VOL. XXXIII. No. 4.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
APRIL, 1879.
_CONTENTS:_
EDITORIAL.
MAP OF EASTERN AFRICA (Cover) p. 2
THE ARTHINGTON MISSION 97
FINANCIAL 101
PROGRESS--ENCOURAGEMENT 101
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH: Rev. C. L. Woodworth 102
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 103
GENERAL NOTES 104
THE FREEDMEN.
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS FOR THE FREEDMEN: Rev. J. E. Roy, D. D. 107
VIRGINIA--Work at Hampton, from a Three Months’
Observation: Rev. John H. Denison 109
GEORGIA, MACON--A Beginner’s Reflections, &c. 112
ALABAMA, TALLADEGA--Revival in Church and College 113
SELMA--Revival Work--A Well-organized Church 114
MONTGOMERY--Thoughtful Congregation 115
MISSISSIPPI, TOUGALOO--A Praise Meeting 116
AFRICA.
HEATHEN BUNDOO DANCE AND A RETREAT: Benj. James, M. D. 118
VISIT TO THE INTERIOR: Rev. A. E. Jackson 119
THE INDIANS.
SCHOOL AND CHURCH WORK AT DUNGINESS, W. T. 120
THE CHINESE.
OUR CHINESE HELPERS: Rev. W. C. Pond 121
RECEIPTS 123
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NEW YORK.
_Published by the American Missionary Association,_
ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
[Illustration: Map of Eastern Africa]
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXIII. APRIL, 1879. No. 4.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
THE ARTHINGTON MISSION.
In the March MISSIONARY we published the letter containing the
offer of £3,000 to the A. M. A. for the establishment of a
mission in Central Africa, to lie between the river Nile on the
west, and the river Jub on the east, and to extend from 10 deg.
north latitude to 3 deg. on the Nile, and 1 deg. on the Jub. The
offer has received as much and as careful attention as the time
has allowed, and we submit in this issue the results so far as
yet attained. We call attention to
THE ACCOMPANYING MAP
showing the location and accessibility of the proposed mission.
The territory assigned is included in dotted lines, and is nearly
in the centre of the map, which has been drawn in accordance with
the latest discoveries. The sources of the Nile are indicated in
the Victoria and Albert Nyanza lakes. The rivers Sobat and Jub
are given as by the best authorities. The stations of Gondokoro
and Fatiko are shown, and the general location of the various
known tribes. The report says nothing of the Abyssinians in
the northeast, being confined thus far to the most accessible
portion of the region. The mission stations on the three lakes
have been conspicuously lettered and underlined; that of the
Church Missionary Society at Rubaga, the capital of King Mtesa,
and Kagei on the south end of the lake, where they propose to
have at least a depot; Ujiji on the Tanganika, where the London
Missionary Society have located; and Livingstonia on the Nyassa,
from which the missionaries of the Free Church of Scotland will
move to a location probably on the west coast, where they will be
free from the tsetse fly.
The proposed field will be seen to be accessible by the Nile. The
cataracts have been ascended by vessels of considerable size,
at very high Nile, but always with great danger and difficulty.
It is more feasible to transport from Souakim, on the Red Sea,
across the desert by camel-back to Berber, thence by steamer to
Khartum and Gondokoro, which, or the military station only a few
miles south on the opposite bank of the river, may be the best
point of departure and depot of supplies. It may not be a matter
of great difficulty to explore the Sobat and penetrate by it into
the very heart of this region.
For the view of the field and the attitude toward it taken by
the Association, we refer to the following report of the Foreign
Committee, which was unanimously adopted and ordered to be
printed at the last meeting of the Executive Committee:
REPORT OF THE FOREIGN COMMITTEE.
The Committee beg leave to report that they have consulted
such books as have been accessible, respecting the part of
Africa designated by Mr. Arthington, and have also obtained an
interview with Col. C. Chaillé Long, the African explorer, who
has penetrated both by the Sobat and the Jub further into that
territory than any other white man now living.
From the information gathered, they conclude that though there
are difficulties, there are no insurmountable obstacles in the
way of the establishment of the mission proposed. The country has
been visited by a number of explorers, merchants and officers of
the Egyptian Government. Steamers ply up and down the Nile in
close proximity to some of the tribes it is proposed to reach.
Sir Samuel Baker has illustrated the feasibility of conveying
steel steamers in sections across the desert, from Souakim on
the Red Sea, to Berber on the Nile, at which point they can be
reconstructed and used on the Nile and its tributaries. With a
small screw steamer, a missionary expedition can explore the
different portions of the country mentioned by Mr. Arthington,
using the boat for storage of supplies, and as a mission house,
until stations can be established.
The locality on the east bank of the Nile and along the river
Sobat we believe to be more easy of access than either of the
three central African missions established by the English and
the Scotch on the Nyassa, Tanganika and Victoria Nyanza lakes,
and that every argument for establishing these missions can be
applied with greater force to a mission in the Nile basin.
