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Page 4
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.
Thus missions in South Africa had been commenced, stations among the
Hottentots and others had been formed, good work had been done, and the
way pioneered. The field was opened and it was wide, but as yet the
labourers were few.
At the time when Vanderkemp closed his eyes on this world, a lad was
working as an apprentice to a Scotch gardener, rising in the dense
darkness of the cold winter's mornings at four o'clock, and warming his
knuckles by knocking them against the handle of his spade. He was
passing through a hard training, but this lad was being prepared to take
up the work which Vanderkemp had so well begun, though in a somewhat
different sphere, and to repair the loss which had been sustained by the
missionary cause through his death. The name of this lad was Robert
Moffat.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
Robert Moffat was born on the 21st of December, 1795. His parents dwelt
at that time at Ormiston, in East Lothian, Scotland. They were pious
God-fearing people; the mother though holding a stern religious faith,
yet possessed a most tender loving heart, and very early sought to
instil into the minds and hearts of her children the love of God and a
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures.
Of the early childhood of the future missionary very little is stated.
In 1797 his father received an appointment in the Custom House at
Portsoy, and in 1806 the home of the Moffats was at Carronshore, on the
Firth of Forth. At this time the family consisted of four sons and two
daughters, besides the subject of this memoir.
A glimpse of the interior of their cottage, during the long winter
evenings, is given, which shows how the mother by her gentle influence
may become the means of sowing seed, which shall spring up in after
years bearing fruit a hundred-fold. The lads were gathered by the
fireside learning to knit and sew, and while so engaged their mother,
who took great interest in the missionary enterprises then carried on,
read aloud, in such publications as she could obtain, the descriptions
given of the work and sufferings of the pioneer labourers in heathen
lands, more especially of the Moravians in Greenland and the East
Indies.
Of educational advantages, Robert had but few in his early days. One,
"Wully Mitchell," as he was popularly called, the parish schoolmaster
was his first tutor; and "the Shorter Catechism," the title-page of
which contained the alphabet, his first instruction book. His progress
was but slow, his hands often being made to suffer for the dullness of
his brains. A boy living in the midst of shipping, his desires were more
for nautical matters than for Wully's books, and so he ran off to sea.
The captain of the ship on which he was, became much attached to the
lad, so with his parent's consent, he made several voyages in the
coasting trade. Many hairbreadth escapes fell to his lot, and at last he
quitted the sea, as he states "to the no small joy of my parents."
When about eleven he accompanied his elder brother, Alexander, to Mr.
Paton's school at Falkirk. This school was for writing and book-keeping,
but such as chose to pay received lessons in astronomy and geography
after school hours. Alexander was one of these, and Robert was allowed
to wait for his brother in the large room while the class was being
conducted. "I felt queer," he tells us "to know what the master was
doing within the circle, and used to look very attentively through any
little slip of an opening under an elbow, while I eagerly listened to
the illustrations given, the master all the while never suspecting that
I was capable of understanding the planetary system. What I could not
understand my brother explained on our way home." In this manner he
picked up some knowledge of astronomy.
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