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years, and then made captain, by Geika, who said to him, "When you was my tutor, you taught me to be a generous king; and since I became your king, I hope, I have taught you to be a faithful subject." He treats him outwardly with great respect; and resolves nothing of importance before he has consulted him; but it is very visible, that he keeps him, as much as possible, out of real power. Geika has no brother, but a son; notwithstanding, he has declared the youngest son of Khauta, Hientza, to be his successor; and he is resolved to resign his own dignity, in behalf of this youth, as soon as he shall arrive at the age of maturity. It seems that Geika, foreseeing the commotions which this succession might occasion at his death, wishes to terminate them; and to see Hientza confirmed in his kingdom during his life.

In the time of Palo an emigration took place of a considerable body of Caffres, headed by a certain Madjoagga. They went out between the Great Fish River and the Keiskamma. Another took place during the Life of Chachabe : having a Captain Bakka for their leader, they went out the same way; what has been the lot of this people is not known in Caffraria; but I think it probable, that they are the same Caffres which, as I am informed by an eye-witness, actually reside cast of the Namaquas, There is a third set of Caffres, who lived formerly on the banks of the Bassee, which separates the Tambouchis from Caffraria, under Captain Bay. The Boschemen on that side disturbed him very much; and he treated them, in retaliation, with great severity, if what the Caffres say be true; boiling several of them alive in water. This only exasperated them; and he was at length constrained to make his way through them, following the course of that river till he was out of their reach; and there these Caffres still reside.

The Caffres who inhabit the country between the Great Fish River and Sunday's River, are likewise to be considered as a body separated from the rest of the nation, as they keep themselves independent of the king: this is in consequence of the war between Geika and Talambi; and their residing in that part of the colony, joined with their vexations with respect to the adjacent colonists, is the cause of the present war between the government and them. There exists, however, no war between them and Geika; who corresponds daily with them, and receives their deputies in a friendly manner. He has exhorted them to come on this side of the Fish River, and offered them a part of his country, with liberty to elect their own chief independent of him. This they reject, maintaining that not the Fish River, but the Sunday's River consitutes the limits between Caffraria and the colony. They form a considerable body, and their chief men are Talouza, a brother of Tzlambi, and a certain Konga of an obscure birth. I have, during my stay in Caffre land, received elucidations respecting the original proprietor of that disputed territory, and the manner in which it has been alienated; which I think are not known at the Cape; but wishing not to interfere with political disputes, I think it more prudent to pass them over in silence.

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A fifth body of Caffres, separated from the rest of the nation, is called Mondankians after the name of their Captain. These are always hovering about the Fish River N. from the foriner; and commit very troublesome depredations within the colony. They profess, however, to be subjects of Geika, and respect his commands, as I have experienced, when they had stolen my oxen out of Caffraria, and Geika ordered them to give them back.

Crimes and Punishments. Adultery, strictly so called, is not punished a

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but if a man, single or married, has an unlawful commerce with another man's wife, he is put to death, but the woman is not punished. Before Geika's time, every man had the right to avenge himself by killing the person guilty of such a connexion; but Geika has taken to himself the execution of justice in this case. If, notwithstanding this, a man avenges himself, Geika takes from him a fine of some beasts.

Murder is sometimes punished by paying some cattle: a part of which is taken by the king to himself; the rest is given to the parties who have suffered by the crime. When I lived in Quakoubi, some Caffres had sent out a boy of the kraal, without the consent of his parents, who were absent, to watch the cattle: he was devoured by wolves; and Geika made them, who had sent out the boy, pay to his parents seven cows and two oxen.-But, in most cases, murder is left unpunished: it is only aggravating circumstances which makes it a crime in the eyes of this people. When the Caffres had murdered the three Englishmen, who had saved their lives, last year, from shipwreck on the coast, and Mr. D'Buys represented it to Geika, as a barbarous cruelty, the king was astonished, and defended the action, saying, "It was well done, as they, being strangers, had nothing to do in the country any more thau the wolves."

Smaller crimes, as thefts, &c. are punished by a mulct of beasts, or by beating the guilty person with a stick; in which case the king is almost always executioner. The Caffres seldom steal, except it be from strangers, or from the king himself, whom they almost daily rob of his cattle; and who rarely punishes those thefts, if they be not extravagant. :

When the king or any other person of distinction is taken ill, a sorcerer is sent for, to discover the cause of the disease; which is always supposed to derive its origin from the enchantment of some malevolent subject; and the persons whom he asserts to be guilty, are immediately put to death.

If the person who is to die be absent, the king sends executioners to the kraal, where he lives; and though this is known to the whole kraal, the person himself whom this deadly inessage concerns, remains ignorant of it, as nobody will attempt to warn him of his danger, not even the wife who sleeps in his arms, till the moment of execution.

