The
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Edited with introduction,
footnotes and sketch-map by D.H. Varley and H.M. Matthew. |
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Archdeacon
Merriman was appointed Archdeacon of Grahamstown by
Bishop Robert Gray in 1848. His instructions were to expand the church in the
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'preach to barbarous people the saving grace of
Christianity.' In accomplishing these goals he travelled
widely throughout the Eastern Frontier regions of the |
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and this is their usual custom. In fact the
Methodists have no Sunday School there of their
own—why should they? We are doing their work, and I had to give tickets of attendance
to their children (the Wesleyan teacher’s own son among the number) for which
at certain seasons they receive books as rewards.
After this I was
less astonished that the reading the Athanasian Creed
in the Service on Whitsunday and Trinity Sunday should seem a startling novelty
to the congregation, and that the clerk should be unable to find the place on
the first Sunday until it was half concluded. The principal man resident at
On Thursday 7th June 1 left home on foot
accompanied by a Kaffir man (Wilhelm Goliat) to make
a visitation of the Winterberg, Mancazana
Post, the Moravian Missionary Station of Shiloh, and return to the opening of
Fort Beaufort Church.
As Wilhelm could
understand but little English, and I still less of Kaffir, our prospect of
communication with each other did not appear to be great. However he knew Dutch
well, and between the three tongues we contrived to make ourselves intelligible
to each other, using sometimes a third person as interpreter between us. But
Wilhelm’s desire of learning English was so great that we ended by usually
conversing in that tongue.
Our first day’s
march was wet and disagreeable, leaving Graham’s Town at 3 o’clock and reaching
Fort Brown 2 hours after sunset. The next day we walked to
On Sunday I
officiated and administered the Holy Communion to about 7 persons in the little
school room, just below the Didima berg, and to my
very great joy my Kaffir attendant, into whose heart I had by this time wound
myself, presented himself among the communicants, bringing at the same time his
certificate or quarterly ticket from the Wesleyan community of which he is a
member. As this is to the best of my belief the first Kaffir that has ever
communicated with the English Church, which he did unsolicited and uninvited by
me (I had simply informed him on the road that I was going to the Winterberg to celebrate the communion and was carrying the
vessels over my shoulder, as he was carrying my few clothes), I could not but
call to mind the Bishop’s words to me at Protea, viz, that there seemed to be a special
grace attending the first celebration of the sacraments in any place. This was
the first time I believe that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper had ever been
celebrated on that mountain. Sincerely do I trust that this
first fruits of that interesting people may be the earnest of an abundant
harvest of them in our communion hereafter. Though if it be so we shall have
cause to say of them, as must be said in this instance, “other men have laboured, and we have entered into their labours
This single
circumstance I thought abundantly rewarded my going on foot instead of on
horseback. For I should never, unless by walking, have had
sufficient communication with Wilhelm to win his confidence. Nor should
I have had the opportunity which I enjoyed of going and sitting for an hour
occasionally in the Kaffir kraals, getting friends at least with the little
children and women, drinking their sour milk (which it is useful to learn to
like) and very generally concluding by reading to them a Psalm from the Book of
Psalms in their own tongue, to which they invariably listened with very devout
attention. Nor could I, except by walking, have stopped to pluck and admire the
very beautiful flowers with which the bush is at this time full, as well as the
splendid bulbs for which the Winter-berg is famous, many of which were still in
bloom.
On Monday 11 th [June] we had a meeting of the
inhabitants of the Winterberg to consult about the
difficulties in which they were involved by the debt which still stood against
them for the unfinished buildings begun some four years ago by Mr Boon. After much discussion I persuaded them to make a
vigorous effort to raise the funds and satisfy all claims against the end of
September when I promised to visit them again; well knowing that they would
raise nothing towards a clergyman’s stipend or for any other church purpose
while this burden hung on them and afforded them a constant theme for
grumbling against Mr Boon, whose zeal had certainly
seemed in this matter to have outrun his discretion.
The day following I
set out in company with Mr Wilson for