In temporal affairs, experience supplies the best rule for the guidance of man. In spiritual concerns, the word of God is the law by which his conduct must be governed. In relation to the spread of the Gospel, while the Saviour has given a few general directions, as to the mode of its propagation, he has left much to human wisdom, as to the measures by which it is to be extended. Pagan countries differ so widely in their civil relations, social customs, superstitions, and degrees of intelligence, that corresponding variations must be made in the plans for their evangelization. Africa, when first visited by the Missionary, was one broad field of ignorance and barbarism. Its condition differed so widely from that of any other country, where missions had been established, that the efforts made for its redemption, could be little else than experiments.

The time has arrived when we may safely proceed to contrast the results of the several classes of missions in Africa, ascertain what experience teaches, and determine the rule by which the greatest progress is to be made, in the extension of Civilization and Christianity, in that land of darkness and desolation. This task we now propose to execute, and shall take up the several missions in the following order:

1. The missions founded in Liberia.

2. Those in the English colonies of Recaptured Africans.

3. Those among native tribes, beyond the protection of the colonies.

4. Those to the natives of South Africa, within the English colonies of white men.

I. The Missions founded in Liberia.

Rev. Samuel J. Mills is called the father of our Foreign Missionary scheme. His heart first received the Divine impress of the spirit of missions, and through him it was communicated to others. “I think I can trust myself in the hands of God, and all that is dear to me; but I long to have the time arrive, when the Gospel shall be preached to the poor Africans.” This language, entered in his diary, while a student at College,^[1] proves that the thought of Africa was foremost in his mind. He beheld her captive children, dwelling in our midst, deeply degraded. From this condition they could not be elevated to the dignity of freemen. Christian philanthropy made the effort, but was unable to afford them relief.^[2] Their country, too, was yet a bleeding victim, with few to pity and none to protect.

With the National Independence of our country, there arose higher conceptions of the individual man. This was a logical inference from the principles maintained. People found themselves capable of self-government; hence, the individual must possess the capacity for self-elevation. So reasoned the founders of our Republic; and, to this end, equal laws and privileges were secured to every citizen, that the improvement of all might be promoted. But in the case of the colored man, the National Government was powerless. It possessed neither the means, nor the constitutional authority, to change the relations in which he stood to the whites. It only remained, therefore, to make the colored man, himself, the instrument of his own redemption. No sooner had this thought sprung into existence, than it was seized by the Philanthropist; and, in his grasp, it suddenly expanded into the grand idea of making him also the agent for the deliverance of his country.

The time had come for Samuel J. Mills to act. Five years had rolled away since his companions, whom he had enlisted in the cause—Judson, Newell, Nott, Hall, and Rice—had gone to their fields of labor, in the East.^[3] Africa, as well as Asia, was now remembered by the friends of Foreign Missions; and Mills offered himself,^[4] to open the pathway for the colored man’s return, with the Gospel of peace, to the home of his fathers. He accomplished his object, only to find his grave in the ocean, thus marking the way the captive must pursue to reach a land of freedom.

The exploration of Mr. Mills, was made in company with the Rev. Ebenezer Burgess, under a commission from the American Colonization Society. His death was deeply lamented by the friends of Foreign Missions, but the importance of the cause in which he fell, justified the sacrifice. The favorable report made by Mr. Burgess, enabled the Society to proceed in its enterprise. The first emigrants, 86 in number, sailed for Africa, February, 1820; and the Colony was first planted at Monrovia, January, 1822. The pecuniary income of the Society being small,^[5] the emigration was slow—only 1,232 persons having reached the Colony during the first 10 years. The average number of Colonists, up to the period when the Colony became independent, was only about 170 per annum: the average from the first of January, 1848, to the close of 1852, has been 540 per annum: and for 1853, alone, it has been 782: thus showing a rapid increase since the establishment of the Republic. Previous to that date, three-fourths of the emigrants had been emancipated slaves, who received their freedom on condition of going to Liberia; but, since its independence, a largely increased proportion have been freemen.

We shall not enter upon the history of the trials to which Liberia has been subjected, as the main facts are familiar to every one. Her extermination by war, on the one hand, has been thrice attempted by the slave traders, through the agency of the native Africans; and, on the other hand, her ruin has been sought, in the destruction of the Colonization Society, by an immense moral force, at the head of which stood men who are now the avowed enemies of the Bible. Good men, who, for a time, were arrayed in opposition to Colonization, finding themselves involved in a crusade against the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, have, mostly, given in their adhesion to the cause, and left the repudiators of Christianity and the traffickers in human flesh, as the only enemies to African Colonization. The prayer of Samuel J. Mills, for the introduction of the Gospel into Africa, has been heard, and Ethiopia now stretches forth her hands unto God.

In proceeding to the missionary history of Liberia, we shall begin with the Methodist Episcopal Church. The mission in the Republic of Liberia, is her oldest in the Foreign field. The nucleus of this mission, consisted of several members, and one or two local preachers, of the Methodist Church, who went out with the first emigrants. In March, 1833, the Rev. Melville B. Cox, the first ordained missionary, landed in Monrovia. To maintain this mission, has cost much treasure, and many precious lives; but the fruits of it are inestimable. It is now formed into a regular Annual Conference, composed of three districts, each with a presiding elder, and having its circuits, stations, and day and Sunday schools. The mission now covers the whole territory of Liberia and that of Cape Palmas.^[6] The Conference consists of 21 members in full connection and on trial, all of whom are colored men. Its churches, according to the Agent’s Report, 1853, embrace 1,301 members, of whom 116 are natives, and there are 115 probationers. The Mission has 15 Sunday schools, with 839 pupils, of whom 50 are natives; and 20 week-day schools, with 513 scholars. There are also 7 schools among the natives, with 127 pupils.

The sums appropriated to sustain this mission were, for 1851, $22,000; for 1852, $26,000; for 1853, $32,957; and for 1854, $32,957. This liberality is sufficiently expressive of the confidence of the Methodist Church in Liberia. The Report of the Board of Managers, for 1851, says:

“All eyes are now turned toward this New Republic on the Western coast of Africa, as the star of hope to the colored people, both bond and free, in the United States. The Republic is establishing and extending itself; and its Christian population is in direct contact with the natives, both Pagans and Mohammedans. Thus the Republic has, indirectly, a powerful missionary influence, and its moral and religious condition is a matter of grave concern to the Church. Hence, the Protestant Christian missions in Liberia, are essential to the stability and prosperity of the Republic; and the stability and prosperity of the Republic are necessary to the protection and action of the missions. It will thus appear, (concludes the Report,) that the Christian education of the people, is the legitimate work of the missions.”

Governed by these considerations, the Methodists have erected a seminary building, in Monrovia, at a cost of $10,000, which is now affording instruction to youth in the higher departments of science and literature.

The Report for 1853,^[7] speaks still more encouragingly of the mission in Liberia. It says:

“The value of this mission is, perhaps, inconceivable: it not only dispenses the word of life to the people, but it contributes largely to the maintenance of good morals and good order in the Republic, and thus strengthens and assists in preserving the State. In this way it indirectly contributes to make the Republic of Liberia a steady light, beckoning the free colored people of this country to a land where they can be truly free and equal, and where only they can be truly men and govern themselves. The mission is thus assisting the State to give a triumphant answer to our Southern States when they ask, If we set the slave population at liberty, where can they go and be free and prosperous? This is a result of immense value. It probably contains the solution of the question of American slavery—that great mystery of iniquity which dims the otherwise resplendent light of our glorious Republic. And yet, further, this African mission in the Republic of Liberia is a steady and shining light to the western portions of Africa, where now reign the most degrading, cruel, and destructive superstitions to be found in the world. Until within a quarter of a century past, many thousands of human victims have been sacrificed annually, in their cruel and dark religious rites, within sight of the coast; and not very far removed from the coast these sacrifices still continue, to an extent of which it makes one shudder to think, much less to behold. Can the Church waver in her support of such a mission on the Western coast of Africa? She will not.”

By order of the General Conference, Bishop Scott made an official visit to Liberia, at the close of 1852, and returned in April, 1853—having spent seventy days in the Colonies. He represents the spiritual condition of the Mission as, generally, healthy and prosperous; and the work as going steadily onward. In relation to the civil and social condition of the Colony, the Bishop bears the following testimony:

“The government of the Republic of Liberia, which is formed on the model of our own, and is wholly in the hands of colored men, seems to be exceedingly well administered. I never saw so orderly a people. I saw but one intoxicated colonist while in the country, and I heard not one profane word. The Sabbath is kept with singular strictness, and the churches crowded with attentive and orderly worshipers.”^[8]

But, as regards the missions among the natives, the Bishop says, very little indeed has been done—much less than the friends of the mission seem to have good reason to expect—much less than he himself expected. The result of his inquiries is by no means flattering, and he felt, and feared that the Board would feel, disappointed. These results, however, he says, are not due to any want of faithfulness on the part of the missionaries; as other denominations have not been more successful—perhaps not quite so much so—but are the result of the peculiar condition of the native population. These peculiarities will be noticed under the head of the native missions.

