LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 ..-.. ©optjrigJft f o 
 
 Shelf. .31X1 V 
 
 ^ri3 
 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
MISSIONARY LANDSCAPES 
 I 
 
 IN THE 
 
 DARK CONTINENT 
 
 N 
 
 / 
 
 REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, A.T.S. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "MISSIONARY POINTS AND PICTURES," ETC. 
 
 V 
 
 s A X 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY 
 
 182 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
 \ 
 
 *A'V 
 
JJTl | 
 
 Copyright, 1892, by 
 
 Anson D. F. Randolph & Company 
 
 (Incorporated). 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 EDWARD O. JENKINS' SON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In the present volume the author has sketch- 
 ed in outline a few of the notably fascinating 
 African spheres where the missionary vanguards 
 have established their outposts. The triumphs 
 achieved by these spiritual pioneers merit wide 
 and generous appreciation in all lands. Against 
 the two oppressive shadows of native life in 
 Africa : heathenism and slavery, they have un- 
 swervingly measured their strength, prowess, 
 and Christian chivalry. Plunging into pathless 
 wilds, grappling with the densest ignorance, 
 combating the most degrading forms of idol- 
 atry, and steadfastly resisting the horrors of 
 tribal savagery, these knight-errants of heaven 
 have placed the feet of Africa's dusky children 
 upon 
 
 . . . . " The great world's altar-stairs, 
 That slope through darkness up to God." 
 
 (3) 
 
4 Preface. 
 
 To the missionary's self-abnegating and pro- 
 longed toils living monuments bear eloquent 
 testimony. 
 
 His vocation no longer calls for an apology 
 to the world. The missionary has translated 
 the claims of foreign missions from the realm 
 of speculation and opinion into the region of 
 fact and history, by demonstrating that the 
 negro of the lowest aboriginal type is capable 
 of being raised to " heights of mental and 
 moral glory." As eminently, the missionary 
 is an international ally of science, commerce, 
 statesmanship, and civilisation. When Dr. 
 Moffat spoke on African Missions in the Nave 
 of Westminster Abbey, November 30, 1875, he 
 made the remark that, " Missionaries to a bar- 
 barian people deserve a vote of thanks from 
 the commercial world." Without war-axe, 
 spear, or sword, they have been the trader's 
 patron and chief friend. 
 
 These ensigns of the Gospel have displayed 
 sanctified courage, and something of the high 
 and noble life of such crusaders as Mackay, 
 Coillard, Laws, Steere, Hore, Arnot, the Comb- 
 
Preface. 5 
 
 ers, Grenfell, Crowther, Wilmot-Brooke, and 
 others, is narrated in the following pages. 
 Their Spartan deeds, stamped on the plains of 
 the Dark Continent, have stirred the admira- 
 tion of the Christian nations. For the sake of 
 neglected and down-trodden Africa, missionary 
 martyrdoms present an unparalleled record ; 
 heroic spirits having served and fallen in legion, 
 whose dust lies in the lonely, scattered " God's 
 Acres " on Africa's shores. 
 
 Glowingly said Henry Ward Beecher of the 
 missionary character : " The man who under- 
 takes to lift the globe in the sympathy of 
 Christ who said, ' The field is the world '; the 
 man who goes out of his parish, and out of his 
 town, and out of his nation, and goes into the 
 great stream of universal humanity — that is 
 the man who follows Christ." In a similar, 
 impassioned vein Canon Liddon at St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, alluding to the endeavour of mission- 
 aries to plant the standard of the Cross among 
 African races observed that, by supporting so 
 grand an object : " Nothing was more truly 
 Christian and philanthropic, or more worthy 
 
 i 
 
6 Preface. 
 
 of men who hope to have a part in the resur- 
 rection to Eternal Life." By the imperishable 
 victories of missions concerning which fresh 
 and reliable information will be supplied in 
 this work, a loftier enthusiasm is being enkin- 
 dled for the sacred cause, 
 
 The customs, languages, characteristics, and 
 pursuits of the native tribes, and of several 
 portions of the African Continent occupied by 
 the missionaries, have been carefully pourtray- 
 ed. A hearty recognition has been accorded 
 to Africa's explorers and discoverers ; a class 
 of heroes, second only to the missionary, on 
 the roll of honour. From the days of Bruce, 
 Mungo Park, and Clapperton, to the time of 
 Burton, Livingstone, " the king of African 
 pioneers," Speke, Grant, Stanley, and Cam- 
 eron, celebrated travellers have towered in 
 the van, in drawing aside the veil which has 
 shrouded the interior of that immense coun- 
 try. " Daring, always daring," the soldier of 
 exploration penetrating its mystery and vast- 
 ness has incited the missionary to pitch his 
 tent amid the myriads of poor savages in the 
 
Preface. 7 
 
 heart of Darkest Africa. In breaking through 
 the confines of a land of impenetrable silence 
 the missionary and the explorer have been 
 comrades, august rivals. 
 
 Of the broad features of African geography 
 an exact knowledge is of recent date. Only 
 thirty-five years have elapsed since the mighty 
 prize of the source of the Nile was wrested, 
 and, within the last thirty years, — a golden age 
 of discovery, — more has been done for the re- 
 clamation of the " Lost Continent " than in 
 the previous 3,300 years. To remove the pall 
 of ignorance which hung over the depths of 
 Central Africa illustrious bodies of exploring 
 parties have exhibited dauntless resolution, in- 
 trepid spirit, boundless resource, and vast en- 
 terprise ; nor has any other continent claimed 
 so many gallant victims ere its secrets were 
 disclosed. Through the services of these pa- 
 cific invaders civilisation is beginning to shed 
 its illuminating rays over the dark places of 
 Africa, and Christianity to write its name upon 
 the forehead of African humanity. 
 
 In prophetic tones a great missionary has 
 
8 Preface. 
 
 declared, " Africa will be saved"; and, with her 
 emancipation, the demon of slavery, that rem- 
 nant of centuries of tyranny and barbarism, 
 will finally be driven from her coasts. 
 
 England, 1892. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I.— Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars," . u 
 II. — In the Empire of the Moors, . . 35 
 III. — Life Pictures from North African 
 
 Lands, 55 
 
 IV. — Evangelisation in Egypt and the 
 
 Nile Valley, 73 
 
 V. — Uganda under Conquest, ... 89 
 VI.— The Universities' Mission to Cen- 
 tral Africa, 107 
 
 VII. — Pioneering in the Barotsi Kingdom, 
 
 on the Upper Zambesi, . .123 
 VIII. — Sunrise in Kafraria, South Africa, . 145 
 IX.— Planting the Flag of Missions in 
 
 Katanga, 159 
 
 X.— Missionary Advance up the Congo 
 
 Waterway, 179 
 
 XL — Missions on the Niger River, . 197 
 XII.— A Romance of the Equatorial Sou- 
 dan, 215 
 
 XIIL— On the Banks of Lake Tanganyika, 235 
 
 (9) 
 
NYASA, "THE LAKE OF THE STARS." 
 
 (ii) 
 
 i 
 
I. 
 
 NYASA, "THE LAKE OF THE STARS." 
 
 A DEEPENING interest gathers around Lake 
 Nyasa the shores of which were surveyed, less 
 than thirty years ago, for missionary aggression, 
 by the Rev. James Stewart, at the request of the 
 Free Church of Scotland. In face of the recurring 
 slave wars he intimated that any immediate mis- 
 sion inauguration would be futile. Following 
 Livingstone's death, occurring on the 4th of 
 May, 1873, Mr. Stewart, who had in the mean- 
 time been appointed head of Lovedale College, 
 South Africa, propounded in 1874 a fresh 
 scheme. These views were shared by Mr. 
 Young, R.N., author of " Nyasa," also a notable 
 explorer, and, in 1875, this pioneer made the 
 first circumnavigation of Lake Nyasa which 
 was discovered to have a length of 350 miles, a 
 breadth averaging from 16 to 60 miles, and ly- 
 ing in a remarkable hollow of the surrounding 
 
 (13) 
 
14 JVyasa, "The Lake of the Stars!' 
 
 tableland, 1,520 feet above the sea-level. The 
 Free Church then arose with courageous aim 
 to publish light and liberty throughout Nyasa- 
 land in obedience to the Master's commission, 
 in response to Livingstone's last prayer, and in 
 compassion for Africa's benighted humanity. 
 
 The resolve of the Free Church was counten- 
 anced and supported unitedly by the Reformed 
 Presbyterian, the Established, and United 
 Presbyterian churches of Scotland. A year 
 later the Church of Scotland founded its pros- 
 perous mission in the Shire" Highlands, above 
 the Murchison Cataracts, at Blantyre, — named 
 after the Lanarkshire village where David Liv- 
 ingstone was born. Two adjacent stations were 
 subsequently erected at Domasi and Chirazulo. 
 Supplied with a score of European and five na- 
 tive missionaries the Blantyre Mission has done 
 effective industrial, evangelistic, and medical 
 service, and likewise conducted school-training 
 in excellent style. Its current yearly outlay 
 amounts to ^4,000, and upon the entire work- 
 ing of the mission ^40,000 has been spent. 
 Among the honoured names on the Mission 
 
Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars? 15 
 
 staff, Dr. C. Scott, the eminent principal, and 
 Mr. Hetherington, are well-known representa- 
 tives. At Blantyre to-day stands the finest ec- 
 clesiastical edifice between the two extremes of 
 Egypt and Cape Colony, recently built by na- 
 tive labour under European direction. 
 
 Planted in the healthiest of situations the 
 Blantyre Mission has been less exposed to cli- 
 matic perils than the Livingstonia Mission 
 which has suffered the heaviest losses at its ad- 
 vanced outposts. Lately this immunity enjoyed 
 at Blantyre through 15 years of arduous and oc- 
 casionally perilous labours, ended. Within a 
 brief period of three months in 1891 three of 
 the missionaries were fatally stricken. If not 
 martyrs in the ordinary sense of the name, the 
 story of their lives and deaths nevertheless 
 places them in the rank of the noblest heroes. 
 The trio of Scotsmen, Henry Henderson, Dr. 
 John Bowie, and Robert Cleland, were all stu- 
 dents of the University of Edinburgh. To Mr. 
 Henderson belongs the honour of having chosen 
 the site of the Blantyre Mission. A man of 
 delicate tact in winning native confidence, en- 
 
1 6 Nyasa, " The Lake of the Stars." 
 
 dued with a genuine missionary instinct and 
 ideal and, of an energy so untiring, that the 
 natives described him, " the man that never 
 sleeps." At Quillimane, on the 12th of Febru- 
 ary, 1 891, Mr. Henderson died of fever, his 
 health shattered by hardships and his spirit 
 crushed by the death of his wife and child from 
 diphtheria, a few days previously. The memory 
 of this pioneer missionary has been preserved 
 by his old college friends, Lord President Rob- 
 ertson and Lord Stormonth-Darling, who have 
 erected a chaste tablet at Kinclaven, " to com- 
 memorate in the church of his native parish 
 a life of enterprise, gentleness, courage, self- 
 denial, and absolute devotion to the service of 
 Almighty God." Dr. Bowie, the medical mis- 
 sionary, after achieving a brilliant university 
 career and obtaining a lucrative practice in 
 London, offered himself in 1887 for the Blan- 
 tyre Mission. To receive the medical skill of 
 the good surgeon during his brief ministry of 
 healing in the Shire Highlands the afflicted 
 natives came in crowds. Of the doctor's kindly 
 attention to the lowliest African touching in- 
 
Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars" 17 
 
 cidents are related, and, very pitiful are the 
 circumstances which terminated his devoted 
 life. Ere quite recovering from influenza he 
 performed the operation of tracheotomy on his 
 sister's child attacked by diphtheria. Bravely 
 running all risks he repeatedly sucked the dan- 
 gerous tube which only gave temporary relief 
 to the child. Within twelve hours the little 
 sufferer died. Immediately following the child's 
 funeral, its bereaved mother, Mrs. Henderson, 
 was seized by the disease, and Dr. Bowie rising 
 from a sick-bed attempted to save her life by 
 means of tracheotomy. The dreaded foe had 
 made too rapid progress on his sister's constitu- 
 tion, and in a short time Mrs. Henderson passed 
 away, her remains being laid to rest beside 
 those of her dear child. And then the same viru- 
 lent assailant attacked the self-abnegated broth- 
 er, and for him — " The long self-sacrifice of life 
 is o'er." 
 
 The third of this group, Robert Cleland, a 
 Coatbridge engineer in his youthful days, be- 
 came the first missionary on Mount Milanje, 
 about four days' journey from the Blantyre 
 
1 8 Nyasa, " The Lake of the Stars!' 
 
 headquarters. To have the joy of being classed 
 a missionary to the heathen, was an " objective " 
 for which he had laboriously toiled, and had his 
 life, brief, yet fruitful, been prolonged, there 
 was promise of high achievements. An elo- 
 quent portraiture sets Cleland and his brother- 
 missionaries before the world as " unwaver- 
 ing in determination, unfailing in their faith 
 in God, and unwearying in their devotion to 
 Africa, and their love for the African," the 
 study of whose careers must incite like-minded 
 servants of Christ to take up the standards 
 which have fallen from their consecrated hands. 
 By the Free Church of Scotland the Liv- 
 ingstonia Mission was originally established at 
 Cape Maclear, at the south end of Lake Nyasa, 
 a settlement by and by practically abandoned 
 on account of the deadly malaria rising from 
 the imprisoned poisonous agents in the dense 
 soil and undrained marshy plains. In its place, 
 Bandawe, lat.- 12°, half-way up the west coast 
 of the lake was chosen, and, from five centres 
 the Livingstonia Mission has scattered heavenly 
 rays. Over the growing organizations presides 
 
Nyasa, " The Lake of the Stars." 19 
 
 the Rev. Dr. Laws, whom Consul Johnston char- 
 acterizes the greatest man hitherto known in 
 Nyasa-land. On the eve of his furlough in 1892 
 he had been toiling, with slight intermission, 
 for sixteen years in Central Africa, directing 
 the policy and expansion of the Mission. With 
 Livingstone and Steere he may be bracketed, 
 and, as signally, merits the praise of Christen- 
 dom. It was in 1877 that he explored a part 
 of the western shore in company with Dr. 
 Stewart of Scottish renown. A year afterwards 
 Dr. Laws, joined by the late Mr. James Stew- 
 art, C.E., made a journey of 700 miles along 
 the southern and westerly skirts of the lake 
 and the hill country beyond. The doctor's in- 
 exhaustible activity has been marked by medi- 
 cal services, the direction of schools, building 
 of stations, negotiations with fierce tribes, 
 pastoral engagements and invaluable literary 
 undertakings. At Bandawe alone, 7,000 medi- 
 cal cases were treated in 1887, and in the re- 
 spective schools nearly two thousand children 
 are getting instruction. Advance is every- 
 where visible in spite of obstacles which arise 
 
20 Nyasa, u T/ie Lake of the Stars." 
 
 from fifteen different tribes speaking as many 
 languages, with minor varying dialects. The 
 Chirenji, Chitonga, Chigunda, and Angoni 
 tongues have been reduced to writing, and of 
 the sixteen publications in the speech of the 
 natives, gospels, hymns, dictionaries, and prim- 
 ers have chief attention. It is some years since 
 the entire New Testament was translated into 
 Chinyanja, and one of the latest linguistical 
 triumphs is the completion of the Chinyanja 
 Dictionary, a scholarly volume of 231 pages, 
 executed by Dr. Laws, amid the raids of slave 
 marauders, tribal warfare, Arab insurrections, 
 and the vicissitudes attending the founding 
 and supervision of new stations. Conquests of 
 this order make the doctor a leader by whose 
 missionary apostleship the Gospel has been 
 marvellously glorified. 
 
 On the Nyasa field the stations comprise 
 Bandawe, Mombera's, Chineyera, Chirenji, Chin- 
 ga, Cape Maclear, Chikusi's, Malindu, and Che- 
 were's — fifty miles west of Lake Nyasa. Pro- 
 spective stations are afoot at Karonga's, at the 
 north end of Nyasa, renowned as a trading 
 
Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars!' 21 
 
 depot of the African Lakes Company, which 
 the Arabs failed to capture at the time of Cap- 
 tain Lugard's defence ; and at Ukukwi or Kar- 
 aramuka, in a fascinatingly situated forest- clad 
 country to the northeast of the lake, where the 
 Moravians are opening a mission. Thirty-one 
 workers are enrolled on the Free Church staff, 
 including seven ordained medical missionaries^ 
 nine artisans and teachers, and a dozen native 
 evangelists. The Dutch Reformed Church at 
 Stellenbosch, South Africa, is now warmly co- 
 operating in the extensions of the Livingstonia 
 Mission, upon which a sum of £60,000 in all, 
 has been expended, and about £5,000 per 
 annum devoted to this spiritually crowned 
 enterprise. 
 
 From a holiday ramble which the Rev. Law- 
 rence Scott a North of England clergyman 
 .nade in Central Africa, in 1888, with some 
 contempt for perils and fatigues, in order to 
 visit a brother-in-law, to carry out a botanical 
 expedition, and, to benefit his fellow-creatures 
 in those far-off regions, realistic glimpses at 
 first hand were obtained of the native races. 
 
22 JVyasa, " The Lake of the Stars." 
 
 Passing the picturesque Murchison Cataracts 
 he visited the powerful tribe of the Makololo, 
 welded together by native followers of Living- 
 stone and lately ruled over by a powerful chief, 
 whose death in 1887 was deeply regretted. 
 The Makololo, always friendly to the English, 
 a fine, independent race, capable of work, open 
 to civilisation, and competent for self-defence, 
 had invariably been able to keep out both the 
 Arabs and the Portuguese. On the west of 
 Lake Nyasa, and a little inland, were situated 
 the great tribe of the Angoni, — a race of Zulu 
 origin, men of imposing stature, warlike, brave, 
 and hitherto strong enough to hold their own 
 against any Arabs opposing them. Northwards, 
 a different, and, in some respects, a higher type 
 of race, was found. Their huts were large and 
 well built, with some attempt at ornament and 
 painting ; their streets, or rather the paths be- 
 tween the huts, were clean, and swept out 
 every morning ; their gardens skilfully culti- 
 vated, and their numerous cattle most atten- 
 tively cared for. This tribe, or perhaps series 
 of tribes of one origin and one language, the 
 
Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars" 23 
 
 Wa-Nkonde and the Wam-Wamba, occupy the 
 extreme northwest and northern shores of Lake 
 Nyasa, a lovely and most fertile plain reaching 
 up into the hills which divide Nyasa from 
 Tanganyika. These were the finest people seen, 
 happy, contented, industrious, peace-loving, 
 with qualities which could easily be developed. 
 There is every probability that the Makololo, 
 the Angoni, the Wam-Wamba, and minor 
 tribes in these territories might in the course 
 of a few years with tact and judgment be 
 united into one powerful nation and, guided 
 by Englishmen, whom they are anxious to have 
 settled amongst them, they would maintain 
 their independence, and so form a decisive 
 check upon the operation of the slave-trader. 
 
 Where the missionary, as may be supposed, 
 has not made a settlement the children of the 
 natives exposed to Arab invaders suffer dread- 
 fully from deeds of oppression and slavery. 
 Writing from Karonga, in 1889, Dr. Kerr Cross 
 describes seeing a small caravan of slaves in 
 that district which consisted merely of five 
 boys and two girls. The day's march was over, 
 
24 Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars. 
 
 and they sat on the ground ; but the " goree- 
 stick " was still on their neck. The leaders of 
 the caravan were greatly perturbed at the doc- 
 tor's presence and denounced him vehemently. 
 Of the captives said the doctor, " Poor things, 
 I pitied them with all my heart, and when I 
 saw their upturned eyes and mangled hands 
 and bruised, skinny bodies, and heard the white- 
 robed ruffian talk loudly of ' his property,' I 
 felt desperately inclined to break his head. I 
 was enabled to rule my anger, I am glad to say. 
 Next morning the same caravan came a few 
 miles off their way, that they might march past 
 our house and defy us to touch them. Surely 
 Ethiopia, in scenes such as these, pleads for 
 help, and stretches out her hands to God and 
 to us against the Arab and his guns." 
 
 Another letter from Ukukwi of later date, de- 
 picts more of this nefarious work by the villain- 
 ous Merere, chief of a large Arab country, and his 
 accomplices, two Arab bands, on Mwasyoghi, a 
 country lying at the foot of a giant hill, Rungwe, 
 to the extreme north of the Livingstone Range. 
 The inoffensive natives in one of the villages 
 
Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars*" 25 
 
 scarcely awakened, tried to defend themselves 
 and to save their wives and children. So heavy 
 was the murderous fire of the Arab guns upon 
 them that they were driven back, and finally 
 routed from their homesteads. A number of 
 neighbouring villages were sacked and fired, 
 the inhabitants of which were either killed, 
 chained, or obliged to fly to the hills, and up- 
 wards of thirty women, with their babies, and 
 several young girls captured. The miscreants 
 securely entrenching themselves in a stockade 
 of bamboos and banana-stems, settled down to 
 enjoy themselves in their own brutish way, 
 gorging themselves on the spoil, and glutting 
 their savage lust by outraging the women 
 and young girls. Disturbed in the midst of 
 these fiendish perpetrations by some children 
 weeping over the mutilated bodies of their 
 mothers, certain of the inhuman wretches " un- 
 able to quiet the bairns clubbed some, and cast 
 others into the flames of the burning houses. 
 This is the Arab in Africa ! Oh, God, raise up 
 friends for this poor, bleeding, unhappy land ! " 
 At Kopakopa's village, in the middle of 1! 
 
26 Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars." 
 
 might have been seen five women and five 
 children stolen from their own village with the 
 slave-sticks on their necks. During the night 
 the end of the sticks — young trees — were tied 
 to the roofs of the houses, attached to which 
 the captives lay through the chilly nights, the 
 possible prey of hyenas or other animals. In 
 the day-time, until sold or slain, they were al- 
 lowed to crawl about the fronts of the houses 
 always dragging the tree behind. That same 
 year in August, Dr. Cross says : " The other 
 day, some of our men, returning from Ukanga 
 on the south, came across the body of a child 
 lately thrown to the crocodiles. It was the 
 old story. The captive mother was swooning 
 under the load of the ' goree-stick ' and her 
 infant, when her capturer seized the child and 
 threw it into the stream." 
 
 In sweet contrast to these dark tragedies, 
 writes this earnest missionary at the termination 
 of the struggle with the Arabs on the Nyasa- 
 Tanganyika plateau : " Notwithstanding all that 
 is disadvantageous,! have a most interesting little 
 school held every forenoon under the trees out- 
 
Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars" 2 J 
 
 side the stockade. There are 300 names on 
 the roll, with 250 in attendance. There are six 
 classes, each taught under six giant Misyungute 
 trees, and the children are advancing. All my 
 little scholars at the school are children from 
 the Wankonde villages — the very children that 
 the Arabs fought for and longed to enslave. 
 They are every one of them naked and help- 
 less. God has rescued them from the slaver's 
 cruel hand, and they look to us. Could not 
 the children of the Sabbath-schools at home do 
 a little for the-300 naked, helpless Wankonde 
 children whom we have graciously saved from 
 the cruel goree-stick and slavery ? " 
 
 The schools dotting the west coast of Lake 
 Nyasa, in 1892, are the brightest spots in the 
 land, and where school-buildings have not yet 
 been erected, the work is usually done in the 
 open air, beneath the shade of a big tree, when 
 one can be found. Lessons are taught in read- 
 ing, writing, arithmetic, and Bible instruction. 
 The fathers and mothers unable to read them- 
 selves, cannot help their children, and, not in- 
 frequently, some of them think that their chil- 
 
28 Nyasa, " The Lake of the Stars." 
 
 dren should be paid for attending the school. 
 African children in the strongly-defended vil- 
 lages have all kinds of ingenious amusements, 
 of which Dr. Laws has sent details. The boys* 
 chief game is with an india-rubber ball, in which 
 they take two sides, and try to keep the ball 
 always to their own party. Another game is 
 played with beans or small stones put in hollow 
 cups scraped out of the ground, and a curious 
 one consists of two rows of boys sitting oppo- 
 site to each other on the ground. Each of the 
 boys sets up a little stick before him, which his 
 companion over against it tries to knock down 
 with little bits of calabash put on a pivot, by 
 making them spin across at it. The boy pick- 
 ing up these tries in the same way to knock 
 down the other boy's peg. The girls amuse 
 themselves chiefly by imitating their mothers 
 pounding grain and grinding meal and sifting 
 it, or sometimes the little ones may be seen 
 with a piece of cassava-root or sweet potato 
 tied on their backs, as their mothers carry their 
 babies. 
 
 Under the Free Church Mission flag, mission- 
 
Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars." 29 
 
 aries in whose breasts burns the fire of action 
 are serving. In 1891, Dr. Kerr Cross returned 
 from his home-furlough with his bride — a 
 step-daughter of the late Dr. Turner, the famous 
 South Sea missionary — for his station in North 
 Nyasa-land. His gentle bearing, modesty, sil- 
 very-toned utterance, and refined features are 
 unsuggestive of one who has exhibited the 
 most chivalrous gallantry in ministering to a 
 handful of men defending themselves against 
 overwhelming bands of Arabs. In this fight 
 for existence and the humanity of the slave at 
 Karonga's, Dr.Kerr Cross, the faithful physi- 
 cian, will ever be associated with Captain 
 Lugard and his brave garrison. Other splendid 
 representatives in Livingstonia who are speed- 
 ing the course of missionary empire embrace Dr. 
 Elmslie, the translator of a primer in the lan- 
 guage of the war-loving 'Ngoni ; Dr. Henry, 
 of South 'Ngoni ; and the Rev. A. C. Murray, 
 of the West Nyasa Highlands. To these add 
 the name, greatly revered, of the late youthful 
 Rev. J. Alex. Bain, whose task of love, begin- 
 ning in 1883 at the most northerly outpost of 
 
 
o 
 
 o Nyasa, "The Lake of the Stars!' 
 
 Lake Nyasa, was continued with fervid conse- 
 cration and unceasing hardships until death 
 called him home from the sunny shores of 
 Bandawe on the 16th of May, 1889. 
 ! Through the formation of the African Lakes 
 Company, in 1878, for the development of the 
 country's resources and materially reinforcing 
 the cause of missions, a staunch ally was ob- 
 tained. In a remarkable measure the mission- 
 aries have been indebted to the generous sym- 
 pathy and sagacious counsels of the Living- 
 stonia Committee at home, of which Mr. J. 
 Stevenson, t of "Stevenson Road" fame, and 
 Mr. J. Campbell White, are known columns of 
 strength. The latter gentleman is inviting 
 Scotchmen to raise .£20,000, to cover the fifth 
 period of five years, in order that the work of 
 the Livingstonia Mission may be consolidated 
 and extended. 
 
 Of the outlook over Nyasa-land there is a 
 broadening sunrise. Mission and civilising 
 agencies are progressing. Strangers unarmed 
 are growingly trusted by the natives, and be- 
 neath the banner of the united white influence 
 
Nyasa, u The Lake of the Stars." 31 
 
 the tribes are peaceably disposed. Outside 
 these protected oases of civilisation slave-raid- 
 ing has its bloody and devastating triumphs. 
 Against the chiefs engaged in this iniquitous 
 traffic Commissioner Johnston has been waging 
 a military crusade, and, throughout the British 
 Protectorate of Nyasa-land his attacks on the 
 Arabs, though attended by loss to his own 
 forces, were partially victorious at the close of 
 1 89 1 and early in 1892. The anticipated fu- 
 ture successes of this gallant officer throw a 
 hopeful light upon the destiny of Lake Nyasa. 
 In advancing the civilisation of Nyasa-land, 
 " customs " are being established, and postal 
 regulations facilitated. Land is eagerly pur- 
 chased, giving an impetus to agricultural pros- 
 pects. That the health of Europeans can be 
 guaranteed is demonstrated by the sixteen 
 years' experience of settlers on Central African 
 uplandsc So welcome a piece of intelligence 
 does not materially affect the opinion of Afri- 
 can experts that Africa can only be cultivated, 
 on a broad scale, by her own people. In this 
 direction native labour is being employed and 
 
32 Nyasa, " The Lake of the Stars ." 
 
 the natives induced to live on the plantations. 
 As regards entrance to the lake region it is 
 stated that a direct passage can be made from 
 the Indian Ocean, via the Zambesi and Shire" 
 Rivers, as far as the foot of the Murchison Cat- 
 aracts. 
 
 Dr. Kerr Cross tells a romantic story of the 
 introduction of the coffee-plant into Nyasa-land. 
 By way of experiment the curators of Kew 
 Gardens sent out to Blantyre about ten years 
 ago a number of slips of the coffee-plant. One 
 of these alone survived the long journey and 
 happily, it was of hardy growth. The plant 
 took kindly to the soil, grew, bore seed, proved 
 itself wonderfully prolific, and to-day is the 
 progenitor of a million of plants growing on a 
 single estate, besides hundreds of thousands 
 on neighbouring lands. The coffee produced 
 realises a good profit in the London market. 
 As Dr. Cross says : " That little cutting from 
 Kew bids fair to have a mighty civilising influ- 
 ence on this part of Africa, and to confer an 
 inestimable boon on its people." 
 
 The tribes around Nyasa are a thoroughly 
 
Nyasa, " The Lake of the Stars.' 1 55 
 
 interesting race of people ; skilful in a variety 
 of native trades and willing to adopt Western 
 ideas and handicrafts. Similar to their kins- 
 men on Afric's shores they yield to supersti- 
 tions, depraved beliefs, witchcraft, and savage 
 passions. Most dreaded of their foes is the 
 Arab raider, in whose scorched tracks weak 
 and solitary tribes are marched off in chains, 
 " with a gun in front and one behind," or 
 slaughtered, which gives a world of pathos to 
 the observation that the African has been the 
 prey of the slaver ever since the dynasties of 
 the Pharaohs and is the blood-chattel of the 
 slaver to-day. Scorned by multitudes better 
 stationed, the dark negro ruthlessly persecuted 
 by woes, misfortunes, and servitude, unhelped 
 for ages, was more sinned against than sinning, 
 and with all his barbarous habits, idolatries, and 
 ugliness, he was a man, crying from end to end 
 of Africa for his heaven-born rights. 
 
 For the salvation of these lost ones the mis- 
 sionaries of the Eternal King have penetrated 
 the wildest regions and, from the dense forest 
 banks of the Ruo River, over the Shire pla- 
 
34 Nyasa, " Z!^^ Z^^ of the Stars" 
 
 teaus, by the silvery beach of Lake Nyasa, up 
 the Stevenson Road, across the waters of Tan- 
 ganyika, and forward to the boundaries of the 
 Congo Free State, they speak of the peace of 
 faith, the joy of hope, and, of the life everlast- 
 ing. 
 
IN THE EMPIRE OF THE MOORS. 
 
 (35; 
 
II. 
 
 IN THE EMPIRE OF THE MOORS. 
 
