Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa since September 1795, Volume 1 (1908).pdf/157

1805] London missionary society north of the Orange river, and as some of these reports were to the effect that a community hostile to the colony was growing up there, the government resolved to send a commission to inspect the settlements and obtain accurate information. The officers chosen for this purpose were Landdrost Van de Graaff, of Tulbagh, and Dr. Henry Lichtenstein, surgeon of the Hottentot corps. In May 1805 these gentlemen left Tulbagh, and travelling by way of Karoo Poort, reached the colonial boundary without difficulty. Along the route they heard numerous complaints of depredations by Bushmen, and ascertained that the arrangements made with these people in former years had completely failed in their object.

At the mission station on the Zak river they found the colonist Christiaan Botma in charge during the reverend Mr. Kicherer's absence in Europe. The Bushmen gathered together here had dispersed as soon as the missionaries' means of providing them with food failed, and only about forty individuals remained, most of whom were halfbreeds that had from youth professed Christianity. Botma, the teacher, was a man of great zeal, and had expended a large portion of his private property in maintaining the station; but it seemed to the commission that the principles on which the work was being conducted were decidedly wrong. Religious services were frequently held, and were attended by everyone on the place. But industry was not enforced, and the habits of the people formed a striking contrast to those of the residents at the Moravian institution in the district of Stellenbosch. The mission was doing no harm politically or in any other way, though it appeared to be of very little service to the few people under its influence.

Here a party of farmers joined the travellers as an escort, making the whole number up to eight Europeans, twelve Hottentots, and five slaves. On the southern bank of the Orange a horde of Xosas was met, under two near relatives of the chief Ndlambe, who had wandered away from their own country.