Dr John Philip
Account of his life with the London Missionary Society in Africa

DR. PHILIP'S ADMINISTRATION: 1820 - 1850

D. PHILIP landed at Cape Town on Feb. 26, 1819. The conditions under which he first visited Africa were these:

'In the year 118, the Directors of the London Missionary Society felt the absolute necessity of again sending a deputation of their Society to South Africa, to investigate into the real situation of their missions, and into the nature of the allegations urged against them by the colonial government, as the grounds of the opposition made to them. Mr. Campbell and myself were nominated and appointed as a deputation from the Society for this purpose. He was to make a visit, and return to England; and I agreed to remain five years in the country, that I might be able to gain a more thorough knowledge of the actual state of the missions, set them in order, and, if possible, secure the cordial cooperation of the colonial government in their favour. My appointment, and that of Mr. Campbell, for these specific objects, was communicated by a deputation from the Society to Lord Bathurst, when his lordship signified his approbation of the measure, and expressed his hope that our mission would be attended with the beneficial results anticipated.

With the cordial co-operation of the governor, Lord Charles Somerset, Mr. Campbell and Dr. Philip were making all needful preparations in 1819 for their visit of inspection to the mission-stations, when Moffat arrived at Cape Town with the notorious Africaner in his train. Dr. Philip had lost no time in securing a central site for a chapel at Cape Town and in obtaining government permission to erect suitable buildings. This was the beginning of Union Chapel in which for so many years he was to minister. On May 4, 1819, Campbell and Philip, accompanied by the missionaries Moffat and Evan Evans, started on their long journey. They visited the Paarl, Tulbagh, Caledon Institution, Pacaltsdorp, Bethelsdorp, and Theopolis. They had gone thus far when the outbreak of war with the Kafirs prevented further work in that direction. So Dr. Philip returned to Cape Town, while Mr. Campbell, in January, 1820, journeyed with Mr. and Mrs. Moffat to New Lattakoo, visiting also some of the neighbouring Bechwana centres of population. Mr. Campbell left Cape Town on Feb. 15, 1821, and landed at Portsmouth on May 9. Meanwhile, Dr. Philip completed the arrangements for the erection of Union Chapel, and secured premises as part of the same establishment to serve as a dwelling for the Society's agent, and as a temporary home for the many missionaries passing through Cape Town. The chapel was opened for public worship on Dec. 1, 1822.

In October, 1818, the Directors had issued a new code of regulations for the missions in Africa,' two of which we give in extenso. 'It is a duty which the Directors owe to the great cause of propagating the Gospel among the heathen, no less than to the Society for which they act, to press on the attention of all their missionaries the obligation of finding their support from the people among whom they labour. This principle is of the greatest importance, and the acting upon it in any station will be in itself a security for the progress of the Gospel in that place. But while the principle is kept in view, so long as the circumstances of particular missions shall make it absolutely necessary, the Directors will afford to the missionaries a suitable support.

'That the following resolution of the Board on May 2, 18 181 be adopted as one of the present Regulations: "That to keep the persons of men or women in a state of slavery is inconsistent with the principles of the Christian religion, and with the character of a Christian missionary; and that if any missionary in connection with this Society shall, after the communication of this Resolution, be chargeable with this offence, the relation between such person and this Society is by that act dissolved, and all obligation on the part of the latter to contribute to his support immediately ceases."'

In 1820 Dr. Philip was appointed by the Directors Superintendent of the Society's missions in South Africa, and upon him came the much-needed work of consolidation, improvement of methods, reform of abuses, and the task of welding the various missions into a harmonious and effective whole. This appointment was an event of great moment to the after history of both the Society's work, and also of the Colony. Dr. Philip was in the prime of life, he had been minister of one of the most important churches in Aberdeen, and he was a man of cultured mind, experienced in affairs, of independent judgment, and of strong will. He went out under the conviction, then common in England, that the cruelties and oppression from which the native races had suffered under Dutch rule had been largely ameliorated by the transfer of power to England. But he was soon undeceived, and he had hardly assumed the full responsibilities of his new position before he began that course of ceaseless, energetic, and successful toil on behalf of the native races, which made him for long years the most unpopular man in South Africa among large sections of the colonists. In fact, the true standard of the good work he did, and the vast influence he exerted on the side of liberty, justice for all, and true progress, is the bitter hate with which those pursued him whose errors he combated, whose cruelties he exposed, whose tyranny he checked, and whose vices he condemned.

Before turning to the great extensions of work undertaken subsequent to 1820 in Bechwanaland, Matabeleland, and Central Africa, we will complete the sketch of the work attempted within the Colony. We cannot give here a detailed account of the struggle which resulted first in the abolition of slavery in the Colony, then in the curbing under Lord Gleneig of colonial rapacity and indifference to native rights, and finally in the settlement of the South African colonies under systems of government and administration which were no longer a discredit to the British name. But the salient points at least must be indicated in a struggle which obtained for the natives some approximation to civil rights, which largely extended British commerce, which planted and developed civilization in many parts of Africa long years before it would otherwise have reached them, and which has carried the light of the Gospel from Cape Town to Ujiji; and from the mouth of the Orange River to Madagascar.

The state even of Cape Town at this time may be judged from a letter, dated January 11, 1820, sent to the Directors by Dr. Philip, in which he states 'there are at this moment above 7,000 slaves in Cape Town, and of that number there are not more than thirty-five or fifty at most under Christian instruction.' The same letter contains the statement that slaves were punished by their masters for going to school, and also this: A lady who resides in my neighbourhood informed me that she had seen a Hottentot servant in my family reading her Bible; that she hoped I would take the Bible from her, and that I would beat her with a stick the next time I found her with a Bible.' The population of Cape Town at the end of 1818 was—whites, 7,460; free blacks, 1,905; apprentices (practically slaves), 810; Hottentots, 56; slaves, 7,462; total, 18,173. 'This statement,' Dr. Philip adds, 'will show you the need we have for a chapel at Cape Town. Without a place for worship on the Sabbath, and on the week days for teaching the slaves, nothing effective can be be accomplished here.

Prior to Dr. Philip's arrival, there had been a strong tendency on the part of the Government to regulate the movements of the missionaries, at one time prohibiting their departure to stations outside the limits of the Colony, at another recalling them. But as early as December 28, 1820, he was able to write, 'We can now send missionaries where we will.'

