A LECTURE ON AFRICAN MISSIONS. (continued 2)

The Report is dated September, 1853, and Mr. Thompson, in company with Mr. Condit, sailed again for Africa, in November. Letters have been received from him at Sierra Leone, where he landed in January, on his way to Kaw-Mendi. Thus has this devoted missionary, for the third time, braved the dangers of the African climate.

Intelligence from Kaw-Mendi, as late as October, 1853, has been received. The mission at Tissana has been abandoned, on account of the distracted state of the country between it and Kaw-Mendi, produced by the continuation of the wars; and, in lieu thereof, a station has been commenced at Sherbro Island, where peace and safety prevail. The school at Kaw-Mendi, is prospering, writes Dr. Cole; but “of the one hundred children there gathered, the mass,” he says, “are yet heathen, with the habits that ignorance, superstition and nakedness beget. Bad as these are, they form the most hopeful material for missionary culture, and it is for their elevation and purification our missionaries toil. Oh! how much they need the sympathies and prayers of God’s people.”^[48] Mr. Gray, who went out three years since, has returned with his wife to recruit his health.

To gain a clear view of the hindrances to the missions among the natives, we must add the testimony of Bishop Scott, to that already presented.

The first difficulty which meets the missionary, he says, on going to this people, is an unknown and uncultivated tongue; a tongue, too, which varies so much, as he passes from one tribe to another, within 38the space of only a few miles, that it often amounts to a different language. The nature of this obstacle will be so easily comprehended, that the details given by the Bishop, need not be quoted. He thus proceeds:

“But now another difficulty assails him—one which his knowledge of men in other parts of the world had given him no reason to anticipate. Though he may in some way get over the difficulty presented in a rude foreign tongue, yet he now finds, to his utter surprise, that he can not gain access to this people unless he dash them, (that is, make them presents,) and only as he dashes them. When, where, or how this wretched custom arose I can not tell, but it is found to prevail over most parts of Africa, and, so far as I know, nowhere else. But what shall our missionary now do? Will he dash them? Will he dash them ‘much plenty?’ Then they will hear him—they will flock around him—nay, he may do with them almost as he wists, and a nation may be born in a day. But let him not be deceived, for all is not gold, here especially, that glitters. So soon as he withholds his dashes, ten to one they are all as they were. But is he poor and can not dash them?—or able, but on principle will not? Then, as a general fact, he may go home. They will not hear him at all, nor treat him with the least respect. Indeed, they will probably say, ‘He no good man,’—and it will be well for him if they do not get up a palaver against him and expel him from their coasts. This dashing is a most mischievous custom—dreadfully in the way of missionary labor, and I know not how it is to be controlled. I am sick of the very sound of the word. The Lord help poor Africa!

“But the difficulties multiply. Now a hydra-headed monster gapes upon our missionary, of most frightful aspect, and as tenacious of life as that fabled monster of the ancient poets. It is polygamy. He finds to his grief and surprise, that every man has as many wives as he can find money to buy. He must give them all up but one, if he would be a Christian. But will he give them up? Not easily. He will give up almost any thing before he will give up his wives. They are his slaves, in fact; they constitute his wealth. And then it is difficult, not to say impossible, to persuade him that it is not somehow morally wrong to put them away. ‘Me send woman away?—where she go to?—what she do?’ This I consider the hugest difficulty with which Christianity has to contend in the conversion of this people, and makes me think that she must look mainly to the rising generation.

“But here, too, a difficulty arises. The female children are contracted away—are sold, in fact—by their parents while they are yet very young, often while they are infants; and if the missionary would procure them for his schools, he must pay the dower—some fifteen or twenty dollars.