 FOR a picture of a nation's decay, corruption, 
 darkness, and oppression, Morocco has an unhap- 
 py reputation. By missionaries and travellers 
 alike the moral condition of the people is pour- 
 trayed in sombre hues ; a consequence partly due 
 to bad government which in turn reflects in 
 some measure the lawless habits of the native 
 tribes. The wretched system of administration, 
 — low and even declining, and universally ex- 
 posed to abuse and imposition, — is vastly inferior 
 to the Mohammedan rule exercised two cen- 
 turies ago. Judged by a fair European standard 
 government in Morocco has only a shadow of 
 existence. The Sultan, Muley Hassan, has 
 neither absolute power nor entire responsibility 
 over his dominions. He is a despot of limited au- 
 thority. Spending much of his time in the harem 
 
 or, travelling between his two chief cities — Mo- 
 
 (37) 
 
38 The Empire of the Moors. 
 
 rocco and Fez, some three hundred miles apart 
 — the Sultan is content with the homage of 
 sovereignty and a sufficient income for his 
 pleasure, station, court, and pageants. The 
 control of Morocco is practically in the hands 
 of Kaids, governors of the three and thirty dis- 
 tricts into which the empire is partitioned. 
 Their sway, characteristic of Eastern nations, 
 is marked by cruelties and extortions on an 
 infamous scale. The officials according to 
 their rank fleece the natives, and infrequently 
 does a superior interfere. Myriads of acres of 
 fine tracts of soil lie in " flat idleness " on ac- 
 count of the burdens imposed by tax-gatherers. 
 This lamentable condition of things results in 
 multitudes of the people existing in squalor 
 and destitution, and it is not surprising that in 
 every department of life retrogression is seen 
 or, that Morocco is a couple of thousand years 
 to the rear of the civilisation of Great Britain 
 and America. 
 
 Morocco — the land of song, renown, and 
 classic beauty — has, for ages been strangely 
 neglected by the civilised world. To an un- 
 
The Empire of the Moors. 39 
 
 usual degree Europe is unacquainted with it 
 notwithstanding that about five thousand vol- 
 umes describe the country's principal features 
 and that of these books of travel, three hun- 
 dred are written in the English language. 
 The descendants of the Moors, who, for cen- 
 turies, conquered and governed Spain, retain 
 their ancestors' spirit of independence, courage, 
 glint of refinement, and martial bearing. To 
 kindness they are responsive and generally 
 willing to give hospitality to strangers. The 
 violence of character which they occasionally 
 display is an inevitable consequence of the ill- 
 usage and persecution inflicted upon them by 
 the official classes. To a less extent does the 
 degraded morality belong to the Jews in Mo- 
 rocco than to the Moors. In Tangier the for- 
 mer are influential, thrifty, enterprising, and 
 the most enlightened part of the population, 
 although in the adjoining provinces many of 
 their race are the victims of gross oppression 
 due to their alleged usurious habits. The Jews 
 are regarded the hope of the Barbary States. 
 In the education of the children of Morocco 
 
4-0 The Empire of the Moors. 
 
 Jews the present schools, few in number, are 
 rendering a distinct service to the advance of 
 the country, and one of the chief blessings 
 which Christian nations could bestow on a 
 backward and imperfectly civilised, people 
 would be, the increase of these helpful institu- 
 tions. Of the mineral wealth and fertility of 
 the land glowing accounts corroborate each 
 other. In 1892 it was stated that maize, after 
 paying the high rate of 105 per cent, duty, was 
 exported in large quantities. Trade with Great 
 Britain was considerable, and growing, and, were 
 the Sultan not suspicious of the intrigues of 
 foreign powers and his courtiers guilty of hir- 
 ing fanatical Mohammedans in order to work 
 on the religious fears of their co-religionists 
 with the result of almost constant friction and 
 ill-feeling, commercial advantages might be 
 extended both as regards the development of 
 native resources and the importation of manu- 
 factured articles. 
 
 Geographically viewed Morocco, " the China 
 of the West," occupies the north-western cor- 
 ner of the African Continent, bounded on the 
 
The Empire of the Moors. 41 
 
 north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by- 
 Algeria and the Sahara, on the south by the 
 giant snow-clad ranges of the Atlas Mountains, 
 and westwards by the blue waters of the mighty 
 Atlantic Ocean. The area, equal in size to five 
 times that of England, is about 260,000 square 
 miles and, on a part of its coast line, a 1,000 
 miles in extent, the trading settlement of Cape 
 Juby, Northwest Africa, is the only civilising 
 influence. Its population (in the absence of 
 official records) is estimated at from 5,000,000 
 to 8,000,000, consisting of Jew, Moslem, Negro, 
 and European. The fierce semi-independent 
 hill tribes governed by their own chiefs pay 
 scanty respect to the Sultan whose skill is dis- 
 played in keeping them in a state of perpetual 
 warfare to avoid revolution at. home. Sultan 
 Muley Hassan has a "standing army" number- 
 ing 15,000 soldiers. The generalissimo of the 
 forces is a Scotchman bearing the title of Kaid 
 MacLean, who has the assistance of his brother, 
 both of whom were formerly officers in the Brit- 
 ish army. A description of the native warriors 
 presents some " rather ludicrous " aspects. 
 
42 The Empire of the Moors. 
 
 " The troops are clad in cast-off British red-coats 
 worn not as tunics, for a Moor could never bear 
 to be strapped up, but as loose jackets with a 
 single button at the throat. When near enough 
 you can see the marks of the old regimental 
 numbers, or brigade initials, on the shoulder- 
 pieces. A tarboosh or peaked head-piece, a 
 pair of wide pantaloons of white, or dubious 
 coloured cotton cloth, and the orthodox Moor- 
 ish slippers, with an obsolete British musket 
 and bayonet, completes the warrior's outfit. The 
 British bugle-calls sound at morning, noon, and 
 night in camp and barracks, and the words of 
 command for military movements are given in 
 English." A number of the soldiers and a 
 great body of attendants join the Court on its 
 annual progress through the provinces, an 
 event which the natives on the line of route 
 have reason to fear and dread. The pastoral 
 resources of the people are usually exhausted 
 by the demands which the Sultan's escort 
 imposes upon these defenceless subjects. More 
 terrible are the visits which the troops of 
 the Sultan make in order to avenge insurrec- 
 
The Empire of the Moors. 43 
 
 tions. A large army is ordered into the district 
 disaffected and the country for miles round is 
 laid waste by fire and, the wretched inhabitants 
 slaughtered in considerable numbers. In this 
 kind of "justice," much of his Majesty's time 
 is said to be occupied. 
 
 Slavery is quite common in Morocco. At 
 regular intervals slave caravans arrive from 
 Timbuctoo and the Soudan and freely distrib- 
 ute their " commerce." Three days a week 
 generally in Fez, Morocco City, and other 
 places, slave auctions are held in the open 
 market regardless of European opinion and con- 
 demnation. This degrading traffic is an index 
 of the social condition existing in Morocco. In 
 the coast towns the British Minister, Sir John 
 Drummond Hay, reports that the prohibition 
 of the public sale of slaves has lately been in- 
 fringed, a backward step greatly to be deplored. 
 Mr. Donald MacKenzie returning from his 
 travels in Morocco at the beginning of 1892, 
 states that slave-dealing there is as active as 
 ever. It is carried on more privately in the 
 port towns, from fear of attracting the attention 
 
44 The Empire of the Moors. 
 
 of the Anti-Slavery Society, but, in the interior, 
 slaves are exposed in the public markets. A 
 little time back the Moorish Kaids gave the 
 Sultan and his son a present of 200 male and 
 female slaves, to celebrate the event of the mar- 
 riage of the heir to the Moorish throne. Girls, 
 from to to 13 years of age, fetch about £16 to 
 £24. each, and the slave merchants find the fe- 
 males more profitable from 10 to 20 years of 
 age. Shortly before his death the lamented 
 Sir William Kirby Green obtained a verbal 
 promise from the Sultan that the open slave 
 markets in his dominions should be closed, — an 
 agreement, unfortunately, not ratified. By the 
 new Minister at Morocco, Sir Charles Euan- 
 Smith, active opposition to slave-selling is ex- 
 pected. Sir Charles's efforts on behalf of the 
 freedom of the slave at Zanzibar are a guarantee 
 that in Morocco he will show at the earliest 
 opportunity his aversion to the cruel trade and, 
 as zealously work for its stoppage. 
 
 On the unreclaimed field of Morocco the 
 North Africa Mission and the South Morocco 
 Mission, — the principal societies with opera- 
 
The Empire of the Moors. 45 
 
 tions, — are doing effective service. The former 
 has twenty ladies and seven gentlemen en- 
 gaged in evangelistic and similar labours at 
 Tangier, Tetuan, Fez, and Casa Blanca, chiefly 
 in the northern provinces. Since the opening 
 of this mission in 1884 suitable premises have 
 been erected and increasing influence gained 
 over the Moslem, Jewish, Negro, and European 
 populations. 
 
 The city of Tangier, on the north-western 
 coast of Morocco, is the headquarters of the 
 North Africa Mission and, the popular seaport 
 of the missionaries. At Hope House on the city's 
 outskirts the missionaries reside until they are 
 accustomed to the climate and make acquaint- 
 ance with Arabic. From the rocky coast 
 which blooms with scarlet geraniums, yellow 
 cistus, and many lovely flowers, outward and 
 homeward bound steamers via the Straits of 
 Gibraltar can easily be seen. The Tulloch 
 Memorial Hospital at Tangier, built in mem- 
 ory of Miss Tulloch, a beloved labourer, and 
 standing on the spot where she " fell asleep," 
 is an invaluable institution, over which Dr. T. 
 
46 The Empire of the Moors. 
 
 G. Churcher exercises a capable medical and 
 spiritual superintendence. Patients of every 
 race and colour throng the waiting-rooms from 
 districts where small-pox makes its ravages on 
 Arab children, elephantiasis on adults, and, 
 leprosy, amid Negro communities. In one of 
 his vivid portraitures the doctor refers to a 
 poor, sick slave from Mequinez, Central Mo- 
 rocco, whose face was radiant with joy at the 
 news that the very Son of God died to save 
 even him. Of the missionaries' highest re- 
 sponsibility, writes Dr. Churcher, " All our 
 practical work is as nothing, and less than 
 nothing, as compared with the value of one 
 soul." The staff in Tangier includes fourteen 
 missionaries, of which Mr. H. N. Patrick, a 
 Spaniard, is ardently spreading the seed of the 
 kingdom among the 4,000 Spanish in the 
 city. Strange receptions are given to the lady 
 missionaries. Upon a few of them visiting 
 the market-place of Soke Hermees, in the vi- 
 cinity of Tangier, every eye was fixed on them, 
 followed with the cry, " The Nazarenes are 
 here, the Nazarenes have come." Elsewhere 
 
The Empire of the Moors. 47 
 
 the missionaries have been styled the " Naza- 
 ras " and " Kafirs,"— meaning, Infidels. Tetu- 
 an, lying on the northern skirt of Morocco, is 
 a centre of trade and political influence. 
 Nestling between two ranges of mountains 
 overlooking the Mediterranean, the city has 
 been likened in the sunshine to a " huge pearl 
 in verdant setting." Although the population 
 of 30,000, comprising Moslems and Jews and a 
 sprinkling of Spaniards, has many of the lead- 
 ing Morocco families, its filth and crumbling 
 ruins are typical of the polluted moral atmos- 
 phere. The city's charming natural scenery 
 is shadowed by Mohammedan darkness, for 
 the penetration of which serene faith has been 
 required. As the terminus of a network of 
 routes from the interior, Tetuan is an excel- 
 lent base for missionary propagation. It forms 
 the gateway of the Riff country which extends 
 to Algeria. The Riff tribes, not unlike the Al- 
 gerian Kabyles, are Berbers, estimated to be 
 200,000 in number, who show indifferent regard 
 for the Sultan's edicts. 
 
 Fez, the Moorish capital, 130 miles from 
 
48 The Empire of the Moors, 
 
 Tangier, has 150,000 inhabitants. When Miss 
 Herdman, its first lady missionary, was ap- 
 proaching it by the Sebou River, a determined 
 Arab female seized her by the throat with one 
 hand, and, drawing the other across it in imita- 
 tion of cutting it, savagely cried out, " That is 
 what we ought to do with you." In Fez, after 
 seven years' toil, Miss Herdman remains, a 
 warmly esteemed messenger of peace. Of 
 picturesque situation rising from a circular 
 depression, Fez is surrounded by snow- 
 crowned summits of the higher Atlas range. 
 The under slopes of these are clothed with 
 orange and lemon gardens, red-leaved pome- 
 granates, extensive olive plantations, and pe- 
 rennial, green shrubbery. Amid patches of 
 golden wheat and barley, the brilliant poppies, 
 marigolds, and groups of tinted flowers, make 
 bright scenes. For centuries the Mogreb from 
 the elegant tower of the historic Muley Idrees 
 mosque has daily sounded, and, to it, the muez- 
 zins on distant minarets have as faithfully an- 
 swered. In the assault on this stronghold of 
 the False Prophet, Christ's angels of mercy have 
 
The Empire of the Moors. 49 
 
 hazarded their lives, and, in the gorgeous sun- 
 sets, have climbed the flat roofs of the houses 
 to the 'alliyahs, to sing the melodies of Zion, 
 or read the " Wordless Book," in the hearing of 
 richly attired Moorish ladies and timid negress 
 slaves. Not the least triumph of the North 
 Africa Mission is the willingness of the Arabs 
 to allow their wives and daughters to visit, un- 
 escorted, the mission gatherings. The medical 
 mission at Fez is an incessantly besieged ref- 
 uge in which suffering humanity is relieved. 
 Women from towns and far-away villages as- 
 semble at the teachers' doors, and even slaves 
 listen to the truth which maketh free indeed. 
 One of the visitors two years ago was a 
 black slave who, accompanying her mistress, 
 said with glee, " I have brought her to hear 
 about SidnaAissa," — the name by which Christ 
 is known. The centre of avast outlying popu- 
 lation, Fez has a few dauntless pioneers and 
 witnesses within its gates. 
 
 Since 1888 the southerly parts of Morocco 
 have had the unswerving devotion of the mis- 
 sionaries belonging to the South Morocco Mis- 
 
50 The Empire cf the Moors. 
 
 sion. Visiting the land in search of health, Mr. 
 John Anderson, of Ardrossan, was appalled at 
 thedark-souled condition of the people and, on 
 his return to Scotland, founded and, has sub- 
 sequently guided, the mission, which is a 
 growingly powerful agency. With upwards of 
 twenty missionaries the mission is represented 
 at Rabat, Mazagan, Mogador, and Morocco City. 
 Unconnected with any branch of the Christian 
 Church the missionaries of this organization 
 seek to spread the kingdom of God in a plain 
 and unfettered manner, in harmony with Gos- 
 pel teaching. The poor are visited, the young 
 instructed, the sick healed, and the Words of 
 Christ everywhere spoken in " a land of dark- 
 ness, as darkness itself." 
 
 In South Morocco the state of agriculture, 
 communication, sanitary matters, and degrada- 
 tion, can hardly be conceived. Agricultural 
 operations remain in a crude and childish stage. 
 Ploughing is carried out under amusing con- 
 ditions. It is a common occurrence to see 
 yoked together in pairs to the plough, " a pair 
 of bulls, a bull and a cow, a bull and a donkey, 
 
M 
 
 The Empire of the Moors, 
 
 5i 
 
 a horse and a camel, and, a camel and a cow." 
 When the furrows are made, or scratched, the 
 animals stand at the ends of the plots till the 
 Morocco peasant sows his ridges. In the far 
 south of Morocco the Atlas Mountains supply- 
 rushing streams which are utilised for irrigation 
 by means of the artificial water courses. Where 
 the inhabitants have the skill and resources to 
 make these deep channels, admirable crops are 
 raised, once or twice annually, and the fertility 
 of the soil increased. Fair landscapes appear 
 on the horizon, rich in olive trees and adorned 
 with that crown of Oriental vegetation — the 
 picturesque date palm, welcomely availed of 
 by travellers for shade in the neighbourhood of 
 wells and flowing rivulets. Means of transit 
 are of a primitive type, accomplished by mules. 
 These animals and their masters are equally 
 expert in protracting the time of a journey. 
 
 Mogador, on the coast, 125 miles from Mo- 
 rocco, is peopled chiefly by the Moors and Jews. 
 The Mellah, the quarter in which Jews are 
 packed, is the abode of foul smells, raging 
 fevers, and loathsome sights, principally conse- 
 
5 2 The Empire of the Moors. 
 
 quent upon the absence of drainage. Christian 
 work in Mogador among the Jews is as burden- 
 some as it is perilous. Much preferable is the 
 labour of Moorish evangelisation, this race be- 
 ing more cleanly in habit and less crowded to- 
 gether than their degraded neighbours. Travel- 
 ling from Mogador to Morocco, a journey which 
 occupies five days on muleback, the country on 
 approaching Morocco presents lovely views. 
 A missionary traveller writes : " Passing over a 
 fine stretch of land thickly studded with date 
 palms, many of them laden with golden fruit, 
 the city came in sight. Its white-washed walls 
 and battlemented houses, and its many mina- 
 rets, some of them very high, gleamed in the 
 bright sunlight, while beyond rose the Atlas 
 Mountains in rugged grandeur reflecting the 
 sunshine in many brilliant hues from their 
 snow-capped peaks and lofty slopes. The 
 scene was one of surpassing loveliness, but its 
 beauty only served to heighten the effect of 
 the startling contrast within the walls of the 
 city. The superabounding filth, the unwhole- 
 some effluvia, the perpetual discomfort, make 
 
The Empire of the Moors. 53 
 
 it a most undesirable residence; while the in- 
 tense and, to the European, almost unbearable 
 stifling heat of summer, will prove no ordinary 
 strain to physical endurance — and health." Mr. 
 Joseph Thomson says that one-half of the 
 population is usually in prison, — a revelation 
 which has a pitiful climax in the spiritual blind- 
 ness of the people where Moslem fanaticism 
 flaunts itself and, on every hand, moral pollu- 
 tion obtains. 
 
 The subjects of the Empire of Morocco are 
 proud, superstitious, bigoted, easily lending 
 themselves to hatred and strife. Tens of 
 thousands of the inhabitants in the wildest dis- 
 tricts believe in the return of Mahomet's sway, 
 and confidently await the hour of a mighty ris- 
 ing for the re-establishment of his fallen sceptre. 
 In readiness they hold themselves for the blast 
 of the trumpet calling them to a Holy War 
 when, marshalled by the Sultan, they anticipate 
 that a crushing blow will be delivered to the 
 infidel world. Animated by this vision the 
 natives inscribe on the guns, which they always 
 carry, " Cineeat el jehad, in sha Allah," signi- 
 
54 The Empire of the Moors. 
 
 fying, " For the purpose of the Holy War, if 
 God will." 
 
 As valiantly the enthusiastic advocates of 
 the Gospel challenge these errors and assail the 
 frowning ramparts of Islam's power. Undis- 
 mayed by millions of opposing Mohammedans 
 they are assured of the presence of the Most 
 High who prepares His own royal way, and 
 crowns with praise and triumph the footsteps of 
 His messengers. 
 
LIFE PICTURES FROM NORTH 
 AFRICAN LANDS. 
 
 (55) 
 

III. 
 
 LIFE PICTURES FROM NORTH AFRI- 
 CAN LANDS. 
 
 The Arabs of North Africa cling to the style 
 of dress and adopt the modes of etiquette by 
 which their ancestors were known in bygone 
 centuries. In the homestead the Arab wears 
 his turbaned head-dress. Its removal there 
 would be regarded a gravely discourteous 
 act. He is accustomed to clothe himself dur- 
 ing the winter months in a thick woollen cloak 
 of soft drab usually some fifteen feet long, 
 which almost completely swathes his hardy 
 limbs. With a portion of the shawl he makes 
 his turban and, another length he ties up to 
 serve as a purse. A smartly contrived red 
 leather pocket hangs at the side suspended by 
 shoulder-straps in addition to a broad, richly- 
 dyed, cloth girdle round the waist, forming a 
 great support in the trying changes of heat and 
 
 (57) 
 
58 North African Lands. 
 
 cold, peculiar to the African climate. The 
 yellowish-brown sandals worn in travelling over 
 thorny or stony ground are generally ex- 
 changed on approaching a dwelling, for a pair 
 of shoes, with the heels turned in, which make 
 it easier to remove them on entering a tent or 
 room. In this artistic costume the Arab has 
 a picturesqueness of figure which breathes of 
 the " billowy," sandy desert. 
 
 For the exquisite growths of nature the 
 Arabs, men and women alike, have scanty 
 regard. The brightest-hued flowers are care- 
 lessly passed. About the doorways of " gour- 
 bis," or, on the roofs of better-class dwellings, 
 mint for tea, oranges for eating, and a little 
 coriander and parsley, with which to flavour 
 dishes of soup, are cultivated, and this is their 
 ideal of a garden. A missionary correspondent 
 thus sketches a winter garden at Fez, in De- 
 cember : " We were in a beautiful garden full 
 of orange, lemon, and other fruit trees, with 
 rose and white jasmine bushes in bloom. The 
 oranges are still sour, but the trees, full of yel- 
 low fruit with their dark glossy leaves, are 
 
North African Lands. 59 
 
 always a pleasing picture. The Moorish idea 
 of a garden is produce. The flowers are only 
 allowed odd corners where there is no room for 
 a tree, or close to the narrow paths of beaten 
 earth. Jasmine and roses pulled off without 
 stems are saleable, the jasmine to make 
 wreaths for the ladies' heads, the roses for 
 rosewater. The blossom of the bitter orange 
 is sold in large quantities in the spring for dis- 
 tillation." In the spring-time it is quite a 
 pleasant novelty to meet an Arab girl who has 
 a sprig of jasmine or a violet in her hair. If a 
 flower is to interest them it must have the es- 
 sential quality of sweetness; the cultivation of 
 anything just to admire, is entirely beyond 
 their idea. And so it has been noticed that 
 when Europeans introduce flowers for delight 
 only, the Arabs are always surprised and re- 
 quire training in order to appreciate the charms 
 of floral beauty. In this respect they offer a 
 distinct contrast to their not far off Andalusian 
 neighbours in such a city as Seville. Of the 
 women employed there in one of the tobacco 
 factories a visitor recently made this observa- 
 
6o North African Lands. 
 
 tion : " One womanly trait was almost uni- 
 versal, the love of flowers. The ugliest slat- 
 tern, equally with the comparatively neat wo- 
 man, had a flower or two in her hair, on her 
 bosom, or in a jug beside ner table. It was a 
 little bit of pure nature in a very dark and de- 
 pressing human dungeon." 
 
 In all the North African regions women have 
 a thankless life. They are generally penned 
 up in what may be termed prison houses or 
 made to labour in the most degrading fashion. 
 From very early childhood hundreds of women, 
 for instance, in Tunisian villages, never leave 
 their cheerless, shabby homes, not even to go 
 to a public bath, which a few of their more 
 favoured sex can enjoy. Necessarily these 
 poor creatures are of a sad and forlorn type, 
 and so enslaved to traditions that upon a Eu- 
 ropean entering their domicile they promptly 
 close the door behind him to avoid the risk of 
 a man happening to pass at the time, an occur- 
 rence which is supposed to bring disgrace on 
 the females within. A lady missionary in 
 Tunis touchingly depicts the condition of Arab 
 
North African Lands. 61 
 
 females : " Only a woman ! a poor, worn-out, 
 broken-hearted woman — old before her time — in 
 the eyes of her Mohammedan husband, a slave, 
 married to be the mother of his children, a part 
 of his possessions, to be cast off at his pleasure, 
 to be shut up from year's end to year's end 
 with very little change to break the dull mo- 
 notony of her life : only a household drudge ! 
 . . . . Do you want to know the truth of this? 
 There are countries, not a week's journey from 
 England, where our sisters are treated like 
 beasts rather than women — left without educa- 
 tion, shut in, married one day, divorced the 
 next ; living loveless lives, without any present 
 Saviour, only a dim, false hope in the future, 
 but oh ! so willing to learn and listen, if only 
 they are reached in time." 
 
 Among Algerian tribes women are forced to 
 do the hardest kinds of labour outside the 
 tents. They gather and carry piles of wood 
 long distances, draw the water for the house- 
 hold, make the rude pottery, take charge of 
 the flocks, and regularly milk the cows and 
 goats. These burden-bearers weave the men's 
 
62 North African Lands, 
 
 haiks, and, with deft hands work the mats and 
 baskets which are offered for sale. The poorer 
 classes are seldom clean in person. Those who 
 have lost sons or male relations in war must 
 not wash or change their garment, made up 
 of several yards of calico or muslin fastened 
 with wooden pins. A missionary trying to 
 persuade a young woman to wash her baby and 
 his garment, as it was nothing but dirt that was 
 killing the child, received the reply, " Has 
 there not died to us enough of our men in the 
 war that I should let him die also?" Their 
 houses are barely worthy the name, so meanly 
 are they furnished and lacking in cleanliness. 
 
 From a sense of fear the Arabs, as a rule, in 
 every part of North Africa, sleep together, and 
 alongside them may be, a camel, mule, cow and 
 calf, goat, pig, or a half-starved dog or cat. In 
 the remote, less civilised districts of Southern 
 Algeria, the women put off the face veil, a por- 
 tion of attire which among women of beauty 
 and those of the upper classes in the northerly 
 towns is rigidly worn, save over a part of the 
 left eye. The Kabyle women, whose race in 
 
North African Lands. 
 
 63 
 
 thousands occupy a large division of Northern 
 Algeria, are more kindly treated than any other 
 section of females in North Africa. Unlike 
 the nomadic Arabs, the Kabyles are settled, 
 home-loving tribes of people. In spite of their 
 darkened lives their taste and orderliness are 
 noticed in the well-tilled farms and fruitful 
 market gardens, nor are the women veiled after 
 the custom of their Arab neighbours. One of 
 the interesting adornments of a woman in 
 Kabylia is a brooch attached to her forehead, 
 which denotes that she has had the distinction 
 of bearing a son, and as frequently as the hon- 
 our is repeated, she adds to the number of her 
 ornaments with true native grace and dignity. 
 
 Curiosity and suspicion are universal traits. 
 When a stranger is invited into an Arab tent, 
 and has put off his shoes before stepping on 
 the mat, the eagerness to learn everything 
 about him is astonishing. Of this character- 
 istic, laughable stories are told by the ladies of 
 the North Africa Mission. In certain parts 
 where a foreign lady may not have previously 
 travelled, her dress is an object of minute and 
 
64 North African Lands. 
 
 incessant examination. The natives are amazed 
 at the quantity of flannel worn by Europeans. 
 Hats, too, are respectfully inspected and the 
 under-garments scrutinized by the native wo- 
 men, who wear little beside two or three cot- 
 ton folds. When this inspection is finished, 
 questioning begins regarding the life-history of 
 the guest. As with Easterns of other lands, the 
 Arabs are painfully suspicious, a feature of a 
 less pleasing character. Deceiving and de- 
 ceived, they are loth to commit themselves to 
 a fresh face, and much effort is required to per- 
 suade them of genuine friendliness. When 
 their confidence is gained the kindness they 
 show in the north country provinces is remark- 
 able. A friend of the writer's recently travel- 
 led on foot from Tunis to Gabes, a fortnight's 
 journey, upwards of two hundred miles, with- 
 out the slightest charge for hospitality, except 
 on one occasion. On money being offered to 
 the Bedouin Arabs for shelter and refresh- 
 ments they often replied in their own tongue : 
 " The Lord has given me plenty, I don't want 
 your money." 
 
North African Lands. 65 
 
 Pathetic to the last degree is the death scene 
 on many a stern landscape among the Bedouin 
 children of the desert. When the dread hour 
 approaches the suffering member usually rests 
 on a mattress in the middle of the floor. From 
 far and near friends and relatives slide in 
 to watch, until the apartment is unbearably 
 crowded. The appearance of these death- 
 watchers is very strange and uncivilised. 
 Their hair jet black, their faces painted, and, 
 their clothing, made up of loose, dark blue 
 garments, is thrown up on the shoulder or 
 across the chest, fastened by a huge pin 
 adorned with a large silver ring'. There they 
 remain hour after hour and only turn away 
 when life has ceased to beat. In their customs 
 the Bedouins differ little from the stationary 
 Arabs : they are Mohammedans, densely igno- 
 rant, superstitious in the extreme, yet more 
 accessible by Europeans. 
 
 That useful adjunct of civilised lands, the 
 post-carrier, has a rough kind of existence in 
 North Africa. The only " royal mail " in Mo- 
 rocco is represented by a class of poor, lean 
 
66 North African Lands. 
 
 Arabs, bearing letters in leathern bags slung 
 about their necks. A traveller pourtrays the 
 type of present-day Moorish post-runners : 
 " They eat nothing on their journey but a 
 little bread and a few figs ; they stop only at 
 night for a few hours to sleep, with a cord tied 
 to the foot, to which they set fire before going 
 to sleep, and which wakens them within a cer- 
 tain time ; they travel whole days without see- 
 ing a tree or a drop of water ; they cross forests 
 infested with wild boar, climb mountains in- 
 accessible to mules, swim rivers, sometimes 
 walk, sometimes run, sometimes roll down de- 
 clivities, or climb ascents on feet and hands, 
 under the August sun, under the drenching 
 autumn rains, under the burning desert wind, 
 taking four days from Fez to Tangier, a week 
 from Tangier to Morocco, from one extremity 
 of the empire to the other, alone, barefooted, 
 half-naked ; and when they do reach their 
 journey's end, they go back! And this they 
 do for a few francs." Than the lives of these 
 couriers nothing more wretched can be im- 
 agined. 
 
A T orth African Lands. 6j 
 
 At the elementary steps towards civilisation 
 the Arabs and Bedouins look on very stub- 
 bornly in the myriad villages of the French 
 Regency in Tunis. Near to the hamlet dwell- 
 ings of the natives stagnant water, heaps of 
 filthy mire, and the bodies of decayed animals 
 foul the atmosphere and, as of yore, spread 
 horrible diseases. When the inhabitants are 
 urged to remove these vile sources of pestilence 
 opposite their hovels, in which the sick are 
 lying, they invariably answer : " We have always 
 been accustomed to leave them unburied." 
 The cramped, irregular, misnamed streets are 
 used for cooking, trading, shambles, and, not 
 infrequently, to suit the native humour of 
 the population, grotesque theatrical displays. 
 Morality in such quarters is rarely found. Un- 
 truthfulness, dishonesty, and treachery prevail, 
 nor have the people much affection for each 
 other. 
 
