As a sample of the latest methods of land acquisition in Africa, and the

consequences, one has but to study the recent bout between England and

Portugal. The latter country claims the Delagoa Bay section, Mozambique

and the Zambesi, indefinitely inland, and this though her rule has been

limited to two or three isolated spots. On the Zambesi she established

two or three trading and missionary stations which were used for a long

time, but gradually fell into disuse. There is no dispute about her

claims to the Zambesi section, though the Zulus south of the river do not

recognize allegiance to her. The Zambesi, to a point five miles above the

mouth of the Shiré, was declared a free river by the Berlin conference,

so that there can be no dispute about that. So, there is no disposition

to interfere with her claims to Mozambique or Delagoa, except as to their

western boundary. To permit her to extend her claim to these territories

westward till they met the boundaries of the Congo Free State, would be

to give her possession of the Shiré River, Lake Shirwah and Lake Nyassa.

Now starting at the Ruo affluent of the Shiré, England claims the entire

Nyassa section, both by right of discovery——Livingstone discovered the

lake——and occupation. Its non-native people are British subjects. She

may not have taken the precaution to acquire rights of the natives by

treaties, but neither has Portugal. Portugal never expanded, so to

speak, beyond the coast on the line of the Zambesi, never did anything

for the natives, and is charged with conniving with the slave trade. On

the contrary, the established church of Scotland has many missionaries,

teachers and agents in the Shiré Highlands. The Free Church of Scotland

has several missionaries, teachers and artisans on Lake Nyassa. The

Universities Mission has a steamer on the lake and several missionary

agents. The African Lakes Company, chartered in England, has steamers on

the Shiré river and Lake Nyassa, with twelve trading stations, manned by

twenty-five agents. British capital invested in Nyassaland will equal

$1,000,000. In his “Title Deeds to Nyassaland,” Rev. Horace Waller says:

“Dotted here and there, from the mangrove swamps of the Kongone mouth of

the Zambesi to the farthest extremity of Lake Nyassa, we pass the graves

of naval officers, of brave ladies, of a missionary bishop, of clergymen,

of foreign representatives, doctors, scientific men, engineers and

mechanics. All these were our countrymen. They lie in glorious graves.

Their careers have been foundation stones, and already the edifice rises.

British mission stations are working at high pressure on the Shiré

Highlands and upon the shores of Nyassa. Numbers of native Christians

owe their knowledge of the common faith to their efforts. Scores of

future chiefs are being instructed in schools spread over hundreds of

miles. Commerce is developing by sure and steady steps. A vigorous

company is showing to the tribes and nations that there are more valuable

commodities in their country than their sons and daughters.”

In view of all these things, and perhaps spurred to activity by them,

Portugal, following the fashion of England, organized a South African

Company with the intention of consolidating her African possessions, by

operating from the east coast, with a base at Delagoa Bay, Mozambique

and the mouth of the Zambesi. The announcement, lately made, that

Mapoonda, chief of the natives in the Shiré River District——the Shiré

River flows into the Zambesi from the north, and is the outlet of Lake

Nyassa——had accepted Portuguese sovereignty, was a distinctive victory

for the Portuguese in their contest with the British for the control of

that section of the Dark Continent. In July, 1889, Mr. H. H. Johnston,

an experienced African traveller and naturalist, and British consul

at Mozambique, took passage with several British naval officers on a

gunboat, which went up the Chinde mouth of the Zambesi and entered the

Shiré river. At a point 100 miles north of its mouth, where the Ruo

enters the Shiré, Consul Johnston on the 12th of August “performed

the significant act of hoisting the British flag at the Ruo station,

henceforth marking the limit of Portuguese authority.” This was intended

to close Portugal out of Lake Nyassa, the extreme southern point of

which is 150 miles north of Ruo. By securing Mapoonda, however, Portugal

took actual possession of the territory immediately to the south of

Lake Nyassa. The English expedition in going up the river passed Major

Serpa Pinto, the Portuguese leader, with a force of about 700 Zulus

under his command. Serpa Pinto was on his way to take possession of

Nyassaland. Consul Johnston protested, and assured him that, if he

persisted in his purpose, he would bring about a rupture between Portugal

and England. Serpa Pinto finally promised to turn back, but as soon as

Consul Johnston had moved forward the Portuguese commander resumed his

march to Lake Nyassa, and when he reached Mapoonda, which commands the

southern entrance to the lake, threw up fortifications there and began

preparations for a battle with the neighboring Makololo, in which the

latter were routed with great slaughter. This battle appears to have been

decisive, and to have led the native chiefs to transfer their nominal

allegiance from the British to the Portuguese with alarming rapidity.

By securing Mapoonda as an ally, the Portuguese cut off England’s

communications with Lake Nyassa via the Zambesi and Shiré rivers, and

precipitated the crisis which was threatened by the recent Portuguese

proclamation which assumed to annex the whole Zambesi region.

This controversy which has already ended in the defeat of Portuguese

designs, and which could have ended in no other way, because England

is the stronger and more rapacious power, brings into play all the old

arguments respecting colonial ambitions and enterprises. It will be

remembered that for nearly two hundred years after the discovery of

America, the European powers were a unit over the doctrine that first

discovery gave a title to the discoverer. But when Great Britain awoke

to the fact that this doctrine, if rigidly applied, would virtually

dispossess her of American soil, notwithstanding the additional fact

that she was proving to be the best permanent colonizer in Europe, she

originated the new doctrine that actual possession of and settlement in

a newly discovered country created a higher title than that of first

discovery. This was a safe doctrine to adopt respecting America, for even

then the English grip was now so strong as to be unshakable, and it was

equally safe as to any other British claim, for the ocean supremacy of

France, Spain and Portugal, her real rivals, was on the wane and hers was

on the increase.

So now, notwithstanding the claim of Portugal to her territory on both

the African coasts, by right of discovery, England does not hesitate to

enter the Nyassa and Shiré region, hoist her flag and claim the rights

of sovereignty, on the ground that she is the first permanent occupant.

The fact that she has tangible interests to protect——invested property,

missions etc., serves to strengthen her attitude with other European

powers. But aside from this she does not intend to let Portugal establish

a permanent possession clear across Africa from the Atlantic, at Angola

and Benguella, to the mouth of the Zambesi. Such a possession would

simply cut the continent in two, and erect a barrier on the east coast to

that union of the British African possessions which her foreign diplomacy

designs. Moreover, it is fully settled in the mind of Great Britain that

the Nile water-way and its extensions through Lakes Albert and Edward

Nyanza, Tanganyika, Nyassa, and the Shiré and Zambesi rivers, are hers,

even if force has to be applied to make them actually hers.

But it must be said on behalf of Portugal, that she is not resting her

rights on the ancient fiction of discovery alone. Her occupancy of the

Zambesi region has, of late, become quite distinct and her vested rights

have assumed impressive proportions. The management of her affairs are

in the hands of Major Alberto da Rocha Serpa Pinto, whose exertions have

greatly strengthened the Portuguese claims. His achievements in the

way of African exploration give him high rank as a traveler, explorer,

scientist and organizer. He was born in 1845 and educated for the

Portuguese military service. In 1869 he first went to Africa, where he

took part in the campaign against the rebellious chief Bonga, in the

region of the Zambesi. He acquitted himself with distinction on the field

of battle, and acquired wide repute as an explorer, by ascending the

river as far as the Victoria Falls, making many important discoveries on

the way, and crossing the African continent from one side to the other.

Upon his return to Portugal, Serpa Pinto was received personally by the

King, who was first to greet him when entering the harbor; Lisbon and

Oporto were brilliantly illuminated in his honor, and he received many

honors and marks of distinction from the sovereign and public bodies.

In November, 1877, Serpa Pinto was again sent to Africa by the

Portuguese Government and the Lisbon Geographical Society in conjunction.

He organized a force of fourteen soldiers and fifty-seven carriers, and,

starting from Benguella, he penetrated to the interior, traversing the

districts of Dombe, Guillenguez, and Caconda, reaching Bihé in March

of the following year. He was finally laid low with fever and carried

by his faithful followers to the coast. Two of his subordinates, Brito

Capello and Ivens, who have since become eminent as explorers, left the

expedition in the interior, journeying to the northward to explore the

river Quanza, while Serpa Pinto went to the eastward. On his return to

Lisbon he was received with evidences of great esteem by the King, and

was the object of popular adulation in all quarters. He described the

sources of four great rivers heretofore unknown. His discovery of the

river Coando, navigable for 600 miles and flowing into the Zambesi, alone

placed Major Pinto in the rank of the great African explorers. After

remaining in Portugal a few years, Serpa Pinto again returned to Africa,

where he has since remained. In 1884, he made another extended journey of

exploration, the results of which fully entitled him to the title of the

Portuguese Stanley.

Following his discoveries the Portuguese have built a short railroad

inland from Delagoa, and have established a system of steam navigation

on the Zambesi and Shiré rivers, and opened a large and prosperous

trading establishment. The activity recently displayed by the British in

southeast Africa has led them to push forward their advantages and seize

everything they can lay their hands on while the opportunity offers.

Commenting on this situation the London _Times_ calls it “Major Serpa

Pinto’s gross outrage on humanity and intolerable affront to England,” to

which an American paper very appropriately replies:——

“Nothing would suit the English better than to have some excuse for

wrenching away from little Portugal her possessions on the Dark

Continent. England has played the cuckoo so many times with impunity that

now it is believed a quickened public conscience will call a halt.

“The merits of this particular case will hardly exert much influence in

determining the fate of Portugal in Africa. Left to themselves, England

would dispossess Portugal in the twinkling of an eye, for if Turkey is

the sick man of Eastern Europe, Portugal is the national personification

of senility in the West. Four or five hundred years ago it was the

foremost nation of Europe in point of commercial enterprise. The ships

of Portugal were the most adventuresome of any that ploughed the ocean.

As long ago as 1419 a bold Portuguese tar, Zarco, skirted along Western

Africa, far below the Equator, and later, Vasco de Gama doubled the

Cape of Good Hope. Like Columbus, he sought the most direct route to

India, and what the Genoese missed he found. The country which England

is now impatiently eager to steal from Portugal is a part of the reward

of that enterprise which revolutionized Oriental trade, and was second

in importance to the world only to the discovery of America. It was as

if both sought a silver mine, and the one who failed to find what they

were after came upon a gold mine. Portugal may not have made very much

use of her discovery for herself and her people, but mankind has been

immeasurably benefited, and England incalculably enriched. For the latter

to now turn around and rob Portugal of her African possessions, in whole

or in part, would be poetic injustice. It would be the old fable over

again of the farmer who warmed a snake in his bosom only to be bitten by

it.”

[Illustration: AFRICAN METHODIST CONFERENCE, 1888. 1: Bishop Wm. Taylor.

2: Chas. A. Pitman. 3: Jas. H. Deputie. 4: H. B. Capeheart. 5: Jas. W.

Draper. 6: Riding Boyce. 7: A. L. Sims. 8: Gabriel W. Parker. 9: J. E.

Clarke. 10: Anthony H. Watson. 11: Edwd. Brumskine. 12: Jno. W. Early.

13: J. Wood (L. P.). 14: Josiah Artis. 15: A. S. Norton (?) L. P. 16:

Dan’l Ware. 17: C. B. McLain. 18: Jos. W. Bonner. 19: Wm. P. Kennedy, Jr.

20: Benj. K. McKeever. 21: Benj. J. Turner. 22: Frank C. Holderness. 23:

Wm. T. Hagar. 24: Jas. W. Cooper. 25: Thos. A. Sims.]

MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA.

It is not alone as a commercial, scientific and political field that

Africa attracts attention. No country presents stronger claims on the

attention of Christian philanthropists. The Arabs entered Africa as

propagandists of Islamism. The Portuguese advent was signalized by the

founding of Catholic missions. When they arrived off the mouth of the

Congo, in 1490, the native king, “seated on a chair of ivory, raised on

a platform, dressed in glossy, highly colored skins and feathers, with

a fine head-dress made of palm fibre, gave permission to the strangers

to settle in his dominions, to build a church, and to propagate the

Christian religion. The King himself and all his Chiefs were forthwith

baptised, and the fullest scope was allowed to the Roman Catholic

missionaries who accompanied the expedition to prosecute their appointed

work.”

