Page:South Africa (1878 Volume 1).djvu/229

This page needs to be proofread.

its effect is salutary. It has been built on a sweet healthy spot up among the hills, and nothing is more certain than the sincerity and true philanthropy of those who are engaged upon its work.

My friend who had carried me off from Fort Beaufort kept his word like a true man the next morning, in allowing me to start at the time named, and himself drove me over a high mountain to Lovedale. How we ever got up and down those hill sides with a pair of horses and a vehicle, I cannot even yet imagine;—but it was done. There was a way round, but the minister seemed to think that a straight line to any place or any object must be the best way, and over the mountain we went. Some other Wesleyan minister before his days, he said, had done it constantly and had never thought anything about it. The horses did go up and did go down; which was only additional evidence to me that things of this kind are done in the Colonies which would not be attempted in England.

On my going down the hill towards Lovedale, when we had got well out of the Healdtown district, an argument arose between me and my companion as to the general effect of education on Kafir life. He was of opinion that the Kafirs in that locality were really educated, whereas I was quite willing to elicit from him the sparks of his enthusiasm by suggesting that all their learning faded is soon as they left school. "Drive up to that hut," I said, picking out the best looking in the village, "and let us see whether there be pens, ink and paper in it." It was hardly a fair test, because such accommodation would not be found in the