 Tunis, the capital of the province, is a city 
 of faded glory, vice, and degradation, of some 
 140,000 inhabitants. These are made up of 
 30,000 Jews, 20,000 to 30,000 Italians, French, 
 
68 North African Lands. 
 
 Arabs, Berbers, and Maltese. The city, five 
 miles in circumference, has an outer wall of 
 nine gates, enclosing an inner one, which has 
 seven smaller entrances. Famed for its mag- 
 nificent mosque and teeming with mosques of 
 miniature size, Tunis was built in an age when 
 the mighty Ottoman empire stood in the zenith 
 of its power and renown. The Oriental char- 
 acter of the streets make a kaleidoscopic pano- 
 rama, garnished with bazaars in the arched, 
 fretted arcades, and trodden by the world's 
 nationalities, through which strings of soft- 
 footed camels, caparisoned mules, and donkeys 
 jostle and struggle for passage. Arab women 
 of rank travel secluded in closed carriages 
 accompanied by negresses of the better type 
 veiled or masked in black, with the exception 
 of a narrow slit through which they gaze on 
 the busy scene. The city is dead to spiritual 
 life and its drunkenness is appalling. One mis- 
 sionary says : " The greatest hindrance to mis- 
 sionary progress here is alcohol. Friends who 
 think that the Mohammedans are sober people 
 ought to come and spend a week with us that 
 
North African Lands. 69 
 
 they might see the contrary." Another writes: 
 ''The longer I live in Tunis the more I see and 
 hear of its awful wickedness." In this province, 
 one of the darkest throughout North Africa, 
 thousands upon thousands of blinded Moslems 
 piously observe the five leading injunctions of 
 the Koran — belief in God, and Mohammed (His 
 chief prophet), almsgiving, pilgrimage to Mecca, 
 fasting in the month of Ramadan, and prayer. 
 It is interesting to hear a Mohammedan add, 
 " if God will," whenever he is about to make a 
 journey, and as painful, his exclamation, " God 
 is great," in all kinds of stations and circum- 
 stances where, commonly, every vestige of 
 morality is denied. In the haunts and homes 
 of these people, heroines of the faith, filled with 
 the spirit of the Gospel, are telling of One 
 mighty to help and save. 
 
 Slavery is a national abomination and in- 
 iquity. Into Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, and Mo- 
 rocco, gangs of slaves are brought continually 
 in vast numbers from the interior for sale. 
 Were the inhuman cruelties inflicted on the 
 hapless beings adequately known, the removal 
 
yo North African Lands. 
 
 of the villainy of slave-trading in these parts 
 would not long be postponed. A sense of guilt is 
 shown by the traders in the western provinces 
 of Morocco. At Fez, the Moorish capital, the 
 slave market is hypocritically styled, " El Soke 
 Baraka," the " Market of Blessing," and many 
 of the slaves bought there receive affectionate 
 names by which slave dealers and owners try 
 to deaden a reproaching conscience. In Mo- 
 rocco the slaves have one right only. If a 
 master very brutally outrages his " chattel," 
 the victim may seek redress from a local judge 
 who can command the proprietor to sell his 
 slave. Seldom is the privilege exercised by 
 the captive, lest the second owner should prove 
 worse than his predecessor. 
 
 Although brilliant results have not hitherto 
 attended the North Africa Mission, its mission- 
 aries have excelled in planting Gospel seeds in 
 Islamite furrows, in acts of Christ-like mercy, 
 and, in beginning the foundation of the sover- 
 eign faith. The mission,, inaugurated eleven 
 years ago, — previous to which there was no 
 evangelistic organisation occupied in the great 
 
North African Lands. 
 
 7* 
 
 North African provinces, — has enrolled seventy- 
 workers, opened six Medical Missions, and in- 
 itiated a group of agencies by which to reclaim 
 some of the fourteen million souls populating 
 the lands which skirt the curving northern 
 shores of the Mediterranean Sea. 
 
EVANGELISATION IN EGYPT AND 
 THE NILE VALLEY. 
 
 (73) 
 
IV. 
 
 EVANGELISATION IN EGYPT AND 
 THE NILE VALLEY. 
 
 Brightening signs mark the progress of 
 education, agriculture, and civilisation in Low- 
 er and Upper Egypt, — blessings of a social and 
 material character which have largely flowed 
 from the British occupation which began about 
 seven years ago. In the work of pacific revo- 
 lutionising Sir Evelyn Baring and his distin- 
 guished staff have done more in a very brief 
 period than Egypt's rulers did in long centu- 
 ries to establish justice, to raise the " fellaheen " 
 from hereditary bondage, and to develop the 
 untilled resources of a land 
 
 " Where all things always seem'd the same." 
 
 The regime of Turkey over Egypt, character- 
 ised too frequently by oppression and ruinous 
 
 taxation, has been firmly supplanted by a rule 
 
 i 
 instinct with the spirit of humanity and righte- 
 
 (75) 
 
j6 Egypt an d the Nile Valley. 
 
 ousness. Every well-wisher of this deeply in- 
 teresting country will desire to see her pros- 
 perity continued under the sceptre of the new 
 sovereign, the young Khedive, Abbas Pasha. 
 
 The growth recently, almost phenomenal, of 
 the public school system, has signal value. It 
 is scarcely credible that the earlier unwilling- 
 ness of the natives to avail themselves of this 
 institution is already disappearing. An illus- 
 tration of this is shown in the return of 1887, 
 when there were only 12 Government schools 
 with 1,919 pupils, in contrast to the number of 
 schools in 1890, — as far south as Assouan, — 
 counted at 47, with an attendance of 7,307, and 
 a corresponding increase in paying, as distinct 
 from aided, scholars. The voluntary principle 
 of the education offered makes the improve- 
 ment more notable. 
 
 Passing to the sphere of evangelisation and 
 missionary activity the palm of honour is car- 
 ried off easily by the United States. The work 
 of the American Presbyterians inaugurated 
 seven and thirty years since has been equally 
 remarkable in the energy displayed and the 
 
Egypt and the Nile Valley. 7 7 
 
 spiritual harvest obtained. Far up the Nile 
 
 banks, where 
 
 " Tall Orient shrubs, and obelisks 
 Graven with emblems of the time," 
 
 abound, they have laboured with unwearied 
 ardour. Testimonies have often been given 
 by European tourists of the religious enthusi- 
 asm of American missionaries which may 
 cause English Christians to blush, particularly 
 so, on recalling what British statesmanship has 
 achieved for the material and national welfare 
 of modern Egypt. 
 
 In Cairo — a base of Christian aggression — 
 the celebrated Mohammedan University of El 
 Azar is situated, to which upwards of 10,000 
 Moslem students resort from north and east Af- 
 rica, Turkey, Arabia, Persia, and India, for the 
 exclusive study of the Koran and its literature. 
 Some of these return to the empires of the 
 East to propagate Moslem doctrines, and oth- 
 ers, in considerable numbers, attach themselves 
 to Mohammedan leaders in the Dark Continent 
 as crusading preachers and conquerors, thus 
 swelling the rising tide of Mohammedanism 
 
7 8 Egypt and the Nile Valley. 
 
 setting in from North African lands. As far 
 back as i860, in that most Oriental-looking of 
 Eastern cities — Cairo, Miss Mary Whately, 
 whose death in March, 1890, was widely la- 
 mented, opened her British school on Christian 
 principles, and, later, another valuable auxil- 
 iary, — the Medical Mission. With rare self- 
 sacrifice this benevolent lady, one of the 
 daughters of Archbishop Whately, gave, in 
 furtherance of these objects, her entire strength 
 and private means. By the Khedivial Govern- 
 ment and by every class of residents and offi- 
 cers in the city, these institutions were appre- 
 ciated. An evidence of the usefulness of the 
 Medical Mission is the report that weekly, 
 throughout the year, more than 300 patients 
 had relief. The work of the late Miss M. L. 
 Whately hasbeen continued by Mrs. Shakoor and 
 the Hon. Diana Vernon, — but in future a union 
 with the Church Missionary Society is probable. 
 Of kindred aim in Cairo is the home for freed wom- 
 en slaves which was instituted several years ago 
 by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Soci- 
 ety. Dusky strangers from southern climes are 
 
Egypt and the A T zle Valley. 79 
 
 trained within the home and remain there un- 
 til they are qualified to enter domestic service 
 or are married. A similar home has recently 
 been organised in the city of Tripoli, for refu- 
 gee slave women, by Ahmed Ressim Pasha, the 
 enlightened Governor-General of the province 
 of Tripoli, — a harbinger, it may be hoped, of 
 stronger opposition to the slave trade in the 
 surrounding countries. 
 
 The missionary occupation of Lower Egypt, 
 or the Delta, is painfully insufficient for the 
 needs of a population approaching six millions 
 of souls. Of the 400,000 inhabitants in Cairo 
 there are possibly 4,000 regular hearers of the 
 Gospel. The workers in 1891 comprised three 
 missionaries and four ladies belonging to the 
 English Church Missionary Society, whose la- 
 bours in household visitation, in Christian 
 schools, and in the Medical Mission, have been 
 growingly fruitful. The literary and medical 
 departments have respectively had the able 
 superintendence of Drs. Klein and Harpur, 
 who have made a vigorous appeal to the direct- 
 ors in England for sixteen additional seed- 
 
80 Egypt and the Nile Valley. 
 
 sowers to hasten Egypt's ingathering. In the 
 same city the United Presbyterian Church of 
 North America has extensive schools and large 
 congregations, and, over the Delta, in five of 
 the principal towns and about a score of the 
 villages, various schools and small companies 
 of worshippers. On this wide field the Amer- 
 ican Mission force is limited to the efforts of 
 two missionaries and four ladies, reckoning 
 missionaries' wives, and its staff of devoted na- 
 tive helpers. The seaport of Alexandria, with 
 a population of 230,000 souls, has one mission- 
 ary, three lady visitors to the harems, a Church 
 of Scotland missionary responsible for an Arab 
 children's primary school, two lady missiona- 
 ries engaged in general services under General 
 Haisdi's direction, Miss Robinson's much es- 
 teemed Sailors' and Soldiers' Institute, and, Mr. 
 Rudolph's visits to the Jews. Other spiritual 
 agencies employed on the Delta include a 
 Dutch missionary at Calioub, near Cairo, an 
 occasional colporteur at Damietta, evangelists 
 for the Europeans and sailors at Port Said, and 
 the indefatigable witness-bearers of the English 
 
Egypt and the Nile Valley. 81 
 
 and American Bible Societies who cannot ex- 
 pect very bright results in a land where, it is 
 said, only four or five per cent, can read. 
 
 • Little has the extreme spiritual darkness of 
 the Delta or, the vastness of its unoccupied 
 territory, been realised. Excluding Cairo and 
 Alexandria and their great populations and a 
 number of smaller towns whose inhabitants 
 vary from 5,000 to 40,000 each, there are thou- 
 sands of mud-built villages on the brown- 
 mounds — the remains of villages of a bygone 
 epoch, in which millions of souls live wholly 
 destitute of the light of the Gospel. With 
 the advancing strides of civilisation the level 
 stretches of the Delta, the threading canals, 
 the broad patches of vivid green large-leafed 
 clover (the native berseem), may by and by 
 become the centres of evangelical faith. On 
 that soil, fertile as historical, over which fifty 
 dynasties and ten nationalities have ruled nearly 
 seven thousand years, where generations of na- 
 tive races have in succession been crushed be- 
 neath the heel of Assyrian, Persian, Roman, 
 Saracen, and Turkish satraps and despots, the 
 
82 Egypt and the Nile Valley. 
 
 prophet's vision must be fulfilled: "And the 
 Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyp- 
 tians shall know the Lord in that day." 
 
 To the shadow which falls on the Delta the 
 brightness of the day-spring which has visited 
 the Nile Valley, south of Cairo, presents a 
 cheering contrast. For a distance of 400 miles 
 up the Nile which represents Egypt proper, 
 since the Equatorial Regions and other prov- 
 inces stretching from Arabia Petrsea and Syria 
 to the western limits of Darfur in Central Af- 
 rica, were lost during the late Khedive's reign, 
 the United Presbyterians of North America 
 have honoured themselves in organising the 
 most notable and successful mission on Egyp- 
 tian territory in modern times. Along this com- 
 paratively narrow strip of alluvial soil, hemmed 
 in by hills through which the Nile flows, fringed 
 with green banks and the stately, graceful 
 palms, lives a population of about 1,000,000 
 people, among whom the Americans have toiled 
 with surprising devotion. On this riverine 
 tract, covering districts as far apart as Mansoora 
 and Luxor, El Feshn and Keneh, Asyoot and 
 
Egypt and the Nile Valley. &$ 
 
 Assouan, they have ninety stations with 
 schools attached, or congregations and schools 
 united, taught by native pastors and teachers. 
 As proof of the vitality of the work is the state- 
 ment that the eighty and more schools are en- 
 tirely supported by the willing offerings of the 
 native congregations. With the thirty-five 
 congregations and schools in Cairo, its envi- 
 rons, and the Delta, the total membership of 
 the native evangelical churches numbers 3,200, 
 making in 1890 a gain of seventeen and one- 
 half per cent. Three years ago 25,944 religious 
 meetings were held ; the average Sunday morn- 
 ing attendance at worship reached 4,747, and 
 the Sunday-schools, 4,338. For the privileges 
 of public worship and in aid of the Zenana 
 mission, the natives are liberal contributors. 
 In the evangelistic department the native 
 workers consist of pastors, licentiates, Bible- 
 readers, theological students, Zenana visitors 
 upwards of sixty in number, together with 250 
 Sunday-school teachers; and, by means of 15 
 colporteurs, who travel annually hundreds of 
 miles, and numerous book depots, 33,609 pub- 
 
84 Egypt an d th e Nile Valley. 
 
 lications of an educational and religious class 
 were sold. The section devoted to education 
 is represented by 5,600 pupils in the Mission 
 common schools, a training college and theo- 
 logical seminary for pastors and teachers, and 
 training schools for girls which furnish teach- 
 ers and Zenana workers. By the attendance 
 of something like 1,000 Moslem boys and girls 
 at the schools, the influence of the Mission is 
 abundantly testified, and, as remarkably, by 
 the baptism of sixty young men and women, 
 formerly Mohammedans, into the Christian 
 faith. From every social rank, grade, and tribe 
 come the scholars to receive the advantages of 
 an education imparted in an ennobling, Chris- 
 tian spirit. The girls are qualified for the do- 
 mestic circles as maids or, for the position of 
 wives in the homes ; and the boys excel as 
 skilled artisans, if not selected for Government 
 offices. To promote the agencies of this sin- 
 gularly noble undertaking, the Nile Mission 
 boat, the Ibis, constantly makes voyages up 
 and down the river, admirable buildings are 
 being erected, and, an aggregate staff of 300 
 
Egypt and the Nile Valley. 85 
 
 efficient co-labourers, native and foreign, en- 
 gaged. 
 
 Mainly has the plough of the American 
 missionaries been turned upon the Coptic 
 dwellers in the Nile Valley, who form with the 
 Mohammedans a large proportion of the popu- 
 lation. On this fallow ground they have toiled 
 and won bright triumphs. In a twofold sphere 
 success has been reaped. Zealous converts 
 have been made and, by thousands the young 
 people have flocked into the schools. A wave 
 of revival has reached the Coptic Church, — an 
 ancient branch of Christendom and, not im- 
 probably, its restoration may be graciously 
 achieved by men and women taught in the 
 churches of the American Mission. Upon the 
 Mohammedans the energy of the missionaries 
 has made an impression. Less bigoted than 
 their co-religionists westwards, they have been 
 affected by contact with Europeans and up- 
 heavals in the history of the Soudan, and are, 
 to-day, more susceptible to the message of 
 Christ. The lines of the poet : 
 
86 Egypt and the Nile Valley. 
 
 " Neither hide the ray 
 From those, not blind, who wait for day," 
 
 have distinct application to these followers of 
 the False Prophet, from whose midst a harvest 
 of souls may yet be gathered. In Egypt, " the 
 Egypt of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies," 
 across whose sandy deserts and gigantic ruins 
 the sun has poured his heat for uncounted 
 ages, the heralds of the Cross are setting be- 
 fore the eyes of the native Mohammedans, at 
 the close of the nineteenth century, the holi- 
 ness and grace of Christianity, by which to un- 
 bar the hearts of multitudes to the power of 
 salvation and the kingdom of God. 
 
 Such divine success may receive impetus 
 from high places. In the new Egyptian Min- 
 istry of 1891 the two portfolios of the Foreign 
 Minister and the Minister of Public Instruction 
 were placed in the hands of native Christian 
 statesmen. Tigrane Pasha, the holder of the 
 first named office, is young, brilliant, and, of in- 
 dependent mind, who, in the discharge of two 
 previous under-secretaryships, has shown emi- 
 nent ability, and gained the reputation of being 
 
Egypt and the Nile Valley. Sy 
 
 a powerful ally. The second of these appoint- 
 ments is held by Yacoub Pasha Artin, who 
 signalised his under-secretaryship in the same 
 department at an earlier date by founding the 
 current system of education and effecting re- 
 forms of national importance. No longer will 
 it be possible to repeat the indignities to which 
 they were subjected on account of their Chris- 
 tian profession by Riaz Pasha, a former Presi- 
 dent of the Council, inasmuch as each of these 
 distinguished servants of State will have the 
 confidence, which they enjoyed at the hands of 
 the late Khedive, from his successor. 
 
 By these exalted personages it is not un- 
 reasonable to hope that Christianity will have 
 open countenance ; their Mohammedan col- 
 leagues the influence of Christian manhood ; 
 the destinies of Egypt the stamp of a genuinely 
 humane policy ; and, the Eastern world, the 
 rays of an enlightened rule, before which " the 
 voice of the oppressor " shall cease and the 
 night of darkness forever be chased away. 
 
UGANDA UNDER CONQUEST, 
 
 (89) 
 
V. 
 UGANDA UNDER CONQUEST. 
 
 WITH a country of exceeding fertility, ca- 
 pable of enormous productiveness, and peopled 
 by the finest nation in Africa, Uganda, to the 
 north-west of Victoria Nyanza, is one of the 
 most powerful kingdoms in East Central Africa. 
 To reach Uganda from the coast at Zanzibar 
 has involved forced and desperate marches at- 
 tended by no slight peril. The transport of 
 goods, confined to human porterage, and esti- 
 mated at an average cost of £200 per ton, from 
 the seaboard of the Indian Ocean to the lake 
 region, has been unusually trying and burden- 
 some. By this primitive mode of carriage the 
 journey has required four months for accom- 
 plishment. To carry 250 tons a sum of £$o r 
 000 must be paid to 1,000 men, slaves as a rule, 
 hired out by slave-owners to do the work. 
 Pledged to the total suppression of slavery 
 
 (90 
 
92 Uganda tinder Conquest. 
 
 the British East Africa Company has utilised 
 this form of contract to the slave's advantage, 
 and upwards of 4,000 slaves have effected their 
 emancipation by the proceeds of transit labour. 
 Where necessary they have likewise secured 
 the protection offered in the freed slave settle- 
 ments. On the construction of the projected 
 railroad for which a survey is in progress the 
 inhuman practice of enslaving captives will 
 have received in the sphere of British influence 
 its desired overthrow : the rescue of slaves will 
 be more frequent, caravan routes severed, and, 
 a distinct beginning made towards the exter- 
 mination of the life-curse which has lain for 
 long ages on the face of the Dark Continent. 
 It is calculated that the railway system, extend- 
 ing from the sea-coast to the Victoria Nyanza, 
 will measure something like 500 miles. In 
 leading this admirable enterprise the British 
 East Africa Company, — a governing corpora- 
 tion engaged in the work of developing and 
 opening routes for British trade and the com- 
 merce of the world, — will more effectively cover 
 a coast line of over 400 miles and, stretching 
 
Uganda under Conquest. 93 
 
 from 800 to 1,000 miles into the interior. This 
 extensive area is amazingly rich in natural re- 
 sources and in its normal condition supports 
 large herds of cattle, supplies grain in excess 
 of the needs of its ordinary population, and, is 
 susceptible of bearing an increased variety of 
 agricultural produce. In contact with the mill- 
 ions of semi-barbarians, civilisation is already 
 creating wants, chiefly of textile manufacture, 
 which will certainly be multiplied by the intro- 
 duction of industries necessitating much inter- 
 change of commodities. 
 
 The circle of missionary endeavour has no 
 more romantic narrative than that written on 
 the field of heathendom in Uganda. Since the 
 month of November, 1875, when Mr. Stanley's 
 challenge to Christendom appeared in a Lon- 
 don newspaper, heroically brave soldiers of the 
 Cross have waged battle for its conquest. 
 Seven months after the call for missionaries 
 had been made the first mission party of the 
 English Church Missionary Society had arrived 
 at Zanzibar, where preparations were promptly 
 ia hand for the march inland. Through what 
 
94 Uganda under Conquest. 
 
 periods of light and shade their labours have 
 passed in Uganda the world has gleaned from 
 letters and diaries of tragic interest. The 
 promising opening of the mission was darkened 
 by the murder of Lieutenant Smith and Mr. 
 O'Neill and, two years later, the hostile influ- 
 ence of Arab traders and the coming of several 
 French Romish priests prejudiced Mtesa, the 
 king, against the English missionaries. At 
 the close of 1 879 the missionaries were shocked 
 at the king's return to heathen customs. The 
 following year the reduced band of evangelists 
 quietly pursued their task of sowing the Word 
 among the native population. By the month 
 of March, 1881, the Uganda envoys returned 
 from England, the storm-cloud lifted, impetus 
 was given to the campaign, and fresh reinforce- 
 ments arrived. The first converts, five in 
 number, were baptised on the 18th of March, 
 1882, the reaping continuing in spite of the 
 Monarch's doubtful attitude. In 1884, Mtesa, 
 after a reign of twenty-seven years, died, and, 
 one evidence of the hold which the mission- 
 aries had upon the court and chiefs, was their 
 
Uganda tender Conquest. 95 
 
 prevention of the barbaric cruelties which had 
 been enacted for centuries in connexion with 
 a sovereign's funeral obsequies. 
 
 Mwanga's accession to the throne was the 
 beginning of a series of events of a chequered 
 character. As the murderer of Bishop Hanning- 
 ton and the Christian " readers," in 1886, 
 Mwanga's name was tarnished with a bloody- 
 memory. That calamity stirred Christendom 
 throughout its length and breadth and evoked 
 profound sympathy with the cause of African 
 missions. Dark days of persecution and mas- 
 sacre rapidly succeeded one another, the mis- 
 sionaries in the meantime, Mackay, notably, 
 suffering great hardships. From conscience or 
 policy Mwanga, in 1888, looked with favour 
 on the Revs. E. C. Gordon and R. H. Walker, 
 and every hope was entertained of progress. 
 In the same year Mwanga was dethroned by a 
 revolution and the sceptre placed in the hands 
 of his brother Kiwewa, who was deposed and 
 murdered by the Arab party, and another 
 brother, named Kilema, invested with kingly 
 rank. This puppet of evil masters commenced 
 
96 Uganda under Conquest. 
 
 his rule by slaughtering all his princely 
 brothers and sisters, and, with one exception, 
 Mwanga's immediate kindred. The king's 
 deeds of blood swiftly recoiled on his own for- 
 tunes ! In his banishment the exile Mwanga 
 took refuge with the French missionaries at 
 the south end of Victoria Nyanza, where he 
 eagerly seconded their plans to reinstate him 
 in Uganda. His allied fugitives associated 
 with the French teachers next attacking Ki- 
 lema in two pitched battles, — one at Uddu and 
 another across the Katonga, in which they were 
 victorious. Mwanga subsequently joined these 
 assailants and after alternate defeats and suc- 
 cesses regained the throne. It should be 
 chronicled to the undying honour of Mr. 
 Mackay that although he was pressingly urged 
 when exiled at Usambiro to encourage the 
 Protestant native converts to unite themselves 
 with Kilema's foes, he unhesitatingly opposed 
 the stratagem. By the death of Kilema, his 
 predecessor reigns without a rival, nor has he 
 any successor, save in the person of a little son, 
 a few years old. Amid these struggles the 
 
Uganda under Conquest. 97 
 
 country was in a sorry condition. An explorer 
 who travelled through it spoke of the desola- 
 tion which starvation and bloodshed had pro- 
 duced. This eye-witness questioned whether 
 at the head of the kingdom " there ever was a 
 man more unfitted to rule a country (than 
 Mwanga), as he takes absolutely no interest in 
 the welfare of his people, but only thinks of 
 his own safety and personal comforts. Banana 
 groves and several small coffee plantations were 
 choked up with long grass and in a dreadful 
 state of neglect. Human remains and broken 
 shields were scattered along the path, and 
 everything bore signs of the recent troubles." 
 
 To complete the picture of 1890 it will natu- 
 rally be assumed that Mwanga was the nominee 
 of the Catholic party. At heart he was a ruler 
 by expediency who would have crushed both 
 Catholics and Protestants if it had been within 
 his power, and, on the other hand, the natives of 
 Uganda, had they possessed a prince of Mtesa's 
 line, would have put forward his claims. The 
 design of the French agents to have political 
 control in Uganda has created endless bitter- 
 
98 Uganda under Conquest. 
 
 ness between the Protestant and Catholic 
 converts, again inflamed in 1891-2, conse- 
 quent upon the representatives of the British 
 East Africa Company administering justice 
 irrespective of class or tribe. The one bright 
 spot in the train of these disasters was the 
 treaty which Mwanga made at Mengo, May 16, 
 1890, with the signatories, Pere Simeon Lour- 
 del (since dead), of the Algerian Missions, and 
 Dr. Carl Peters, — that slave dealing and the 
 exportation of slaves from territory under his 
 jurisdiction, should be forbidden. With Dr. 
 Felkin's remarks on the question of the Romish 
 invasion in Uganda most readers will be in 
 hearty accord. He writes: " One cannot help 
 believing that in uncivilised countries, such as 
 Uganda, missions of various denominations 
 should not encroach one upon the other. 
 Probably ecclesiastics may differ on this point ; 
 still it can hardly be doubted that had the 
 Protestants, who first entered Uganda, been 
 permitted to carry on their work without the dis- 
 ruption caused by the subsequent introduction 
 of an apparently new religion, much would have 
 
Uganda tinder Conquest. 99 
 
 been different, and the undoubted advantages 
 which the Protestants possessed in 1880 might 
 have served to prevent the intrigues which led 
 to such loss of life." 
 
 In 1890 Bishop Tucker, the third Bishop of 
 Equatorial Africa, reached Usambiro after a 
 rough journey. Arriving in Uganda he per- 
 ceived the jealousy of the French Roman Cath- 
 olic missionaries and, the uneasiness of the 
 people, lest the Mohammedans should invade 
 Mwanga's dominions. With the enthusiasm 
 of the Protestant converts he was overjoyed, 
 of which he wrote on December 30, 1890: 
 " Truly, the half was not told me. Exagger- 
 ation about the eagerness of the people here 
 to be taught, there has been none. No words 
 can describe the emotion which filled my heart 
 as on Sunday, the 28th, I stood up to speak 
 to fully 1,000 men and women, who crowded 
 the church of Buganda. It was a wonderful 
 sight ! There, close beside me, was the Kati- 
 kiro, the second man in the kingdom. There, 
 on every hand, were chiefs of various degrees, 
 all Christian men, and all in their demeanour 
 
ioo Ugaiida under Conquest. 
 
 devout and earnest to a high degree. The re- 
 sponses in their heartiness were beyond every- 
 thing I have heard even in Africa. There was 
 a second service in the afternoon, at which 
 there must have been fully 800 present. The 
 same earnest attention was apparent and the 
 same spirit of devotion. I can never be suf- 
 ficiently thankful to God for the glorious priv- 
 ilege of being permitted to preach to these 
 dear members of Christ's flock." The Bishop 
 set apait in January, J 891, six natives as lay 
 evangelists, who will be entirely supported by 
 the native church. Hopes are cherished that 
 shortly they may become candidates for the 
 order of the clergy. Unlimited possibilities 
 seem to be within the compass of the Chris- 
 tians of Uganda. Taught by each other it 
 appears that numbers of the converts have 
 never had the advantage of a white teacher, 
 while, as pleasing, is the desire of native con- 
 verts to support the ministry in their midst. 
 The Bishop was partly successful in negotiating 
 pledges for more amicable relations between 
 the two divisions into which the Christians 
 
Uganda under Conquest. 101 
 
 have ranged themselves. About the middle 
 of 1891 Bishop Tucker made a hurried visit to 
 England to secure 40 volunteer missionaries, 
 and to hold conferences with the committee 
 respecting future policy in Uganda. His ad- 
 dresses aroused great interest in the United 
 Kingdom, followed by promises of large sub- 
 scriptions and offers of service. The tidings 
 of missionary progress in Uganda were con- 
 firmed later by the Rev. E. C. Gordon, on fur- 
 lough from Uganda. He spoke of the influ- 
 ence which the Protestant chiefs and converts, 
 though inferior numerically to the Roman 
 Catholics, exerted, by their strong character 
 and fidelity. In their wish to learn the truth 
 they were most earnest and had built houses 
 for the missionaries and a church of consider- 
 able size. The results of the work, in every 
 way, were marvellous. From the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society's directors, Mr. Gordon had a 
 hearty greeting. This splendid missionary 
 sailed with his uncle, the martyr-bishop Han- 
 nington, at whose suggestion Cyril Gordon left 
 wife and friends behind in entering on the haz- 
 
io2 Uganda under Conquest. 
 
 ardous " call " to the Dark Continent. Leaving 
 England together in 1882, — the following year, 
 Hannington was- driven back by fever, but 
 again returned in 1884 to the land he had 
 learned to love, as first bishop in Eastern 
 Equatorial Africa. At the time of Hanning- 
 ton's tragical fate Gordon was spared, and 
 through nine long years heroically toiled. One 
 may write of him : 
 
 " For where he fixt his heart he set his hand 
 To do the thing he will'd, and bore it thro'." 
 
 Upon Gordon's vigorous constitution the cli- 
 mate and trials have furrowed deep marks. 
 El is testimony shows that Mr. Stanley's trib- 
 utes to Alexander Mackay's splendid la- 
 bours in Uganda were not exaggerated and, 
 worthy of a race some of whom had refused 
 for Christ's sake the personal advantage of be- 
 ing made chieftains, and, of others, who had 
 endured scorching persecution, and had per- 
 sisted in cherishing a Christian profession at 
 the peril of their lives. 
 
 Zeal in England for the Uganda Mission 
 
Uganda tinder Conquest. 10? 
 
 j 
 
 was tested and crowned late in 1891. The 
 Directors of the British East Africa Company 
 finding that their financial outlay in Uganda 
 was heavy and without adequate return, had re- 
 solved to withdraw, a step which intensified the 
 risk of the missionaries and their settlements. 
 Captain Lugard, that brave man, whose tact, 
 energy, sagacity, and resources had, in 1891, 
 saved Uganda from being torn to pieces by 
 internecine strife, if not devoured by coast 
 Arabs or, the Mahdi's vedettes, was recalled. 
 To avert this contingency the Company offered 
 to advance a large amount of money if the 
 Society's friends would guarantee a similar 
 amount. Enough to add, that the supporters 
 of the Uganda crusade grandly responded, a 
 proof of the enthusiasm which the work in 
 prospect and achieved in Uganda, had inspired. 
 It would have been pitiable if this most inter- 
 esting of the African tribes had been forsaken 
 in the hour of trial when so many had attested 
 their faith by martyrdom and others were pre- 
 pared to endure hardship for the Cross. 
 
