and wandering savages from place to place, suffering from
hunger and from thirst, destitute of almost every comfort, and at times
without even the necessaries of life. Some of them have without
murmuring spent their whole lives in such service; and yet their zeal is
set down as fanaticism by those who remain at home, and assert that the
money raised for their equipment is thrown away. Happily, they have not
looked for their reward in this world, but have built their hopes upon
that which is to come."

"That the people who joined the Mission stations have become more
civilised, and that they are very superior to their countrymen, is
certain," observed the Major; "but have you seen any proof of
Christianity having produced any remarkably good effect among the
natives?--I mean one that might be brought forward as convincing
evidence to those who have shown themselves inimical or lukewarm in the
cause."

"Yes," replied Swinton, "the history of Africaner is one; and there are
others, although not so prominent as that of the party to whom I refer."

"Well, Swinton, you must now be again taxed. You must give us the
history of Africaner."

"That I will, with pleasure, that you may be able to narrate it, when
required, in support of the missions. Africaner was a chief, and a
descendant of chiefs of the Hottentot nation, who once pastured their
own flocks and herds on their own native hills, within a hundred miles
of Cape Town. As the Dutch colonists at the Cape increased, so did
they, as Mr Fairburn has stated to Alexander, dispossess the Hottentots
of their lands, and the Hottentots, unable to oppose their invaders,
gradually found themselves more and more remote from the possessions of
their fore-fathers.

"After a time, Africaner and his diminished clan found themselves
compelled to join and take service under a Dutch boor, and for some time
proved himself a most faithful shepherd in looking after and securing
the herds of his employer. Had the Dutch boor behaved with common
humanity, not to say gratitude, towards those who served him so well, he
might now have been alive; but, like all the rest of his countrymen, he
considered the Hottentots as mere beasts of burden, and at any momentary
anger they were murdered and hunted down as if they were wild animals.

"Africaner saw his clan daily diminished by the barbarity of his feudal
master and at last resolved upon no further submission. As the Bushmen
were continu