“But our missionary finds that the whole social and domestic organization of these people is opposed to the pure, chaste, and comely spirit of the Gospel, and that, to succeed in this holy work, it must not only 39be changed, but revolutionized—upturned from the very foundation. Is there no difficulty here? Are habits and customs, so long established and so deeply rooted, to be given up without a struggle? The native people, both men and women, go almost stark naked, and they love to go so—and are not abashed in the presence of people better dressed; they eat with their hands, and dip, and pull, and tear, with as little ceremony and as little decency as monkeys, and they love to eat so; they sleep on the bare ground, or on mats spread on the ground, and they love to sleep so; the men hunt or fish, or lounge about their huts, and smoke their pipes, and chat, and sleep, while their wives, alias their slaves, tend and cut and house their rice—cut and carry home their wood—make their fires, fetch their water, get out their rice, and prepare their ‘chop,’—and all, even the women, love to have it so. And to all the remonstrances of the missionary, they oppose this simple and all-settling reply. ‘This be countryman’s fash.’ They seem incapable of conceiving that your fash is better than theirs, or that theirs is at all defective. Your fash, they will admit, may be better for you, but theirs is better for them. So the natives of Cape Palmas have lived, in the very midst of the colonists, for some twenty years, and they are the same people still, with almost no visible change.”

The Bishop next notices their superstitions and idolatries, and the evils connected with their belief in witchcraft; and says, that though, by the influence of the colony and missions, their confidence is, in some places, being shaken in some of them; they generally even yet think you a fool, and pity you, if you venture to hint that there is nothing in them. But we must not quote him farther than to include his closing remarks:

“But what! Do you then think that there is no hope for these heathen, or that we should give up all hopes directed to that end? Not I, indeed. Very far from it. I would rather reiterate the noble saying of the sainted Cox: ‘Though a thousand fall even, in this attempt, yet let not Africa be given up.’ I mention these things to show, that there are solid reasons why our brethren in Africa have accomplished so little; and also to show, that the Churches at home must, in this work particularly, exercise the patience of faith and the labor of love. We must still pound the rock, even though it is hard, and our mallets be but of wood. It will break one day.”

Our inquiries into the condition of the Missions among the natives, where civil government exerts no influence, must now be closed. The state of things is about this: The chiefs, ambitious of distinction and avaricious, often favor the settlement of missionaries, on account of the consequence it gives them, or from mercenary motives; the division of the population into small tribes, and their marauding dispositions, leads to frequent wars; the tyranny of the chiefs, and their fear of losing their influence, often leads them, after having admitted the missionary, 40to oppose his work and deter their people from attending his preaching; the existence of slavery and hereditary chieftainism, leaves the mass of the population incapable of independent action; the ignorance of barbarism, overshadowing their minds, renders them incapable of comprehending moral truth; the superstitions of ages are not to be given up, readily, for a religion they can not comprehend; the custom of receiving dashes, tends to prejudice the native against the missionary; and, above all, the practice of polygamy, ministering to the indolence and sensuality of the men, and reducing the women to the condition of slaves, stands as a wall of adamant in the way of the progress of the Gospel.

These are the more prominent barriers to the success of missions in Africa, where civil government exerts no power, and the influence of Christian society is not felt.

It will not be improper here, to pause and observe, that there seems to be a marked difference between the agencies necessary to secure success in propagating the Gospel among an Asiatic and an African population. Both, it must be remembered, are heathen; but the minds of the one are enlightened, of the other barbarous. In Asia, where a knowledge of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and the mechanical and fine arts prevail, the mental culture of the people renders them accessible to the Gospel. Many of them can comprehend its truths, when heard from the lips of the preacher, or when read in the printed Scriptures. For this reason, some of the prominent missions in India have relied upon the preaching of the word, as their principal agency; while circulating the Scriptures and teaching the youth, have been employed only as auxiliaries. Others have relied mainly upon the multiplication of facilities for educating the youth; while spreading the printed word, and employing the foreign preacher, have been considered as secondary matters—the chief hope being in the preparation of a native ministry, who should ultimately enter largely upon that work. Others, again, have combined all these agencies, as means which God has blessed in the conversion of sinful men. The whole of these systems have been successful in Asia, and their supporters, respectively, see but little cause for changing their measures.