Thus runs an old chronicle. It is valuable as showing the antiquity of

Christian interest in Africa, as well as showing the fine opportunity

then presented for introducing the gospel into benighted lands. We say

fine opportunity, because Portugal was then a power, able and willing

to second every effort of the church, and the church itself was well

equipped for missionary work. Its zeal was untiring. Its formula was

calculated to impress the African mind. The regalia of its priesthood

was captivating. Its music was pleasing and inspiring. But the sequel

proved that something was wrong. The priesthood laboured arduously,

establishing missions, baptizing the natives by the thousand, adapting

their ceremonies and processions to heathen rites and superstitions. The

process was not that of lifting pagan souls to a high Christian level,

so much as a lowering of Christian principles to a heathen level. Then

the church was too dependent on, too intimate with, the state. Even

Portuguese historians admit that physical force was frequently employed

to bring the natives more completely under the will of the priests. The

accounts given of some of the floggings which took place, both of males

and female, would be alternately shocking and ludicrous, but for the fact

that they were associated with the propagation of religion. Also, both

church and state countenanced the crime of slavery, and fattened on the

infernal traffic. The ultimate result of such a system might have been

easily foreseen. After a long career of so-called missionary success,

during which hundreds of mission stations were founded on the entire

western and on a great part of the eastern coast of Africa, and many even

far inland, the priests fell under the jealousy of the chiefs, clashed

with them respecting polygamy and various other customs, and were finally

forced back with the receding wave of European influence, when the

power of Portugal began to wane. Within one hundred years of the above

described arrival of the Portuguese missionaries off the mouth of the

Congo, no trace of the labors of Catholic missionaries could be found and

no tradition among the natives that they had ever been there. The finest

mission stations elsewhere had fallen into ruins, and only those remained

which were near ports of entry and fortified commercial points.

It may be truthfully said that missionary work in Africa lay as if dead

till the spirit of African discovery was revived in England by the

formation of the British African Association, in the latter part of

the eighteenth century. Even its first pioneers were not missionaries,

but rather explorers in a commercial and scientific sense. They were,

however, philanthropic Christian men, and the problem of evangelizing

Africa was ever present in their minds. Among them were Leyard, Major

Houghton, Mungo Park who met his death on the Upper Niger, Frederic

Horeman, Mr. Nicholls, Prof. Roentgen, Mr. James Riley, Captain Tuckey

who manned the first Congo expedition in 1816, Captain Gray and Major

Laing, Richie and Lyon, Denham and Clapperton who pierced Bornou and

visited Lake Tchad, Laing and Caillié whose glowing descriptions of

Timbuctoo were read with delight.

These were followed at a later period by Richard and John Lander who

really solved the problem of the Niger, and by Laird and Oldfield and

Coulthurst and Davidson. Now came a time, 1841, when broader sympathies

were enlisted. An expedition was organized under the direction and at

the expense of the British Government which was not merely to explore

the interior of the vast Continent, promote the interests of art and

science, but check the slave trade, introduce legitimate commerce,

advance civilization and social improvement, and thus prepare the way

for the introduction of Christianity. For this purpose, treaties were

to be formed with native princes, agriculture was to be encouraged, and

Christian missions were to be established. Two missionaries went along,

Rev. Messrs. Muller and Schon. The expedition began the ascent of the

river Niger, but was soon forced to return. Failure was written over

the enterprise, and the cause was the deadly climate, which had been

too little studied in advance. African enterprise in the north again

fell back on pioneering exploits, and we have the splendid researches

of Barth, Krapf and Rebman in 1849, and in 1857 those still more

brilliant efforts of Burton and Speke, who entered the continent from

Zanzibar, on the east, and brought to light the mystery of Victoria

Nyanza and Tanganyika. Following these came Baker, and then the immortal

Livingstone, who united the pioneer and the missionary.

Livingstone entered Africa in 1840, under the auspices of the London

Missionary Society, and founded a missionary station at Kolobeng, South

Africa, 200 miles north of the Moffat station at Kuruman. He married Rev.

Robert Moffat’s daughter, and was thus doubly fortified for missionary

work. He labored earnestly and faithfully in his field till driven by

the hostility of the Boers to provide himself another mission further

north and beyond the great Kalahari desert. After suffering untold

hardships in his trip across the desert, he discovered Lake Ngami,

decided that it would be a good base for further missionary work, and

then returned for his wife. A third time he crossed the desert, which

had been regarded as impassable, and this time with his family. It was

the year 1851. He reached the river Chobe after a hard struggle, his

animals having perished under the bites of the poisonous tsetse fly.

Here he entered the kingdom of Sebituane, the renowned warrior, whose

favor he had previously secured. But that chieftain had died, and his

successor detained Livingstone for a time. When a permit was obtained to

go where he pleased, he pushed on 130 miles to Sesheke, and thence to

the Zambesi, in the center of the continent, in the country of the famed

Macololos. But finding the country too unhealthy for a permanent mission,

he returned to Cape Town, whence he planned and carried to success a

journey back to the Zambezi, and westward, through the Macololos and

other tribes, to Loanda in Angola, quite across the continent. This was

in 1852. This journey came about because, when at Cape Town, he learned

of the total destruction of his parent mission station at Kolobeng by the

Boers. This left him without a pastoral charge, but it proved a turning

point in his life. Henceforth the field of adventure and exploration

was his, and he easily became the most noted of African travelers, till

Stanley established for himself a greater fame. What the Church lost

a whole world gained. His further travels, how he lost and buried his

faithful wife on the banks of the Shiré, his own sad death in the swamps

of Lake Bangweola, the return of his dead body to Zanzibar, borne by his

faithful servants Chuma and Susi, have all been described elsewhere in

this volume.

The recent advance of the Portuguese toward the head-waters of the

Zambesi, and their reduction of the Macololo territory to a Portuguese

possession, together with the complications with other ambitious nations

of Europe, likely to grow out of it, bring that strange Central African

people again into prominence. The region was made known, in olden times,

by the Portuguese traveler, Silva Porto, who described it as fertile, and

the people as of divided tribes. But Livingstone describes the section

as the empire of the Macololos, and gives many glowing descriptions of

the people, their rulers, products and possessions. He was well received

by them, liked their country, and left a profound impression among

them, for Major Serpa Pinto, in his visit many years afterwards, found

Livingstone’s name mentioned everywhere among the then detached and

demoralized tribes with respect.

[Illustration: CHUMA AND SUSI.]

[Illustration: KING LOBOSSI.]

According to Livingstone, the powerful Basuto tribe, south of the

Zambesi, crossed to the north side under the lead of their chief,

Chibitano, and reduced the numerous tribes who inhabited the vast

stretches of country as far as the river Cuando. Chibitano gave to

his army, formed of different elements, and to his conquered peoples,

made up of a variety of origins, the name of Cololos, hence the word

Macololos, so well known throughout Africa. This powerful warrior and

legislator held his conquered tribes as brethren in one common interest

till his death, when they began to set up independent empires. In this

disintegration the Luinas, under King Lobossi, came to the front, and

are yet the most powerful of the Macololos. Pinto says that the Macololo

empire is now composed of a mongrel crew——Calabares, Luinas, Ganguellas,

and Macalacas——all given to drunkenness and moral brutishness. They are

polygamous and deep in the slave traffic. Their country——200 miles long

and over 50 wide——is full of villages and fine plantations. The Luina

herds cover the plains of the upper Zambesi, and no finer cattle are to

be found in Africa. Lakes abound, and while they contribute to malarial

diseases, they give a rich variety of fish. The men do not take readily

to farming, but the women are wonderful milkmaids and vegetable raisers.

As a people, they are skillful iron-workers and wood-carvers, and expert

at pottery work. They cultivate tobacco for snuff, but smoke only

_bangue_. They dress fuller and better than most Central African people,

and some of their garbs are quite fantastic.

Prof. Henry Drummond, of Glasgow, in a lecture on “The Heart of Africa,”

gives a vivid description of the perils which beset missionary life in

the Zambesi regions:

As his boat swept along the beautiful lake Nyassa, he noticed in the

distance a few white objects on the shore. On closer inspection, they

were found to be wattle and daub houses, built in English style and

whitewashed. Heading his boat for the shore, he landed and began to

examine what seemed to be the home of a little English colony. The first

house he entered gave evidence of recent occupancy, everything being

in excellent order; but no human form was to be seen or human voice to

be heard. The stillness of death reigned. He entered the school-house.

The benches and desks were there, as if school had been but recently

dismissed; but neither teachers nor scholars were to be seen. In the

blacksmith shop the anvil and hammer stood ready for service, and

it seemed as if the fire had just gone out upon the hearth; but no

blacksmith could be found. Pushing his investigations a little further,

he came upon four or five graves. These little mounds told the whole

story and explained the desolation he had seen. Within them reposed the

precious dust of some of the missionaries of Livingstonia, who one by

one had fallen at their post, victims of the terrible African fever.

Livingstonia was Scotland’s answer in part to the challenge which Henry

M. Stanley gave to the Christian world to send missionaries to eastern

equatorial Africa. When that intrepid explorer, after untold hardship,

had found David Livingstone, and during months of close companionship

had felt the power of that consecrated life, he blew the trumpet with no

uncertain sound to rouse the church to her privilege and responsibility

in central Africa. But it was not till the death of the great missionary

explorer, that the land which gave him birth resolved to send a little

army of occupation to the region which he had opened to the Christian

world. On the 18th of January, 1875, at a public meeting held in the city

of Glasgow, the Free, the Reformed, and the United Presbyterian churches

of Scotland founded a mission, to be called Livingstonia, and which was

to be located in the region of Lake Nyassa, the most southern of the

three great lakes of central Africa, with a coast of eight hundred miles.

Although founded by the churches just named, it was understood that it

was to be regarded as a Free Church mission, the others co-operating with

men and means as opportunity offered or necessity required.

The choice of location was most appropriate, not only because Dr.

Livingstone had discovered that beautiful sheet of water, but because

he had requested the Free Church to plant a mission on its shores. The

first company of missionaries, which included also representatives of

the Established Church, who were to found a separate mission in the

lake region, after immense toil and severe hardship, reached the lake,

_via_ the Zambesi and Shiré rivers, October 12th, 1875. They selected

a site near Cape Maclear as their first settlement, and as soon as

possible put into operation the various parts of the mission work they

had been commissioned to prosecute——industrial, educational, medical and

evangelistic. From the first the mission met with encouraging success,

becoming not only a center of gospel light to that benighted region,

but also a city of refuge to which the wretched natives fled to escape

the inhuman cruelties of the slave traders. As the years rolled on,

however, it was found necessary to remove the main work of the mission

to a more healthful region on the lake——hence the desolation seen by

Prof. Drummond——the work at Cape Maclear being now mainly evangelistic

and carried on by native converts. The mission still lives and comprises

four stations, one of which is situated on the Stevenson Road, a road

constructed at a cost of $20,000 by an English philanthropist, and

intended to promote communication between Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika.

After this diversion, forced upon the reader by reason of Livingstone’s

dual missionary and pioneering work, we turn again to the north of

Africa, and to historic Egypt. Comparatively little has been done in this

land by Christendom for the evangelization of its degraded population.

Wesleyan missionaries were stationed at Alexandria in the early part of

the century, but the field proved unpropitious and they were removed

to a more promising sphere of labor. Even the Church of England, now

most in favor there, has not achieved much in the way of Christianizing

the people. Perhaps the American United Presbyterians have been most

successful in this uninviting field. They have several missionaries

there, numerous lay agents, over a score of stations and schools, and

quite a following of converts and pupils. The Khedive has granted them

toleration and valuable concessions. The Church of Scotland sustains one

mission and several prosperous schools at Cairo, in Egypt.

In Nubia, the Mohammedan religion is so firmly fixed, that missionary

effort has been almost entirely discouraged.

The Abyssinians boast of their relationship to King Solomon, resulting

from the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem. They also claim to

have received their Christianity from its fountain head in Judæa, on the

return of the Ethiopian eunuch to the Court of Queen Candace, after his

conversion to the faith of the Gospel by Philip, the Evangelist. Whatever

truth there may be in these traditions, it is a fact that the religion

of the country is a species of Christianity, combined with certain

Judaic observances, as circumcision, abstinence from meat, keeping of

Saturday as the Sabbath, and also with many Catholic forms, as reverence

for the Virgin, the calendar of saints, etc. As a missionary field the

Catholics were the first to enter Abyssinia in 1620, and they succeeded

in persuading the king to declare Catholicism to be the religion of the

State. This bold step, however, occasioned civil wars which ended in

their expulsion from the country. Jesuit missionaries from France came

later, but they were also banished.

The Church of England Missionary Society in 1829 sent out two

missionaries. Others followed, but little was accomplished. The well

known German missionary, Herr Flad, has accomplished quite a work in

recent times. The defeat and murder of the Abyssinian king was one of the

sad events of 1888. It followed successful invasions of the country and

the slaughter and enslavement of large numbers of Abyssinians in 1885 and

1886 by the Mahdists, and their defeat by King John in 1887. Herr Flad

transmitted a letter to the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society from

Christian Abyssinians, which is a most earnest and pathetic appeal for

help from their fellow Christians and such help as will prevent their

enslavement and the entire desolation of their country. Very pertinently

these people, whose liberties and lives are in such imminent danger,

inquire of Christians in other lands, after depicting the desolation of

their own, the selling of thousands of people into slavery, and the cruel

butchery of other thousands, “Why should fanatic and brutal Moslems be

allowed to turn a Christian land like Abyssinia into a desert, and to

extirpate Christianity from Ethiopia?” They close with this earnest plea:

“For Christ’s sake make known our sad lot to our brethren and sisters in

Christian lands, who fear God and love the brethren.” While Abyssinian

Christianity may not be without spot, Abyssinians are God’s men and women.

