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Yoij. XLYII.] WASHINGTON, JUNE, 1871. [No. 6.

THE OPPORTUNITY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN AFRICA.

The Spirit of Missions for April, the missionary organ of the Protestant Episcopal Church, devotes some twenty pages to an elaborate editorial on “The remarkable condition of our African field.” One at least of the leading Missionary Socie- ties— we said on closing its perusal — is at length alive to the opportunity of Christian Missions in Africa.

Here is the first paragraph of the article, which well indi- cates its nature: “The Church has reached a momentous

epoch in the history of her Missionary enterprise in Africa, and there is every prospect that, if her people prove themselves equal to the occasion, they can make it an era which they may ever look back upon as one of the most glorious in their Mis- sionary annals.”

We have so long insisted that God's set time to favor Zion in Africa has come, that we hail this article with joy. It is our prayer that the Committee for Foreign Missions of the Episcopal Church may fully succeed in arousing their brethren to this “momentous epoch in the history of her Missionary enterprise in Africa.”

We wish to raise the question, Why should not all the Mis- sionary Societies in this country and throughout Christendom turn their attention anew to this work? Every thing now in- dicates easy and rapid progress, where heretofore success has seemed very difficult. We must refer to our pages for the de- monstrations of the proposition, that events in Africa have at length reached the point of great encouragement.

We are thankful for the appreciation of our work in Africa, which we find incidentally scattered through the article in the Spirit of Missions. We think that a direct recognition of our agency there would have been well, but we care less for that

162 THE OPPORTUNITY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. [June,

than for the facts thus set forth, that by some means Ethiopia is stretching “out her hands unto God.” Far be it from us to claim a monopoly of what has been already accomplished on that Coast: the Missionary Societies have done nobly, and re- alized much good. A large company of noble Missionaries has fallen on the field, in undying love for Ethiopia. Let not these truths be forgotten or overlooked in the day which has dawned, and which is sure to grow brighter- and brighter.

We notice that the article already named, upon the author- ity of Bishop Payne and the Rev. Mr. Auer, assumes that white Missionaries have a better prospect of life and health in “ the hilly interior” than has been supposed. President Roye intimates the same thing. And it is well understood that parts of inland Western Africa are not insalubrious; and that all climes improve on occupation in this respect. Let us hope that these expectations may be realized.

In any event it is safe to promote the prevalence of negro Missionaries and of Christian negro families in their father- land. There should be a thousand-fold increase in the efforts in this direction. In emancipation in this country God has given us the materials for Missionaries, to whom the climate is congenial, and untold numbers of Christian families, who are anxious to go and are sure to be useful.

We have spoken of the indirect evidence of the usefulness of our work in Africa, obvious all through the able editorial of the Spirit of Missions , but can only briefly point out a speci- men : “ Liberia” has evidently been the chief instrument under

God, of the great and favorable change in Western Africa. “ The neighborhood of Liberia,” and may we not say, Liberia itself, has been the location of the successful African Mission of the Episcopal Church. The efforts of “ the Liberian Government” in exploring and opening the countries beyond are recognized. The influence of “Liberia College” and its Professors, Blyden especially, are mentioned, and we may add the name of Presi- dent Roberts. It is due to the College and its officers, more than to all other human instrumentalities combined, that the “Mohammedans of the interior” have been sought out and drawn to Liberia.

The Government of Liberia has been more than ever Govern-

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ment was before — one of Christian missionary influence — as witness President Roye’s inaugural address and almost all the State papers for many years. It it true that “the Mission- ary work in behalf of the heathen in Africa may not be left to Liberians. They are a poor people, and it is with difficulty they can support the institutions of religion among them- selves.” God forbid that Christians in this country should leave them alone with this gigantic task. At the same time we must give them credit for having accomplished wonders. They are also rapidly improving in the means of doing good. Who can rightly estimate what God may have in store for these poor children of His in the next fifty years of influence, when in the first half century they have gathered into their Christian nation some six hundred thousand of the natives of Africa?

We devoutly second the appeal of the Spirit of Missions for Western Africa, and as earnestly ask the aid of all in pro- moting our work of building up Liberia. Its importance to Africa, and to the Missionary Societies in their work there, cannot be exaggerated.

THE KORAN-AFRICAN MOHAMMEDANISM.

BY PROFESSOR TAYLER LEWIS, LL. D.

Several months ago the Rev. Hr. Pinney brought to me a manuscript copy of the Koran, written by a Mandingo negro. It commenced abruptly with the XIXth Surat , or chapter, but from thence continued unbroken to the end.

It was very beautifully written, in the large, bold hand that distinguishes the Western style of Arabic writing, and bore quite a strong resemblance to some of the older and more distinct specimens of Arabic chirography given in He Sacy’s Grammar. It had interlined, or rather between each verse, and sometimes between clauses and single words, a running commcntar}", in red ink, and occupying about as much space as the text. • This was made up by brief extracts from the great Koranic commentators, such as Beidhawi and Zamakh- shari. A peculiar feature, however, was the continual recur- rence of very plain grammatical notes, given in the peculiar technics of Arabic grammar, but evidently adapted to young and uninstructed minds. They pointed out sometimes the number of the noun or the object of the verb, and very frequently the meaning of the more learned or less known words. The inference from this was, that it had been transcribed from some

164 THE KORAN — AFRICAN MOHAMMEDANISM. [June,

copy much used in schools. Dr. Pinney thought it had been written from memory. This would seem hardly possible; and yet the wonder is much diminished by what we are told of Mohammedan teachers, some of whom have read and recited the Koran hundreds and even thousands of times. There could be no doubt, however, of its having been written in Libe- ria, in a very rapid manner, and by one removed from aids he might have had in his native home. The very appearance of this curious volume gave evidence of the way in which it had been made up; for it was nothing more, externally, than a coarse folio ledger, like those employed in the custom-house, and furnished to the native scribe for this particular service.

I could not help feeling a wonderful interest in this strange book. It seemed like a stream of light coming from one of the darkest places of the earth, as many in their ignorance have regarded it. This single volume, thus constructed, brought evidence of many other things along with it. It told us of re- ligion. where we had thought tncre existed only. the grossest forms of Fetish idolatry ; for the most orthodox Christian need not hesitate to say that Mohammedanism is religion, pure re- ligion, as far as it goes. The Koran is a very devout book. There appears everywhere in it the Yirath Jehowah, or religion in its pure primary etymological idea, as “ the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Besides its pure monotheistic as- pect, Mohammedanism is eminently a religion of prayer, though lacking the Christian idea of a divine human mediatorship. God, as law-giver, as judge, as an ever-watchful providence, never losing sight of individuals or nations, appears on almost every page of the Koran. It represents him as the executor of a stern retribution, and yet as exhibiting a melting tender- ness, that reminds us of the strong contrasts of the Hebrew prophets. In short, there are to be found in it, most power- fully expressed, those fearful aspects of religion, which give to the more loving attributes of Deity their most precious value, but which seem to be losing their dread conservative force, even in what we call our “ evangelical theology.” The resur- rection, the great and final judgment, the doom of the wicked — it would be difficult to find language stronger than that in which the Koran sets forth these, whilst ever holding up the thoughts of a particular providence, and of a retribution that never slumbers, even in this world. A thing, however, to be especially noted, is the strong contrast it seems fond of present- ing between the present and future life; although its pictures of the latter may be justly blamed as having too much of a sensual aspect. This contrast appears in the very names so oft occuring. The present world is dunya , the near , the mean , the inferior ; it is ajelun, the hastening , transient , swiftly passing

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away ; the life to come (the acherat, or after state) is chuldun , the abiding , the perennial, the eternal.

We may, as Christians, fearlessly admit those excellencies of the Koran, when we call to mind an important, and even essential, distinction between it and other books called sacred, which some are fond of placing in parallelism with the Christian Scriptures. The Koran is a reflection of the Bible; it is grounded on the old Testament Scriptures ; it would never have been, had not Judaism and Christianity been before it. It professes to be a revival of the grand old patriarchal or Abrahamic worship. It might almost be called an apocryphal book of the Bible, ranking among writings which we esteem most valuable or even sacred, and having a reflection, as it were, of the Bible inspiration, though we cannot regard them as canonical, or possessed of the same Christ-sanctioned au- thority. The Koran admits the divine authority of the Scrip- tures, both New and Old. It speaks not only reverently, but tenderly and lovingly, of Jesus, or “ Isa ben Maryam , the “Word of Truth,” as it calls him, (Surat xix, 35;) and it is only in some few places of the latter chapters that there is anything inconsistent with this spirit. Throughout the better part of the book the Kafirs , who are to be forced into truth by the sword, are the unclean and bloody Pagan idolaters.

