several times. The dress of the congregation, so far as it went,
was novel, these people having never submitted to the cruel tyranny
of fashion, but in most cases the amount of apparel met the
requirements of decency. Milliners, however, would have a dry time
in this region, for I noticed but one hat or bonnet, and I could
not tell which. In other cases the head was bare, or surmounted
by a turban made from a handkerchief ingeniously twisted and
tied. Some of the men had full suits, others only a country cloth
wrapped about them, and a few seemed satisfied with simply a large
handkerchief about their loins. But, notwithstanding their lack
in style and quantity of clothing, they were good listeners, and
doubtless carried away much that was said; at least, the writer
of this paper found great pleasure in preaching a lay sermon
from the text, “God so loved the world,” &c. The tithing master,
who paces up and down the aisles, has as little to do in keeping
drowsy persons awake as he would in many New England churches. Some
entries in the agent’s ledger seem to indicate that attendance upon
church and other religious services is not altogether voluntary.
One entry reads, “Cut (docked) for staying away from church,
one shilling;” and another, “Being late to morning prayers, one
shilling.” And in estimating the rigor of this discipline, one need
to know that a shilling pays the wages of a common hand a day and a
half. They have no trade-unions there.
The school at Avery is taught by Mr. Jowett, a native, who speaks
English correctly and fluently. The pupils appeared very much like
other children. Some read and spelled well, and some had to “get
their lessons over.” Little John Bull showed that he had some
surplus energy by thrusting his fist into the mouth of his drowsy
neighbor.
The sawmill is said to have been erected by Mr. D. W. Burton,
with the assistance of natives alone, and is a monument to his
ingenuity, energy and perseverance. Small logs are sawed by a
circular, but most of the work is done by an up-and-down, which
allows the logs to drag their slow length along sufficiently
fast to make the mill pay its way under careful management, with
sawyers at fifteen dollars a month, and lumber at forty-five
dollars a thousand. Other entries in the ledger show a high state
of discipline in _this_ department of mission work. “Neglecting to
tie a canoe, one shilling.” “Smoking in the mill, four shillings.”
“Neglect of duty, one shilling.” “Not obeying, two shillings.”
The chief productions of the garden are cassada, sweet-potatoes
and pineapples. The cassada is a root of milk-white color, and is
the leading article of food. It is usually boiled, but sometimes
baked, or eaten raw. The sweet-potato flourishes well and is
very palatable. The pineapple grows on bushes or shrubs two or
three feet high, the fruit standing up in the midst of long,
narrow, serrated leaves. The yard has cocoanut, banana, orange and
cinnamon trees. In reading lists and descriptions of the African
productions, one might conclude that this is the land for an
epicure; but the fact is that none of these things take the place
of the beef, wheat, vegetables and fruit of the United States, and
a person who has lived in the tropics for a little while, longs for
a Fulton or Quincy market.
The coffee farm consists of 1,500 trees from two to six feet high,
set in rows eight feet apart and just beginning to bear. The coffee
grows in pods about the size of a robin’s egg, in each of which are
two kernels enveloped in a skin or husk. To keep down the rapid and
rank growth of grass with the hoe alone, requires a vast amount
of labor. I find that these industries are highly appreciated by
travelers and traders, and have made the name of Mr. Burton well
known on the coast. The natives have felt their influence already,
and will be more and more inspired by them to habits of industry
and enterprise.
The remaining element of the station is the fakir, or native
village. Most of the houses have mud walls, with bamboo or thatched
roofs. They are built without much system, and are huddled
together, because, probably, where wars prevail, it is necessary
to wall in the towns and villages for defence, and so the houses
must not occupy too much ground. Such is Avery, with its material,
mental, and religious machinery, all tending to produce an
intelligent and stable Christianity.
And now those who have become interested in the experiment of
manning the Mendi mission with graduates of A. M. A. schools, are
asking whether the plan is successful, and I am supposed to have
some information upon this point. It is not quite three years since
the first party of these colored missionaries sailed for Africa,
two of whom have returned, and the others have had a shorter term
of service. So it is too soon to say whether the experiment has
been a success or a failure. If the work had been carried on by
them in the most approved manner, it would be premature to say that
the problem of African evangelization had been successfully solved.
And, on the other hand, if the experiment thus far had been an
utter failure, it would be unjust to the colored race to conclude,
from this one brief trial, that they are incapable of carrying on
mission work by themselves in Africa. Those who are most ready
to embark in an enterprise of this kind are not always the best
qualified. Zeal is needed, and in no leas degree, sound judgment
also.