Later missionary letters to the London Anti-Slavery Society say that

the Mahdists have made Western Abyssinia a desert. Whole flocks and

herds have been destroyed, thousands of Christians have been thrown into

slavery, thousands of others have been butchered, and hundreds of the

noblest inhabitants have been taken to Mecca as slaves in violation of

treaties.

The English gunboat Osprey recently captured three cargoes of slaves off

the island of Perim, which guards the Aden entrance to the Red Sea. When

brought to the Admiralty Court at Aden they proved to be about 217 in

number, chiefly Abyssinian boys and girls from 10 to 20 years of age,

captured by the fierce Mohammedan Gallas, and run across to Mocha to be

sold to the Mohammedans. The Foreign Missionary Committee in Scotland

appeal for a special Rescued Slaves’ Fund for the support and Bible

education of these captives.

In Barca, Tripoli, Fezzan, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, known as the

Barbary States, owing to the exclusive character of the Moslem faith, all

missionary effort for the evangelization of the general population has

been precluded until recently. A note from Edward H. Slenny, secretary

of the North Africa Mission, says Jan. 26, 1889: “I have just returned

from visiting most of the missionaries connected within the North Africa

Mission in Morocco, Algeria and Tunis. The prospect among the Mohammedans

is encouraging and we are hoping to send out more laborers. There are

now forty-one on our staff, and two more leave us in a week. We are now

proposing to take up work among the Europeans as well as the Mohammedans,

and also establish a station in Tripoli, which is quite without the

Gospel.”

Algeria was occupied in some measure in 1881, Morocco in 1884, Tunis in

1885 and in 1889. Mr. Michell, who has been working in Tunis, accompanied

by Mr. Harding, who left England February 1, landed in Tripoli the 27th.

Thus far they are getting on well. They find the people more bigoted

than in Tunis. Besides the work they may be able to do in the city and

neighborhood, they will be able to send some Scriptures by the caravans

leaving for the Soudan which, with the blessing of God, will spread the

light around Lake Tchad.

A correspondent of _The Christian_, (London) writing from Gibraltar,

says: “We have had very cheering news from Morocco. A wonderful work

has sprung up among the Spanish and Jewish people of Tangier. Meetings,

commenced two or three months ago, have been held in Spanish, addressed

through an interpreter by some brethren of the North African Mission, and

there has been an intense eagerness to hear the truth. The Holy Spirit

has carried home the Gospel message with conviction to many hearts,

and a few days ago the brethren informed me that seventeen Jewish and

Spanish converts were baptized, and others were waiting for baptism.

The meetings have been crowded night after night, so much so that the

friends in Tangier contemplate hiring a music-hall, at present used for

midnight revelry and sin. This revival has aroused the enmity of both

rabbi and priest, consequently bitter persecution has followed. Several

Jewish inquirers have been beaten in the synagogue, converts have been

dismissed from their employment, and the priests have offered bribes and

made threats to the Spanish converts to induce them to cease attending

the meetings, but so far the converts are holding firm.”

E. F. Baldwin is meeting with great success in Morocco. He writes from

Tangier:

“We have had great encouragement in the work here. For some two months

we have had nightly meetings for inquirers and young converts, attended

by from ten to twenty. Many have received Christ as their personal

Saviour and have been at once baptized. For some weeks most of my time

was occupied from morning until night talking with interested ones who

visited me, and daily there would be natives in my room much of the

time. At times conversions occurred daily. All of them are brought out

of Mohammedan darkness. They all renounce that false religion formally

at their baptism. Almost all are young men, some of good position, but

most of them from among the poor. There is not one who has not prayed and

spoken in our meetings from the day of his conversion.

“Two of the earliest converts are in the mountains traveling on foot

without purse, scrip or pay, preaching in both Arabic and Shillah. They

have been away now several weeks. Others, whose faces we have never seen,

have been converted in distant places through one from here, and write us

of many others believing through their word. We have reason to believe

the Gospel has taken root in several places in Southern Morocco within

these few weeks. Two others of our number are arranging to start at once

to preach in another direction. Mr. Martain and I are also leaving as

soon as we can get away, and will travel also as Christ commanded, on

foot and without purse or scrip.”

Later he writes from Mogador: “For upwards of a year new accessions

have been constant, and every one baptized has renounced Mohammedanism.

For a time the work was seemingly much hindered by severe persecution,

imprisonment, beating, disowning, banishment——these are all too familiar

to the converts here in Southern Morocco. But when it was impossible to

work longer here in Mogador we travelled and preached, going literally

on the methods laid down in Matthew X, which we hold with, we find,

increasing numbers of God’s children, to be of perpetual obligation.

We have found them to contain the deep and matchless wisdom of God for

missionary effort. Several others besides myself, including recently

converted natives, are so travelling. The natives knowing no other

methods, have gone gladly forth, without purse or scrip, on foot, taking

nothing, and marvellous blessing in the way of conversion has followed

the step of their simple faith. They go with no thought of pay or

salary. The Father makes their simple needs His care. My own position as

an unattached missionary, dependent only on God for temporal supplies

(which, blessed be His name, He ceaselessly supplies), enables one to

consistently instruct these native Christians in the principles and

methods of Mathew x, and encourage them to go forth upon them.

“It is to this return to these first principles of mission work I

attribute the constant flow of blessing we are having, and which is so

exceptional in Mohammedan fields. I earnestly recommend them to others

who may have the faith and are so circumstanced as to practice them. I

say this without any reflection upon the more ordinary and accepted lines

of mission endeavor. The field is vast and the need great, and by all and

every means let the Gospel be preached.

“Just now the vigilance of our persecutors and adversaries has

somewhat relaxed, and our frequent meetings (sixteen in Arabic and

eight in English per week,) are well attended and we are cheered by

more conversions. Several are just presenting themselves for baptism.

Last night one of the most intelligent and best educated Moors I have

ever met, publicly confessed Christ for the first time——both speaking

and praying (as all the native Christians do from the hour of their

conversion) in our meeting before many witnesses. He is one of the few

‘honorable’ ones who have been won. We trust he may become a veritable

Paul. He was some months since arrested and thrown into prison on the

suspicion of being a Christian, which at that time he was not. His feet,

like Joseph’s, ‘they hurt with fetters,’ the scars of which he will

never cease to carry. Poor fellow! He was then without the comfort that

comes to a child of God in affliction, and yet enduring reproach for

Christ. But God blessed his dreary sojourn in prison to his soul, and it

contributed to his conversion.

“Some from among the few resident Europeans and from among the Jews also

have turned to the Lord and confessed Him in baptism.

“Tidings from different places in the interior, where the word of life

has been carried from here, tell us of many turning from Mohammed’s cold,

hard, false faith, to the love and light the Gospel brings them. May not

all this encourage the zeal and faith of scattered workers toiling in

these hard Moslem fields?

“Some new workers, all committed to Mathew X lives, have just joined us.

There are now six of us here, all men of course, with our lives given up

to toil for Christ under his primitive instructions. A band is forming in

Ayrshire, Scotland, of others who will come to us soon, we trust. Others

in different places are greatly interested. We hope to have many natives

together here in the summer months for training in the Word, that they

may afterwards go forth two by two, without purse or scrip.”

Alfred S. Lamb writes as follows:

“Within four days’ journey of Britain one may land on African soil and

find a large field——almost untouched——for Christian labor among the

natives of Algeria, the Kabyles. Visiting recently among these people,

and making known to them, for the first time, the glad tidings of

salvation, I was much struck with the attention given to the message.

Doubtless the novelty of an Englishman speaking to them in their own

unwritten language, and delivering such a message as a free salvation

without works, was sufficient of itself to call forth such attention.

Seated one evening in a Kabyle house, I was greatly delighted with

the readiness to listen to the Gospel. The wonderful story of the

resurrection of Lazarus was being read, when my host announced that

supper was ready, and when I liked I could have it brought up. Having

expressed a desire to finish the narrative, the little company of

Mohammedans continued to give the utmost attention to the words read and

spoken. Supper ended, the conversation was renewed. One of our company,

an honorable Marabout or religious Mohammedan, who, because of having

made a pilgrimage to Mecca, was called Elhadj, entertained us while he

read from an Arabian tract. The man showed us, with evident pride, a book

in Arabic (I presume a portion of Scripture,) given him two years ago in

Algiers by a Christian English lady who was distributing tracts among

the people. Frequently during that evening’s conversation, my statements

were met by the words, ‘You are right,’ ‘Truly.’ That night I had two

sharing the sleeping apartment with me. Having seen me bow the knee in

prayer, one of them asked me afterward if I had been praying. Replying

that I had, he added, ‘May God answer your prayer!’”

The north of Africa, so long neglected by the missionaries, seems now to

share in the interest that has been awakened in the whole continent.

[Illustration: WEST AFRICAN MUSSULMAN.]

We come now to the west coast. Western Africa is divided into numerous

petty States, in all of which the most degrading superstition and

idolatry, with their usual concomitants of lawlessness and cruelty,

are the outstanding features. The entire population was no doubt pagan

at no very remote period; but in modern times the religion of Mohammed

has extensively prevailed, having been jealously propagated with fire

and sword by northern tribes of Arab descent. But there is not so much

difference between the Mohammedanism and paganism of the negroes as

many suppose. The distinction is rather nominal than real, so far as

the moral conduct of the people is concerned. All profess to believe in

the existence of God, if a confused notion of a higher power may be so

designated; but all are entirely ignorant of the character and claims of

the Divine Being, and exceedingly superstitious. The African Mussulman

repeats the prayers, and observes the feasts and ceremonies prescribed in

the Koran, but he has quite as much, if not more faith, in his charms and

amulets, or greegrees.

Paganism in West Africa is known by the name of “fetishism.” It assumes

different forms in the various tribes. It is to a large extent a system

of devil worship, in connection with which the belief in witchcraft

plays an important part. Not only are the deities themselves called

“fetishes,” but the religious performances of acts of worship, and the

offerings presented are also spoken of as “fetish,” or sacred, because

they are performed and offered in honor of those deities. In the daily

household worship, in every domestic and public emergency, in seasons of

public calamity, when preparing for and engaged in war, in the taking

of oaths, at births and deaths and funerals, and, indeed in connection

with every event in life, the “fetish” superstition holds the people in

the most slavish, degrading, and cruel bondage. When a death occurs a

solemn assembly is held in a palaver house to inquire into its cause;

and as witchcraft is the one often assigned it results in death to some

unfortunate individual suspected of the crime.

To be suspected of witchcraft is the worst thing that can overtake a

man or woman in Africa, and at every death it is the priests’ business

to make out who has been the cause of the death. On such occasions

a brother, sister, father, nay, in many cases even a mother, may be

accused of the unnatural crime of having occasioned the death of their

dearest. Against such a charge there exists no defense. Free room has

been left to the priesthood for the execution of its malicious plottings

and selfish designs, as they mostly are. It is hard to say which men

dread the most, the effects of witchcraft or being themselves accused of

practicing it. People avoid with the utmost carefulness and solicitude

every look, every word, every act, which is in the slightest measure open

to misinterpretation. If any one is seriously ill, care is taken not to

be too cheerful, lest it should appear as if one was rejoicing over the

expected decease. But, again, one does not dare to seem too solicitous,

lest it should be surmised that he is concealing his guilt under a mantle

of hypocrisy. And yet, with all these precautions, one is never secure.

If such a suspicion has once been uttered against any one, neither age,

nor rank, nor even known nobility of character defends him from the

necessity of submitting to the ordeal of poison, the issue of which is

held infallible.

The people through belief in this doctrine, are the victims of the

priests and priestesses——the “fetish” men and women——who constitute a

large class. The most incredible atrocities resulting from this belief

form one of the darkest chapters in the history of this dark land.

Some of the superstitious rites and ceremonies of the negro race partake

more of the nature of open idolatry than any of those which have yet

been mentioned. For instance, they pay homage to certain lakes, rivers

and mountains, which they regard as sacred, believing them to be the

special dwelling places of the gods. They also adore various animals

and reptiles, which they believe to be animated by the spirits of their

departed ancestors. In some places large serpents are kept and fed, in

houses set apart for the purpose, by the “fetish” priests. To these ugly

creatures sacrifices are presented and divine homage is paid by the

people at stated periods——a liberal present being always brought for the

officiating priest on all such occasions.