The financial arrangements between the Society and its missionaries had hitherto been haphazard, and they had been further complicated by the fact that the Netherlands Society, and also the local Society at the Cape, had possessed independent authority and responsibility in both the appointment and the support of missionaries. These details, consequently, occupied much of Dr. Philip's attention during his earlier years in Cape Town. and finally during his stay in England in 1826 the Board passed the following resolutions: 'That the salaries of the missionaries in Africa be in future as follows: A single missionary or missionary artisan, £75; a married missionary or missionary artisan, £100; for every child, £5.' This scale was the result of a lengthy correspondence on finance between the missionaries and the Board.

The regulation on slavery emphasizes the fact that Christian missionaries could not possibly live and work in South Africa during the first forty years of the nineteenth century without coming into sharp conflict with some of the social and political regulations and conditions which obtained there. We have seen in Chapter XVI how, in the same way, Vanderkemp was forced into conflict with colonial opinion and practice when he tried to evangelize the Hottentots. Dr. Philip was soon to pass through a similar experience. No aphorism is more common in the press of to-day, and no principle has been more steadily acted upon by the great missionary societies of Europe and America, than that missionaries, as such, have nothing to do with politics. Sound as this maxim may be, it is from the Christian standpoint inevitable that if the Government of a country allies itself with cruelty, social wrongs, and oppression, the Christian missionary, working within the sphere of such Government, must find himself in active opposition to such things. Against slavery as it existed in Africa and the West Indies in 1825 against such treatment as the colonists of South Africa in 1825 meted out to Hottentots and Kafirs; against such Government support as was given in India to idol-worship at the same date; against such monstrous evils as the opium traffic with China, all missionaries must ever strive and labour and pray.

Dr. Philip spent much time in visiting the various mission- stations, and by this natural and necessary course of action he soon found himself in opposition to colonial public opinion and to some departments of colonial administration. Readers who wish to understand this question thoroughly should consult on the one hand such books as the "History Of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope", by A. Wilmot and John Centhivres Chase (1869), and "South Africa", by G. M. Theal (1894). From them he will learn how constantly every question connected with the South African native is looked at from the point of view of the colonist's pocket. Either no credit at all is given to missionaries or missionary labours, or else it is rendered in such an ungracious manner as to arouse the conviction that while feebly blessing it they would much rather curse it. Missionaries are to be endured chiefly because Government tolerates them. The natives are of value only so far as they can be compelled to aid the white man in building up his fortunes. On the other side, he should study such books as Dr. Philip's Researches in South Africa (1828), Moffat's Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa (1842), and Livingstone's Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1837). In these books he finds the Hottentot and the Kafir regarded as human beings entitled to the same moral and spiritual rights as ourselves. He will further see on reflection that the very unpopularity of this advocacy is the best answer to all the strictures and malevolent attacks of its opponents.

As early as 1809, Colonel Collins urged that Bethelsdorp should be suppressed, on the cynical grounds that Vanderkemp had admitted his non-success; that the institution was designed not to benefit the colony but the Hottentots; and that the Hottentots might be made useful to the farmers. In 1809, Lord Caledon issued the famous proclamation I intended for the regulation of all affairs connected with the Hottentots, and designed as a protection for them against oppression. Lord Caledon appears to have been touched by the sufferings of these unhappy people, brought under his notice in i8o8 by some of themselves; but in drafting the proclamation he fell into the hands of men deeply interested in oppressing the Hottentots still further. and astute enough to use even this proclamation for their purpose. The result of the proclamation in its practical working was in the vast majority of cases, to condemn the Hottentots to a servitude that was really worse than slavery, and from which there was no escape. The Dutch Boer or English colonist, who had purchased his slave, to that extent took care of him, if only because he represented capital. Of the Hottentot, to whom he paid only a nominal wage, whom he constantly defrauded even of this, and whose labour he could have for the asking, he took- no care whatever. If through either his cruelty, oppression, or neglect, the Hottentot died, his place could speedily be filled by others, doomed to tread the same hopeless path. In 1812 the condition of the Hottentots was rendered still worse by a proclamation enabling a colonist to claim any child of a Hottentot born upon his premises, and who had reached the age of eight years, as an 'apprentice' for the next ten years. Here again the theory was that the Hottentot neglected his child, the tender and humane colonist would cherish it. 'It is difficult to say,' writes Dr. Philip, 'which is most to be deprecated, the injustice, the inhumanity, or the pernicious consequences of this regulation.' Here is one example of how this system worked:

In a journey which I made into the interior of the colony in 1825, I lodged two nights at the house of a respectable farmer, who had a number of Hottentots in his service, that had belonged to the missionary station of Zuurbrack before it was broken up in consequence of the measures pursued by the colonial government. Pointing to one family, consisting of ten brothers, the greater part of them born on the missionary institution, he remarked to me with great simplicity, " That family, sir, is my wealth: they are better to me than slaves, for they cost me nothing; and I shall have them apprenticed to me till they are twenty-five, perhaps till they are twenty-nine years of age, and perhaps I may be able to keep them for ever.

In 1814 a direct blow was aimed at the missionary institutions by the Opgaaf, or tax, which was levied only upon Hottentots in them. This tax was fixed at the monstrous amount of two-thirds of their possible annual earnings. It was perfectly well known that the natives could not pay the tax, and the end aimed at was to get them away from the institutions, shut them up in prison from inability to pay, and then compel them to enter into the service of colonists. The charge was constantly made that the missionary institutions collected the rebellious and discontented, encouraged them in laziness, and injured the colonists by preventing them from availing themselves of native labour. Any man of average common sense, who studies the facts, will see that the great vice of all missionary institutions, in the eyes of the colonists, was that they enabled the Hottentot to learn that, as a human being, he had rights; they taught him to claim these rights, they often enabled him to secure them, and they confronted Dutchman and Englishman alike with a power that said, 'You shall not enslave and oppress and harry to death, just as you will, men whose great offence is that they are the aboriginal inhabitants of the land you covet.

It was as absurd in 1825, on the ground of probability, as it is now on the surer ground of experience, for the supporters of missions to expect marvellous results from these institutions. The Hottentots in them often were lazy and ungrateful, and sometimes the institutions may have become havens of refuge to Hottentot Ishmaels. Nothing was more natural. But even where the institution contained a few of such men, they and all their fellow-natives came in the missionary institution under the care of men who for Christ's sake were striving to educate them, to train them into habits of industry, to awaken the soul in them. At such institutions the average colonist of the first quarter of the nineteenth century was the last person in the world entitled to throw stones.

On the other hand, it would be equally absurd to believe that all colonists who employed Hottentot labour cruelly oppressed their serfs. There were good colonists, as there were up to 1863 good slaveholders in the United States. But the system in both cases was detestable, and no amount of virtue in the men who worked it could make the system which obtained in South Africa prior to the legislation of 1836, other than abhorrent to all lovers of human freedom and progress.