 On the eve of departure for Africa in De- 
 
104 Uganda under Conquest. 
 
 cember, 1891, Bishop Tucker appealed to Chris- 
 tian and philanthropic people of the United 
 Kingdom to enable the missionaries to place a 
 steel steamboat on the Victoria Nyanza, the cost 
 of which and her provision for two years would 
 amount to ,£25,000. Except the laying of a 
 railway no more potent instrument could be 
 utilised for the destruction of slavery and the 
 slave trade, — the greatest curse which afflicted 
 humanity in Central Africa ; than a powerful 
 steamer, far superior to the small steel sailing 
 vessel en route for the lake. The steamer 
 would serve for police purposes, the interests 
 of the natives, and, of civilisation generally. In 
 particular it would be a grand agent in ex- 
 tending to the regions beyond, the priceless 
 blessings of Christianity. 
 
 Touchingly the Bishop alluded to a con- 
 ference of six men, some five years back, on 
 the southern shore of the Victoria Nyanza. 
 The topic of these heroes who had consecrated 
 their lives to the service of their fellow-crea- 
 tures was the need of a steamer for lake navi- 
 gation. They unanimously agreed that the 
 
Uganda wider Conquest. 105 
 
 craft was indispensable if the work was to go 
 forward effectively. Three of the six men, 
 Henry Perrot Parker, the second bishop of 
 Equatorial Africa, who presided over the con- 
 ference ; Henry Blackburn, and Alexander 
 Mackay, now lie in their graves, less than 100 
 yards from the very spot where their confer- 
 ence was held. The names of the three sur- 
 vivors are Robert H. Walker, Robert P. Ashe, 
 and Douglas Hooper. Mackay had himself 
 undertaken to build the vessel and, with iron 
 will he toiled beneath the fierce rays of an 
 African sun for its consummation. The task 
 was beyond the strength of this crusader of 
 missions, who fell in the forge as nobly as any 
 hero-warrior on the battle field. Riveting the 
 plates of the boiler he was seized with a chill 
 which alas, proved fatal, on the 8th of Febru- 
 ary, 1890. 
 
 It cannot be long ere the funds are sub- 
 scribed for the realisation of Mackay's sacred 
 ambition, " that marvellous dream of the Em- 
 press of Uganda, who saw a beautiful boat 
 with white wings spread out like a great sea- 
 
106 Uganda tinder Conquest. 
 
 bird sailing over the waters of the Nyanza 
 with a white man seated in the stern looking 
 at the land." On the project of such a vessel 
 the missionary's heart was set and, for it he 
 gave up his life. Than the erection and dis- 
 patch of this craft no grander memorial could 
 be raised to commemorate Mackay's sacrifices 
 on behalf of " many millions of mankind whose 
 civilisation is perhaps the brightest realistic 
 vision of this century." Together with com- 
 rades of heroic fortitude his dust lies on the 
 pebbly shores of Victoria Nyanza. The ser- 
 vices to humanity of these brave men are o'er,, 
 they have entered into rest, and yet, in the 
 tide of coming years, their dauntless faith will 
 be as a living inspiration to Christian nations. 
 These "dead, but unconquerable" witnesses 
 have attested that : 
 
 " The path of duty was the way to glory : 
 He, that ever following her commands, 
 On with toil of heart and knees and hands, 
 Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won 
 His path upward, and prevail 'd, 
 Shall find the toppling crags of Duty scaled 
 Are close upon the shining table-lands 
 To which our God Himself is moon and sun." 
 
THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO 
 CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 (107) 
 

VI. 
 
 THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO 
 CENTRAL AFRICA. 
 
 STIRRED by the missionary trumpet-calls of 
 the great Livingstone in 1857, numbers of 
 heroic souls went forth from the English Uni- 
 versities to give the Gospel to the African race. 
 The time is now historic when Dr. Livingstone 
 was accompanied by Charles Frederick Mac- 
 kenzie,' Archdeacon of Natal, afterwards con- 
 secrated first bishop of the mission at Cape- 
 town, January 1, 1861. In the train of these 
 master-pioneers came a saintly band of grad- 
 uates whose ordinations at Cambridge, Ox- 
 ford, and Canterbury were memorable events, 
 where the famous Bishop Wilberforce pro- 
 nounced glowing benedictions on the work 
 and the Master's servants of peace and joy. 
 
 Through the intervening years of splendid 
 
 self-denial, thirty-six young men and maidens, 
 
 the flower of English birth, culture, and piety, 
 
 (109) 
 
iio The Universities Mission 
 
 have found rest in African graves. This mar- 
 tyr circle is increased by the decease of Arch- 
 deacon Goodyear, whose spirit fled at Magila, 
 on the 24th of June, 1889. Mournful recol- 
 lections entwine themselves with the vanished 
 years. Seldom do the voyagers up the Zam- 
 besi waterway fail to pause at the simple tomb 
 of Dr. Livingstone's wife, beneath the baobab 
 tree at Shapunga, or before the grave of Bishop 
 Mackenzie, at Mlolo, where the Ruo joins the 
 Shire. After one brief year of sowing, the in- 
 trepid bishop fell from exposure and fatigue, 
 in January, 1862; his loss being greatly la- 
 mented. The inscription on the brass plate 
 affixed to the cross which stands over his dust 
 reads : 
 
 Here Lieth 
 
 Chas. Fred. Mackenzie, 
 Missionary Bishop, 
 
 who died January 31, 1862. 
 
 " A follower of him, who was anointed to preach 
 
 deliverance to the captive, and to set at 
 
 liberty them that are bruised. " 
 
to Central Africa. 1 1 i 
 
 The growth of the Universities' Mission, 
 which is closely identified with the Oxford, 
 Cambridge, Durham, and London Universities, 
 and the English dioceses, has been on the 
 whole remarkably progressive. All along the 
 line of its operations a great advance was re- 
 ported during the last decade. The teaching 
 staff, English and African, was under forty in 
 1880, with an annual income of £6,000; four 
 years later, the receipts amounted to £8,000, 
 the workers then numbering eighty. In 1888 
 there was a notable increase, comprising in 
 numbers an aggregate of 1 bishop, 25 English 
 and 2 African clergy, 25 laymen, 20 ladies, and 
 32 native readers and teachers — 105 in all, 
 with a financial return of £16,2.80. The whole 
 of the funds are sent to the bishop, who dis- 
 burses them according to his own judgment. 
 From 1 88 1 to 1888 a sum of £107,000 was ex- 
 pended in miscellaneous outlays. 
 
 For its aggressive labours there are four 
 bases, respectively situated on the eastern shore 
 of Lake Nyasa, with Lukoma Island as the 
 headquarters ; the Rovuma River, of which 
 
1 1 2 The Universities Mission 
 
 Newala is the central station ; Zanzibar Island 
 and the Usambara country represented by 
 Magila. Through its fourteen stations it is 
 estimated that the influence of the mission 
 covers an area of twenty-five thousand square 
 miles. Principles not inferior to those of a 
 Gregory or a Francis control its polity. These 
 are : (i) to have no resort to civil government ; 
 (2) not to seek after political power ; (3) to 
 have nothing to do with annexation. With 
 these are united the system of voluntary work- 
 ers and of community life in its active aspect. 
 In a debate, in 1889, in the House of Lords, 
 on British Missionaries in East Africa, Viscount 
 Halifax said : "There was no nobler record of 
 work done for God, or with a more absolute 
 and entire sacrifice of self, than was to be found 
 in the history of that mission." To the credit 
 of its heralds, the Universities' Mission " had 
 already succeeded in setting a great part of the 
 African continent moving onward in a new 
 path." 
 
 Pioneered by Dr. Livingstone the first settle- 
 ment was northeast of Blantyre, at Magomero, 
 
to Central Africa. 1 1 
 
 in July, 1 86 1. In 1862 it was resolved, when 
 disease had carried off Bishop Mackenzie and 
 several comrades, to transplant the station to 
 Chibisas on the Shire. This spot was scarcely 
 less disastrous and fatal. Under the direction 
 of Bishop Tozer, the successor of Mackenzie, a 
 sphere was chosen on Mount Morambala, ad- 
 joining the confluence of the Shire and Zam- 
 besi. Again climatic troubles thickly befell 
 the witness-bearers, which led Bishop Tozer to 
 make an exodus to Zanzibar, in the hope of 
 founding Christian homesteads on the mainland 
 and in training redeemed slave children. It 
 was in 1864 that the bishop was reinforced by 
 that grand missionary, Dr. Steere, and, together, 
 in comparative obscurity, these yokefellows 
 from 1864 to 1874 laid broad and deep the cor- 
 ner-stones of the mission in the power of faith. 
 In 1874 Bishop Tozer resigned, exhausted 
 and shattered in health, and the same year 
 Edward Steere was appointed third bishop of 
 the mission. By his polished, intellectual gifts, 
 disciplined religious character, physical strength, 
 and deep, human sympathies, Bishop Steere 
 
H4 The Universities Mission 
 
 m 
 was finely endowed for the commission on 
 
 which his mark has been ineffaceably stamped. 
 With unconsumable ardour he threw himself 
 " against the desolating ignorance and barbar- 
 ism of the East African coast and the districts 
 which supply the bulk of the slave trade." He 
 swerved from no kind of labour. The bishop 
 was quite as expert as carpenter, compositor, 
 printer, bricklayer, and architect, as he was 
 ably equipped in the departments of organis- 
 ing, negotiation, philology, and scholarship. 
 Gifted with a striking personality and rare 
 charm of address, he drew about himself a 
 group of men having the soul of heroism, whose 
 exalted lives and deeds were in reputation 
 throughout East Central Africa. Early in his 
 missionary career the bishop reduced the Swa- 
 hili and Yao tongues to a written form. Dic- 
 tionaries, grammars, manuals, and story-books 
 issued from his hand, the latter entertaining 
 the natives and familiarizing their intercourse 
 with the Europeans. The greater labours of 
 this apostolic man were directed to the trans- 
 lation into the Swahili of the New Testament, 
 
to Central Africa. 1 1 5 
 
 the Old Testament from Genesis to Isaiah, and 
 the Book of Common Prayer. By Archdeacon 
 Hodgson, who has latterly been obliged to 
 withdraw from the mission, the unfinished 
 translation of the Old Testament has been 
 completed, an achievement which will lastingly 
 associate his name with that of the distin- 
 guished bishop. Said Bishop Steere, " Our 
 work must be all unsound without a vernacular 
 Bible." His prolonged travels on foot in the 
 formation of missions, visiting chiefs, rescuing 
 slaves, and sustaining stations, well-nigh defy 
 credibility, and, to his memory, the Slave Mar- 
 ket Church at Zanzibar is a worthy monument. 
 Referring to this edifice, on whose site thou- 
 sands of slaves were annually sold, the late Sir 
 Bartle Frere remarked : " It seemed to him and 
 others as the fulfilment of a beautiful dream, 
 which seemed hardly possible ten or twelve 
 years ago, when he saw the market-place at 
 Zanzibar, a filthy place, crowded with slaves, 
 laid out side by side in hopeless despondency, 
 without a smile on their face, without a symp- 
 tom of humanity about them besides the out- 
 
1 1 6 The Universities Mission 
 
 ward form. It was almost impossible to be- 
 lieve that where these scores and scores of 
 slaves were then stretched out there was now 
 a cathedral." In this sanctuary which the 
 bishop's own skill raised he (the bishop) was 
 buried in 1882, two years after the celebration 
 of the first holy communion within its walls. 
 It was on the 27th day of August of the same 
 year that Bishop Steere, a prince among mis- 
 sionaries, fell asleep at Zanzibar. For nine- 
 teen years he had served the mission, eight of 
 which were embraced by the bishopric. One 
 of those who plough deep furrows in the field 
 of the world's soil, his affection for East Africa 
 was not exceeded by the fabled love of Ulysses 
 for his rugged Ithaca. 
 
 Work for God was commenced in succession 
 at Magila, thirty miles north-west of Pangani, 
 and at Masasi, north of the Rovuma, and, upon 
 the desolation of the Masasi station in 1882 by 
 the terrible Magwangwara, — the vandals of the 
 southern Rovuma, — the headquarters of the 
 mission were located at Newala, 100 miles in- 
 land from the coast town of Lindi. 
 
to Central Africa. 1 1 7 
 
 Eminently treading in the footsteps of Bish- 
 op Steere on the eastern shores of Nyasa, the 
 record of the Rev. P. W. Johnson, who entered 
 the Universities' mission field in 1876, illus- 
 trates the type of man by whom : — 
 
 " The doorways of the dark are broken." 
 
 For two years he toiled solitarily at Mwembe, 
 until Mtaka expelled him in 1881. The year 
 following, together with the Rev. C. A. Janson, 
 he journeyed to Chitejis, on Lake Nyasa, where 
 his co-labourer died. Upwards of eighteen 
 months sadly alone and in hourly peril he 
 proclaimed " the unsearchable riches of Christ," 
 To his necessities the members of the Free 
 Church at Bandawe, on the opposite coast, 
 often ministered previous to Mr. Johnson's 
 collapse, worn out by toilsome exertions. At 
 Quillimane on furlough, his sight totally failed 
 him and, on its partial restoration he embarked 
 for England, where, by generous donations a 
 sum of ,£4,000 was subscribed for the Charles 
 Janson missionary vessel. A companion boat, 
 the Nyassa steam-launch, has since been floated 
 
1 1 8 The Universities Mission 
 
 on the blue waters of leafy-fringed Nyasa. Of 
 his calling this much-tried missionary has said : 
 " We have on the water a grand sphere of in- 
 dependent influence, helping chiefs and their 
 people ; slavers and the oppressed all need help 
 alike, none can be lopped off by us, while none 
 welcome us wholly." 
 
 At Magila, the centre of the territory where 
 the Arabs and Germans have been oft antago- 
 nists, and also the region in which the Bondei 
 and Masai wage bloody feuds, Christianity has 
 won eventful triumphs. Near to these districts 
 are the four stations Umba, Mkuzi, Msaraka, 
 and Misozwe. Here invaluable help was ren- 
 dered by Archdeacon Farler, whose enforced 
 retirement through physical weakness has been 
 sincerely deplored. Of this mission ground 
 the Earl of Dundonald wrote : " The missions 
 at Magila are doing a noble work. Surround- 
 ing them is a population over whom they exer- 
 cise a great influence. In their churches the 
 heathen are taught the existence of a God ; 
 in their schools are taught the sons of the 
 chiefs, who will rule over important tribes ; in 
 
 
to Central Africa. 119 
 
 their workshops are taught useful handicrafts ; 
 in their hospitals the sickness of the people is 
 alleviated." Right nobly did the missionaries 
 stand by the native Christians amid the hostil- 
 ities of 1889 m their neighbourhood, 
 
 Kiungani College, for the education of a na- 
 tive ministry — a cherished project of Bishop 
 Steele's — was opened in 1888. Under the shad- 
 ows of the lovely St. John's Church at Mbweni, 
 south of Kiungani, the numerous agencies em- 
 ployed in training and supporting hundreds of 
 freed slaves enjoy growing prosperity. At the 
 several mission centres the European mission- 
 aries are thus distributed : at Zanzibar, 10 ; 
 Kiungani, 7 ; Mbweni, 10 ; Lake Nyasa, 9 ; 
 Rovuma, 6 ; and at Magila, 18, On his visit to 
 England in 1891, Archdeacon Maples, an admi- 
 rable missionary-witness, stated that they were 
 training a native ministry which in time would 
 enable the English missionaries to withdraw 
 and leave the work in the hands of African 
 teachers and preachers. Notwithstanding their 
 slow progress, there was a large band of Afri- 
 can workers, both men and women, formerly 
 
120 The Universities Missio7i 
 
 released slaves, who were doing excellent serv- 
 ice, while a native ordained minister was at 
 present working with much greater success 
 than any of the white missionaries. 
 
 Charles Alan Smythies, the fourth bishop, 
 consecrated on November 30, 1883, has worn 
 with distinction the mantle of his illustrious 
 predecessor, His fortitude, winsomeness, self- 
 abnegation, independence, and strength of pur- 
 pose have endeared his name among fellow- 
 messengers, kindred societies, African tribes 
 and, not a few of the better class Arab mer- 
 chants. The herculean energy of the bishop 
 has had signal proof. On his return to Eng- 
 land in 1888, after four years' absence, it was 
 reported that he had made foot journeys of 
 more than five thousand miles ! His spirit 
 of devotedness was further confirmed by his 
 prompt re-embarkation, from furlough, for his 
 unrepresented diocese, when apprised of the 
 conflicts on the East Coast, where his attitude 
 carried golden opinions. It was distressing to 
 be informed at the close of 1891, that his health 
 had been much enfeebled, intensified by an 
 
to Central Africa. i 2 1 
 
 attack of malarial fever, causing him to write 
 in pathetic terms, " all the strength seems to 
 have gone out of me." Knowing that the 
 Bishop held a living at Cardiff, Wales, in his 
 early years, and was marked out for speedy 
 preferment, it speaks volumes for his sacrifice 
 and courage that he should have chosen one 
 of the most perilous fields of service in the 
 Dark Continent. 
 
 Every sympathy will be felt for the Mission 
 which had to report at the beginning of 1892, 
 a lack of volunteers, a circumstance imperilling 
 the maintenance of important stations. This 
 barrenness it will be hoped may only be of 
 temporary duration. What the Mission has 
 accomplished may be inferred from a testimony 
 by Mr. H. H. Johnston, British Commissioner 
 in Central Africa. He says : " In his journey- 
 ings in East Africa he had always felt, without 
 any information or even rumours from the na- 
 tives, when he was approaching the vicinity of 
 one of the stations of the Universities' Mis- 
 sion. Round them there w T as the radiance of > 
 
122 The Universities Mission. 
 
 ' sweetness and light ' and evidences of civilisa- 
 tion abounded." 
 
 Honour be to those who are reclaiming 
 Afric's lost children and, by the might of the 
 Gospel endeavouring to place their feet on the 
 highway of salvation ! 
 
PIONEERING IN THE BAROTSI 
 
 KINGDOM, ON THE UPPER 
 
 ZAMBESI. 
 
 (123) 
 

VII. 
 
 PIONEERING IN THE BAROTSI KING- 
 DOM, ON THE UPPER ZAMBESI. 
 
 It was in 1877 that M. Coillard tried to 
 establish a missionary sphere for the Native 
 Churches of Basutoland among the Banyai 
 tribes to the north of the Limpopo River. 
 The fierce King of the Matabele resisted the 
 missionary's invasion, closed the door against 
 him, and, finally, to mark his intense opposi- 
 tion, confined M. Coillard and his friends for 
 a time to imprisonment. Thus baffled, the 
 servant of God resolved by Divine aid to make 
 a survey of the Barotsi Valley in the regions 
 and watershed skirting the Upper Zambesi. 
 The path of the brave-hearted man was re- 
 markably opened to carry the Gospel to a race 
 speaking the Basuto tongue, a language which 
 they had accepted from Sebetoane and his 
 conquering warriors. What M. Coillard has to 
 
 record of founding a mission in the centre of 
 
 (125) 
 
126 Pioneering in the Barotsi Kingdt 
 
 om t 
 
 tribes " dark ; chained by superstition and vice, 
 suffering and dying," forms a chapter of service 
 which may vie with any other in the annals of 
 modern missions. A glimpse at the wild con- 
 dition of the natives illustrates the compas- 
 sionate spirit of the missionary who felt him- 
 self drawn to such people that he might have 
 some share in hastening their deliverance from 
 pagan barbarism. This gallant pioneer to the 
 Barotsi pourtrays them as " treacherous and 
 suspicious ; no savages' feet are swifter than 
 theirs to shed blood. The least provocation, 
 the most groundless suspicion, envy, jealousy, 
 and vengeance, justify the most atrocious 
 crimes. Slavery has dried up the natural af- 
 fections ; infanticide is of too common an oc- 
 currence to shock any one ; marriage is as 
 easily dissolved as it is contracted ; and the 
 family can hardly be said to exist. Let us 
 throw a veil over the unfathomable abyss of 
 corruption and degradation, of which we have 
 found a parallel nowhere in heathen Africa. 
 The whole land is a Sodom ; and these be- 
 nighted people, whose conscience is dead, lit- 
 
on the Upper Zambesi. 127 
 
 erally glory in their shame." A lurid picture 
 of heathendom which may truly call forth his 
 pathetic appeal, " We need to be powerfully sup- 
 ported, lest we grow weary under a burden too 
 heavy for us to bear alone." It is from this 
 wide field of gloomy Central Africa where no 
 other labourers toil that the cry " come over 
 and help us," derives its piercing and mournful 
 tones. 
 
 The Barotsi kingdom in succession to that of 
 the Makololo stretches from the Kafu River to 
 20° long. E. ; and again from the course of the 
 Quando and Zambesi to the watersheds of the 
 Congo and Zambesi. Over this scarcely known 
 immense tract of country upwards of 800 
 miles in length a comparatively sparse popula- 
 tion is scattered, the remnants of various tribes 
 reduced to miserable servitude by the strong 
 Barotsi. Northwards, in the dense interior, 
 dwell countless, unvisited hordes of people 
 utterly ignorant of the light of God. Wars, 
 bloody and incessant, among the Barotsi them- 
 selves — the aristocracy of the land — have 
 greatly diminished the number of this race. 
 
128 Pioneering in the Bar otsi Kingdom, 
 
 Many of the natives inhabit the province of 
 Sesheke, a vast region, fiat and sandy, covered 
 with bush, and indented by several pleasant 
 and fertile vales. Another division live in the 
 Barotsi Valley proper, a stretch of territory 
 consisting of an enormous lake-bed through 
 which the Zambesi rolls. On its banks and 
 slopes of low sand hills brushwood plentifully 
 thrives. The riverine valley is, on an average, 
 flooded three months annually and, at this 
 season, the water-girt hamlets and villages 
 standing on the islets and in the marshes are 
 deserted by the inhabitants who pitch their 
 camps on the upland, sand-formed hillocks. 
 With the ebb of the flood they return to their 
 favourite haunts on the barren plains and 
 marshy abodes where most of their hours are 
 spent in slothfulness and gross dissipation. The 
 native mud hovels are filthily unclean, wretched 
 quarters. Before these lie deep cut trenches 
 making access to the houses almost impossible. 
 To an imperfect extent only do the trenches 
 drain the swampy, pestilential soil. Far as the 
 eye can reach lagoons and marshes are seen 
 
on the Upper Zambesi. 129 
 
 in the driest periods of the year overgrown 
 with rank vegetation and, consequently, under 
 a temperature of heat at 112 or more, these 
 spots are fever-producing hotbeds which shat- 
 ter the native physique and often strike fatally 
 the passing trader or traveller. 
 
 In 1880 and 1881 M. Coillard and Mrs. 
 Coillard visited Europe to supply information 
 of their former mission labours in Basutoland 
 — famous as the scene of the life-work of that 
 God-fearing missionary and apostle, the late 
 Mons. Eugene Casalis — and their prospects in 
 occupying the Barotsi Valley. From numbers 
 of Christian friends they had the most cordial 
 reception. In the course of this missionary 
 campaign among the churches at home they 
 received the heartiest co-operation from Major 
 Malan, a true and staunch friend of the Afri- 
 can race. Returning to the Dark Continent 
 in May, 1882, M. and Mrs. Coillard were pre- 
 vented by one obstacle after another from leav- 
 ing the kingdom of the Basutos earlier than 
 the 2d of January, 1884. Their desert journey 
 extending over 1,000 miles, which came on the 
 
130 Pioneering in the Barotsi Kingdom, 
 
 heels of a terrible drought followed by a spell 
 of extraordinary rains, was crowded with trials 
 and calamities. The worst of these was the 
 loss of most of their draught bullocks through 
 a virulent disease. On the 25th of July the 
 missionary travellers encamped some nine miles 
 from the flowing Zambesi, the habitat of the 
 tsetse fly, preventing a nearer approach to the 
 bank of the great river. M. Coillard's success 
 in making arrangements to have an interview 
 with King Robosi and his chiefs at the capital 
 was shortly afterwards marred by the over- 
 throw and flight of the king whose country 
 became the theatre of anarchy and bloodshed. 
 For months M. Coillard waited in suspense 
 the tide of affairs and, on the election of a new 
 king the missionary had the privilege of visit- 
 ing his capital, Lialui, in January, 1885. The 
 king courteously granted his guest leave to 
 make a survey or found a station. By the 21st 
 of August the same year the party crossed 
 the Zambesi with their wagon and oxen and 
 had as kindly a greeting from various chiefs 
 who allowed them every facility of settlement 
 
on the Upper Zambesi. 
 
 over an extensive area. To reach Sesheke, 70 
 miles from Lishoma, these heroes literally 
 fought their way, the thinned and famished 
 teams of animals requiring every member of 
 the company to put a shoulder to the wheels 
 of the heavily-stocked wagon. Lest they should 
 suffer from the coming rainy season or insur- 
 rectionary raids inland, Sesheke was made a 
 present base of operations because of its situ- 
 ation. Apart from this it had no charms. At 
 the time Sesheke was untenanted by any tribe. 
 M. Coillard then spoke of it : — " The chiefs di- 
 vided, fearing each other, had fled, some to the 
 islands and others to the woods. We were left 
 alone to battle with crocodiles, and hyenas, and 
 other wild animals, that waged war against us 
 night and day." 
 
 Through the succeeding years from 1885 to 
 1892 fresh stations have been built and numer- 
 ous distant expeditions effected for the ingath- 
 ering of long-neglected souls. In these endeav- 
 ours M. Coillard has taken the noblest share. 
 His deeds bear the sign-manual of rare fore- 
 sight, laborious industry, and daring purpose. 
 
1 3 2 Pioneering in the Barotsi Kingdom, 
 
 He belongs to that select band of which Schil- 
 ler sings : — 
 
 " By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown, 
 Divine their lot "; 
 
 and to him a place is assigned with the mighty 
 spirits by whom deserts are made to rejoice 
 and blossom as the rose and kingdoms lost 
 are again restored. 
 
 At Mambora, by the Kazangula ford, the 
 one official entrance to the Barotsi country, 
 were planted two Basuto evangelists and their 
 families. M. Jeanmairit, the solitary, ordained 
 colleague of M. Coillard, — and a missionary 
 force, remained at Sesheke, a geographical van- 
 tage ground, and, for awhile, M. Coillard helped 
 to promote the initial stages of the mission 
 there previous to his departure for Sefula, 350 
 miles beyond. The absence of a settled popu- 
 lation at Sesheke has made systematic Chris- 
 tian training and the work generally, quite im- 
 practicable. Though Sesheke happens period- 
 ically, to be the ' state ' residence of fifteen 
 chiefs, — lords of the neighbouring tribes, these 
 swarthy rulers prefer to live independently in 
 
on the Upper Zambesi. 
 
 their own scattered villages, leaving the capital 
 of their district deserted, save the care of it 
 to a few poor slaves. A day school was com- 
 menced which M. Jeanmairit had unwillingly 
 to discontinue from lack of assistance and the 
 absence of authority in the village. Congrega- 
 tions on the Lord's Day have been similarly 
 disappointing, their numbers being affected by 
 the shifting character of the native population. 
 Want of success in these departments has not 
 hindered the zealous toiler's visits to the out- 
 lying districts in order to tell of the day of 
 salvation. One cheering result is chronicled. 
 Two or three of the young chiefs have learned 
 to read and shew a desire to enter into the 
 kingdom of marvellous light. In 1887 the 
 Rev. L. and Mad. Jalla of the Waldensian 
 Church reached Sesheke and indefatigably la- 
 boured there, prior to their settlement at Ka- 
 zangula, the gate of the land. To the same 
 destination came the young Swiss missionary, 
 Mons. Goy, for the purpose of affording M. 
 Jeanmairit a brief furlough. M. Goy will 
 eventually be stationed at Seoma, the Gonye 
 
134 Pioneering in the Barotsi Kingdom , 
 
 Falls, a link of importance which connects 
 Sesheke and the Barotsi Valley. On the 
 threshold of the country at Kazangula, Dr. 
 Dardier fell a victim to sunstroke, " his heart 
 and his face turned homeward." A fresh en- 
 sign, the Rev. Ad. Jalla, younger brother of 
 Mons. L. Jalla, reached Africa in 1889 with 
 the view of settling at a new station in the Ba- 
 rotsi Valley adjoining the capital. Thoroughly 
 equipped by European training and schooled 
 in Zambesi mission operations high anticipa- 
 tions are cherished of the missionary's energy 
 and enterprise. In the autumn of 1891 the 
 mission was reinforced by Mons. Vollet, the 
 son of a Paris minister, accompanied by two 
 (" we fain hope more," wrote M. Coillard) evan- 
 gelists. With this rearguard the staff consists of 
 seven missionaries, their families, and three na- 
 tive workers who are in occupation of three sta- 
 tions, to which three others as well as a couple 
 of out-stations will shortly be added. Steadily 
 the mission proceeds on its course, its pathways 
 are multiplying, its leaven is spreading, and its 
 presence creating a nobler sense of humanit) r . 
 
on the Upper Zambesi. 135 
 
 Sefula, the headquarters of the Barotsi Mis- 
 sion, stands 16 miles from the capital, Lialui. 
 On King Robosi regaining the helm of sov- 
 ereignty he shewed renewed sympathy with 
 missionary objects, and cordially invited M. 
 Coillard to visit his royal kraal. The site of 
 the mission centre is situated on a sand hill 
 by which flows the modest Sefula River and is 
 admirably adapted for educational advantages 
 and agricultural developments. A large popu- 
 lation dwells in the neighbourhood. At Sefula 
 miracles of progress and civilisation are visible. 
 A well-built church — the first seen on the Zam- 
 besi River, and a cluster of miscellaneous erec- 
 tions have been reared. Specially noticeable 
 are the huts of circular arrangement, in which 
 boys and girls receive instruction and are 
 taught useful callings. By the practical genius 
 of Mr. Waddell, the artisan and builder, the 
 Sefu 1 a Mission structures have the look of 
 some model European village. Mr. Waddell's 
 dreaded antagonist is the white ant, the scourge 
 of the African tropics, which, unchecked, speed- 
 ily ruins substantial premises. For two feats 
 
136 Pioneering in the Bar otsi Kingdom, 
 
 M. Coillard deserves congratulation — a useful 
 canal and an excellent roadway. In conjunc- 
 tion with Nguana Ngombe, the earliest Barotsi 
 convert, a young man of talent and fine resolu- 
 tion, — M. Coillard had pleasure, after two years 
 of toil, in seeing at the close of 1891, the canal 
 triumphantly completed. Admittedly a mis- 
 sionary waterway, it is 10 miles in length, join- 
 ing the Sefula station and the broad Zambesi's 
 course. Transports, goods, passengers, etc., are 
 carried on the surface of the canal and the en- 
 tire valley is now directly influenced by Chris- 
 tianising civilisation. The upper sources of 
 the river cleared, a stronger volume of water 
 will be available. Towards this appreciated 
 neck of communication an English gentleman 
 liberally contributed most of the required funds. 
 The missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Jalla, were the 
 first to sail Zambesi-wards on the miniature 
 Suez from visiting M. Coillard, who said con- 
 cerning the event : — " It may well be imagined 
 with what feelings we accompanied our be- 
 loved friends to the landing at the foot of the 
 hill, and with what interest our eyes followed 
 
on the Upper Zambesi. 
 
 their boats gliding gently down the stream." 
 This achievement has not wholly removed the 
 isolation of the missionary sentinel. A post 
 seldom arrives more than once a year and the 
 problem of conveying supplies from Mangwato 
 to Kazangula, the nearest point of the Zam- 
 besi, and thence to Sefula, remains practically 
 unsolved, notwithstanding the road, or rather 
 wagon track, which M. Coillard laid from Se- 
 sheke to Sefula, over 350 miles long across 
 sandy plains and through thick forests. In- 
 fested with the tsetse fly and the recurring 
 growth of poisonous plants, so ruinous to cattle, 
 this track has been forsaken and the river fallen 
 back upon for transit. Smooth sailing here is 
 not possible owing to the numerous rapids 
 and the Gonye Falls. To conquer these obsta- 
 cles and to be relieved of the necessity of using 
 the small, leaky canoes which are as expensive 
 as dangerous, M. Coillard purposes securing 
 two moderately sized launches of a ton each, 
 one of these to ply above and the other below 
 the Gonye Falls. 
 