Of the region and peoples accessible by the river Jub, your
Committee have as yet been able to gain no clear information,
further than that the high lands, extending back for perhaps
twenty miles from the sea-coast, sink into low, marshy plains,
through which the river runs as far as it has been navigated. The
higher region in the interior, in which it must have its source,
is as yet utterly unknown.
We not only deem the proposed mission practicable, but the call
to it Providential. The attention of the civilized world has
recently been directed in a striking manner to the Nile basin.
The opening of the Suez Canal, and the explorations of Speke,
Grant, Petherick, Schweinfurth, Long, Baker and Stanley, have
familiarized us with the country and its people, awakening an
interest in its behalf that is wide-spread; while the efforts
of Sir Samuel Baker and Colonel Gordon for the suppression of
the slave-trade open to this Association an opportunity for
co-operation in a work consistent with its origin and history.
The number of slaves that come down the Blue and White Nile is
probably 25,000 annually (Southworth, see page 355; Charles New’s
“Wanderings in Africa,” page 492). Many of these are gathered
from the Fatiko, Obbo, Latooka and Madi country (see “Ismailia,”
page 355), and efforts for their relief by missionaries
co-operating with the Government of Col. Gordon would be of
much promise (Col. Long, before Executive Committee A. M. A.),
especially as Col. Gordon has been appointed Governor General of
the Nile basin for life, by the Khedive of Egypt, which position
he has accepted, with the avowed purpose of suppressing the slave
trade. (“Khedive’s Egypt,” page 294.) He appears to have entered
upon this task with the spirit of an old Scotch Covenanter,
taking his Bible with him in his tent, in the desert and in the
wilderness. (“Khedive’s Egypt,” page 291.)
It is a matter of interest that the proposed mission is among
the real heathen. Moslem Africa extends across the continent
to about 9 deg. north latitude. (See Reade’s “African Sketch
Book,” Vol. I., page 312.) Below that belt of country there are
no obstacles in the way of religious efforts among the natives,
except those common to all missions among an unclad and tropical
people. Sir Bartle Frere, as quoted by Secretary Hutchinson of
the Church Missionary Society, says that the “missionary, by the
negro, free or slave, is everywhere regarded as a friend. He
has not the slightest objection of any kind, moral or material,
political or social, to the missionary, whom he is glad to
welcome as doing him good in many ways, and greatly adding to the
importance of the tribes, in the midst of which a mission station
is established.”
The peculiarity of the climate and the characteristics of the
people indicate that the proposed mission should be manned
largely by Freedmen from America. The climate is sure to wear
out a white man in the course of a few years, if he remains
constantly on the ground. (Col. Long, before the Executive
Committee of the A. M. A.) The degree of mortality among the
white soldiers of the Egyptian army, and the fate of the
missionaries of the Austrian Mission at Gondokoro, illustrate
the same fact. Besides, the general testimony is, that black men
are better able to convince people of their own color of the
attainments that may be reached in religion and civilization by
the African race. Thus it appears that not only the climate is
for the Negro, but the work of missions as well. It is the office
of this Association to make use of the Freedmen educated in its
schools as missionaries to Africa, as speedily as Providence
shall open the way. It is able to furnish a portion of the force
required at an early day.
The animal and vegetable productions of the country are so
abundant that the material interests essential to the success
of the mission are assured. The resources of the country are
immense. “It is estimated that in the nine provinces of the
Soudan there are 140,000,000 acres of fine, black, soft, loamy
soil, an acreage that would make two productive cotton empires,
each larger than France. You need not plough this soil; you
need not work it; you have only to scatter the seed, and the
periodical rains, or _sikeahs_ (water-wheels for artificial
irrigation) water the earth, and then at maturity you reap your
harvest.” (“Four Thousand Miles in Africa,” page 357.)
The Madi country, for example, is thickly settled, and abounds
with vast herds of the finest cattle. (“Ismailia,” page 286.) The
Fatiko people are muscular and well built, and, generally, their
faces are handsome (“Ismailia,” page 282); while the Obbo people,
living as they do at an altitude of 3,600 feet above the level of
the sea, wear clothing, and afford a market for cloth, for which
they exchange ivory, giving promise of an active market at an
early day. (See “Albert Nyanza,” page 224.)
The physical geography of a portion of the territory mentioned
by Mr. Arthington is as attractive as any found in Central
Africa. In latitude 3 deg. to 9 deg. north, on the White Nile,
and eastwards, the elevations vary from 1,500 to 4,000 feet above
the level of the sea (“Ismailia,” page 522), and possess all the
variety of scenery of mountain, plain, forest and meadow, which
give a park-like beauty to portions of the country. At Fatiko,
in latitude 3 deg. north, during eight months the range of the
thermometer was between 60 deg. at 6 A.M. and 90 deg. at noon,
the average temperature being equal to about 75 deg. (“Ismailia,”
pages 513, 514, 515, 516.)
From all that can be gathered, your Committee believe that,
if the means shall be furnished for entering upon the proposed
mission field, it will be wise to inaugurate the work among the
highlands south of Gondokoro, among the Berri, Fatiko, Latooka
or Obbo tribes, selecting a locality, if possible, accessible
by steamer, not too far from some station of the Egyptian
Government, and among tribes of mild and friendly disposition,
and thus open to religious and civilizing agencies.
