Numerous interruptions made the work more difficult. "Many, many are the
times I have sat down and got my thoughts somewhat in order," he writes,
"with pen in hand to write a verse, the correct rendering of which I had
just arrived at, after wading through other translations and lexicons,
when one enters my study with some complaint he has to make, or counsel
to ask, or medical advice and medicine to boot, a tooth to be extracted,
a subscription to the auxiliary to be measured or counted; or one calls
to say he is going to the Colony, and wishes something like a passport;
anon strangers from other towns, and visitors from the interior arrive,
who all seem to claim a right to my attentions."

This incessant application was making inroads upon his health, and the
strong powerful frame and iron constitution of the Scotch missionary
began to show signs that could not be neglected. A peculiar affection of
the head troubled him--a constant roaring noise like the falling of a
cataract, and a buzzing as of a boiling up of waters. It never ceased
day and night, and he lost much sleep in consequence of it. His only
relief seemed to be in study and preaching, when the malady was not
noticed; but immediately these occupations were over it was found to be
there, and reasserted itself in full force.

In 1851 the rebellion of the Kat River Hottentots occurred, which, for a
long time, brought obloquy upon the missionaries of South Africa and the
Mission cause.

In 1852 Mr. Hamilton was gathered to his rest, after having been the
faithful coadjutor of Robert Moffat, and a missionary at the Kuruman for
thirty-four years; the next year tidings reached Mary Moffat that her
beloved father had ended his pilgrimage at the ripe age of ninety years.