The chief point of attack in the colonial hostility to missions was Bethclsdorp. Dr. Philip's description of what he found there on his first visit shows that there was great need for renewed effort, and more careful superintendence:

'The system of oppression, of which Dr. Vanderkemp so bitterly complained, and under which he sunk into his grave with a broken heart, had been carried on for years without a single check. The institution was virtually converted into a slave lodge, and the people were called out to labour at Uitenhage, to work on the public roads, to cultivate the lands of the local authorities, or to serve their friends, or the colonial government, receiving for these labours never more than a trifling remuneration, and very frequently none at all. In addition to the daily oppressions exercised upon the people, we found that seventy of the men had been employed for six months in the Caffer war. For this service they received nothing but rations for themselves: nothing in the shape of wages was allowed to their families; and the women, to keep themselves and children from starving, were under the necessity of contracting debts among the farmers, to be liquidated by the personal service of the husbands on their returning from Cafferland. To these circumstances I must refer for the cause of the deplorable condition in which the deputation found the spiritual and temporal affairs of this mission. In such a state of wretchedness, we could neither look for cleanliness nor industry: robbed of the fruits of their industry, the people had no motive to labour, and the place of worship was deserted.

In 1821, James Kitchingman became superintendent of Bethelsdorp, assisted by James Read. Education was more carefully tended, and in accordance with the early policy of the Society, Dr. Philip took immediate steps to protect the Hottentots at I3ethelsdorp from this crushing persecution, to stimulate their industry, and thus to improve their social well-being. Under his vigorous administration the people were induced to build better houses, to pay more regard to suitable and decent clothing, to prize more highly the benefits of education and of industry, to realize better the way in which the Society, through its missionaries, laboured for their welfare, and were thus enabled more intelligently and more sympathetically to receive their teaching on spiritual matters. That Dr. Philip fully recognized and acted upon the conviction that Christianity is the true centre and source of civilization is evident from his own testimony: -

'Vital religion has never been lost sight of in my labours in South Africa; and though, like the sap which nourishes the tree and gives it all its foliage and fruit. it is not visible to the eye, it is nevertheless the source of all the fruitfulness and beauty which adorn our missionary stations. While I am satisfied, from abundance of incontrovertible facts, that permanent societies of Christians can never be maintained among an uncivilized people without imparting to them the arts and habits of civilized life, I am satisfied, upon grounds no less evident, that if missionaries lose their religion and sink into mere mechanics, the work of civilization and moral improvement will speedily retrograde. The church at Bethelsdorp is not, perhaps, more numerous than it was in 1821, but I believe it contains more real Christians than on any former occasion .

In January, 1826, by the request of the Directors, Dr. Philip returned to England in order to assist their deliberations. Richard Miles, formerly pastor of Brigg in Lincolnshire, who had been appointed to Demerara, was sent to Cape Town to act as Dr. Philip's substitute during the latter's absence in England. Mr. Miles visited the various stations, including Kafirland and Kuru man, and, after Dr. Philip's return, early in 1830 returned to England, his connection with the Society being terminated soon after.

While in England, in 1828, Dr. Philip published his famous Researches ii South Africa, to which we have already referred once and again. In a book covering so large an area, and dealing with such bitterly controverted subjects, it was unlikely that slips and errors would be entirely avoided. The book aroused in the Colony a bitterness of feeling which illustrates further how deadly was the hatred felt by many to any one who dared to defend the-native, and to question either the justice or the wisdom of the actions of colonists towards them. It was perhaps possible here and there to convict Dr. Philip of some slight inaccuracy, and these were astutely used to divert attention from the enormous mass of irrefutable testimony adduced in support of his main contentions. An example of the hostility aroused by the book is the fact that, soon after his return to Africa, Dr. Philip was sued for libel in the Supreme Court of the Colony. The libel was based upon a passage which Dr. Philip had quoted from Mr. Pringle, the secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society. All efforts to transfer the trial to England, and thus remove it from the intensely prejudiced and hostile atmosphere of Cape Town, were overruled, the case was tried in the midst of local prejudice, and without the benefit of a jury, and damages to the amount of £200 awarded against Dr. Philip. The costs amounted to £1,000. These sums were immediately more than met by the subscriptions and contributions of those in England, who felt that Dr. Philip had fought a good fight in the cause of our common humanity, and that he had been condemned only by one of those processes, quite familiar to all who fight the battles of freedom, in which even the forms and the power of law are used to punish the innocent and to shield the guilty.

Notwithstanding the attacks upon Dr. Philip, and the hostility shown in many ways against his book, it exerted enormous influence upon the administration of affairs in the Colony. One highly important result was the promulgation, on July 17, 1828, of the famous Order in Council, No. 50, by Sir R. Bourke. This was entitled, 'An Ordinance for Improving the Condition of Hottentots and other Free Persons of Colour.' 'Previous to the promulgation of this humane provision, an erroneous idea had become prevalent in the Colony that Hottentots, the original proprietors of the soil, could not hold land. A principle so atrocious, and a tenet so unfounded, therefore required some declaratory enactment, and this was provided by the one in question. The 'principle so atrocious' had often been acted upon, but from the date of Order No. 50, plundering the Hottentot became less easy and more dangerous to those who pursued it. Hence in many quarters, where this practice had been both common and profitable, feeling ran high with regard to Dr. Philip. Those who are curious on this point, and wishful to understand to what lengths folly and prejudice can carry men, should read—if they can now find copies—such publications as Some Reasons for our opposing the Author of the South African Researches: By the British Immigrants of 1820.

In addition to whatever influence it exerted in bringing about Order No. 50, Dr. Philip's book also gave a great stimulus to the work of emancipation in Great Britain, and led ultimately to the appointment by the House of Commons, in 1836, of a Select Committee on the whole question of the relation of the British Government to natives in her colonies and along their frontiers.

A Commission of Inquiry, which visited many parts, had been appointed in 1824. The circulation of their report among members of the House of Commons was delayed until 1830, but when it appeared' it justified completely Dr. Philip's main contentions as to the relations of the colonists towards the natives. It shows how evil, in their influence upon Hottentots, were the proclamations of 1809, 1812, and 1819. The effect of the clause in the first, prohibiting Hottentots from moving about without passes, is thus set forth :-

'The effect of this clause placed the Hottentots under the control of every inhabitant of the Colony, and having been enacted at a period when the demand for free labour was encouraged by the prohibition to import slaves, the vigilance of those who were interested in obtaining it was naturally excited in detaining the Hottentots upon frivolous pretexts within the limits of their respective districts. It has likewise been attended with inconvenience to the inhabitants who employed them, especially in the neighbourhood of the villages and markets, with which constant and frequent intercourse was to be maintained.'

