There seem to be three distinct kinds of these dwellings, which apparently indicate so many grades of social and pecuniary consideration among the resident Hottentot families. The first sort, which consists simply of a single apartment, serving at once for kitchen, work-shop, and sleeping place, and receiving air and light through a narrow, low-pitched door-way, is that most usually met with, and may not unaptly be compared to a bee-hive. The next class is of a better description, and may at once and definitely be distinguished from the first-mentioned, in so far as it possesses a second room, which, if dark and windowless, is at any rate partitioned off, and serves as a sleeping apartment. Finally, the third kind, which can only be said to be the least poor-looking, consists of one large, almost empty chamber, for occupation during the day, with wings on either side, one of which is used as a kitchen, the other as a bed-room. The wretched ventilation, and damp, moist location of these habitations, combined with the bad quality of food, may be regarded as the main causes of the unfavourable state of health of the coloured portion of the inhabitants of Genaaden Dal, among whom, especially as regards the female portion, pulmonary complaints are rife.
We were provided with letters of introduction to the Superintendent of the Community, Dr. Köbling, as also to the Physician and Pharmaceutist, Dr. Roser, a Würtemberger by birth, and experienced a most cordial reception. We availed ourselves of the last hours of declining day to make an excursion to the hills, in the country immediately adjacent, so as to command at a glance the entire colony. The principal buildings, the Church, the school, the workshops, the warehouses, and the dwellings of the missionaries, are assembled in a quadrangular open place, to which a number of lofty, massive, leafy, venerable oaks impart a sombre, but poetical, appearance, eminently characteristic of the community. All the buildings are of a uniform dingy-grey tint. Close in the rear of these buildings is a large garden, which reaches as far as what is called "Bavian's Kloef" (defile), in which, even at present, apes, antelopes, and zebras, abound. Near the kitchen-garden is the cemetery of the community, which seems to be used by meditative brethren as a favourite resort and promenade.
This settlement, situated at the entrance of a mountain defile, at the foot of an immense sandstone range, of from 3000 to 4000 feet high, was founded in the year 1787, by a brother of the persuasion, named George Schmidt, from Moravia, who settled fifty-five miles east of Cape Town, near Sargent's River, with a number of Hottentots, whom he began to convert to Christianity, and called the station "Bavian's Kloef." From the year 1806, the settlement assumed the beautiful name of "Genaaden Dal" (Vale of Benevolence), so exquisitely correspondent with the benevolent exertions of the brotherhood. It at present numbers 3100 souls, mostly a race crossed between Hottentots and Mozambique negroes, of the latter of whom a considerable number have settled here since the Slave Emancipation Act of 1826. The settlers are partly proprietors of the land, partly artisans, cutlers, waggon-makers, tanners, carpenters, millers, &c. In the workshops the most exemplary cleanliness and neatness are imperatively insisted on. At the Great Exhibition, held in London in 1851, the wood-work of the Hottentot carpenters of Genaaden Dal received "Honourable Mention," and this elegant testimonial in recognition of their efforts now hangs, framed and glazed, in the library hall of the community. It somewhat surprised us that the cutlers did not receive, in their section, a similar distinction, since, in that department of industry, the Hottentots produce articles, which, so far as concerns quality and cheapness, are really astounding. The workpeople receive a fixed weekly payment, which they may expend as they please. The net proceeds, however, of the various articles manufactured belong to the community, and are expended in defraying the expenses of, and supporting, the mission. The inhabitants of Genaaden Dal are closely connected, by religious ties, with the community; and only those who profess the principles of the Moravian brotherhood are permitted to settle among them.
The field-labourers, who hire themselves out to labour elsewhere, are frequently absent from the settlement for months at a time, and return to Genaaden Dal immediately after the completion of seed-time or harvest. It is significant that these labourers regard this period of emancipation, as a sort of relaxation from the severe discipline and rules to which they are subjected in the religious community.
The principal articles of food of the inhabitants consist of maize, beans, pumpkins, rice, fruits, tea, coffee, and occasionally mutton. Wine is strictly prohibited throughout the settlement, and when a member of the Novara Expedition, never imagining that this interdict extended to strangers as well, desired the attendant at the house we were occupying to fetch a bottle of sherry, that individual regarded him with as horror-stricken an air as though he had asked him to participate in some crime.
Although the first settlers in Genaaden Dal were pure Hottentots, not more than five or six at present speak the idiom of their fathers, the rest knowing only the Dutch tongue. The Superintendent had the kindness to allow an old blind man, of the name of Sebastian Hendrik, to be presented to us, born in the colony in 1775, of Hottentot parents, "een opregt Hottentot" (an out-and-out Hottentot), as he called himself, and who still could speak a number of phrases in his mother tongue, with its extraordinary "clicking" sounds; but, on the other hand, no longer had the slightest recollection of the customs, usages, or proverbs of that nation to which he belonged by birth. In the library of the community, where this conversation took place, there were also shown to us numerous sketches by Hottentot and Caffre lads, which gave great hope of future excellence. It is an especially gratifying indication of intellectual progress, that several works of natural history are to be found on the shelves of the library.
CHURCH AND MISSION HOUSES OF THE MORAVIAN SETTLEMENT AT GENAADENDAL.
We also found time to listen to the singing in the church, quite a plain wooden building, erected in 1800, with white-washed walls, a spacious gallery, and an elegant organ, the gift of a benevolent lady of Hamburg, who spent some months of the year 1843 at Cape Town in search of health, and took an opportunity of visiting the Moravian brethren at Genaaden Dal. One of the missionaries sat in the middle of the chapel at a table covered with green cloth, and gave out, verse by verse, a hymn in the Dutch language, which was afterwards sung, with accompaniment by the organ, by the entire community assemble in the edifice. The men and women sat apart from each other, on smooth wooden benches, the former on the left, the latter on the right of the officiating minister. The chapel was only illuminated with a few tallow candles; but the devotional feeling of the community seemed to gain by this simple unostentatious ritual, and the mysterious solemn obscurity of their place of congregational worship.