The call of the dark continent : a study in missionary progress, opportunity and urgency

THE

CALL OF
THE DARK
CONTINENT

8 C-? *y >

F.D.WALKER

m

LIBRARY | IRECON I

UNIVfeSo
CAUPORN

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THE GALL OF THE
DARK CONTINENT

Printed and Bound by

Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld.

London and Aylesbury*.

The Call

OF THE

Dark Continent

A STUDY IN MISSIONARY PROGRESS,
OPPORTUNITY AND URGENCY

BY

F. DEAVILLE WALKER

W.M.M.S. CEXTEXARY SERIES

LONDON

THE WESLEYAN METHODIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY

24 BISHOPSGATE, E.C.

1911

?£:>

YMk

376 Hi

#V 3^0o

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The Call of the Dark Continent goes forth
as the second of a series of Centenary Text
Books prepared for the use of Missionary
Study Circles. In the decision to publish
for the present our own text books there
is no intention to separate ourselves as a
Church from the main body of workers in
the Interdenominational Study Circle
Movement. But it was thought necessary
during the years of the Centenary Move-
ment to call the attention of our Methodist
people especially to the progress, the needs,
and the opportunities of our own work, and
for this purpose to provide the necessary
literature. The adoption of this course
was rendered the more necessary that
many of our people refrained from joining
the United Missionary Study Movement,
alleging that the text books in use con-
tained nothing about Methodist Missions.
The course has, moreover, been justified by
a large increase last* year in the number of
Study Circles formed. Up to the Conference
of 1910, the largest number registered in

vi Introductory Note

any year was 60. Last year we registered
nearly 200, and we closed the year with
signs of further growth.

As a series of studies in the conditions
and facts of Missionary work in Pagan
Africa, The Call of the Dark Continent
gives prominence to Wesleyan Methodist
Missions, but places these always in a
broad, catholic setting. Mr. Walker has
brought to his task the rare qualifications of
wide reading, accurate knowledge, a quick
appreciation of the conditions of pagan life,
and an expert knowledge of the needs of
methodical missionary study. If I am not
greatly mistaken, this book will grip the
reader from beginning to end, informing
the mind, warming the heart, and con-
straining to new consecration to missionary
service. William Goudie,

Centenary Secretary.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

This little volume has been written for a
special purpose — namely, as a text-book
for Missionary Study Circles. It is not
intended for advanced students or returned
missionaries, but for those who are begin-
ning the study of Missions to Pagan
Africa. With no pretence to originality,
the writer has sought to supply just such
facts about the country, the people, and
missionary work, as may serve as an
introduction to the subject. The book
claims to be nothing more than a primer.
It is not in any sense a history of Wesleyan
Missions ; for it has not been the writer's
purpose in any way to forestall the great
work on which Dr. G. G. Findlay is
engaged. The book gives a series of
pictures, rather than a history, of Missions
to the pagan races of Africa. The Muslim
countries of North Africa do not lie within
the scope of this volume.

The thought expressed in the title runs
through the whole book, for the writer's
only aim has been to set forth as clearly

viii Author's Preface

as possible " The Call of the Dark
Continent " to the young people of the
Wesleyan Methodist Church. The motif
of the book may be stated thus : —

The Call of Africa's Need. (Chapters I. and II.)
The Call of the Work Done. (Chapters III.

and IV.)
The Call of the Existing Work. (Chapters V.

and VI.)
The Call of the Muslim Peril. (Chapter VII.)
The Call of Present Opportunity and Urgency.

(Chapter VIII.)

The writer gratefully acknowledges his
indebtedness to several friends who have
assisted in the preparation of the book : to
the Revs. John White, H. L. Bishop, J. D.
Russell, and R. Dixon, for material kindly
supplied in response to a series of questions
sent to the Mission Field ; more especially
to the Rev. J. F. Briscoe, for material
incorporated chiefly in Chapters III., V.,
and VI., and the Rev. W. T. Balmer, B.A.,
B.D., for valuable matter contained in
Chapter VII. and elsewhere ; to the Revs.
Oliver J. Griffin, H. W. Goodwin, W. T.
Balmer, and the Missionary Secretaries
for reading the several chapters in MS.
or in proof, and greatly enriching them
by valuable suggestions ; and to several
colleagues on the Mission House Staff for
assistance in reading the proof sheets.

Author's Preface ix

For the illustrations that brighten the
volume, thanks are especially due to — The
Religious Tract Society, for permission to
reproduce the photograph facing page 332 ;
the Rev. J. Gregory Mantle, Editor of
The Illustrated Missionary News, for the
pictures facing pages 60, 76, and 220 ;
Neville Edwards, Esq., the Revs. W. T.
Balmer, J. T. F. Halligey, and several
other missionaries and friends.

If this little book should quicken the
heart of any servant of God to respond to
"The Call of the Dark Continent," the
writer will feel amply rewarded.

CONTENTS

Introductory Note, by the Kev. William

Goudie v.

Author's Preface ..... vii.

chap. ; ."

I. The Opening of the Dark Con-
tinent 1

The story of African exploratiou, exploita-
tion, and colonisation, from earliest times
to the present.

II. The People of the Dark Continent 50

The great races of Pagan Africa — their
history, underlying solidarity, and tribal
division ; native life and customs ; woman-
hood and childhood ; religious beliefs and
practices.

III. Our South African Mission Field . 100

Discovery and early colonisation ; Moravian
and L.M.S. pioneers ; the story of Wes-
leyan Methodist enterprise in Nama-
Qualand, Cape Colony, the Transvaal,
and Rhodesia.

IV. Our West African Mission Field . 150

The story of our missions in Sierra Leone, the
Gambia, the Gold Coast, Ashanti, Lagos,
Southern Nigeria, Togoland, and Dahomey,

Contents xi

CHAP. PAGE

V. The Conditions Affecting Mission-
ary Work in Africa . . .201

(1) Conditions that hinder ; (2) Conditions
that help.

VI. Methods of Missionary Work . 248

Methods of evangelism ; educational, indus-
trial, and medical work ; the training of
catechumens ; admission to the Church ;
the edification and discipline of the native
Church ; the problems of self-support and
self-control.

VII. The Muslim Menace . . .291

Islam as an enemy of the Church of Christ ;
a rival force in pagan Africa ; the coming
struggle; shall Africa be Christian or
Muslim ?

VIII. The Call of the Hour . . 330

The future of the African races ; the value t
of the work done as a beginning only;
the vast fields beyond ; the opportunities
of the hour ; South and West Africa as
bases for missionary advance ; present-day
calls ; the capacity of the native Church
to co-operate ; the share of British
Methodism ; the Call of Christ.

APPENDICES

A. The Afeican Tribes . . .364

B. W.M.M.S. Missionary Translators . 366

Bibliography 367

Index 369

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Call of the Dark Continent is the Call

of Her Needy People." . . . Frontispiece

TO FACE PAGE

A West African River Scene

A Bridge on the MaShonaland Railway .

The Railway Station, Kumassi

Zulu Warriors in Full War Dress

A Kraal in the Transvaal ....

A Congo Woman Returning from the Field

A MaShona Family

A Bridge in Mendiland

West African Idols

OfferingsPlaced Before a Fetich Tree
A Fetich Arch to Keep Away Evil Spirits
Map of S. Africa to Show Early W.M.M.S. Work
Natives at Home in the Kraal
Natives as we Meet Them in the Mines
The Market, Porto Novo, West Africa

Cape Coast Castle

The Young Recruit and the Experienced

Veteran were Laid Side by Side .
Ese Ado, Yoruba Country ....
The Chief of Iseyin and his Wives

A Zulu Warrior

Entrance to the Compound of the King of Iseyin

Travelling by Canoe

Missionary Breakfasting in Native Hut .
Kilnerton Training Institution : the Carpentry

Department

Rev. O. J. Grifpin and the Synod of our Lagos

District . . . . - .
A Muhammadan School, West Africa ..
Mendi Chief and Sub-Chiefs
Where there is neither East nor West .
Missionary Travelling Through the Bush

Mendiland

12

46

46

60

68

76

78

89

89

94

94

114

135

135

158

176

193
204
216
220
234
255
255

263

285
303
303
332

356

The Call of the
Dark Continent

Chapter I,
The Opening of the Dark Continent

" The end of the geographical feat is the
beginning of the Missionary enterprise."

LIVINGSTONE

Until a few generations ago, Africa was A Continent
a land of mighty secrets. Although its of Secrets
north-eastern regions were the scene of
earliest civilisation, three -fourths of its
coast-line had not been surveyed when the
Wars of the Roses began in England, and
its vast interior was unknown until the
nineteenth century. The New World was
mapped out and opened before Africa.
The ancient Egyptians had heard of the
Niger, but the Amazon, the Orinoco, and
the Mississippi were well known before the

1

The Gal! of the Dark Continent

Classic Africa

Pagan Africa

Early
Knowledge

great river of Western Africa was dis-
covered. The Nile was hoary with antiquity
when Herodotus sailed on its waters, but
so late as 1850 its sources were still
unknown.

The great continent divides into two un-
equal portions. Egypt, with the Red Sea
and the Mediterranean coasts, are lands of
classic interest, famous before the dawn of
history. Successively they passed under
the sway of the Egyptian Dynasties, of
Phoenicia, of Carthage, of Persia, of Greece,
and of Rome. To-day these northern
regions are dominated by the Crescent,
and lie outside the scope of this book.
Vast deserts separate them from the rest
of the continent — the modern pagan Africa
with which we are to deal.

South of the deserts, the Dark Con-
tinent stretched away beyond the bounds
of ancient knowledge. It was the Ethiopia
of Homeric and the Libya of later Hellenic
times. Vague in the extreme were
men's thoughts concerning it. In the
Odyssey of Homer it is described as a
region of remote distances, reaching from
the rising to the setting of the sun, with
unknown southern frontiers.

The earliest information we possess
about these unknown regions concerns an
expedition sent to the Land of Punt (the

The Opening of the Dark Continent 3

modern Somaliland) by Sankhard, of the
11th Egyptian Dynasty, some 2400 B.C.
More detailed is the account of an im-
portant embassy sent by Queen Hatasu
about 900 years later. This remarkable Ancient
monarch dispatched a fleet of five vessels gyptian
to Punt, which was known to be rich in
incense-bearing trees, costly gums and
resins, myrrh, amber, gold, ivory, and
precious woods. A series of frescoes on
the walls of Hatasu's great temple at
Dayr-el-Bahari has preserved for us a
complete pictorial and hieroglyphic account
of this early attempt to enter into relation-
ship with the non-classic peoples of Africa.
One of the tableaux represents a village
in the Land of Punt, with conical huts
raised on piles, with trees, and cattle, and
birds — probably the oldest picture of an
African village in existence. Another
scene, showing the loading of the Egyptian
vessels with the products of Punt, is des-
cribed by the hieroglyphics as —

" Very great lading of the ships with the marvels
of the land of Punt, . . . with natives of the country,
their women and children. Never since the begin-
ning of the world have like wonders been brought by
any king."

The intercourse thus began, continued
for many centuries, and it is probable that
Egyptian traders traversed the Bahr-al-

4 The Call of the Dark Continent

Ghazal region also. Professor Flinders
Petrie describes a tomb of the 18 th
Dynasty with a fresco of southern chiefs
and their followers bringing bags of gold-
dust and precious offerings as tribute, and
boatloads of Negroes and cattle. Even at
that remote period Ethiopia was yielding
up her treasure — her gold, her ivory, her
slaves — for the aggrandisement of a more
powerful race.

It will thus be noted that the earliest
recorded efforts of classic civilisation to
reach the dark-skinned races of the south
were inspired by commercial instincts — a
motive that has operated in the opening of
Africa through all succeeding ages.

But scientific interests soon entered the
field. About 457 B.C. Herodotus, the
" father of history," visited Egypt in search
of knowledge, and carefully collected all
available scraps of information concerning
the Great Beyond. He was told that five
young men — Nasamonians — had journeyed
westward across the desert for many days
until they came to a land of fruit trees and
" diminutive men, of less than middle
stature," whose language could not be
understood. After passing " through vast
morasses " the Nasamonians came to a city,
" and by the city flowed a great river,
running from west to east." (Euterpe, 32.)

The Opening of the Dark Continent 5

Surely this could only have been the
Niger itself — or possibly the Benue.

But Herodotus gained even more im-
portant information. He says :

" Libya . . . shows itself to be surrounded by
water. Necho, King of Egypt (610-594 B.C.) was the
first to prove this; he sent certain Phoenicians in
ships. . . . The Phoenicians accordingly, setting out
from the Red Sea, navigated the Southern Sea ; . . .
and when two years had passed, in the third, having
doubled the Pillars of Hercules, they arrived in
Egypt, and related what to me does not seem
credible, but to others may, that as they sailed round
Libya they had the sun on their right hand." —
(Melpomene, 41-42.)

But notwithstanding the doubt in the
historian's mind there is every reason to
believe the story. The Phcenicians were
probably familiar with the whole eastern
coast of Africa to a point where "the ocean
curves towards the sunset, and, stretching
along the southern extremities of Ethiopia,
Libya and Africa, amalgamates with the
western sea."

At Zimbabwe, in Southern Rhodesia, vast The Great
ruined fortresses and temples are still to be Zimbabwe
seen. They were thoroughly examined
in 1891 by Mr. J. Theo. Bent, F.S.A.,
F.R.G,S. Such a civilisation as these ruins
imply could not have originated and de-
veloped in South Africa, and there is every-

6 The Gall of the Dark Continent

thing to suggest that the builders were
foreigners, dwelling in a hostile country.
When it is remembered that Zimbabwe lies
in the heart of the gold-bearing region, the
discovery of smelting furnaces, crucibles,
ingot moulds, and mining tools among the
ruins makes it clear that the builders were
attracted to the country by gold. Mr.
Bent concluded that the builders were
Sabeans from South Arabia, acting as
agents for the Phoenicians. Everything
about the buildings, especially the temples,
suggests Phoenician influence.

Eager for gold, "these Sabean Arabs,
separately or in conjunction with their
Phoenician cousins, pursued their search
down the east coast of Africa. ... It
was, perhaps, their exploration of the
Zambesi which led them to discover alluvial
gold, though they afterwards found a
shorter route to the gold-fields by way of
Solfala. In this way they forestalled by
some twenty-five hundred years modern
Rhodesian enterprise." *

About the middle of the first century
A.D., a Greek merchant, named Diogenes,
visited East Africa and heard from Arab
traders of a series of great lakes (two of
which were reputed to be the sources of
the Nile), and of a range of snow-covered

* Sir Harry H. Johnston.

The Opening of the Dark Continent 7

mountains to the south of the most western
lake. These mountains were called, from
their silvery appearance, the " Mountains
of the Moon." This remarkable story got
into the hands of the great Ptolemy (150
A.D.), who recorded it for us. This seems
to have been the limit of knowledge
concerning " Ethiopia " possessed by the
ancient world.

Thus scraps of information gradually
accumulated. Some men, like Herodotus
and Ptolemy, actuated by love of know- The Attractions
ledge, tried to search out the secrets of the of EthiopIa
Dark Continent. More often, information
was gained incidentally, as men sought to
enrich themselves with the natural wealth
of what we now call pagan Africa. With
no thought for the welfare of her dusky
children, her ivory, her gold, her precious
gums were shipped to South Arabia and
carried thence to Tyre, or were landed on the
wharves of Thebes or Carthage. Egyptians,
Phoenicians, Sabeans, Greeks, and Romans
visited her coasts or ventured into the
mysteries of her inner regions ; but usually
the first motive was plunder or conquest,
and the returning ships, or the long trains
of laden camels that followed the home-
ward track, too often carried captives
destined to a life of servitude, or to be
exhibited as " specimens " in the Roman

8 The Gall of the Dark Continent

amphitheatres to fight with gladiators or
wild beasts.

From the time of Ptolemy knowledge
of the Dark Continent diminished rather
than increased. Occasional stories reached
Christendom through Saracen channels,
but there was no definite information, no
actual contact. The far-stretching deserts
alone were enough to discourage all over-
land approach from the north, and the fact
that the Mediterranean and the Red Sea
coasts were held by the Muhammadan
hosts made exploration doubly impossible.
The navigation of the Atlantic was for all
practical purposes unknown, and the
African coast south of Morocco on the west
and Cape Guardafui on the east was en-
tirely unexplored.

During these centuries the Arabs were
exploiting East and Central Africa for
their own purposes. Gold, ivory, and
slaves were shipped to Arabia and the
Persian Gulf, or carried by caravan across
the scorching deserts to the great Muslim
cities of Barbary or Egypt. The plun-
dering of pagan Africa by the followers of
the Arabian Prophet began in the first
centuries of Muslim aggression and con-
tinues to our own time.

The Opening of the Dark Continent 9

For the rediscovery of pagan Africa, Henry the
Europe is indebted to Prince Henry of
Portugal,* usually named Henry the Navi-
gator, from the fact that he inaugurated a
period of naval activity that revolutionised
the geography of the world. " Until his
day," says his biographer, "the pathways
of the human race had been the mountain,
the river, and the plain, the strait, the
lake, and the inland sea ; but he it was
who first conceived the thought of opening
up a road through the unexplored ocean —
a road replete with danger, but abundant
in promise." Henry lived in stirring times;
Europe had failed in her effort to wrest the
Holy Land from the Saracens ; the Turks
were threatening South-East Europe, and
the Moors were still firmly established in
the south of Spain. Defeated in a cam-
paign in Morocco, Prince Henry returned
to Portugal. Rumours were afloat con-
cerning a mysterious prince, Prester John,
said to rule over a Christian kingdom in
Africa, who might perchance be persuaded
to unite with Christendom against the
common enemy. Again, while in Morocco,
Henry heard of Timbuktu and the
countries beyond, which sent their gold and
merchandise by the caravans to Barbary.

* The French claim to have reached the Gold Coast by 1382
is vigorously denied by Prince Henry's greatest biographer.

1*

10 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Here were new regions open to Portu-
guese enterprise. And what if a route to
India and Cathay could be found by way
of West Africa ? Who dare say it was
impossible ? Thus, actuated by a desire to
find Prester John, to plant the banners of
Portugal on African soil, and to find a sea
route to India, Prince Henry in 1415 a.d.
dispatched his first expedition to trace the
coast of Africa. But behind these appar-
ently earthly motives lay a great and
noble desire to extend the Catholic Faith.
Writing about 1453, Gomez Eanes declares
that Henry had

" a great desire to make increase of the Faith of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and to bring to Him all the souls
that should be saved."

With this object in view, every Portuguese
ship carried Franciscan or Dominican
missionaries. " The Church," says Noble,
" went hand in hand with the State.
Christianity and Civilisation entered West
Africa together."

From 1415 until his death in 1460, not
a year passed in which this great-hearted
man did not send forth at least one vessel
to accomplish his purpose. " Abandoning
the Royal Court, and taking up his
residence on the bare and storm-swept
promontory of Sagres, he devoted himself

The Opening of the Dark Continent 11

heart and soul to his work. Never was a
purpose followed up with such heroic and
unflinching resolution." Ridicule and
failure did not daunt him. Not until 1435
did his mariners round Cape Bojador, and
ten years more passed before Cape Yerde
was doubled and the Gambia sighted
(1445). Henry "gave thanks to God and
besought the Yirgin that she would guide
this discovery to His glory and the
increase of His Holy Faith."

Unhappily, the wrongs of the Negro
began afresh with his first contact with
Europeans. Ignoring the lofty motives of
Prince Henry, and in spite of the fact that
they carried missionaries on their vessels
and bore the sacred emblem upon their
banners, the first thought of the Portu-
guese mariners was to seize " specimens "
of this new black race and carry them
home. Prince Henry was displeased, and
ordered his captains to " cultivate the
friendship of the Black Moors, establish
peace and use their utmost diligence in
making converts."

" The intention of the Prince is not so
much to open trade as to convert the
natives to Christianity," wrote Gonzalez in
1441. But Henry's agents were not like-
minded. The rough seaman took less
interest in religion and philanthropy than

12 The Gall of the Dark Continent

in the opportunity to acquire riches. In
spite of all Henry could do, discovery prac-
tically ceased, and for some years the
mariners of Portugal abandoned themselves
to the lucrative slave trade ; and ship-
loads of Negroes, taken captive in raids or
purchased from the coast chiefs, were con-
stantly landed in Portugal.

When the first excitement of trade was
over, the Portuguese pressed further along
the African coast-line. When Henry the
A New Route Navigator died in 1460, others took up the
to India work he left unfin;shed. In 1484 Diogo

Cam discovered the mouth of the Congo ;
three years later (1487) Bartholomew Diaz
rounded the Cape of Good Hope ; and in
1497-8 Vasco da Gama sailed up the East
African coast to Mombasa and thence
across the ocean to India. By the close of
the century the whole of the African coast
to Cape Guardafui had been explored and
claimed by Portugal by virtue of a Papal
Bull obtained from Pope Nicholas V. in 1454,
and confirmed by Alexander VI. in 1493.
These Bulls gave the whole of Africa south
of the Sahara to Portugal. None dared
question the right of the Pope to grant
such a monopoly, and for a century
Portugal was without a rival in the
African trade. Forts were erected and
certain areas were colonised for the pur-

The Opening of the Dark Continent 1 3

poses of commerce — notably the Gold
Coast, the region of San Paulo cle Loanda,
and East Africa.

From the first the Portuguese exhibited Portuguese

, i i , • • j i • i i • Missions

strangely mixed motives m their relation-
ship with Africa. Some, as we have seen,
were eager for gold. Others, approaching
more nearly to the pious ambitions of
Henry the Navigator, sought to bring the
African peoples within the pale of their
Church. Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits,
and Capuchins devoted themselves to the
work with enthusiasm and, in many cases,
with true Christian heroism. Some of
them made long and dangerous journeys
into the interior in order to carry the
Gospel to the inland tribes. Their labours
were rewarded with a measure of success.
Benin, at its own request, received mission-
aries. The "King of the Congo" was
baptised with many of his chiefs and
people. In East Africa, a powerful Karanga
chieftain, Monomotapa by name, also re-
ceived the sacred rite with several hundred
headmen and attendants — apparently more
as a matter of courtesy to his missionary
guests than from religious conviction. But
while some of the missionaries were not
unworthy followers of St. Francis Xavier,
others were men of another type ; and,
seized by the greed of gold and unable to

14 The Gall of the Dark Continent

resist the abounding immorality of unre-
strained colonial life, they yielded to the
prevailing corruption and disgraced the
Christianity they were there to represent.
Possessing slaves, and even connecting
themselves with slave-raiding, they lost
the confidence of the natives. Jealousies
arose between the different religious orders
and fierce quarrels ensued. Complaints
made by Portuguese officials led to the
expulsion of the Jesuits from East Africa ;
and as the centuries passed, the results
of those early evangelistic efforts almost
entirely disappeared from both the Congo
and the Zambesi.
Rivals. After the Reformation, men were less

willing than before to respect Papal Bulls.
England and Holland, already excommuni-
cated, no longer feared to disobey the Holy
Father, and Portugal soon found she had
rivals on the coast of Africa. Before long
French merchants also arrived on the West
Coast, and the vessels of the three nations
roamed up and down the Bights, fighting
the Portuguese wherever they found them,
and often falling out with each other into
the bargain. Portugal's monopoly was
over. To the shame of the Protestant
nations it must be confessed that no
thought of evangelism entered into their
programmes of African enterprise. The

The Opening of the Dark Continent 15

religio-commercial policy of Portugal was a
jumble of inconsistencies ; that of the
Protestant states was certainly consistent —
consistently bad, with scarcely a spark of
religious or philanthropic zeal to relieve its
blackness. Africa, to a greater extent
than before, became a prey to the spoilers ;
the maritime nations of Europe fastened
themselves like leeches on her side and
sucked her life-blood, and none more
greedily than England. Ivory, gold,
Guinea pepper, were all regular articles of
commerce ; trading companies were formed,
and monopolies constituted. But the cost
of maintaining forts on "the Coast" was
heavy, and pirates abounded. Ofttimes the
crew of a Guinea trader would turn on
their captain, seize the vessel, hoist the
"Jolly Roger" and sail away with the
booty, to the undoing of the owners.
Fortunes were lost as well as made in West
Africa. The companies came to grief and were
succeeded by others that ere long shared
the same fate. But one line of business
never failed — the transportation of slaves.

In 1562 Sir John Hawkins "ran" the JJf T™^
first English cargo of slaves across the Trade.
Atlantic. The " trade " developed with
startling rapidity, and from 1680 to 1786
fully 2,130,000 Negroes were imported into
English colonies. In the year 1793 the

16 The Gall of the Dark Continent

different European powers landed 74,000
slaves in the Americas, 38,000 of them
being bought by British colonists. Soon
Brazil took an average of 78,000 and Cuba
60,000 per annum. The amount of suffer-
ing represented by these figures is beyond
human comprehension. Hundreds of thou-
sands— perhaps millions — of lives must
have been lost in raiding expeditions in
Africa, and thousands of the miserable
victims are known to have perished on the
voyage across the Atlantic. If Wesley's
famous description of the traffic as "the
sum of all villainies " errs at all, it is on
the side of leniency. Slavery hardened the
hearts of all engaged in it to commit all
manner of wickedness. It was responsible
for astounding brutality and most callous
cruelty. Had it not been for its marvellous
vitality, the Negro race might have become
extinct. It passes comprehension that
Christendom should have tolerated such
rascality for a single hour. There can be
no stronger testimony to the depravity of
the human heart than that civilised and
nominally Christian men should, for love of
gold, be prepared to inflict such cruelty
upon their fellows. And it must be
remembered that no vice has ever had a
more terrible effect on the character of those
connected with it.

The Opening of the Dark Continent 17

At last the slumbering conscience of the Abolition of the
nations awoke to the enormity of the slave
trade. To Denmark belongs the honour of
being the first country to forbid her subjects
to engage in this scandalous but lucrative
traffic. The Royal Decree was issued on
May 16th, 1792, and it came into operation
in 1802. Strangely enough, the United
States of America was the first to follow
Denmark's example; in 1794, carefully
distinguishing between slavery and the
slave trade, she prohibited the export of
Negroes or their importation into her own
territories (the Act came into operation in
1804). Meanwhile, England, powerfully
influenced by the evangelical revival and
the foundation of Foreign Missionary enter-
prise, was moving, and in 1807, after a
fierce struggle in Parliament, abolished the
slave trade so far as her subjects were
concerned. France followed in 1814. For
Africa a brighter day was breaking.

But the transatlantic slave trade was
not over. It took many years to give
effect to the statutory prohibitions, and in
this work England played a truly noble
part by becoming the staunchest champion
of the slave. She paid £300,000 to Portu-
gal (1836) and another sum of £400,000 to
the Spaniards on condition that they should
cease to buy Negroes. But in spite of the

18 The Call of the Dark Continent

Governments concerned, these bargains
were not faithfully observed, for Cuba and
Brazil still demanded slaves, and the
Southern planters of the United States
were not averse to the secret landing of
living cargoes in the Carolina creeks. The
difficulty of obtaining new supplies of blacks
increased their value considerably, and men
were prepared to run the risks for sake of
gain. Africa continued to bleed. Then
slave -running was legally declared to be
piracy, and the penalty of death was
attached to the crime. British men-of-war
patrolled the West Coast searching for
slavers ; but in spite of their vigilance, swift
sailing schooners lay concealed among the
numerous creeks and rivers, and as oppor-
tunity offered spread their sails and made
for the Americas. Dr. Holman Bentley
tells of slaves being smuggled from the
Congo as late as 1871 ; and the traffic really
only came to an end in 1880, when Brazil
abolished slavery. So long as the demand
existed, men were found brutal enough to
engage in the traffic, and reckless enough
to risk capture and execution.
The Arab While these things were happening on

the West Coast, the Arabs were carrying
on their ancient slave trade in East Africa.
Here also British cruisers were vigilant,
but Arab dhows crept along the coast

Slave Trade

The Opening of the Dark Continent 19

and carried their victims to the Arabian
Gulf.

*j\- w vP ^* -/T

Slavery, for three centuries the staple The interior of
trade of Africa, was fatal to that spirit of unknown "
research and discovery which Henry the
Navigator called into life. The slaver had
neither the inclination nor the courage to
penetrate far inland. The story of his
brutality had spread far and wide ; he dared
not leave the coast, and he did all in his
power to keep out others who might
"interfere with trade." Thus, at the
close of the eighteenth century, the greater
part of the African continent was unknown
beyond the seaboard, and ten miles inland
was terra incognita. The maps of the
period either left the interior blank (some-
times marked as "Desert") or filled it in
with imaginary detail.

So recently as 1788 the African Associa-
tion published a statement that Africa had
no inland seas or extensive lakes and —
except the Nile — no rivers running from the
centre to its extremities. Yet maps
published by Duarte Lopez and Fil
Pigafetta in 1591, and by John Ogilby in
1670, show both rivers and lakes of great
size. Whether they were based on the
statements of Ptolemy or other ancient
authorities, or were crude attempts to record

20 The Gall of the Dark Continent

the journeys of unknown travellers of later
times, or were merely imaginary productions,
it is impossible to say. But there was no
reliable information, and at the close of the
eighteenth century the wildest ideas were
current. Some held that the Senegal river
was the western outlet of the Nile ; the
Congo was unknown beyond what is now
called Stanley Pool, and the very existence
of the Niger was only a matter of rumour.

In the year 1788, a company of over
ninety scientific men formed the African
Association with the object of exploring
West Africa, and particularly of solving the
mystery of the Niger. Did such a river
exist? If so, in what direction did it flow ?
No known outlet on the coast seemed
capable of identification with it except
possibly the Senegal. Could the Senegal be
the Niger? Or did the great river flow
into some unknown lake of the interior?
Their first agent, Ledyard, was sent to Egypt
with instructions to search for the Niger,
thus following the clue supplied by
Herodotus. Unfortunately he died in
Cairo, and nothing was accomplished.
Subsequent attempts to reach the interior
from Tripoli and from Senegambia likewise
failed.

The choice of the African Association now
fell on a young Scotch doctor, Mungo Park.

The Opening of the Dark Continent 21

Leaving England at the age of twenty-four,
Park made his way up the Gambia, and
plunged into the Dark Continent mounted
on a horse, and accompanied by two native
servants riding asses. With two fowling
pieces and a brace of pistols as their only
weapons, the little cavalcade rode forward.

Park had scarce gone three miles when
he was attacked and plundered. This was
only the beginning. King after king
demanded presents ; at village after village
the people surrounded his baggage and
helped themselves to what they pleased,
but Park's patience and good temper never
failed — not even when a rapacious king
compelled him to give the very coat off his
back.

When tribal wars made it impossible for
him to continue his journey eastward, Park
chose to make a detour to the north, through
the territory of one of the most treacherous
and cruel of the African peoples — the
Ludamar Moors. He was soon made
prisoner, and forced to submit to greatest
indignities. They spat in his face, but even
that failed to irritate him. In the fierce
heat they refused to give water enough to
quench his burning thirst, and drove him
from the wells like a dog when he attempted
to help himself, though there was no lack
of water. He used to fall asleep and dream

22 The Gall of the Dark Continent

of the rivers and streams of his native
Scotland, and waked to find himself a lonelv
captive, perishing for thirst amidst the wilds
of Africa. After nearly four months in
captivity, he contrived to escape, and again
turned his face towards the Niger, His
condition was desperate ; one of his servants
had been seized and carried into slavery,
and the other deserted. Once, in crossing
a barren, waterless stretch of country he
sank exhausted to the ground and believed
himself to be dying. He fell into a swoon,
but, on regaining consciousness, resolved to
make another attempt to reach the Niger.
As he struggled to his feet a sand storm
came on and almost suffocated him, but
during the night a welcome fall of rain
relieved his distress. He spread his clothes
on the ground to receive the precious water,
and then sucked them to slake his thirst.
On regaining Negro territory, his life was
in less danger, and he journeyed from village
to village, so ragged and dirty that people
jeered at him as he passed. At last he
approached the town of Sego, and was told
that on the morrow he would see the river
he had suffered so much to reach. That
night excitement banished sleep, and in the
morning he rode on. The supreme moment
had come.

" We rode through some marshy ground, where, as

The Opening of the Dark Continent 23

I was anxiously looking round for the river, one of The Niger
them called out, ' See ! the water ! ' and looking at Last !
forward I saw with infinite pleasure the great object
of my mission; the long sought for, majestic Niger,
glittering in the morning sun, flowing slowly to the
eastward. I hastened to the brink, and, having
drank of the water, lifted up my fervent thanks in
prayer to the great Ruler of all things for having
thus far crowned my endeavours with success."*

The sight he saw around him amazed
the dauntless traveller. The city of Sego
had, he estimated, a population of at least
30,000. The houses were built of clay
bricks neatly whitewashed, and the streets
wrere wide. A high mud wall surrounded
the town, and there were mosques in
every quarter. The river was crowded
with canoes, and the country around was
cultivated. This, in the very heart of
Africa, was a surprise indeed.

Park's next objective was Timbuktu.
He discovered that that city was in the
hands of fanatics, and death would be the
certain doom of any Christian who ventured
into it. The rumours were alarming
enough, but Park was not to be deterred,
and he pressed on. His old enemies, the
Moors, dogged his footsteps and harassed
him at every turn. By the time he
reached Sila matters were serious. He
wrote : —

* Park's Travels in Africa. Vol. I. Chapter XV.

24 The Gall of the Dark Continent

" Worn down by sickness, exhausted with hunger
and fatigue; half naked, and without any article of
value by which I might procure provisions, clothes, or
lodging, I began to reflect seriously on my position.
... I perceived that I was advancing more and more
within the power of those merciless fanatics. ... I
was apprehensive that ... I should sacrifice my life
to no purpose, for my discoveries would perish with
me."*

In the face of such difficulties he con-
cluded that it was his duty to return, in
order to save for his employers the in-
formation they had sent him to collect.
On the morrow he turned his face west-
ward. The return journey was full of peril.
He was often obliged to sleep in the open,
or to spend a night in a tree with lions
roaring around. He fell into the hands of
a company of armed Fulahs, who stripped
him stark naked and threatened to kill
him. Ultimately they returned his
shirt and trousers, and, to his great joy,
his hat, the crown of which contained his
precious journal. Thus they left him,
without compass, five hundred miles from
a European settlement. His condition was
indeed desperate, but he wrote : —

" I considered my fate as certain, and that I had
no alternative but to lie down and perish. The in-
fluence of religion, however, aided and supported me.
... I was a stranger in a strange land, yet I *vas
still under the protecting eye of that Providence Who

* Ibid. Vol. II. Chapter XVI.

The Opening of the Dark Continent 25

has condescended to call Himself the stranger's
Friend. At this moment . . . the extraordinary
beauty of a small moss in fructification irresistibly
caught my eye. I could not contemplate the delicate
conformation of its roots, leaves, and capsula without
admiration. Can that Being (thought I) Who
planted, watered, and brought to perfection a thing
of so small importance, look with unconcern upon the
situation and suffering of creatures formed in His own
image ? Surely not ! Reflections like these would
not allow me to despair. I started up, and, disregard-
ing hunger and fatigue, travelled forward assured
that relief was at hand."*

After a while Park fell in with a slave
caravan, with which he traversed the
weary way back to the Gambia. On this
dreadful march he was the unwilling wit-
ness of some of the horrors of slavery, and
his account of these brutal doings is
horrible in the extreme. At last he
reached the point from which he had
started, and took ship to England.

In 1805, the British Government decided Park's Second
to send an expedition to solve the problem ourney
of the Niger, and Mungo Park was placed
in command. Taking with him seven com-
panions and thirty-seven soldiers and sea-
men, Park started from the Gambia full of
enthusiasm for the task committed to him.
He had come to the conclusion that the
Niger and the Congo were one, and he
resolved to test his theory by sailing down

Ibid. Vol. II. Chapter XIX >

26 The Gall of the Dark Continent

the river to the sea. At that time African
travel was in its infancy, and Park made
the mistake of starting just before the wet
season began. One after another his men
sickened and died. Of the forty-five white
men who started from the Gambia, only seven
lived to see the Niger ; and by the time
Park reached Sansanding the number was
reduced to four — and one of them was
mad.
Death of Park After making a boat (H.M.S. " Joliba ")
from native canoes, the voyage down the
mighty river began. It was a perilous
undertaking, for no one knew whither it
might lead, and if it should end in some
thirsty desert there would be nothing but
death before those who survived thus far.
But Park did not hesitate. His devotion
to his purpose was complete. Time after
time his boat was attacked by large fleets
of native canoes, and he had to maintain a
running fight. But the worst was yet to
come. In a deep, narrow gorge near Bussa,
the river rushed furiously between islets
and dangerous rocks. At this point
Park's enemies lay in wait, and as the
" Joliba" passed through the channel they
attacked with spears, arrows, pikes, and
stones. Two of the native boatmen were
killed, and when the little craft struck a
submerged rock Park and his three com-

The Opening of the Dark Continent 27

panions sprang into the water, probably
hoping to swim down the river and escape
from their foes. But the current was too
strong for them, and they disappeared for
ever.

Thus perished Mungo Park, a hero
among heroes, a martyr to the cause of
exploration, a pioneer of African discovery.
Neither mercantile, missionary, nor philan-
thropic claims drew him to the Dark
Continent. The siren voice that called
him was science. To unveil the secrets of
the Niger he laid down his life.

The course of the great river remained The Quest
a mystery. While Park was still in
Africa, the African Association sent out
Hornemann. a German. Travelling from
Cairo across the Sudan he actually reached
the Niger and died there all alone.
Another German, Roentgen, was sent to
Morocco, and a Mr. Nichols to Calabar, by
the same Association. Both these men
died on the coast. After the death of
Mungo Park, the British Government sent
out two simultaneous expeditions — one
was ordered to continue Park's journey
down the Niger, and the other to sail up
the Congo until they should meet ! Both
these expeditions ended in tragic failure.
The next efforts were more successful. In
1821 Captain C]apperton and Major

28 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Denham, commanding a caravan of about
300 persons, started from Tripoli for a
perilous journey across the trackless
Sahara. Hundreds of human skeletons
were strewn on the burning sands ; around
the brink of a well they found the bones of
fully five score slaves. After a terrible
desert journey of two months they entered
the fertile Sudan, and reached Lake Chad.
The great cities of Kano and Sokoto were
visited — for the first time by Europeans —
and the expedition returned by the desert
route to Tripoli. It was now clear that
the Niger did not flow towards the Nile,
and men began to think of a possible outlet
in the Bight of Benin. Soon Clapperton
made another attempt — this time from
Badagry on the West Coast. His two
white companions succumbed to fever, and
Clapperton himself died at Sokoto. In
1826 a Scotchman, Major Laing, reached
Timbuktu from the north, and then was
murdered by his guides. But success
came at last. In 1830 Richard and John
Lander journeyed overland from Badagry
to Bussa and completed the voyage that had
cost Park his life twenty-four years before.
On November the 23rd, 1830, they reached
the mouth of the river, and the mystery of
the Niger was solved. It seems strange to
us that the mouth of the Niger should

The Opening of the Dark Continent 29

have so long remained a secret. As a
matter of fact, Europeans had long been
familiar with these numerous creeks and
dismal mangrove swamps in the Bight of
Benin, but had never dreamt that they
were the mouths of the mighty Niger.

It was soon perceived that the Landers' Commerce and
discovery opened in the heart of Africa a ! anthropy
highway for British commerce, and efforts
were made to take advantage of it. Fore-
most in this enterprise was Macgregor
Laird, a Scotch merchant carrying on
business in Liverpool. From 1832 to 1861
steamers were repeatedly sent up the
river. Government assisted in this work
of " opening up the Niger," but Laird bore
the expense of most of the expeditions.
The object was not wholly mercantile.
British philanthropists were beginning to
take an interest in Africa for the sake of
the African peoples themselves. It was
thought that permanent moral results
could be achieved by taking advantage of
the trading instincts of the Negro race,
and efforts were accordingly made to
substitute honest trade for the existing
traffic in human flesh. Attempts were
made to bring the river "kings" into
treaty relationship with the British
Government, binding them to prohibit the
slave trade in their respective "dominions."

30 The Gall of the Dark Continent

These well-intentioned efforts completely
failed. Malaria carried off victims by the
score. The kings, easily persuaded to
sign treaties, made little or no effort to
fulfil their promises, and the commercial
part of the enterprise was a complete
failure. The dreams of the philanthropists
were dispelled, and the work was aban-
doned.

After the withdrawal from trading
stations established by Macgregor Laird
and his co-workers — true friends of Africa,
all of them — private traders made their
way up the Niger. They were actuated
by no philanthropic motives. Arms, gun-
powder, and gin were their principal
imports ; and with these things they, for
their own profit, helped to increase the
degradation of the Niger tribes. It was the
old idea — gain. Several companies at-
tempted to purify the commercial life, but the
real change did not come until Sir George T.
Gouldie succeeded in uniting the trading
firms into one great concern, which, in

The 1886, became the Royal Niger Company.

Compan^er Under its charter, this company had
great territories committed to it for ad-
ministration, and what at first was merely
the " British sphere of influence " became
in 1899 the Crown Colonies of Nigeria.

The Opening of the Dark Continent 31

We have now to trace the exploration
of the southern section of the Dark Con-
tinent— that mighty peninsula lying south
of 5 degrees N. Lat.

During the seventeenth, eighteenth, South Africa
and nineteenth centuries the settlers at
the Cape — Dutch and British — gradually
spread over what is now Cape Colony.

The constant encroachments of the
whites were resented by the natives —
especially by the Bushmen — and friction
deepened into painful race-hatred and led
to frequent bloodshed. The colonists, in
their eagerness to possess the land, were
regardless of the rights and interests of
the African peoples, and treated them as
wild beasts, often shooting them down
without provocation. There were no real
efforts to explore the country, and such
discoveries as were made were accidental.
The picture of early life in South Africa
would be dark indeed were it not relieved
by the presence of Christian missionaries,
who championed the cause of the natives.
Some of these ambassadors of the Gospel
wandered far in their efforts to make
Christ known to the heathen. Robert
Moffat explored BeChuanaland, and to
reach the fierce MaTabele undertook long
journeys. But notwithstanding all this,
in 1850 the vast interior was still shrouded

32 The Gall of the Dark Continent

in darkness. We have now come to the
greatest name in the annals of Africa —
Livingstone Livingstone.

As a young man he met Robert Moffat
(then home from Africa on furlough).

" I told him," wrote Moffat afterwards, " of the
vast plain to the north (of the remotest mission
station in South Africa), where I had sometimes seen,
in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages
where no missionary had ever been."

This was Livingstone's call. A great
purpose was formed in his heart, and,
having made his resolution, he responded,
" I will go at once to Africa." The
Directors of the London Missionary Societ}^
accepted him as a medical missionary, and
from that hour he lived for the African
peoples.

When Livingstone reached Cape Town
in 1841 he hoped to make Kuruman
(Moffat's station) a strong base from which
the northern regions could be evangelised,
but a few months' residence convinced him
that it was a poor centre, and he deter-
mined to find a better one further north.
Laying his plans before the Directors at
home, he placed himself at their disposal,
writing in his characteristic way, " Any-
where, provided it be forward." Choosing
Mabotsa — a place some 200 miles north of
Kuruman — he settled there with his young

The Opening of the Dark Continent 33

wife and a fellow missionary, expecting
that it would be the scene of his life-work.
But soon his colleague, jealous of the
success, declared that all the credit was
falling to Livingstone. Rather than have
friction, Livingstone determined to journey
further afield, leaving the work at Mabotsa
to the care of his critic. He now settled
among the BaKwains, and when he realised
how much they suffered from constant
droughts, set himself to relieve them.
So completely had these people learned to
trust him that, at his advice, the whole
tribe migrated with Livingstone to a more
suitable spot. But drought followed them,
and ere long another move became necessary.
The great Kalahari desert stretched away
to the west and north. No white man
had ever crossed that inhospitable region;
the natives themselves were uncertain
what lay beyond it, but rumour told of a
land of rivers and lakes, densely populated.
Livingstone crossed 600 miles of desert in
search of this African Canaan, and made
his first discovery — Lake Ngami. Further
north he heard of the great MaKololo
nation, and after several failures he suc-
ceeded in reaching them. In doing so
he discovered the upper waters of the
Zambesi. This was the great turning
point in Livingstone's career. While

2

34 The Gall of the Dark Continent

among the MaKololo, he came into close
contact with the slave trade. The terrible
extent of this traffic convinced Livingstone
that it must be suppressed before the
people could be really benefited. So long
as life and liberty were constantly im-
perilled, the country could not progress,
and missionary work would be for ever
checked in its endeavours to redeem the
natives. As he pondered these things, it
became clear to him that, for the sake of
the work, he must devote himself to
destroying the slave trade. This could
best be done by the opening up of the
unknown regions and introducing legitimate
trade. Thus the way of Christ would be
prepared. By gathering out the stones,
he resolved to prepare in the wilderness
a highway for the Gospel. So long as the
slave raiders could carry on their infamous
trade unseen in the heart of the Dark
Continent, they would flourish like the
rank growth of the forest. He would
open Central Africa to the light of day.

Sending his dearly loved wife to England
he devoted himself to the threefold
purpose :

"First, to find a healthful location for a mission
north of Lake Ngami; second, to open up a way of
commerce to the West Coast, since the distance of
the proposed mission station from the Cape would be

The Opening of the Dark Continent 35

too great to permit of communication; third, by
introducing legitimate commerce, to do away with
the slave trade, which was the insurmountable barrier
to successful missionary operations."

For eleven years he had devoted himself
to recognised missionary work. He now
became a missionary explorer. But his
central purpose was ever to make Christ
known in the " thousand villages where no
missionary had ever been." He was more
than a missionary ; he was a missionary
statesman.

Starting from the country of the His First
MaKololo with twenty-seven native atten- Journey
dants (November 11th, 1853), he pressed
westward through regions never before
trodden by the foot of white man. In the
light of modern experience, his travelling
equipment was strangely inadequate for
such a journey, but it is worthy of note
that it included a magic lantern, for he
realised that the Gospel must be preached
to the eye as well as to the ear of the
African. As he journeyed, he sought to
persuade the chiefs through whose territories
he passed to abandon slavery and live at
peace with each other, and at every village
he made known the God of love.

Too great to have limited interests,
Livingstone carefully collected all possible
information as to the fauna and flora, as

36 The Gall of the Dark Continent

well as about the natives. He made
astronomical observations, and diligently
and scientifically mapped out the country
through which he travelled. All this was
done in spite of heavy rains and persistent
opposition from hostile tribes. He passed
through dark, wet forests, and was often
compelled to cut with an axe a passage
through the dense undergrowth. He had
thirty-one attacks of fever — indeed, he was
seldom free from it — he was sometimes
unable to walk without the support of his
followers, and on one occasion utterly
collapsed. His MaKololo attendants lost
heart and wished to return, but Livingstone
cast himself on God. " 0 Almighty God !
help, help ! " he cried. " Leave not this
wretched people to the slave-dealer and
Satan." At last (May 31st, 1854) he reached
San Paulo de Loanda, and was immedi-
ately prostrated by a severe illness. Soon
some British cruisers came to the port and
offered to take the sick traveller to England.
But he had promised his MaKololo helpers
that he would see them back to their homes,
and he would not fail in his promise. " His
word to the black men of Africa was just
as sacred as it would have been if pledged
to the Queen. He kept it as faithfully as an
oath made to Almighty God." There was
another reason. He had not found the

The Opening of the Dark Continent 37

western outlet he sought ; and he deter-
mined to seek it in the opposite direction.
He had been in Central Africa thirteen
years, and had made enough discoveries to
make his name famous, but he felt he had
more work to do.

Sending his carefully prepared reports The First
on board, he watched the cruisers sail for Sfr?cTg °f
England. Then, with his faithful MaKololo
he plunged once more into the interior.
On regaining the Zambesi, he resolved to
follow it eastward to the sea. This famous
journey was notable for the discovery ol
the magnificent Victoria Falls (Livingstone
gave them the name), and the exploration
of the whole course of the river. When
he reached Quilimane, at the mouth of the
Zambesi, he had crossed Africa from sea to
sea — the first European to accomplish the
feat.

ReturninD' to England, Livingstone found
himself honoured as the greatest living
explorer, but his heart was in Africa, and
he soon made arrangements to return. To
the students at Cambridge he declared his
purpose in characteristic fashion:

" I go back to Africa to make an open path for
commerce and Christianity ; do you carry out the
work which I have begun. I leave it with you."

Livingstone went back to Africa as Livingstone's
British Consul at Quilimane, with charge journey

38 The Gall of the Dark Continent

of a government expedition to explore
East Central Africa. He completed the
exploration of the Zambesi, and also of
Lake Nyassa and the River Shire. Every-
where the Arab slave trade was rampant.
At this time some 19,000 slaves from the
Nyassa region alone were passing annually
through the Custom House at Zanzibar,
and Livingstone found that the Portuguese
were vigorously supporting the traffic. But
the results of the journey were over-
shadowed. At Shupanga, on the banks of
the Shire, Livingstone " knelt beside his
dying wife and witnessed the great sunset
of his life." Very touching are the
references in his journals to this sad event.
His heart was well-nigh broken. In 1863
the expedition was recalled, and Living-
stone returned to England.
The Lake Meanwhile, the regions further north

Region were being opened by other explorers. In

the early fifties, three German missionaries
(Krapf, Erhardt, and Rebmann) labouring
on the East Coast in the neighbourhood of
Mombasa, heard from the Arabs of a great
inland sea which had no end, " although one
should travel for a hundred days." The
missionaries attempted to draw a map to
show the position of this reported lake, and
sent it to England, where it excited con-
siderable interest. In 1857 Burton and

The Opening of the Dark Continent 39

Speke plunged into the heart of the Dark
Continent from Zanzibar, and established
the accuracy of the report by discovering
Lake Tanganyika. The following year,
Speke, journeying towards the north, found
Victoria Nyanza ; and in 1860-3, accom-
panied by Grant, he worked round the
western side of the great lake, and dis-
covered Uganda and the Victoria Nile. Sir
Samuel Baker, travelling up the Nile in
search of its source, traced the ancient
stream until he reached another great lake,
which he named Albert Nyanza (1864). The
aim of these distinguished men was chiefly
scientific ; they were attracted by the prob-
lem Herodotus had started over two thou-
sand years before — the sources of the Nile.

The year 1866 found Livingstone again Livingstone's
in Africa. This time he was commissioned Journey
by the Royal Geographical Society to settle
the great question of the Nile's origin. But
while this was in the main a scientific quest,
Livingstone did not so regard it. To him
"the end of exploration was the beginning
of missionary enterprise " ; he was still
preparing the way to those "thousand
villages where no missionary had ever been."
It was the most difficult of all his journeys.
For over seven weary years he travelled about
the region south of Tanganyika. Reduced
by fever and starvation, exposed to constant

40 The Gall of the Dark Continent

danger, opposed and robbed by the Arabs
at every turn, he toiled on. Of forty letters
from home, only one ever reached him, and
on the other hand no tidings were received
from him. Frequent rumours of his death
found their way to England, and the anxiety
as to his safety became so great that the
New York Herald sent Henry M. Stanley
to search for him. The romantic meeting
of the two travellers at Ujiji is famous in
the annals of exploration. Stanley,
captivated by the charm of Livingstone's
personality, wrote :

" For four months I lived with him in the same
hut, or the same boat, or the same tent, and I never
found a fault in him. I went to Africa as prejudiced
against religion as the worst infidel in London. . . .
I saw this solitary old man there, and I asked myself :
Why does he stop here? What is it that inspires
him? For months after we met I found myself
listening to him, wondering at the old man carrying
out the words, ' Leave all and follow Me.' But
little by little, seeing his piety, his gentleness, his
zeal, his earnestness, and how he went quietly about
his business, I was converted by him, although he
had not tried to do it."

Stanley had gone to bring Livingstone
home, but he met all entreaties with a quiet
"I must first finish my task," and a few days
after Stanley's departure he wrote :

" Nothing earthly will make me give up my work
in despair. I encourage myself in the Lord my God,
and go forward."

The Opening of the Dark Continent 41

In this spirit the hero set himself once
more to solve the problem of the Lualaba —
was it the infant Nile? Touching is a brief
note in his diary (elated July 5th, 1872):

" Weary ! weary ! "

Pressing forward still, he wrote the
burning message now inscribed on his grave-
stone in Westminster Abbey: —

'" All I can add in my solitude is, May heaven's
richest blessing come down on every one, American,
English, or Turk, who will help to heal this open sore
of the world."

The end was near. On April the 29th,
1873, Livingstone was carried by his
attendants through the rain to the village His Death
of Ilala, and on the night of the following day
his heroic spirit fled. His body was brought
to England by his faithful servants, but his
heart lies buried in Central Africa, in the
very midst of those unreached villages for
wThich he crave his life.

Livingstone's purpose was to open the
door of Central Africa. He succeeded in
doing so. The end of his exploration was
the beginning of missionary enterprise, and
while he was still engaged in his work,
missionaries were pressing forward to enter
the doors he had opened.

