whence we enjoyed an extensive view towards the north, but a limited one to the other quarters, arising from our position being upon the northern limit of a belt of broken porphyritic mountains, at least thirty miles in breadth, and in which are situated the sources of the Nu Gariep or Black River. Our movements in this district were greatly retarded by the heavy falls of rain that almost daily occurred, and which more than once flooded the rivers.

On the 24th November we re-crossed the Caledon nearly opposite to Lishuane, and from thence directed our course towards Thaba Nchu, a large Bechuana station, where the remnants of various disorganised tribes had been collected by the Rev. Mr. Archbell. The principal chief was a Barolong, and the greater number of the inhabitants were also of that nation. At a little distance from this establishment a considerable body of Korannas reside, under a chief of their own, who, to secure the friendship and countenance of the Missionary, has appointed one of his most prudent and influential men to live near to him. To the North and North-East of this station we found the remnants of the Lighoya, a tribe which some considerable time ago emigrated from the north of the Vaal River. They are of the Bechuana family, and since the death of their principal chief, one portion has become tributary to Sikonyela, and the other to Moshesh. After acquiring considerable information at Thaba Nchu, relative to the Barolong and the tribes which formerly occupied the country towards the sources of the Likwa, or Vaal River, particularly those of the latter, which approached Latakoo in 1823, and were defeated by the Griquas, we left it on the 4th of December, and directed our course towards Philippolis.

Letter from the Rev. S. Rolland to the Civil Commissioner of Colesberg. Beersheba, 26th June, 1837. HONOURED SIR,-Having had the pleasure a few weeks since to see His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor at Graham's Town, and to speak with him concerning many unpleasant circumstances in which I find myself placed with regard to some Farmers living in the neighbourhood of my station, he recommended me to apply to you in any case of difficulty.

I therefore take the present occasion to call upon you for direction and assistance. Last Saturday two young farmers came here rather late in the evening, one called Tuin Botes or Boters, the other Barend Lowtring. They declared to the Chief that they were come to take Bushmen from off the place. The Chief told them that the Bushmen were free people and were attending Divine worship and sending their children to the school, that if they would hire them they should apply to me. They replied in injurious terms towards Government and Missionaries, and said, were the Bushmen in the school or under my table they would take them without asking me.

They kept their word. On Sunday morning they went to the Bushmen with their guns. I heard the crying of the defenceless creatures,

and went to see what the farmers were doing. They had caught a child, but on seeing me let it go again, and in answer to my inquiries told me they had come to hire those people, and that two families were willing to go with them for a time with four young children.

But they were no sooner out of sight than they took the children on their horses and turned away the parents, threatening to shoot them if they did not instantly return here. They were obliged to obey to save their lives, and came weeping over the loss of their four children, the youngest of which was yet a suckling. Before leaving the place they threatened that a party of Thirty Farmers were ready to come and take the remainder, and that if interfered with they will attack the place from all sides and destroy it, with other offensive language.

As we are too weak to contend with the Farmers, strong and numerous as they are, we appeal to Government for assistance. The above mentioned Tuin Botes is a bad character. A short time ago he returned from an expedition into Kaffirland with some Bastards who were living at Kornet Spruit and a Basuto Chief called April. He had gone there with an intention to steal cattle, but having failed in that, he united with the same Bastards and some other Farmers to rob the aforenamed Basutos of 190 head of cattle. When the Basutos went to ask their cattle back, they shot two of them. He is now living with other farmers in possession of the said cattle. The Basutos have applied to me for redress concerning their cattle and the two of them who were shot.

In hope that you will have the goodness to send some Fieldcornet to inquire into these things (Gideon Joubert is acquainted with this country), I subscribe myself, &c.,

This letter was forwarded by the Civil Commissioner of Colesberg on the 6th July to the Lieutenant-Governor, with information that Fieldcornet Joubert had been despatched to the spot to endeavour to procure the restitution of the children through the instrumentality of the other farmers. Instructions had previously been received to use every endeavour to apprehend Theunis Botha and Frans Lottering to answer to charges of an earlier date, and the Civil Commissioner reports what he is doing in the matter.