Belief in Mohammedanism furnishes a more encouraging basis for missionary effort than, can be found among the fol- lowers of the worn-out religions of Brahma, Buddha, and Con- fucius. The very fact that the Koranic religion is sharply controversial is an evidence of its vitality. It has something to contend for, and we ought to esteem it the more highly on that very account. It is better to meet the zealous Islamite in this way than to encounter the meaningless pantheism of the Hindu, who has lately been so much applauded by his fel- low Norlhingarians in England, or the stolid indifference of the Chinese, who says : “Oar Josh, your Josh ; your Josh for you, our Josh for us; all very good Josh.” A contest with a religion that has such a living basis to it, however erroneous or deficient we may esteem it, is all the more hopeful in the end ; and, for his own soul’s health, the missionary might well prefer these Koran-taught Mandingo negroes, as his field of labor, to the conscience-deadened inhabitants of Thibet, China, or Japan.

The contrast between the religions is not greater than that between the books by which they are represented. Take the cold abstractions, the dry mysticism, the thin philosophisms, which are held up to our admiration from the Hindoo books, whatever may be their date, or the poor barren worldliness, which is all that we get from the best selections made from the writings of Confucius; compare them with the glowing

166 THE KORAN — AFRICAN MOHAMMEDANISM. [June,

devotion, the sublime earnestness, the pure, distinct, and lofty theism, of the Koran, and we cease to wonder at the facts of its triumph wherever it met those lifeless creeds. It was not from age alone that they were powerless; but because they never had in them that strong conservative element which dis- tinguishes the Christian, Jewish, and Mohammedan theism; in other words, “ the fear of the Lord,” the a we of a holy, per- sonal, retributive, sin-hating, right-loving God. We thus un- derstand, too, why it is that Mohammedanism has so much vigor at the present day.

The Koran is, indeed, a wonderful book. As a short, yet convincing proof of this, I would refer the reader to an admi- rable article by Prof. Blyden, of Liberia College, in the Janu- ary number of the Methodist Quarterly Review .* It gives a remarkably clear and striking account of African Moham- medanism. Taken in connection with another article on the same subject, and for the same Quarterly , written a number of years ago, by Prof. Dwight, of Brooklyn, it deserves the thorough and respectful study of all Christian scholars. They would make us ashamed, as we ought to be, of that vile preju- dice against the negro which still possesses the minds of so many, even among those who claim to be his friend. A special value, however, of this well-written article of Prof. Blyden (himself a colored manf) is the intelligent and scholarly testi- mony it bears to the literary excellence of the Koran.

Another Mandingo Arabic manuscript, in the style with that of the Koran first mentioned, has been printed from pho- tographic plates, through the liberality of Hon. H. M. Scbieffelin, of New York, and generously sent to persons interested in such studies. It is a letter from the King of Musardu, a town far in the interior, to the President of Liberia, and written by the negro schoolmaster of the place. It possesses a similar inter- est in respect to its chirography, the religious feeling it occasionally exhibits, and its Koranic references. Its frequent blessings and invocations may be as serious, or they may be as formal, as the reciprocal salutations of Boaz and his reapers, Ruth ii, 4; but they indicate what may he called the commu- nal religious interest, stereotyped, it may be into formalism, yet showing an original source once warm with religious zeal, and still preserving a measure of at least social vitality. Another interest of this letter is in the glimpse it gives us of Mandingo literature, as shown by its citations from the Maka- mat , or seances, of Hariri, the most renowned, perhaps, among the choice Arabian classics. — The Independent.

* Republished in the African Repository for May, 1871.

f I am almost ashamed to say this, even in a parenthesis. It has too much the look of a sort of patronizing condescension, or of making a wonder of what should be no wonder at all. There is no such thing as color in the literary world. There are, how- ever, certain readers for whose information it was thought best to let it stand.

1871.]

ARABIC MANUSCRIPT.

167

ARABIC MANUSCRIPT.

WRITTEN “CURRENTS OALAMO,” BY AN AFRICAN MANDINGO.

Through the kindness of Hon. H. Maunsdell Schieffelin, of New York, we are able to furnish our readers with a specimen of this manuscript.

168

VISIT TO SIERRA LEONE.

[June,

From the New York Evangelist.

VISIT TO SIERRA LEONE.

The following sketch of a visit to this English Colony on the West Coast of Africa is from the pen of Prof. E. W. Blyden, of Liberia College. What hopes does it excite for that great dark Continent, which may yet be penetrated by the light of Learning and Beligion ?

Monday , January 9, 1871. — Left the warf at Monrovia for the steamship Calabar. On arriving on board, I found very few passengers, among them Charles Livingstone, Esq., brother of the great traveler, and a Spanish gentleman from Fernando Po. Mr. Livingstone is proceeding to Madeira, to spend the winter there for his health. The Spanish gentleman is going to Teneriffe, to take the steamer there for Cadiz. My seat at the table was assigned me next to the Spaniard. As soon as he found out that I could speak Spanish, he was delighted. He said his tongue was now unsealed. He kept by me con- stantly, telling me about the condition of Fernando Po, where he had been residing as a Government official for thirteen months. We left Monrovia at 111 o’clock j at half past four we were opposite Cape Mount.

Tuesday , January 10. — I awoke this morning a little nauseous, but not sea-sick. Had pleasant weather. At four o’clock in the afternoon saw the Sierra Leone light-house, and at six we anchored. I landed at 6? o’clock, 1 was stopped at the landing by the custom-house officer, who examined my baggage, after which, under the guidance of C. T. O. King, Esq., I went to a house in Westmoreland street, where a number of persons kept coming in to see us until a late hour.

Wednesday , January 11. — This morning called upon the Gov- ernor-in-Chief; was kindly received by his Excellency, and the lately arrived Bishop Cheetham and his lady. The Gov- ernor, Sir Arthur Kennedy, was remarkably polite and kind to me. Both he and the Bishop were very free in conver- sation with me. The Bishop inquired particularly for Prof. Crummell, who he said was at Cambridge with him in 1853, and for whom, when he was in England, he entertained a high regard. After leaving the Governor’s, I called upon Bev. James Quaker, at the Grammar school, of which he is Principal. He invited me to come and spend a week with him. After leaving the Grammar school, I went to the Post-office. On my way thence I met a learned Mandingo, very black, who spoke Arabic fluently. He was quite surprised at my speaking it. He asked me where I learned it. I told him principally from books, but that I had spent three months in the East. He fol-

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lowed me to my rooms, and we had a very interesting time to- gether. He told me that he had himself traveled as far as Egypt and Jerusalem — “ Beni Israel ” as he called the Holy City. He spoke of the Mosque of Omar and the Mosque El-Aksa. After he left, my fame went abroad as an Arabic scholar, (an alleged philological eminence which I sometimes regretted, though in some instances it was of great service to me, and perhaps to the cause of truth.) In the evening a young man of Aku parentage, who spoke Arabic fluently, called upon me. He was born in Sierra Leone, but has traveled in the interior as far as Futa. He sat with me about one hour, conversing and reading Arabic.

Thursday , 12. — To-day called upon the Chief Justice at the Barracks, who received me very courteously. He is a large, burly Englishman. He said he had been in the Colony four j'ears, and had not had one day's illness; that he had ab- stained altogether from the use of brandy, &c.

Friday , 13. — To-day spent most of the day at home, pre- paring to Hecture this evening. At 7 o’clock p. m. a number of gentlemen called to accompany me to the lecture. They sold tickets — price sixpence each. The Court Hall was nearly crowded. I lectured on “Mohammedanism in Western Af- rica.” There were two learned Mohammedans present, and they seemed quite interested, as they understood both the English and my Arabic quotations and recitations from the Koran.

Saturday , 14. — After breakfast I walked out to visit the market, which is unusually full and crowded on Saturdays. I saw hundreds of people from the neighboring villages selling. Soon aften my return home, the Kev. Mr. Micklethwaite, (white,) of the Free Methodist Church, called upon me to invite me to preach. But I could not accept, as I had promised to go to the Cathedral to hear the new Bishop. After Mr. Mickle- thwaite left, Mr. Lumpkin called to thank me for my lecture of the previous evening.

Sunday , 15. — This morning I was invited by Mr. Moses Boyle, who is lately from Europe, and recently married to Miss Pratt, to accompany him and his lady to the Cathedral, and dine with them after service. The Bishop preached an eloquent and earnest sermon from Isaiah LI: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. The Boyles were both brought up in England, and, being wealthy, can afford to indulge those tastes which they acquired abroad. Mrs. Boyle gave us some sacred music after dinner. Everything about their house and bearing reminded me of English families of the middle class. The young people, who are returning from Europe, are forming quite an interesting society here. Some of the Akus are very rich.