 Unfaltering in spirit M. Coillard has served 
 
138 Pioneering in the Bar otsi Kingdom, 
 
 seven years in the Zambesian Regions. He 
 describes the land as " fallow ground which, for 
 a long time yet, we shall have to break up." 
 Tribal warfare in many of the deadly climates 
 is attended by shocking barbarities, and in its 
 train polygamy of the most debasing kind, 
 slavery with its horrible cruelties, superstition 
 which burns alive its helpless victims, and all 
 the abominations of lying, theft, and murder. 
 To deliver the youth of these degraded beings 
 M. Coillard who has given himself specially to 
 evangelising opened a school. The few books 
 and slates and a slender staff necessarily limited 
 the progress. More regretably the pupils, 
 mostly young chiefs with their slave attend- 
 ants, revolted against the least discipline. 
 " The village which they built," says M. Coil- 
 lard, " and over which we can have no control, 
 was a den of thieves and the hotbed of the 
 grossest shameless immorality. They feared 
 no one and respected nothing. They impu- 
 dently rode our donkeys to death in broad 
 daylight : stole cloth, food, tools, everything 
 they could get hold of — even things which 
 
on the Upper Zambesi. 139 
 
 were utterly useless to them, such as barome- 
 ters and thermometers ; and what in the house 
 was beyond their reach they found no difficulty 
 in inducing our servants to steal for them." 
 M. Coillard earnestly pursued his mission 
 nobly aided by a devoted partner and, in three 
 years' time several of the young men learned 
 to read and enjoyed the perusal of a New 
 Testament and hymn book. On the arrival of 
 a box of these not a few of the royal pupils 
 each brought a calf in exchange for a copy 
 of the Testament while the destitute slaves 
 cheerfully toiled in order to possess the same 
 treasure. Afterwards the school was popular, 
 its order preserved, and its atmosphere changed. 
 Litia, the eldest son of the reigning King 
 Lewanika, has been sent with five other promis- 
 ing scholars to the Morija High School, Basu- 
 toland. Ten girls have entered the Sefula 
 schools, five of whom are kings' daughters and 
 nieces, whose clothing and food beside tuition 
 make a heavy demand on the mission's limited 
 resources. It is disappointing to M. Coillard 
 that he has often to decline the applications of 
 
140 Pioneering in the Bar otsi Kinged 
 
 om % 
 
 dark little fellows because there is no instructor. 
 
 Late in 1891 a deep shadow fell upon this 
 
 hopeful branch of service. To the constant 
 
 strain of teaching the pupils who had increased 
 
 from 30 to 40 to about 100, Madame Coillard, 
 
 a woman of rare spiritual beauty, succumbed. 
 
 Shattered in health Madame Coillard stood to 
 
 the end at the post of sacred duty. Fittingly 
 
 may the Church of God say to her: — 
 
 " Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace ; 
 Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul, — 
 Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet, 
 Sleep full of rest from head to feet." 
 
 Most providentially the school work has been 
 taken up by Miss Kiener, a Swiss lady, who 
 reached the confines of Zambesi-land ere the sup- 
 plicating M, Coillard was aware of her coming. 
 A brighter outlook appears on the horizon 
 of Zambesia, and much countenance is given to 
 it by the king's improved attitude, customs, 
 and decrees. He forbids the sale of liquor in 
 his capital and is himself an abstainer ; he has 
 stopped that awful form of administering 
 poison to unfortunate creatures accused of 
 witchcraft and then burning their bodies ; he 
 
on the Upper Zambesi. 141 
 
 has prohibited his people selling slaves to the 
 Portuguese from the west coast ; and, for four 
 years he has not offered a human sacrifice or 
 allowed his subjects to practise this rite. The 
 peaceable aims of the missionaries are under- 
 stood and, although their property has been 
 ruthlessly pillaged no hand has ever attempted 
 to take their lives. To the pleas of the heralds 
 of the kingdom savage natures even pay greater 
 regard and at the services on the Lord's Day 
 worshippers more regularly congregate. The 
 mission station is a centre of illumination. A 
 new missionary expedition of the English 
 Primitive Methodists recently to Mashikulom- 
 boe Land led by Mr. Buckenham and its occu- 
 pation of a location in the king's territory is a 
 stimulus to holy aggression. 
 
 Under the direction of the Paris Evangelical 
 Missionary Society and French in tongue the 
 Zambesi Mission is international otherwise. 
 From the ordinary funds of the Society no aid 
 is obtained. It is dependent upon the people 
 of God in many lands including the nationali- 
 ties of France, Holland, Switzerland, England, 
 
142 Pioneering in the Darotsi Kingdom. 
 
 Scotland, and Basutoland and, to its worthy 
 claims friends have generously responded to 
 smooth the path and lighten the burden of its 
 leader whose entreaty is, " forget not this part 
 of Africa." The fruitfulness of its career brings 
 proportionate obligation and incites to a loftier 
 faith on behalf of the heathen world. Of what 
 spirit Mons. Francois Coillard is made one 
 glimpse is offered. Writing in 1891 he says: — 
 " I have lost my only horse — the gift of a 
 friend — and a horse here is a fortune, an acqui- 
 sition beyond our means. But, though no 
 longer young, I am ready cheerfully to tramp 
 the burning sand and the deep mud, under this 
 torrid sun, to make known, as far as I can, the 
 glad tidings of salvation." By this type of 
 Christian manhood embracing patriotism in its 
 widest sense the Apostle Paul's injunction is 
 eloquently fulfilled, " Remember them that are 
 in bonds, as bound with them," and the hap- 
 pier time brought nigh of which a poet has 
 sung : — 
 
 " In that sweet day when none shall ask another 
 ' What blood is thine, in what ancestral skin ? ' ' : 
 
SUNRISE IN KAFRARIA, SOUTH 
 AFRICA. 
 
 (143) 
 
VIII. 
 
 SUNRISE IN KAFRARIA, SOUTH 
 AFRICA. 
 
 AMONG the half dozen principal territories 
 likely to be included in the future South 
 African Republic, Kafraria, which lies on the 
 immediate south-eastern coast of Africa, is 
 already an acknowledged valuable possession 
 of Great Britain. Previous to 1820 the country 
 was practically unvisited and, for years after- 
 wards, a few scattered traders and pioneer mis- 
 sionaries were the solitary inhabitants. Fol- 
 lowing its complete British occupation, the 
 history of Kafraria assumed a new complexion 
 and, latterly, colonisation and missionary ex- 
 tensions have travelled steadily abreast. In 
 former days when the Kafirs and English were 
 in conflict the mission stations were often at- 
 tacked and destroyed. Energetically the mis- 
 sionaries rebuilt the stations and, under a 
 civilised rule, they now enjoy a permanent ex- 
 
 (145) 
 
146 Sunrise in Kafrarta, 
 
 istence. A new chapter is opening, and, from 
 the Cape to Natal, — northeast of Kafraria, and, 
 as far northwards as the Limpopo River, the 
 mission settlements of the European and 
 American societies dot the soil ; a noble proof 
 that Christianity is heroically banishing the 
 face of heathen darkness. 
 
 Civilisation is springing in the footsteps of 
 the messengers of the Cross. The day of roads, 
 a sign of intercourse and progress, has arrived. 
 Far and wide the miserable, rugged tracks of a 
 generation ago are covered by broad highways,- 
 while the railway system, another agent of 
 civilising power, has daily expansion. Cape 
 Colony is intersected with hundreds of miles of 
 the iron road, the chief line stretching from 
 Cape Town to Kimberley. The old-time jour- 
 neys of Moffat, weeks in duration, to Bechu- 
 analand, with wagon and in-spanned oxen, are 
 at present made in three or four days. 
 
 In the article of clothing another index of 
 advance, the Christian Kafir generally dons 
 himself in semi-English garb or, if less pro- 
 gressive wears a superior blanket about his 
 
South Africa. 147 
 
 smeared body. For domestic convenience he 
 readily uses pots, pails, and plates of foreign 
 manufacture and, instead of the archaic, primi- 
 tive, wooden spade, with which he was accus- 
 tomed to scratch, or, as has been said, " tickle," 
 the earth, he prefers the iron hoe. Dexterously 
 he follows the light American plough, a species 
 of import, the surplus home-profits on which, 
 would pay twice over the cost of the existing 
 staff of missionaries. Most people have heard 
 something of the quaint, rude, Kafir hut. In 
 every part of the country these single-roomed, 
 grass-covered, bee-hive shaped creations with 
 one division were once visible rising from the 
 earth. Their day is sinking into oblivion. The 
 successors of these, plainly suggestive of West- 
 ern architecture, rest on strong supports, with 
 plastered walls, and, most valuable of all, hav- 
 ing a couple or more of sections. Whether 
 grouped in isolated lots in South Kafraria or, 
 in the big towns of the interior, the kraals of 
 the Kafirs are yielding to the impress of the 
 white man's hand and designs. 
 
 Woman's elevation, a distinct stamp or pro- 
 
148 Sunrise in Kafraria y 
 
 duct of Christian influence, is witnessed. Yes- 
 terday, the wife of a heathen Kafir was the 
 usual, solitary figure at work in the hut or 
 down the brown burnt furrows and, to her was 
 entrusted the unpleasant task of settling her 
 husband's disputes with the head-man of the 
 tribe. Meanwhile her "master," lazily lounged 
 by the cattle, smoked his pipe, and took charge 
 of the young children from morning till sunset. 
 Alluding to women's work, a missionary at the 
 Amaxesibe Mission says: — " Women and chil- 
 dren are expected to do all the work, — they are 
 the hewers of wood and drawers of water ; the 
 children, — the herds and weeders, the milkers, 
 the grinders, the nurses,— in fact, everything 
 they can do, and many things they cannot. It 
 is a common sight to see a little lad trying to 
 guide a plough drawn by six fractious oxen, 
 while the father or elder brother quietly looks 
 on, with scarcely a hand to help. It takes the 
 women a whole day to go to the bush, six or 
 eight miles off, chop a bundle of wood, and 
 carry it back on the head. These bundles vary 
 in size according to the strength of the bearer ; 
 
South Africa. 149 
 
 but some, weighed at the store out of curiosity, 
 turned the balance at over 80 lbs." The prac- 
 tice of the converted Kafir, who labours on his 
 " location," ploughs and sows, weeds and reaps, 
 is otherwise. He scorns to make his partner a 
 rough toiler in the fields, preferring to do it 
 himself or, with male assistance. The diet of 
 the Kafir both in range and quality has not 
 been unaffected. For a generation, acres of 
 golden corn have been raised and much of it 
 exported over the seas, its cultivation marking 
 a superior stage to milk, flesh, and mealies, the 
 earlier and sole means of subsistence. Com- 
 pared with his paltry trading half a century 
 ago the Kafir's present exports amount to 
 several thousands of pounds annually. The 
 Kafir's fierce enemies of the plains and bushy 
 ravines, — lions, tigers, hyenas, and kindred 
 quadruped, have nearly bade him good-bye, 
 and each year the agricultural prospect of the 
 Kafir is brightening and improving. This 
 cheery picture is not free from shadows. The 
 evils of centuries of unrelieved heathenism 
 work terrible havoc. In hearts unconquered 
 

 150 Sunrise in Kaf7 r aria, 
 
 by Christ, lying, thieving, adultery, witchcraft, 
 and polygamy, aboundingly prevail, the two 
 latter being formidable adversaries. The beer 
 drinking of the Kafirs is notorious. In the 
 vicinity of towns the Kafir drinks freely of the 
 white man's beer, which is more ruinous than 
 his native-made beverage. Both men and 
 women smoke constantly and where the Kafir 
 can escape the demands of work he is quite as 
 willing as the rest of humanity to avail himself 
 of the ease of indolence. 
 
 On all hands education is regarded a blessing 
 of immense advantage, the foundation of com- 
 ing prosperity, and a prime auxiliary of the 
 gospel of the kingdom. Where in the last 
 generation it was almost impossible for the 
 missionary to persuade the parents to send 
 their children to school it has become the 
 custom of the young people to seek admission 
 into the Government and Mission schools. 
 Every year the British Government is erecting 
 additional schools for the native race and the 
 spectacle of thousands of the young attending 
 the excellent Scottish missionary institutions at 
 
South Africa. 
 
 Lovedale, Blythswpod, Healdtovvn, Grahams- 
 town, and elsewhere, is an augury of a nation- 
 hood of sons and daughters whose lives will be 
 fashioned upon the Master's divine pattern. 
 Much interest attached to the departure of 
 Sekhomi the only son of Khama in 1892, for 
 training at Lovedale College. Khama, a con- 
 vert of the London Missionary Society, the 
 chief paramount of Bechuanaland, and, unques- 
 tionably, the most intelligeut, enlightened, and 
 progressive of South African chiefs, was de- 
 sirous that his son should have an English 
 education. For this purpose he requested Sir 
 Henry Loch, the High Commissioner, to place 
 Sekhomi in a school of first rank. Sekhomi 
 was met at Vryburg and conducted to Love- 
 dale, by Mr. Theal, the historian of South 
 Africa, and one of the foremost officials in the 
 Native Affairs Office. A number of promising 
 Bechuana youths are enjoying the benefits of 
 Lovedale. By the choice of this college for 
 Khama's son's education, the High Commis- 
 sioner paid a highly deserved tribute to that 
 worthy South African educational reformer, Dr. 
 
152 Sunrise in Kafrarta, 
 
 Stewart, — a modern Corr^enius, whose name, 
 future generations of South African natives 
 and settlers will hold in grateful remembrance. 
 It is intended that Lovedale shall be the model 
 of the Industrial College which the British East 
 Africa Company have decided to establish in 
 their territory on the Kibwezi River, at an 
 altitude of three thousand feet, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of good water, fertile soil, plenty of 
 timber, and in the centre of a populous and 
 friendly district. Dr. Stewart, who went in 
 search of a site for this New Lovedale at the 
 request of Sir William Mackinnon and Mr. A. 
 L. Bruce (Dr. Livingstone's son-in-law), states 
 that the heathen natives at Kibwezi have never 
 before seen the face of a white man except 
 that of a stray traveller or Arab invader and 
 cannot divine what intention the Scotchman 
 has of seeking a settlement in their midst. 
 
 For the tuition of Kafir youths as much as 
 £8 per annum is frequently expended in order 
 that they may have instruction in elementary, 
 advanced, and technical branches; many of 
 them afterwards become skilled artisans, teach- 
 
South Africa. 153 
 
 ers, and lawyers, and some as missionaries bear 
 the Cross to the dark tribes of Central Africa. 
 In the schools English is taught and, in the same 
 tongue the natives talk to the settlers. Native 
 letters too, pass in thousands through the Cape 
 post, an indication of the times, while a goal of 
 Kafir ambition is to rent ground or to have a 
 wagon for the conveyance of his own or a 
 trader's goods. Among valued imports, — the 
 Angora goat, the horse, milk-giving cattle, and 
 wool-bearing sheep, undreamt of fifty years 
 back, are the principal stock. 
 
 Far and away, the missionary, uniting in 
 himself the functions of educator, philanthro- 
 pist, organiser, and preacher, is the best of the 
 Kafir's friends. To him the Kafir is evermore 
 a debtor. Though the missionary may not re- 
 ceive hearty expressions of native gratefulness 
 he has his reward in more gratifying forms. 
 He sees old settlements becoming self-support- 
 ing, ardent Kafir evangelists, schools and 
 churches, over the landscape, which severally 
 indicate that pioneering days in Kafirland may 
 be past, in the span of another generation. 
 
154 Sunr ise in Kafra ria , 
 
 Honour is eminently due to the Free Church 
 
 and United Presbyterian Scotch missionary 
 
 societies for their services on behalf of the 
 
 social, educational, and religious training of the 
 
 Kafir race. Were the episodes in the history 
 
 of their great work written in detail some vivid 
 
 chapters would be given to the Christian 
 
 Church. Missionaries of the stamp of Stirling, 
 
 Lundie, and Shearer, have splendidly honoured 
 
 their calling : — 
 
 " to sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring 
 toil." 
 
 It has been said of that gifted missionary- 
 teacher, the Rev. J. D. Don, M.A., of King 
 William's Town, representing the Free Church, 
 that, " his commanding influence has ever been 
 thrown on the side of the Kafir and the mis- 
 sion in the colonist controversies on native 
 questions. By his public vindication of Kafir 
 life and rights in 1885, he did 'a deed which 
 places him in the notable ranks of Christian 
 missionaries and philanthropists who have suf- 
 fered bonds and even death in the cause of 
 justice to the slave and the oppressed.' ' ; 
 
South Africa. 155 
 
 These, and like fellow workers and, of " honour- 
 able women not a few," have exhibited indus- 
 try, foresight, and masterly perseverance, not 
 unworthy of the highest tributes of praise. 
 
 The Kafir's musical ear, faculty, and voice, 
 have deserved reputation. With drilling they 
 excel as singers and in the part-singing of 
 hymns they combine sweetness and harmony. 
 In their own land they often charm the Euro- 
 pean settlers by their quaint, melodious, and 
 expressive songs. Of their vocal gifts evidence 
 was afforded in 189 1-2 by the visit of the 
 South African Choir to Great Britain for the 
 purpose of illustrating the training received at 
 the mission institutions and also the procuring 
 of funds for the establishment of technical 
 schools in South Africa in which handicrafts 
 may be taught the young men and domestic 
 economy, nursing, cooking, etc., to young 
 women. These interesting visitors of varied 
 shades of colour and dressed in native costume 
 represented seven distinct branches of the 
 Kafir race belonging to the Amaxosa, Fingo, 
 Tembu, Bapedi, Basuto, Zulu, and Cape tribes. 
 
156 Sunrise in Kafraria, 
 
 The writer had the pleasure of entertaining 
 three of the ladies whose brightness, polite 
 demeanour, intelligence, and Christian earnest- 
 ness, did great credit to the labour of the mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 No definite forecast of this race, the most 
 remarkable in the South African Continent, 
 can be given. In South Africa the best judg- 
 ment widely prevails that where the Kafirs 
 adopt the false civilisation of Europe they are 
 doomed to extermination and, on the other 
 hand, that, in accepting the Christian faith, a 
 bright career is before them. It is usual for 
 traders and farmers to ridicule the Kafir's pro- 
 fession of Christianity. The assumption is 
 made that every native in European dress is 
 necessarily a Christian and, if he happens to 
 cheat or steal, it is placed to the discredit of 
 missions. Rarely however has it been found 
 when such cases have been made the subjects 
 of inquiry that the accused ever held a church 
 member's certificate. With respect to the wish 
 of farmers to have the services of raw Kafirs 
 rather than Christians the missionaries boldly 
 
South Africa. 1 5 7 
 
 reply that it is because the farmer more easily 
 trades on the ignorance and servility of a 
 " Red " i.e. heathen Kafir, who is content with 
 the lowest wages, whereas the self-respecting 
 native declines these terms. 
 
 Steadily the evangelisation of the unfixed 
 Kafir races is continued. Of the 650,000 Kafirs 
 in Cape Colony, about one-fourth have been 
 baptised and, in Zululand, of 50,000, upwards 
 of 2,000 are Christians. In the independent 
 kingdom of Pondoland, out of 150,000 at least 
 3,000 are Christianised natives. When spirit- 
 ual returns from Kafir Missions are under ex- 
 amination the broad, racial characteristics of 
 the race need to be set distinctly within view. 
 Says the Moravian Missionsblatt of the Kafir, 
 as he is seen in the Tembu tribes : " He has 
 redeeming traits, clearly discernible traces, 
 though sadly marred and discontinuous, of the 
 original imprint of God's similitude. But, on 
 the other hand, assuredly he is far from being 
 that uncorrupted, harmless child of nature that 
 dimly, dreaming worshippers of man would 
 make him out to be. No ; his true portrait 
 
158 
 
 Sunrise in Kafraria. 
 
 does not merely include individual shadows 
 and unclean disfiguring spots, but the whole 
 foundation of his moral being is awry, untrue, 
 impure, and unholy, plainly attesting his indis- 
 pensable need of the redemption in Christ, 
 that only through the energy of grace and the 
 inner transformation wrought thereby can he 
 be restored to his true temporal and eternal 
 destiny." Towards the salvation of the Kafir 
 the missionary at every civilisatory stage wit- 
 nesses with joy that heathen customs are being 
 forsaken or practised only in secret places. The 
 missionary's station is a fountain for desert 
 hearts. From it flow the streams by which the 
 life-destinies of a great people are being tri- 
 umphantly altered. What surprising changes 
 would greet the eyes of the early labourers of 
 seventy years ago on Kafrarian fields were they 
 to return again ! By them the seed was cast 
 into the sterile ground and, to-day, before the 
 reapers, rises the harvest of God waiting His 
 servants' garnering hands. 
 
PLANTING THE FLAG OF MISSIONS 
 IN KATANGA. 
 
 (159) 
 
IX. 
 
 PLANTING THE FLAG OF MISSIONS 
 IN KATANGA. 
 
 POSSESSED of those well known Scottish 
 qualities, hardihood and tenacity, Frederick 
 Stanley Arnot, — pioneer, explorer, and mission- 
 ary, has given fresh emphasis to the saying, 
 that the cause of Missions will not permit any 
 land to lie untilled. With the love of souls 
 which 
 
 " fires fainting wills, and builds heroic minds," 
 
 Arnot was roused by one of Livingstone's fare- 
 well speeches in Scotland, in the year 1S64; 
 from which date he consecrated himself to the 
 claims of the heathen world. Mastered by the 
 passion that " the most worthy pursuit is the 
 prosperity of the whole world," the young 
 knight-errant of the faith reached the East 
 African coast in 1881, to begin his eminently 
 
 honoured career. Forcing a passage through 
 
 (161) 
 
1 62 Planting the Flag in Katanga. 
 
 the territories of savage potentates in the teeth 
 of enormous difficulties, Mr, Arnot ultimately 
 won an entrance into Msidi's kingdom as the 
 first missionary of the Cross and received from 
 the venerable African chief a very friendly au- 
 dience. Msidi's dominions lying to the west 
 of Lakes Moero and Bangweolo and south of 
 the Congo Free State, embrace an immense 
 area of country. Previous to Mr. Amot's ar- 
 rival at the capital, Europeans had found ad- 
 mission impossible. The dusky monarch is by 
 far the greatest ruler in that part of the Dark 
 Continent, his po:sessions standing on the 
 ruins of the ancient kingdoms of the Muata 
 Cazembe and the Muata Janow. In acquiring 
 a protectorate over Katanga and obtaining 
 concessions from Msidi two European nations 
 are putting forward claims. Katanga, it seems, 
 lies on the disputed western border land be- 
 tween the country recently declared by Lord 
 Salisbury to be under British influence, and 
 the vast African territory of the King of the 
 Belgians. Portugal's supposed rights in Ka- 
 tanga are wholly ignored. 
 
Planting the Flag in Katanga. 1 6 
 
 3 
 
 Mr. Arnot began his adventurous march into 
 the dark interior by journeying from Natalto 
 Shoshong, whence he intended crossing the 
 desert on foot joined by native boys and three 
 donkeys. So hazardous a step was prevented 
 by Khama, a Christian chief of reputation, gen- 
 erously equipping the Scotchman with wagons 
 and a score of oxen, a body of native helpers, 
 and, also accompanying the expedition for a 
 long distance himself. Battling with many 
 perils and trying reverses Mr. Arnot arrived at 
 the Chobe River and afterwards trudged on to 
 Panda-ma-tenka, where he was attacked by a 
 virulent fever. Had a noble African lad not 
 nursed him with untiring fidelity his life would 
 undoubtedly have been forfeited. On recover- 
 ing Mr. Arnot was kindly aided by the chief 
 Lewanika, who conveyed the white man in his 
 canoes up the broad, shining waters of the 
 Zambesi. Naturally this chief was keenly dis- 
 appointed when the recipient of his favours 
 declined to make a permanent residence at his 
 capital. Travelling westerly Mr. Arnot fell in 
 with the Bakuti, amongst whom for a few days 
 
1 64 Planting the Flag in Katanga. 
 
 he had striking evangelising experiences. Ac- 
 quainted with their dialect the missionary 
 preached Christ to some purpose and opened 
 the kingdom of heaven to the dark barbarians. 
 Other native receptions were less cheering. 
 Further to the west he and his small company- 
 were raided by a t?ibe who burnt the grass 
 around their tent and carried off eight follow- 
 ers, In a plucky fashion Mr. Arnot went in 
 search of his kidnapped natives, an adventure 
 which he has brightly described. " There was 
 nothing to do but to find their trail and follow 
 them up. After a ten miles' journey we reached 
 a little village in the forest where they were 
 resting. They thought we had come to fight 
 with them, and they rushed out with their 
 guns, bows and arrows, and spears, to receive 
 us. My men, thirty or forty in number, being 
 only Africans, got in fighting order, and began 
 to load their guns for action. I was a little 
 way behind, and did not take in the situation 
 at once. Seeing how things were going, I ran 
 forward, seized a little stool and held it up in 
 the air as a signal of peace. This arrested the 
 
Planting the Flag in Katanga. 165 
 
 enemy, and at last two of them, seeing me 
 seated, came forward to hear what I had to 
 say. After a little talk, it turned out that the 
 whole thing was a mistake. They thought we 
 had come to their country to rob and plunder 
 them, and quite naturally, in self-defence, they 
 wished to have the first hit at us. Next day 
 we spent the time in receiving presents, and 
 telling them of the things we had been speak- 
 ing to the people all along the road." Resum- 
 ing his journey Mr. Arnot traversed a seldom 
 trodden region and, at length reached Bihe\ 
 Of the Biheans, with whom he stayed for a time, 
 he furnishes numerous interesting sketches. 
 His next stage was to Benguella, on the West 
 African coast. His arrival there was a suf- 
 ficient proof that Grant, Cameron, and others 
 had a successor, who dared, with only a scanty 
 escort, to cross the great African Continent. 
 
 Undeterred by the narrow escapes and weary 
 tramping Mr. Arnot struck inland once more 
 after enjoying a brief rest. Resolved at all 
 hazards to reach Msidi's capital the young 
 Scotchman, with amazing energy, fought his 
 
166 Planting the Flag in Katanga. 
 
 way pacifically into the very heart of the 
 Garenganze country and achieved in the inter- 
 ests of Christianity, what at a later date was 
 accomplished for purposes of commerce and 
 colonisation by Lieutenant Le Marinel, an en- 
 voy of the Congo Free State, to whom the 
 honour belongs of commanding the first expe- 
 dition which penetrated as far as Msidi's capi- 
 tal Msidi warmly countenanced the proposals 
 of Mr. Arnot, whose labours, similar to Mac- 
 kay's in Uganda, broadly consisted of initiating 
 Christian civilisation. Year after year this 
 civilising pioneer exhibited strenuous activity 
 in advancing the elementary conditions of 
 progress, industrial pursuits, and, as devotedly, 
 illustrated the Gospel message. By his teach- 
 ing and character Mr. Arnot was winning 
 favour in the eyes of the natives and, in heroic 
 fashion preparing the way for comrades and 
 successors. He was endeavouring to exemplify 
 the counsel which the Patriarch of African 
 Missions addressed to him on the point of de- 
 parture for Africa. This was:— " Have pa- 
 tience, patience, patience, and then you will sue- 
 
Plantiitg the Flag in Katanga. 167 
 
 ceed." Two brother missionaries, — Mr. C. A. 
 Swan, of Sunderland, England, and, Mr. W. L. 
 Faulknor, from Canada, were welcomed to 
 Katanga, in 1887, and, on their settlement Mr. 
 Arnot, after a chequered seven years' history 
 in Darkest Africa, returned to Great Britain in 
 1888, where before large audiences in geographi- 
 cal and Christian circles he recounted the de- 
 velopment of Garenganze. In England Mr. 
 Arnot married Miss H. J. Fisher and, together 
 with her and a band of strong-souled fellow- 
 workers, the good soldier of faith sailed in 
 1890 for his adopted country and, has subse- 
 quently located himself temporarily, at Bih£, 
 on the line of route between the coast and 
 Katanga. 
 
