paternalist spirit. The LMS missionaries were less demanding and their
stations were less prosperous. The location of Bethelsdorp, moreover, was
ill-chosen. It had no arable land and the able-bodied inhabitants were
obliged to go out to work while using the station as their base. John Philip
improved the condition of the LMS stations in the 1820S, supervising the
construction of substantial buildings and watercourses.
In spite of doctrinal differences, both societies provided their charges
with some insulation from the civil society and some training in skills of
value to them in making the transition to colonial life. Even so, they were
constrained by their own lack of financial resources, aswell as by the power
of the colonial society in which they were embedded. As Richard Elphick
-andV. C. Malherbe put it: "Mission life gave a few Khoikhoi a measure of
financial independence, but the shortage of suitable land on the over-
crowded stations meant that most remained poor with no option but to
hire themselves periodically to the farmers, or to enlist in the Regiment."62
For the people of Khoikhoi and slave antecedents, these options were
palliatives rather than cures. Although they were not technically enslaved,