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VISIT TO SIERRA LEONE.

[June,

Monday , 16. — This morning I transferred myself and young Warner, my protege, to the Grammar school. I an now com- fortably, or rather congenially, located, with a large library around me and a learned negro to converse with. Mr. Quaker was born in Sierra Leone, of native parents, and educated partly at Fourah Bay, under Rev. E. Jones, and partly in Eng- land. He has been in charge of the Grammar school for twenty years, and has turned out, he informed me, over a thousand scholars. He now has about one hundred pupils — all, with one or two exceptions, pure negroes; and a more or- derly school, and a more intelligent and sprightly set of boys, I never saw.

Tuesday , 17. — Last night I lectured on my travels in Egypt.

About 10 o’clock a. m. I took young H , a Liberian, on

board the Governor’s new yacht, the Sherbro. We were very kindly received on board, and shown all over the vessel by the officer in command. All the wood-work is mahogany. She cost eighteen thousand pounds to build and fit her out, and her yearly expenses are five thousand pounds. She is fitted up with every possible convenience, and even luxury. The officer, having hospitably entertained us, invited us to go ashore in his gig or life-boat; and he accompanied us. We passed a large French ship, on the deck of which we saw a bright-eyed French girl, the captain’s daughter. Her father was not on board. But the officer in our boat wanted to leave a message with her for her father. He could not speak a word of French, aud she could not understand a word of English. They tried for some time to make each other understand. At length the officer turned to me in his dilemma and said, “Ho you speak French?” I then came to the rescue, and helped both him and the young lady.

Wednesday , 18. — Last night I went to tea with the family of Rev. Mr. Smith, where I met two white Methodist ministers, young men fresh from the schools in England. The evening was spent in theological discussions — not polemically, but phil- ologically. This morning after breakfast I walked out for exercise, and met a tall, portly Mandingo, with flowing robe of spotless white, followed by a train of carriers, bearing hides. I went up and saluted him in Arabic. He looked at me with an air of surprise, and for a few seconds made me no reply. I addressed him again. He asked, “ Where did you learn Arabic?” I told him. I asked him where he was from ? He replied Timbuctu (Timbuctoo). I asked him if he knew Kan- kan, and Musardu,and Madina. He says yes — that he some- times went to Musardu to trade; and he pointed to persons among his followers from different towns in the interior.

On my return home, took luncheon; after which, accom-

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panied by Mr. Quaker, I took a boat and went down to Fou- rah Bay to visit the College. The building is large and com- modious. fully as large as any college building I have seen in England or America. We walked back to Freetown, and on our way we passed through the Mohammedan town, where I was introduced to the priest or Imam. He was surrounded with manuscripts. He received me with great dignity. I introduced a conversation in Arabic. And he replied and spoke, to my surprise, of letters and the news of the day. A crowd gathered around, and as I spoke they seemed quite pleased, and gave loud assent to some of my remarks when- ever they understood them. After we left the town, Quaker said to me that he believed God had prepared me for a work at Sierra Leone in connection with Fourah Bay College, to train the young men for work among the Mohammedans. He said I had no proper field in Liberia just now; that at Fourah Bay I could be training teachers and ministers to go into all parts of Africa. He and several of the native clergymen are anxious that I should come up here. I think myself that up here the field in which I might labor is more immediate and pressing; and then here I should be surrounded by co-laborers who are interested in the up-building of the race.

On returning from the Mohammedan town we visited the Girls’ Institution, a splendid building. It is under the con- trol of a very intelligent and energetic English lady, Miss Thomas. She has forty-nine girls, all natives, of whom only ten are day scholars — the rest board in tbe Institution. We left the girls’ school about five, and I had to hasten home to prepare to go to a dinner given for me by Mr. Douglas, a West Indian negro, who desired to do me honor. It was 10 o’clock, when I got away from the dinner. Bev. Mr. Duport, of the Pongas Mission, also a West Indian, presided.

Friday , 20. — This morning I went to the Grammar school to address the boys. There were ninety odd present. I made an address to them of about twenty minutes. Mr. Quaker conducted the religious exercises. He prayed fervently that God would open the way for me to come to Fourah Bay, and after my address he told the boys that it was probable I would come up to Fourah Bay as professor of Oriental languages. They all seemed quite pleased at the idea. At 11 o’clock I called upon the Governor to bid him good-bye. He said he regretted he had not been able to see more of me while in the colony. He' entered into a long discussion about Mohamme- danism.

At five o’clock I left the house for the steamer. I was at- tended by Bev. Messrs. Quaker and J. C. Taylor, of the Niger. We weighed anchor about 2 o’clock on Saturday morning, and arrived at Monrovia Sunday morning at 7 o’clock.

172

LIBERIA AS I SAW IT.

[June,

LIBERIA AS I SAW IT.

Such is the title of a lecture lately delivered with much ac- ceptance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by Edward S. Morris, Esq., an active young Christian gentleman and devoted friend of Africa, residing in that city. We give a few extracts:

I said to myself, Go to Africa; see it with your own eyes; report it with your own heart ; and, trusting in our Heavenly Father’s care, I went — not, however, for fame or riches, but from the two-fold wish to assist in the elevation of an unfor- tunate race, and the development of the agricultural, manu- facturing, and mercantile resources of Liberia. I respectfully ask your attention, then, to Liberia, as the colored man’s natural and peaceful home; Liberia, as one of the recoguized Christian nations of the earth; Liberia, as an inviting field for every merchant; Liberia, as the golden gate to the interior of Africa — the ripe field for Christian missions.

Where is Liberia? What is she to-day, and what of her future ? Liberia is located on the West Coast of Africa, having an ocean front of some six hundred miles. This territory has been purchased in more than twenty different treaties, and, after the manner of Wm. Penn, without compulsion from the natives. New acquisitions are made continually, and I ven- ture to assert, that the child is now living who will hear and talk about the United States of Africa. Liberia is a fixed nationality, a complete and independent sovereignty of ne- groes, and a success.

On my leaving that country, homeward bound, the late Abra- ham Hanson, Esq., American Minister Kesident at Monrovia, placed in my hands a letter, from which the following is taken :

“When 3'ou reach the United States, and begin to narrate to the people of color your experience and observations in Li- beria, tell them, if you please, for me, that it is not in words to set forth adequately all the peculiar advantages and blessings of this good land. Ask them to read Deuteronomy viii. 7-10, as bearing, at least, a general application to this luxuriant heritage.” I will read them: “For the Lord bringeth thee

into a good land — a land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and hills — a land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig-trees and pomegranates — a land of oil-olive and honey — a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness ; thou shalt not lack anything in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.”

The population of Liberia, including the aboriginal inhabit- ants, is about six hundred thousand, including thousands of natives who have become civilized and enlightened, and who are enjoying the blessings of cultivated life, under a govern-

1871.]

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ment of their own, with the English Bible in their hands and schools, and speaking the English language. In a message to the Liberian Legislature, President Warner said: “There are in these forests men of royal blood, and with minds susceptible of the most exalted ideas of systematic and well-balanced government ; and by a proper appreciation of them, they could be made to sustain to us a much nearer and dearer relation than that of mere contributors to our treasury. No desire to exterminate these people and aggrandize their territory brought us here. They are our brethren — deluded though they often appear; and our Constitution expressly declares, that their improvement is a cherished object of this Govern- ment. They are willing to assist us, and when they shall have been convinced that the civilization, of which the Republic is the nucleus, must spread far and wide over this continent, en- lightening and refining its inhabitants, and raising them in the scale of being; that it is a work designed by the Almighty Himself, and cannot be stayed, I am sure they will become willing co-adjutors.”

In my daiiy intercourse with the Americo-Liberians, I found such an amount of intelligence and refinement as to make me forgetful of all difference of color. Liberia has its roll of states- men, orators, poets, and scholars. At Monrovia, I dined with a citizen of Liberia — a gentleman in its broadest sense — a man as dark in color as a coal-mine, with woolly hair, flat nose, and thick lips. This man, my respected hearers, is a teacher of the Arabic language, and a superior Hebrew, Latin, and Greek scholar. Never shall I forget the sweet Sabbath morn when I sat in his church at Monrovia, and saw him baptize his own child, and heard him with powerful, convincing elo- quence, preach an appropriate sermon.