On the 16th of July the Civil Commissioner of Colesberg reports that Field-cornet Joubert had been sent to investigate the matter of the carrying away of the Bushmen children. He had returned and reported the statement to be correct. His journal is attached, but it contains nothing relative to the Basutos beyond what is stated in the foregoing letter.

On the 26th of July Lieutenant-Governor Stockenstrom forwards the whole correspondence to Governor Sir Benjamin D'Urban for transmission to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Letter from the Rev. E. Casalis to the Lieutenant Governor.
Morija, 19th September, 1837.

SIR, The Chief Morosi, who is one of the tributaries of Moshesh, desiring to have an interview with Your Honour, wishes me to write some lines for him. He will be able to explain himself the affair that brings him in the Colony. When His Excellency Sir Benjamin D'Urban was in Graham's Town, Morosi was introduced to him, and received as a token of friendship some copper rings, sugar, and a coat. His Excellency gave him also for Moshesh a jacket and a pair of trousers.

Moshesh feeling very thankful for that present, embraces the opportunity of Morosi's returning to Graham's Town to salute Your Honour and state that his most sincere desire is to live on friendly terms with the Colony. He begs you to receive Morosi as one of his great men, and to put to him as many questions as you may think proper in order to ascertain the present state of things in these parts. He regrets not being able, on account of the constant occupation he has at home, to pay you a visit himself, but he hopes at a future period to have that pleasure. He prays Your Honour to believe that he felt most sensibly the generous way in which Morosi was repaid by His Excellency for some cattle that had been taken from him by the people of Somerset.

Moshesh hopes that by the return of Morosi you will let him have some "pleasant words" about yourself and the general affairs of the country.

Extracts from James Backhouse's book entitled "A Narrative of a Visit to the Mauritius and South Africa."

(The author was a Member of the Society of Friends, who was making a Missionary Tour in South Africa.)

On arriving at Bethulie, we found the Missionary, J. P. Pellissier, very ill, but received a kind and Christian welcome both from him and from Samuel Rolland, of Beersheba, who was casually here, and from both their wives. The Paris Missionary Society, or Société des Missions Evangéliques chez les Peuples non Chrétiens, etablie à Paris, has sent out several protestant teachers, of great piety and usefulness, to Southern Africa. They have several stations in this part of the country.

30th (June 1839.) Bethulie is near the Zwarte Rivier (the Orange), and about four miles and a half below its junction with the Caledon, which is its principal tributary. The settlement presented an interesting aspect from one of the contiguous hills, which I ascended several times to acquire warmth. The mission-house was a humble thatched dwelling, of brick. There were also a few adjacent buildings, chiefly of clay, comprising a chapel, school-house, and waggon-shed. These stood near a streamlet issuing from a fountain, between two

basaltic ridges, and irrigating a strip of corn-land. At a right-angle with these, and along the winding-foot of a ridge of tumbled basalt, lay the habitations of the natives, who were of different Bechuana tribes, but chiefly Barolongs. Their establishments generally consisted of a low, circular, thatched hut, and of two or three mat-huts for their servants, within a circular inclosure, of erect, dry sticks. A multitude of these, some of them situated rather distantly among the hills, with a few large circular cattle-kraals, of sticks or stone, interspersed, formed this little city, of about 2,000 inhabitants.

At half-past ten o'clock the bell rang, and about 200 persons assembled in the chapel, which was formerly the dwelling of an artisan; it was scarcely capable of containing more than the number assembled; the windows were without glass, and a piercing, frosty wind rendered the place almost untenable. The people, who are black, and somewhat of negro features, sat on the floor; they were clad in under garments and karosses of jackal and other skins, and some of them had on caps of the same. Most of the women had cotton handkerchiefs tied about their heads; a few had cotton gowns. Some of the men wore jackets and trousers, surmounted, at this cold season of the year, by karosses, which served well as cloaks. Samuel Rolland preached in Sechuana, and afterwards interpreted for me. Only a small part of the population of Bethulie attended public worship: few of them were converted characters; but the others were brought within the range of a certain measure of Christian influence that was beneficial.