The American Baptist Missionary Union, commenced its mission in Liberia, in 1822, under the care of the Rev. Lot Carey and the Rev. Collin Teage; who had been ordained to the ministry, in Richmond, Virginia, January, 1821. They were both colored men, and possessed of much intelligence and energy. They commenced their labors in Monrovia, in the infant colony of Liberia, and founded a Church during the first year. Lot Carey was chosen pastor of the Church, and Mr. Teage removed for a time to Sierra Leone. “In the performance of his duties as a missionary, Mr. Carey evinced remarkable energy and faithfulness. He was born a slave in Virginia, but many years before leaving Richmond he had purchased his freedom and that of his two children, and had acquired the rudiments of a superior education, and proved himself worthy of the highest trusts in the business with which he was charged. On the pestilential shores of Africa he soon found occasion for all the knowledge he had acquired, both among his fellow emigrants and the rude barbarians from the interior with whom they became associated. By his acquaintance with medicine, he healed their maladies; by his sagacity in civil affairs, he settled their disputes and aided in the organization of their infant society; and by his earnestness and power as a preacher, he commended the Gospel to their hearts and consciences with unusual success.”^[9]

In 1825, the Rev. Calvin Holton, a white man, went out as a missionary, but died almost immediately after his arrival. “The mission continued to be sustained by Mr. Carey, with the aid of two or three pious assistants from among the emigrants. The resources by which it was kept alive were supplied almost entirely by his own efforts, as the funds which were furnished by the Board were of necessity at this time exceedingly limited. The labors of the mission were bestowed upon the emigrant colonists, and also, as far as possible, upon the natives of the country, who had either been rescued from slave-ships and settled upon the coast, or had voluntarily come in from the neighboring wilderness to join the colonies of their more civilized brethren. Mr. Carey in this manner preached and maintained schools at Monrovia, and also at Grand Cape Mount, among the Veys, one of the most powerful and intelligent of the tribes on the coast. At these and other settlements he was the life and soul of nearly all the religious efforts and operations that were carried on. He preached several times every week, superintended schools both for religious and secular instruction,—in some of which he taught himself,—traveled from one settlement to another, and watched with constant vigilance and unremitting care over all the spiritual and the social interests of the colonists.

“In September, 1826, he was unanimously elected vice-agent of the colony, and on the return of Mr. Ashmun to the United States, in 1828, he was appointed to discharge the duties of Governor in the interim—a task which he performed during the brief remnant of his life with wisdom, and with credit to himself. His death took place in a manner that was fearfully sudden and extraordinary. The natives of the country had committed depredations upon the property of the colony, and were threatening general hostilities. Mr. Carey, in his capacity as acting Governor, immediately called out the military forces of the colony, and commenced vigorous measures for repelling the assault and protecting the settlements. He was at the magazine, engaged in superintending the making of cartridges, when, by the oversetting of a lamp, a large mass of powder became ignited, and produced an explosion which resulted in the death of Mr. Carey and seven others who were engaged with him. In this sudden and awful manner perished an extraordinary man,—one who in a higher sphere might have developed many of the noblest energies of character, and who, even in the humble capacity of a missionary among his own benighted brethren, deserves a prominent place in the list of those who have shed luster upon the African race.

“At the period of Mr. Carey’s death, the Church, of which he was the pastor, contained 100 members, and was in a highly flourishing condition. It was committed to the charge of Collin Teage, who now returned from Sierra Leone, and of Mr. Waring, one of its members, who had lately been ordained a minister. The influences which had commenced with the indefatigable founder of the mission continued to be felt long after he had ceased to live. The Church at Monrovia was increased to 200 members, and the power of the Gospel was manifested in other settlements of the Colonization Society, and even among the rude natives of the coast, of whom nearly 100 were converted to Christianity and united with the several churches of the colony.”^[10]

In December, 1830, Rev. B. Skinner, a white man, with his wife and two children, reached Monrovia, to take charge of the mission. They were all seized with the African fever, soon after landing, and Mrs. Skinner and the children died. Mr. S. so far recovered as to embark for home, in July following, but died the twentieth day of the passage.

In 1834, Dr. Skinner, the father of the missionary, went out as a physician, and was afterward appointed governor of the colony. Soon after his arrival, he recommended the Baptist Board to establish their mission, for the benefit of the natives, among the Bassa tribe.

In 1835, two other white men, Rev. G. W. Crocker, and Rev. Mr. Mylne, were sent out to the Bassas. Mrs. Mylne, who had accompanied her husband, died in a month, and Mr. M., after laboring nearly three years, was forced, by ill health, to return to the United States. Mr. Crocker continued his labors, and was married, in 1840, to Miss Warren, who had gone out as a teacher. She died soon afterward, and the declining health of Mr. Crocker compelled him to leave for the United States.

In 1838, two years before Mr. Crocker left, he had been joined by Rev. Ivory Clarke and wife, whites, who continued to occupy the station, and labored with great success for several years.

In December, 1840, Messrs. Constantine and Fielding, with their wives, all whites, reached the Bassa mission. Mr. and Mrs. F. both died in six weeks; and Mr. and Mrs. C. were so much debilitated by the fever that they were compelled to return home in 1842.

In 1844, the health of Mr. Crocker had become so far restored, that he resolved to return to Africa; and, having been united in marriage to Miss Chadbourne, he sailed for Liberia, but died two days after landing. “Thus fell, in the midst of high raised hopes, and at an unexpected moment, a missionary of no common zeal and devotion to the cause.”^[11]

On the death of Mr. Crocker, his widow attached herself to the mission, and labored for its advancement for two years; when the wreck of her constitution, under the influence of the climate, compelled her to abandon the work, in 1846, and return home.

In 1848, Mr. Clarke and his wife found their constitutions so completely shattered, and their strength so nearly exhausted, that they left the mission to return to the United States. But he had tarried at his post too long; death overtook him on the passage, and the sea supplied him a grave.

Thus, after thirteen years’ labor, and the sacrifice of a noble band of martyrs to the cause of African redemption, was the Bassa mission left without a head, except so far as it could be supplied by the native converts. Amongst them, there was one preacher and four teachers, who kept up the organization of the little church, and continued the schools.

It was not until 1852, that the Board had any offers of missionaries for Bassa, to supply the place of those who had fallen or retreated. In that year, however, Rev. J. S. Goodman, and Rev. W. B. Shermer, and their wives, offered themselves to the Board, and were accepted. They set sail November 27, 1852, and were accompanied by Mrs. Crocker, who longed to return to the mission and devote her life to the service of her Lord and Master.

This Mission family was permitted to reach its field of labor in safety; but recent information brings the painful intelligence of the death of Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. Shermer; and that Mr. Shermer himself, had also been very ill, and had left Africa to return home by way of England. In writing from London, under date of January 13, 1854, he says: “That during the past twelve months, six missionaries of different denominations have died, and eight have been and are obliged to return to America; all of whom had gone to Africa within the last year. This is indeed a fearful mortality among African missionaries. Yet God has a people there, and if the white man can not live to evangelize them, he can and will raise up other agencies. Educated colored men, in all probability, must and will be the only instrumentality employed in the conversion of Africa.”^[12]

The mission, before the recent deaths, consisted of 2 stations, 2 missionaries, 4 female assistants, and 4 native assistants. Its Church has 16 members; and it has 2 day-schools with 36 pupils, and 2 Sabbath-Schools with 60 pupils.

The Foreign Missionary Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, came into existence in 1845. Its organization was a result of the differences of opinion, on the subject of slavery, among the members of the American Baptist Missionary Union. The Liberia Churches, which were founded by Lot Carey, Collin Teage, and their successors, connected themselves with the Southern Board, while Bassa, alone, continued its adherence to the Northern Board. This arrangement gave the Southern Board, at once, a strong missionary force in Liberia; and the mission has continued to prosper under their supervision. At present, it is composed of 13 stations, 19 missionaries and teachers, 11 day-schools, 400 scholars, and 584 communicants. As far as we can learn, all these missionaries are colored men.

The Board proposes to occupy three stations in Central Africa, by six missionaries, four of whom are already secured, and have departed for their field of labor. The mission field in Africa, is represented as very important and very inviting, both on account of the constantly increasing emigration from the United States, and the facilities enjoyed for the evangelization of the heathen tribes. During the meeting of the Convention at Baltimore, in June, 1853, the advantages of Central Africa were discussed at length; and the Rev. T. J. Bowen,^[13] who had explored the field, delivered an address, in which he spoke particularly of Yoruba, as a country with a delightful climate, apparently healthy, and moderately fertile. The people, he said, are far above savages, polite in their manners, quite intelligent, and dwelling in walled cities, some of which cover an area as large as the city of New York. They are prepared by their religion, he conceives, to appreciate the value of the great Sacrifice and Mediator, Jesus, and are willing and anxious to hear the Gospel; and some of them, during his short stay of eight weeks, gave evidence of a change of heart and of faith in Christ. He was the first white man who had visited some parts of that country; and “his narrative was at once surprising and encouraging.”

The Presbyterian Board of Missions, (O. S.,) sent their first missionaries to West Africa, in 1833. The Rev. J. B. Pinney was the pioneer in this mission. In the earlier years of its existence, it was greatly interrupted and retarded by the sickness or death of its missionaries; but within the last few years its prospects are more encouraging. In 1837, attempts were made to establish missions among the natives, and the efforts continued throughout a series of years. Much labor and several valuable lives were sacrificed in the work, and the only remaining fruit is a single station, at Settra Kroo, with a small school for native children. In 1850, a new mission to the natives was commenced at Corisco Island, which, thus far, is very promising.

