THROUGH LANDS THAT WERE DARK
[Illustration: KHAMA, THE CHRISTIAN CHIEF OF THE BAMANGWATO TRIBE.]
THROUGH LANDS
THAT WERE DARK
Being a Record of a Year’s Missionary Journey
in Africa and Madagascar
BY
F. H. HAWKINS, LL.B.,
Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society for Africa, China
and Madagascar.
“_To the Darkness and the Sorrow of the Night
Came the Wonder and the Glory of the Light_”
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY
16, New Bridge Street, London, E.C.
1914
Dedication
This little Book is dedicated (without permission) to the Friend whose
generosity made it possible for the journey herein recorded to be taken
free of any expense to the London Missionary Society.
Table of Contents
PAGE
FOREWORD 9
A. SOUTH AFRICA:
I. Darkness and Light 13
II. The Light Spreading Northward 27
III. Tiger Kloof--“A Lamp Shining in a Dark Place” 62
B. CENTRAL AFRICA:
IV. The Heart of the Dark Continent 66
V. The Brightness of His Rising 79
C. MADAGASCAR:
VI. Tananarive--“A City set on a Hill” 106
VII. Imerina Country Districts--“Fields White Unto Harvest” 126
VIII. Betsileo--“The Sombre Fringes of the Night” 139
IX. Glad and Golden Days 149
List of Illustrations
PAGE
Chief Khama _Frontispiece_
1. Map of South Africa 15
2. Kuruman Mission House _facing_ 34
3. The New Kuruman Waggon ” 34
4. Tiger Kloof ” 64
5. Map of Central Africa 67
6. Missionaries’ Children _facing_ 70
7. Native with Fish Trap ” 82
8. Kafukula Mission House ” 95
9. Map of Madagascar 109
10. Malagasy Girls at Girls’ Home _facing_ 121
11. Dr. and Mrs. Sibree ” 152
I hear a clear voice calling, calling,
Calling out of the night,
O, you who live in the Light of Life,
Bring us the Light!
We are bound in the chains of darkness,
Our eyes received no sight,
O, you who have never been bound or blind,
Bring us the Light!
We live amid turmoil and horror,
Where might is the only right,
O, you to whom life is liberty,
Bring us the Light!
We stand in the ashes of ruins,
We are ready to fight the fight,
O, you whose feet are firm on the Rock,
Bring us the Light!
You cannot--you shall not forget us,
Out here in the darkest night,
We are drowning men, we are dying men,
Bring, O, bring us the Light!
JOHN OXENHAM.
FOREWORD
This short record of a year’s missionary journey in Africa and
Madagascar is written at the request of the Directors of the London
Missionary Society, and is based upon a series of Journal Letters
written to my family and friends while I have been on my travels. This
fact must be my excuse for writing in the first person. This little
book has been prepared in the midst of the pressure of Secretarial work.
My visit to South Africa was a Secretarial visit. In Central Africa
and Madagascar I formed one of a Deputation from the London Missionary
Society. My colleague in Central Africa was the Rev. W. S. Houghton of
Birmingham, and in Madagascar the other members of the Deputation were
Mr. Houghton and Mr. Talbot E. B. Wilson of Sheffield.
It is not my purpose to attempt to give any description of the three
Mission Fields which it has been my privilege to visit during the
journey. Details with regard to the countries and the peoples will be
found in three Handbooks published by the Society.[1]
Nor does the discussion of questions of missionary policy or any
account of the details of the work in the various fields fall within
the scope of this book. These matters have been dealt with in Reports
prepared for the Directors of the Society. Further information with
regard to all the fields can be obtained in the Society’s Annual
Report. Some account of Madagascar and the missionary work there
will be also found in a book just published, entitled “Madagascar
for Christ,” being the Joint Report of the Simultaneous Deputations
from the London Missionary Society, The Friends’ Foreign Mission
Association, and the Paris Missionary Society, which have recently
returned from Madagascar.[2]
The journey has been one of great fascination. From the point of view
of the traveller it has been full of interest. From the point of view
of a Secretary of a Missionary Society carrying on work in the lands
visited, the outstanding impression has been that of the growing
Christian Church. In Central Africa that Church is in its infancy,
but it is an infancy full of promise. In South Africa and Madagascar
the Native Church is nearly a century old. Its foundations have been
well and truly laid, and it exhibits all the signs of healthy life and
growth. As one travelled from station to station and came into contact
with the Native Church in all stages of development and met the Native
leaders of that Church, one looked into the future and saw a vision
of a Church which would one day become not only self-supporting and
self-governing, but so possessed with the missionary spirit that it
would be an instrument in God’s hands for evangelising the peoples
amongst whom it is now set as a lamp in the night. One hundred years
ago and less these lands were in gross darkness; to-day the curtains
of the night are being lifted and long closed doors are wide open to
the light. The darkness has turned to dawning and the growing Church is
becoming “a burning and a shining light” in the lands which aforetime
sat “in darkness and in the shadow of death.”