Fisk University graduated its first college class in 1875, and
Atlanta hers in 1876, so that from these Institutions have come
only five or six small classes that have completed a collegiate
education, and the first one of these students to graduate from a
full theological course has just received his diploma. And then
the officers of the Association have not had their pick from the
graduates of their schools. Some of those best qualified for
mission work abroad are fully persuaded in their own minds that
their field of labor is at home.
So the experiment at the Mendi mission has not been tried under the
most favorable circumstances. The officers of the Association have
not had, like those of the American Board for _its_ work, a large
number of fully educated, mature and consecrated men and women from
which to select candidates for their African mission.
But what is the actual outcome of this brief experiment? The
colored missionaries have kept alive the churches and schools, have
well cared for the buildings and grounds of the stations, have
cultivated the coffee-farm, have bought logs, manufactured and sold
lumber, have organized a new church of considerable promise, and
all but one of them have kept unbroken the brittle thread of life.
[After granting that the mission has as a whole met with serious
drawbacks, and suffered from the lack of character and wisdom on
the part of some of those to whom it was entrusted, Mr. Chase
refers at some length to the following as reasons why mission work
in Africa is, and must be, slow: 1. Polygamy; 2. Mohammedanism;
3. The superstitions of the people; 4. The rum trade; 5. The
unhealthfulness of the climate; 6. The pernicious influence of
traders; 7. The inability of the natives to procure the equipments
of Christian civilization. The paper concludes as follows]:
Now, in view of this rather gloomy presentation, does any one say,
“Let us abandon the Mendi Mission; money enough has been spent,
lives enough have been sacrificed”? I have not written with any
such object in view. My purpose has been to state plain facts as
they exist, for the consideration of wise men, believing that if
there is any lack of tangible results, it is not all the fault
of management or workers, and that great things ought not to be
expected in the immediate future.
But there are grounds for hope as well as for despondency. The
mission has a good name. The labors of Raymond, Thompson and
others, are fragrant in the memories of natives and foreigners, so
that even the British colonists in Sierra Leone are loud in their
praise. The industrial work, instituted and carried on by the
wonderful ingenuity and energy of Mr. Burton, has secured the good
will of traders and foreign residents. I heard many encomiums upon
the mission, especially upon its early history.
The Mendians are a numerous people, occupying a belt of territory
of some hundred miles upon the sea, and reaching far back into the
interior, all of which region is drained by the Sherbro river,
near the mouth of which is located our Good Hope station. Our
mission was established among them many years before those of other
societies, and its work is far ahead of that of the Wesleyans and
Church of England, and if these should greatly increase their
efforts there would still be room for us.
By the assiduous labor of Mr. Claflin, the language of the Mendi
people has been reduced to writing, an elementary grammar and small
vocabulary have been published, and portions of the New Testament
translated, so that the acquisition of the native tongue is
comparatively easy.
The land and buildings of the mission constitute a valuable
property; the Good Hope station, with its regular steamboat
communication with Freetown, furnishes a needed base of operations,
and the sawmill at Avery will provide lumber for future buildings.
The fact that this mission is right in the heart of the old slave
grounds, ought to furnish inspiration for its support. Between
it and Freetown on the Bomana Islands were the old slave pens of
the infamous and afterward illustrious John Newton. Kaw Mendi is
supposed to be the centre of the region from which the Amistad
captives were dragged from their homes to be sold into slavery,
and is the point at which they settled after their return from
these Connecticut shores, through what might be called a series of
special providences. At Kaw Mendi it was my privilege to see and
converse with two surviving members of that slave cargo. Special
interest in such a field as this is something more than mere
sentiment. It is the breath of the God of Love sweeping across the
chords of the soul.
Then too, in addition to the name and history of the mission, its
valuable property, its large field, its written language, and its
providential beginning, it has living material that can be utilized
in its future extension. The station at Debia, where the lamented
Barnabas Root labored for a time, is well carried on by a native
educated at the mission; and another efficient helper of the same
training is employed at Good Hope. And there are several traders
and carpenters, mission-educated, who could render good service in
penetrating the interior.
The great call at present is for two or three men of ability
and culture, of broad views, of practical sense, of considerable
business experience, and of deep consecration, who are ready to
enlist for a long term of service, and take the lead in this
enterprise.
The foundations have been laid, the material for the structure is
at hand and the work is waiting for a wise master-builder.
Let a disciple of the Lord see those people there in their
degradation, superstition, and poverty, and then let him visit some
of our communities in the South, and see those of the same color,
features, and form, living in comfortable houses, clad in decent
garments, cultivating large fields of their own, and supporting
the school and the church, and let him realize that these pictures
present the same race and perhaps the same tribe of people, and
that he can be instrumental under Providence, even in an ordinary
life-time, in bringing about a repetition of this wonderful
transformation, and he ought to need no stronger inspiration.