“Liberia as 1 saw it.” How did I see it, and how do I yet see it ? In this way Liberia will fulfill her mission in its broad- est sense; I say in its broadest sense ! Is it in the develop- ment of the rich treasures of her soil ? No. Is it in the value of her great timber forests? No. Is it in her growing com- merce ? No. Is it in the absorption of the mighty hosts of human beings now engaged in worshiping “gods many, and lords many?” Yes. And what will that absorption produce? Let the freedmen of our southern States answer that question, and at the same time receive my dearest thought, as I whisper to them, “Return to Africa, as the dove to the ark, bearing the evergreen of peace, telling of the good tidings of great joy to all her people, the sign whereof being of Him who was found wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.” I look upon every school-house in our South as so many recruit- ing agents, and every Bible class as the growing olive branch, which is to give peace to a troubled continent.

174 REMARKABLE CONDITION OF OUR AFRICAN FIELD. [June,

REMARKABLE CONDITION OF OUR AFRICAN FIELD.

Oar Church began her missionary work in Africa, of neces- sity, upon the coast. It was then the only part of the country accessible. For years her Missionaries have labored there under peculiar hindrances, and discouragements. The con- tributions of the Church at home have been meagre. The number of white Missionaries in the field has not averaged more than two. The natives whom the Missionaries have been able to reach have been those who were exposed to the cor- rupting influences of evil-disposed adventurers ; and, above all, the miasmatic influences arising from a humid atmosphere, a high temperature, and a rank vegetation, ha^e prostrated the energies of the Missionary force, and thinned their ranks by death.

What the friends of African Missions have long prayed for has been a field for operation free from these peculiar hindrances. The high interior country has been the land of their hopes. The farthest point hitherto occupied is Bolden Station, a high point on the upper waters of the Cavalla river. Want of men has prevented the missionary work there from being pushed as the opening demanded. It is hoped that the facts which are now to be presented will awaken such an interest in Af- rica, as will enable the Committee not only to press this cher- ished enterprise, but to begin others in the high land farther interior, which until recently has been a terra incognita , but is now in the providence of God, who always rewards the spirit which works while it waits, thrown open to our Church.

This opening is sojlarge and free, and it is presented under cir- cumstances of such extraordinary interest, that the Foreign Committee, after deep consideration, are resolved to enter it and begin a vigorous effort there, unless it shall prove that the policy of the Church is to be one of retreat and languor, and that they appeal in vain for money and men for this great work.

But why should not such a remarkable condition of affairs as is presented stir our Church to the depth of her being, kindle a universal enthusiasm, and bow the hearts of her peo- ple, as the heart of one man, in gratitude to God that it has pleased Him to favor His Church with such an opportunity, and in prayer that His people may have strength and power to use it rightly ?

Spread out before the Church is a country of considerable elevation, comparative salubrity, and exceeding beauty, diver- sified with hills and valleys, rich in its mineral and agricultural products, irrigated, says one traveler, by beautiful streams of water, which would apparently give life to the dead by their exhilarating coolness and purity.

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The tribes of this interior region are larger than those upon the coast, and exercise their power and influence over corres- ponding areas of county, an important fact in view of Mis- sionary enterprise. They are free to a degree from the petty jealousies and rivalries which characterize the smaller tribes bordering the Atlantic and prevent free travel and extended intercourse.

Its inhabitants are people of manly presence, full of enter- prise and intelligence, bent on bettering their condition, and ready to receive improvement from any source — from Moham- medanism on the East, or from Christianity on the West.

And now, to the shame of the Christian Church, there is a probability that the Crescent, and not the Cross, will be planted upon the Coast of Western Africa. — Spirit of Missions for April.

GREAT OPENINGS PRESENTED.

The following earnest letter from the Eev. Alexander Crum- mell is kindly permitted to be published by the Eev. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, to whom it was addressed:

Caldwell, Liberia, January 12, 1871.

Eev. and Dear Sir: I write to inform you that our School House is so far completed that I commenced keeping school in it at the beginning of this year. Our term began on the 9th inst., with thirty-one children in attendance. Our whole num- ber is forty-nine. The building is one hundred and seventy- six feet wide, and twenty-two feet long, and will comfortably seat eighty children. The first floor is nine feet from the ground. Over the school-room I have a fine large room, divided into two apartments, which I have appropriated to the use of my students. I have six youths studying with me, preparatory to duty as teachers and ministers, and I expect several more. Whenever a young man of piety comes to me, anxious to serve God as a catechist or preacher, 1 put him to work on the farm, and trust in God for his expenses. This room is of great use to me as a lodging and study department ; and I hope that for years to come, we may be able to send forth from it many youth to preach the glad tidings. The front of the building is not yet completed. Two pillars are to be put up, which will give us a fine portico, and add adornment and beauty to the house. I am unable to plaster it, funds not holding out.

I wish I could tell you of greater results from my labors than those I have met with. My services are well attended, and much interest is exhibited in Bible-class and prayer-meet- ings. I thank God for three marked cases of conversion during the past year: one a Liberian, who in a calm, quit, unemo-

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[June,

tional manner, came to me, declaring himself fully resolved to serve Christ, and asked to be received to the Holy Communion. Another was a Congo boy, for many years a Sunday-school scholar in my school. In his dying moments he sent for me to baptize him, and most distinctly renounced heathenism and confessed Christ. The third was a heathen man, with whom I have been long laboring. All of a sudden the truth seemed to enter his soul ; and he asked to be baptized, and brought his two children forward at the same time. I know well that you regard the great work of conversion as a commanding feature of the ministry; and hence I feel that the story of the humblest heathen and his salvation will not be uninteresting to you.

I am sorry to say that our work in Liberia is, just now, somewhat unprogressing; and chiefly through the lack of means. Cannot the friends of missions do something to strengthen our hands in our warfare against heathenism in this land ? It is nothing but plain, literal fact, that our natives all through the country have learned so much of Christianity of us, that now they are anxious for schools, and teachers, and ministers. This anxiety is not a matter of mere words. Heathen chiefs have actually built mission houses, which stand waiting for teachers. But we have not the money to support the men. Then, the work in Africa cannot be carried on with- out trained men, African young men, used to the soil ; and these we cannot get the means to support. I have six students, good, earnest youths, anxious to prepare for duty. I feel that I cannot sit down in my house, preaching only once or twice a week. I must prepare men for the future; but I need some aid to carry on this branch of the work, for there is a personal, bodily fitness necessary for the true minister with regard to dress, habits, neatness, cleanliness, and order, as well as to the mental and spiritual, and all this requires means.

Please excuse my Seeming importunity ; but if, in your dis- bursements this year, you can undertake the support of two or three of these youth, I shall be more than thankful. It will take a great load from my heart and give a little more ease and lightness to myT life; and, what is of greater importance, help to prepare laborers for the vineyard. My students are not mere book-worms; they are praying youths and young evangelists. Once a week they go forth into the villages around, and tell the natives the story of salvation. Great openings for the entrance of the Gospel are being offered us. Our Govern- ment has just effected an alliance with a very powerful and somewhat cultivated people, about one hundred and fifty miles in the interior. A good road is being opened, and block-houses

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erected at convenient distances on the route. The superiority of the people, the Barline people, is evinced in their agricul- tural habits; their manufacturing capabilities; their semi- weekly markets, assembling two or three thousand people; and the surrounding of their capital by a stone wall.

How desirable that this place should be occupied at an early day by capable men, and a strong mission established there. If our missions can only be strengthened and Liberia be sus- tained, the country will yet prove one of the greatest instru- ments in God’s hands for the regeneration and civilization of Western Africa. Liberia is poor, but poor as she is, she has a powerful interior influence. The natives prefer alliance and affiliation with us to any close connection with foreign Gov- ernments. Their desire here is to fraternize with us, and our opportunities would be almost unlimited, if we only had strength and means.

I have written more than I intended, but the subject is a dear one to me. I am, with affection and gratitude, your faithful and obliged servant, Alex. Crummell.

REINFORCEMENT FOR THE GABOON AND CORISCO MISSION.

We are sure it will gladden many hearts to know that these two Missions in Equatorial Africa, now united in one, have been strengthened by the return of Mr. and Mrs. Busknell to their beloved work, and by Rev. Samuel L. Gillespie, Rev. Messrs. Kops and Murphy, and their wives and Miss Boughton. Six of this company left Hew York April 12th, for Liverpool, where they will take a steamer direct for Gaboon. Mr. Gil- lespie was a student in Princeton Theological Seminary, and; Messrs. Kops and Murphy received their theological training; at Chicago. Many have become interested in this joint mission, by their gifts to the training school, and for the purchase of a boat. These are helps to the work, and in the orderings of Providence may and will do much for the good of the cause. Let gifts ever be accompanied and followed by prayers,. that agencies may be vitalized, and agents blessed in their evangel- istic efforts. As every worker draws after him friends and sympathy, and zeal and purpose to aid and encourage him, may these be many and strong for those who have gone and for those who are toiling in Equatorial Africa. — The Foreign Missionary.