'The result of these regulations has been that of creating perpetual obligation in the Hottentots to enter into service; for although it was declared that, at the expiration of his engagement, a Hottentot was free to make another, or to act in any manner that the laws of the Colony admitted, yet in the event of his not making a new engagement, he was liable to be apprehended as a vagrant, at the expiration of the time mentioned in his pass, thrown in gaol, and a master provided for him, who either advanced or became responsible for the expenses of detention. The keepers of the different gaols, who were allowed to have an interest in victualling the prisoners, and also a power of apprehending vagrants in the towns, were not remiss in this part of their duty.'

Whatever may have been the ulterior views of Government, the system then acted upon has beeii unceasingly pursued, but in some districts with more severity than in others, and with the exception of the individuals of the Hottentot class who have found asylums in the missionary institutions, or who have served in the Cape Corps, the great majority have remained in a state of servitude to the white inhabitants of the Colony. In reporting upon the civil and criminal laws, my colleagues and myself had occasion to notice the insufficient protection which the proclamation of 1809 had afforded to the Hottentots against the undue severity of their masters, as well as the feelings which had prevailed in the provincial and colonial courts whenever the claims of the Hottentot servants to indemnity were balanced against the oppressive authority of the masters. We had also to notice the increasing frequency of the crimes committed by the Hottentots, and the prevalence of feelings in the higher classes of the agricultural population, which precluded any expectation of their consent to relax the system by which the condition of the Hottentots might be ameliorated.'

The proclamations of 1812 and 1819 legalized the apprenticeship system, by which the Hottentots lost control even of their own children. The report indicates the gross evils to which this led, sketches the history of the missionary institutions, and finally sums up the position in words which amply justify the action taken by the Society's agents and supporters in the Colony and in Great Britain :-

'Much of the opposition that was shown by the Dutch Government to the exertions of Dr. Van der Kemp arose from the national jealousy of the sources from whence he derived his pecuniary support, and of the friendly feelings which the Hottentots under his care had always manifested towards the English Government. Allowing, however, for the operation of those scruples at a particular period, it must be admitted, that although the existence of the missions established by the London Missionary Society has been tolerated by the local government, yet no effort has been made by it to extend the sphere of their usefulness, or to realize the benefits of which they undoubtedly were the willing instruments. There has also been manifested a greater degree of sympathy for the demands of the white inhabitants for the labour of the Hottentots, than of respect for their rights as a free people, or of anxiety to compensate for the many ifljuries they had suffered by encroachment on their lands.'

'As the great sources of those evils of which the missionary societies have complained have been removed by the provisions of the Ordinance of Major-General Bourke, the Lieutenant-Governor in Council, and by the confirmation which His Majesty has been graciously pleased to give to it, I shall be excused from entering into a detail of the advantages which this great measure may be expected to accomplish. The Hottentots will now no longer be dependent upon the caprices of the landdrosts for permission to repair to the missionary institutions, or to engage in any place or in any employment that is open to the choice of the free population of the Colony.'

In 1834, Sir Benjamin D'Urban reached the Cape, and began a governorship fraught with highly important consequences. He was charged by the Home Government to reduce administrative expenditure, which up to this date had been upon an outrageously excessive scale; to develop, as far as possible, legislative and executive councils; and to carry out emancipation, Parliament having enacted that slavery in Cape Colony should cease on December i, 1834. Colonial opinion thought itself further outraged by the fact that Parliament had allotted only Li ,o,000 as compensation for the 39,000 slaves affected by this Act, the slaveholders thinking they ought to receive at least £3,000,000. But the most important part of Sir B. D'Urbans duty was to place upon a better footing the relation between the Government and the various frontier tribes. Before he could deal with the eastern frontier, war had again broken out with the Kafirs. To illustrate further the spirit in which anti-missionary writers see the events of this time, we will tell the story of the next few years in Mr. Theal's words :-

'The arrangements made by Sir B. Durban for the preservation of peace were such as every one approves of at the present day. He brought some i8,000 Fingoes from beyond the Kei and gave them ground between the Keiskarna and Fish rivers, where they would form a buffer for the colonists. They and the Kosas' hated each other bitterly, and this feeling was deepened by their appropriating and taking with them 22,000 head of cattle belonging to Kreli's people. It was thus to their interest to act honestly towards the Europeans, whose support alone could save them from destruction. Between the Keiskania and the Kei the western Kosa clans were located as British subjects, but a great deal of authority was left to the chiefs. The territory was named the Province of Queen Adelaide, and Colonel Smith was stationed at a place in it called King-Williamstown, to command the troops and control the chiefs. This plan of settlement commended itself to the great majority of the colonists and of the missionaries , who hoped that under it the Kosas would make rapid advances towards civilization, and that property on the border would be secure.

'There was, however, in Cape Town-500 miles from the Kaffir frontier--a party under the leadership of the reverend Dr. Philip, that entirely disapproved of the Governor's plans. It was composed of only a few individuals, but it had powerful support from abroad. This party desired the formation of states ruled by Bantu chiefs I under the guidance of missionaries, and from which Europeans not favoured by missionaries should be excluded. It maintained the theory that the Kosas were an eminently docile and peaceably disposed people, who could easily be taught to do what was right, and who must therefore have been provoked to take up arms by great wrongs and cruelties. The utmost fear was expressed that the Bantu tribes would perish if exposed to free intercourse with white people.

'To push his views, Dr. Philip visited England with a Kosa and a half-breed Hottentot, who had been trained by missionaries. A Committee of the House of Commons was at the time collecting information upon the aborigines in British colonies, and Dr. Philip appeared before it. His evidence was received at great length, and though it consisted largely of opinion, it was allowed to outweigh that of officers of greatest experience in South African affairs .'

Rightly to estimate this and other kindred references, it must be borne in mind that Lord Gknelg's action was based upon the report of the British Government's own Commission of Inquiry referred to above. Further, in the four folio volumes which contain the evidence given before, and the final report of, the Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed in 1836, there is found the amplest confirmation of the views and assertions of the Society's agents. To believe that the modern historian's view is correct, is to believe that half the witnesses before one of the most powerful and important of House of Commons' Committees were either fools or knaves.