The Committee also urge that the relations of America to the
slave trade have been such that we are in duty bound to do all
we can for the redemption of the people of Africa, and that as a
thank-offering to God for His overruling Providence in ridding
our country of slavery, we, of America, should be ready to
establish one new mission at least in addition to the three that
have recently been undertaken with so much enthusiasm and at so
great expense by our British friends.
The special claims of this field upon the American Missionary
Association are obvious. Equatorial Africa is not a new and
untried field to it. The Mendi Mission was organized by the
Amistad Committee thirty-seven years ago, and was transferred
to the care of the Association in 1846. We are not unfamiliar
with the discouragements or the hopeful aspects of the work. We
ought to have learned something by so long experience. It is by
no means proposed to divert strength from the old mission, which
has never, perhaps, been in more promising condition, to a new
field. Rather it would be our hope, if the Lord should lay this
work upon us, that these eastern and western fields, balancing
each other across the dark continent, would more than double the
interest of those who work through us in the evangelization of
Africa. The negro race has always been our prominent and peculiar
charge. That the people of this district have been degraded more
by the slave trade than by their native heathenism, makes their
claim on us the less possible to resist. And the fact that the
missionary spirit among the students in our Southern colleges
will soon demand room in which to expend itself in self-denying
labor, forbids that we should refuse such an offer without
careful and prayerful consideration.
We, therefore, advise that an appeal be made for $35,000, which,
with the $15,000 offered by Mr. Arthington, will amount to
$50,000, as a fund for the establishment of a mission in the Nile
basin, to be called “The Arthington Mission,” in remembrance
of the beneficent donor, who, under God, has by his liberality
already made it possible for the great missionary societies to
establish Central African missions.
The Committee hope that the Lord may incline some one or more
of the friends of African missions, whom He has blessed with
wealth, to put into our hands the larger part of the sum required
for this undertaking, and that the Association may receive, say
$30,000, from one, two or three contributors, which will still
leave room for the many who may desire by smaller gifts to have a
part in the enterprise.
We further suggest that a force of not less than ten missionaries
would be required to enter upon this work; that of this number,
eight should, if possible, be of African descent, and that
correspondence should be entered into with a view to their wise
selection at such time as sufficient funds shall be subscribed
to warrant a beginning of the undertaking. Also, that estimates
be obtained respecting the dimensions and cost of a suitable
steamer to serve the purposes of the mission. We recommend
further that this report be printed in the April number of the
AMERICAN MISSIONARY, and thus submitted to the prayerful
consideration of the friends of the African race, and that the
Executive Committee await their decision as it shall be indicated
in their response, trusting in it to read the full disclosure of
the Master’s will, and purposing to be wholly guided thereby.
GEO. M. BOYNTON, M. E. STRIEBY,
ADDISON P. FOSTER, G. D. PIKE,
JOHN H. WASHBURN, H. W. HUBBARD.
CLINTON B. FISK,
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FINANCIAL.
The American Missionary Association is practically out of debt,
but not out of danger. If receipts for current expenses are not
kept up, a new debt is inevitable. The receipts for February and
up to March 14th (the date of going to press), are $7,233 less
than for the corresponding months of last year. This falling off
may be partly due to the effort made to pay _our_ debt and that
of the Home Missionary Society, and partly to the unconscious
feeling that with the debt paid little else is needed. But our
work and workers are on our hands. Our office expenses are
brought down to the most economical figures, and our expenditures
in the field are most rigidly confined to the appropriations.
If the receipts of this fiscal year are brought up to those of
last--the basis of the appropriations--the work will be carried
through successfully and without debt.
We earnestly entreat our friends to grant us that desired result.
We cannot ourselves avert the calamity of debt, for if we should
recall every laborer, and close every school and church, we
should still owe the salaries and return traveling expenses,
so that the saving would be very little. We ask, therefore, a
generous and steady support for the rest of the year. Pastors can
be our greatest helpers. They can see to it that our collections
are not forgotten. If our cause is on the list, they can secure
the collection at the regular time. If it is not, and we have
received no contribution for a year or two past, the pastor is
entreated to consider if our work is not worthy of support, and
to present it to his people. Even if the offering should be
small, it would be gladly received. Individual donors are also
asked to aid us in this endeavor. Our experience in the last two
years gives us hope that this, our appeal, will not be in vain.
* * * * *
PROGRESS--ENCOURAGEMENT.
The work in the Southern States moves slowly; there are many
hindrances, and we are sometimes discouraged. But then, again, a
way-mark is reached showing such progress as to rebuke unbelief.
We point to one such.
Will the reader picture to himself the early toils and trials
of Rev. John G. Fee in Kentucky. The son of a slaveholder, he
began to preach an anti-slavery gospel, and organized a church
excluding slaveholders. In 1855 he was mobbed; again in 1858;
and in 1859 a meeting was assembled in Richmond, the county seat
of Madison County, which sent a committee to Berea to warn Mr.
Fee’s associates (he was then in the North) to leave in ten days.