The mission in Liberia, for colonists and natives, was the first established and has been more prosperous. It now embraces 116 church members, 2 ordained ministers and 1 licentiate, 3 congregations, and flourishing Sabbath-schools. The day-schools are well attended, by both colonists and natives. The Board, 1852, sent out the Rev. D. A. Wilson, a white man, of finished education, to take charge of the Alexander High School, and raise it to the grade of a college. At Monrovia, the press for admission into the English school of Mr. James, is represented as so great, that it had been found almost impossible to keep the number as low as fifty scholars—the number had averaged 70, and in consequence of the inadequacy of teachers, the progress of the pupils had been less rapid than, under other circumstances, must have been the case.

The Board urges the necessity of multiplying the number of educated ministers and teachers in Liberia; and offers, as an argument in favor of that field, and the one on Corisco Island, that these missions are likely soon to yield abundant fruits of Gospel culture. The following is the closing sentence of the Report: “Their past and touching history; their sphere of labor on a continent so benighted, and yet separated from this country only by the Atlantic; and the residence among us of so many of the children of Africa, many of whom are in the communion of our churches;—all seem to direct a large share of the missionary strength of our body to be employed hereafter in connection with these missions, and in the general field of labor to which they are doors of entrance.”

The Mission of the American Protestant Episcopal Church, in Liberia, was regularly commenced in the year 1836, at Cape Palmas. It now embraces 6 clergymen, including Bishop Payne. A high school has been established for training colonist teachers and missionaries. Connected with this school are 5 candidates for orders, 3 of whom are natives. The number of youth in this school at present, is 10; who are supported at the expense of the mission. The children of the colonists, to the number of 15 or 20, are admitted as day scholars. A female colonist day school is also in operation, with an attendance of 45 to 50 children. The mission includes 4 stations, at all of which native boarding-schools are, or have been, maintained with some good degree of regularity. The average attendance of scholars here has been over 100, and the number instructed in the way of salvation at least 1,000. Day-schools are and have been taught, in which many heathen children have learned to read, and also acquired that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation. Sunday-schools, composed of boarding scholars, and children from heathen towns, have been another means of good. The Gospel has been, and is still, preached to nearly the whole Grebo tribe, numbering a population of some 25,000; besides which, a congregation in Maryland, in Liberia, has been supplied with stated services. More than 100 have been admitted to baptism, or having previously received this rite, been enrolled as communicants of the Church. Some of these have apostatized, others have died in the faith; while about 80 still remain members of the Church militant. The Grebo dialect has been reduced to writing, and many portions of the Scriptures, and other books, published in it. A printing press is in operation, from which, besides other publications, a small Missionary paper is issued. It should be named, as one of the most important fruits of the Mission, that a wide-spread conviction of the truth of Christianity has been produced in the native mind, and an expectation that, at no distant time, it must supersede the religion of the country.^[14]

Such is the prosperous condition of this mission, that the Rev. John Payne, long at its head, was, in 1850, appointed a Missionary Bishop for Africa. He is a white man, highly educated, and eminently qualified for the sacred office to which he has been chosen. Since entering upon his duties, the agencies for extending the mission have been greatly increased. A station has been commenced at Monrovia, under the care of a colored clergyman, formerly of New York city, whose education was finished in England; and a large additional force of white missionaries has been sent out to occupy other posts. The foundation of an Orphan Asylum, to cost $2,000, has been laid at Cape Palmas; and the funds to erect two church edifices have been supplied to the Bishop. Of the white missionaries, one male and one female have recently died; in other respects the prospects of the mission are very encouraging.

Mrs. Payne and one of the other ladies of the mission, have returned during the last year, to recruit their health.

In speaking of the necessity of extended effort in the Republic of Liberia, the Bishop makes this important statement: “It is now very generally admitted, that Africa must be evangelized chiefly by her own children. It should be our object to prepare them, so far as we may, for their great work. And since colonists afford the most advanced material for raising up the needed instruments, it becomes us, in wise co-operation with Providence, to direct our efforts in the most judicious manner to them. To do this, the most important points should be occupied, to become in due time radiating centers of Christian influence to Colonists and Natives.”^[15]

The American Christian Missionary Society, sent a missionary to Liberia, in November, 1853. The Christian Church has several of its members in that Republic, as Colonists. The missionary now sent is a colored man, and will not only look after their spiritual interests, but attempt the performance of missionary labor in general. His name is Alex. Cross; and he was a slave until within a short time of his having been appointed to the mission work. The friends of the cause in Kentucky, where he lived, purchased him and offered him to the Society—his master generously accepting half his value as a servant. His wife and child were free, and accompanied him to Liberia. Mr. Cross is a man of more than ordinary talent; and with such additional education as he can obtain at Monrovia, he must make a useful man.

The Associate Reformed Synod of the South, have resolved on establishing a mission in Liberia; and have four native boys in the course of instruction, at the expense of the Synod, in the school of Mr. Erskine, at Kentucky, in Liberia. The Synod entered upon this work, a few years since, with earnestness and energy, but have met with many serious obstacles in the accomplishment of their purpose.

This closes our inquiries into the condition of the missions in Liberia. A remark or two, only, need be offered as to its social and civil condition. The citizens of the Republic are colored men, and enjoy a perfect equality under its constitution. They possess all the attributes of sovereignty, enacting and administering their own laws; but in purchasing territory from the African kings, the right of sovereignty and of soil is acquired, not to exclude the native people from the lands, but, as they adopt habits of civilization, to put them in possession of fee simple titles to their homes, on the same conditions allowed to the colonists.

By the influence of the colony over the native tribes, and the terms of its treaties with them, it has abolished human sacrifices, and the trials for witchcraft within its jurisdiction; driven the traffic in slaves from more than 600 miles of coast; exerted a controlling influence in suppressing native wars; and affords protection to 300,000 people, now within its purchased territory, or in treaty with the Republic.

The history of a single case will illustrate the manner in which Liberia exerts her influence in preventing the native tribes from warring upon each other. The territory of Little Cape Mount, Grand Cape Mount, and Gallinas, was purchased, three or four years since, and added to the Republic.^[16] The chiefs, by the terms of sale, transferred the rights of sovereignty and of soil to Liberia, and bound themselves to obey her laws. The government of Great Britain had granted to Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., of London, a contract for the supply of laborers, from the coast of Africa, to the planters of her West India colonies. This grant was made under the rule for the substitution of apprentices,^[17] to supply the lack of labor produced by the emancipation of the slaves. The agents of Messrs. Hyde, Hodge & Co., visited Grand Cape Mount, and made an offer of $10^[18] per head to the chiefs, for each person they could supply as emigrants for this object. The offer excited the cupidity of some of the chiefs; and, to procure the emigrants and secure the bounty, one of them, named Boombo, of Little Cape Mount, resorted to war upon several of the surrounding tribes. He laid waste the country, burned the towns and villages, captured and murdered many of the inhabitants, carried off hundreds of others, and robbed several factories in that region, belonging to merchants of Liberia. On the 26th of February, 1853, President Roberts issued his proclamation enjoining a strict observance of the law regulating passports, and forbidding the sailing of any vessel, with emigrants, without first visiting the port of Monrovia, where each passenger should be examined as to his wishes. On the first of March the President, with 200 men, sailed for Little Cape Mount, arrested Boombo and 50 of his followers, summoned a council of the other chiefs at Monrovia for his trial on the 14th, and returned home with his prisoners. At the time appointed, the trial was held, Boombo was found guilty of “High Misdemeanor,” and sentenced “to make restitution, restoration, and reparation of goods stolen, people captured, and damages committed: to pay a fine of $500, and be imprisoned for two years.”^[19] When the sentence was pronounced, the convict shed tears, regarding the ingredient of imprisonment in his sentence, to be almost intolerable. These rigorous measures, adopted to maintain the authority of the Government and majesty of the laws, have had a salutary influence upon the chiefs. No outbreaks have since occurred, and but little apprehension of danger for the future is entertained.

The missionaries and teachers in Liberia, are nearly all colored men, and citizens of the Republic, who yield a cordial support to its laws, and enjoy ample protection under its government. These missionaries have the control of the schools and churches; and, consequently, they possess the entire direction of the intellectual, moral, and religious training of the youth. Liberia, therefore, may be denominated a Missionary Republic. And such is the influence the colony has exerted over the natives, that their heathenish customs and superstitions are fast disappearing before the advancing Christian civilization. In the country of Messurado, including the seat of government, there no longer exists a single temple of heathen worship.^[20]

The religious and educational statistics of Liberia are not complete, but are sufficient to show, that the different churches have more than 2,000 communicants; the Sabbath-schools more than 1500 children, of whom 500 are natives; while in the day-schools there are not less than 1,400 pupils.

Of the white missionaries who entered the field in Liberia, during the first thirty years of its existence, but two or three remained at the close of that period—all the others having died or been disabled by the loss of health. Take, as an example, the Episcopal Mission. Twenty white laborers, male and female, entered that mission, up to 1849, of whom only the Rev. Mr. Payne and his wife, and Dr. Perkins remained. All the others had fallen at their posts or been forced to retreat. Take that of the Presbyterian Board also: Of nineteen white missionaries, male and female, sent out, up to May, 1851, nine had died, seven returned, and three remained; while of fourteen colored missionaries, male and female, employed, but four have died, and one returned on account of ill health. Take the Methodists likewise: Of the thirteen white missionaries sent out, six had died, six returned, and one remained, in 1848; while of thirty-one colored missionaries employed by this church, only seven had died natural deaths, and fourteen remained in active service. The extent of this mortality among the white missionaries will be comprehended, when it is stated, that their average period of life, up to nearly the last named date, has been only two years.^[21] The mission work in Liberia, therefore, has necessarily fallen into the hands of colored men; and, thus, the Providence of God has afforded to that race an opportunity to display their powers, and to show to the world what, under favorable circumstances, they are capable of achieving.