But the secrets of the Dark Continent
were not exhausted. Others were to finish
the work Livingstone had begun.

2*

42 The Gall of the Dark Continent

In 1873-5 Cameron walked across the
continent from Zanzibar to Benguela.
More important was Stanley's great journey
H.M.Stanley of 1874-7. Starting again from Zanzibar,
he journeyed to Victoria Nyanza, which he
thoroughly explored. After a prolonged
stay in Uganda (where, remembering what
Livingstone would have done, he made not
unsuccessful attempts to win the powerful
monarch M'tesa for Christ), Stanley circum-
navigated Tanganyika, and then travelled
west, determined to trace Livingstone's
Lualaba. But after flowing northward for
a considerable distance the river turned
suddenly to the west and it became clear
that it was the Congo. In the face of fierce
and repeated attacks by cannibal tribes, who
shook their spears and shot their arrows as
they greeted the expedition with ferocious
cries of "Meat! meat!", Stanley and his
party descended the river to the sea, thus
marking on the map the course of one of the
greatest rivers of the world. The Missionary
Societies were quick to avail themselves of
the doors Stanley had opened and the inte-
rest he had created. The C.M.S., respond-
ing to Stanley's famous appeal in the Daily
Telegraph, sent a party of missionaries to
Uganda, the L.M.S. gave their attention
to the Tanganyika region, while the B.M.S.
commenced a splendid work on the Congo.

The Opening of the Dark Continent 43
From 1879 to 1884 Stanley was again The Congo

A „ • ,,. J ■> & Free State

in Africa, this time to explore more
thoroughly the Congo Basin and open it to
commerce under the auspices of " The
International Association of the Congo."
Roads were constructed, steamboats placed
on the river, trading stations opened, and
treaties signed with more than 450 inde-
pendent chiefs. This work was followed
by the Berlin Conference (November, 1884,
to February, 1885), called at the suggestion
of Bismarck, and the Congo Free State was
brought into being. The original object of
this enterprise was the development of the
territory committed to it in the interests
of commerce, and for uplifting the native
peoples. But, as the years passed, the
mercenary motive that has through the
ages wrought such havoc in Africa crowded
out all philanthropic effort. The rubber
traffic led to terrible atrocities, and for a
decade the Congo region has been drained
of its resources to increase the profits of
the commercial firms concerned. Men,
women and children have been mutilated
or butchered in cold blood by the native
agents (in some cases themselves cannibals)
of the so-called " Free " State, acting
under the orders of their Belgian officers.

In 1888 Stanley again crossed Africa The Relief of

p i * j • i x v XT' • Emm Pasha

irom coast to coast, in order to relieve xLiimn

44 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Other
Explorers

Colonisation

Pasha, Governor of Equatoria. Ascend-
ing the Congo with a large force, he
penetrated the great Aruwimi forest and
reached the western shore of Albert
Nyanza. Continuing his march, Stanley
discovered another great lake — Albert
Edward Nyanza — and also the snow-
covered range of Ruwenzori — the famous
" Mountains of the Moon " mentioned by
Ptolemy. In December, 1889, the expe-
dition reached Zanzibar.

Space has only permitted a brief survey
of the discovery of the most prominent
features of the Dark Continent. A host
of explorers — Barth, Nachtigal, Schwein-
furth, Cameron, Serpa Pinto, Joseph
Thomson, H. H. Johnston, Fischer, Gren-
fell, Junker, Pogge, Wissmann, Wolf, Du
Chaillu, De Brazza, Mizon, Rouvier, Oscar
Lenz, and others — have added to the
knowledge gained by the great travellers
who preceded them, and in 1901 Grogan
and Sharp made the first complete journey
from the Cape to Cairo. There still
remain great areas to be explored, but the
main features of the continent are now
known, and only points of detail have to
be settled.

Meanwhile, the colonisation of Africa by
European peoples was proceeding apace.
Unhappily, many stains rest on the early

The Opening of the Dark Continent 45

history of the colonies. The land -grabbing,
bullying spirit of many settlers led to
cruel reprisals on the part of the natives,
and many fierce encounters took place.
During the nineteenth century, European
Protectorates were established over large
areas of Central Africa, the object being
partly philanthropic and partly commercial.
Then, as the interior was opened by ex-
plorers, missionaries, and traders, a passion
for territorial expansion swayed the nations,
and as the years passed the Dark Conti-
nent was divided between the great
Colonial Powers of Europe. France,
Britain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium,
Italy and Spain secured territories of
varying importance, and successive treaties
and conferences marked out the boundaries.

Although many blunders have been Benefits of
made, and in some instances gross injustice Occupation
and cruelty have been inflicted on the
native peoples, it is beyond question that
occupation by European powers has been
for Africa's good. The power of the Arabs
has been broken, and slave-raiding effec-
tually stopped over the greater part of the
continent ; such blood-thirsty tyrants as
the kings of Dahomey, Benin, and Ashanti
have been crushed ; military nations like
the AmaZulu and the MaTabele have been
compelled to live at peace with their

46 The Gall of the Dark Continent

neighbours. Tribes that formerly were
strangers to peace have now rest and
security under the flag of a powerful
European Government. The prohibition
of cannibalism, human sacrifice, and many
of the more cruel features of fetich ism are
also helping to prevent the appalling
waste of human life. It must not be
supposed that any of the evils just men-
tioned have disappeared from Africa. They
still exist to a greater or lesser extent ;
but by constant punitive expeditions, and
the increasing effectiveness of administra-
tion, they are receding further and further
into the vast interior, and in due time will
become extinct. On the other hand, com-
merce, agriculture, education, and various
usages of civilisation, together with dis-
tinctly missionary and philanthropic effort,
are working, on the whole, for the uplifting
of the African.

Large areas have been brought into
close contact with civilisation and Chris-
tianity. Steamers ply on lakes and rivers
unknown sixty years ago. From the
north, the railway has crept up the Nile to
beyond Khartoum, and the line from Cape
Town is rapidly approaching Tanganyika ;
in a few years the two railways will meet.
The Uganda railway has reduced to about
three days a journey that a few years ago

The Opening of the Dark Continent 47

took several months and was accompanied
bv serious dangers. So recently as 1900,
it took Bishop Tugwell and his little band
of missionaries several months to reach
Kano, the Manchester of the Sudan ; this
city can now be reached in a few days by
train. A careful scrutiny of an up-to-date
map of Africa will reveal numerous short
railway lines near the coast. Many of
them are not more than a couple of
hundred miles in length, but as the years
pass they are gradually creeping inland,
and their number is increasing.

We began our study with Africa un- The Open
known and closed to the world. We have ContInent
watched Phoenicians and Portuguese sail
round her coasts, and the explorers of
many nations penetrate the gloom of the
interior. We have seen the Dark Con-
tinent opened to all foreign influences,
good and evil. We have noted the
varying motives that have drawn men to
Africa — commerce, science, philanthropy,
religion and territorial possession. With
sorrow we have observed that much of
what is termed " the opening of the
country " can only accurately be described
as exploitation. But, attracted by trade
or by science, lured by greed of gold or
called by God, men have contributed to
the opening of the land, and to-day, to all

48 The Gall of the Dark Continent

comers, the doors of the Dark Continent
stand open.

vv* vf* *rv" -yv* *7v*

Two Views of In a well-furnished Board Room, the
Managing Committee of the Z Trading-
Company sit in earnest consultation. A
great map of Africa is spread on the table
before them, and with trained eyes they
note the possibilities of the land. Skilfully
they lay their plans and choose sites for their
trading stations. Their thought of Africa is
summed up in one word — COMMERCE.

The scene changes. In the dark hours
of early morning, several African servants
timidly enter a little grass hut at Ilala.
David Livingstone "has reached the end
of the last stage of his thirty thousand
miles of African travel." By the dim light of
a candle, Susi and his companions see their
beloved master on his knees at the bedside,
his face buried in his hands. They have
often seen him praying. But now his body
remains motionless. Stealing to his side,
they touch his cheek. Livingstone is dead !
The great missionary's last prayer was
unheard by human ear ; was unrecorded
save by One above. We know not what
he prayed for. But we know his life — his
heart. Can we doubt that his last prayer
was for those for whom he had given his
life— THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA ?

The Opening of the Dark Continent 49

ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES

SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION.— The preparation
for the Gospel effected by the opening of Africa.

1. When Christ gave the Great Commission, " Go
ye into all the world,'' to what extent was it possible
to reach pagan Africa?

2. When such men as Dr. Coke and William Carey
revived (in England) the idea of responsibility for
the heathen, how far was it possible to evangelise
pagan Africa?

3. Sixty years ago, the Missionary Krapf, labour-
ing at Mombasa (1844-55), conceived the idea of an
" Apostolic Street " — a line of stations stretching
across Africa from Mombasa to the Atlantic. How
far was this, at that time, within the range of
practical missionary effort ?

4. To what extent is Krapf 's scheme — or any
similar scheme — possible to-day?

5. Write down the new factors that make the
interior of Africa accessible to modern missionaries.

6. Tabulate the motives that have drawn men to
the Dark Continent.

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

Fraser, Donald. — The Future of Africa. (Chap-
ters I., II., III.)

Maclachlan, T. B. — Mungo Park.

Blaikie, W. G.—The Personal Life of David
Livingstone.

Chapter II.
The People of the Dark Continent

"The most interesting thing about Africa is the native
himself. If I had a thousand tongues, and each of
them inspired by the gifts of the prophets of old,
all should be dedicated to pleading for this people "

BISHOP HARTZELL

The Gall of We have noticed in the preceding chapter

Africa's People ^ the great difference between those

heroic explorers Mungo Park and David
Livingstone lay in the fact that, while Park
was fascinated by the geographic problem
of the Niger, Livingstone laboured for the
African people themselves. The pathfinder
of South -Central Africa was as truly
devoted to science as his great predecessor
had been, but went infinitely beyond him,
in that he sought to open Africa for the
good of Africa's people. THE PEOPLE—
they were Livingstone's first thought ; for
their sake he went to that distant land, for
them he lived and toiled; to reach them he
journeyed and overcame all obstacles ; for
them he wept, and for them he died. To

50

The People of the Dark Continent 51

him, scientific exploration was only the
means to be employed in reaching the
people. The people were more to him than
rivers and waterfalls and lakes. And is
not this the mind of Christ? "Master,
what stones! What buildings! " exclaimed
the disciples in admiration. But our Lord's
mind was occupied with Jerusalem's
people rather than with her stately
palaces. Beholding the city He wept
over it, saying, "If thou hadst known, even
thou, the things which belong to thy
peace ! "

As Christ's servants, for us the Call of
the Dark Continent is the call of her needy
multitudes.

Considering the immense size of Africa, The Population
the population is surprisingly small. India °
and China could be packed away in a
corner of the Dark Continent. But Africa's
population is scarcely more than half that
of India, or one-third that of China. No
census of all Africa has yet been attempted,
and figures are therefore somewhat uncer-
tain ; but the total population has been
estimated to be between 127,000,000 and
210,000,000. It is usual to take
160,000,000 as a convenient and moderate
figure. This gives a density of only about

52 The Gall of the Dark Continent

fifteen to the square mile. In India it is 167
per mile, and in China it is 266. A glance
at a carefully prepared density map will
reveal the fact that more than half the
area of the continent has less than eight
inhabitants to the mile. The population is
densest in the Nile Valley, the coast
regions of Tunis, Algeria and Morocco, and
the British Nigeria Protectorates ; in these
areas it averages over sixty- four per mile.

The Hamitic and Semitic peoples of
North Africa developed, at a very early
date, a civilisation that will always be
remembered with wonder. It has been
otherwise with the black races that occupy
the greater portion of the continent. They
never invented a machine, never produced
a book, never constructed a building that
would last more than a few years. These
people are entirely void of anything that
can be called history. Their ancestors left
no inscriptions of any kind (the cave-
drawings of the Bushmen alone excepted).
They have their traditions and folk-tales,
it is true; but future generations will date
the history of their tribe from the arrival
of the first explorer or the advent of the
first missionary, as we begin our own history
with the landing of Julius Caesar. We are
dealing with the .backward races of the
world.

The People of the Dark Continent 53

In popular thought the Africans are all The Variety of
Negroes. But in reality the Dark Continent frica'
is a museum of races, and offers special
facilities for the study of ethnology. Race
after race entered Africa from Arabia,
swept across the country, driving the older
invaders before them, and then betook
themselves either to a settled or a more or
less nomadic life, broke up into tribes, and
gradually became diverse the one from the
other in custom, in manner of life, in
language. Mr. B. Struck, of Berlin, after
careful research, came to the conclusion
that the separate languages of Africa num-
ber 523 and the dialects 320. Perhaps we
shall not be far wrong in roughly estimating
the languages and dialects together at over
800. This is prodigious. When we re-
member that Europe can only boast about
seventy -five languages and dialects, and
India, with all its wondrous variety, only
150, it will be seen that Africa stands alone
in the number and diversity of its tongues.
Difference in language is an unfailing
indication of difference of thought and
habit, and we shall only understand pagan
Africa in so far as we recognise the great
diversity that exists between the tribes,
despite the fact of their underlying
solidarity.

Probably the first people to enter Africa The Bushmen

54 The Gall of the Dark Continent

were the Bushmen, a diminutive copper-
coloured race of hunters, averaging about
4 feet 6 inches in height. Landing some-
where in the neighbourhood of Somaliland.
they wandered across the whole continent
south of the Sahara, unencumbered, and
armed only with bows and poisoned arrows.
They subsisted entirely by hunting, and
feared not to attack even the elephant and
the lion with their tiny flint- tipped arrows.
Courageous, wary, patient, they seem to
have been well fitted for such a land as
the Africa of those remote days. As their
manner of life made permanent dwellings
undesirable, they slept in caverns or trees,
or else scooped for themselves holes in the
ground, and spread over them coverings of
mat or skin. Rising at early dawn, their
keen eyes scanned the valley or plain for
game, and then, with their dogs, they set
off in pursuit. Their wives and children
followed, carrying with them fire to cook
the food when caught. Thus they lived
from day to day, constantly roving from
place to place. They were passionate,
vindictive, and on occasions extremely cruel.
A freedom -loving people, they were without
organisation, without government, without
law. Freedom from care left room for
laughter and mirth between the bursts of
fierce and vengeful passion. The several

The People of the Dark Continent 55

dwarf or pigmy tribes of modern Central
Africa are probably related to these
Bushmen.

The Negro seems to have been the next The Negroes
important arrival in the continent with
which his name has for centuries been
inseparably connected. This powerful black
race, being of larger stature and superior
strength to the Bushmen, pushed its way
across Africa from east to west, gradually
spreading over a wide belt of country
reaching from the Gulf of Aden to Cape
Verde. The Negroes must have entered
Africa at a very early date, for they figured
on Egyptian monuments at least 5,000
years ago. Armed at first with stone
weapons, they learned — perhaps from the
ancient Egyptians, who arrived later — the
art of working metals, and gradually a
higher civilisation spread among Negroes
than has, even up to the present time, been
attained by the Bushmen.

Possessing remarkable vitality, they mul-
tiplied rapidly, and with the passing of
centuries broke up into tribes and nations,
and are known to us to-day as Fantis,
Kroos, Gas, Ashantis, Yorubas, Egbas,
Nupes, Hausas, Baghirmis, Nubeans,
Dinkas, Shilluks, Baris and others.
Linguistically, Sir Harry H. Johnston
marks them off into sixteen groups.

56 The Gall of the Dark Continent

The Bushmen, disturbed in the hunting
grounds they had all to themselves before the
arrival of the Negroes, turned their faces
southwards and rambled over the forests
and plains of the great African peninsula
until they reached the southern limits
of the continent.
The Hottentots Then came the Hottentots — a slender
though sometimes tall people, of olive-
yellow complexion. They were of pastoral
habits and very easily distinguishable from
the Bushmen, with whom they were
constantly at war. It is now generally
accepted that the Hottentots originated in
the region of the great Lakes, or possibly
even further north, perhaps by fusion of
Bushmen and Negro or even Hamitic
tribes. Their origin gave them a sense of
superiority over the primitive, dwarfish
Bushmen, and they called themselves
Khoi-khoi, the men of men. At some
unknown date, these people, driving their
herds of horned cattle before them, emi-
grated southward, pushing their way
through the vast hunting grounds of the
fierce little Bushmen, until they came to
the southern coasts, where they took
possession of the land from Walfish Bay on
the west to the Um Tamvuna Biver on the
east. They settled chiefly along the sea-
board and on the banks of the Orange

The People of the Dark Continent 57

River, leaving the inland regions to the
Bushmen.

After a lapse of centuries the Bushmen The Bantu
were again disturbed — this time by the
arrival of powerful tribes known to us as
the Bantu.

This hybrid people first appear north of
the Lakes, somewhere about modern British
East Africa. They may have originated
in the ingrafting of Hamitic and Semitic
tribes upon a Negro stock. A proud,
imperial race they were ; strong and well
formed, and of darker and richer colour
than the Bushmen. Expelled from their
northerly home (possibly by some new
Hamitic inrush from South- West Asia),
they swept over the southern half of Africa.
The date of the first of these movements is
unknown ; it may have been three thousand
years ago. They pressed down the eastern
side of the sub-continent, driving the
scattered Bushmen before them. In suc-
cessive waves they came, century after
century. About 800 or 900 a.d. some of
these tribes crossed the Zambesi, and in
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the
Portuguese found them as far south as
Delagoa Bay. Meanwhile other Bantu
tribes crossed the Congo forests and
penetrated to the Atlantic coast, and so
worked their way northward until they

58 The Gall of the Dark Continent

occupied the Cameroons region. But some
of those who reached the West Coast
moved southward, and other tribes marched
south by a middle coarse. There were
thus three distinct streams of Bantu in-
vasion— the Eastern, the Western, and
the Central.

The BaRalong, one of the tribes which
led the central movement, claim that about
1400 a.t>. they came from a considerable
distance on the other side of the Equator,
from a region of high hills and extensive
lakes. Looking towards the east from
their original home, the sun in its course
passed on their right shoulder at the same
angle as it now passes on their left. The
traditions of the Kafirs, the BeChuana,
the OvaHerero, and probably all the Bantu
tribes point to the North and North-East
as their primeval home.

The conquest of the south took centuries
to accomplish, but gradually the Bantu
got possession of the rich south-easterly
regions, driving the Hottentots westward
and the wild, freedom-loving Bushmen into
the dry desert lands of the southern
interior, where the Bantu did not care to
follow them. The fertile country they
occupied supplied the newcomers with as
much corn as they needed in return for
very little labour. They settled in villages

The People of the Dark Continent 59

and were great hunters, but they were a
pastoral and agricultural people.

The fact that the Bantu tribes were
spread over a vast area — at least one-
third of the continent — and, separated by
distance, had comparatively little inter-
course with each other, naturally tended
to develop differences of custom, and as
new words were invented, language also
underwent considerable change. They
gradually broke up into three great divi-
sions, which together constitute the Bantu
group of languages. The term "Bantu"
has become the name bv which we know
these numerous tribes, otherwise possessing
no race-name.

Other differences came to separate still
further the Bantu tribes. The East
Coast swarmed with Arabs, and it is
certain that a measure of intermarriage
took place, thus further distinguishing
some of the eastern Bantu from their
kinsfolk of the western and central
groups.

In process of time many of the Bantu The Bantu
tribes grew into kingdoms, and Portuguese Natlons
grandiloquence even magnified Monomatapa,
the head chief of the MaKaranga, into an
" Emperor."

Some of these kingdoms which have
arisen within the limits of history supply

60 The Gall of the Dark Continent

illustrations of movements which have
probably been going on for many ages.
l. The Ama- In the closing years of the eighteenth

century, Dingiswayo, the exiled son of the
chief of a tribe which lived in East Africa,
made his way to Cape Town. Here he saw
the military drill and training of British
soldiers, and when he became chief, in
succession to his father, he began to drill
his own warriors. When Dingiswayo died,
his favourite officer, Tshaka, was chosen to
succeed him. The petty tribes were quickly
welded together into the powerful Zulu
nation. The army was thoroughly organ-
ised, and, though armed only with skin
shields and assegais, soon overcame the
surrounding tribes, which were without
discipline and had no idea of military
tactics. Tshaka divided his troops into
twenty-six regiments, each of which wore
a distinctive uniform (consisting chiefly of
skins and feathers). After a battle it was
the king's custom to hold a review, and
men who had failed in their duty were at
once put to death. With despotic power
the tyrant compelled instant obedience,
and the very name of the AmaZulu became
terrible to the nations around. It has been
estimated that Tshaka destroyed 300 tribes
and extended his power for five hundred
miles. At one time he had an army of

The People of the Dark Continent 61

100,000 warriors. The king's own children
were, by his orders, murdered soon after
they were born. Men, women and children
were ruthlessly ordered to death for the
most trivial offences. When at the summit
of his power, Tshaka caused his own mother
to be murdered ; and then, to show his
" grief" at her death, caused fifteen girls to
be buried alive with her body, and ordered
a general massacre over her grave, during
which, on the estimate of an English eye-
witness, some 7,000 persons were slain.
Under Tshaka's successors, Dingaan, Panda
and Cetewayo, this great military nation
exerted a powerful influence — always for
evil — over South-East Africa, and the Zulus,
civil and military alike, were tyrannised
over by their kings. On one occasion, in
order to discourage marriage among the
troops, Cetewayo ordered all the marriage-
able girls of the nation to be put to death,
and this cruel order was actually executed.
In 1878 the British Government was
obliged to step in ; the military power of
the AmaZulu was broken, and Cetewayo
was captured.

In 1838 a Zulu chief, Mozilikatzi by 2. The MaTabele
name, rebelled against Tshaka, and, leaving
a trail of fire and blood right across the
country (now the Transvaal), crossed the
Limpopo Hiver, seized the land and cattle

62 The Gall of the Dark Continent

of a central Bantu people, whom he drove
northward over the Zambesi, and made all
the tribes around subject to himself. Thus
was founded the Tabele nation. " A terrible
man was Mozilikatzi. A man of blood and
genius was he. Wherever his assegai
could reach, there could be but one will,
and that his own. No man dared to dispute
his orders ; however outrageous to common
sense or common humanity, they were at
once carried out amid the plaudits of his
adoring subjects. His one reply to dis-
obedience was death ; his one reply to mere
suspicion of disloyalty, death under cover
of witchcraft."*

The power of the MaTabele was only
broken by the defeat of Lobengula
(Mozilikatzi's son) by the British in
1893.
3. The BaSuto In each of the above cases we have
kingdoms founded by force. It would be
easy to multiply examples. The Gaza, the
MaKololo, the Jagga, were military nations,
each adding its quota of evil to the land
whose peace they disturbed.

Turning to the BaSuto, we have the
story of a kingdom founded by tribes
placing themselves willingly under a para-
mount chief, Moshesh, seeking his protection
against the Zulus, and gradually being

* W. A. Elliott.

The People of the Dark Continent 63

fused into a nation by common interests
and danger.

Such movements as we have described,
the breaking up or amalgamation of clans,
suggest the terrible struggle for life that
must have accompanied the great south-
ward progress of the Bantu peoples.

Among the Negroes also, similar move- The Negro
ments produced similar results. Nations

The kingdom of Ashanti provides a 1. The Ashanti
characteristic instance. Ousted from their
original home in a more inland part of the
continent, a group of some forty or fifty
tribes worked their way westward. Having
taken possession of their new land, one of
these tribes, the Ashanti, conquered the
others and established a new nation. So
horrible was the reputation this nation
earned for itself that its capital, Kumassi,
came to be known as the " City of Blood."

When H. M. Stanley visited Ashanti
with the British punitive expedition (1874),
he described Kumassi as "a vast charnel-
house," and of the place of execution he
wrote, " It was almost impossible to stop
longer than to take a general view of the great
Golgotha." During the same expedition,
the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Garnet (now
Lord) Wolseley, wrote to the Secretary
of State :

" No more utterly atrocious government than that

64 The Call of the Dark Continent

which has thus fallen ever existed on the face of the
earth. Their capital was a charnel-house, their
religion a combination of cruelty and treachery, their
policy the natural outcome of their religion."

But the end had not come. Wickedness
and cruelty continued, and in 1896 another
British expedition was necessary to bring
the kingdom to an end.
2. Dahomey To the west of Ashanti was another

powerful Negro state, perhaps even more
barbarous — Dahomey. It has been thus
described :

" One of the strangest kingdoms on the face of the
earth. A kingdom begun in blood and cruelty, and
having maintained its existence for more than two
centuries in spite of the terrible scenes continually
enacted — scenes which would drive any other nation
to revolt. But the fearful sacrifices for which the
name of Dahomey has been so long infamous are not
merely the offspring of a despotic king's fancy ; they
are sanctioned, and even forced upon him, by his
people — fit subjects for such a king."

The daily, the annual, and the biennial
"customs" of Dahomey were too ghastly
to be described in this book. Captain
Burton estimated the human sacrifices at
over five hundred per year in ordinary years,
and a thousand in the "grand customs"
years. " The walls were edged with
skulls ; skulls were heaped in dishes of gold
before the king ; skulls were stuck on the
tops of poles ; skulls were used as the heads

The People of the Dark Continent 65

of banner-staves ; skulls were tied to
dancers ; and all the temples or Ju-ju
houses were almost entirely built with
human skulls." The royal army was
famous for its Amazon regiments. Nothing
could exceed the ferocity and blood-
thirstiness of those female warriors. They
spread terror over the surrounding peoples.
Happily for West Africa, the military
power of Dahomey was brought to an end
by French annexation in 1892.

The fear of slave-raiding tribes brought 3. The Egbas
the Egba nation into existence. The
constant danger to which they were ex-
posed from their terrible neighbours, drove
several tribes to settle together for mutual
security. They fortified themselves to
great advantage on a piece of country
broken up into granite eminences, caverns,
and forest clumps, which they surrounded
with rude fortifications. The fact that the
new town was "under a stone" gave it
the name of Abeokuta. In this strong-
hold the Egbas were able to resist
repeated attacks from their cruel foes.

It is needless to multiply examples. The Background
We have shown the underlying solidarity WorkSS1°n
of the Bantu and Negro peoples, and how
various events served to break them
up or unite them into tribes and kingdoms.
Some of the incidents referred to above are

3 -

66 The Gall of the Dark Continent

almost too awful to relate, but it must be
remembered that it was in the midst of such
scenes that much missionary work was done
last century. It is to these peoples — the
MaTabele, the Ashanti, the Dahomian, the
Egba — that Methodist missionaries and
others have gone forth, and amongst them
they are labouring to-day. Such cruelty
as we have described is the background of
much of the evangelistic work dealt with
in this volume, and without this narra-
tion of horrors the picture of missionary
work in the Dark Continent would be
incomplete. It must not, however, be
supposed that all the African peoples are as
cruel as some whom we have described, or
that all the tribal kings have been as
tyrannical as Tshaka. There are the
oppressed as well as oppressors, the weak
who suffered as well as the brutal who
inflicted the wrong. There were, it is true,
numberless villages peaceful enough to the
eye of the passing stranger, and surrounded
by tropical loveliness, their people living a
life of indolent simplicity. But —
" Where man is man's only keeper, might is right.
Busy then is Death, the reaper, day and night."

During the hours of darkness, hostile
neighbours gathered round that apparently
peaceful village, and soon the stillness of
the forest was disturbed by savage cries,

The People of the Dark Continent 67

the war song, the wild alarm ; the darkness
was illumined by the light of burning
huts, and the next sun rose over a scene of
desolation and ruin, burned wood and
mutilated bodies marking the place where
yesterday all seemed peace and safety.
Hostile tribes, who attacked but to avenge
some local dispute, were but one of many
dangers. The slavers stalked the land —
native tribes of warlike instincts, who made
raiding their profession, and sold their
captives to coast chiefs, who acted as
middlemen for European merchants. In
the eastern and central regions caravans of
Arabs travelled in search of ivory, and, after
buying up large supplies from the people,
would turn on them and enslave them.
Until our own time, life has never been
secure ; and thus, surrounded with enemies,
" No man could tell, when the darkness fell,
If his eyes would behold the light."

In the last chapter stress was laid upon Africa's Real
the wrongs inflicted on Africa by foreigners.
We have now made it clear that Africa's
foes have been within as well as without.
The European powers and the Arabs, leech-
like, have sucked her very blood ; but the
Dark Continent has suffered most of all
from heart-disease. Such conditions are
happily passing away for ever.

68 The Gall of the Dark Continent

African Homes yye nave now ^0 consider the domestic
life of the African tribes as they are to-day.
The people live for the most part in
scattered villages, though, in Negro-land
especially, there are towns of 150,000 and
260,000 inhabitants. Stone buildings are
unknown in native architecture, and the
dwellings are made of mud and thatch, or
of basket-work. Hidden away amongst
the dense forests of the West Coast, or
strewn over the open savannahs of East
Africa, villages are to be found. Almost
every tribe has its characteristic style of
hut, which those who know the country
well can generally recognise at sight. In
the south and east the huts are usually
circular, while those of the west are fre-
quently oblong, with right-angle corners
and gable ends. Over the velds of
South Africa the Bantu tribesmen build
their kraals — collections of mud and wattle
huts with thatched roofs, built in a circle
and surrounded with a wall of brushwood
or thorn, with the cattle kraal in the centre
of the ring. The dwellings of the Zulu
resemble huge beehives and are cleverly
made of wickerwork ; these are also
arranged in circular kraals. Some tribes,
by allowing the roofs to overhang, form
verandahs round their dwellings. The
huts of the Hottentots and Bushmen are

i

1 <nif .♦■-.■a

1 I 1 1 ' Vj

<* "

1

.,! '

•

1

■ ?

»»•

si

m

The People of the Dark Continent 69

about the poorest-built homes of Africa,
while those of the BaGanda are often large
and substantial. The oblong dwellings
of the Congo peoples are built in rows
along the roads. Wissmann records his
surprise at the length of these Congolese
villages — often five or six miles of continual
street. Stanley tells of some that it took
two hours to march through, and Dr.
Schweinfurth mentions that in one part of
the country he found an almost unbroken
line of huts stretching along a caravan
route. In the forests of the Yoruba the
houses are built round compounds and face
inwards — the compounds being open to the
sky. Except in Congo-land, most villages
are built with a view to defence, and are
often surrounded with a stockade or a mud
wall. In many instances the doors of the
houses are very small, so as to be more
easily defended against wild beasts or
human foes.

The interior arrangements are extremely
simple. Wooden stools, and wooden or
skin-covered pillows are often almost the
only articles of "furniture" in the African
home (in the south there would possibly be
only the pillow) ; sleeping mats or skins
are spread on the earth floor. The simple
cooking and eating utensils, calabashes of
various shapes and sizes, a few baskets to

70 The Call of the Dark Continent

hold grain, vegetables, or fruit, and the
crude agricultural implements, complete the
household equipment. The food is often
prepared out of doors, but sometimes the
fireplace is within ; as chimneys are quite
unknown, the smoke escapes through the
doorway while the soot remains within.
An African's Few indeed are the possessions of the

Possessions a p • t± • , • i • i

average African. It is, astonishing how
little is required to carry him comfortably
through life.

" I once saw an African buried," wrote Henry
Drummond. " According to the custom of his tribe,
his entire earthly possessions — he was an average
commoner — were buried with him. Into the grave,
after the body, was lowered the dead man's pipe, then
a rough knife, then a mud bowl, and, last, his bow
and arrows — the bowstring cut, a touching symbol
that its work was done. This was all. . . . No one
knows what a man is till he has seen what a man can
do without, and be withal a man."

The Negroes often have more possessions
than the Bantu tribesmen ; the kings
frequently having articles of gold and
ivory, not to mention large numbers of
umbrellas, and a medley of articles ob-
tained by purchase or gift from white
men.

The raw African is a child of nature.
He requires but little clothing. The Kafir
finds a short waist cloth, a few beads, and
a blanket sufficient, and some tribes wear

The People of the Dark Continent 71

even less. The warriors deck themselves
with feathers and skins, and in many eases
tattoo or paint their bodies. In some parts
the scanty clothing consists of a kilt or
skirt of bark or grass, but many West
Coast people wear garments made of native
cloth. African jewellery consists of orna-
ments of gold, silver, or other metal, or
even of shells ; anklets, bracelets, rings
and necklaces are made of wire, brass or
iron — sometimes of great weight — but the
personal adornment of the Kafirs consists
chiefly of very effective bead work. "For
beauty's sake " some of the tribes disfigure
themselves by inserting pieces of bone or
wood under the skin of the lips, chin or
ears ; the result is often extremely hideous.

It is customary to hear the African The Daily
charged with laziness, and apparently not Common hTask
without cause. But it is only fair to look
at the subject from his standpoint. Why
should he work ? " He is the spoiled child
of Nature. Throughout much of the
continent she is lavishly kind to him.
She feeds him almost without asking. She
clothes him with tropical sunshine. If his
necessity or his vanity calls for more
covering, she furnishes it — again with no
excess of labour on his part — from leaf or
bark or skin. If there are no slaves, his
wives do all the work it is possible for him

72 The Gall of the Dark Continent

to avoid." His bow and arrows, his spear
or assegai, knife or sword, his implements
of agriculture and the household utensils,
are all of his own making. The manu-
facture of such articles is carried out in a
most leisurely manner, and is as much a
pastime as serious work. He tickles the
soil with a hoe, and it laughs a harvest ;
he tends his cattle or his goats and they
supply what he requires. As need arises
he repairs the roof of his hut or strengthens
the fence of his cattle kraal ; if his dwelling
be destroyed by fire or flood he rebuilds it.
If foes gather round, he seizes shield and
spear and goes forth to fight. He smokes,
he talks, and is an inveterate hunter. He
does all the work his condition and mode
of life render necessary ; why should he do
more ? He is an untrained child, and if he
is lazy it is because he could hardly be
otherwise. As he advances towards civili-
sation new duties will be thrust upon him,
new interests will assist the process of
development. He must, to be sure, be
taught " the dignity of labour," but most
people who use this attractive phrase
merety mean that the African must be
made to work for the benefit of his white
masters — an arrangement that would lay
on him the labour and confer on them the
dignity. That he has the capacity for

The People of the Dark Continent 73

work is beyond question, and in some way
an inducement must be supplied.

The Bantu tribes dislike trade, but take
readily to handicrafts and make excellent
workmen. The Negroes are born traders,
but it is not always easy to make good
artisans of them.

As in every land where Christ is The Position
unknown, woman occupies an inferior ° oman
position. In some things the African
woman is in a better position than her
sister in India. Her birth, for instance,
is not regarded as a calamity. Indeed, it
is usually the reverse ; for when the time
for her marriage comes she will bring many
a head of cattle to her father by way of
bride-price. A man's importance is thus
greatly increased by the possession of
many daughters ; and he is congratulated.
Among some of the Bantu tribes it is not
unusual actually to mortgage or " engage "
a girl to be married before she is born, if
her father needs cattle . But child marriage,
that curse of Indian womanhood, is almost
unknown. Probably the average age of
African brides is about sixteen, but in some
parts marriage takes place still later — in
Nigeria, for instance, the usual age is from
eighteen to twenty. Marriage is a social
arrangement without any religious signifi-
cance. With many tribes, the proposal of

74 The Gall of the Dark Continent

marriage may come from the girl's father,
from the young man, or even from the girl
herself. Marriages from real affection are
by no means uncommon. The number of
cattle to be given for the bride has to be
arranged with the father. The full price
need not be paid immediately, and often
years pass before the whole is discharged.
This is a constant source of trouble, for
even after the marriage ceremony the
bride remains under the direction of her
eldest brother until the whole " Bohadi "
has been paid. On the other hand, if the
new wife dies before the birth of a little
daughter, her husband can demand the
return of the cattle he has already paid,
for clearly he has made a bad bargain —
the woman was not worth buying. If the
wife is ill-treated by her husband, she can
return to her own people, but in such a
case the cattle have to be restored to the
husband. With the BaKonga (amongst
whom we are working in Portuguese East
Africa), the father of the bride cannot use
the money paid him for his daughter for
any purpose other than to provide a wife
for his son. It thus becomes a family
marriage fund.

Our missionary, the Bev. H. L. Bishop,
expresses the opinion that in Lourenco
Marques the purchase system is no mere

The People of the Dark Continent 75

sale of the bride, but a genuine attempt to
provide a stable basis for marriage. On the
other hand, the Rev. John White declares
that in South Rhodesia the whole system
is poisonous, and "a volume might be
written on its influence and evil conse-
quences. It places no limit to the number
of wives a man may acquire. It assumes
the vile practice of wife-inheritance.
Woman's responsibility is denied, and she
is made little more than a chattel. No
moral bond is recognised ; it is for all
practical purposes a purely property matter.
The system in Rhodesia can only be re-
garded as vicious and immoral."

In some parts of West Africa the bride
is literally bought (in the Sierra Leone
Hinterland the price is usually about £3).
Yet the wife is far from being a chattel ;
on the contrary, she has much freedom.
By native custom the woman's property is
her own, and in Freetown very many
women have businesses independent of
their husbands. Most of the petty trade,
anjd much of the more considerable trade,
is in the hands of the women. Where
this custom is in vogue, the women have a
great deal of independence of character, a
free, bold glance, a ready laugh and word,
a careless gait and gesture, and often an
" I'm-as-good-as-you " air in the presence

76 The Gall of the Dark Continent

of men. Many of the Sierra Leone Hinter-
land tribes have no bar to a woman
succeeding to the chiefship, and a few
years ago the king of Fouricariah ap-
pointed one of his wives to govern the
women while he governed the men. She
chose her women councillors, appointed
her women magistrates, and had her
women police.

Polygamy is firmly rooted throughout
both the Bantu and Negro races ; and
polyandry is practised in some places {e.g.,
Nigeria). In many tribes — the BaSuto and
BeChuana for instance — the eldest son
inherits his father's widows (except his own
mother), and chiefs and rich men often lend
their superfluous wives to their retainers.

To the casual observer, the African
women seem to be very hardly used. They
often do the field work, carry tKe heavy
burdens, and do what little cooking and
housekeeping there is to be done. In the
villages of West Africa, the housewife may
be heard grinding corn, sweeping, or pre-
paring farm produce for market long before
daylight. She may constantly be seen
carrying on her head bundles weighing
anything up to sixty pounds, and a baby
fastened to her back in addition. She
seems to do more work than her husband.
But there is often a clear division of labour

By Permission of Rev. j. Gregory Mantk

A CONGO WOMAN EETUBNING FBOM 1HE FIELDS.

P. 76.

The People of the Dark Continent 77

between men and women ; the former doing
the heaviest work, such as felling timber,
making canoes, and building huts. The
woman's position is not enviable, but she
has become accustomed to it, and, as a
rule, is resigned to her lot. Of course,
temperaments vary as much as in other
lands ; some women patiently endure, but
others are wilful and passionate, and in
some places the men have to resort to
some device — all more or less cruel — to
keep their women-folk in order. It is
not unusual for the hard-hearted husband
to seek the terrible help of the witch-doctor
or fetich priest to rid himself of an
objectionable wife.

But it must not be forgotten that, even
among the tribes of the Dark Continent,
family affection is often a real thing,
though we can scarcely expect the same
manifestations of it as obtain amongst
Christian races — the more so because the
native is constrained and reserved when he
thinks he is being observed by white men.

Children are usually welcomed in the African
African home, unless born with some l ood
deformity, in which case some tribes at
once put them to death — perhaps to pre-
serve the physique of the race, but more
probably to save trouble. In some parts
the birth of twins is regarded as a

78 The Gall of the Dark Continent

calamity, and both mother and children
are sometimes put to death. With other
tribes twins are thought to be a sign of
good luck. Yet, on the whole, the people
are fond of their children, and childhood is
by no means unhappy. Kidd has a charm-
ing passage on the subject :

" There can be no doubt that the mothers love their
children. To test this, I once proposed to a Kafir
woman that she should sell me her baby for five
pounds. The sum would have been a small fortune
to the woman ; yet, as she did not understand that I
was but in play, she snatched up her baby with a
scream, and hugged it to her bosom, and ran away
to a safe distance, from which she assured me that
the very thought was impossible, . . . and as long as
I was at the kraal she kept eyeing me with jealous
watchfulness."

It is quite customary for the parents to
amuse their little ones by playing with them,
or making playthings ; and one distinguished
worker supplies a delightful picture of a
large children's party in a Kafir kraal.

Anyone who has visited Africa must have
been fascinated by the merry-eyed, playful
children who gather round the stranger in
expectation, or shyly stand at a distance
and follow him with wistful eyes; and, if
the visitor has in his heart the love of Christ,
he will ever afterwards yearn to tell the boys
and girls of Africa of One who called the
children unto Him and blessed them.

The People of the Dark Continent 79

Childhood is ever beautiful, but as the
African children grow, their childish
innocence is lost all too soon, and they learn
from observation, or are deliberately taught
by their parents or instructors in the "bush
schools," such things as for ever pollute their
minds and defile their hearts. The earliest
training is received in the home, the mothers
teaching the girls the rudiments of^such
domestic economy as is known in Africa, and
men initiating the boys in the use of weapons
or the management of cattle. In early
childhood the boys and girls are usually
together in play and work, but as years
advance they grow apart, the boys soon
learning to treat their sisters as inferiors.
About the age of ten they are sent to the
"bush schools." These are held in secret
in the woods. The sexes are separated, and
by selected men and women the boys and
girls are instructed in the customs of their
people. The children are inured to hard-
ships and often the training is extremely
severe. It is certain that when this period
of "education" is over, innocence has passed
for ever, and the whole character of the
children is changed. It is hardly too much
to say that the "bush school"* is an
unmitigated evil.

* Bush schools, though usual, are not found in all parts of
pagan Africa.

80 The Gall of the Dark Continent

As childhood gives place to manhood or
womanhood, initiatory rites and ceremonies
are performed in all parts of pagan Africa.
It is uncertain how far these ought to be
regarded as religious, or merely social,
customs. The rites vary considerably in
detail in the different tribes, but they are
in most cases unquestionably of a degrading
character, and cannot be described. These
ceremonies — often very prolonged — change
completely the status of those initiated.
Henceforth, the youth has a seat amongst
the men of his tribe ; he becomes a member
of a society — a company (sometimes a
veritable "secret society" powerful for evil),
formed by those youths who go through the
rite with him — and he is free to marry as
soon as he can command the necessary
cattle. For the maiden, the ceremony acts
as an advertisement to all that she can now
be applied for in marriage.

The monotony of daily life is broken by
such events as the initiation rites, betrothals,
marriages, funerals, and the like. Some of
them are accompanied by complicated
ceremonies that look very much like
sacrifices, and in some cases are known to
be so. They are always occasions for display
and revel, and often for immoral dances and
disgusting orgies. The Negro has a strong
theatrical tendency, and loves music ;

The People of the Dark Continent 81

while the Bantu delights in the war-dance.
On nights of high carnival, native beer is
used to excess, and gin and various forms
of vile spirituous liquors of European manu-
facture prepare their votaries for further
wickedness.

European powers now control the destinies Tribal
of the whole of pagan Africa, but in most Government
cases they govern through, or at any rate
with the co-operation of, the recognised
native "kings" or tribal chiefs. This means
that, with the necessary modifications, the
ancient forms of tribal government still
obtain, except in areas where gross misrule
has rendered complete European control
necessary. In the African tribes the form
of government varies from that of a pure
despotism established by a successful military
ruler, to a patriarchal system of simple
order. A common arrangement is :

(1) The family, with father or elder brother as
head.

(2) The family group or clan, under a headman.

(3) The clan group or tribe, under petty chief or
" Induna."

(±) The national group of several related or
federated tribes, under paramount chief or king.

In most cases the chief acts with
"advisers" (chosen by himself or elected
by the people), and paramount chiefs are
usually assisted in the government by the

82 The Gall of the Dark Continent

tribal chiefs and officers of state. Among
the BeChuana, BaSuto, and other tribes,
"parliaments" or general gatherings of
the people are held to decide important
matters, and at such assemblies all the
heads of families can make themselves
heard. Custom is the prevailing law.
An African can make out a good case when
he can show precedent. But the whole
ethical code is summed up in obedience to
the chief, who is usually regarded with
superstitious veneration.
The Difficulty It must not be supposed that because
Native5 Beiiefg tne African is more simple than the subtle-
minded Hindu it is easy to understand
him. Those who have had most ex-
perience are the most emphatic about the
difficulty of getting at " the back of the
black man's mind." It is easy to see that
travellers, whose visits to Africa are like
the swallows, are not likely to get any-
thing reliable out of the natives ; their
imperfect knowledge of the language, and
the fact that the African is careful not to
unburden his heart to strangers, are in-
superable difficulties. Missionaries who
have lived long years among the people (and
no class of foreigners get so near to the
natives) and thoroughly understand their
language are usually the most hesitating ex-
pounders of African paganism. The people

The People of the Dark Continent 83

are extremely reticent in speaking about
their religion, and if they answer questions
they usually give an answer they think will
please their interrogator. Kidd illustrates
this by a typical conversation :

" Do you believe there is a God? " you ask.

" Yes, Nkos," answered the old Kafir.

" Do you believe there are twenty gods ? "

" Yes, Nkos."

" Do you believe there is only one God 1 "

" Yes, Nkos."

" Come, you can't believe both those things. You
don't believe in any God at all, do you ? "

" No, Nkos."

" Which do you mean? Do you, or do you not
believe in a God 1 "

" Nkos, I don't know. Yes. No. Perhaps. You
know better; we Kafirs know nothing."

Or it may be that your very question
creates his opinion. Your thought (ex-
pressed in your question) concerning some
point of his own " mental fog " (Kidd) seems
sensible, and he at once endorses it as his
belief, though it had never occurred to him
before. Another difficulty is the utter
lack of logic in the African mind. "They
are capable of entertaining two contra-
dictory ideas at the same moment. . . .
A Kafir sees no difficulty in believing that
his grandfather went out like a candle at
death, while at the same time he will tell
you that his grandfather visited the kraal

84 The Gall of the Dark Continent

yesterday in the form of a snake." The
religious views of a mind so constituted are
naturally a tangle of inconsistencies.

Then we have to remember that no two
tribes believe alike. We might almost
carry the differences further still and say
that every African holds his own ideas,
but even that is questionable, for often he
can hardly be said to "hold" any ideas
at all, so loose and uncertain is religious
belief in the Dark Continent. The belief
a native assents to one moment, he will
contradict, or even deny, the next. Again,
it is often difficult to distinguish between
a genuine African thought and an idea
picked up possibly from some shipwrecked
sailor two or three centuries ago, or
learned from a wandering Jesuit or even
through Muslim channels. Africa has no
systematised, thought-out, self-consistent
religion, but only a mass of odd discon-
nected notions. A man believes just what
his superstitious heart or illogical brain
suggests.

Careful, patient research has, however,
been able to recognise several widespread
though vague beliefs. So hazy are they
that no theory can be formulated, and so
intangible that they constantly elude the
mind that seeks to label and systematise
them.

The People of the Dark Continent 85

It is agreed by all that there is a wide- Belief in a
spread, perhaps a universal, belief in or, reat pin
at any rate, a vague idea of a Supreme
Spirit, greater than the ancestral spirits or
the gods recognised by some of the tribes.
This Being is often described as the " Great
One," " The Ancient One," " The Old, Old
One." At first sight these terms seem to
imply a God whom it may be possible to
identify with Jehovah ; but there are
reasons for thinking that some tribes mean
little more by these names than we mean
by the term great -grandfather. Other
tribes rise higher than this. But the
native is content to hold the idea of a
great God without speculating about His
eternity or attributes, though he may ven-
ture ceitain statements about Him — some-
times contradictory. The Western Bantu
tribes call this God by such names as : —
Nzambi, Nyambi, Anyambie, Anzambe,
Anzam, Nyam, Ukuku, and Suku. In the
Congo basin the usual names are : — Ibanza,
lyanza, Nzakomba. The Eastern Bantu
use the following : — Mulungu, Muungu,
Molongo, Moongo. The Zulu call him
Ukulunkulu, and a number of Central
Bantu tribes (the Balla, the BaLuba, the
BaBemba, the BaKalanga and others) use
the word Leza, and apply praise names
to Him. In Negro-land Nyiswa is a

86 The Gall of the Dark Continent

common name, but others are also used,
as for example, Geyi (Maker). On the
Gold Coast and in Ashanti we have :
Okyerampon (The Never-failing One),
Nyankupon (My Great Friend), and Nyami
(My Maker). The Eev. Oliver J. Griffin
tells us that, on saluting a man in a Yoruba
village, it is customary to receive the
reply, " I thank Olorun " (the Owner of
the Heavens).

This great Being, so widely recognised,
is generally held to be the Creator. To
Commission IV. of the World Missionary
Conference, the Rev. Donald Frazer
reported that his people in Nyassaland

" believe in one Supreme God. But the only thing
they know about His character is that He is fierce.
He is the Creator, and is above all the forces of the
world. But men have no access to Him. No prayers
or offerings are made to Him. He brings death into
the home. When a dear one is taken away they say
' God is fierce.' "

It is more usual to believe that this God
is kindly disposed, but takes very little
interest in the world. But while power
and intelligence are associated with the
idea of God, moral qualities are never so
associated, and African veneration of deity
brings no sense of sin and provides no
ethical sanctions or requirements. Some
tribes think of Him as a great man. Many

The People of the Dark Continent 87

think He dwells in the sky, but others
suppose that He lives under the sea or in
" white man's land." When H. M. Stanley
first journeyed down the Congo the natives
cried, " This is Ibanza." Holman Bentley
was also thought to be Ibanza until the
people saw his wife and baby ; these were
altogether too strong evidence of terres-
trial origin !

The testimony of Dr. R. L. Nassau (for
forty years a missionary in the Gaboon
country) is of special interest :

" I do not need to begin by telling the people that
there is a God. I have never yet been asked ' Who
is God? '

" If natives should suddenly be asked the flat ques-
tion, ' Do you know Anyambe? ' they would probably
tell any white visitor, under a feeling of their general
ignorance and the white man's superior knowledge,
' No ! What do we know 1 You are white people
and are spirits ; you come from Njambi's Town, and
know all about Him ! ' I reply, ' No, I am not a
spirit; and while I do, indeed, know about Anyambe, I
did not call Him by that name. It is your own word,
where did you get it? ' And they rejoin, ' Our fore-
fathers told us that name. Njambi is the One-who-
made-us. He is our Father. . . . He made these
trees, that mountain, this river, these goats and
chickens, and us people.'

" That typical conversation I have had hundreds
of times, under an immense variety of circumstances,
with the most varied audiences."

We must carefully guard against "reading
our own conceptions into these African

88 The Gall of the Dark Continent

ideas* and Professor Theal warns us against
attaching any monotheistic belief to the
native names for God.

This widely recognised Being is best
described by the familiar phrase, " An un-
known God," and is little more than a
name. Yet there is some amount of respect
for Him, and in some instances something
resembling adoration and even worship,
but there is seldom anything like prayer.
The Balla say that Leza is far away and
knows nothing of them, their troubles or
their needs ; hence they pray to Mizhimo,
an intermediary spirit, in the hope that he
will procure from Leza the help they need.
This idea is common to other tribes. But
there are also prayers offered — though
very seldom — direct to the Supreme. The
Rev. E. W. Smith (of the Primitive
Methodist Rhodesia Mission), who reduced
the Ila language to writing and compiled
a dictionary, gives a striking specimen
prayer :

" Leza, we pray Thee give us water.
We beseech Thee very much — we, Thy people.
We are humble, we are abased — we, Thy people.
It is Thou whom we trust alone.
We have no other whom we trust."

Sometimes he is invoked by such "praise
names" as "The Giver of Rain," "The
Great Moulder of the Earth," " The

Photo by
A BRIDGE IN MENDILAND,

PROTECTED

Rev. J. Walton.
BY AN ESHU HOUSE.

Photo by

WEST AFBICAN IDOLS

The People of the Dark Continent 89

Possessor of all Things," " The Institute
of Customs." The Balla say all their tribal
customs were ordered by Leza.

" He ordered them to knock out their children's
teeth, taught men to smelt iron, to make knives, and
spears and hoes. He taught the women to make
pots, to grind corn, and to weave baskets, and then
said, ' I am Leza; you are now as wise as I am,' and
so saying, He vanished." — (Chapman.)

The last words of the above quotation
fairly represent the prevailing thought
about God — He has vanished. The Supreme
God has receded in men's minds, and other
divinities have come into the foreground of
African thought.

In the Yoruba country a lower order of inferior Gods
gods appears, and these are represented by
idols (we use the word to distinguish them
from fetiches, i.e., articles inhabited by dis-
embodied human spirits), which may be
either figures or unshaped stones or other
things. The spirit of the god is believed
to dwell in the idol. The most powerful
of these is Eshu, the god of mischief (i.e.,
the devil), and he is thought to be close at
hand. Just outside every Yoruba home-
stead, near the gateway, a little thatched
shed is built for this much-feared deity,
who is represented by a clay, wood, or
stone image, and sometimes merely by a
stone or lump of clay. Offerings of cowrie

90 The Call of the Dark Continent

shells, food and water are laid before the
god, and the blood of animal sacrifices is
sprinkled on it from time to time. The
Eshu is never taken inside the compound,
because he is wicked and might do much
mischief. People wearing strings of cowries,
dyed dark blue, are known to be devil-
worshippers.