The warning was given with such quiet emphasis that it had to be
obeyed. Thirty-six persons were banished from the State.
The change in twenty years is indicated in the following extract
from the _Kentucky Register_ of February 21, 1879, published
in that same town of Richmond, Ky. It can be seen, too, in the
prosperity of Berea College, with its 273 pupils, one-half of
them white:
“REV. JOHN G. FEE AT THE COURT-HOUSE.--Probably no man
in Madison County in past years has been talked about as much as
Rev. John G. Fee, the founder of the town and college of Berea.
He has been a resident of the county for more than twenty-five
years, has been a preacher of the gospel, and, yet strange to
say, never until last Sunday preached a sermon in this place.
On the day named, he occupied by invitation the pulpit of Dr.
T. H. Clelland at the Court-House. Owing to the fact that no
general notice of Mr. Fee’s intention to speak had been given,
his audience was very small; otherwise the Court-House would
have been filled to its utmost capacity. Mr. Fee is a forcible
and pleasant speaker, agreeable in his manner, and impresses
his bearers that he is in earnest, honest in his convictions,
and conscientiously seeks the advancement and well-being of his
fellow-men.
“As he stood before his audience, a messenger for Christ, and
preached the words of the Master, one could but recall the trying
years of the past, when the speaker fearlessly combated a race
prejudice and battled for the freedom of a people who seemed
hopelessly enslaved; when he stood alone in his advocacy of negro
liberty, and in his mild and gentle way, sought to convince
his neighbors that human slavery was wrong and condemned by
God; when his enemies persecuted him, and the people among whom
he lived sought to pull him down, and even threatened to take
his life--one could but recall these stormy days of hate and
sectional prejudice, and at the same time remember that when the
war came and Mr. Fee’s party was in the ascendant, he had no man
punished; he sought to avenge no personal grievance, but went on
with his life-work in his quiet, unobtrusive way, forgetting his
enemies or only remembering them to forgive them.”
* * * * *
We print in this number the first of a series of five articles,
from the pen of Dist. Sec. Woodworth, on the general topic,
“Congregationalism in the South.” They will give an outline of
its history, and hints as to its responsibility and opportunity.
While it will not be, as it has not been, the sole object of the
Association to extend the form of church polity, to which most
of the churches which contribute to it are attached, but rather
to labor for the intelligent Christianization of the people
who most need it, we are disposed to think that there will be
found a greater affinity between the Southern people and the
Congregational way than many have supposed. We do not endorse all
the utterances on the incompatibility between the two which were
made at the last Annual Meeting, and are glad to have so careful
a survey of the whole subject as these articles will furnish.
* * * * *
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH.
1. Before the War.
DIST. SEC. C. L. WOODWORTH, BOSTON.
Few are aware, perhaps, that up to 1861 Congregationalism had but
two churches south of Mason and Dixon’s line; and these were not
indigenous to the soil, but the transplanted growths of other
lands. The first was the old Circular Church of Charleston,
S.C., organized in 1690, of Irish and Scotch Presbyterians, of
Congregationalists from the North, and of Huguenots from the
persecutions in France.
The second was the Midway Church, in Liberty County, Georgia,
which was formed in 1695, as a colony from the First Congregational
Church of Dorchester, Mass. It first planted itself on the Ashley
River in South Carolina, at a place which is called Dorchester;
but in 1752, the colony having grown to more than five hundred
souls, emigrated bodily into Georgia, transplanting the church
into that new country. Among the eminent men on its roll of
preachers was the father of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Both these churches have a very distinct and striking history.
Both sent out hundreds of most intelligent and worthy members,
who adorned all the walks of life--teachers, preachers,
professors, lawyers, judges, governors, senators--but neither of
them ever propagated itself. Both were ministered to for years by
men of other denominations, though none ventured to tamper with
their polity. It is a singular illustration of the toughness and
vigor of the Congregational life, and of the uncongenial soil in
which it was planted.
The two churches held on their way with no signs of age or
weakness until the outbreak of the war. The old Circular Church
unfortunately lost its meeting-house in the great fire during
the siege of Charleston. It was also weakened by deaths and
emigrations, as well as by the withdrawal of most of the colored
membership to form the new Plymouth Church of Charleston.
Notwithstanding all this the white membership have bravely
held together, have built themselves a small chapel, and until
recently have been ministered to by Rev. William Adams, son of
the late Dr. Nehemiah Adams, of Boston.
