Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/39

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
1831.]
SOUTH AFRICA.
9

for redeeming female children from slavery, it was deeply interesting to see sprightly children, the age of my own, brought forward to be sold for manumission. As I watched a slave mother who held a little girl by each hand, and observed her animated countenance, lighted up by the hope of obtaining the boon of liberty for her offspring, the question recurred to me, Why were these children born in bondage and mine born free? Was it only because the oppressor laid his unhallowed hand upon their parents, and because mine, by divine mercy, were saved from such oppression? A reckless persecutor was indeed permitted to cast one of my predecessors into prison, because he dared not to violate his conscience; and to keep him there till his days were ended by the severity, long before he had attained to my own age; but this entailed no curse on me or on my children. The persecutor bore the curse! But were men to act on the great Christian principle, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them;" there would be neither persecution nor slavery.

We visited the noble Library, the reading room of which is open to all classes, also the College, Hospital, and Prisons. We attended a meeting for the formation of a Temperance Society, and were present at a meeting for religious purposes in the chapel of the London Missionary Society. In this meeting my companion spoke for the first time in the line of gospel ministry. I was also favoured with an opportunity to express my Christian interest on behalf of those assembled, in whose company we felt the force of the declaration "God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness is accepted of him."

On the 15th, having parted from our kind friends in Cape Town, with earnest desires that many more might be added to those already labouring to spread the knowledge of Christ, and to ameliorate the condition of their fellow-men, we returned on board the Science, being accompanied by Dr. Philip, who before he left us, prayed vocally for our preservation.

On the 18th, we were again out of sight of land; which,