The ruling people of the Niger delta, at Bross, New Calabar, Bonny and

Opobo, are the Ijos. Every community of them had formerly its “totem,”

or sacred animal, in whose species the ancestral Spirit of the tribe was

supposed to dwell. So profound was this belief that the English traders

in the Oil River region——the Oil Rivers embrace the tributaries of the

Niger, and are so called in general because the commerce in palm-oil

is large upon them——were forbidden to kill the sacred lizard of Bonny,

and the more sacred python of Bross. One agent of a large trading firm

at Bross found a python in his house and inconsiderately killed it. On

learning of it, the Bross natives destroyed the firm’s factory and store,

dragged the agent to the beach and inflicted indignities on him. The

British consul considered the case, but such was the sentiment against

the sacrilegious conduct of the agent, that the consul, as a matter of

trade polity, was forced to decide that redress was impossible, in as

much as he had brought the punishment on himself.

This “totem” worship made the monster lizard at Bonny a nuisance. They

grew in number and impudence, till it was nothing unusual to see their

six feet of slimy length stretched across paths and upon doorways, and to

feel the lash of their serrated tails on your legs as you passed along.

If one were wounded or killed, there was no end of trouble, for the irate

natives were sure to carry the case to the consul on board ship, where

they secured the judgment of a fine, or else taking the law into their

own hands, they insulted, or assaulted the slayer till their anger was

appeased.

In other parts of the delta, a shark became the tribe “totem,” or

a crocodile, or water-bird, but in no part was Zoölatry——animal

worship——carried to a greater extent than at Bonny and Bross, where

the lizard and python were favorites. In 1884, the Church Missionary

Society took the matter in hand, and finally succeeded in doing what

consuls and the war-ships had failed to accomplish. The society screwed

the courage of the native converts up to the sticking point and finally

proclaimed the destruction of the lizards in Bonny on one Easter Sunday

morning. Men and boys, armed with hatchets and sticks went about killing

the ugly beasts, and so complete was their work that the day ended with

their extermination. But the sickening smell which pervaded the air for

days, came near producing a pestilence. It was a hard blow to native

superstitions, but the riddance soon came to be acquiesced in. A change

equally abrupt put an end to the python worship at Bross, and so there

has been of late years, a gradual giving up of this “totem” observance

among the Niger tribes, thanks to missionary rather than commercial

enterprise.

Here, surely, if anywhere on the face of the earth, the Gospel, with its

enlightening, purifying, and ennobling influence, was needed. What then

has been done to carry it to these degraded people, and what have been

the results of missionary labor among them? Take a glance first at Sierra

Leone, as it was the earliest visited by the missionaries. It is situated

in the southern part of Senegambia. It has an area of 319 square miles,

and a population of over 80,000, nearly all blacks. Formerly it was one

of the chief emporiums of the slave trade. In 1797 the British African

Company purchased land from the native princes with the view of forming

a settlement for the emancipated negroes who had served in British ships

during the American Revolution, and who on the conclusion of peace were

found in London in a most miserable condition. In 1808 this land was

transferred to the British Crown, additional tracts of country being

subsequently acquired. The colony has since served as an asylum for the

wretched victims rescued from the holds of slave ships.

The history of missionary enterprise, in this land of sickness and death,

is a chequered one. Colonial chaplains were appointed at different

times, from the beginning, to minister to the government functionaries

and others; but owing to frequent deaths and absences from illness,

the office was often vacant. The first effort of a purely missionary

character for the benefit of West Africa was made by the Baptist

Missionary Society in 1795. Efforts of other societies followed in rapid

succession; but it was not until after the commencement of the present

century, when the Church and Wesleyan Missionary Societies undertook the

work of evangelization in Western Africa, that the cause took a permanent

and progressive form.

The Church Missionary Society in 1804 sent out to Sierra Leone Mr.

Renner, a German, and Mr. Hartwig, a Prussian, to instruct the people in

a knowledge of Divine things. In 1806 Messrs. Nylander, Butscher, and

Prasse——all of whom had been trained at the Berlin Missionary Seminary,

and ordained according to the rites of the Lutheran church——embarked at

Liverpool to strengthen the mission. In 1816 Wm. A. B. Johnson went out

as a schoolmaster to this colony. “He was a plain German laborer, having

but a very limited common-school education and no marked intellectual

qualifications, but he was trained in the school of Christ and was

a good man, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. It became obvious

that he was called of God to preach the Gospel, and he was ordained in

Africa. His period of service was brief, but marvelous in interest and

power, and he raised up a native church of great value. Into the midst

of these indolent, vicious, violent savages he went. He found them devil

worshipers, and at first was very much disheartened. But though William

Johnson distrusted himself, he had faith in Christ and his Gospel. Like

Paul, he resolved to preach the simple Gospel, holding up the cross,

show them plainly what the Bible says of the guilt of sin, the need of

holiness, and the awful account of the Judgment Day. He simply preached

the Gospel and left results with God, confident that his Word would not

return to him void. For nearly a year he pursued this course. And he

observed that over that apparently hopeless community a rapid and radical

change was coming. Old and young began to show deep anxiety for their

spiritual state and yearning for newness of life. If he went for a walk

in the woods, he stumbled over little groups of awakened men and women

and children, who had sought there a place to pour out their hearts to

God in prayer; if he went abroad on moonlight evenings, he found the

hills round about the settlement echoing with the praises of those who

found salvation in Christ, and were singing hymns of deliverance. His

record of the simple experiences of these converts has preserved their

own crude, broken, but pathetically expressive story of the Lord’s

dealings with them, and the very words in which they told of the work

of grace within them. No reader could but be impressed with their deep

sense of sin, their appreciation of grace, their distrust of themselves

and their faith in God, their humble resolves, their tenderness of

conscience, their love for the unsaved about them, and their insight into

the vital truth of redemption.”

The improvement in the appearance and habits and social condition of the

people that followed was nothing short of a transformation. Their chapel

was five times enlarged to accommodate the ever increasing numbers who

attended. “Seventy years ago, if you had gone to what was afterward known

as the Regent’s Town, you would have found people, taken at different

times from the holds of slave-ships, in the extreme of poverty and

misery, destitution and degradation. They were as naked and as wild as

beasts. They represented twenty-two hostile nations or tribes, strangers

to each other’s language, and having no medium of communication, save

a little broken English. They had no conception of a pure home, they

were crowded together in the rudest and filthiest huts, and, in place

of marriage, lived in a promiscuous intercourse that was worse than

concubinage. Lazy, bestial, strangers to God, they had not only defaced

his image, but well-nigh effaced even the image of humanity, and combined

all the worst conditions of the most brutal, savage life, plundering and

destroying one another. Here it pleased God to make a test of his grace

in its uplifting and redeeming power.”

When Johnson was under the necessity of leaving for England, hundreds of

both sexes accompanied him a distance of five miles to the ship and wept

bitter tears at the thought of being separated from their best earthly

friend. “Massa, suppose no water live here, we go with you all the way,

till no feet more move.”

Similar success attended the work at other stations, so that we find

Sir Charles M’Arthy, the governor, reporting in 1821 as follows in

regard to the villages of these recaptured negroes: “They had all the

appearance and regularity of the neatest village in England, with a

church, a school, and a commodious residence for the missionaries and

teachers, though in 1817 they had not been more than thought of.” In 1842

a committee of the House of Commons thus testified to the state of the

colony. “To the invaluable exertions of the Church Missionary Society

more especially——as also, to a considerable, as in all our African

settlement, to the Wesleyan body——the highest praise is due. By their

efforts nearly one-fifth of the whole population——a most unusually high

proportion in any country——are at school; and the effects are visible in

considerable intellectual, moral and religious improvement.”

The bishopric of Sierra Leone was founded in 1851, and some idea may be

formed of the trying nature of the climate from the fact that no fewer

than three bishops died within three years of their consecration. In

1862 the Native Church having been organized on an independent basis,

undertook the support of its own pastors, churches, and schools, aided by

a small grant from the society.

In a work entitled “The English Church in Other Lands,” it is stated

that “in the first twenty years of the existence of the mission, 53

missionaries, men and women, died at their post;” but these losses seemed

to draw out new zeal, and neither then, nor at any subsequent period, has

there been much difficulty in filling up the ranks of the Sierra Leone

Mission, or of the others established on the same coast. The first three

bishops——Vidal, Weeks and Bowen——died within eight years of the creation

of the See, and yet there has been no difficulty in keeping up the

succession.

The present results are a sufficient reward for all the self-sacrificing

devotion. There is now at Sierra Leone a self-sustaining and

self-extending African church. The only white clergyman in the colony

is Bishop Ingram; the whole of the pastoral work being in the hands of

native clergymen. Many native missionaries, both clerical and lay, have

been furnished for the Niger and Yoruba missions.

An outline of the proceedings of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in this

part of the wide field may be compressed into a few sentences. Among

the negroes who were conveyed from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone in 1791,

there were several who had become partially enlightened and otherwise

benefited by attending services of the Methodist ministers in America.

Some of these having made repeated applications to Dr. Coke for preachers

of their own denomination to be sent from England, in the year 1811 the

society responded to their request by the appointment of the Rev. G.

Warren as their first missionary to Western Africa. He was accompanied

by three English schoolmasters. They found about a hundred of the Nova

Scotia settlers who called themselves “Methodists.” These simple minded

people had built a rude chapel in which they were in the habit of meeting

together to worship God from Sabbath to Sabbath, a few of the most

intelligent among them conducting the services and instructing the rest

according to the best of their ability. They received the missionary

from England with the liveliest demonstrations of gratitude and joy;

and to them, as well as to the poor afflicted liberated Africans, who

were from time to time rescued from bondage by British cruisers and

brought to Sierra Leone, his earnest ministrations were greatly blessed.

But the missionary career of Mr. Warren was of short duration. He was

smitten with fever and finished his course about eight months after his

arrival——being the first of a large number of Wesleyan missionaries

who have fallen a sacrifice to the climate of Western Africa since the

commencement of the work. Other devoted missionaries followed who counted

not their lives dear unto them if they could only be made instrumental

in winning souls for Christ. No sooner did the intelligence arrive in

England that missionaries and their wives had fallen in the holy strife,

than others nobly volunteered their services, and went forth in the

spirit of self-sacrifice——in many instances to share the same fate. This

has been going on for three quarters of a century; and although the

mortality among the agents of the society is appalling to contemplate,

the social, moral, and spiritual results of the mission are grand

beyond description. Congregations have been gathered, places of worship

erected, native churches organized, and Christian schools established,

not only in Free Town, but in most of the villages and towns in the

colony. High schools have, moreover, been established for the training

of native teachers and preachers, and to give a superior education to

both males and females. The advancement of the people, most of whom have

been rescued from slavery, in religious knowledge, general intelligence,

moral conduct, and, indeed, in everything which goes to constitute

genuine Christian civilization, is literally astonishing. In addition to

the Church and Wesleyan Missionary Societies, who took the lead in the

work of religious instruction in Sierra Leone, other agencies have been

advantageously employed. The census of 1881 showed 39,000 evangelical

Christians, about equally divided between the Wesleyans and the Church of

England. Some reports give the nominal Christian population as high as

80,000.

In the Gambia district the inhabitants on both sides of the river are

chiefly Mandingoes and Jalloffs, most of whom are Mohammedans, with a few

pagans here and there. A large number of “liberated Africans,” as they

are technically called, have, however, been brought to the Gambia from

time to time, and located on St. Mary’s and McCarthy’s islands and in

the neighboring districts, as thousands before had been taken to Sierra

Leone. These are poor negro slaves of different nations and tribes who

have been rescued from bondage, and landed from slave ships taken by

British cruisers while in the act of pursuing their unlawful trade.

[Illustration: AN AFRICAN CHIEF.]

No provision had been made for the moral and religious instruction of the

colonists (British,) or the native tribes of this part of Africa, when

the Wesleyan Missionary Society commenced its labors in 1821. The first

missionary sent out was the Rev. John Morgan. He was soon afterwards

joined by the Rev. John Baker from Sierra Leone, when these two devoted

servants of God began to look about for the most eligible site for a

mission station. Their object being chiefly to benefit the surrounding

native tribes, they were anxious if possible to establish themselves on

the mainland. Accordingly they went to visit the chief of Combo, on

the southern bank of the Gambia. Having offered their presents, they

were graciously received by his sable majesty, who signified his consent

for the strangers to settle in any part of the country which they might

select as most suitable for their object. They fixed upon a place called

Mandanaree, about eight miles from St. Mary’s. Although considerably

elevated it was far from healthy; and when the rainy season set in both

were prostrated with fever, and were obliged to move to St. Mary’s

where they could have medical aid. Before the end of the year, however,

Mr. Baker proceeded to the West Indies by direction of the Missionary

Committee, his health having become so impaired by his long residence in

West Africa, as to render a change absolutely necessary.