7th mo. 1st. I visited some small settlements among the hills. The people being of different tribes, had their dwellings variously formed. Those of the Barolongs were circular, and had upright sides plastered with clay, and thatched tops; they were surrounded by a fence of dry sticks. Some of the others were conical, and others were hemispherical, with a protruding neck. Both of the latter were plastered over with clay, and opened into circular enclosures of sticks, reeds, or the cane-like stems of Kaffir-corn. These enclosures were neatly swept; the people cooked their victuals in them, and sat in them in the day-time. The doorways of their huts were so low, that some of them could scarcely be entered on the hands and knees. This precaution was adopted to keep out beasts of prey. The doors were of rough wicker work. At one of the huts, some people were eating sour milk out of a cylindrical wooden vessel, with wooden spoons, of large size, and a female was boiling a little meal and milk on a small fire of wood, in an earthen vessel, for a child which she had at her back. The people were all dressed in skins; most of them wore beads round their necks, and brass earrings in their ears; some had also rings of brass around their arms. A few of them could speak Dutch; though my knowledge of this language was small, I conversed with some of them through this medium. An old man, who observed some of the numerous dogs barking at me, kindly accompanied ine with a stick to drive them off. The Chief of the Barolongs,

at this place, was named Lepui; both he and his wife were members of the church his wife's name was Makhoro, signifying the mother of Khoro, Khoro being her son and eldest child. The whole number of church members was, at this time, fourteen; nine others were in a hopeful state. The schools were suspended on account of the measles. The usual attendance was from sixty to seventy. Two Dutch traders, from Uitenhage, were here with their waggons. They had been travelling further into the interior, for about two months.

2nd. We rode about fifty-four miles to Beersheba. At six miles from Bethulie, we passed a remarkable, conical peak; and nine miles on our way, we crossed the Slyk Spruit, Muddy Branch, a deep watercourse, passing through beds of argillaceous rock, and forming pools, bordered with reeds. Here we were joined by Samuel Rolland, who became our guide. At one place on the road, a Boer was ploughing. These people often sojourn for a time in remote parts of this country, and plough, or feed their cattle. We also passed one of their encampments, consisting of a tent and four waggons, and another of six waggons, belonging to an emigrating Boer. At one of the places where we rested, a Welshman, who had married a Bechuana woman, was living in a poor, roof-like hut of reeds, near a spring that issued from some sandstone rocks in a hollow. The country over which we travelled was very similar in features to that from Philippolis to Bethulie. Basaltic hills, of various elevation, up to about 500 feet, stand in all directions on grassy plains, or form irregular ridges: clay-slate and clayey sandstone rarely occur among them. The last prevails about Beersheba, where also ruddle and pipe-clay show themselves.

In the absence of Elizabeth Rolland, we were politely welcomed by Claris Maeder, the wife of Francis Maeder, the artisan of the Beersheba station. Francis Maeder was a voluntary assistant in the schools, and occasionally in the devotional exercises of the chapel: he was at this time in Cape Town, superintending the printing of the Gospel according to Luke and John, in the dialect of this part of the country. The town of Beersheba is on the ascent of a rough sandstone hill, near the bottom of which, the houses of the missionary and artisan, the infant school house, chapel, &c., are situated. These, except the mission-house, were temporary buildings of mud and thatch. The houses of the coloured people were progressively improving; the round or oven-shaped huts, those composed of mats, and those which were circular and had upright, plastered sides, and thatched roofs, were giving way to what were called, in this country, Hartebeest houses. The walls of the huts with upright sides are often double. Within the inner circle, they are much occupied with tall baskets, plastered with clay, which are used for storing corn. The Hartebeest houses are so called from an imaginary similarity in their figure to the outline of the species of buffalo, called in South Africa the Hartebeest; they are usually built of reeds, and are sometimes plastered with mud; they are in the form of roofs, but