In relation to the influence exerted by Liberia, on the cause of African Missions, Bishop Scott testifies as follows:

“In my judgment, the bearing of African Colonization on the cause of Christian Missions, in that vast peninsula of darkness and sin, ought to be sufficient, in the absence of every other consideration, to secure for that great enterprise, the warm and steady support of every lover of Christ.”^[22]

If, then, a Colony of colored men, beginning with less than 100, and gradually increasing to 9,000, has, in 30 years, established an Independent Republic amidst a savage people; destroyed the slave trade on 600 miles of the African coast; put down the heathen temples in one of its largest counties; afforded security to all the missions within its limits; and now casts its shield over 300,000 native inhabitants; what may not be done in the next 30 years, by Colonization and Missions combined, were sufficient means supplied to call forth all their energies?

These Missions are next in importance, and have been next in success, to those of Liberia. The term, recaptured, has reference to the natives rescued from the slave-ships, on the coast of Africa, by the English squadron. The principal Colony of this class, is at Sierra Leone. It was first established as a private enterprise, through the exertions of Granville Sharp, afterwards placed under the control of a chartered company, and, finally, taken under the care of the British government. It had for its object, chiefly, the suppression of the slave trade and the civilization of Africa.

The origin of this Colony has such an intimate connection with the rise of the Anti-Slavery sentiment in England, and the adoption of the measures which have done so much toward the redemption of Africa, that the principal facts of its history must be stated.

On the 22d of May, 1772, Lord Mansfield decided the memorable Somerset case, and pronounced it unlawful to hold a slave in Great Britain.^[23] Previous to this date, many slaves had been introduced into English families, and, on running away, the fugitives had been delivered up to their masters, by order of the Court of King’s Bench, under Lord Mansfield; but now the poor African, no longer hunted as a beast of prey, in the streets of London, slept under his roof, miserable as it might be, in perfect security.^[24]

To Granville Sharp belonged the honor of this achievement. By the decision, about 400 negroes were thrown upon their own resources. They flocked to Mr. Sharp as their patron; but considering their numbers, and his limited means, it was impossible for him to afford them adequate relief. To those thus emancipated, others, discharged from the army and navy, were afterwards added, who, by their improvidence, were reduced to extreme distress. After much reflection, Mr. Sharp determined to colonize them in Africa.

Here, then, was first conceived the idea of African colonization; but this benevolent scheme could not be executed at once, and the blacks—indigent, unemployed, despised, forlorn, vicious—became such nuisances, as to make it necessary they should be sent somewhere, and no longer suffered to infest the streets of London.^[25] Private benevolence could not be sufficiently enlisted in their behalf, and fifteen years passed away, when Government, anxious to remove what it regarded as injurious, at last came to the aid of Mr. Sharp, and supplied the means of their transportation and support.^[26]

In April, 1787, these colored people, numbering over 400, were put on shipboard for Africa, and, in the following month, were landed in Sierra Leone. A plentiful supply of rum had been furnished, and, for reasons unexplained, they were accompanied by 60 whites, most of whom were females of the worst character.^[27] Intemperance and debauchery so generally prevailed, during the voyage, that nearly one half of them died on the passage and within four months after landing. The sickness of their chaplain, the deaths of their agents, and the consequent desertions of the emigrants, reduced the Colony, during the first year, to 40 persons, and endangered its existence. The next year, 39 new emigrants arrived, with abundant supplies, and the deserters returned, so as to secure a force of 130 persons to the Colony. During the following year, internal discord, succeeded by an attack from a native chief, dispersed the colonists throughout the country; and, again, through Mr. Sharp’s exertions, an agent was sent to their relief, who collected them together, and furnished arms for their defense.

In March, 1792, a reinforcement of 1,131 blacks, from Nova Scotia, arrived at Sierra Leone. These men were fugitive slaves, who had joined the English during the American Revolutionary war, and had been promised lands in Nova Scotia; but the government having failed to meet its pledge, and the climate proving unfavorable, they sought refuge in Africa. A fever which had attacked the emigrants in Halifax, and from which 65 had died on the passage, still prevailed among them after landing; so that, from its effects, together with the influence of the climate, 130 more died the first year in Sierra Leone.

About this time the Colony passed from the care of Mr. Sharp, to that of the Company. This led to the sending of 119 whites, along with a Governor, as counselors, physicians, soldiers, clerks, overseers, artificers, settlers, and servants. Of this company 57 died within the year, 22 returned, and 40 remained.^[28]

As soon as health would permit, the Nova Scotia fugitives proceeded to work vigorously, in clearing lands and building houses; and, in the succeeding year, two churches were erected, and a school of 300 pupils established.

These fugitives must have been men of more than ordinary energy of character. This opinion is sustained by the subsequent events of their history. When the French fleet, in 1794, burned their houses and destroyed their property, it was but a short time until the Colony was again in a prosperous condition. But their physical energy and industry, were not their most remarkable characteristics. When Granville Sharp’s mild system of government, admitting colored men to share in its administration, was superseded by the more rigid laws of the Company, which excluded them from office, they resisted the change. Though, in America, they had fought on the side of Britain, in Africa, they espoused the cause of Republican principles. Their disappointment in not receiving the promised lands in Nova Scotia, had given them no very favorable opinion of English justice. When required to submit to the authority of the Governor, and to a different policy from what they had embraced on emigrating, they denied they owed subjection to the new laws, or to any laws except of their own enactment. Ascertaining that the legal powers of the Company were inadequate to the enforcement of its authority, they boldly asserted their claim to the sovereignty, and their right to exclude from the administration all but officers of their own choice. Parliament, on learning the posture of affairs, at once granted the Company ample powers to extinguish this little blaze of Democracy; but the Colonists as resolutely determined to resist; and, on September 10th, 1800, announced their purpose of assuming all political power in the settlement. The Governor, left in the minority, had to employ the natives to aid him. As the insurgents refused all accommodation, there was no alternative but a resort to force. At this moment, 550 Maroons, (free negroes,) from Jamaica,^[29] were landed; and, joining the Governor, he was enabled to defeat the rebels. Three of the leaders in this struggle were taken and afterwards executed; and so well pleased was Parliament, at seeing Democracy cut up by the roots, that it voted the Governor $105,000, to erect a fortification and aid in paying the Company’s debts.

Two subsequent attacks by the natives, together with the urgent appeals of the Company, led the Government, the first of January, 1808, to assume the sovereignty over the Colony, and provide for its safety. This measure was the more agreeable to Granville Sharp and the Company, as he had sunk $7,000 and it $410,000 in the enterprise. The arrangement was equally necessary to England, as, in that year, she rendered herself illustrious by the abolition of the slave trade; and needed Sierra Leone to carry on her operations, and to provide for the slaves she might rescue from the traders.

Missions for the benefit of this Colony, were first attempted in 1792, again in 1795, and in 1797; but all these efforts failed; because of the disaffection of the Nova Scotia fugitives, and because the slave trade, then a legal traffic to British subjects, was prosecuted everywhere upon the African coast, and even within Sierra Leone. In 1804, the Church Missionary Society sent out its missionaries, with orders to seek for stations out of the colony, because of the opposition within it; but in this they did not succeed. In 1808, when the slave trade was abolished, these missionaries commenced ten stations beyond the limits of the Colony, according to their instructions, but were unable to sustain them. The natives, interested in the slave trade, burned the mission houses and churches, destroyed the growing crops of the missionaries, threatened their lives, and otherwise persecuted them. When England abandoned the traffic in slaves, she but surrendered its monopoly to France, Spain and Portugal; hence, there was no diminution of its extent, or abatement of its horrors, but a vast increase of both:^[30] and, as the missions from 1792 to 1808, failed both in and out of the Colony; so the continuance of the trade, beyond its limits, after 1808, drove the missionaries within its jurisdiction, to enjoy its protection. But these stations were not abandoned, until after a long struggle to sustain them—the last one having been maintained until 1818.

From 1808, the work of missions in Sierra Leone, was successfully begun; and the first dawn of hope for oppressed Africa, arose with the first blow aimed at the slave-trade. Up to this date, the slave-trader had held undisputed sway on the coast of Africa, and the introduction of the Gospel was impossible. The slave-trade, it would seem, is an evil so horrid, that the Almighty refused to give success to the missionary, unless that outrage upon humanity should first be suppressed.

The Episcopal mission, established in Sierra Leone, in 1808, has been continued without interruption, except what necessarily arose from the great mortality among the missionaries. A college and several schools were established at an early day, in which orphan and destitute children were boarded and instructed.^[31] Besides teaching the schools, the missionaries preached to the adults, a few of whom embraced the Gospel; but no very encouraging progress was made for many years. In 1817, however, the labors expended began to unfold their effects, and the mission to make encouraging advances; so that, by 1832, it had 638 communicants and 294 candidates in its churches, 684 Sabbath school scholars, and 1,388 pupils in its day-schools.