The powerful and warlike Kafir tribes inhabited the country lying to the east and north of the Great Fish River. Physically they were a fine race. The chiefs power was despotic. Polygamy prevailed, and witchcraft, in which they all firmly believed, was the source of constant evil and cruelty. At the close of the last century and the beginning of this, constant warfare raged between the frontier colonists and the Kafirs. 'The farmers were forced to league together for mutual defence, and a system of commandoes was the result. Abuses, no doubt, were frequently committed by these bands. These words entirely concede the contention of Dr. Philip and his friends. The Katirs not unfrequently robbed the colonists, who were warlike and savage in their reprisals ; but the bulk of the responsibility for the horrible crimes and slaughter which were perpetrated on both sides between 1820 and 1851 lies largely at the door of those colonists who were hungering for the land and the cattle of the Kaflrs. On the occasion of every fresh outbreak of border violence it was easy to assert that the Kafirs were the aggressors. But the modern reader notes that one constant result of each successive outbreak was the enlargement of colonial territory and the concomitant increase of Kafir subjugation. This was inevitable, but the evidence favours the view that but for the presence of Christian missionaries in South Africa, little or nothing would have been done on behalf of the Kafir tribes, and their reduction to serfdom would have been much more rapid and complete.

As early as 1815, Graham's Town had been established as a frontier post in consequence of troubles with the Kafirs. In 1817, Lord Charles Somerset made a treaty with Gaika and other Kafir chiefs by which the kraal to which stolen cattle could be traced was compelled to make reparation from its own stock. In 1818 a pretext was found for violating this treaty. War broke out, and finally in 1819 Lord Charles Somerset concluded an agreement with the Kafir chiefs 'that all Kafirs should evacuate the country between the Great Fish River and the Keiskamma. This region was to be a neutral territory. At this juncture the British Parliament voted £50,000 towards an emigration scheme, which resulted in the arrival in South Africa during 1820 of 4,000 emigrants, selected out of 90,000 applicants'. These families were landed at Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth), and dispersed along the eastern frontier of the Colony. By the end of 1820, about 5.000 settlers had been located between the Sunday and Great Fish Rivers, and southward from Graham's Town to the sea—that is over a territory of about 3.000 square miles. Like many colonization schemes, this suffered at first from incompetency on the part of many of the settlers, from failure of crops, and also from the unconcealed hostility of Lord Charles Somerset. The settlers finally Petitioned the Home Government for a commission of inquiry into their grievances, largely on the ground that the interests of the western and eastern branches of Cape Colony were by no means identical, and that the ruling powers at Cape Town gave little heed to, and cared still less about the requirements of the eastern half of the Colony. In July, 1824, Royal Commissioners arrived at Graham's Town. Among other achievements, this visit led in April, 1829, to the establishment of a free press in the Colony, a fact very potent in after effects upon the controversy over native rights. After the publication of the Report of the Commissioners in September, 1826, the eastern province was made, in civil government, independent of the western, under a Lieutenant-General residing at Uitenhage. Many local reforms were instituted, old Dutch monopolies and administrative methods disappeared, and in 1828 Captain Stockenstrom was appointed Commissioner-General at Graaff Reinet to watch over the native tribes of the frontier. Meanwhile, the Kafirs had been allowed to reoccupy the 'neutral territory.' Macomo, son of Gaika, attacked the Tambookies living on the Zwart Kei River, and then was deeply offended by the highhanded action of the Colonial Government, which expelled him and his people from the Kat River. At this point, in 1829, the famous Kat River Settlement, which we shall describe later on, was established. The 'reprisal' system. which had been suppressed for some years, began to revive.

In 1834, the first year of Sir B. D'Urban's government, a vigorous attempt was made to resume the oppression of the native races by the proposal of a new 'Ordinance for the Better Suppression of Vagrancy in the Colony.' Dr. Philip, aided by other missionaries, gave this proposal the most strenuous opposition, and while it was under discussion the Kafir war again broke out. Here also, no doubt, the Kafirs gave ample ground for misrepresenting their actions, and for reviving the worst features of the commando system. It was natural that savages should act as they did; it was not natural that men of a Christian nation should act as many of the colonists did. The crimes of the Kafirs were magnified, the outrages and crimes committed upon them by the colonists were minified. In December, 1834, the Kafirs invaded the Settlement, and by the close of the year were masters of the whole district, except Graham's Town and Theopolis. In the war which ensued the Kafirs were defeated, and Hintza, their most powerful chief, treacherously murdered. Public opinion at home was deeply stirred. Largely through the efforts of Dr. Philip, and other South African missionaries, the true state of affairs along the frontier was apprehended by the public and by Parliament, and in 1836 Lord Glenelg sent his famous dispatch to Cape Town. In this state document, the Home Government accepted fully and acted vigorously upon the view of native rights, of colonial aggression, and of responsibility towards the natives which all the missionaries had so strenuously advocated.

The furious hatred which this dispatch aroused, the persistent efforts made to limit its effect, and to reverse its action, taken in conjunction with the after history of the Colony, are strong proofs of its justice, wisdom, and efficacy. The dispatch affirmed that 'in the conduct which was pursued towards the Kafir nation by the colonists, and the public authorities of the Colony, through a long series of years, the Kafirs had ample justification of the late war; they had a perfect right to hazard the experiment, however hopeless, of extorting by force that redress they could not otherwise expect to obtain; and that the claim of sovereignty over the new province bounded by the Keiskamma and the Kei must be renounced. It rests upon a conquest resulting from a war in which, as far as I am at present enabled to judge, the original justice is on the side of the conquered, not of the victorious party.'

How colonial opinion viewed this policy the following extract shows. Prior to the arrival of the dispatch rumours had been current in Cape Town that the Home Government would not approve of Sir Benjamin D'Urban's action. Speaking of this Wilmot and Chase say in their history' :-

'The origin of the rumours preceding the arrival of this cruel despatch may be found in the proceedings of a small but active party in the South African metropolis, which commenced a systematic crusade, under the guise of humanity, against the Government and colonists. During the whole progress of hostilities that most influential and talented public journal—the Sent/i African Advertiser, printed in Cape Town—the editor of which had allied himself to the ultra and not quite disinterested views of the Rev. Dr. Philip—employed its utmost, and not very scrupulous endeavours in an unremitting series of articles to prejudice the case of the Colony.'

'After such representations, contradicted at the time by the frontier presses and one at Cape Town, which were never heeded, it can be no matter of wonder that the home authorities and the public were deceived, and this may account for the despatch dictated by the peculiar bias of its author. But the delusion still continued to be maintained by the industry, worthy of a better cause, of the Cape Town Miss/u,: part,', and its tools on the extreme frontier, who in order to deepen the impression, employed i/it asnle device of exhibiting before the humane but too credulous masses of the British people a living specimen of "oppressed friends and brothers".