 Onward from 1887 until the time of his fur- 
 lough home in 1892 Mr. Swan most ably 
 directed the extension of missionary work in 
 the kingdom of Garenganze. His. love for the 
 children, his perception of native peculiarities, 
 his unflinching assertion of justice, and his 
 sowing of Divine truth severally contributed to 
 the success of Mr.- Swan's enterorise. On the 
 
1 68 Planting the Flag in Katanga. 
 
 journey from the West Coast of Africa to the 
 interior he had a full share of difficulties in- 
 cluding four attacks of fever and, was vexingly 
 delayed by powerful chiefs who demanded 
 cloths, powder, guns, etc. These chiefs were 
 terrible despots whose orders, however unjust 
 they might be, the people dare not refuse, 
 knowing that any resistance would be visited 
 with death. Msidi, the King of Katanga, had 
 thousands of wives. So numerous were these 
 Amazons that Mr. Swan spoke of them being 
 " about as plentiful as the rain-drops." Mainly 
 through this body Msidi ruled his subjects. 
 Every important village had one of these 
 women, who, besides receiving tribute, kept the 
 chief posted up with what occurred. For all 
 kinds of offences, whether great or small, the 
 penalty of capital punishment was rigorously 
 enforced. Greatly as the inhabitants of Gare- 
 nganze delighted in battle and were of a warlike 
 temperament they were exceedingly industri- 
 ous and skilled workers in copper and other 
 materials. In religious matters the natives bad 
 Gtrange ideas of a Supreme Being in whom they 
 
Planting the Flag in Katanga. 169 
 
 firmly believed as controlling the destinies of 
 men. Fetichism and witchcraft had a strong 
 hold upon them ; no one was supposed to die 
 a natural death. Revolting cruelties were in- 
 flicted and, the horrible look of the villages, the 
 defences of which were surmounted by human 
 skulls, did not give the traveller or missionary 
 a comfortable feeling. For three years Mr. 
 Swan and Mr. Faulknor were the solitary white 
 missionaries in the country and, during that 
 time they only received three mails from En- 
 gland. Three more missionaries afterwards 
 entered Garenganze, Messrs. Laing, Thompson, 
 and Crawford, who had a hearty greeting from 
 the chief and the natives. When Mr. Swan 
 purposed leaving for a home-sojourn Msidi, 
 considering him a great friend, refused to allow 
 the missionary's departure. Eventually Mr. 
 Swan's exit was effected by the arrival of the 
 staff of a Congo Free State expedition. He 
 joined the returning caravan and, in 68 days 
 reached the first Congo station, thence sailed 
 down the waters of the Congo, and, in six weeks' 
 time set foot on British shores, having been 
 
i 70 Planting the Flag in Katanga, 
 
 away from England exactly six years and 
 seventeen days. The distance from the West 
 Coast of Africa to Garenganze was 900 miles, 
 the journey occupying upwards of four months. 
 Of Lieutenant Le Marinel, the young Belgian 
 officer who was in the service of the Free State 
 and the first traveller to reach Bunkeia, from 
 the Congo, Mr. Swan speaks in the kindliest 
 terms. With this officer Mr. Swan journeyed 
 back to the Congo River. Le Marinel's expe- 
 dition has been productive of valuable data 
 respecting the geographical and ethnological 
 characteristics of the regions traversed. He 
 crossed the basin of three rivers — the Sankou- 
 rou, Lomami, and the Lualaba, and passed 
 through rich and fertile lands not previously 
 trodden by white men's footsteps. Tribes of 
 savages were seen who painted their faces in 
 loud-toned hues and their entire bodies on 
 special occasions ; their hair being folded up 
 into thick mats and coloured with mingled 
 dyes. These natives were extremely ignorant 
 of anybody or anything outside their own im- 
 mediate domains and, unacquainted with the 
 
Planting the Flag in Katanga. 171 
 
 art of war. They contented themselves in the 
 petty feuds of individuals and families. Msidi 
 saluted Le Marinel in a cordial spirit, having the 
 impression that his visitor would supply him 
 with powder and ammunition for use against 
 some of his rebellious subjects. On discover- 
 ing that Le Marinel's good offices were limited 
 to expressions of loyal friendship and did not 
 include the sinews of war, the monarch's atti- 
 tude changed for a time. Prior to Le Marinel 
 returning to the Congo amicable relations were 
 again established. The Belgian explorer found 
 that the earlier reports of Msidi's declining 
 health were confirmed. He had reigned for a 
 long period, was in old age, very feeble, and 
 broken in spirit. For many years he had ob- 
 jected to have the slightest intercourse with 
 white men before the missionaries gained his 
 esteem and secured permission to settle in his 
 capital. Since the month of June, 1 891, when 
 Le Marinel left Msidi's territory nothing was 
 heard of the patriarchal chief until the arrival 
 of a brief telegram in April, 1892, announcing 
 that Msidi, the King of Katanga, had been de- 
 
172 Plcwiting the Flag in Katct7iga. 
 
 posed, an event probably not unconnected 
 with the advance of the four trading expedi- 
 tions upon Katanga. Following his return to 
 England Mr. Swan, the missionary, at the in- 
 vitation of the King of the Belgians travelled to 
 Brussels, to give His Majesty such information 
 as he possessed bearing on the kingdom over 
 which Msidi has ruled for several years. 
 
 Fruitless attempts were made from the south, 
 in 1 890-1, to enter Katanga. A daring travel- 
 ler, Mr. A. Sharpe, one of Mr. H. H. Johnston's 
 vice-consuls, and whose journeys of exploration 
 in Central Africa have been signally successful, 
 tried to reach Katanga to present the creden- 
 tials of Great Britain. On this errand the ex- 
 peditionary party suffered terrible hardships in 
 the countries adjoining Msidi's dominions. 
 Baffled for awhile Mr. Sharpe made interest- 
 ing discoveries north of Lake Moero and, mov- 
 ing afterwards, in a south-westerly direction, 
 entered Cazembe's capital. In this ferocious 
 potentate's country where human sacrifices are 
 of frequent occurrence Mr. Sharpe had the 
 hospitality of a barbaric ruler for eight days. 
 
Planting the Flag in Katanga. 1 73 
 
 The traveller was informed that during the 
 last one hundred years only four Europeans 
 had visited Cazembe's land. Mr. Sharpe was 
 able to verify the stories of the rich gold de- 
 posits to the south of Lake Moero, which may 
 possibly result in the state becoming the cen- 
 tre of a flourishing mining industry. Notwith- 
 standing the obstacles which Cazembe planted 
 in the way of Mr. Sharpe getting into Msidi's 
 capital, the explorer had the satisfaction of 
 seeing the wily, old monarch, though he does 
 not appear in the course of the six days' inter- 
 view to have had a gracious reception or re- 
 ceived special material advantages. About the 
 same period Mr. Joseph Thomson was endeav- 
 ouring to set foot in Katanga. To Mr. Thom- 
 son's misfortune, most of his followers were 
 struck down with small-pox, which prevented 
 the distinguished traveller from penetrating 
 Msidi's kingdom. Much interest is excited in 
 the prospects of the four exploring parties ap- 
 proaching Garenganze in 1892. Captain Stairs, 
 one of Stanley's former officers, was command- 
 ing a force from the east coast for exploration 
 
i 74 Planting the Flag in Katanga. 
 
 and imposing the suzerainty of the Congo Free 
 State and Anglo-Belgian Katanga Company 
 over Msidi's provinces ; Lieutenant Dhanis was 
 leading a second ; the Delcommune expedition 
 was going inland from Ngongo-Lutita ; and, 
 Captain Bia, starting in November, 189 1, was 
 in charge of a fourth, journeying by the route 
 which Lieutenant Le Marinel opened. 
 
 Of what may be termed African Folk-Lore 
 relating to tribes living westward of Katanga, 
 Mr. Swan pens useful jottings which point to 
 the origin of some of the names borne by Afri- 
 can races. Says the missionary of natives in 
 the neighbourhood of the river Lubi, when he 
 was travelling with Le Marinel : — 
 
 " Not far distant from these parts many of the Luba 
 people have the combination ' Bashila ' in their fam- 
 ily name — for instance, the Bashilange (Kalamba's 
 people), Bashilambwa, Bashilanzefu. M. Le Marinel 
 and I were talking ever the probable meaning of the 
 combination. We knew that Ba was a plural prefix, 
 but it was not until after some thought that I remem- 
 bered that the word shila (sometimes chila or jila) is 
 that which the Luba people use for 'antipathy.' If I 
 were to ask the Yeke people why they do not eat 
 zebra flesh, they would reply, ' Chi jila ' — i. e., 'It is a 
 thing to which we have an antipathy,' or, perhaps, 
 
Planting the Flag in Katanga. 175 
 
 better, ' It is one of the things which our fathers 
 taught us not to eat.' The Biheans use the word chi- 
 kola to express the same thing. The words nge, 
 mbwa, nzefu, in the above combinations mean re- 
 spectively leopard, dog, elephant. So it seems as 
 though the word Bashilange means • the people who 
 have an antipathy to the leopard '; the Bashilambwa, 
 ' those who have an antipathy to the dog '; and the 
 Bashilanzefu, ' those who have an antipathy to the 
 elephant.' We called a native, and, after a great deal 
 of questioning, he understood what we were driving 
 at, and we found our conclusion to be correct. He 
 then told us how the Bashilambwa and the Bashi- 
 lanzefu got? their names. At one time they were only 
 known as the Bashilambwa, because they considered 
 it was wrong to eat the dog. But one day a number 
 of them went across the Lubi River to hunt elephants, 
 and stayed many days, during which rains had fallen, 
 the river became much swollen, and when the hunters 
 returned they could not cross. While they were won- 
 dering what to do an elephant came past, and, seeing 
 that they were troubled, asked what was the matter. 
 They were all much surprised, of course, to hear the 
 elephant speak. But it went on, saying they must 
 not be surprised, for it was a human being like them- 
 selves ; they could not cross the river, but it could 
 very easily, and advised them to get on its back, which 
 they did, and reached the other side in safety. Ever 
 since that time they have refused to eat the flesh 
 of the elephant, and are now known as the Bashi- 
 lanzefu." 
 
 Contributions of this class which bear on the 
 
1 76 Planting the Flag in Katanga. 
 
 customs, traditions, and philology of strange 
 peoples are always welcomed. In the same 
 section of investigation Dr. Turner, Dr. Inglis, 
 and a number of eminent South Sea mission- 
 aries have collected facts illustrative of Poly- 
 nesian races which Professor Max Miiller, Sir 
 H. Tylor, and scientific scholars have much ap- 
 preciated. 
 
 By enthusiastically uplifting the missionary 
 cross the outlook in the kingdom of Gare- 
 nganze has distinct promise, for which the lives 
 of some of the missionaries have been laid 
 down. At the threshold of the campaign the 
 names of martyrs are inscribed on its " bede " 
 roll. That tragic, yet sublime declaration of 
 an African missionary : — " Ah ! I am one of 
 those men whose dead bodies will fill the 
 trench to make it easier for others to come 
 after us, and walk over us, and take the cita- 
 del," has an eloquent enforcement in the mis- 
 sion annals of Garenganze. Through such sac- 
 rifices the dawn is breaking on darkest regions 
 and the prospect of a better day already ap- 
 pears on the horizon. Severe is the calling of 
 
Planting the Flag in Katanga, i 77 
 
 men and women at Equatorial African out- 
 posts who are " painfully plodding on in their 
 frequently thankless task of impregnating the 
 dull minds of Africans sodden with barbarism, 
 with the light of religious ideas." All that 
 men most admire has exhibition on these far 
 away fields in the conflicts of faith. Zeal, earn- 
 estness, trust, and self-abnegation are the hall- 
 marks of these ambassadors of love. They 
 have seen and responded to the observation 
 of Mr. Stanley that, " the time has come and 
 the hour has struck for civilisation to enter 
 Africa, to remember the blessing of Living- 
 stone, and in the name of God and the Chris- 
 tian nations, to steer right onward." It must 
 be that in God's own season these scenes of 
 labour shall become the witnesses of growingly 
 fragrant toil. 
 
MISSIONARY ADVANCE UP THE 
 CONGO WATERWAY. 
 
 (179) 
 
X. 
 
 MISSIONARY ADVANCE UP THE 
 CONGO WATERWAY. 
 
 FOURTH in magnitude of the great African 
 
 rivers, the Congo, which Stanley announced to 
 
 the world on his arrival at Boma in 1877 to be 
 
 identical with the Lualaba of the interior, and 
 
 partially explored by Livingstone, has become 
 
 in little over one decade a principal missionary 
 
 and trading sphere of the Dark Continent. The 
 
 Lower Congo, — from its mouth, terminates at 
 
 the Falls of Yellala, whence the second stage — 
 
 the Middle Congo — reaches to Stanley Pool, a 
 
 distance of 350 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Above Stanley Pool opens the Upper Congo, 
 
 extending to Stanley Falls, 1,500 miles inland, 
 
 and, far beyond into the depths of Africa. 
 
 For 940 miles this latter section is navigable. 
 
 On the lower parts of the river, Puerto da 
 
 Lenha, once had notoriety for the slave ships 
 
 which arrived there to receive thousands of 
 
 cargoes of slaves for shipment to other shores, 
 
 (:8i) 
 
i8? Missionary Advance 
 
 and, some 31 miles higher up the river stands 
 Boma, in picturesque surroundings, formerly 
 the greatest slave market in the world. Several 
 stations were planted in succession on the 
 Congo by Stanley for the Comite des Etudes 
 du Haut. The first of the five leading stations 
 was established at Vivi, 115 miles from the sea, 
 the portal of the new country, followed at in- 
 tervals by Isanghila, Stanley Pool, Leopold- 
 ville, Ibaka, and a number of auxiliary stations. 
 In 1891 it was calculated that the foreign pop- 
 ulation of the State of which Boma is the capital, 
 numbered 800, mostly of European nationali- 
 ties, and, of the 72 English and 35 Swedes, the 
 greater part — over 80 in all — were missionaries. 
 The opening of the Congo railroad from Ma- 
 tadi, to the Leopold Ravine, is a strong link of 
 union towards the furtherance of intercourse 
 and commercial relations between the whites 
 and the natives. Civilisation too, will rapidly 
 follow in its track and slavery receive a stagger- 
 ing blow. For the slave trade and the locomo- 
 tive to exist side by side in Africa is an utter 
 impossibility. 
 
up the Congo Waterway. 183 
 
 The year 1878, annus mirabilis in African 
 missionary records, marks the entrance of the 
 English Baptists into the Congo Valley. Of 
 the pioneers' fourteen years of struggle only 
 fragmentary narratives have been published, 
 yet enough has come to light to establish their 
 claims upon the gratitude and admiration of 
 the Christian Church. Soldiers and heroines 
 of faith they have served, suffered, and, often 
 laid down their lives in the endeavour to satisfy 
 the lifelong hunger of Congo's millions. It is 
 not forgotten that when the Baptist Missionary 
 Society presented the renowned explorer, Mr. 
 Stanley, w r ith an address seven years ago at a 
 public breakfast in London he spoke in elo- 
 quent terms of the Baptist missionaries and 
 their American fellow-toilers on the Congo. 
 For their progress Mr. Stanley had rendered 
 esteemed co-operation which added to his 
 eulogy of the missionaries as "labourers who 
 toiled as he had seen them much more severely 
 than he could do in the heart of Africa, many 
 of them being bright examples of the blessing 
 to be derived from honest work." Of the Bap- 
 
184 Missionary Advance 
 
 tist death-roll on the Congo it had been said : 
 " no Christian Church had supplied a nobler 
 contingent to the army of martyrs." In this 
 martyr circle the name of Comber, is mourn- 
 fully illustrious, embracing the missionaries — 
 Dr. Sidney Comber, Mr. Thomas J. Comber, 
 Mrs. Hay, her sister, Mrs. Thomas J. Comber, 
 then, Mrs. Percy Comber, who reached Africa 
 in May, 1890, and, some months later fell a 
 victim to the malarious climate. Sorrow over 
 this last sacrifice had not ceased ere the sad in- 
 telligence reached England in March, 1892, that 
 the Rev. Percy E. Comber, surviving his young 
 wife only by twelve months, had succumbed to 
 the terrible African fever ; his death chivalrously 
 crowning a pathetic episode in the history of 
 the Congo Mission. The Combers, — three 
 brothers, one sister, and two wives, — six in all, 
 a noble, self-sacrificing family, dying on the 
 Congo in the cause of missions, present a 
 martyrs' page not eclipsed even in the martyr- 
 doms of apostolic days. Dr. Maclaren justifia- 
 bly said at the Liverpool gathering in celebra- 
 on of the Baptist Missionary Centenary Fund 
 
up the Congo Waterway 
 
 that the Baptist Society had claims for support 
 on the ground of the many martyrs and saints 
 who had gained possession of Africa with their 
 blood ; and of the Congo, taken at the expense 
 of many sacred graves. With increasing ac- 
 quaintance of the climatic conditions on the 
 Congo the record of losses, previously so fatal 
 to missionary effort, has been less serious lately. 
 The lives of these pioneers have not been 
 wasted. On the fields which they have ploughed 
 and, into which they have thrown the seeds 
 other labourers will stand to gather in the 
 spiritual sheaves. The dust of the Combers — 
 lovingly faithful souls — consecrates African 
 soil afresh to the glory of Christ and His 
 kingdom. They have left no uncertain answer 
 to the question put many years since, " Is En- 
 gland to be a beast of burden or, is she to be 
 an evangelist to all the world 5 " 
 
 Upwards of a score of flourishing stations 
 such as Leopoldville, Nyombe," and Lukelela, 
 on the Lower and Upper Congo, denote the 
 footsteps of English Baptist missionaries, which 
 carry the promise of future developments and 
 
1 86 Missionary Advance 
 
 conquests. From the base at Leopoldville the 
 work of the Society extends over 900 miles up 
 the river and, to it belongs the honour of hav- 
 ing launched in 1882 the first decked steamer 
 on the upper river, — The Peace, a gift of Mr. 
 Arthington, Leeds. This historic little craft, 
 not sufficiently large or swift enough for pres- 
 ent use has been requisitioned by the Congo 
 Free State. The boiler of the Peace was 
 completely fitted up by some of the mission 
 boys and steam raised three days after her con- 
 struction was commenced. Her successor on 
 the Upper Congo will be the Goodwill, a new 
 mission steamer on the twin-screw turbine 
 system, with twice the capacity of her prede- 
 cessor, being 84 feet long and 13 feet beam, and 
 drawing 2 ft. 2 in. laden with cargo. Each piece 
 of the vessel with hull, boiler, and engine, will 
 be carried on the shoulders of natives some 230 
 miles over rough hilly roads to her destination 
 at Stanley Pool. The specifications were drawn 
 up by Mr. George Grenfell, the honoured and 
 gifted missionary, who will superintend the 
 building. Welcomed service will be rendered 
 
tip the Congo Waterway, 187 
 
 by the Goodwill in communicating with the 
 missionaries and stations hundreds of miles 
 apart. In aiding this branch of mission work 
 it is proposed by the Centenary Fund to devote 
 £5,000 for the purchase of a Congo steamer. 
 How faintly are the huge waterways of the 
 Congo apprehended! It is reported that 1,000 
 miles of its course have never been visited by 
 any missionary and, another 2,000 miles only 
 had a passing glimpse. Facts of this nature 
 demonstrate the need of a missionary flotilla to 
 cruise on these broad, shining waters in the 
 Master's name. 
 
 The disappointment that four only of the 
 proposed ten fresh stations have been erected 
 since 1885 is due to. the frequent sickness and 
 decease of missionary workers and, in a meas- 
 ure, to the difficulties which beset the mission- 
 aries among such a diversity of tribes and 
 strange languages. " They were face to face," 
 said Mr. Grenfell, "with the darkest mass of 
 heathendom the world knew." Keenly were 
 the ambassadors of peace alive to the enormous 
 dimensions of the task before them and prayer- 
 
Missionary Advance 
 
 fully begged the churches at home to stand by 
 them in sending forth volunteers for the great 
 campaign. The missionaries and explorers 
 knew 6,000 miles of river, or a coast line of 
 12,000 miles, in Central Africa, the villages and 
 towns along which were all approachable by 
 the missionary. There is intense dismay in 
 Congo missionary organisations that at a time 
 when slave-dealing on the lower stretches of the 
 river is declining another awful evil has been 
 brought in by the white man. Says Mr. Gren- 
 fell, "Year by year the infamous liquor traffic 
 was doing more and more to steal from the na- 
 tives their freedom, and to bring them under a 
 yoke not less terrible than that of slavery. To 
 many of them (the missionaries), it was an open 
 question whether the slave trade was ever a 
 greater curse to the poor African than the 
 liquor traffic was to-day ; a traffic which was 
 reducing him to a wreck, mentally, morally, 
 and physically." The wide-spread effects of 
 drink are so fearful that the missionaries seem 
 well nigh paralysed by its presence and in every 
 direction strenuous endeavours are being made 
 
up the Congo Waterway. 189 
 
 to urge the Powers, and the Congo Free State, 
 to restrict the importation of this abomination 
 into the State, a territory having an area of 
 1,056,200 square miles and a population of 
 27,000,000 souls. 
 
 In the call to evangelisation, strongly as Mr. 
 Grenfell believes that the leadership and organ- 
 ising qualifications of foreign missionaries are 
 required, he is persuaded that the African na- 
 tion will not be mainly or ultimately evangel- 
 ised by whites. He points to an immense region 
 in Central Africa, with an area of 4,000,000 
 square miles, larger than the whole of Europe, 
 not at present touched by a single missionary 
 and he declares that the heart of the Dark 
 Continent cannot permanently be occupied by 
 white missionaries. The greater part of the 
 work must be done by the natives themselves 
 who happily are showing fitness for the task. 
 Foreign missionaries are less able to grapple 
 with the conditions of native life than African- 
 born agents of whose gifts for carrying spiritual 
 tidings Miss Silvey has penned encouraging 
 testimonies. To the missionaries' appeal for 
 
190 Missionary Advance 
 
 helpers, numbers of the natives, God-fearing 
 men, were nobly responding and freely conse- 
 crating themselves that they might win obedi- 
 ence to the faith from their countrymen who, 
 in their turn would bear the light of heaven to 
 the dark regions beyond. 
 
 To Mr. Grenfell is allowed the foremost place 
 in the group of English Baptist missionaries on 
 the Congo, in his threefold capacity of pioneer- 
 explorer, leader, and missionary. African geog- 
 raphy has been enriched by his notable dis- 
 covery, that the Mobangi, now proved to be 
 the Welle, flowing from the Central Soudan, is 
 probably the Congo's principal tributary. For 
 this and other explorations he has received the 
 decoration of " Chevalier of the Order of Leo- 
 pold," from the King of the Belgians, and one 
 of the Royal Geographical Society's gold 
 medals, while his civilising and Christianising 
 labours have been acknowledged in every part 
 of the world. The King of the Belgians holds 
 Mr. Grenfell in high regard, a proof of which is 
 to hand in Mr. Grenfell's acceptance of mem- 
 bership at the King's request, on the Belgian 
 
up the Congo Waterway. 191 
 
 Commission for the delimitation of the boun- 
 dary between the Free State and Portuguese 
 territory in the Lunda country. As observed 
 recently by Dr. Maclaren of Manchester, this 
 gallant missionary is one of those who have 
 hazarded their lives for Christianity. In cer- 
 tain quarters there is regret at the proclama- 
 tion by the King of the Belgians to the Pope, 
 that the Roman Catholic form of Christianity 
 is to be the recognised religion of the Free 
 State, and that His Majesty has placed his 
 African dominions under the direct protection 
 of the Virgin Mary, as the patron saint of the 
 Free State. The announcement does not give 
 the Protestant missionaries any anxiety as they 
 have every facility for missionary aggression 
 and unvarying courtesy from the King's officials, 
 Of the prevalence of slave-raiding on the 
 upper banks and waters of the Congo, revela- 
 tions were published similar to those dating 
 from the northern bends of the Niger, the head 
 of Tanganyika, and Bornu. Commander V. 
 Lovett Cameron, a traveller of unquestioned 
 veracity, said, " the part of Africa where this 
 
192 Missionary Advance 
 
 detestable hunting after, murdering, and enslav- 
 ing human beings was carried on in the worst 
 manner, was the eastern portion of the Congo 
 State." Equally emphatic, and of later date, 
 was the evidence of an independent English 
 trader concerning the same region. Gladly 
 acknowledging that the slave trade on the 
 Lower Congo was dying out with the exception 
 of domestic slavery, he continues, "but in all 
 places of the higher Congo, slavery is being 
 carried on at this present moment. Slavery 
 among the tribes being part and parcel of their 
 social system, they naturally will not part with 
 their custom until they are made to. Slavery 
 is carried on briskly in the cataract regions, be- 
 tween the lower and upper Congo, but cer- 
 tainly, further in the interior the trade is more 
 common, and of larger proportions. As regards 
 the Arabs, it is a very well known fact that they 
 are the most inveterate of all slavers ; they are 
 not of the tribes, and therefore have no social 
 system to appeal to as a license. They do not 
 procure slaves for carriers, unless the poor 
 things who are marched in files across country, 
 
tip the Congo Waterway. 193 
 
 sometimes for months at a time, can be termed 
 carriers of their own marketable bodies. Yes ; 
 in that sense they are carriers." Here, as on 
 the shores of Tanganyika the slave-dealing 
 Arabs are being resisted by Europeans. A mes- 
 sage was received in March, 1892, at the offices 
 of the Congo Free State in Brussels, from Cap- 
 tain Ponthier, who has been operating against 
 the Arab slave-raiders guilty of devastating 
 the regions north and south of the Upper 
 Welle. Captain Ponthier met with consider- 
 able success, destroying two Arab strongholds. 
 One of these was situated on three small islands 
 some way above the mouth of the Bomokandi, 
 while the other was a fortified camp on the 
 Mokongo. The Arabs had laid waste the whole 
 country with fire and sword, the natives being 
 powerless to oppose them. By Captain Pon- 
 thier's forces the Arabs were completely de- 
 feated and 250 slaves set at liberty. 
 
 The Swedish African explorer, Dr. West- 
 mark, furnished in 1891, thrilling narrations of 
 his explorations on the Upper Congo, amid the 
 cannibal and slave-capturing tribes in Bangalad. 
 
194 Missionary Advance 
 
 The country itself was a natural paradise, fer- 
 tile, luxuriant, and of variegated beauty and 
 loveliness, the haunt of: — 
 
 " The mountain wooded to the peak, the lawns 
 And winding glades high up like ways to Heaven, 
 The slender coco's drooping crown of plumes, 
 The lightning flash of insect and of bird, 
 The lustre of the long convolvuluses 
 That coil'd around the stately stems," 
 
 where man alone was fearfully vile. Slavery 
 flourished there and polygamy is practised. A 
 man can sell wife and children according to his 
 own depraved pleasure. Women are the slave 
 drudges, the men spending their hours in eat- 
 ing, drinking, and sleeping. Cannibalism in its 
 worst features prevails. Young women are 
 prized as special delicacies, particularly girls' 
 ears, prepared in palm-oil and, in order to make 
 the flesh more palatable, the luckless victims 
 are kept in water up to their necks for three 
 or four days before they are slaughtered and 
 served as food. The religious views of these 
 cannibals are extremely crude. Their highest 
 object of adoration is Satan, whom they repre- 
 sent to be white and, to whose glory on great 
 
 j 
 
up the C oil go Waterway. 195 
 
 festival occasions cannibalism is perpetrated, in 
 forest-deeps unseen, in tragedies of the most 
 awful and revolting kind. 
 
 To check and, finally, to blot out the infa- 
 mous scourge of slavery in Darkest Africa, the 
 forces of civilised lands and the resources of 
 Christendom are leagued together as in no 
 previous age. The Slave Trade which Pitt long 
 ago called " the greatest practical evil that ever 
 afflicted the human race," is doomed. Com- 
 merce, railways, industries, colonisation, barri- 
 cades, military patrols, blockades, and slave 
 refuges, are severally combating its existence 
 and power. Superior to these in the annihila- 
 tion of this foe to man, appears the silent min- 
 istry of Christianity planting its roots and dif- 
 fusing its rays over the Congo watershed, across 
 the Soudan, and, in Central Africa. In speed- 
 ing the daybreak of emancipation on the Congo, 
 and its tributaries, glorious deeds have been 
 wrought by the American Baptist Missionary 
 Union, the Swedish Society, the Congo Balolo 
 Mission, the English Baptists, and, the co- 
 workers with the apostolic William Taylor, 
 
196 Missionary Advance up the Congo. 
 
 " Missionary Bishop of Africa," whose respect- 
 ive ensigns and missionaries have alleviated 
 sorrow, lessened cruelty, dispelled ignorance, 
 broken slave chains, conquered paganism, and 
 triumphantly uplifted the Cross of Christ. 
 
MISSIONS ON THE NIGER RIVER. 
 
 (197) 
 
XL 
 
 MISSIONS ON THE NIGER RIVER. 
 
 SPRINGING in the Kong Mountains and 
 coursing northeasterly towards Timbuctoo, and, 
 again, south-southeast-ward, receiving in lat. 7 
 4c/ N. the Binue, from the sandy depths of the 
 Western Soudan, the Niger, — the second great- 
 est river on the West Coast of Africa, — has an 
 estimated length of 2,500 miles. This impos- 
 ing waterway empties itself into the Gulf of 
 Guinea by some twenty-two branches which 
 flow through the channelled mangrove-crowned 
 islands of its delta. All the renowned explor- 
 ers of the Niger, Mungo Park, Caille, Lander, 
 Allen, Laird, Crowther, and Binger, have de- 
 scribed in vivid colours its winding track and 
 charming inland landscapes. Three names 
 designate the divisions of this mighty river: 
 the Niger Delta, the Lower Niger, and the 
 Upper Niger. The lower half of the Niger 
 Delta occupied by thousands of natives runs 
 
 (199) 
 
200 Missions on the Niger River. 
 
 into the interior fifty miles, with a zigzag coast 
 line, upwards of two hundred miles in length. 
 To the pestilential effluvia rising from fetid 
 mud-banks native life presents a dark counter- 
 part in its enslavement to superstitions, witch- 
 craft, cannibalism, and the white man's fire- 
 water. Some rays of light however have been 
 kindled in these malarial haunts and thickets of 
 barbarism whence swarthy-skinned heralds have 
 borne " wonderful words of life" to the inner 
 tribes. 
 
 A further ascent of one of the winding chan- 
 nels places the voyager on the bosom of the 
 Niger proper. Gradually the verdure-clad 
 rocky heights which guard the shores are suc- 
 ceeded by low-lying hills and grassy park-land. 
 Differing racial groups inhabit the country. 
 Foremost of these are the Ibos, skilled in the 
 arts of demonology, and next, the Haiisas, a fine 
 bronze-coloured and polished race, fifteen mill- 
 ions in number, who have lately adopted Mo- 
 hammedan rites. To the north of these races, 
 who are first approached, spread the dominions 
 of the powerful Sultan of Sokoto. Writes an 
 
Missions on the Niger River. 201 
 
 earnest missionary concerning the Mohamme- 
 dan states which stretch north and east : " From 
 vast walled cities of fifty, eighty, even a hun- 
 dred thousand inhabitants, caravans are always 
 screaming out — to the south to raid for slaves, 
 to the north African states across the Sahara 
 to sell them. Weavers, dyers, and shoemakers 
 work hard in the streets of these great cities, 
 manufacturing the ample clothing that the 
 people wear, and exhibit this remarkable spec- 
 tacle of African civilisation. From eight de- 
 grees latitude to the borders of the Sahara, 
 and for 3,500 miles from west to east, this vast 
 region of the Soudan stretches from the Atlan- 
 tic to the Red Sea, with a population nearly 
 equal to that of the whole of North America, 
 under settled rulers, hundreds of thousands 
 able to read and write, eager to read and re- 
 read tracts in Arab character till the very paper 
 is worn to bits. Yet no one has troubled to 
 send even a few tracts into their great cities." 
 