The most common method of putting a person to death, is by stabbing him with assagays. Sometimes they split a tree in two pieces, and bending them backwards, place the condemned person between them; after which they let the two pieces loose, which, by the violence of the pressure, kill him, or confine him till he dies. Sometimes they make use of ants; which gradually consume the flesh of the unhappy sufferer; but this is more commonly put in practice as a torture than as a punishment.

A man who is condemned to die, often escapes death by the indulgence of those who are charged with his execution. They lead him aside to a remote place, and there they throw their assagays at him; but in such a manner, that they leave him room to escape their hands, and to take his refuge in another country. The king seldom notices these evasions.

Looking over the foregoing articles, I find that I had forgotten to mention, among their other customs, their mode of mourning.A Caffre, on the death of his wife or child, leaves his kraal, separates himself from the society, and retires into a wood or desert place, where he lives for one or two months: he then throws away his cloke, and begs for another; and having got one, he returns home.

The Caffres rarely paint their faces with different colours, as the Hottentots do; but often paint their face and body uniformly red, with the dust of a kind of red chalk, men and women; the latter especially adorn their arms, backs, and breasts with cicatrices of the size of grains VOL. X.

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of wheat, placed in regular rows, which are commonly double, triple, and sometimes quadruple. These cicatrices are formed by thrusting a pointed iron through the skin, and pulling it forcibly up, so as to remain prominent above the surface of the body, and to form a kind of bas relievo work.

I must also mention a peculiar kind of mouse, which I met with north of Caffre-land. It is of a fine bluish grey colour; but more remarkable for its tail, which is adorned with long hairs, and expanded into a pyriform plume. There is among the colonists much talk of a kind of unicorn in some of the interior parts of Africa; but they know nothing of its form nor of the place where it is to be found; nor do they afford any authority or ground for the truth of this report. The Imbo, a nation residing N E. from Caffre-land, and separated from the sea by the Malaund, confirm, however, this. They say, that there is behind their country a very savage animal, of which they are much afraid, as it sometimes overthrows their kraals, and destroys their houses. It has a single horn placed in its forehead, which is very long: it is distinct from the rhinoceros, with which they are also well acquainted. We shall find there is not much dependence to be placed in the report of savages, who are entirely credulous and visionary.

You desire to be informed how I pass my time. From my Journal you will see that it is almost wholly employed in instructing my pupils, twice a day, whose number for the present is twenty, and which seldom has been below ten. They are all instructed in the principles of Christianity: thirteen are taught spelling and reading; three writing; and one arithmetic. In the evening I have family-worship, in which I read a chapter out of the Bible, making occasional remarks upon it; after which we pray, and then conclude, by singing hymns. In this meeting only five Heathen-women attend, all whom I have baptized. Wednesday and Saturday I keep no reading-school in the afternoon; but in place of it, four catechising-meetings, divided according to the age and capacity of my disciples. Sundays I preach only once to the Heathen; and of late once to the English deserters.

As to your questions touching my accommodations and manner of subsistence, which breathe paternal care and brotherly affection, I must answer with the disciples, when the Lord asked them, “ Lacked ye any thing when I sent you out?" Nothing. In Caffraria Geika ordered Mr. Buys to provide for my subsistence; and hitherto the Lord has enabled me to pay for myself. His wonderful dealings with me have all been mercy and truth; and though he has instructed me to be hungry as well as to be full, both to abound and to suffer need, I can truly say, I lack nothing!

MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE Annual Meeting of this Society will be held as follows: On WEDNESDAY morning, May 12th, the Rev. SAMUEL LOWELL, of Bristol, will preach at Surry Chapel. At three in the afternoon (the Society meet for business. In the evening the Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, of Ramsgate, is to preach at the Tabernacle.

On THURSDAY morning the Society will meet at ten o'clock for business. In the evening the Rev. J. M. MASON, of New York, Secretary to the Missionary Society there, will preach at Tottenham. Court Chapel.

On FRIDAY morning a sermon will be preached at the church of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, by the Rev. ROBERT HAWKER, D. D. Vicar of Charles, Plymouth. The Society will meet again for business at three in the afternoon; and it is expected that they will unite in the sclebration of the Lord's Supper in the evening. The

The morning-services will commence at half past ten, and the evening. services at six. The meetings for business will be held, as usual, at Haberdashers' Hall, Staining-Lane, Wood-Street.

The RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY will meet at seven o'clock, on the Thursday morning, at St. Paul's Coffee-House.

Intelligence has been received at the India-House of the arrival of the Royal Admiral, at China. No letters have yet come to hand from Captain W. Wilson since he left Port Jackson. The Royal Admiral is expected home this or the ensuing month; on which account we postpone inserting the contents of the above letter, written at the time of his leaving Port Jackson.

We have also farther communications from Dr. Vanderkemp; which we hope to present to the public in our next.

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LETTER FROM DENMARK,

TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY. Dearly beloved Brethren !

I WROTE to you, very dear brethren, last July, in the name of the Danish Society for the Propagation of the genuine Gospel of Christ, to thank you in my own name and that of my brethren, for your very acceptable and refreshing letter, in which you replied to our former one.