The Midway Church in the same way split on the color line, but
not to form two Congregational churches. The white part of it
at the close of the war surrendered the polity to which they
had clung with heroic tenacity for more than one hundred and
sixty years, and went over in a body to the Presbyterian Church
South. Not so the larger part of the colored membership. They
knew nothing but Congregationalism, and they refused to accept
anything in its stead. The result was that they were formed into
the new Congregational Church of Midway. They have built a new
meeting-house, and are showing marvelous energy in maintaining
their institutions and working towards self-support. It is matter
of interest that many of these colored Congregationalists of Old
Midway were scattered during and since the war into the towns
and counties around, and have formed the seed out of which six
or seven other Congregational churches have sprung. Right here,
then, these two facts confront us: The _one_, that our polity,
for some reason, stopped short at the boundary between freedom
and slavery. The _other_, that, having _passed_ that boundary, it
seemed to have no power to propagate itself, either by sending
out colonies or by organizing new converts on the ground. It is
certainly a strange anomaly in church extension, and we leave
each one to answer for himself whether it was some instinct in
Congregationalism which held it North of the latitude of slavery,
or whether the overruling Power, which gave it its mission in
America, turned it back until it could go with an open Bible,
free speech, and its democratic equalities.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
ORANGEBURG, S.C.--Last month we printed a very short
plea for a musical instrument for the church. We express here our
thanks to Mr. S. T. Gordon, of New York, who sent us word a few
days ago that an organ was at our disposal for this use. Such
ready responses are full of encouragement.
ATLANTA, GA.--“A good degree of religious interest still
prevails in Atlanta University. On the first Sunday of March,
four persons united with the church by profession of faith, and
a number of others propose to do so at an early day. An equal
number of those converted here will join churches at their homes.”
OGEECHEE, OR NO. 1 MILLER STATION, GA.--The station
called “Ogeechee” in our printed list in Feb. Magazine, should
be _No. 1 Miller Station, Chatham Co., Ga._ Miss E.W. Douglass,
formerly at McLeansville, N.C., has been transferred to this
field, and finds ample opportunity for missionary labor. Friends
communicating with her, or with Rev. John. R. McLean, pastor of
the church, will please note the correct P.O. address.
TALLADEGA, ALA.--“A precious work of grace. Eighteen
hopeful conversions, and many more almost persuaded. The meeting
we have just come from has been seldom paralleled in our
experience. Many seem to be discovering that there is life for
a look at the Crucified One. ‘Pray, watch, work,’ has been our
motto for some time past, and these are the blessed results. Will
our dear A. M. A. pray for this part of its Israel?”
MONTGOMERY, ALA.--The Swayne School has
received a valuable box for its “Teachers’ Home” from the ladies
of the church at Lyonsville, Ill. It contained a rag carpet,
comfortables, bed and table linen, etc.
ANNISTON, ALA.--March 2d, six were received into this
church on profession of their faith. Two infants were baptized.
ATHENS, ALA.--“There is great zeal in study, especially
in Bible study. This has greatly strengthened our hearts, for
we know ‘The entrance of Thy word giveth light,’ and we are
encouraged to hope for the speedy conversion of several young men
who have publicly asked the prayers of Christians.”
TOUGALOO, MISS.--“Students are manifesting more than
usual interest in study and general improvement. We do hope we
can be allowed to put fences around the place; we are losing so
much every year by having the farm all open to the public. We can
make it a source of income when properly fenced and stocked.”
NEW IBERIA, LA.--The South-western Conference of
Congregational Churches will meet at St. Paul’s Church, New
Iberia, April 2d.
BEREA, KY.--An encouraging religious interest
is reported. Five young men of excellent promise have,
within a week, confessed Christ. This has been under the
regular ministration, without help from abroad. Most of the
prayer-meetings are well attended. The community is very
harmonious.
MEMPHIS, TENN.--The school never was in a more
flourishing condition than now, and the future has never before
seemed so full of promise.
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
--There are probably a million and a half of church members among
the colored population of the Southern States.
--Ex-Governor Brown, of Georgia, expresses himself as follows
in regard to the position and claims of the Freedmen: “I think
I speak the sentiments of a vast majority of our people, that
it is our interest to make of the colored race the very best
citizens we can. To do this it is necessary to educate them as
far as our means will allow, and to lift them from the ignorance
in which they were found at the time of their freedom to a much
higher grade of intelligence. They can never be good citizens and
exercise intelligently the rights of freemen till they have these
advantages.”
--We regret to see that the Young Men’s Christian Association,
of Washington, D. C., by the Rev. O. C. Morse, its secretary,
feared to have a few colored Sunday-school teachers mingle with
white persons engaged in similar work, withdrew invitations
given, and at first refused admission to the three or four who
came with cards of invitation, though they were afterwards
allowed to enter. Meanwhile Senator Bruce was occupying with
dignity the chair of the Senate of the United States.
* * * * *
Africa.
--The Khedive of Egypt, at the close of 1877, appointed Captain
George Malcolm (Pasha) for the suppression of the slave trade
in the Red Sea. As late as June 1878, he reported that he could
accomplish nothing, as the trade was effectually protected by the
Turkish flag.
--Mr. Maples, of the Universities Mission, writes from Masasi,
East Africa, that, owing to the energy of Dr. Kirk and Seyid
Borghash, the wholesale slave trade at Zanzibar, and up and down
the coast for hundreds of miles, is almost entirely stopped; but
that they are still smuggled into dhows by twos and threes so
clothed and disguised as not to awaken suspicion; that in the
interior, slave caravans make their way from the Nyassa region to
the coast as far north as Somali, and south to and beyond Lindi.
He says: “I should scarcely be believed were I to tell you how
great is the deterrent effect upon the slave trade in these parts
of a solitary mannered Englishman dwelling among the people.”
