Derbyshire; and though it did not appear to have any saving influence on his mind at that time, the seed sown was not utterly lost; for coming to London some years afterwards, notwithstanding the allurements of sin entangled him in a great degree, conscience at times testified he was wrong; neither would the preaching of mere morality satisfy him. Occasionally, he heard the late Mr. Whitfield; but more statedly attended the ministry of the late Rev. Mr. Jones, of St. Saviour's, Southwark; and, under him, the first serious impressions were manifest: but a severe illness taking place, rendered his removal into the country necessary; and when he came to Windsor, a new scene and new acquaintances partly dissipated those impressions. For a time he attended the parish church; but without hearing to his satisfaction.

Providentially, in the year 1777, a regiment of soldiers was quartered in that town, in which were some serious men; and one of them preached to his companions. Mr. Astle also was among the hearers; and when the regiment was ordered to remove, Mr. Burgess (who is mentioned in the Evangelical Magazine for Feb. 1800) being then at Windsor, supplied the place of the military preacher. There was a serious few in that neighbourhood, who were scattered" as sheep without a shepherd;” and a mecting-room being then wanted (as they had hitherto used a small apartment belonging to one of the privates of the regiment) Mr. Astle offered a room in his house for that purpose, which he had licenced, where Mr. Burgess and others preached for some years; and their miniftry appeared to be blessed to inany souls. As the cause grew stronger, it was removed to a more commodious situation; but our deceased friend continued to be a steady supporter of it to the day of his death. He was mild and gentle in his deportment, beloved by all who knew him; but such was his great diffidence (which was a very great trial and grief to him) that he could never engage in prayer in public, even among his own friends. He was a man of very few words; but, for some time prevous to his illness, his mind appeared particularly solemnized, and his evidences brightened. His letters to his near relations were always on some religious topic; and in one he used nearly the following words: "I have lately had sweet views of any Jesus, and can now say, "I know that my Redeemer liveth; and though worms destroy this body, in my flesh shall I see God." Yet sometimes doubts and fears would harrass and distress his soul. On being confined from the house of God, by reason of lameness, he thus expresses himself in another letter: "I mourn as a dove for its mate, to meet again the people of God in his ordinances. O, my God when shall I meet them again in thy sanctuary? Yet not my will, but thine be done "One Sabbath evening, he said, though still a prisoner of the Lord, I have had this day sweet communion with him in reading and meditating on his holy word, which is more precious than gold." During his last illness, which was of fourteen weeks continuance, he was favoured with a particular composure of mind, and never was he once heard to murmur. In the early part of it, God was pleased to manifest himself remarkably unto him. insomuch that he expressed to a friend present, that the great things God had done for him, were more than he had words to express; nor, until this last illness, did he ever experience through life such real and heartfelt happiness as he now did. On all occasions, to the repeated inquiries of surrounding friends, he bore continual testimony of his firm faith, and assurance of a blessed interest in a Redeemer's love, saying his anchor was firmly fixt on the Rock of Ages; and concerning this affliction, whether it end in life or death, God had given him to say, "Thy will

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be done;" and when he should be dismissed from the body, he was certain he should be present with the Lord. On being asked, several times, if the enemy of souls was permitted to distress or assault him? He answered," God was pleased to keep him at a distance; and he experienced but little of his buffettings." He constantly said, God was very gracious to him; and he did not doubt of his presence through the dark valley of the shadow of death. To one speaking of the approaching fast-day, as having his near dissolution in view, he said, to him it would be a feast day. The day preceding his death, he said to his daughter, Dying work is hard work; but to me it is sweet work." He expressed that he had comfortable foretastes of an happy eternity. He desired his family not to grieve for him; adding, that the parting would not be long; that the hopes of meeting them all above, was to him matter of great joy.' He expressed great comfort from that hymn of Dr. Watts, Death cannot make my soul afraid," &c. particularly the verse "Could I but climb where Moses stood," &c He chose this text for his funeralsermon, "By grace ye are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" Desiring no encomium might be passed on him, he said, he was a sinner saved by grace alone, without any kind of self-dependence. Thus, with the everlasting arms of Jehovah supporting him to the last hour, he sweetly fell asleep in Jesus. Windfor

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

DR. VANDERKEMP.

R. L.

We have deferred the Continuation of Dr. Vanderkemp's Journal, in order to introduce his very interesting and original Account of the

NATURAL HISTORY OF CAFFRARIA;

in which, though not altogether Religious, many things will be found highly important to the cause of Missions, as shewing the natural Barbarity and Ignorance of the Heathens, with their Prejudices and Superstitions; and soine particulars which throw light on Customs alluded to in the Old Testament. This Account was addressed to a Friend in

England.

