maintenance, their all, the cattle which are to Caffres what houses and lands and money are to us they were ready to fight. But Makomo might seek alliance rather than war. What would Likatlo do ? He was in grave conference with his head men in the public meeting-place opposite the entrance to his principal cattle-fold. They sat in the shape of a crescent, with the chief in front. The moon, low in the heavens, flung long shadows back from the bronzed figures and gleamed on the points of their rude spears. A fire of fagots burned at one extremity of the crescent council, and lit up with advantage Likatlo's beautiful leopard-skin kaross, trimmed with a fringe of tails his robe of state, though scanty in dimensions. When all were assembled, gravely he began to 122 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. sing a monotonous Caffre song, accompanied at intervals by the rattling of his spear on his shield. Suddenly, Likatlo sprang to his feet as if warding off a blow ; then struck at an unseen enemy. This sort of a duel with an invisible antagonist con- tinued for a few minutes, during which the chant rose to a violent shouting on the part of the com- pany ; and when the chief stood still in a trium- phant attitude, as with his foot on the foe, the ap- plause of spear and shield was backed by most energetic lungs. As soon as he recovered breath and silence was restored, Likatlo addressed his warriors in a sort of blank verse recitative : " Evil news has come to us, my brothers. Ma- komo and his tribe are marching hither, and oui missionary must go away. You know what this white man has been among us a man that hated theft and spoke the truth always. He also is a great medicine man, who can cure many diseases without witchcraft; and he has told us good things about the great God who lives above the sky.'- Likatlo raised his spear toward the stars. "He wanted to make Caffres as wise as white men, and to go to the good world when they die. And now, shall we fight for him, my brothers? Shall we THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 123 liurl the spear at Makomo's warriors ? We took none of Makomo's cattle. We only wanted to live in peace : here we have corn-fields and pasturage ; here I hoped to die and be buried ; but Makomo comes with guns and horses " The hum of applause, a low buzz of voices and slight shaking of spears which had greeted every former sentence of the chief's, was suddenly absent .from this. Contend against a tribe who possessed the weapons of the white man ? Impossible ! " Makomo will burn the mission-houses. He will lay waste the corn-fields. We shall be his slaves. He hates white men. No more will our sick children be cured of their diseases ; no more shall we hear about the great God who lives above the sky." Likatlo sat down, and with a lump of red ochre and some grease brought him by one of his wives, began to lay on the war-paint. There was a pause. An old warrior stood up. His black head was getting gray and his movements were rather stiff, but scars of wounds were on his broad breast. "I remember many wars," he began. "I re- member the great war with the white men, when Makomo was driven beyond the Kat river. He was not able to conquer then, or to keep his lands ; 124 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. and will lie be able to conquer now? No, my brothers ; the white man's guns will be louder than Makomo's guns, their horses stronger than his horses. Makomo may burn the mission-houses, but others will be built hereafter. What does the Bushman when the sandstorm of the desert blows? He lies down flat on the ground, and it passes over him; he is not smothered. Let us lie down like- wise, and the storm will do us no harm.'' A part of the audience applauded ; Likatlo re- mained ominously silent. But the chief's disap- proval did not discompose the old warrior who had spoken, and who had himself borne active share in the wars of 1834-35, when Likatlo was a mere boy ; and he knew that in council any Caffre may express his thoughts without fear, while the chief is merely the head of a deliberative assembly. A dark figure, wrapped in a cotton kaross large enough to cover him from throat to knees, had glided behind Likatlo during the last speech, and sat at his elbow. Every one knew him to be Hintsa, uncle to the chief and headman of the neighbouring kraal, and knew also of his tenden- cies to the white man's religion. He was more clothed than the rest, because of those very tenden- cies : for it is remarkable that one of the earliest THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. 125 desires of the converted Caffre is to procure cloth- ing as complete as a European's. Does not the reader recall the demoniac of the gospels, whose " right mind" was signalized by his sitting clothed at the feet of his Saviour ? Hintsa spoke : " My brothers, our missionaries are men of peace, and not of war. They brought us good news of peace, and told us to love our enemies, because God loved us who were his enemies and hated him. Our missionaries would prefer that the houses were burnt than that any man should be killed in battle, for then the souls of men go to God to be judged. Our missionaries depart, but they will return when Makomo's war is done. They love us too much to leave us in darkness. And I " the aged Caffre's voice faltered. " My heart goes with them ; Hintsa will not cease to mourn until he sees them again, and hears about the good God again." He covered his mouth with his hand folded in his cotton coverlet. After a pause of emotion he glided away as silently as he had come upon the council. Passing through the kraal, he directed his steps back to the mission-houses. Mr. En- field's wagon was drawn up in front, and the 126 THE FOUNTAIN KLOOF. oxen partially yoked to its dissel-boom or shaft. Boxes and bundles were all strewn about, and gradually getting stowed away. " Hintsa spoke/' said the old man ; " Hintsa told the warriors that their missionaries would have no fighting, but that they will return when the war is over. And Hiritsa's heart is sore very sore !"