A mission had also been commenced by the London Missionary Society in Great Namaqualand, north of the Orange River, on the western coast of Africa; a country of which the following description was given by an individual who had spent many years there:  “Sir, you will find plenty of sand and stones, a thinly scattered population, always suffering from want of water, on plains and hills roasted like a burnt leaf, under the scorching rays of a cloudless sun.”

The missionaries, after a journey of great difficulty and suffering, reached the land of the Namaquas, and halted for a time at a place which they named “Silent Hope,” and then at “Happy Deliverance;” finally they settled at a spot, about one hundred miles westward of Africaner’s kraal, called Warm Bath.  Here, for a time, their prospects continued cheering.  They were instant in season and out of season to advance the temporal and spiritual interests of the natives; though labouring in a debilitating climate; and in want of the common necessaries of life.  Their congregation was increased by the desperado Jager, afterwards Christian Africaner, a Hottentot outlaw, who, with part of his people, occasionally attended to the instructions of the missionaries; and they visited the kraal of this robber chieftain in return.  It was here that he first heard the Gospel, and, referring afterwards to his condition at this time, he said that he saw “men as trees walking.”

Terrible trials soon came upon these devoted missionaries.  Abraham Albrecht, one of their number died, and Africaner, becoming enraged, threatened an attack upon the station.  The situation of the missionaries and their wives was most distressing.  Among a feeble and timid people, with scarcely any means of defence, a bare country around, no mountain, glen, or cave in which they could take refuge, under a burning sun and on a glowing plain, distant two hundred miles from the abodes of civilised men, between which and them lay the dreary wilderness and the Orange River; such was their position, with the human lion in his lair, ready to rouse himself up to deeds of rapine and blood.

For a whole month they were in constant terror, hourly expecting the threatened attack.  Their souls revolted at the idea of abandoning the people, who were suffering from want, to become a prey to a man from whom they could expect no quarter.  On one occasion they dug a square hole in the ground, about six feet deep, that in case of an attack they might escape the musket balls.  In this they remained for the space of a week, having the tilt sail of a waggon thrown over the mouth of the pit to keep off the burning rays of an almost vertical sun.  Eventually they withdrew northward to the base of the Karas mountains, but finding it impossible to settle, retired to the Colony.

Africaner approached the station, and finding it deserted, plundered it of whatever articles could be found; one of his followers afterwards setting fire to the houses and huts.  Thus for a season, this mission was brought to a close.  It was after a time resumed at a place south of the Orange River named Pella.