Mr. Morgan had recovered from his attack of fever and was pursuing his

work alone, when he had the pleasure of receiving as his colleague

the Rev. Wm. Bell, who had been sent from England by the committee to

reinforce the mission. This devoted young missionary appeared well

adapted for the enterprise upon which he had entered; but he was soon

called away to the “better country.” He died of fever at St. Mary’s

forty-six days after his arrival. For a time his place was taken by the

Rev. Geo. Lane, from Sierra Leone, but his health also failing he was

obliged to return, and he shortly afterwards finished his course. On the

14th of April, 1824, Mr. Morgan was relieved by the arrival from England

of the Rev. Robert and Mrs. Hawkins, who entered upon their work at once.

By this time it had become evident that the proper place for the

principal station was St. Mary’s island, and arrangements were forthwith

made for the erection of a mission-house and place of worship in

Bathurst, the principal town. A number of native converts were soon after

united in church fellowship as the result of the faithful preaching of

the Gospel; schools were organized for boys and girls, and the machinery

of a promising mission station was fairly put in motion. Mr. and Mrs.

Hawkins suffered much from sickness during their period of service,

but they labored well and successfully, and were spared to return home

in 1827, the Rev. Samuel and Mrs. Dawson being appointed to take their

place. Mrs. Dawson was smitten with fever and died at Sierra Leone, on

her way to the Gambia, and her sorrowful and bereaved husband proceeded

to his station alone. On the 18th of November, 1828, Rev. Richard

and Mrs. Marshall arrived at the Gambia from England to relieve Mr.

Dawson; and the school being once more favored with the supervision of

a Christian lady, and the station with an energetic missionary, the

work prospered in a very pleasing manner. Mr. Marshall had labored with

acceptance and success for nearly two years, when he fell a sacrifice to

the climate, and finished his course with joy at Bathurst on the 19th

of August, 1830. Two days after the funeral of her lamented husband,

Mrs. Marshall embarked with her infant son for England. They arrived

at Bristol on the first of October; and worn out with mental and

bodily suffering, the lonely widow sank into the arms of death about

forty-eight hours after she landed on the shores of her native country.

Gambia Station was thus left without a missionary or teacher, but six

months later, on the 10th of March, Rev. W. Moister and wife arrived at

St. Mary’s and set to work at once to recommence the mission schools

and public services. Their labors were crowned with success; and native

preachers having been trained to take a part in the work, they felt that

the time had come when some effort should be made to carry the Gospel

to the regions beyond. With this object in view Mr. Moister made three

successive journeys into the interior; and with much toil and exposure

succeeded in establishing a new station at McCarthy’s Island, nearly 300

miles up the Gambia,——a station which from that day to this, a period

of over half a century, has been a centre of light and influence to all

around, and the spiritual birthplace of many souls. Mr. Moister was

relieved in 1833 by the arrival from England of a noble band of laborers.

The Rev. Wm. and Mrs. Fox took charge of St. Mary’s and Rev. Thomas and

Mrs. Dove were appointed to take charge of the new station at McCarthy’s

Island. They labored long and successfully in this trying portion of the

mission field, and some of them fell a sacrifice to the deadly climate.

They were succeeded by others in subsequent years, many of whom shared

the same fate; but whilst God buried His workmen, He carried on His work.

A rich harvest has been already reaped, and the work is still going on. A

commodious new chapel and schoolrooms have been built at Bathurst, and a

high school established for the training of native teachers and others;

whilst large congregations, attentive and devout, meet together for

worship.

“The Gold Coast” is the significant name given to a maritime country

of Guinea, in Western Africa, in consequence of the quantity of gold

dust brought down from the interior by the natives for barter with

the European merchants. The Wesleyan Missionary Society commenced its

labors on the “Gold Coast” in 1834. Their first station was at Cape

Coast Town, and though the missionaries died in rapid succession, the

station was never without a missionary for any considerable time. As

the work advanced native laborers were raised up; and in succeeding

years stations were established, places of worship built, congregations

gathered, and Christian churches and schools organized, not only in Cape

Coast Town, but also at Elmina, Commenda, Dix Cove, Appolonia, Anamabu,

Domonasi, Accra, Winnibab, and other places along the coast and in the

far distant interior. In 1889 they had 21,000 Christians.

[Illustration: PORT AND TOWN OF ELMINA.]

The Basle and North German Missionary Societies have also several

important stations on the “Gold Coast,” at Accra, Christianburg,

Akropong, and other places. During the last century the attention of

Count Zinzendorf was drawn toward the propagation of the Gospel on the

“Gold Coast.” Three times (1736, 1768 and 1769) missionaries were sent

to Christianburg and Ningo; but all died after a short stay, without

seeing any fruit of their work. They are buried, eleven in number, at

Christianburg and Ningo. Upwards of half a century elapsed ere this

“white man’s grave” was taken possession of again. At length in 1827,

the Basle German Evangelical Mission sent out four missionaries, J.

P. Henke, C. F. Salbach, J. G. Schmid, and G. Holzwarth. They arrived

on the 18th of December, 1828, at Christianburg, then and until 1851

a possession of the Danish Crown. From Governor Lind they received a

cordial welcome. Within nine months after their arrival three of them

succumbed to the climate, two of them dying on the same day. Two years

later the fourth (Henke) was removed. Three new laborers arrived in

March, 1832, but in the course of four months two of them had died.

The third, A. Rüs, having been raised up from the very gates of death,

labored for several years, and afterwards removed to Akropong, the

capital of Aquapim, a more healthful region in the interior. The

Aquapims and their king proved very friendly. The reports from this new

region had the effect of infusing fresh life into the society, and two

missionaries, along with Miss Wolter, who became the wife of Rüs and

was the first missionary lady on the “Gold Coast,” were forthwith sent

to his aid. Two years thereafter, Rüs and his wife were left alone, the

remorseless climate having again done its deadly work. The mission had

now been in existence for ten years, and within that period no fewer

than eight missionaries had died. Rüs returned in broken health to Basle

in 1840. The directors of the society were greatly perplexed, as well

they might be. The prevailing feeling was in favor of the abandonment of

the mission, but a new inspector, the Rev. W. Hoffman, came into office.

Fired with missionary zeal he proceeded in 1843 to Jamaica in order to

enlist Christian emigrants for the work in Africa. Twenty-four members of

the Moravian congregation there responded. They arrived in Christianburg

in April of that year. Henceforth Akropong became as a city set on a

hill. Rüs returned to Africa but was compelled to retire altogether from

the field in 1845, his health having again completely broken down. But

reinforcements were sent out by the society from time to time.

The mission now assumed a more encouraging aspect. Between 1838 and 1848

only one missionary had died, and by the close of the latter year forty

natives had been gathered into the church. Ten years later the society

was able to report that no fewer than eighteen missionaries, with nine

married and three unmarried ladies, besides twenty-six catechists and

teachers, had been settled at the stations already named and at various

other places. The church members at the close of 1858 were 385. The

next decade showed still more gratifying results, the numbers being

31 missionaries, 19 ladies, 25 native catechists, 15 native male, and

12 native female teachers, and 1581 church members. Out-stations were

largely multiplied.

During this last period the work was developed in other directions. The

Mission Trade Society had begun operations, its object being to prepare

the way by means of trade based on Christian principles. Elders had

been appointed to assist the missionaries in their work, and to settle

minor cases of jurisdiction. Besides the day schools, boarding schools

for boys and girls, a teachers’ training school, and a theological

school had been established. Industrial departments too had been added

at Christianburg. These are now self-supporting and are proving an

important means of promoting the moral and social well-being of the

natives. In these industrial schools may now be seen native shoe-makers,

tailors, carpenters, and other craftsmen, busy at work plying their

respective avocations, and preparing themselves for useful positions in

life. Some of the missionaries have, moreover, rendered good service

to literature, and to those who may succeed them in the field, by

the useful dictionaries, grammars, and vocabularies which they have

compiled of native languages, and the translations which they have made

of Scripture into the dialects of the people among whom they labor. The

entire Bible has been translated into two of the various languages——viz,

in the Gâ or Akra, by the late Rev. J. Zimmerman; and in the Tshi by

the Rev. Christaller——the latter language being spoken by at least a

million of negroes on the “Gold Coast,” and far into the interior.

During the Ashanti war in 1874 Captain Glover bore the following

emphatic testimony to the piety and general good conduct of the native

converts who joined the British army from some of the stations mentioned

above: “Two companies of Christians, one of Akropong, and the other

of Christianburg, numbering about a hundred each, under two captains,

accompanied by Bible-readers of the Basle Mission, attended a morning

and evening service daily, a bell ringing them regularly to prayers.

In action with the enemy at Adiume, on Christmas day, they were in the

advance, and behaved admirably, since which they have garrisoned Blappah.

Their conduct has been orderly and soldier-like, and they have proved

themselves the _only_ reliable men of the large native force lately

assembled on the Volta.”

In 1875 they sent out for the Ashanti Mission a staff of six men for two

new stations——Mr. and Mrs. Ramseyer among them. One of these stations,

Begorro, is not in the Ashanti territory, but is a frontier town, and a

connecting link between their former “Gold Coast” Mission and Ashanti

proper. It is the healthiest of all the African stations of the society.

The other station, Abetifi, is the capital of Okwao, a former province of

Ashanti, which gained its independence after the victory of the British

army over the Ashantis. The chief of the capital, Abetiffi, told the

missionaries to settle wherever they liked.

[Illustration: COOMASSIE THE CAPITAL OF ASHANTI.]

Early in 1881 two of the missionaries, accompanied by several native

preachers and the necessary bearers, undertook a journey to Coomassie,

the capital, in order to ascertain the disposition of the people and

the prospect of establishing a mission among them. During their stay

they preached regularly morning and evening, with the king’s permission,

to large audiences. But the king did not desire a mission established

there, and they deferred attempting to commence missionary operations in

Coomassie.

One beneficial result of the war with Ashanti has been the abolition of

domestic slavery in the “Gold Coast” colony.

The work of the society (Basle) generally on the west coast of Africa

has been very gratifying. In 1882 under the care of the 34 European

missionaries and upwards of a hundred other agents, there were some 4,000

natives, from whose minds the darkness of night has been dispelled,

besides about 1,500 pupils under instruction who may be expected to do

good work in the future. Many of the churches on the “Gold Coast” have

attained to a position of self-support.

One single fact may be mentioned, as indicating the influence of the

mission here. The king of Cape Coast in early life was the means of

getting it established. He forsook the “fetish” of his country. In

consequence he was cut off from the succession to the chieftainship, and

publicly flogged. But after thirty years’ profession of Christianity, he

was elected chief or king, and, on the occasion of the anniversary in

1864, he publicly acknowledged his obligations to the mission.

Lagos, a considerable island in the Bight of Benim, was in former times

one of the most notorious slave depots on the western coast of Africa.

It is situated at the mouth of a river, or rather, a large lagoon,

which runs parallel with the sea for several miles, and affords water

communication with the interior in the direction of Badagry, Dahomi,

Abeokuta, and other parts of the Yoruba country. It is now a British

settlement, with its resident lieutenant governor and staff of officers.

The population of Lagos and the neighboring native towns, both in the

Yoruba and Popo countries, is of a similar character to that which is

found on other parts of the coast. Perhaps it became somewhat more mixed

several years ago, by the emigration from Sierra Leone of a large number

of “liberated Africans,” who ventured thus to return to the countries

from which they had been dragged as poor slaves, when they heard that

the slave trade was abolished. Some of these emigrants had the happiness

to find parents, brothers, sisters or other relatives and friends still

living, who received them as alive from the dead; whilst others sought

in vain for any one who could recognize them. There were many touching

and affecting meetings, and great was the surprise of the natives of

Lagos, Abeokuta, and other places in Yoruba and Popo countries, to see

the change which had passed upon their friends and relatives by the

residence of a few years in a free British colony. They all appeared

decently clothed in European apparel, many of them had learned to read

and write in the mission schools, and a few of them had become the happy

partakers of the great salvation, which they had heard proclaimed in all

its simplicity and power in the land of their exile.

It was the extensive emigration of civilized “liberated Africans” from

Sierra Leone to Lagos and the neighboring towns in the Yoruba country,

that led to the vigorous efforts of the Church and Wesleyan Missionary

Societies to evangelize the natives of this part of Africa. The Christian

emigrants who had been connected with these organizations in Sierra

Leone, on reaching their destination reported to their respective

ministers the state in which they found the country and earnestly

requested that their friends and countrymen might be favored with the

proclamation of the Gospel which had made them so happy. These appeals

were cheerfully responded to by the parties concerned, and a work was

commenced which for prosperity and blessing has had few parallels in the

history of missions.

The Church Missionary Society was happy in the selection of the Rev.

