“I spent some time in viewing the Museum, which contains a great number of curiosities from China, Africa, the South Seas, and the West Indies.  It would be foolish for me to give you a description.  Suffice it to say that the sight is truly awful, the appearance of the wild beasts is very terrific, but I am unable to describe the sensations of my mind when gazing on the objects of Pagan worship.  Alas! how fallen are my fellow-creatures, bowing down to forms enough to frighten a Roman soldier, enough to shake the hardest heart.  Oh that I had a thousand lives, and a thousand bodies; all of them should be devoted to no other employment but to preach Christ to these degraded, despised, yet beloved mortals.”

With such enthusiasm he prepared to enter upon the work that lay before him.

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CHAPTER III.

Departure for the Cape.

The valedictory service was held at Surrey Chapel on the 30th of September.  Nine missionaries were set apart; four for the South Seas, one of whom was John Williams, the martyr of Erromanga, and five for South Africa.  At first it had been intended that Robert Moffat should accompany John Williams, but this was subsequently altered.

The missionaries for Africa embarked at Gravesend on the 18th of October in the Alacrity, and after a prosperous voyage reached Cape Town on the 13th of January, 1817.

Two of the party were appointed to stations within the colony; Moffat and Kitchingman were destined for Namaqualand.  Before they could proceed on their journey, however, permission had to be obtained from the Government, and this was at first refused.

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.