* * * * *
THE CALL TO THE ASSOCIATION.
REV. H. M. LADD, WALTON, N. Y.
One need not be a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, to be able
to predict that the world’s great enterprises of the next century
will take hold upon Africa. Already the earnest gaze of the
civilized world is fixed upon that opening continent. The spirit
of discovery and of commerce have pushed their way into the very
heart of its mysterious jungles. Its borders are all alive with
the enterprise of nations. Vast preparations are making to open up
its wonderful resources, and to find a mart for the products of
civilized industry. Truly, as the great French poet has said, “In
the nineteenth century the white has made a man out of the black.
In the twentieth century Europe will make a world out of Africa.”
The great question is, Shall Christianity keep abreast of this
advancing host? Shall the seeds of the Gospel of light be sown
broadcast through this dark continent, before the tramping feet of
commerce have trodden down its soil into the hardened footpaths
of sin? The call of God is emphatic. He has opened a door which
no man can shut. That call rests in a peculiar manner upon this
Association. It has not been optional with you whether you
should enter Africa. The hand of God, manifested in the peculiar
circumstances attending the Amistad capture, sent you to Africa.
That hand has kept you there; and to-day you are not seeking for
yourselves a way up the Nile and into the heart of Central Africa;
you are invited there, you are urged there, you are sent there. It
will be a great undertaking to go, but it will be a greater mistake
not to go. The generous offer of Mr. Arthington, the importance
of the field, its unoccupied condition, its easy accessibility,
the pledge of needed funds, the fact that it lies right in the
very heart of that region cursed by the slave-trade not yet
abolished, make it obligatory upon this Association to accept the
responsibility and speed forward the work.
But this is not all. Not only do we hear the call of God resting
in a peculiar manner upon this Association, heard especially in
its earlier and later history, but this Association is peculiarly
fitted for the work. It holds in its hands, as the gift of God,
a peculiar power. We in this country are just beginning to spell
out the true lessons, the real meaning of slavery on our soil.
This Association, more than any other under God, has been our
teacher. It has shown us what the educated black man, with even
his limited facilities, can do; and now it has grasped, and
proposes to carry out, a distinctive idea—negroes for negro land.
Mr. President, is it too much to say, that, in this distinctive
idea, so satisfactorily demonstrated already in the history of
African missions, we recognize the star of hope for Africa? Is
it not the solution of many a difficulty? We need not refer here
to the stimulating reflex influence of this new policy upon the
Christian colored people of the South. That it will be great, no
one can doubt. But what is to be the future of Africa, as it is
dotted over here and there where no white man can live, with these
abiding centres of a Christian civilization? What is to prevent the
establishment of these points of light throughout that benighted
region, until, like the stars of Heaven, they shall flood the dark
continent with a galaxy of light, growing brighter and brighter
until the day dawn and the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing
in his wings?
To this end we are called of God to sacrifice, to labor and to
pray. The wise plans which this Association have devised give every
assurance of success. Not at once, perhaps. We must not expect too
much at once, but in the fullness of time. To say that there are
not great obstacles in the way, would be to close our eyes to the
truth. There are obstacles; but what are obstacles when God is with
us? He has not forgotten Africa. That continent, which holds nearly
one-sixth of the human race and is equal in area to all Europe
and North America combined, was surely included in that great
command, “Go ye into all the world and disciple all nations.” The
promises—are they not ours? Will He not be with us alway, yes, even
unto the end of the world? Is not the final victory assured, even
that victory that overcometh the world—our faith? Are we not taught
to pray, “Thy kingdom come”? Surely God’s will is yet to be done
on earth as it is in Heaven, and these nations are yet to become
the nations whose God is the Lord. The day shall come. It may be
ages from this time—but to the thought of God, and to the life of
humanity, ages are but days—when Ethiopia shall not stretch out her
hands in vain.
Let us, then, go confidently forward in the line which God has
marked out for us. Let us help the Freedman of the South to fulfil
his destiny. His bondage over, having safely passed through the Red
Sea of blood, and been brought forward by the pillars of cloud and
of fire, let us now open to him the land of his fathers, and bid
him enter it to drive out the strange gods, and to proclaim the
unsearchable love of our God.
Oh, then, speak unto this children of Israel that they go forward,
and songs of thanksgiving shall arise from the groaning heart of
Africa.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.
Your Committee, to whom has been referred that part of the Report
of the Executive Committee which concerns the American Indians, beg
leave to report as follows:
We recognize with gratitude the work which has been accomplished by
the American Missionary Association, in behalf of the Indians, in
its missionary and educational departments.