But in Africa, and among the North American Indians, where the intellectual faculties of the population are shrouded in the darkness of barbarism,^[49] the preaching of the word, in the commencement of a mission, has been but rarely successful in producing conversions; while the total ignorance of letters among these people, has rendered the circulation of the Scriptures useless. Christian missionaries, therefore, in attempting to introduce the Gospel among the Indians or Africans, have been forced to rely upon the education of youth as the means of success.

41But whether in North America, Africa or Asia—whether converted while training in the schools, or under the reading or preaching of the word—the multiplication of native agents to take part in the work, greatly promotes the progress of the Gospel. So well is this now understood, that the preparation of native teachers and preachers, has become the chief aim of all missions to the heathen; and the persistence in one or the other of the systems of operations to which we have referred, is due to the importance they respectively attach to an educated ministry.

While, however, teaching, reading, and preaching, are the chief instrumentalities for the conversion of the world; the progress of the Gospel, everywhere, is greatly accelerated by the presence of a Christian population, whose example aids in overturning the customs and superstitions of the people, and commends the religion of Christ to their confidence. As a mission, then, adds to the number of its converts, or receives additions of civilized emigrants, its ability of becoming more and more aggressive is increased, and its powers of progression multiplied.

Where reliance is placed upon education, mainly, for introducing the Gospel, its progress is necessarily slow; because a generation, or two, is needed to bring forward a competent number of agents to take possession of the field. The drawbacks, too, are very great—much seed being sown, which falls upon stony ground. If schools are conducted upon a large scale, the children must be supported by their parents; and, in such cases, the superstitions and vices of heathenism have, but too often, an easy victory over the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. In this respect no new principle has been discovered. In Christian countries, where custom, law, and the example of parents, combine to give the ascendency to virtue, who can hope that his children will escape moral contamination, if they be permitted to mingle, at will, with the vicious and depraved. How much more, then, are the children of the heathen endangered, if left in the care of licentious and idolatrous parents, among a population where the laws of virtue are unknown?

To avoid these evils, Bishop Scott urges, that the native children, attending the Methodist schools in Liberia, be taken into the families of the missionaries—a system which has been pursued with success, by some of the other societies.

But we need not extend these observations. It is not difficult to comprehend the connection which exists between Colonization and the more rapid extension of the Gospel in Africa; and to see the superiority of the missions in Liberia, to those among the natives. Look but a moment at its advantages. Liberia contains a greater number of the elements of success, than are embraced in the missions to the natives, or in those of any other class; and, consequently, must be more efficient in promoting the evangelization of the African people. The overawing influence of its laws upon the natives—the permanency of its 42schools—the circulation of the Scriptures and religious tracts among those taught to read—the protection afforded by its government to the missionaries—the constant preaching of the word—the high morality of its Christian population—the influx of civilized emigrants who are the descendants of those cruelly torn from their shores in former years—all tend directly to promote the work of missions. Colonization, therefore, supplies to the missions in Liberia, at once, the instrumentalities which those among the natives are only able to acquire after many years of toil.

IV. The Missions in Connection with the Colonies of White Men in South Africa.

We must refer a moment to the civil history of South Africa, as it is essential to the proper understanding of its Missionary history.

The Dutch took possession of the Cape in 1650, and this occupancy was followed by an extensive emigration of that people to Cape Town and its vicinity. The encroachments of the emigrants upon the Hottentots, soon gave rise to wars, which resulted in the enslavement of this feeble race. The English captured Cape Town in 1795, ceded it back in 1801, retook it in 1808, and still hold it in possession.

The climate of South Africa being favorable to the health of Europeans, an English emigration to the Cape commenced soon after it became a British province. This led to further encroachments upon the native tribes, and to much disaffection upon the part of the Dutch, who were designated by the term Boers.^[50] They remained in the Colony, however, until 1834, when the emancipation act, of the British Parliament, set the Hottentots free. This so enraged the Boers, that they emigrated in large bodies beyond the limits of Cape Colony. In seeking new homes, they came in contact with the Zulus, as already stated, and aided in the subjugation of that powerful people. Driven by the English from the Zulu country, the Boers passed on to the north-west, far into the interior, where we shall soon hear from them again.