--Mr. Penrose, of the Church Missionary Society, with all his
camp followers, has been killed in the country of the Unyamwesi.
--Mr. Mackey, of the C. M. S., arrived last July with the caravan
at Kagei, on the Victoria Nyanza. (See map.) He visited Lukonge
at Ukerewe, in regard to the murder of Mr. O’Neill and Lieutenant
Smith; heard the explanations given, and demanded the note-books
and pistols of his friends, as an evidence of regret and a pledge
of friendship. These were not given up to him, and he, therefore,
declined to have further relations with that people.
--Mr. Wilson writes of the healthiness of the Uganda country, and
thinks that missionaries’ wives may safely accompany them thither.
--There are large deposits of kaolin, or china clay, near Mtesa’s
capital, and abundance of nutmeg trees.
--Col. Gordon has advised the C. M. S. to establish a mission on
the west shore of the Albert Nyanza, which he represents to be a
healthy location, free from foreign influence, and substantially
under protection of the Egyptian Government.
--Rev. J. B. Thomson, of the London Missionary Society at Ujiji,
on Lake Tanganika, died at his post January 20th. It is a great
loss to this new mission. The Directors ask, “Who now will be
_baptized for the dead_?”
--The English Baptist Missionary Society will occupy San
Salvador, 50 miles from the west coast of Africa and south of
the Congo, as the head-quarters of their work, with a station
at Makuta. Mr. Comber returned to England after a tour of
observation, and hopes to return this month with two associates.
--Mr. Stanley strongly advocates the construction of a railway,
which would be about 500 miles in length, from a point on the
east coast to the southern end of the Victoria Nyanza. Another
railway 150 miles long would bring us to Lake Tanganika, which
has a water-way of about 330 miles, and another 200 miles long
to Lake Nyassa, which gives many hundred miles of water-way. A
fourth short railway would lead to the navigable waters of the
Shire and the Zambesi, which flow into the sea. These link-lines
of railway would open up about 1,300 miles of splendid navigable
water. Connect these lines also with the sources of the Congo
or Livingstone river, and a chain of trading posts is possible
across the continent to the west coast. The value of this new
market to English and American merchandise would thus be immense,
and the speedy downfall of the slave trade be made sure.
--The _Wesleyan_ (English) _Missionary Notices_ publishes an
account of a recent visit by two of their missionaries into the
interior, seventy miles west from Sierra Leone. They found a
healthier country, though only 210 feet above sea level, and a
cooler climate. Fruit is grown, cotton spun, and iron implements
made. The villages were increasing in size, and are now at peace.
Slavery and polygamy exist among them. The country is open to
missionary effort, and Mr. Huddleston is speedily to be located
at Fouracaria, in the Limba country.
--The following extract is of special interest as relating to the
region proposed to us for missionary work by Mr. Arthington:
African research, in its relation to commerce merely, is being
taken up with energy in the three principal emporiums of the
Mediterranean--Genoa, Marseilles and Trieste. The experienced
African traveller, Dr. Mattenci, has started from Genoa at the
head of an expedition fitted out at the charge of a number of
Italian merchants. He goes through the Suez Canal to Suatin and
Matamma, in the southwest of Abyssinia, and will penetrate, if
time and circumstances permit, into the Galla Lands. Almost
at the same date an Austrian expedition leaves Trieste, under
charge of two marine officers, Pletsch and Pizzighelli. They
propose to remain for above a whole year in Shoa, in order to
make an exhaustive study of its capacity for export and import
trading, and to return a complete report to a number of eminent
Austrian mercantile firms. From Marseilles, lastly, several
representatives of commercial houses in south-western Europe have
been despatched to the Red Sea, Shoa, and Abyssinia, with similar
instructions.--_African Times._
--The Vatican has entrusted to the Algerian Roman Catholic
Mission the creation of two stations in Central Africa--one on
Lake Tanganika, the other on Lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanza.
* * * * *
The Indians.
--The House Committee reported against the several bills to
establish territorial government in the Indian Territory. The
conclusions of the Committee are as follows:
_First_--That the bill (Oklahoma) under consideration conflicts
with existing treaty stipulations.
_Second_--That to decide that a treaty is no longer binding
requires for its justification reasons which commend themselves
to the principles of equity and good conscience, particularly
where the parties to the compact with the United States are
weak and powerless and depend solely on the good faith of the
Government.
_Third_--That no such reasons exist for violating the treaty
stipulations which reserve the Indian Territory exclusively for
Indians, and which secure to the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws,
Creeks and Seminoles, the right of self-government, under the
restrictions of the Constitution of the United States.
_Fourth_--That even if there were no opposing treaty
stipulations, no objections resting on good faith, it would be
unwise and impolitic to throw the Indian Territory open to white
settlers without the consent of the Indian owners.
_Fifth_--That while official recommendations--some of them
entitled to the highest respect--are strongly in favor of making
Indians citizens of the United States, and transferring their
land titles from the national tenure in common to the individual
tenure in severalty, experience has shown that in the great
majority of cases such measures, instead of benefiting, have
proved injurious to the Indian.