From the Interior.

COLONIZATION IN ILLINOIS.

Rev. George S. Inglis, District Secretary for Illinois of the American Colonization Society, was in Chicago several months ago, designing at that time to present to our churches the

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[June,

strong claims of the cause he is engaged in advocating. Cir- cumstances, at the visit referred to, led to the postponement of his proposed work till the present time. He is now here to prosecute it, and we take pleasure in publishing the joint let- ter recommending him and his work, given to him on his former visit. \V e publish the paper as it was given, though one of the signers, Dr. Lord, ha3 resigned the position then held by him in the Seminary :

The undersigned, Professors in the Theological Seminary of the Northwest, cordially commend the Eev. Mr. Inglis, and his work on behalf of African colonization and education, to the Christian courtesy and co-operation of the ministers and churches of our city. Mr. Inglis has been long known and approved in the service of the Church, and is now devoting himself to the above-named specialty. The present relations and aspects of this work are new and deeply interesting, and justly claim the thoughtful and practical regard of all patriotic and Christian men. Willis Lord, Prof. Didactic and Polem. Theology; Charles Elliott, Prof. Bib. Lit. and Exegesis; Wm. M. Blackburn, Prof. Ch. History; L. J. Halsey, Prof. Pastoral Theol. and Ch. Government.

From the Missouri Republican.

COLONIZATION MEETING AT ST. LOUIS.

A public meeting was held on Sunday evening. May 14, in the Second Presbyterian Church, Seventeenth street and Lucas place, St. Louis, to take into consideration the subject of Afri- can Colonization. There was a good attendance. Bev. Dr. Niccolls, pastor of the church, presided, and the meeting was opened with devotional exercises.

The president said that the object of assembling that even- ing was to hear some statement of the work and interest of the American Colonization Society, a Christian society that has been in existence more than half a century, and during that time had commanded the sympathy and co-operation of some of the noblest spirits of our land. During the last few years there had been no formal presentation of the affairs of the Society, and perhaps it might have dropped out of their notice. It might also be supposed that the ends and objects of the Society were no longer in use after changes that had taken place in this country. That view, however, came from a very partial understanding of the objects of the Society, which depended more on the condition of the colored people on the African continent than in this. He introduced one of the Secretaries of the American Colonization Society — the Rev. Dr. Orcutt, of New York.

1871.] COLONIZATION MEETING AT ST. LOUIS. 179

Rev. Dr. Orcutt said that twenty-one years ago he com- menced officially to advocate, in his humble way, the work of the Society in the interests of which they were met. The American Colonization Society was organized in the city of Washington, in 1816. Its leading object, as stated by an article of the Constitution, was to colonize, with their own con- sent, the free colored people of the United States on the conti- nent of Africa. The first colonists, eighty or more in number, sailed from New York fifty-one years ago last February, in the ship Elizabeth. Every year since the Society has transported a greater or less number of colored people of the United States to the land of their fathers. Not a year passed, during even the dark periods of our late war, when the Society did not take some applicants to their fatherland, their adopted home. They had sent out altogether, including re-captives sent by the Government, about 20,000, and had never taken as many in a sin- gle period, save once, as during the last four years. During the last five years they have colonized almost twenty-six hundred, and they had not taken one-eight of the number that desired to go. A quarter part at least of those who were sent were members of Christian churches. It was most interesting to note, under God’s providence, that more children of Africa had been brought into His visible Church in America, than there were converts in all the missions to the whole heathen world. Thus they were prepared for usefulness.

There were two aspects alone in this cause which controlled his judgment in its behalf. The first was, that it gave nation- ality to the colored race, and Christian civilization to the Afri- can continent. Liberia now numbered more than half a million, including its aborigines brought in by the purchase of the land. It had fifty or sixty churches, as well as asylums for the needy, and a College, with its thirty-two students, at the head of which was that noble man, who had received the respect of the civil- ized world, J. J. Roberts, who, more than forty years ago, sailed from Virginia. The speaker read an extraet from a letter of Mr. Roberts, in which it was stated that one of the native chiefs had asked that his son might be educated at the College, but he had no scholarship in which to place him. On showing that letter to some gentlemen, the speaker had re- ceived funds sufficient to support the youth at College for a year. He asked his hearers to remember these things, and to think of the instrument God had used to redeem the continent so long in heathenish darkness.

The president introduced Rev. Dr. Samson, of Washington, D. C. After some introductory remarks Dr. Samson said that whatever might be our view of our relation to the colored people, we must try to harmonize our American interests and

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the interest of humanity. He might say that in the emanci- pation that had occurred a noble spirit had been exhibited in our country. Where did they find anything than the most perfect acquiescence that this people are free. He had no doubt there were more masters that felt relieved, he was going to say, than servants. And having been relieved in so noble a spirit, what was our duty in their present relations ? Of course the people of the South felt that there is the greatest importance in their being educated, and in their receiving a moral and re- ligious education; for if they could place no dependence on them in the spring or in the heat of summer or in harvest-time, they would be losers. He had lived in that center, to which reference had been made, for the last thirty years, and he could say that the people were unanimously of the opinion that those who remain with us have to be advanced to the utmost of their capacity. The accumulations of property made by free colored people in Charleston, Petersburg, and other places, before the war, proved that we had not entirely neglected our duty. He believed that our principal attention should be turned to the native country of the colored people. The speaker proceeded in eloquent terms to speak of the tendency of ancient and modern colonization, saying that this had been one great cause of the advancement of mankind. Colonies always develop the people who enter them. The Homan colonies were her greatest glory. It was not the little company that occupied Rome that made the Latin name and the Latin tongue. Who could not feel that the whole of Europe was to be developed on the shores of our land? It was impossible, except in Eng- land, to break up the cast-iron system of civil and ecclesiastical despotism. When those nationalities were developed in this country, the reaction would be felt in every one of those lands. Who doubted but that the action of the Anglo-Saxons in this country reacted on the land of our fathers? It was on this account that Miall now advocated in the English Parliament the separation of Church and State. After speaking of the effect of the reaction on Germany and France, he detailed the great efforts England had been making to strengthen her position in Africa, not only by sending travelers like Living- stone and Baker, but by military conquest. In reply to the argu- ment that colored people were in demand for industrial occupations here, he said that there was also a demand for them in Liberia, and resolutions had been introduced in the Legislature to that effect. There might be selfish interests at stake when they talked of the demand here for African labor, but should they forget his interest? What is to be his future history as a laborer? The Chinese are pouring in; the French will be pouring into the South ; and what will become of the

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Africans, who cannot compete with them. It is not the idle and unenterprising who ask their passage to Liberia in our ships. It is the men who have a future, and want a national- ity; who want to pass to a land where they can be men and women. There were exceptions, but his heart had been stirred during the last five years more than it had been ever before, as he had talked to these people on the subject; and he knew that some who had gone had grown to be princes and judges in their fatherland.

Eev. Dr. Burrows, of Richmond, Virginia, also spoke in favor of assisting such colored people as desired to go to Africa.

CONNECTICUT COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

Sunday evening, May 8, a united Congregational service was held in the North Church, New Haven, Connecticut, the sub- ject being African Colonization. The meeting was opened by Rev. Mr. Todd with prayer and reading of the Scriptures. President Woolsey presided, and in a brief introductory address said that the principal hope of Africa was in the Colonization of Christian colored men there, and that all Christian denomi- nations were interested in the work.

Rev. D. C. Haynes, District Secretary of the American Colo- nization Society, was introduced, and made an elaborate presen- tation of the principles and success of the Society he represented. He said that he was glad to announce that the work of African Colonization had passed from the sphere of theory and argu- ment to the sphere of fact, and that he was especially anxious in the remarks he made to transfer to the minds of those pres- ent these facts. Connecticut has had for many years an Aux- iliary Colonization Society, having its officers, patrons, and supporters among her educators, philanthropists, clergymen, and other leading citizens. The State has been very useful through this Auxiliary Society. There are eight of these Auxil- iary Societies, of which the Presidents are as follows: In Ohio the President is the venerable Bishop Mcllvaine, who has recentty delivered a most eloquent discourse upon this subject. The President of the Pennsylvania Society is Eli K. Price, Esq., beloved and distinguished in his State ; the New Jersey Society has Rev. Dr. Maclean, ex-President of Princeton College; of the New York Society, Samuel F. B. Morse, of telegraphic fame; of Connecticut, the chairman of this meeting, of whom I need not speak; of the Massachusetts, ex-Governor Emory Wash- burn, who now stands at the head of the Harvard Law School; of the Vermont Society, Daniel Baldwin, Esq.; and of the Rhode Island Society, Alexis Caswell, D. D.

