Nevertheless, the Bremen missionaries have persisted. To-day they have nine stations with a staff of twenty-eight, and over ten thousand native Christians. A thorough study has been made of the language, customs and religion of the people, who belong to the Evhe tribe. Assisting in the work of the Bremen Society are deaconesses. The lives of these godly women have had a marvelous effect especially upon the native women. SOUTH AFRICA. [Sidenote: A Land of Many Nations.] By South Africa we mean the great southern portion of the continent extending from Cape Town up to the Zambesi River, which flows toward the east and the Congo which flows toward the west. Here, in addition to the native tribes who are chiefly Hottentots, Bushmen and Bantus, Kaffirs and Zulus, are large settlements of whites, who, unable to go beyond this section on account of the climate, are more and more steadily making the country their own. Their presence, as may easily be imagined, complicates and makes immensely difficult all mission work. To this fertile land, rich in gold, diamonds and other minerals, have gone naturally the adventurous and in many cases the wicked of other nations. There have been already fearful struggles between native and foreigner, black and white. When we realize that among the five hundred and seventy-five thousand baptized native Christians, one hundred and twenty thousand are Lutherans, our interest in the sadly complicated situation becomes keen. [Sidenote: The Missionary Press.] The first German society to work in South Africa was the _Rhenish_ which, like the Basel Society, is not wholly Lutheran. This society in 1829 established stations first in Nama Land, then in Herero Land, then in Ovambo Land. Here we have another record of opposition, of native wars, of indifference. The mission station lies almost entirely in the German colony. It has in all fifty-two missionaries. The number of Christians is now more than twenty-six thousand. Here also, the Germans have translated and taught with the greatest care. The press is constantly used to bind together the scattered Christians in the sparsely settled districts, two monthly religious papers, one in the Nama, the other in the Herero language, being published.