The reader who, after the lapse of half a century, is striving to arrive at the truth on this fiercely controverted issue, will find it difficult to accept a view which the historian, writing thirty years later, can enforce only by imputing hypocrisy, self-interest, bias, and conscious deceit. to his opponents, especially when these are men like Dr. Philip and Mr. Fairbairn, editor of the South African Advertiser. To such it appears more reasonable and likely that not a few colonists on the frontier were cruel and unjust oppressors of the natives, doing these deeds of violence from intelligible and obvious motives. They wished to enrich themselves easily and quickly. they yielded to the temptation of 'land hunger,' they liked the excitement of fighting the natives, and they considered it Utopian folly to even attempt to benefit Hottentots and Kafirs. What the journalists and historians who uphold the anti-missionary view have never yet succeeded in showing is why, if they were either hypocrites or misguided and self-seeking persons, Dr. Philip and his helpers should have cared to lift a finger on behalf of Kafir and Hottentot, and how, if they were misguided fools, they could have so long and so powerfully influenced public opinion.

In December, 1839, the territory which had been wrested from the Kafirs in 1834 and 1835 was restored, including the portion between the Great Fish and Keiskamma Rivers; in the latter part of 1836 Colonel Smith, the Commandant of the Province of Adelaide, was tried for the murder of Hintza, and, in full accordance with colonial precedent, acquitted; and in the House of Commons at the same time an Act was passed 'for the prevention and punishment of offences committed by His Majesty's subjects within certain territories adjacent to the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope.' This Act was intended by Parliament to be a restraint upon that system of outrage which invoked colonial law to punish and rob natives, who in many cases were ignorant of the existence and meaning of the laws they were supposed to have violated. On the other hand, it was intended to prevent colonists guilty of crimes that were detestable to common humanity from being able to crush those natives who had sufficient knowledge of colonial law to make the attempt to secure protection. Theoretically the law was impartial; actually, as it had been constantly administered by the aggressive party, the weaker always went to the wall. One result of the legislation of 1835 and 1836 was to induce large numbers of Boers, no longer able to do exactly as they pleased with Kafir and Hottentot, to begin those migrations which ultimately settled the regions afterwards known as the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

But legislation, even when on just, humane, and righteous lines, could only begin the settlement of such thorny difficulties as those connected with the Kafirs. The policy advocated by Dr. Philip, especially in the later developments of 1846 and 1850, can only be fairly judged by never losing sight of the fact that large numbers of colonists, all of whom had direct pecuniary interest in the results of their actions, were instant in season and out of season in both denouncing and in seeking to reverse it. Under these circumstances it is more remarkable that those who cared for the souls of the natives achieved the measure of success which attended their efforts, than that they were not able steadily and progressively to enforce their views more absolutely over the whole of South Africa.

Side by side with the powerful influence exerted upon public opinion in Great Britain, and upon public administration in Cape Colony, Dr. Philip steadily sustained work at the various stations occupied when he reached Africa, and from time to time added new names to the long list. The following facts outline the progress made in direct and special missionary work during the stormy epoch of 1820 to 1850

1. PACALTSDORP. Soon after the death of Charles Pacalt, its founder, on November 26, 1818, Mr. J. G. Messer took charge of this station, and continued to labour there until the end of 1821. At this time there was an average attendance at the Sunday services of about 300, and he also instituted a Sunday School for the instruction of slaves, and of those who could attend only on that day. In January, 1822, the superintendence passed into the hands of Mr. William Anderson, the veteran Griqua Town missionary, who brought to the task the ripe experience of over twenty years spent in close contact with South African natives. Mr. Pacalt had left all his property, in value about £300, to be used for the support of Christian work at his own greatly loved station. This money was chiefly devoted to the building of a suitable place for public worship, which was opened in June, 1825. Mr. Anderson continued in charge of Pacaltsdorp until his retirement from active service in 1848. He died at Pacaltsdorp on September 24, 1852. He had passed forty-seven years in active service. He was one of the pioneers in one of the hardest of African fields, and one of the most successful of Christian workers. During his twenty-seven years as superintendent at Pacaltsdorp he was assisted by a succession of active educational workers, such as Mr. Rogers Edwards, afterwards of Lattakoo, Mr. Thomas Edwards, and Mr. Hood. The history of Pacaltsdorp is one of the most satisfactory on the Society's book. The founder transformed the moral and spiritual wilderness into a garden and died there while Anderson spent the last twenty-six years of his active life there, most of his family actively co-operating with him in evangelical and educational work. For many years Pacaltsdorp came nearest to the ideal of the founders of the Society as to what a station should be. Begun in prayer and self-sacrifice, it became at once a haven of refuge for the downtrodden and oppressed; it uplifted and instructed the degraded, forlorn, and ignorant slaves and Hottentots; the first workers linked their lives inseparably to its interests, and very many proofs were granted to them of the transforming and renewing power of the Gospel. 'Pacaltsdorp,' said a visitor in 1831, 'is one of those places on which the eyes look, and the thoughts dwell with peculiar feelings and associations. . . . Comparing what the place was when the mission was established with what it now is, it may well be said, "What hath God wrought'.

2. THEOPOLTS, sixty miles north-east of Bethelsdorp, was begun in 1814 by a number of Hottentots from Bethelsdorp under the care of G. Ullbricht and J. Bartlett, upon land granted for the purpose by the then governor, Sir John Cradock. The former died in 1821, and the station passed into the care of Mr. George Barker. The methods of work and conditions of life were similar to those at Bethclsdorp. The land belonged to the station, and formed the one secure spot for Hottentots in all that region. A Christian church was constituted, and many became members by profession of love, trust in, and loyalty to Jesus Christ. In 1827 the work had progressed so as to require a new church capable of seating 800 or 900 persons. In 1829 about 100 families removed to the 'Neutral Territory.' In 1830 Mr. Christopher Sass became Mr. Barker's colleague. and in 1839 the latter removed to Paarl. Mr. Sass, who like William Anderson was an Orange River veteran, remained at Theopolis until his death in 1849. At this station also educational work was vigorously prosecuted. Being beyond the limits of the old colony and on the border of the Kafir territory, Theopolis suffered severely from the Kafir wars.

3. GRAHAM'S Town, twenty-six miles from Theopolis, and seventy from Bcthclsclorp, was founded as a centre of trade and a military post for the district of Albany, as it was then called. The missionaries at once recognized the importance of the post, and mission work was begun there in 1827 by Mr. John Monro, and continued by him for the next eleven years. He ministered both to colonists and natives, the latter consisting of Hottentots, Kalirs, Mantatecs, and other tribes.