The English, in extending their settlements to the north-east of Cape Town, soon came into collision with the Kaffirs; who, being a powerful and warlike race, made a vigorous resistance to their advances. The Kaffirs stole the cattle of the whites, and the whites retaliated on the Kaffirs. These depredations often resulted in wars, each of which gave the English government a pretext to add a portion of the Kaffir territory to its own. As war followed on war, the Kaffirs improved in the art, acquired something of the skill of their enemies, and learned the use of European weapons. Thus every Kaffir war became more formidable, requiring more troops, costing more money, and, of course, demanding more territory. In consequence of these various annexations from the Kaffirs, Zulus, and others, the English possessions in 43South Africa now cover a space of 282,000 square miles; 105,000 of which have been added since 1847—the year of the great failure in the cotton crop of the United States.

The Missionary History of South Africa, though of great interest, must also be very brief.

A Moravian mission, begun in 1736, among the Hottentots, was broken up at the end of six years, by the Dutch authorities, and its renewal prevented for 49 years. Having been resumed in 1792, it was again interrupted in 1795, but soon afterwards restored under British authority. Here, the hostility of the Dutch government to Christian Missions excluded the Gospel from South Africa during a period of half a century.

A mission to the Kaffirs, begun in 1799, by Dr. Vanderkemp, was abandoned in a year, on account of the jealousies of that people towards the whites, and their plots to take his life. The other missions, of various denominations, begun from time to time, in South Africa, have also been interrupted and retarded by the wars of the natives with each other, and more especially with the whites.

The pecuniary loss to the English, by the war of 1835, was $1,200,000; and by that of 1846–7, $3,425,000. This, however, was a matter of little importance, compared with the moral bearings of these conflicts. The missions suffered more or less in all the wars, either by interruptions of their labors, or in having their people pressed into the army. In that of 1846–7, the London Society had its four stations in the Kaffir country entirely ruined, and its missionaries and people compelled to seek refuge in the Colony.

But the most disastrous of all these conflicts, and that which has cast the deepest gloom over the South African Missions, was the Kaffir war of 1851–2–3. These missions, with the exception of that to the Zulus, are under the care of ten missionary societies, all of which are European. They had recovered from the shocks of the former wars, and were in an encouraging state; when, in December, 1850, the Kaffir war broke out. In consequence of that war, many of the missions have been reduced to a most deplorable condition; and afford a sad commentary on the doctrine that the white and black races, in the present moral condition of the world, can dwell together in harmony.

The missions of the Scotch Free Church were in the very seat of war, the buildings of two of them destroyed, and the missionaries forced to flee for their lives; while the third was only saved by being fortified.

The Berlin Missionary Society, had its missionaries driven from two of its stations, during the progress of the war.

The Mission of the United Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, which consisted of three stations, were all involved in ruin. The war laid waste the mission stations, scattered the missionaries and converts, suspended entirely the work of instruction, and has done an amount of evil which can scarcely be exaggerated. The Report for 1853, says, 44that the mission can not be resumed on its old basis, as the Kaffirs around their stations are to be driven away; and though the native converts, numbering 100, might be collected at one of the stations, it is deemed better that a delegation visit South Africa, and report to the Board a plan of future operations.

The London Missionary Society also suffered greatly, and some of their missionaries were stript of every thing they possessed. The Report, for 1853, says: “This deadly conflict has at length terminated, and terminated, as might have been foreseen, by the triumph of British arms. The principal Kaffir chiefs, with their people, have been driven out of their country; and their lands have been allotted to British soldiers and colonists. And on the widely extended frontier there will be established military posts, from which the troops and the settlers are to guard the colony against the return of the exiled natives.”

Such, indeed, was the hostility of the whites toward the missionaries themselves, at one of the Churches in the white settlements, that bullets were not unfrequently dropped into the collection plates.^[51]

Both Moravian and Wesleyan Missions have been destroyed. In one instance, 250 Hottentots perished by the hands of English soldiers, in the same Church where they had listened to the word of God from the Moravian missionaries; not because they were enemies, but in an attempt to disarm a peaceable population. Such are the cruelties incident to this war!

