Page 27 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

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In Ehlangeni my sister Christine was born in 1839 so that we were then 3 children. The Superintendent of the Hermannsburg Mission at the time was Hardeland who had already worked as a missionary on Borneo. He instructed my father to establish
a new station that was called Emhlangane. At that time, the Hermannsburg Mission had the stations Hermannsburg, Ehlangeni, Etembeni and Müden in Natal. In 1860 Emhlangane was to be established, from Etembeni. Father had to travel on foot from Ehlangeni to Etembeni on the paths of kaffirs together with kaffirs who carried his things, while we had to remain behind on Ehlanzeni.
From Etembeni, where missionary Kohrs was stationed,
he first had to build a ford together with kaffirs through the strong river Mooirivier, then a road for wagons, about one day’s travel through bush and streams, over mountains and through valleys. Everything that was needed had to be carried and drinking water had to be fetched from afar and during the night, father and his workers slept in the next kraal. This took a few weeks. Then the colonialists from Hermannsburg came with all the necessary things and they, together with father and the kaffirs, started burning bricks, cutting wood and grass for the roof and in a few months a small, makeshift residential house and one room as a kitchen was built and whitened from the inside and the outside.