_Sixth_--That experience fully demonstrates that the holding
of their lands in common by the Indian tribes is an effectual
safeguard against the worst effects of Indian improvidence. Apart
from any considerations of justice or humanity, it would be
unwise and unstatesmanlike to adopt measures which, by destroying
that safeguard, would be calculated to reduce the great mass of
them, in opposition to their own earnest protests, to a state of
hopeless penury and degradation.
The report is signed by Messrs. Neal, Riddle, Muldrow, Aldrich,
Reed, Bagley and James T. Jones of the committee.
--When Gen. Howard went alone, as it were, and unarmed among the
hostile and ferocious Chiricahuas, and boldly faced their head
chief Cochise, he showed them a moral power which they had never
seen before, and so produced a deep impression of respect for
the superiority of white men that has probably done more than
any brute force could have effected towards the pacification
of the tribe. The treaty then made was, and is still, sacredly
respected by Taza, the son and successor of Cochise, and by all
the Apaches, except, perhaps, fifty hostiles, who still prowl on
the Mexican border.
* * * * *
The Chinese.
--Last month we recorded the failure of the proposal to transfer
the Indians to the War Department. This month, with equal
pleasure, we note the failure of the bill virtually to prohibit
Chinese immigration. After passing both House and Senate, it
was vetoed by the President, and on the motion to pass it over
the veto, was defeated, having evidently lost ground in the
intervening days.
--Among the many memorials addressed to the President on this
subject, the following was sent by our Executive Committee:
_To the President of the United States:_
SIR: The Executive Committee of the American Missionary
Association respectfully but most earnestly ask that the
Executive veto be affixed to the bill passed by Congress
affecting the relations of this country with China. We regard
that bill as a surrender to caste prejudice, an injury to
this country, a wrong to China, and a violation of treaty
stipulations, of the fundamental principles of the Declaration of
Independence, and of the law of God.
Signed by vote of the Committee,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
_February 21, 1879._ M. E. STRIEBY.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS FOR THE FREEDMEN.
The International Sunday-school Convention at Atlanta, upon the
motion of Rev. Joshua Knowles, of Georgia, passed this resolution:
“That the present mental and moral condition of the colored
people of this country, especially their lack of proper and
adequate instruction, is calculated to enlist our sympathy, and
call forth our earnest prayers and endeavors in their behalf.”
At the request of the executive committee, Rev. W. S. Plumer, D.
D., of South Carolina, spoke upon this resolution. The venerated
man, cutting down the tangle about the entrance to the subject,
showed that the prophetic curse uttered by Noah did not apply to
the African race, but only to the Canaanites, a single branch of
the family of Ham. He spoke of the Ethiopian eunuch as one of the
first trophies of the Gospel out of the Jewish nation. Africa now
says to us when we put the question: “Understandest thou what
thou readest?” “How can I, except some one guide me?” And that is
what these people are looking to us for to-day. Now a great work
is to be done for these people, and it is to be done just as it
is to be done for white folks. We must do this in self-defense.
It is not possible that this great mass of uneducated mind can be
among us without in the end doing great mischief. In 1825, Dr.
John H. Rice predicted that if this country was ever desolated,
it would be by some crisp-haired prophet, arising and claiming
inspiration from Heaven, holding himself ready to lead on these
people to damage and mischief of every sort. He had known for
sixty years that colored children could learn by rote as well
as white children; he had sometimes thought better. And here is
encouragement. He had written a memoir of a Christian negro,
Monroe. His own life had been saved by a negro, when, as a boy,
he was capsized in the Ohio. “Be kindly affectioned toward these
people,” said the patriarchal man in the spirit of the aged
John, “and God will provide for them a future of great honor and
usefulness among us. Let us love them and treat them as brethren,
and remember that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from
all sin’--_us_, the black man as well as the white man.” In the
printed report of that speech “applause” is counted nine times.
At that convention, in the report by States of Sunday-school
work, Maryland announced three Sunday-school missionaries, one
of whom labored among the colored people, and two teachers’
associations in Baltimore, one for the colored. “We wish it
understood that we are taking care of the colored children
and gathering them into our schools.” Virginia reported: “We
are earnestly engaged in pushing the work among the colored
population.” The colored Sunday-school organized in 1855, by
Stonewall Jackson, was still alive, superintended by Col.
Preston, and having as teachers some of the ablest professors in
the university at Lexington. Experience has shown that the best
way to elevate the colored man is to give him well-ordered and
well-taught Sunday-schools. Florida said: “The work in colored
schools is gaining ground, one of them having over 300 scholars.”
Texas reported many flourishing colored Sunday-schools, and
was happy to have one of her intelligent Christian colored
superintendents in that convention.
Besides what is being done by the several denominations in their
respective way, the American Sunday-school Union has in the South
twelve of its missionaries. I met one of them the other day, Rev.
