While detained in the colony, Moffat lodged with a Dutch farmer, at a
village thirty-six miles from Cape Town, named Stellenbosch. Here he
learnt Dutch, an acquisition of great advantage to him in after life, as
it enabled him to preach to the Boers, and to as many of their native
servants as understood that language. He also accompanied the Rev.
George Thorn, of the Dutch Reformed Church, on an evangelistic tour. It
occupied six weeks, during which time they rode a distance of about
seven hundred miles.

After a further sojourn at Stellenbosch, Moffat visited Cape Town, and
busied himself in gaining such practical knowledge as came within his
reach. He also visited the military hospital there. Many of the soldiers
were Scotch, and he had a warm heart for soldiers, his brother Alexander
having gone to India in the ranks some years before.

At last the requisite permission came, and Moffat and Kitchingman
prepared for their journey. Waggons were bought, oxen hired, leave taken
of friends, and on the 22nd of September, 1817, Mr. and Mrs.
Kitchingman, Robert Moffat, and a missionary named Ebner, who, for a
time, had been with Africaner, and who had come to Cape Town for
supplies, set out on their way to Namaqualand.

The history of the Namaqualand Mission has been sketched in outline in
our introductory chapter. Africaner, although an outlaw and a terror to
the farmers of the colony, had a respect for the English. He visited the
missionaries on one occasion, prior to their removal to Warm Bath, and
said, "I love the English, for I have always heard that they are the
friends of the poor black man." He also sent his children to them for
instruction; yet subsequent events, as we have seen, enraged him, and
led him to destroy the mission station at Warm Bath.