The Paris Missionary Society, has thirteen stations in South Africa. Its Report, for 1853, complains of the interruptions and injuries which its missions have suffered, in consequence of the military commotions which have prevailed in the fields occupied by its missionaries. In alluding to the obstacles to the Gospel, which everywhere exist, Dr. Grandpierre, the Director of the Society, says: “But how are these obstacles multiplied, when the missionary is obliged to encounter, in the lives of nominal Christians, that which gives the lie to his teachings. Irritated by the measures which are employed against them, may not the aborigines rightfully say to the whites, with more truth than ever, ‘You call yourselves the children of the God of peace; and yet you make war upon us. You teach justice; but you are guilty of injustice. You preach the love of God; and you take away our liberty and our property.’”

One of the Scotch Societies, near the close of the Kaffir war, when summing up the effects it had produced, draws this melancholy picture:

“All missionary operations have been suspended; the converts are either scattered or compelled, by their hostile countrymen, to take part in the revolt; the missionaries have been obliged to leave the scenes of their benevolent labors; hostile feelings have been excited between the black and white races, which it will require a long period to soothe 45down; and the prospects of evangelizing Kaffirland have been rendered dark and distant.”

But we are not yet done recounting the obstacles to the progress of the Gospel in South Africa, and the oppressions to which its population are subjected. Our last reference to the Boers, left them emigrating toward the interior of Africa. It appears that they have selected territory and organized themselves into a government, under the title of the “Free Republic;” and that, in the course of the last year their independence has been acknowledged by Great Britain. The Boers, although recognized as a nation, seem little disposed to peace; but have, lately, proceeded to destroy some of the stations of the London Missionary Society, and to drive two English missionaries from their territory. They have also attacked and plundered three of the native tribes, killing 60 men and taking a number of women and children prisoners. Their movements seem to indicate that they are determined to prevent the English from extending northward into their vicinity; and it is feared they will enslave or ruin the native tribes among whom they have settled. When charged with this design, they denied it, and claimed that the servitude they adopt is not slavery, but a system of apprenticeship—such, we suppose, as the English have established, to secure laborers for their West India plantations. The missionaries, however, have ascertained that the natives are bought and sold by them; and from this fact it is inferred, that the fate of the Hottentots, in former years, will, doubtless, be the lot of the natives who are now in the power of the Boers. Alas! for poor Africa!

Referring to these events, the London Society expresses the opinion, that, hereafter, the missionaries will not be left untrammeled, or the liberty of the natives preserved, in the “Free Republic,” unless the British nation shall utter its voice distinctly and earnestly in behalf of these unoffending myriads.^[52] In that event, doubtless, the liberty of the natives might be prolonged, until English emigrants should demand their lands; and then, the fate of the Kaffirs would await them.

We must here close these investigations. In reflecting upon the consequences attending the emigration of the English and Dutch into South Africa, we can not but be struck with the sameness of the results there, and those connected with European emigration among the North American Indians. Unlike the emigration of the colored people into West Africa, that of the whites into South Africa and North America, has tended to the destruction of the native heathen, and not, as in Liberia, to their moral redemption. Nor are the inducements to exchange heathen customs for those of Christianity, as strong in South Africa as in Liberia. The natives, in the former, on abandoning heathenism only become subjects of British law, and not freemen, as 46in the latter, participating in the affairs of government. The South African chief, has even less reason than his people, to forsake his barbarism; as he only thereby loses his power, and, from being himself a king, he becomes a subject, and compelled to bow to the white man, who has robbed him of his greatness. These obstacles to missionary progress in South Africa, are daily on the increase, by additional European emigration; as each white man, who sets his foot upon the Cape, but adds to the necessity for robbing the natives of additional lands. On the contrary, each colored emigrant to Liberia, by adding to the strength of the Republic, is aiding in extending to the natives the blessings of freedom and of peace, and securing to them their right to their homes under the sanction of Christian laws.

