names of those who, having laboured faithfully upon earth, have been
called to their reward; among these none stands forward with greater
prominence than that of Robert Moffat.

A brief glance at the development of the colony at the Cape of Good
Hope, and at the early efforts made to evangelise the native races, may
enable the reader better to understand the work carried on by Robert
Moffat, and the success achieved; also to realise something of the
position of affairs when he first landed in South Africa.

Discovered by the Portuguese in 1486, it was not until the middle of the
seventeenth century that much was done in the way of European
colonisation. In 1652 the bold and mountainous promontory of the Cape
was taken possession of by the Dutch, and a settlement was founded on
the site of the present Cape Town. The earliest colonists were chiefly
Dutch and German farmers; who were joined a little later on by numbers
of French and Piedmontese Huguenots, driven from their native lands for
conscience' sake.

At this early period the whole of what is now designated the Colony, was
inhabited by Hottentots, a people lighter in colour than the Kafirs and
Bechwanas, having pale yellow-brown skins, symmetrical in form when
young, hardy, and having small hands and feet. They have nomadic
tendencies; and, in their uncivilised state, scarcely practise
agriculture. Their system of government is somewhat patriarchal; and
they live in "kraals," or villages, consisting of bee-hive shaped huts,
arranged in circular form. Their ideas of a Deity are extremely faint,
they possess little in the nature of religious ceremonies, but the power
of sorcerers among them is great. According to the locality occupied,
they are known as Hottentots, Namaquas, or Corannas.