"You desire to be informed of the customs of this nation, their religion, population, government, mode of living, means of subsistence, the nature of the country, and its productions. The little I know concerning these particulars, I will comprehend under the following heads :

1. Religion. If you understand by Religion, reverence of God, or the external actions by which that reverence is expressed, I never could p:1ceive that they had any religion, or any idea of the existence of a God; I am speaking nationally; for there are many individuals who have some notion of his existence, which they have received from adjacent nations. A decisive proof of what I here say, with respect to the national atheism of the Caffres is, that they have no word in their language to express the Deity; the individuals just mentioned, calling him Thiko, which is a corruption of Thuike, the name by which God is called in the language of the Hottentots, literally signifying one sono induces pain.

Mr. Vaillant tells us, that there can be no superstition where there is no religion. If he had lived among this nation, he would soon have discovered

covered that they are extremely superstitious without religion; and must have been convinced of the falsity of his conclusion. Witchcraft is very common among them; and though its practice is prohibited by the king, and connected with infamy, he himself, like Saul, calls in sorcerers to discover secrets, particularly guilty persons: and those who are indicated by the magicians as guilty, are, without any further examination, punished..

When the

Their medical operations are also, for the greatest part, magical; and most of their complaints are cured by extracting stones, serpents, bones, pieces of wood, &c. out of the body of the patient. Another mode of curing is, when the doctor orders some cattle to be slain, divided in pieces, and laid in a river, by way of expiation. In a third case, the complaint is considered as a work of the Devil possessing the patient. Devil is cast out, the doctor pretends to take hold of him to kill him; but is commonly obliged to run after him, over mountains and through vallies, with an assagay in his hand, and, returning, tells the credulous people that he could not overtake him, or that he has killed him. In the latter case, he shews the blood of the Devil on his assagay; assuring the patient he is radically cured: but in the first case, the Devil returns, anď the case becomes worse.

Near the mouth of the Keiskamma there lies an old anchor, belonging to a ship which was lost on the coast. Chachabe, who governed this country, as far as I can find out, about the year 1780, ordered a piece of this anchor to be cut off. The Caffre who was employed in this work, died soon after. This accident was enough for this people to take it into their heads, that this anchor had the power of punishing every one whe should treat it with disrespect; and also that it had some dominion over In order to reconcile it, it has been honoured with a peculiar name; and when a Caffre passes by, he salutes it.

the sea.

Within the last three years, there appears (as they firmly believe) in all great thunder-storms, in their kraals, a man dressed in green, and always leaning against the stump of a tree, having his eyes fixed on the ground. When they offer him corn, meat, or milk, or invite him to come into their houses, as they commonly do, he never accepts of the invitation, and seldom speaks. Once, in a tremendous storm, he was heard to say, "Do not be afraid; I only play with this country." I conversed with a man born of a European father and a Bengalese mother, who lived in a Caffre kraal, on this subject. He assured me the report was true, though he himself had never seen this apparition. I had some time before explained to him the way to everlasting life, by faith in the Son of God; and he strongly believed this apparition to be the Lord Jesus, shewing his good-will to the Caffre nation. When this man, whom the Caffres call the Lord from above (pezoulo) is seen in a kraal, the people immediately retire from it, leaving every thing behind; they slay some beasts, and put on new garments.

I lived in a place near the Keiskamma, where I observed a great heap of stones; and that every one who passed by, threw a stone, or a handful of grass, to it. The Caffre captain, Khanja, who lived in the same place, declared, that he himself was totally ignorant of the reason of this The Hottentots throw stones upon the graves of their people; . but this was not a grave.

custom.

I will not detain your attention with any more of these disgusting tales, which shew at least that credulity and unbelief go hand in hand, as well in Caffraria as in Europe.

2. Customss

2. Customs. What I have to say respecting this article, is in a great measure dispersed under the former or following heads. I will, therefore, only mention a few particulars, for which I can find no other place.

When a Caffre kills a lion, upon his returning home, every thing is taken from him; he is driven from the kraal, and obliged to sleep that. night out of doors, in the field.

When they have killed a man, they dress their meat on a fire made of a kind of wood they call umthati, but the Dutch nieshout, because it is powder. Though it has very little smell, it is a strong errhinet. It is very resinous, and its smoke gives the meat a very bitter taste. Afterwards, they rub their faces with the coals.

When they kill cattle, they never eat the breast, as it belongs to the king, and is sometimes brought to him from such a distance, that it is quite putrid before he gets it.

When they meet one another, they make use of no salutation, except when they come into the king's presence, whom they salute by prefixing the word An to his name, saying, An Geika; but in leaving his company, they make no use of any ceremony.