Then there is Shango, the god of thunder;
Ogun, god of war and iron; Oshun, a river
god ; Orisha Oko, the farm god ; Ori, god
of the head ; Ibeji, the god of twins ; Aje,
the god of money ; and Ifa, the revealer ox
secrets. The last - named is very much
honoured by the Yorubas. When a baby
is born, Ifa must decide which god the
child shall worship. If a man is to be
married, Ifa must fix the time. If a man
builds a house, Ifa must choose the place.
Kings and chiefs bring national affairs to
Ifa, and men of lesser rank bring their
domestic matters. Nothing, small or great,
is done by king or chief, freeman or
slave without consulting Ifa. The god
answers through the medium of his priests,
who divine by means of palm nuts and
other objects, and not infrequently practise
ventriloquism,
eas as to the But the characteristic worship of the
Dark Continent is spirit-worship. The
native ideas of the nature of man differ

The People of the Dark Continent 91

considerably and are as vague and contra-
dictory as their other notions. Some
Africans say, " I have two things — one
thing becomes a spirit when I die, and the
other is the ' body spirit ' and dies with
the body." In proof of this some will
point to an unconscious person, saying,
" He cannot see, he cannot feel, he cannot
talk, he cannot eat. His spirit is no longer
there. He is dead ; only his body is left
alive " (Nassau). This idea sometimes
leads to premature burial. Some natives
believe in a "dream-soul," which wanders
from the body during sleep.

Through all these views there runs a Belief in a
strong conviction of a future existence, in Future Llfe
many respects not unlike the present.
The Congolese say the departed have gone
to "Nyambi's Town"; and when Stanley's
lieutenant, Frank Pocock, was drowned,
the natives, feeling sure that Stanley
would see the dead man again, gave him
messages to carry to Pocock when he
(Stanley) should also be called into the
unseen. This belief in a future life can
alone explain the common custom of
burying things with the dead body. Kemp
(Gold Coast) says, "I have seen a corpse
buried with fingers covered with gold
rings." Some tribes still bury some of the
wives and slaves with the bodv of a dead

92 The Gall of the Dark Continent

man — especially in the case of a chief.
This custom is very prevalent on the
Congo. Bentley says that when he visited
the BaKuba tribe, no chief could be buried
until 300 slaves had been killed to accom-
pany him into the unknown. But with
all this belief in a life after death, there
is no idea of future rewards and punish-
ments.
Spirit-Worship It is generally believed that the spirits
of the departed continue to haunt the
districts in which they formerly lived as
human beings. The presence and nearness
of these spirits is intensely real to the
pagan African. They can be communicated
with, and are capable of helping or injuring
their still human descendants. On this
account they are greatly feared and are
worshipped and propitiated with the
greatest care. The BaRonga believe that
everyone at death joins the ranks of these
spirit-gods. " The ancestors of the chief
are the great or national ' Gods.' Each
family has its own family ' Gods,' who are
appealed to on occasions of merely family
interest. The spirits are generally held to
be malevolent " (H. L. Bishop). This is
ancestor-worship, though different from
the form current in China. Kidd says
that the respect the Bantu peoples have
for old age is probably the nearest feeling

The People of the Dark Continent 93

they have to worship, and "from respect
for their headman to veneration or dread
of displeasing his spirit would be but
a step." These disembodied ancestral
spirits are strictly local deities, but the
African believes himself continually beset
with them on every hand. They live in
forests and swamps, they haunt burial
places and old ruins. They travel through
the air ; they make the rivers their high-
ways, or journey along the native footpaths
from village to village. But they are not
limited to such avenues of approach, and at
every point the African feels himself
exposed to their attacks. His life is
passed in continual fear, and all his
energies are devoted to propitiating or
hoodwinking them.

Among the Negroes and Western Bantu Fetich- Worship
tribes spirit-worship takes quite another
form. It is held that the disembodied
spirits inhabit visible articles — stones,
trees, plants, streams, animals, reptiles,
human beings, or even little bundles of
sticks, grass, feathers, or any possible
thing. The object thus indwelt by the
spirit is termed a fetich (the word is of
Portuguese origin and is often used very
loosely). It is often extremely difficult to
draw a line between fetiches and charms ;
indeed, fetiches frequently are charms. By

94 The Gall of the Dark Continent

the roadside one may see a tree with a
palisade round it ; the tree is a fetich. In
a certain patch of bog there lives a snake
that no Negro can by any means be per-
suaded to kill ; that snake is a fetich. To
obtain power over an enemy, a man buys
from the priest a strange bundle composed
possibly of grass or hair, covered with clay
or congealed blood, or any conceivable
thing; this is a fetich. Another man,
going hunting or to battle, purchases a
charm to protect himself from wild beasts
or the spears of his foes; if this charm
owes its power to an indwelling spirit, it is
a fetich. Again, the fetich may be
credited with destructive rather than
protective power, and be used to injure
an enemy.

The power of these fetiches over the
minds of the people is astonishing. Few
would venture to rob a house protected by
one. The man, or crop, so protected is
safe from human depredators. A fetich
may fail to exert the expected power to
protect or destroy, but even though it fails
repeatedly it is not in the least dis-
credited in the eyes of the people. The
failure is easily explained by the suggestion
that the fetich was overpowered by a
stronger one. The priest's explanation is
accepted, and his influence is, if anything,

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The People of the Dark Continent 95

increased. There can be no question as to
the character of fetichism ; it is an evil.
It plays on the ignorant superstitions of
the people and is the direct cause of
numberless crimes. Murders by poison or
the dagger are of frequent occurrence —
carried out, of course, by the fetich ;
though those who know West Africa do
not hesitate to suggest that the priests
render any little assistance that may be
required.

The fetich -priest is all-powerful in the The Witch-
village life of the West Coast. Among Doctor
the Bantu tribes the witch-doctor is
usually the important factor. It is the
universal belief that one man may, by
magic, bewitch another ; and this is the
most heinous of all offences. Whatever
evil befalls is thought to be due to witch-
craft. Is a man ill ? He has been
bewitched. Has disease broken out among
the cattle ? Someone has practised magic.
Has an accident occurred ? The wizard or
witch must be found and punished. At
this juncture the witch-doctor is con-
sulted ; he alone can detect the culprit.
The tribe is assembled, and with mysterious
ceremony the witch-doctor proceeds to
"smell out" the offender, which he does
with fiendish zeal. When once he has
chosen his victim, protestation of innocence

96 The Gall of the Dark Continent

is useless — the witch-doctor surely knows
who is the guilty person ! The accused
can only clear himself by ordeal ; this may
be the poison cup, or some other test such
as dipping the hand in boiling water or oil.
What chance of proving one's innocence by
such means as these ? The wretched
victim — man, woman or child — is put to
death in some fearful form. It is easy to
see what terrible opportunity lies in this
custom for revenge, or for avarice if the
accuser stands to gain by the death of any
particular person. The European Powers
are resolutely stamping out these hateful
practices ; but Africa is vast, and the eyes
of the several Governments cannot be
everywhere, nor can their arms reach to
every tribe or village.

The Dark Continent knows little or
nothing of worship as we understand it.
There is no penitence of heart or confession
of sin. " Any expression of repentance
in Bantu prayers refers to the com-
mission of tribal faults, of forgetfulness
of the dead, or the transgression of
some tribal custom " (Bishop). There is
no communion with a Heavenly Father.
No forgiveness for moral offence is sought,
nor grace to amend the life from day to
day. No spiritual gifts or blessings are
desired ; the only object is to extort some

The People of the Dark Continent 97

temporal advantage from god or spirit.
There are indeed sacrifices — among some
remote tribes, human sacrifices — but it is
doubtful if the natives understand their
meaning.

In this brief glance at African paganism
we have noted but few glimmerings of
light. These tribes, unlike the people of
India, have no " genius for religion." But
the unseen is real to them, and from the
darkness Ethiopia stretches out her hands
to God — a dull, blundering quest. We
have noted the cruelty and degradation
and wickedness that is inherent in African
religion — human sacrifice, widow-burial
and deeds of darkness ; these things are
the outcome of their belief, and in this way
do heathen people " live up to their light " /
Surely it is time that they were
shown a more excellent way. No " man of
Ethiopia" actually stands by our side
crying, " Come over and help us." But if
we realise Africa's deep need, that should
be our Call to carry to the sons of darkness
the light of the Cross of Christ.

The Ashanti say that " when the Great
Spirit created man, He made one black man
and one white man, and gave them their
choice of two gifts. One gift contained all

4

98 The Gall of the Dark Continent

the treasures of Africa — the fruitful trees,
the ivory, the gold-dust. The other gift
consisted merely of white paper, ink, and
pens. One gift symbolised material wealth,
the other, knowledge. The black man
chose the former, and the white man the
latter." Thus each has gifts received from
God, and each has what the other lacks.
Africa can give — and has given — of her
material wealth to enrich the white man,
and it is the duty and privilege of the
white man to give freely to Africa from the
storehouse of his knowledge. But the
white man has other wealth to give to the
Negro — the Gospel of Christ. Sad, indeed,
is the picture we have drawn of African
pagans. Yet even hearts so dark and
debased are capable of God, and are fellow
heirs with us of all the boundless treasures
of His grace. Government has something
to give to Africa — justice and freedom
and peace. Education has something to
give to Africa — enlightenment and release
from superstition. What has Christ to
give to the people of the Dark Continent ?

The People of the Dark Continent 99

ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES

SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION.-What Christ has to
give to the people of Africa.

1. Summarise the evil influences of African
paganism (a) on the tribe, (b) on the individual,
(c) on womanhood, (d) on childhood.

2. How far may these evils be remedied by
Government ?

3. How far must these evils be removed by the
religious and moral regeneration of the people?

4. What gifts can Christ alone give to Africa?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

Fraser, Donald. — The Future of Africa. (Chap-
ter IV.)

Naylor, W. S. — Daybreak on the Dark Continent.
(Chapters II. and III.)

Kidd, Dudley. — The Essential Kafir.

Nassau, R. L. — Fetichism in West Africa.

Chapter III.
Our South Africa Mission Field

" It is something to be a missionary. . . . May I

venture to invite young men of education, when laying

down the plan for their lives, to take a glance at that of

a missionary ? We magnify the office ! For my own

part, I never cease to rejoice that God has appointed

me to such an office."

LIVINGSTONE.

frica's Need If the preceding chapters have accom-
plished their purpose, they have left in
the mind of the reader an impression of a
continent truly described as "Dark"— a
continent whose people, by their need of
enlightenment, appeal to us for help. The
nineteenth century found the people of
Africa in a condition that can only be
described as appalling. The whole head
was sick, the whole heart faint. From
the sole of the foot even unto the head
there was no soundness in it, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores. They
were not closed, neither bound up, neither
mollified with ointment. This had been
100

Our South Africa Mission Field 101

Africa's condition for uncounted centuries,
and it had not improved one iota. It was
clear that no help was to be expected
from within ; there was no healing balm.
Foreign hands were to bind the wounds ;
strangers were to " help to heal." Yet for
four long centuries Africa's contact with
civilisation only increased her misery.

The first hearts to feel sympathy with Christian
Africa's people were hearts possessed
by the love of Christ. During the last
hundred years European Governments
have done much to heal the open wounds ;
but, long before they raised a finger, loving
hands were outstretched to help the chil-
dren of the darkness. We have marked
the interest in Africa's spiritual welfare
in Henry the Navigator ; we caught
glimmers of Christian zeal in the efforts
of Romish evangelists. Isolated Dutch
ministers and Moravian missionaries were
in turn moved with true compassion.
Then the great evangelical revival of the
18th century led to a revival of the mis-
sionary spirit, and ever since there have
not wanted men — and women too— ready
to lay down their lives for the sake of
Africa's dusky children.

It Would be as difficult, as it is im- The Missionary

necessary, to say which Christian organisa- Societies
tion has done most to help Africa. The

102 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Church of England, the Baptists, the
Congregationalists, the Scottish Churches,
the several Methodist Churches ; the
Churches of the United States, of Canada,
Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland,
Norway and Sweden have given lives and
money to the work. The object of this
book is to give a brief account of the work
of one of these Churches — the Wesleyan
Methodist. In doing so, it is not our wish
in any way to overlook or minimise the
labours of the other organisations. We do
not wish to suggest that the W.M.M.S. is
the only, or even the chief, agency in the
regions occupied. What have "the people
called Methodists " done to help the people
of the Dark Continent? Our answer to
this question will fall into two divisions,
corresponding with the fields we occupy.
We purpose to deal with the work of the
W.M.M.S. in South Africa in this chapter,
and with the work on the West Coast in
the chapter following. But in each case
we must first briefly survey the field and
the conditions obtaining when our work

began.

# # # # #

The Coming of South Africa was discovered by Bartho-

the Portuguese lomQw jjj^ ^ 1486 Blown by ^.^

he passed round the Cape without seeing
it, and first sighted land at one of the

Our South Africa Mission Field 103

south coast bays, where he saw numerous
herds of cattle grazing on the shores.
Failing to get into touch with the natives,
Diaz erected, on a little islet in Algoa Bay,
a marble cross — a beautiful symbol that
the newly discovered land was claimed for
the Redeemer. Returning westward, the
voyagers discovered the Cape of Good
Hope, upon which another cross was placed.
It is inspiring to think of these Portuguese
adventurers erecting the sacred symbol of
Christianity, instead of the banner of
Portugal, in those southern lands. Un-
happily, these acts, so full of significance,
meant very little, and nearly two centuries
were to pass before any real messenger of
the Cross of Christ should proclaim the
Gospel in South Africa.

For a century and a half, the Cape of
Good Hope, with Table Mountain behind
it, formed a mere landmark on the voyage
to India. But with the occupation of
Table Bay by the Dutch East India The Dutch
Company in 1652, and the founding of the
Dutch Colony in 1662, a new era was
inaugurated. From the first the Dutch
accepted the principle that it is the duty
of a Christian Government to interpret the
Christian religion to its heathen subjects.
At a council held on one of the Dutch
vessels the day that Governor Van Biebeek

104 The Gall of the Dark Continent

landed, the following prayer was placed on
the Minutes :

" 0 merciful and gracious God, our heavenly-
Father ! Since it has pleased Thee to call us to the
government of the Cape of Good Hope; and, as we
have assembled in Council to advise and adopt such
measures as may best tend to maintain justice, and,
if possible, to plant and propagate the true Reformed
Christian Doctrine amongst these wild and savage
people for the praise and honour of Thy Holy Name,
but being, without Thy gracious assistance, unable to
effect these purposes; we pray, 0 most merciful
Father ! that it may please Thee to preside at this
assembly, and with Thy heavenly wisdom to so en-
lighten our hearts, that all perverse passions may be
removed from us, our hearts cleansed from all
human weakness, that we may not propose anything
which will not tend to Thy praise, . . . without con-
sidering in the least our own personal advantage or
profit."

The Portuguese began by erecting
crosses ; the Dutch enter the country with
prayers. Verily the way to South Africa
was paved with good intentions. Shortly
after the arrival of the first minister from
Holland in 1665, eight slave children were
baptised, their masters standing as sponsors.
A church was built for native slaves, and
as the number of the colonists increased a
few ministers of the Dutch Reformed
Church, in addition to their ordinary
duties, endeavoured to do a little voluntary
missionary work. But many of the
colonists opposed the idea of giving

Our South Africa Mission Field 105

religious instruction to slaves. It is easy
to see the reason for this. A profession of
Christianity and an ability to speak Dutch
were sufficient reason for claiming freedom,
and no master could have a slave child
baptised without promising to educate it
as a Christian. The French Huguenots,
and the Vaudois refugees from the
Piedmont, fled to South Africa that they
might enjoy the religious liberty denied
them in their own countries ; but, even
these resolute sufferers for Christ failed in
their duty to Hottentots and Bushmen.

The religious earnestness of the settlers
cannot be questioned. Brought up on the
Old Testament Scriptures, the Dutch
regarded themselves as the chosen people,
and thought of the Hottentots as "strangers
from the covenants of promise." They
were far from being hypocrites, but it is
difficult to understand how such men could
pride themselves on slaying natives. Yet
such pride became common.

The first definite missionary work in The Moravians
South Africa was undertaken by the
Moravian Brethren. In 1737 the humble
yet heroic George Schmidt arrived at the George Schmidt
Cape with the incredible idea of converting
the Hottentots. The colonists pitied his
simplicity, shrugged their shoulders, and
let him alone. Four years of patient labour

4*

106 The Gall of the Dark Continent

were required before he baptised his first
convert, but as the years passed he gathered
around him at Genadendal a little flock,
and the Dutch found themselves obliged to
take seriously what they had before
regarded as a joke. Like the elder brother
of our Lord's parable, they could not see
that it was meet to rejoice over the fact
that a handful of God's children had re-
ceived the tokens of His forgiving love.
These honest but misguided men denounced
Schmidt to the Cape Government, and he
was compelled to return to Europe (1743),
where he died with a prayer for Africa on
his lips.
The Cape In 1795 Cape Colony passed into the

BritST*5 hands of Great Britain, only to be returned

to Holland under the Peace of Amiens in
1803, but in 1815 it was finally ceded to
England. The change of Government
brought British settlers to the Cape, and
the old Dutch colonists trekked further
up country. Some English settlers also
went inland. Many of these white men
treated the natives more like wild beasts
than human beings — forcibly dispossessing
them of their lands and often seizing them
as slaves. This conduct roused the natives
to fury, and the advance of " civilisation "
was marked in blood. "In no part of the
world was the way rendered more difficult

Our South Africa Mission Field 107

to the Christian missionary than in South
Africa," says one missionary historian.
"It is not difficult to see what an im-
placable hatred of the white aggressor
must inevitably have grown up in the
breasts of the natives in consequence of
the shameful behaviour of the colonists."
Gradually the Hottentots became recon-
ciled to their conquerors and were, in a
measure, assimilated. # But the Bushmen,
in their passionate love of freedom, refused
to submit, and, turning their faces north-
ward, they moved further into the wilder-
ness. This was the condition of affairs
when, in the first wave of missionary
enthusiasm, English Societies sent workers
to South Africa.

In 1799 the London Missionary Society's Vanderkemp
first representative reached Algoa Bay.
Dr. John Vanderkemp had been a Dutch
cavalry officer. After a university training
he took a medical degree and devoted his
high intellectual powers to missionary
service. So great were the obstacles set
before him by the colonists that even his
resolute mind was taxed to the uttermost,
and after eighteen months he was com-
pelled to abandon his mission to the Kafirs
on the Great Fish River and give himself

* The GriQua are the product of this partial assimilation.

108 The Gall of the Dark Continent

to the evangelisation of the down-trodden
Hottentots, first at Graaf Reinet and after-
wards near Port Elizabeth. Utterly de-
voted to the interests of the natives, he
championed their rights in the face of all
aggressors. His training institution at
Bethelsdorp became a beacon light. Men
and women fled to it for protection, and
chiefs came to learn of him and then
returned to enlighten their own people.
But the opposition from the colonists was
tremendous ; all manner of charges were
made against the brave-hearted missionary,
and no stone was left unturned to ruin his
work. But Vanderkemp was not to be
daunted by ridicule, threats or violence.
The Portuguese had raised their marble
crosses on the headlands of the southern
coast ; he was determined to proclaim to
the natives the sacred message those
crosses represented. So great was his dis-
interested sympathy with his people that,
during the space of three years, he paid
no less than £1,000 to redeem slaves from
bondage. He carried his sympathy so far
that he insisted that it was the duty of a
missionary to accept for himself the con-
ditions of native life as far as they were
compatible with Christianity. In carrying
this idea into practice he limited himself
to the clothes he was actually wearing —

Our South Africa Mission Field 109

and very threadbare they usually were —
and he lived on native food. This was
certainly extreme, but we hesitate to
criticise the man who dared to interpret
so literally the teaching of our Lord.
Insisting that love to Christ is above con-
siderations of race or colour, this devoted
man actually married a Hottentot woman
whom he had led into the Kingdom of God.
This was bold indeed, and in our judgment
a grave blunder. The experiment caused
Vanderkemp much embarrassment, for his
wife remained uncultured to the end. But,
remembering that this foolish act was one
phase of his great life-protest against the
oppression of black by white, we can only
admire the magnificent earnestness of the
man who was, for Christ's sake, pre-
pared thus to make himself one with the
people of Africa in the hope of helping
them to a better life. The difficulties of
his work, the opposition of heathen
Africans on the one hand and Christian
colonists on the other, broke him down,
and he died after eleven years of strenuous
service.

Meanwhile, other L.M.S. missionaries Missions to the
attempted to evangelise the Bushmen — us men
the most degraded of all the South African
tribes. The first attempt was abandoned
in 1806, and a later effort at Colesberg

110 The Gall of the Dark Continent

The Beginning
of W. M. M. S.
Work

was successfully foiled by the farmers, who
persuaded the Bushmen that the mission-
aries were in league with the Government
to betray and sell them into slavery. A
work at Hephzibah was also overthrown
by the opposition of the settlers, and
Government ordered the missionaries to
return to the Cape.

The beginnings of the Methodist work
in South Africa were due to the voluntary
efforts of a few godly soldiers stationed in
Cape Town in 1806 and onward. These
men sent to the Methodist Conference an
earnest request for a minister to take
charge of the work. Our great missionary
leader, Dr. Coke, was not the man to turn
a deaf ear to such an appeal. At that
time he was planning a mission to India
and Ceylon, and when he laid his schemes
before Conference, he included a request
John McKenny for a man for South Africa. John McKenny
was chosen, and he reached Cape Town in
August, 1814. While he was instructed to
minister to such Europeans, soldiers or
civilians, as would receive him, he was sent
more especially to labour among the natives.
Certain Dutch laws which were still in
force forbade the holding of religious
services without the special permission of
the Governor of the Colony ; and when
McKenny applied, Lord Charles Somerset

Our South Africa Mission Field 111

refused to grant such permission, although
the credentials were of a most satisfactory
character. " The soldiers have their
chaplains provided by Government," the
Governor said, " and if you preach to the
slaves, the ministers of the Dutch Church
may be offended."

The refusal was very definite, and after
vainly waiting for several months in the
hope of a more favourable answer McKenny
sailed for Ceylon. But the Methodist
soldiers renewed their appeals, and the
newly constituted Missionary Society,
hoping for better success, sent out the
Rev. Barnabas Shaw. Nowadays luxurious Barnabas Shaw
liners reach Cape Town in 17 days from
Southampton, but a century ago the
journey was a more serious matter, and
Shaw and his wife had a weary voyage of
116 days to South Africa, via Brazil. They
landed at the Cape on April 14th, 1816.

Shaw at once called on the Governor,
and presented a letter of introduction from
Earl Bathurst. But the official attitude
was unchanged, and Lord Somerset would
not sanction the work. The new mission-
ary was quite equal to the occasion, and in
his journal wrote thus :

* Having been refused the sanction of the
Governor, I was resolved what to do ; and commenced
without it on the following Sabbath. If his Excel-

112 The Gall of the Dark Continent

lency were afraid of giving offence either to the
Dutch ministers or the English chaplains, I had no
occasion to fear either one or the other. My first
congregations were composed chiefly of pious
soldiers ; and it was in a room hired by them that I
first preached Christ crucified in South Africa."

But Shaw soon felt the strength of the
prejudice that had driven Schmidt out of
the country and crushed Vanderkemp. It
was evident to him that work could best
be done in the far interior beyond the
sphere of colonial influence. With this
thought in his mind, he prayed for guidance.
Just at this juncture the Rev. H. Schmelen,
of the L.M.S., arrived in Cape Town from
Great NamaQualand. The story this man
told of Christian opportunity beyond the
Orange River, convinced Shaw that this
was the guidance he sought. A journey
of 800 miles through rainless deserts was
formidable indeed, and he hesitated to
propose it to his delicate wife. But she
too had heard the L.M.S. missionary's
story, and, without waiting for her husband
to speak, Mrs. Shaw answered Mr.
Schmelen, "We will go back with you;
the Lord is opening our way to the
heathen." When difficulties were sug-
gested as to the cost of a wagon and oxen,
and the absence of permission from the
Committee in England, this heroic woman

Our South Africa Mission Field 113

replied, " If the Committee is offended, tell
them we will bear all the expense ourselves.
We have a little property in England, and
for this let it go." The Governor placed
no difficulty in the way, and on September
6th, 1816, Mr. and Mrs. Shaw, and Mr.
Schmelen, set out for Great NamaQualand
with two wagons and twenty- two oxen.
With a temperature of 110 degrees in
the shade, and at other times a wind
that "felt as if mingled with particles of
fire," they crossed arid deserts and forded
rivers.

When they had travelled some two A Voice from
hundred miles, an incident occurred that Macedonia
completely changed their plans. The
missionaries met — by the merest ac-
cident apparently — the chief of Little
NamaQualand, who, with four of his
followers, was on his way to Cape
Town to look for a Christian teacher,
having heard from other tribes of the
advantages of receiving the Gospel. The
hand of God had led the Shaws thus
far, and after consultation and prayer they
felt that this strange deputation was
a divine call to labour in Little NamaQua-
land instead of Great NamaQualand. So,
leaving Mr. Schmelen to continue his
journey to his own station (Bethany), they
went with these NamaQua seekers to

Lilyfontein

The Industrial
Missionary at
Work

114 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Khamies Berg,* where at Lilyfontein they
founded the first Wesleyan mission station
in South Africa.

Thus, 400 miles from Cape Town,
Barnabas Shaw began his long missionary
career, cut off from civilisation, and with-
out even postal communication with the
outside world.

Shaw's first care was immediately to
" open his commission by proclaiming to
the natives the glad tidings of salvation
in the open air." At the same time he
sought to help them also by introducing
the advantages of Christian civilisation.
Before their eyes he erected a humble
sanctuary ; in the midst of their wretched
huts he built a substantial house. From
necessity, but even more for the sake of
example, he daily engaged in manual
labour ; for the NamaQua were an in-
dolent people and could best be redeemed
from their vicious lives by the introduction
of a practical godliness that would improve
their whole condition. Building, carpentry,
and agriculture were an essential part
of Shaw's missionary programme. He
wrote :

" Some have thought that missionaries should take
no concern in the temporal affairs of the people
among whom they labour, but should be exclusively

* Berg means mountain.

Our South Africa Mission Field 115

employed in promoting their spiritual welfare. . . .
This will not apply to the commencement of a mis-
sion among savages. He who goes to convert a
wandering tribe to Christianity must either collect
them together for this purpose or himself become a
wanderer. If he collects them together, he must
show them some method of obtaining substance that
they may remain with him. . . . Taking this view of
the state of the Little Namaquas, I was desirous of
keeping them together by teaching them to live by
agriculture instead of hunting.""

The thoroughness with which Mr. Shaw
studied this problem of the relation of
industrial instruction to evangelism is
evident from the quotations he makes on
the subject from the experiences of Hans
Egede and John Williams.

The NamaQua were surprised beyond
measure at Shaw's method of cutting down
trees with a cross-cut saw ; and when he
made a plough and began to use it their
delight knew no bounds. " Come and see
this strange thing," cried the chief to his
councillors. "Look how it tears up the
ground with its iron mouth ! If it goes on
all day, it will do more work than ten
wives." The closing words of the last
sentence are specially suggestive of the
value of industrial mission work in the
uplifting of African womanhood.

But Shaw was too true a missionary

* See Chapter VI.

116 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Evangelistic to allow such duties to crowd out the real

Labours work he had been sent to do. His days

were largely spent in manual labour, but

the evenings were devoted to religious

instruction. He writes : —

" Having one evening spoken of ' the Water of
Life/ which is given without money and without
price, and invited the thirsty to partake of it, some
of those who heard were much affected, and long
after we had retired for rest we heard them attempt-
ing to pray and to sing verses of the hymns, which
they now began to remember."

It soon became evident that Christ was
drawing some of these degraded Hottentots
to Himself. Mr. Shaw found it necessary
to appoint a time " for meeting those who
had any concern for their souls," and some
of the sentences he records from the testi-
monies in that first Society Class among
the heathen of South Africa are beautiful
in the extreme. God was manifestly
working in their hearts. But the church
and the class meeting were not the only
occasions on which these poor people sought
the Father's ear. The following incident
is too beautiful to be omitted :

" Going out one night with the design of shoot-
ing hares, my attention was arrested by the sound of
a human voice, proceeding from a cleft of a rock.
Approaching nearer to the spot, I distinctly heard
that it was the voice of supplication. A Namaqua,
who had attended evening service, had afterwards

Our South Africa Mission Field 117

come hither to wrestle with God. I never knew who
the individual was. . . . This circumstance led to
reflection on the words of the Apostle : ' For there is
no difference between Jew and Greek; for the same
Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.' "

As the years passed the work grew and Results
new stations were founded. But the
miracles of grace were intensive as well as
extensive, and eight years after the found-
ation of the mission Mr. Shaw was able to
write thus :

" The pious natives of Khamies Berg continued to
improve, both in temporal and spiritual matters, and
were as a city set on a hill. Their light shone in
worshipping God in their families. Often I have
heard them engaged in prayer before the sun had
gilded the tops of the mountains; nor were their
evening devotions neglected. As I have stood by
the mission-house, with the curtains of night drawn
around us, I could hear them uniting in singing
their beautiful evening hymn. . . . Then, falling
around their family altar, though in a smoky hut,
they felt the presence of the Most High."

Concerning God's wonderful working in
Africa, the ancient prophet wrote :
" Marvellous things did He in Zoan, in the
sight of their fathers." Once again, three
thousand years later, the same God was
doing " marvellous things " on African soil.
Even the Colonial Government recognised
the work that was being done, and in 1824
Lord Somerset conferred on Mr. Shaw the

118 The Call of the Dark Continent

Pioneer
Journeys

The Outlaw
Africaner

power to control the neighbourhood of
Lilyfontein in the name of Governments

The arrival of new missionaries in 1818
and 1819 made it possible to think of an
extension movement. Pioneer journeys
were made into Great NamaQualand and
Damaraland as far as Walfish Bay. The
way did not open for the formation of
stations in those remote regions, but these
tours enabled Shaw to acquire much
valuable information about the possibilities
of work in regions not before visited by
Europeans.

About the time Barnabas Shaw settled
at Lilyfontein, the country further north
was disturbed by the presence of a terrible
outlaw chief named Africaner. This man
— a Hottentot — had been a slave on a
Dutch farm near Cape Town ; but, driven
desperate by oppression, had, with his
brother, murdered their master, rallied
their tribe and escaped across the Orange
River into Great NamaQualand. Such a
terror did these men become, that Govern-
ment set a price on Africaner's head. The
outlaw retaliated by practically declaring
war on the Government and avenging
himself on every white settler within his
reach. When L.M.S. missionaries settled
at Warm Bath, about a hundred miles west

* See Chapter VI.

Our South Africa Mission Field 119

of Africaner's headquarters, the ruffian
was inclined to favour them, but rumours
reached him that they were playing into
the hands of his enemies. Soon the
missionaries were in greatest danger, and
lived in hourly expectation of death.

Just at this time the renowned L.M.S. Robert Moffat
missionary, Robert Moffat, landed at the
Cape (January, 1817). While encountering
the usual difficulty placed in the way of
missionaries by the Government, Moffat
heard on every hand of the terrible
Africaner. Rumour credited him with a
desire to receive a missionary, and a few
months later Moffat determined to go as
the messenger of Christ to the outlaw's
kraal. In September of the same year
(1817) he set out in an ox-wagon on this
dangerous venture. The farmers at whose
houses he rested were almost all kindly
disposed, but with one consent condemned
his mission as utter madness. They pre-
dicted that Africaner would set Moffat up
as a target for his boys to shoot at, would
make a drumhead of his skin, and a
drinking cup of his skull. One pious Boer
housewife shed tears over this rash English
lad going blindly into the very mouth of
the lion. In due time this young hero
reached Africaner, but his reception was
not encouraging. However, some native

120 The Gall of the Dark Continent

women were ordered to build a hut for him
— they accomplished the task in half an
hour — and Moffat settled down to his
work. It soon became evident that
the Spirit of God was working in the
dark heart. Changes were noticeable in
Africaner's conduct ; he interested himself
in the school Moffat opened, and encouraged
the children of the tribe to attend. The
Bible, too, attracted his attention, and he
would sit up at nights to talk with the
missionary about the truths it contains.
As time passed conviction of sin became
evident, and the outlaw would mourn over
his awful past, "What have I now for all
the battles I have fought and all the cattle
I have taken but shame and remorse," he
said. His love for Moffat grew very strong,
and ere long the mighty love of God took
possession of him. The miracle was
wrought. In little more than a year the
missionary triumphantly led the outlaw, a
willing captive, to Cape Town to show the
astonished Governor and incredulous
settlers what the Grace of God could
accomplish. The eagerness to kill Africaner
was so great that he had to accomplish the
journey disguised as Moffat's servant, but
when the Governor was convinced of the
change he pardoned him and showed him
many marks of kindness.

Our South Africa Mission Field 121

Soon after this Moffat was transferred to
BeChuanalancl, where, first at GriQua Town
and afterwards at Kuruman, he rendered
half a century of splendid service for the
salvation of Africa. His translation of
Holy Scripture into SeChuana remains as
a memorial of his life-work among the
BeChuana.

After Moffat's appointment to GriQua ^amaOuaiand
Town, the L.M.S. felt compelled to abandon
their Mission in Great NamaQualand, and
for several years the district was left
without Christian teachers, and was
devastated by incessant warfare. At last,
in 1825, the way seemed to open for the
W.M.M.S. to enter the country. In that William
year William Threlfall (who had made an Threlfa11
unsuccessful effort to occupy Delagoa Bay)
undertook a pioneer journey accompanied
by two converted Hottentots. Biding on
oxen, they crossed the Orange and reached
Warm Bath, where they were treacher-
ously murdered by Bushmen.

Not until 1832 was it found possible to g"^8^11
station a missionary at Warm Bath. Then
Josiah Nisbett, of the Madras Civil Service,
by generous contributions, made the re-
commencement of this work possible.
" Cannot you do something for that
miserable country?" he asked. "If you
will send a missionary to these people I

122 The Gall of the Dark Continent

will give £300. If that is not sufficient, I
will dispose of my carriages and horses. I
would trudge on foot rather than let Great
NamaQualand remain without the Gospel."
In response to this, the Rev. E. Cook
laboured for ten years at this station, and
after his death the work was carried on
by a succession of faithful and devoted
men. Stations were also opened at Hoole
Fontein among Africaner's people ; and at
Concordiaville, Elephant Fountain, and
Wesleyville, in Damaraland. But, owing
largely to the migratory habits of the
people, the difficulties were great, and the
stations extremely awkward to reach. It
was therefore decided to hand the work in
Great NamaQualand and Damaraland over
to the Rhenish Mission, and this was done
in 1851 and 1867, only Lilyfontein being
retained by the W.M.M.S.

The BaRaiong We have seen how from Lilyfontein the

Mission W()rd of God ugounded Qut tQ them that

dwelt" in Great NamaQualand and Damara-
land. We have now to record another
movement of great importance that origi-
nated at that same centre of light among
the Khamies Berg people — the mission to
the BaBalongs, a BeChuana tribe of the
great Bantu race, inhabiting the then

Our South Africa Mission Field 123

practically unknown region now BeChuana-
land and Orange River Colony. The diffi-
culties of our work among the NamaQua
and Damara arose largely from the
scattered population and roving habits of
the people ; the natives were comparatively
few and the area to be covered was
immense. With the BeChuana tribes it
was usually otherwise. They were more
advanced in civilisation, and were agricul-
turists as well as herdsmen and hunters,
and they were often massed together in
large companies. Intertribal wars, how-
ever, kept these people constantly moving
from place to place. The patient, coura-
geous faith of the men who ventured to
travel, unattended and unprotected, far
from the limits of settled government to
carry the message of peace to these
warring peoples rebukes our less heroic age.
At the close of 1821, in the heat of the
South African summer, the Rev. Samuel Samuel
and Mrs. Broadbent set out from Lilyfontein
on this new venture. In an ox-wagon
they made their way through the northern
part of NamaQualand and across BeChuana-
land — "one of the most desolate and
barren regions on the face of the earth.
Rain seldom falls, and the air is dry in the
extreme. As far as the eye can reach
stretch vast sandy plains, crossed by

124 The Gall of the Dark Continent

rugged lines of rock. Vegetation is sparse,
stunted and spinous."

The wagon passed slowly along to
GriQua Town, where an L. M.S. missionary
was stationed. A wagon accident caused
Mr. Broadhent internal injuries, and the
long journey to Graif Heine t had to be
made to secure medical help. For six
months Samuel Broad bent hung between
life and death. But it pleased God to
restore His servant, and, accompanied by
the Rev. T. L. Hodgson, newly arrived from
England, Broadbent returned to BeChuana-
land. Travelling through an unknown
country they at length reached the Vaal,
which they crossed on rafts, and then
followed its north bank in a north-easterly
direction until they suddenly and quite
unexpectedly found themselves in the arms
of the BaBalong they had come to seek.
A MaNtatee raid had caused these people
to move southward — a multitude of men,
women and children, with their cattle, sheep
and goats, the armed warriors bringing up
the rear. This was a movement caused by
the great Zulu conquests. The MaNtatee,
about 50,000 in number, had been driven
southward before the fierce MaTabele, and,
having lost their own lands and cattle,
were preying upon their weaker neighbours
as they moved along. The country was

Our South Africa Mission Field 125

indeed in a terrible condition. From the
Vaal to the Zambesi, from Zululand on
the east coast to the BeChuana desert
there was war, and fever, and hunger,
and the restless movement of the peoples.
Our brave missionaries at once attached
themselves to the BaRalong, and for some
years wandered with them from place to
place, living in wagons and suffering all
the perils of the situation, whether from
wild beasts or still wilder men. Eventually
a resting-place was found. The tribe settled
at Thaba Nchu in the present Orange
River Free State. This was in the year
1833, Work was also undertaken among
the GriQua, the BaSuto, and the MaNtatee.

While many of the great Missionary A Notable
Societies usually confine their attention to wesieyan
the non-Christian races, Methodism has Missions
never, so limited its sphere of activity.
Without respect to race, religion or language,
our missionaries have from the beginning
sought to render help wherever opportunity
presented itself. From the very first,
Colonial work has been a special feature of
the W.M.M.S. programme. While seeking
to make Christ known to the heathen, we
have never neglected the spiritual welfare
of our fellow countrymen residing in the

126 The Gall of the Dark Continent

great mission fields to which God has called
us. The consistent Christian life of an English
trader or soldier in India or Africa is an in-
valuable help to the workers seeking to evan-
gelise the heathen, and it behoves us, in the
interests of the vernacular work, to minister
to that Englishman's spiritual needs.
Gape Town In carrying out this policy, the Mission-

ary Committee watched for an opportunity
to begin work amongst the European
settlers in Cape Colony. In 1820, Barnabas
Shaw, from his eyrie in the Khamies Berg,
perceived that the official prejudice was
giving way, and he sent one of his colleagues,
the Be v. E. Edwards, to begin work in
Cape Town. On reaching the capital, Mr.
Edwards at once went to the acting
Governor to seek permission to preach to
Europeans, and also to instruct the slave
population of the town and neighbourhood.
The permission, refused to Shaw four years
before, was now cheerfully given, and- from
that date Cape Town has been " occupied "
by Methodism. A few years later the
Committee requested Mr. Shaw himself to
take charge of the Cape Town station.
This devoted missionary pioneer was long
spared to work, and, after more than forty
years' service, died at Bondebosch in 1857.

Our South Africa Mission Field 127

We have now surveyed the operations of The Colonists
the W.M.M.S. in the western regions of of 1820
South Africa and the great missionary
movements that grew out of them. An
event of unusual character now demands our
attention, for out of it our missions in the
eastern districts of Cape Colony developed.

The great war with France caused much
unemployment and distress in England,
and in order to afford some relief the
Government decided to draft a large body
of colonists to Algoa Bay. From a large
number of eager applicants, the Colonial
Office officials carefully selected some 4,000
persons, and these were conveyed to Africa
in twenty-six vessels at the expense of the
nation. To the credit of Great Britain, it
must be recorded that the Government
made provision for the spiritual as well as
the temporal necessities of the settlers, and,
in order that public worship might be
observed in accordance with their varying
convictions, it was provided that every
settlement of not less than one hundred
colonists should be allowed to select a
minister. It so happened that a large
number of the prospective colonists were
Methodists, and this gave Conference a long-
wished-for opportunity. The Bev. William William
Shaw* was appointed to the post, and on w

* Not related to Barnabas Shaw.

Mission

128 The Gall of the Dark Continent

May 16th, 1820, he landed with the settlers
in Algoa Bay. For three years he devoted
himself to the interests of the new colonists,
travelling from settlement to settlement
and keeping alive the religious life of the
small communities.
The Kafir Shortly after his arrival William Shaw

wrote, " There is not a single missionary
between my residence and the northern
extremity of the Red Sea." Thus early
the desire to claim the Kafirs for Christ
seized the man whose speeches and appeals
for the African races are still remembered
by many in England. In 1823 he made a
journey of one hundred miles from
Grahamstown to the village of a Kafir
chief, who was persuaded to give land for a
mission station — chiefly because he
regarded a white missionary as a means of
communication with the Government.
Thus began our work among the warlike
Kafir tribes. Perceiving how solitary
mission stations were liable to fail, William
Shaw, with statesmanlike foresight, con-
ceived the idea of establishing a chain of
stations, placed within hailing distance of
each other. Wesleyville was the first link
of the chain, and Mount Coke became the
second; a third was placed at Butterworth,
the fourth was Morley, the next was
Clarkebury, and the last was Buntingville.

Our South Africa Mission Field 129

Thus a chain of stations was formed 200
miles from end to end- — a line of light
shining through the darkness.

But the work Was not suffered to The Kafir Wars

progress without difficulties. In 1834 the
fifth Kafir war* broke out. This was but
one episode in a great struggle for stable
government, which only became possible
after the ninth war in 1877. In this
protracted conflict, our mission stations
were abandoned and destroyed time after
time. But the large number of native
churches found to-day throughout these
territories speak of the quiet and heroic
faith with which the missionaries returned
again and again to re-establish their work
and build the waste places.

The men who share with William Shaw Notable
the honour of the Kafir Mission were many,
and their names are still fragrant in the
whole of Kafirland where men, English
and Native, are beginning to understand
the greatness of the work done in the early
days. No one has rendered finer service
than Peter Hargreaves. Since 1857 he
has laboured for the salvation of Africa,
and at an advanced age is still with us.
His mission to Pondoland is a notable
feature of our South Africa mission field.

* The first was in 1779, and for a hundred years from that
time, whether in the hands of Dutch or English, the frontier
of civilisation was marked out in blood.

5

le
Workers

130 The Gall of the Dark Continent

The South

African

Conference

To W. B. Boyce belongs the honour of
compiling the first Kafir Grammar.

Gradually the work expanded in all
directions — Tembuland, Pondoland,
GriQualand, and BaSutoland were occupied.
In 1842 Natal was entered, and efforts were
made to evangelise the terrible AmaZulu.

When the extent of the work amongst
Europeans in Cape Colony is considered,
it will be understood that, sooner or later,
the question of self-government was bound
to arise. So early as 1860 William Shaw
strongly urged upon the Committee the
formation of a South African Conference,
but others felt that such a step would be
premature. In 1882 a scheme was finally
accepted whereby a separate South African
Conference came into being. All the exist-
ing work described above was entrusted
to the newly formed Conference, and from
that time it has made steady progress.

The returns for 1910 are : —

Churches

1,305

Other Preaching Places

2,625

Ministers

260

Evangelists

252

Local Preachers

4,764

Total Income for Year

... £163.555

Full Members (European)

9,901

,, ,, (African)

... 78,228

Members on Trial (European)

727

,, ,, ,, (African)

... 33,361

Adult Baptisms during year

4,221

Adherents

... 314,000

Our South Africa Mission Field 131

The formation of the South African The Transvaal
Conference left one important field of work
still under the care of home Methodism —
the Transvaal. With this we must now
deal.

Cape Colony has witnessed few more The Great
remarkable events than the Great Trek of Boer Trek
1836. For some time the Dutch settlers
had disliked British rule. Some of their
grievances were doubtless very real — to
them — while others were more or less
sentimental. Descendants of the men who
fought Philip II., they were not the people
to submit to what they believed to be
unjust treatment, and at last they resolved
to emigrate beyond the borders of Cape
Colony. Packing their goods on their
wagons, some thousands of them turned
their faces northward to seek new homes
in the wilderness. With their horned
cattle, sheep, goats and horses, they went
from the grass-covered plains and climbed
by the steep passes to the high table-
lands. Once across the Orange Eiver
they believed themselves beyond the
bounds of British authority, and there
most of them settled. Some of the bolder
spirits pressed still further north and
crossed the Vaal into the wild regions
then occupied by the MaTabele under
Mozilikatzi, with whom they had much

132 The Gall of the Dark Continent

fighting. The Dutch suffered many severe
losses, but ultimately their fierce foes were
driven across the Limpopo. In 1852, by
the Sand River Convention, the British
Government recognised the independence
of the settlers north of the Vaal ; two
years later (1854) the Orange Free State
was also formally recognised, and the
" Boers" were left to work out their own
destiny.
David Magata The apostle of Methodism beyond the
Vaal was not a European missionary, but
a poor, unlettered native — David Magata —
whose story has been told in "A Mission
to the Transvaal!' Born in the Maga-
liesberg, this remarkable man became a
MaTabele slave, and for some years was a
personal servant of the terrible Mozilikatzi.
When the Boers drove the MaTabele
northward, David Magata escaped, fled
to Thaba Nchu,* and was there soundly
converted to God in the Methodist
chapel. There soon came into his heart
that desire so usual with new converts
— the desire to proclaim to his own
family the grace of the Lord Jesus.
Failing to find any trace of them (the
long years of turmoil and war had
scattered many families for ever) he began
to preach wherever opportunity offered.

* See page 125.

Our South Africa Mission Field 133

He had received no commission save from
his Lord ; but the heart of this ex-slave
was overflowing with the all-constraining
love of Christ, and he could not be silent.
When William Shaw visited Thaba
Nchu and heard of this man's evan-
gelistic zeal, he appointed him an agent
(without pay) of the W.M.M.S. In
season and out of season he preached to all
who would listen. In the Boer settle-
ments he preached to the native servants ;
he visited the scattered kraals ; he spoke
to people by the wayside. Unhappily, the
settlers had carried with them to their new
home their old prejudice against missionary
work among the natives, and David soon
found himself the object of fierce oppo-
sition. This came to a head one day in
Potchefstroom (then the capital), when a
Landdrost had this black apostle tied to
the wheel of an ox-wagon and flogged,
and then banished him from the Republic.
But David Magata's zeal was not to be
quenched, and he soon returned to the
Transvaal where, happily, he met Paul
Kruger, then a young Commandant, who
heard his story of evangelism and perse-
cution and gave him written permission to
return to the capital, where he was soon at
work again. Familiar with several native
languages, he was able to speak to the

134 The Gall of the Dark Continent

men of many tribes as they passed through
Potchefstroom on their way to the diamond
mines.
The w.m.m.s. In 1865 a minister was "earnestly re-
quested" for Potchefstroom as a direct
result of Magata's labours. But it was
only in 1872 that the "Mission beyond
the Vaal " took definite shape. In that
year George Blencowe, William Wynne,
and George Weavind were appointed,
with Potchefstroom as headquarters.
Services were conducted in a schoolroom
lent by the Boer Government. Two years
later Pretoria appeared on the Minutes of
Conference. Then came the long troubles
connected with British annexation and
the war of 1880. At that time we had
only seventy-eight members at two centres
for European work (Potchefstroom and
Pretoria). We had also native churches
among the BaKwena and the BaBalong.
After the war a new era began with the
first Synod of the Transvaal District in
1882, of which the Be v. Owen Watkins was
Chairman. As new missionaries arrived
forward movements were made. The
country was still without roads or bridges,
and railways were unknown. Yet the
splendid work done in those pioneer days
prepared the way for the great results of
later vears.

-

NATIVES AT HOME IN THE KRAAL.

Photo by Neville Edwards.

NATIVES AS WE MEET THEM AT THE MINES.

p. 135.

Our South Africa Mission Field 135

The discovery of gold on the Rand in The Discovery
1886 immediately drew to the country
large numbers of men of many races intent
on but one thing — gold. We have already
seen how avarice brings out the worst and
most selfish qualities of human nature.
The town of Johannesburg " sprang" into
existence where two or three years before
" the Witwatersrand was wild, wind-
swept veld." But though many of the
miners were utterly godless, in others the
fire of true piety burned unquenched, and
Methodism soon recognised her duty to
the new-comers. The Rev. F. J. Briscoe Among the
became minister of our first Rand Church, MIners
living for six months in a wagon until
other accommodation could be secured.
In this way European work became an
important feature of our Transvaal District.
But the native work was not neglected.
Indeed, the opening of the mines soon gave
us new opportunities, for men of many
tribes gathered from hundreds of miles
around to serve for a period and then
return to their distant kraals. In this
way the service held in the mine compound
became a powerful instrument for the
wider diffusion of the Christian message.
Thus, while some natives learned new
vices from their white employers, others
carried back to their homes the seed of the

136 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Kingdom. Our workers lost no opportunity
^Work" °f °^ gomg to the people in their own districts.
" For a century or more the Transvaal had
been the meeting-place and radiating
centre for many Bantu peoples, and from
the beginning our work touched very
varied tribes. On the east was Swaziland,
calling us to labour among its virile people
of the great Zulu family. Four hundred
miles away on the west were the BaKalong,
under the great chief Montsioa, asking
for a settled ministry. In the extreme
north, near Mphahleles' country, were Ba-
Pedi people calling us to follow up the
work of natives who, having laboured in
the mines for a few months, had taken
back with them the Water of Life ; and on
the extreme southern border of the
Republic, in a parched and thirsty land,
were the Koranna desiring to drink of this
same Water. Again, in the villages and
on scattered Boer farms were people who
had grown up from infancy in Boer service
and were Dutch speaking. These people,
scattered and unshepherded, without land,
without nationality, early felt the thrill
of Christ's message, and formed many a
country church. With the map before us,
it is easier to realise the boldness of the
planning which, following the Guiding
Hand, marked out such an extent of

Our South Africa Mission Field 137

territory to be occupied in the name of
Christ."*

Under the manifest blessing of God, Growth
this extensive work prospered abundantly,
and in 1898 there were over 8,700 full
members in our Transvaal District. The real
promise of this work is better understood
when we remember that, after nearly a
century of work in Ceylon, we have only a
full membership of 5,900, and ninety years
of strenuous labour in S. India have
only resulted in a membership of 8,100
(including those gathered in the great mass
movements in Haidarabad).

Then came the great Boer War of 1899- The Great War
1902. During those dark years fire and
sword wasted the land. Boer commandos
and British armies carried destruction
everywhere. Our churches were destroyed,
our members scattered, and for a time it
seemed that the labour of years was
undone. At last the long- delayed hour
came and PEACE was proclaimed — we
cannot call it " sweet " peace, for homes
were ruined and hearts broken ; the wound
could only be healed by the kindly hand
of time. But even before the war was
over the W. M. M. S. was preparing to
step in again to apply to wounded hearts
the ointment of Divine Love. Early in

* F. J. Briscoe.

5*

138 The Gall of the Dark Continent

1902 the Committee arranged for the
Rev. Amos Burnet to go to the Transvaal
to superintend the re-establishment of
the work of God. In his little book,
A Mission to the Transvaal, Mr. Burnet
thus describes the condition of the
country :

" When we arrived in South Africa the last shot
had been fired, and quiet was once more restored to
the distracted land. With a joy that cannot be
understood by those who have never known the
bitterness of exile, the people were flocking to their
homes. . . . Then followed the long, dark days of
despair, the wearying uncertainty about loved ones of
whom no tidings came. . . . What a home-coming it
was ! Flocks and herds had been swept away ; the
smiling homestead had disappeared, or only re-
mained as a blackened ruin. It was possible, in those
dark days, to drive 150 miles without seeing a single
farmhouse that was altogether untouched. Another
journey of 250 miles only brought into view about a
dozen cattle and less than fifty sheep. In some
towns, as at Ermelo, the very churches were dis-
mantled and destroyed, and again the bitter cry was
heard, ' Our holy and beautiful house is burned with
fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste.' For
nearly three years, in many parts of the District, the
altar fires were extinguished. No sound of prayer
or Christian hymn was heard. This was especially
and generally true of our native churches."

A New It is impossible for home Christians to

Beginning understand the utter discouragement that

must have filled the hearts of our mission-
aries to see all their work laid waste. But
with splendid courage and holy faith

Our South Africa Mission Field 139

they set to work to build again the waste
places ; and soon, Phcenix-like, from the
ashes there arose a new Church greater and
stronger than ever before. Our wonder-
working God had made the wrath of man
to praise Him. As a result of a tour of
inspection, Mr. Burnet and his colleagues
came to the following conclusions :

(1) That English and native work must be vigor- The plan of
ously prosecuted, simultaneously and in their due Campaign
proportions.