We especially recognize and commend the success of the experiment
of bringing youth from the tribes, and educating them at Hampton
Normal and Agricultural Institute and at Carlisle Barracks; and,
at the same time, we record our decided opinion that the schools
on the reservations, while the reservations are continued, must be
relied upon as among the most efficient agencies for improving the
condition of the Indians.
We believe that the possibility of civilizing the Indians is no
longer an open question, as is proven by what has already been
realized at the Fort Berthold, Lake Superior, S’Kokomish, and all
the agencies.
But your Committee desire emphatically to express the opinion
that all attempts to civilize and Christianize the Indians must
be slow and unsatisfactory until there is a radical change in the
relation between the Indians and the United States Government. The
Committee, therefore, desire to reaffirm two resolutions adopted at
the last Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association, as
follows:
Res. 1. That the aim of this Association shall be, as far as
possible, and as rapidly as possible, to secure for the Indians—
(1.) A legalized standing in the courts of the United States.
(2.) Ownership of land in severalty.
(3.) The full rights of American citizenship.
These three things, we believe, are essential, if the Indian is to
be either civilized or made a Christian.
Res. 2. That to this end the members of this Association will do
all in their power to make the Indian question a pressing question,
until the attention of Congress is so secured, and held to it, that
the legislative enactment necessary to bring about these changes be
completely accomplished.
AMORY H. BRADFORD, _Chairman_.
* * * * *
CAUSES OF THE MISMANAGEMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.
REV. A. H. BRADFORD, MONTCLAIR, N. J.
In the management of Indian affairs there has been little, if any,
progress since colonial days.
I. The New World was supposed to belong to its discoverers, and
the Indians also, because they belonged to the land. When England
transferred her colonies to the new Republic, it was without any
mention of the aboriginal inhabitants, or their rights. Trees and
stones could not have been more completely ignored. With the single
exception of the Treaty of 1803, by which Louisiana was obtained,
all the Indian population was unconditionally transferred with
the land. “In our first treaty of peace with Great Britain, by
which the latter yielded all claims to the country as far as the
Mississippi River, not a single stipulation appears in regard to
the aboriginal inhabitants, and when they were received they were
considered to be in the same situation,—as far as their legal
status was concerned,—as the nation by which they were surrendered
had placed them.” (The Indian Question, Otis, p. 51.) What was
that status? The Indians were many; the colonists were weak. The
stronger compelled the weaker to treat with them as sovereign
tribes. The weaker became stronger. The same method was pursued
then because of jealousy of the French. Treaties were made, and
what the colonists could not compel by force they accomplished
by intrigue. In the wars between England, Spain and France, the
aborigines held the balance of power, and thus compelled their own
recognition. When the war for independence came, the same was true.
Both British and colonists sought their friendship, and paid for
it. Thus, in a word, grew up the recognition of the sovereignty
of the tribal and national organizations. Thus commenced the
atrocious policy of quietly, by treaty and gifts, removing the
Indians westward, as lands were required for settlement. Since the
revolution, until 1871, when the treaty system was abolished, the
same general plan has been followed.
In everything else, there has been progress. In the management
of our Indian affairs, we are hardly a step in advance of those
who, in 1753, in forming a unity of action against the savages,
organized the germ of our Union of States.
II. The Reservation system seems to have had its birth in the
administration of Jefferson. The object was to make conflict
impossible until the natives could be civilized by isolating
them. Education was to be provided, missionaries sent, protection
guaranteed until they should become new men. Did the plan succeed?
It had hardly been commenced before its failure was recognized. It
has been continued, and the longer it has lasted the worse it has
failed.
The removal to reservations was commenced in earnest under
President Jackson, who advised Congress to set apart an ample
district west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of any
state or territory, to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long
as they should occupy it; each tribe having the management of its
own portion of the district, and being “subject to no other control
from the United States than such as may be necessary to preserve
peace on the frontier, and between the several tribes. There the
benevolent may teach, and an interesting commonwealth may be raised
up, destined to perpetuate the race and attest the humanity and
justice of this Government.” (Otis, p. 96.) President Van Buren was
not less sanguine than President Jackson. Never were golden dreams
more ruthlessly shattered. As well might our representatives have
attempted to tame a herd of buffaloes by corraling them at the base
of Mt. Hood, as to attempt to civilize the Indians by separating
them from all civilizing influences. As well might you plant a
keg of nails and expect it to come up a piano, as to seclude such
wild natures on the prairies, or between mountains, and expect
peace and harmony to result. The policy of removal did not benefit
the Indian, and has brought but temporary relief to the country,
by “the elimination of a troublesome element in society.” It has
not been pursued to any great extent during the last twenty-five
years, but still the massing of the Indians in two or three great
reservations seems to be the ideal of our legislators, an ideal
which has not a single support either in reason or experience.