I Have Got A Couple Of Knives, Made At
Gnadenthal, For The Children.
The girls occupy the school in the
morning, and the boys in the afternoon; half a day is found quite
enough of lessons in this climate.
The infant school was of both
sexes, but a different set morning and afternoon. The
missionaries' children were in the infant school; and behind the
little blonde German 'Madels' three jet black niggerlings rolled
over each other like pointer-pups, and grinned, and didn't care a
straw for the spelling; while the dingy yellow little bastaards
were straining their black eyes out, with eagerness to answer the
master's questions. He and the mistress were both Bastaards, and
he seemed an excellent teacher. The girls were learning writing
from a master, and Bible history from a mistress, also people of
colour; and the stupid set (mostly black) were having spelling
hammered into their thick skulls by another yellow mistress, in
another room. At the boarding school were twenty lads, from
thirteen up to twenty, in training for school-teachers at different
stations. Gnadenthal supplies the Church of England with them, as
well as their own stations. There were Caffres, Fingoes, a
Mantatee, one boy evidently of some Oriental blood, with glossy,
smooth hair and a copper skin - and the rest Bastaards of various
hues, some mixed with black, probably Mozambique. The Caffre lads
were splendid young Hercules'. They had just printed the first
book in the Caffre language (I've got it for Dr. Hawtrey,) -
extracts from the New Testament, - and I made them read the sheets
they were going to bind; it is a beautiful language, like Spanish
in tone, only with a queer 'click' in it.
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