Samuel Crowther, an educated and ordained native minister, as the leader

of the enterprise. The history of Mr. Crowther is equal in interest to

any romance that was ever written. Torn away from his native land and

sold as a slave when a mere boy in 1821, he was rescued from a Portugese

slaver by a British cruiser and brought to Sierra Leone, where he was

educated in the mission school, and being specially bright was sent to

England. He completed his education in Islington Training Institution and

was ordained by the Bishop of London. He returned to Sierra Leone and was

afterwards in 1846 appointed as a missionary to Abeokuta, to labor among

the Sierra Leone emigrants and others. It was here, to his inexpressible

delight, he met his mother, twenty-five years after he had been

snatched from her by the slave dealers; and in 1848 he had the further

unspeakable joy of seeing her admitted, along with four others, into the

membership of the Christian church. They were the first fruits of the

mission. In 1864 he was consecrated at Canterbury Cathedral, Bishop of

the Niger territory and superintendent of all the stations in the Yoruba

and adjoining countries. Making the island of Lagos his headquarters,

Bishop Crowther, assisted by a noble band of native missionaries, has

succeeded in establishing stations, erecting churches and organizing

Christian schools, not only in Lagos and Abeokuta, where the work was

first commenced, but also in various towns and villages in Yoruba and

Popo countries, and in several centres of population on the banks of the

Niger. The principal stations on the Niger are Bonny and Bross at the

mouth of the river, and Onitsha, Lokoja, New Calabar, and Egan, higher

up. The last named is 350 miles from the mouth of the river. In 1877 a

steamer named the Henry Venn was supplied to the mission, thus doing away

with the hard labor and slow navigation by means of the old fashioned

canoe in vogue on the river. An exploratory voyage made up the Binue in

1879 revealed the existence of numerous tribes ready to receive teachers.

At Bross and Bonny there has lately been a remarkable movement in the

direction of Christianity, hundreds of people throwing away their idols

and attending the church services, which are thronged every Sabbath.

The famous Juju temple, studded with human skulls, is going to ruin. A

village opposite Bonny has been named “The Land of Israel” because there

is not an idol to be found in it. At an important market town thirty

miles in the interior, the chiefs and people, influenced by what they

had seen at Bonny, and without ever having been visited by a Christian

teacher, spontaneously built a church with a galvanized iron roof, and

benches to seat 300 worshipers, got a school-boy from Bross to read the

church services on Sundays, and then sent to ask the Bishop to give them

a missionary.

[Illustration: CANOE TRAVEL ON THE NIGER.]

Rev. W. Allan writing from Bonny in 1889 says: “The worship of the iguana

is overthrown, the priest is a regular attendant at the house of God, and

the iguana itself converted into an article of food. The Juju temple,

which a few years ago was decorated with 20,000 skulls of murdered

victims, I found rotting away in ruin and decay. I passed through the

grove which was formerly the receptacle of so many murdered infants, and

I found it had become the regular highway from the town to the church,

and that the priest was now a baptized Christian. At 11 o’clock I went

ashore and addressed 885 worshipers, including the king, the three former

heathen priests, chiefs, and a multitude of slaves, and was thankful

to ascertain that the work of conversion was still going on; for, in

addition to 648 persons already baptized, of whom 265 are communicants,

there are over 700 at Bonny alone who are now under instruction.”

Bishop Crowther has now about 10,000 Christians under his care. He lately

opened at Bonny a new church built of iron, with sittings for 1,000.

The agents of the Wesleyan Missionary Society have been as zealous and

successful, in a somewhat more limited sphere, as those of the Church of

England, with whom they have generally lived and labored in harmony and

love. Among the emigrants from Sierra Leone there were many Wesleyans who

preferred their own ministers, whilst the domain of heathendom, on every

hand, was sufficiently extensive to occupy the agents of both societies.

At an early period a commodious Wesleyan Mission-house and chapel were

erected at Lagos, where the work has progressed in a very satisfactory

manner from the beginning. Many have been converted from time to time and

united in church fellowship, some of whom have gone out to make known

the good news to their fellow-countrymen. To provide for the training

of native preachers and teachers, as well as to give a better education

to those who are in a position to need it, a Wesleyan high school has

been erected and opened at Lagos, which promises to be a most useful

institution. Common day-schools are also taught in connection with all

the out-stations of the Lagos circuit, and the Gospel is preached to

the people in two or three different languages. They have about 6,000

adherents. The drink traffic is one of the great hindrances to missionary

work in this section.

Says Rev. W. Allan: “In Africa we have to contend against the devil’s

missionary agency. The liquor traffic is increasing, and it is a

gigantic evil——greater, even, than the slave trade——debasing the people

and ruining legitimate commerce. In West Africa it has deepened the

degradation of the negro instead of civilizing him. Over 180,000,000

gallons of spirits had been imported last year in the district of Sierra

Leone, and in Lagos it was far larger, while all the land was strewn with

demijohns. The Niger Company imported 220,000 gallons during the last two

years, and 500 cases of gin and 500,000 gallons of rum were landed by the

Caliban, in which I sailed from Liverpool. The selling price of rum is

less than a penny a gallon, and the gin sold at three-pence a bottle. The

liquor so sold was of the most execrable character.”

A lurid picture of the western part of this region has lately been

presented by the English district commissioner. He says: “The population,

which has been recruited for many years past by a constant influx of

refugees from the surrounding tribes, falls roughly into three divisions.

These are: the Popos, chiefly engaged in fishing, forestry, and farming,

but averse to steady work of any sort, and much addicted to theft; the

Yombas, the most enterprising people in the district; and the Houssas,

who are farmers and palm-nut gatherers. The Mohammedans among them are

more enterprising and industrious than the fetish worshipers; while the

Christians, though few in number, form a fairly thriving community. But

all are alike in ‘intense and obtuse conservatism, so long as they are

left to their own devices, and in a keen spirit of petty trading.’ The

sole article of their moral code is ‘to do to your neighbor as you hope

to avoid being done to by him.’ It is useless to appeal to any higher

motive, and it is certain that without European influence to urge them

on commerce must decline. Fishing is carried on wholly in the lagoons,

the people never having had the enterprise to build surf-boats, which

would enable them to engage in sea-fishing. Some progress has been made

in agriculture, owing to the efforts of the Roman Catholic Mission at

Badagry, the administrative centre. In the Frah Kingdom, also, the

local British officer has succeeded in inducing the people to plant a

considerable area of fertile land with corn, so that villages which were

almost starving two years ago on smoked fish are now supplying large

quantities of grain to the local markets. But this increased prosperity

has only increased the drunken habits of the people, who exchange for

vile imported spirits the products of their labor. Katamu, the Frah

capital, is rapidly falling into a ruinous state of disrepair. Every

fourth or fifth house is a rum shop, and the so-called palm-wine sheds

are filled every night with drunken men and women. The evils of the

drink traffic are so apparent to the people themselves that they have

petitioned the Governor to put an end to the sale of liquor altogether.

If this were done the fertile flood lands of Frah might become a source

of food supply for the whole colony. In spite of the valuable resources

of the forests, nothing is done to develop them save the collection and

treatment of the palm-nuts. Trading is the African’s special delight,

but until quite recently the markets of Lagos were not in a prosperous

condition. Now that a British firm has established a branch at Badagry,

and made the place a market town, it is estimated that 5,000 persons

with every variety of native produce assemble there every market day,

and in eight months the monthly export has increased from £30 to £1,878.

Cocoanut planting, road making, corn-growing, and the cessation of the

drink traffic appear to be the official methods for civilizing the West

African negro.”

An extensive district on the western coast of Africa, between Sierra

Leone and Cape Coast Castle received the name of Liberia, from the

circumstance of its being colonized by liberated slaves and free persons

of color from America. On the 22d of November, 1888, the secretary of the

Manchester Geographical Society read an interesting paper contributed

by the Hon. G. B. Gudgeon, consul-general for Liberia in London. The

following is an extract: “It was stated that the famous negro republic

of Liberia was founded by the American Colonization Society in 1822.

The work of civilizing and Christianizing the inhabitants of that

almost unknown country was entirely carried on for more than twenty

years by this society. The missions established along the coast and at

various points inland had developed into Liberia’s prosperous towns and

settlements. It became an independent state in 1847. Nearly 2,000,000

souls were subject to the rule of the Liberian Republic, consisting of

about 40,000 freed slaves and their descendants, the remainder belonging

to numerous aboriginal tribes. While the state possessed a seaboard of

500 miles and an interior extending over 200 miles, she had acquired

no territory except by treaty, purchase, exchange, or barter. Bishop

Taylor had described the country as healthy and its climate salubrious

and enjoyable, without a plague of flies and with few mosquitoes. Many

travelers had confirmed the bishop’s testimony. The Republic of Liberia

stood before the world as the realization of the dreams of the founders

of the American Colonization Society, and in many respects more than

the realization. Far beyond the recognized limits of the country,

and hundreds of miles away from the coast, the effects of American

civilization were to be witnessed. Men of color entirely governed the

republic, and if any proof were wanting of the capacity of freedmen to

govern, Liberia was an interesting illustration. The ability, learning,

and skill of many of Liberia’s citizens were found in their code of laws,

which for humanity, justice, and morality no other country could excel.

The English tongue is spoken throughout the republic except among the

native tribes not yet civilized; but among these too it is making good

progress.”

Rev. S. L. Johnson, who recently visited Liberia, says: “The scenery

along the coast of Liberia, from Cape Mount to the Gulf of Guinea, a

distance of about 600 miles, is exceedingly grand. A few miles from the

coast the country rises to hills, with gigantic trees, presenting a

panorama that can only be described by a skilful artist.

“Monrovia is the capital of the republic. It rests on a beautiful

hill overlooking the sea, surrounded by trees. There are many fine

buildings in the city, which are creditable to the Monrovian people. The

president’s house is built of brick, as are also many of the buildings;

others are built of stone. The wharves face the sea, where there are

colored firms doing business with England, Germany, and America.

“Mr. Sherman does a large business with England and America. After my

return to England I wrote to Mr. Sherman for information regarding the

articles of trade. This is the answer:——‘The articles of trade are

palm-oil, palm kernels, coffee, ivory, camwood, ginger, and rubber. Many

of our merchants do a business of $100,000 to $150,000 a year. A vessel

left here for New York on the 7th inst., with a cargo of $50,000 worth,

collected within two months. In this cargo were 118,000 pounds of coffee.’

“The soil of Liberia is extremely fertile, and produces all kinds of

tropical fruits, sugar-cane, indigo, Indian corn, rice, cotton, cocoa,

peanuts, and coffee, the latter the finest in the world. Vegetables

are cultivated with great success. There are to be found the finest

dye-woods, ebony, gum plant, and the gigantic palm-trees, which produce

the palm-oil. On my way to England from Africa 1,500 casks were shipt on

the same steamer to Liverpool, a good share of it being from the coast of

Liberia. Goats, swine, sheep, cattle, and fowls, all thrive in Liberia.

“This republic has a glorious work to accomplish in the future. It will

undoubtedly be in time, the most prosperous state on the west coast of

Africa. With the civil, social, and religious advantages she enjoys, she

must succeed. The annexation of the kingdom of Medina, with five hundred

thousand inhabitants, and her wide and fertile domain, extending over two

hundred miles into the interior, will no doubt inspire renewed energy in

giving fuller opportunities for the advancement of the Gospel, as well as

an open door for civilization and commerce.

“Much zeal and perseverance have been displayed throughout the republic.

Fine churches, school buildings, and a college are to be seen in Monrovia.

“At Nifou, on the coast of Liberia, I counted forty-nine canoes, with

two or three men in each, going out fishing. At twenty-five minutes to

ten we stopt at Grand Cess, Liberia. Here fifteen canoes came out, with

from three to twenty men in each. These belong to the Kru tribe, the

aborigines of a part of Liberia. They are a fine-looking people, and very

industrious. But for this class of people I do not know what the European

traders of the African steamship companies would do. All the steamers

reaching Sierra Leone and the coast of Liberia take on board a gang of

‘Kru-men’ to do the work of the ship. One hundred and thirty men were

taken on board our steamer to go down the coast to work. Many of them

speak broken English well.”

[Illustration: LIBERIA.]

As might be expected, this territory, extending upwards of 300 miles

along the coast to Cape Palmas, has been occupied by the American

churches——viz. the Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, Protestant Episcopal,

and Presbyterian Church (north). Much zeal and perseverance have been

displayed in connection with all these agencies, and the result is seen

in the parsonages, and places of worship, colleges and school buildings

which have been erected in most of the towns and villages in the

settlements, and in the improved morals of the people.

[Illustration: METHODIST PARSONAGE OF AFRICA.]

For some years past the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal

Church has been gradually reducing the appropriations for the carrying

on of the missions from $37,000 to $2,500——a procedure that has been

regarded by the conference in Liberia as inconsistent with the general

spirit of the church and the growing interest felt of late years in the

evangelization of Africa, and which for a time threatened to result

in a severance of the ecclesiastical relations subsisting between the

conference and the society. The action of the latter has been dictated

solely by an earnest desire to secure in the native churches “the

development of a spirit of self-reliance and independence——elements

indispensable to a self-perpetuating church in any land.” The General

Conference of 1888 changed the name and boundaries of the “Liberian

Conference” to the “African Annual Conference” embracing the entire

continent of Africa. In the other missions in Liberia there seems also a

disposition to rely on foreign aid.

