Missionary Premises at Gnadenthal.details

Gnadenthal, A Hottentot Village
(With an Engraving.)

Gnadenthal lies about one hundred and twenty Enf­lish miles from Capetown [in South Africa], in a direction nearly due east. It is the principal Missionary settlement of the United Brethren in South Africa.

The Mission among the Hottentots was begun in 1737, by George Schmidt, a man of remarkable zeal and courage, who settled at this place, then known by the name of Bavians-Kloof. The Hottentots heard the Gospel with attention, and he soon collecteda small Christian congregation. He taught the youth to read Dutch, and instructed the people in several useful arts. In 1744, leaving them to the care of a pius man, he went to Europe, with a view to represent te promisning state of the Mission, and to return with assistants. But, to his inexpressible grief and disappointment, he was not per­mitted by the Dutch East India Company to resume his labours; some ignorant people having insinuated, that the propagation of Christianity among the Hottentots would injure the interests of the colony. From that time, to the year 1795, the Brethren did not cease to make application to the Dutch Government for leave to send Missionaries to the Cape; especially as they heard that the small Hottentot Congregation had kept together for some time, in earnest expectation of the return of their beloved teacher. M. Schmidt had left a Dutch New

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