The Parent Society has been at work for more than half a

182 CONNECTICUT COLONIZATION SOCIETY. [June,

century, by the aid of similar men, without distinction of denomination or party, from Judge Washington to Daniel Webster, and from Henry Clay to Edward Everett and Abra- ham Lincoln, with large numbers of clergymen and equally re- spectable men. And now, after fifty-three years, an exigency has arisen, demanding not only a continuance, but an increase of these efforts. It is in reference to that increase that I have commenced the work. If the people of New England do not aid in this exigency, then I have mistaken their character.

Let me speak of the fundamental idea of the Society and its auxiliaries from the first until now. Briefly expressed, it is to construct in Africa a Christian, republican nation of Afri- cans and their descendants, wickedly enslaved in this country, and thus to secure some compensation for Africa and her sons for their wrongs, received from the whole Christian world in the former slave-trade. There enters into this idea the free- dom of as many as possible of the slaves, and their education, elevation here and in Africa, and the ultimate spreading of this Christian nation in Africa. Mr. Everett once said that he believed that Liberia had done as much for Africa as Plymouth did for this continent.

This idea is traceable to its origin and to the present grand result, with its splendid promise in the future. Rev. Drs. Hop- kins and Stiles, at Newport, R. I., are the fathers of it. Dr. Stiles did not come earnestly and cordially into it as early as Dr. Hopkins did, but he was an earnest coadjutor of Dr. Hopkins. Rhode Island was a slave mart, and Dr. Hopkins was obliged to see ships fitted out with New-England rum and sent to Africa, to return with the sons of Africa to be scattered over the continent. What wonder is it, then, that he set himself to devise some remedy that was to return as many of these poor people to their own land as possible. Dr. Hopkins and others worked on this idea till they passed away. Rev. Dr. Finley, of New Jersey, and Samuel J. Mills, of Massachusetts, were among the active founders of the American Colonization Society. Dr. Finley made it his especial business to get together enough men to form a society. Mr. Mills was a graduate of Williams College, and was the first missionary agent to Africa sent by the Colonization Society. It is true that things have been said by adherents of the Society as well as others as to other objects; but the leaders and managers of the Societies have never departed from this original idea. The African Reposi- tory has been published forty-seven years, and it, as a history of the work, fully justifies this position. I have studied the thing quite enough to see that it has no complicity with anything except the idea I have described.

Aud now what has been accomplished by the Society? In

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the settlement of this question I cannot go into several things; you must take into account the field to be occupied, and the mis- sionaries— nearly all ex-slaves — to be sent. Many scouted the idea that such people could be depended upon, and many presumed they would go back to barbarism. They have been disappointed. The speaker read from an article in the Spirit of Missions for April, speaking of the character of the African mission and the wonderful opening there. It also spoke of the fact that white missionaries cannot live in Western Africa. Continuing, the speaker said, this has been the experience of nearly all the missionaries. A class mate of mine was sent out and died. The Methodist Board sent Rev. Melville B. Cox. He was told that it was in vain for him to go, but he went, and died in a few months. His dying words were: “Do not give up the mission though a thousand die and there lay there thirteen of the thousand. The colored missionaries can live and work there. The American Board has sent twenty-seven to labor there, and half of them have died, and with two or three exceptions the rest came home. Rev. Dr. Anderson said that if Africa was to be redeemed, it must be by her own sons.

What are the facts in regard to the enterprise in Liberia. There is a Christian Republic there of six hundred thousand people. The great mass of them are natives, who came in at the invitation of the immigrants to get the benefit of the schools, churches, and government. The country has a stable and dig- nified Government, with a President elected by the people — a Government respectable and acknowledged among the sister- hood of nations, by eighteen of them, including our own The old buildings are giving place to those of brick and stone. They have a system of common schools like our own.

We have relied upon the colored Christian families as the in- struments of the work in Africa. It is said why don’t you send white people. In the first place, the physical difficulty is in the way. If a man has any quantity of African blood in him, it will help him; but, if the blood is pure, as it generally is in the parties we send, they are as healthy almost as the na- tives themselves. The facts of fifty years prove this. I need not tell you why we send Christian families. They surpass in charity and Christian love our own people, and equal ours in faith and hope. We have not failed in any year for fifty years to send some people. In no year have less than twenty-one persons been sent, and one year the number was seven hun- dred and eighty-three. The average has been three hundred, and the basis of these families have been Christians. They have been able to live in the climate, and have been hailed with joy by the natives.

What has been the result in an educational and secular point

184 COLONIZATION MEETINGS IN NEW YORK. [Janer

of view? Think of a civilized nation in Africa now building its ships and exporting its goods! Think of a College in Libe- ria, with an able President and three learned Professors, one of them being a native Liberian! *We ought to have $100,000 a year to educate men in that College. Then think of the purely missionary and Christian work. There are congrega- tions of seven denominations, and new churches are going up. Say what we will, Liberia is a fact — Liberia, with its flag float- ing in the air, with a Christian President, with a Legislature and governmental officers — Liberia, a democratic nation, is a fact which no man could put aside.

I desire to make one other point: that is, the relation of this cause to our colored people. It is here that much difficulty has arisen in former times and arises now. It is obvious, from what has been said, that it is not our plan to remove the col- ored people from this country as a whole, but to help those who want to go, and do it successfully. It was not contem- plated to take them all, but only those who want to go; not to hold up the enterprise as a thing for all, but as a grand thing for them and their fatherland. We have got to do something for these four millions of people. The question occurs, do any of them wish to go? We have no agent in the South to induce them to go. We have not had an agent there since the war, yet since emancipation 2,600 promising people have been sent. General Howard said they were the cream of the colored race. These are not one-eighth of the applicants. We have now two thousand applicants. Last winter, at Washington, while the Society held its anniversary, there came in three distinct lists asking for a passage for five hundred persons. There has been organized in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, without the knowledge of the Society, a Freedmen’s Aid Society, which has issued an appeal for help to send freed men to Africa. The speaker referred to the reason why they desired to go. It was on account of the suffering and insults they had to bear here on account of their color. He also spoke of the objection that was made to the aiding away of the colored people, because it took laborers out of the country. He replied by saying that Africa needed the skill of these laborers, and America could spare them.

Rev. Hr. Bacon, owing to the lateness of the hour, spoke but a few minutes, and the meeting then closed by singing the Missionary Hymn.

COLONIZATION MEETINGS IN NEW YORK.

A public meeting was held in the West Presbyterian church, New York city, (Rev. Hr. Hastings, Pastor) on Sunday even-

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ing, April 10, in the interest of the American Colonization Society, which was eloquently addressed by Rev. H. D. Ganse, Rev. Joel Parker, D. D., Rev. Mr. McEckron, and Rev. Dr- Hastings.

A similar meeting was held in the South Congregational Church, Brooklyn, (Rev. Dr. H. M. Storrs, Pastor) on Sunday evening April 17, at which addresses were made by Rev. Zach- ary Eddy, D. D. and Rev. Dr. Orcutt. Prof. Eaton, of the Packer Institute, presided on the occasion, and in some well-chosen words most heartily indorsed and commended the cause to the confidence and support of the Christian public.

ENDOWMENT OF LIBERIA COLLEGE.

The Trustees of Donations for Education in Liberia were incorporated by an Act of the Legislature of Massachusetts, approved March 19, 1850. The College itself was established and its Trustees incorporated by an Act of the Legislature of Liberia, approved December 24, 1851. It is a national institu- tion, and the faith of the Republic is pledged to give it all the aid and protection which that infant nation is able to afford.

Having obtained the amount of funds necessary to make a beginning, and having overcome many obstacles arising from the state of affairs in Africa, the Trustees of Donations have, in co-operation with the Trustees of the College, erected suita- ble college buildings, sufficient for the probable wants of the institution for many years to come; have collected a library of several thousand volumes, with a permanent fund of six thousand dollars for its increase; have procured valuable cabi- nets and apparatus for instruction in the physical sciences ; have appointed a President, the Hon. J. J. Roberts, (formerly President of the Republic,) and three professors, all of African descent and competent to their respective duties; have opened the College for the reception of students, and have conducted four classes through their collegiate course. A Preparatory Department has been added and sustained by successive ap- propriations of the Legislature of Liberia, aided to a small amount by the Trustees of Donations. A graduate of the College is now its Principal. The whole number of students is now about thirty-five. The services of the graduates, and

186 REJOICED IN A NEGRO CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC. [June,

even the under-graduates, are eagerly sought for various posi- tions of public and commercial life. Native chiefs are already seeking admission for their sons.

An endowment of fifty thousand dollars would enable the Trustees, with the strictest economy, to sustain the College with its present means of accommodation and instruction. Towards this amount, one subscription of twenty thousand dollars has been pledged. Subscriptions and donations suffi- cient at least to complete the sum are earnestly solicited.