Fernando Po is one of the most important islands on the western coast

of Africa, and enjoys many advantages from its peculiar position. It

is situated in the Gulf of Guinea, about seventy miles from the coast

of Benim. It is thirty miles long and twenty broad; and in its general

aspect it is rugged and mountainous in the extreme, though there are some

fertile valleys between the mountains, and several promising tracts of

land along the shore.

Among the settlers and aborigines of Fernando Po some really useful

missionary work has been done at different times, which deserves a

passing notice. The first in the field were the agents of the Baptist

Missionary Society. They labored for several years among the settlers of

all classes with very good results, whilst the English had possession

of the island; but when it was given over to the Spaniards, Roman

Catholicism was proclaimed to be the established religion of the

settlement, and the harshness and persecution with which the Baptist

missionaries were treated by the government authorities ended in their

removal to the continent. In 1870——some improvement having taken place

in the Spanish government——the Primitive Methodists were induced to

commence a mission in Fernando Po, the Rev. Messrs. Burnett and Roe

being the first missionaries sent out. They and their successors labored

for several years very successfully. In 1879, in consequence of some

misunderstanding, the missionaries were again banished from the island.

An appeal was at once made to the home authorities, and in the course of

a few months they were allowed to return.

This question of conflict between Protestant and Catholic mission work in

Africa has, at certain times and in certain places, been serious, and is

greatly to be regretted, for it destroys the efficacy of both Churches,

and proves a stumbling block to the natives. Pinto speaks of it with

amazement, in his trip across the continent. He found places where the

natives had been utterly demoralized by the spirit of contention indulged

by the two Churches, and where their final answer to his advice to live

at peace and deal justly with one another was, that white people might

talk that way, but their actions proved that they did not mean what they

said.

In former times——notably in the Spanish, French and Portuguese

provinces of Africa——the Catholic mission was a part of the political

establishment, and it was expected to use its influence to extend and

perpetuate the power which protected it. This was equivalent to warning

off all competitors as intruders. Happily this condition is undergoing

rapid modification.

Similarly, the Protestant mission of other countries was treated as part

of the commercial establishment, under the protection of the consul, and

of the trading company, to whom the territory was allotted. Its business

was therefore, in part, to cultivate the trading spirit and make its

success contribute to the wealth of the parent country. This notion, too,

is undergoing modification.

All of which is directly in the line of that Christian enterprise so much

needed for the conversion of the African heathen.

On the mainland opposite Fernando Po, and on into the interior, good work

has been done. We will speak first of the Old Calabar Mission.

Old Calabar, on an affluent of the Cross river, is a recognized centre

of the trade of the Oil river sections. It has a population of 15,000

natives and 150 white. An insight into the characteristics of the natives

beyond Old Calabar can best be gotten from the journey of Mr. Johnson

up the Cross river in 1888. His object in making an ascent of the

river was to treat with the natives and at the same time settle an old

quarrel between the Union people and the tribes about Calabar. Stopping,

merely to observe that the Kruboys, of whom Mr. Johnson speaks, are the

Krumen——Kroomen——of the Liberian coast, among whom Bishop Taylor has, in

his four years of African labors, established more than twenty missions,

we let the adventurer tell his own story. He says: “Having decided to

ascend the Cross river and having no steam launch at my disposal, I was

obliged to make the journey in native canoes, of which I hired three,

and fitted the largest with a small house in the centre for my lodging.

I took with me about thirty Kruboys. These invaluable native workers

come from the Liberian coast. Without their aid European enterprise on

the west coast of Africa would be at a standstill; for, invariably,

the negroes who are indigenous will not undertake any persistent work.

The Kruboy is a strong, good tempered, faithful creature; able to row,

paddle, carry, dig, wash clothes, or turn his hand to anything——in fact,

he is a great deal sharper and more industrious than the average English

navvy. My first object in going up the Cross river was to settle an

outstanding quarrel between the people of a district called Umon and the

natives of Old Calabar. Union is at a distance of about a hundred miles

from the sea. The people speak a language quite distinct from the Calabar

language. They were, till lately, terribly priest-ridden. Their life

was a burden to them, with its load of cruel superstitious practices.

The last few years, however, since they have come into contact with the

missionaries, the state of affairs has greatly improved. As I appeared in

the light of a mediator, I was most warmly welcomed. An imposing fleet

of eighty large Calabar canoes reached Umon soon after I arrived, and

formed a really pretty sight, as they were all painted in brilliant, but

tasteful combinations of color, their little houses hung with bright

carpets or leopard skins, each canoe being decorated with gaudy banners.

The crews were most fantastically dressed in gorgeous clothes. The

beating of drums, blowing of horns, and the firing of guns made a clamor

most disturbing to my comfort, which I promptly stopped. I need hardly

say that I had the Calabar people all under my control, for there was not

only a personal attachment between us, but they knew that I was working

in their interest, and the Umon people were much impressed by the way

in which my shabby little despatch canoe, with two of my Kruboys in it,

could marshal the imposing Calabar fleet.

“As both sides were longing to have their quarrel at an end, and were

fully prepared to accept my decision, the conference was a brief one. I

decided that it was six of one and half a dozen of the other. I made the

Calabar people surrender the Umon captives, and the Umon surrender their

Calabar prisoners. Peace was reestablished, trade was resumed, and I was

free to continue my journey.

“We next visited the important Akuna-Kuna country, very populous, and

inhabited by friendly, industrious people, whose chiefs very promptly

and willingly concluded a treaty with the British Government, and

loaded me with such an abundance of provisions——bullocks, goats, sheep,

fowls, ducks, yams, and Indian corn——that our progress was seriously

impeded, our canoes nearly capsized, and my Krumen suffered severely from

indigestion.

[Illustration: AFRICAN VILLAGE AND PALAVER TREE.]

“Some distance up the river we had rather a ticklish task to perform.

Another quarrel, and that a bitter one, had to be settled between the

people of Akuna-Kuna and the inhabitants of Iko-Morut. Here I was

awkwardly situated. Had I been enabled to travel in a steam-launch, I

could have gone safely up the river, or in any direction where there was

sufficient water; but traveling simply in native canoes, the inhabitants

of these wild countries in the interior, who look on every stranger as

an enemy, had no idea that a white man was visiting them, and often

proceeded to attack us before I could make myself seen.

“As soon as we came in sight of the stockaded villages of Iko-Morut,

many excited chocolate-colored natives could be seen hurrying along the

banks of the stream and posting themselves in ambush behind the trees.

Then first one gun, then two, three, four guns went off; then there was a

regular hail of slugs and stones, whipping up the surface of the water,

and, in one or two cases, whizzing over our canoes. In the face of this

warm reception, it would have been impossible to proceed, for, at any

moment, a shot might strike our canoes and send them to the bottom. As

to returning the fire of these poor, stupid savages, nothing was further

from my thoughts. It was always open to me to retreat, and, unless I

could proceed peacefully and with a friendly reputation preceding me, it

was futile to continue my ascent of the Cross river. So I had the canoes

steered to an unoccupied sand-bank in the center of the stream, and as

soon as the natives saw that we stopt, they ceased firing. Then I got

into my small despatch canoe, with two interpreters, hoisted my white

umbrella, and assuming my smile, quietly landed on the crowded beach, to

the silent amazement of the natives, who were armed to the teeth. I was

conducted to the chief, who, for a long time, could not be prevailed on

to see me, on account of my presumed powers to bewitch him; but a little

friendly conversation through the red screen of his apartment, and the

hint that I had brought a pretty present, reassured him, and we soon made

excellent friends.

“To make a long story short; the result of my stay at Iko-Morut was

equally satisfactory to that of Umon. I made peace between Akuna-Kuna and

Iko-Morut, and the chiefs of the latter place concluded a treaty with me.

“Then on, beyond Iko-Morut, day after day, we paddled up the beautiful

stream, sometimes received by the natives in a gush of friendliness,

sometimes sullenly avoided, sometimes boisterously attacked. At length,

in the heart of the cannibal country, on the outskirts of Atam, where

the Cross river attains its furthest reach to the north, our journey

came forcibly to an end. I had several times been captured and released,

several times fired at and then hugged by those who had attacked me, but

the strain was becoming too great for the nerves of my Kruboys.

“As we approached one village, a shot, better directed than usual, went

through the roof of my little ark, and though no doubt our ultimate

reception at the village would have been the same as at the preceding

ones——first sullen hostility, then timid inquiry, and lastly a cordial

hand-shaking and hugging, and the giving of presents——still, before

this happy consummation should come about, some of us might have

been accidentally killed, or our canoes——our only means of regaining

civilization——sunk or disabled; consequently I decided to turn back. Then

ensued an awful afternoon, when for miles and miles we had to run the

gauntlet past populous villages of cannibals, whom we had much difficulty

in avoiding on our ascent of the river; and who, taking our retreat for a

flight, seemed bent on capturing us or plundering our canoes and eating

the wretched Kruboys, who turned blue with fright at the prospect of

being eaten, as they desperately paddled down the river past shrieking

natives, who waded out into the shallows, or pursued us in canoes. Every

now and again we would stick on a sand bank, and the shouts of the

natives would come nearer and nearer; then we would get off again, and

paddle for our lives; then stick again, and so on, till at last we were

out of this savage district. I hesitate to say hostile, for, wherever I

landed, or was captured, I was always well treated as soon as they found

out what I was like and what my objects were in visiting their country.

At length we arrived in the delightful district of Apiapum, where we put

up for a week at the clean and comfortable town of Ofurekpe, whose chief

and people were some of the nicest, kindliest, most friendly folk I have

ever seen in Africa, though they were in their practical way cannibals,

like their neighbors——that is to say, they were given to eating the flesh

of all whom they might catch in war. I did not here observe that other

kind of cannibalism which I have occasionally met on the Upper Cross

river, which is of a sentimental character, namely, where the old people

of that tribe, when they become toothless and useless, are knocked on the

head, smoke-dried, pounded into paste, and re-absorbed into the bosom of

the family.”

The Old Calabar Mission originated with the Jamaica Presbytery of what

is now the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The first band

of missionaries, led by Mr. Hope Waddell, a member of the Jamaica

Presbytery, reached their field of labor on the Old Calabar river on

April 10th, 1846. They were cordially welcomed by King Eyamba and the

chiefs of Duke Town, as also by King Eyo of Creek Town and his chiefs.

Suitable sites for mission stations were readily granted. Mr. Waddell

held a service with Eyamba and his chiefs the first Sunday after his

arrival, and presented the former with a Bible.

Mission houses and schools were in due time erected at both stations, a

printing press being also usefully employed in scattering the seeds of

Divine truth. At Creek Town the first sermon was preached in the court

yard of King Eyo’s palace, the king himself acting as interpreter.

The mission was reinforced in July, 1847, by the arrival of additional

missionaries from Jamaica.

In May previous King Eyamba died. It was the occasion of one of those

scenes of cruelty, too common in heathen lands.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the missionaries, no fewer than a hundred

victims were sacrificed, among whom were thirty of the king’s wives.

Here is the account given of the burial: “The people dug a large hole in

one of King Eyamba’s yards, and having decked him in his gayest apparel,

with the crown on his head, placed him between two sofas, and laid him in

the grave. They killed his personal attendants, umbrella carrier, snuff

box bearer, etc., (these the king was supposed to need in the world of

spirits), by cutting off their heads, and with their insignia of office

threw them in above the body; and after depositing a quantity of chop

and of coppers, they cover all carefully up, that no trace of a grave

could be seen. Over this spot a quantity of food is daily placed.”

In February, 1850, an Egbo law was passed abolishing the inhuman practice

of sacrificing human beings when a king or chief died. It is spoken of

as “A good day for Calabar”——“One memorable in the annals of the land.”

About the same time the marriage ceremony was introduced——King Eyo having

witnessed the first regular marriage.

On the suggestion of Mr. Waddell, their domestic idol, which consisted

of a stick surmounted by a human skull and adorned with feathers, was

expelled from every house.

The death of King Eyo in December, 1858, put the Egbo law to the

test. Much excitement prevailed. Fears were entertained that the old

superstition would triumph. Happily no such dreaded result followed.

Other heathen practices were one by one abandoned through the influence

of the mission.

The mission extended its sphere of operations from time to time——Ikunetu,

situated on the Great Cross river, about twenty miles above Creek Town,

being occupied in 1856, and Ikorofiong, also on the Cross river, about

twenty miles above Ikunetu, in 1858. The Presbytery of Old Calabar was

established September 1st, 1858, under the designation of the Presbytery

of Biafra.