They do not bury their dead, but throw them for the wolves: to be buried is the king's exclusive privilege. But they commonly lay their sick people out in the field, to be devoured by the wolves before they die, as soon as they consider their case as desperate. They are, however, often mistaken in their prognosis; and the sick person returns to his house, and recovers. If not, the consequence is a second, and perhaps a third exportation; after which, the last step is to lock up the patient in his house, with a little meat and drink; and then the whole kraal breaks up, and they leave him to die. It was a long time before I could trace the real motives for this cruel practice; but since I am a little more acquainted with the character of this nation, I think it is only love to self-preservation. They fancy, that if they suffer the disease to go on, it will bring on the whole society (I know not what) greater calamity. To prevent this, they know no other remedy than to destroy the subject of the distemper, and so to make an end of it. Their conduct, in other similar cases, is perfectly analogous. When they see a friend in danger of being drowned, his panic frightens them; and they will run from him, or throw stones at him, rather than help him. Likewise, when a child-bearing woman is seized with labour, every one runs from her, and she is left helpless.

When they intend to honour a person whom they esteem, they give him a new name; the meaning of which is known only to him who invented it; and it is surprising how quickly this name is spread over all the country.

Though they are extremely savage, they observe a peculiar decency in their manners. I recollect only one instance of a Caffre from whom an indecent word escaped in company; he was but a boy, and he was immediately turned out of doors for it.

It was only to deceive Mr. Vaillant, and to make a jest of him, if the Caffres with whom he met offered him milk in a basket, washed out with their urine, to make him believe that this was customary among them. I know that a Caffre would not drink out of such a basket him self, any more than a European. On the contrary, they are nicer in this point than Europeans in general.

A sneezing powder. ́

VOL. X.

F

I think

I think Mr. Vaillant has been served more than once in this manner: for instance, when he describes the toemjoers as a musical instrument; as this word is a verb in the Caffre language, and of obscene import.

3. Population All that I know of this, amounts to the following observations :-Caffraria may be considered as a rectangle of 240 x 120 English miles. One of the longest sides extends itself along the Indian ocean, and runs from S. W. to N. E; it is terminated on the N E. side by the Tambouchis and Madouanos; on the N. W. by the Abbatoana; and on the S. W by the colony. On my way from the centre to the sca, I met with about twelve kraals, in and on both sides of the road. These were included in a parallelogram, sixty miles long, and (as I suppose) six miles broad. I take for a medium, that each kraal contained forty men, without women and children. The number of the men inhabiting this parallelogram, must, according to this supposition, be 480; and, as Caffraria contains eighty of these parallelograins, the whole number of its male inhabitants will be 38,400. This supposes, that all the eighty parallelograms are equally populous. This is certainly not the case, but 1 see no reason to suppose that, on an average, they are less inhabited.

Government. This is monarchical; and the king has a right to nominate his successor, who is not always the eldest son of the former sovereign. Thus, the present king, Geika, has appointed no one of his children to be king after him, but Hientza, a son of his benefactor Kacitha,

In the exercise of his arbitrary power, he derives all his strength from the good-will and affection of his people.

Their attachment to the king indeed is very strong. They consider him almost as a Deity, and swear by no other name than his, or by that' of one of his predecessors.

He kills, robs his subjects, and changes laws, rights, &c. according to bis pleasure; and his people bear this with a filial submission. He has his counsellor (pagati) who informs him of the sentiments of his people: and his captains admonish him with great freedom and fidelity, when he abuses his authority to such a degree, that there is reason to fear that the nation will shew him their displeasure. This is done, if he treats the admonition with contempt, not by way of insurrection, or taking up arms against him, but most effectually by gradual emigration. Some kraals break up and march towards the borders of the country, and there they stay, keeping themselves ready to emigrate to another count They are successively followed by others; and this seldom fails to produce the desired effect. I myself have been a witness of these proceedings; but I only know of one instance of the nation taking up arms against its sovereign, which I shall notice under the history of this nation.

Every kraal is governed by a captain. These differ in power according to the number of persons under their direction: sometimes the people belonging to one captain are divided into two or three kraals, and then he has a representative in each. His dignity is hereditary; and when he has no child nor brother, another person is chosen in his place by the people. or, at least, confirmed by their approbation. I do not know that the present king has ever appointed caprains, though he has sometimes taken vacant kraals to himself, and deposed captains. The king Has no forces in pay; but every Caffre who is able to bear arms, is a voluntary soldier. Slavery is not known in this country.

3. Mode of Living and Means of Subsistence. They subsist upon their cattle, which is only of the ox kind; they have neither sheep, hogs, nor fowls. If a man be poor, and have no cattle, he goes to the king, orcone

of