Donations may be remitted to the Treasurer, Charles E. Stevens, Esq., Boston and Albany Railroad Office, 40 State Street, Boston, or to either of the Trustees.

Albert Fearing, President; Emory Washburn, Abner King- man, Charles E. Stevens, Joseph S. Ropes, James P. Melledge, Benjamin T. Reed, Trustees; Joseph Tracy, Secretary.

Professor Peabody, of Harvard College, the Rev. Drs. Blag- den, Gannett, Robbins and Kirk, Pastors of prominent Churches in Boston, Rev. Dr. Anderson, late Foreign Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the Rt. Rev. Dr. Eastburn, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Massachusetts, give testimony in favor of this College.

REJOICED IN A NEGRO CHRISTIAN REPUBLIC.

This is the worthy sentiment of “ a genuine negro ” and “ an ardent lover” of Africa, residing in one of our New England States. Presuming that the letter was not intended for pub- lication, we withhold the place and name of the writer:

“Much am I rejoiced to find Liberia prospering and advanc- ing in all that constitutes a nation’s true welfare. I rejoice that in my fatherland there is a negro Christian Republic. Being a genuine negro myself, and an ardent lover of “Meinen geliebt Vaterland,” I have none of that silly prejudice which so many persons with African blood in their veins are some- times so foolish as to exhibit. My race can never disgrace me, though it is possible for me to disgrace it. I have some- times been ashamed of myself, but never of my race. I hope in a few years to return to the land de mes aieux. As a Chris- tian I shall go. There will soon be in Liberia a literature of

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the same kind and stamp as that in this .Republic; and ne- groes and “merafs” will have no cause, if they are manly and womanly, to repudiate their race. Indeed, they have none as it is. A combination of circumstances have prevented, or I should have been in Liberia long ere this.”

LIBERIA IS A GOOD COUNTRY.

So writes the Rev. Isaac Hall, formerly of Eufaula, Ala., a passenger by the “Golconda” in the spring of 1868. We are glad to hear from him, and to make public his unsought opinion of Liberia. Fortsville is so named in honor of the worthy leader of the company of which Mr. Hall was a member:

“ Fortsville, Grand Bassa Co., Liberia,

“ December 14, 1870.

“Dear Sir: My desire is to let you know how we are getting along. All my family are enjoying very good health. Our new settlement is improving very fast. Our soil is rich, and the water is pure and healthy. We have very fine crops of corn, rice, peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, cassada, &c. I have also raised sugar-cane and made my own sirup.

“I must mention that Liberia is a good country, and that it is the home for the children of Africa. Give my best respects to Bishop Wayman, and to Rev. Brothers Turner, Weaver, Tanner, and the members of the Annual Conferences of the African Methodist E. Church, and beg them to remember me continually in their prayers to God, that He will enable me to do much good in enlightening the heathen of this region, and in bringing them to a saving knowledge of the truth. They cry to me every day for light, but I have no books. I beg the Church and my brethren, please to send me some spelling and Sabbath-school books. I see the necessity for the Gospel since I came to Africa, for it will be the means to save this lost and ruined nation. I still remain, yours, truly,

“Isaac Hall.”

LETTERS FROM EMIGRANTS.

We herewith cluster some expressions of individual opinion from several of the recent emigrants from Eastern Horth Carolina, given in letters from them direct to their relatives

188 LETTER FROM HENRY W. DENNIS, ESQ. [June,

and friends, and which the latter have kindly sent to us for publication :

“I have received the ticket, and am going to return it in this letter, so that you may know that I am in Liberia. I am doing as well as I expected, and would feel perfectly satisfied if I had my father and all inquiring friends out with me, as I think they would not grieve for coming to this country. If they have the sense that they ought to have, they will not rest till they reach Liberia, for it is a good place for them. Tell my father that since my arrival here I have had plenty to eat and drink. I am living on my own land — twenty-five acres — in place of paying rent and toll, as I was compelled to do in North Carolina. Wilson Slight.”

“The very evening I left Plymouth wharf, you said you did not believe that we would be taken to Liberia. But we are safe in Liberia, and I am satisfied, as far as I have seen the country. I am quite well and so is my family. Every one that left Plymouth arrived safely at Monrovia.

“Aaron Lewis.”

“I have been safely landed in Liberia. You will remember

the remark of C , ‘that no one of the people who left

North Carolinawn the fall of 1869 had been taken to Liberia, but were somewhere else, grubbing oysters.’ Please say to him that I have found them all here. Those who accompanied me from Plymouth wharf are also with me here safe and well. I have found everything true that was said by the friends of Liberia. Benjamin Newberry.”

“I desire to inform you that I am well and doing well, having arrived safely in Liberia over a year ago; and, instead of cul- tivating land for another, I am working my own land for myself and for my own benefit. Thank God, I am on free soil, and where I have an equal right with any other man.

“Cooper Bowen.”

LETTER FROM HENRY W. DENNIS, Esq.

Monrovia, April 10, 1871.

My Dear Sir: I am glad to be able to inform you that the Brewerville party are all up at the settlement of that name,

1871.]

ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE.

189

and I have also moved up all of the Arthington party to Arth- ington, with the exception of four families. These I hope to get up this week or next week. This far we have had, in my judgment, very large success with this entire company. Their good health and early settlement have been subjects of remark by our people generally. I attribute much of the success to their carrying out my advice to them : that they should go at once to work on their lands and houses, and by having their minds occupied. Nothing is better than regular bodily exer- cise while acclimating.

I am, your obedient servant, H. W. Dennis.

ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE.

The Pennsylvania Colonization Society recently elected William Holmes, Esq., of Pittsburgh; James McCormick, Jr., of Harrisburg; Jay Cooke, Esq., of Philadelphia , and Rev. Dr. Edgar, of Easton, as Vice Presi- dents.

New Schools and Churches. — The Rev. J T. Richardson, Agent of the American Baptist Missionary Union, has established a fine day-school in the vicinity of Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount, for the education of the natives and Congoes. This region of country is one of the most important points in all Liberia. We are imformed that his Board has authorized him to start a training school for the education of native youths for the ministry and for teachers. We are glad to know that he has likewise commenced a school in the settlement of Virginia. We are further informed that he is making ar- rangements to organize two new churches, one at Arthington, above Mills- burg — the other in the vicinity of Virginia, at the settlement now being formed, called Brewerville. — Republican of Monrovia.

Death of Mrs. Cassell.— The March number of the West Africa Re- cord, published at Cavalla, Liberia, announces the death, on the 15th of Feb- ruary, of Mrs. M. A. Cassell, (colored,) formerly matron of St. Mark’s Hospital, and for the last three years the efficient manager of the Female Orphan Asylum. Mrs. Cassell was a native of Baltimore, and emigrated with her husband, since deceased, many years ago to Liberia. “ She was,” says the Record , “a real lady and a great friend of the Missionaries, for whom her house was always open, and to whom her society was always welcome” She was an earnest Christian, and her closing days were peaceful, brightened as they were by a hope of the glorious immortality.

The Presbytery of West Africa met at Marshall, Liberia, in January, 1871, and took under its care several candidates for the ministry. Nearly all the churches, during the year, had enjoyed a season of refreshing. The native stations were growing in interest, and special calls for the establish-

190

ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE.

[June,

ment of new stations among heathen tribes adjacent to the settlements, es- pecially from the head men, were presented. One of the chiefs has three years in succession asked for a teacher.

Liberia Baptist Mission. — Nine have been baptized at Bexley, and the church and Sabbath school are prosperous. As many more have been hopefully converted within six months at Virginia. At Greenville there are large and interesting congregations, and the preaching of the Word is attended with Divine power. Large companies of natives come from the vicinity to he ir. Among the native Bassas there is a great thirst for the word of God, and ior the education of the young. A new thatched meeting house has been erected in Congo town ; a church was lately dedicated at Edina.

Corisco Mission. — In connection with the Presbyterian Mission at Corisco, Equatorial Africa, there have been under instruction during the last year pupils from eleven different African tribes. A chief man of a tribe has made application to have his son received under missionary tuition. His home is eighty miles away from the mission. Another young man, the son of a chief, a man of much influence in his tribe, came to the mission, learned to read, heard the Gospel, became anxious about his lost condition, and gives every evidence of being a new creature in Christ Jesus. On the mainland the head- man of any village, at every visit, is always willing to summon the people to hear the missionary, and they acquiesce in the truth and force of his words. A native female prayer-meeting is sustained with energy at the station, and several heads of families are professing Christians.