(2) That there must be an immediate and exten-
sive development of purely missionary operations.

(3) The need for a great development of the edu-
cational activities of our Church must be at once
dealt with.

(4) That provision must be made for the industrial
training of women and girls.

(5) That the country districts presented fine open-
ings for medical missionary work.

This statesmanlike policy commended it- Developments
self to the Missionary Committee, and
during 1903 fifteen additional missionaries
were sent to the Transvaal. "According
to the good hand of God upon them," our
missionaries were enabled to carry their
plans to fruition, and the progress made was
such as has never before been witnessed on
any other part of our Mission Field. Under
the faithful preaching of the Word of God,
men and women were converted by the
score. Churches sprang up in mining towns

Growth of the
Church

140 The Gall of the Dark Continent

and native villages. Under the Rev. F. J.
Briscoe, our Kilnerton Training Institution
became the foremost institution of its kind
in the Colony.

The progress the Transvaal District has
made since the war is best illustrated by
the following remarkable figures.

1898. 1910.

English Ministers ... 24 56

African Ministers... ... 17 34

Evangelists ... ... 34 50

Day-school Teachers ... 77 119

Local Preachers 607 1,652

Full Members 8,794 20,302

Members on Trial ... 3,506 1,788

Adherents 46,615 84,844

It must be remembered that the returns
for 1898 were almost wiped out during the
war. The increased membership is start-
ling, and we must note the fact that only
2,521 of the full members are Europeans,
the rest being natives. No less than 1,544
of our local preachers are men of African
race ; this is unique in the history of mis-
sions. During the first six and a half years
after the war, Mr. Burnet reported more
than 10,000 adult baptisms from heathen-
ism. Wonderful are the works of our
God!

Portuguese
East Africa

We have still to trace the off-shoots of
the Transvaal Mission in Portuguese East

14

PORTUGUESE.
ANGOLA

•._ — .._ — ~~ .

18

£2

DAMARA
LAND

26

30

34

Our South Africa Mission Field 141

Africa and Southern Rhodesia — the latter
now a separate District.

Along the East Coast, between the
Transvaal and the Indian Ocean, is the
southern extremity of Portuguese East
Africa. Our W.M.M.S. work is almost
conterminous with the Administrative
district of Lourenco Marques ; it extends
from Tongaland on the south to the
line of the Limpopo and Olifant's Rivers
on the north, from Delagoa Bay on
the east to Swaziland on the west.
Included in this area are the old native
kingdoms of MaPuto, Tembe, MaTolla,
Zihlahla, Shirinda and Ntimana. The
people among whom we work are the Ba-
Konga of the great Bantu race. Delagoa
Bay is one of the finest harbours in the
world, but the whole country is malarial.

Our work was begun in 1823 by
William Threlfall, who, after ten months of William
incessant fever, was carried on board a
schooner and taken to Cape Town — only to
be murdered shortly afterwards in an effort
to reach Great NamaQualand.# The work
was abandoned until Robert Mashaba, a wob^rt.
native of Tembeland converted in Cape
Colony and educated under the great Dr.
Stewart at Lovedale, undertook a mission
at Lourenco Marques on his own responsi-

* See page 121.

Grov
Chut

Porti
East

Our South Africa Mission Field 141

Africa and Southern Rhodesia — the latter
now a separate District.

Along the East Coast, between the
Transvaal and the Indian Ocean, is the
southern extremity of Portuguese East
Africa. Our W.M.M.S. work is almost
conterminous with the Administrative
district of Lourenco Marques ; it extends
from Tongaland on the south to the
line of the Limpopo and Olifant's Rivers
on the north, from Delagoa Bay on
the east to Swaziland on the west.
Included in this area are the old native
kingdoms of MaPuto, Tembe, MaTolla,
Zihlahla, Shirinda and Ntimana. The
people among whom we work are the Ba-
Konga of the great Bantu race. Delagoa
Bay is one of the finest harbours in the
world, but the whole country is malarial.

Our work was begun in 1823 by
William Threlfall, who, after ten months of William

, r- • j -i j Threlfall

incessant lever, was carried on board a
schooner and taken to Cape Town — only to
be murdered shortly afterwards in an effort
to reach Great NamaQualand.^ The work
was abandoned until Robert Mashaba, a J*_obf rt,

.. x» rp l i j j • r\ Mashaba

native ot lembeland converted in Cape
Colony and educated under the great Dr.
Stewart at Lovedale, undertook a mission
at Lourenco Marques on his own responsi-

* See page 121.

142 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Delagoa Bay
Circuit

bility in 1885. He established schools and
founded churches, although for over five
years he laboured single-handed. The
work was taken over by the W.M.M.S. in
1893, and Mashaba was received as a
minister on trial. Unfortunately, the
following year war broke out between the
Portuguese and their native subjects, and
Mashaba, being accused of complicity in
the " insurrection," was, on mere suspicion,
deported to Cape Verde. # But the work
spread rapidly, and in the great forward
movement after the Boer War our first
European missionary was stationed at
Delagoa Bay. We have now four African
ministers and three catechists working in
this field. Our churches number 39 and
we have a Christian community of over

6,000.

*****

Southern
Rhodesia

When Mozilikatzi and his MaTabele
hosts were driven out of the Transvaal by
the Boers in 1837, they crossed the
Limpopo into the land of the MaKalala
and established themselves in the south-
western portion of it (between the Limpopo
and Victoria Falls) — henceforth known as
MaTabeleland. During the rest of the

* After several years detention, Robert Mashaba was
permitted to return to the ranks of our Transvaal ministry,
out he is excluded from Portuguese territory.

Our South Africa Mission Field 143

reign of Mozilikatzi and that of his son
Lobengula, the missionaries of the L.M.S.
worked among the MaTabele under the
special protection of these wild and war-
like monarchs, who always favoured the
messengers of God, though they never
received the Word into their own dark
hearts, and usually influenced their people
against Christianity. To the north-east,
between the MaTabele and Portuguese
Zambesia, was the land of the MaShona—
another Bantu tribe (not an off-shoot of the
AmaZulu). In 1889 the whole of these
countries between the Limpopo and the
Zambesi passed, by Royal Charter, into
the hands of the British South Africa
Company for commercial development.
This vast territory, 750,000 miles in
extent, was named Southern Rhodesia,
after the founder of the Company.

In 1891 Mr. Rhodes, on behalf of the Planting
Chartered Company, offered the W.M.M.S. our Mission
£100 a year towards the cost of a mission in
MaShonaland. Recognising this to be a call
to advance, our Committee instructed the
Revs. Owen Watkins and Isaac Shimmin
to enter Rhodesia. Journeying by coach
and wagon, these pioneers set their faces
towards the new mission field, and after
five months reached their destination — Fort
Salisbury. Having made the preliminary

144 the Gall of the Dark Continent

arrangments, Mr. Watkins returned to the
Transvaal, leaving his colleague to take
charge of the new work. In 1892 Mr.
Shimmin was joined by George H. Eva,
two years later by John White, and in
1895 by John W. Stanlake. These four
men, assisted by native evangelists, were
in God's hands the means of founding the
new mission.
Developments The first task confronting our mission-
aries was a gigantic one. The people spoke
a language unknown to any of the workers,
white or black. They were without
literature or knowledge of Christian truth,
degraded almost beyond belief, and wholly
suspicious of the new-comers. Customs,
belief, language — all had to be learned.
The first duty was to select suitable centres
in populous districts where the natives were
willing to receive our missionaries. With
the help of the Company, land was obtained.
In several centres they gave us farms for
our mission purposes. Six stations were
thus planted, and native evangelists were
located. Subsequent work has consisted
largely in consolidating these main stations,
occupying them with English missionaries,
and branching out in every direction around.
Meanwhile, the language (Shona) was
learned and committed to writing. School-
books were printed for use in our schools, and

Our South Africa Mission Field 145

these were quickly followed by Scripture
portions, a hymn-book and a catechism. In
this translation work the Revs. John White
and Avon Walton have taken the chief part.

At first catechists had to be imported Nengubo
from Cape Colony, but it soon became
necessary to train men in the country. For
this purpose the Nengubo Training In-
stitution was opened in 1899. Beginning
with five youths, this institution has now
twenty-seven students in training, the
majority of whom will eventually enter our
work as catechists or teachers. Four men,
trained at Nengubo, have already entered
the ranks of our ministry, and are rendering
valuable service.

There are some 30,000 white settlers in
Southern Rhodesia, and, in accordance with
Methodist custom, work has been under-
taken and faithfully carried on among them.
For their own sakes, and for the sake of the
natives they influence so greatly, we are
bound to minister to the spiritual needs of
these men. In four centres we have
ministers set apart for European work, and
at other places, as time and opportunity
permit, our missionaries gather scattered
settlers together and preach to them the
Word of Life. Conversions among the
white men, as well as among the natives,
are continually reported.

146 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Our Rhodesian Mission has had its
baptism of fire. At first MaTabeleland
was closed to our missionaries (though
those of the L.M.S. were labouring there by
permission of the king). But in 1893 war
unfortunately broke out between the
MaTabele and the Chartered Company (we
say unfortunately, for war is never a suit-
able introduction to the Gospel) ; Lobengula
was defeated, and he died soon after. His
chief kraal, Buluwayo — a big circle of mud-
and-thatch huts — was destroyed, and on its
ruins a new town arose, built by Europeans.
Our MaTabele Mission commenced in 1895.
During the war of 1893, our stations in
MaShonaland were wrecked and con-
siderable damage was done to the work.
The MaShona rebellion of 1896 again
worked havoc to our Mission ; two of our
most useful evangelists were cruelly
murdered, and much property was des-
troyed. But the effect of the rebellion was
to destroy the MaShona confidence in witch-
doctors and other evil advisers. During
the decade 1901-1910 the full member-
ship of the Rhodesia District increased by
140 per cent.

This broad survey of the W.M.M.S. South
Africa Missions is sufficient general answer

Our South Africa Mission Field 147

to the question at the beginning of the
chapter, " What has Methodism done to
help the people of South Africa ? " She
was early on the field, and has given of her
best sons and servants ; these have devoted
themselves wholly, heart and brain, to the
work ; they have been evangelists, scholars,
thinkers, and Christian statesmen — think-
ing and planning for the redemption of the
Dark Continent. They have cared for all ;
they have laboured for all. They have been
ministers of peace and goodwill between race
and race, between white and black, and, to
some extent, between Boer and Briton.
" Religion," says George Adam Smith, " de-
mands all the brains we poor mortals can
put into it." Our missionaries in South
Africa have lived up to that. Notice how
much brain they have put into their service.
Mark the careful planning, the statesman-
like foresight, the wise, well-planned
advance whenever opportunity offered.
Livingstone has been described as "a man
with a plan." Many of our South African
missionaries might be similarly described.
They have planned as well as worked ; they
have thought as well as prayed. And this
has the express approval of Christ Himself :
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind!'

148 The Gall of the Dark Continent

TABLE OF DATES FOR CHAPTER III.

I486 — South Africa discovered by Bartholomew Diaz.

1652— Table Bay occupied by the Dutch East India Company.

1662— The landing of Van Riebeek, first Governor of the Dutch

Colony.
1737— George Schmidt, the first Moravian missionary, landed at

the Cape.
1795— Cape Colony became British territory.
1799— Vanderkemp (L.M.S.) reached Algoa Bay.
1803— The Cape restored to Holland by the Peace of Amiens.
1814— John McKenny, the firsr Wesleyan missionary to South

Africa, reached Cape Town.
1815— The Cape finally ceded to England.
1816 (April 14th)— Barnabas Shaw landed at Cape Town.
1816 (Sept. 6th)— Barnabas Shaw started for NamaQualand.
1817— Robert Moffat (L.M.S.) landed at Cape Town.
1820— Cape Town occupied by the W.M.M.S.
1820— Landing of William Shaw and the colonists at Algoa Bay.
1821 — Samuel Broadbent started for a mission to the BaRalong.
1823 — William Shaw began the Kafir Mission.
1825 — William Threlfall murdered in Great NamaQualand.
1832 — Mission in Great NamaQualand commenced.
1836— The Great Boer Trek.
1842— The W.M.M.S. occupy Natal.
1851-1867— The W.M.M.S. stations in Great NamaQualand and

Damaraland handed over to the Rhenish Mission.
1852— Independence of Transvaal recognised by Sand River

Convention.
1854— Independence of Orange Free State recognised.
1872— First W.M.M.S. ministers to the Transvaal appointed and

stationed at Potchefstroom.
1880— Annexation of the Transvaal and first Anglo-Boer war.
1882— The South African Wesleyan Conference formed.
1882— The Transvaal District constituted and first Synod held.
1886— Discovery of Gold on the Rand, and inrush of miners.
1891— Owen Watkins and Isaac Shimmin planted W.M.M.S.

Mission in MaShonaland.
1893— W.M.M.S. undertook work at Delagoa Bay.
1895— W.M.M.S. entered MaTabeleland.
1899-1902— The Great Boer War.
1911 — Our missionaries cross the Zambesi.

Our South Africa Mission Field 149

ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES

SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION. - The place of
thoughtful, statesmanlike planning in African
missionary enterprise.

1. Briefly summarise the condition of South
Africa during the first half of the nineteenth century ;
(a) the condition of the native tribes, (b) the con-
dition of the white colonists.

2. What were the chief advantages and dis-
advantages to be reckoned with by the workers in
the early years of our Mission?

3. Wherein lay the real greatness of our South
African pioneers?

4. Discuss the relationship of the human and the
Divine influences at work in our South African
Missions.

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

Kidd, Dudley. — South Africa. (" Peeps at Many
Lands " Series.)

Theal, George. — South Africa. (" Story of the
Nations " Series.)

Horne, Silvester. — The Story of the London
Missionary Society.

Burnet, Amos. — A Mission to the Transvaal.

Chapter IV.
Our West African Mission Field

"An American missionary, just before his departure
for Africa, said to a friend, ' I go to that land of death ;
and if I die, you must come and write my epitaph. '
It was asked, 'What shall I write?' 'Write,' the
missionary answered, 'THOUGH A THOUSAND
FALL, LET NOT AFRICA BE FORGOTTEN' "

WILLIAM FOX

The opening of West Africa was not
undertaken seriously until Henry the
Navigator began to place his crosses on
its headlands.
The "Coast" It was an uninviting coast-line which
the Portuguese set themselves to follow — a
long expanse of flat country, hardly re-
lieved by the occasional low hills and the
stretches of mangrove swamp or forest.
From Sierra Leone to the Cameroons, there
is hardly a landmark that can be distin-
guished five miles out. Even the mouth
of the Gambia is marked only by a bell-
buoy. Sandbanks and shifting shoals lie
along the surf-swept shore, and the forest-

150

Our West African Mission Field 151

belted lagoons are often shrouded with
heavy mist.

The philanthropic zeal that brought
about the abolition of the slave trade also
created interest in the spiritual condition
of the Negro race.

It came about in this way. The heroic
efforts of Granville Sharp on behalf of an
ill-treated Negro slave led to Lord Chief
Justice Mansfield's famous judgment in
1772 : "As soon as a slave sets his foot on
English ground he becomes free " ; and a
number of Negroes who had accompanied
their masters to this country soon claimed
their privilege of freedom. After the
American War of Independence, the
number of freed slaves in London greatly
increased, and as many of them were des-
titute, a number of philanthropists sought
for some means to relieve them. A Dr.
Smeathman, who had resided in West
Africa, proposed the formation of a colony for
liberated Negroes at Sierra Leone, and, to
give effect to this charitable proposal,
" The Sierra Leone Company " was formed,
a few thousands of pounds collected, and
the Sierra Leone peninsular purchased
from the local " king."

The first colonists (about 400 freed slaves The "Original
from England and some sixty low-class Settlers "
Europeans, mostly women), known as

152 The Gall of the Dark Continent

" Original Settlers," were shipped to their
new home at the expense of the British
Government inl 7 8 7. Unfortunately eighty-
four died on the voyage, and on reaching
their destination, nearly one hundred suc-
cumbed to the climate during the first rainy
season. But the Negroes were unused to
freedom, and the white settlers were of
indifferent character, though there were
honourable exceptions. The Government
foolishly granted them an allowance of
rum, and this proved a fruitful source of
evil. Granville Sharp wrote : —

" The greatest blame of all is to be charged on the
intemperance of the people themselves ; for the most
of them (both whites and blacks) became so besotted
during the voyage that they were totally unfit for
business when they landed, and could hardly be pre-
vailed upon to assist in erecting their own huts."

The bay at the southern side of the
mouth of the Sierra Leone River is one of
the most beautiful spots to be found, and
even these degraded colonists were im-
pressed with the loveliness of their new
home. Through the perseverance of the
Governor, a settlement arose along the
shores of the bay and up the slopes of the
surrounding hills.

Five years later another large con-
tingent of settlers reached Sierra Leone.
It consisted of liberated Negroes from

Our West African Mission Field 153

Nova Scotia. These men had been slaves
in the British American Colonies, but at
the outbreak of the War of Independence
had run away from their masters and
joined the loyalist forces. When the war
closed these Negroes followed the British
armies to Canada, where their services
were rewarded by grants of land in Nova
Scotia. But the severity of the climate
soon told on them, and with the coun-
tenance and help of Government, the
Sierra Leone Company resolved to under-
take the repatriation of as many of them
as were willing to return to their native
Africa. For this purpose Lieutenant
Clarkson, of the Royal Navy, was dis-
patched to Nova Scotia, and some twelve
thousand of the suffering Negroes accepted
the proposal.

In March 1792, Lieut. Clarkson anchored
his little fleet of sixteen vessels in the
desired haven. Soon the land was cleared
and "Freetown" entered upon a new
existence.

In 1800 a company of Maroons from Maroons
Jamaica was admitted into the colony,
and twenty years later a large number of
freed slaves from Barbadoes. Some former
soldiers of West Indian regiments also
settled in Sierra Leone.

The abolition of the slave trade in the

154 The Gall of the Dark Continent

"Liberated
Africans "

The Sierra
Leonians

early years of the nineteenth century
again affected the population of Sierra
Leone. British cruisers, patrolling the
West Coast in search of the slavers, con-
stantly succeeded in capturing " prizes,"
and many frightened, half- naked slaves
were rescued and landed at Freetown.

It will thus be seen that the Sierra
Leonians" are not an indigenous people.
They form a class quite distinct from the
native tribes around them, and are almost
as separate from the Temnes, the Mendis,
the Limbahs, or other tribes of the
immediate hinterland as the Dutch settlers
at the Cape are from the Hottentots or
Kafirs. They are colonists, and regard
themselves as vastly superior to the raw
natives among whom they dwell. They
speak no native language, but a species of
" broken " English. An African language
is to them as foreign as English is to the
interior tribes. But this Lingua Franca
is a bastard English, so different from the
original that it has become practically a
separate language, and true English is
almost as incomprehensible to most of
them as it is to the pagan tribes beyond.
Apparently also, the early Sierra Leonians
adopted the religion of their benefactors,
and became nominally Christian — the
qualifying adjective unhappily in many

Our West African Mission Field 155

instances bulking larger than the proper
noun.

As the colonists increased in number
new villages and small towns came into
existence in the valleys behind Freetown
and along the shores of the peninsula.
Beyond, lay the vast Hinterland with its
indigenous pagan tribes — a great land of
bush, and forest, and stream.

Among the many restless and erring j^egf"° .
colonists at Freetown in the early days,
were men and women of different character.
The Nova Scotian contingent included a
number of Negroes who, while still in
America, had received the Gospel preached
to them by Methodist missionaries, and,
in the beautiful language of our fathers,
had been " savingly converted to God."
On reaching Sierra Leone these faithful
souls gathered themselves into a Society
of no less than 223 members " and estab-
lished the worship of God among
themselves." Some of their number served
as local preachers and others did the
work of class leaders. Dr. Coke records
that : —

" As their lives were exemplary, and their preach-
ing regular, their congregations soon increased, and
in process of time a preaching house was erected,
capable of containing four hundred persons."

From the first, Dr. Coke took a warm

156 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Dr. Coke's interest in this little eompany of simple-
First Efforts hearted Methodist Negroes.

" We received' many letters from them," he says,
" beseeching us to send a missionary to the colony
to second their exertions, and to instruct them more
fully in the way of righteousness."

Missionary
Colonists

Dr. Coke at once began to devise a
scheme for the evangelisation of West
Africa. It is clear that no merely pastoral
mission was in his mind, for while he
wished to shepherd the little flock at
Freetown, his thoughts turned rather to
the unevangelised pagans of the interior.

The Doctor's efforts belong to the early
experimental days of missionary enterprise,
and it is interesting to note the plan he
adopted. By 1795 the scheme had taken
definite shape, and we find him giving
encouragement and assistance to sundry

" mechanics who were members of our Society in
England, some of whom had officiated as local
preachers, to accompany Governor Macaulay to the
settlement, in order to form a Christian Colony, and
open friendly intercourse with the natives of the
Foulah country."

Dr. Coke's purpose was that these
missionary-colonists, while instructing the
Fulahs in industrial matters, should by
example and teaching make known to
them the saving grace of God. Etheridge
remarks that this appears to be the first

Our West African Mission Field 157

instance in the history of nations in which
the civilisation and salvation of the
aborigines was the one object of founding a
colony. The powerful sympathy and
influence of Wilberforce was enlisted, and
something of Coke's earnestness may be
gathered from a sentence in one of
Governor Macaulay's letters : ': I am
pestered almost to death with Dr. Coke and
his missionaries." The party reached Free-
town on March 18th, 1796, and should
have gone with the Governor to the
Gambia ; but within a month Macaulay
wrote to inform Wilberforce that difficulties Failure of
had arisen among the missionary-colonists the Effort
themselves. " It seems that they had
either not rightly understood the engage-
ment, or had not fully counted the cost."
The whole enterprise failed, and the
workers from whom so much had been
expected, returned home. Dr. Coke felt
the disappointment very keenly, but he
was undaunted, and in the Minutes of the
next Conference (1796) we read :

" Dr. Coke laid before the Conference an account
of the failure of the colony intended to be established
in the Foulah country in Africa; and, after prayer
and mature consideration, the Conference unani-
mously judged that a trial should be made in that
part of Africa on a proper missionary plan. The
two brethren above mentioned (Archibald Murdock
and William Patten), having voluntarily offered

Our West African Mission Field 157

instance in the history of nations in which
the civilisation and salvation of the
aborigines was the one object of founding a
colony. The powerful sympathy and
influence of Wilberforce was enlisted, and
something of Coke's earnestness may be
gathered from a sentence in one of
Governor Macaulay's letters : ': I am
pestered almost to death with Dr. Coke and
his missionaries." The party reached Free-
town on March 18th, 1796, and should ■
have gone with the Governor to the
Gambia ; but within a month Macaulay
wrote to inform Wilberforce that difficulties Failure of
had arisen among the missionary-colonists the Effort
themselves. " It seems that they had
either not rightly understood the engage-
ment, or had not fully counted the cost."
The whole enterprise failed, and the
workers from whom so much had been
expected, returned home. Dr. Coke felt
the disappointment very keenly, but he
was undaunted, and in the Minutes of the
next Conference (1796) we read :

" Dr. Coke laid before the Conference an account
of the failure of the colony intended to be established
in the Foulah country in Africa; and, after prayer
and mature consideration, the Conference unani-
mously judged that a trial should be made in that
part of Africa on a proper missionary plan. The
two brethren above mentioned (Archibald Murdock
and William Patten), having voluntarily offered

158 The Gall of the Dark Continent

themselves for this important work, the Conference
solemnly appointed them for it, and earnestly recom-
mended them and their great undertaking to the
public and private prayers of the Methodist Society."

But Coke was again disappointed. For
some reason neither of these brethren ever
went to Africa. The matter was allowed
to rest for a while ; but ere long Dr. Coke,
after attending to several other enterprises,
again turned his thoughts to the West
A Missionary Coast, and published the following appeal
for volunteers :

" Africa claims our care. The friends of liberty,
having abolished the infernal trade, are labouring
to establish an innocent commerce between us and
Negro-land. The friends of the Gospel . . . should
also stretch every nerve to improve the glorious
opportunity. But who will be the man? ... If
there be a Christian hero amongst us . . . let him
inform the Committee and myself."

Again Coke's faith was tested. A year
or two passed without any response. But
God was working in the hearts of His
people, and at last, in 1810, our great
missionary organiser was guided to the
George Warren chosen man. This was George Warren, a
preacher stationed in the Helston Circuit.
He told Dr. Coke that "for a long season
his mind had been so deeply impressed that
it was his duty to go to Africa, that ....
he could nD longer delay to seek the good
of Africa's benighted races."

Our West African Mission Field 159

About the same time three Dewsbury
teachers, Healey, Rayner, and Hirst, "eager-
ly offered themselves for the West Coast,
from the constraining feelings which had
become irresistible in their souls." After a
little preparatory training they were ac-
cepted as assistant missionaries, and sent
with Warren as school teachers. This, our
first African missionary party , reached Sierra
Leone in November, 1811, and received a
kindly welcome from the Governor and the
little company of Negro Methodists already
referred to. It was clear that the mis-
sionaries' first attention would have to be
given to this flock, so long without any
earthly shepherd ; there had been little
aggressive work, and the members had
dwindled from 223 to 110. Under
Warren's loving care, the congregations
so increased, that the church soon became
too small. The three assistant missionaries
opened schools, and everything gave pro-
mise of abundant harvest. But after
eight months' service Warren died — the
first of a long list of victims to the deadly
climate of the West Coast (July 23, 1812). ^The White
A few weeks later Rayner broke down and
was invalided home (August, 1812). Healey
and Hirst survived, and it seemed as if
they would be spared to continue the
work. But it was only for a time ; on the

160 The Gall of the Dark Continent

last day of 1814 they too were compelled
to return to England. The following
February William Davies and his wife
reached Freetown ; but ten months later
Mrs. Davies was laid to rest. Our third
West African missionary went out in
1816, and was spared to fulfil two terms of
service (five-and-a-half years in all), but
his wife fell at his side seven months after
they first landed. In February, 1819,
John Baker and John Gillison arrived —
the latter only to lay down his life five
months later. The next three workers
were all spared for more than two years'
service, but eventually two of them died
on the field, and the third returned home.
During the one hundred years of our
West African Mission ninety-four of our
missionaries have died on the Coast and
many others have been compelled to return
to England.* The Church Missionary
Society suffered quite as severely, for be-
tween 1804 and 1825, of eighty-nine
missionaries sent to Sierra Leone, over
fifty died, and fourteen returned home
shattered in health. The standard Wes-
ley an history of those terrible years

* On the other hand, it must be remembered that over
sixty of our W.M.M.S. missionaries have been spared to
labour in West Africa for periods varying from five to
fifteen years, and in two or three outstanding cases for
twenty and thirty years.

Our West African Mission Field 161

has often been called " Fox's Book of
Martyrs."

Nowadays — thanks to modern medical
science — -the loss of life can be reduced to
a minimum. But in the early years our
missionaries went out badly equipped — in
some cases without even the commonest
necessaries of life. Knowing nothing of
the place to which they were going, some
went without bedding or the simplest
articles of furniture. They usually lived
in such dwellings as they found there, and
when mission houses were built they
were often constructed on a plan wholly
unsuited for the tropics. Experience was
purchased at a terrible cost.

Malaria has been the arch-enemy of The Ravages of
missionary enterprise in Western Africa.
From the first, all our work has been done
in defiance of it, but it has hampered our
workers at every turn, and has interfered
beyond all calculation with the progress
and development of our Mission. In the
account of our West African work in the
following pages, malaria must be postulated
as an ever-present factor of the situation.
Has there been lack of continuity at certain
stations? Malaria has been the cause. Has
there been wanting (at some periods) an
organised plan of campaign ? Our men,
usually sent out young, often fell victims to

6

162 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Early Days in
Sierra Leone

The Gambia
Mission

the dread enemy before they had time to
understand the situation or devise schemes
on any large scale. # Has there been (until
recent years) a lack of such institutions as
have proved the main strength of the work
on other fields ? It is because, owing to
malaria, one set of new missionaries has so
quickly been superseded by another new
set. In the face of this relentless foe, it is
marvellous that so much has been accom-
plished, and the magnificent results secured
suggest that the Dark Continent is the
most fruitful mission field in the world.

The chief efforts of our first West African
missionaries were on behalf of the semi-
Europeanised, semi-Christianised Negro
settlers in Sierra Leone. As the years
passed societies were formed, and new
churches arose at several places in the
peninsula.

The first important forward movement
began in 1 82 1 , when John Baker (transferred
from Sierra Leone) and John Morgan (fresh
from England) were sent to the Gambia,
nearly 500 miles north of Freetown. They
were to minister to the Europeans, Sierra
Leonians, and freed slaves settled on St.
Mary's Island at the mouth of the river

* The seriousness of thi* will be realised when it U
remembered that seventy-eight of our missionaries have
been put out of action before they had completed their first
year of service, and over fifty more in their second year.

Our West African Mission Field 163

(now Bathurst) ; but that was to be
supplementary to their chief work of
founding a mission among the pagan tribes.
They were soon busy visiting native kings
with a view to getting permission to settle
among their people. After one or two
failures, they discovered that it was the
custom of the country to introduce oneself
into the presence of royalty with a present,
and learned that red cloth was highly
prized by these potentates. Resolved to
turn this information to account, we find
them starting out to visit the king of
Combo with "a small horse covered with
scarlet cloth from head to tail," as a dash *
for the king. With this offering they secured
the royal favour; but on touring through the
king's "territories" in search of a suitable
place, they soon discovered that the people
were strongly opposed to their presence.
Although our missionaries urged that they
had only come to do them good, the natives
replied, " We have heard of white men
before, and know that you want to steal
our children, and make slaves of them. If
the king settles you here, we will all leave."
Ultimately they secured lodgings " in the
miserable hut of an old Negro " at Man- Mandanaree
danaree, and by the middle of May were

* The West African term for present. It is a relic of
Portuguese influence, coming from "das," a gift.

164 The Gall of the Dark Continent

busy building a house for themselves.
Meanwhile, they went by canoe to St.
Mary's every Saturday to minister to their
society in the settlement, returning to the
bush on Monday morning. For a few
weeks all went well, and on June the 14th
they took up their abode in the new mission
house which their own hands had made.
But the exertion had been too great, and
before the rains commenced Baker was
attacked by fever every two or three days.
His colleague, Morgan, " laboured on under
the warm rays of a vertical sun, and retired
every evening much fatigued " ; this he
" considered an advantage ; for, having
very uncomfortable lodgings, if not fatigued
he could not sleep at all." Of course, he
broke down ; the marvel is that he actually
lived to put in over four years' valuable
service ! But Baker had to leave the
country to save his life. In his place there
came a new missionary, William Bell, " in
good health," and apparently " a good
subject for the climate." Alas ! in forty-
six days he was laid to rest. A few weeks
later George Lane arrived at Mandanaree,
but he too broke down, and in five months
With a had to leave the Gambia. Soon the station

ExVeditionnt was abandoned, and Morgan accompanied
a Government expedition up the great
river by which Mungo Park had entered

Our West African Mission Field 165

Africa nearly thirty years before. The
Gambia is the finest waterway in West
Africa ; above Bathurst it is seven miles
wide, and it is so free from shoals that
ocean steamers of some size can ascend for
200 miles. To-day its banks are dotted
with trading stations ; but when Morgan
first went up in 1823, the crocodiles, the
hippopotami, and the clouds of fish-hawks
which inhabited its mangrove-fringed banks
and swamps, were disturbed only by
warring tribes of hostile natives. The
steamer proceeded up the river for nearly
200 miles to a large island which the
commandant of the expedition renamed
" Macarthy's Island/' and then raised the Macarthy's
British flag. Here John Morgan planted a
mission station and unfurled the banner of
Christ, and by indefatigable labours proved
himself a true pioneer. The people around
this lonely station were chiefly Muhamma-
dans, and this was probably the first point
of contact the W.M.M.S." had with the
followers of the Arabian Prophet in Africa.

In 1833 a Dr. Lindoe conceived the idea An industrial
of establishing an industrial settlement on EnterPrise
Macarthy's Island by which he hoped to
benefit the Fulah tribes. As we were
already established on the island, he pro-
posed putting his settlement under our
care. He formed an influential English

166 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Committee, obtained from Government a
grant of 600 acres of land, built a good
mission house, chapel and school, supported
one, and for a time two missionaries for us,
sent out an agriculturist and a mechanic
to instruct the Fulahs, along with various
machinery — spent, in fact, a whole lifeful of
energy and disinterested devotion and
some thousands of pounds. But the un-
healthiness of the island upset everything.
The missionaries scarcely managed an
average of two years each, and the enter-
prise had to be abandoned. Dr. Lindoe's
scheme was conceived on lines that have
since proved successful in various parts of
the world ; the only circumstances fatal to
it were the utter unhealthiness of the
climate and the inaptitude for industrial
work of the missionaries sent out.

In recent years the Macarthy's Island
work has been re-established on more suit-
able, though less pretentious, lines. The
cost of new buildings has been borne by our
Bathurst Church, which also maintains the
catechist and the school. In some ways
An Accessible fae Gambia offers unusual facilities for

Mission Field .

missionary work. The Protectorate re-
sembles a thin wedge driven into the
western side of the Continent for some
250 miles. It comprises the various
islands, and a strip of territory about

Our West African Mission Field 167

six or seven miles wide on each bank of
the river, broadening to a sea-front of
thirty miles. The Gambia thus provides a
great highway to practically every part of
the Colony and Protectorate. The people
(some 160,000) are Jolofs and Mandingoes,
of the great Negro race — tall, handsome
people, who once swarmed in conquering
hosts over these regions — and also such
tribes as the Fulahs, Loubies, and Jolahs.
The Jolofs are superior to all the others
in native civilisation, and are fond of
displaying their wealth by their costly
dress.

In Bathurst, the capital of the Colony, Bathurst
we have a well-organised, self-supporting
circuit with a membership of some 800.
We have two well-built churches in the
town, two good elementary day schools, a
technical school, a boys' high-school, and all
the apparatus for carrying on a vigorous
Christian work. Of our two European
missionaries, one is engaged in industrial
work, which is encouraged and in part
supported by Government.

The Roman Catholics have a mission
staffed by French priests and nuns, and
the Anglican Church is represented in
Bathurst, but our own mission is the
largest in the Colony, and we have the
greatest number of adherents.

The Sierra
Leone Church

168 The Gall of the Dark Continent

While the events already recorded were
taking place on the Gambia, the work in
Sierra Leone was developing. The people
were responsive, and results were harvested
without serious difficulty. No long,
dangerous journeys were necessary, for the
Sierra Leonians almost all lived in the
peninsula. Most of the Sierra Leonians
had no religion of their own ; and the fact
that they owed their freedom to England
predisposed them to Christianity. As the
churches grew, they monopolised the
whole strength of our workers, who, as the
decades passed, tended to become ministers
rather than missionaries, pastors rather
than evangelists. It was natural that it
should be so — indeed, in a very large
measure it was expedient. For as a
profession of Christianity became fashion-
able, and attendance at church accounted
the proper thing, the most strenuous efforts
were needed to preserve the inwardness
and spirituality of true religion. The
Sierra Leonian Church has to be regarded
somewhat in the light of a Colonial
Church, and all the arguments for giving
diligent attention to European work on
our several mission fields, apply with equal
force to our work on behalf of these Negro
colonists in Sierra Leone. "As a matter of
fact, the whole community (as distinct

Our West African Mission Field 169

from the aborigines living in the Protec-
torate, and now even coming into the
peninsula) is ' Christian' ; not nominally
merely, as in so-called Christian countries,
but by actual membership at one or other
of the many churches. To expect that all
these thousands should be Christian, in the
sense of being actually converted persons,
would be as reasonable as to expect that all
in ' Christian ' England should be so. Con-
siderable numbers, however, are really
converted, and give evidence of sincere
piety and a genuine religious experience."
We have nearly 7,000 full members in the
Colony, and if many of them are still far
from being perfect, they probably know
quite as much about a religious experience
as some people in our home churches
whose religion is equally a matter of
respectability and far less a guiding
principle of life. When compared with
any heathen town in Africa, or with many
a mining centre, Freetown, with its regular
Sunday worship and generally religious
life, is a striking testimony to the success
of missionary activity.

In Freetown the Anglican, the Wesley an
Methodist, United Methodist, Baptist,
Roman Catholic, United Brethren, and
American Methodist Churches are all at
work. Almost every village in the

6*

170 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Efforts to
Reach the
Heathen

The Sherbro
Mission

peninsula has its Anglican church and
Wesleyan chapel ; beyond lies the Hinter-
land with its pagan and Muslim tribes —
Mendis, Temnes, Limbas, and others.

From time to time one or two of our
missionaries have turned their thoughts
from the strong, self-supporting Sierra
Leonian churches to these unevangelised
multitudes. As far back as 1853 con-
versions among the aborigines living in
the Colony were recorded ; idols and
fetiches were abandoned or flung into the
sea, and so many were handed over to the
missionaries that our Freetown mission
house became quite a museum, and on one
occasion it was thrown open to visitors for
several days. In 1877 a new mission was
undertaken in Sherbro Island, on the
southern coast of the Protectorate, and
from there the work spread to the mainland
opposite. In 1898 our Sherbro Mission
was marked by a painful tragedy. A
party of our Sherbro people went in boats
up the river to Yeileh, for the opening
ceremony of a new church. Just as the
bell was ringing for service, a band of
armed savages rushed from the bush and
attacked the assembled worshippers, some
of whom were slain as they tried to escape.
The work at Yeileh has not yet recovered
from the blow it received by this cruel plot.

Our West African Mission Field 171

About this time the King of Bandajuma The Bandajuma
invited us to send a missionary to his town,
and in response we undertook a mission to
the Mendis — most of whom are Muslims.

In 1880 an extension was made into the The Limbah
Limbah country in the northern portion of lsslon
the Protectorate. A missionary was sent
to Fouricariah at the invitation of the
local king, who gave up to us one of his
sons, who soon proved his worth as a
catechist in our Mission. From this place The Scarries
the work extended to Kambia, on the
Great Scarcies River. These efforts to
evangelise the pagan and Muslim tribes of
the Protectorate are full of promise, but have
in the past been crippled by the lack of native
workers. With one or two exceptions, the
Sierra Leonian catechists and ministers
speak no African language, and it has been
extremely difficult to get them to learn one.

In our Sierra Leone and Gambia District
we have now an adult Christian community
of over 10,000.

In addition to the missionaries already
mentioned, Thomas Champness laboured
for three years in this District, and
Benjamin Tregaskis, William H. Maude,
J. T. F. Halligey, and W. T. Balmer are
outstanding names in connection with our
Sierra Leone Mission.

#-S£- -Si. -SL. OA-

*A" "ft" "TT TV"

172 The Gall of the Dark Continent

More than eight hundred miles south-east
of Sierra Leone is the Gold Coast Colony —
a low, sandy coast fringed with low bush
and beaten with ceaseless surf. Most of
the country is covered with forest, except
to the north of Ashanti, where there are
great grass-covered plains or "open bush."
The total area of the Colony and Northern
Territories is about 100,000 square miles.
Its peoples The strip of land along the coast is

divided between two nations of unequal
size, the western part being Fanti and the
eastern being Ga, whose town is Accra,
the seat of the Colonial Government.
Behind the maritime districts lies the
country of the Twi, a people allied to the
Fanti and speaking a kindred language.
Of the Twi, the strongest and best- known
nation is that of Ashanti. In the Northern
Territories there are such tribes as the
Moshis, Frafras, Grunchis, Wangaras, and
the Mos. Over all the Protectorate the
Hausas from the far Sudan are found.
In the coast towns, and at some places
up-country, there are Europeans — chiefly
traders and Government servants ; the
Gold Coast is not suitable for ordinary
colonisation, for the climate makes pro-
longed residence impossible. There is no
element at all corresponding with the
Sierra Leonian community. With the

Our West African Mission Field 173

exception of the coast people who have
been in touch with civilisation, the natives
are very backward and but little removed
from the primitive state.

During his long period of rule over the ^mor
Gold Coast, Governor George McLean
established a day school for boys at Cape
Coast Castle. To this school he paid
great attention, and having obtained from
the British and Foreign Bible Society a
consignment of Scriptures, he gave a Bible
to each boy with an exhortation to study
it. Some of these lads prized their Bibles
so highly that they formed themselves
into a class for the "further study of the
Word of God, calling it a "Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge." This
was in 1831, and they continued their
weekly meetings for over two years. In
1833 the barque "Congo," commanded by
Captain Potter, a member of the Methodist
Church, arrived on the Coast. Some of
the young men, anxious to obtain more
copies of the Scriptures, applied to Captain
Potter to take some out on his next
voyage to the Gold Coast. Surprised at
such a request from natives, Potter made
enquiries, and even visited the little Bible
Class. On arrival in England he com-
municated with the W.M.M.S. and urged
the Society to send a missionary at once to

174 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Cape Coast Castle. Funds were low, and
the Committee hesitated to undertake a
new responsibility, but as Captain Potter
promised to take the missionary out free
of cost — and, if necessary, bring him back
again — Joseph Dunwell was appointed,
and he landed at Elmina on New Year's
Day, 1835. King Aggrey, of Cape Coast,
sent messages to all the neighbouring
tribes, and soon chiefs and people gathered
to welcome the missionary. The Governor
kindly invited Dunwell to stay at the
Castle until he could arrange for a suit-
able house.

Dunwell immediately set to work, and
having studied the lives of David Brainerd
and Henry Marty n on the voyage out, he
had caught something of their spirit. A
Sunday School was opened at Cape Coast
and another at Anamabu. Catechumen
classes were formed, and God signally
blessed the young missionary's labours.
In a few months he could count scores
who had received his message. So many
natives attended the Christian worship
that the fetich -priests took alarm and
endeavoured by ridicule and threats to
hinder the work of God. "What! you
turn white ? " they sneered, as the wor-
shippers returned from service. "You
know not that God gave Bible to white

Our West African Mission Field 175

man and fetich to black man ? How dare
you go forsake the religion of your fore-
fathers ? " Soon some forty or fifty
persons were meeting in class, and Dunwell
joyfully reported that one woman had
publicly burned her idols in the presence
of her heathen neighbours. But soon the
devoted missionary was seized with fever,
and after a few days' illness, he died on
June 24th, 1835— less than six months
from the date of his arrival in Africa.

The Committee felt that the work thus
begun must be continued, and after an
interval of about a year the Rev. G. O.
and Mrs. Wrigley were sent out. The Deaths
sequel is told with impressive brevity in
Halligey's Methodism in West Africa. The
Wrigleys arrived on September 15th, 1836.

" Early the following year, 1837, they were joined
by the Rev. Peter and Mrs. Harrop. On February
5th, three weeks after landing, Mrs. Harrop expired.
Three days later Mrs. Wrigley and Mr. Harrop
passed away within a few minutes of each other.
Mr. Wrigley . . . struggled on, with shattered
frame and bleeding heart, until the following
November, when he, too, was called to join the
beloved comrades."

This brings us to the greatest name in T. Birch
our West African Mission. Thomas Birch Freeraan
Freeman (son of an ex-slave who had settled
in England and married a servant girl) was
born in 1809 in the village of Tyford near

176 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Winchester. For a time he worked as head
gardener on an estate near Ipswich, but
his biographer tells how " the appeals at
that time so frequently made in Methodist
churches soon stirred within his fervid
heart a desire to bear the message of the
Cross to his father's kindred " in Africa.
In 1837 he offered himself to the W.M.M.S.,
was accepted, and, at the advice of the
Committee, married a " cultured English
lady who had it in her heart to do much
for the native people." On January 4th,
1838, Freeman and his bride landed at
Cape Coast, expecting to be welcomed by
the missionary Wrigley. But instead of
the looked-for greetings, Freeman learned
that the man who was to have been his
colleague had been laid in the grave several
weeks before. The new worker braced
himself for his difficult task. Soon he was
down with fever, but while he struggled
through, his devoted wife succumbed to a
violent illness within seven weeks of her
arrival in Africa as a happy bride.

After giving attention to the work
founded by his predecessor at Cape Coast
Castle, and completing the building of the
church, Freeman turned his thoughts to
the unreached millions of the interior.
Stories of the cruelty and degradation of
the Ashanti reached him, and he resolved

Our West African Mission Field 177

to attempt their evangelisation. In
January, 1839, with several attendants
and carriers, he started on the long and
difficult journey. As he passed through
the vast forests he held constant "palavers"
with village chiefs and their people, laying
before them the word of Life. Awful were
the sights he witnessed as he journeyed
through the Ashanti dominions, but they
were nothing to what he was to see in
Kumassi.

On April 1st, 1839, Freeman reached Freeman at
the capital — the first messenger of Christ Kumassl
to enter the "City of Blood." As he
approached the town, he was met by
officers of the royal household who had
been sent with soldiers to escort him into
the presence of the king. Our missionary
did not know that the newly made mounds
of earth on either side of the way were the
graves of victims who had just been buried
alive as a powerful fetich to protect
Kumassi from any evil influence he might
bring into it !

Surrounded by his court, the king Received by
received Freeman with barbaric splendour. ' e mg
The royal seat was " richly decorated with
brass and gold, and was shaded by a
magnificent silk- velvet umbrella of great
size. The officers of the household wore
massive pieces of silver plate, and others

178 The Gall of the Dark Continent

carried golden swords." Freeman speaks
of the display of gold as " astonishing," but
equally conspicuous were the signs of
cruelty. He wrote :

" The royal executioners displayed the blood-
stained stools on which hundreds, perhaps thousands,
of human victims have been sacrificed. They also
carried the large death drum . . . the very sound
of which conveys a thrill of horror. This rude
instrument, connected with which are most dreadful
associations, was literally covered with clots of blood,
and decorated with the jaw-bones and skulls of
victims."

As this strange African monarch moved
away, he was followed by "an immense
procession of chiefs and soldiers." Freeman
estimated their number at forty thousand,
for the procession took an hour and a half
in passing.
in the During our missionary's short stay in

4 'City of Blood "the capital over forty victims were put to
death within two days, as a sign of mourn-
ing for a dead relative. The headless
bodies were permitted to lie in the streets
in a state of decomposition, and Freeman
was amazed at the callous indifference of
the people, who walked about among the
putrefying corpses smoking their pipes and
utterly unmoved. " The muffled sound of
the dreadful death-drum " was constantly
heard. " Hark," said Mr. Freeman's in-

Our West African Mission Field 179

terpreter, " do you hear the drum ? A
sacrifice has just been made, and the drums
say, ' King, I have killed him ! '

Amidst these terrible scenes our mission-
ary proclaimed the Gospel message to all
who would listen. He also appealed to the
king for permission to plant a mission in
Kumassi, and received the following reply :

" As the thing you have mentioned to His Majesty
requires much consideration, he cannot answer you
in so short a time. If you will come up again, or
send a messenger after the rains are over, he will be
prepared to answer you."

Realising the uselessness of arguing
with such a despot, and compelled by the
approaching rains to retreat, Freeman left
Kumassi, after creating a very good im-
pression among the people. The king was
also favourablv impressed, as is clear from invited by the
the following royal message :— AshantI KIng

" We hope you will come to Kumassi again and pay
us another visit. We shall be always glad to see
you. The king believes that you wish to do him and
his people good."

A few weeks after his return to Cape
Coast, Freeman received a letter from the
Ashanti king reminding him of his promise
to return soon, and expressing a desire
to have a mission school established in
Kumassi. This was encouraging indeed,

180 The Gall of the Dark Continent

and our brave pioneer was not the man
to miss such an opportunity. Governor
Maclean further encouraged Freeman by
writing : —

" I trust that the Wesleyan Missionary Committee
will be satisfied that there is such an opening as will
justify them in pushing the advantage gained by your
indefatigable zeal. I would almost go so far as to
say that, if they have the means, a serious responsi-
bility will rest upon them, and on Christian England,
if so glorious an opening into interior Africa be
neglected. But I hope better things. And I do not
despair of yet witnessing the peaceful triumph of the
Cross, even in that stronghold of Satan, Kumassi."

The Missionary Committee, though
seriously straitened for lack of funds,
could not neglect a call to such a place as
Ashanti, and Freeman was summoned to
England to lay the case before the home
churches. His thrilling appeals so stirred
our people that the sum of £5,000 was
subscribed to provide him with six addi-
tional missionaries for the Gold Coast and
Ashanti Mission.
Reinforcements While in this country Freeman married
again, and when he landed in Africa in
February, 1841, he had his wife with him
and also five new missionaries, two of
whom were married. But the treacherous
climate spoiled the carefully made plans
for extension. On March 17th, six weeks
after the arrival of the additional workers,

Our West African Mission Field 181

two of the older ones (Mr. and Mrs.
Mycock) had to be invalided home. William
Thackwray died on May 4th ; Charles More Deaths
Walden on July 29th ; Mrs. T. B. Free-
man on August 25th ; Mrs. Hesk on
August 28th. In September Mr. Hesk had
to return to England. WTith magnificent
faith, but with a bleeding heart, the heroic
Freeman bore this stunning blow. With
unswerving devotion he set himself to
locate his three remaining missionaries.
Leaving two of them in charge of the
coast stations, he took Brooking up to
Kumassi.

On December 13th, 1841, Freeman and Planting the
Brooking entered the Ashanti capital, lumassi1"
The king again received them in great
state and with the utmost cordiality ; gave
them a piece of land for a mission house,
and promised that they should have his
protection. Although the most revolting
deeds were still being perpetrated daily,
no obstacle whatever was placed in the
way of our missionaries, and the people
listened with the greatest freedom to the
proclamation of the Gospel. The Sundays
were set apart for special religious exercises,
and Freeman preached to large congrega-
tions. On Christmas Day this intrepid
pioneer preached on the meaning of Christ-
mas in the presence of the king himself.

182 The Call of the Dark Continent

The imagination lingers on such a scene
— the Christian missionary, standing before
that ferocious monarch and his courtiers, in
the midst of that hell on earth, declaring
the good tidings of great joy!

The king was impressed with his visitors,
and took pains to show his favour. He
gave a great banquet in their honour, and
on the following day invited them to a
private reception in the presence of his
wives (" whom no man is permitted to meet
or look upon "). A little amateur medical
relief that Freeman was able to give added
greatly to his reputation. On January
31st, 1842, after an imposing farewell
ceremony, Freeman started for the Coast,
leaving his colleague to carry on the work
of God in that terrible city.
More Recruits In the early weeks of 1842 three new
Death*0™1 missionaries landed at Cape Coast, and

Freeman was soon busy locating them.
Dixcove, Dominasi, and Accra were occu-
pied, and one man was sent to join
Brooking at Kumassi. But again hopes
were dashed to the ground. In April one
of the new workers died, and three months
later another was called to the higher
service. But in September, Freeman, still
undaunted, embarked on a new enterprise.
A New Gall Although the slave trade had been de-

clared unlawful, captives were still being

Our West African Mission Field 183

shipped from Lagos, Whydah, and other
places. Many of these slaves were from
the Yoruba country, and some were Egbas
from Abeokuta, Not infrequently the sad
voyage ended more happily than the
wretched victims anticipated, and, rescued
by British cruisers, they were landed at
" Freetown " ! Thus it came about that not
a few of them found their way back again to
the homeland from which they had been
stolen. But to some of these, captivity
was an unspeakable blessing, for in Sierra
Leone they were brought to Christ. When
these converts returned to Abeokuta, they
earnestly requested the W.M.M.S. to
send teachers to their town. One message
ran : —

" For Christ's sake come quickly. Let nothing but
sickness prevent you. Do not stop to change your
clothes, to eat, to drink, or sleep, and salute no man
by the way. Do, for God's sake, start this moment."

Freeman promptly responded. Accom-
panied by a native companion, he landed
at Badagry. The townspeople tried to
persuade him not to go forward, and told
his servant that his master wrould be killed
if he persisted. " My master does not care
for that," was the reply. "His work just
now is in the interior, and he will go. If
he live, it will be well ; and if he die, it
will be well. He does not care,"

184 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Freeman visits When Abeokuta was reached (December
11th, 1842), the servants of God passed
through the gates midst cries of "Wel-
come ! Welcome, white man ! Blessing !
Long life to you, white man ! " The
converts from Sierra Leone could not
restrain their joy. They said :

" We told our king that the English people loved
us, and that our missionaries would be sure to follow
us. The king could hardly believe you would come
so far to do us good. Now it has come to pass !
0 Master ! Welcome ! Welcome ! "

The Egba king himself " seemed quite
overjoyed," wrote Freeman in his journal.
" He clasped me in his arms before all the
people."
Christ or In the compound of the "palace" the

Muhammad? missionary expounded the Scriptures to the
king, and held a prayer meeting ! This
pagan monarch stood at the parting of the
wavs. From the north the emissaries of
Islam had reached Abeokuta and had
almost won his allegiance. Now the
Christian appealed to him in the name of
the Son of God. Fearful of losing their
power, the fetich priests tried to prejudice
the king against both. But the story of
One "lifted up" on a Cross drew this
African monarch to the Redeemer, and ere
long he announced his determination to
accept the white man's Christ. The fetich

Our West African Mission Field 185

priests vowed vengeance, and not long
afterwards carried their threat into exe-
cution. The king was poisoned.