F. H. H.
_31st January, 1914._
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “South Africa”: Rev. W. A. Elliott (price 6d., post free 8d.);
“Central Africa”: Mrs. John May, B.A. (price 6d., post free 7¹⁄₂d.);
“Madagascar”: Rev. James Sibree, D.D., F.R.G.S. (price 6d., post free
8d.). I am much indebted to the “Ten Years’ Review” of the Madagascar
Mission, edited by Dr. Sibree (L.M.S., price 2s. 6d. net), for much
information embodied in the Madagascar section of the book.
[2] Copies can be obtained at the L.M.S., 6d. net, post free 8d.
Through Lands That Were Dark
A.--SOUTH AFRICA
CHAPTER I
Darkness and Light
A land of lights and shadows intervolved,
A land of blazing sun and blackest night.
JOHN OXENHAM.
South Africa exercises a great charm over those who visit it. It is a
land of sunshine. An unkind critic has described it as “a land of trees
without shade, rivers without water, flowers without scent, and birds
without song.” It is a land of vast distances and sparse population.
The portion of the African Continent which is popularly referred to as
“South Africa” is that part which lies south of the Zambesi. This great
expanse of country is as large as Europe without Russia, Scandinavia
and the British Isles, but its entire population is less than that of
greater London.
I left England in the late autumn and arrived at Cape Town seventeen
days later in the early summer. London fog was exchanged for a land
of lovely flowers and luscious fruits. Cape Town has been so often
described that I will not dwell upon its beauties or attempt to draw a
picture of Table Mountain, The Devil’s Peak, The Lion’s Head, or The
Twelve Apostles.
My first impression--and it is a lasting one--was of the abounding
kindness and hospitality of the Colonials wherever I went. On the
day of my arrival I was entertained by the Executive Committee of
the Congregational Union of South Africa. On the following day I
was the guest of the Archbishop of Cape Town at his lovely home at
Bishopscourt, where I met fourteen South African Bishops in full
canonicals gathered together for their Annual Synod. Bishopscourt is
a beautiful old Dutch House with a far-famed garden which surpassed
in luxuriance of colour anything I had ever seen except in Japan.
All through South and Central Africa I was often the guest of
Government officials and European residents, and everywhere received,
as the representative of the Society, a warm welcome and the utmost
hospitality and kindness.
[Illustration: MAP OF SOUTH AFRICA, SHOWING L.M.S. MISSION STATIONS.]
My next impression was of the great contribution which the London
Missionary Society has made to the public life and development of Cape
Colony and South Africa generally, quite apart from the direct work
which its missionaries have been able to accomplish. Evidences of the
value of this contribution abounded everywhere I went. In Cape Town
I had the pleasure of meeting the Hon. W. P. Schreiner, who was the
Prime Minister of Cape Colony at the outbreak of the Boer War. Mr.
Schreiner is now a member of the Senate, specially chosen to represent
the interests of the Native population. He is recognised as the
leading lawyer in South Africa. I also met his brother, Mr. Theophilus
Schreiner, who is also a member of the Legislature and is well-known
as a leading Temperance advocate. Their sister, Olive Schreiner, the
authoress of “The Story of an African Farm,” is known wherever English
literature is read. This distinguished family are the children of an L.
M. S. Missionary.
It is not often that three brothers receive the honour of knighthood
for public services. Sir William Solomon, Sir Saul Solomon and the
late Sir Richard Solomon (who was Agent-General for the Commonwealth
of South Africa, and who died a few weeks ago) are sons of an L. M.
S. Missionary. In its Review of the year 1913, the _Times_ speaks of
Sir Richard Solomon as “the most distinguished South African of his
generation, a man who was loved by his intimates and respected by all
for his ability and efficiency,” and of Sir William Solomon as “an
eminent judge.”