In 1878 Mr. Thomas Campbell, the European evangelist at Old Town,

accompanied by a number of natives, explored in two directions——first in

Oban, up the Qua river, and then beyond Nyango, on the Calabar river.

Everywhere he was well received by the chiefs and people. On September

6th, 1880, there was an agreement entered into between D. Hopkins, Esq.,

British consul, and the kings and chiefs of Calabar, in accordance with

which a number of superstitious and cruel customs are held as criminal

and punishable by law. These include the murder of twin children, human

sacrifices, the killing of people accused of witchcraft, the giving of

the esere or poison bean, the stripping of helpless women in the public

streets, etc., etc.

In the _Missionary Record_, June, 1881, appears the following

intelligence: “The mission which seemed so long fruitless, is now one of

the most fruitful in the whole earth. The increasing number and activity

of the communicants, the increasing number of students in training

as teachers and evangelists, and the manifestations of a Christian

liberality not yet reached at home, tell of the changes which the Gospel

has wrought. We ploughed in hope: we sowed in tears: and now already we

reap in joy. The most recent tidings are the most heart-stirring. A new

tribe, which had long resisted our approach, has been visited. They had

never seen among them a white man till they looked on the face of the

devoted Samuel Edgerly. They invite teachers to settle among them. They

offer us suitable sites. The country is far beyond the swamps; it is high

and healthy. This favorable entrance was greatly aided by the wise and

good King Eyo, who sent a prince to accompany Mr. Edgerly beyond Umon to

Akuna Kuna. When the expedition returned and the king heard the result,

he gave utterance to one of the noblest of sentiments. ‘God,’ said he,

when Mr. Edgerly had told his tale, ‘_has unlatched the door, and wishes

us to push it open_.’”

Such results as have been achieved at the Old Calabar Mission are worth

all the money and toil and sacrifice of health and even of life which

they have cost.

The mission to the Cameroons was established in 1845 by the Baptist

Missionary Society. When the missionaries of that society were expelled

from the neighboring island of Fernando Po, where they had been laboring

since 1841, they settled among the Isubus at Bimbia, where a mission had

previously been projected. The mission was afterwards extended to King

Bell’s Town in an easterly direction, the people inhabiting that region

being the Dualas. The entire New Testament has been translated into the

languages of both tribes.

The Gaboon Mission was called into existence by the American Board in

1842. Baraka was the first station occupied. It was transferred in 1870

to the Mission Board of the American Presbyterian Church (north.) The

Mpongwes on the coast, and the Shekanis, Bakalais, and Pangwes in the

interior, are the tribes embraced in the field of operation. Not much

progress has been made owing to the opposition of the Roman Catholics.

In all the French possessions on the west coast of Africa the Roman

Catholics predominate and very little has been accomplished. Recently

the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society has been doing a good work at

Senegal and other settlements.

We come now to Angola. Angola was discovered by European mariners long

before Christopher Columbus had given to the world another continent, yet

many years passed before the value of the discovery was recognized and

the country taken possession of and occupied by the Portuguese, at that

period when Portugal was made remarkable by the commercial enterprise and

maritime prowess of its people, more than three hundred years ago.

For several years before the occupation of Angola, the king of Congo had

been doing a large and lucrative trade with the Portuguese in slaves. The

sources from which were drawn victims to keep alive this nefarious barter

were never failing. The superstitions of the people, their customs and

habits, a season of drouth, a failure of crops, in fact anything, even

the least trivial happenings, were all factors giving Congo’s king excuse

for the selling of his subjects to securing wealth; wealth represented by

many wives, granaries filled to bursting with manioc, and wooded hills

and fertile valleys stocked to overrunning with flocks of sheep and

droves of lowing kine; wealth which enabled Congo to dominate and overawe

all contemporary tribes, and which naturally incited the jealousy of

other kings and chiefs who ruled over the natives of other districts in

this country of Congoland.

Among the savage rulers who were envious of the power of their rival,

was Nmbea, king of Angola, autocrat of a large and densely populated

country. Holding at his disposal millions of helpless and superstitious

subjects, Nmbea soon recognized that by copying the practices of his

powerful neighbor he, with but little difficulty, would also become chief

and powerful. So, moved by this desire, he opened a correspondence with

the Portuguese. He sent one of the rich men of his tribe, with presents

of slaves, ivory and strangely wrought curios, as ambassadors to the

Portuguese court at Lisbon, with instructions to endeavor to have the

Portuguese establish trading relations between the two kingdoms.

At this time the attention of the Portuguese queen and the people

generally was attracted towards Brazil. Enterprising colonists,

venturesome explorers and wealth seekers of all classes saw in this South

American district a new Cathay. Thousands from among the patrician, as

well as other thousands from more humble circles, rushed into that new

land, necessarily causing large sums of money to follow in their wake.

The enthusiasm with which this American opportunity was cultivated and

the resultant drain from the royal treasury and from the coffers of the

people caused Queen Catherine to receive with indifference all stories

of African wealth. Thus obstacles were formed which prevented Nmbea from

carrying out his plans until several years had passed, when the growing

demands for slaves, needed to supply labor in Brazilian mines and on East

Indian coffee farms, had become a matter of great importance. Then the

request of Angola’s king was considered, and a party of Portuguese were

landed at a place in his kingdom which they called St. Paul de Loanda.

In the selection of this place these adventurers were most fortunate,

for it was not long before trade, in ever-increasing volume, flowed

towards the sea coast at this point. The growth of the city was rapid

and, despite wars with native tribes and trouble with marauding Dutch,

it grew wealthy and powerful. Large and beautiful cathedrals were built,

imposing palaces were erected as were many important public buildings,

and dotted here and there about the suburbs, were fruitful farms and

valuable plantations. So with the moving years the city waxed strong and

mighty, thriving on its traffic in human flesh. But a time came when this

trade was shaken to its base and the prosperity of its citizens brought

to a temporary end.

The inhabitants of the civilized world began to look with disfavor upon

the slave traffic, and were induced to attempt its suppression. This,

for Loanda, was the writing on the wall, for it meant the placing of

an embargo upon the trade which was the only source from which the

city derived revenue for its support. Philanthropy succeeded, and as a

consequence Loanda’s glory faded. The palaces passed away, the stately

cathedrals crumbled into ruins and the large and costly slave barracoons

became useless except as fuel for the poor.

[Illustration: ST. PAUL DE LOANDA.]

Then for years death-like quiet reigned in the city, and all signs of

commerce ceased. But this stagnation was not to last forever. England and

other commercial nations of Europe, in their efforts to find markets for

the sale of the products of their mills and workshops, had established

depots for trade at almost every important place in the world. The eyes

of European merchants were turned towards the prolific field of southwest

Africa.

Stories which told how great wealth was to be gained in African trade

began to be chronicled in the exchanges of all the great commercial

centres, and a wave of commercial endeavor was put in motion, which

carried with it many richly freighted barks to again fill the harbor of

the African city of St. Paul de Loanda. Since then Loanda has improved

beyond all expectation, and now the vessels of four lines of steamers

as well as many sailing craft are constantly in the harbor loading and

discharging their cargoes. Many large public buildings have been built.

Acres of flat and swampy shore have been reclaimed and are now utilized

for docks and wharfs. Ruins of churches and monasteries have been cleared

away and walks and squares have been laid out and planted. There are

many shops supplied with all kinds of European goods. Pipes have been

laid, through which flows into the city sweet water from the river Bengo,

nine miles away, and when the railway, now in course of construction, is

in operation to bring the products of the farms, plantations and rich

forests of the interior to the city, Loanda will have become a fair

specimen of a thriving tropical town.

The city is situated on the shore of a large and beautiful bay and is

divided into a lower and an upper town. The “Cidade Buixa,” or lower

town, which is built on the flat shore which fringes the water of the

bay, nestles at the base of a hill and straggles up its rising sides

until it joins the “Cidade Alto.” The upper town stretches along the brow

of the elevation and sweeps outward towards the ocean until it ends at

a bold and rocky precipice where Fort St. Miguels, a frowning sentinel,

watches over the safety of the port.

The harbor is a bay where a thousand ships might at one time ride at

anchor and find secure protection from the severest storm. A long, low

and narrow neck of land, called Isle of Palms, leaves the mainland

about twelve miles to the south and runs north until it reaches a point

opposite the city, where it flattens out its surface of sunlit sands to

give protection to the harbor of which it forms the southern boundary.

[Illustration: FOREST SCENE IN ANGOLA.]

This spit of land is partly covered with groves of cocoa palms, among

which the residents of the city have erected many small houses where

they visit daily to enjoy surf bathing. On other parts of this sandy

breakwater are numerous villages occupied by native fishermen, who make

an easy living.

Loanda contains a population of nearly 20,000 people, about one-third

of whom are white. The houses, as a rule, are built of stone and roofed

with tile, and are large and commodious. The houses all have spacious

yards attached, in which are situated the stores, kitchens, wells and

habitations of the slaves and servants. Arranged in this manner, and

with wide and spacious streets, the city is very open and comparatively

healthy. It covers a large expanse of ground. The principal business

street contains a number of fine structures. On it are situated the

buildings of the Banco da Ultra Marenho, the barracks of the military

police, the custom-house and the offices of the foreign consuls. There

are also three hotels, many stores and warerooms, several billiard rooms

and cafés. In the middle of the street rows of banyan trees have been

planted, making a shady walk, where the natives gather to buy and sell.

These open-air sales, called in Bunda talk “Quitanda” market, are

well patronized. Four uprights, a few “Loandas” mats for a shed, a

stone-bowled pipe and a wooden pillow, are all the furnishings needed

to make comfortable the colored women merchants. On the ground and

all around the booths are laid out pieces of cotton, cheap calico,

brilliantly colored handkerchiefs, native-made baskets containing balls

and reels of cotton, beads, needles, pins, etc., cheap crockery and

cutlery, empty bottles and balls of different colored clay. Suspended

from the uprights and resting against the trees are stacks of native

tobacco, plaited into rolls or wound about sticks and sold by inches. The

venders at these open sales are always women, and as a rule are clean

and comely. They are shrewd sellers and close buyers, and in a few years

become, from a native’s point of view, quite wealthy. When conducting

the business of the day, they squat or lie down upon the sand and indulge

in quip and joke, and gossip with one another and their customers.

Covering a whole square in the center of the lower town is the general

market. It is a large, square, uncovered enclosure made of terra cotta

and brick, built in excellent taste. All the public buildings of Loanda

are under the direct control of the military police and are well

conducted.

At break of day one hears the loud sound of many horns, trumpets and

beating drums. Down through the flower scented streets, in soldierly

order moving, with burnished guns and glistening bayonets, 100 blacks,

all dressed in spotless white, come marching until they reach the

market gates. Here good Father Anselmo, of the Ursulines, pours out a

benediction upon the market and the awaiting people. When the gates are

opened the police take their stations and the market is ready to receive

the buyers and sellers of the day. Through the open portals into the

market flows a stream of laughing, singing men and women. One carries

upon her head a large basket, from whose open top protrudes the heads

of cackling geese and scolding hens. Another has a pot of neichineas

(water oil). Some bring meat and others vegetables. Millions of fleas

and “jiggers” are always present, and in and out among the wares run

countless naked and dirty children. The buyers and sellers shout aloud in

boisterous tone.

Besides this market there is another given up entirely to the sale of

fish. In the haze of early morning, far out upon the ocean, hundreds of

black spots are seen bobbing up and down upon the water. They are the

canoes of the fishermen who are hastening towards the land with the fruit

of their night’s labor. In a little time they reach the shore and their

scaly cargoes are tumbled out upon the sands. The women and children at

once proceed to clean the fish. In one spot they arrange the fish for

drying, while others salt and pack them in barrels for shipment. Others,

again, fry, boil and roast the fish and all are eating raw or half-cooked

fish, interspersing everything with shouting, singing, dancing and grunts

of satisfaction.

During the period when the city’s prosperity was interrupted, its streets

were left uncared for and their beautiful pavements became covered with

a bed of loose red sand, which was washed by the rain down from the

surrounding hills. This drifting still continues, rendering walking so

very difficult that it is indulged in only by the convicts and natives.

The better classes have resource to the “maxilla.” The “maxilla” is a

flat frame of canework with one or two arms at the side and a low back

provided with a cushion. This frame is hung by cords to a hook on a palm

pole, about eighteen feet long, and is carried upon the shoulders of two

blacks, who travel with it easily at the rate of three or four miles an

hour. It is covered with an awning of oiled cloth and has silk curtains

hung all around it.

Loanda is a convict settlement, but, contrary to what might be expected,

its people are remarkably law-abiding. This may arise from the fact that

discovered law-breakers are punished most severely, often dying under the

lash. The convicts, as a rule, are store-keepers and farmers. They are

prosperous, and soon become contented with their lot and rarely return to

Europe. Ignorant and unrefined, they assimilate readily with the native

classes, and take part in all their pleasures.