When Freeman left Abeokuta the Egbas
cried after him, " Good-bye ! Come again
soon ! Come again soon ! "

He had no man he could station there
immediately, but happily the Church Mis-
sionary Society was able to undertake the
mission, and when our missionary returned
to the coast he had the joy of welcoming
the first C.M.S. worker. From that time
the two Missionary Societies have worked
side by side in Abeokuta and the sur-
rounding country.

As a first step towards occupying the Badagry
Egba metropolis, Freeman built a mission
house at Badagry and left his African
colleague, De Graft, there. It was a
place of evil repute, and the ghastly sights
witnessed confirmed the truth of stories he
had previously heard. Before the end of
the year the Revs. S. Annear and John
Martin were stationed there. From time
to time our catechists were stationed at
Abeokuta, and our missionaries visited the
city occasionally.

W7ith a zeal truly apostolic Freeman with the King
now resolved to proclaim the Gospel of of Dahomey
Christ in the presence of the unspeakable
king of Dahomey. With this purpose he

186 The Gall of the Dark Continent

landed at Whydah, and with fearless
devotion made his way to Abomi, the
capital (February, 1843). The sights he
witnessed were of the most sickening
character, but the king received him in
great state.

" The streets were filled with companies of soldiers,
each having its respective flags, banners, and
umbrellas. . . . The flag-staves were tipped with
human skulls, and stools and other paraphernalia
decorated with jaw-bones of enemies, and almost
every conceivable device to impress the onlooker
with the monarch's deeds of blood."

On reaching the palace, the ambassador
of Christ found the king seated under his
verandah, surrounded by many wives,
and a body-guard of his famous Amazon
warriors. The chiefs who led Freeman into
the royal presence prostrated themselves
on the ground and threw dust on their
heads. The Amazons fired a salute of
twenty-one guns in honour of the Queen of
England, and another salute of nine guns
for Freeman. Tactfully the missionary
assured the monster before whom he stood
that England desired to do good to the
people of Africa, and then unfolded his
sacred message. But in the Dahomian
capital there was " no room " for the Prince
of Peace, though the king gave permission
to open a mission at the port of Whydah.

Our West African Mission Field 187

Amid a deafening salute of muskets and
the blessing of the royal fetich priests,
Freeman passed out of the royal presence,
and Dahomey abandoned itself once more
to the powers of darkness. The wicked
monarch presented several pairs of slave-
children to our missionary, who eagerly
accepted so precious a gift and carried
them away to Cape Coast, where he
liberated them and gave them a Christian
education.

From Whydah, Freeman travelled to Little Popo
Little Popo, the chief of which asked for a
teacher, and one was gladly promised.
With but little interruption, the mission
thus planted has been continued to the
present day.

The next year was spent in visiting the Manifold
now numerous stations and outposts on the Labours
Gold Coast and in Ashanti, and about the
middle of 1844 the missionary again came to
England to assist in raising funds. " Thus,"
says Freeman's biographer, " this tireless
man sped from place to place, year in and
year out. Shock after shock came, but he
seemed invulnerable, and kept steadily at
work."

On the Gold Coast, Christianity was " For the
winning its silent victories. Fantis, Gas, ^ Go'sper' °f
and Ashantis were converted, and in some
instances even fetich priests yielded to the

188 The Gall of the Dark Continent

mighty influence of the Spirit of God. A
trivial act of aggression on the part of
three converts led to a wide-spread persecu-
tion. After a time the Colonial Government
was obliged to intervene, and a great trial
of several pagan chiefs at Cape Coast
Castle resulted in such an exposure of the
impositions practised by the fetich priests
as led the chiefs themselves to turn upon
their deceivers and publicly punish and
degrade them. This was followed by a
general movement in favour of Christianity.
The chief who had led the attack on our
converts became friendly, and sent fifteen
of his children (like all West African chiefs
he was a polygamist) to our school. The
chief of Aberadzi cut down his fetich tree
and built us a little chapel. At Akrodu,
the old fetichman was converted, and when,
after the usual probation, Freeman, in
baptising him, asked, "Wilt thou then be
baptised into this faith ? " the old man
exclaimed, " What ! will I be baptised ?
Yes ! I want all the water from the vessel
poured over me ! " Our missionary was
reminded of Simon Peter's cry, " Lord, not
my feet only, but also my hands and
my head ! " This Christward movement,
however, was entirely confined to the
coast districts. The interior remained un-
touched.

Our West African Mission Field 189

In spite of international prohibitions, Founding the
Lagos continued to be a great slave market Lagos Distnct
until 1851. At last England deposed the
ruling chief, and restored the rightful king
who had been dethroned by the slavers.
On January 1st, 1852, a treaty was
signed by which the king bound himself
to abolish human sacrifices and suppress
slavery. Freeman could not miss such an
opportunity, and workers were at once
stationed in Lagos itself. Two years later
(1854) this master-missionary set out to
re- visit the eastern portion of his great field.
At Whydah he witnessed the embarkation
of 650 slaves, and at once reported it to
the British Government. Another attempt
was made to get a foothold at the Dahomey
capital, but the king was unwilling to have
Christians nearer than Whydah. A
missionary (E. A. Gardiner), was stationed
at Lagos. Then Freeman again visited
Abeokuta, where the king reminded him
that twelve years before they had given
our mission a piece of land, and that,
although we had not claimed it, it had
been carefully preserved for us. But funds
were low, and it was not possible for us to
station a missionary in that great city
until 1861, when the Be v. Thomas
Champness arrived.

But our apostolic Freeman had gone

190 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Retrenchment ahead faster than the home church was
prepared to follow In his eagerness to
plant the banner of the Cross on the ram-
parts of African towns he had spent too
much money. The means for such exten-
sions for Christ's Kingdom as Freeman
found possible were not forthcoming, and
the sorely embarrassed Committee was
forced to conduct a most painful corres-
pondence with the devoted missionary who
had sacrificed himself so unsparingly.
Retrenchment was too dreadful ; and our
pioneer felt that " other hands should lower
the flag." After twenty years of mag-
nificent service, Thomas Birch Freeman
retired from our ministry (1857). For this
disaster the burden of responsibility must
rest on the home Church.

Disappointed — almost broken-hearted —
the brave missionary settled at Accra,
where for some years he lived as a private
Christian, though he retained his interest
in the mission and from time to time
preached in our churches. Happily in 1873
he was persuaded to return to active work.
But what might he not have accomplished
during those precious years that inter-
vened ! No longer as Chairman and
General Superintendent, but as a rank and
file minister, "Father" Freeman again
flung all his remaining strength into

Our West African Mission Field 191

the work of the Gold Coast District, and
for thirteen years was unceasing in his
labours.

In 1885 our Gold Coast Mission cele- j^^~r of
brated its Jubilee, and Freeman was
chosen to preach the sermon.

" The old man, with great energy and eloquence,
drew upon his rich experience, contrasting the past
with the present. Who could have preached so well
to this people? It was he who had completed the
building of the sanctuary in which they were
assembled; and his missionary life had covered nearly
the whole of the fifty years. He had been the chief
human agent in extending the work from one end of
the District to the other."*

A year later, advancing age and in-
firmity made it necessary for Freeman to
become a supernumerary ; and on August
12, 1890, he quietly passed away.

Though Freeman rests from his labours, The Gold Coast
his works follow him. To-day, two prosper- District To-day
ous Districts are the result of the seed he
sowed. Others worked beside him, or
with noble devotion carried on the work he
began. The names of Henry Wharton,
William West, W. Terry Coppin, Dennis
Kemp, and John S. Ellenberger, are
familiar to most of us. Place after place
has been occupied ; and now we have a line
of stations running the whole length of the

* J. Milum.

192 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Gold Coast, with 154 churches, and 489
other preaching places. The strong, and
practically self-supporting, native church
has twenty-four ordained African ministers,
153 catechists, and a little army of nearly
800 local preachers. We have, in this
District alone, over 14,000 full members,
almost all natives. As the years go by the
work seems to grow even more promising,
and not a year passes without hundreds ol
conversions — including fetich-priests and
priestesses. During 1910 the full member-
ship of the District increased by over
1,700, and there were also nearly 2,000
adult baptisms from heathenism. In
Ashanti the fear of a cruel death pre-
vented people embracing Christianity, but
the work, long hindered by savagery and
war, is now making startling progess. On
the very spot where the human sacrifices
were formerly offered, our chapel stands.
In 1901 we had only eight members in the
Ashanti mission; at the end of 1910 we
had 1,267 with nearly 200 under instruc-
tion for baptism. Kumassi is still far from
being Christian, but it offers a field of
exceptional promise. We have fourteen
churches and forty other preaching places
in the circuit, and very soon we ought to
place a missionary at Kintampo, our most
northerly out-station.

Our West African Mission Field 193

The only Societies working with us in
the Gold Coast territories are the Basle
Mission (in Ashanti), the S.P.G. (in mining
districts), and the Roman Catholics.

For some years the work was greatly
hindered by death, but after 1846 not a
single missionary lost his life until 1870,
although a number were invalided home —
some after only a few months' service ; and
so far as the evangelisation of the Dark
Continent is concerned, this is almost as
serious as death itself. From 1870 to
1910 there were only seven deaths, and the
average length of service rose considerablv.
We had almost forgotten how treacherous
the climate could be when there came a
sharp reminder. At the close of 1 909,
H. H. Bridge reached Cape Coast all eager
for service. In six months he was dead,
and ten days later a cable reached the
Mission House announcing that the Rev.
A. T. R. Bartrop, Chairman of the District,
had also fallen. The young recruit and
the experienced veteran were laid side by
side in the Sekondi Cemetery.

As the years passed, the missions in The Lagos
Badagry, Abeokuta, Lagos, Whydah and DlstrIct
Little Popo, grew into a separate District.
In Abeokuta, Thomas Champness lost his

7

194 The Gall of the Dark Continent

beloved wife after less than two years'
service. But the work gave great promise
until, in 1867, annoyed by some actions of
the British Government, the Egbas rose
against the unoffending missionaries.
One Sunday morning the town crier went
through Abeokuta and forbade any Egba
to attend church or school. Soon riots
occurred ; the native Christians were
shamefully treated, and all missionaries
were expelled from the town, and for
seven long years were not permitted to
return.

The Nupe In 1871 John Milum, the friend and

biographer of T. B. Freeman, began his
work in the District. His heart was set
on the evangelisation of the interior tribes,
so, with a young minister — a convert from
Islam — he went up the Niger to Egga, and
attempted to travel overland to Lagos.
But the way was blocked, and on reaching
Ilorin, he was obliged to retreat to Egga,
where he left his young colleague, Sharp,
and returned to Lagos by the river. After
a few years' brave effort, Sharp died, and
although Messrs. Elliott, Coppin and
Williams went up to Nupe, the work was
ultimately abandoned.

The Yoruba Under the Chairmanship of J. T. F.

Halligey it was decided to enter the
comparatively densely populated Yoruba

Our West African Mission Field 195

country, and with the help of J. D. Sut-
cliffe and Bryan Roe, Mr. Halligey made
an effort to enter from Abeokuta (1887).
But troubles arose, and Mr. Halligey had
to stand a trial before a native court on
the ridiculous charge of being a Dahomian
agent. In 1888 Yoruba was successfully
entered by way of the Ijebu country, and
work was commenced at Ibadan (the largest
native city in pagan Africa — it has a
population of about a quarter of a million),
Iseyin, Ogbomosho and Oyo.

We have now through this vast forest To-day
region an extensive and growing work.
Seven missionaries, five African ministers,
and nearly forty catechists are working in
the interior. In Lagos itself we have two
self-supporting circuits with fourteen
churches, six other preaching places, and
eight African ministers, besides several
catechists and sixty-eight local preachers.

The attempt to evangelise Dahomey Dahomey and
(now a French Colony) has never been Togoland
abandoned ; and although we never secured
a foot-hold up-country, we have three
African ministers stationed at Porto Novo,
Grand Popo, and Ouidah (Whydah).
Little Popo, (now known as Anecho), is
now included in the German Colony of
Togoland. The mission Freeman began at
this place is carried on by an African

196 The Gall of the Dark Continent

minister. These two missions — Dahomey
and Togoland — present great difficulties,
for it is not easy to work under foreign
flags. The French and German Govern-
ments are touchy as to English
" interference " even in the matter of
missions, and when we station European
missionaries at these places, they have to
be French (for Dahomey) and German (for
Togoland), and it is usually very difficult
to obtain such men. The work has to be
carried on in the French and German
languages.

The entire Lagos District has a full
membership of 4,800, and it is increasing
rapidly. Over 630 adults were baptised
last year.

We remarked in a former chapter that
our South African Missions have been
characterised by thoughtful, organised,
continuous work. In West Africa the
most prominent feature has been sacrifice.
To the one field men went and planned, to
the other they went and laid down their
lives.

In the early days of missionary enter-
prise the climate was not understood, and
hardly any precautions were taken to
preserve health. Malaria was regarded as

Our West African Mission Field 197

a mysterious and deadly foe that none
could resist.

This increases our estimation of the
heroism of those who, at the call of Christ,
went forth to the Dark Continent, knowing
that death was almost certain. Their
sympathies, aroused by the wrongs which
slavery had inflicted on the Negro race,
were increased by the thought that Africa's
millions were perishing, and this called
forth sacrifice of the highest type. Counting
not their lives dear, thev souo-ht to walk
in the steps of the Master who gave His

life that others might live. "What

...
matters it if I die within six months of

landing ? " said a devoted young missionary

in the presence of the writer. " My body

will be a stepping-stone by which others

will reach the interior of Africa." A few

months later the tidings came that he had

fallen. Feeling that the Dark Continent

could only be redeemed at the cost of

sacrifice, many were prepared to pay the

price.

£2 Not a few of our missionaries, who might

perhaps have withstood the influence of

the climate, have been crushed by the

burden they have had to carry. " The care

of all the churches," and varied schemes

for the consolidation or expansion of the

work, have so undermined the strength

198 The Gall of the Dark Continent

of these heroic labourers that they have
broken down or have died prematurely.

" To the friends of the W.M.M.S., I would
say, such are the messengers you employ,
such the sacrifices they make, the trials
they encounter, in carrying out your
designs. The cause you have espoused and
love, they die to extend." So wrote
William Fox, sixty years ago. Africa still
demands sacri6ce, though fewer lives are
lost than formerly. Brave men and heroic
women still go to the Dark Continent pre-
pared, if necessary, to lay down their lives.
But if Africa is to be evangelised there will
have to be corresponding sacrifice on the
part of the home Church. When our
missionaries are willing to give life, can we
withhold money ?

The power of God to use even broken
links and imperfect means is strikingly
manifest in our West. African Mission.
In our plans and efforts and agencies
there has been a great lack of con-
tinuity. In His power and influence no
link of time or thought has ever been
broken. Then, if through such broken
links of effort, fruit has been reaped so
wondrously, how much more may we not
look for under the more favourable con-
ditions now obtaining.!

Our West African Mission Field 199

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF OUR WEST
AFRICA MISSION

1787 — Arrival of the "Original Settlers" at Sierra Leone.

1792 — Arrival of Governor Clarkson ;md " the Nova Scotians " at

Sierra Leone.
1796 — Dr. Coke's first missionary experiment in West Africa.
1800 — Arrival of " the Maroons" at Sierra Leone.
1807 to 1860— Slaves rescued by British cruisers landed at Free-
town.
1811 — First Wesleyar. missionaries reached Freetown.
1820 — Arrival of '" freed slaves " (from Barbados) at Sierra Leone.
1821— The WM.M.S. Gambia Mission founded.
1823 — Station opened at Macarthy's Island.
1835 — Joseph Dunwell began Wesleyan Gold Coist Mission.
1838— T. B. Freeman lai.ded at Cape Coast.
1839 — Freeman first visiter Kumassi
1841 — First missionary stationed at Kumassi.
1842 — Freeman's first visit to Abeokut.t.
1843 — Freeman visited the King uf Dahomey.
1843— Our first worker stationed at Badagry (Lagos District).
1854 — Station opened at Lago-".
1857 — Retirement of Freeman.
1861— First W.M.M.S. missionary (Thomas Champness) stationed

at Abeokuta.
1867 — Missionary driven from Abeokuta.
1871 — John Milum attempted to open a mission in the Xupe

country.
1873 — Freeman re-entered the Wesleyan ministry.
1877 — Sherbro Mission (Sierra Leone) begun.
1880 — Limbah Mission (Sierra Leone) begun.
1887— J. T. F. Halligey attempted to enter Yoruba country from

Abeokuta.
1888 — Yoruba country entered from Ijebu.
1»90 — Death of Father Freeman.

1900 — Bandajuma Mission (Sierra Leone) commenced.
1901 — Bichmond College, Sierra Leone, opened by Rev. W. T.

Balmer, B.A.
1901 — Girls' High School, Cape Coast, commenced.
1902 — Bathurst Industrial School founded.
1904 — Wesley Deaconesses arrived at Cape Coast.
li,05 — Wesley Deaconesses took charge of Freetown Girls' High

School.
1908— Wesley Deaconesses opened Girls' School at Accra.
1909— Mfantsipim Scnool, Cape Coast, opened by Bev. W. T.

Balmer, B.A.
1911 — Gir.s' High School opened at Lagos.

200 The Gall of the Dark Continent

ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES

SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION.- The call for sacri-
fice in African Missions.

1. Summarise our Lord's teaching about self-
sacrifice.

2. Apply your conclusions to missionary work in
Africa.

3. Enumerate the hindrances to the spread of the
Gospel suggested by this chapter.

4. To what extent is it now possible to overcome
these hindrances 1

5. What is the greatest hindrance in West Africa
to-day 1

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

Halligey, J. T. F. — Methodism in West Africa.
Kemp, Dennis. — Nine Tears on the Gold Coast.
Page, Jesse. — Samuel Crowther.

Chapter V.

Conditions Affecting Missionary Work
in Africa

"Soul-winning is never easy. The powers of dark-
ness do not readily relinquish their hold on any man."

The task of winning a country or nation
for Christ is not an easy one, and the Dark
Continent is no exception to the rule.
Africa presents features that render even
the primary task of evangelisation (i.e. the
proclamation of the Gospel) extremely
difficult. But evangelism is only a means
to an end — the conversion of the people to
God. It is one thing to " make Christ
known to men," and quite another thing to
"make Jesus King." Christianity asks so
much. Islam is satisfied with a merely
nominal or mental assent. Christ asks The Claims of
more. He claims the complete surrender Ghnst
of those who acknowledge Him. When
the intellect has yielded assent to Him, He
asks for the consent of the heart and the
submission of the will. There is nothing
201 i*

202 The Gall of the Dark Continent

wholesale or shallow about conversion as
Christ and His apostles taught it ; it must
ever be an individual submission, whereby
the springs of being are yielded to the
workings of the Spirit of God. There is a
sense in which the Gospel is hampered by
its own requirements. Dr. John R. Mott
declares that " the Ten Commandments
are the greatest obstacle to the progress of
Christianity." Yet the Decalogue is one
of the glories of the Christian religion, as
it is of the Jewish nation.

In view of the high standard our Lord
Christ sets before His people, it is much
harder to "make disciples of all nations,"
than it is to " preach the Gospel to every
creature." In the Dark Continent both of
these tasks are rendered more difficult by
the prevailing conditions — natural, social,
and personal. In order to estimate the
magnitude of the work before us in Africa,
it is necessary that we should examine
these retarding conditions, and consider
how far it is possible to overcome them.

Natural The purely evangelistic side of missionary

mdrances enterprise is hindered by three outstanding

physical, or natural, difficulties — the

climate, the scattered population, and the

great diversity of language.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 203

While some parts of Africa — Cape 1- Climate
Colony for example — are quite suitable
for European residence, the unhealthiness
of the country has barred the way to some
of the most densely populated districts.
The West Coast is deadly to white men,
and though the Sudan which lies behind is
much healthier, it has only recently become
possible to evangelise it, owing to the
malarious country to be travelled en route.
Some parts of Rhodesia are extremely
unhealthy, and though the plateaux are
often suitable for European residence, the
natives usually prefer to inhabit the lower-
lying country in the river valleys. The
biting winds and sharp frosts of the high
veld have led the Bantu tribes to settle in
the warmer, eastern lowlands, and in those
fever-stricken regions we must seek them.

A careful comparison of chapters III.
and IV. will show how seriously the climate
has retarded our work in West Africa. In
Cape Colony and the Transvaal the men
have been spared for long years to guide
the growing work with their ripe experience.
But our West Coast missionaries have
seldom been able to remain on the field
long enough to gain sufficient insight into
native character or practical knowledge of
the work. Knowing that their period of
service would be short, they seldom

204 The Gall of the Dark Continent

embarked on institutional enterprises that
would have taken years to complete, but
flung themselves nobly into the work
nearest to hand — the preaching of the
Gospel — leaving others to build on such
foundations as they had time to lay.

In recent years the climate has presented
far less difficulty than formerly. The
study of tropical diseases (their origin,
prevention, and cure), the modern con-
veniences of housing, such safeguards as
preventive netting and mosquito-proof
dwellings, the introduction of railway and
steamboat (reducing the difficulties of
travelling through malarious country) —
these things have greatly reduced, though
by no means removed, much of the danger
to the life and health of a European
missionary.

The old idea that malaria is caused by
noxious vapours rising from the earth has
been disproved by recent scientific re-
search. The Report of the Malaria
Expedition makes it certain that infection
is communicated by one kind of mosquito —
the Anopheles — and almost certain that
there is no other way of getting it except
by Anopheles puncture.* The Report
suggests that the disease should be called

* This theory was first proposed in 1886 by A. F. King, of
America, and was confirmed and accepted by scientists
generally in 1899.

I J i

§ 1

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 205

"gnat fever." But not every bite of the
Anopheles gives malaria. The Anopheles
must itself have the microbes in its body
(got by feeding on a malarial person) ; and
of the Anopheles dissected in Sierra Leone,
only 18 per cent, were found to be in-
fected. The fact that the Anopheles
rarely feed in the day time makes the use
of mosquito curtains necessary at night.
The Anopheles larva requires a certain
kind of pool to live in, and these pools are
not to be found in some places, and can be
got rid of in others. The Report thinks
that Sierra Leone could be rid of these
pests, but not Lagos, as it is too flat and
has too many Anopheles pools.

The deadly sleeping sickness of Uganda
and the Congo valley, and the cattle -
disease prevalent in East Africa, are due
to microbes carried by two varieties of the
Tsetse fly.

These important discoveries suggest 2. Mosquitos
that malaria is coming into the category
of things that a European can, to some
extent, guard against. But it is far from
easy to do so, for in some places mosquitos
are very numerous, though other places are
free from them.

The Colonial Governments have made
efforts to rid the coast towns of mosquitos,
by cleaning out the puddles and draining

206 The Gall of the Dark Continent

stagnant pools, and in other ways de-
stroying their habitats, and have appreciably
diminished the number. But the country
districts can never be cleared of these
troublesome and dangerous creatures ; the
regions to be dealt with are too vast, and
the number of mosquitos far too great.
When journeying, our missionaries are
constantly exposed to these pests, and
however much care they exercise, are
liable to be bitten ; missionaries cannot
live in mosquito-proof curtains. Despite
scientific discoveries and modern improve-
ments, lives will still have to be risked
and lost, as men count loss, if the Dark
Continent is to be won for Christ.

Another difficulty to be encountered is
the fact that the people are thinly sprinkled
over such vast areas. The tiny kraals of
the Bantu are scattered over the illimitable
veld, and Negro villages are hidden away
in the bush or in the dense forests. This
means that long and often difficult journeys
are necessary to reach a comparatively
small number of people. On the other
hand, it may be reasoned that it is easier
for the missionary to bring direct personal
influence to bear upon the comparatively
small tribes of the Dark Continent, than
on the dense populations of China or India,
and experience seems to support this

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 207

theory. Providentially our W.M.M.S.
missionaries have been guided to fields
where the populations are above the
average — notably the Gold Coast and
Lagos Districts. In Southern Nigeria the
population (1911) is 7,836,000, which for
Africa is very great, even when the vast
area of the Colony and Protectorate
is taken into account.

In view of the unhealthiness, and the 4. Language
relatively sparse population of many parts
of Africa, the bewildering number and
variety of languages and dialects is a
great obstacle to evangelisation of the
tribes. * After diligently studying the
language of the people amongst whom
he is first located, the missionary desires
to carry the message of Christ to a tribe
residing at no great distance from his
station and well within his natural sphere
of influence. But language bars the way,
and he has to resort to an interpreter, or
depend on his native helpers. In some
instances, none of the African workers are
acquainted with the language required ; this
has often been the experience of our mission-
aries in the Sierra Leone Hinterland for
instance. In the Delagoa Bay Circuit six
distinct dialects are in use, and this is a
comparatively favourable example.

* See Chapter II, page 53.

208 The Gall of the Dark Continent

This diversity of language has made —
and still makes — the translation of Holy
Scripture, and the production of Christian
literature, a task of great difficulty, entail-
ing an enormous expenditure of labour and
time. In the somewhat limited area of our
Rhodesia Mission three separate versions
of the Bible are in use. A recent report
of the British and Foreign Bible Society
shows that of some 420 languages in
which that Society has circulated the
Scriptures, over 100 are African languages.
When it is remembered that the trans-
lators have had first to learn those
languages and then to reduce them to
writing, * something of the magnitude of
the task will be realised ; but it will still be
difficult to estimate even approximately
the work to be accomplished before every
African tribe can be evangelised.

An even greater difficulty is created by
the poverty of the African languages in
such words as are necessary to the Christian
missionary. For the average native, a
vocabulary of some 200 words suffices for
all needs ; his whole desire centres round
his hut, his farm, his warfare, and his
hunting. While there are plenty of words
to express family relationships, and the

* No Bantu 01 Negro language, except the Hausa, was ever
reduced to writing until the advent cf the missionary.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 209

colour and quantity of cattle, only the
language used in connection with heathen
sacrifice and communion with the spirit
world affords help to the missionary ; and
the words of this class are often almost
useless for Christian purposes. For in-
struction in the Christian faith even the
best of these words are earthen vessels,
which have to be cleansed and given a
richer content before they are fit for the
Master's use. For example, in Fanti, the
verb " to believe" is expressed by " gye
dsi," which literally means " take eat," and
this has to be lifted from its materialistic
use to serve a spiritual purpose. Even if
the word the missionary requires exists at
all, it is often very difficult to discover it.
It seems a simple matter to point with the
finger to a tree and ask, " what do you
call it ? " Many tribes would, in reply,
give the word for finger, for their usual
custom is to point by protruding the lip.
And even when this custom is understood,
the people seldom give a simple answer.
The Rev. William Chapman writes of his
experiences in North- West Rhodesia : —

" In the beginning I found the interrogative was
1 Chinzhi chechil ' ("What is this'?"). I was as
pleased with my discovery as a prospector who has
found a gold mine, and hastened to develop its
wonderful powers. I went to where two of my boys
were working, pencil and note-book in hand, and,

210 The Gall of the Dark Continent

holding up a native hoe, asked, ' Chinzhi chechi? '
The boy answered, ' U-swe-ko-no-tw-la-chi-ba-nda-i-
ya-mba ' ! That was not very clear, so, turning to
the other boy, I repeated my question. Whereupon
he replied, ' A-me-bo-nda-chi-ba-nda-bo-bo-kwi-na-
e-zhu-na-i-mwi ' ! That was still more confusing.
As a matter of fact, when I knew more of the
language, I found the first boy had replied, ' We
here call it a hoe '; his friend had answered, ' iVnd
I also call it the same; there is no other name for
it.' "

If it is so difficult to get the name of a
visible object, what must it be to discover
the word for an idea which cannot be
thus held up or pointed to ? The Rev.
W. E. Smith, of Rhodesia, once told the
writer of difficulties he experienced in
reducing the Ila language to writing. He
wanted the word for " trust " — a word
indispensable to a missionary — but how
was he to ask for it ? He tried a hundred
times, but could not make the people
understand what he wanted. He told
them stories to try to get them to say it,
but completely failed. But one day he
was up a very rickety old ladder repairing
his house, and as he stood on the top rung
in a very difficult position he overheard one
of his boys say, " If I were the missionary,
I would not ' trust ' (using the long-sought
Ila word) that ladder." Mr. Smith said :—
" As soon as I heard that word I knew
what he meant, and I came down the

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 211

ladder with a rush, collared the boy, and
got him to repeat the word." Mr. Smith
experienced similar difficulty in finding the
verb " to save." He told the natives
stories of rescues from lions, but to no
purpose. At last, by the merest accident,
he came across this word.

But in some cases the missionary comes
with new thoughts, and is obliged to
manufacture words to express them. One
pioneer found that his people were stran-
gers to the very idea of trustfulness. Long
experience had made them suspicious, and
the thought of trusting one another had
disappeared. He got some women to work
in his garden ; at noon they demanded
their half-day's pay, and because it was not
forthcoming, they shouldered their hoes
and went home, unable to trust the white
man to pay their wages. Ultimately he
got some to trust him to pay them at the
end of the day. After a time he purposely
arranged that one evening he had no loose
beads for their wages, and promised to pay
them the next evening for two days. They
argued the point for half an hour with
evident distress ; and in the morning, before
beginning work, again demanded the
previous day's beads. When, in the evening,
they actually received the two day's wages,
they were quite surprised, for they thought

212 The Gall of the Dark Continent

the missionary was going to " eat " the
first day's pay. Then he got them to trust
him to pay them every two or three days,
and finally at the end of each week. Thus
they were taught the alphabet of trust,
and having got them to trust him, the
missionary led them on to the idea of
trusting God. In the same way, ideas of
purity, holiness, love (as distinct from
merely animal affection), salvation, and
almost every thought about the nature and
attributes of God, have had to be supplied
by the missionaries, and then words
expressing these thoughts had to be intro-
duced into many of the African languages,
or the lofty idea gradually read into words
of lowly origin with the growth of the
convert in spiritual things. The presenta-
tion of Christian doctrine in the native
tongues is one of the greatest difficulties
the evangelist has to face.

But while it is difficult for the missionary
to reach the people of the Dark Continent
and present his message to them, it is
infinitely more difficult to overcome the ob-
stacles to their acceptance of Christianity.

Except in the coast regions where the
tribes are under actual European super-
vision, the Africans are completely under
the domination of their chiefs or "kings."
The British Government requires mission-

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 213

aries to obtain the consent of the paramount
chief before a new station can be opened
among his people ; and sometimes this is
exceedingly difficult, and often means delay
or even the closing of a section of the
country for a while.

But even if the chief consents to the
missionary occupation of his territory, his
influence is frequently all against the work,
for the people fear to offend him by
becoming Christians. By permission of the
king, the L. M. S. entered MaTabeleland
in 1860, but, while Lobengula protected the
missionaries, he made his power felt in the
life of the tribe to such an extent that for
twenty-seven years Mr. Sykes laboured
without baptising one convert. Our own
workers had a similar experience in
Ashanti. Very often the chief is under
the influence of his advisers, among whom
is the powerful fetich-priest or witch-doctor,
and pecuniary motives lead these men to
oppose the entrance of the Gospel, fearing
that with the ascendency of Christianity
their means of gain will vanish. In such
kingdoms as Ashanti and Dahomey (before
they passed under European control) the
profession of Christianity, contrary to the
will of the king, meant certain death.

In some tribes, the chiefs office is largely
a religious one, and in such cases it is

214 The Gall of the Dark Continent

2. Influence of
Witch-Doctor
and Fetich
Priest

3. Tribal
Solidarity

impossible for the chief himself to embrace
Christianity and still remain chief. But
in other tribes this is not so, and quite a
number of African monarchs have received
baptism ; the Kabaka of Uganda, King
David of Toro, and the celebrated King
Khama are striking instances.

The adverse influence of the witch-doctor
of the south, and the fetich-priest of West
Africa, ought perhaps to have separate
treatment. Their opposition to Christianity
does not end with their efforts to prejudice
the chief. Often, in cases of conversion,
they have not scrupled to use their pro-
fessional position to bring about the
condemnation of the convert for witch-
craft, or some other capital offence, and
these men seldom hesitate to use poison in
the accomplishment of their foul purpose.
The fear of death at their hands has
deterred many from entering the Kingdom
of God.

In Africa, as in most heathen countries,
the clan or tribe, rather than the individual,
is the unit. The law which, in certain
British territories, makes the whole com-
munity responsible for stolen cattle traced
to any village, is a recognition of this.
Such a condition is altogether unfavourable
alike to the exercise of that personal
freedom and to the development of a sense

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 215

of that personal responsibility which lie
at the very root of the Christian life. To
become a Christian is to come out from
the tribe, and is thus anti-social. Con-
version is often represented as disloyalty
to the tribe and to the chief. Where the
tribal system is vigorous, and the kraal
large, the opposition to the Gospel is often
strong, but this condition is found more
among the Bantu than among the Negro
tribes, and even in South-Central Africa
there are signs that the old tribal systems
are breaking up, and the individual gives
promise of becoming, there as here, the
unit in social and religious life. But the
unity of the tribe has also its good in-
fluences. It is not a light thine: that men
are taught to think of the tribe before
themselves, and to reverence order and
authority in the person of the chief. This
reverence for rule is often helpful in the
administration and discipline of the native
Church.

A much greater hindrance is the 4. Polygamy
polygamy practised by all the tribes of
pagan Africa. According to native custom
there is hardly any limit to the number of
wives a man may take. He generally has
as many as he can afford, and often a
man's wealth is indicated by the number
of his wives. This custom encourages

216 The Gall of the Dark Continent

indolence and tyranny. The more wives
a man has to do his work, the less he is
likely to do himself; and if his wives
quarrel, or become disobedient, he often
resorts to gross cruelty to punish the
offence and prevent a general rebellion.
Often has the West African forest rung
with the strange cries of the Mumbo Jumbo
(or some similar invention) — a strange,
shrouded figure, who, with his attendants,
approaches a village after dark, and singles
out an offending wife, who is at once
stripped and ferociously flogged.

In Africa the polygamy question holds
much the same relation to the native
Church as the caste problem does in India.
Many who would otherwise join the
Church are hindered by their unwillingness
to abandon the habit of polygamy, and
thus polygamy is a great hindrance to
progress. On this account many Euro-
peans, and even native Christians, consider
that it is a great mistake for missionaries
to refuse to admit polygamists into the
Church, arguing that it would be better to
receive them, and educate the rising
generation out of the practice. At a large
meeting of office-bearers of our native
churches held in Lagos a few years ago,
Mr. Findlay was pressed to urge our
Missionary Committee to relax the rule

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 217

which forbids the admission of polygamists
to membership. A Sunday-school super-
intendent, class-leader, and local-preacher
who first rose to advocate this, referred to
monogamy asa" European custom," which
ought not to be forced on a foreign people
to whom it is unsuited ; and when a show
of hands was asked in favour of this view,
all but five or six hands went up. But
those who know the situation best are
convinced that, though the proposed
change of policy would facilitate the
entrance of many chiefs into the church,
it would also open wide the doors to all
the gross evils that are the inevitable
accompaniment of polygamy.

In order to enter the Church of Christ
as full members, many Africans have put
away all their wives but one. It must
not be supposed that this inflicts cruel
wrong upon the discarded wives, though it
may do so in some cases. In Africa the
women are not dependent upon their
husband ; it is often the reverse. As a
matter of fact, they work to increase his
wealth, and when put away they simply
return to their own people and take their
children with them ; and to all appearances
they do not regard themselves as victims
of an injustice. The man who thus puts
away his wives makes a very large material

218 The Gall of the Dark Continent

sacrifice, for in marrying he had practically
to purchase them, and when they are sent
back again he loses all he paid. Many
men — including kings and chiefs — are
willing to make this sacrifice in order to
become Christians. But while a polygamist
is debarred from Church membership, the
converted wife of a polygamist may be
received, for she has only one husband. It
frequently happens, however, that with
the awakening of conscience, the converted
woman seeks release from the tie she has
come to regard as wrong. A Christian
woman is not allowed (after joining
the Church) to marry a man who already
has a wife.

Polyandry is also a hindrance to the
spread of the Gospel. Dr. Nassau tells us
that in his district a man's ownership of
his wives is often only partial ; his family
assisted him to purchase them, and have joint
rights. In some cases wives are married "on
trial," and in other instances are merely a
financial investment in which both the hus-
band and his friends have a part. Temporary
marriages are also to be included under
this head. With some tribes, the wives, at
the death of their husband, pass on as a
legacy to the heir.

Thus, by age-long custom, is the victory
of Christ hindered. In some cases these

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 219

matrimonial entanglements press hardly
on those who would fain follow Christ, but
the missionary has constantly to reflect
on the importance of our Lord's words,
"strait is the gate, and narrow is the
way that leadeth unto Life."

When we come to consider the individual Personal
African as a person to be brought to Hindrances
allegiance to the Lord Jesus, we have to
deal with the inherited and acquired sin-
fulness of the human heart in its savage
state, without any of the purifying and
refining influences of Christian civilisation.
Through long generations these people I. Domination
have known nothing of chastity, and animal Pass^nT3
passions have dominated their lives from
their earliest years. Here and there a tribe
under an enlightened chief may be morally
superior to the tribes around, and " some-
times a heathen man may be found who
seems to have come from another world,"
but usually vice is open and unashamed.
Of the Transvaal native, F. J. Briscoe
writes : — " It is not too much to say that
personal purity, in the Christian meaning
of it, has no place in his life." Mr. Wilder,
of Rhodesia, reported to the Edinburgh
Conference (Commission IV.) that immo-
rality is the national sport of the Bantu of
his district ; and H. L. Bishop tells us
that he cannot describe the habits of his

220 The Gall of the Dark Continent

2. Lack of
Self-Discipline

3. Absence of
a Religious
Incentive

Lourenco Marques people except in Latin.
In some parts of Africa the laxity is chiefly
before marriage, but in other places it is
both before and after. Add to this the
untruthfulness, the ingrained dishonesty,
the drunkenness, and the other vices more
or less common to Negro and Bantu,
and it will be seen how great a battle has
to be fought when Christ calls one of these
children of darkness to follow Him. From
childhood, such a man has known nothing
of moral discipline, and it is difficult for
him to begin a new life of self-control.
There is little or no "public opinion" to
help him, and he is surrounded with every-
thing low and degrading. It is not un-
usual to see him sink back to his old life
with some such exclamation as, "It is too
high, I cannot attain unto it."

The African has notions of a great
but never conceives of His making
moral demands upon His votaries.
of incurring the wrath of a spirit
deter the native from robbing a hut
tected by a fetich, but the idea of a
saying " Thou shalt not steal " is
pletely new. What has God to do
such a matter ? Add to this the thought
that every missionary constantly impresses
on his hearers, " The eyes of the Lord are
in every place, beholding the evil and the

God,

any

Fear

may

pro-

God

com-

with

A ZULU WARRIOB

Rev. J. Gregory Mantle.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 111

good," and in the mind of the native there
arises some such feeling as once led one of
them to exclaim, " I will not have your
God; He is too hard, and too sharp-
sighted."

Yet, though the African often feels that
Christ's requirements are too high for him,
this, says Herr Warneck, "does not create in
him an inveterate hostility to Christianity.
. . . I do not think that men or nations of
a low moral state are the most inaccessible
to the Gospel."

Liability to violent emotions is a charac- 4. Violent
teristic of all the African peoples. Sudden Emotlons
excitement — whether of pleasure or of
anger — sweeps over them like a veritable
hurricane, and they give vent to their
feelings either by unrestrained mirth and
dancing, or by acts of savage revenge.

Their laughter is easily turned into 5. Shallowness
passion, and, on the other hand, passion,
quickly aroused, as quickly dies down, and
the laughter is resumed. African nature
is often extremely shallow. This is well
illustrated by incidents of the rising in
the Sierra Leone Hinterland in 1897. The
Mendis, disliking the rapid introduction of
law and order, organised a wide -spread
plot for the overthrow of European
influence. On the appointed day they
murdered all the white men and women,

222 The Gall of the Dark Continent

some hundreds of Sierra Leonians, and
even natives who wore English dress or
spoke English, or were in any way
connected with civilisation. At Rotufunk
a party of five American missionaries —
men and women — were murdered by
raiders from a distance, the people
among whom they had been living and
whom they had sought to help refusing
to assist them to escape. The attack
on another American station was led by
a youth who had been brought up from
childhood by the missionaries, and was
a candidate for the ministry up to the
very night when he set fire to the premises
in revenge for some supposed injury. The
rising was crushed, and the Mendis,
accepting defeat quite cheerfully, settled
down to their ordinary course of life
again as though nothing had happened. #
When Mr. Findlay visited the district
three years later, he found that all passion
had completely disappeared, and it was
perfectly safe for anyone to travel without
weapons ; the Mendis appeared to be good-
natured, obliging, easily amused, harmless,
simple savages. Mr. Findlay found it
difficult to believe that these people had
so recently been killing all the whites and

* A rising among the Temnes a little earlier was not so
easily suppressed ; the leader of it was compared by some
to Wallace of Scotland.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 223

native Christians they could get hold of,
and that of the scores of hands he
shook — the Negroes are very fond of
shaking hands — some had probably helped
to murder white men and women. Nor
were their smiles assumed ; they were
as harmless as they looked. Having found
that the British were more than a match
for them, they accepted the inevitable
quite cheerfully, and the fierce passions
died down as quickly as they had arisen.
Yet if the chiefs saw another chance, they
would doubtless plan another insurrection.
Such shallow souls do not provide the best
soil for the " seed of the Kingdom."
People who are easily persuaded to accept
Christianity are as easily persuaded to
abandon it if changing circumstances seem
to make it to their advantage to do so.
" And straightway they sprang up because
they had no deepness of earth ; and when
the sun was risen they were scorched, and
because they had no root they withered
away."

During the last half-century, almost the Hindrances
whole of the Dark Continent has passed co^LtZhh
under European rule, and the white man Europeans
has thrust himself everywhere. Un-
happily, contact with Western civilisation
has not been an unmixed blessing to Africa.
The primary object of foreign domination

224 The Call of the Dark Continent

has not been Africa's good, but rather the
tapping of new sources of wealth and the
opening of new markets for the world's
commerce. A country like Rhodesia, or
the Transvaal, draws within its borders a
large number of undesirables from Europe ;
the result is a considerable population of
godless, vicious white settlers,
(a) Bad Example Natives visiting the European centres in
either South or West Africa see canteens,
gambling places, and houses of evil repute.
Many of the traders and miners have
native (so called) "wives." Young Africans,
going to work amidst such surroundings,
see the worst side of English life. Is it
any wonder that some return to their
homes corrupted in morals and insolent
in manners ? The example set by godless
whites severely hampers missionary work.
It is not too much to say that many of the
moral difficulties which constantly harass
the pastors of some of our native churches
in West Africa, are largely due to the
pernicious influence of the slave trade of
the past and the white traders of to-day.
With many happy exceptions, the general
attitude to the spiritual and moral wel-
fare of the African races is one of perfect
indifference. The Commission on South
African Native Affairs reported thus : —
" It must apparently be accepted as an axiom that

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 225

contact with what we are accustomed to regard as
civilisation, has a demoralising tendency upon
primitive races as its first effect. It is clear that the
native is year by year becoming familiar with new
forms of sexual immorality, intemperance, and dis-
honesty, and that his naturally imitative disposition,
his virility, and escape from home and tribal in-
fluence provide a too congenial soil for the cultivation
of acquired vices.

" The testimony contained in the volumes of
evidence is abundant to this effect.

" The Commission considers that the restraints of
the law furnish an inadequate check upon this
tendency towards demoralisation, and that no merely
secular system of morality that might be applied
would serve to raise the native ideals of conduct, or
to counteract the evil influences which have been
alluded to, and is of opinion that hope for the eleva-
tion of the native races must depend mainly on their
acceptance of Christian faith and morals."

We often speak of the African as (*) Lack of
"a man and a brother," but this is L^onsibfiity
scarcely correct ; brother he certainly is,
but he is only a child* and needs care-
ful training. " West Africa often seems
to me like a big adopted child that
we have had to take on, and which
must be cared for as if it was our
own."f But instead of taking this view
of the situation, many Europeans in
Africa have little thought for anything
beyond their own profit and pleasure, and

* Except as regards his gross animal nature, which is
abnormally developed.

f Letters From a Deserted Wife.

8

226 The Gall of the Dark Continent

leave the native (after he has served their
selfish ends) to do as he pleases. But " no
man liveth to himself," and in many places
the native — a born mimic — is fast becoming
a caricature of the European, and is
losing his national character. Concerning
Rhodesia, the Chairman of the District
(Rev. John White) writes : —

" The white population is bitterly prejudiced
against the black. This prejudice finds its way into
the Courts of Law, and interferes with the course of
justice. Flagrant acts of injustice have occurred
where white and black were concerned, and this has
an injurious effect, in many ways, on the native. "

The seriousness of this lies in the fact
that it widens the gulf between Europeans
and Africans ; and as the latter progress
towards education and civilisation — which
is inevitable — it will help to create, amongst
the scattered tribes, a sense of oppression
and of solidarity and oneness that will, as
national self-consciousness grows, become
bitterly hostile to the white races. Al-
ready there are unmistakable signs of this.
The " Ethiopian Movement "* is growing,
and with it a strong feeling that Africa
belongs to the African — that he himself can
best develop the resources of his manhood
and his country. As in adolescence, so also
in the life of the African, this is a most
critical formative period, and wisdom and

* See Chapter VI.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 227

tact are essential in dealing with it. The
African has many good qualities, but
he needs guiding and controlling by
the firm hand of parental sympathetic
and righteous authority — the firm hand
must be that of the parent, and not of
the despot.

Instead of recognising this obvious duty, (c) The
many Europeans are still eager to exploit LI(iuor Traffic
Africa for their own gain, and to debauch
the native by the introduction of spirituous
liquor. The drink traffic in West Africa
is one of the crying evils of the present
day. Hundreds of thousands of gallons
are yearly imported and sold, in many
cases at no profit and often at actual loss,
simply for the sake of the trade it brings.
A. Negro will bring his produce for sale in
order that he may buy " trade gin " with
the proceeds. A great deal of the rum
and gin imported into West Africa is
manufactured in Germany and Holland,
and this involves the traffic in international
complication and leaves it more difficult to
deal with. The sale of intoxicating liquors
has been from the beginning; a terrible
hindrance to Christianity, and missionaries
have strenuously opposed it. In not a few
instances heathen kings have appealed to
Christian ministers to use their influence to
stop the traffic. Many years ago a Nupe

228 The Call of the Dark Continent

Emir (not a Christian) wrote thus to the
late Bishop Crowther : —

" The matter about which I am speaking ... is
Barasa (rum or gin), Barasa, Barasa, Barasa. My
God ! it has ruined my country, it has ruined our
people very much, it has made our people become
mad ! I have given a law that no one dares buy
or sell it, and anyone who is found selling it, his
house will be eaten up (plundered); anyone found
drunk will be killed. . . . Beg the great priests (the
Committee of the C.M.S.) that they should beg the
English Queen to prevent bringing Barasa to this
land. For God and the prophet's sake . . . help
us in this matter. . . . We must not have our country
to become spoiled by Barasa."

In some instances native rulers, like
King Khama, have successfully resisted
the hateful traffic ; and the efforts of
missionaries and others have not been
wholly lost, for in certain areas — Northern
Nigeria and the Transvaal, for example —
the trade is prohibited. Unfortunately
the increase of duties has not diminished
the evil, and the recent Royal Commission
has been a great disappointment to all
true friends of Africa.

Conditions The combination of retarding conditions

that Help dealt with above, has to be seriously faced

by those whose hearts are set on winning

Africa for Christ. But other circumstances

are more favourable to missionary work.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 229

There is practically no part of pagan Africa

closed to the Christian missionary, though

in one or two cases there are restrictions.

Modern facilities for travel make it in- 1. Accessibility

creasingly possible to reach parts of the

continent to which access was difficult and

dangerous a few years ago. The opening

of railways, the introduction of steam-boats

and electric launches, and the construction

of good roads, have made many millions of

people easily accessible to the ambassadors

of Christ. Great doors are wide open to

us on every hand.

The missionary of to-day owes much to 2. Appreciation
the character and work of the men who, in of Kindness
the beginning of Protestant missionary
enterprise, left a deep impression of good-
ness and beneficent purpose upon the mind
of the African peoples. Even to-day the
tradition runs in the far interior that the
Christian missionary is to be received as a
friend. Twenty years ago in Central
Africa, to be a missionary was to share
the confidence which people gave to
Livingstone, and the work of many a lonely
labourer was made easier because the great
pioneer had passed that way before him.
Long years after the exploration of Shire
river, Professor Drummond found that
wherever he crossed David Livingstone's
footsteps the fragrance of his memory

230 The Call of the Dark Continent

remained. William Chapman, a Primitive
Methodist missionary labouring in North-
West Rhodesia, met an old man who
recognised a photograph of Livingstone,
whom he had seen among the MaKololo
half a century before. At the mention of
the great traveller, the old man said: —

" Remember Monare ! Of course I can. It was
Monare who brought us the salutation we generally
use. Before Monare came we used to say when we
met a friend, ' U tsohile ' (" You have got up ! ").
But Monare said, ' Lumela ' (" Rejoice "), and we
replied, ' E lumela ntate ' (" Yes, rejoice, my
father "). It was he who told the MaKololo to live
in peace and rule well. Of course I can remember
Monare."

3. Gratitude It is sometimes said that the Africans do

not know what gratitude means, and some
experiences certainly tend to support this
view. Indeed we may question whether
gratitude is natural to any race. Is it a
trait of British character ? Many of us
would hesitate either to affirm or deny it,
for we could all adduce evidence for and
against. Gratitude would seem to be an
individual rather than a national grace.
As might be expected, missionaries have
had very different experiences as to the
African sense of gratitude. John White
tells us that the MaShona " readily
appreciate any help the missionary may
render them." Of the BaKonga of

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 231

Portuguese East Africa, H. L. Bishop
writes : " The native knows very little of
gratitude and takes all that is given." J. D.
Russell, of West Africa, says : "Our people
appreciate kindness; only one must take
care lest kindness be taken for softness."
After his official visit to Sierra Leone,
W. H. Findlay was inclined to think that the
gratitude of the people of the Colony and
Hinterland, while frequently expressed, was
shallow and largely a matter of etiquette.
On the whole, the evidence suggests that
the Africans have neither more nor less
gratitude than other races. At any rate, one
thing is clear — many of the natives in most
parts are capable of real gratitude, and this
is a real help in missionary work. Some
of our missionaries record striking instances
of this. During the Kafir war of 1850, in
one neighbourhood a solitary farmhouse
escaped the general burning, much to the
surprise of its owners when they returned
after the close of hostilities. Some time
afterwards a passing native got into
conversation with the owner. "Do you
know why your house was left standing
when all the others were burnt down ? " he
asked; and then went on to explain. " Do
you remember, at the end of 1849, a Kafir
seeking for lost cattle called at your house,
and asked for a drink of water? Yo

232 The Gall of the Dark Continent

received him with kindness and gave him
drink. That youth was a son of the
paramount chief; and when the war broke
out the word went forth that your house
was not to be touched." Personal kindness
of this kind has saved more than one
mission house from the flames, and has often
brought kindly warnings of danger which
have enabled missionaries to escape.

The Rev. W. H. Maude tells of an old
woman in Freetown, who, because he lent
her a small sum of money which got her
out of difficulties and started her in
successful trade, sent him a basket of fruit
and vegetables every week (when he was
on the Coast) for more than thirty years.
It is quite common to hear a West African
say " Tank'oo, tank'oo, tank'oo, tank'oo."
Most of the native languages have a much-
used word for " Thank you." An Indian
ex-missionary of unusually wide experience
tells us that he knows of no such word in any
Indian language. This is suggestive. The
primitive races have an instinctive apprecia-
tion of kind treatment ; and perhaps such
genuine kindness as has characterised the
missionaries' relations with the native, has
done more than anything else to win a
hearing for his message. The friendliness
of the missionary stands in contrast to the
general European prejudice and contempt.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 233

In almost all parts, the people are 4. Readiness to
willing, and often eager, to hear the Hear the Gospel
Gospel. In few fields is there such
readiness to gather around the missionary.
That so many are still in ignorance is
because they have not had an opportunity
of hearing.

In the Yoruba country, when the people
see the preaching-band taking up a position
in the market-place, they will come and sit
down all round in considerable numbers —
often a hundred or two. The head chief
will have his stool brought out, and will
come and sit in the middle of the circle.
So far from wanting to dispute — as is often
the case in India — the listeners nod or
murmur assent at every sentence, and will
exclaim " Beni, Beni" (Quite true! quite
true ! ) They readily join in singing the
hymns — given out a verse at a time — and
will even join in a prayer.