Thus, it appears, that, as the colonization of colored men in Liberia elevates the native population, secures harmony of feeling and unity of interest between the parties, gives distinction to the race, and secures the more rapid extension of the Gospel; so the emigration of white men into South Africa, tends to degrade the natives, produces enmity of feeling and diversity of interest, destroys whatever of nationality they possessed, and erects a mighty barrier against their conversion to Christianity.

The total missionary force in South Africa, is under the care of eleven Missionary Societies, ten of which are European, and one American. Their condition, in 1850, before the commencement of the Kaffir war, was as follows:^[53] Missionaries 214, assistant missionaries 155, native assistants 8, communicants 12,116, schools 60, scholars 20,100.

CONCLUSION.

Here we must close our inquiries, sum up the results, see what experience teaches, draw the contrasts between these several classes of Missions, and determine the best mode of employing human instrumentalities for the extension of the Gospel in Africa.

These Missions, as we have shown, had to be planted upon a broad field of barbarism; where the civil condition, the objects of worship, the social customs, the intellectual state of the people, were the antagonists of what prevail under a Christian civilization. The missionary’s task embraced much of toil, privation, danger, patience, perseverance. Wars were to be turned into peace, superstitions overthrown, polygamy abolished, ignorance dispelled, before civilization and Christianity could be established. This was the work to be accomplished. The results have been given in detail, and now they must only be recapitulated and contrasted.

The Missions to the natives, beyond the protection of the colonies, have made the least progress. They are established upon the proper 47basis, but have fewer agencies employed than the other missions, and a corresponding inefficiency is the result. Common schools, Sabbath schools, and preaching, are means used for promoting the Gospel in all the African missions. Those to the natives, are limited chiefly to these three plans of operation, while the other missions possess many subordinate means that greatly facilitate their progress. Preaching to adults, though not altogether unsuccessful, has won but few converts, and done but little for the overthrow of superstition. Education lays the axe at the root of ignorance, but from the fewness of the teachers and schools, the small attendance of pupils, and the reaction of heathenism upon them, it has made very little impression on the surrounding barbarism. Less, still, has been done by these missions, in preventing native wars; while polygamy remains almost wholly unaffected by them. The greatest difficulty, however, is, that the missionaries, with very few exceptions, are white men, whose constitutions, generally, yield to the effects of the climate, and the missions are constantly liable to be weakened and broken up. This is true of the Gaboon and Mendi Missions, particularly, and can be remedied, only, by substituting colored missionaries, since they, alone, have constitutions adapted to the climate. The mission to the Zulus differs from these two, in having a climate better adapted to the Anglo-Saxon; but it has to contend with the additional obstacle of a hostile white immigration, which threatens its existence. As the customs and morals of Christianity become better understood, at these missions, the enmity of the natives continues to increase; and the missionary, after years of toil, feels, more and more, the indispensable necessity of multiplying the agencies for removing the barriers to the Gospel by which he is surrounded.

The Missions in South Africa, by their early success, and the progress they have always made in times of peace, afford ample evidence of the practicability of Christianizing Africa, wherever civil government protects the missionary, and prevents the prevalence of native wars. But while we may here derive a powerful argument in favor of increased effort for the extension of Christianity, where the conditions of society are thus favorable; the additional lesson is impressed upon the mind, with tremendous force, that the white and black races—that Englishmen and Africans—can not dwell together as equals; but that the intelligence and active energies of the one, when brought into conflict with the ignorance and indolent habits of the other, must make the Negro an easy prey to the Anglo-Saxon. The sad results of this conflict of races, in the wars of the last few years, casts a deep gloom over the future prospects of South Africa, and renders it doubtful whether the missions can be sustained among the natives as independent tribes. It would appear, that, under British policy, the loss of liberty is the price at which the African must purchase Christianity.