Such is the esteem and regard in which we hold the Missionary Society, that your love, your prayers, and union with you, beloved brethren, are to us of greater importance than I can express. How true it is, that nothing tends more to refresh, to comfort, and strengthen the hearts of the faithful, than to hear of the progress of the Gospel, to witness such examples of love and zeal for the honour of our Saviour Jesus, as your Society, beloved brethren, exhibits to us; and to feel that they are intimately united in love to our common Lord, with all his sincere worshippers in every part of the world! Praise in the highest, praise eternal be to Jesus Christ, who hath bestowed the influences of his adorable grace upon us, who have been brought to the knowledge of the truth; and even engages his faithfulness for our preservation and salvation unto eternal life. That his name may be hallowed, that his kingdom may come, is, we are convinced, your ardent desire, your chief, your sole end and aim; and in that desire, and for that blessed object, our Society unites itself with you.

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Very often, in our meetings and private conferences, do we converse about your Society and its undertakings, with hearts filled with fraternal love, earnestly longing to know how your affairs prosper, and what the Lord our Saviour is doing with respect to you. Indeed, we frequently grieve that our knowledge of these things is so late and so imperfect. Persuaded of your strong brotherly regard, we beg, with your permission, that you will do us the favour to send us such papers as are published by you; and, amongst others, the Evangelical Magazine: the charges of which shall be remitted by us, as soon as we know the amount, and the channel of conveying it. We feel that we are giving you trouble; but we beg, and even earnestly entreat, that you will excuse us, as we are nor acquainted with any other method of obtaining the evangelical treatises which are circulated amongst you.

We have been informed of the commencement of your Missionary efforts in the islands of Otaheite and Tongataboo, &c. and among the Boschemen, Caffres, &c. and we have deeply participated in the narration; but of their further progress we are totally ignorant; neither do we know 2 C 2

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whether any new missions have been undertaken since the years 1799 and 1800. May Jesus-Jehovah, the head and Lord of his church, give you his own Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom, grace, and power, to be the guide of your councils! May he bless your endeavours! —may he preserve in soul and body the messengers of peace sent forth by you! endue them with the liberty, zeal, perseverance, and simplicity necessary for the blessed work of the Gospel, and himself open a door for it! Thus shall his word not return unto him void, but shall accomplish the thing for which he sends it. Greater is he that is for you and for us, than all those who rise up against us.

You will be glad to be informed, that our Society goes on increasing in its prospects, and its opportunities of doing the work of the Lord. Pray for es, dearest brethren, that we all may be rendered faithful, constant, and courageous; so that we may soon see in our own country, which is still enveloped in thick darkness, the sun of his divine grace arising in its full splendor, and its powerful rays banishing the night of false science, vanity, and incredulity. One of the means by which we especially hope to advance the kingdom of Jesus, is the dispersion of evangelical tracts among the common people. We have published various pamphlets of this kind, besides the Evangelical Magazine. These meet with a great many purchasers; and thus the word of God finds its way to many thousands of persons. Pious men are employed by us to dissemi nate these tracts throughout the kingdom, particularly in those parts where the poor have seldom or never any other means of hearing the Gospel of peace; and we have already found this method to be of the greatest utility. We should with great pleasure send you a specimen of these little publications, and also the annual report of the state and progress of our Society, if we thought our language would be intelligible

to you.

With respect to the religious emotions occasioned in Norway by the preaching of John Hauge and is followers, which we mentioned in our former letter, we have lately received such pleasing accounts, that we are more and more convinced that these men are not far from the kingdom of God.

Our Society is in correspondence with the German Society at Basil, and with the pastors who compose the council at Hernhuth; which, together with the fellowship which we are happy to hold with you, exceedingly refreshes, encourages, and strengthens us. Prospering, there fore, in this respect, we entreat that we may be favoured with a letter from you, as soon as possible, after the arrival of this one from us. Go on then, beloved brethren, we cordially unite with you in preaching the death of our Lord until he shall come, and in proclaiming his merits, who hath brought us from darkness into his wonderful light. We give you the right hand of love and fellowship. Η φιλαδελφία μενέτω. (Let brotherly love continue.) other, even although we are not personally known to one another. We Let us love, pray for, and strengthen each have the same foundation, the same hope, the same Lord, even Jesus Christ the adored Saviour, who hath redeemed us by his blood, from the Gentiles, out of every nation, tongue, and people. There, however, shall-we embrace each other, mutually scen and known; and shall joi■ with the redeemed from all the ends of the earth, in adoring with eternal and joyful songs of praise, him who is so worthy to receive power, might, and glory now, and for ever. Amen.

And now, brethren, be of good courage: may his Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the spirit of grace, wisdom, and power be with you! For the Danish Society for promoting the Gospel and true Christianity, U. C. BOESEN. NATIONAL

Faaborg, Odense, Denmark, 20th March, 1802.

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