Mr. Findlay thus describes an interview
he had a few years ago with the king of
Ode (Ijebu country) : —

" I think that of the various Ijebu king-interviews,
the one at Ode was the most striking. It was in the
open air, under a tree in the big market-place. The
king came with his chiefs, and sat four or five
yards in front of us, with twenty or thirty old chiefs
about him. Fully two thousand people gathered
round — a great ring of brown humanity. The king
was dressed with the same exuberant grandeur as

234 The Call of the Dark Continent

the Yoruba potentates . . . and he had in his hand
a short brass sceptre with little bells attached, which
he jingled from time to time to express approval
of what we said. The Prince Ademuyiwa asked me
to address him (the king) . . . which I did, after
uttering a few formalities, the Prince interpreting.
Mr. Sutcliffe followed. The king replied, asking me
to convey a message to the great Committee in
London. Then Prince Ademuyiwa asked the king's
leave to address a few words to the people. He was
in his element; standing free in the clear space in
that great circle, on his native soil, with two
thousand admiring faces about him. With mighty
voice, dramatic gesture, and evident eloquence, he
exhorted the people to honour the king, and the king
to care for his people, and then preached Christ to
him and them. At last, with his splendid voice, he
burst out into a native lyric, and as the tune (to
heathen words) was well known to the people, and the
Christian words he sang were easily learnt, he soon
had the whole crowd joining with wild enthusiasm in
the chorus, ' We will follow Jesus.' ... A novice
would have reckoned that the whole population was
converted at the stroke. All that was really illus-
trated was the ease with which these people are
momentarily swayed, and the complete absence of
anything like antagonism to Christianity as a
religion"

Such a scene as the above would be impos-
sible in India, or China, or any Muslim
country.
5. Recognition of Perhaps the simplicity and shallow-
ofeFendchUmCT nrindedness of the people account for a
good deal of their readiness to hear Chris-
tian preaching. But there is something
more. The progress of Christianity in

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 235

Africa is not challenged by a powerful,
organised, and deeply rooted religion such
as has to be encountered in the Orient.
There is nothing in fetichism that can
serve as a rally ing-point for resistance to
evangelism. Very many Africans realise
that they have nothing worth calling a
religion, and they are prepared to listen to
anyone — Christian, or Muslim, or anyone
else — who can tell them of something
better. This dissatisfaction with fetichism
is by no means general in Africa, but in
some places it is quite pronounced. "Many
natives feel that their heathenism cannot
stand before the enlightenment of the
white man." In not a few cases the people
have, through some accident, had their
suspicions aroused with regard to the
practices of the fetich priest, and have
discovered that they have been victims of
deception. Some years ago, a fetich man
on the Gold Coast exposed some of his
erstwhile companions, and accused them of
conspiring to poison certain influential
persons. A trial before the Governor and
council and a number of chiefs resulted in
the prisoners confessing that their fetich
was a mere delusion and that they had
deceived the people. The Court found
them guilty of deception and attempted
murder, and sentenced them to be publicly

236 The Gall of the Dark Continent

flogged and then imprisoned for five years,
the indignant chiefs heartily concurring.
This led to still further exposures. One
chief returned to his village after the trial,
and repaired to the forest to consult his
oracle. The oracle answered him out of
the darkness as usual, but the suspicious
chief had laid a trap ; ambushed men
pounced upon the spot from whence the
voice came, and the " sacred oracle " was
proved to be a man concealed in the thicket.
A great movement towards Christianity
resulted. Incidents of this character are
by no means uncommon, and they cannot
fail to shake the faith of the worshippers
who discover that they have been imposed
upon. There can be no question about
fetichism ; it is doomed.
6. Emotional The recognition of the failure of their

tneSPGospei0 own religion on the part of a people so
easily moved, naturally often leads to a
very emotional response to the story of
Redemption. Having been all their life-
time oppressed with continual fear of
innumerable spirits, and feeling themselves
but poorly protected from vengeance of
these malignant foes, the Gospel of a
Heavenly Father, ever near, ever living,
and all-powerful to protect His children
from the powers of darkness, awakens a
response in many hearts. The African

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 237

usually feels his need of a Protector,
and when God is represented to him
in this character he frequently responds.
When Barnabas Shaw reached Little
NamaQualand he had an experience of
this kind. Of his very first discourse he
wrote : —

" At our evening service, the chief, with his
people, bowed their faces to the ground, and when
Jesus was set forth as the Good Shepherd, who has
black sheep as well as white — having said when on
earth, ' Other sheep I have which are not of this
fold; them also must I bring, and they shall hear
my voice ' — the chief wept aloud, and appeared to
rejoice as one who had found great spoil."

At first such a presentation of Chris- 7. Capability of
tianity proves more attractive to the pagan a Sense of Sin
African than the doctrine of Atonement.
Having very little sense of sin, and in most
cases not realising that he is a sinner, he
does not feel his need of a Saviour. The
thought of a mighty One who will protect
him from evil spirits is far more attractive,
since it meets the chief spiritual need of
which he is conscious. But experience
has proved that he possesses " a rudimen-
tary moral sense," and that a sense of
personal sinfulness grows in him under
wise instruction. Disobedience to the
will of a chief is everywhere recognised as
a serious offence, and it is not difficult to
lead up from this to the higher thought of

238 The Gall of the Dark Continent

disobedience to the will of God. While
the true missionary may comfort his
people with the beautiful conception of a
Father in Heaven, or a Good Shepherd, he
will show them that the Father is a
holy Father, and he will in due course
succeed in showing them their own true
condition as sinners needing mercy and
salvation. Gradually this truth takes
possession. " After I heard the word,"
said a Hottentot, " such was my distress
that I fell to the ground, and my sin, like
a great nail, seemed to fasten me to the
earth." A woman said "I feel something
like a serpent in my heart ; I hate it, but
know not how to get rid of it." Such
confessions have time and again given joy
to the missionary as an evidence that
conviction of sin was beginning. Then
the African comes to appreciate the doctrine
of Redemption through Christ.
8. Capacity for That the African has the ability to
Experience realise a religious experience is beyond
question ; this is a great help, and some-
times an embarrassment, to the missionary.
Possibly the experience of slavery has
made the experience of Redemption more
vivid and real to the imagination of the
Negro. It is a notable fact that the
expositor Godet makes use of two African
expressions to explain spiritual truths : —

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 239

" Faith, as was admirably said by a poor BeChuana,
is the hand of the heart."

" We recall a fact which proves how these say-
ings of the Apostle, apparently so mysterious, find
easy explanation under the light of the lively ex-
periences of faith. The missionary Casilis told us
that he was one day questioning a converted
BeChuana as to the meaning of a passage analogous
to the one before us (i.e., Col. iii. 3). The latter
said to him, ' Soon I shall be dead, and they will
bury me in my field. My flocks will come to pasture
above me. But I shall no longer hear them, and I
shall not come forth from my tomb to take them
and carry them with me to the sepulchre. They
will be strange to me as I to them. Such is the
image of my life in the midst of the world since I
believed in Christ.' "

Methodism seems specially suited for 9. Eagerness to
both Negro and Bantu, for they revel in a gji*^-^
warm, experimental type of religion.
They are demonstrative, and excitable.
Enthusiasm of the old revival order is
often met with ; indeed this is sometimes a
danger, for emotions easily aroused are
only controlled with difficulty. Their
religious life is apt to evaporate unless
freely expressed ; hence the class-meeting
and the prayer-meeting are invaluable — so
much so that the C.M.S. missionaries in
West Africa have introduced the class
meeting into their own native churches.
The Africans derive great help from the
singing of hymns — all the soul of the
Negro is responsive to music — and are

240 The Gall of the Dark Continent

easily wearied of the service if they cannot
give vent to their emotions. Indeed, there
is a tendency to carry this exuberance of
feeling too far, and allow it to degenerate
into hilarity and irreverence. But on the
whole this trait of African character is
distinctly helpful to the missionary.
10. The Spirit But the spiritual life of the Negro and
of Evangelism Bantu and Hottentot Christians is not
allowed to end with mere religious
dissipation. There is a marked eagerness
to carry to others the Gospel that has
changed their own hearts and transformed
their own lives. This truly missionary
spirit is the glory of our native Church.
Frequently converts whose lives are, truth
to tell, far below the standard, are anxious
to tell others of the message they them-
selves only imperfectly understand, and
thus the message of salvation is carried far
and wide. The success of missions in
Nyasaland, Uganda, South Africa, and
many other places is largely due to the
activity of the native Christians. The
BaGanda have themselves evangelised the
adjoining kingdom of Toro, and the king
has been led to Christ. Many a man has
heard the Gospel in the compound of a
Kimberley or Johannesburg mine, and has
gone away to evangelise his distant kraal.
Our most northerly outpost of the Gold

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 241

Coast District, over 400 miles inland, was
opened by a man in Government service
who had heard the Gospel while at the
Coast. Whenever a missionary preaches,
he knows that all he says will be repeated
time after time, and passed from mouth to
mouth.

The amount of voluntary work done is
well illustrated by our Transvaal District,
in which we have over 1,500 native Local
Preachers. On the Plan there are 331
churches and 605 preaching places ; total
936. Our regular staff consists of some
45 ordained ministers and 50 evangelists ;
total available for Sunday work, 95. This
leaves 842 places, or about 1,684 services
to be supplied each Sunday by local
preachers.* Such facts as these are an
inspiration to the men on the field, for
without this willingness to carry the
Gospel message, the evangelisation of
the Dark Continent would be utterly
impossible.

The piety of the African finds expression 11. Generosity
in acts of generosity as well as in evan-
gelistic effort and religous fervour. This
is more remarkable when it is remembered
that naturally they are inveterate beggars.
The demand for dashes from passing

* These figures do not include the work or workers in the
English Circuits of the District.

242 The Gall of the Dark Continent

traders is noted over and over again in
books of travel ; and the kings, and the
members of their families, are the biggest
beggars of all. But the religious impulse
awakens a new spirit. A Kafir woman
said to W. B. Boyce, " I want no presents.
Beads are of no value to an old woman
like me. I wish rather to hear the great
news, that I may make my son hear it,
and that I may set the Pondos a good
example."

The way our African Christians contri-
bute to the maintenance of their churches
is very remarkable. # Many of our circuits
are absolutely self-supporting. And this
is not all. Their contribution to direct
missionary work among the heathen around,
or at a more distant mission, is noteworthy.
Generosity is a normal trait of the African
Christian.
12. The Colonial No account of the conditions favourable
Church to missionary work would be complete

without a reference to the Colonial
Churches found in many places where
there are European residents of true
Christian character — chiefly in the South
African Union. We have already dealt
with the hindrance to the work that arises
from the presence of godless whites.
There is another aspect of European

* See page 284.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 243

occupation ; there are settlers, of British,
Dutch, and other nationality, of sincere
piety, whose presence is decidedly helpful
to the missionary in his work. Perhaps
the ideal conditions for missionary work
are to be found among a heathen people
to whom European life is represented by a
few picked men who represent the British
Civil Service, and by missionaries, each in
their own order making the people feel that
we seek not their wealth but their welfare.
The South African Union takes in four
provinces (Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange
Free State* and the Transvaal), with a
population of some 1,118,000 Europeans,
3,500,000 natives, and 573,000 half-castes,
Asiatics, and other coloured people. The
British South African territories outside
the Union have a population of about
3,000,000 natives and less than 16,000
whites. What would be the effect of
this impact of civilisation on the primitive
peoples, or, on the other hand, of heathen-
ism upon the European community, if it
were not for the Colonial Christian Church ?
This Church is under obligation: —
" (a) To provide for the needs of the Christian
community, which, under the conditions of a new
life, requires the inspiration and restraining influence
of religion to an even greater extent than in the
home land.

* The old name is revived by the Act of Union.

244 The Call of the Dark Continent

" (b) To provide for the spiritual needs of the
scattered European colonists who would otherwise
be in danger of drifting from religious influence, and
become a danger to the moral well-being of the
country.

" (c) To take a very large share in the spreading
of the Gospel among the people in whose land it is
established."

We gladly record that all the Christian
Churches of South Africa recognise these
duties, and the last-named is not overlooked ;
but unfortunately, in some cases, it is often
kept in the last place, with a considerable
interval between. From the beginning of
the Colonial Church, there have been a few
who have given the central place to
missions, and the Christian conscience of
South Africa has of late years been
awakened to the fact that the white
Christian Church can only save itself from
paralysis and decay by a vigorous and
united effort for the salvation of the
heathen. One great name ought to be
mentioned; no one has done more than
the venerable Dr. Andrew Murray, of the
Dutch Reformed Church, to impress upon
Colonial Christianity its duty to make
the Gospel known throughout the sub-
continent. The Wesleyan Methodist
Church of South Africa has an honour-
able record in this respect, giving both
its money and its sons to missionary service.

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 245

In connection with the great Boer War, The Dutch
the Dutch Reformed Church had a Churches
remarkable experience. In the camps to
which the prisoners were sent at St. Helena,
Ceylon, India, and Bermuda, revivals broke
out, and, as the fruit of the movement, 200
young men volunteered for mission work.
More than 100 of these passed through a
course of training in an institution opened
for the purpose ; and the interest aroused in
the colonial Dutch Church was so great
that £7,000 was contributed for their
support during a three years' course.

Another fruit of the war :

" A Boer general, who had charge of the Zoutpans-
berg district, was powerfully converted during the
campaign, and as he and his men moved about and
saw the thousands of heathen natives, they felt how
little they had realised their duty to them, and
formed what they called The Commando Thanks-
giving Mission Union. One hundred men of the
Commando became members of the Union, and at
the end of the war they founded a mission station —
tne Union appointing and supporting a missionary
to the work."

In the light of the history of South
African Missions, this movement among
the Boers is an assurance that God will yet
use the Colonial Church for the bringing
of the heathen to His footstool.

We have surveyed the difficulties of the

246 The Gall of the Dark Continent

work in Africa, and have found them
very great. The vast areas and scattered
populations to be dealt with, the degrada-
tion of the people, the entanglements of
tribal life and personal vice, together with
the shallowness and emotionalism of the
natives, make it difficult to bring these
people into the Kingdom of God. But our
survey has revealed many conditions so
favourable as to give encouragement and
inspiration ; and added to all these is the
The Supreme supreme factor of all missionary work —
God. Our faith and our African experience
alike witness that there are no breakwaters
of difficulty that can exclude the Spirit of
God, no darkness that He cannot illumine,
no weakness that becomes not strength at
His touch, and no raging disorder of human
passions that He cannot quiet and com-
mand. Africa is witness ; and the end of
this chapter is a Psalm of Praise, a Doxology
of quickened faith.

Factor

Conditions Affecting Work in Africa 247

ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES

SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION.- The magnitude of
the task before us.

1. Enumerate the obstacles to the spread of the
Gospel in pagan Africa.

2. To what extent have these difficulties been
simplified in recent years ?

3. Which of the hindrances do you consider the
most formidable?

4. How far do the conditions favourable to mis-
sionary work mitigate the difficulties?

5. Comparing Africa with other countries, do you
consider it a difficult field for missionary work?

6. Discuss the relative value of the factors favour-
able to missionary enterprise.

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

Fraser, Donald. — The Future of Africa.
Naylor, W. S. — Daybreak in the Dark Continent.
Kemp, Dennis. — Nine Years on the Gold Coast.
Kidd, Dudley. — The Essential Kafir.

Chapter VI.

Methods of Missionary Work in
Africa

" There are diversities of gifts, but the same
Spirit. And there are differences of adminis-
tration, but the same Lord. And there are
diversities of operation, but it is the same God
which worketh all in all." — 1 Cor. xii. 4-6.

In their eagerness to win the Dark
Continent for the King, Christian mission-
aries have, from the very beginning, shown
great resource in the methods they have
adopted to reach the people, both in the
presentation of the Gospel, and in their
efforts to train the converts in the Chris-
tian life. Going to Africa in the first
instance without plans and without ex-
perience of the country, they sooner or
later found themselves confronted with the
obstacles considered in our previous chapter.

The missionaries had no desire to intro-
duce complicated methods of work, or to mul-

248

Methods of Work in Africa 249

tiply agencies ; they would have preferred
to give their whole strength to the simple
preaching of the Word of God. But face
to face with the conditions of African
paganism, they early recognised that other
means also must be adopted to make their
work more effective and secure abiding
results.

Our first South African missionaries, Shaw's
finding the Hottentots and other peoples Jj^'jind
scattered and nomadic in their habits,
sought to gather them together into
permanent settlements under conditions
more conducive to the growth of Christian
graces. " To have plenty of meat and
milk, to lie in the sun and smoke, to possess
numerous wives who did all the heavy
labour, to rove from place to place with
their portable mat huts — this was the
NamaQua paradise." By industrial and
agricultural methods, Barnabas Shaw#
made Lily foil tein a rallying place for the
scattered people. The NamaQua built
huts around the mission house and the
little church, and soon the whole aspect of
the place was changed. Instead of the
wilderness, there were fenced gardens and
fields. Men who had been accustomed to
lay all hard work on their wives took their
full share of labour, and in a few years

* See Chapter III.

250 The Gall of the Dark Continent

nearly 2,000 bags of wheat were annually
produced where in former times not a grain
had been sown. And concurrently with all
this, Christ was set before the people as
the only Saviour of man. This was the
kind of " applied Christianity" the Nama-
Qua needed. Peace reigned where tribal
wars had been frequent. The Bushmen
dared not attack the NamaQua now that
they were dwelling together in large
companies, and the NamaQua had no desire
to harry their former enemies. Their
cattle and sheep multiplied, and the general
comfort of the people increased. Within
fifteen years, the people of Lilyfontein
possessed 3,000 sheep, 3,000 goats, 150
horses and 400 head of cattle.

When the Governor of Cape Colony
realised the success of the work, he took
steps to make it permanent ; he granted
the NamaQua a tract of country and placed
the district under the control of a board,
elected from among themselves on the first
day of each year, the Wesleyan missionary
in residence being appointed chairman.
This Raad still meets once a month, and
manages the commonage and the lands,
grants grazing rights, and settles disputes.
Missionaries as In the central highlands, Samuel Broad-
" Joshuas" bent and his successors found the moving
hosts of BeChuana and other tribes driven

Methods of Work in Africa 251

like chaff before the fierce onslaughts of
MaNtatee and MaTabele. To these harried
peoples, " the missionaries came as Joshuas,
leading them out into well watered and
secure country." When mission stations
wTere established, the people settled around
them and built up a new and better tribal
life, the little Christian community at
each centre being |the " salt " and " light "
of the tribe.

This class of early work is well illustrated John Ayiiff
in the story of the deliverance of the
Fingos from slavery. The AmaFingo were
long subject to the tyranny of a more
powerful Bantu tribe. Hintza, a para-
mount chief, spoke of them as his dogs, and
when John Ayiiff baptised several of them
the "Great Bull" wrathfully muttered,
" How dare Ayiiff throw his water on my
dogs ! I will make him take it off again,
and then I will kill them." On May 9th,
1835 — a day ever remembered by the
Fingos — our missionary led 16,000 of them
across the Great Kei Biver to land allotted
to them by the Governor around Fort
Peddie. To this day the name of Ayiiff
is cherished by the Fingos as the name of
the man who first led them out of cruel
bondage into freedom and prosperity, and
gave them the good news of salvation.

In South-East Africa, among the denser

Word

252 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Bantu populations, the missionaries often
stood between the warring tribes, and time
and again between the native peoples and
the Europeans pressing in upon their
country. Master missionaries were those
early labourers, men of whom the
Methodist Church may well be proud.
When the history of South Africa comes to
be written it will be seen how much they
did to make the civilisation and Christian-
isation of the country possible.
Preaching the But amidst all his manifold labours, the
early missionary was pre-eminently a man
possessed with a great message. Indeed
it was this, and this alone, that led him
into the heroic and splendid acts of service
recorded above. It was on the preaching
of the Word of God that he relied for the
conversion of the people. "He preached;
he expected a response to his message ; and
he got it." This has always been the
foremost endeavour of all true missionaries.
All the many and varied enterprises in
which they engage are but auxiliary to
the central purpose.

To a people illiterate and without a litera-
ture, with whom even their own history is
a living story told by the older to the
younger generation, the story of " the Life
that is the Light of men " is specially
effective when told by the human voice.

Methods of Work in Africa 253

Hence, preaching has the first place as an
evangelistic agency in Africa.

In the kraals of Rhodesia, our mission-
aries and their African helpers -tell of
salvation through the " Name above every
name " to Shona and Tabele villagers as
they squat around their fires or sit in the
semi-darkness of their smoky huts. In the
compounds of Transvaal mines, our workers
hold more or less regular open-air services,
and preach the Gospel to numerous natives
who are gathered there from far distances.
Many a West Coast market-place has
echoed and re-echoed with that same life-
giving Word. It has been proclaimed in
the courtyards of scores of West African
kings, and people have gathered to hear it
in many a Yoruba compound. An army
of voluntary native local preachers assists
the missionary and paid agents in carrying
the message from place to place. For
example, within a day's journey of Kumassi
we have (besides our two churches) over
twenty places where the Gospel is regularly
preached on Sundays by these helpers. And
in very many circuits we have voluntary
"Mission Bands" conducting open-air
services week by week.

But the preaching of Christ's message is Evangelistic
not limited to central places. In many Tounn^
cases the people live in scattered commu-

254 The Gall of the Dark Continent

nities, and must be sought out. Years
ago the Rev. W. J. Shrewsbury wrote : —

" The, natives are not usually disposed to travel to
a mission station for instruction. Unless the mis-
sionary is prepared to go to them, he might as well
remain in his native land. The people are scattered
over the face of the country. . . . Itineracy among
them impresses them with confidence, and promotes
a friendly feeling towards the missionary. The work
has its discouragements, but no cross is too heavy
when the soul is supported by the grace of God."

In work of this character it is constantly
necessary to take more or less difficult and
trying journeys. When the Rev. Owen
Watkins and his colleagues were founding
the Transvaal mission, the country was
without roads, or bridges, or railways, and
the ox-waggon was the usual means of
reaching distant places. Those devoted
pioneers saw much of the rough side of
missionary life. And even to-day some of
our Transvaal and Rhodesian workers are
quite accustomed to travel by waggon or
on horseback.
Bush Travelling In West Coast work the hammock is
the usual means of conveyance — just the
ordinary string hammock slung on a bam-
boo, with an awning to keep off the direct
rays of the tropical sun. If the road
permits, four men carry the hammock, but
in many places the narrow forest footpaths

TEAVELLING BY CANOE IN WEST AFEICA.

MISSIONAEY BBEAKFASTING IN NATIVE HUT.

p. 255.

Methods of Work in Africa 255

necessitate the single file. The hicycle is
also extensively used where the roads are
suitable.

Missionary travellers cannot afford to
have a little army of carriers to convey
tents and baggage for them like traders or
Government officials, and in West Africa
they usually put up at native houses,
making the best of such rude hospitality
as the village affords. It is usual to
go to the house of the village chief,
which is one large quadrangle with mud
and thatched rooms all round (the homes
of his several wives and their children),
except for the big entrance gateway. The
quadrangle is open to the sky and is
usually full of fowls, sheep, goats, children,
calabashes, beds, fireplaces, boxes, men
and women, in extraordinary confusion.
The African is most hospitable to the
traveller, and the best accommodation is
always placed at his disposal, poor though
it may be. The host will have a room
cleaned and swept, and will send his wives
and children to fetch water for the visitor
and his carriers, and in addition to all this,
will bring some gift according to his power
— possibly one or more fowls, some yams,
and some cooked food. In return, the
visitor offers his host a present, such as a
tin of lump sugar or a box of biscuits.

256 The Gall of the Dark Continent

This is regarded as a present, not as
payment. Many a time has the Gospel
been preached by a missionary traveller
in a West African compound on such an
occasion, and the people are quite ready
to listen without any manifest opposition.
It affords an excellent opportunity of intro-
ducing the Message under perfectly natural
conditions.
The Gospel The suitable presentation of the Gospel

Message *g 0£ vjtaj importance. Herr Warneck has

discussed with great ability the appeal of
the several cardinal truths of Christianity
to animistic races. He places the strength
of the Christian message thus : —

The animistic peoples are impressed :

1. By the certainty of the Gospel Message in con-
trast to their own uncertain ideas of religion.

2. By the Gospel's claim to be a revelation from
God.

3. By the Christian offer of a personal, living
God.

4. By the thought of deliverance from fear of evil
spirits.

5. By the conception of a God of love.

6. By Christian morality, as they slowly become
conscious of their own sinfulness.

7. By the Gospel promise of Eternal life.

Dr. Warneck believes that these appeals
are successive, and that experience has
shown that it is well for the missionary to
proceed on some such line in his efforts to

Methods of Work in Africa 257

instruct the animistic heathen in the truths
of Christianity. Most workers in Africa
would probably accept this, with varying
modifications — Warneck writes with special
reference to his own Battak people — for the
heathen must be taught gradually as chil-
dren. " Line upon line, line upon line ; pre-
cept upon precept, precept upon precept ;
here a little, there a little, as they are able
to bear it" — that should be the guiding
principle of Christian instruction. We
have already seen* that the thought of
God as a mighty deliverer, or as the Good
Shepherd, attracts a people oppressed and
scattered ; it appeals to their conscious
need. The need of a Saviour who shall
save his people from their sin is largely
dependent upon a consciousness of their
own sinfulness which does not usually exist
until a later stage. The consciousness of
sin grows out of a true sense of God.
As the convert comes to understand some-
thing of God, he begins to realise his own
unworthiness and sin ; in the light of
God's holiness he becomes aware of his own
utterly depraved state, and thus recognises
his need of a Saviour. But from the
more warlike tribes, because of their very
strength, there is often no immediate
answer to the appeal of God's love ; the

* See pages 236-7.

258 The Gall of the Dark Continent

conception of a God of might and dominion,
" Lord of lords and King of kings," is
more likely to attract fierce warriors. The
conception of God as a jealous God also
appeals to such men, for they know the
. furious anger of a chief when his will is
thwarted. The thought of the resurrection
of the body after death often awakens fear
rather than hope, for many dread to meet
again those whom they have slain with
poison or the knife.

The Bible Protestant missionaries have always

made it their first aim to give to their
people the Word of God in their own
language. Experience has justified this
practice, for in some lands, when
persecution has driven the European mis-
sionaries away, their converts have sus-
tained their spiritual life by the constant
perusal of Holy Scripture. This has been
^the case in Uganda, in Madagascar, and
other places. A number of W.M.M.S.
men have taken a notable part in the
translation of the Bible into African
tongues. #

Teaching But the missionaries had not only to

give their people the Bible, they had to
teach them to read it. While they busied
themselves with their translation work on
the one hand, they opened schools on the

* See Appendix B.

Methods of Work in Africa 259

other. In the early days of African
missions, the object of educational work
was very largely to enable the people to
read the Scriptures for themselves. And
though the development of some parts of
the continent has somewhat broadened
this original purpose, it will be long
before educational missions in Africa
can occupy the place they do among the
higher civilisations of Asia. The Brahmans
of India, steeped in their sacred lore, and
the Confucian scholars of China, call for
specialised educational work. There are
no such communities in Africa, and the
missionary teacher is obliged to begin at
the very bottom of the scale. When the
need for higher educational work arises, it
is because the mission schools themselves
have created it — a condition not altogether
without advantage, seeing it places in the
missionary's hands a larger share in
directing the higher education of the people.

The special purpose which missionary The value of
educational work serves is stated by Educational
Commission III of the World Missionary
Conference, under the following five
heads : —

1. It enables pupils to read the Bible and other
devotional books for themselves, thus making acces-
sible to them the literary sources of Christian truth
and faith, found specially in the Scriptures.

260 The Gall of the Dark Continent

2. It trains the minds of the people, making them
more susceptible to the truth; frees them from the
bondage of superstition and error; tends to clear
away prejudices, and prepares the soil for the seed of
the Christian faith.

3. It endeavours to impart to primitive peoples
the knowledge and the firmness of character which
may enable them to withstand the disintegrating in-
fluences of Western civilisation.

4. By a combination of general and technical
training, it helps those who come under its influence
to lead intelligent and useful lives, and gives them
the power to earn their own living.

5. In its more advanced stages it is necessary for
the intellectual equipment and moral training of
those who, as teachers and ministers, will serve as
the leaders of the native Church.

It is worthy of note that the Govern-
ment Commission on South African Native
Affairs calls attention to religious instruc-
tion in all elementary schools as important
to the moral development of the natives of
Africa. The need for missionary education
is greatly increased by the indirect
influence of European rule. Many old
tribal restraints have been removed because
they were cruel, and unless some new
restraining power be substituted, evil con-
duct is apt to become more prevalent than
ever. A few years ago a Rhodesian chief
laid his trouble before the nearest
missionary. He said : —

" Missionary, the country is growing worse. I

Methods of Work in Africa 261

would like you to teach my people, for my servants
refuse to do as I tell them; even the slaves have no
ears. Yes, the country is changed since the white
man came. I had power to rule once ; if a slave dis-
obeyed, I could put him to death; but now, if you
thrash one he goes to the magistrate and complains,
and I am helpless. We need somebody here to be
constantly teaching us. The land is before you,
build where you choose ; we are all in the dark, and
need these words of God."

It is well that all tyranny should be
suppressed, and that the oppressed should
be able to obtain redress from the represen-
tative of the Government, but the old
chief's appeal suggests the importance of
providing moral and religious safeguards
concurrently with the removal of the old
restraints of brute force.

In some of our African Districts special
efforts are made to provide schools for the
sons of chiefs and kings, with the hope
that, through Christian education, they
may be fitted for future responsibility. In
view of the dominant influence many of
these lads will one day exert over their
people, this effort is of the utmost
importance.

An educational policy immediately Training
commits a great Missionary Society to the nstItutlc
provision of training institutions by which
the schools may be supplied with teachers.
The vernacular schools are necessarily
staffed with native workers, and unless

262 The Gall of the Dark Continent

these be educationally and spiritually
fitted for the work, the best results cannot
be secured, and in some cases positive
harm may be done. Furthermore, for
the ordinary evangelistic work trained
catechists are necessary ; and there is the
ever-increasing importance of preparing a
well-educated African ministry.

In order to meet these needs we have in
South Africa two well-equipped Training
Institutions. At Nengubo in MaShonaland,
and at the Kilnerton Institution near
Pretoria, teachers and evangelists are
prepared for Christ's service. The latter
institution has (in connection with the
Normal Department) a Practising School
with about 100 boys and girls, so as to
enable the normal students to get practical
experience in the art of teaching. There
is urgent need of a similar institution in
West Africa, where we are at present
compelled to rely largely on untrained
teachers.

For some years our Richmond College,
Freetown, did splendid work under the
principalship of the Rev. W. T. Balmer,
B.A., B.D. But the urgent needs for
similar work on the Gold Coast led the
Committee to transfer Mr. Balmer to
Cape Coast, where he founded the
Mfantsipim school for boys, which it is

Methods of Work in Africa 263

hoped will develop, at no distant date,
into a well-equipped training institution.
Unfortunately, under the strain of the
great work thrust upon him, Mr. Balmer's
health gave way, and he has been com-
pelled to return to England ; the school,
however, continues its work. In the
absence of a Wesleyan institution, many
of our leading men are studying in the
C.M.S. Fourah Bay College (affiliated to
the Durham University). At the present
time, of twenty-four young men studying
for the B.A. degree, six are Wesleyans.

Our Kilnerton Institution has an im- industrial
portant Industrial Department in which Missions
young men are trained in carpentry and
other trades, so as to be in a position to
earn a satisfactory livelihood ; and girls are
instructed in such subjects as will be useful
to them in future life.

Africa, more than any mission field,
seems to call for industrial missions. We
have noted the effect of such work in the
efforts of Barnabas Shaw. At one time it
became almost a proverb that Africa must
be redeemed by the Bible and the plough,
and such a philanthropist as Macgregor
Laird recognised the importance of it.

In this way the African can best be
prepared to take his place in the world ;
and by such methods missionaries are, to

Women and
Girls

264 The Gall of the Dark Continent

him, the " school-masters " of righteousness
and civilisation. Such work as that done
by Dr. Stewart's great Lovedale Institution,
or our own Kilnerton Industrial Depart-
ment, or our Bathurst Technical and In-
dustrial School, is productive of much good.
Work for In almost all cases, the women of pagan

Africa can be reached by male missionaries,
but there is a great call for women
workers. If the work for men be developed
out of proportion to the work for women
there will be serious difficulties in the
creation of Christian communities. The
gracious influence of a Christian mother-
hood is indispensable to the Christianisation
of any land. Among many of the African
peoples who have no written language,
the history of the tribe or family and much
of the superstition accompanying religion
is stored in the memory and passed on by
word of mouth from generation to genera-
tion. Usually the woman is the chief
repository of this knowledge ; and at night
around the fire in the compound she
gathers her little ones about her and tells
them these stories. If this fountain of
knowledge, at which the children drink so
deeply, could be Christianised, it would
mean much for the extension of the
Kingdom. It is also our duty and policy
to provide for our African ministers,

Methods of Work in Africa 265

catechists, teachers, and members, wives
who are Christianised in thought and life
as well as converted. And though male
missionaries may do much, this work can
be better accomplished by women.

Our Women's Auxiliary is at present
unable to include Africa in its sphere
of operations, but a need so urgent had
to be met, and the W.M.M.S., departing
from its established policy, resolved to
undertake the work itself. For several Wesley
years little companies of Wesley Deacon- ^Africa "
esses have been stationed at our Freetown,
Cape Coast, and Accra missions, and the
results obtained have more than justified
what was at first only an experiment.
Their work is distinctly of an institutional
character, and they do not engage in such
service as we usually connect with the Order
of Deaconesses in our own land. At the
three stations above mentioned, these
devoted workers have charge of Girls'
Boarding and High Schools, in which the
students (numbering from about 70 to 150
respectively) are prepared for their life-
work as Christian women. These invalu-
able institutions endeavour to give, not a
mere school-education, but, what is far
more necessary for West African girls, a
thorough training of character, simple and
correct habits of life, domestic economy,

9*

266 The Gall of the Dark Continent

and the elementary laws of health. Some-
one has said that " the patli of a good
woman is strewn with flowers ; but they
grow behind rather than in front of her."
Through many difficulties and inevitable
discouragements the deaconesses are
preparing a new West African womanhood
in whose footprints the flowers of purity
and Christian virtues shall spring forth.
Our Girls' Of the three schools, the Freetown Girls'

High Schools jftgh School is the largest and most im-
portant. It originated with a voluntary
movement among our Sierra Leone laymen.
Realising the importance of providing for
the education of their own daughters,
they organised a " Wesleyan Female
Educational Institution " at their own
expense and on their own responsibility.
In 1903 it was handed over to the
W.M.M.S. and at once reorganised by Mrs.
W. T. Balmer. In due course it was
placed in charge of Wesley Deaconesses,
of whom there are always three — two in
residence, and one on furlough. When
the school was taken over by the Society
the income (derived from fees) was under
£100; by 1910 it had risen to over
£1,000, and the institution is now self-
supporting. The excellent institutions at
Cape Coast and Accra are doing equally
good work, but the Fanti seem less eager

Methods of Work in Africa 267

than the Sierra Leonians for the education
of their daughters, and these schools are
smaller than the one at Freetown and are
not yet self-supporting. The Deaconesses
are now commencing similar work for the
Methodist girls of Lagos ; last year the
self-supporting circuits took over a school
for girls from an African committee, and
it has become the Wesleyan Girls' High
School. A new building is in course of
erection, to cost £1,500 — towards which
the native churches have contributed
£1,000. Our Transvaal and Rhodesia
Districts also feel the need of specialised
work for native girls, and are organising it.

In Western Africa the climate has been
regarded as the great obstacle to the
employment of European lady missionaries,
but the experience of recent years seems to
show that with care a woman may keep in
at least as good health as a man. The
C.M.S. has given special attention to
women's work in Yoruba and Sierra Leone,
where it has forty lady missionaries (four-
teen of whom are wives) and only thirty-five
men on the field.

Medical Missions should have a very Medical
important place in our programme for the MIssI°ns
evangelisation of Africa. All death (except
from old age) and all sickness is thought to
be caused by bewitchment, and the whole

268 The Gall of the Dark Continent

healing art is deeply involved in super-
stition. It is true that the native doctors
have sometimes a knowledge of vegetable
or herbal remedies of real value, but in
most cases of sickness the people look to
the witch-doctor to cure the patient by
magic arts. Under such conditions medical
science becomes a most effective weapon to
use against witch-doctor and fetich priest.
There are only about 100 medical
missionaries in Africa, all told. In China
there are nearly 400. Unfortunately the
W.M.M.S. is behind the other great
Societies in its use and support of medical
work. Great progress has however been
made during the last few years, and a very
substantial increase of this agency is pro-
posed for the near future. But we have
still no qualified medical missionary in the
Dark Continent, and, beyond the first aid
rendered by a few of our ministers, our
only medical work is a small dispensary at
Igbora in the Lagos District, where Mr.
John Bond, who has had a course at
Livingstone College, strives to give such
relief to the suffering as may lie within his
power.
Philanthropic There is less need for philanthropic

Work institutions in Africa than in the densely

populated regions of Asia. The fact that
there is no such thing as an orphan child

Methods of Work in Africa 269

without relatives greatly reduces the need
for orphanages. Family life, \ is*' complex,
and the orphan is usually provided for within
the clan or tribe. In all Pagan Africa
there are only nine mission orphanages,
with a total of less than 250 orphans.
There are five rescue homes and two small
leper asylums, while other departments of
charitable work are conspicuously absent.
The W.M.M.S. has no philanthropic in-
stitutions in Africa.

*****

We have now to consider the work done Pastoral Work
within the Church for the strengthening
of those who have become Christians.
Pastoral oversight is every whit as im-
portant as evangelism, and as the work
grows it becomes necessary to set men
apart for it.

We have already seen that in Africa it
is comparatively easy to gain a hearing of,
and a response to, the message. But the
wise missionary places low value on that
shallow, unintelligent acceptance of the
Gospel that is familiar to workers among
an animistic people. " Sudden conversion "
is almost unknown on the mission field ;
the sincere man does not thoughtlessly
change his religion. Patient teaching is
required before real results can be secured ;
and notwithstanding his eagerness to win

270 The Gall of the Dark Continent

another soul for Christ the worker carefully
refrains from exercising undue pressure,
knowing that a decision is almost worthless
if it is not the result of real conviction as
Entrance to the to the truth of his message. The gate of
Church entry to the Church needs to be, and is,

jealously guarded. The moral require-
ments of the new religion are carefully
emphasised, and no eifort is spared to
compel would-be converts to " count the
cost." Because of this, many who would
otherwise be attracted decide not to
become Christians. The Christian ideal of
marriage — which is never thrust upon the
heathen polygamist — is always emphasised
to the enquirer, and is as a flaming sword
guarding the entrance to the Church of
Christ. If the gate of the Church were
widened to admit the polygamist in the
state in which the Christian teaching first
finds him, the tribes would come in in
solid masses.
" Catechumens " When the great decision has been made
— and the very thought of it warms the
heart of every missionary worker — the
convert is placed in a catechumen class for
further instruction before the rite of
baptism is administered. The Lord's
Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the
Apostles' Creed and the First Catechism
are among the lessons first taught ; and

Methods of Work in Africa 271

this probation is never less than three
months, while sometimes it is very much
longer. The Bible is read and expounded,
and the converts, "beholding as in a mirror"
the sinfulness of their own hearts, are led to
a deeper conviction of their own depravity.

When the catechumen stage has been Baptism
satisfactorily passed, the convert is
presented to the minister for examination,
and if he is satisfied that the instruction
has been properly received and that the
candidate is a sincere seeker, he administers
baptism, thus receiving the convert into
the Church of Christ.

The newly baptised believer is now "On Trial"
placed in a Society Class as a member " on
trial " under the care of a trusted leader
for at least six months, but often for a
much longer period. The length of this "Full
probation is decided by the superintendent em ers ip
of the circuit, who takes account of the
fitness of each separate candidate. When,
on the recommendation of the class leader,
the convert is received as a full member,
he is admitted to all the privileges and
obligations of Christian discipleship.#

In the case of old people the examination
for admission into the Church relates

* The stages of admission given above vary slightly in
our several Districts, but on the whole they represent in
main features the usual practice of our own and othe
Missions, though naturally the denominational usages vary.

272 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Edification of
the Church

By Means of
Public Worship

chiefly to the life, and seeks to test the
soul's attitude towards Christ ; but with a
younger person a clear understanding of
Christian teaching is also required. It
should be added that in South Africa each
candidate is required publicly to promise
to abstain from the use of all intoxicating
drinks (including Kafir beer) and dagga
smoking, and from attendance, even as
a spectator, at " beer parties " and cir-
cumcision ceremonies, and parents are
required to prevent their children (unless
beyond the age of control) attending such
ceremonies, or attending bush schools.

If the work of the missionary (as
evangelist) ends with the admission ol
converts into the Church, it is only that
the work of the pastor may begin. In
Christ's living edifice the foundations alone
have been laid ; the temple has yet to be built.

The public services of the Church offer
opportunity for the exposition of the Word
of God and the teaching of practical
religion. In such work the itinerating
missionary is at a distinct disadvantage
as compared with the resident pastor, who
is able to give continuous instruction ; and
herein lies the importance of raising a
trained native ministry for pastoral work,
so as to set the missionary free for wider
itineration.

Methods of Work in Africa 273

The idea of a Sabbath has to be created The Sabbath
and the day set apart for worship ; for
paganism knows no holy day, and many of
the tribes are unable to distinguish be-
tween one day and another. In some
cases the whole tribe — Christians and
heathen alike — adopts the Sabbath as a
separate day, and many chiefs and com-
moners who are not Christians attend the
public services. The absence of any means
of accurately reckoning time makes a
church bell indispensable, and gives to it a
meaning it has lost in lands where clocks
and watches are in every home.

In the early stages of work, the place Places of Wor-
of worship is often improvised, and is s lp
usually built by the converts themselves,
guided by their catechist. As the cause
grows stronger the primitive, temporary
building is exchanged for a more suitable
and permanent structure, the people
willingly giving both material and labour.
In many cases heavy loads of wood or
corrugated iron are cheerfully carried for
miles on the heads of eager helpers. Our
members take great pride in the churches
which their own hands have built.

The strong, self-supporting churches of
the West Coast towns have substantial
buildings arranged on the European plan,
with pews, galleries, choirs and pipe-organs,

274 The Gall of the Dark Continent

and, in one or two instances, even with
electric light.

Worship The common practice of many of our

churches seems to show that a more or less
liturgical service is found to be helpful to
the congregations, and Wesleyan usage
provides a form of Common Prayer for
morning service which is widely, though
not universally, used. Most of our workers
testify to the reverence which characterises
public worship ; this is the general rule,
and is much more than mere decorum.
The hearty responses are in most cases
evidence of sincere piety and earnestness.
In Sierra Leone, all who can afford it have
Bible, Prayer-book, and Hymnal bound
together, often in morocco, with the owner's
initials stamped in gilt.

Worshippers A notable feature of church life in West

Africa is the prosperity of some of our
members. Their natural trading instincts,
coupled with such light as they have
received through the blessings of Chris-
tianity, have enabled them to rise to
positions of comfort and even comparative
wealth. Several of our churches include in
their membership well-to-do Africans who
have had the advantage of a liberal English
education. The Lagos circuits, for example,
have had in recent years three Honour-
able Members of the Colonial Legislative

Methods of Work in Africa 275

Council, besides wealthy merchants and
professional men who send their sons to
England for education and visit England
themselves every two or three years. From
these same circuits, two native Bishops of
the Anglican Church have taken their
wives. It must be remembered that these
are native, not English, circuits. The only
West African to receive a knighthood (the
late Sir Samuel Lewis) was a member of
our Freetown Church ; only two have
been honoured with a C.M.G., and both
were godly and devoted Methodists.

The conditions just described are char-
acteristic of the more important coast
towns, but do not exist up country, where
contact with Europeans is comparatively
slight. In the Yoruba and Ijebu countries,
in Ashanti, and in the many Gold Coast
villages, in Mendiland, and in the Limbah
country, many of our church buildings are
simple in the extreme. They are often
built of mud and thatch in native style,
with earth floors and raised earth seats, or
perhaps planks resting on stones. The
congregations of such sanctuaries are as
different from those of Lagos or Freetown
churches as are the buildings in which they
meet. In the Sabbath services at a bush
church may be found people still heathen,
and some who are Christian in thought but

276 The Gall of the Dark Continent

debarred by polygamy from membership,
besides the members and enquirers. Not
infrequently chiefs and even kings — some
of them still heathen — attend divine wor-
ship. Some of these are men of very low
rank and but small intelligence, while others
are men of great influence and striking
personality — men whose support counts for
much in missionary work.

Mr. Findlay describes a service in one of
our Abeokuta churches that well illustrates
this. King Oshile — one of the four kings
of the Egba metropolis — was present,
attended by an old chief, eight wives (one
of whom is a member of our church),
several children, an umbrella bearer, and a
slave carrying a wicker chair for the king
to sit on. Towards the close, the king
rose to address the meeting. Dressed in
artistically embroidered robes of brilliant-
hued plush, with an enormous plumed hat,
covered with beads and gold lace, and
carrying an ebony sceptre in his hand,
he delivered a really manly and moving
speech.

" He began by saying that the white men got
wisdom by treasuring the lessons of the past, and that
he had lately been seriously pondering all that the
missionaries had done for Abeokuta. He recalled
how, years ago, they had taken, and educated as
Christians, the children of various chiefs, and though
the people had looked suspiciously upon it, it had

Methods of Work in Africa 277

turned out well for chiefs and people. He declared
that the Wesleyans were real benefactors of the city.

" He said that, as the congregation knew, he had
for some time attended the services in the chapel, but
he had now deliberately decided to cast in his lot
with it altogether.

" He ended by solemnly enumerating various
heathen gods, that one and another of his hundreds
of relatives and dependants had been worshipping,
and declaring that from this day all his people, so far
as his influence served, should worship the God."*

Such a man cannot be baptised and
admitted to Church membership — being a
polygamist — but is usually put on the list
of catechumens, as are, in places like
Abeokuta, many male Christians. They
are often devoted to the Church, and in all
but their domestic relations conform to
Christian law. Many would gladly be-
come monogamists if they could. In such
cases the rule seems harsh, but it is
necessary to preserve the whole church
from becoming polygamous, which it cer-
tainly would if the rule were relaxed.

The public services are a means of The Glass
general instruction in sacred things ; but MeetIn2
for the edification of members Wesleyan
missionaries and pastors rely rather on the
Society Class Meeting.

For more personal dealing with the
individual, the classes are a more effective

* This king is now dead, but his successor is connected
with us, and renders great help by his influence and gifts.

278 The Gall of the Dark Continent

instrument than the public means of grace.
So useful has this method proved, and so
well suited to the temperament of the
African peoples, that several other Missions
have adopted it.

Among the Negro peoples especially, our
members revel in the class meeting. The
testimonies flow freely — usually nearly
every one wants to speak — and as the
speakers proceed to give praise to God for
blessings, or to tell of difficulties or failings,
there are ready responses of " Yes, Yes,"
" Amen," " Bless de Lord ! " Class money
and missionary contributions are collected
weekly, and arrangements are made for
members to visit the sick and absent.
Often, in our West African churches, the
women take quite a prominent part in local
church work ; in Abeokuta, for example,
nearly all the class leaders are women.

Church prayer meetings are encouraged,
but require to be carefully guided, and the
leadership entrusted to experienced and
thoughtful prayer leaders only.

Every morning, in West Africa, the
church bell calls to prayer at 5 or 5.30.
In the early days of our South African
Mission, the custom of daily morning and
evening prayer was established, and it still
obtains in many places. These meetings
take place just before sunrise and just after

Methods of Work in Africa 279

sunset, so as not to interfere with the work
of the day. It is the custom of evangelists
in country places, and many class leaders
also, to open their own family prayers to
all who will come. Once and again, .in
out-of-the-way places, one or two heathen
men and women or girls have quietly come
in for such a house-service, and it has been
evident that this has value as an evangel-
istic agency. For these outsiders to see a
man, whose whole manner of life makes
them feel his superiority, down upon his
knees "speaking into the air" arouses
thought and creates a desire to know some-
thing about the One to whom he is speaking.

In some Districts, conventions for the Conventions
deepening of the Spiritual life are held
from time to time, and prove a great
inspiration. Some Missions bring all their
native workers to a suitable centre for a
few days of instruction and stimulus. In
Africa, as elsewhere, the evangelist can
only carry to others what he has himself
received, and this being so, the more
adequately his own mind is replenished,
the more he can give to those for whom he
is the appointed teacher. Camp meetings
are also held in some places.

With the second and succeeding genera- Missions
tions of Christians there are always, within
our churches, young people — children of

280 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Sunday
Schools

The Need for
Discipline

former converts — who have never known
heathenism, and yet have not been
definitely converted, and in some cases
hinder the work by their conduct. With
a view to reaching these native " nominal"
Christians, some missionaries hold special
"Mission" services of a revival character.

Sunday Schools, at which children are
by no means the only scholars, are held in
every circuit. The children of converts at-
tend the schools, and also very many heathen
boys and girls. In the more highly developed
circuits, teachers' training classes are held.

We have referred more than once to the
sincerity and earnestness manifested by
our African Christians. It must not, how-
ever, be supposed that they are free from
blemish. Church members in lands long
Christianised, with everything to help
growth in grace, are usually far below
Christ's standard as set forth in the Sermon
on the Mount ; and it can scarcely be
expected that African converts, only a few
years (or at most only two or three
generations) removed from grossest pagan-
ism, and still surrounded by its poisonous
influences, can have made more, or even as
much, progress in the spiritual life. When
we remember what for several centuries
(from the buccaneers and slave traders to
many European traders and clerks of our

Methods of Work in Africa 281

own day) have been the samples of
Christianity exhibited on the coasts of
Africa, it is little wonder that coast people
recognise no very high standard of Chris-
tian morality, for even some of those who
are members of churches are apt to measure
themselves by the white "Christians" with
whom they come in contact.

But besides all this, the instincts of the
old vicious habits are strong, and so
terribly dominant are the animal passions
of many, that again and again the pastor has
to lament the relapse into gross sin of men
who for years have been loyal followers of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Epistles to the
Corinthians become a subject for practical
study to every missionary.

Under such conditions, breaches of the Courts of Trial
moral law, delinquencies from plain Chris-
tian duty, and breaches of Church laws,
have to be firmly dealt with, in order to
guard the purity of the Church. In our
own churches, delinquents and offenders are
tried before the leaders' meeting, as in
England. In this arrangement Methodist
polity seems peculiarly fitted to African
conditions, as so much of its administration
is easily adapted to native custom. The
chief is the head of the tribe, and he is
advised by elders or " councillors " who sit
with him in judgment. The sentence is

282 The Gall of the Dark Continent

arrived at by the elders and pronounced by
the chief. This is so much in accord with
the church court of the missionary and
leaders or elders — the latter acting as
assessors, and the former passing sentence
— that such a court of trial has become the
common usage of the churches.

It is found that the native leaders are,
as a rule, faithful in dealing with members,
and some of the charges enquired into
would rather surprise the members of a
European church — disobedience to parents,
exhibitions of temper, and faults of like
order, as well as more serious offences.
The sentences pronounced vary according
to the gravity of the offence, from a reproof
to suspension of membership (either for a
stated time, or until the offender atones
for his offence), or, in extreme cases, ex-
pulsion from the church.
Development In pastoral work on the Mission field, all

Churches10118 Missionary Societies, and all wise mission-
aries and pastors, keep before them the
ideal of a strong, indigenous church — self-
supporting, self-governing, self-propagating
— independent of European " props." In
her Colonial work Methodism has long
followed this policy, by creating indepen-
dent or semi- independent Conferences (in
Canada, Australasia, Ireland, France, South
Africa), and the Missionary Society is

Methods of Work in Africa 283

working towards a similar end with regard
to its native churches. It would be disas-
trous to grant self-control to a church
unfitted for such responsibility, and in
view of this great efforts are made to
train our African people for the future
administration of their own African Church.
The desired end can only be reached after
years of careful preparation.

From the early beginnings of a mission, Encouragement

,i n ™ • /• & & •, • ,i to Self-Support

the small Christian communities, as they
are gathered out of heathenism, are drilled
in the habit of self-support, and most
Societies recognise that no appointment of
native teacher, evangelist, or other paid
agent for work within the church (as
distinct from evangelistic work among the
heathen tribes), should be made without
the larger part of the cost being borne by
the people themselves.

Many experienced missionaries hold
strongly the opinion that European workers
should rarely, if ever, be appointed as pastors
of native congregations, their strength being
reserved for the duties of general oversight
and for the work of aggressive evangelism.
Concurrently with the attainment of self-
support on the part of the church should
come the appointment of wisely chosen
and carefully trained men from among
themselves to the pastorate of the flock.