48The immigration of Englishmen into South Africa, then, instead of diminishing the obstacles to the success of the Gospel, is adding a new one of an aggravated character. Nor can the difficulty be obviated. When Christian missions harmonize with the policy of England, she grants them protection; but when they stand in the way of the execution of her schemes, they are brushed aside as objects of indifference, and treated with no higher regard than pagan institutions. While her soldiers were slaughtering the Christian Hottentots, in the church of the Moravians, her revenues were upholding the heathen temples of India. As she designs to build up an extensive white colony, in South Africa, the main obstacles to these missions will be rendered as immovable as the British throne. In this respect, they are more discouraging than those to the natives, the barriers to which must be broken down by time and perseverance.

How strangely the cruelty of Great Britain, towards the Kaffirs, contrasts with her humanity towards the recaptured Africans of Sierra Leone! In the former case, she robbed the blacks of their possessions, to give lands to her white subjects; in the latter, Cuba and Brazil were deprived of their cargoes of slaves, to build up a colony for herself. But how much stranger, still, does England’s conduct contrast with the policy of American Colonization! Liberia, instead of robbing the Native African of his rights, was founded, expressly, to rescue him from oppression and superstition, and to bestow upon him liberty and the Gospel of Christ.

The Missions in the English Colonies of Recaptured Africans, have been more successful, and are more promising, than either of the two just noticed. The cause of this difference should be considered. The foundations of Sierra Leone were laid, when Africa was literally “the land of the shadow of death.” Its corner stone inclosed the last link of the shackles of slavery in England. Its founder looked forward to the redemption of the land of Ham, as a result of the scheme he had projected. A large majority of the emigrants who founded the Colony, had been trained where Religion was free, and where Liberty was struggling into birth. They had caught something of the spirit of freedom, and wished to realize its blessings. These hopes were blasted; and, in anger, they abandoned the churches they had built, rather than accept religion at the hands of those who had denied them freedom. They failed to discriminate between the unchristian policy of the English government, and the Christian charity of the English Church. The slave-trade was carried on under the flag that brought them the missionary; and they turned coldly away from the man of God, to let him re-embark for his English home, or sink to the grave beneath a tropical sun. Thus did the Gospel fail in its establishment among the emigrants of Sierra Leone. Neither could it succeed among the surrounding natives, while the hunters of slaves kept the tribes in perpetual hostilities. Thus twenty years rolled away, before the traffic 49in human flesh was suppressed; and then, only, could Christianity gain a foothold.

But the gift of equal rights was not included in the gift of the Gospel; and half the stimulants to mental improvement remained unsupplied. The agencies established, however, were not powerless for good. Security was gained for the missionary, and the population could dwell in peace. The Episcopal missionaries were driven into the Colony, to prosecute their labors under its protection. The prejudices engendered by the early collisions with the civil authorities, wore away with the lapse of time. The American fugitives, who had refused the Gospel from the Episcopalians, now accepted it from the Wesleyans. The denial of civil rights to themselves, could not justify their refusal of eternal life for their offspring. The children were gathered once more into the schools, and education commenced. Sierra Leone was made the “city of refuge,” for all who should be rescued from the horrors of the slave-ships; and thus it became a central sun from which the light of the Gospel could radiate to the farthest limits of Africa.

Sierra Leone, as a mission field, is free from some of the most serious difficulties which retard the progress of the Gospel among the Natives and in South Africa. Its chief advantages consist in its freedom from war; in the absence of white Colonists; and in the accumulating progress of civilization. Its inhabitants possess such a unity of races, such a social equality, as to prevent hostile collisions on account of color. Its officers and principal merchants, only, are white; and, hence, fewer occasions arise here than in South Africa, where the black man is made to feel his inferiority to the white. The intellectual improvement of its people has been much more rapid than that of the population in the South African Missions; and, as a consequence, the teachers of the schools and seminaries, in Sierra Leone and its connections, are, mostly, colored men; while few, indeed, of the natives in the Colonies of the Cape, have been able to attain such positions.^[54]

In these facts are we to find the causes of the superiority of the Sierra Leone missions, over those to the Natives and to the South of Africa.