Revival at Abbeokuta. — The Rev. T. J. Marshall, the native Wesleyan minister at Abbeokuta, Central Africa, reports an improved state of things there. The opposition which had formerly impeded the progress of the work has in a great measure passed away, and the services are now held without interruption. The station has lately enjoyed a refreshing season of revival, at which twenty-one persons were converted.

Dutch Settlements on the Gold Coast. — A communication from the Hague, in the Independence, , of Brussels, says: “The treaty for ceding the coast of Guinea to Great Britain has just been signed. The Minister of the Interior has announced that it will shortly be submitted to the Legislature for approval. Dutch vessels will retain all the advantages they now enjoy. A part of the press, headed by the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, energeti- cally opposes the transaction as a violation of the principle that the integrity of the soil and the national possessions should be preserved. Fears are entertained that, after having given up Guinea as unproductive, the Govern- ment may, for the same motive, get rid of the West Indies and a part of the colonies in the East, which cost more than they produce. As opinions are much divided, both in the press and among the deputies, the ultimate fate of the treaty is still uncertain..”

Swedish Missions in Africa. — An emigration which adheres somewhat to its own lines of latitude is likely to have best sanitary success. Ought

1871.]

ITEMS OF INTELLIGENCE.

191

Christian missions to forget such facts? Sweden, from her cold and frozen north, sent ten missionaries in the course of four years to Africa. At the end of that time only two remained. Most had died; the rest had gone home to recruit. Thousands of dollars had been expended, and the mission had been too brief to reap the least harvest. Was there not some region more suited than Africa to Swedish constitutions?

Remarkable Financial Experience.— The Berlin Missionary Society has just enjoyed a remarkable financial experience. On January 1st, its books showed that its ordinary income for the preceding year had been re- duced, in consequence of the war, to 21,164 thalers less than the income of

1869, and that it was threatened with a large deficiency. It was saved by the irruption into the diamond diggings of South Africa. A few years ago the Society had received a grant of several square miles of land on the Vaal River. It was not worth much, for the Land Commissioners did not deign to tax it. But diamonds were found on it. The Society claimed a royalty upon the stones that were taken away. From the proceeds of this loyalty 10,000 thalers were placed in the treasury of the Society by the close of 1870. This amount just saved it from debt.

The Slave Trade Suppressed on the White Nile. — Sir Roderick Mur- chison writes as follows: “I have received a long letter from Sir Samuel Baker, dated Tewfi Keeya, on the White Nile, N. lat. 9 26, the 6th December,

1870. He announces that during his stay at that station he had entirely suppressed the slave trade of the White Nile, and he trusts that England will appreciate the sincerity of purpose displayed by his Highness the Khe- dive in thus purifying the river from that abominable trade. Sir Samuel’s next letter will be from Gondokora, when all the flotilla are gathered to- gether and his steamer in action.”

Company of African Merchants. — The Company of African Merchants held their annual meeting at the Cannon-street Hotel, London, on Saturday, March 18, 1871. There was a very numerous attendance of shareholders. The Chairman explained that the African trade had been in a most unsatis- factory condition during the past year; the extreme competition on the coast had caused an advance of prices there, which had resulted in heavy losses to importers. The meeting terminated with a unanimous expression of confi- dence in the Directors. — African Times.

The Mayflower. — It was formerly often repeated, as a reproach, that the Mayflower , which bore the Pilgrim Fathers to Flymouth Rock in 1620, was af- terward employed in the slave trade. Dr. Dexter, of The Congregationalist, who is now in England studying early New-England history, writes that “there were 20 vessels named The Mayflower in England at that time, and that the slaver which sailed with 450 negroes for Barbados was another of that name, and of 350 ton3 burden, while our Mayflower measured only 180 tons.”

192 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. [June, 1871.

Receipts of the American Colonization Society,

From, the 20th of April to the 20 th of May. 1871.

Maine.

Mill-Town— Mrs. Sarah D. Stick-

ne.v 4 00

By Rev. J. K. Converse, ($38.00)

Bath— Mrs. David Patten, bal. to const, herself a L. M., $10; E. S.

J. Nealey, James F. Patten,

Mrs. Levi Houghton, each $5;

John Shaw, Rev. Dr. Fiske, E.

K. Harding, A. C. Palmer, F.

E. Reed, D. T. Persey, each $2;

J. Riggs, $1 38 00

42 00

Vermont.

Pittsford— S. Hammond, $5; S. H. Kellogg. J. E. Wheaton, each $3; This D. Hall, Ransom Bur- ditt, Fianklin Burditt, M. P. Humphrey, each $2; S. M. Cav- erly, S. C. Kellogg, J. M. Good- nough, A. N. Loveland, each

$1; by Hon. S. H. Kellogg... 23 00

By Rev. J. K. Converse, ($49.00.)

Windsor — Allen Wardner, $10:

W. H. Lenox, S. U. King, E.

G. Samson, each $5; Dea. C. E. Cleveland, J. W. Hubbard, E.

W. Stone. L. W. Lawrence, each $2; John T. Freeman, J. A. Pol- lard, Rev. Mr. Douglass, B. F.

Blood, each $1 37 00

Burlington — Add’l. — Mrs. M. R. Nichols, $10; Mrs. Haines, Mrs.

A. Drew, each $1 12 00

72 00

Massachusetts.

By Rev. Dr. Tracy, ($47.20.)

Beverly — Edward Burley, An.

Don., $20 gold, premium $2.20... 22 20

Middleborough — Legacy of Rev.

Israel W. Putnam, D. D., by F.

S. Thompson, Ex 25 00

47 20

Connecticut.

By Rev. D. C. Haynes, ($414.00.) Wethersfield— Gen. J. D. Pratt 10 00

Norwich— James L. Hubbard, $40 ;

D. H. Coit. $20; Mrs. H. P. Williams, Charles Osgood, J.

M. Huntington, each $10; T. W. Carroll, J. Halsey, J. Hunting- ton, each $5; George Perkins,

$2 107 00

New London— Mrs. Edward Bull,

Jane S. Richards, Robert Coil, each $10; Mrs. C. Chew, $8;

Mrs. N. Billings, Misses Lock- wood, Henry P. Haven, W. C. Crump, each $5; Miss C. E.

Rainey, $3 61 00

New Haven— Eli hu Atwater, $20,

T. D. Woolsey, D. D., A. Hea- ton, Timothy Bishop, Miss Geary, Governor English, Charles Atwater, H. Peck, each $10; J. M. Prescott, C. B. Whit-

telsey, each $5; Mrs. C. A. In- gersoll, $3; E. B. Bowdich, H.

N. Whittelsey, M. G. Elliot, B.

Noyes, each $2; Mrs.W. F. Fel- iowes, $15; Samuel Brace, O.

B. North, E. Whitney, Wm. Johnson, D. H. Wilcox, Henry White, each $10; W. W. Board- man, Ralph I. Ingersoll, C. M. Ingersoil, Mrs. Nicholson, each

$5 206 00

Birmingham— Mrs. N. Sandl'ord,

James Arnold, Dr. Howe, W.

E. Downs, R. N. Bassett, each $5 ; Henry Somers, C. E. Clark, each $2 ; W. H. Hotchkiss $1 30 00

414 00

New York.

By Rev. Dr. Orcutt, <'$532.89.)

New York CVy— Miss Mary Bron- son, $50; Burr Wakeman, $25; Thomas Jeremiah, $15; Legacy of the late Mrs. Harriet T. Wil-

liams, $414.75 504 75

Brooklyn— Coll, in South Cong.

Ch 28 14

532 89

New Jersey.

By Rev. Dr. Orcutt, ($500.00.)

Newar k— Daniel Price, for the support oi a native youth in

Liberia College 500 00

District of Columbia. Washington— Miscellaneous 223 50

Texas.

By Rev. Dr. Orcutt, ($2.20.) Lavaca— “Good old Uncle Frank”

(colored) by R. M. Loughridge. 2 20 Ohio.

Glendale— Rev. L. D. Potter 5 00

Michigan.

Marquette— Rev. Joseph Harvey,

D. D 5 00

FOR REPOSITORY.

Maine- JD7Z- Town-Mrs. Sarah D. Stickney, to Jan. 1, 1872, $1.

Calais— Dea. Samuel Kelley, to Feb. 1, 1871, $11. Bath — David T. Stinson, to Jan. 1, 1872, by

Rev. J. K. Converse $1 13 00

New Hampshire- Mount Vernon — J. A. Starrett, to April 1,1872. 1 00

Vermont — Hinesburgn—Dr. D. Goodyear, to Jan. 1, 1872, by

Rev. J. K. Converse 5 00

Repository 19 00

Donations 1,180 54

Legacies... 439 75

Miscellaneous 223 50

Total $1,862 79