This Intermediate Country Between The 'Central African Wilderness'
And Capetown Has Been Little Frequented.
I went to the Church
Mission School with the English clergyman yesterday.
You know I
don't believe in every kind of missionaries, but I do believe that,
in these districts, kind, judicious English clergymen are of great
value. The Dutch pastors still remember the distinction between
'Christenmenschen' and 'Hottentoten'; but the Church Mission
Schools teach the Anglican Catechism to every child that will
learn, and the congregation is as piebald as Harlequin's jacket. A
pretty, coloured lad, about eleven years old, answered my questions
in geography with great quickness and some wit. I said, 'Show me
the country you belong to.' He pointed to England, and when I
laughed, to the cape. 'This is where we are, but that is the
country I BELONG TO.' I asked him how we were governed, and he
answered quite right. 'How is the Cape governed?' 'Oh, we have a
Parliament too, and Mr. Silberbauer is the man WE send.' Boys and
girls of all ages were mixed, but no blacks. I don't think they
will learn, except on compulsion, as at Gnadenthal.
I regret to say that Bill's wife has broken his head with a bottle,
at the end of the honeymoon. I fear the innovation of being
MARRIED AT CHURCH has not had a good effect, and that his
neighbours may quote Mr. Peachum.
I was offered a young lion yesterday, but I hardly think it would
be an agreeable addition to the household at Esher.
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