Thus, in 45 years after the founding of Sierra Leone, and 24 after the abolition of the slave-trade, was the basis of this mission broadly and securely laid. Since that period it has been extended eastward to Badagry, Abbeokuta, and Lagos. In connection with all these missions, but chiefly in Sierra Leone, the Episcopal Church, in 1850, had 54 seminaries and schools, 6,600 pupils, 2,183 communicants, and 7,500 attendants on public worship. Of the teachers in the schools at Sierra Leone, it is worthy of remark, that only five were Europeans, while fifty-six were native Africans. Such is the prosperous condition of these missions, at present, and the amount of superintendency they require, that the Rev. Mr. Vidal has been ordained a Bishop for West Africa, and sent forth to his field of labor.

The English Wesleyan Methodists, through the influence of the Rev. Dr. Coke, sent a missionary, in 1811, to the Nova Scotia free blacks, in Sierra Leone; and, in the course of a year, the converts were reported at 60.^[32] In 1831, twenty years after the commencement of the mission, it included but 2 missionaries, 294 church members, and about 160 pupils in its schools. The Wesleyan Mission, like the Episcopal, progressed slowly at first; but, as it collected the elements of progress within its bosom, it also, began to expand, and is now advancing prosperously. Its stations have been extended westward to the Gambia, and eastward to various points, including Cape Coast Castle, Badagry, Abbeokuta, and Kumasi. In connection with these missions, the Wesleyan Methodists, in 1850, had 44 chapels, 13 out-stations, 42 days-chools, 97 teachers, 4,500 pupils, including those in the Sabbath schools, 6,000 communicants, on trial 560, and 14,600 attendants on public worship.

But these colonies of Recaptured Africans, are too important an agency in the redemption of Africa, to be passed over without further consideration; so that their position and that of Liberia, in this respect, may be clearly comprehended. In addition to Sierra Leone, they include several minor stations; two of which are on the Gambia, and the others on the coast east of Liberia.

From documents presented to Parliament, it appears, that, in 1850, there was a Christian population, in Sierra Leone, of more than 36,000, out of about 45,000. In this population, it was estimated, that there were representatives of no fewer than one hundred different tribes, speaking different languages and dialects; so that there are already converts prepared, as far as the knowledge of the languages is concerned, to go forth in every direction, and to explain to their countrymen, in their own tongue, the truths of revelation. Since the subject was before Parliament, Bishop Vidal has commenced his labors, and this question has received particular attention. It has been ascertained that no fewer than 151 distinct languages, besides several dialects, are spoken in Sierra Leone. They have been arranged under 26 groups; but there still remain 54 unclassified, which are more distinct from each other, and from all the rest, than the languages of Europe are from one another; thus unfolding to the view of the Christian philanthropist, an agency, in the course of preparation, which, under Divine Providence, may carry the Gospel to the unnumbered millions of immortal souls inhabiting the continent of Africa.

A few facts will show that this is not an idle speculation, but that she has successfully entered upon her great mission.

Among the Recaptured Africans introduced into Sierra Leone, and brought under the civilizing influences of its Christian institutions, none have made such rapid progress as the people of Yoruba, a country lying eastward of the kingdom of Dahomey. Their first appearance in the Colony was about 1822. Many of them soon acquired a considerable amount of intelligence and a little property. In 1839, they had become quite numerous, and a party of them purchased a vessel, hired a white captain, and commenced a traffic with Badagry. This town is at a point on the coast from which the Yoruba country can be most easily reached. The trade thus begun soon led to a rapid emigration from Sierra Leone, and the planting of missions at both Badagry and Abbeokuta, the capital of Yoruba.

Abbeokuta is a walled city, founded in 1825, from the fragments of the tribes of the kingdom of Yoruba, who escaped the invading armies of the Fellatahs, while this powerful people were the principal “slave hunters” for the traders of the western coast of Africa. It contains the remains of 130 towns, and at present embraces a population of nearly 100,000. Badagry, in 1850, contained about 11,000 inhabitants. The Sierra Leone emigrants, at the former city, numbered three thousand, and, at the latter, several hundred. At the period when the emigration commenced, and for several years afterward, the slave-trade prevailed on the coast; and the people of Badagry and Abbeokuta were engaged in supplying the market with slaves. This led them to wage frequent wars, and kept up feelings of hostility throughout the country. In these slave hunts, the people of Lagos bore a conspicuous part. This town is about 36 miles to the eastward of Badagry, is large and populous, and had hitherto been the head-quarters of the slave-trade in the Bight of Benin. The river Ossa, a lagoon, running parallel with the coast, unites these two places.

The Episcopal Mission at Sierra Leone, sent an exploring committee to Abbeokuta in 1842, and early in 1845 its first missionaries landed at Badagry. In both instances they found the Wesleyans in advance of them. Being unable to reach Abbeokuta, on account of existing wars, a mission was founded at Badagry. In 1846, a noted slave-dealer of the coast, forced the warring tribes to cease hostilities, that he might collect his slaves from the interior; and the missionaries, embracing this moment of peace, were enabled to reach Abbeokuta.

Among the Episcopal Missionaries, was the Rev. Samuel Crowther, a native of Yoruba, who had been captured by the Fellatahs, in 1821, and sold to the traders at Lagos. Shipped on board a slaver for Brazil, recaptured by an English cruizer, educated at Sierra Leone, ordained to the ministry of the Gospel in England, he had now returned, after twenty-five years of sanctified captivity, to proclaim the way of salvation to his relatives and countrymen; and he had the inexpressible gratification of finding his mother and two sisters, soon after his arrival, and of being instrumental in her conversion to Christianity.

The chiefs of Abbeokuta received the missionaries with kindness; and, no wonder, as some of them had relatives of their own, sitting by them, who had been liberated by the English.

With the favorable regard of the chiefs, and the co-operation of many of the emigrants from Sierra Leone, the Gospel, for a time, had free course in Abbeokuta; and its population listened with a willing ear to the offers of eternal life. But, in 1848, the native priests, priestesses, and slave-catchers, stirred up a spirit of persecution against the converts, and the Gospel was greatly hindered. This persecution continued, with some intervals in its violence, throughout the two succeeding years. In January, 1851, the British consul, Mr. Beecroft, visited Abbeokuta, and his presence had a salutary effect in overawing the enemies of Christianity, and disposing the chiefs to abandon the slave-trade. He gave them notice, also, that the king of Dahomey had projected an attack upon their city, in his next campaign for capturing slaves, and that his Amazons had doomed it to destruction.

Thus warned, the walls were somewhat repaired, and the population roused to a sense of their danger; when, on March 3d, 1851, the Dahomian army, of 10,000 men and 6,000 women, made an assault upon the city. Abbeokuta had only 8,000 warriors to oppose this force; but many of its women ran to and fro, amidst the flying bullets, with food and water for the soldiers on the walls, that they might remain at their posts to fight for life and liberty. For six long hours the murderous strife continued, when the Dahomians began to waver, and the Abbeokutans, rushing out, put them to flight; and, pressing closely on their rear, continued the slaughter until darkness led them to return. At early dawn the pursuit was renewed, and, at seventeen miles distance, another battle ensued in which the Abbeokutans were again victorious. The loss of the Dahomians was 3,000 killed and 1,000 taken prisoners. Of the slain nearly 1,800 were left before the walls of Abbeokuta. These were the flower of the enemy’s army, chiefly women, who are always placed foremost in the battles, as more reliable than the men.^[33]

Thus was Abbeokuta and its missionaries mercifully delivered from destruction. Even the heathen openly acknowledged that they owed the victory to the God of the Christians; and all felt that the missionaries were their truest friends.^[34]

In November, following, Capt. Forbes, of her Majesty’s navy, was commissioned to negotiate treaties with the authorities of Abbeokuta. He found but little difficulty in persuading the chiefs to sign a treaty for the abolition of the slave-trade and human sacrifices—enormities which had extensively prevailed—and for the extension of the missions into the interior, and the toleration of religion. Having taken with him several cannon, he planted them on the walls of the city, and taught some of the citizens how to use them.

The mission in Abbeokuta, being thus freed from embarrassment, is prospering, and the missionaries are extending their operations to the neighboring towns. It would seem, indeed, as if the whole of the Yoruba territory were bidding the missionary welcome, and encouraging him onward in the work of its evangelization.^[35] The Gospel, it is true, still meets with opposition; but the chiefs, mostly, are friendly and send their children to the schools. Open persecution is no longer permitted; and, but for the continual apprehension of another attack from Dahomey, the missionaries would seem to be secured against farther interruptions.

But while the missions are prosperous at Abbeokuta, far different have been the results at Badagry. The events that have transpired at the two places, have also been very different. Akitoye, the lawful king of Lagos, was driven away in 1845, and fled first to Abbeokuta and then to Badagry. Kosoko, the usurper, being in league with the king of Dahomey, engaged largely in the slave-trade and kept up constant wars on the neighboring towns. Some of the chiefs at Badagry espoused the cause of Akitoye, while others resolved to support Kosoko. Akitoye was friendly to the missions and attended the Sabbath-school and preaching; but his opponents were the enemies of the missionaries and engaged in the slave-trade. In June, 1851, Kosoko and his party attacked Akitoye, in Badagry, and for two days the demons of cruelty, rapine, and murder, reigned triumphant in the town; and only left it when it was reduced to ruins. Fire and sword had done their utmost on Badagry; and nothing escaped the devouring element but the two mission premises, and the chief part of the English trading house. During the remainder of the year, all was confusion and ruin. The Abbeokutans sent 800 men to the aid of Akitoye, and by one party or the other, the towns along the Ossa were destroyed without mercy.