284 The Gall of the Dark Continent

But, besides being expected to contribute
to the support of the local work, each
member is expected to make a quarterly
or yearly offering towards the general
work of God, in some cases the minimum
amount being definitely fixed. No church
is considered to have attained full
growth until the members are prepared
to take an active part by voluntary service
and generous gifts in the evangelisation
of the heathen around them. That our
African brethren are not behind in such
works is evident from the following table.
The figures are for the year 1910.

Money

Money

Extra Gifts

sent from

raised

to Foreign

England.

Locally.

Missions.

£

£

£

The Transvaal District ...

7,553

39,130

6,446

The Rhodesia District ...

3,655

2,187

177

The Sierra Leone District

2,238

7,585

1,540

The Gambia Section

314

1,906

332

The Gold Coast District...

3,807

19,300

4.532

The Lagos District

3,809

4,897

1,040

Total money spent in

£75,005*

£14,067

Africa by the Committee
during 1910.

£21,376

V

Total raised in Africa during 1910

£89,072

* Under this head Government grants in aid of schools,
etc., are included, and also contributions received from
Europeans, which in the Transvaal are considerable. In
West Africa the money is almost entirely the result of
native generosity.

Methods of Work in Africa 285

It is startling to find that during one
year our African Districts raised the large
sum of £89,000, and the wonder grows
when we remember that this is the
ordinary annual amount, and not the
returns of a year of special effort.

With the growing consciousness of ability Preparation for
to maintain themselves, there comes the mJnt00^™"
perfectly natural and healthy desire to
govern themselves, and, where a church
is able .to bear the responsibility,
such right of self-government as Methodist
policy allows is gradually introduced. It
is given to the Christian community, called
out of darkness, to have life in itself ] and
provision must be made for the manifes-
tation and expression of it. The cardinal
blunder made by the Church of Rome in
its dealings with England — that of at-
tempting unduly to retain control of the
religious life of the country by means of a
foreign priesthood, instead of encouraging
indigenous growth — must be guarded
against on the mission field. Wise
missionaries keep before them the self-
government of the local church as a goal
towards which they must continually work.
Here again, Methodist organisation appears
particularly applicable to African customs
and temperament, providing as it does
outlets for the gifts of the members of the

286 The Gall of the Dark Continent

church in such offices as those of local
preacher, class leader, or steward. The
Leaders' Meeting and the Quarterly Meet-
ing, with their open discussions on church
business, seem specially suited to a people
accustomed to the West African "Palaver"
or to the "Parliament"' of the Bantu tribes.
The business capacity of the Negro here
finds a suitable exercise in the concerns of
his church. The West Africans, especially,
love to identify themselves with the work
of their church and make it the leading
interest in their lives ; men and women
alike feel that it is part of their business and
deeply concerns them.
The Missionary Great efforts are put forth to impress
th^Nadve °f t^ie ^frican churches with a sense of
Church their responsibility for the evangelisation

of the heathen tribes around them.
In West Africa this is sometimes difficult ;
but we thankfully record that the last few
years have witnessed a change for the better.
Our South African people are full of
evangelistic zeal, and by gifts and service
do much to make Christ known to their
fellows.
The Ethiopian That the question of how best to extend
Movement self-government to the native churches is
difficult and at times perplexing, is illus-
trated by the " Ethiopian Movement."
This is a Church Separatist movement,

Methods of Work in Africa 287

having as its origin a desire on the part of
a section of the Christianised natives to be
free from European control. Its ranks are
recruited by discontented members from
every denomination carrying on work in
Southern Africa, and almost without
exception the secessions have been led by
native ministers or evangelists who have
been unable to co-operate with their
European superintendents. Doctrinally
the communities thus formed stand almost
upon the same ground as the churches
from which they came out, and use the
prayer-books, hymn-books, and catechisms
to which they have been accustomed.
Unhappily polygamy is permitted, and
much moral laxity is allowed to exist.
Some of the leaders of the movement are
not men to whom the best interests of the
native church can with confidence be
entrusted ; but on the other hand,
Ethiopianism is the outcome of a move-
ment of native thought and aspiration to
which the Christian Church must give
wise guidance. It is a call to the Home
Churches to send to Africa only the very
best missionaries — statesmen who will so
guide the Church as to save it from being
overwhelmed by a revolutionary move-
ment. The greatest safeguard against
Ethiopianism is to grant to the African

Grace

288 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Church all the freedom that can with
safety be conceded.
A Miracle of But with all its faults, its weaknesses,
and its shortcomings, the African Church
is a miracle of saving Grace. Take the
congregation in the rudely built native
church — a people simple and in some
things far below the Christian standard ;
take these people and compare them with
what they would be at this hour had it not
been for the Grace of God. Watch that
little band of catechumens as they increase
in knowledge and grace, and are gathered
into a church and grow into a self-
supporting and self-governing community.
Look at the individual convert coming up
out of the mire of sin, until, through many
a fall, he is a transformed man, far removed
from his old heathen practices. Compare
him with the people from whom he has
come out — with the heathen amongst
whom he is living day by day. It would
be foolish to compare the demoniac of
Gadara, sitting clothed and in his right
mind at Jesus' feet, with John or Peter ;
rather contrast what he is with what he
ivas. It would be unjust to draw a com-
parison between the African Church and
our own English Church with centuries of
Christian teaching behind it ; compare it
rather with the church of our forefathers

Methods of Work in Africa 289

when they were but as far removed from
paganism as are the African Christians of
to-day, and it will be realised how truly
wonderful are the results of missionary
work in the Dark Continent.

Far from perfect our people certainly
are, but the mighty spirit of God is
working in their hearts, renewing in them
the image of their Master, and in due time
the work will be completed.

We magnify the Grace of God. But in
this chapter it has been made evident that
it has pleased the Master to use human Human instru-
instruments and human methods for the merits and
accomplishment of His purposes. We
have noted the careful way missionaries
have studied the prevailing conditions.
They have not tried to force upon Africa
methods that have proved successful in
other fields ; they have sought rather to
devise methods to suit the peculiar needs
of the peoples to whom God has sent them.

Methods

10

290 The Gall of the Dark Continent

ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES

SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION.-The adaptability
of missionary methods to existing conditions.

1. Summarise the prevailing conditions that
distinguish Africa from China or India.

2. How do you account for the comparative
absence of such institutions (Colleges, Hospitals,
Orphanages) as are usual in the Oriental Mission
Fields?

3. Which do you consider the more important
and urgent — evangelistic work or pastoral work?
Give your reasons.

4. What do you think of the prospects of the
African Church?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

Fraser, Donald. — The Future of Africa. (Chap-
" ters V. and VI.)

Kemp, Dennis. — Nine Tears on the Gold Coast.

Warneck, J. — Living Forces of the Gospel.

Edinburgh Report. Com. II. — The Church on the
Mission Field.

Edinburgh Report. Com. III. — Christian Educa-
tion.

Chapter VII.
The Muslim Menace

" The threatening advance of Islam in Africa
presents to the Church of Christ the decisive
question whether the Dark Continent shall become
Muhammadan or Christian."

— World Missionary Conference. Commission I.

Our brief study of African Missions
must have impressed the reader with the Fields Waiting
immense opportunities presented to the
Christian Church in the Dark Continent.
In no country are the people more acces-
sible ; in no country is there readier re-
sponse to the Gospel message. The
ingatherings of recent years, both in South
and West Africa, as well as in Uganda and
other parts, encourage us to look for a still
more abundant harvest. It is admitted
on all hands that fetichism cannot with-
stand the impact of Western education
and civilisation. In the opinion of all
thoughtful observers the paganism of Africa
is doomed and ready to pass away.
Meanwhile the Gospel of Christ is winning

291

292 The Gall of the Dark Continent

its silent victories, and but for one dark
cloud on the horizon, we might hail as not
far distant the day when " He shall reign,"
and reigning, flood the Dark Continent
with Light.
An Enemy But an external factor has entered to

owing ares confoun(j our calculations and to make the
ultimate issues more difficult and more
doubtful. Islam — by far the most terrible
external foe that has ever opposed the
Church of Christ — is stepping before us
into Christ's heritage and is everywhere
entering fields that Christian enterprise
should have won. The Christian conquest
of West Africa, once apparently so
near, is still possible, even to the few
workers at present on the ground, if
sufficient time were given and could
the pagan multitudes of the interior
wait in their primitive state for the
coming of their deliverers. But oppor-
tunity waits not on our leisure, and
the field is no longer reserved for our
coming ; it is occupied by an enemy in
strength. While we have lingered on the
coast, the forces of Islam have entered
from the north, swept across the interior
regions, and are now actually facing us on
the shores which we have long regarded as
almost our own. They have conquered
the lands behind them (the vast regions of

The Muslim Menace 293

the Sudan) and turned them into sources
of supply and support for further conquest.

Islam is a direct challenge to the King- The Challenge
dom of Christ. Muslims contend against of Islam
us for the possession of the Dark Continent
— nay, the world. "Africa for Christ" is
the objective of our endeavour, and the
followers of the rival faith respond, " There
is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is
the Apostle of Allah " ! The religion of
the Crescent is indeed a terrible opponent.
In many lands it has proved its power to
overcome corrupt Christian systems, it has
uprooted Christian churches, overthrown
states nominally Christian, and drawn into
its fold multitudes of people who had borne
the Christian name.

In the early centuries Christianity Early Christian
spread through the Roman Empire with TnumPhs
astonishing rapidity. Even in the Apos-
tolic times successful efforts were made to
win the North African provinces for the
Saviour. It has been estimated that by
the close of the second century there were
at least 900 churches along the North
African coasts. Writing about that time,
Tertullian, the Christian apologist, declared
that in Carthage

" men cry out that the state is besieged ; the Chris-

294 The Gall of the Dark Continent

tians are in the fields2 in the forts, in the islands;
and they (the pagans) mourn that every sex, age,
condition, and even rank, is going over to this sect."

" The temple revenues are falling off ; how few now
throw in a contribution ! "

Addressing the proconsul, Tertullian
declared that the Christians "constitute
all but a majority in every city " of that
portion of Africa.

Wave after wave of fierce persecution
swept over the North African Church ; the
land was drenched with Christian blood.
But these afflictions left the Church purer
and stronger. " Kill us, torture us, con-
demn us, grind us to dust," cried Tertullian;
"The oftener we are mown down by you,
the more in numbers we grow ; the blood
of the Christians is seed " !# At an early
date the Gospel took root in Alexandria,
and was greatly strengthened by the
powerful influence of the Christian School
ruled over successively by Pantaenus,
Clement, and Origen. Numidia and Lybia
were evangelised during the third century,
and Abyssinia in the fourth. The Gospel
spread up the Nile valley, and in 545 A. D.
the Nubian king was baptised, and we
read of five Christian kingdoms in the
regions around the modern Khartoum.

* The origin of the famous sentence ' ' The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of the Church."

The Muslim Menace 295

" He shall have dominion also from sea to
sea." The time for fulfilment seemed near
at hand.

Then from Arabia came the dark shadow Muslim invasion
of Islam — a war cloud. Egypt was speedily
conquered (640 a.d.). A corrupt Chris-
tianity, faithless and divided against itself,
could not stand against the enthusiastic
onslaughts of the Muslim hosts. Within
sixteen years of the Prophet's death at
Medina, his followers had swept North
Africa, and the victorious general plunged
his horse into the Atlantic surf, crying :

" By the Great God, if I were not stopped by this
raging sea, I would go on to the nations of the
West, preaching the Unity of Thy name, and putting
to the sword those who would not submit ! "

As the years passed, Spain was con-
quered, France was entered, Rome was
partially sacked, Sicily and Crete were
occupied. Eastward, Syria, Persia, and
Asia Minor were brought under Muslim
rule. In some of these lands Christianity
was overthrown, and churches were
destroyed by the hundred.

To-day we glance across countries once The Triumph
Christian. Islam prevails. Where are of Islam
the seven churches of Asia to which St.
John wrote ? What has become of the
hundreds of churches in North Africa ?
All these have been overthrown by the

296 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Muslims. The great centres of Christian
learning — Alexandria, Antioch, Edessa —
shared the common fate. In Africa only
the Copts of Egypt and the decayed
Christianity of Abyssinia escaped the
general destruction. The blood of the
martyrs, and the work of the great leaders
and saints of the African Church — Augus-
tine of Hippo, Cyprian and Tertullian of
Carthage, Clement, Origen and Athanasius
of Alexandria — did not avail. Here and
there, what was once a Christian church
still exists as a Muslim mosque. On the
desert sands piles of stones may still be
seen, marking the place where once the
worship of Christ was celebrated. A few
tribes, now Muslim, retain customs or
ceremonies that seem to be survivals of
a time when those tribes were Christian.
To all human appearance, the Crescent has
triumphed over the Cross in Africa. #

For a time the great Sahara and Nubian
deserts kept the Muslims to the rich
countries along the shores of the Mediter-
ranean, and the fertile districts of the Nile
valley. But only for a time. The Arab
invaders, accustomed to a desert life, were
not to be deterred from further conquest
by those vast sandy wastes, and when they

* See The Reproach of Islam. Chap. 1.

The Muslim Menace 297

had established their sway over the coast
provinces and loaded themselves with
plunder, some of the more restless bands
penetrated into the interior, while others
worked their way round the north-western
shores towards the Senegal river. On the
eastern side, heavier masses conquered the
kingdoms of the Upper Nile and eventually
extended the sway of Islam over Nubia
and the regions now known as Darfur
and Wadai.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Hausaland and
Dervishes from Morocco carried their
Muslim faith into the Western Sudan,
and apparently made converts among the
Negro tribes. About the middle of the
eighteenth century the Fulahs — a race of
shepherds and herdsmen — were Islam ised.
These people lived in small scattered
communities from the Senegal to Lake
Chad. Though dwelling among the
pagan Hausas (who are by far the most
advanced of all the Negroid races, and
practically the only one possessing a highly
developed language and literature) the
Fulahs seem to have made no effort to
convert them to Islam until the beginning
of last century. But in 1802, Sheikh
Othman Shefu Dan Hodin, proclaiming a
Jihad or holy war, gathered his Fulani
together, and commenced by force of arms

10*

298 The Gall of the Dark Continent

the " conversion " of the Hausa race. The
Fulahs, being excellent horsemen, easily
overcame the much more numerous Hausa
— a quiet, commercial people, little given
to warfare — and soon Othman was able to
establish in the region between the middle
Niger and Lake Chad a powerful Fulani
Empire. This territory, extending from
Gando and Borgu on the west to Adamawa
on the east, from Asben on the north to the
Yoruba country on the south, included
some of the most densely populated regions
of Africa. Sokoto became the seat of the
new dynasty, and from that city the
conqueror directed the "conversion" of
many millions of Hausa subjects. This was
accomplished gradually, partly by force and
partly by peaceful persuasion. Exhorta-
tions to such " holy wars " occur in the
Koran itself.

" Oh prophet, stir up the faithful to war : if
twenty of you- persevere with constancy, they shall
overcome two hundred, and1 if there be one hundred
of you, they shall overcome a thousand of those who
believe not." (Sura viii. 66.)

" When thy Lord spake unto the Angels, saying,
Verily I am with you; therefore confirm those who
believe. I will cast a dread into the hearts of the
unbelievers. Therefore strike off their heads, and
strike off all the ends of their fingers. Thus shall
they suffer because they have resisted God and His
Apostle." (The Koran ; Sura viii. 12, 13.)

Passages of this character plentifully

The Muslim Menace 299

sprinkle the pages of the Koran. # It must
be remembered that they are believed to
be the express words of God Himself, and
have more than once been used to urge
the faithful on to holy wars for the ex-
tension of Islam. Such sharp-edged argu-
ments as the swords and spears of
the Fulani doubtless powerfully con-
vinced many Hausas as to the claims of
Muhammadanism. But within a score
years the Jihad had deteriorated into mere Raiding as a
slave raiding amongst the remaining pagan Method01™17 "
tribes ; zeal for Allah and His Prophet
gave place to more earthly ambitions.
The extent to which this raiding was
carried until quite recently is almost in-
credible. When Canon Robinson visited
Hausaland in 1895, he found on every
hand the most appalling evidences of it.
At many towns the king was away on a
raiding expedition among the pagan villages
of his own dominions. The little expedi-
tion frequently crossed country but recently
raided. In one instance Dr. Hobinson
crossed a stretch of country sixty miles

* The various sects of Islam differ as to the conditions
under which a Jihad is lawful. The prevailing opinion
appears to be that it is unlawful in a modern non-Muslim
country if the rulers allow Muslims freedom in religion.
Some enlightened Muslims of Modernist sympathies, ex-
plain away the Koranic texts on the subject of the Jihad, but
(says Sell) "it brings them into conflict with all the
canonists of preceding ages, and with the views of commen-
tators and theologians of all the various sects."

300 The Gall of the Dark Continent

wide just devastated by a powerful king ;
and during his stay in Kano " about a
thousand slaves were brought into the
town on a single occasion as the result of
such an expedition." Slaves were the
only means of transport, and they were
actually the standard coinage and were
used as money. Taxes were paid in slaves,
and the several states paid their annual
tribute to the Sultan of Sokoto in slaves.
This continued until the Fulani were over-
thrown by the British under General
Lugard in 1903.

By such means Hausaland was " con-
verted " during last century. Needless to
say, thousands of heathen villagers, in
order to save their lives or in the hope —
often a vain hope — of retaining their free-
dom, became Muslims. But other induce-
ments were not lacking. When the pagan
went into the cities to market he found him-
self unable to get fair treatment ; despised,
cheated, scoffed at, he resolved to improve
his position by becoming a Muhammadan.
Muslim Missions From these regions — usually termed the
in West Africa Central Sudan — Hausa traders have
travelled southwards and have settled in
large numbers among the West Coast
tribes. Missionaries for Islam to a man,
these travellers have brought the religion
of the Arabian Prophet with them and are

The Muslim Menace 301

vigorously propagating it wherever they
go — by peaceful means of course. This
has been going on for many years with
such results as to cause deep concern, not
to say alarm, to all friends of Christian
missions. During the past century in
Hausaland and West Africa, the converts
to Muhammadanism must be counted by
millions. On the coast, during the same
century, Christian missions could but
reckon their converts by thousands. In
that time the Muslims have conquered far
and wide and are now face to face with
our missionaries at every station along the
coast. Christian missions on the West
Coast have even now penetrated but a
little way toward the heart of the Con-
tinent. Only a few isolated stations are
more than 200 miles up country, and what
is that in a Continent like Africa ? Islam
has brought to its standard the vigorous,
united, independent nations of the interior ;
while Christian converts have been won
chiefly among the weak, divided fragments
of nations, pushed down to the sea-board.
It is a matter of no small importance for
Islam to have won the powerful nations of
the Sudan, for there they have formed a
strong base from which to advance, and
have reared a strong barrier against all
Christian progress northward.

302 The Call of the Dark Continent

From all the West African Districts
our missionaries report that they are faced
with a vigorous Muslim propaganda.
The Gambia Fifty years ago seven-eighths of

the Gambia peoples were still pagan.
While the Church of Christ slumbered
the emissaries of Islam were active,
and to-day the position is reversed —
probably seven-eighths of the tribes are
Muslim.
Sierra Leone Islam is said to have been introduced

into Sierra Leone about 1790 — about the
same time as Christianity — by certain
Fulah traders, and since then it has grown
steadily. There must have been consider-
able numbers of Muslims in the Colony in
the early decades of last century, for in
1839 the Christians petitioned the Govern-
ment against their presence, and even
destroyed their mosque in a riot — an
outrage not yet forgotten. In the
census of 1861 the whole Muhammadan
population of the Colony was given as
1,774. To-day in Freetown alone, there
are at least 10,000, and they possess
seven mosques, and four schools supported
by Government grants. The Government
Colonial report for 1909 has the follow-
ing note :

" The work of conversion (to Islam) is carried on
by means of immigrant traders and Muslim mission-

MENDI CHIEF AND SUB-CHIEFS. Rev- w- T- Balmer.

p, 303.

The Muslim Menace 303

aries coming into Sierra Leone from the districts to
the north and north-west. There is no doubt that
the religion is steadily gaining the ascendency there,
in spite of all the other influences at work."

In the Hinterland, many of the people
are still pagan — especially of the Mendi,
Limbah, Konnoh and Lokkoh tribes — but
Muhammadanism has a wide-spread hold
upon them, the Mandingos, Susus, and
Fulahs being almost wholly won over to
Islam. Even in the remaining heathen
tribes, the chiefs and ruling families are in
many cases Muslim. It is not possible to
say what proportion of the population of the
Sierra Leone Hinterland is Muhammadan ;
but certainly that^religion is the prevailing
one. The Kev. W. T. Balmer writes :

" Over and over again when Mr. James Walton and
I have gone into out-of-the-way villages and fancied
that ours was the thrilling joy of breaking absolutely
new ground for the seed of the Word, we have had
our hopes dashed to pieces by seeing the sinister
figure of a Muslim emerge from the back of the
village in which we had gathered a little crowd. We
could only speak a few words and pass on. He was
there entrenched, established in hut and mosque. In
another village we would find ourselves forestalled,
and the folk forbidden to listen to us; and, worse
still, two places there are at least where once we
had seemingly flourishing stations, which are now
gone or going from us — one, indeed, to such an ex-
tent that, in the missionaries' absence, the mission
house was utterly destroyed, and all we had left was
a heap of sticks."

304 The Gall of the Dark Continent

The Gold Coast " The most striking feature of the
religious life of the Gold Coast Colony is
the spread of Islam." It is due to the
influx of Hausa traders from the Sudan,
who, under the aegis of the Pax Britannica,
have flocked into the colony in enormous
numbers. Some arrived by sea by way of
Lagos, while others came overland through
the Northern Territories. They have
formed colonies or ghettos of their own in
every considerable town, and in some cases,
as in Kumassi, the Hausa colony is equal
in size to the native town. But the
Hausas are met with everywhere, and
wherever they settle they erect their
mosque or mark out a place of prayer. In
every Muslim community there is a teacher,
generally from the far north, who daily
gathers the children together and instructs
them from the Koran. Unfortunately the
Government of the Gold Coast Colony,
consciously or unconsciously, favours the
spread of Islam. There are cases on record
where the Government has built a mosque
and paid the salary of the school teacher,
and some European officials openly advocate
Muhammadanism as more suitable for the
native than Christianity.

Up in Ashanti and the Northern
Territories of the colony, Islam is gaining
a firm hold upon the peoples. A Swiss

The Muslim Menace 305

traveller, who took an extended tour in
the remote northern regions little more
than a year ago, told one of our mission-
aries that in every considerable village he
had found two Muhammadan teachers.
He had passed through the same country
ten years before and found the people
purely pagan ; now the almost universal
name of God is Allah. A nation won for
Islam in a decade !

We turn to our Lagos District, only to Southern
find the religion we are compelled to Nl^eria
regard as the enemy of the cause of Christ
making rapid strides. We have seen in
former chapters something of the readiness
of the people of Southern Nigeria to listen
to the Christian teacher. Fields are white
unto harvest ; but, alas ! here also Muham-
madanism is stepping in before us and
reaping the harvest that we might long
ago have gathered. When the messenger
of the Cross enters a village, however
remote, he hears the muezzin call-
ing men to prayer in the name of the
Prophet of Arabia. The Chairman of
the District, the Rev. Oliver J. Griffin,
writes :

" In the Yoruba country one missionary could do
to-day what no twenty men will be able to do in ten
years' time. We could claim many places for Christ
to-day, which will be Muhammadan in a few years if

306 The Gall of the Dark Continent

we leave them. Yet, by the look of things, it will be
quite ten years before the folk at home wake up to
the true position."

Northern To the north of the Niger lie the great

Nigeria Hausa States. In 1900 this vast and

densely populated territory passed under
British rule. This is the stronghold and
the radiating centre of West African
Muhammadanism. It is from these interior
regions that Hausa and Fulah merchants
and missionaries have gone forth to the
coast districts. The trying climate renders
immediate European control difficult, and
the administration of the country is left
largely in the hands of the Muslim Emirs.
Many of them are ruthless, ferocious
tyrants, but they have great power, and
through them the Government manages —
though often with difficulty — to rule
the Central Sudan.
Southern Africa From the Hausa states on the west, and
from the upper reaches of the Nile on the
east, the messengers of Islam have entered
the great southern peninsula of the Dark
Continent. In search for slaves and ivory
they have spread themselves over the great
Congo basin. But here, apparently, greed
of gain has exceeded their zeal for Allah,
and the distinctly missionary propaganda
seems to be behind that of the West Coast
regions. From Mombasa and Zanzibar

The Muslim Menace 307

the Arabs have for many centuries overrun
East Africa, but have made comparatively-
few converts. Islam has spread rather by
intermarriage. In many tribes there has
clearly been a fusion of Arab and Negro
blood. In North-West Rhodesia there Rhodesia
would seem to be real and immediate
danger. Many Muslims are settling there,
and, in order to gain converts, are even
setting aside the prohibition of intoxicating
liquors. In Southern Rhodesia there is, as
yet, no organised propaganda. Iti search
of work, Muslims come into the country
and settle there, but apparently make no
converts. As we travel further south the Cape Colony
influence of Islam grows less, though even
in Cape Colony there is a certain amount
of Muslim propaganda under conditions by
no means unfavourable.

For many centuries Islam was propa- The old
gated by the sword ; east and west, north ° s—
and south, it spread like lire through the
dry grass. But by slow degrees its military
power was checked. In Europe this took
place at a comparatively early stage ; it
was banished from France by the battle of
Tours in 732 A.D., and its advance from
the south-east was arrested by the battle
of Vienna in 1083. In Africa, Islam

308 The Gall of the Dark Continent

retained its military character until Lord
Kitchener's victory at Omdurman in 1898,
and Sir F. Lugard's conquest of Hausa-
land in 1903.
—and the New But the resources of Islam were not
exhausted. Deprived of the sword, its
followers, with that zeal for their faith which
has always characterised them, betook them-
selves to other weapons. Just as in the
middle ages there arose the preaching
friars in the Church of Rome — the
Benedictines, the Franciscans, the Jesuits
— so there have risen religious orders in
Muslim Preach- Islam. They are generally known as
ing Orders Dervishes (i.e., Mendicants). They have
existed from earliest times, the first being
founded in the Prophet's own life-time. By
their organisation and ubiquity they have
been the very life of the religion to
propagate and preserve which they were
called into existence by some of the most
remarkable men of the Muhammadan world.
The most modern of these movements
had its origin in a great attempt to
reform Islam which was set on foot by
Muhammad ibn Abd All-Wahhab, a native
of Central Arabia. The influence of the
Wahhabite movement was felt widely
through the House of Islam, but it has now
no distinct existence. In Africa it set on
foot two powerful agencies. The first of

The Muslim Menace 309

these was the rise of the Fulah race to
power, as already described. But stronger
and more formidable is the Sanusi move-
ment, now actively at work.

The founder of this Order, Muhammad The Sanusi
ibn Ali as-Sanusi, was born in 1791. He
seems to have been a man deeply concerned
for the welfare of Islam, and in his early
years he distinguished himself by his zeal
for Koranic lore and by visiting holy
places. He showed remarkable skill in
organising, and in 1837 established the
brotherhood that bears his name — the
Sanusiyya, or Sanusi — the most strenuous
and highly organised, and most widely
spread of all the Muhammadan Orders. At
first the new brotherhood was regarded
with suspicion by orthodox Muslims, but it
soon grew to such an extent and attained
such an influence as to absorb some of the
other leading Orders which prided them-
selves on their strict orthodoxy and
superior learning. The members of the
Order are said now to number some five or
six millions, and they possess monasteries,
or Zawiyyahs, scattered over the Sudan
and Northern Africa. In 1859 the founder
of the movement died, and his son became
Sheikh in his place.

The headquarters of the Sanusi were Their Head-
first at Jarabub in the Libyan Desert, a <iuarters

310 The Gall of the Dark Continent

town which has been described as "at once
a fortress and a convent, a university and a
shrine." It is said to contain stores of
war material, and is under the absolute
rule of the Sheikh of the Order. European
travellers are not allowed to visit it. Its
theological school is said to have had as
many as 700 students. But in 1895 the
headquarters were moved to Kufra, an oasis
in an inaccessible region near Lake Chad.
Between these two places, and from them,
there is a constant passing of agents
and messengers, and already the result is
the rapid conversion of West Africa to
Islam.

The interior of North-West Africa, it
must be remembered, is not a desert ; the
Central Sudan teems with many millions
of virile people, nearly all of whom are
under the influence of this remarkable
Order of Muhammadan teachers. The
strength of the movement is not to be
despised. It is understood that the head
Sheikh was earnestly entreated to assist
the Mahdi in his attack on the Egyptian
Sudan, and had he done so, the issues of
the struggle at Omdurman might have
been different. But evidently this power-
ful man lays his plans deeply and carefully.
The French Government is keenly on the
alert, and recognises the import of the move-

The Muslim Menace 311

merit by registering — as far as possible —
every convert it makes.

The religious sincerity of the members of Their Eamest-
the Sanusi Order is illustrated by the fact nessand °b>ect
that they utterly repudiate the Pan-Islamic
Movement with its leaning towards
Modernisn and its participation in Western
thought and science.

To quote a well-informed Arabist : —

" There has sprung up in Islam, with tremendous
ramifications, an imperium in imperio. All the
brethren in all the degrees — for, just as in the
monastic orders of Europe, there are active members
and lay members — reverence and pay blind obedience
to the Sheikh of the Order in his inaccessible oasis
in the African desert. There he works towards his
end, and there can be little doubt what that end will
be. Sooner or later, Europe — in the first instance,
England in Egypt, and France in Algeria and Tunis —
will have to face the bursting of the storm. For
this new Mahdi is different from him of Khartoum
and the Egyptian Sudan, in that he knows how to
rule and wait. For years he has gathered arms and
munitions and trained men for his Jihad (holy war).
When his plans are ready, and his time is come, a
new chapter will be opened in the history of Islam,
a chapter which will cast into forgetfulness even the
Boxer outburst in China. "*

A favourable time for such an outburst
would be any combination of events in the
political world of Europe which would
make it necessary for France to relax her

* Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence, and Constitution, p. 62,
by D. B. Macdonal'd (Scribners).

312 The Gall of the Dark Continent

rule over Northern Africa, or which would,
to any considerable extent, weaken her
influence in that region. But this power-
ful man from his mysterious retreat keeps
watch over the whole horizon, and he is
ready to seize any opportunity to eject
Great Britain from Hausaland and restore
the rule of his faithful Fulani. In a word
he is watching the whole of North Africa,
and will take such action as the occasion,
when it is ripe, may call for. Such a holy
war, of course, means a return to the sword,
but at present his emissaries are content to
extend their influence by preaching.

This movement is not religious only, it is
political. Islam has been from its birth a
political as well as a religious system, and
a crisis like the present should convince the
nations of Europe of the power which is
ruling and working in Central North
Africa. Muhammadan apologists tell us
that the Sanusi movement is essentially a
reform of Islam, an attempt to lead back
the believers to the primitive monotheistic
faith. This is to some extent correct, but
it is more than a rallying cry to encourage
perfervid Muslims to go from other lands
to the Sudan, where they may find more
freedom for their faith. The belief that
this is not the only or even the chief
object, is created by the suspicious methods

The Muslim Menace 313

pursued in the propagation of Islam among
the tribes of West Africa. For those who
have eyes to see, and who wait not on
politics, there are sufficient signs already
that the struggle is even now upon us — a
struggle so severe and protracted as to
shake to the foundations one or other of
the opposing faiths in Africa.

But the remarkable spread of Islam in Muslim
our time in West Africa is due not only to ™l?i!0!!ary

i ii- i ptvtt » • Methods

the overwhelming host ol Muslim mission-
aries, but to their methods of propagating
their creed. They come among the pagan
tribes, settle among the people, marry
native wives, learn local customs and build
upon those customs. They come profess-
edly to teach a religion, a definite creed,
concerning an all-powerful God, and
promise blessings and advantages to those
who obey their teaching.

The simple, unsophisticated pagan is a
believer in magic and witchcraft ; his
imagination peoples the unseen world with
malevolent powers and spirits whose malign
influences can only be kept in check by
sorcery, incantations, and trickery. Instead
of awakening his intelligence to see the
folly and uselessness of such superstition,
and leading him to put his confidence in
the Almighty, the Muslim missionary only
adds new superstitions, new chains. He

314 The Gall of the Dark Continent

gives his authority to many pagan ideas
and practices. The heathen villager's
belief truly is transferred to Allah the
Omnipotent ; but this Allah is only the
supreme head of a host of intermediary
powers, into which hosts of spirits, djinns,
demons, and the inhabitants of the pagan
occult world are incorporated. Allah is
too remote from human affairs for the
practical purposes of life, so the Islamised
heathen continues to rely on the sorcerer,
his charms and gree-grees, as aforetime.
Indeed the charms become more efficacious
because they are now prepared by the
Muslim teacher instead of by the old-time
fetich priest. In fact the greatest manu-
facturers and vendors of charms and
gree-grees in Western Africa to-day, are
the emissaries of the Crescent.

The Koran itself is degraded into an
instrument of magic. Portions of it are
sewn up in leather pouches and worn as
amulets ; phrases are written on pieces of
board, and the water used in washing off
the ink is swallowed as medicine. From
the sale of such things the teachers of
Islam derive considerable revenue, and live
easily on the credulity of the people. In
a word, Islam in Africa checks no vice
and denounces no errors, but superimposes
the all-powerful name of Allah on the

The Muslim Menace 315

superstition which it finds, and gives the
dignity of a world -religion to unwashed
heathenism.

G. Simon, in his latest work "Islam and
Christenbum im Kampf" says : —

" Islam but introduces a new set of magical
observances into the country in which they are re-
ceived with thankfulness. For of magic one can
never have enough. If one magician fails, then will
another serve ; and should the magic be strange, and
the words and invocations incomprehensive, it is all
so much the better." (Page 82.)

" The Muhammadan teacher occupies the position
of the old medicine man . . . the functions of the
old magician pass to the Muhammadan teacher, and
even the deference which the folk paid the old weird
priest is transferred to his successor. The magical
processes of ancient custom, the baneful spells, the
driving out of evil spirits, the finding of lost articles,
the choice of lucky days, are all taken over by the
Muhammadan teacher. All he does is to impart to
the whole an Islamic tinge. He says ' Bismillah ! '
{' In the name of Allah '), but only as a new incanta-
tion which the old sorcerers did not know. He sells
amulets and stones graven with words from the
Koran against sickness, and he interprets dreams and
prophecies." (Page 117.)

The Muslim missionary asks very little An Easy
of his converts. There is no thought of RelIgion
change of heart or maimer of life ; there is
no " baptism unto repentance and the
remission of sins." In effect, all the con-
vert does is to perform the ceremonial
washings, and to pray several times a day

316 The Gall of the Dark Continent

— the words are Arabic, and quite beyond
his understanding. It is simply the grafting
of Islam upon his old life, the throwing of
an Islamic cloak over his paganism. Islam
accommodates itself to human nature as it
is. The average pagan African seldom cares
for a strenuous life, either physical or
spiritual, and Islam commends itself to him
by the fewness of its demands.

'" God is minded to make His religion light unto
you, for man was created weak,"

said Muhammad, and the missionaries of
his faith have certainly always acted up to
— or down to — this principle. A modern
Muslim writer in the Hibbert Journal

says : —

" The pure morality of the Muhammadan religion
is within the reach of the average man,"

and apparently " the average man" means
man as he is found in pagan Africa. To
such a man Islam comes as a better
religion than the one he has hitherto held.
It is brought to him by men whom he feels
to be superior to himself; and it is so easy
to become a Muslim that there is no reason
why he should not do so. Islam simply
confirms him in the vicious practices which
are largely the cause of his degraded
condition.

True, Allah is declared to be " the

The Muslim Menace 317

Compassionate, the Merciful," and the

formula is oftentimes repeated ; but it is

the compassion of an Oriental despot,

arbitrary and unreliable, rather than of a

Heavenly Father, a God of Love. His

will is absolute, and against it the human

soul has no rights. In this perhaps, some

Europeans may see some gain. The many

gross ideas of the heathen are replaced by

a system of monotheism, and this seems to

be a movement in the right direction.

But in practice it is not so. A recent

French writer has said : —

" The further Muhammadanism travels westward,
the more it changes its character."

The Muhammadanism of West Africa and West African
the Central and Western Sudan, seems to Muh.ammadan-
have little in common with that of mono-
theistic Egypt, except clannishness and
abstinence from strong drink. In some
parts the introduction of Islam has reduced
the sale of intoxicating liquor, but this is
not always the case. M. Binger, a dis-
tinguished French traveller in the French
Sudan, declared that " All the people are
Muhammadans without exception, and all
are drunken in the fullest acceptance of
the word." Joseph Thomson confirms this.
Of British Hausaland (Northern Nigeria)
Sir F. Lugard writes : —

(i Over vast areas of West Africa, Muhammadamsiri

318 The Gall of the Dark Continent

has become so deteriorated by an admixture of pagan
superstitions, and by intemperance, that its influence
for good has to be largely discounted. The Muham-
madan Negro is inflated with a sense of his superiority,
which has taught him a supreme contempt for human
life outside the pale of his own creed. The pagan is
to him as a beast of the field, fit only for slaughter
or slavery. His religion has not taught him to con-
demn deceit, treachery, or cruelty. Having raised
him somewhat above the chaos and the superstition
of the pagan, it has left him with no higher aspira-
tions, the victim of bigotry and exclusion, the
scourge of non-Muhammadan humanity."

The fact that the drink traffic is now
rjrohibited in Northern Nigeria is due to
the action of the Royal Niger Company
and not in the slightest degree to Islam.

Dr. W. E. Miller, of the C.M.S. Sudan
Mission, thus describes Muhammadanism
as he knows it in Hausaland : —

" The intelligence of the Hausa in the great cities
is proverbial, and one feels with them as if in con-
verse with an Arab rather than a Negro. The lack
of home life, the utter prostitution of virtue, the total
disregard of morals, all these have brought moral
ruin to the people, and made West Africa a seething
sink of gross iniquity. Woman, although allowed
much more freedom than in North Africa, is never-
theless the " thing " of men ; polygamy, of course, is
the law; only lack of wealth prevents men from
having four wives, and as many concubines as
possible. Divorce for anything is possible — a
quarrel, sickness, infirmity, poverty, or worse. The
youngest girls are taught the worst vices ; no one is
innocent, none pure. Boys and girls grow up in the

The Muslim Menace 319

densest atmosphere of sin, where there is hardly a
redeeming feature, and this all under the strictest
adherence to the outward laws of Islam.

" The whited sepulchre is full of bones. Immorality
of every sort is rife, and there is little shame ; adul-
tery and fornication are not reduced through men
having many wives. It is rare to find a woman past
the prime of life living with her husband. One
would, therefore, expect to find that progress is ruled
out, and that the glance is backward, not forward,
to ' the things our fathers knew and did.' The in-
evitable fruits of a slave-ridden land — laziness,
oppression, dirt — have fallen upon West Africa, and
only where Christianity (as in Sierra Leone, Lagos,
etc.) has had a long time to affect the character and
condition do we see progress. Islam has not, and
will not, do anything for progress in West Africa."

Some hold that since Muhammadanism islam not a
as a religion is better than fetichism, it is S^aH^S^
essentially a stage of preparation for
Christianity. But this view of the situ-
ation rests on nothing stronger than
plausibility. It is not true, and is dis-
proved by all the facts of the case. There
is no parallel between Muhammadanism
and the Jewish Law, except such as may
be found in mere ceremonial formality ; it
is the enemy, not the friend, of real, living
religion. ' Professor Margoliouth signifi-
cantly writes : —

" If Islam could serve as a half-way house between
paganism and Christianity, its extension might be
regarded with less dismay ; but experience shows that
there are no such half-way houses . . . there is this

320 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Strengthening
its Hold

The Present
Crisis

terrible difficulty in facing Islam, that it represents
itself as an advance on the Christian system."

We have seen how little Islam asks of
its converts. This means that it holds
them but loosely. They are Muslim in
name, and little more. Among West
African converts there is little or none of
the conviction and enthusiasm which
characterise their co-religionists in the old
Muslim countries where the faith has been
long-established. But though the mission-
aries of the Crescent ask little at first, they
steadily work for the more thorough Islam-
ising of the people, and in the second and
third generations they have a much firmer
hold upon them. To this end the more
intelligent adult converts and the children
are, by their Hausa teachers, instructed in
Arabic and in Koranic lore and tradition.
Many converts learn to recite suras of the
Koran without understanding a word of
them. Some learn to write with ease, and
gradually the beliefs and practices and pre-
judices of Muhammadanism are imparted.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the
gravity of the situation. Canon Sell — and
few men have a fuller knowledge of the
whole Muhammadan world — says :

" Probably in the past history of the Church there
has hardly ever been a crisis so acute as this is now " ;

and most students of Islam believe that the

The Muslim Menace 321

coming struggle between the two great
missionary religions — Christianity and
Islam — will be fought and decided in
Western and Central Africa. Should Islam
prevail in these regions, the missionary
forces of Christendom will receive a check
from which it will take centuries to recover,
and the Crescent will dominate the greater
part of the Dark Continent. A Muslim
Africa would be as disastrous to the highest
interests of world-wide religion as a
materialistic China.

This great struggle is even now upon us,
and its ultimate issues are being decided
year by year. Yet the Church of Christ
has apparently little idea of the seriousness
of the crisis. While Islam, bold, proud,
self-confident, is actively at work, our
Missionary Societies are able to send out
but few workers. A still further difficulty
is created by the fact that the attitude of
the European Governments to native
religion is a distinct gain to Muhammadan
and a hindrance to Christian propaganda.
The British Government professes to be The Attitude

, • i j XP of Government

impartial, and give no preference to any
religion, and no doubt sincerely seeks to
carry out a policy of neutrality. But the
African looks at things in a different way
from the white man. He does not differ-
entiate between Church and State, and the

11

322 The Gall of the Dark Continent

very fact that the Colonial Government
does not expressly favour and use its in-
fluence on behalf of Christianity, but treats
the Muhammadan religion with official
respect, is interpreted by him as a sign that
Islam is favoured. He does not understand
the impartiality. It must also be remem-
bered that the British Government prohibits
Christian missionary work amongst its
Muslim subjects in the Sudan and some
parts of West Africa.
Things the A little reflection will make it clear that

Missionary Christianity is severely handicapped in this
Cannot Do great struggle. The messenger of Jesus
cannot descend to the methods of his Mus-
lim rival ; he cannot marry into a pagan
family ; he cannot lure the superstitious
people with Christian " charms ; " he cannot
accommodate his Gospel to the low and
degraded impulses and instincts of the
heathen. Such considerations may well
discourage. They suggest that the tide of
Islam cannot be stemmed.
ofhu£ndanenCe ^u^ experience contradicts this. There
is the splendid instance of Uganda. When
Speke and Grant visited the kingdom in
1862 its gross paganism was undisturbed.
A few years later (1875) H. M. Stanley
found that, through the efforts of a zealous
Muslim missionary, the powerful monarch
M'tesa and the bulk of his subjects had

The Muslim Menace 323

become Muhammadans. The great explorer
was impressed with the thought that, had
David Livingstone reached Uganda, he
would have tried to win the king for Christ,
and with considerable tact and noble pur-
pose Stanley attempted the task, though
his commission was to explore, not to
Christianise, and he realised that he was
not well fitted for the task. With the
Muslim teachers Stanley conducted a great
discussion as to the claims of the Gospel, in
the presence of the most powerful monarch
of Central Africa. M'tesa was so impressed
with Stanley's arguments, and by his
character as a representative of Chris-
tianity, that he expressed an earnest desire
to receive Christian missionaries. Realising
the advantage he had secured, Stanley Stanley's
immediately wrote a letter to The Daily Ghalleng<
Telegraph appealing for missionaries for
Uganda. In burning words he sketched
the importance of the opportunity, the
splendid and unique possibilities of the
Mission he proposed.

"Gentlemen," he wrote, "here is your oppor-
tunity. Embrace it! The people on the shores of
the Nyanza call upon you. Obey your own generous
instincts and listen to them."*

This thrilling challenge was immediately

* This remarkable story is told by Stanley himself in his
Through the Dark Continent, vol. 1, chaps, ix and xii,

324 The Gall of the Dark Continent

taken up by the Church Missionary
Society. A band of chosen men was
sent out to Uganda. Access to this
remote kingdom was difficult. Fever
and treachery thinned down the little
band, and only two of the men reached
their destination — one of whom was
Alexander Mackay. The work was
begun and carried on with great heroism.
Muslim teachers and, later on, Catholic
priests offered determined opposition.
M'tesa could never be brought to the point
of decision, and his successor, M'wanga,
was a cruel persecutor of the Christians.
Martyr fires were kindled, and scores of
converts died for their new-found Saviour.
Political complications led to civil war,
and greatly hindered the progress of
the Gospel. Truly the battle of the
warrior was with noise and shoutings,
and with garments rolled in blood. But
The Victory of after great discouragement and many
Ghnst set-backs, the cause of Christ emerged

triumphant.

To-day the government of Uganda is
Christian ; the young king is a baptised
believer, the prime minister in his early
years suffered torture for Christ's sake, and
even to-day " bears in his body the marks
of the Lord Jesus." The BaGanda Church
has over 90,000 baptised Christians, and is

The Muslim Menace 325

itself sending out the Light into the
surrounding regions ; the adjacent kingdom
of Toro has been evangelised and its king
baptised, and BaGanda workers are carry-
ing the Gospel to the tribes of the Congo
forests.

Here we have an instance of a power-
ful kingdom captured, and for some
years held, by Islam. The king had
become a Muslim. His chiefs and many
of his people had followed his ex-
ample. The Government was Muslim.
Then one strong, dauntless man saw
an opportunity to wrest this land from
Islam, and replace the Crescent with
the Cross. " Gentlemen, here is your
opportunity. Embrace it ! " Christian
leaders instantly arose and seized that
opportunity, and to-day Uganda is under
the government of a Christian monarch,
and the tide of Islam has been stemmed.
Here is a kingdom that has, in the teeth of
terrible opposition, been won from Islam
during the last 25 years !

Who shall say that similar results are The Moment of
impossible in West Africa? We have .0pPortunity .

1 . , . p J , ... in West Africa

seen something oi the opportunities open
to us among the Negro peoples. Our
harvesting is only limited by the fewness
of the labourers. If we could have a
network of stations and out-stations across

326 The Call of the Dark Continent

the country, it would be comparatively
easy to arrest the onward march of Islam.
And this is perfectly feasible if only we
had workers enough. The hold Muham-
madanism has over its West African con-
verts is only feeble as yet ; and it would
be far from easy for it to resist a vigorous
Christian advance. Indeed Dr. Miller
declared at the Cairo Conference that many
of the pagan tribes in British Nigeria
entertain

" such a deep hatred towards all the propagators of
Islam, on account of their cruelty in past years, that,
were there sufficient Christian missionaries, any
struggle would be principally a duel between heathen-
ism and Christianity. But the woes which follow
and have followed in the track of Islam will soon
be forgiven and forgotten, and a peaceful Islam under
British rule, free to proselytise while Christian
missionaries are hampered, will be a greater power."

Not least among the advantages of the
hour, is the discouragement of West
African Muhammadans, consequent upon
the overthrow of the Fulani power. The
defeat of this once powerful ruling
race by the British greatly reduced
the influence of Muhammadanism in West
Africa. Miller declares that in Hausa-
land,

" triumphant arrogance has given place to haunting
fear, and a cringing subservience. The overthrow

The Muslim Menace 327

of the Fulani power is probably one of the greatest
blows to Islam, next to the recovery of the Egyptian
Sudan."

As we'think of these present-day factors, A New
Stanley's words again ring in our ears — Challenge
" Gentlemen, here is your opportunity.
Embrace it ! " Yet even as we write and
read, this precious opportunity is slipping
away from us.

The idea of checking Islam in West
Africa is not new. Nearly five hundred
years ago, Henry the Navigator, unable to
crush the Muslims of North Africa, sought
on the West coast to see

" if there were in those parts any Christian princes
in whom the charity and love of Christ was so in-
grained that they would aid him against those
enemies of Christ."*

Now-a-days we need for this crusade, Wanted—
not the armed men Prince Henry sought, Grusader8
but trained warriors of the Cross of Christ,
who, with more spiritual weapons than he
thought of, shall hurl back the defiant
hosts of Islam, and make Jesus Kino;. The
ordinary missionary will not do for such
important work as this. Special men are
required, versed in Arabic and Hausa, in
Koranic and traditional lore, and in Muslim
theology and controversy, as well as in the

* Gomez Eanes de Zurara.

328 The Gall of the Dark Continent

vernaculars of West Africa. Such men,
armed with the sword of the Spirit, having
the shield of Faith, and their feet shod
with the preparation of the Gospel of
Peace, could do exploits in the name of
the Lord Christ whom Islam defies.

We have seen that history records
one conflict between the followers of the
Prophet and the followers of Christ in
which a divided, corrupt, and faithless
Church was overcome and swept away.
Once more we join battle with the arch
enemy of the Christian Church, and the
issues of this new conflict depend entirely
on the fidelity and readiness for service of
the followers of the Lord Jesus. If we are
defeated again, the Crescent will dominate
Africa for centuries to come.

The Muslim Menace 329

ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES

SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION.- The situation in
Africa in the light of the Muslim menace.

1. Can we regard Islam as " a sister Church in
error " ?

2. What does experience lead us to expect will
be the condition of West and Central Africa if the
Crescent wins?

3. How do you account for the rapid progress of
Islam 1

4. To what extent do you regard the present
moment as critical?

5. Do you consider the situation hopeful or hope-
less? And why?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

Gairdner, W. H. T. — The Reproach of Islam.
Haines, Chas. R. — Islam as a Missionary Religion.
Robinson, Chas. H. — Nigeria.
Johnston, Sir H. H. — History of a Slave.

11*

Chapter VIII.
The Gall of the Hour

" Without minimising the importance of advance
elsewhere, the continent of Africa is the region
upon which our present efforts must be chiefly
concentrated to meet the advance of Islam."

— World Missionary Conference. Commission 1.

The Stirrings The mighty changes that have swept

of New Life over tfie non-Christian races have not left
the Dark Continent untouched. It is true
that in Africa the stirrings of new life are
less pronounced than with the ancient
civilisations of Asia ; but they are not less
significant. In the absence of any powerful
nationality among the African peoples,
the movement is of racial rather than
national character. In the sub-continent
it has become a question of colour, and the
formation of the South African Union is
thought by some to have accentuated the
feeling against the white races. The intro-
duction of Western civilisation and educa-
tion inevitably gives a new outlook to non-
330

The Gall of the Hour 331

Christian peoples, and many Africans who
have taken advantage of their oppor-
tunities are even now working for the
enlightenment and consolidation of the
numerous tribes of the Dark Continent.
There are also signs that the great Negro
populations of America are beginning to
recognise their relationship with those of
Africa. With great ability Mr. Booker
Washington is pleading for the consolida-
tion of the black races of the two con-
tinents. Such a movement would powerfully
strengthen the influence of the Negro race.
Some Europeans who know Africa well,
fear that a united and hostile native
population may become a serious peril. If
such fear is well-founded — and who dare
say it is not ? — the call to the Church of
Christ is urgent in the extreme. The
danger can best be averted, not by holding
the natives in subjection and treating
them with contempt, but rather by in-
stilling into their minds the principles of
true religion and morality. The next half-
century will see a remarkable advance of
the African peoples — socially, intellectually,
economically — and it will be to the advan-
tage of the Christian Powers to foster and
guide the] movement. To attempt to stem
it would be futile ; to disregard it would
be disastrous in the extreme.

332 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Race Vitality The African races show no signs of
decay. Contact with civilisation does not
in any way weaken their vitality. They
rather seem to increase more rapidly as a
result of the presence of Europeans. This
is largely accounted for by the forcible
prevention of the terrible wastage of
human life. Before the Christian Powers
intervened, the incessant tribal warfare,
the slave raiding, the superstitious belief
in witchcraft and magic, human sacrifice,
cannibalism, and all the horrible cruelties
of gross heathenism made the Dark
Continent a very Golgotha. Now that
the appalling loss of life from such causes
has been completely stopped over vast areas,
and considerably reduced in others, many
tribes are increasing in numbers. And
possibly, through the long night of darkest
cruelty, the process of the survival of
the fittest may have worked for the
strengthening of the physical well-being
of the people.
Possibilities of The African races are sometimes
the African thoughtlessly described as " inferior" ; but
a little knowledge of them must convince
the impartial observer that the description
is erroneous, unjust, and mischievous. The
correct view of these peoples is that they
are undeveloped. It has been abundantly
proved that the African is as capable as

The Gall of the Hour 333

the average man of any other race. The
training may sometimes be a slow and
tedious process ; the raw native does not
quickly develop into a civilised artisan.
But we question if the progress made last
century by some of the West Coast com-
munities, for example, has been exceeded
elsewhere. Members of the learned pro-
fessions— lawyers, doctors, clergy, and
ministers — are quite numerous, and many
West African merchants have risen to
positions of wealth and influence. The
true Sierra Leonian is seldom seen as a
labourer. He is found in shops as an
independent trader, or as a clerk in the
offices of European firms, or in some
position under Government.

