ion at Griqua Town consisted of 800 persons,
who resided at or near the station during the whole or the greater part
of the year. Besides their stated congregations the missionaries were
surrounded by numerous hordes of Corannas and Bushmen, among whom they
laboured. The land was brought under cultivation, and fields waving with
corn and barley met the eye where all had been desolation and
barrenness. In 1810 a threatened attack from a marauding horde of Kafirs
was averted in answer to prayer. Mr. Janz, the only missionary then on
the place, with the people, set apart a day for special supplication;
they sent a pacific message and present to the Kafirs, who immediately
retired. In place of war there was peace, and the blessings of
civilisation followed the preaching of the Gospel.
A mission had also been commenced by the London Missionary Society in
Great Namaqualand, north of the Orange River, on the western coast of
Africa; a country of which the following description was given by an
individual who had spent many years there: "Sir, you will find plenty of
sand and stones, a thinly scattered population, always suffering from
want of water, on plains and hills roasted like a burnt leaf, under the
scorching rays of a cloudless sun."
The missionaries, after a journey of great difficulty and suffering,
reached the land of the Namaquas, and halted for a time at a place which
they named "Silent Hope," and then at "Happy Deliverance;" finally they
settled at a spot, about one hundred miles westward of Africaner's
kraal, called Warm Bath. Here, for a time, their prospects continued
cheering. They were instant in season and out of season to advance the
temporal and spiritual interests of the natives; though labouring in a
debilitating climate; and in want of the common necessaries of life.
Their congregation was increased by the desperado Jager, afterwards
Christian Africaner, a Hottentot outlaw, who, with part of his people,
occasionally attended to the instructions of the missionaries; and they
visited the kraal of this robber chieftain in return. It was here that
he first heard the Gospel, and, referring afterwards to his condition at
this time, he said that he saw "men as trees walking."
Terrible trials soon came upon these devoted missionaries. Abraham
Albrecht, one of their number died, and Africaner, becoming enraged,
threatened an attack upon the station. The situation of the missionaries
and their wives was most d
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