It is worthy of remark, that at Badagry, as at Sierra Leone, the mission made no progress while the population were engaged in the slave-trade. Neither of the three Episcopal missionaries, who labored in Badagry, either alone or conjointly, were permitted to see any satisfactory fruit of their spiritual labors.^[36] The town yet remains nearly in ruins—a few of the inhabitants, only, having returned and rebuilt their houses. Lagos, therefore, was selected as the head-quarters of the mission, and Badagry reduced to an out-station, with only a catechist.

The treaty between the chiefs of Abbeokuta and Captain Forbes, bound them to promote the interests of the missions, and to abolish the slave-trade. It secured to them, in turn, the protection of England. But Kosoko, of Lagos, and his confederates, resolved to prevent the introduction of Christianity, civilization and legitimate traffic into that region, to destroy Abbeokuta, and to persevere in the slave-trade. The British squadron, therefore, having found its efforts by sea, to suppress the traffic, altogether unavailing, and to save its ally, Abbeokuta, from destruction, proceeded to Lagos, December, 1851, bombarded the town, took it in possession, dethroned Kosoko, and restored Akitoye to his rightful possessions. So imminent was the danger to Abbeokuta, that Kosoko had marched at the head of a large army to destroy it, and was only diverted from his purpose by the attack upon his capital. The Portuguese slave-dealers were immediately expelled, and thus, for the moment, the slave-trade was suppressed in the Bight of Benin.

But the hateful slave-trade, of which Lagos had long been the chief mart, had thoroughly engrained itself in the thoughts, habits, and hearts of the people. Taught by the slave-dealer to consider the English as natural enemies, they only awaited a suitable opportunity to renew a trade so lucrative as the capture and sale of their fellow men. Accordingly, about nine months after the expulsion of Kosoko, the Portuguese traders returned and secretly renewed the traffic in slaves. Akitoye, faithful to his treaty with the English, interposed his authority for its suppression. This led to an insurrection against him and for the restoration of Kosoko. The Portuguese supplied the insurgents with arms and ammunition; and, on the morning of August 6th, 1853, the war commenced in the streets of Lagos. The contest was kept up till night, many were killed and wounded on both sides, and the greater part of the town destroyed by fire. One of the mission houses was consumed, with nearly all of its contents; and the other would have shared the same fate, but for the protection afforded by the army of Akitoye, and by Capt. Gardner, of the British navy, then in port with his vessel. A cessation of hostilities took place for a few days, during which Kosoko entered the town and joined the rebels. The union of his forces with theirs, gave him a great superiority over Akitoye; and the missionaries, and the English consul, had no other expectation but that they would all be murdered. At this critical moment, Admiral Bruce, with a part of his squadron, appeared in sight, landed nine gun-boats, well manned, and sent a detachment of marines to protect the missionaries. This alarmed Kosoko, and, on the night following, August 13, he and his allies stole out of Lagos. Thus was the mission once more providentially delivered from destruction.^[37]

On the 2d of September, King Akitoye died suddenly, and his son, Dosumu, was elected in his stead. How far he may be able or willing to resist the renewal of the slave-trade remains to be seen. The missionaries, at the latest advices, were greatly discouraged, being worn down with fatigue and anxiety, and almost shut out from the hope of planting the Gospel in Lagos, as it has been done in Abbeokuta.

These important movements show how the English Colonies are operating as agencies in extending civilization and the Gospel in Africa; and how the Providence of God is overruling the wicked actions of men for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

But while we present these cheering evidences of the success of the missions in this field, we would call attention to an important difference in the results here and in Liberia. Sierra Leone and Liberia were founded with similar objects in view: the removal of a class of persons unhappily situated, the improvement of their condition, the civilization of Africa, and the suppression of the slave-trade. In both cases the colonies were founded in the midst of barbarous tribes; and with men but recently escaped or liberated from the bonds of slavery. Sierra Leone received her emigrants nearly all at once; while Liberia was more than ten years in obtaining an equal number. With the exception of the few survivors of the London expedition, the settlers in both colonies had the same early training, under the slavery of Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas. Up to 1800, the emigrants to Sierra Leone had been enlightened men, mostly from the same region which, subsequently, supplied to Liberia her citizens. From that period, the population of Sierra Leone has been increased, not by additions of civilized men,^[38] but first by the Maroons, and afterward by natives introduced by the English cruizers; until, at present, sixty-six years from the founding of the colony, it includes 45,000 people, reckoned subjects of Great Britain. With the exception of a few recaptured slaves landed in Liberia, by American cruizers, its population, each succeeding year from the first, has received accessions of civilized men, who have won the confidence of the surrounding tribes, added them to their communities, instructed them in the arts of civilization, allowed them the benefits of their schools, and a participation in civil affairs; until, at present, thirty-three years after the commencement of the colony, it includes 80,000 people, recognized citizens of the Republic.

Now, mark the difference: in 66 years, Sierra Leone, aided by a large naval squadron, has grown into a British Colony of 45,000 subjects; while, in 33 years, or half the time, Liberia, with an influx of only 1,044 recaptured Africans, has become a Republic of 80,000 citizens.^[39]

As to the success of the Missions in the two colonies, accurate statistics are not at hand; but from what has been stated, it appears that for the first 30 years of their existence, the increase in Liberia has been more than double that in Sierra Leone.

With these facts before us, it becomes a matter of great moment to determine what has been the cause of the difference in the prosperity of the two Colonies. It can not be attributed to any great inequality between their emigrants, as, mostly, they had an identity of origin; nor to any great difference among the natives, as the diversity of languages in the one, would be balanced by the greater degradation of the other.^[40] Then, as there was, originally, no material difference in their populations, the greater success of the citizens of Liberia, in maintaining their civil and religious institutions, can not be a result of their attainments under the slavery of the United States, but must be a consequence of their intellectual advancement after reaching the Colony. Neither can the cause of the difference be found in the educational and religious institutions of the two Colonies, as these are identical in both. The difference, therefore, can exist, only, in the greater extent of the social and civil privileges which the Liberians have enjoyed in their form of government. Look at the facts. From the time Sierra Leone passed out of the hands of Granville Sharp, the colored people have been excluded from participating in the government. The offices have been filled with white men, who reside among the negroes, in the position and attitude of a superior race, born to command; while the colonists are made to feel that their destiny is to obey: hence, in prosecuting their education, the youth of that Colony have had their mental powers dwarfed, by the absence of the stimulants which the hope of social and political advancement afford. In Liberia the policy has been the reverse. From the beginning, the minor offices were held by the colored men; and for the past twelve years, no white man has held any office, civil or military, in the Colony. Thus, the posts of honor have been open to the competition of every Liberian; and, catching the progressive spirit of the age, the colonists have aspired to the dignity of Nationality; have established an Independent Republic; and have progressed, in their civil and religious relations, with a rapidity doubly as great as Sierra Leone.^[41]

But time will not allow us to extend our comparisons. The superiority of the free institutions of Liberia, as an agency for overcoming the obstacles to civilization and Christianity in Africa, will be farther noticed in the progress of our investigations. At present we need only say, in relation to both Colonies, that, as the result of English and American philanthropy, there is now a line of coast of more than 1,800 miles, from the Gambia on the West, to Lagos on the East, where the slave-trade is suppressed, and Christianity is introduced; and, that within this region, once the undisputed empire of the slave-trader, there are now 30,000 attendants on public worship, 10,300 church members, 152 schools, 13,600 pupils, and a band of teachers, nearly all of whom are natives or Liberians.

Such are the results within these Colonies, where the missionaries have enjoyed the protection of Government, and the aid of civilized colored men; such are the fruits of the English and American Colonization of the African race on the soil of their Father-land; and such the prospects of the moral redemption of the people of that continent, by the return of its captive sons, bearing in their hands the lamp of the Gospel.

III. The Missions among the Native Tribes, beyond the Influence and Protection of the Colonies.

A full history of these missions, including the facts illustrative of the obstacles to the progress of Christianity, where the restraints of civil government are not felt by the population, would be of thrilling interest. But this would require a volume. We must limit ourselves to two or three; and shall first direct attention to those of the American Board on the Gaboon, in West Africa, and among the Zulus, in South Africa.

The first of these missions was begun in 1834, at Cape Palmas; but owing to mistaken impressions in relation to the influence of the Colonies on the work, it was removed, in 1842, to the Gaboon, 1200 miles eastward. On entering this region, the missionary, the Rev. J. L. Wilson, encouraged by the attention of the chiefs, entertained such hopes of success, as to lead the Board to send additional missionaries to his aid. Some of the native converts at Cape Palmas, accompanying him to the Gaboon, served as a nucleus for a church at the new station. But on trial, the difficulties inherent in African heathenism were found to be much more perplexing and insurmountable, in his new field, than those he left behind in his old one.

The Report of the Board for 1850, says: “There is yet but one Church in the mission, and this contains 22 members, 11 of whom were received on profession of their faith, in 1849—a greater number than have been received in all the years since the removal of the mission to the Gaboon. Here, as in South Africa, the habit of taking many wives, or rather concubines, operates as a great hindrance to the Gospel; and the evil is much aggravated by the late free introduction of American Rum, which has exerted a most pernicious influence all along the coast.”