Dr. Mackenzie, the leading physician in Kimberley; his brother, Dr. W.
Douglas Mackenzie, the Principal of the Hartford Theological Seminary,
U.S.A.; and another brother, at present Solicitor-General for Southern
Rhodesia, are three sons of John Mackenzie, the missionary-statesman of
South Africa and Lord Rosebery’s friend, who had so much to do with the
making of history in South Africa thirty years ago. I need only mention
other families whose names are household words in South Africa, and
whose representatives are to be found in many places--the Philips, the
Moffats, the Kaysers, the Andersons, the Helms, the Rose-Innes, to show
how large a part the L. M. S. has indirectly played in building up the
Commonwealth of South Africa.
Throughout Cape Colony I found numerous Congregational Churches of
coloured people at places which were formerly Mission Stations of
the Society. Amongst others, Pacaltsdorp, Kruisfontein, Hankey,
Port Elizabeth, King Williams Town, and Fort Beaufort were visited.
The Society many years ago withdrew its missionaries and left these
Churches to develop along their own lines into self-governing
communities, supporting their own pastorate and carrying on their
own work. Wherever one went, one found evidences of the great part
which the Society had played in days gone by in planting churches
which are now independent, thus contributing both to the civilisation
and evangelization of the peoples of the land. Passing reference may
be made to one of these Churches which I visited. In the Brownlee
location at King Williams Town I found at work the Rev. John Harper,
who nearly thirty years ago exchanged his position as a missionary
of the Society for that of pastor of the Congregational Church. For
forty-five years he has laboured there as the minister of the Kaffir
Church in the Native Location and in charge of nineteen out-stations.
This veteran not only ministers to the spiritual needs of a very large
congregation, but acts both as doctor and lawyer to all the natives.
In 1912 he treated 4,000 patients and acted as guide, philosopher and
friend to the members of his congregations, advising them in all their
difficulties, drawing up their wills for them and ever looking after
their temporal and spiritual interests. Many of these coloured Churches
are now served by ministers of their own race, who have been trained
for the pastorate.
From Cape Town I proceeded to Great Brak River and paid a short visit
to Mr. Thomas Searle, who for some years has been the Society’s Agent
for its properties at Hankey and Kruisfontein. The history of the
Searle family at Great Brak River during the last fifty years affords a
good example of the contribution to the development of the Colony which
Christian families have been able to make.
On the 31st December, 1859, the late Mr. Charles Searle arrived at
Great Brak River with his wife and four children to take up the
position of toll-keeper at the Causeway carrying the main road over the
river. The toll-house was the only habitation in the place. Mr. Searle
erected a house for the accommodation of travellers, and afterwards a
shop and a store. Four more children were born. He purchased a farm of
354 acres for £91, and spent some money in constructing water-furrows.
A church was built. The business grew and subsequently a tannery and
boot-and-shoe factory were started. Branch stores were afterwards
established at George, Oudtshoorn, Heidelberg, Riversdale and a
wholesale depot at Mossel Bay. Mr. Searle had three sons, Charles,
William, and Thomas, who entered the business, and now direct the
Limited Company, which has been formed to carry it on. As the place
grew the Searles successfully opposed all applications for a licence
for the sale of intoxicating drinks, and to-day there is no licence
between Mossel Bay, 16 miles to the west, and George, 18³⁄₄ miles to
the east. The present population of Great Brak River exceeds 900, all
of whom are in the employ of, or dependent on, the Searles, except
the doctor, the post-master and the school-teacher. At first, all the
employees were coloured people. Latterly, however, white people have
also been employed, but they are treated exactly in the same way as the
coloured people and receive the same wages as coloured people doing
similar work. A very large new factory is now being built. Mr. Thomas
Searle preaches regularly in the spacious church. Dutch is the language
spoken. There is an excellent golf course. About six years ago old Mr.
and Mrs. Charles Searle died. They and other members of the family are
buried in the beautiful little private cemetery in Mr. Thomas Searle’s
garden--the first of numerous garden burial places I saw in different
places in the Colony. The three sons continue to reside in Great Brak
River honoured and esteemed by the whole countryside.
While at Great Brak River I paid a visit to Pacaltsdorp, an old L.
M. S. station founded 100 years ago, where the Rev. G. B. Anderson,
whose father and grandfather were L. M. S. missionaries, is pastor. A
massive stone Church was erected in 1824, and is a memorial to the Rev.