 To evangelise western and north-central 
 Africa the Church Missionary Society has made 
 heroic sacrifices and, with its endeavours must 
 
202 Missions on the Niger River. 
 
 be associated the labours of American societies 
 at Liberia, the Basle Society on the Gold Coast, 
 and the English Wesleyans between Yoruba 
 and the Niger delta. It was in 1816 that the 
 beloved Bickersteth self-denyingly visited the 
 first stations, so that for more than seventy 
 years the Church Missionary Society has con- 
 tinuously, though with chequered episodes, 
 planted the faith by the banks of the Niger. 
 About 16 years later interest was rekindled 
 in the Niger territory by Lander discovering 
 the mouth of the river and, in 1832 the first 
 Niger Expedition was initiated by Mr. Mac- 
 gregor Laird, who built the iron paddle steamer, 
 the Quorra, which sailed from Liverpool under 
 Captain Lander's command. This gallant man 
 was accompanied by Mr. Laird, Lieut. William 
 Allen, R.N., and other explorers. The expedi- 
 tion had an unhappy experience. Of its com- 
 plement numbering 40 persons, Mr. Laird and 
 eight others alone returned alive to England. 
 Undismayed, Mr. Laird continued to be an 
 ardent worker for the exploration of the Niger 
 by fitting out repeated expeditions and equip- 
 
Missions on the Niger River. 20 
 
 ping the steamers. In 1841 an expedition was 
 dispatched by the British Government for 
 which Mr. John Laird, the founder of the emi- 
 nent shipbuilding firm, equipped the Albert, 
 Wilberforce, and the Soudan. With this ven- 
 ture the ardently consecrated Rev. J. F. Schon, 
 of Sierra Leone, and a young African named 
 Samuel Crowther, whose previous history was 
 as romantic as his subsequent one was distin- 
 guished in missionary annals, were identified. 
 The crews were stricken with fever and, of 150 
 whites 42 died. From this expedition the mis- 
 sionaries had an opportunity of learning that 
 some of the native tribes were willing to receive 
 Gospel teachings. A further expedition had a 
 disastrous issue, followed by another one in 
 1854, both of which Crowther joined. The last 
 of these noted expeditions sailed in 1857, which 
 marks the definite establishment of the Niger 
 Mission. 
 
 The life of the first Bishop of the Niger and 
 the only coloured non-European bishop conse- 
 crated in England since the apostolic age, is too 
 fascinating to be excluded from a brief narra- 
 
204 Missions 071 the Niger River. 
 
 tion. Thrown into slavery in youth by Eyo 
 Mohammedans the boy Adjai suffered terribly 
 and was afterwards shipped with a living cargo 
 of fellow-victims from the African coast for 
 western shores. Rescued by a British man-of- 
 war in 1822 he was landed at Bathurst, near 
 Free Town, and there receiving a good educa- 
 tion was next transferred to a mission at Free 
 Town. In 1825 he was baptised into the 
 Christian religion and the names — Samuel 
 Crowther, after an eminent London Evangeli- 
 cal clergyman, adopted. A hurried visit to 
 England was followed by recommencing study 
 at Fourah Bay College. He returned again to 
 Great Britain and on the completion of exten- 
 sive studies was ordained in 1843 f° r mission- 
 ary service at Yoruba and Sierra Leone by the 
 Bishop of London. The same year he founded 
 in conjunction with Mr. Townsend and Mr. 
 Gollmer the Yoruba Mission, to which he de- 
 voted himself passionately for upwards of 
 twelve years. In 1846 he met once more his 
 long lost mother and had the additional joy of 
 ransoming at the same time several of his kin- 
 
Missions on the Niger River. 205 
 
 dred from slave fetters. Returning from the 
 Niger Expedition of 1854 he led for two years 
 the Lagos Mission, which was sent up the river 
 in 1857 5 a °d, m 1864, the supreme devotedness 
 of this master missionary was recognised by his 
 consecration in Canterbury Cathedral to the 
 Niger Bishopric. In the busiest and most 
 active of his years he toiled incessantly in 
 translating portions of the Bible, religious 
 works, and other kinds of literature into the 
 native tongues and dialects. His farewell de- 
 parture from Liverpool in February, 1890, in 
 his eighty-second year, with a band of fellow- 
 labourers, was a memorable incident, opening 
 afresh the vision of missionary possibilities in 
 a sphere of trying vicissitudes. Nearly two 
 years later, on the 31st of December, 1891, the 
 good Bishop, a Shepherd of God's flock, went 
 into the glory with a doubtless abundant en- 
 trance and followed by the praises of thousands 
 of God's people on many shores. 
 
 A few weeks afterwards a telegram was re- 
 ceived, dated March 19, from Brass, by the 
 Church Missionary Society announcing in a 
 
206 Missions on the Niger River. 
 
 brief sentence the death of Mr. Graham Wil- 
 mot Brooke, the young, trusted, capable, and 
 devoted leader of the Mission on the Upper 
 Niger: — 
 
 " Wilmot Brooke at rest — March 5 — black- 
 water fever." 
 
 By the same severe malady had been carried 
 off some months earlier, Mr. J. A. Robinson, a 
 gifted Cambridge colleague. 
 
 The spiritual emancipation of the Moham- 
 medans occupying the Central Soudan was the 
 master passion of Mr. Brooke, — a true martyr- 
 missionary : — ■ 
 
 " Wearing the light yoke of that Lord of love, 
 Who still'd the rolling wave of Galilee." 
 
 In his earlier essays to reach these millions 
 he ventured on apostolic lines partly sus- 
 tained by the generosity of friends at home. 
 It was in the course of his third perilous jour- 
 ney that he was detained upwards of four 
 months on the Mobangi, a northern tributary 
 of the Congo, and hemmed in for hundreds 
 of miles by the most savage tribes. Having 
 grandly failed on these occasions to break 
 
Missions on the Niger River. 207 
 
 through the barriers of the impenetrable Sou- 
 dan from the south, he laid his scheme before 
 the Church Missionary Society in England. 
 The proposals were approved and Mr. Brooke's 
 transference to the Society's staff in 1890, was 
 ratified with the heartiest concurrence of his 
 former helpers and patrons. Again he travel- 
 led eastward along the Lower and Upper 
 Niger to enter the Western Soudan, passing 
 through the territories of sultans and emirs 
 who scorned the Christian faith. For pro- 
 tection against the Mohammedan law which 
 threatens with death the proselytizer and pros- 
 elytized, Mr. Brooke and his brother evangel- 
 ists had none save the divine arm. Electing 
 to stand on the convert's level in his profession 
 of allegiance to Jesus his much loved Master 
 and Lord, Graham Wilmot Brooke died, car- 
 rying the loftiest traditions of missionary 
 courage. 
 
 Not on any other field of high enterprise 
 perhaps has the Church Missionary Society 
 realised so much of severe conflict, crucial 
 struggle, and travail in pioneership as in the 
 
2o8 Missions on the Niger River. 
 
 scries of Niger campaigns. Upon every page 
 of its story shadows fall. Significantly has it 
 been remarked that the Niger River has always 
 been a source of material or spiritual disaster 
 to the Society's directors. What savagery and 
 barbarism have reigned over these West Afri- 
 can lands for generations ! There the most 
 devilish forms of cruelty known to humanity 
 flourish to-day. Fierce tribal warfare, human 
 butcheries, the endless passage of canoe loads 
 of slaves on tributary waters consigned as the 
 food of cannibal tribes, revolting sacrifices, and 
 rank degradation, have appalled the most in- 
 trepid of the missionary vanguard. The more 
 welcome are the signs that darkness does not 
 entirely prevail. Groups of converts and cen- 
 tres of faith ha've existence in these regions of 
 heathenism. Report tells of the native Chris- 
 tians at Bonny on the coast holding forth the 
 word of life. Where in past years, during their 
 trading expeditions for palm oil and palm ker- 
 nel, sixty miles distant, at the Ura Ya markets, 
 they assembled in rough praying sheds in the 
 heart of heathen villages the same fervid light- 
 
Missions on the A T igcr River. 209 
 
 bearers now gather on the identical site in com- 
 modious and neatly-erected timber chapels. At 
 the village of Okrika,afew miles from Bonny, the 
 cause of evangelisation was making way when in 
 the autumn of 1889 a deplorable outbreak of can- 
 nibalism practically ruined the hopeful prospects. 
 In one day, the heathen, and several village 
 Christians, under a tribal passion, cooked and de- 
 voured a hundred and twenty prisoners of war. 
 Onitsha, situated in a pleasant and fertile lo- 
 cality on the Lower Niger, is the seat of vigor- 
 ous missionary aggression wdiither the Haiisas, 
 Nupes, Igbirras, and Igarras, bring their pro- 
 duce. The Igbirras and Basas have shown 
 unfaltering courage in defying the charges of 
 Moslem invaders through long decades. Look- 
 ing easterly the Fulanis are seen, governed 
 by Ahmadu, Sultan of Sequ Sikoro, of in- 
 ferior civilisation to the Haiisas, and in whom 
 the Gospel will have a strong antagonist. 
 Opposite Onitsha lies Asaba, the headquarters 
 of the Niger territory, and many miles up 
 the river, the town of Ghebe, below the 
 confluence of the Binue and Niger, which 
 
210 Missions on the Niger River. 
 
 constitutes the southernmost branch of the 
 Soudan division of the Niger Mission. Some 
 miles beyond the inflowing mouth of the Binue 
 stands the notable town of Lokoja with 3,000 
 inhabitants at the foot of one of the numerous 
 table mountains. Lokoja, the base of the So- 
 ciety's interior offshoots, three hundred miles 
 from the coast, in which a hospital will be 
 opened, has a future of promising usefulness, 
 in advancing the spread of missions. To the 
 north of it, Egga, a town of larger population, 
 is another growing station where the " mal- 
 lams," or, African Mohammedan scribes, as- 
 semble every Friday, to preach Islamite doc- 
 trines to groups of semi-barbarian listeners. 
 
 Ere the traveller touches these extreme out- 
 posts he sees the relics of awful tragedies in 
 the intermediate districts from which the cries 
 of the victims are unheard within the bounds 
 of civilisation. At Azumiri, the skulls of na- 
 tives, killed and eaten in sacrifice to the gods, 
 are strung up by hundreds in the open streets, 
 to be gazed upon and worshipped by defence- 
 less innocents whose fate may be decreed on 
 
Missions on the Niger River. 2 1 1 
 
 the following day. Of dark Ohambele and its 
 slaughters at burial ceremonials Bishop Crow- 
 ther related a tragical occurrence. " About 
 four days before our arrival at Ohambele an 
 old rich woman was dead and buried. When 
 the grave was dug, two female slaves were 
 taken, whose limbs were smashed with clubs. 
 Being unable to stir, they were let down into 
 the grave, yet alive, on mat or bed on which 
 the corpse of the mistress was laid, and screened 
 from sight for a time. Two other female slaves 
 were laid hold of and dressed up with best 
 clothes and coral beads. This being done, 
 they were led and paraded about the town to 
 show the public the servants of the rich dead 
 mistress, whom they would attend in the world 
 of spirits. This was done for two days, when 
 the unfortunate victims were taken to the edge 
 of the grave, and their limbs were also smashed 
 with clubs, and their bodies laid on the corpse 
 of their mistress and covered up with earth 
 while yet alive. Some of the Bonny converts 
 attempted to rescue these last two females by 
 a large offer of ransom to buy bullocks for the 
 
212 Missions on the Niger River. 
 
 occasion, but it was refused them." These 
 dreadful and frequently enacted crimes against 
 humanity must evoke the supplication from 
 the children of God, " How long, O Lord, how 
 long ? " coupled with an unshaken resolve that 
 such deeds shall be effectually blotted out from 
 the face of the whole earth. 
 
 With the death of Bishop Crowther, the last 
 of the great pioneers of Christianity on the 
 Niger watershed and, in Western Africa, has 
 been gathered home. It is naturally regretted 
 that the declining years of the veteran whose 
 labours had been exceedingly fruitful, should 
 have suffered disappointment from the alleged 
 spiritual weakness of some of the converts or, 
 the lack of qualification on the part of native 
 African agents. There is every anticipation 
 that the visit of a deputation consisting of 
 Archdeacon Hamilton and the Rev. W. Allan 
 to the Niger province in 1891 will heal the dis- 
 putes and misunderstandings. The obstacles 
 overcome the messengers of the Cross will 
 again speed the Word : — 
 
Missions o?i the Niger River. 2 1 3 
 
 " Till the sunrise broad of the day of God 
 Shall shine on the victor's glory, 
 And the earth at rest, in her Lord confessed, 
 Shall rejoice in the finished story." 
 
 The question of a successor to Bishop Crow- 
 ther, the black bishop of the Niger, is of mo- 
 ment to the missionary enterprise in that 
 region. In a growing measure the view pre- 
 vails in church missionary circles that a native, 
 on account of the likelihood of his standing 
 the climate better, and, even for weightier rea- 
 sons, should have the appointment. This view 
 being adopted the claims of the Rev. Isaac 
 Oluwole, a graduate of Durban University, and 
 one of the native clergy will probably receive 
 recognition for recommendation to the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Crowns of light encircle the names of Ra- 
 ban, Haensel, Schon, Robinson, Crowther, and 
 Brooke. These servants of God scorned to lay 
 sandy foundations which would not endure in 
 the day when every man's work shall be tested 
 and its reward determined. What steadfast 
 toilers they were in surveys of evangelisation, 
 in winning native confidence, in establishing 
 
2 1 4 Missions on the Niger River. 
 
 stations, in caring for the young, in translating 
 literature, and, in shaping a line of civilisation 
 by means of which later generations of tribes 
 may be redeemed from the gloom of barbar- 
 ism ! Nor should the services of the Royal 
 Niger Company, previously called the National 
 African Company, and, antecedently, the Uni- 
 ted African Company, Limited, be forgotten. 
 Agreeable to the Company's charter the gin 
 trade is rigorously excluded from the sphere 
 of its jurisdiction. Though it fulfils a role on 
 the Niger similar to the old East India Com- 
 pany in levying duties, keeping soldiers, build- 
 ing forts, and exercising administrative func- 
 tions, the Company's officers have aided mis- 
 sions, carried the missionaries and their freight, 
 guarded their settlements, and, in unrecorded 
 ways removed hindrances from the pathway of 
 missionary progress. 
 
A ROMANCE OF THE EQUATORIAL 
 SOUDAN. 
 
 (215) 
 
XII. 
 
 A ROMANCE OF THE EQUATORIAL 
 SOUDAN. 
 
 By the arrival of three missionary fugitives, 
 Father Ohrwalder, and the Sisters Catherina 
 Chincarini and Elizabetta Venturini at Cairo, 
 on the 2 1st of December, 1891, another picture 
 has been supplied of the soul-thrilling events 
 connected with the Soudan. These long-suf- 
 fering captives overjoyed at their escape from 
 the grasp of a savage tyrant could scarcely 
 realise that they were free with the prospect 
 of seeing once more their native land. Their 
 capture, and all its consequent hardships, tor- 
 tures, and embittered imprisonment, from which 
 release by death must often have seemed pref- 
 erable, furnishes an extraordinary narrative. 
 
 Under the auspices of the Austrian Roman 
 Catholic Mission to the Soudan, the refugees 
 left Cairo eleven years back. As early as 1882, 
 
 (217) 
 
2 1 8 A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 the two mission locations at El-Obeid and, at 
 Jebel-Gedir, — three days' journey distant, were 
 doing admirable work in training dusky liber- 
 ated slaves in various trades and in the art of 
 agriculture. That year the revolt of the Mahdi 
 burst forth and, following the " holy flag " Emir 
 El Nejumi, a remarkable Soudanese figure, shat- 
 tered Hicks Pacha's army and seized Khar- 
 toum. The little mission stations, quite iso- 
 lated, were placed on the defensive and, for 
 months, heroically sustained a siege, and only 
 yielded when the black troops betrayed them 
 and their own staff was reduced by sickness, 
 exposure, and death. With the termination 
 of the siege at El-Obeid in January, 1883, the 
 two priests terribly exhausted and emaciated 
 in body, made a profession of Islamism, the 
 nuns, meanwhile obstinately refusing every en- 
 treaty. During the ensuing fifteen months 
 these five brave women were locked up, in 
 harsh confinement, in a house at El-Obeid, 
 and never once throughout that time were 
 they allowed to cross the threshold. Cut off 
 from the least gleam of comfort and chance of 
 
A Romance of the Soudan. 2 1 9 
 
 deliverance, their fate, — a life of death, was of 
 the most melancholy character. A fresh effort 
 was made by the Khalifa Abdullah in March, 
 1884, to secure the conversion to Mohammed- 
 anism, of the seven priests taken from Jebel- 
 Gedir. Tempting inducements and fierce 
 threats were vain, and upon their being or- 
 dered to send the nuns, they chivalrously an- 
 swered that the Moslem law forbade women 
 to stand in the presence of strangers. Thus 
 foiled, the Khalifa had the sisters placed be- 
 fore himself for trial. That ordeal each of 
 them firmly withstood, whereupon they were 
 banished separately as domestic slaves of the 
 soldiers, the priests filling a similar office. No 
 chronicler will ever narrate the sufferings of 
 the nuns at this period or, the barbarities to 
 which these gentle and defenceless women 
 were subjected. The inhuman captors slit the 
 nose of Teresa Grigollni and flogged Sister 
 Venturini tied, standing to a tree. They were 
 afterwards driven on foot almost naked to 
 Rabat, to face the Mahdi, and, in despair, they 
 embraced Mohammedanism to escape worse 
 
220 A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 tortures. The departure, subsequently, of Sis- 
 ters Chincarini and Venturing from Omdurman, 
 situate in : — 
 
 " the long desert in the south," 
 
 left Sister Teresa Grigolini, the last of the 
 nuns, lingering there alone in captivity. 
 
 Throughout the eight years of bondage Fa- 
 ther Ohrwalder speaks of their agonies being 
 at times unbearable. Even in sickness and lying 
 for days entirely prostrate, they were denied the 
 necessaries of life. Upon the Sisters the Mahdi 
 especially inflicted shameful cruelties, and, un- 
 aware of the destruction of Khartoum, the 
 captives, for a while, had hopes of relief from 
 that quarter. In 1882 they received the latest 
 news concerning the outside world from an 
 Arabic newspaper, which announced the bom- 
 bardment of Alexandria. After that they saw 
 neither book nor paper of any description and, 
 gradually, their expectation of again enjoying 
 liberty vanished. For their subsistence the 
 Mahdi made no provision. His rule was to 
 allow them a few hours of release each day in 
 
A Romance of the Soudan. 221 
 
 order to earn a living, in the best way possible 
 and, latterly, Father Ohrwalder eked out a 
 trifle of piastres daily, by tailoring and cloth- 
 weaving, the Sisters occupying themselves with 
 baking and selling bread, in and around Om- 
 durman, for an existence. The sovereignty of 
 the Mahdi, and that of his successor, the Kha- 
 lifa, frequently presented scenes of unexampled 
 savagery. Through two dark and weary years 
 something too was seen of the horrors of fam- 
 ine, the ravages of small-pox and typhus fever, 
 which desolated a wide area of the inner Sou- 
 dan. The privileges of the prisoners were of 
 a meagre order, in illustration of which it is 
 noted that eighteen months before quitting 
 their land of confinement, they were granted 
 the luxury of dwelling in mud huts, in exchange 
 for shelters made of cane and maize stalks, 
 reared by their own hands. 
 
 In a hazardously and romantic fashion Fa- 
 ther Ohrwalder and the Sisters Chincarini and 
 Venturini, managed to gain their freedom. 
 This daring step was attempted on November 
 29, 1891, at the height of a struggle between 
 
222 A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 some Danagla Khalifas and, the Khalifa, Ab- 
 dullah Baggara, semi-savage tribesmen, in which 
 17 of the latter and 7 of the former, perished. 
 A black female slave who waited upon them 
 ingeniously planned the line of flight. This 
 tender-hearted and compassionate native, ob- 
 tained the camels, fixed the hour, and chose 
 the route of their exodus. Lest the slave 
 might be forced to give information of the 
 departure, if left behind, the travellers pre- 
 vailed upon her to accompany them. At the 
 outset of this perilous race for life the Sisters 
 wore Arab female costumes while the Father 
 dressed himself as a trader. Early joined by 
 three friendly Arab camel-drivers, they all pur- 
 sued their way day and night, without any 
 stoppage, except for a couple of days, at the 
 Murad Wells. For three days they had no 
 food. So great was their dread of recapture, 
 that sleep on the road was impossible and, on 
 one occasion, Sister Venturing overcome by 
 exhaustion, fell from her camel. At the ex- 
 piration of nine days, having travelled 550 
 miles from Omdurman, they safely arrived at 
 
A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 Korosko, on the Nile, to the north of Wady 
 Haifa. They were much impressed with the 
 hearty reception accorded them at Korosko, 
 and, after a brief halt, the refugees, at the invi- 
 tation of the Government of the late Khedive, 
 went northward, by Assouan, to Cairo. In phy- 
 sique, Father Ohrwalder was tall and thin, and 
 apparently about 40 years of age. The Sisters, 
 bearing traces of painful suffering, were vigor- 
 ous, in spite of what they had endured in the 
 length of a nine years' captivity. A priest, a 
 lay brother, and Sister Teresa Grigolini, at Om- 
 durman, are the surviving members of the ill- 
 fated mission. 
 
 An interesting coincidence touching the re- 
 leased lady prisoners is found in a recent pub- 
 lication descriptive of Gessi Pacha's " Seven 
 Years in the Soudan." In an appendix refer- 
 ence is made to the Italian Mission, in 1881, 
 some of whose members tended Gessi in his 
 illness at Khartoum. The passage reads : — 
 " The 'Sisters of the Italian Mission, whose 
 names we will record because they afterwards 
 fell into the hands of the Mahdi, nursed Gessi 
 
224 A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 by turns, giving a good example of the highest 
 Christian virtue." Last in this roll of eleven 
 heroic women stand the names of " Caterina 
 Chincarini and Elisa Venturini." A later vol- 
 ume entitled, " Mahdiism and the Egyptian 
 Soudan" reviewing the changes in the far Sou- 
 dan, thus introduces a list of the captives : — 
 " Of the Austrian Mission (most of whom are 
 Italians), there are now, it is said, at Omdur- 
 man," (which is reached by a ferry across the 
 White Nile from Khartoum), " Father Don 
 Guiseppe Ohrwalder, whose Arabic name is 
 Yusef." In the same group the two Sisters 
 cited above are mentioned, and also, " Sisters 
 Teresa Grigolini and Concetto Corsi." Of the 
 remaining captives detained in 1891, at Omdur- 
 man, whose names recall the painful events of 
 1883, there were 19 Greeks, 8 Syrians, 8 Jews, 
 the German merchant Neufeldt, heavily chained, 
 who was captured in 1884, while acting as in- 
 terpreter to the British forces, and, Slatin Bey, 
 all of them leading an existence of misery, 
 though in tolerable health. Perhaps some- 
 thing may yet be gleaned of the fate of Lup- 
 
A Romance of the Soudan. 225 
 
 ton, who had never left the Soudan since Gor- 
 don's first expedition. Neufeldt was popular in 
 Cairo, — a good colloquial Arabic scholar, with 
 previous experiences of the Soudan. The lot 
 of Slatin Bey opens again the story of a ro- 
 mantic career. Formerly Governor-General of 
 Darfur, and a man of intrepid heart, he fought 
 27 battles in defence of his province before 
 surrendering to the Mahdi's nominee, — follow- 
 ing the defeat of Hicks Pacha's column. He 
 accompanied Mohammed Ahmed to Khartoum, 
 saw with his own eyes, its downfall, and, on the 
 Mahdi's death, was made one of the Khalifa's 
 Mulazimin, or, body-guard. Invariably in at- 
 tendance on the Khalifa, the movements of 
 Slatin, who was accustomed to stand in the 
 outer courtyard, were quickly and closely 
 noticed by his master from within the halls 
 of the palace. 
 
 Of the great Soudan, which Sir Samuel 
 Baker still holds, may, under a just rule, be- 
 come one of the most fruitful countries in the 
 world, notably, as a source of cotton supply, 
 the refugees brought the latest reliable tidings. 
 
226 A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 Omdurman was a strong city, of no mean 
 celebrity with many stone houses and a popu- 
 lation of about 150,000 inhabitants, consisting 
 of a mixture of all the tribes in the Soudan. 
 With the Khalifa Abdullah, are the Khalifs, 
 Ali El-Faruch and Ali El-Karer or El-Sherif. 
 Other personages of importance there include 
 Jakub, the brother and factotum of Abdullah, 
 and Jadi Ahmed and Nur-el-Gerefani, and the 
 treasurer, Bet-el-mal. Upwards of two thou- 
 sand slaves represent the Abdullah's troops. 
 When the three missionary captives were flee- 
 ing they espied at a lonely spot, called Esaa, 
 two days' journey south of Khartoum, the 
 burial-place of Olivier Pain, who, it seems, fall- 
 ing from his camel, through sickness, was cap- 
 tured. His body lies below a few inches of 
 sand. Except in Kordofan food was cheap and 
 usually plentiful over the Soudan, where most 
 of the well-meaning tribes would welcome the 
 return of a stable, Egyptian sway. Despite 
 the Khalifa's numerous following the majority 
 of these were only slightly attached to him 
 personally which gave weight to Father Ohr- 
 
A Romance of the Soudan. 227 
 
 walder's opinion that, in the endlessly, dis- 
 turbed state of affairs, a small force might 
 easily re-conquer much of the Soudan, save it 
 from ruin, and the waste of years of patriotic 
 labours which a succession of distinguished 
 men have given for its reclamation. Darfur 
 is deserted. Kordofan is occupied by Emir 
 Mahmud Ahmed and Emir Abd-el-Bogi, — rela- 
 tions of Abdullah ; who, at El-Obeid, have fif- 
 teen hundred soldiers. On the White Nile, the 
 posts are Djebel-Red-giaf, Lado, and Fashoda ; 
 Emir Zeki Tamal, ruling at the latter place, 
 with nearly six thousand men. In Sennaar, 
 the most advanced post is Karkoe, and at Gala- 
 bet, Emir Mohammed Ali, has a fortified one. 
 At Kassala, some five hundred men are armed 
 with guns, and, at Berber, Emir Zeki rules, 
 and Yunez, at Dongola. The two last named 
 positions abandoned a few years ago by the 
 British, are regarded as" the keys of that portion 
 of the Soudan which commands the Nile be- 
 tween Khartoum and Assouan. As the great 
 centres of the Soudan trade and the granaries 
 of the country they are of prime concern to 
 
228 A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 merchants and the commercial world. Khar- 
 toum, — the city of the heroic General Gordon, 
 that " soldier-priest," of whom the nations have 
 said with one acclaim : — 
 
 " A man more pure and bold and just 
 Was never born into the earth ; " — 
 
 is forsaken. Weeds grow over its ruins. The 
 sites of the houses are covered with vegetation. 
 Only the gardens, the Austrian Church, and 
 Gordon's palace, all in decay, are seen in deso- 
 late Khartoum. 
 
 Faint hopes remain of freeing the 40, or more 
 Europeans, in the clutch of the Khalifa Abdul- 
 lah, at Omdurman, save through the success of 
 the rescue expedition to be headed by three 
 European officers in the autumn of 1892. 
 Beneath the shadow of the unscrupulous, igno- 
 rant, oppressing, and cruel Abdullah, whose 
 professed subjects would gladly hail relief from 
 his tyranny, the lives of the captives are drea- 
 rily wasting away. The territory vaguely de- 
 fined by the term, "Soudan," is of immense 
 extent, with an area nearly equal to that of 
 India, embracing a million and a half square 
 
A Romance of the Soudan. 229 
 
 miles, peopled by races, eleven millions in num- 
 ber, and, of wide diversities in speech, charac- 
 teristics, physiognomy, and tribal antagonisms. 
 The Soudanese native population which thirty 
 years ago was constantly diminishing by in- 
 ternal and desperate feuds, and exportations to 
 the slave markets at Cairo and Mecca, has 
 latterly been steadily increasing. By the gar- 
 risons of the Egyptian Government, weak and 
 corrupt in many respects, a reign of order was 
 partially established and, a decisive check given 
 to slave-bartering, the beneficial effects of which 
 are felt at the present hour on the population. 
 For these multiplying hordes the produce of 
 the soil is becoming insufficient and, conse- 
 quently, the hardier and more adventurous 
 tribes are migrating in search of fresh terri- 
 tories and empire beyond. This so-called 
 " flood of barbarism " trending on the confines 
 of Upper Egypt cannot be unaffected by the 
 enlightening rule which is transfiguring the 
 civil life of Egypt and ushering in an epoch of 
 national prosperity. 
 
 Over Egypt, the u gift of the Nile," the 
 
230 A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 gateway to the burning Soudan, the sky is 
 brightening. Egypt's finances, legislation, and 
 material status, indicate that she is beginning 
 to march with the nations. A modified taxa- 
 tion, a rise in land values, an expanding export 
 trade, and, a growing revenue, are some of the 
 first-fruits of a humane and masterly adminis- 
 tration. The old native executive wherein a 
 certain type of provincial governor had un- 
 questioned license was wrong in principle, pro- 
 lific in abominations, and utterly demoralising. 
 This system based on extortion and the lash 
 has disappeared. A new era has dawned. Sir 
 Evelyn Baring and his brilliant staff have in- 
 augurated the initial stages of a healthy civili- 
 sation. They have swept abuses aside and 
 energetically laboured for future reforms. The 
 training of superior natives for official posts 
 has been kept to the forefront and thus in a 
 short time the dearth of capable young Egyp- 
 tians will be met by the spread of educational 
 advantages and, familiarity with European 
 ideas and forms of government. For triumphs 
 in extensive drainage and irrigation the year 
 
A Romance of the Soudan. 231 
 
 1 89 1 in the annals of Egypt, under the British 
 regime, will have historic mark. The most 
 sanguine predictions respecting the barrage 
 works were surpassed, the cotton crop being 
 larger than any of previous years. In accom- 
 plishing this scheme three steps were adopted ; 
 the waters of the Nile were gathered, thence 
 distributed into capacious channels, and, lastly, 
 sound precautions taken that the poorer na- 
 tives should not be exploited by their richer 
 neighbours. It is not improbable that in a few 
 years the flood-waters of the ancient Nile may 
 be caught in gigantic reservoirs in Upper 
 Egypt, and, by this means, areas of land in the 
 lower districts receive supplies of the precious 
 liquid during the hot season. For these en- 
 gineering achievements in operation and in 
 prospect, the Egyptian peasant is as much a 
 debtor to the genius of Sir Colin Moncrieff, as 
 he is in civil and military affairs, to Colonel 
 Kitchener's zeal, ability, and jurisdiction. 
 