A letter from the Rev. Mr. Wilson, of March, 1851, draws a still more discouraging picture of the prospects of the mission: “In some respects,” he says, “our missionary operations seem to be quite stationary. We have had no accessions to our church for some time past; and some who were added last year, do not give us all the satisfaction we had hoped for. If we had other converts, we should be almost afraid to receive them into the church, by reason of the many temptations to which they are exposed; growing out of the loose and perverted state of morals in this community. Nor do we see how society can be placed on such a footing as to make it possible for us to organize a pure Church, until there is a general outpouring of God’s Spirit upon the people.” Then, depicting the general prevalence of polygamy, or what is worse, Mr. Wilson thus concludes: “Demoralizing as this state of society is, the people are, nevertheless, firmly attached to it, and will continue to be so, until they are inspired with better and purer feelings by the Holy Ghost.”

Dr. Ford, another member of this mission, in an appeal for more female laborers, draws a still darker portraiture of the deep moral degradation existing around him. “The condition of African women is beyond description deplorable. No one can appreciate it without seeing it. They are bought and sold, whipped, worked, and despised. Unquestionably they become surly, malicious, and perverse; and under the detestable system of polygamy which prevails everywhere, they are perfectly faithless to their husbands. They are our most bitter enemies, bearing a great dislike to religion, and this they communicate to their children.”

The Report for 1851, speaks more encouragingly, though it records no increase of members. The Report for 1852, shows that the mission stood thus: 4 stations, 6 missionaries, 1 physician, 4 female assistants, 5 native helpers, and 5 schools with about 100 pupils. One member had been added during the year, two Christian marriages solemnized, and four persons baptized. A considerable reduction of the missionary force had occurred during the year, from deaths and the failure of health; so that only two of the stations had been sustained during the whole year. The Report for 1853, records no new admissions to the church. Only two ordained missionaries were left in the mission, and only two stations have been occupied since July.^[42] It is remarked, that though the intelligence from the mission “is less cheering in some respects than we might wish, in others it is satisfactory and encouraging. Two things, however, are greatly needed. The converting energy of the Spirit is a constant and palpable necessity; and the mission should be largely reinforced without delay. Who will cry mightily unto the Lord for his quickening grace? Who will devote themselves to the missionary work among the benighted children of Africa?”^[43]

Mr. Preston has settled 60 miles above the Baraka station, which is near the mouth of the Gaboon, to study the Pangwe language, and to explore the hill country; where the mission has been directed to establish a new station, on account of its greater healthiness, and to operate among the Pangwe people. He has found the country disturbed by wars, and that the Pangwe tribe are cannibals. Prisoners of war and persons condemned for witchcraft, had been eaten, to Mr. Preston’s own knowledge. Such things, he says, are of frequent occurrence; and yet these people work very neatly in iron of their own smelting, and in brass obtained from traders—thus affording evidences of a nearer approach to civilization than the tribes on the coast.

Though the progress of this mission has been slow, and but few converts have been gathered into the church; yet the labors of the missionaries have, by no means, been unproductive of good results. The native languages have been mastered, portions of the scriptures translated into them, and the pupils in their schools will soon be able to read the sacred word, to their parents and friends, in their native tongue.

The Rev. Mr. Wilson, the founder of this mission, has been obliged to retire from the work, on account of ill health. At the meeting of the American Board, in 1852, he was present, explained the condition of the mission, its encouragements and discouragements, and urged an extended effort to take advantage of the present friendly disposition of the natives to gain footholds for schools and churches throughout the country. In relation to the discouragements, he said, that in penetrating the interior, they found the difficulty of traveling very great—their progress being embarrassed by the want of an organized government. They were thus exposed to the attacks of robbers and marauders, who might kill them without being amenable to any power on earth.

From these facts it would seem, that Civil Government is greatly needed for the protection of the Gaboon Mission; and, that instead of its being considered an obstacle, as was the case at Cape Palmas, it is now viewed as necessary to its success: and, if necessary at the Gaboon, it must be equally so in all other parts of Africa.

If this view were generally admitted, a great impulse would be given to our system of African Colonization. Civil government has not been organized in Africa, except by Colonization from either Europe or America; nor can it exist, except among civilized men. Before it can be organized at the Gaboon, an emigration of civilized men must supply the necessary population; or a generation or two pass away, while the work of education prepares the natives for the adoption of civilized customs. The climate forbids the settlement of white men at the Gaboon, or upon any part of the western coast of Africa; and civil government, therefore, can not be introduced by them. Colored men, alone, can live in the enjoyment of vigorous health in that region, and they alone can accomplish this work. As the United States, alone, can supply a sufficient number of intelligent colored men to fill it with colonies; it follows, that colonization, from the United States to Africa, is necessary to the speedy organization of civil government and the more rapid extension of Christianity in that country.

The Mission of the American Board to the Zulus, in South Africa, was begun in 1835. One station was commenced among the maritime Zulus, under king Dingaan, who resided on the east side of the Cape, some 70 miles from Port Natal; and the other among the interior Zulus, under king Mosilikatsi.^[44] This station was broken up in 1837, by a war between the Zulus and the Boers, who were then emigrating from the Cape. The missionaries were forced to leave, and join their brethren at Natal; but, in doing this, they were compelled to perform a journey of 1,300 miles, in a circuitous route, 1,000 of which was in ox wagons, through the wilderness, while they were greatly enfeebled by disease, and disheartened by the death of the wife of one of their party.

The missionaries to the maritime Zulus, when their brethren from the interior joined them, had succeeded in establishing one station among king Dingaan’s people, and another at Port Natal, where a mixed population, from various tribes, had collected among the Dutch Boers, then settling in and around that place. In 1838 a war occurred between Dingaan and the Boers, which broke up the missions and compelled the missionaries to seek refuge on board some vessels, providentially at Natal, in which some of them sailed to the United States, and others to the Cape.

Peace being made in 1839, a part of the missionaries returned to Natal and resumed their labors. But a revolt of one half the Zulus in 1840, under Umpandi, led to another war, in which the new chief and the Boers succeeded in overthrowing Dingaan. His death by the hand of an old enemy, into whose territory he fled, left the Zulus under the rule of Umpandi. This chief allowed the mission in his territory to be renewed in 1841. But, in 1842, a war broke out between the Boers, at Natal, and the British; who, to prevent the Boers from organizing an independent government, had taken possession of that place. In this contest, the Boers were forced to submit to British authority, and British law was extended to the population around Natal. This led to large desertions of the Zulus to Natal, to escape from the cruelties of Umpandi; and he, becoming jealous of the missionary, attacked the mission and butchered three of the principal families engaged in its support. Thus, a second time, was this mission broken up and the mission family forced to retreat to Natal.

Here, then, at the opening of 1843, nearly eight years after the missionaries reached Africa, they had not a single station in the Zulu country, to which they had been sent; and they were directed, by the Board, to abandon the field. From this they were prevented, by the timely remonstrances of the Rev. Dr. Philip, of the English mission at the Cape.

A crisis, however, had now arisen, by which the conflicting elements, hitherto obstructing the Gospel, were rendered powerless or reduced to order, by the strong arm of Great Britain. The fierce Boers had destroyed the power of both Mosilikatsi and Dingaan, and taught the Zulu people that they could safely leave the standard of their chiefs; while the Boers, in turn, had been subjected to British authority, along with the Zulus whom they had designed to enslave. The basis of a colony, under the protection of British law, was thus laid at Natal, which afforded security to the missionaries, and enabled them to establish themselves on a permanent basis. An attempt was also made to renew the mission in the Zulu territory, but Umpandi refused his assent, and the strength of the mission was concentrated within the Natal Colony.

Owing to the continued cruelties of Umpandi, the desertions of his people to Natal increased, until the Colony included a native population, mostly Zulus, of nearly 100,000.

No serious interruptions have occurred, since the British occupied Natal; and opportunities have been afforded for studying the Zulu character, and the remaining obstacles to missionary success among that people. Time has shown, that the tyranny of the chiefs, and the wars of the tribes with each other, or with the whites, are not the most obstinate difficulties to be overcome.

From the Report of the Board for 1850, we learn, that though there were then, in this field, 12 missionaries, 14 assistants, 6 native helpers, 18 places of preaching, and 8 schools; there were but 78 church members and 185 pupils. The Report attributes the slow progress made, to the extreme moral degradation of the population; and, in mentioning particulars, names polygamy as the most prominent. As among the native Africans generally, so is it here, superstition and sensuality are the great barriers to the progress of the Gospel.

But these difficulties do not deter the American Board from persevering in their great work of converting Africa. The men composing the Board know, full well, that the evils existing in all mission fields can only be removed by God’s appointed means, the Gospel; and, that to withdraw it from Africa, would be to render its evils perpetual. Hence, as obstacles rise, they multiply their agencies for good: and, in view of the consistent conduct and piety of the native converts, the Report of 1850, recommends the establishment of a Theological school for training a native ministry for that field. The Reports for 1851 and 1852 are more encouraging, and show an increase of 86 church members, 16 children baptized, and 15 Christian marriages solemnized. The Report for 1853 is less encouraging. The whole number of church members is now 141, of whom only 8 were received during the year. Family schools are sustained at all the stations; but none of the heathen send their children. Three day-schools are taught by native converts, in which the children of those residing at the stations, where they are located, receive instruction. One girls’ school, consisting of about 20 pupils, is taught by Mrs. Adams.^[45] The Christian Zulus are advancing in civilization and in material prosperity; but the heathen population are manifesting more and more of stupid indifference or bitter hostility to the Gospel. This is more particularly indicated in their refusal to send their children to school.