4. HANKEY. This station, so prominent in the story of South African missions, consisting of a tract of land stretching along both sides of the Gamtoos River, and situated about sixty miles from Bcthclsdorp, was purchased for £1,500 in 1822. It was designed as an outlet for the surplus population, and consisted partly of pasture land, and partly of land which by irrigation could be made fertile and fruitful. About too residents of Bethelsdorp co-operated with the Society in the purchase, and supplied £500 of the purchase money. The extent of the station was 4,100 acres. The first European worker was J. G. Messer, who superintended the station from 1823 to 1831. He was assisted by Mr. William Foster, who was sent there in 1826 to establish a school for the children of missionaries, like the South Sea Academy described on pp. 296, 297, and to superintend educational work. In this project Mr. Foster was unsuccessful, and after a very brief spell of service returned to England in 1829, and ceased in 1830 to be connected with the Society. Mr. Messer was succeeded by Mr. John Melvill, who laboured there till 1838. Mr. Edward Williams carried on the work till 1842, in which year William Philip, son of Dr. Philip, took charge of the station. He greatly improved it by carrying out successfully the great engineering feat of cutting a tunnel through a mountain, thus utilizing the water of the Gamtoos to irrigate part of the valley. This cost £2,300, of which the Society gave £500, the rest being raised from the rental of the land. In July, 1845, Mr. Philip was drowned in the Gamtoos River, and was succeeded by his brother, T. Durant Philip, who remained in charge of the station until 1876.

5. KAT RIVER SETTLEMENT. Next to Bethelsdorp itself this station became the object of most bitter and envenomed attack. To this the site chosen, the date of formation, and the influence which the settlement began to exert all contributed. The Kat River formed in 1820 the western boundary of Katirland. It is about 200miles north-cast of Bcthelsdorp. That earnest and devoted missionary, Joseph Williams, who in 18 16 attempted to found a mission in this region, died in 18i8, and for a time the enterprise failed. In 1829 the Colonial Government authorized Captain A. Stockcnström, then commissioner-general on the eastern frontier, to execute a plan which he himself proposed. This was to form a strong Hottentot settlement in the 'Neutral Territory.' The spot chosen was a tract of wild country, surrounded by mountains whence the streams flow which form the Kat River. The original idea was to limit the selection of Hottentots to those who by character and intelligence were likely to make good settlers. But so great was the inrush of Hottentots, as soon as the project became known, that this principle of selection could not be maintained. The first location consisted of 250 men, capable of sell-defence should they be attacked by Kafirs. This was in J829, and in the same year ioo Hottentot families came from Theopolis, and forty from Bethelsdorp, bringing with them their cattle and farming implements. The plan of settlement followed on this occasion was one not unfrequently imitated in later times.

'The plan adopted in the distribution of the land was to divide the whole tract into locations of from 4,000 to 6,000 acres each; to plant in each location one, two, or more villages, as eligible situations were found for irrigation; to divide the arable land into allotments of from four to six acres, of which every family capable of cultivating it received one, while additional lots were reserved for such as should distinguish themselves by superior industry, or by their exertions in maintaining good order, or who after probation should be able to show that they possessed ample means for the profitable occupation of more land. The pastureland was reserved for commonage to each location. The conditions to grantees were, to build a cottage, to enclose the arable ground, and to bring it under proper cultivation within five years; at the expiration of which, the conditions being fulfilled, the property was to be granted in freehold; but if these conditions were neglected the allotment to revert to the Government. Each holder to have a right to keep live stock in proportion to extent of arable land and the capabilities of pasturage.'

At first the Kafirs were hostile, but at length Makomo and other chiefs became friendly with the settlers, and soon the settlement had a Hottentot population of 4,000. The Government appointed a minister to look after the religious interests of the people. Mr. Thompson and the Hottentots from the missionary institutions requested Mr. James Read from Bethelsdorp to become their minister. Mr. Read, Vanderkemp's colleague, was at this time the Society's senior missionary in South Africa, he having already spent twenty-nine years in its service. The village which formed the centre of mission work was called Philipton1 and there the congregation at public worship on Sunday amounted to about i,000. From Philipton natives visited as local preachers the surrounding districts, especially Buxton and Wilberforce. As the locations were widely scattered educational work was difficult. At Philipton Mr. Read's son—Mr. James Read, junior—superintended the day school, and the infant school was taught by one of the missionary's daughters. In the various villages the best educated of the Hottentots were appointed teachers.

In 1835, by order of Colonel Smith, Mr. Read went to Graham's Town, and was not allowed to return to Philipton. He visited England in 1836, and gave evidence before the House of Commons Committee on the treatment of native races, and in 1838 returned to Kat River. There he laboured until the abandonment and destruction of the settlement in the Kafir War of 1851.

6. KAFFRARIA. In 1826, at the suggestion of Dr. Philip, Mr. John Brownlee recommenced mission work in this great district. He had reached Cape Town in 1817, and after a short period of work at Somerset Farm, while attempting to establish a mission on the Chumie River. he became at the close of 1818 a Government agent, and resigned his connection with the Society. Seven years later Dr. Philip invited him to resume work as a missionary, and in January, 1826, with Jan Tzatzoe as his helper, he went to Buffalo River. There he began his new labours on the spot which is now King William's Town. The kraal of Tzatzoe's father was here, and the missionary was heartily welcomed by the old chief. In 1827 he was joined by Mr. and Mrs. Kayser of Halle, who left him in 1833 to found a new station on the Keiskamma River, and in 1836 Mr. Kayser went to Knapp's Hope, with which station he was identified till his death in 1859. Brownlee, amid all the vicissitudes through which the district passed between 1834 and 1851, kept steadily at work in King William's Town and the district, until in 1867 he retired from active service. Both he and his wife died there in 1871. From Tzatzoe's kraal as a centre evangelistic work in the early days of the mission was done over a wide area, Mr. Kayser and young Jan Tzatzoe visiting large numbers of Kafir kraals. The New Testament was translated into Kafir by Mr. Brownlee and Mr. Kayser.

We have already traced the early Kafir wars, the legislation of 1836, and the intensely hostile spirit in which this was received. With the change of Government in England came a change of colonial policy. It was not, happily for the natives of South Africa, possible to entirely reverse Lord Glenelgs policy, but all that could be attempted in that direction was done by the Colonial Government at Cape Town. In 1846 war again broke out with the Kafirs, resulting in the formal annexation of Kaifraria. As the Wesleyan Society began to throw so much energy into their mission work in Kafiraria the London Missionary Society was able to gradually withdraw from the stations it had occupied there, and concentrate its efforts upon Bechwanaland and Matabeleland.