J. J. Strong, whose field is the State of Alabama. In five years
he had organized 157 schools, of which 37 were colored. Of the
142 schools aided by him, 58 were colored. He finds much aid and
comfort at the home of Judge Thornton, in the northern part of
the State. As he was about to start out on foot for the tour of
the county, the judge said: “You must take my pony.” As the pony
was known all over the county, he served as an introduction from
the judge. This missionary is one of two who are sustained by one
of those “unabridged” Christian men in the North. The other one
works among the Swedes in Wisconsin. The salary and traveling
expenses, and $100 to be given away by this worker in Alabama,
uses up $1,100 a year in this excellent work of Christian
philanthropy.
Besides all this at the South in this line, the American
Missionary Association reports for the last year 5,894
Sunday-school scholars connected with its sixty-four churches.
Then there is a vast amount of such work done every year that
does not come into these statistics. During the last summer
vacation Atlanta University sent out 150 day-school teachers,
and Fisk as many more, and all our institutions furnish more or
less of them. Nearly all of these also run for the time their own
Sunday-schools, thus reaching many thousand children with the
truth of God’s word. It is known that up to this time our colored
teachers have reached 100,000 of these day scholars, a multitude
of whom have been taught in Sunday-schools.
Talladega College, the last year, by its students, reached 1,200
Sunday-school scholars. In the past years they have reached, in
all, 20,000. Out of these schools six Congregational churches
have grown up. Rev. G. W. Andrews, the instructor in theology,
has been accustomed to take his class on Saturday morning over
the lesson of the next day, thus training them in a normal way as
well as in the way of the truth.
I had the pleasure of attending, in the month of February,
the convention held in New Orleans for organizing the State
Sunday-school Association for Louisiana. Florida was organized
the week after, which leaves only three State associations
yet to be set up. At Atlanta, the delegates from the South
reported their purpose to go home and organize every State. At
New Orleans it was reported that Louisiana had already 96,000
children in Sunday-schools, and this is nearly one-seventh of the
entire population of the State. With an association under the
vigorous administration of its president, Mr. W. R. Lyman, and
his live executive committee, it is hoped that all the parishes
(counties) of the State will soon be organized, and the work
greatly set forward. In that convention, colored delegates were
present, participating. The resolution of the Atlanta convention
quoted above, upon introduction by the man who was elected
president, was unanimously adopted. Upon taking the chair, he
assured colored people of sympathy and co-operation. Rev. W. S.
Alexander, our president and pastor in New Orleans, who was made
officially prominent in the convention, was also put on as one
of the vice-presidents and one of the members of the executive
committee of the State association. Two colored pastors were also
put upon that committee. More and more the heart of the good
people of the South is turning toward the colored children.
* * * * *
VIRGINIA.
The Work at Hampton, from a Three Months’ Observation.
REV. JOHN H. DENISON
“_Arbores seret, diligens Agricola, quarum adspiciet baccam ipse
nunquam._” A diligent husbandman plants trees, the fruit of which
he himself shall never behold. With such sentiments did our
excellent Arnold support us in the arduous pursuit of Latin prose
composition. It is evident, however, that there is a difference
in trees, if not in diligent husbandmen.
“Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute” is a tree whose fruit
may be speedily beheld, not only by those who planted it, but by
those also who cultivate or enrich it. It is a paying investment.
Every year it sends its roots deeper and stretches its boughs
out farther. It commends itself to the practical Christian
sentiment of the South. It is a peace-making force throughout
this section. Its attitude towards all Southern questions is
intelligent, considerate and just; it gives no sympathy to
fanaticism on either side, and nothing but discouragement to
political schemers. It sends out every summer the wholesome
leaven of a class of young men and women who have been trained to
teach intelligently; to use their hands as well as their heads;
to see the dignity of labor; to accept the situation, and not to
be ashamed of their color. In short, they are trained to the work
that lies before them, and not trained away from it.
It is a rare thing for a graduate of the Normal School to enter
into political life. Not one has been known to be a demagogue.
The standard set before them is that of a hard-working Christian
manhood; and it must be said that they bid fair to make the best
citizens we have, in a time when the great demand is for men who
will not work for an office, but who will work honestly for a
living. Our country seems to be crying for a further supply of
that article which forms the staple and the grit of nations--a
contented, practical manhood--the “_vir integer vitæ_” of Horace,
re-inforced by grace. It is that demand which Hampton is seeking
to meet, and does meet, with its yearly class of graduates.
Many years ago all England was startled by the arraignment of an
educated gentleman for stealing; he was a graduate of Oxford;
he plead guilty, but said it was his only resource; he had not
been able to find any business by which he could support himself
honestly. Since then the history of our financial institutions
has made it appear that this gentleman was not alone in his
unhappy predicament; there has been a world of college education
which has not fitted its beneficiaries to gain an honest
livelihood. It has given them the accomplishments of a social
rank, but not the power to earn that rank; it has simply made
them miserable. It has done worse even: it has left them in the
midst of a moral snare. It is the grand miscalculation of our
educational system. Here are millions of acres at the South
waiting to be reclaimed by skilful hands; here are thousands of
educated men who cannot find an honest self-supporting business.
The lever of education is not applied at the right place. It is
the merit of Hampton that it does apply the lever at the right
place. It trains the hand as well as the head. It fits a man to
take up the work God has placed before him. It gives him the
conditions on which a Christian life may flourish.