The passage of this mission from the class beyond the protection of the Colonies, to that of those deriving security from them, released it from the annoyances occasioned by native wars, and left it to contend with the obstacles, only, which are inherent in heathenish barbarism. It had, consequently, begun to progress encouragingly. But a new element of disturbance has recently been introduced, which threatens to be no less hurtful than the old causes of interruption and insecurity. We refer to the immigration of the English into the Natal Colony, and their efforts to dispossess the Zulus of their lands.

Before taking any further notice of this threatening evil, we must call particular attention to another point, the importance of which has, perhaps, been too much overlooked. In January, 1853, the Rev. Mr. Tyler thus wrote:

“I have many thoughts, of late, concerning the great obstacle which lies in the way of elevating the Zulus. It seems to me that it is their deep ignorance. We find it exceedingly difficult to throw even one ray of light into minds so darkened and perverted by sin.** Of the great mass who attend our services on the Sabbath, but few, probably, have any clear knowledge of the plan of salvation through faith in Christ. Especially is this true of the female sex, whose condition, both temporal and spiritual, seems almost beyond the reach of improvement.”

Mr. Tyler proceeds to show, that the Zulus, in their religious belief, their worship, and their blind submission to the witch-doctors, evince the most deep, gross, and stupid ignorance imaginable; but he presents nothing as belonging to that people, which is not common to the African tribes generally. Without, at present, remarking on the relation which the ignorance of barbarism, bears to the progress of missions, we shall recur to the effects of the immigration of the whites into the Colony of Natal.

When the Zulus deserted their king and took refuge at Natal, there were but few whites present to be affected by the movement, and allotments of lands were readily obtained for them. Soon afterwards, however, an emigration from Great Britain began to fill up the country. The main object of the whites was agriculture, and the best unoccupied lands were soon appropriated. The new immigrants then commenced settling on the possessions of the Zulus. The designs of the whites soon manifested itself so openly, that the missionaries have been obliged to interpose for the protection of the natives. Accordingly, a committee of their number was deputed to wait upon the Lieutenant Governor, to learn his intentions on the subject. The report of the interview, as made to the American Board, reads as follows:

“He plainly gave us to understand, that instead of collecting the natives in bodies, as has hitherto been the policy, it was his purpose to disperse them among the colonists, and the colonists among them. The natural result will be, to deteriorate our fields of labor, by diminishing the native population, and by introducing a foreign element, which, as all missionary experience proves, conflicts with christianizing interests. Nor did he assure us that even our stations would not be infringed by foreign settlers; but our buildings and their bare sites, he encouraged us to expect, would at all events remain to us undisturbed. But lest this statement convey an impression which is too discouraging, we would say, that many of our fields embrace tracts of country so broken, as not to be eligible as farms for the immigrants; and, hence, no motive would exist for dispossessing the native occupants, unless it would be to transfer them to the more immediate vicinity of the white population, in order to facilitate their obtaining servants; which at present is so difficult as to be considered one of the crying evils of the colony. So deep is the feeling on this subject, that many and strenuous are those who advocate a resort to some system of actual imprisonment. This seems a strange doctrine to be held by the sons of Britain!”

Then, after expressing an opinion that the obstacles in the way of this measure may prevent its execution for some years to come, the report concludes:

“Yet it is more than probable, that some of our stations will experience the disadvantages of the too great proximity of white settlers. The evils of such a proximity are aggravated by the prejudices which exist against missionaries and their operations. And perhaps we should say, that, as American missionaries, we are regarded with still greater jealousy. We fear it will require years to live down these prejudices. Public opinion is more or less fashioned by the influence of unprincipled speculators, alike ignorant of missionaries, their labors, or the native people. Such men, greedy of the soil of the original proprietors, are naturally jealous and envious of those who, they suppose, would befriend the natives in maintaining their rights. If we speak at all, of course we must say what we think to be justice and truth. If we remain silent, as we have hitherto done, we are misrepresented, and our motives are impugned. So that whichever course we take, we can not expect to act in perfect harmony with all the interests of all the men who, within the last few years, have come to the colony.”^[46]

The danger from the inroads of the whites must be imminent, when the missionaries venture to speak so freely in their official report. The grounds of these fears will be understood, when we present the facts connected with our next class of missions. The fate of the Kaffirs, doubtless, awaits the Zulus, if English cupidity is not restrained by a merciful Providence.

The Bishop of Cape Town, in speaking of the disastrous effects of the late Kaffir war, has recently expressed the opinion, that, in less than five years, another equally terrible in its results, in all probability, will occur between the whites and the Zulus; and as a consequence of the large number of Europeans who are mixing among them, and whose chief object appears to be their own enrichment, at the expense of that people.

The American Missionary Association, which is organized on strictly Anti-Slavery principles, has a mission at Kaw-Mendi, 50 or 60 miles north-west of Liberia, which belongs to the class of native missions. This mission had its origin in the return of the “Amistad Slaves,” to their native country, in 1842. The Rev. Mr. Raymond went out at the head of this mission. On reaching Africa, he found wars everywhere prevailing to such an extent, that he could not reach the Mendi country, to which these people belonged, and was forced to settle at Kaw-Mendi, but 40 miles from the coast. The continuation of these wars greatly hindered the progress of the mission, as long as Mr. Raymond lived, and for more than a year after his successor, the Rev. George Thompson, took charge of the station, in 1848. Mr. Thompson thus became painfully familiar with African warfare; and represents it as having been conducted with the utmost cruelty—whole towns being depopulated and multitudes driven to the coast and sold to the slave-traders of the Gallinas. Mr. Thompson was in Africa about two years and a half, and was also greatly hindered by these wars in his efforts to instruct the people; until, happily, the British squadron forcibly suppressed the traffic in slaves, at Grand Cape Mount and the Gallinas, and thus put an end to the market. The supplies of European merchandise being thus cut off from the slave-trading kings, along the coast, they were induced to sell their territory to President Roberts, and place themselves under the jurisdiction of Liberia. One of the stipulations in the treaties, requires the Liberians to establish trading posts in the territory, for the supply of goods to the native population; that they might no longer have any excuse for continuing the slave-trade.

Kaw-Mendi is in the rear of the Gallinas. The termination of the demand for slaves, at once disposed the tribes around the mission to make peace with each other; and Mr. Thompson was eminently successful in reconciling the warring parties to each other. But several months elapsed, from the date of the destruction of the slave-factories, before peace could be restored or the Gallinas purchased. Though often attempted, neither of these objects could be accomplished during the existence of the slave-trade; and, when effected, both were the result of the adoption of measures for the purchase of Gallinas, as a new field for the operations of the American Colonization Society. It is a curious coincidence, that the letter of the Rev. Mr. Thompson, informing the Board of his success in making peace among the tribes; and that of President Roberts to the Colonization Society, announcing the purchase of Gallinas, were both written on the same day.

Mr. Thompson had so many urgent solicitations from the chiefs, for missionaries to come and reside in their territory, that the society sent out a reinforcement of eight males and females, in December, 1850; and he, himself, returned to the United States, during the same month, to remove his family to Kaw-Mendi. The new missionaries reached the mission in safety, in February, 1851, and found Mr. Brooks, in whose care it had been left, in the peaceful pursuit of his duties, and the people urgent for more teachers. Before the close of the year, however, the mission was shrouded in gloom. “The war had recommenced its ravages; and sickness and death had performed a fearful work among the little company of missionaries.” Three of the females had died by the 10th of June. The Board report the condition of the mission, at the close of 1851, as encouraging, and that some additions had been made to the church during the year.

The Report for 1852, says, that the mission has labored under serious embarrassments, and that its operations have been retarded throughout a great part of the year, by the illness of many of its members; and that it has been impossible to commence the new stations authorized the last year. The Board, during this year, appointed a large number of new missionaries, so as to increase the Mendi mission to 17, including males and females. This reinforcement was accompanied by the Rev. George Thompson and his family, who now returned to the field of his former labors.

The Report for 1853, informs us that the new missionaries had reached Africa, early in February; and that all of them had suffered more or less from sickness during the acclimating season. The older missionaries, too, continued to suffer from the debilitating influence of the climate. In June the eldest son of Mr. Thompson died, and soon afterwards Mrs. Thompson’s health so far failed that she had to be removed by her husband to the United States. Mr. Arnold and his wife have also been compelled to ask for a dismission from the service, on account of the state of his health.

During the whole of the year reported, the country has been suffering under one of the most wide-spread and desolating wars that has been known there since the establishment of the mission. It has so far hindered the progress of the work, as to allow of the opening of but one of the stations contemplated, that of Tissana, up the Big Boom river. The latest advices from the mission, says the Report, encourage the hope that the war will soon be brought to a close; and the opinion is expressed that the infamous slave-trade was at the bottom of it.^[47]

The school at Kaw-Mendi has received several additions to its numbers during the year, and the new one at Tissana has been commenced with encouraging prospects. The chiefs, with but a single exception, have consented to the establishment of missions and schools among their people. The Report closes by remarking, “that the published observations of other laborers on that continent serve to show, that white men can live and labor there; and that there are in the interior, towards which they are pressing, more civilized, intelligent, and powerful nations and regions of country, not only less inimical than those they now occupy, to the health of the white man, but even more healthy than many parts of the United States. The Spirit and providence of God thus beckon us onward, and woe will be upon us if we falter in our course.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CONCLUSION.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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