Charles Pacalt, who devoted his salary to the building of the Church.
In addition to being pastor, Mr. Anderson is also schoolmaster,
post-master, registrar of births, marriages and deaths and agent for
the Society’s property known as Hansmoeskraal farm.
Mr. Searle kindly took me in his motor car to visit Kruisfontein and
Hankey, where the Society still owns property. The South African roads
are not constructed for motor car traffic. They defy description and
I shall not soon forget this journey. The gradients are very bad, the
surface execrable. The ruts, rocks, stones and especially the sand
made rapid travel in a motor car a mixed pleasure. Rivers, and more
often dry river-beds, had to be crossed. For the most part the roads
were very narrow and were often over-hung with trees and prickly-pear,
constantly blocked by great ox-waggons with teams of fourteen to
eighteen oxen, or by goats, sheep, pigs, cows and more often than all
by ostriches, which seemed to take a delight in trying to race the car.
In spite of, or perhaps partly because of, these drawbacks, however,
the journey was most enjoyable. Some parts were very wild and desolate,
but others were scenes of sylvan beauty. There were mountain passes,
ravines, funereal forests (in one of which wild elephants are still to
be found), fairy glens and water-falls (often with very little water on
account of the prolonged drought), and in turn one was reminded of the
Pass of Glencoe, the Barmouth Estuary, the Precipice Walk, Dolgelley,
the New Forest and the Highlands of Scotland.
Hankey is a name well known to all interested in the work of the L.
M. S. in South Africa. Through the engineering skill of one of the
missionaries applied to the construction of a tunnel through a narrow
mountain ridge, the waters of the Gamtoos River were made available for
watering the Hankey valley, and ever since the desert has “blossomed
as the rose.” Above this tunnel, near the top of the mountain, is a
remarkable natural feature known as “The Window.” It is a large opening
in the rocky ridge through which a beautiful landscape can be seen on
both sides.
Another feature of Hankey which impresses a stranger from Europe is the
frogs’ chorus every evening rising from an innumerable multitude of
these amphibious reptiles which infest the fields and water-furrows.
They are known as the canaries of South Africa, and reminded one of the
music so characteristic of the rice fields of Central China.
At Hankey there is a large Church of coloured people, representing an
old mission station of the Society, and an Institution for the training
of teachers now under the control of the South African Congregational
Union. Through the sale of the Society’s property a considerable
population of Europeans has been attracted to Hankey, and I had the
honour during my visit of opening the new European Church.
From Hankey I proceeded to Port Elizabeth, where I was again hospitably
entertained. I had an opportunity of meeting the Congregational
ministers and the leading laymen at a Reception, and learnt much of
the contribution of the L. M. S. to the development of this part of
South Africa. The coloured Church there for so many years ministered
to by the Rev. William Dower, formerly a missionary of the Society,
is another instance of a strong self-supporting and self-governing
Church which has grown out of the missionary work of years gone by. On
the occasion of my visit it was crowded from floor to ceiling with a
congregation of coloured people, who are under the pastoral care of a
young and able coloured minister.
After leaving Port Elizabeth I had the privilege of paying a visit to
two of the greatest Native Institutions in South Africa. At Healdtown,
near Fort Beaufort, the Wesleyans are carrying on a great work in the
training of Native Teachers. There are 185 boy and 84 girl boarders.
The results obtained in the Government examinations are the best in the
Colony. The students come from all parts; most of them are Kaffirs. The
medium of instruction is English. This great work is mainly the result
of the blessing of God upon the labours of one man, Principal R. F.
Hornabrook, who is in supreme control. The Institution is nominally in
charge of a Committee which, however, has not met for ten years. When
he commenced work there twenty-two years ago there were thirty-three
students. Mr. Hornabrook is his own architect and builder. He is also
a farmer and a doctor. The fees charged are £12 a year, and there is a
large Government grant. Some small help is given by the Wesleyans in
South Africa. Not a penny comes from England. The buildings are quite
unambitious in character, and for the most part have been erected
from the profits made from carrying on the Institution. The whole
enterprise is a triumph of organisation. There are four white men
teachers, three white lady teachers, two matrons and several coloured
teachers. The course is three years, and the students must have passed
the sixth standard before they enter. All have a little manual labour
to do, but there is no industrial department except so far as it is
necessary to teach woodwork. All sorts of difficulties have had to be
surmounted, the chief physical one being the water-supply, which is
now satisfactorily provided by a windmill. The whole Institution is a
monument of what can be done by one man with comparatively small funds.