 With the sway of a progressive Government 
 in Egypt Proper whether directed by European 
 Powers or subject to the independent rule of 
 
232 A Romance of the Soudan. 
 
 His Highness, the young Khedive, Abbas Pasha 
 Helmy, the stream of life and of modern civili- 
 sation must flow southwards to the desert tribes 
 who have their home in the Eastern Soudan. 
 In that sphere of the Dark Continent weird 
 and fascinating historical dramas have figured, 
 where Ethiopian, Egyptian, Persian, Roman, 
 Grecian, Saracen, and Turkish waves of con- 
 quest have successively rolled and vanished, 
 leaving faint traces of their sovereign dynasties. 
 Gazing east and west from the foliaged and 
 castle-studded banks of the Upper Nile over 
 hundreds of miles of arable tracts and Saharan 
 wastes of yellow sand a mass of heathenism — 
 deep, awful, and profound — has its habitation, 
 unbroken by a single beam of divine light. 
 Afar off on the horizon northward, the dawn of 
 an early morning sunlight glimmers. To the 
 natives of the wide-spreading Soudan, the 
 North Africa Mission, the Church Missionary 
 Society, and the Central Soudan Mission in 
 Tripoli, are turning their thoughts and ener- 
 gies. " Truth shall spring out of the earth "; 
 and, in ransoming Soudanese Ethiopians, Be- 
 
A Romance of the Soudan. 2 
 
 j o 
 
 douins, Nubae, and Berberines, the American 
 missionaries on the Nile and their British col- 
 leagues in the Dependency of Tripoli promise 
 to become the heralds of Christ in evangelising 
 races lying in the region of the shadow of 
 death for whose resurrection these ensigns not 
 unhopefully sing: — 
 
 " O'er the realms of night, shall our standard bright 
 Arise, their darkness clearing ; 
 And the souls that were dead to the Lord who bled, 
 Shall revive at His glad appearing." 
 
ON THE BANKS OF LAKE 
 TANGANYIKA. 
 
 (235) 
 
XIIL 
 
 ON THE BANKS OF LAKE 
 TANGANYIKA. 
 
 In that wonderful lake system which formed 
 a chain of communication, north and south, 
 through the interior of Africa, Lake Tanganyika 
 occupied a central place. The most westerly 
 of the great inland w r aters, it has Victoria 
 Nyanza to the north-east and, Lake Nyasa, for 
 its south-eastern neighbour. These immense 
 lakes, the reservoirs of thousands of rivers, 
 were destined as soon as navigation by steamer 
 was possible to exercise a civilising influence on 
 the savage tribes which frequented their shores. 
 With a magnificent shore line of 363 miles, 
 Tanganyika is now recognised as the western 
 boundary of the German sphere of territory in 
 East Central Africa, adjoining which was the 
 fertile and picturesque State of Usibi and 
 
 (237) 
 

 238 Lake Tanga?iyzka. 
 
 Wanga described by Stanley as certainly " to 
 turn out one of the most unique regions in 
 Africa." The discovery of Lake Tanganyika 
 was made before the real sources of the Nile 
 had been determined and at a period less than 
 forty years ago when a pall of darkness lay 
 over most of the countries of Central Africa. 
 Never perhaps in the records of exploration 
 have two travellers returned to the haunts of 
 civilisation each of whom could claim such 
 marvellous " finds" as had fallen to the lot of 
 Burton and Speke on emerging in 1859 f rom 
 the African wilds. Captain Richard Burton 
 held in his possession the discovery of Tanga- 
 nyika and, his comrade Speke, — Lake Ukere- 
 we, which he named Victoria Nyanza, and 
 rightly concluded to be the origin and head of 
 Father Nile. The geographical areas of Tanga- 
 nyika show that it stands 2,756 feet above 
 the sea level with a superficial area of 9,240 
 square miles and encircling this grand stretch 
 of water rise a series of noble, forest-crowned 
 heights which afford views of enchanting 
 beauty : — 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 239 
 
 "fair 
 As ever painter painted, poet sang, 
 Or Heav'n in lavish bounty moulded." 
 
 The usual route to Lake Tanganyika has been 
 overland, a distance of 830 miles from Zanzi- 
 bar, via Mpwapwa, Unyanyembe, Urambo, 
 to Ujiji, the chief mart of the Lake, situated 
 on the north-easterly shore. To make the 
 journey along the rough, zig-zag foot and 
 wagon track required about 100 days, a tedious 
 line of march, which was practically abandoned 
 in 1891 by the Directors of the London Mis- 
 sionary Society, for the safer, easier, and more 
 direct approach which is afforded by sailing up 
 the Zambesi, Shire, across Lake Nyasa, and 
 over the valued missionary highway, — the 
 Stevenson Road, uniting the north-end of 
 Nyasa and the southern point of Tanganyika. 
 Around the Lake swarm some dozen independ- 
 ent tribal races whose villages, market places, 
 and trading depots present animated native- 
 life pictures. Every part of the Lake shores is 
 visited by merchants and representatives of 
 motley races and people, — Portuguese from the 
 
240 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 west coast, Arabs from Zanzibar, Swahili, 
 Wasagara, Wakaguru, the half-naked, repulsive 
 Wagogo, the Wahumba and Wakimbu, and the 
 all-pervading Wanyamwezi. On the sunny sur- 
 face of Tanganyika craft of every pattern glide 
 to and fro. The ordinary canoe has the shape of 
 that ungainly animal — one of Africa's well known 
 denizens — the hippopotamus, and hewn out of 
 the massive trunk of a forest king. Roughly 
 finished it is launched on the Lake, the native 
 piloting it, indifferent to the possibility of 
 danger, with surprising dexterity. Scores of 
 these canoes may be seen in a starry night on 
 the bosom of the Lake, their occupants en- 
 gaged in whitebait fishing. By placing a bun- 
 dle of blazing dried reeds at the bow of the 
 vessel thousands of these fish are attracted and 
 easily caught in the large hand-net which the 
 native holds. After drying the " catches " on 
 shore in a tropic sun they are packed in leaves 
 and sent to far away tribes. Natives visiting 
 the shore-markets introduce the utmost variety 
 of manufacture and produce: skins, woven cot- 
 ton cloth, mats, baskets, pottery, wire, iron 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 241 
 
 hoes and axes, weapons, copper in the rough 
 and artistically designed in the form of brace- 
 lets and ingeniously made ornaments; supple- 
 mented with ground nuts, sugar cane, honey, 
 butter, salt, palm oil, fish, goats, fowls, and 
 vegetables. The myriads of native people 
 are hard-working and full of clever resource. 
 Larger canoes, 40 or more feet long, are used 
 for traffic on an extensive scale, notoriously in 
 the shipment of slaves, between the races in- 
 habiting different points on the shore. Prac- 
 tised universally this hideous scourge has re- 
 tarded for generations the progress of the 
 numerous tribes. Physically, the natives are 
 strong, handsomely-built, and capable of great 
 endurance. At the extreme north end — a 
 densely populated region — the people are fine 
 in appearance, manly, intelligent, and well- 
 disposed save for an irrepressible tendency to 
 treachery. In 1890 they were visited by Mr. 
 Swann and previous to his landing in their 
 midst, they had not hitherto had any com- 
 munication v/hatever with white faces. Were 
 the London Missionary Society in possession 
 
242 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 of larger reinforcements the district offers a 
 broad field for pioneering labours. Native 
 character on Tanganyika, typical of the whole 
 of the Central African tribes, was negative. 
 They were destitute of the spirit of true self- 
 reliance and the higher virtues, the maxim of 
 traders and travellers in dealing with them was, 
 if the natives do not fear the white man, the 
 white man feared them, followed by incessant 
 troubles and disaster. 
 
 Missionary work by the London Society on 
 the banks of Lake Tanganyika actually dates 
 from the spring of 1874, when the London 
 papers printed that mournful telegram : " Liv- 
 ingstone is really dead, and his body is coming 
 home in one of the Queen's ships.'' English 
 Christians were intensely stirred and, in three 
 years' time the London Missionary Society at 
 Tanganyika, the Church Missionary Society in 
 Uganda, and the Livingstonia Mission in 
 Nyasa-land, were devotedly bending their ener- 
 gies for the redemption of Africa's children 
 from the woes of slavery and heathenism, Liv- 
 ingstone's words : " Go forward, and with the 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 243 
 
 Divine blessing you will surely succeed. Do 
 you carry on the work which I have begun. I 
 leave it with you "; were trumpet calls to which 
 volunteers, men of resolution, — an advanced 
 guard, made answer. Heroes indeed, believing 
 that the Africans were : — 
 
 " Not past the living fount of pity in Heaven." 
 
 That high level of ardour which the leaders 
 of the Central African Mission exhibited has 
 been emulated by their train of successors. 
 The "coinage true" of these pioneers was in- 
 trepidity, valour, fortitude, and inextinguish- 
 able enthusiasm, and, alas, upon their thin 
 ranks the fatal enemy fell with terrible might. 
 First of the martyr-band was the Rev. J. B. 
 Thomson, fellow-traveller of Captain Hore and 
 Mr. Hutley, the earliest missionary arrivals 
 at Tanganyika. Standing on the immediate 
 threshold of his task Mr. Thomson's death 
 is a pathetic story. After the exhausting 
 march of more than 800 miles to Ujiji he 
 had visited with the others the site for a pro- 
 posed temporary station on a hill ovei looking 
 
244 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 the lovely Kigoma Bay, and, a month later, 
 on Sunday afternoon, September 22, 1878, he 
 died, and soon afterwards was laid to rest on 
 the spot by his sorrowing companions — his own 
 dust consecrating the place and enterprise. 
 Year by year deaths were of constant occur- 
 rence including that great-hearted man Dr. 
 Mullens, who was cut down in the early days 
 of the mission and buried at Mpwapwa, and 
 the beloved Dr. Southon (U. S. A.), the tragic 
 close of whose career in 1882, sent a thrill of 
 regret far over the Christian world. During 
 the ensuing ten years, one relay after another 
 was decimated until it was doubted by the 
 supporters whether God had not raised a bar- 
 rier against white men inhabiting these fever- 
 haunted lands. So fearful was the harvest of 
 fatality that not one of the names found on 
 the Central African Mission staff in 1881 ap- 
 pears on that of 1891. The conjecture might 
 be made that " God saw fit to take them into 
 life, and, may be, their vision of events on 
 earth to-day is clearer, and so more hopeful." 
 These nights of sorrow and blighted prospects 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 245 
 
 have been succeeded by the dawn of brighter 
 days and, in the years from 1888 to 1 891 no 
 death was reported due to the unhealthiness 
 of the climate. 
 
 Than the history of the Central African Mis- 
 sion few chapters in the annals of the infancy 
 of missions have been as chequered or furnish- 
 ed such vivid illustrations of repeated and vain 
 endeavours to establish a foothold. From the 
 month of August, 1878, when Captain Hore 
 and his cavalcade of 225 men in single file, 
 each with his load on head or shoulder, led by 
 Songoro, bearing the Union Jack with snowy 
 border and, in the centre of this strange pro- 
 cession Juma Mackay, displaying on a long 
 bamboo, the dove of peace with olive branch, 
 wound through the Ujiji plantation gardens of 
 plantains, palms, beans, maize, and potatoes 
 and after a long ascent to the heights above 
 Ujiji which allowed a view of the glorious 
 Tanganyika beyond, the missionaries have 
 strenuously and heroically battled in the face 
 of adverse circumstances. In its operations 
 Captain Hore's career has been one of distin- 
 
2 .j.6 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 guished service. At the outset he took up his 
 residence near Ujiji and subsequently made, 
 first in a native canoe, thousands of trips into 
 various parts of the Lake bays and gulfs, to 
 prepare the way for enabling the messengers 
 of the Gospel to reach the remotest homes of 
 heathen communities and there proclaim a 
 knowledge of the " White Man's God." Mak- 
 ing the acquaintance of the principal chiefs 
 and their subjects and carefully surveying and 
 mapping out portions of the boundaries of 
 Lake Tanganyika which had not been investi- 
 gated previously by Livingstone, Cameron, or 
 Stanley, he then returned to England with a 
 design for the steel life-boat, to be known as 
 Nyota ya Assubui — The Morning Star. This 
 craft 32 feet long and 8 feet beam was shipped 
 from London to Zanzibar, conveyed in sections 
 by native carriers to Ujiji, built by Captain 
 Hore, with the aid of the natives, and launched 
 amid wild rejoicings in May, 1883. At an 
 earlier period the mission sustained a severe 
 blow by the death of Mr. A. W. Dodgshun, — 
 a faithful standard-bearer ; and, meanwhile set- 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 247 
 
 tlements were effected at Unyamwezi, Uguha, 
 and Ujiji. A cheering outlook was presented 
 in 1880 which unfortunately was doomed to a 
 second series of disappointments. In 188 1-2 
 a complete dispersion occurred. Mr. Wookey 
 and Dr. Palmer went home invalided, Mr. Will- 
 iams was carried off by sunstroke, and Mr. 
 Hutley left, shattered in health. Two stations, 
 300 miles apart, were then held respectively 
 by Mr. Griffiths and Dr. Southern. A large 
 party of missionaries arrived at Zanzibar in 
 June, 1882, whose plans were altered consid- 
 erably by the painful news of Dr. Southon's 
 decease. In the course of its advance inland, 
 Mr. Dineen died at the new station of Uguha, 
 and Mr. Penry suffering from the long marches 
 was seized with dysentery at Urambo, where 
 he was unwillingly obliged to turn homewards. 
 Death overtook him near Mpwapwa, his re- 
 mains being there interred by the side of the 
 late Dr. Mullens. The health of Mr. Wil- 
 loughby giving way he returned immediately 
 to England and the band, sadly weakened, 
 reached Ujiji ten months from the date of 
 
248 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 leaving London. Another loss came in il 
 Mr. Dunn dying from fever, after a few days' 
 illness. The same year Captain Hore made 
 an adventurous journey through Nyasa-land to 
 Quillimane and, in January, 1885, brought a 
 fresh company of missionaries via Zanzibar. 
 
 It was now decided to remove the head- 
 quarters of the marine department from Ujiji 
 to Kavala, an island opposite to Uguha, ruled 
 over by Kassanga. The new steamer, the Good 
 News (although not finished) was floated on 
 Tanganyika, in 1885 by Mr. Roxburgh, a prac- 
 tical engineer. After bringing her safely to 
 Kavala, this ardent w T orker, to the sorrow of 
 all, died of fever and dysentery. A little later 
 Mr. Harris was fatally stricken, and the build- 
 ing at the south end consequently abandoned. 
 That same year Messrs. Jones and Rees worn 
 out with fatigue and recurring fever attacks 
 relinquished their posts and, inevitably, Uguha 
 was vacated. The year 1886 opened by the 
 arrival at Kavala of Mr. Carson, an engineer, 
 who completed the fitting up of the steamer. 
 So slowly had the fittings come to hand that 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 249 
 
 three years elapsed — a time of no small strain 
 to those concerned — ere the Good News had 
 her finishing touches. The lamentable expe- 
 rience of the mission showing that in deaths 
 and retirements three men on an average had 
 been lost yearly, caused the directors to recom- 
 mend their missionaries in 1887 to erect a set- 
 tlement at Fwambo, a reputed healthy spot, at 
 considerable elevation. During 1887 Mr. Lea 
 and Dr. Tomory retired and, towards the end 
 of the year Fwambo was temporarily forsaken 
 by the missionaries, with the exception of the 
 Rev. D. P. Jones, owing to the war which had 
 broken out south-eastwards between the half- 
 caste Arabs and the Europeans, at Karonga. 
 In 1888 Captain and Mrs. Hore returned to 
 England and Mr. Swann, accompanying anoth- 
 er contingent of missionaries, was appointed 
 Captain Hore's successor in superintending the 
 marine department at Kavala. The mission at 
 the close of 1888 had a sore bereavement. Mr. 
 Brooks, an esteemed co-worker journeying to 
 the coast to enjoy a well-earned holiday, was 
 brutally murdered by some East Coast Arabs ; 
 
250 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 the poor fellow it is surmised was mistakenly 
 identified with the Germans, the adversaries of 
 the Arabs at that period. Agreeable to home 
 instructions Messrs. Svvann and Carson next 
 fixed upon Kinyamkolo as a suitable harbour 
 and new marine headquarters at the south-end 
 of the Lake, which would further enable the 
 missionaries in the vicinity to have ready access 
 to Fwambo for health sojourns. Throughout 
 1889-90 the missionaries were shut off from 
 the civilised world. For a year they had no 
 home letters and were without European pro- 
 visions except those which the African Lakes 
 Company kindly conveyed. At the end of this 
 isolation, if not siege, Mr. Wright, disabled by 
 sickness was obliged to leave the field. Subse- 
 quently the mission with a staff of nine mis- 
 sionaries, doctors, artisan auxiliaries, and mis- 
 sionaries' wives preserved from a repetition of 
 many of its calamities in bygone years has the 
 promise of expansion and fruitfulness. 
 
 At Urambo, Kinyamkolo, and Fwambo, the 
 native languages are being mastered, first trans- 
 lations made, schools opened, Sunday services 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 251 
 
 conducted, and domestic and industrial train- 
 ing provided. If these are not on an extensive 
 scale or systematic in form the peculiarities of 
 the situation are responsible. Commenting on 
 this feature the Rev. D. P. Jones says that 
 every missionary in the Central African Mis- 
 sion has to attend to many kinds of work 
 other than that for which he is specially sent 
 out, becoming teacher, carpenter, labourer, and 
 even cook and housekeeper by turns. The be- 
 ginnings of the break up of savage and furious 
 despotism are noticed by the missionaries. Al- 
 ready the permanent settlements of white men 
 are producing beneficial results for tribes so 
 long scattered and peeled by the Arabs and by 
 native marauders from the south and west. In 
 the neighbourhood of Englishmen the natives 
 crave for protection and feel that they have it, 
 as evidenced by the satisfactory progress of the 
 Society's work at the marine station of Kinya- 
 mkolo where a village of 400 people had been 
 formed, natives who were constantly under the 
 influence of missionary teachers. 
 
 To-day the Central African Mission has every 
 
252 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 appearance of being thoroughly established and 
 with reasonable expectation of enduring and 
 successful advance. Operations for the present 
 are limited to Urambo and the stations at the 
 south end of the lake. So large and encourag- 
 ing are the openings for a crusade among the 
 tribes to the south and south-west of Tanga- 
 nyika that they will more than occupy the 
 forces at the Society's command. Running the 
 gauntlet of fiery ordeals, enduring the hard- 
 ships of perilous travel, surmounting obstacles 
 of transit and malarious climates, penetrating 
 regions untrodden by Europeans, and winning 
 the confidence of a widening circle of natives 
 on the route to the Lake, or inhabiting its 
 shores, the missionaries of God hear over Ta- 
 nganyika-land the strains of music, broken they 
 may be, of the prelude : — 
 
 " For that great harmony, whose op'ning chords 
 Shall usher in the glorious coming of 
 The Prince of Peace." 
 
 Slavery yet prevails in the interior of Africa. 
 In helpless captivity lie thousands of negroes 
 crying for strong, humane redress. It cannot 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 253 
 
 be that the slave-hunters of the African Con- 
 tinent, regardless of the rights of humanity, 
 will much longer be tolerated to pursue their 
 hideously atrocious deeds unchallenged. Of 
 the slave raider's tactics in the territories bor- 
 dering on Lake Tanganyika Mr. Stanley gave a 
 graphic narration in June, 1890, before the 
 Manchester Chamber of Commerce, England. 
 A thousand hired marauders each armed with 
 a gun would march in three separate direc- 
 tions, "and having secured an area of 50,000 
 square miles they planted their flag in the 
 centre of a village where there was a good sup- 
 ply of food, and here they were for three or 
 six months. Then they began to slay in the 
 most remorseless and cruel fashion everything 
 having the semblance of humanity, in order to 
 pick up what loot they could. The bananas 
 were cut down, and men, women, and children 
 destroyed. They slaughtered entire popula- 
 tions in these regions. The elephants came 
 and completed the waste of the plantations 
 which once nourished large populations." 
 Upon this portraiture a frightfully realistic 
 
254 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 commentary, possibly being enacted at the 
 time Mr. Stanley was speaking, was published 
 in December, 1891, in Europe, through the in- 
 strumentality of that grand organisation, the 
 African Society at Cologne. 
 
 From the diaries of several resident mission- 
 aries Canon Kespes transcribed information 
 relative to slave-hunting in the neighbourhood 
 of Lake Tanganyika. Under date of Novem- 
 ber 19. 1890, after a reference to the arrival of 
 Makatubo, a villainous hunter, with a long pro- 
 cession of slaves at Kirando, two days' journey 
 south of Karema, in the German sphere of in- 
 fluence and the departure of Father Dromaux 
 to the spot, the diary of date, November 28, 
 continues: 
 
 " Father Dromaux has just returned. He succeeded 
 in liberating or buying sixty-one prisoners. A great 
 number of their unfortunate companions have died of 
 hunger at Kirando, and a great many more will prob- 
 ably soon follow them. The missionary received — 
 partly from the slaves whom he had freed, and partly 
 from people of the expedition — frightful detail? of the 
 cruelties inflicted by Makatubo's wild hordes. During 
 the marauding expeditions in Marungu and Kizabi in- 
 numerable natives were killed. When Makatubo set 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 255 
 
 out on his march back he wished to get rid of all those 
 who might have impeded the march ; and at Lusuko, 
 therefore, he had a great number of captives, old 
 women and little children, drowned. The caravan was 
 now to advance with greater haste. But a large num- 
 ber of captives who were completely exhausted formed 
 a fresh hindrance. Massacres, of which one can form 
 no idea in Europe, followed. An eyewitness assured 
 us that daily ten, twenty, thirty, and even fifty were 
 killed. In spite of this about 2,000 captured slaves 
 arrived at Kirando." 
 
 This tale of horrors is confirmed by reports 
 from a missionary at the mission station of 
 Mpala on the western shore of Tanganyika 
 bearing an earlier date, Sept. 8, 1890, in which 
 it is said that a Mestizo who made a desert 
 country westwards had, with the aid of brigands 
 from the neighbourhood of Karema, caught in 
 1890 nearly 2,000 slaves, hundreds besides hav- 
 ing been captured and slain, and the villages 
 burnt. Another letter of date Jan. 9, from 
 Karema, written by Father Josset, states 
 
 "that a notorious slave-hunter named Makatubo in 
 Kirando had brought from his last expedition no less 
 than 'two thousand slaves of every age and sex. They 
 were chained together in groups of twenty to twenty- 
 five, and looked like living skeletons. As there was a 
 great scarcity of food in Kirando, they were forced to 
 
256 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 dig up and eat wild roots which wild animals refused 
 to touch. Wasted away by hunger, fever and dysen- 
 tery, they were sheltered in huts which afford no pro- 
 tection whatever against the weather. Father Dro- 
 maux told the writer that he had seen prisoners in a 
 roofless hut ; whilst next to it their master's goats had 
 a roof over their heads. Every morning corpses were 
 dragged out of each hut and thrown to the hyaenas. 
 During the long march through Marungu when a 
 slave was too exhausted to follow the caravan they 
 killed him with cudgels." 
 
 These heart-rending accounts make it very 
 palpable that the thousands of poor wretches, 
 many of them women and young children hap- 
 pening to survive the journey across the desert 
 with the 4< slave fork " lashed to their necks, 
 are fewer in number than those who perish on 
 their way to the coast. A letter which reached 
 London via Berlin on March 26, 1892, gave 
 fresh and graphic particulars regarding the 
 hunt for slaves on Lake Tanganyika. The 
 African traveller Herr Curt Ehlers at Zanzibar 
 stated that the Portuguese travellers Senhores 
 Diego Carmago and Peretz Elbo some weeks 
 ago arrived in their boat at Bikari on the north- 
 eastern shore of the lake, where they learned 
 
L a ke Ta nga ny ika. 257 
 
 that the notorious slave-hunter Makatubo, from 
 Kirando, had just gone on with a large num- 
 ber of boats to Mugo. There on the following 
 day the weekly market was to be held, and at- 
 tended by the natives of the whole surrounding 
 country. Expecting some evil, the Portuguese 
 travellers followed, but on arriving at Mugo 
 were told that the small flotilla of the slave- 
 hunter had gone on further, leaving only one 
 boat there. Senhor Carmago was not deceived, 
 however. He bought some provisions, and 
 pretending to sail off, lay hidden for the whole 
 night in a small bay. At dawn he sent a boy to 
 Mugo, who brought back news that the village 
 had been attacked by the slave-hunters. Im- 
 mediately, Senhor Carmago weighed anchor, 
 and the little crew, with 24 rifles, prepared the 
 vessel for a fight. Upon their arrival opposite 
 the village, the embarkation of the captured 
 victims, numbering about 1,500, mostly women, 
 was just about to begin. The slave-hunters at 
 first looked likely to fight, but a grenade fired 
 over their heads from the boat produced such 
 a panic amongst Makatubo's men that they 
 
258 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 took to their heels and rushed to the boats 
 without troubling themselves about their leader, 
 much less about their booty. Several volleys 
 were fired into the crowded boats. Many tried 
 to save themselves by leaping into the lake and 
 swimming to the shore. The inhabitants of 
 Mugo, however, encouraged by Senhor Carma- 
 go's intervention, resolutely assailed the Arabs, 
 and scarcely any of them escaped alive. 
 
 Another communication which Emin Pasha 
 forwarded to his friend Dr. Fritz Finsch adds 
 to the ghastliness of the outrages committed 
 by the slave-marauding Arabs on the native 
 tribes. 
 
 " North of Usongoro between the Gordon Bennett 
 and Ruwenzori mountains," wrote Emin, "the Arab 
 slave-raiders have had a terrible harvest. The Wa- 
 ganda people are their instigators here, just as the 
 Wagala, Wabende, and the Wasissa on Lake Tanga- 
 nyika. I have heard and seen terrible things on my 
 way to the Albert lake. I followed the traces of one 
 of these robbers, Omar Ben Chalid, for six days, and 
 counted fifty-one fresh corpses emaciated to the bone. 
 Thirty-nine of the victims had their skulls shattered. 
 Twelve hundred persons are said to have been drag- 
 ged to Mengo, there being twenty to thirty negroes of 
 either se:: bound to each chain. Twenty-seven, includ- 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 259 
 
 ing four women, who had succeeded in escaping, met 
 us half dead with hunger." 
 
 So far was it from being true that slavery was 
 ended that provinces in Africa densely popu- 
 lated fifteen years ago, were to-day desert 
 places, the defenceless natives having been car- 
 ried off under conditions too loathsome for de- 
 scription. Such disclosures give significance to 
 Lord Brougham's words spoken years back 
 that the slave trade should be made piracy, as 
 the only way of dealing effectually with the 
 abomination. The opinion of Sir William 
 Mackinnon expressed in 1890 respecting the 
 degradation of the native races of Africa 
 by the sale of spirituous liquors, and their 
 destruction by the supply of guns and ammu- 
 nition to the slave-hunters, ought to be laid 
 deeply to heart by friends of the African. 
 Says Sir William, " It is evident, that the 
 initial and most essential step towards the re- 
 generation and protection of the native is the 
 absolute prohibition of all trade in these agen- 
 cies of destruction." Upon this question it is 
 surprising to note that in view of Germany's 
 
260 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 relation to the Brussels Act, certain reported 
 transactions on her part are a direct viola- 
 tion of the Treaty. The London Times of 
 March, 1892, had an extraordinary statement 
 based on a letter written by Captain Stairs 
 from Lake Tanganyika stating, " Unfortu- 
 nately, he found the country flooded with gun- 
 powder. It is imported into East Africa by 
 the Arabs in enormous quantities with the 
 written sanction of the German officials, and is 
 used mainly in slave raiding and ivory steal- 
 ing." It is scarcely credible that the murder- 
 ous import is allowed with the sanction of the 
 German Government in any of the provinces 
 which fly the German flag. 
 
 Lurid as the foregoing sketches of slavery 
 will be regarded indications are not wanting 
 that the rescue of the negro from his present 
 misery is being attempted on a scale not pre- 
 viously exhibited. Captain Lugard in Uganda 
 and Commissioner Johnston in Nyasa-land are 
 resisting by force the slave invasions of the 
 Arab traders, and in the kingdom of Uganda 
 the first mission of the Anti-Slavery League 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 261 
 
 has found a home and already it has begun to 
 make itself feared. Captain Stairs, the leader 
 of an expedition of 1,500 men, organised by 
 the Congo State in the interests of that State 
 and the exploration of Katanga and, indirectly 
 the suppression of slavery had, according to a 
 message received in Brussels on March 10, 1892, 
 reached Lake Tanganyika, and forthwith dis- 
 banded gangs of Arabs collected there for the 
 purpose of making raids on the surrounding 
 country. The extremely critical situation in 
 1 891 on the eastern shores is becoming less 
 strained and unsettled. About the same time 
 Captain Hinck, following the course of the 
 Congo, arrived on the west shore of Lake 
 Tanganyika charged with an expedition for 
 crushing the slave trade in Central African 
 territories, dispersed a number of Arab chiefs 
 and their native levies who were preparing to 
 march on unprotected villages. Confirmatory 
 of these tidings comes a letter from a member 
 of a missionary society addressed to the secre- 
 tary of the Anti-Slavery Society, London, dated 
 Tanganyika, August 31, 1891, in which the 
 
262 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 writer supplements his remarks on the mode 
 of hiring slaves at Zanzibar by saying: — "Slav- 
 ery is doomed, and dying fast. Where a few 
 years ago thousands of slaves passed my door 
 every year en route for the coast, now they are 
 reduced to hundreds, and fast becoming a non- 
 paying article of trade. By education and 
 trade the natives here are fast getting to that 
 stage when men look around and claim free- 
 dom as a birthright ; and this, after all, is the 
 only cure for slavery." He then adds : " As I 
 have long since given my life to the snapping 
 of the cruel chain which binds my fellows in 
 slavery, I could not refrain from writing." 
 Changes in regard to this horrible system 
 cannot be wrought instantly though they 
 will assuredly transcend all that have gone 
 before. 
 
 In speeding that most humanizing of all en- 
 terprises, the anti-slavery cause, which Cardinal 
 Lavigerie in Paris declared to be due to Prot- 
 estant missionaries, the signs of the times in the 
 Dark Continent are radiant with golden hopes. 
 Africa shall live and take an " honourable place 
 
Lake Tanganyika. 26 
 
 j 
 
 in history ! " Under the wing of Christian 
 Missions represented only by a comparative 
 handful of souls of heroic mould, peace, good- 
 will, self-helpfulness, industry, knowledge, com- 
 merce, government, and civilisation have been 
 fostered and developed. By a wonderful de- 
 votion to duty of the missionary pioneers, 
 light has been diffused, the voice of justice 
 heard, the freedom of humanity proclaimed, 
 and African brotherhood crowned. Notable 
 conquests have been written across the face 
 of Africa and on her shores magnificent feats 
 of gallantry have been performed in the en- 
 deavour to unveil her secrets and to redeem her 
 fettered sons and daughters. The past, so 
 marvellous, is the promise of a great to-mor- 
 row for the consummation of which an illus- 
 trious roll of explorers and missionaries sum- 
 mon all nations in the ringing notes of a holy 
 martial song of other days : 
 
 " Here's a work of God half done, 
 Here's the kingdom of His Son, 
 With its triumph just begun, 
 Put it through ! 
 
264 Lake Tanganyika. 
 
 " For the birthright yet unsold, 
 For the history yet untold, 
 For the future yet unrolled, 
 Put it through ! 
 
 " 'Tis to you the trust is given, 
 'Tis by you the bolt is driven, 
 By the very God of Heaven, 
 Put it through ! "