7. CALEDON INSTITUTION. This station was for a time thrown into confusion by the evil conduct of John Seidenladen. He was placed in charge of the station in i8; i. In 1819 Dr. Philip found his work so neglected, and his character so deteriorated, that he removed him. But the Government refused to allow a successor to be appointed, and it was only by the most strenuous exertions that Dr. Philip averted the destruction of the station. For about six years all regular mission work was suspended, but in 187 Mr. Henry Helm, who had already completed sixteen years work at Kok's Kraal, Bethesda, Griqua Town, and Bethelsdorp, re-opened the institution. Mr. Helm was the first member in the African field of a family which has rendered yeoman service in the century's task of evangelizing Africa. In 1835 Daniel J. Helm, son of Henry, was appointed to co-operate in this work with his father, who died in 1848. Daniel then conducted the affairs of the institution satisfactorily until about 1859, when the station became self- supporting. He died there in 1873.

8. The other stations, which during this period continued cesitres of missionary activity, were Paarl, Tulbagh, L)ysselsdorp, Port Elizabeth, Uitenhagc, Graaff Reinet, Colesberg, Somerset, Cradock, and Fort Beaufort.

At these centres the work proceeded, successfully at some, unsuccessfully at others, and with varying retrogression and progression at others. Between 1840 and 1850, the financial position of the Society led the Directors to urge upon the churches within the Colony the view that the time had come for them to relieve the home organization of any further expenditure. This appeal and its consequences we will trace in the next chapter.

After twenty seven years of active and resourceful labour, Dr. Philip was beginning to feel severely the combined pressure of advancing years and of personal sorrows. After the sad and sudden death, in 1845, of his son William, the doctor sent to the Directors his resignation, and only at their most earnest request withdrew it for a time. In 1844 Mr. J. C. Brown had arrived from England to take charge of Union Chapel, Cape Town, but did not afford Dr. Philip the relief he had looked for, since he relinquished work there at the close of 1847. Then Mr. Elliott, of Barrack Street Chapel, for a while undertook the duties at Union Chapel. On October 23, 1847, Mrs. Philip died. She was in many ways a remarkable woman. In addition to all the work falling within her legitimate sphere, from a very early date she entirely relieved Dr. Philip of all correspondence with the Directors on the details of finance. She kept all the extensive and complicated accounts of the South African Mission, and was a business-like woman of a very unusual type. Notwithstanding most urgent appeals from Dr. Philip, for reasons soon to appear, no competent successor was appointed. He paid a long visit to Hankey, and, owing partly to his increasing weakness, and partly to Mrs. Philip's death, the affairs of the mission generally began to fall into confusion. On July 18, 1848, he wrote home, 'I beg you to recollect that I am working in the service of the Society with one foot in the grave and the other in heaven.' Just at this time the controversy, long maintained, commenced on the question of leaving the stations within the Colony to support themselves, the Society using its funds and resources only to forward the work of the Gospel among the l3cchwanas, and to carry it to tribes and regions yet unvisited. Had Dr. Philip been twenty years younger, he would undoubtedly have exerted a powerful controlling influence over a discussion which served only, so far as he was concerned, to disturb the closing months of his life. At length the right successor to Dr. Philip appeared in the person of the Rev. William Thompson. who had spent the years 1837 to 1840, and .1841 to 1848, in mission work at Bellary, in South India. He accepted the pastorate of Union Chapel, Cape Town, where he began work in June, i 80. lie thus ceased to be on the Society's staff as a missionary, but he was also appointed, in succession to Dr. Philip, Agent at Cape Town for the South African missions of the Society. By him the affairs of the missions in the Colony were directed with great devotion, wisdom, and success, during the stormy and troublesome period of the twenty-five years from 1850 to 1873. Dr. Philip died at Hankey, August 27, 1831.

The death of Dr. Philip closed a life that will ever be memorable in South Africa. When he first set foot on its soil in 1819, the Hottentots and other native tribes in and near Cape Colony had practically no rights, and were in a worse position than the slaves. When he died in 1851 largely as the result of his own clear, wise, bold, and persistent efforts, the liberties they now enjoy were secured and rendered permanent. When he took up the reins in 1819, the affairs of almost every station needed the most careful attention. He brought order out of chaos, he imparted the impulse of his own vigorous personality to those who lacked a stimulus, he consolidated and developed mission work, notwithstanding the weakness caused by the folly of some of its friends, and the hindrances thrown in its path by those whose bitter hatred nothing could remove. His rule was not always wholly acceptable to those who came within its scope, but it was always the rule of a strong man, of one who loved the truth, who fought for freedom, and who was as ready to resist injustice in the highest places as he was to stretch out the hand of brotherly help to the lowest and most degraded savage or slave. Although in the twenty-seven years he fought many a sturdy conflict, he was not quick to enter into a struggle, but being in he bore himself so that those who opposed him were likely to remember his prowess. On the foundation laid by Vanderkemp he raised strong and fair the structure of human freedom.

Dr. Philip's departure was closely preceded by the death of a good comrade in arms and a veteran in service, and still more closely succeeded by another. In 1848 James Kitchingman died; in 18 James Read. it was to Kitchingman that Dr. Philip turned when in 1821 he was striving to infuse new life and hope into the discouraged and despondent dwellers at Bethclsdorp. There he toiled with success from 1821 to 1826, and again from 1832 to the close of his active service. James Read's name has appeared constantly in this narrative and his life story covers the whole of the first half-century. His work had been done in what Mr. Thompson calls, in the letter dated May 29, 1852, announcing his decease, 'the high places of the field. With Vanderkemp he founded Bethelsdorp, and after the doctor's death he carried on that work. With Campbell he made the memorable first journey to Lattakoo, and later on he began the Lattakoo Mission. Though for a time the object of bitter calumny, lie lived patiently through the season of cloud and darkness. He was the central missionary influence in the Kat River Settlement. So eager was he to influence the natives to whom he had consecrated his life, that he chose a despised Hottentot for his own wife, allying himself with her in the hope that he might thus gain greater influence for good. Thus his African service of fifty years passed in 'the very seat of missionary warfare.' 'Few men,' wrote Mr. Thompson, 'have been assailed to the degree he was when in the prosecution of his self-denying labours, few have been less vulnerable than he, and there have been few men whose characters have risen more triumphant than his over the misconception and worse malice and misrepresentation of unthinking or wicked men.