Mr. Hornabrook is doing great things for South Africa.
From Healdtown I journeyed to Lovedale, the centre of the world-famed
labours of Dr. James Stewart, who will always be known as “Stewart
of Lovedale.” This is an Institution carried on by the Free Church
of Scotland. There are 550 boarders from all parts of South Africa,
and of these 155 are girls. There is also a “practising school”
with 210 children. The fees range from £12 to £16 a year. Since the
Institution was commenced considerably over £100,000 has been received
in fees. Preachers and teachers for the South African Churches and
schools are trained here. The industrial work is widely known. The
Natives are taught carpentry, waggon-making, smith’s work, printing,
book-binding, boot and shoe making, office work, needle and laundry
work, horticulture and many other industrial pursuits.
The present Principal is the Rev. James Henderson, formerly of the
Nyasaland Mission. The Warden of the Boys’ department is Dr. Moore
Anderson, a son of Sir Robert Anderson, at one time Chief of the
Metropolitan Police Force. On the staff there is the famous South
African astronomer, Dr. Roberts. It was good to find the daughter of
one of our present South African missionaries occupying a responsible
position in the Girls’ department. Words fail me to describe the great
work which is being done. The Institution is an enduring memorial to
the ability and devotion of Dr. Stewart. Over the grave of this great
and good man, which I visited, is the simple inscription, “James
Stewart, Missionary.” On the hill-top is a huge stone monument erected
to his memory.
On leaving Lovedale I journeyed _via_ King Williams Town, Blaney
Junction, and De Aar to Kimberley. The railway meanders in and out
amongst the hills through picturesque scenery. Great rocks are much
in evidence. On the latter part of the journey I passed numerous
block-houses and stretches of galvanised wire fencing reminiscent
of the Boer war. Here as elsewhere the country has an unfinished
look about it. Most of the buildings are of galvanised iron. Long
distances were traversed without any signs of human habitation, and
where such signs appeared they were not always pleasing. The wretched
huts of “red-blanket kaffirs,” and the abject poverty in which they
live, showed that there is still much to be done to raise the native
inhabitants out of their degradation and to teach them to live decent
lives.
In order to see at first-hand the conditions under which so many of
the Bechuanaland Natives live in the Compounds of the great De Beers’
Diamond Mines, I visited Kimberley. Dr. Mackenzie kindly took me over
the diamond mine workings and one of the Compounds. From these mines
the bulk of the world’s supply of diamonds comes. I was very pleased
with what I saw in the Compound I visited, where 4,762 natives were
quartered. The annual death rate is only eight per thousand, about
half that of London. Every provision is made for the comfort, health
and well-being of the native workers. There is an admirable hospital
and a well-organised store, where the necessaries of life are to be
obtained at cost price. The fact that the natives are well cared for is
evidenced by the popularity of the work in the Kimberley mines all over
South Africa. Natives who have worked there return again and again for
a further period. There can be no doubt that the restraint upon their
liberty, to which they voluntarily submit while at work in the mines,
is greatly to their advantage, and the facilities which exist for the
remitting of wages to their families obviate, to a great extent, the
risks they would run if they left the Compound with large sums of money
in their possession. Nor are their spiritual needs neglected.
While at Kimberley I paid a visit to Barkly West, formerly a mission
station of the Society for many years, associated with the name of
William Ashton. From Kimberley I proceeded to Tiger Kloof. I shall
refer to the great work which is being carried on there later in this
narrative.
As one travelled through the Cape Province and visited many places,
which were at one time stations of the Society in the charge of
missionaries and entirely supported by funds from home, but are now
independent Churches carrying on their own work, one realised the
power of the growing Church in the lands which 100 years ago were
in darkness. This province is still “A land of lights and shadows
intervolved, a land of blazing sun and blackest night,” and some of
its portals are still “barred against the light.” That light has for a
century and more been beating up against “close-barred doors,” but the
missionary traveller looking down “the future’s broadening way” sees
many a sign that the time will surely come--
“When, like a swelling tide,
The Word shall leap the barriers, and The Light
Shall sweep the land; and Faith and Love and Hope
Shall win for Christ this stronghold of the night.”