The late Sir Samuel Lewis, K.C.M.G.,
was a striking illustration of the capabilities
of the African. The son of a liberated slave
who had prospered in business, this re-
markable man was, as a boy, sent to
England for education. Passing his ex-
aminations with great success, young Lewis
was called to the Bar in 1871 ; he served
the Sierra Leone Government as Crown
advocate, magistrate, and judge ; became
the first Mayor of Freetown, was appointed
member of the Legislative Council, was
knighted by Queen Victoria and created
a Knight Bachelor of the Order of St.

334 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Michael and St. George. Sir Samuel, who
was an honoured member of the Wesleyan
Methodist Church, died in 1903.

Possibly no African was ever better
known or more widely honoured than
Samuel Crowther. Born in the Yoruba
country, captured by slave-raiders, ex-
changed for a horse with Portuguese slave
merchants, shipped for America, rescued
by a British cruiser, converted in Freetown,
ordained as a clergyman of the Church of
England, ultimately consecrated Bishop of
the Niger — the first African convert to
attain to episcopal dignity — Crowther's
life was romantic to a degree. His evan-
gelistic enthusiasm, his devotion to his
pastoral duties, his ability and sterling
Christian character show what an African
is capable of becoming when his latent
faculties are developed.

Our own ministry also supplies striking
examples. David Magata, Robert Mashaba*
and Daniel Msimango should be mentioned.
Father Parker, the senior African minister
of our Gold Coast District, is a man of
remarkable intellectual power. J. Claudius
May was the son of a rescued slave who
became one of our Sierra Leone ministers.
Walking in his father's footsteps, young
May also entered our ministry after a few

* See pages 132 and 141.

The Call of the Hour 335

years training in England. He was the
first Principal of our Freetown High
School, and at his death in 1902 the
Minutes of Conference testified that
" hundreds of young men owe much to his
teaching and influence."

In other and widely differing callings
also, men of African race have distin-
guished themselves. King Khama, of
BeChuanaland, is a conspicuous example of
the administrative ability of a well-
developed African. Having in youth stood
true to Christ through fierce persecution,
he was elected chief by his people in 1872.
He has been called the " Alfred the
Great " of Central Africa. The skill with
which he rules his people and the firmness
with which he opposes the drink traffic
mark him as a truly noble character. The
great M'tesa, King of Uganda, was a good
illustration of the height to which an
enlightened non-Christian African monarch
may attain as a ruler of men ; and though
his son proved a worthless tyrant, his
grandson, the present young Christian king,
promises great things for the future.
Uganda also owes much to the present
Katikiro (prime minister).

The fact that these great men are ex-
ceptions, and stand high above their
fellows, does not detract from our conten-

336 The Gall of the Dark Continent

tion as to the possibilities of the African
peoples. The spread of education is certain
to greatly increase the number of able men.
But in humbler spheres also the natives
give promise of steady and remarkable
development under good tuition. In
industrial pursuits they frequently make
excellent progress as printers, weavers,
carpenters, blacksmiths, and agriculturists.
It is of infinite importance that no
opportunity should be lost to train these
peoples to take their part in the general
progress of mankind. They have a
contribution to make to the elevation of
the human race ; but this can only be
accomplished by the development of the
latent possibilities of their nature.
Africa's Contri- It is equally certain that the people of
the Dark Continent have something to
contribute to the perfection of the Church
of Christ. A recent volume^ has shown
that every individual race has its own
contribution to make to the fulness of the
knowledge and life of the Universal Church.
So long as it exists in this world, the
Church will grow in experience and know-
ledge. God has scattered over the world
His good gifts, and as each race is
called into His Kingdom it will bring its
own contribution and occupy the place

* Mankind and the Church, by Seven Bishops.

bution to the
Church

The Gall of the Hour 337

reserved from the beginning for it, which
none other can fill. We do not yet fully
know or understand our God ; His riches
are unsearchable and His ways past finding
out. There are aspects of Christian truth
that the Anglo-Saxon race has not yet
discovered, and excellences of character to
which we have not yet attained. The
ingathering of Asiatics and Africans will
broaden and deepen our vision. The
subtle-minded Hindu with his genius for
spiritual mysticism, the law-loving Chinese,
the quick-witted Japanese, may discover
in Christ riches which we have never seen,
and thus aid us in our interpretation of
Him. The nations of the earth shall bring
their honour and glory into Christ's
Kingdom as the wise men brought their
geld and frankincense and myrrh and laid
them before Him in Bethlehem ; for each
race has some precious gift to consecrate
to His service.

Africa has something to bring into the
Church of Christ. Not theological, but
practical, will be the probable contribution.
By his firm belief in the Unseen, the African
may help our materialistic, evidence-seeking
minds to a stronger realisation of God's
personality and presence. By his social
instincts — his sense of brotherliness — he
may correct our own marked individualism.

338 The Gall of the Dark Continent

By his strong emotional response to the
story of redemption, he may lead us to a
new understanding of the tvarmth of
practical Christian experience. By his
appreciation of authority, he may help us
to new thoughts of church government
and discipline. There may be aspects of
the Divine revelation which the Negro
is specially fitted to understand and
respond to, and therefore fitted to
embody in character and exhibit in life
and action.
Daybreak Not with the Orient alone does the future

of our race lie. Great and splendid are the
prospects before the ancient civilisations
of Asia quickened to new life by Western
learning ; but Africa also is awaking from
her long, dark night. As the golden sun,
rising above the eastern waters, casts its
early beams on fair Japan and illumines
old China and floods India with light ere
it chases the shadows from Afric's velds
and forests, so the Dark Continent is
apparently the last to feel warmth of new
sunlight. But now for her too the day is
breaking, the shadows flee away. Asia's
nations — though bright their outlook —
have grown hoary with antiquity. Pagan
Africa awakes young and fresh to the
impulses of the coming day. Her achieve-
ments are all in the future.

The Gall of the Hour 339

Happy will Africa be if she early Our Moment
learns to recognise the true source of her ° ppof
enlightenment — Christ, the Light of men.
Blessed, truly blessed, will be those who
seek above all things to bring her to a
knowledge of that Light. This is indeed a
day of opportunity in pagan Africa. The
future is full of possibilities. To the
Church of Christ the call of the Dark Con-
tinent comes with greater urgency than
ever before. We shall never have greater
opportunities in Africa than we have
to-day, and if we allow them to slip, Islam
will reap the advantage that will be lost
to us.

In view of the momentous nature of
the issues, and the greatness of the present
opportunity, it behoves us to review the
whole situation and consider what has
been done and what still remains to be
accomplished.

For more than a century Protestant A Survey of
missionaries have sought to carry the light
into the places of darkness. They have
landed upon the coasts of Africa, and
many of them have penetrated far into the
interior. Following in the paths of the
explorers — being sometimes themselves
explorers — they have worked inland and
now occupy regions unknown fifty or sixty
years ago. About the middle of last

340 The Call of the Dark Continent

Uganda

East Africa

Krapfs Vision century the missionary Krapf, working
near Mombasa, conceived the idea of a line
of mission stations across the Continent
from Mombasa to the Atlantic — an
" Apostolic Street." In his day such a
proposal seemed madness ; but it is now
almost accomplished. The Baptist Mis-
sionary Society has its stations along the
main stream of the Congo from Boma near
the mouth of the river, to Yakusa in the
Stanley Falls region ; from the east coast
a chain of Church Mission stations extends
to the great inland field of the Society —
Uganda. The BaGanda Church is ex-
tending its operations into the forests of
the Upper Congo. Thus from east and
west chains of stations run into the heart
of Africa, and now their outposts are less
than 400 miles apart. Krapfs dream will
soon be a reality.

No mission field has a more thrilling story
than Uganda, with which the names of
Alexander Mackay and Bishop Hannington,
G. L. Pilkington and Bishop Tucker, are
inseparably connected — a story of martyr-
dom and Pentecostal blessing. Uganda,
and the country lying north and west of it,
is reserved for the C.M.S. ; but to the east,
British East Africa, several other

in

Societies are also at work — the Church of
Scotland, the United Methodist, the Scandi-

The Gall of the Hour 341

navian, the Universities', and one or two
smaller Missions. Many of the stations of
these Societies lie along, or near, the
Uganda railway.

German East Africa is sprinkled over
with stations of the Berlin, the Leipzig,
and the Moravian Missions, as well as
those of the C.M.S. and the Universities'
Mission. Travelling further south, we
find in Portuguese territory at least 150
stations and out-stations belonging to the
W.M.M.S., the S.P.G., the Methodist
Episcopal, the Free Methodists (U.S.A.),
and the Mission Romande (Swiss).

Inland lie the British Protectorates of British South-
Nyassaland, the three Bhodesias, and Gentral AfrIca
BeChuanaland. In these five Protecto-
rates some twenty-two Societies — British,
American, and Continental — have over 100
stations and at least 850 out-stations, in
charge of more than 300 missionaries
(excluding wives). The most important of
these Missions are the London Missionary
Society, the Primitive Methodist, the
Methodist Episcopal, the W.M.M.S., the
Church of Scotland, the United Free
Church of Scotland, the Universities'
Mission, the Zambesi Industrial Mission,
the Dutch Reformed Church, and the
Paris Mission in connection with which
the great French missionary Coillard,

342 The Gall of the Dark Continent

South Africa

South-West
Africa

laboured. Several of these Missions —
especially those of the Scotch Churches
— are the direct outcome of Livingstone's
work. The great pioneer himself helped
to plant some of the earliest workers in the
Nyassa and Shire region. In Nyassaland
James Stewart laboured; in BeChuanaland,
John Mackenzie.

Few parts of the world are better covered
by missionary operations than the four
Colonies of the British South African
Union. Fifty-one Societies have 610
stations and upwards of 5,000 out-stations.
The total number of missionaries is over
1,500; and some 8,600 African workers
are set apart for pastoral and aggressive
service. The total native Christian com-
munity is returned as 1,144,000. When
to this figure the Christian colonists are
added, it will be seen that the united
colonies are now largely Christianised.
There * are, however, millions of heathen
still remaining ; and very much work of an
intensive character has yet to be done.

German South-West Africa is occupied
by the Rhenish and Finnish Missions. In
Portuguese Angola the American Board,
American Baptist Missionary Union, the
Methodist Episcopal Mission, the Plymouth
Brethren,^and ,the Baptist Missionary
Society are working.

The Call of the Hour 343

The Congo basin is one of the most The Congo
important mission fields of the B.M.S.
This Society has nearly 500 stations
and out-stations extending chiefly along
the main stream for some 1,350 miles.
Mission steamers ply on the river. In
connection with this mission three names
stand high in missionary annals — Thomas
Comber, George Grenfell, and W. Holman
Bentley. Several smaller missions are
also working for the salvation of the
Congo peoples.

In the Gabun country only the American
Presbyterian Church (North) and the Paris
Mission are working. The Basle Mission,
the German Baptists, and the American
Presbyterians (North) report some 300
stations and out -stations in German Kame-
run ; and the Primitive Methodists have a
Mission in the island of Fernando Po.

The C.M.S., the W.M.M.S., and several West Africa
smaller missions are spread over the British
colony of Southern Nigeria. The former
has its stations on the Niger itself, as well
as through the Yoruba and Nupe countries
and in the Delta region. For many years
heroic efforts were made to enter the
Hausa states (now Northern Nigeria).
Many lives were^ lost ; but it was not until
1900 that a party of missionaries ^under
Bishop Tugwell succeeded in .reaching

344 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Kano, and they were promptly expelled by
the Muhammadan rulers. In recent years
the C.M.S. and the Sudan United Mission
have obtained a foothold in these densely'
populated territories, but their work is
restricted to the pagan tribes.

In Dahomey the W.M.M.S is the only
Protestant Mission, and our work is all
near the coast. The German Colony of
Togoland is occupied by the W.M.M.S. and
the North German Mission. The Gold
Coast Colony is a distinctly Wesleyan
field ; but the Basle Mission shares with us
the Ashanti province, and the S.P.G. has
recently undertaken a mission to the Gold
Mines region north of Sekondi. The Fanti
and Ga nations of the Gold Coast have
been fairly well evangelised, though much
heathenism still remains. The independent
Republic of Liberia is left- entirely to
American Societies and the Lutheran
Mission.
Sierra Leone Travelling northward to Sierra Leone,

we find that the whole colony has been
evangelised in every part, and may be
regarded as a nominally Christian land.
A revival of evangelism is, however,
necessitated by the inrush of large numbers
of pagans and Muslims from the Protecto-
rate. There are few places on the mission
field so well provided with missionary and

The Gall of the Hour 345

educational institutions as Freetown.
The Anglican, Wesleyan, United Methodist,
Baptist, United Brethren, and American
Methodist Episcopal Zion Missions all have
churches in the town. Almost every village
in the peninsula has its Anglican church
and Methodist chapel. But in the Pro-
tectorate beyond wide areas are scarcely
touched.

A Mission in French Guinea, the
W.M.M.S. Mission on the Gambia, and the
Paris Mission in Senegal, complete our
rapid survey of Protestant Missions in
pagan Africa.

In addition to the above-mentioned and
several smaller Missions, the British and
Foreign Bible Society labours with all, and
through all, and for all. This true " hand-
maiden of all Missions," has translated, or
made it possible for missionaries to trans-
late, the Scriptures into over 100 African
languages.

The various Roman Catholic Orders Roman
have Missions scattered widely over the Catholic
ground we have just surveyed, especially
in the regions around Lake Tanganyika
and Victoria Nyanza, in Natal, on the
West Coast from the Congo to the Gold
Coast, and from Liberia to Senegal.

The returns prepared for the World
Missionary Conference show that some

346 The Gall of the Dark Continent

The Work of 35781 Protestant missionaries (including
wives) are at work in pagan Africa.#
There are over 800 ordained African clergy
and ministers, and a large body of cate-
chists, Bible women, and teachers, besides
many voluntary workers. The Societies
report more than 900,000 baptised native
Christians.

When it is remembered that at the
dawn of the nineteenth century Africa was
a closed continent and the work of mis-
sions had scarcely begun, these results
are marvellous, and call for gratitude and
hope. A hundred years ago, the few
scattered missionaries had to begin at the
very beginning, without native helpers,
without knowledge of one of the 800
African languages and dialects, without
experience of African conditions. They
had to open the country, to choose places
in which to commence work, to win the
good will of the people, to gather with
infinite patience little companies of en-
quirers and train them in the principles
of Christian discipleship. They had to

* The Muslim States of North Africa do not lie within
the scope of this book. The figures given in the text are
for pagan Africa only. In Muhammadan Africa, from the
Ked Sea to Morocco, some 450 additional missionaries are
labouring. The Societies working in this great field are the
C.M.S., the North Africa Mission, the United Presbyterian
(U.S.A.), the Egypt General Mission, several Continental,
and a few smaller missions.

The Gall of the Hour 347

struggle with the difficulties of unwritten
languages, and learn them, often without
the help of books or teachers. In order to
give the Word of God to their people,
they had to reduce those words to writing,
and then teach their people to read in
their own mother tongues. To simplify
the task of missionaries who should follow
them, many pioneers prepared dictionaries,
and grammars, and helps to the acquisition
of the languages. By painful experience
and through much loss of life they had to
discover all the precautions needful to the
preservation of health, and all the methods
of work necessary to success. Of simple con-
verts newly won from grossest heathenism
they had to build, as with living stones, a
holy temple in the Lord. From those
little companies of scarcely Christianised
people, they had to select the most pro-
mising and train them for Christ's service.
Practically without human help, those
early missionaries had to lay the founda-
tions on which others should build.

Yet, by the manifest help of God, these
and many other difficulties have been over-
come ; and at the end of little more than a
century we rind more than 900 principal
stations and nearly 10,000 sub-stations
strewn over the Dark Continent like lights
shining in the gloom. A glance at the map

348 The Call of the Dark Continent

will show how wide is the area covered by
this network of stations ; and, notwith-
standing some amount of overlapping at
certain points, very few places of strategic
importance along the whole coast-line are
unoccupied.

The importance of the work of the
century is increased tenfold when it is
realised that it is a beginning only. The
results are slight in themselves, for what is
900,000 from a population of 160 millions?
But they become of infinite value as
stepping-stones to greater results. If so
much has been accomplished during the
century that began with nothing, what
may we not expect at the end of this, our
second, century that begins with so much
to our advantage !

The results, of the first century of
African evangelisation give abundant
hope for mighty Gospel victories during
the century upon which we have just en-
tered. But the results which our children's
children will see, depend upon the work
which we put into the great campaign now.
The future reaping will be in direct propor-
tion to the present sowing. Whether the
harvest our successors will reap be " thirty,
sixty, or a hundredfold," is even now being
determined by the amount of work we put
into the enterprise in this day of unex-

The Gall of the Hour 349

ampled opportunity. Truly, it is God
Who giveth the increase ; but it is for us
to do the sowing.

Much has been accomplished, but it is The Great
only a trifle when compared with the work Undone
that still remains to be done. What are
3,700 missionaries among Africa's 160
millions of people ? What are all our
stations and out-stations when spread out
over this huge continent ? Vast areas are
absolutely untouched. Millions upon
millions of people are still without a single
witness for Jesus Christ.

A glance at the map and a little
imagination will serve to show the extent
of " the great undone." We have called
attention to the chain of missions along
the Congo to Uganda and Mombasa. To
the north of this " Apostle Street " lie
vast regions absolutely untouched by mis-
sionary workers. From the outposts of
the Uganda Mission to Egypt, from
Somaliland to the Kameruns (with the
exception of Abyssinia, with its decayed
Christianity), the darkness is broken only
by the lonely C.M.S. stations at Omdurman
and at Dolieb Hill near Fashoda.

Think of the Sudan. This great belt of
country — " The Land of the Blacks " —
extends almost from the Red Sea to the
Atlantic, a distance of at least 3,500 miles,

350 The Gall of the Dark Continent

and nearly 1,000 miles wide. The popu-
lation of this region has been variously
estimated at from 30,000,000 to 60,000,000.
Allowing for the terrible havoc wrought by
the slave trade during the last fifty years,
the lower figure is probably the more
accurate. Ten years ago there was not a
Christian missionary in the whole of this
vast country. Explorers had crossed and
recrossed its fertile plains ; one or two
scientists reached it, and made useful
investigations ; British soldiers stained the
sands of its eastern deserts with their
blood ; the Muslim raiders made it their
hunting ground, and the missionaries of
Islam won millions of its people to their
faith. But the messengers of the Gospel
were — and are still — slow to enter this
great field. Islam has now claimed most
of its people, but many of the Sudan
tribes are still pagan, and these might be
reached even now before they too are
swept into the fold of the Arabian Prophet.

" But still they wait,
For the messenger of God who cometh late."

Great areas of the West Coast hinter-
land are also untouched. The Ivory Coast
and all the regions lying behind Liberia,
Ashanti, Togoland and Dahomey are quite
without the Gospel of Christ. Except

The Gall of the Hour 351

near the coast, the extensive territories of
German Kamerun and French Congo are
unoccupied by Protestant missionaries.
Enormous areas of the Belgian Conor* State
and Portuguese Angola are untouched,
and over the remaining parts of pagan
Africa it is quite easy to point to tracts of
country two or three hundred miles across
that have still no resident missionary.

Moreover, in many districts where there ineffective
are already missionaries the occupation is ccupat,on
far from effective. Ashanti is a case in
point. This country is " occupied " by the
W.M.M.S. and the Basle Mission. The
Rev. J. D. Russell, the superintendent of
our circuit, writes : —

" Imagine a circuit extending north and south from
Blackpool to Southampton, and east and west from
Lowestoft to Holyhead; with 22 towns of more
than 2,000 inhabitants, and 58 towns with less than
2,000 in each, besides the countless villages scattered
all over the country. Then remember that there is
one European missionary for all the work, with only
one native minister and 10 catechists to assist him,
and the farthest out-station is nearly a fortnight's
journey away from the circuit town (Kumassi)."

Or take the Gambia Protectorate, for
which the W.M.M.S. is solely responsible.
The territory is about twice the area of
Lancashire, with a scattered population of
some 200,000. For this field we have three
missionaries and three catechists. When

352 The Gall of the Dark Continent

we remember the number of ministers
and Christian workers to be found in an
English town of 200,000 inhabitants, it is
easier to understand how ineffective such
"occupation" of the Gambia Protectorate
really is.

In Southern Nigeria — supposed to be a
comparatively well - worked field — the
labourers are painfully few. Our Chairman
(Rev. Oliver J. Griffin) writes : —

"In my District, scores of candidates for baptism
have had to be held over until next year, as we are
unable to visit all the places to baptise them, though
they have been fully and carefully prepared and
trained. Many churches have been unable to have
the Sacrament administered, as our ministerial staff
[including our African ministers) is insufficient
to visit all the places more than once a year.'"

In this District we have now seven
European missionaries. Hem ember ing the
fruit fulness of this field, and the rapid
advance of Islam upon it, our staff is
almost criminally weak, and should be
strengthened at once. From Southern
Rhodesia, Mr. White reports that the staff
of ministers is so small that in some parts
of the Protectorate " there are white
children growing up who hardly know that
such a man as a minister of the Gospel
exists ; and if this state of things is allowed
to continue we shall have a white heathen
population." In short, over this great

The Gall of the Hour 353

continent giving promise of such abundant
fruitfulness, we are compelled to write our
Master's sorrowful words — " The harvest
truly is plenteous, but the labourers
are few."

Yet in Africa, as in other lands, this is The Present
" the decisive hour of Christian missions." Ur^encv
The message of the World Missionary Con-
ference to the home churches contains the
following remarkable words : —

" Our survey has impressed upon us the momentous
character of the present hour. We have heard from
many quarters of the awakening of great nations,
of the opening of long-closed doors, and of move-
ments which are placing all at once before the Church
a new world to be won for Christ. The next ten
years will in all probability constitute a turning-
point in human history, and may be of more critical
importance in determining the spiritual evolution of
mankind than many centuries of ordinary experience.
If those years be wasted, havoc may be wrought that
centuries will not be able to repair. On the other
hand, if they are rightly used, they may be among
the most glorious in Christian history."

Most of these weighty words are as true
of Africa as of China or Korea. For the
Dark Continent is changing as surely as the
Orient, though the critical transition stage
is less advanced. The passage from the old
to the new may be less rapid, but not less
certain. Again we say, this is our moment The Present
of opportunity. Everything favours an °pp°rtunity
immediate advance. "The door is open"

12

354 The Gall of the Dark Continent

— those memorable words are true of
practically every town and village in pagan
Africa to-day.

The introduction of European control
has removed many obstacles. The tribes
live peacefully under more settled con-
ditions. Every year it becomes easier to
travel into the interior. The climatic
terrors are greatly reduced. By the
extension of postal and telegraphic systems,
communication has been simplified. And
all these and many other changes are
working together to prepare the native for
the reception of our message. Dr. John R.
Mott declares that : —

" Owing to the more simple character of the primi-
tive African peoples, this continent is in many
respects the most plastic part of the world, and will
be the most readily susceptible to whatever influences
are brought to bear upon it."

This is the greatest opportunity the
Church of Christ has ever had in Africa,
and many factors make it clear that this
opportunity may be lost — perhaps irre-
vocably. The early North African Church
had a quite unique opportunity for
extending the Kingdom of God, and allowed
that opportunity to pass. To this hour it
has never returned. Islam came in like a
flood, and the opportunity was lost. The
same ever-watchful foe stands ready to

The Call of the Hour 355

take advantage of the modern opportunity,
if the Christian Church fails to grasp it.

The Christian forces have the advantage Bases for
of being splendidly placed. As bases for Advance
advance, the positions of the existing
missions could hardly be surpassed. The
principal navigable waterways have long
been utilised, and many missions have
their own river-steamers or launches, to
facilitate the movement of the workers.
It is worthy of note that the majority of
railway lines start from towns occupied
by missionaries. With splendid foresight,
the missionaries of former generations
seized upon the most strategic coast towns,
and made them their bases of operations;
and now that these towns have become
railway termini, their value as points from
which to advance is increased beyond
measure. Most of the great lines of ap-
proach to the interior are thus occupied
by missionaries ; and in all their advance
movements, the leaders are carefully noting
the plans for railway construction, and in
future the tendency in most instances will be
to follow the railway rather than the river.
In most cases the railway followed, rather
than led, the missionary advance : in
Yoruba, in Uganda, throughout the South
African colonies and protectorates, the
missions were planted long before the intro-

12*

356 The Gall of the Dark Continent

duction of the iron road. But everywhere
the coming of the locomotive, by making it
easier for the missionaries to keep in touch
with the coast, makes it easier to transfer
the base of operations to some inland town.
For example, in the early years, Cape Town
was the base for all South African missions,
and the stations were the outposts. Now-
a-days, the railway makes Bulawayo or
Salisbury a more convenient base than
Cape Town for an advance into the
interior.
A Call from Take our Gold Coast District. The two

West Africa great rivers of the colony are almost use-
less as means of access to the interior, and
our stations lie on, or near to, the coast.
Kumassi has always been a lonely outpost,
difficult to reach. But the new railway
has changed all this, and it is now easier
to reach the Ashanti capital than some
places within twenty miles of the coast.
This completely changes the situation for
us. Kumassi becomes an excellent base
from which we can evangelise the northern
territories of the colony. Already we have
outposts reaching as far as Kintampo, some
four hundred miles from the sea, and plans
for an important forward movement are
under consideration. Land on which to
build a mission station has already been
given to us in Tamale, a town in the far

The Gall of the Hour 357

interior. There seems little doubt that
God is calling us to advance in this direction.
This great region (a British Protectorate)
is quite virgin soil, and in view of the
Muslim advance it is imperative that we
should go forward immediately. For the
evangelisation of these vast Northern
Territories, the W.M.M.S. and the Basle
Mission are solely responsible ; no other
Society is likely to undertake the work if
we fail in our duty. In these regions the
story of Uganda might well be repeated,
and the floods of Muslim invasion stemmed.
Would that another Stanley might rouse
British Methodism with the cry, " Gentle-
men, here is your opportunity. Embrace
it ! " If our churches have but ears to
hear, a Greater than Stanley summons
us to go forward in His Name.

Nor can we doubt that God is also A Call from
calling the W.M.M.S. to an important Rhodesia
advance in South-Central Africa. Five
years ago, in the manual of our Helpers'
Union, we wrote these words concerning
our Rhodesian Mission : —

" Our outposts are gradually approaching the
Zambesi. When will Methodism hear the call to
cross that river 1 "

That call has come. The only question
is, " Will Methodism listen to it ? " In
1908, W. Comber Burgess, a minister of

358 The Gall of the Dark Continent

our South African Conference, believing
that God was calling him to Northern
Rhodesia, sought relief from his charge and
journeyed across the great river, where,
after five months of toil, he laid down his
life. The fall of this standard-bearer calls
us to advance. More recently, a man from
that region, Chikara by name, heard the
Word of God from one of our evangelists at
a mine in Southern Rhodesia, and carried
the good news back to his northern home.
His father, the chief of the BaRawano,
became eager to receive a teacher and sent
messages to Mr. White. But before any-
thing could be thought of, the old chief died,
and Chikara succeeded to the chieftainship.
Going himself to Mr. White, this seeker
appealed with unusual persistency, and
when told that there was little prospect of
sending him the help he sought, he said,
" Then will you at least visit my country
and see for yourself what its needs are ? "
Sorrowfully Mr. White replied that,
overburdened as he was, even this was
impossible. But Chikara still persisted.
" Will you send one of your native
preachers ? " he urged. " I will accompany
him and bring him safe to you again ; he
can look at my country, and tell you what
he has seen."

What missionary could turn a deaf ear

The Gall of the Hour 359

to such an appeal ! Feeling compelled to
go and see the needs of Chikara's country,
Mr. White made the best arrangements he
could for carrying on his work, and went
prospecting in North -West Rhodesia.
Taking the great railway to Broken Hill, a
place some 400 miles north of the Victoria
Falls, our missionary did a walk of 160
miles in an easterly direction till he came
to Chikara's tribe, the BaRawano. All he
saw convinced him of the needs of this
people and removed all doubt as to the
welcome missionaries would receive. The
country lies near the boundary of North -
West and North-East Rhodesia, and almost
midway between the Zambesi and Lake
Bangweolo. The district is quite un-
occupied by messengers of the Gospel.
Little more than a hundred miles to the
north is Ilala, where Livingstone breathed
his last prayer for the African peoples. We
are on sacred ground. This time it is
not Stanley's but Livingstone's voice we
hear, telling us that " the door is open,"
and we cannot forget that it is but the
echo of the Master's voice calling us to
" the villages where no missionary has
ever been."

In a measure, British Methodism has
already responded to this call. One of
God's stewards has given £1,000 for the

360 The Gall of the Dark Continent

Many Open
Doors

The African
Church and
Expansion

proposed mission, and arrangements are
even now being made to send a man to the
BaRawano. But much more than a
thousand pounds will be required if a really
strong mission is to be planted in this
promising field. Are we to be content
with one lonely worker, or is the enterprise
to be prosecuted with enthusiasm and
vigour ? The answer rests entirely with
the home churches.

In addition to these outstanding calls,
we have many splendid opportunities to
advance in all our African Districts. The
mighty Gambia opens invitingly before us
the way to numerous peoples. The half-
Islamised tribes of the Sierra Leone Hinter-
land call us. In Togoland, Dahomey and
Yoruba we could greatly strengthen our
existing work and go forward. In the
Transvaal there is still much to be done
and we have opportunities in the sur-
rounding countries.

In any forward movement we may count
on the active co-operation of our African
churches. This powerful and comparatively
new factor in the evangelisation of the
Dark Continent makes our task much
easier. Mr. White tells us that his people,
poor though they be, are willing and eager
to help in the proposed extension ; no
collections meeting with readier response

The Gall of the Hour 361

than those taken for extension work. In
this District the average gift for missionary
work is three shillings and sixpence per
member. Our Transvaal people also are en-
thusiastically aggressive. In West Africa,
too, much money is raised locally for
extension work. The Bathurst Circuit,
after raising several hundred pounds for
local purposes, contributes between two
and three hundred pounds yearly for
missionary work on the Gambia. Our
Gold Coast and Lagos churches are also
able and ready to take a large share of
the financial burden of a forward movement.

But without the help of British
Methodism, such extension as is proposed
cannot be undertaken. The existing
churches still need a measure of oversight,
and a great deal of training work will
have to be undertaken in order to provide
new helpers for future advance. The more
adequately we equip our training insti-
tutions the easier it will be to take
advantage of the opportunities of the hour.
Perhaps the greatest need of our West
African Districts is a strong institution for
the more thorough equipment of the native
ministry and lay agency.

" The. W.M.M.S. and the African Church Co-operation
in co-operation" — this is the backbone of
our advance programme. Our people on

362 The Gall of the Dark Continent

the field can help by providing a strong
native ministry and lay agency, and by, in
part, providing funds. What is to be the
share of British Methodism ? We are face
to face with the Centenary celebrations of
our great Missionary Society. Something
worthy of the Methodist Church and of
the Grace of God on our missionary
stations must be attempted in Africa, as
well as in our other mission fields. W^e
have indicated the lines along which we
ought to advance without delay. The
Call of the Dark Continent is a call from
our Lord Himself. Are we to respond ?
The native peoples call us. In some
countries the cry is usually " Leave us
alone," but in Africa the prevailing call is
" Come over and help us." Chikara is not
the only chief calling for our Gospel. Our
workers are eager to go forward. The
Missionary Committee is ready for a great
extension of its operations. Shall we
stand still ? Shall we be deaf to the divine
call, and lose the God-given opportunities ?
Or shall we go forward in the Name of
Christ to win Africa's peoples for Him ?
It is for the home churches to give the
signal to advance.

The Call of the Hour 363

ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES

SUBJECT FOR DISCOSSION.-The Call of the
Hour to British Methodism.

1 . Is it correct to say that the Orient is of greater
strategic importance than Africa?

2. Is it a wise policy to devote our main strength
to India and China and leave Africa till a later stage ?

3. Summarise the work to be done.

■4. Enumerate (as far as you can) Christianity's
resources for a new campaign in Africa.

5. Summarise the special calls of Africa to the
W.M.M.S.

6. What is to be our personal response to the call
of pagan Africa?

REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY

Fraser, Donald. — The Future of Africa.

Page, Jesse. — Samuel Growther.

Montgomery, Bishop (and others). — Mankind and
the Church.

364 The Gall of the Dark Continent

APPENDIX A.

I. THE NEGRO AND NEGROID PEOPLES.

Negritos (Pigmies) :

Bushmen

Kalahari Desert.

Batwas

Sankuri River, Congo
Basin.

Abongos
Akkas

Ogoway River.
South Monbuttuland.

Hottentots (Khoi-khoi) .

NamaQua ... ... Great and Little NamaQua-

land.

KoraQua ... ... Upper Orange, Yaal, and

Modder Rivers.

GriQua (half-castes) GriQualand West.

Bantus :

Zulu-Kafir, BaSuto,

BeChuana ... S., From Limpopo River.

MaKua, MaTabele, Between Limpopo and

MaShona ... ... Zambesi.

MaNganja, Walyau Lake Nyassa.

BaRotse, BaRus, Between Zambesi and

BaLunda, Balla ... Congo.
WaSwahili, WaNika,

WaPokomo . . . East Coast.
WaGanda, WaNyain-

wesi, WaLegga . . . Equatorial Lakes.
OvaHerero, Ova M bo,

Ba Conga, BaTeke,

Duallo ... ... West Coast.

Appendix A

365

Sudanese Negroes:

Kroo, Fanti,GaAshanti,

Yoruba, Nupe
Mandingo, Jolof,

Banibara , Sonrhai
Hausa, Batta, Kanuri,

Baghirnie, Mosqu ,

Kanem
Maba, Nuba, Dinka,

Shilluk, Bari, Mon-

buttu, Zanseh

Upper Guinea.
Senegambia.

Central Sudan.

Eastern Sudan.

II. THE HAMITIO PEOPLES.
Mixed and Doubtful Hamites:

Fans ... ... Ogoway Basin, thence in-

land.
... West and Central Sudan.
East Sahara.
Abyssinia.
Masailand.

Egypt.

Fulahs

Tibbus

Agaus
Masai
Fellahin

True Hamites:

( Shluh
Berbers- Maab, Kabyle

( Tuareg
Gallas, Somalis, Afar,
Bejas...

Morocco.
Algeria, Tunis.
West Sahara

North-East Coast.

III. SEMITIC PEOPLES.

Arabs :

Mauritania, West Sahara

Himyarites : (Amhara,
Tigre, Shoa)

Central

Sudan.

and West

Abyssinia.

(Prof. A. B.Keane).

366 The Gall of the Dark Continent

APPENDIX B.

W.M.M.S. MISSIONARY TRANSLATORS.

African Versions.

Xosa (Kafir)

Shona
Fanti

Jolof

Mandingo

YORUBA . .

Gu

W.M.M.S. Missionaries who have made, or
helped to make, the Version.

The Revs. W. J. Shrewsbury,

W. Shaw, R. Haddy, W. B.

Boyce, W. J. Davis, H. H.

Dugmore, J. W. Appleyard,

W. Holford, W. Hunter,

and E. J. Barrett.
Revs. J. White and A. Walton.
Revs. A. W. Parker and W. M.

Cannell.
Revs. R. Dixon and R. H.

Williams.
Revs. R. M. MacBriar and

R. H. Williams.
W.M.M.S. Missionaries assisted

in the revision (1886-9).
Revs. T. J. Marshall, J. Rhodes,

G. 0. Henry.

African Versions supplied to our missionaries by
the British and Foreign Bible Society, in addition to
those given above —

Dutch Tabele Ashanti

Chuana Temne Accra or Ga

Pedi Mendi Ewe

Zulu Arabic Ibo

Kama Hausa I jo
Suto

From Methodist Missions and the Bible Society, by
John H. Ritson.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GENERAL

The Development of Africa. A. S. White, 1892. (G.
Philip & Son, 7s. 6d.) A general, geographical, ethno-
logical, and political survey.

South Afbica. (Story of the Nations Series.) Geo. M.
Theal, 1893. (Fisher Unwin, 5s.) A useful history.

South Africa. (Peeps at Many Lands Series.) Dudley
Kidd, 1908. (A. & C. Black, Is. Qd. net.) A very
readable description of the country and its peoples.
Excellent coloured illustrations.

The Essential Kafir. Dudley Kidd, 1904. (A. & C. Black,
18s. net.) No other book can compare with this for
thorough treatment of the subject.

Savage Childhood. Dudley Kidd, 1906. (A. & C. Black,
7s. 6d.) Another first-class book. Well illustrated.

Nigeria. Chas. H. Robinson, 1900. (H. Marshall, 5s. net.)
Contains much valuable information collected by Canon
Robinson during his visit to Kano in 189-4.

Eetichism in West Africa. R. H. Nassau, 1904. (Duck-
worth, 7s. 6d.) A very interesting introduction to the
religious ideas and practices of Africa.

The Story of a Slave. Sir H. H. Johnston, 1889.
(Kegan Paul, 5s.) A very striking story of pagan and
Muslim life in West Africa and the Sudan. A terrible
description of African life by a leading authority.

Mungo Park. (Famous Scots Series.) T. B. Maclachlan. Is.

David Livingstone. W. G. Blaikie. (J. Murray, Is. net.)
The best popular complete life of the great pioneer. A
cheap edition of Personal Life of David Livingstone.

Through the Dark Continent. Henry M. Stanley, 1878.
(Sampson Low, 3s. 6d. net.) Narrative of journey across
Africa. Includes the thrilling story of Stanley's effort to
evangelise Uganda, and his discovery of the Congo.

Islam as a Missionary Religion. C. R. Haines, 1889.
(S.P.C.K., 2s.)

367

368 The Gall of the Dark Continent

MISSIONARY WORK AND WORKERS
The Eutuee of Afeica. Donald Eraser, 1911. (Wes-

leyan Missionary Society, 2s. net.) The United Study

text-book. All leaders of Circles should have this book.
Daybeeak on the Daek Continent. W. S. Naylor, 1905.

(W.M.M.S., 2s. net.) The American Study text-book

on Africa.
The Repboach of Islam. W. H. T. Gairdner, 1909.

(W.M.M.S., 2s. net.)
The Wondeeful Stoet of Uganda. J. D. Mullins,

1904. (C.M.S., Is. 6d.)
The Stoey of the L.M.S. C. Silvester Home, 1904.

(London Missionary Society, Is. 6d. net.)
Samuel Ceowthee. Jesse Page, 1888. (Partridge & Co.,

la. 6d.) The popular life of the first black bishop.
The Lives of Robeet and Maey Moffat. John S. Moffat,

1885. (Fisher Unwin, 7s. %d.) The standard biography.
The Living Foeces of the Gospel. Job. Warneck, 1909.

(Oliphant, 5s.) A scholarly examination of the appeal of

Christianity to Animistic heathendom.
The Repoet of the Woeld Missionaey Confeeence. In

nine vols.. 1910. (Oliphant, 3s. net per volume.)
Mankind and the Chuech. By Seven Bishops, 1910.

(Longmans, 7s. 6d. net.)

METHODIST MISSIONS.
Methodism in West Afeica. J. T. E. Halligey, 1907-

(Chas. Kelly, Is.) The only available survey of our West

Coast Missions.
Nine Yeaes on The Gold Coast. Dennis Kemp, 1898.

(Macmillan, 7s. £d.) Must be obtained second-hand.
A Mission to the Teansvaal. Amos Burnet, 1909. (Chas.

Kelly, Is.) A popular account of our Transvaal Mission.
The Geneeal Repoet of the WM.M.S. (W.M.M.S., Is.

net,) 1911. Indispensable to the student of Wesleyan

Missions.

Note. — The books mentioned above may be ordered from
the W.M.M.S., 24, Bishopsgate, London, E.C. Orders should
be accompanied by remittance (postage extra).

INDEX

Abeokuta, 56, 183-5, 189, 1934, 276
Accessibility, 46-7, 229, 354-6
Affection, 74, 77-8
African Association, 19, 20, 27
Africaner, 118-19
Albert Edward Nyanza, 44
Albert Nyanza, 39, 44
Algoa Bay, 103, 107, 127
Animal passions, 219-20
Appreciation of kindness, 229-30
Arabs, 6, 8, 18, 38, 45, 59, 296
Ashanti, 45, 55, 63-4, 97, 172, 177-82,

192, 213, 351
Ayliff (John), 251

Backward races, 52

Badagry, 28, 183, 185

BaGanda, 324-5, 340

Balmer (W. T.), 171, 262, 303

Bandajuma Mission, 171

Bantu, 57-63

Baptism, 271

Baptist Missionary Society (B. M.S.),

42, 340, 343
BaRalong, 58, 122, 124-5, 134, 136
BaRawano, 358-60
Bartholomew Diaz, 12, 102
Bartrop (A. T. R), 193
Bases for advance, 355
BaSuto, 62, 82, 130
Bathurst, 163, 166-7, 361
BeChuana, 82, 122-3, 250
Beliefs (African), 82-97
Bible, 258

Bible Society, 208, 345
Boers, 131-4, 245
Boer War, 137-8

Boyce (W. B.), 130

Briscoe (F. J.), 135, 140, 219

British conquests, 61, 62, 64, 137,

308, 326
Broadbent (Samuel), 123-5
Burnet (Amos), 138-9
Bushman, 54, 105-6, 109
Bush schools, 79
Burial customs, 70, 92

Capacity for religion, 238-9

Cape Coast Castle, 173-6

Cape Colony, 31, 106, 307

Cape of Good Hope, 12, 102-3

Cape Town, 32, 46, 110, 126, 356

Catechumens, 270

Champness (Thomas), 171, 189, 193

Children (native), 77-9

Church MissionarySociety(C. M.S.),

160, 185, 239, 267, 318, 340, 343,

349
Claims of Christ, 201-2
Climate, 203-4
Clothing (native), 70-1
Coke (Dr. Thomas), 110, 155-8
Colonial Church, 242-4
Colonists at Algoa Bay, 127-8
Commerce (Ancient), 3, 4, 7
Commerce (Medieval), 12, 14-15
Commerce (modern), 35, 37, 43, 48,

224
Consciousness of sin, 257
Congo, 13, 14, 18, 20, 25, 27, 42-4,

69, 92, 306, 340, 343
Contributions of Native Church,

242, 283-4, 360
Contribution to Christianity, 336-8

369

INDEX

eokuta, 56, 183-5, 189, 1934, 276

cessibility, 46-7, 229, 354-6

'ection, 74, 77-8

rican Association, 19, 20, 27

ricaner, 118-19

aert Edward Nyanza, 44

Dert Nyanza, 39, 44

?oa Bay, 103, 107, 127

imal passions, 219-20

tpreciation of kindness, 229-30

abs, 6, 8, 18. 38, 45, 59. 296

hanti, 45, 55. 63-4, 97, 172, 177-82,

192, 213, 351
liff (John), 251

ckward races, 52

.dagry, 28, 183, 185

Oanda, 324-5, 340

Imer (W. T.), 171, 262, 303

ndajuma Mission, 171

ntu, 57-63

.ptism, 271

,ptistMissionarySociety(B.M.S.),

42, 340, 343
Italong, 58, 122, 124-5, 134, 136
Jtawano, 358-60
irtholomew Diaz, 12, 102
trtrop (A. T. R.), 193
ises for advance, 355
^Suto, 62, 82, 130
ithurst, 163, 166-7, 361
£huana, 82, 122-3, 250
iliefs (African), 82-97
ble, 258

ble Society, 208, 345
>ers, 131-4, 245
>er War, 137-8

Boyce (W. B.), 130

Briscoe (F. J.), 135, 140. 219

British conquests, 61, 62, 64, 137,

308, 326
Broadbent (Samuel), 123-5
Burnet (Amos), 138-9
Bushman, 54, 105-6, 109
Bush schools, 79
Burial customs, 70, 92

Capacity for religion, 238-9

Cape Coast Castle, 173-6

Cape Colony, 31, 106. 307

Cape of Good Hope, 12, 102-3

Cape Town, 32, 46, 110, 126, 356

Catechumens, 270

Champness (Thomas), 171, 189, 193

Children (native), 77-9

Church MissionarySociety(C. M.S.),

160, 185, 239, 267, 318, 340, 343,

349
Claims of Christ, 201-2
Climate, 203-4
Clothing (native), 70-1
Coke (Dr. Thomas), 110, 155-8
Colonial Church, 242-4
Colonists at Algoa Bay, 127-8
Commerce (Ancient), 3, 4, 7
Commerce (Medieval), 12, 14-15
Commerce (modern), 35, 37, 43, 48,

224
Consciousness of sin, 257
Congo, 13, 14, 18, 20, 25, 27, 42-4,

69, 92, 306, 340, 343
Contributions of Native Church,

242, 283-4, 360
Contribution to Christianity, 336-8

369

370

The Gall of the Dark Continent

Conventions, 279
Courts of Trial, 281
Crowther (Bishop), 228, 334
Cruelty (of Colonists), 31, 45, 105
Cruelty (of customs), 63, 66, 95, 96,

216
Cruelty (of native rulers), 60-5, 178,

186, 324

Dahomey, 45, 64-5, 185-7, 189, 195,

213
Daily life, 71-3
Daily Telegraph, 42, 323
Damaraland, 118, 122
Daybreak, 338
Deaths (on West Coast), 159, 162,

175-6, 181-2, 193, 197-8
Delagoa Bay, 141-2, 207
Development of African Church,

282-7
Difficulties, 202-28, 245-6, 248
Discipline, 280-1
Dutch, 14, 31, 103-11, 245
Dutch Reformed Church, 104, 245,

341
Dunwell (Joseph), 174-5

Eagerness to express, 239

Early Church (in N. Africa), 293-4,

354
Edification of Church, 272
Educational work, 258-67
E?bas, 65, 183-5
Egypt, 2, 5, 294-6, 349
Egyptians (Ancient), 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 55
Emancipation of slaves, 151
Emotional, 236-7
Entrance to Church, 270
Ethiopian Movement, 226, 286-7
Europeans (godless), 135, 223-6
Europeans (Missions to), 125-6, 135,

145, 243-4
Evangelistic spirit, 240-1

Fantis, 55, 172, 187
Fetichism, 46, 93-5, 188, 235-6
Findlay (W. H.), 216, 222, 231, 233,

276
Fingos, 251

Freeman (T. Birch), 175-91
Freetown, 153, 160, 169, 302
Fulahs, 24, 156, 165, 167, 297-300,

326
Full membership, 271-2
Furniture, 69-70
Future life, 91

Gambia, 11, 21, 25-6, 150, 157, 162-7,

302, 351
Generosity, 241
Gin, 30, 227

Girls' high schools, 265-7
God (African ideas of), 83-9
Gods (inferior), 89-90
Gold Coast, 9, 172-93, 304-5. 344
Gold seekers, 3, 4, 6, 13, 135
Government (Tribal), 81
Gratitude, 230-2
GriQualand, 125, 130
GriQua Town, 121

Halligey (J. T. F.), 171, 175
Hargreaves (Peter), 129
Hausaland, 297-301, 326
Henry the Navigator, 9-13, 150,

327
Herodotus, 2, 4, 5, 7, 20, 39
Hinderances, 202-25
Homes (African), 68-9
Hottentots, 56, 105, 107

Ilala, 41, 48, 359
Industrial Missions, 114-15
Influence of chief, 212-13
Influence of fetich priests, 214
Initiation customs, 80

Index

371

Invitations to missionaries, 110,

113, 156, 173, 179, 183, 358-9
Islam, 8, 165, 184, 291-328, 346

Jihad, 297-9
Johannesburg, 135

Kafir Mission, 128

Kafir wars, 129, 231

Kano, 28, 47, 300, 344

Khama (King), 214, 228, 335

Kilnerton Institution, 140, 262-3

Kintampo, 192, 356

Koran, 298, 314

Krapf, 38, 340

Kumassi, 63. 177-82, 253, 356

Lagos, 189, 193-6, 274

Languages, 53, 55, 59, 207-12

Laziness, 71-2

Lewis (Sir Samuel), 275, 333

Lilyfontein, 114-18, 122-3, 249-50

Lindoe (Dr.), 165-6

Liquor Traffic, 227-8

Livingstone. 32-42, 48, 50, 229-30,

323, 359
Lobengula, 62, 143, 146, 213
London Missionary Society

(L.M.S.), 32, 42, 107, 109, 112,

118-19, 146, 213

Macarthy's Island, 165-6
Macgregor Laird, 29-30, 263
Magata (David), 132-4
MaKololo, 33-7, 62
Malaria, 30, 161-2, 204-5
MaNtetee, 124-5, 251
Marriage customs, 73-5
Mashaba (Robert), 141-2
MaShona, 143, 146
MaTabele, 31, 45, 61-2, 131-2, 142,

251
MaTabeleland, 142, 146, 213
Maude (W. H.), 171, 232
May (J. Claudius), 334

McKenny (John), 110-11
McLean (Governor), 173-4, 180
Medical Missions, 267-8
Mendis, 171, 221-2
Miracles of Grace, 288-9
Mission services, 279-80
Moffat (Robert), 31-2, 119
Moravian Missions, 105-6
Morgan (John), 162-5
Mosquito, 204-6
M'tesa, 42, 322-4, 335
Mungo Park, 20-8, 50

NamaQualand, 112-118, 121-2, 249

Natal, 130

Native Church, 167-9, 216-18, 360-1

Negro, 4, 11, 15-17, 55-6

Nengubo Institution, 145, 262

Niger, 1, 5, 6, 20-30

Nigeria, 228, 305-6. 326, 342. 352

On trial, 271
Open doors, 360
Opportunity, 325, 339, 353
Opposition (from Dutch), 105-10
Orange Free State, 123, 125, 132
Orphans, 271

Pastoral work, 269
Phoenicians, 2, 5, 6, 7
Philanthropic work, 268-9
Places of worship, 273
Polandry, 218
Polygamy, 76, 215-19, 270
Population, 51

Portugal, Portuguese, 9-17, 38
Portuguese East Africa, 140-2
Possibilities of African, 332-6
Potchefstroom, 133-4
Prayer, 117, 278-9
Preaching, 252-3
Prester John, 9, 10
Progress of work, 117, 130, 140. 142
167, 169, 192, 196, 324, 346-7

372

The Gall of the Dark Continent

Railways, 46, 229, 355-6
Readiness to hear, 2334
Revels, 80
Retrenchment, 190
Rhodesia (N.-W.j, 307, 357-8
Rhodesia (South), 5, 142-6, 307, 352,

360
Richmond College (Freetown), 262
Roman Catholic Missions, 10, 13-14,

167, 169, 193, 345

Sabbath, 273

Salisbury, 143, 356

Sanusi Order, 309-12

Scattered population, 206

Schmidt (George), 105

Scripture translation, 145, 208-12

Self -discipline (lack of), 220

Self-government (of church), 285-7

Self-sacrifice, 196-8

Self-support, 283-4

Shallowness, 221-3

Shaw (Barnabas), 111-26, 249-50

Shaw (William), 127-30, 133

Shimmin (Isaac), 143-4

Sierra Leone, 151-62, 168-71, 275,

302-3, 344-5
Size of Africa, 51
Slavery, 4, 5, 11, 14-19, 25, 28, 34,

45, 67, 151, 183, 189, 299-300
Society class meeting, 277-8
Social hindrances, 212-19
Solidarity, 65, 331
South African Conference, 130, 358
Spirits and spirit worship, 90-4
Stanley (H. M.), 40, 42-4, 63, 322-3,

325
Sudan, 27-8, 47, 349-50
Survey of work done, 339-48

Tamale, 356

Teaching, 258-9

Thaba Nchu, 125, 132-3

Threlfall (Wm.), 121, 141
Trading oompanies, 15, 48
Traders (Negro), 73, 75, 274-5, 28(
Training institutions, 140, 145

261-7, 361
Transvaal, 131-40, 228
Travelling, 113, 123-4, 254-5, 355
Tribal solidarity, 214-15
Trek (Great Boer), 131

Uganda, 39, 42, 46, 214, 258, 322-5

335, 340
Undone (the Great), 349-52
Urgency, 328, 353

Vaal, 131-2
Vanderkemp, 107-9
Variety of Africa, 53
Vasco di Gama, 12
Victoria Nyanza, 39, 42
Violent emotions, 221
Vitality, 332

Warm bath, 118, 121
Warren (George), 158-9
Wars (Native), 60-2, 65-6, 125
Watkins (Owen), 134, 143-4, 254
Weavind (George), 134
Wesley Deaconesses, 265-7
White (John), 144, 226, 230, 358-9
Whydah, 186-7, 189
Witchcraft, 95-6
Wives (purchase of), 73-4
Women (position of), 73-7
Women (work for), 264-7
Worship (Christian), 272-4
Worship (Native), 96
Worshippers, 274-7

Yoruba country, 194-5
Yoruba gods, 89-90

Zambesi, 6, 14, 33, 37, 143, 357
Zanzibar, 38-9, 42, 44
Zulu, 45, 60-1, 124, 130

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