Sierra Leone, however, when contrasted with Liberia, is found to lack some of the essential elements of progress possessed by the Republic. The liberty secured to the citizens of Liberia, extends to all 50their relations, personal, social, political. The people of Sierra Leone, enjoy but two of these elements of progress. They have personal freedom and a fair degree of social equality, but are deprived of the third—political equality—which, above all, exerts the most potent influence to stimulate the intellectual faculties of men. The young convert in the seminary at Sierra Leone, doubtless, finds great encouragement to mental improvement, in the prospect of becoming a teacher, or in entering the ministry; but to the unconverted youth, in the absence of the prospect of political promotion, there is, absolutely, nothing to stimulate to efforts at high attainment in science and literature. Thus the political system of Sierra Leone, supplies but half the elements of progress to its people. Had it been otherwise, had the aspirations of its early emigrants been cherished, and its civil affairs committed mainly to their hands, the Colony might now be in a far more advanced situation. This will be apparent on a fuller contrast of its condition with that of Liberia.

Thirty years after the waves of the Atlantic had closed over the remains of Samuel J. Mills, it was proclaimed from the top of Montserado, that the star of African Nationality, after ages of wandering, had found its orbit in the galaxy of Nations. On that eventful day, a multitude of grateful men, with their wives and little ones, were lifting up their voices in thanksgiving and praise, to their Father in Heaven. Over their heads waved a banner bearing the motto, “The love of liberty brought us here.” The barbarism that excited the pity of Mills and Burgess had disappeared; the superstitions over which they grieved had vanished; a Christian Nation had been born; and the vault of heaven re-echoed to their shouts of joy.

It was thus that the Republic of Liberia was ushered into existence. Sixty years were gone, since the establishment of Sierra Leone. How wide the contrast between its history and that of Liberia! Liberty, at Sierra Leone, had been rudely driven to the “bush.” Its people were held in pupilage, bound by laws not of their own enactment, and governed by officers of a race who had ever claimed the lordship over them. Taught Religion, but deprived of Liberty, the manhood of mind could not be fully developed. Uninstructed in human rights, they now yielded a slavish submission to a distant throne. Not so in Liberia. Here, Liberty and Religion had been rocked together in the same cradle. It was Religion that had given Liberty to the Liberian. He knew nothing of the one unconnected with the other. The Religion that had broken his fetters, was itself free. Religious and political freedom, therefore, was a principle dear to his heart. He spurned the idea, that man must submit to dictation in religion and government; and, from the first, had looked forward to the day, when his country should become a Christian Republic. That day has come, and gone: and there the Liberian stands, a citizen—a Christian; with no law—no restraint—no rule of conduct—but what emanates from himself or his God.

51The Republic stands, pre-eminent, as an auxiliary to missions. Its political system, embraces all the known elements of civil, social, and intellectual advancement; while its citizens are controlled by the preservative element of Christian morals. Its policy makes it but one grand agency for overturning African barbarism. Its advantages over every other scheme are so obvious, that it must be regarded as the model system, to which all others should be conformed; and as the rule by which, alone, missions to Africa must hereafter be conducted.

The conquests of Liberia, over African barbarism, have been legitimate results of the principles involved in her social and civil organization. She offered to the natives an asylum from the merciless slave-catchers: they removed within her limits to enjoy her protection. She employed them in household affairs, agriculture, and the mechanic arts: they were thus incorporated into her social system, attended the Church, and sent their children to school. They wore gri-gris and practiced polygamy: these customs debarred them from political privileges. They offered human sacrifices to their deities, and compelled those suspected of witchcraft to drink a poisonous tea: the laws punished the taking of life, in such modes, with the penalty of death. The surrounding tribes, for their own safety, sought alliances with her: by the terms of the treaties, she has kept them at peace, and prevented the trafficking in slaves.

Thus has Liberia, by offering the natives political equality, induced them to abandon polygamy and superstition; thus has the fear of punishment deterred them from the practice of their murderous cruelties; thus has war been prevented and the slave-trade suppressed within her bounds: and thus has American Colonization solved the great problem of African Redemption.

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